New Dimensions

Contracts are used to lay out expectations and responsibilities of the parties involved. We take them very seriously in business and law. Joel Fotinos says that we should take our own goals just as seriously and create personal contracts to hold ourselves accountable in our pursuit of excellence. He shares methods and ideas for committing to a Personal Life Contract. Joel Fotinos is a vice president at Penguin Random House Publishers and publisher of the Tarcher/Penguin imprint. He’s also a licensed minister with the Centers for Spiritual Living. He is the author and coauthor of several books including The Prayer Chest (coauthor August Gold) (Doubleday Religion 2007), Multiply Your Blessings (coauthor August Gold) (Hampton Roads 2012), A Little Daily Wisdom (Paraclete Press 2009), Think and Grow Rich Starter Kit (coauthors Napoleon Hill, August Gold) (Tarcher 2014), The Think and Grow Rich Journey: Enhance and Enrich Your Path to Success (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2013 and My Life Contract: 90-Day Program for Prioritizing Goals, Staying on Track, Keeping Focused, and Getting Results (Weiser Books 2014)Interview Date: 5/28/2015  Tags: MP3, Joel Fotinos, Personal Life Contract, contract, Mastermind Partner, Mastermind Group, Prioritize, debt, 90 days, Am I happy, Am I free, life purpose, contract map, goals, consistent, persistent, energy follows action, excellence not perfection, accountability, responsibility, Personal Transformation, Self Help

From 1342 to 1415, Julian lived through the bubonic plague that killed one out of three humans in Europe. She did not deny suffering but found goodness in all things and was a feminist 700 years before the current movement. She held God as Mother and deconstructed patriarchy pulling the rug out from under dualism of body as separate from soul. Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology, and student of ritual in traditional cultures. He has scoured the world to bring to us meaningful folk tales that tap into ancestral sources of wisdom and acts as a guide to connect them to the stories we are living today. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation. He also offers regular Living Myths Podcasts and is the author of many books including: Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss (GreenfirePress 2012), Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2012), The Genius Myth (GreenfirePress 2016), Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World (GreenFire Press 2018), The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2019)Interview Date: 6/4/2021    Tags: Matthew Fox, bubonic plague, goodness, dualism, patriarchy, Saint Augustine, Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Ratzinger, Motherhood of God, Divine Feminine, sacred masculine, compassion, rachem, Mirabai Starr, grief, Rilke poem: Pushing Through, Robert Bly, Hafez, the Mystics of the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckart, Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Jesus, climate change, oneing, soul, trust, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dorothy Stang, evil, despair, acedia, Thomas Berry, eco-theologian, creation centered spirituality, climate change, Spirituality, Philosophy, Social Change/Politics, Women’s Studies, History, Ecology/Nature/Environment

The pandemic of 2020-21 has given humans a worldwide, collective initiation of separation, ordeal, and return. This deep dialogue explores a critical moment of renewing, not only of ourselves but of the culture in which we are embedded. Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology, and student of ritual in traditional cultures. He has scoured the world to bring to us meaningful folk tales that tap into ancestral sources of wisdom and acts as a guide to connect them to the stories we are living today. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation. He also offers regular Living Myths Podcasts and is the author of many books including: Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss (GreenfirePress 2012), Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2012), The Genius Myth (GreenfirePress 2016), Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World (GreenFire Press 2018), The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul (GreenFire Press 2019)Interview Date: 6/17/2021    Tags: Michael Meade, initiation, rite-of-passage, uncertainty, deep self, plotline, William Stafford, The Way it Is poem, William Stafford, mass funerals, AIDS quilt, bone memory, meaning vs. happiness, Sir Laurens Van der Post, joy, Social Change/ Politics, Mythology, personal transformation

Hear Montgomery’s fascinating encounters with gorillas, snakes, and spiders. She takes us from the largest bird in the world, the Emu, to the smallest, the hummingbird. With their jewel-like foliage hummingbirds are capable of the most unique and astonishing feats such as flying backward and even upside down. Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, documentary scriptwriter and author of many books, which often include stories of her encounters with animals. During research for her books, films, and articles, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silver back gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica. She worked in a pit of 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University System of New Hampshire. Her many books have garnered numerous awards, and include The Curious Naturalist: Nature’s Everyday Mysteries (Down East Books 1991), Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species (Chelsea Green Publishing 2009), The Good, Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood (Ballantine Books 2007), Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur (Atria Books 2011), The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness. (Atria Books 2015), How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018), Becoming a Good Creature (a children’s book) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020), Condor Comeback (Scientists in the Field Series) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020), The Hummingbirds’ Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings (Atria Books 2021) Interview Date: 6/4/2021      Tags: Sy Montgomery, emus, hummingbirds, Brenda Sherburn LaBelle, spiders, gorillas, Kakapo, Wendilgarda spider, wolf spiders, kangaroos and wallabies, Animals, Ecology/Nature/Environment

As a young Black woman, Regina Louise was born poor, supposedly unwanted, neglected, marginalized, stigmatized, disenfranchised, and labeled crazy. What led her to not accept these factors in her life and reject that they were going to define all her life? Be uplifted by her story as she moves with fierce determination from shame to dignity. Regina Louise is a teacher and coach on advocacy work. Her memoir was featured in a Lifetime movie, I Am Somebody’s Child. She’s a Hoffman Process teacher. She is the author of two memoirs: Somebody’s Someone: A Memoir (Agate Bolden 2008) and Someone Has Led This Child To Believe: A Memoir  (Agate Bolden 2018), as well as Permission Granted: Kick-Ass Strategies to Bootstrap Your Way to Unconditional Self-Love (New World Library 2021)Interview Date: 7/19/2021      Tags: Regina Louise, adultification, predators, bullies, loneliness, aloneness, Ann Richards, unconditional self-love, Margaret Paul, curiosity, triggered, shame, W.E.B. Du Bois, Bessel van der Kolk, Robert Fuller, Dignitarian Movement, dignity, rankism, hope, Personal Transformation

Hubbard inspires us with a vision of possibility as we move into a new era of conscious evolution. She says we are at a choice point, and describes a tipping point of people who are collectively becoming excited by the changes. By joining together in small groups we are connecting up our creativity and our genius, which can ultimately lead us to a life-sustaining planet. She says, “Small fluctuations in a sea of social chaos can jump the system to a higher order.” She goes on to describe how we could connect with one another in a celebration of a global birthday party on December 22, 2012. She also points out that it will be small groups of people connecting with one another that will facilitate and accelerate the change toward a positive future for all life. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)  Barbara Marx Hubbard, Ph.D. (1929-2019) was a visionary futurist and evolutionary educator. She was the cofounder and chair of the board of The Foundation for Conscious Evolution, and cofounder of the Association for Global New Thought and The World Future Society. In 1984 her name was placed in nomination for the vice presidency for the United States on the Democratic ticket. She was a guide and teacher for The Shift Network’s Agents of Conscious Evolution training. She’s the author of many books including Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence (Hampton Roads 2001), Birth 2012 and Beyond: Humanity’s Great Shift to the Age of Conscious Evolution (Shift Books 2012), The revised edition of Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential (New World Library 2015)Interview Date: 6/29/2012   Tags: Barbara Marx Hubbard, Birth 2012, Birth2012, December 22 2012, dissipative structures, evolution, heart math, Ilya Prigogine, morphogenetic field, noosphere, planetary birthday party, regenopause, scientific materialism, scientific orthodoxy, Shift circles, Shift Network, supra-sex, suprasex, Teilhard de Chardin, tipping point, universe story, world that works for everyone, Community, Global Culture, Personal Growth, Philosophy/Psychology, Social Change/Politics

We have all experienced getting caught up in a thought and identifying ourselves by it. Dr. Laura Basha talks about the ability to bring choice into the thought process. She explains the importance of listening for what’s possible rather than trying to figure it out. We also learn about Transformational Humor, the power of silence, and the two modes of thought. Laura Basha, Ph.D. holds a combined doctorate in clinical and organizational psychology. She’s an international consultant in leadership development and a personal coach. She is also a fine artist whose paintings reside in many private collections. She is the author of: The Inward Outlook (Xlibris 2014)Interview Date: 4/9/2015   Tags: Laura Basha, MP3, Three Principles, Transformational Humor, Process thought, problem solving, flow thought, in the flow, Mind, Consciousness, thought, sound of silence, character of thought, quality of thought, inward outlook, mentally ill, schizophrenia, modes of thought, Everything and No-thing, transformation, silence, Philosophy, Psychology, Personal Transformation

How can mindfulness allow us to by-pass reactivity? How do we cultivate a sense of spaciousness? Buddhist teacher and author Bodhipaksa helps us find a sense of oneness, stillness, and perfectness. Bodhipaksa was born Graeme Stephen in Scotland and currently lives and teaches in New Hampshire. He is a Buddhist teacher and author who has been practicing within the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order since 1982 and has been a member of this order since 1993. Bodhipaksa runs the online meditation center, Wildmind, to increase awareness of the positive effects of meditation. His published works include The Wisdom of the Breath (CD) (Sounds True 2009), Wildmind (Windhorse 2010) and Living As a River: Finding Fearlessness in the Face of Change (Sounds True 2010)Interview Date: 10/22/2010 Tags: Bodhipaksa, retreats, mindfulness, happiness, fear, terror, management theory, reincarnation, karma, consciousness, self, virtual selves, clinging, Spirituality, Buddhism, Science, Meditation

Stuckey begins this conversation by telling three stories — how an eagle, a bougainvillea bush, and the birch tree of her childhood all communicated with her in some way. We think we are alone, but Stuckey points out “we are deeply connected with all others with whom we share our lives.” Priscilla Stuckey is a writer, book editor, scholar, and Earth-advocate. She teaches humanities at Prescott College and holds a Ph.D. in religious studies and feminist theory from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Kissed by a Fox: And Other Stories of Friendship in Nature (Counterpoint 2012)Interview Date: 1/21/13     Tags: animal communication, animals, communicating with animals, creeks, dog Sapphire, dogs, ecosystems, Gary Snyder, hybrid, keystone species, land stewardship, land use laws, mp3, nature, Peralta Creek, potlatch, prairie dogs, Priscilla Stuckey, reciprocal generosity, relationship, Rudy the fox, watershed, watersheds, Animals, Community, Ecology, Nature, Environment, Spirituality

Diamond has worked with thousands of men who are angry, irritable, and to some degree violent. "There isn't one man that I've ever worked with that when you get to the root, when you look at his early life experience, violence is part of his experience. He's been wounded in some way." He offers many examples of ways men heal cultural and personal wounding. Jed Diamond, Ph.D., is a licensed psychotherapist, a founding member of the American Society of Men’s Health, and an internationally respected leader in the men's health movement. He’s the Founder and Director of MenAlive, a health program that helps men live long and well. Though focused on men’s health, MenAlive is also for women who care about the health of the men in their lives. Jed Diamond is the author of many books including: The Irritable Male Syndrome (Rodale Press 2004), Mr. Mean: Saving Your Relationship from the Irritable Male Syndrome (Numina Press 2010), MenAlive: Stop Killer Stress with Simple Energy Healing Tools (Fifth Wave Press 2012), My Distant Dad: Healing the Family Father Wound (Lasting Impact Press 2018) and 12 Rules for Good Men (Waterside Productions 2020)Interview Date: 5/27/2021  Tags: MP3, Jed Diamond, masculine, masculinity, male violence, humiliation, shame, disrespected, suicide, loneliness, isolation, breadwinner, rites of passage, Mankind Project, Sterling Institute, Men’s Studies, Personal Transformation, Relationship/Partnership/Sexuality