The New Dimensions Café

Christopher Brown is an accomplished lawyer and has worked on two Supreme Court confirmation hearings. He has also been general counsel for several technology companies. His varied experiences span from restoring prairies to reporting from Central American war zones. He’s author of three award-nominated science fiction novels. His current nonfiction book explores the natural world in urban settings. He is the author of Failed State: A Novel (Eos 2020), Rule of Capture: A Novel (Eos 2019), The Tropic of Kansas: A Novel (Harper Voyager 2017), The Natural History of Empty  and Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places (Timber Press 2024).Interview Date: 12/2/2024     Tags: Christopher Brown, eco bunker, urban wildlife, industrial wasteland, green roof, wild chili peppers, paying attention to small life, Animals, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Social Change/Politics

Christina Rasmussen is an internationally recognized grief educator and founder of Life Reentry Institute and Seconds First. She has helped countless people break out of what she coined as the “waiting room” of grief to rebuild their lives through her Life Reentry Model. She is author of Second Firsts: Live, Laugh, and Love Again (Hay House 2013) and Where Did You Go? A Life-Changing Journey to Connect with Those We’ve Lost. (HarperOne 2018).Tags: Christina Rasmussen, Temple Journeys, Temple World, invisible world, third-dimensional world, entanglement, ghosts, multi-universes, imagination, holographic universe, Death & Dying, Science, Parapsychology/Paranormal, Personal Transformation

Linda Graham, MFT is a licensed psychotherapist and meditation teacher in full-time practice in the San Francisco Bay area. She integrates her passion for neuroscience, mindfulness, and relational psychology through trainings, workshops, and conferences. She publishes a monthly e-newsletter entitled Healing and Awakening Into Aliveness and Wholeness, and weekly e-quotes on resources for recovering resilience, archived on her website. She is the author of Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain For Maximum Resilience And Well-Being (New World Library 2013)Interview Date: 3/20/2015    Tags: Linda Graham, resilience, neuroplasticity, brain, neural pathways, rewire brain, rewiring our brains, survival responses, Barbara Fredrickson, prefrontal cortex, tunnel vision, Darwin, most adaptive survives, mindfulness, compassion, self-compassion, window of tolerance, Psychology, Personal Transformation, Science, Health & Healing, Self Help

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, cafes, conversation, poetic word, poetry, The Good Beasts, prose, Jesus as poet, Arts & Creativity

Eric Maisel, Ph.D. is a licensed family therapist, a creativity coach, and author of more than 40 books. He also conducts writing workshops and trains creativity coaches. His books include Life Purpose Boot Camp: The 8 Week Breakthrough Plan for Creating a Meaningful Life (New World Library 2014), Secrets of a Creativity Coach (Motivational Press 2014), Why Smart People Hurt (Conari Press 2013, Fearless Creating (Tarcher 1995), Van Gogh's Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression (New World Library 2007), Mastering Creative Anxiety (New World Library 2011), Making Your Creative Mark (New World Library 2013), Natural Psychology: The New Psychology of Meaning (Natural Psychology Press 2012), Rethinking Depression (New World Library 2012), Brainstorm: Harnessing The Power of Productive Obsessions (New World Library 2010), Creativity For Life (New World Library 2007) and Coaching the Artist Within (New World Library 2005)Interview Date: 1/15/2015   Tags: Eric Maisel, writing, creativity, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, DSM5, mental health reform, morning writing, meaning boost

Margaret Wheatley is an internationally acclaimed writer, speaker, and teacher. She began caring about the world's peoples in 1966 as a Peace Corps volunteer in postwar Korea. She is cofounder and President Emerita of The Berkana Institute, a charitable foundation that works with people around the world to strengthen their communities using the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions, and environment. She is a guide in leading people back to understanding who we are as humans, being able to create the conditions for our basic qualities of generosity, contribution, community, and love. She is a grand contributor in creating an Island of Sanity in the midst of wildly disruptive seas. Her books include Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (Berrett-Koehler 1992), Perseverance (Berrett-Kohler 2010), Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope in the Future (Berrett-Koehler 2009), So Far from Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World (Berrett-Koehler 2012) and Who Do We Choose To Be: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity (Berrett-Koehler 2017). Interview Date: 8/19/2010 

Douglas Grunther is the creator and host of the “Woodstock Roundtable” an award winning radio talk show covering philosophy, depth psychology, and spiritual insight. He is also a dreamwork facilitator. He is the author of The Quantum & The Dream: Visionary Consciousness, AI, and The New Renaissance (Epigraph Books 2024)Interview Date: 11/15/2024      Tags: Douglas Grunther, scientific materialism, climate change, dream appreciation, intuition, collective intelligence, swarming bee intelligence, collaboration, Black Plague, empathy, wisdom, dream appreciation, Jeremy Taylor, Elias Howe, sewing machine invention, creative visualization, daydreaming, intuitive flashes, perception, Marshall McLuhan, Buckminster ”Bucky” Fuller, Science, Personal Transformation, Dream, History, Social Change/Politics

Brenda Peterson is a novelist, nature writer, and writing teacher. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and O: The Oprah Magazine. Her books include Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals (W. W. Norton 2001), Duck and Cover (Backinprint.com 2004), I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth (Da Capo Press 2010) and Your Life is a Book: How to Craft & Publish Your Memoir (co-author Sarah Jane Freymann) (Sasquatch Books 2014)Interview Date: 9/11/2014.   Tags: Brenda Peterson, memoir, self publishing, query letter, eBooks, Editing books, typography, Spirituality, Religion

Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, Center for Applied Neuroaesthethics (known as the IAM Lab) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she’s a faculty member in the Department of Neurology. Ivy Ross is Chief Design Officer of Consumer Devices at Google and has led teams that have won hundreds of design awards. She’s a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient and was ninth on Fast Company’s list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2019. Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross are Co-authors of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. (Random House 2023)Interview Date: 10/14/2024     Tags: Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross, aesthetic mindset, curiosity, playful exploration, sensorial experience, colored pencils, color is a vibration, chromasonics, Art & Creativity Health & Healing, Personal Transformation

Hope Johnson is a teacher of mysticism who draws on the teachings of Jesus from A Course in Miracles, as well as the Buddha, the Bhagavad Gita, yogic philosophy, quantum physics and other traditions. She leads free weekly online wisdom dialogues and free daily lessons on A Course in Miracles that involve reading a lesson with insightful commentary for practical applications in daily life. She also offers one-to-one guidance towards recognizing and embracing the ever-present reality of love. She is also the founder and creator of Miracle Botanicals Essential Oils. She is the author of Unschooling For Parents, Protecting Innocence, A Mystics Guide To Awakening With Children  (Hope Johnson 2019)Interview Date: 11/1/2024     Tags: Hope Johnson, A Course in Miracles, fear, enlightenment, perception, guilty consciousness, guilty mind, uncertainty, weaving world with concepts, ego, the great awakening, Armageddon, new renaissance, being the love of God, relaxing the ego, Holy Spirit, cult, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Religion, Spirituality