The New Dimensions Café

Jane Hirshfield is the author of nine books of poetry and two collections of essays, and has edited and co-translated four books presenting the work of world poets from the past. Her books have received the Poetry Center Book Award, the California Book Award, and the Donald Hal-Jane Kenyon Prize in American Poetry. Her poems appear in a wide range of prestigious outlets. A resident of Northern California, she is a chancellor emerita of the Academy of American Poets. She presents her work at literary and interdisciplinary events worldwide. She has authored many books including The October Palace (HarperCollins 1994), Lives of the Heart (Harper Collins 1997), Women in Praise of the Sacred (HarperCollins 1994), Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (Perennial 1998), After (Harper Collins 2006), Given Sugar, Given Salt (Harper Collins 2001), Come, Thief (Knopf 2011), Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World (Alfred A. Knopf 2015), The Beauty: Poems (Alfred A. Knopf 2015), Ledger (Alfred A. Knopf 2020)

Interview Date: 4/16/2020    Tags: Jane Hirshfield, poetry, pandemic, sheltering in place, illusion of normality, muse, uncertain times, isolation, beauty, suffering, space station, Robert Rauschenberg, refugee crisis, Art & Creativity, Social Change/politics

Judith Prager, Ph.D., CHT, is a clinical hypnotherapist with a Ph.D. in psychology and a practice in the Los Angeles area. As a consultant to Cedars-Sinai Medical center, she developed a “Guided Imagery for Surgery” series of pre-, intra- and post-operative and ICU creative imagery CDs that has been used with significant results in a pilot program in the Cardio-thoracic Surgery Unit. She’s trained physicians, nurses and first responders across the U.S. in hypnotic language for pain and stress relief in emergencies and interactions with children. She presents keynotes and talks at conferences and medical centers. She is the author of:Journey to Alternity: Transformational Healing through Stories and Metaphors (iUniverse 2000), What the Dolphin Said (Self published 2017) and The Worst Is Over: Verbal First Aid to Calm, Relieve Pain, Promote Healing and Save Lives (revised edition) (Judith Acosta) (Self Published 2014)

To learn more about the work of Judith Prager go to www.judithprager.com

Host: Justine Willis Toms   Tags: MP3, Judith Prager, Judith Acosta, stopping bleeding with verbal suggestions, coronavirus pandemic, sheltering in place, fear, isolation, laughter, teenagers, anger, frustration, punishment, figuring ways to be together while sheltering in place, wolf howling in Mill Valley, exercise, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Parenting, Health & Healing

BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician who has worked in many settings, inpatient, outpatient, hospice facility and home and now sees patients and families at U.C.S.F. Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Miller speaks all over the country and beyond on the theme of living well in the face of death. He’s also the founder of the Center for Dying and Living. He is co-author, with Shoshana Berger, of A Beginners Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death (Simon & Schuster 2019)

Interview Date:12/3/2019   Tags: MP3, BJ Miller, caregiving, dementia, Alzheimer’s, etiologies of dementia, physician assisted death, physician aid in dying, VCED, voluntary cessation of eating and drinking, unplugging from life-sustaining treatments, comfort care, getting out of the way of death, Death & Dying

Regina Leffers, Ph.D. is the retired Director of the Center of Excellence for the Built Environment, and Professor of Sustainable Construction for the College of Engineering at Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her undergraduate degrees are in Psychology and Philosophy, and her doctoral degree is in Philosophy from Purdue University. She teaches classes on consciousness and meditation and has practiced meditation since 1980. She is the author of: Sustainable Construction and Design (Pearson 2009), I Am A Miracle Magnet: (In Ten Easy Steps) (CreateSpace 2016), The Green Age: Transforming Your Life Choices for the 21st Century (Green Age Press 2011), What Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2019), Rethinking the Heart of Being Human (CreateSpace 2013), My Darling: Memoirs of a Buddha Girl (Regina Leffers 2023) and This Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2025)

Interview Date: 12/5/2025

Tags: Regina Leffers, consciousness, facets of consciousness, Spiral Dynamics, love and fear, gratitude practice, meditation, alpha brainwave, beta brainwaves, heart coherence, body awareness, embodiment, vagus nerve, nervous system regulation, fear to love, expanded awareness, interbeing / oneness, nature as teacher, redwood grove / big nature, personal altar of gratitude spiritual growth, self-development, unconscious patterns, emotional regulation, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Science

The RAIN Process (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) reminds us to pause and reconnect with a wise and compassionate presence allowing us to align our lives with our hearts. It can assist us when we get lost in unconscious, mental, emotional reactivity, fear, and are living on “autopilot.” RAIN is a healing process available to us that opens us to our inner radiance. Tara Brach, PhD, is an internationally known teacher of mindfulness, meditation, emotional healing, and spiritual awakening. each month. Tara is the senior teacher and founder of Insight Meditation Center of Washington, DC. and she produces a weekly podcast. She is the author of many books including Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your world with the Practice of RAIN (Viking 2019), Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Bantam 2004) and True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart (Bantam 2016)

Interview Date: 1/24/2020    Tags: MP3, Tara Brach, RAIN process, Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture, mindfulness, compassion, fear, shame, anger, somatic, allowing, Viktor Frankl, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, failure, difficult emotions, vulnerability, Alice Walker, Babemba tribe of South Africa, kindness, attention changes our brain, BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits, Personal Transformation, Meditation

Mary Mackey, Ph.D. is a novelist, screenwriter, and poet. She is Professor Emeritus of English and former Writer-in-Residence at California State University, Sacramento. During her twenties she lived in the rain forests of Costa Rica. Recently she’s been traveling to Brazil incorporating her experiences in the tropical rainforests into her fiction and poetry. Her historical novels include Earthsong Series - covering the lives of the people of Neolithic Europe and Immersion (iUniverse 2013), Her books of poetry include Travelers with No Ticket Home (Marsh Hawk Press 2014), Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence, Breaking The Fever (Marsh Hawk Press 2006), The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1974 through 2018 (winner of Eric Hoffer Book Award 2019).

Interview Date: 11/27/2019    Tags: Mary Mackey, poetry, adventure, rain forest, army ants, jungle, rural Kentucky, regional microknowledge, ecosystem, Gees Bend quilts, Portuguese, ancestral quilts, fevered dreams, Earthsong Series of novels, Elizabeth Bishop, Art & Creativity, Women’s Studies, writing, Ecology/Nature/Environment

SPECIAL ONE-HOUR NEW DIMENSIONS CAFÉ: SCIENCE SET FREE with DR. RUPERT SHELDRAKE

British biologist Rupert Sheldrake asks questions that most scientists haven't thought of or have been discouraged from asking. He is best known for his morphic-field theory, which explores aspects of reality that are unexplained in terms of current physics and biology. In this talk, he proposes setting science free from its most constricting dogmas and unexamined assumptions

Dr. Sheldrake studied natural sciences at Cambridge and philosophy at Harvard, took a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cambridge and is the author of more than eighty scientific papers. He is the author of several books including: A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance (J.P. Tarcher 1995), Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (Three Rivers Press 2001) and Science Set Free (Deepak Chopra Books, 2012), also published in the UK as The Science Delusion (Coronet 2012)

Recording Date: 9/7/2012    Tags:  Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., morphic fields, morphic resonance, morphogenetic fields, brain, science, Science, Social Change/Politics, Philosophy

Alan Briskin, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in organizational psychology and is a pioneer in the field of organizational learning. He is co-founder of the Collective Wisdom Initiative and has been consultant to many large corporations including Lucasfilm, Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente, and the Goi Peace Foundation. His books include The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (Berrett-Koehler 1998),The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly (co-authors, Sheryl Erickson, Tom Callanan, and John Ott)(Berrett-Koehler 2009) and Daily Miracles: Stories and Practices of Humanity and Excellence in Health Care (co-author Jan Boller) (Sigma Theta Tau International; 1st edition 2006)

Mary V. Gelinas, Ed.D. is an organizational development consultant devoted to the art of conscious social change. As an educator and consultant with more than forty years of experience working in brain research, contemplative practices, social psychology, and systems thinking. Her organizational redesign projects focus on innovative and inclusive solutions for business, government, health care, and education, for such diverse clients as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is the author of Talk Matters: Saving the World One Word at a Time. (Friesen Press 2026)

Briskin and Gelinas are the co-authors of Space is Not Empty: How Hidden Fields Are Shaping Your Life and Our World (Friesen Press 2025)

Interview Date: 11/14/2025      Tags: Alan Briskin, Mary V. Genlinas, Personal fields, Social fields, Noetic fields, wondering, curiosity, David Bohm, Carl Rogers, shifting the norm, fields are permeable, group disruption, noticing, certainty, uncertainty, body wisdom, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Science, Social Change/Politics

Glenn Aparicio Parry, Ph.D. is an educator, an ecopsychologist, and an author known for integrating indigenous wisdom and holistic thinking into contemporary society. He's the founder and past president of Seed Institute, where he facilitated landmark dialogues between Native American elders and Western scientists. He currently serves as president of The Circle For Original Thinking and host of its weekly podcast. His books include Original Thinking: A Radical Revisioning Of Time, Humanity And Nature (North Atlantic Press 2015), Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again (SelectBooks 2020), and Original Love: The Timeless Source Of Wholeness. (SelectBooks 2026).

Interview Date: 1/10/2025     Tags: Glenn Aparicio Parry, feminine wisdom, Leroy Little Bear, Dan Moonhawk Alford, Jean Gebser, two-eyed seeing, Yom Kippur, atonement, original thought, deep listening, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Indigenous Wisdom