COMMUNICATING THE WISDOM THAT'S CHANGING THE WORLD

New Dimensions explores the merging possibilities for global transformation. Informed by an expanding awareness of the interconnectedness of all life, and the infinite possibilities available through creative insights, innovative thinking, cross-cultural traditions and the human spirit, New Dimensions is an original and powerful forum for inspired and inspiring voices and views on a wide range of timely and timeless topics.


Wishful Thinking By Justine Willis Toms

We're all familiar with the put down, "Oh, that's just wishful thinking," as if wishful thinking is some Pollyanna idea. Contrary to most western learning, we need more wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is important.

I am inspired by the words of Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden who said, "At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, and then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done--Then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries age."

These words remind me that so many great ideas have come first through someone's imagination. At first the idea might seem strange and outlandish even if it is something that everyone wants. There are plenty of people who say, "It's too good to be true." We are often very quick to negate some new idea because we don't want to be disappointed. This can lead to a habit of cynicism or a contemptuously distrustful attitude, a sneering disbelief. This kind of attitude has been dressing itself up in the guise of critical thinking. Let's not be fooled any longer into mistaking cynicism for critical thinking. The need for expansive thought and considered, wishful thinking has never been more urgent than it is now.

I was excited by an example of such new thinking while watching the Star Trek movie, First Contact. A woman from the mid-twenty-first century Earth, asking twenty-fourth century Capt. Picard, "How much money do you make?" For a moment a quizzical look alights upon the captain's face, then he nods knowingly, and tells her that in his time they've done away with money. People in his century work not for money, but to better themselves.

What a refreshing concept. Even though I may not know all that would be involved for such a world to exist, I do know it is good and right for all human beings to be nourished and cherished, and to have their basic needs cared for in such a way, that work becomes a matter of personal choice and expression, rather than a choice of how to make money.

We bring the world forth with our beliefs whether they are conscious or unconscious. In order to bring about the highest good we, must unlock our genius, and the best way to do that is to be in conversation with one another, listening deeply, sharing our hopes and dreams. More than ever these times demand that we seek others, who understand the value of such conversations of shared meaning. I invite you to join me in some creative wishful thinking.


August 2009 Broadcast Schedule

The Broadcast Week Beginning
Wednesday, August 5-11, 2009


LOOKING DEEPLY AT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY with VICKI ROBIN
Program #3300 - Buy Now ($1.99/MP3 Download)
Full Program Description

You've worked hard all these years, believing you were working to support yourself, your family, your future. But in reality, Vicki Robin tells us, the current economic crisis makes it clear that most of us have been working to support the economic system—a system that is now in a downward spiral. If you've been living the American dream, with all the toys and amenities it has to offer, but suddenly find that the rules seem to be changing, Ms. Robin can point the way to a new paradigm that works in any economy. She'll show you how to assess the true value of your income and your expenses, but especially your time—because in the end, that's what matters most. She explains, "We're all on this little conveyor belt from birth to death. In the middle we're having this grand old time, but there's an end to it. The fact is that money isn't some endless thing, it is a representation of your hours on earth that are not that many, and everything you care about has to fit in there. If you only have this much time in your life, where do you want to invest yourself?" In this interview you'll learn which questions you can ask to discover how to invest your precious time to gain the greatest returns in pleasure, joy, and true happiness.

Vicki Robin has been a guest on hundreds of radio and television shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and National Public Radio. She is a leader in the sustainability movement, and received awards from Co-Op America and Sustainable Northwest. She helped launch numerous sustainable living initiatives, including the New Road Map Foundation, the Simplicity Forum, and the Turning Tide Coalition, and in the 1990s served on the President's Council on Sustainable Development. Ms. Robin is co-author with Joe Dominguez and Monique Tilford of Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Penguin 2008). To learn more about the work of Vicki Robin go to www.yourmoneyoryourlife.info.

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
  • Why your life is based largely on a background reality that doesn't exist
  • How many hours of your life you spend to have your morning latté
  • How much money you could save if you quit your job
  • How you can discover which expenses bring the most value to your life
  • Why your hourly income may be worth only a fraction of what you think it is
The Broadcast Week Beginning
Wednesday, August 12-18, 2009


THE YOGA OF CHRISTIANITY with RUSSILL PAUL
Program #3302 - Buy Now ($1.99/MP3 Download)
Full Program Description

More and more Christians feel a need to seek meaning outside their own religious traditions. At the same time, Christianity has much to offer yogis who seek to bring a greater social context to their practice. Few people bridge the spiritual traditions of East and West, of the yogi and the Christian, as Russill Paul does. He is a native of India raised as a Catholic, with deep ties to Hinduism and the yogic tradition, and studied as a Benedictine monk at an ashram near Madras. From his perspective, neither tradition is better than the other—only unique. He explains, "A practicing yogi could very well make Jesus the center of his or her attention, and use the methodology and the teaching. We also have to see that Jesus himself propagates a kind of yoga, a yoga of love. While it's important to see that both the yoga and the Christian traditions have their emphases and specialties, there are certain things about Jesus' teaching, which can push the yoga tradition in certain ways that can be very powerful—just as the reverse is possible, the yoga tradition can help push Christians in certain ways that can be very powerful for them." Whether your practice is rooted in the teachings of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, or Jehovah, this conversation will inspire you to explore ways to draw on the unique offerings of other traditions, so that you create your own unique yogic balance of inner and outer grace.

Russill Paul is a musician, spiritual teacher, professor of Eastern spirituality, and founder of the Mystic Heart School of Transformation. He has taught at Naropa University and in the Doctor of Ministry program at the University of Creation Spirituality, and is currently on the faculty at Wisdom University in San Francisco. Mr. Paul's CDs include Nada Yoga: The Ancient Science of Sound and Spirit Bridges. He is the author of The Yoga of Sound: Healing & Enlightenment through the Sacred Practice of Mantra (New World Library 2006) and Jesus in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway between Christianity and Yogic Spirituality (New World Library 2009). To learn more about the work of Russill Paul go to www.russillpaul.com.

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
  • Why Christian religions are losing their popular appeal
  • How Jesus' apostles were influenced by Eastern spirituality
  • Why the notion of sinfulness is difficult for yoga practitioners
  • How the feminine is represented in Eastern spirituality
  • Why the resurrection of Jesus is perceived differently in Indian culture
The Broadcast Week Beginning
Wednesday, August 19-25, 2009


EXPANDING YOUR TRIBE THROUGH CIRCLES with JALAJA BONHEIM, PhD
Program #3305 - Buy Now ($1.99/MP3 Download)
Full Program Description

Humans have been gathering in circles since we discovered fire. Circles are deeply ingrained in our collective consciousness, and have a powerful resonance in our psyches—even today. Jalaja Bonheim sees circles as a key to healing the personal and global wounds we all face, a way of reconnecting to our hearts, to our spirituality, and to one another. She explains, "The circle is a symbol of oneness in all traditions around the world. It's not just a symbol of oneness, but it generates the knowledge of our oneness. Spirituality is the realization of oneness. That is what the circle can help us achieve. It's so deeply in our consciousness that it doesn't require a lot of explaining." In this conversation Dr. Bonheim tells how her work with circles has brought healing to people at war, and helped to heal trauma and restore wholeness. You'll hear of Arab and Israeli women who gather in circle, and discover they share the same stories, the same pain. You'll learn about impoverished women in India, who sat in circle and resolved to overturn deadly cultural practices. Most of all you'll feel a reconnection with your own tribe, your own circle of humanity, and with the greatest circle of all—the planet earth. (Hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

Jalaja Bonheim, PhD, has been studying and leading circles for more than twenty-five years. She is the founder and director of the Institute for Circlework, and has taught at the Omega Institute, Kripalu, California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Rowe Conference Center. Dr. Bonheim is the author of several books including Aphrodite's Daughter: Women's Sexual Stories and the Journey of the Soul (Simon & Shuster 1997) and The Hunger for Ecstasy: Fulfilling the Soul's Need for Passion and Intimacy (Rodale Press 2001). To learn more about the work of Jalaja Bonheim go to www.instituteforcirclework.org.

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
  • How sitting with others in circle can help you access your spirituality
  • How we've managed to empower women without empowering the feminine
  • Why we need to teach our children to be loving
  • How conflict can be a source of creativity
  • Why sharing a meal can help to dissolve boundaries
The Broadcast Week Beginning
Wednesday, August 26 - September. 1, 2009


FEEL FIRST/THINK LATER, FINDING YOUR WAY TO EMOTIONAL FREEDOM with RAPHAEL CUSHNIR
Program #3303 - Buy Now ($1.99/MP3 Download)
Full Program Description

Are there places in your life where you feel blocked? Is your career or your relationship not what you thought it would be? Are you still struggling with an addiction to smoking or food? Raphael Cushnir believes that whenever we struggle, or whenever we feel unable to accomplish the things that matter to us, there's an emotion waiting to be noticed, a feeling that our limbic brain sees as so threatening, that we resist acknowledging the emotion exists. He says, "Most of us are in resistance to one thing or another all the time. It could be something that happened three minutes ago, but it also could be something that happened three decades ago. We said no to the experience, and that experience is still living within us, waiting for us to accept it, and wreaking all kinds of havoc until we do." Mr. Cushnir has taken principles from ancient wisdom traditions plus his own experience with deep suffering, and created a framework that's easy to understand and simple to apply, as you explore your own resistance. In this interview he offers techniques you can use today to begin unlocking the emotions that hold you back, as well as connecting to your loved ones, your work, and your life with renewed vitality, joy, and freedom.

In 1996 Raphael Cushnir experienced an emotional and spiritual turning point when his career and marriage fell apart. Guided to embrace his suffering, he found the emotional connection and freedom he now teaches to others. He lectures worldwide, has been a faculty member at Esalen, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, and has written articles for O: The Oprah Magazine, BeliefNet, Spirituality and Health, Psychology Today, and The Huffington Post. He is the author of four books including Setting Your Heart on Fire (Broadway Books 2005) and The One Thing Holding You Back: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Connection (HarperOne 2009). To learn more about the work of Raphael Cushnir go to www.cushnir.com.

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

  • How you can discover what emotions are governing your life
  • Why your brain perceives emotions as a threat to your survival
  • What happens when you say yes to suffering
  • Why you don't need to understand an emotion to be able to release it
  • How you can "surf" your way through difficult emotions


The Spirituality Survey

Do you ever wonder what people really believe? Beyond the labels of "religion" or culture. When we aren't being represented by the extremes of faith and science – what does the modern world really believe about spirituality, a higher power, and what is most sacred? Please join us in supporting this simple and fascinating survey that aims to bring the voices of real people to the conversation that shapes media, politics and the stories of our time. It is developed by our recent New Dimensions' guest, Jonathan Ellerby, PhD. It only takes a moment to complete the survey and no personal information is required; then help us pass it on. Copy the link – twitter it, facebook it, email it. We encourage everyone to participate! www.thespiritualitysurvey.com


Listeners speak

"I am one of those people whose life was changed one night last August, with one of those phone calls you would never wish on any one - my brother killed in a motorbike accident overseas.

You should know that New Dimensions has been a big part of my capacity to cope with it all. I have a very fine collection of downloads on the microcard in my cell phone. Sometimes I listen to an interview in the middle of the night if I can't sleep. They are very soothing and healing. Yes - they send me to sleep!! But how good is that.

One can buy the books of course and read the works of many of the people interviewed, but I think that the sound of voices is very powerful and reaches out in a way that books can't. Your interviewing is really fantastic and an important part of the package. So I just wanted to say 'thank you' for it. I think people in the public domain should know a little of the effect of their work in the world, an effect in my case, very far away."

Veronica
Melbourne, Australia



"My name is Tim, I'm 20 years old and 5 years ago I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Since that time, it has been one constant battle after another with myself. Since I was very young I have been consumed by idea's of morality, conflict, change, and the constant of the unknown beyond this physical world. When I was 15 I began to have extreme changes in perception and it became impossible to function at school, with others, and with myself. My life shifted very quickly into a steep state of chaos. However, recently I have begun to recover.

One day, about four or five months ago I was in a transitioning phase with my thoughts and how I was viewing the world. I decided to look for some kind of talk program on iTunes radio and almost immediately I saw New Dimensions Radio. I don't remember specifically what the discussion was about, but I do remember a feeling of peace as I began to listen. Since that day, things have been moving very slowly (but surely!) in the right direction. I have begun to become organized with my thoughts, and am able to handle being around others. I am no longer in a constant state of moving through one drastic world of chaos and perception after another. My relationship towards life and experience of happiness has grown exponentially. It has been a significant resource towards my recovery.

So I want to thank New Dimensions for the work that you do, and for providing a place that makes it so accessible to listeners such as myself. Truly, it is inspiring to hear such dialogues about consciousness as well as talking about negativity so openly. Your programming has such a positive attitude towards becoming better as a person, not only for our personal lives, but for everyone around us. Again thank you, and I wish you all much success, and look forward to hearing more!"

Regards,
Tim


Music Playlists

For the August 2009 music played on New Dimensions' programming click here.


Small Pleasures by Justine Willis Toms Small Pleasures : Finding Grace in a Chaotic World by Justine Willis Toms

THE WINNER OF
2009 Award in the Spiritual Books Category

Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World by Justine Toms
Announced at the 13th Annual Awards Event of the Coalition of Visionary Resources


Do You Love Movies?

Michael and I love to watch movies. It is a magical art-form. They inform, inspire, and touch the heart and soul in so many ways.

Did you know that many visionary, soulful movies are made every year but never get into the theaters? Independent, spiritual filmmakers are creating movies with heart and soul, movies that really matter. Until now, though, hardly anybody got to see them.

Spiritual Cinema Circle® is a DVD club that sends out 4 features and short films in the mail each month on DVD. You keep the DVDs. The movies you get are full-length features, both dramas and comedies, short films, and documentaries on mind-opening subjects. They are about many different subjects, but they all share common elements: All our movies are carefully-chosen to provide genuine nourishment for the heart and soul, a much-needed nutrient at a time when more and more Hollywood movies are violent, profane and devoid of meaning. These movies inspire wonder, insight, deep feeling and transcendence. Above all, they make you feel better about being a human being.

Consider joining Spiritual Cinema Circle by using the link below. You can start with a free trial.

Spiritual Cinema Circle


NDIR - New Dimensions Internet Radio 24/7

Each week we broadcast six New Dimensions programs especially selected from our programming archive, including the flagship program. This six hours of programming airs four times each day. Click here for this weeks listening schedule.


New Dimensions Café

Each month we add dynamic dialogues here. You may either subscribe to them as podcasts or download them FREE as MP3s from the New Dimensions website, or hear them streaming on the website. Go to www.newdimensions.org and see New Dimensions Café on the home page.

Check out our newest selections: Adapting to Change with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Engineering Happiness with Cheryl Simone & Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Living Our Higher Story with Gina Mazza Hillier, Hope in Today's World with Justine Willis Toms interviewed by Cheryl Esposito.


Earth Circle

Join with others from around the world for the monthly

Earth Circle

Let us know where you are from, we are mapping all the places around the world where people are participating.


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To Help Individuals Realize Their True Relationship with Life Through Higher Self-Studies
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