The New Dimensions Café

Ron Pevny is the founder and director of the Colorado-based Center for Conscious Eldering. He’s a certified Sag-ing® Leader with Sag-ing® International and conducts workshop and retreats across North America. He is the author of Conscious Living, Conscious Aging: Embrace & Savor Your Next Chapter (Atria Paperback 2014)Tags: Ron Pevny, aging, saging, retirement, depression, living with purpose, comparison, aliveness, joyful expression, volunteering, gratitude, Personal Transformation, community, creativity

Mark Matousek is a teacher, spiritual seeker and award-winning author of many books. He leads transformative workshops, intensives, and guided writing sessions that mentor participants to reach their artistic and personal goals by using writing as a tool for insight, innovation, and clarity of purpose. He’s the founder of the Seekers Forum, an online community for self-inquiry. His books include: Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (Riverhead 2000), The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search for His Lost Father (Riverhead 1997), When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living (Bloomsbury 2009), Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life (Anchor Books 2011), Writing to Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery (Reveal Press 2017) and Lessons from an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life (HarperOne 2023)Interview Date: 10/24/2023.  Tags: Mark Matousek, personal bias, cultural conditioning, angle of vision, journaling, writing to awaken, religious dogma, power of being in nature, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics

Duane Elgin, Ph.D.(hon) is a visionary futurist, educator, and Citizen-Voice Activist who received the Goi Pace Award in Japan in recognition of his contributions to a global vision that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture”. Duane is currently the Co-director of the Choosing Earth Project. He is the author of many books including Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (William Morrow 1993), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Harper 2010), The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (Barrett Koehler Publishers 2009), Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future the Living Universe (William Morrow 2000) and Choosing Earth: Humanity’s Journey of Initiation through Breakdown and Collapse to Mature Planetary Community (Revised Edition) (Duane Elgin 2022)Interview Date: 10/20/2023.    Tags: Duane Elgin, collective adolescence, maturing adult collective, population overload, collectively growing up, aliveness, collective initiation, community, Ubuntu, communication, widening our lens of perception, mass media encourages separation and division, no safe havens, Earth is our collective greenhouse, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Community, Social Change/Politics, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Global Culture

Trebbe Johnson is the founder and director of the global community Radical Joy for Hard Times, and she’s devoted to finding and making beauty in hurt places. She has camped alone in the Arctic wilderness; studied classical Indian dance; worked as an artist’s model, has been a street sweeper in an English village, and is an award-winning multimedia producer. She’s led wilderness rites of passage and contemplative journeys in clear-cut forests, Ground Zero in New York, in EPA’s toxic Superfund sites, the Sahara Desert, and other places. She participates in Global Earth Exchange—bringing people around the world together to go to places they care about that have been damaged or endangered: share stores, listen to the land, and make a simple gift of beauty for the place out of materials the place itself offers. She is the author of several books including Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth’s Broken Places. (North Atlantic Books 2018) and Fierce Consciousness: Surviving the Sorrows of Earth and Self (Calliope Books, 2023).Interview Date: 10/6/2023  Tags: Trebbe Johnson, grief, beauty, facing what is difficult, despair, beauty is a life-saver, funeral directors, Sedonia Cahill, transcending downwards, mindfulness, skilled hunter of consciousness, cunning trackers of beauty, Personal Transformation, Health & Healing, Ecology/Nature/Environment

Carl Greer, Ph.D., Psy.D. is a practicing clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst and shamanic practitioner. He teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and is on staff at the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being. He is the author of Change Your Story, Change Your Life: Using Shamanic and Jungian Techniques for Healing (Findhorn Press 2017) and Change Your Story, Change Your Life: Using Shamanic and Jungian Tools to Achieve Personal Transformation (Findhorn Press 2014)Tags: Carl Greer, archetypes, dreams, synchronicities, wonder, coincidence, C.J. Jung, agape, love, writing your health story, inventory of health, Health, Healing, Psychology

Lisa Smartt is a linguist, educator, and poet. She’s founder of The Final Words Project, an ongoing study devoted to collecting and interpreting the mysterious language at the end of lives. She lives in Athens, Georgia. She is the author of Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death (New World Library 2017)Tags: Lisa Smartt, nonsensical speech, dreamtime symbols, metaphor, duel realities, hybrid nonsense language, end of life language, Death, Dying, Parapsychology, Paranormal

David Bedrick, JD, DIPL PW is a teacher, counselor, attorney, organizational consultant, and writer. He’s a practitioner of Process Oriented Psychology, a branch Jungian psychology. He did his clinical training at the Process Work Institute which is inspired by the work of Arny Mindell. Bedrick is a diplomate of the Institute. Currently he maintains a practice as a counselor and coach for individuals and groups. He also speaks and writes on topics ranging from ethics, diversity, and relationships, to dreams, diet, body image, anger, and shame. He’s the author of: Talking Back to Dr. Phil: Alternatives to Mainstream Psychology (Belly Song Press 2013) and Revisioning Activism: Bringing Depth, Dialogue, and Diversity to Individual and Social Change (Belly Song Press 2017)Tags: MP3, David Bedrick, process psychology, depth psychology, process oriented psychology, inner critic, jealously, class issues, weight, Psychology, Personal Transformation, Self Help

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, circles, opening a circle, centering a circle, inclusivity in a circle, leadership, timekeeping in circles, empowerment in circles, courage to be in circle, giving appreciation in circle, Personal Transformation, Social Change/Politics, Circles

Hersch Wilson is an organizational consultant, pilot, former professional dancer, newspaper columnist, and volunteer firefighter. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife Laurie, a daughter, and two ga, and two dogs, a great Pyrenees and a Chihuahua terrier mix. He is a former ballet dancer (along with his wife Laurie) and is now a 30-year veteran volunteer firefighter–EMT with the Hondo Fire Department in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. He is also a writer, speaker, and 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 also writes a monthly column on dogs for the Santa Fe New Mexican. 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, humans evolved with dogs, dogs change our lives, don’t leave dogs alone for too long, rewards of dogs in household, walking dogs is profound experience, dogs and cats of Ukraine. Animals

Anton Schwartz is a Jazz musician and son of the late Tony Schwartz who was a pioneer of the communications revolution of the 20th Century. He is the editor of the second edition of seminal book on media: The Responsive Chord: How Media Manipulates You: What You Buy, Who You Vote for, and How You Think (Mango Publication 1973-2017)Tags: Anton Schwartz, Tony Schwartz, media, communications, hard sell, soft sell, advertising, marketing, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, jingles, indoor media, outdoor media, Folkways Records, Media, History, Social Change, Politics