New Dimensions

Lama Palden Drolma, a licensed psychotherapist and Tibetan Buddhist teacher, dives into the transformative power of the Tonglen meditation. She offers insights on cultivating self-love and compassion, essential for personal healing. Lama Palden shares practical steps for using Tonglen “on-the-spot” during crises, emphasizing that meditation can benefit not only ourselves but all beings. She also contrasts Buddhist views of innate goodness with the concept of original sin and discusses the impactful use of mantras in fostering connection and compassion.

Nepo’s creative works, books, poems, workshops are all about creating a sacred place where the experience of honest truth can happen. Even in our deepest moments of suffering, he encourages us to seek out slivers of light seeping through the broad slats of darkness. His genius is to discover metaphors as a way of understanding and making meaning of our lives. Mark Nepo 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), The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Sounds True 2016) and Drinking from the River of Light: The Life of Expression (Sounds True 2019)Interview Date: 8/10/2019     Tags: Mark Nepo, metaphors, cancer, grief, Gail Warner, Pine Manor Retreat Center, Doc Palmer, creativity, immersion, whales and dolphins, suffering, telling stories, Rilke, being present, ambition and dreams, making plans, Winston Churchill, assumptions, conclusions, Pandora music app, George Bernard Shaw’s tailor, Personal Transformation, Spirituality, Writing, Art & Creativity, Philosophy

Here we climb the attic steps and kneel before an old trunk, lift the lid and allow ancient tales to rush out and pierce our hearts and souls with their wisdom. Our guide in this quest is Martin Shaw who invites us to look at folktales not as therapy, not as giving advice but as tributaries that lead us to the bigger river of essential truths that nourish our lives.His books include A Branch from the Lightning Tree: Ecstatic Myth and the Grace in Wildness, (White Cloud Press 2011), Snowy Tower: Parzival and the Wet, Black Branch of Language (White Cloud Press 2014), Scatterlings: Getting Claimed in the Age of Amnesia (White Cloud 2016) and The Night Wages: Bidden or Unbidden Initiations Come, (Cista Mystica Press 2019). Interview Date: 6/4/2019    Tags: MP3, Martin Shaw, Captain Beefheart, Robert Bly, Odyssey, Ulysses, Nostos (returning home), longing, Psyche and Eros, Medusa, Charles Eisenstein, Mythology, Philosophy

Inner peace, as expressed by love, exists as goodness itself and is the strongest alternative to helplessness, resentment, hate, insanity, bitterness, and crazy violence. Here, we focus our attention on the capacity for a generous love that embraces such virtues as kindness, courage, forgiveness, gratitude, dignity for all, and hope. Stephen G. Post, Ph.D. is among a handful of individuals awarded the distinguished service award by the National Alzheimer's Association. In 2001 he founded The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which researches and distributes knowledge on kindness, giving and spirituality. Post served as a co-chair of the United Nations Population Fund Conference on Spirituality and Global Transformation. He's a professor in the Department of Preventative Medicine at Stony Brook University and founder and director of the Stony Brook Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics. He's a leader in medicine research and religion and the author of several books. Interview Date: 8/22/2025    Tags: Stephen Post, Buddhist chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, John Eccles, original mind, supreme mind, creativity, freedom, intuition, Mircea Eliade, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, loyalty, compassion, kindness, Sean Keener, Jacques Rousseau, empathic, freedom, Dostoevsky, Hinduism, Golden Rule, volunteering, mirth, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Work/Livelihood

This physicist and mystic combine their wisdom and experience to encourage us at this time of “choice point” for humanity. They describe what occurs in our brain when surprises happen and how that provides the opportunity to instantly change a long-standing habit. Hade describes the importance of knowing our core values in order to be resilient.William Arntz is a physicist and filmmaker and creator of the film, “What the BLEEP Do We Know!?” Deirdre Hade is a modern-day mystic, poet and leading visionary in the ancient arts of the wisdom traditions, and creator of “The Radiance Journey” a path to mystical knowledge that unites the magical with the material. Together, husband and wife team William Arntz and Deidre Hade explore how science merges with mystical prophecy to help us navigate the upheaval and ever-changing surprises in these post-modern times. Arntz and Hade are the co-creators of the book: The (not so) Little Book of Surprises (Waterside Press2016), with the award winning photography of Endre Balogh.Interview Date: 9/5/2017      Tags: Deirdre Hade, William Arntz, What The Bleep Do We Know, illumination, mysticism, scientism, curiosity, intuition, Sodom and Gomorrah, faith, Age of Surprises, habits, neuroplasticity, resilience, core virtues, core values, despair, fear, awe, soul, angelic presence, archangels, Philosophy, Science, Spirituality, intuition/psychic

Karma is incompletely understood and frequently misapplied. For those who wish to understand karmic law more deeply, here we explore the parallels between different spiritual traditions, spiritual insights, and doctrines regarding karma, as they relate to individual responsibility for leading our best lives. Philip Goldberg is an acclaimed author, public speaker, and spiritual counselor. He has studied and taught about the world's spiritual wisdom for more than 50 years. Goldberg teaches private online courses on the Bhagavad-Gita, The Upanishads, and other topics. He hosts the Podcast, “Spirit Matters with Philip Goldberg” at mindbodyspirit.fm. His  books include American Veda: from Emerson to the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West (Harmony 2010), The Life of Yogananda: The Story of the Yogi Who Became the First Modern Guru (Hay House 2018), Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Powerful Tools to Cultivate Calm, Clarity, and Courage (Hay House 2020) and Karmic Relief: Harnessing the Laws of Cause-and-Effect for a Joyful Meaningful Life (Monkfish 2025) Interview Date: 8/8/2025     Tags: Philip Goldberg, consequences, Upanishads, Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita, Book of Job, H.H. the Dalai Lama, Ram Dass, Hinduism. Metta Practice, Yoga Sutras, The Golden Rule, Rabbi Hillel, Aquarian Age, Armageddon, Buddhism, Personal Transformation, Psychology

Sam Daley-Harris provides powerful structures of support so that our courage is what drives us, not our fear. He encourages us to move beyond only donating money, signing petitions, or writing letters to the editor. He tells us that deep effectiveness in citizen advocacy is about deep engagement and participating in a cause that you care about. Daley-Harris founded RESULTS and the RESULTS Educational Fund in 1980. RESULTS is an international grassroots, citizen’s lobby committed to healing the break between people and government, and creating the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty. He is the author of Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy (revised edition) (Rivertown Books 2024) Interview Date: 8/1/2025      Tags: Sam Daley-Harris, Alex Steffin, citizen engagement, deep listening, grassroots lobbying, community building, climate change, citizen empowerment, legislative advocacy, Marshall Ganz, Rusty Schweickart, Hunger Project, deep listening, Vintage Vanguard, affordable housing, low-income housing, U.N. Children's Fund, Senator John Curtis, Tom Greenaway, Ellie Sparks, Citizens Climate Lobby, Bill McKibben, Community, Personal Transformation, Social Change/Politics

In honor of broadcast journalist and commentator Bill Moyers, who passed on June 25, 2025, we present this New Dimensions Archive Edition, recorded on October 4 1996 and hosted by MIchael Toms. Moyers was widely respected for accessible, provocative television programs that explore a broad spectrum of contemporary topics with depth and sensitivity. In this New Dimensons Archive Edition he discusses his original approach to broadcast journalism and his series “Genesis: A Living Conversation,” consisting of ten lively discussions about stories in the first book of the Bible. In these programs, he describes why these are among the most powerful stories in Western Civilization, and the fascinating process of uncovering their deeper, often controversial meanings. Moyers says, “Stories are the way we organize our response to the world…Listening to others, and having them listen to you, is a way to grow your own faith.”

Cousineau explores how perfectionism leads to burnout, stress, and anxiety. She introduces the concept of "inner algorithms" as coping patterns formed in stressful situations. She advocates for a mind-body approach to overcoming perfectionism, highlighting the importance of self-compassion and the EVOLVE method. Tara Cousineau, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist at Harvard University’s Counseling and Mental Health Services. She’s professionally trained in mind-body medicine, energy psychology, mindfulness, self-compassion, and other psychological methods. She is the author of The Kindness Cure: How The Science Of Compassion Can Heal Your Heart And Your World (New Harbinger Publications 2018) and The Perfectionist’s Dilemma: Learn the Art of Self Compassion and Become a Happy Achiever (Alcove Press 2025)Interview Date: 7/18/2025         Tags: Tara Cousineau, Kindfulness, kindsight, joy, social media, procrastination, mindfulness, inner algorithms, Byron Katie, talk therapy, body therapy, IFS, Internal Family Systems, Richard C Schwartz, procrastination, Scarlett O’Hara, Tara Brach, mantras, Rick Hanson, Donna Eden, EFT. Emotional Freedom Technique, “Tapping,” Personal Transformation, Psychology

Are we living in and collectively participating in a planetary nervous system? Are we all creative participants guiding Earth’s destiny? Here, we focus on the noosphere, which represents the third major evolutionary layer enveloping Earth, following the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life).   Brian Thomas Swimme, Ph.D. is Professor of Evolutionary Cosmology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He is the Director of the Third Story of the Universe at The Human Energy Project He is the host of the Emmy-award winning PBS special "Journey of the Universe," written with Mary Evelyn Tucker. He is also the host of the 35-part video series "Story of the Noosphere," created for the Human Energy Project.   Monica DeRaspe-Bolles is a doctoral student at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. Her area of research is the “Third Story of the Universe” and the potential emergence of a new structure of experience fostering cosmogenic awakening. She is a collaborator with Brian Swimme on the video series “Story of the Noosphere.” They are the co-authors of the book The Story of the Noosphere (Orbis Books 2024)Interview Date: 7/11/2025      Tags: Brian Thomas Swimme, Monica DeRaspe-Bolles, Noosphere, geosphere, biosphere, James Webb telescope, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Vladimir Vernadsky, Jiffy time, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, universal mind, planetary mind, Zarathustra, entelechy, diversification, conscious recall, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Science, Community