Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

Tom Cheetham, PhD Spiritual Imagination in the Work of Henry Corbin, CG Jung and James Hillman Tom Cheetham makes a presention on Henry Corbin’s work and the links with Jungian psychology, and has a conversation with Dr. Michael Lerner on aspects of this topic. Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was a visionary Protestant theologian and a ground-breaking scholar and translator of Islamic mysticism. His understanding of the imagination as the fundamental creative principle in the world is urgently needed in our pluralistic and interconnected global society. He was a friend and colleague of C.G. Jung and shared his view of the significance of the active imagination in human life as well as his profound grasp of the importance of alchemy for religious psychology. Tom Cheetham, PhD Tom is a biologist, a philosopher, and the author of four books on the imagination and the meaning of Henry Corbin’s work for the contemporary world. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy in London and Adjunct Professor of Human Ecology at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. He lectures regularly in Europe and the United States. Tom’s website, and the official Henry Corbin website, have more information. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rebecca Katz, MS The Longevity Kitchen: the Top 16 Age-Busting Power Foods Despite America’s anti-aging obsession and numerous medical advances, for the first time in recorded history, life spans are actually shortening because of what people eat. But it doesn’t have to be so. The scientific community has come to recognize the extraordinary power good culinary choices have over our bodies. Taking the very best of this science into the kitchen, wellness authority Rebecca Katz, MS, and her latest cookbook, The Longevity Kitchen, prove that great taste and flavor along with culturally specific, nutrient-dense foods are the best ways to promote a healthy long life. Tapping into the cooking wisdom of elders from noted longevity hotspots, including Okinawa, Greece, and Costa Rica, the book shows how cuisines particular to each region lengthen lives. Join us for a conversation with Michael Lerner and Rebecca, looking at the science and recipes that went into her new book and at the work she does in Commonweal’s Healing Kitchens Institute. Rebecca Katz, MS As a consultant, speaker, teacher and chef, Rebecca works closely with patients, physicians, nurses, and wellness professionals to include the powerful tools of flavor and nutrition in their medical arsenal, and with hotel kitchens and events to deliver healthy food with the taste their customers love. She is the founder and director of the Healing Kitchens Institute at Commonweal, which is dedicated to transforming lives through nutritional science and culinary alchemy. Rebecca serves as core faculty of Food As Medicine,The Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s renowned professional training in medical nutrition therapy and as faculty for Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine’s Nutrition and Health program. Rebecca is the author of The Longevity Kitchen: Satisfying Big Flavor Recipes Featuring the Top-16 Age Busting Power Foods, along with the award-winning cookbook The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen: Nourishing Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Beyond, and One Bite at a Time: Nourishing Recipes for Cancer Survivors and their Friends (Second Edition). Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner, PhD Wounds of the Self, Wounds of the Earth This is a talk Michael gave on April 4, 2013, to graduate students and faculty at Sophia University in Palo Alto. Sophia University was previously called the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology. Michael says, “Most of the students had a working knowledge of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and Roberto Assagioli, as well as of eco-psychology. They were young and irreverent and we had a very good time together. Michael Lerner, PhD Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principle work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). He has spent the past months reading intensively in archetypal psychology and wants to share the exploration with New School friends. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner, PhD Pilgrims of the Way: Integral Yoga and Archetypal Psychology Integral Yoga and archetypal psychology offer complementary ways of understanding ourselves and other people. The triadic relationship between love, wisdom, and will is found in both traditions. Useful readings include the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras, and any of the works of archetypal psychologists James Hillman and Thomas Moore — but no readings are necessary or assumed. Michael gave this presentation at the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco. Michael Lerner, PhD Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principle work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). He has spent the past months reading intensively in archetypal psychology and wants to share the exploration with New School friends. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner, PhD Archetypal Psychology: The Role of Soul in Daily Life Join Michael Lerner in this discussion about his studies and journey with archetypal psychology. James Hillman, a Jungian analyst, founded archetypal psychology to explore the power of archetypes and the place of soul in our psyches and daily lives. Thomas Moore popularized Hillman’s sometimes obscure writings. We’ll trace the lineage of archetypal psychology from the pre-Socratics through medieval and contemporary sources as a great tradition of Western psychology that complements Buddhist and other Eastern psychological traditions. Useful homework for listening to the podcast: 1. Read the Wikipedia entries on both Hillman and Moore, and background entries on Carl Jung and the Sufi scholar Henry Corbin. Note especially Corbin’s seminal book about the Sufi mysticism of Ibn Arabi, Alone with the Alone. 2. If possible, read any of Hillman and Moore’s books. Suggested: James Hillman, The Soul’s Code, The Force of Character and the Lasting Life, or A Blue Fire; Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul, Dark Nights of the Soul, or Soul Mates 3. Don’t do any of the above but come with an open and inquiring mind. Michael Lerner, PhD Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principle work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). He has spent the past months reading intensively in archetypal psychology and wants to share the exploration with New School friends. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Jeff Vander Clute Compassionate Action: New Stories, Healing, and Thriving Communities Join us for this conversation between Commonweal’s Michael Lerner and Jeff Vander Clute, executive director of New Stories — an educational organization serving as a resource center, creative collaboratory and project incubator in support of emerging new stories for who we are as humanity, what we are becoming, how we are changing, and where we are going together. Jeff Vander Clute Jeff is helping to build a world based on compassion, joy, and the creative expression of humanity’s potential for thriving. He is one spark among many in the emerging Thriving Communities movement, and he is quietly working to weave a meta-movement in which the various movements of Compassion, Happiness, Peace, Resilience, Wisdom, and Thriving Communities are all in conscious relationship. Jeff is the executive director of New Stories, and a founding editor of the Great Transition Stories project. Previously, as a software engineer, Jeff created an online publishing platform used by over 30 million people and a social-networking platform called Thrive, used to “connect the global heart.” He serves on the boards of the Compassionate Action Network International, the Happiness Initiative (board chair), and New Stories – all 501(c)(3) non-profits working to bring forth a restored, “restoried,” and thriving world. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

BJ Miller, MD Dying: Exploring the Terrain BJ Miller, MD, talks with Michael Lerner about his life, his disability, and his role as executive director at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. The Zen Hospice Project works to bridge medical and social models of care in effort to provide the finest palliative care available. This necessitates a broader multi-disciplinary approach to caregiving and offers a model for the synergistic integration of arts and sciences. This also opens new possibilities for lay/volunteer and professional training and scholarship. BJ Miller, MD BJ graduated from Princeton University in the Department of Art & Archaeology in 1993, and received his MD from UCSF as a Regents Scholar in 2001. He completed his internal medicine residency at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara where he served as chief resident. He completed his fellowship in Hospice & Palliative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where his clinical duties split between the Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He continues to attend in the Symptom Management Service of the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCSF’s groundbreaking outpatient palliative care clinic. His academic support has largely served palliative care education and leadership development. In 2010, in only his third year on faculty, BJ received the William Osler Award, the School of Medicine’s highest faculty award. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Fritz Hull IONA Vision: the Founding of the Whidbey Institute New School at Commonweal host Michael Lerner explores Fritz Hull’s spiritual biography in this three-part series. Fritz Hull Fritz has been leading programs with his wife, Vivienne, since 1972 when they founded the Chinook Learning Center on Whidbey Island. A native of Seattle and Whidbey Island, he is a graduate of the University of Washington and Princeton Theological Seminary. Frtiz is an ordained Presbyterian minister, receiving his Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Fritz founded the Whidbey Institute and has served as its director. He is now a member of Board of Directors and leads several Institute programs including Integral Spirit. He is editor of Earth & Spirit – The Spiritual Dimension of the Environmental Crisis. Vivienne Hull Vivienne Hull is a native of Northern Ireland. She is a graduate of the University of Washington, holding a masters degree in Educational Psychology, and is a Lindisfarne Fellow. She was co-director with Fritz of the Chinook Learning Center and led numerous programs over twenty years. She was instrumental in the creation of the Whidbey Institute, and today is an associate director of the Institute. Vivienne is a writer, speaker, and teacher of Celtic culture and spirituality. For more than twenty five years she has been leading several retreats each year to the Island of Iona in Scotland. She participates in leadership in numerous Institute programs. Fritz and Vivienne have now created the Story House on land they own that is part of the 100 acres called Chinook. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Fritz Hull IONA Vision: the Founding of the Whidbey Institute New School at Commonweal host Michael Lerner explores Fritz Hull’s spiritual biography in this three-part series. Fritz Hull Fritz has been leading programs with his wife, Vivienne, since 1972 when they founded the Chinook Learning Center on Whidbey Island. A native of Seattle and Whidbey Island, he is a graduate of the University of Washington and Princeton Theological Seminary. Frtiz is an ordained Presbyterian minister, receiving his Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Fritz founded the Whidbey Institute and has served as its director. He is now a member of Board of Directors and leads several Institute programs including Integral Spirit. He is editor of Earth & Spirit – The Spiritual Dimension of the Environmental Crisis. Vivienne Hull Vivienne Hull is a native of Northern Ireland. She is a graduate of the University of Washington, holding a masters degree in Educational Psychology, and is a Lindisfarne Fellow. She was co-director with Fritz of the Chinook Learning Center and led numerous programs over twenty years. She was instrumental in the creation of the Whidbey Institute, and today is an associate director of the Institute. Vivienne is a writer, speaker, and teacher of Celtic culture and spirituality. For more than twenty five years she has been leading several retreats each year to the Island of Iona in Scotland. She participates in leadership in numerous Institute programs. Fritz and Vivienne have now created the Story House on land they own that is part of the 100 acres called Chinook. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Fritz Hull IONA Vision: the Founding of the Whidbey Institute New School at Commonweal host Michael Lerner explores Fritz Hull’s spiritual biography in this three-part series. Fritz Hull Fritz has been leading programs with his wife, Vivienne, since 1972 when they founded the Chinook Learning Center on Whidbey Island. A native of Seattle and Whidbey Island, he is a graduate of the University of Washington and Princeton Theological Seminary. Frtiz is an ordained Presbyterian minister, receiving his Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Fritz founded the Whidbey Institute and has served as its director. He is now a member of Board of Directors and leads several Institute programs including Integral Spirit. He is editor of Earth & Spirit – The Spiritual Dimension of the Environmental Crisis. Vivienne Hull Vivienne Hull is a native of Northern Ireland. She is a graduate of the University of Washington, holding a masters degree in Educational Psychology, and is a Lindisfarne Fellow. She was co-director with Fritz of the Chinook Learning Center and led numerous programs over twenty years. She was instrumental in the creation of the Whidbey Institute, and today is an associate director of the Institute. Vivienne is a writer, speaker, and teacher of Celtic culture and spirituality. For more than twenty five years she has been leading several retreats each year to the Island of Iona in Scotland. She participates in leadership in numerous Institute programs. Fritz and Vivienne have now created the Story House on land they own that is part of the 100 acres called Chinook. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.