The man who would become Ram Dass was born Richard Alpert in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of a wealthy and influential lawyer. He worked at Harvard in the department of Social Relations and the Graduate School of Education until 1963, when he and Timothy Leary were dismissed from the faculty for their work with LSD. The two became active advocates of psychedelic drugs and their mind-expanding abilities, but they slowly went their separate ways.
In 1967, Alpert went to India, where he met the man who was to be his mentor, Neem Karoli Baba. Forsaking psychedelics for the more lasting change of consciousness he found in yoga and meditation, Alpert returned to the United States with a new name given to him by Neem Karoli Baba: Ram Dass, or “servant of God.” His followers quickly added the honorific “Baba” to Ram Dass, a title with which he was never fully comfortable, and one which he would abandon entirely in the 1980s.
Ram Dass’ popularity has waxed and waned throughout the years, but the man himself has remained constant. Less militant and flamboyant that his friend Leary, Ram Dass has founded several foundations, most notably the Hanuman Foundation, from which sprang the Living Dying Project, a system of support to allow the terminally ill to experience inner growth through their own death.
Climb to Fame
Metaphysical and spiritual leader; 1960s psychedelic advocate
Work History
(1974) Co-founds of the Seva Foundation, which works with international public health and social justice issues. It is especially well-known for its work with the impoverished blind.
(1974) Founds the Hanuman Foundation, an organization he uses to create the Prison Ashram Project (a project that encourages prisoners to use their confinement to seek enlightenment, in effect using prison as a substitute for a monastic life). The Living Dying Project, whereby the terminally ill can use their dying as a growth and healing process, also has grown out of the Hanuman Foundation.
(1967) Travels to India and meets his spiritual mentor, Neem Karoli Baba. Returns to America and begins to lecture about his experiences.
(1963) With Timothy Leary, dismissed from Harvard for giving LSD to students (was an advocate of the psychedelic drug movement until 1967).
(1958-1963) Professor, Department of Social Relations and the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University.
Affiliations
The Seva Foundation, the Hanuman Foundation, the Prison Ashram Project and the Dying Project.
Counter-cultural guru Ram Dass provides comforting guidance on life’s most perplexing challenges
Renowned counter-cultural guru Ram Dass, formerly known as Richard Alpert, has led the life of a seeker, traveler, and social activist. In addition to inspiring a generation to open its mind to many Eastern religious practices, Ram Dass created the Prison Ashram Project and the Dying Project, which taught terminally ill individuals about other planes of consciousness, and also co-created the Seva Foundation, which collaborates with doctors and activists in India, Nepal, Guatemala and the US.
In Ram Dass: Answering Life’s Questions Ram Dass provides guidance on life’s most perplexing challenges from the perspective of a journeyman who has finally reached his destination.
Take twenty one of the finest thinkers in the fields of Neuroscience, Quantum Physics, Psychotherapy, Art, Vedanta, Sufism, Judaism, and Buddhism and ask them some of the toughest questions known to humankind and this is what you get…
Excerpt from the Interview with Kabir Helminski, Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol 1, 3 DVD set.
Excerpt from the interview with Vijay Kapoor, Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol 1, 3 DVD set.
Excerpt from the Interview with Olga Louchakova, Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol 1, 3 DVD set.
Excerpt from the Interview with Peter Russell, Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol 1, 3 DVD set
“Has everything in life led us to this point?”
Excerpt from the Interview with John Prendergast, Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol 1, 3 DVDs set.
The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness into Psychology and the Helping Professions
by Shauna Shapiro and Linda Carlson
The integration and incorporation of mindfulness training into the mainstream of mental health may well turn out to be one of the most significant developments of the last ten or fifteen years. The literature has expanded exponentially and has moved in quite substantial ways from the use of Buddhist insights and techniques to a regular adjunct of CBT and especially DBT. This new text from Shapiro and Carlson takes us back to the origins of the concept, but also forward to the practical application of mindfulness in clinical settings. It is clearly and happily situated between the scientific paradigm of research evidence (and the authors show this) and the practical world of the individual experience.
The authors try to show the interweaving of Buddhist teachings that emphasize intentionality and focus on the knowable, and the scientific tradition that looks for evidence of efficacy and generalizability rather than particularity. It is clear from the outset that they want to consider what they call both the art and the science of mindfulness.
The authors detail three different ways in which mindfulness can be integrated into psychotherapy and how it can be applied to direct clinical work: the mindful therapist; mindfulness-informed therapy; and mindfulness-based psychotherapy. These different pathways, as the authors term them, show different ways to integration of the basic precepts, and although there is a great deal of overlap, there are also distinct aspects. There may not, as the authors contend, be an awful lot of differences in the outcome, but the ways and directions of the approach bear some unpacking.
The mindful therapist emphasizes the skills of empathy and being present. The notion that these are skills is central for it assumes that techniques can be learnt and polished, that the doing is sometimes a separate question than the valuing. We may all agree that these qualities are good things, but how to show them in practice may be something else all together. The authors argue that mindfulness in the therapist can be taught and people can be trained, and they give a number of useful exercises that could be undertaken as n individual or as a group training program. Even if some of the reminders they scatter through the chapter, such as asking, “What is your intention? Why are you reading this book?”, could be used as handy prompts to even the most experienced therapist. What is your intention? Where is your attention? are questions that never go out of style and never lose their relevance.
Mindfulness-informed therapy is used to capture therapies that use insights from mindfulness and Buddhist teachings, but incorporate them into a more eclectic presentation rather than actually directly teaching meditation or other practices. This may well be the most influential aspect of the concept of mindfulness in current psychotherapy because although for many practitioners and many clients meditation may be difficult to access (both practically and conceptually), the informal practices refer to implementing and applying the ideas to everyday life and developing open, accepting and discerning attention, in a conscious and intentional manner can effect profound and lasting change.
Mindfulness-based psychotherapy is used to describe the explicit, perhaps pure application of principles to the therapeutic context. It is perhaps rarer and may even be, for some, pushing the argument a little too far. However, the explication of the techniques and programmes in the book are informative and thought-provoking.
There is a model of health that underpins the theorizing (as opposed to a model of ill-health). For the authors the intentional development of non-judgmental attention (focussing clearly on what is) leads, almost inevitably if applied clearly and rigorously, to self-awareness and self-regulation and equally inevitably to greater order and health — and all through internal loci of control rather than some external application of expertise. Mindfulness, in this way, is seen to promote self-efficacy alongside wellness.
It is a feature of the book that it reads as well from a therapist’s viewpoint as it does from a self-help position. Although it seems to have been written with practitioners in mind, it could easily be absorbed by anyone looking to understand themselves a little better. For some, it may appear to be too mystical or quasi-religious — there are certainly many references to Buddhist precepts and aphorisms, and there are meditation exercises which are not just thinking exercises — but for most the simple practices of reflection and action upon reflection may have a deep resonance.
It is a book that will appeal on many levels. It is approachable and not hard to digest. The authors should be congratulated for bringing out and explicating some of the most important and perhaps kindest trends in modern psychotherapy for the benefit of us all. Review by Mark Welch, Ph.D.
Based on Dr. Shapiro’s recent book, The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness into Psychotherapy and the Helping Professions; this workshop offers scientific research and meditative practices for therapists interested in awakening the mind and opening the heart. Drawing on current research in psychology, medicine, and cognitive neuroscience, we will investigate the effects of mindfulness meditation on decreasing pathology and increasing positive psychological and physiological states. Further, we will explore the mechanisms of action through which mindfulness meditation has its transformative effects.
This workshop will delve into the potential ways of integrating mindfulness and meditation into psychotherapy and the helping professions. Through didactic presentation, meditation practices and small group activities we will explore ways of applying mindfulness personally and professionally to cultivate greater happiness, health and freedom.
500 of the World’s Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations
Written by National Geographic
ABOUT THIS BOOK
This inspirational book showcases 500 of the world’s most powerful and spiritual places–and guides modern-day travelers who wish to visit them.
With eloquent text, hundreds of gorgeous full-color images, and practical visitor information, Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations highlights fascinating icons of many religions around the world and offers an intriguing window into the cultures that created them. From prehistoric burial chambers to modern monuments and sanctuaries, each site’s history, lore, and appeal is evocatively detailed.
Nearly 300 locator maps point out pilgrimage routes, temples, mountains, churches, and holy places, including Mont St.-Michel Abbey in France, founded after a reported vision of the Archangel Michael; the White Horse Temple in China, site of the country’s first Buddhist temple, dating from the first century A.D.; Machu Picchu in Peru, whose origins lie in obscurity; and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, said by many to be the holiest city in the world. A follow-up to the bestselling Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips, this beautiful book answers the call of the spiritual traveler while also appealing to the many readers interested in sites of unique cultural heritage.
A simulation of what a meteorite collision might look like. I added a soundtrack rather than have the Japenese, as in the original. The song is “Casino” from the soundtrack to Run Lola Run.
I believe the other versions of this video have been removed, however there were once versions with English and Japanese voice-overs on YouTube.
This book is about the divine feminine energy, found in everyone, and how it gives creative expression to the innermost depth of our being. It is a book about our desire for creative self-expression, which is connected at the most fundamental level to our desire to live our lives to their fullest potential. Throughout its pages, reference is made to various spiritual traditions and women mystics that have viewed the divine feminine as a great creative force in the universe. It brings these long-forgotten—or more often ignored—gems to light and explains this ancient wisdom so everyone can use it.
CONTENTS
PART 1
CHAPTER ONE: The Call of the Creative Spirit
CHAPTER TWO: I Burn, Desiring What the Heart Desires
CHAPTER THREE: The Great Battle Between Yearning and Fear
CHAPTER FOUR: A Supreme, Fiery, and Feminine Force
CHAPTER FIVE: The Never-setting, Splendorous Sun
CHAPTER SIX: The Breath of Wisdom
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Goddess Hidden in the Body
CHAPTER EIGHT: In Body, In Spirit
PART II
CHAPTER NINE: My Lover, My Longing
CHAPTER TEN: A Fish Doesn’t Drown, A Bird Doesn’t Fall
CHAPTER ELEVEN: I Must Sing, Dance, Hear, Tell!
CHAPTER TWELVE: Love Begin the Song, And Let Me Hear How Well You Sing
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Tantra and the Transmutation of Desire
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Shiva, Shakti, and the Balance of Power
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Precious Juice of Grace
An award winning writer, Teri is the author/co-author of ten non-fiction books, including The Fiery Muse: Creativity and the Spiritual Quest (Random House of Canada) and one for young adults, The Canadian Junior Green Guide (McClelland & Stewart). Written in conjunction with the highly respected environmental watchdog, Pollution Probe, it became a Canadian best-seller.
After completing two books on the environment, Teri began to focus much of her writing on topics related to creativity and contemporary spirituality, subjects of deep personal interest to her. Teri first began studying yoga in her twenties in Paris with a teacher who had lived in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram for more than twenty years. Several years later she traveled to India to meet Gopi Krishna – considered by many to be the world’s leading authority on kundalini. Since then she has been a student of the philosophy behind yoga and has been involved in researching the link between creativity, inspiration, and mystical experience. Both her latest book, The Divine Feminine Fire: Creativity and Your Yearning to Express Your Self (Dreamriver Press), and The Fiery Muse deal with this topic; she has also written a number of articles and spoken widely on the subject.
An experienced public speaker, Teri has made many national television and radio appearances. Her freelance writing has appeared in such widely divergent publications in the United States as Family Circle Magazine and New Age Journal. Her books have been published in the United States, Canada, and Germany and have been translated into both German and French.
Her workshops on creative writing and the link between creativity and spirituality have met with great success, and she now divides her time between leading workshops and writing.
An avid traveler, Teri has lived in Austria, Germany, France and on a sailboat in the Bahamas. Teri is an enthusiastic swimmer and competes with a masters synchronized swimming team. She is an active member of PEN Canada, the Writers’ Union of Canada, and the Institute for Consciousness Research, and she was one of the founders of the Kundalini Research Network in the United States.
Originally from Idaho, she has an MA from the University of New Mexico. She now makes her home in Toronto with her husband and teenage daughter.
After completing two books on the environment, Teri began to focus much of her writing on topics related to creativity and contemporary spirituality, subjects of deep personal interest to her. Teri first began studying yoga in her twenties in Paris with a teacher who had lived in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram for more than twenty years. Several years later she traveled to India to meet Gopi Krishna – considered by many to be the world’s leading authority on kundalini. Since then she has been a student of the philosophy behind yoga and has been involved in researching the link between creativity, inspiration, and mystical experience. Both her latest book, The Divine Feminine Fire: Creativity and Your Yearning to Express Your Self (Dreamriver Press), and The Fiery Muse deal with this topic; she has also written a number of articles and spoken widely on the subject.
How to unleash our divine creative energy? Teri Degler
After a shattering near-death experience, Joyce Whiteley Hawkes left her career as a biophysicist and embarked on a study of indigenous healing practices.
Living and working with priests and shamans in the Philippines, South India, and Bali, she explored the previously uncharted territories that divide biology from spirituality — and discovered that emotional, mental, and spiritual feelings can have a profound and positive impact on our bodies at the cellular level.
Cell-Level Healing shows how our thoughts change the functioning of our cells to repair and renew the body. With profound yet simple exercises, this book provides a guide to tap your innate healing abilities by showing that healing is a basic part of human nature.
Filled with thought-provoking stories and photographs, free of jargon, and thoroughly grounded in Dr. Hawkes’s decades of experience in laboratory science and practical, hands-on healing, Cell-Level Healing invites you to explore your intrinsic powers of transformation and regeneration to attain new levels of spiritual and bodily health.
Questions & Answers
with Joyce Hawkes, Ph.D.
The body is sacred, filled with molecules created in the same sacred way as the universe, according to Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, author of Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell. A biophysicist for 15 years, she changed careers in 1984 after a near-death experience opened a bridge to accessing a natural state of compassion.
Q. Society often wants a magic pill to cure illness. But when our body heals naturally, it’s often not a quick cure. Our expectations of healing seem accelerated.
A. There are times in the mystery of all this where healing can occur unexpectedly or instantaneously — I’ve seen it happen. But most of the time, however, it is a healing process that runs with the dimension of time within the body. So cells have certain time dimensions in which they work when they are producing hormones, when they’re creating energy for the cells from breaking down glucose, when it’s time for them to divide for renewal within a particular organ.
And yet, consciousness seems to be without time. So on occasions we touch that quantum level, which also is part of the cell itself and things can happen very quickly.
It is an expectation that we’re going to say the right word, think the right thoughts, wave our hands in the right paths, and all of a sudden everything’s fine and we’re completely healed. I’ve seen a few of those, but mostly my experience has been that it’s a disciplined journey where we have to work with the body, with the timing of the body.
One of the things that’s helpful to know is that your body is healing all the time. In every second you breathe, you have 3 million brand new red blood cells, so the body is geared for healing and it’s natural to it. Some of the work is to relax into the natural tendency of the body to right itself, to come back to that harmonious state.
Q. How are blockages created in the body and how are they released?
A. Blockages occur in lots of ways. There could be a blockage that came with you when you were born, some congenital issue. There are blockages that come from large traumas or the small everyday kind of hurts, pains and difficulties that all of us experience as we grow up and go through life. And those seem to have some kind of a cellular or body memory that keeps people locked in a loop.
So clearing those kinds of blockages at whatever large or small level is really important for healing to penetrate deeply so that you’re not trying to reheal the same thing over and over again.
Blockages can cause specific illness or they can be more systemic where stress is created throughout the body rather than one specific location. You’ve got a generalized response that could be stress related or you might have a specific localized response.
I think in our modern culture, probably many of these are non-localized. They’re general throughout the body because of the many biochemical substances our body creates when we’re stressed.
Q. So if you’re under stress and you’re creating chemicals and hormones, what is the body’s natural response?
A. The response is the classic fight or flight. All of a sudden your blood pressure goes up and you are ready to run, or you’re ready to stop and fight. When we pump ourselves with those kinds molecules day after day, it’s exhausting to the body.
It can lower resistance to illness or it can be as simple as being so focused on what the problem is, you miss the traffic light that’s changed and you inadvertently set yourself up for a car to plow into you because you’re in the wrong place in the intersection.
Our bodies are so resilient and redundant in that they’re created as sustaining and healing temples. It’s repeated problems that bring us to the point where the body suddenly breaks down or it seems sudden. And then we’re ill.
Q. You talk about how most people need a downward flow of energy for good health.
A. You open the crown of your head and invite the universal energy to flow down through your body, down your spine, out your arms, across your hips, down the legs and out the feet. The universe is unlimited and abundant so you don’t have to hang on to the energy. You can let it move through your body and out, and in that sense, it flushes out what you no longer need. It keeps a flow of life consciousness, juice energy for you available all the time.
Simply imagine the spirals of universal energy. Take a deep breath and invite in spirals of universal energy. Imagine it flowing through the whole body and that the body is just soaking it up and embracing it. With the in-breath, invite in the spiral and with the out-breath, sink into your body and into that place. Or take three or four breaths that are focused simply on bringing in the energy.
Q. It’s funny how spiritualism can be very head oriented. Surrendering to the body and tapping into your inner healer is a challenge.
A. The inner healer is not accessed by cranking through the gears of the mind. The inner healer arises somewhere else. It feels like it rises out of the mystery. It feels like it’s deep in the body, somewhere between my heart and my solar plexus. It’s as if the thoughts actually block being closer to it.
Q. Cell-Level Healing shares many tools for healing diseases. Can you recommend a practice for increasing energy and vitality during life’s daily stress?
A. I meditate on the four functions of each cell. First you focus on the information in the cell and ask that all information be encoded correctly. Second is communication between cells, which is crucial to our good health that communication move smoothly.
Third is the power pack of the cell, which creates all of the energy that keeps us alive. Without it, we’re gone. And that’s one of the places that stress hits us the most. It’s in the organelle called the mitochondria. So to work with energy flowing deep inside each cell to these power houses, that they may be working smoothly without damage, is incredibly important. Fourth is the action part of cell where proteins are made for the structure of the cell, for all the enzymes of the cell – focus on that aspect of our cell function not being blocked and moving smoothly.
The biochemistry of stress blocks many of the normal, healthy functions of repair in the cell. We want to clear out whatever those molecules of stress are so that the body can function completely healthy with these four main functions.
Q. You had your brainwaves mapped by neurological researchers. What did they find?
A. They found my brain works weirdly. Most of us run beta waves just walking around – that’s our thinking mind. When we’re peaceful and happy, and we see something beautiful, we run alpha waves. Delta waves occur in the brain of people in deep states of sleep – they’re not usually found in a waking state. My brain runs beta, so it’s alert and aware and thinking, and delta in a waking state at the same time.
That has been found to be the case in Tibetan monks who have meditated 50,000 hours or more. It seems to be a product of compassion meditation. And I live in that state – it’s not just when I’m doing healing work or meditating, but I walk around like that now.
What I experience in myself is a sense of well being and listening. It’s as if my alert mind is listening for guidance or aware of the larger reality all the time. And it’s been consistent – I was tested in 2002, 2005 and 2006 so it’s not an anomaly.
Q. What is your daily meditation practice?
A. I meditate for half-hour to an hour in the morning, and on and off throughout the day. I stop for a minute and I’m so grateful for my life and what I get to do. Then I stop to simply make a connection and allow energy to flow through my body. When I’m working with people, I’m in a constant state of experience of that flow.
We all sit down to have a cup of tea or coffee. In those moments can be a moment of mediation, appreciation and blessings.
Q. If the body could give us a message, what would it be?
A. I have a sacred gift from the creator of the universe. I bring the resources of consciousness to you. You can trust me. I am a natural healer.
Joyce Hawkes, Ph.D.
Joyce Hawkes is a biophysicist and cell-biologist by training. She completed her doctorate in Biophysics at The Pennsylvania State University, and was a postdoctoral Fellow with the National Institutes of Health before settling in Seattle to work in research for the National Marine Fisheries Reseach Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While there, she was honored with a National Achievement Award for her work.
She is currently a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Over the course of 15 years, she has earned an international reputation for her scientific contributions in the field of ultra high-speed laser effects on cells, and the effects of environmental pollutants on cells. She has published 36 peer-reviewed scientific papers.
Following a near-death experience in 1984, Joyce changed careers and embarked on extensive exploration of indigenous spiritual and healing traditions, which she incorporated in her first book: Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell. Dr. Hawkes is the founder of Healing Arts Associates and maintains a private practice at her office in Seattle. She keeps a busy schedule of teaching and conference presentations in the Seattle area, across the the US and abroad.
Joyce’s fascinating science, stories and rapport with audiences has made her a popular radio and television guest. She has been a featured guest of Art Bell on Coast to Coast Radio and George Noory. Joyce was featured on a national TV special with Diane Sawyer (seen on Turning Point and on Good Morning America), She was also filmed in Japan in 2005 for a documentary. Her brain wave patterns were tested with EEG recordings during meditation (see image upper right) and while doing healing work (lower right) The results were quite unusual, according to Dr. Akio Mori, of Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan. “I’ve never seen anyone with as highly focused brain patterns as Dr. Hawkes,” he said.
The Biology of Intuition with author Joyce Whitely Hawkes, Ph.D. A scientist turned healer Joyce reveals the tremendous power being generated by the body at the cellular level and offers insight into the nature of intuition, healing, and protection in the human experience. Joyce is the author of Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell.
Quantum physics in the form of its famous observer effect (how an observation transforms quantum possibilities into actual experiences in the observer’s consciousness) is forcing us into a paradigm shift away from the primacy-of-matter to a new paradigm: the Primacy of Consciousness. Quantum Activism is the idea of changing ourselves and our societies in accordance with the transformative and revolutionary message of quantum physics. This change is taking its cue from the emergence of a new paradigm within science; the paradigm of a consciousness based reality as articulated by Quantum Physics.
So what are the transformative messages of quantum physics? First, consciousness is the ground of all being, and all objects of our experience (sensing, thinking, feeling, and intuition) are quantum possibilities for consciousness to choose from.
Second, if we choose from what is known, that is to say, what is conditioned in us from prior experiences, we are choosing from our ego-consciousness. But if we choose what is unknown, what is unmanifest in our prior experiences, we are choosing from what spiritual traditions call God-consciousness (in scientific language we call it quantum consciousness). Choosing from God-consciousness requires quantum leaps (movement from point A to point B without going through intermediate steps), nonlocality (signalless communication), and tangled hierarchy (causal relationships of circularity)
The third message of quantum physics is the evolution of consciousness, and it is taking us toward a greater and greater capacity for processing the meaning of our lives and the world around us. The immediate future of evolution is promising to take us from our current preoccupation with the rational mind to an intuitive mind that values the archetypes; such as Good, Beauty, Truth, Justice, and Love, and gives us the ability to process the meaning of our lives through these archetypes.
So the goal of the quantum activist is to explore quantum possibilities and manifest these archetypes—Good, Beauty, Truth, Justice, and Love—in his or her life as intimately and as expressly as one can, and in doing so to help transform the world. The means a quantum activist uses to achieve this goal are threefold—right thinking, right living, and right livelihood.
Right thinking consists of understanding the paradigm shift from a user’s point of view and helping others in our environment to do so. Right living consists of walking the talk, manifesting our understanding in how we live, and becoming guiding examples for the inspiration of others. As such it takes a lot of quantum leaps, openness to being in the nonlocality of God consciousness which informs the doing of the ego’s day to day activities;, and the desire to change hierarchical relationships into tangled ones. Right livelihood consists of earning our living in a way that is congruent with our modes of thinking and living and helping our entire society to achieve this congruence.
It is exciting you say, but is that enough to motivate me? I will tell you my fundamental understanding: if you are reading this column you are already motivated. You know what? Consciousness is already pressuring you to join its evolutionary movement.
So what do we do now? We become Quantum Activists of course!
Be prepared to take a discontinuous leap. There is a revolution going on in science. A genuine paradigm shift. While mainstream science remains materialist, a substantial number of scientists are supporting and developing a paradigm based on the primacy of consciousness. Amit Goswami, a pioneer of this revolutionary new perspective within science, shares with us his vision of the unlimited potential of consciousness as the ground of all being, and how this revelation can actually help us to live better.
Recognized as one of the worlds most brilliant minds, Amit has recently appeared in the movies “What the Bleep Do We Know?”,”The Dalai Lama Renaissance” and authored over a dozen books from textbooks on quantum mechanics to consciousness and the New Science. We trace Goswami from his early years in India… away from the religious teachings of his childhood to seek his path in nuclear physics; and how he has come full circle through quantum insight back to the very religious axioms offered as a youth.
With daring style, the Quantum Activist presents the wisdom and humor of one of our worlds truly influential thinkers… and tells of Amit’s journey, his message, and his insight on what this means to you.
Ashok Gangadean is professor and chairman of philosophy at Haverford College where he has pioneered global philosophy for 40 years. He is founder and director of the Global Dialogue Institute which introduces the technology of deep dialogue for people seeking to communicate across diverse perspectives and between different worldviews. He is also cofounder of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality which brings eminent global visionaries together to facilitate the great planetary awakening.
On six CDs, in seven and one-quarter hours, Gangadean presents his vision of a new global wisdom and a primal holistic field he calls “Logos.” This Sounds True Audio Learning Course is divided into the following sessions:
• An Ultimate Mystery Story: The Quest for Global Wisdom
• We Are as We Mind: The Supreme Technology of Consciousness
• Egomentalism: The Deeper Source of Human, Personal, and Cultural Pathologies
• A Clash of Worlds: The Source of Deep Dualism, Polarization, and Chronic Fragmentation
• Deep Dialogue: The Dimensional Crossing into the Logosphere
• Awakening Global Consciousness: Personal and Cultural Healing
In a world where walls of separation are breaking down and people are feeling more connected with other cultures, the quest for global wisdom is a positive thing. Gangadean challenges us to move beyond what he calls “egomentalism” which leads to divisiveness and dualism. Instead we can move toward the integral space of Logos which awakens the global mind. In this realm, we reap the benefits of the mystery of unity-in-diversity and learn the blessings of deep dialogue, spirituality, and mutual compassion.
Ashok K. Gangadean, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College (Haverford, Pennsylvania, USA) where he has taught for the past thirty-six years. He was the first Director of the Margaret Gest Center for the Cross-Cultural Study of Religion at Haverford, and has participated in numerous professional conferences on inter-religious dialogue and East-West comparative philosophy.
His primary concern throughout his career has been to clarify the universal logos or common ground at the heart of human reason and rational life. He is Founder-Director of the Global Dialogue Institute which seeks to embody the dialogical powers of global reason in all aspects of cultural life. His book, Meditative Reason: Toward Universal Grammar attempts to open the way to global reason, and a companion volume, Between Worlds: The Emergence of Global Reason explores the dialogical common ground between diverse worlds. His forthcoming book The Awakening of the Global Mind further develops these themes for the general reader.
Ashok has focused over the past thirty-five years on tapping and clarifying the deeper common ground between diverse cultural, religious, and ideological worlds. In his many published essays and public lectures he has attempted to demonstrate that human reason is essentially global, dialogical, holistic, and intercultural. In his books he has attempted to demonstrate that there is a fundamental Logos or Universal Grammar underlying all cultures, religions, philosophies, and ideologies. This discovery and clarification of the fundamental Logos in human cultures, experience and life has important implications for effectively addressing the most pressing practical problems humans face today.
His Global Dialogue Institute has developed a powerful “Whole Child Education” Pilot Project that has been supported by UNICEF and the Ministry of Education in Indonesia. This integral approach to education and teacher training uses the power of Deep Dialogue to renovate the teaching and learning ecology of education.
While his earlier books attempt to demonstrate that human reason is essentially grounded in the fundamental Logos that is the common ground between diverse worlds, the Awakening attempts to communicate these findings to everyday people who have no background in philosophy and who urgently need to understand and cope with the profound changes we now face in the globalization of our cultures.
He is Co-Convenor of the recently formed World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality which brings eminent world leaders together in sustained deep dialogue to cultivate global vision and wisdom for the new millennium. This high level Commission has been supported generously by the Breuninger Foundation and has held annual retreats in the past three years at their Wasan Island Retreat.
Ashok has appeared on NBC News (Philadelphia), in interviews for CNN Headline News (Comcast Newsmakers) in the Philadelphia Region, and appeared last year in the national television series Thinking Allowed with Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove. These two interviews on his forthcoming book The Awakening of the Global Mind continue to air in repeating cycles on the national scene.
More recently he was featured in the forthcoming series A Parliament of Minds, produced by Michael Tobias and Patrick Fitzgerald. This series arose from the World Congress of Philosophy in Boston (August 1998) at which Ashok helped convene and inaugurate the newly formed World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality.
He appears in a half-hour interview on his work and participated in a one-hour dialogue with Karan Singh, Robert Muller and Ewert Cousins. He has also agreed to host a forthcoming television series on “Patterns of the Universe: Bridging Science and Spirituality”, produced by Connecting Links Productions. Ashok became the host of Philly Live: Your International Connection on WYBE TV Public Television (Philadelphia, Ch 35) every Monday night. This live television show seeks to cultivate global dialogue on vital issues of international interest. After four seasons he commenced his new Global Lens show on WYBE in the Fall of 2004.
Ashok recently formed his ((Awakening)) Productions to begin work on producing a six-part series for television on the narrative of his forthcoming book The Awakening of the Global Mind. Also, his book Meditations on Global First Philosophy: Quest for the Missing Grammar of Logos has just been accepted for publication by SUNY Press and will appear in late 2008.
