New Dimensions

Here you’ll learn how to start a circle of your own for honest, safe conversations and cooperation in a divisive world. Hear examples of how to maintain the integrity and mutual support in a circle. Oliver says “You don’t need to go somewhere or pay someone to start your circle. You can do it yourself.” Lauren J Oliver, Ph.D. received her baccalaureate degree from Harvard University and her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from UCLA. She currently provides coaching and organization development consultations for leaders, businesses, organizations, families, and individuals. She was co-founder with Dr. Robert Harrison Simmons of the California nonprofit Support Group Network. She is the author of Circle Culture: Tools for Cooperative Work (Bonnie Burstein) (Circle Culture 2023) Interview Date: 9/21/2023 Tags: Lauren J Oliver, special needs, Peer Counseling Program, circles, circling, Social Change/Politics, Personal Transformation

Dogs are the best kind of teachers because they teach us just by being themselves. Wilson describes the undiluted love of a dog when we come home after an absence, “You can have a stressful day but having a dog greet you just changes everything.” Dog and cat companions have much to teach us if we take the time to pay attention and open ourselves enough to listen and learn. Hersch Wilson is an organizational consultant, pilot, former professional dancer, newspaper columnist, and 30-year volunteer firefighter-EMT. He is also a consultant who has worked extensively with leadership teams from a variety of organizations including IBM Japan, the US Postal Service, and the CIA, to name a few. He writes a monthly column on dogs for the Santa Fe New Mexican. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Laurie, a daughter, and two dogs, a Great Pyrenees and a Chihuahua-Terrier mix. He is the author of Play to Win!: Choosing Growth Over Fear In Work And Life (coauthor with his late father, Larry Wilson)(Bard Press; Revised Edition 2004), Firefighter Zen: A Field Guide To Thriving In Tough Times (New World Library 2020) and Dog Lessons: Learning the Important Stuff from Our Best Friends (New World Library 2023) Interview Date: 9/11/2023 Tags: Hersch Wilson, dogs, animal guardians, veterinary care, pet insurance, animal shelters, Animals

Poetry, at its best, takes us beyond our analytical minds and lands us in an embodied experience. It helps us meet the despair which inevitably rises up in the darkest moments. Poetry can cut windows and doors in your despair and give you a way to walk back into the world with others. Jane Hirshfield is an award-winning poet, essayist and translator. She's the author of ten books of poetry and two collections of essays. She 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 Hall-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. In 2017, in conjunction with the March for Science in Washington DC, she founded Poets for Science, an interactive exhibit of science poems and writing invitation housed at Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, which has traveled to venues across the country. Jane Hirshfield has authored many books including The October Palace (HarperCollins 1994), The 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) and The Asking: New and Selected Poems (Alfred A. Knopf 2023) Interview Date: 9/1/2023 Tags: Jane Hirshfield, Poetry, Hersch Wilson, bryophyta, mosses, kinship of all life, despair, March for Science, beauty, Poetry, Art & Creativity, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Philosophy

If we are to grasp Willis Barnstone’s greatest contribution to culture over the course of his 87 years, we can focus on his role first and foremost as a poet – a lover of words, both his own and those of others, and on what he believes are sacred words from our earliest written records down to present day mystics and poets. Willis Barnstone is a poet, translator, biblical scholar, memoirist, anthologist, teacher, and painter. He is a former O’Connor Professor of Greek at Colgate University, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, a Guggenheim Fellow, and winner of numerous literary awards, including the Emily Dickinson, Lannon, and W. H. Auden awards. In 2015 he was recipient of the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award. He is translator of the Greek Lyric Poets, a literary historical version of the New Testament, and poets as diverse as Sappho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jorge Luis Borges, Antonio Machado, Wang Wei, and St. John of the Cross. Barnstone’s life’s work includes over 75 books including With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires (University of Illinois Press 1999), The Poems of Jesus Christ (W.W. Norton & Company 2012), The Poetics of Ecstasy: Varieties of Ekstasis from Sappho to Borges (Holmes & Meier Pub 1983), The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice (Yale University Press 1995), Sappho and the Greek Lyric Poets (Pantheon 1988), The Other Bible (HarperOne 2005), The Apocalypse (editor, translator) (New Directions 2000), The Gnostic Bible (Shambhala 2009), The Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas (W.W. Norton and Company 2009) and A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now (editor with Aiki Barnstone) (Schocken1992) Interview Date: 3/9/2015 Tags: Willis Barnstone, poetry, prose, metaphor, literature, Antonio Machado, Robert Fitzgerald, Jack Kerouac, Eve of the Bible, Jack Kerouac, St. John of the Cross, Jesus, translation, art of conversation, Jorge Luis Borges, Arts & Creativity

Are we living in a material universe or a simulated one? Are we living in a massive, multiplayer, online, role-playing game where our deeds and quests are being kept track of in the “cloud” like an angel recording our lives? If so, who is running the game? And what is the connection between computer science, video game physics, and the great spiritual traditions? Rizwan Virk (known as Riz) is a successful entrepreneur, a video game pioneer, a venture capitalist, and founder of the start-up accelerator Play Labs @ MIT. His interest and expertise ranges from video games, the metaverse, simulation theory, meditation, consciousness, and the intersection of science, science fiction, religion, and philosophy. He’s a graduate of MIT and Stanford and is currently a faculty associate at Arizona State University. He is the author of Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior (BayView Labs 2013), Startup Myths and Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School (Columbia Business School Publishing 2020), Treasure Hunt: Follow Your Inner Clues to Find True Success (Watkins Publishing 2017), The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics Agree We Are in a Video Game. (Bayview books 2019), Wisdom of a Yogi: Lessons for Modern Seekers from Autobiography of a Yogi (Bayview Books 2023), The Zen Entrepreneur & the Dream: An MIT Grad’s Quest for Success & Enlightenment in Silicon Valley (2023) Interview Date: 7/14/2023 Tags: Rizwan Virk, Riz Virk, video games, Hindu Vedas, Atari, ChatGPT, reincarnation, dialup computer modems, augmented reality, Nick Bostrom, The Matrix film, Elon Musk, multiple universes, parallel universes, John Wheeler, 20th century physics, consciousness, entanglement, nonlocality, Star Trek Holodecks and replicas, Claude Shannon, Galileo, Schrödinger’s cat, quantum physics, probability wave, optimization, conditional rendering, chaos theory, complexity theory, Stephen Wolfram, quenched disorder, Paramahansa Yogananda, Science, Philosophy, Technology, Spirituality

How we talk to ourselves sets the tone for every experience in our life. Our voice is a powerful guide in releasing emotions, traumas, and difficult memories. It can be dramatically effective in transforming our lives in meaningful ways. As we start speaking to ourselves out loud with kindness and curiosity, our body will loosen up and speak back to us. Vasavi Kumar is a first generation Indian American, a life coach and licensed therapist who holds degrees in social work and special education from Hofstra and Columbia Universities. She runs the Say It out Loud Safe Haven community for coaches, creatives, and entrepreneurs. She is the author of Say It out Loud: Using the Power of Your Voice to Listen to Your Deepest Thoughts and Courageously Pursue Your Dreams. (New World Library 2023) Interview Date: 7/7/2023 Tags: Vasavi Kumar, trigger points, procrastinating, procrastination, Gabor Maté, curiosity, Personal Transformation

Margaret Renkl inspires us to make an “untidy” garden that will nurture our soul and the natural world. She encourages us to fall in love with the natural companions in our lives: the spiders, the hummingbirds, crickets, and racoons, and all the other species who are living right beside us. When we fall in love with them, we can't help but want to save them. Renkl is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear weekly. She has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards for her writing. She is the founding editor of Chapter 16, a daily literary publication of Humanities Tennessee. A graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina, she now lives in Nashville. She is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (Milkweed Editions 2019), Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South. (Milkweed Editions 2021) and The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year (Spiegel and Grau 2023) Interview Date: 6/19/2023 Tags: Margaret Renkl, birding tradition, blue jays, crows, bird language, tadpoles, amphibians, frogs, toads, endocrine disruptors, chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, monarch butterflies, Methuselah generation, Roundup, glyphosate, pollinator plants, rabbits, manicured lawns, spiders, hummingbirds, walking, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Writing

Mark Nepo shares how we can have direct connection to the attending guiding spirit within. He further suggests that we describe three reliable truths which are our personal foundation to return to as we meet the challenges of daily life. Nepo writes about how the net of relationship distributes our suffering. He is the author of many audio learning projects and over 20 books including Reduced To Joy (Cleis Press 2013), Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close To What Is Sacred (Free Press 2012), The One Life We’re Given: Finding the Wisdom That Waits in Your heart (Atria Books 2016), More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World (Atria Books 2018), Drinking from the River of Light: The Life of Expression (Sounds True 2019), The Book of Soul: 52 Paths to Living What Matters (St. Martin’s Essentials 2020), Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity (St. Martins’ Essentials 2022) and Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resilience and Strength (St. Martins’ Essentials 2023) Interview Date: 6/30/2023 Tags: Mark Nepo, heart mind, head mind, Dante, The Divine Comedy, inner guiding spirit, honor, Indra’s net, fear, inner guide, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, Relationship

Here we explore the reclaiming of wonder and hope. We are in need of an upgrade, a new story upon which the mythic foundation of culture rests. Wesselman says, “The old story about who we are, what we’re doing here, and what this world is all about is no longer supporting us . . . [W]e’re in need of a new story.” This is an invitation to co-create with spirit. Hank Wesselman, Ph.D. (1941-2021) was a respected paleoanthropologist who worked with noted anthropologists around the world including in Ethiopia investigating the mystery of human origins in the Great Rift Valley. Besides his training and scientific work, he was a shamanic student, practitioner, and teacher. In addition to his scientific publications, his seven books on shamanism include The Spiritwalker trilogy (Bantam 1996), Awakening to the Spirit World (co-authored with Sandra Ingerman) (Sounds True 2010), The Bowl of Light: Ancestral Wisdom from a Hawaiian Shaman (Sounds True 2011) and The Re-Enchantment: A Shamanic Path to a Life of Wonder (Sounds True 2016) Interview Date 10/1/2016 Tags: Hank Wesselman, Medicine Person, Shaman, re-enchantment, F. Clark Howell, Don Johanson, Sandra Ingerman, Ghost Dance, Wovoka, Hale Makua, oversoul, dreams, intuition, climate change, Pagan, Rachel Naomi Remen, entelechy, Dalai Lama, deity yoga, mysticism, Shamanism, Dreams, Indigenous Wisdom, Intuition, Psychic, Ecology, Nature, Environment

Casey experienced a literal angel knocking on her door which moved her from the potential of committing suicide to a path of discovering how God is present on the other side of the abyss of depression and despair and shares how she connected with her Higher Power that has served as her guide ever since. Karen Casey, Ph.D. received her doctorate in philosophy with an emphasis on Native American studies. She’s an accomplished author with over two dozen books and is the 2007 winner of the Johnson Institute American Honors Recovery Award for her contribution to the field of recovery. Karen’s focus as a writer and spiritual teacher is to strengthen our connection to a Higher Power, which is the invisible source of inspiration, guidance, strength, and wisdom available to each of us. Her books include Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women (40th anniversary edition, Hazeldon 2022), 52 Ways to Live the Course in Miracles: Cultivate a Simpler, Slower, More Loved-Filled Life. (Conari Press 2016) and Let Go Now: Embraced Detachment As a Path to Freedom (Conari Press 2022) Interview Date: 5/19/2023 Tags: Karen Casey, Al Anon, codependence, alcoholism, AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, Higher Power, isolation, Catherine Ponder, Spirit, ego, nonreisistance, Aesop Fable Hercules and the Apple, kindness, Personal Transformation, Spirituality

Here we explore scientific findings of the continuity of human consciousness beyond the physical body. There is much that is constantly going on beyond our ordinary senses. Drasin explores the comparison that the “greater reality” beyond physical life might be analogous to an ocean and the soul is analogous to a surfer’s wave that has form and endurance but is not separate from the ocean. Dan Drasin is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and has been a photographer and media producer for more than six decades. He’s also the Operations Manager of New Dimensions and the announcer whose voice you hear on each program. His short 1961 documentary film titled Sunday was widely acknowledged as the first social-protest film of the 1960s and is part of the permanent film collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Since the early 1990s, Drasin has been actively investigating the field of afterlife communication through traditional mental and physical mediumship, as well as modern electronics as featured in his documentary film, Calling Earth. He is the author of A New Science of the Afterlife: Space, Time, and the Consciousness Code (Park Street Press 2023) Interview Date: 5/5/2023. Tags: MP3, Dan Drasin, scientific materialism, space time, causation, Matrix films, habits of mind, language, consciousness, skeptics, Rupert Sheldrake, curiosity, afterlife, electronic voice phenomenon, instrumental trans-communication, Konstantin Raudive, Mark Macy, Friedrich Jürgenson, soul group, hypnotherapist Michael Newton, Parapsychology/Paranormal, Science, Philosophy, Intuition/Psychic

Nisker takes us on a funny, smart, and enlightening foray into physics, spirituality, and the oddities of life as we know it. You’ll hear a new spin on atomic theory, meditation, politics, evolution, and more. Beneath the humor, though, is the wisdom of a man who sees life for what it is, and celebrates it for all it can be. Wes “Scoop” Nisker is a Buddhist meditation teacher, author, radio commentator, and performer. He is founder and co-editor of the Theravada Buddhist journal, Inquiring Mind, and an affiliate teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. He travels the world leading retreats and workshops in insight meditation. He’s the author of Buddha's Nature: A Practical Guide to Discovering Your Place in the Cosmos (Bantam 2000), Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution (Stone Bridge Press 2008), The Essential Crazy Wisdom (Ten Speed Press 2012) and The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation (Iro Books 2013) Interview Date: 10/24/2008 Tags: Wes Nisker, Scoop Nisker, Wes “Scoop” Nisker, Crazy Wisdom, Gods, Revolution, Radio, Aging, Baby Boomer, Humor, Storytelling, evolution, Department of Wisdom, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics, Media, Art & Creativity, Buddhism, Community, Education, Personal Transformation, Peace/Non-Violence

One of the foundations of being able to act skillfully with others is by deep breathing, giving us time to interrupt the emotional hijacking of the reactive brain. Also, included in this dialogue is the announcement of the Global Compassion Coalition in which people can come together to create a world in which people and nature are cared for and thrive. Rick Hanson, Ph.D. is a psychologist, senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and a summa cum laude graduate of UCLA. He’s founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. Also, the founder and president of the Global Compassion Coalition. He is the author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (New Harbinger 2009), Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (New Harbinger 2011), Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence (Harmony Books 2013), Meditations to Change Your Brain - CD Set (Sounds True 2009), Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength and Happiness (Harmony Books 2018), NeuroDharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness (Harmony Books 2020) and Making Great Relationships: Simple Practices for Solving Conflicts, Building Connections, and Fostering Love (Harmony Books 2023) Interview Date: 4/10/2023 Tags: Rick Hanson, compassion, deep breathing, resilience, positive neuroplasticity, inner-homelessness, chronic stress, inner refuge, speak wisely, nonviolence, Relationships, Psychology, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics

“Vitality is the essence of what it is to be alive,” says Dr. Zucker, and the body will tell us when our vitality is weak. With good self-care we can revitalize our own health, like tending to a garden with gentle loving attention. It’s about being honest about where we’re losing our energy and experimenting with ways to redirect it in the manner that makes us thrive. Tags: Deborah Zucker, naturopathy, naturopathic physician, holistic health, wellbeing, healthcare, self-care, vitality, shadow, Jung, voice dialogue, fatigue, energy, attention, play, inner GPS system, voice dialogue, experimentation, fruit tree, garden, exercise, diet, community, breath, portable altar

Amoda encourages us to loosen our grip and soften the way that we respond to life and how the fundamental nature of reality is open awareness. She speaks about ending our argument with reality and meeting it with kindness, tenderness, and openness. “That is the beginning of transformation.” Amoda Maa is a spiritual teacher who, after immersion in psychospiritual practices, and experiencing her own dark night of the soul, offers meetings and retreats with seekers of peace and true fulfillment. Her teachings don’t belong to any tradition or lineage although they do tap into the wisdom of many esteemed wisdom philosophies. She is the author of How to Find God in Everything: An Invitation to Awaken to Your True Nature and Transform Your World (Watkins 2008), Change Your Life Change Your World (Watkins 2012, Radical Awakening: Discovering the Radiance of Being in the Midst of Everyday Life (Watkins 2016), Embodied Enlightenment: Living Your Awakening in Every Moment (New Sarum Press 2022) and Falling Open in a World Falling Apart (Larson Publications 2020 Interview Date: 3/30/2023 Tags: Amoda Maa, nondualism, India, openness, tenderness, dualism, self-righteousness, right action, Inner authority, inherited beliefs, patriarchy, surrender, grace, Personal Transformation, Spirituality

Here we explore what it means to be in conversation with trees. Davidson hikes into an ancient redwood forest on a regular basis and practices “forest bathing”. She reminds us that when we are not bombarded with the noise, bright lights, and electromagnetic fields of a city our nervous system calms down and our capacity opens up to a wider field of perception. Ellen Dee Davidson is an advocate for the health of forests. Besides her memoir, she’s the author of a number of children's books, also worked as an elementary, piano, and creative writing teacher and raised two daughters. She lives with her husband in the redwoods of northern California where she regularly sits with trees in a form of “forest bathing”. She is the author of Stolen Voices: In a City Ruled by Silence Can One Girl’s Voice Make a Difference? (Turtleback Books Library Binding 2005), Princess Justina Albertina (Charlesbridge 2007), Zoe the Misfit (Boulden Publishing 2008), Wind (Luminare Press 2022) and Wild Path to the Sacred Heart (A Forest Bathing Memoir) (Star Tree Press 2019) Interview Date: 3/27/2023 Tags: Ellen Dee Davidson, forest bathing, Shinrin Yoku, hypnagogic state, authentic core, Suzanne Simard, Sophie Strand, dung beetle, Peter Wohllenben, trees, elementals, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Personal Transformation, Dreams

Awe gives us a break from processing and judging unwanted events and gives us the capacity to see through them—to see a larger picture and we don’t have to travel to the Grand Canyon or overlook Niagara Falls in order to access it. It’s available to us in our everyday life and we can tap into it with something called the A.W.E. Method that only takes 5 to 15 seconds. Jake Eagle, LPC, is a psychotherapist, mindfulness instructor, fellow member trainer of the International Association of Neuro‑Linguistic Programming, and cofounder of Live Conscious. Michael Amster, M.D., is a physician and faculty member at Touro School of Medicine. Jake Eagle & Michael Amster, M.D. are co-authors of The Power of Awe: Overcome Burnout & Anxiety, Ease Chronic Pain, Find Clarity & Purpose―In Less Than 1 Minute Per Day (Hachette Books 2023) How the A.W.E. Method can be a shortcut to three levels of consciousness: safety, gratitude, spaciousness Interview Date: 3/3/2023 Tags: Jake Eagle, Michael Amster, awe, microdosing mindfulness, attention, David Elkins, Dacher Keltner, depression, timelessness, pro-social experience, Viktor Frankl, loss, grief, safety, gratitude, spaciousness, wonder, microdose awe, beauty, Personal Transformation, Meditation, Health & Healing

All complex systems share limited randomness, whether it’s human society, ants in an ant colony, cells in a body, there's got to be a limited range of randomness. This randomness in biological life makes us different from machines. Also included is a discussion about how the brain does not create consciousness and consciousness is fundamental in the universe. Neil Theise, M.D. is a practicing pathologist and leading stem-cell researcher as well as an explorer in the nature of consciousness and its relationship to us and the cosmos as revealed in Complexity Theory. Theise is also a senior student of Zen Buddhism at the Village Zendo, in New York City, under the guidance of Roshi Enkyo O’Hara. He is the author of Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being. (Spiegel & Grau 2023) Interview Date: 2/25/2023 Tags: Neil Theise, ant colony, ant colonies, errant ant, quenched disorder, technosphere, liver cells, stem cells, hard problem in science, complexity theory, consciousness, Max Planck, spacetime energy field, quantum physics, particles, photons, waves, complementarity, nonlocality, mass extinction, Covid, AIDS, holocaust, Buddhist relative and absolute. Science, Buddhism, Personal Transformation

Thomas Merton was an American Catholic writer, mystic, and Trappist monk who died mysteriously in Bangkok, Thailand when he was 53 years old. The gifts he left behind from his short life were immense. He combined deep contemplation with social action. Here Fr. Matthew Fox shares his profound intersection with Merton via Creation Spirituality. Tags: Matthew Fox, Thomas Merton, Michael Toms, activism, Dan Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Karl Marx, Pere Chenu, Saint Augustine, Second Vatican Council, original sin, D.T. Suzuki, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas, prophetic Christian, Augustinian Christian, Dalai Lama, mysticism, Thomas Berry, hermitage, New Grange, spiral, Hildegard of Bingen, Hagia Sophia, Feminine side of god, Doctor of Spirituality DSP, Cosmic Mass, African mass, Spirituality, Religion, Social Change, Politics, History, Ecology, Nature, Environment