Videos

Daniel Spencer Ph.D. We continue to explore the relationship between human experience and our environment. Environmental Consciousness shifts our perspective from anthropocentric to ecocentric not independent of our environment but prioritizing our deep interconnected dependence on nature. Our guest today provides a unique perspectives combines his work as a geologist reading Earth’s and Evolution’s story, which he compares to the Biblical creation story. From Gaia’s story to ours, we must look at sustainability at all levels, and what gets in the way of that. Divorcing ecology from eros is one factor, and healing our culture’s underlying misogyny will close the gap between sexuality vs spirituality.

We’ll explore this with Daniel Spencer Professor Emeritus Environmental Studies at University of Montana. He shares his wide-reaching research and travels that shaped his views on Globalization Greening Religion Earth Ethics and Ethical Issues in Ecological Restoration. He agrees it’s time to rethink our relationship to our planet our sexuality ecology and the sacred. He sees ecological ethics as “the true baseline for all ethics, with true justice built upon right relation among all life, all species, not just ours.” He adds “only when we are able to integrate our sexuality with our spirituality will we fully experience the divine – and fully live out our ethical values.” Here’s the basis for a lively discussion!

Guests: Ashok Gangadeen Ph.D , Näthan Saith, Nedra Fetterman, PhD
How do we finding connections between the spectrum of faith, tradition and worldviews? We have shared stories, and these stories can unite us. Finding ways to understand, respect, and work differing perspectives is more important than ever for our collective well-being. It’s all part of understanding our world, and our place in it — on the larger scale of our global family.

Ashok Gangadeen returns to demonstrate his work with “dilated dialogue” and its seven stages — one that we note follows the classic steps of the Hero’s Journey! In our shared quest for unity, Ashok brings his son Näthan and colleague Nedra, both members of the Institute for Global Dialogue that he founded, to dissect and demonstrate the process — encountering one’s limitations, be it the spiritual approach you are most involved with, to noticing the potential limitations of exclusivity that might leave out those of different orientations, to opening ourself to considering others in a more universal, accepting, and inclusive way. We can embrace traditions that have a greater integrity and encourage a life that is caring for all of humanity as a whole.

Guest: Richard Michael Gramly. The peopling of the Americas is a hot topic with new theories and dates emerging from new found evidence. Anthropologist Michael Gramly expands upon the Land Bridge migrations with archeological evidence he interprets as mammoth-tusk sled rails which carries the Siberian segment of the Gravettian culture of the Ice Age south into the Americas 15000 years ago. He follows up on James Harrod’s presentation last week comparing the cosmologies myths burial practices and shamanic gear of Gravettian Siberia and Native North America to find close correlations demonstrating a continuity of cultures. Gramly will focus on the archeological findings and his wide research in both Old World and New World sites to find further evidence to push back the dates of the Land Bridge migrations.

Ancient cultures are being widely seen as more advanced, more sophisticated, their innovations and the marks they left, proving earlier and earlier dates. James Harrod notes that the first global culture were the Gravettians of the Ice Age — we’re in fact not the first to span the globe.

The small Venus figurines, the painted caves of Europe, the flint knapping techniques, the stone tools, the burial practices, all the hallmarks of the Gravettians can be found in Siberia, Asia and the Middle East — and, he suggests — the Americas. Not just tools and art, but trade goods, symbology, mythology, cosmology — all this too was shared along the vast network of trade and exchange in the “Gravettian Globalization”. James will present the evidence that ties the Clovis cultures found across the Americas, to the Hunter-Gatherers at the closing years of the last Ice Age, from their tools and art, and their cosmology, symbology, mythology, burial practices, and use of mammoth tusks as sleds. It’s a message that also links our work with the Cuyamungue Institute.

Guest: Ashok Gangadean, Professor of Philosophy, Haverford College. Logos is one of many terms given an age-old concept that appears in traditions spanning the globe, through time — that of an underlying unity supporting all of reality. What bridge can we build today between this eternal wisdom, and our collective, common experience of our world? Humankind has been puzzling over this for millennia. Ashok points to our ego-based mode of mental functioning as a root cause of suffering and oppression, as he takes this quest on a global scale, aiming at “the heart of human reason, the deep dynamics of communication and dialogue between diverse worldviews… to clarify and excavate the common ground across and between various ideologies and disciplines”.

Ashok Gangadean is Margaret Gest Professor of Global Philosophy at Haverford College where he has taught for 53 years. He completed his PhD in philosophy at Brandeis University and his early work focused on Logic (Science of Thought) and Ontology (Science of Being). Throughout his career he has been on a quest for the primal integral logic at the heart of human reason, to bring to the fore the deep dynamics of communication and dialogue between diverse worldviews. His quest is to clarify and excavate the common ground across and between widely diverse worlds cultures ideologies and disciplines, and is recognized as a pioneer of the new frontier of global reason global ethics and global wisdom. The range of his courses include Philosophy of Logic and Language Global Ontology Global Ethics Hindu Buddhist and Zen Thought in Global Context and Global Wisdom.

Back by popular demand: With warmth, humor, playfulness, Frank Ferrante has much more to share on righting our path, personally and collectively. His common sense approach is not about transcending our humanness, rather, the goal is finding meaning and spirituality within our imperfect daily lives. “I got lost while I was looking for myself. I had become adept at exercising my will in order to negate my will.’ he says. Find himself, he did, and now as a recovery counselor, he draws upon his personal lessons to support others on the most difficult passages of their journey. Frank says he finds prayer “not a petition, but a summoning of the Divine within”. Forgiving others led to forgiving himself, and his shadow side. We will compare notes on the Lived Wisdom of Life — and the lessons we see, over and over again, arise from our experiential Ritual Body Ecstatic Trance Posture sessions: The continuing cycle of life, death, and rebirth… All of life is sacred …. The boundaries are permeable … and more.

Frank Ferrante, author of the book and featured in a film of the same title, May I Be Frank shares just one pivotal part of his life from obesity and drug addiction to health and happiness, finding the love, redemption, and transformation he long sought.

Ray Tomes studies cycles of all kinds. Those within our own bodies, and Earth’s body, are of particular interest, and the many ways we are tuned, along with all of life, to our planet. What are these myriad cycles, and how do they govern us? Our first interview with Ray, on his “Harmonics Theory of the Universe” made the case that our beat frequencies keep time as a harmonic of the Cosmos. Ray returns to drill down into cycles small and large, long and short, among the animate and inanimate, that will surprise and delight you. Just as the Earth, Moon, and Sun are in constant rotation, so too are the atoms and molecules in our bodies.

Essential Skills for Surviving the Modern World. How can we tap into research from modern psychology to reach our fundamental human goals in more effective and fulfilling ways? The ability to not only ‘Survive’ but ‘Thrive’ in times of high stress lies in empowering the individual with the skills they need to understand, manage and leverage stress effectively. There are plenty of proven ways to develop the adaptability, patience, and brainpower needed to overcome the trials from adverse conditions.

“Surviving life-threatening situations is 80% a mental game” says Fabrizio Nannini, author of a best selling manual Mental Survival on survival psychology. “Getting in touch with your deepest fear, and strengths, you’ll know yourself in new ways.”

Fabrizio Nannini is an Italian writer specialized in survival psychology and anthropology. He is a certified Mental Coach, facilitator, using survival exercises for team building. “No one survives alone,” he says, “only through cooperation.” A shamanic practitioner, he finds a deep connection between survival psychology and shamanism. We’ll talk about skills and principles we can all adopt, the multi-use items in is in his survival kit, go bag, and vehicle, how to best manage our instinctual “fight or flight” response, and why survival is often “more McGiver than Rambo.” Posture, and breathing techniques, too, have a role.

Guest: Jeff Dunne Ph.D – Jeff is carrying on the work of his late mother Brenda Dunne, who with Robert Jahn founded and ran the PEAR Lab at Princeton studying the effects of consciousness using random number generators, among other experiments. What was it like hanging out at the lab as a kid watching the trial runs? (“Brenda would assign us, if we were ever bored, to go ‘create a universe’, and report back to her”, says Jeff.) The original PEAR equipment has found a new home, and is up and running — new answers does it seek to answer? Jeff joined Brenda in 2017 to co-direct ICRL, with the goal of “integrating our understanding of consciousness to unify art, science, health, and education”. With Brenda’s passing, he now serves as ICRL President, and is busy expanding the mission with new experiments and practical applications.

Jeffrey Dunne earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Purdue University and served as Chief Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, directing research in Information sciences, with a focus on information representation and semantic reasoning. Self-described as “an award-winning playwright, an enthusiastically mediocre stage actor, an intermittent author of fantasy and science fiction”, Jeff’s wide range of interests span consciousness and cognition, energetics, philosophy, linguistics, acoustics, music, information management, data fusion, virtual and augmented reality, and communications.

Frank Ferrante – International Inspirational Speaker
Workshop Facilitator – Coach, Author of “May I be Frank
““What happens when Tony Soprano meets Deepak Chopra? That’s how people have described my story. I might throw some Woody Allen in there and a dash of Hunter S. Thompson.” So says Frank Ferrante of his amazing journey from obesity and drug addiction to vibrant health and happiness.

Frank suffered from a slew of issues that were his unhappy legacy as an ex-junkie and ex-alcoholic: hepatitis C, chronic fatigue, joint pain, respiratory issues, depression, suicidal thoughts, and a libido that had gone into early retirement. He thought that “vegan” was a planet, “wellness” was not in his vocabulary, and he couldn’t be bothered with self-help. He was for those very reasons the best candidate for a major personal transformation. Through Frank’s story of love, redemption, and transformation, we witness the power of change for all of us and the world.

“I believe that transformation is not for the faint of heart and that everyone wants to change something about their lives. Whether your issue is about weight loss, relationships or lack there of, addictive behaviors, there is a solution. ” – Frank Ferrante