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We are happy to present one of the true giants in the field of patient-centered medicine, self-healing, Dr. Bernie Siegel. Bernie, the author of numerous bestsellers including the groundbreaking 1986 book, Love Medicine and Miracles, will explore some of his personal histories, and what attracted him to the practice of Mind-Body Medicine.

Bernie, a top-ranked student, graduating with honors, Phi Beta Kappa, as well as Alpha Omega Alpha (the Medical Students’ Honor Society), Dr. Siegel was a professor of medicine and a staff surgeon, a clinical professor of surgery at Yale, and was a real non-believer until a surprising event occurred in the mid-seventies that would cause him to redirect his life.

Bernie will discuss the miracles he has seen – things that happen that we don’t understand. When a person heals his cancer, that’s no longer a miracle to Bernie – he has learned that when your body knows that you love your life, it heals itself. There’s a good reason. He says that strokes, suicide, and myocardial infarctions happen on Monday.

We will explore the remarkable ability of the body to heal itself – something that now has been well-documented by medical studies, and how living a life of purpose and Love can sustain our health and our life. After all, as Bernie says, “If we don’t love our lives, our body sees death as the solution.” Probably not the solution we’re hoping for though.

We’ll discuss some of the current studies as well as some of Bernie’s anecdotes – like the study that indicates that people above 50 years old whose parents said, “I love you,” have less than half of the number of major illnesses of those whose parents never said it.

Bernie will also share with us the rules for living he received from his mother and how they have affected his life and the lives of millions more. We’ll talk about the power of story – and how the only thing truer than the truth is a story, how to create the authentic life you’re here to live – not merely accepting the one that’s given to you, along with all of the warmth and humor we’ve come to expect from Bernie.

For many, Bernie needs no introduction; he has touched many lives all over our planet. In 1978 he began talking about patient empowerment and the choice to live fully and die in peace. As a physician, who has cared for and counseled innumerable people whose mortality has been threatened by an illness, Bernie embraces a philosophy of living and dying that stands at the forefront of the medical ethics and spiritual issues our society grapples with today. He continues to assist in breaking new ground in the field of healing and personally struggling to live the message of kindness and love.

His website is www.BernieSiegelMD.com.

The wife of one of my college classmates had a brain tumor that had failed to respond to chemotherapy and radiation, and instead of waiting out the last few months of her life with gradually increasing headaches, loss of ability to function, and perhaps slowly slipping into brain death before her body died, she decided that she wished to intentionally end her life, and to hasten death. Her husband agreed to support her, they had a lovely last evening together and she drank the lethal prescription. Unfortunately, reality invaded this tender and vulnerable scene and the system intervened rushing her to the hospital and reviving her – quite against her clear wishes.
What happened next is very important, and well-told in the beginning of this conversation.
 Very few of us would ever want to be in the kind of situation Gary found himself in – but it is likely that many of us will find ourselves in his situation, or even that of his wife Varian. What Gary has to share with us in this show can make us much better prepared to deal with it.
The latter half of the interview is with Judy Schwarz  who has a RN, a MSN as well as a PhD in nursing. Her specialty is dealing with the ethics of the Right To Die movement and the development of humane, respectful and loving environments and opportunities where people can intentionally choose to hasten their death.
Dr. Schwarz explains to us why the term “assisted suicide” is not what we are talking about here. In these cases, it is required that at least 2 physicians agree that the life expectancy is less than 6 months, that the person is of sound mind and capable of making a truly rational decision. The primary reason is not to avoid pain or because of depression, but it is to terminate their lives to save needless suffering of them or their families, as well as to not eat up the families’ financial resources paying for  expensive high-tech medical interventions.
As people grow older, they very often experience the onset of anxiety and fear. Some people are afraid of dying, but most people are not. They are afraid of their last few months or years being characterized by excruciating pain and dementia. Knowing that an answer is available is enormously relieving to people; making their last years much more peaceful. In fact, as Dr. Schwarz will explain, 1/3 of all the lethal prescriptions written by doctors in those states where this is legal, are never filled!
While this is a subject we would all rather avoid, I think that you will find what is shared in this episode moving and personally valuable to you.

 

About Judy Shwartz, RN, MSN, PhD:

Judith Schwarz, RN, MSN, Ph.D.  is a nurse who recently retired from her position as the Clinical Coordinator of Compassion & Choices of New York where she worked since 2002, the year she completed her PhD in nursing at New York University.
Her research involved interviewing nurses about the experience of being asked by decisionally capable patients for assistance in dying. She was the Regional Clinical Coordinator for Compassion & Choices in the Northeast for 8 years, and in that capacity provided end of life information and support to decisionally capable, terminally ill persons who contacted the C&C end of life consultation service.  She completed a certification program in bioethics and the medical humanities and has taught ethics and health care law to nursing students on a number of CUNY campuses.
She lectures frequently to professional nursing and palliative care audiences as well as to lay groups and publishes regularly in professional journals. She has recently focused her writing and speaking on the option of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking as a means for peaceful, patient-controlled dying.
To find out more about Judy and her work, visit endoflifechoicesny.org .

 

Dr. Miller’s Programs Relevant to Death with Dignity:

Healing Journey

Whatever you’re dealing with, stress most likely has something to do with it. An estimated 90% of all illness and disease begins with stress.
Using techniques drawn from meditative and prayerful disciplines as well as soothing music, the Healing Journey program helps melt away stress whether you’re anxious and overwhelmed by everyday life or trying to recover from a specific illness or chronic condition.
In the 30-plus years since Dr. Miller created this program, Healing Journey has helped countless people relax and connect with their inner healing source. And it holds the distinction of being the first nationally published guided imagery experience featuring music and deep relaxation.

Accepting Change and Moving On

Dealing with loss is one of our most difficult challenges. The loss of possessions, social status, a loved one, or even the imminent loss of your own life can be difficult to deal with. Until we change our self image and our image of the world, our emotions and ego defense mechanisms can burden us and prevent us from what we really need to do.
This program was developed after months of meditation on Tao Te Ching, the Taoist classic that celebrates emptiness and balance. “30 spokes has the wheel, it is the hole in the center that makes it useful. A house is constructed of wood, but it has no value without windows and doors . . . What is not there enables us to use what is there.” An intriguing philosophical, as well as a practical experience.

Caregiver Support & Stress Management

This wonderful program speaks to all types of caregivers. It consists of a Heart-to-Heart talk, a reminder of the true source of healing, how the relationship with a caregiver can support this healing, and how important it is to recognize caregiver stress and prevent caregiver burnout. The thrust of this talk is to encourage caregivers to take the time to keep themselves healthy, physically, mentally, and emotionally. There are over 65 million caregivers in the US, and caregiver depression is a common condition.

 

Frederic Luskin, PhD has become world famous for his work in a most unusual subject – forgiveness. This  quality is sorely needed in this world of polarization, conflict, and violence.
I first met Dr. Luskin when he approached me at the end of a class I was teaching at Stanford University, while he was in graduate school. In this conversation we will trace his pathway to his current position. He is now the Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

In his work in health promotion, he started to research the effect that forgiveness had on physical and emotional well-being as well as the reduction of the risk of cardiovascular disease. His research showed that learning to forgive helps people hurt less, experience less anger, feel less stress and suffer less depression. As people learn to forgive they become more hopeful, optimistic and compassionate, and they report significantly fewer symptoms of stress such as backache, muscle tension, dizziness, headaches and upset stomachs.

In this conversation you will get to meet him up close and personal as he and Dr. Miller share their perspectives on forgiveness and healing at the personal and family level as well as at the global level.

 

About Frederic Luskin, PhD:

Dr. Luskin is the author of the best seller Forgive for Good – A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness , Stress Free for Good and Forgive for Love. His work has been featured in Time magazine, O magazine, Ladies Home Journal, U.S. News and World Reports, Prevention, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other publications. Learn more about Dr. Luskin and his work at learningtoforgive.com

In the Forgive for Good workshop and class series Dr. Frederic Luskin presents the forgiveness training methodology that has been validated through six successful research studies conducted through the Stanford Forgiveness Projects.

Dr. Luskin’s work combines lecture with a hands-on approach to the ancient tradition of forgiveness.  Participants explore forgiveness with the goal of reducing hurt and helplessness, letting go of anger and increasing confidence and hope as they learn how to release unwanted hurts and grudges. His presentations explore the HEAL process of forgiveness that, when learned, can lead to enhanced well-being through self-care. In class practice may include guided imagery, journal writing and discussion all presented in a safe and nurturing environment. Dr. Luskin holds a Ph.D. in Counseling and Health Psychology from Stanford University.

Dr. Luskin continues to serve as Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects, an ongoing series of workshops and research projects that investigate the effectiveness of his forgiveness methods on a variety of populations. The forgiveness project has successfully explored forgiveness therapy with people who suffered from the violence in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone as well as the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. In addition his work has been successfully applied and researched in corporate, medical, legal and religious settings. He currently serves as a Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at Stanford University and is a Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He presents lectures, workshops, seminars and trainings on the importance, health benefits and training of forgiveness, stress management and emotional competence throughout the United States. He offers presentations and classes that range from one hour to ongoing weekly trainings.

 

Support Dr. Miller’s Conversations With Your Purchase of:

Books by Today’s Guest:

Forgive for Good – A PROVEN Perscription for Health and Happiness

Based on scientific research, this groundbreaking study from the frontiers of psychology and medicine offers startling new insight into the healing powers and medical benefits of forgiveness. Through vivid examples (including his work with victims from both sides of Northern Ireland’s civil war), Dr. Fred Luskin offers a proven nine-step forgiveness method that makes it possible to move beyond being a victim to a life of improved health and contentment. Buy it here.

Stress Free for Good – 10 Scientifically Proven Life Skills for Health and Happiness

Dr. Fred Luskin and Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier spent years at the Stanford University School of Medicine developing ten proven skills for eliminating the stress, anxiety, and pain that occur in daily life. Delivering skills that have been honed and tested among a diverse group of Americans, Stress Free for Good is easy to use and starts working immediately. Offering more than just the promise of breaking even and eliminating daily stress, these ten skills provide a foundation for living a healthier and happier life. This is not only a practical and accessible guide to conquering the stress in our lives once and for all, it is also the last stress aid you will ever need. Buy it here.

Forgive for Love – The Missing Ingredient for a Healthy and Lasting Relationship

Forgive for Love is the solution for your relationship woes, providing the tools you need to find and hold onto the love of your life. Dr. Luskin delivers a proven seven-step program for creating and maintaining loving and lasting relationships, teaching easy-to-learn forgiveness skills that will not only resolve immediate conflicts but improve the overall happiness and longevity of your relationships. Simply put: people in healthy relationships figure out how to forgive their partners for being themselves. They do so because it is nearly impossible to change other people and because none of us are perfect. Forgiveness is the key, and Forgive for Love has the answers. Buy it here.

I discovered Kimberly Braun and learned about her work with spiritual freedom and meditation while browsing through TED Talks. Although she was talking about a very practical approach to spirituality, it turns out that she had spent 10 ½ years in a Carmelite monastery. I contacted her, and I am happy to share this most interesting and inspiring conversation with you.
From the age of five, Kimberly had experienced herself on the receiving end of the many moments that she has come to call “unitive experiences,” where time seemed to stop and the veils pulled back revealing the deeper essence of the moment. These experiences continued, and they led her to ask deeper questions, and eventually to become a nun. Although she loved the utter simplicity of life there, she soon found herself called to become a general contractor (with no prior training). With this she lead construction of a multimillion dollar stone monastery.
Together we explore the changes she went through, and how they have finally led her to become a meditation teacher and spiritual guide who teaches about spiritual freedom. We then discuss the similarities and the contrasts between her approaches and my own. What we found is that meditation can bring us into a presence of oneness. This ceases to identify, compare, or name “what we are,” and  can help us transform our lives and the world.

About Kimberly Braun M.A. CSP and Spiritual Freedom:

Below is Kimberly’s first person biography which is a small piece of what you can learn about her and her work at her website kimberlybraun.com :

From a very young age, (4-5 years old,) I found myself on the receiving end of many moments I now call unitive experiences. Time seemed to stop and veils seemed to pull back where the deeper essence of the moment came forward within me and around me. Naturally curious I liked the feelings these experiences evoked and began to connect the dots that THIS was a key to happiness. These experiences happened in ritual, family, school, and especially nature. Naturally curious the occurrences inspired me and motivated me to ask deeper questions. These deeper questions led me to find out that all our happiness and success is within us, we just have to discover it and surrender to it unconditionally and proactively. This can be easily said, but not always easily done, and my journey, probably similar to yours, has been an ever unfolding participation in the co-creation of my life, a yes to what reveals itself in any given moment.

So again and again I surrender. Ever ancient. Ever new.

The first large surrender was to immerse myself in silence in a monastery, impelled by Love firing within my soul I lived ten and a half years as a Carmelite nun. Within that frame came many surrenders, all impelled by the marriage of myself to God.

Another surrender led me to obtain my Masters in Theology, concentrating on spiritual direction and psycho-spiritual development. My hope was to presence others to presence the Divine within themselves…nurturing skills to hear the language of the heart

And yet another surrender, after three years on a ministry team, led me to plunge into the world as a woman, a spiritual guide whose lineage was the common essence of all people and all creation; independent of, yet bowing to all, traditions, faiths and practices, culling forth what can be shared with all.

My training continued as I studied with Rev. Laura Thornberry in developing psychic and spiritual skills, culminating in ordination with the Church of the  Creator; and also studying Reiki through the Diane Stein school, bringing me to complete level 3 Reiki Master training.

Now, I surrender to the pulsing of communication through writing books soon to be published, offering keynotes to inspire all to experience their own inner Essence, teaching Essence Meditation class, and a large host of retreats and workshops including yearly stints as meditation faculty at the renowned Omega Institute in New York and a retreat in Ecuador with AmazonAndesSky. I am happily accepted as a Certified Speaking Professional and member of the National Speaker’s Association.

Support Dr. Miller’s Conversations With Your Purchase of:

Books by Today’s Guest:

Love Calls – Insights of a Former Carmelite Nun

LOVE CALLS touching the YES to life within us all Allow Kimberly to share her story, her hero’s journey, in the privacy of your heart and you will see that this relationship is one that calls us all, at some level to live to our highest potential. Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D. Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart Kimberly’s quest to pursue a connection with the divine is awe-inspiring. As a woman seeking spiritual connection, too, I felt while I was reading that I was her friend and confidant … Kimberly heard the call of the mystic, and as all seem to do, eventually, left the solitary life to emerge as a missionary to share her love for the divine and what she knows as the power of the soul. Sarah McLean, Soul-Centered: Transform Your Life in 8 Weeks with Meditation Poignant, powerful and poetic, this wonderful book by Kimberly Braun is unique in the world of spirituality and personal growth and offers important insights and messages for all.  -Jonathan Ellerby, Ph.D., Return to the Sacred  Buy it here.

Bruce Lipton, PhD

A single cell, like an amoeba, is like a little person. It breathes, eats, expels waste, moves towards the good things and away from bad things. And it has a brain: its cell membrane which communicates with the environment.

Each of us is like a huge community made up of several trillion little amoebas, all working together in harmony (hopefully) toward a common goal – our health and happiness. It is by recognizing the power of our subconscious mind and using our conscious mind wisely that we sustain this health and success.

Just as the simple little amoebas have gotten together to evolve a single organism (us), the human beings living on this planet have formed a single, individual, “superorganism,” and, according to one of Dr. Lipton’s latest books, we are ripe for this spontaneous evolution of the next level of global human wisdom – something quite necessary if we want to prevent the rapidly approaching sixth mass extinction.

Choosing his fascinating metaphors, Dr. Lipton introduces us to a new way of understanding human behavior, our belief systems, and how we can create a new foundation for future growth. Important things are happening under the radar. We are experiencing  the emergence of a new global consciousness.

Finally, we touch on the role of telomeres, those mysterious molecules at the end of our chromosome strands whose disappearance brings about aging and death. Fortunately, there are ways we can produce more telomeres, including the five remarkably simple ones Dr. Lipton offers you.

About Bruce Lipton, PhD:

Bruce H. Lipton, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in bridging science and spirit. Stem cell biologist, bestselling author of The Biology of Belief and recipient of the 2009 Goi Peace Award, he has been a guest speaker on hundreds of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national and international conferences.

Dr. Lipton began his scientific career as a cell biologist. He received his Ph.D. Degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville before joining the Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine in 1973. Dr. Lipton’s research on muscular dystrophy, studies employing cloned human stem cells, focused upon the molecular mechanisms controlling cell behavior. An experimental tissue transplantation technique developed by Dr. Lipton and colleague Dr. Ed Schultz and published in the journal Science was subsequently employed as a novel form of human genetic engineering.

Learn more about Dr. Lipton at brucelipton.com .

Support Dr. Miller’s Conversations With Your Purchase of:

Books by Today’s Guest:

 

The Biology of Belief

It has been ten years since the publication of The Biology of Belief, Bruce Lipton’s seminal book on the relationship between mind and body that changed the way we think about our lives, our health, and our planet. During that time, research in this field has grown exponentially—Lipton’s groundbreaking experiments have now been endorsed by more than a decade of rigorous scientific study.

In this greatly expanded edition, Lipton, a former medical school professor and research scientist, explores his own experiments and those of other leading-edge scientists that have unraveled in ever greater detail how truly connected the mind, body, and spirit are. It is now widely recognized that genes and DNA do not control our biology. Instead, they are controlled by signals from outside the cell, including energetic messages emanating from our thoughts.

This profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics puts the power to create a healthy, joyous life back in our own hands. When we transform our conscious and subconscious thoughts, we transform our lives, and in the process help humanity evolve to a new level of understanding and peace. Buy it Now.

Mindfulness Meditation has been practiced for many centuries. Dr. Miller introduced the technique to modern medical/psychological practice for the purpose of healing in 1971. Since then, many scientific studies have shown it to be remarkably effective in managing stress, relieving pain, healing trauma, etc.

Dr. Miller’s guest on this program is Charles A. Francis, student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who has written a book, Mindfulness Meditation Made Simple – Your Guide to Finding Inner Peace. In this conversation with Dr. Miller we will discover the real meaning of “mindfulness,” why it is helpful for meditation, and the 12 simple steps that can get you launched and begin to transform your life.

You will learn such things as the truth about suffering, why concentration is the anchor of the peaceful mind, and how to control your mind when it starts to race. We will also explore the power of meditating with others and how to make mindfulness a way of life. Don’t miss this enlightening and relaxing program.

Support Dr.Miller’s Conversations With Your Purchase Of:

Books by Today’s Guest:

Mindfulness Meditation Made Simple

Your Guide to Finding True Inner Peace
Through the clear instructions and simple exercises, you will gain a solid foundation of this time-tested ancient practice, and get the results you want. Mindfulness Meditation Made Simple explains the exact meditation techniques in an easy-to-follow process. It then gives you tips for enhancing your practice.

Purchase Mindfulness Meditation Made Simple

 

 

Dr. Millers Programs Relevant To This Topic:

Relaxation and Inspiration

Gratitude, caring, and commitment are evoked, and the resulting peace, joy, and love then inspire you to be the person you most want to be. Through future image visualization you then project this most important inspiration through to tomorrow and ever after.

Purchase Relaxation and Inspiration

 

Letting Go of Stress

No wonder it’s the world’s most popular stress management tape! Several distinct and different guided imagery and deep relaxation experiences teach powerful techniques for melting away stress and its symptoms. Learn to use progressive relaxation, autogenic self-suggestion, creative visualization and everyone’s favorite—”A Trip to the Beach.”

Purchase Letting Go of Stress

 

Why is our world (especially our politicians) so polarized? Why do we act as if we believe that the greatest truth comes from opposing sides jousting rather than searching together for greater truth by including, encouraging, and creatively engaging a full range of diverse perspectives? What is Dynamic Facilitation and how can it help us access our collective intelligence and our collective wisdom?
Our guest today is Tom Atlee, co-director and research director of the Co-Intelligence Institute, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1996. His early co-intelligence research in the late 1980’s focused on the relationship between group dynamics and collective intelligence, society’s capacity to function as a wise democracy, and the conscious evolution of social systems.

In this highly stimulating conversation we explore polarization and how we can instead awaken the inherent (and emergent) wisdom in a group. Tom will share the principles of dynamic facilitation, where people do not have to sacrifice their passion or their positions, where, instead, the energy of the polarization can be captured and guided towards channeling the energies surrounding our 21st century social and environmental crises into positive possibilities and system-transforming initiatives.

 

Support Dr.Miller’s Conversations With Your Purchase Of:

Books by Today’s Guest:

The Tao of Democracy

With compelling real-life stories, innovative ideas and hands-on guidance, this book shows how to engage the combined wisdom of citizens to solve complex social problems.It describes how powerful new forms of dialogue and deliberation enable diverse ordinary citizens to work together developing sophisticated public policy recommendations — even on technical issues. Demonstrating that groups, communities and whole societies can be more intelligent and wise collectively than most brilliant individuals, Tom Atlee shows how “collective intelligence” could revolutionize politics and governance, bringing wise common sense to every issue — from city budgets to terrorism to global warming.

Purchase The Tao of Democracy

Dr. Millers Programs Relevant To This Topic:

Awakening the Leader Within

With Dr. Miller’s guidance, you will realize that within you is the power and the desire to change the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you behave – all the way from your personal health habits and how you behave in relationships to how you participate in your family, your community, and in your world at large.

Purchase Awakening the Leader Within

 

Empowering Leadership DVD

Dr. Miller, live and in person, enhanced by rich B-roll images, originally presented to the Academy for Guided Imagery in 2008. This program is an Introduction to the notion of the inner leader, how the inner leader has been suppressed by family and community, and how to use imagery to awaken that potential.

We are the leaders we have waited for! This presentation is an invitation to you to do your part.

Purchase Empowering Leadership DVD

 

Our world is facing a terrible crisis, and the decisions we make today will determine whether or not we will survive. We live in a world of terror, danger, conflict, and complete disregard of the living creatures of this planet.

The source of the terrorism, according to Andrew Harvey, is the fundamentalist thinking we see in Islamist suicide bombers, Tea Party radicals, greedy corporations, and all the religions that claim to have the truth while punishing other paths to the sacred One, and anyone who does not believe as they do.

Andrew Harvey is Founder Director of the Institute of Sacred Activism, an international organization that invites concerned people to take up the challenge of our contemporary global crises by becoming inspired and effective agents of change. Sacred activism is a form of compassion-in-action that is born of a fusion of deep spiritual passion with wise radical action in the world. The large-scale practice of Sacred Activism can become an essential force for preserving and healing the planet and its inhabitants.

Andrew Harvey is English, although he was born in India, where he says he was exposed very early to people who deeply believed in the Divine. By his adolescence he had moved to England where his studies took him to Oxford, where he gained enormous recognition in the Western intellectual tradition. It was then he returned to India where he realized that, although he had reached the pinnacle of Western learning, he “knew nothing.”

In this passionate, inspiring conversation with this clearly brilliant and gifted man, he shares with us the essence of what he has learned and written about in his more than 30 books, and taught in his classes at Oxford and Cornell Universities. He shares with us the ideas of Spiritual Activism that have made him world famous.

“A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic, and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born. This force I define as Sacred Activism.”

www.andrewharvey.net
In his new book The Hope: a Guide to Sacred Activism, Andrew Harvey defines Sacred Activism as a force of compassion in action destined to midwife the birth of a new humanity able to co-create with the Divine a new world. According to Harvey, “This great birth will have to come about as the result of a massive grassroots mobilization of the hearts and committed wills of millions of people.” The vehicle for this mobilization Harvey believes will be through what he calls “Networks of Grace.”

The vision of Sacred Activism is dedicated to honoring and continuing the tremendous work of extraordinary ordinary people such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and Desmond Tutu. Each of these individuals rose up to meet the challenges of their time with great spiritual grace and integrated inner contemplation with decisive action.

We now have before us the possibility of using this current crisis to empower ourselves, and others, to actually get the planet to work. You will enjoy and be inspired by this brilliant conversation.

Support Dr.Miller’s Conversations with your purchase of:

Books by todays Guest

The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism

“Every age has its teachers, who keep the eternal truths alive for all of us,” writes Marianne Williamson, the best-selling author of The Age of Miracles. “In the case of Andrew Harvey, the light he sheds is like a meteor burst across the inner sky.”

In The Hope, Andrew Harvey offers not only a guide to discovering your divine purpose but also the blueprint for a better world. It consists of the necessary elements that can inspire greatness in each of us. Based on Harvey’s concepts of Sacred Activism, a global initiative designed to save the world from its downward spiral of greed, pain, and self-destruction, the book is an enlightening text that reflects our world today, while in turn, shapes our future.

Radical Passion: Sacred Love and Wisdom in Action

Harvey’s concepts of radical passion and sacred activism fly in the face of restraint, of pessimism, of denial, of all that is inhumane, fusing the mystic’s passion for God with the activist’s passion for justice and for healing the division between heaven and earth, heart and will, body and soul, prayer and action. Sacred activism asks that we engage deeply on a personal, spiritual, and political level so as to become a fully empowered, fully active, and contemplative humanity that can turn tragedy into grace, and desolation into the opportunity to build and co-create a new world.

 

Dr. Millers Programs Relevant to this topic

Healing Our Planet

Discover how you can make a difference through passion, compassion and love. In your heart is the future of our planet; learn how to empower your mental imagery to serve your most deeply held values. Experience the wisdom of the ages wedded to cutting-edge mind-body and peak performance technology.

 

Awakening the Leader Within

We’ve all thought this at one time or another: So many things can trigger such a response: corporate greed, political corruption, economic disparity, environmental degradation, wars, violence…the list goes on. Why is it we keep looking to our “leaders” to make things better when they are the ones who led us into these situations in the first place?

 

Power of Your Mind to Nurture Your Spirit:How to Awaken and Empower Your Self

For more than 2 hours, Dr. Miller, in his uniquely soothing and wisely entertaining way, will take you on a journey of discovery: a self-guided exploration of spirituality. Spirituality is the process of separating the superficial from the essential, and as you listen you will find that to discover spirit is to discover the relatedness of all existing things.

Our Culture On the Couch, Seven Steps to Global Healing

With this book, Dr. Miller makes his greatest contribution to the transformation, the paradigm shift, that so many of us are working toward and that must occur if we want to be in charge of setting our communal direction into the future – something that must occur if we are to create sustainability, or to even survive. Dr. Miller’s life and work have been an ongoing process of awakening to certain eternal truths about life and humanity.

“Our daily lives are the vehicles for awakening, for freeing ourselves and others from suffering.” Roshi Joan Halifax

Joan Halifax and I were a part of that rich broth of creativity and humanism that was exploring new dimensions of healing, personal growth, and spirituality at Esalen Institute back in the 1970s. Roshi Joan Halifax is an anthropologist and an activist, a wild child of the sixties and a celibate Zen priest.

She is the founder, abbess, and head teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is best known for sitting at the bedside of terminally ill patients and pioneering a form of contemplative care, known as the Being With Dying project, now in its seventeenth year. One of her core messages is “Strong Back, Soft Front”, a concept she will share with us during this hour.

We will examine the similarities and the differences between empathy and compassion, and why the Dalai Lama has said that love and compassion are not luxuries, that actually they are necessities, if human life is to survive on this planet. Roshi Joan will also share with us the essence of the GRACE process and other insights on developing our ability to experience both the power and the vulnerability of compassion.

Joan was born in 1942. At age four a serious virus caused her to go legally blind, from which she recovered two years later. Central to her recovery was the care of a black woman who was the daughter of slaves. You will learn the incredible gifts she received through the loving, selfless, humble, soulful care rendered by this woman, and how being blind taught her so much about the inner life.

She went on to become a civil rights activist and a protester against the Viet Nam war, then went on to receive her Ph.D in medical anthropology and psychology. She went to Mali, where she studied and learned from the indigenous Dogon tribe, and to Mexico, where she studied the Huichol Indians.
Don’t miss the wise words and the indomitable spirit of this wise woman!

 

Support Dr.Miller’s Conversations with your purchase of:

Books by todays Guest:

Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death

The Buddhist approach to death can be of great benefit to people of all backgrounds—as has been demonstrated time and again in Joan Halifax’s decades of work with the dying and their caregivers. Inspired by traditional Buddhist teachings, her work is a source of wisdom for all those who are charged with a dying person’s care, facing their own death, or wishing to explore and contemplate the transformative power of the dying process.

 

The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom

Buddhist teacher and anthropologist Joan Halifax Roshi delves into “the fruitful darkness”—the shadow side of being, found in the root truths of Native religions, the fecundity of nature, and the stillness of meditation. In this highly personal and insightful odyssey of the heart and mind, she encounters Tibetan Buddhist meditators, Mexican shamans, and Native American elders, among others. In rapt prose, she recounts her explorations—from Japanese Zen meditation to hallucinogenic plants, from the Dogon people of Mali to the Mayan rain forest, all the while creating “an adventure of the spirit and a feast of wisdom old and new” (Peter Matthiessen).

Dr. Millers Programs Relevant to this topic

The Serenity Prayer

Meditations and guidance for opening to the Serenity, Courage, and Wisdom that can nurture compassion. Awakening the Leader Within – Discovering and touching your mission and inspiration, awakening your gifts, talents and skills, and participating in the new Distributed Leadership model that can transform our world, one cell at a time

 

The Power of Your Mind To Nurture Your Spirit:  How to Awaken and Empower Yourself

A DVD featuring Dr. Miller and his guidance towards the emergence of our personal sense of spirituality and the power that lies therein. For more than 2 hours, Dr. Miller, in his uniquely soothing and wisely entertaining way, will take you on a journey of discovery: a self-guided exploration of spirituality. Spirituality is the process of separating the superficial from the essential, and as you listen you will find that to discover spirit is to discover the relatedness of all existing things.