During the final week of Barbaras life we were planning a special retreat with her at Hummingbird, a community founded on the principles and practices of co-creation and conscious evolution. She enthusiastically invited her students to join her at a place that she loved dearly to take the next evolutionary step together.

Now, as we Carry the Torch Forward, we invite all who have been inspired and impacted by Barbaras brilliance, passion, and dedication to gather in honor and celebration of the legacy of The Mother of Conscious Evolution.

August 29th September 2nd, 2019

In the pristine landscape of towering pines, meandering creek, and the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico, we will co-create a resonant field that will raise our consciousness to a higher frequency and allow each of us to dive deeply into the silence and power of our beings. We will tap into the mysterious field of all possibilities to discover how the impulse of evolution is guiding us in the fulfillment of our personal and collective journeys. Our time together will include a series of experiential processes, guided inquiries and discussions, solo time in nature, silence and ceremony.

As change agents and social pioneers, we will be stepping into a sanctuary that continues to cultivate a frequency of deep resonance and healing. It is here that we will take our next evolutionary step toward the birth of a Universal Humanity.

There are many of us scattered around the face of the Earth with a mysterious sense of the future, and a profound attraction for the evolution of ourselves and our world. We are a future-oriented family of humanity who have a sense that we are going through a birth to the next stage of our evolution. Barbara Marx Hubbard

Victory is Assured to All Those Whose Consciousness is Shifting.

It is the direction of evolution. It is the Intention of Creation, the drive of the

Life Force the Implicate Order unfolding. Everyone is called to their posts,

for the hour of your birth is at hand. You can have absolute faith

in the results of what you are now undertaking.

Code 52, taken from 52 Codes for Conscious Self Evolution

by Barbara Marx Hubbard, co-created with Carolyn Anderson.

Schedule

The program will begin with dinner on Thursday, August 29th and will conclude with lunch on Monday, September 2nd. Please contact before making plane reservations, so we can share recommendations to support your ease of travel.

Price

The full cost of this gathering is $895, including all meals, indoor accommodations, and program. Early Bird Special:$825 if paid in fullby July 1.

If you camp, the full cost is $770. Early Bird Special:$720 if paid in fullby July 1.

A limited number of partial scholarships are available.

Payment

A non-refundable deposit of $100 will hold your reservation until Friday, August 9, when full payment is due. Space is limited to 30 participants, so reserve early to hold your place! Register now.

Contact

For additional information: or carolyn@livingcocreation.com.

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Barbara Marx Hubbard - sanfordlcca.wixsite.com

At a time when national politics seems to have reached its nadir, and the country is adrift on an uncharted course, one man is hammering out an unusual ideology of his own. Amidst the chaos of unstable governments and power breakdowns, warring politicians and embattled industrialists, one Indian is establishing a curious empire that seems to grow and grow.

Everything works in his little hotbed of activity, and he is busy piecing together fragments of a somewhat bizarre jigsaw that will one day, he claims, change the destiny of mankind. Flung far out in a town on the Malabar coast, he is slowly achieving a unique star status, capable of hogging headlines, arousing public opinion, provoking reaction.

Eighty miles inland from Bombay, the tranquil resort of Pune, once the home of aging British colonels, retired civil servants and a stylish assortment of sybarites from Bombay in search of a salubrious climate, has struck fame anew from an odd quarter. Some of the peace and quiet-has been shattered, with the permissive new peep-show the city is now said to promise. Not since an Indian guru with piercing hypnotic eyes moved in with his foreign gang has the town been the same again.

Flooded with saffron-swathed sannyasins cuddling in shady by-lanes that once knew no trespassers, Pune now rolls off the tongue with the spurious tang of sin. Is he a charlatan, hypnotist or a sex maniac? Travellers wonder as they step aboard the Deccan Queen at Bombay's Victoria Terminus each evening, their eyes taking in the spectacle of blonde - and usually bra-less - beauties on their way to prostrate themselves at the feet of this mesmeric godman.

Most Indians might travel to Pune in salacious silence these days, but it is doubtful if they return having rid themselves of their repression. Most westerners may get there carrying their souls on their sleeves, and come back to shout from the housetops their song of spiritual salvation.

Household Word: Provided they get beyond the ornately carved wooden-and-brass doors of the Rajneesh Ashram, both kinds of visitors have a point. For the man, who at 48, has adopted the title of Bhagwan (God) advocates sex and spirituality in equal measure. Excess in one, says Shri Bhagwan Rajneesh, may only expedite success in the other. And for hitting upon one such foolproof formula for salvation, elaborated and embroidered with a thousand meditation philosophies, he has become a unique religious export, a one-man spiritual industry, and a perpetual source of moral controversy.

He is a tough salesman, and with the aid of some neatly developed gimmicks, which he calls "devices", has created a spiritual supermarket, and he is a sell-out. Set apart from India's bewildering gaggle of gurus and godmen there has not been a religious commodity so publicised, since the Beatles and Mia Farrow abandoned the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for pastures new.

Manufacturing Industry: But Rajneesh goes several steps further in the art and industry of empire-building. Not only has he converted actors Terence Stamp and Vinod Khanna to his unique brand of sannyas, but an estimated 3.000 aspirants, the bulk of them soul-searching westerners, cross the portals of his ashram every month. Roughly a dozen a day are converted as sannyasins- that is, they convert to wearing coloured robes and wooden-bead malas with his photograph and adopt a name of his choosing.

According to the Ashram some 100,000 people world-wide have officially taken to sannyas a la Rajneesh in the last few years, since he moved to settle in Pune in late 1974. And a permanent settlement of 350 sannyasins have renounced their lives abroad - only one-sixth of his following is Indian - to come and work in the nucleus of his ashram. They produced everything from a range of unscented Body Dharma toiletries to a lavish variety of Rajneesh literature in the form of books, magazines, newsletters and tape-recordings of his lectures.

Dozens of press releases issue forth from the Rajneesh press office each week. Flaky pastries and plum tarts emanate from gleaming kitchens to beat every confectionery in town. Amateur jewellers and carpenters pore over crafting fine inlay furniture and silverware. Blonde seamstresses sit at electric sewing machines to turn out high fashion dresses in Rajneesh colours. Trained therapy leaders take a boggling variety of meditation and therapy courses with names such as Sufi Dancing and Dynamic Meditation.

Smelling Routine: Rajneesh himself is scarcely to be seen. As his business grows, he becomes more difficult to approach individually. Shutting himself up in closely-guarded rooms for most of the day he makes only two public appearances: one for his two-hour discourse in the morning and a smaller private darshan in the evening during which he ordains new disciples.

And each morning, approximately 500 visitors, dressed in shades of orange, freshly bathed with ashram soap and shampoo, move single file, to be "sniffed" before they can confront their guru. The "sniffing" process has become something of a Rajneesh trademark.

Each visitor before attending a Rajneesh discourse is vigorously smelt around the neck, behind the ears and in the hair by two women, for any strong smell of perfume that might aggravate Rajneesh's allergy. Being asthmatic, say his chief disciples, such precautions are necessary. "Otherwise he would have to be put in a glass cage." explain members of his conscientious press office, as smelly visitors are briskly sifted from clean-smelling ones and moved to the back of the hall.

Discourse: A little after eight the sound of a Mercedes driving up a gravel path signals the arrival of the master. A hush falls among the gathered audience robed in varying shades of saffron, their hands folded in greeting. Squatting silently, albeit painfully, on a hard cement floor, row upon row of tangled white legs cross and re-cross in discomfort to sit through a two-hour discourse. "Life," begins the master, "is three-dimensional.

He alone has the privilege of a chair, a smart, high-backed executive's armchair placed high on a raised marble platform. He also has the privilege of wearing white, a long, high-necked, long-sleeved polyester tunic that stands out in marked contrast to the hysterical colour schemes followed by his disciples.

Perpetually by his side, either carrying a cushion, or imprinted in photographic blow-ups plastered on every inch of the ashram's wall, is the fine-featured Frenchwoman. Ma Yoga Vivek, who is one of the two people in the ashram - both women - who has access to him all the time. Ma Vivek has been with him for seven years. She looks after "his body." But like him, she is never directly accessible.

Then peppered with the sayings of Pythagoras and Jean-Paul Sartre, Lao Tzu and P.D. Ouspensky, Buddha and Socrates, the discourse rambles on: a point here, a point there, vapid spiritual jargon, homespun homilies jumbled in a brew spiced with trendy four-letter words and jokes culled from randy, railway-station joke books.

His even monotone pipes on - the accent slipping every now and then in dreadful mispronunciations - but not all the lavatory humour and heavyweight quotes in the world alleviate the tedium of his discourses. Yet the effect is strangely hypnotic, induced by the general atmosphere rather than his long-winded loquacity. The audience is filled with elation, as the purring of a Mercedes engine signals their master's departure to his residence less than 200 yards away.

Overwhelmed: The Mercedes, painted a pale orange-gold, is worth over Rs 10 lakh. A mere trifle admits one doting disciple, wouldn't it be lovely to see him in a white Rolls-Royce? "Bullshit," says actor Vinod Khanna, now Swami Vinod Bharati, when asked if the rumour of his having paid for one of the most expensive cars in India is true, "but I wish I could have." Khanna, 33, has been a Rajneesh disciple for the past three-and-a-half years.

He was introduced to him, like many other followers, through his books. "I had always had this need for a leader. The moment I saw him I knew this was the man I was looking for," explains Khanna, now in the process of completing his film assignments before joining Rajneesh permanently. "Everything about him: his face, his voice, his thoughts changed me." Asked what his family thought about his conversion, Khanna said: "My wife still thinks I've been hypnotised."

A majority of Rajneesh's disciples explain being overwhelmed in a similar manner. Says Swami Divyananda, 32, formerly Michael Glynn, a graphic designer who worked in Canada: "My whole face seemed to explode in a twitch when I came face to face with him. I first met him in Bombay six years ago, more or less by mistake. Then I went back to the West for two years in between but it became really hard to communicate: I was standing at a subway station in Montreal one day and I happened to look into the eyes of a group of young kids standing nearby: I saw they were quite dead. I had to come back to him."

Says Ma Yoga Pratima, an attractive 26-year-old Australian who now runs the brilliant publishing programme: "Perhaps it was the bourgeois Australian mentality that sickened me. But it was a continual feeling of despair and deadness that got me in the end." She discovered "Bhagwan" a few years ago while living in a house in Finsbury Park in London which was run as a commune for growth therapy groups. When she returned to Australia for four months "it was like being in a horror movie."

"This is," she says definitely, her blue eyes flashing, "the only place I have felt at home in. I belong here. This is my family." So intense is her attachment that since she came to stay her Catholic father has taken sannyas and her Quaker mother is about to follow.

At the centre of the environment he breeds is the magnetism of Rajneesh himself. Some of his disciples who have come to stay speak of their premonition of him before ever meeting him. Others openly admit to being under his spell. Says Paris photographer Tana Kaleya, now called Ma Deva Tanmayo, whose book of photographs of naked men Les Hommes (including Rudolf Nureyev, Helmut Berger and Terence Stamp in various stages of undress) made her famous some years ago, and who is now working on a book on Rajneesh and his ashram: "I have not been much interested in men since I did my last book. But this man - though I haven't seen him in the nude - provokes love in me. It's not a question of liking - he enchants me. This man is sheer poetry."

For most others, however, Rajneesh means little other than volume upon volume of prose. Voluble spiritualist that he is, every pearl of wisdom that drops from his mouth is duly recorded. No fewer than three dozen stenographers, editors and translators laboriously make transcripts of each morning's discourse so that, Rajneesh is perhaps the only guru in the world who inadvertently dictates, a 400-page book every 10 days.

The Rajneesh Foundation, set up as a charitable trust, has made a phenomenal success of its publishing programme, with over 220 volumes published in Hindi and English since early 1975 alone. With each page virtually designed individually, then laid out with photographs and specially bound in silk, each Rajneesh text is sold at a three-fold profit, with a growing demand for more.

Ma Yoga Laxmi, the 46-year-old Gujarati woman, who as managing trustee of the Foundation, is the woman responsible for Rajneesh's rising fortunes, admits that in business terms the publishing programme has been the ashram's biggest success. She is a small, dark, sprightly woman seated on a bright yellow swivel chair, so disproportionately large that she has a special wooden platform for her feet.

She speaks in the third person singular and her long association with westerners has resulted in her conversation being punctuated with Americanisms such as "Bullshit" and "Hey you." "We don't like poverty here," she says, "and everything must be done skilfully and beautifully. We now publish about 45 titles a year and that not only helps the money circulate but brings in more and more people."

"Bhagwan is into every worldly game," says Swami Krishna Prem, a canny Canadian, who gave up his successful career in advertising and sales promotion to join Rajneesh in 1973. A bearded, unkempt-looking man, he talks with the swift glibness of a hard-selling travelling salesman. As the chief of the ashram's press office, Krishna Prem is doing for Rajneesh's renown what Ma Laxmi has done for his financial resources. "Bhagwan wants one thing, and that is that he should be known in every part of the world during his lifetime. But he's not into making money. That is only a spin-off for what is actually going on. One should go on housetops to acclaim him because there won't be another chance like it in years."

Publicity: What does, indeed, go on at the Rajneesh Ashram is a question that is latently connected with widespread visions of wild sex orgies and other exercises in mystical titillation. Many of these theories have circulated because of Rajneesh's unabashed openness on the subject of sex. To the uninitiated, the sight of sundry sannyasins locked in long, lingering embrace, eyes rapturously closed, noses nuzzling necks, hands exploring bodies, can at first appear unnerving and suggestive. But hardcore sex is harder to find. If it happens, then it is behind firmly closed doors.

Promiscuous-looking colour photographs of half-stripped sannyasins which attracted wide publicity when they first appeared in the German magazine Stern, are dismissed by an ashramite as not being authentic. "It's nobody's business what people do in private," he says defensively. A somewhat coy notice pasted on the walls of the public toilet - together with dreamy-eyed photographs of Rajneesh - reminds visitors that nudity is objectionable in a public place.

"Sure," agrees Swami Krishna Prem, "the sex thing has caused the biggest misunderstanding. Bhagwan believes that sex, like other aspects of life, is a prison, a biological prison. And the only way to get out of it is to do it and do it and do it till you see the futility of it."

Disparaging: Another disciple explains his master's idea helpfully: "Genital sex is something that peaks your energy. Orgasm is beautiful. Look at Bhagwan: he's in orgasm all the time, you can see it in his eyes, he's reeling from the effect." Since Rajneesh's basic tenet is the release of all energy in a consummation of a final spiritual energy, the act of refraining, consciously rejecting, amounts to repression, an approach that he abhors in other spiritualists, especially Indian ones.

Whatever his design for his followers his own ego peaks sharply and often. He is frequently disparaging about other godmen: Sri Aurobindo, according to him, was an erudite spiritualist but not, like him and Christ and Mahavira and the Buddha, an enlightened master. Sri Satya Sai Baba is put out as "that magic man from Bangalore." And the only other Indian he is prepared to acknowledge as a master is J. Krishnamurti. But there is a qualification. "The difference between Krishnamurti and myself is," he once explained, "that if both of us were sitting on a roof, it is I who would possess the ladder."

His egoism manifests itself amply in the "devices" he employs to disseminate his own cult. He can on occasions be uncharitable, blankly dismissing, and particularly unpenitent about personal remarks made about politicians among others. He can also express his irritation easily. The only question he answered for India Today was during his discourse when he replies queries submitted in writing a day earlier.

The question was: What is the difference between you and other godmen? Predictably he took exception to the word "godman." He began by saying: "I am not a godman. I am simply God as you are, as trees are, as birds are, as rocks are. I don't belong to any category. 'Godmen' is a category invented by journalists. I simply don't belong to any category ..." and continued the answer for nearly 45 minutes during which he attacked "life-negating and hypocritical pseudo god men" and held forth on his own philosophy of life.

Orange Onslaught: His own followers have considerable faith in his provocations. "Of course, we wear orange for shock value. It is nothing but gimmickry. He calls himself Bhagwan for the same reason. Just as his being called Bhagwan bothers most Indians, so does our wearing orange in London or New York appall most people."

Pune citizens find it hard to cope with the orange onslaught. Clashes between residents and ashramites are frequent, and they receive wide publicity due as much to the ashram's efforts as that of the media. On June 26, a 21-year-old foreign disciple called Ma Deva Homa was set upon at night by two men and raped outside the ashram. The press office at the ashram claims that "no less than 20 young foreign women have been assaulted or molested by local hooligans in the past month alone........and not less than 25 of our disciples' huts have been looted and thefts committed, with no action taken by the police."

Earlier this year, a 15-year-old American disciple of Rajneesh was asked for a Rs 1,000-bribe and allegedly assaulted by an inspector of the Foreigners Registration Branch of the Pune CID when she asked for a visa extension. A series of such incidents, including instances of Rajneesh followers being refused visas in Indian missions abroad and foreign film teams being rejected permission to film the ashram, have led to the ashram unleashing a bitter attack against Morarji Desai, "whose Government discriminates against the disciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. thereby exposing them to exploitation and corruption."

Tension: Morarji Desai himself, according to the ashram, is responsible for creating these obstacles because of his personal dislike of Rajneesh. The story told in the ashram concerns a chance meeting between Rajneesh and Morarjibhai many years ago. Left together in a room, Rajneesh was under the impression that Morarjibhai had stayed on to speak to him. Morarji thought it was the other way round and took it as a deliberate slight which has continued to irk him. Lately, Rajneesh's dislike of Morarji has verged on the vitriolic.

The ashram's propaganda network being infinitely superior to the Government of India's, their version of the unholy war gets around faster. Lately, the Charity Commissioner of Pune, R.P. Ranadive, in a ludicrously-worded notification has instituted an inquiry under the Bombay Public Trusts Act. His objections? That ashram disciples do not follow traffic rules; that "public streets are used as lavatory for natural calls which gives bad smell and resulted in nuisance near the locality near about the ashram"; that "disciples purposely indulge in teasing ladies from the neighbouring localities in spite of the fact that they are aware that hugging and kissing is not approved by the Indians"; and that disciples are smuggling and dealing in opium and charas.

The "hugging and kissing" business is mainly what most Pune residents find objectionable. Says the city's mayor Ramchandra P. Wadke, who has - being an athiest, he likes to point out - never entered the ashram: "I have only passed that road a few times. I am afraid they do not behave properly. Ladies and gents sitting on the parapet and smoking is not a common sight in Pune. I am afraid, this is not gentlemanly behaviour." In addition to shaking the genteel morality of the city, citizens of Koregaon Park complain frequently about the noise "created by all the song and dance." Noisome or not, song and dance is serious business in the ashram and, more important, it is serious money.

Each morning after the discourse is over, a 37-year-old blonde, brassy Californian called Ma Prem Aneeta takes the hall over for her class in Sufi dancing. Standing with the mike in the centre she croons instructions to a swinging group: "Let go, let go," "Learn to play with each other, learn to touch." Then with the aid of a pair of bongo drums and a guitar she instructs her pupils in nursery-school-type dance steps to impromptu lyrics such as: "Wake up, wake up/Now's your chance/ To come alive/And sing and dance." To which the refrain is: "How much longer can you ignore/Bhagwan knocking on your door."

Sufi dancing is but one of the over 50 therapy groups in constant operation at the ashram. Not all of them are as puerile. From Gestalt to Encounter, Acupuncture to Tai Chi, Golfing to Tantra, traditional eastern meditation practices and western psychological therapies are offered in courses that last from two to 15 days. Group therapy, an offshoot of Jungian psychological analysis, first became established in the '60s in America as the work of a team of "holistic" psychologists. Now it has become both a fashionable and expensive business.

Therapy: With the conversion of several educated foreign practitioners of therapy groups to Rajneesh's sannyas, it has become immensely profitable for the ashram to offer courses to westerners in search of themselves. But Rajneesh takes sufficient precautions. Indians are not encouraged to take up therapy courses. "Eastern psychology is introvert; it is ingoing. The Indian needs to be in a state of total, utter aloneness. He needs meditation techniques like Vipassana where he can forget the whole outside world. Western psychology is extrovert and outgoing. If a westerner comes and I put him directly into Vipassana meditation he is at a loss "

With over a thousand foreigners taking courses each month, the Rajneesh Foundation has now established the Rajneesh International Meditation University, which offers degree programmes in subjects as varied as parapsychology to occultism and applied crafts.

Financial Success: Courses alone cost anything from Rs 50 to Rs 65 a day, and the money continues to pour in. Just over five years ago, says Ma Laxmi, before he moved to Pune, Rajneesh set up the ashram with Rs 7,000 in loans. In 1977-78 the Rajneesh Foundation income was Rs 58.74 lakh, with donations amounting to Rs 47.54 lakh, most of them in foreign currencies. Expenditure. on the other hand, was Rs 8.29 lakh leaving a surplus of Rs 43.10 lakh.

When she met him in the early '60s at a political meeting she was 34 years old, the daughter of a prosperous cloth merchant family in Bombay. "He walked in and I didn't know what hit me. I just sat stunned. This is the man for me, I thought. That was my first and last love affair: like Radha, like Meera I too was bewitched."

Rajneesh - then called Acharya Rajneesh - was then a man less complex, and certainly more accessible. Having quit his lecturership at Saugar University in Madhya Pradesh where he taught philosophy earlier, and decided that he was going to put his spirituality into practice (he is said to have become enlightened, Buddha-like, one night at the age of 21) he was travelling and organising small meditation groups.

Laxmi began to follow him from camp to camp. Then in 1970, during a dynamic meditation course in Nargol on the border of Gujarat, she went through a dramatic transformation. "A great laughter started within me, I was hysterical. It was a joke, everything was a joke. Who am I? I was asking but could not stop laughing."

Growth: The experience changed her life. On that day Rajneesh ordained her Ma Yoga Laxmi and decided that in future all his followers will adopt names of his choosing, and that he alone, would be entitled to give sannyas. A small society called the Jeevan Jagriti Kendra was set up by Rajneesh in a flat in Bombay. Slowly the Indians began to disappear as more and more foreigners joined his meditation camps.

"Initially, it was the freaks who came, young westerners experimenting with counterculture," says Krishna Prem. The money no doubt began to come in at the same time. One day apparently Rajneesh asked Laxmi to look for a house in Pune. Travelling there she found the perfect place: in late 1974 Jeevan Jagriti Kendra was dissolved and the Rajneesh Foundation established at Koregaon Park. Now the Foundation is negotiating for a 1,300-acre property near Saswad, 20 miles out of Pune.

"Only the other day," says Laxmi with the pride of a mother whose child has accomplished a feat, "he began to criticise Buddha. Bhagwan doesn't create controversy, he is controversy."

Weird: His small darshans in the evenings were once simple ceremonies in which he ordained new disciples. Now they get curiouser every day. Strobe lights have appeared. The ashram is plunged into darkness, as a group of musicians work up their instruments to a frenzied crescendo. Held close by 12 writhing women in saffron, the disciple seeking transfer of spiritual energy, is hypnotised by Rajneesh pressing his fingers on his forehead. Outside it's lights-out time, with a thousand-strong crowd dancing in the darkness of the main hall.

As the fever rises people strip to their underclothes. Sweating, gyrating, swinging to the rising rhythm pouring from the speakers, the release of energy is timed with the energy darshan inside. Again and again, as each disciple seeking energy transfer goes up, the 12 mediums flail their arms and thrust their bodies in supreme passion. A young disciple begins to slobber in the dark.

A woman holding her stomach in the audience cries out in ecstasy. The whole performance is designed as an esoteric ritual, a mystical purge, a special-effects pyschodrama. Depending on a disciple's state of mind, it could be hallucinatory, euphoric or even spiritually enervating. But a faked theatricality sticks around the sequence like congealed grease.

Success-oriented: And as with most gurus, it is not easy to separate Rajneesh's fakery from his reality. Like most performers, he is a bit of both. Like all cult heroes in search of a mass audience, he is both charlatan and instructor. And his ashram can be about as elevating as a cave in the mountains, as harmless as a night at a discotheque or as disturbing as a spell in an asylum. The truth probably lies in between and is perhaps more mundane.

Rajneesh might simply be an ambitious man, like any other, seeking his fortune. And his success, dependent on his normal human potential and those of his orange people, lies in merely utilising it to its optimum, just as in any other success-oriented human being. And the phenomenal success of his ashram is no different from the success of a well-managed business house that employs the rather original synthesis of shrewd Gujarati money-sense with smooth Madison Avenue public relationing.

In which case Rajneesh could with equanimity swap jobs with the head of an expanding multinational corporation. The Rajneesh Ashram could well become the IBM of religion. Or even its Coca-Cola, if it keeps on the right side of the Indian Government, and manages to retain its magic potion. That might, after all, be the real thing.

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Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh: Is he a charlatan, hypnotist or a ...

"A unique opportunity to get exposure for your brand, generate leads and drive onsite revenue."NBC4 New York is once again teaming with the 4X Super Bowl Champs, The New York Giants, for the 6th annual NBC4/T47 Health & Fitness Expo! Over 40,000 NYC metro area consumers are expected to flock to this family-friendly weekend event held at the famed MetLife Stadium. Expo attendees will be entertained, informed and can take advantage of a range of free health tests and screenings. In addition, attendees will have the very special opportunity to meet Giants players and participate in events held on the field. NBC4 will begin an aggressive, market-wide on-air and online attendance promotion 6 weeks in advance of the expo, helping to drive qualified attendees to the event.

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Your webite could have used some attention. It was very hard to navigate the pre-registraion and it would have been nice to see a list of the different events and times

Health, eating well tips, yoga & exercises along with too many activities to name. Can't wait til next year!

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Go here to see the original:
NY Expo (Jun 2020), NBC 4 & T47 Health & Fitness Expo ...

Spiritual Development

Spiritual development is the process of becoming fit for a higher level in the spirit world.There arethree areas of spiritual learning: skills, beliefs, and evolution.

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Spiritualists believe that a person incarnates in order to learn.Christianity, or more correctly, the words of Jesus, teach that what youare here to learn is: to love God and other people. Buddhism, teachesthat to be able to love you must become unselfish or in other wordslessen the grip your ego holds over your thoughts and deeds. Buddhismgives practical techniques (meditation and mindfulness) that can helpyou to become unselfish.

Therefore, humility is the sign of a highly evolved soul. One shouldlook for this characteristic when seeking a spiritual teacher.

For humans living on earth, spiritual evolution is the most important aspect of spiritual development. This is because in the afterlife you will have spiritual skills. In fact, spiritual skills will be the only skills you will have at that point. Also, in the afterlife, you will have the right beliefs because you will be able to see for yourself what the afterlife is like. However, unless you use your time on earth correctly and learn to love and to eliminate selfishness, you will not have that ability when you move into the afterlife.

While the great religions of the world teach that developing love forothers is the primary objective of spiritual development, it is notenough to say this without some instruction on how to develop love. Ourbiological nature puts up many obstacles against love. People hear thebeautiful words of the great teachers and then find that it isimpossible to live according to their beliefs. This damages peoplepsychologically and brings disrepute to preachers and followers alike.

Therefore it is important for humankind to have an explanation of how todevelop love. Love arises spontaneously when hatred and anger and otherforms of selfish and negative thought are absent.

The way to eliminate selfishness through meditation can be found in thepage on meditation. If you practicemeditation daily, then gradually over the years, without straining to beperfect, you will become less and less self centered and a natural lovefor others will arise within you. The chapter on Short Topicshas more On The Purpose of Life.

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For more information on spiritual beliefs see the page on The Principles of Spiritualism.

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A person's beliefs have a strong influence on his ability to developspiritual skills. If he is skeptical and continually attributesanomalous experiences to coincidence and "natural explanations", he willweaken his abilities through negative reinforcement. This will alsodiscourage spirit guides that may be trying to help him. Each person isborn having spiritual skills, but our societal attitudes result, in thisway, in most people losing awareness of their natural abilities as theymature. Therefore it is necessary to undo the effects of living in anunbelieving society.

To develop spiritual skills, a person must be accepting of the phenomenaand must continually look for spiritual influence in his life in theform of coincidences, hunches, and other unusual phenomena. In this wayhe will increase his awareness of spiritual influence in his life andnotice more and more the activity of his spiritual skills. Thispositive feedback will lead to improvement and enhancement of hisspiritual skills. Therefore it is necessary to err on the side ofcredulity rather than skepticism.

There is the risk of incorrectly attributing coincidence to spiritualinfluence, however this risk must be borne. One must always maintain anawareness of this risk and never take rash or unwise actions based onsupposed spiritual influence and never allow belief in infallibility totake hold.

The regular practice of meditation and relaxationis also helpful in the development of spiritual skills. These practicescalm the mind and allow one to notice subtle thoughts, impressions,and sensations that may be associated with spiritual phenomena.

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Written by Adelina Chelniciuc on September 27, 2017. Posted in Articles, Personal performance

Within organizations, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are known to provide multiple advantages, which can be divided into six main categories:

Now translate all these advantages into your personal life. Can you imagine having access to the data you are interested in? Or making informed decisions in multiple areas of your life? What about having better control, taking corrective actions when needed and boosting personal performance?

As complicated as it might sound at first, the idea of using KPIs to measure your personal productivity is very simple and effective, once properly understood.

As Ive mentioned in a previous article, the first step towards an integrated and controlled personal improvement process is goal setting. Once you established your objectives, setting KPIs can help you focus on those goals and support the process.

There are four main areas that you can focus on when measuring your way to improvement and success. These are everyday aspects which, if properly measured and controlled, can meaningfully improve your personal results, namely Budget Management, Home Economics, Personal Development and Well-Being.

Below we offer some examples of KPIs for these areas, which can be therefore adapted and used according to each persons measurement and improvement needs.

a) Fitness

b) Health

c) Nutrition

d) Relationships

e) Work-life balance

When measuring personal performance, even if you do not use tools such as a scorecard, a strategy map or a portfolio of initiatives, you still need standardization, to a certain extent. In order to get the most value out of your measurement system, some basic rules can be useful, namely:

1. Simply setting personal KPIs will not be useful, unless they are strongly connected to your objectives.

For example, when setting Lose weight as an objective, you might be interested in measuring both # Weight and # Minutes of vigorous physical activity per day. On the same principle, in order to make sure you achieve the objective Improve English skills, you can monitor KPIs such as # Grammar exercises per day or # English books read.

2. Setting targets for these KPIs will provide you with a reference point against which your personal performance is measured. Both short term and long term targets can be set, in order to motivate you to take actions.

3. Initiatives should be taken in order to achieve your targets.

Lets take, for example, the case of the objective Lose weight. If when monitoring the KPI # Time spent walking per day, which has a target of 30 minutes, your result is barely 10 minutes of walking per day, some initiatives could be Stop using the elevator or Walk towards work 2 times a week (if possible).More details about personal targets and initiatives will be provided in a future article.

Besides these simple rules, keeping track of your KPIs in writing offers you a better visualization of your results, along with a sense of responsibility.

After deciding what you want to achieve by setting clear goals, measuring your personal performance with KPIs is the next step towards improving both your everyday and your long-term productivity. By choosing the right KPIs and keeping a positive attitude towards the entire process, it becomes not only useful, but also highly motivational and even entertaining.

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The story of an heiress joining a terrorist group is detailed in CNNs six-part documentary,The Radical Story of Patty Hearst. In it, those who knew Hearst speak out about her life and family. If you want to know more about Patty Hearsts husband, then keep reading for details from Bernard Shaws wiki.

The Radical Story of Patty Hearstconcludedon February 25, 2018. The docuseries was based on the book,American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearstby Jeffrey Toobin, who brought the heiress life to the small screen. Hearst was reportedly not happy with the three-night docuseries.

In a statement released before its premiere, Hearst criticized Toobin and CNN for sharing her story, rather than letting her tell it herself.

Hearst has been through a lot in her life. She was kidnapped and physically assaulted by a domestic terrorist group in 1974 known as the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found 19 months later, but by then, she was a wanted criminal.

Two months after her release from prison, Hearst married Bernard Lee Shaw.

Born Bernard Lee Shaw on September 3, 1945, he graduated from the University of San Francisco. Afterwards, he served in the Army.

In 1983, Shaw started working for the Hearst Corporation. Shaw was a former San Francisco police officer and bodyguard of Patty Hearst.

At the time of his death, Shaw was Hearsts vice president for corporate security.

Bernard Shaw met Patty Hearst in 1976 after she was released from jail, with bail pending. A year later, he was granted a divorce from his first wife.

Shaw was one of 20 bodyguards hired by Hearsts family. When her appeal was turned down by the United States Supreme Court, she was sent back to prison.

However, Shaw continued to visit her in prison four times a week. The couple got engaged on February 14, 1978.

The following year, President Jimmy Carter reduced Hearsts sentence. The couple tied the knot in a brief but well-publicized Episcopal ceremony at a naval base in San Francisco Bay.

Talking about her familys view on their marriage, Hearst said, My parents gave us a Sears vacuum cleaner as a wedding present. They thought it wouldnt last.

The couple went on to have two daughters named Gillian Hearst Simonds and Lydia Hearst-Shaw.

Bernard Shaw also has two kids from his first marriageThomas Shaw and Heather Shaw.

Shaw passed away on December 17, 2013, at the age of 68 in Garrison, New York, surrounded by family. The cause of his death was reportedly a long battle with cancer.

A representative for his familysaid, He went peacefully at home with his wife of 34 years, sister Joan, and daughters Lydia Hearst and Gillian Hearst-Simonds, along with [her] husband Christian Simonds by his side. He was loved deeply by his family and adored by everyone who had the pleasure of meeting and knowing him. We kindly ask that you respect the privacy of the family during this time.

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Bernard Shaw Wiki: From Bodyguard to Patty Hearsts Husband

MeasurementOctober 2, 2018

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), also known as key success indicators, fundamentally help businesses and staff meet goals.

KPIs are not complicated to understand. At their core is the notion that every organization has a set of metrics it can utilize in order to judge the performance of either a part or the whole of the operation. Peter Druckers understated, yet critical, observation makes the point abundantly clear: What gets measured gets improved.

The measure may be something as simple as you, or your business unit, achieving a set goal or target. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, it could be achieving a set of business objectives over a period of time. This might be through something tangible such as meeting productivity targets, or in meeting a metric, such as reaching a certain stock market valuation.

What all of these have in common is effective measurement of goals and objectives, be it how well customer service is delivered, wider business performance metrics or longer-term strategic organizational goals. Deciding which KPIs are right relies on clearly defining critical success factors first, and only then pinpointing KPIs that actually matter.

Employee KPIs often feed into wider operational KPIs, so that staff are working towards a goal which will ultimately help the business meet its wider objectives. Lets look at five of these, specific to personal performance:

Lets be blunt unhappy customers do not make for good long-term prospects for any business. Customer support and satisfaction matter whether a company serves the general public or a paying customer. In a sea of KPIs, this is one which almost every company will want to be using. By tracking customer satisfaction, employees and companies can quickly understand where there may be problems within the organization. For example, follow-up questionnaires that measure how customers feel they and their query were handled by a customer service representative or how effectively they feel a salesperson handled their inquiry are good ways of measuring the personal performance side of customer satisfaction.

If customer satisfaction comes as close as any KPI can to an imperative measure, employee satisfaction is a close second. Just as happy customers are integral to the longevity of a business, poor staff morale or engagement could spell disaster. Its why KPIs need to be able to illuminate external as well as internal indicators affecting business. With employees, those internal KPIs can range from quantitative measures such as productivity to qualitative factors such as motivation or satisfaction.

There are a number of teamwork metrics which can form the basis of trackable indicators of performance over time. These may focus on attendance, helpfulness, efficiency, initiative or quality. Arguably, group effectiveness will have a significant impact on the business as teamwork impinges on both customer and employee satisfaction if groups are not operating effectively. These all factor into how a team member is performing overall. Take efficiency as an example. How effectively is a team member getting the task done? Tracking teamwork will prove a valuable KPI for recognizing problems within the workforce before they become a threat to wider company objectives.

Personal performance could become academic to the wider business strategy if the companys best and brightest fail to remain as human capital. In a small organization losing a valuable staff member could have huge repercussions. Equally, a large business with a big number of departures will suffer in terms of internal morale, consistent customer relations and the overheads of additional hiring and training this necessitates. Understanding that staff churn is high then opens opportunities to apply personal KPIs which track employee metrics affecting staff retention such as remuneration, benefits, team cohesiveness, job satisfaction and more.

Any well-managed company will give its employees a clear steer on what expectations it has for meeting personal goals or targets. Its an inevitable corollary of being an employee that the company has hired you to achieve stuff in its employ. Thus any HR manager worth their salary should be tracking employee performance in meeting the objectives set when that person joined the team.

This illustrates just a few personal performance KPIs that form the basis of a much broader spectrum of indicators. Their application to different workplace scenarios will be guided by wider organizational objectives such as annual sales targets, costs of sales or ARPU KPIs. But, from a personal perspective, KPIs let employees monitor their performance and be able to both reflect and act upon their individual performance. This means employees are more likely to achieve personal targets and be more aware of how to do so in the future.

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5 KPIs to measure personal performance Poppulo

Is organic food really healthier? Is it worth the expense? Find out what the labels mean and which foods give you the most bang for your buck.What does organic mean?

The term organic refers to the way agricultural products are grown and processed. While the regulations vary from country to country, in the U.S., organic crops must be grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes (GMOs), petroleum-based fertilizers, and sewage sludge-based fertilizers.

Organic livestock raised for meat, eggs, and dairy products must have access to the outdoors and be given organic feed. They may not be given antibiotics, growth hormones, or any animal by-products.

How your food is grown or raised can have a major impact on your mental and emotional health as well as the environment. Organic foods often have more beneficial nutrients, such as antioxidants, than their conventionally-grown counterparts and people with allergies to foods, chemicals, or preservatives often find their symptoms lessen or go away when they eat only organic foods.

Organic produce contains fewer pesticides. Chemicals such as fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides are widely used in conventional agriculture and residues remain on (and in) the food we eat.

Organic food is often fresher because it doesnt contain preservatives that make it last longer. Organic produce is often (but not always, so watch where it is from) produced on smaller farms near where it is sold.

Organic farming is better for the environment. Organic farming practices reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy. Farming without pesticides is also better for nearby birds and animals as well as people who live close to farms.

Organically raised animals are NOT given antibiotics, growth hormones, or fed animal byproducts. Feeding livestock animal byproducts increases the risk of mad cow disease (BSE) and the use of antibiotics can create antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Organically-raised animals are given more space to move around and access to the outdoors, which help to keep them healthy.

Organic meat and milk are richer in certain nutrients. Results of a 2016 European study show that levels of certain nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids, were up to 50 percent higher in organic meat and milk than in conventionally raised versions.

Organic food is GMO-free. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or genetically engineered (GE) foods are plants whose DNA has been altered in ways that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding, most commonly in order to be resistant to pesticides or produce an insecticide.

Unlike organic standards, there is no specific definition for local food. It could be grown in your local community, your state, your region, or your country. During large portions of the year it is usually possible to find food grown close to home at places such as a farmers market.

Financial: Money stays within the local economy. More money goes directly to the farmer, instead of to things like marketing and distribution.

Transportation: In the U.S., for example, the average distance a meal travels from the farm to the dinner plate is over 1,500 miles. Produce must be picked while still unripe and then gassed to ripen it after transport. Or the food is highly processed in factories using preservatives, irradiation, and other means to keep it stable for transport.

Freshness: Local food is harvested when ripe and thus fresher and full of flavor.

Small local farmers often use organic methods but sometimes cannot afford to become certified organic. Visit a farmers market and talk with the farmers to find out what methods they use.

The ongoing debate about the effects of GMOs on health and the environment is a controversial one. In most cases, GMOs are engineered to make food crops resistant to herbicides and/or to produce an insecticide. For example, much of the sweet corn consumed in the U.S. is genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup and to produce its own insecticide, Bt Toxin.

GMOs are also commonly found in U.S. crops such as soybeans, alfalfa, squash, zucchini, papaya, and canola, and are present in many breakfast cereals and much of the processed food that we eat. If the ingredients on a package include corn syrup or soy lecithin, chances are it contains GMOs.

The use of toxic herbicides like Roundup (glyphosate) has increased 15 times since GMOs were introduced. While the World Health Organization announced that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans, there is still some controversy over the level of health risks posed by the use of pesticides.

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the biotech companies that engineer GMOs insist they are safe, many food safety advocates point out that no long term studies have ever been conducted to confirm the safety of GMO use, while some animal studies have indicated that consuming GMOs may cause internal organ damage, slowed brain growth, and thickening of the digestive tract.

GMOs have been linked to increased food allergens and gastro-intestinal problems in humans. While many people think that altering the DNA of a plant or animal can increase the risk of cancer, the research has so far proven inconclusive.

As mentioned above, one of the primary benefits of eating organic is lower levels of pesticides. However, despite popular belief, organic farms do use pesticides. The difference is that they only use naturally-derived pesticides, rather than the synthetic pesticides used on conventional commercial farms. Natural pesticides are believed to be less toxic, however, some have been found to have health risks. That said, your exposure to harmful pesticides will be lower when eating organic.

Most of us have an accumulated build-up of pesticide exposure in our bodies due to numerous years of exposure. This chemical body burden as it is medically known could lead to health issues such as headaches, birth defects, and added strain on weakened immune systems.

Some studies have indicated that the use of pesticides even at low doses can increase the risk of certain cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Children and fetuses are most vulnerable to pesticide exposure because their immune systems, bodies, and brains are still developing. Exposure at an early age may cause developmental delays, behavioral disorders, autism, immune system harm, and motor dysfunction.

Pregnant women are more vulnerable due to the added stress pesticides put on their already taxed organs. Plus, pesticides can be passed from mother to child in the womb, as well as through breast milk.

The widespread use of pesticides has also led to the emergence of super weeds and super bugs, which can only be killed with extremely toxic poisons like 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (a major ingredient in Agent Orange).

Rinsing reduces but does not eliminate pesticides. Peeling sometimes helps, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the skin. The best approach: eat a varied diet, wash and scrub all produce thoroughly, and buy organic when possible.

Organic food is often more expensive than conventionally-grown food. But if you set some priorities, it may be possible to purchase organic food and stay within your food budget.

Some types of conventionally-grown produce are much higher in pesticides than others, and should be avoided. Others are low enough that buying non-organic is relatively safe. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that analyzes the results of government pesticide testing in the U.S., offers an annually-updated list that can help guide your choices.

According to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that analyzes the results of government pesticide testing in the U.S., the following fruits and vegetables have the highest pesticide levels so are best to buy organic:

Known as the Clean 15, these conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables are generally low in pesticides.

While prominent organizations such as the American Heart Association maintain that eating saturated fat from any source increases the risk of heart disease, other nutrition experts maintain that eating organic grass-fed meat and organic dairy products doesnt carry the same risks. Its not the saturated fat thats the problem, they say, but the unnatural diet of an industrially-raised animal that includes corn, hormones, and medication.

According to Animal Feed, conventionally raised animals in U.S. can be given:

Shop at farmers markets. Many cities, as well as small towns, host a weekly farmers market, where local farmers sell their produce at an open-air street market, often at a discount to grocery stores.

Join a food co-op. A natural foods co-op, or cooperative grocery store typically offers lower prices to members, who pay an annual fee to belong

Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, in which individuals and families join up to purchase shares of produce in bulk, directly from a local farm. Local and organic!

Buy in season Fruits and vegetables are cheapest and freshest when they are in season. Find out when produce is delivered to your market so youre buying the freshest food possible.

Shop around Compare the price of organic items at the grocery store, the farmers market and other venues (even the freezer aisle).

Remember that organic doesnt always equal healthy Making junk food sound healthy is a common marketing ploy in the food industry but organic baked goods, desserts, and snacks are usually still very high in sugar, salt, fat, or calories. It pays to read food labels carefully.

Organic food is more labor intensive since the farmers do not use pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or drugs. Organic certification is expensive and organic feed for animals can cost twice as much. Organic farms tend to be smaller than conventional farms, which means fixed costs and overhead must be distributed across smaller produce volumes without government subsidies.

To find farmers markets, organic farms, and grocery co-ops in your area, visit:

Authors: Lawrence Robinson, Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., and Robert Segal, M.A. Last updated: June 2019.

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Organic Foods: What You Need to Know - HelpGuide.org

Online learning has become an integral component of higher education, as is evident by the steady emergence and growth of online course offerings and online academic and professional degree programs. In most fields and disciplines, students can take advantage of a broad range of online learning opportunities, from individual online courses to fully online undergraduate, certificate, and graduate programs. However, choosing from among the many options for advancing ones academic and career goals through an online program can be a challenge.

OnlineEducation.com researches and classifies online programs, tracks technological and pedagogical innovations in online instruction, interviews experts in the field, and publishes comprehensive, up-to-date information on various types of online degrees and programs. The site is designed to provide students with a definitive and expansive guide to online learning, to function as a practical resource for those who may be considering online educational opportunities, and to reduce the challenges inherent in choosing from among the growing number and types of online programs.

Note: All programs listed on the site are offered by accredited, non-profit colleges and universities. Programs offered by schools that lack proper accreditation and programs offered by for-profit colleges and universities are not included. In addition, programs on the site must offer all or most of their instruction online. See below to learn more about online vs. hybrid programs.

Online education is not a new phenomenon. It has its roots in distance education and the emergence of digital technologies that facilitate the efficient and reliable delivery of lectures, virtual classroom sessions, and other instructional materials and activities via the Internet. Advances in online learning management systems (LMSs) and instructional platforms, combined with persistent demand for affordable, high-quality education that is accessible to students who cannot or would prefer not to relocate or commute to a college campus, have positioned online instruction as a thriving and viable alternative to traditional campus-based instruction.

As a result, online learning, online courses, and online degree programs are an increasingly common feature in the realm of higher education. Most large public and private universities now offer online courses and many have fully or partially online undergraduate and/or graduate programs. In addition, a growing number of smaller colleges and universities have incorporated online learning options and are developing online courses and degree programs to enhance existing academic programs and to extend their reach to non-traditional students.

Recent findings, including a 2017 Brookings Institution report on the state of online education, suggest that a third of all students in the US will take at least one online course while in college. Data collected by the US Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics for its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) indicates that enrollment in online courses and degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels has been increasing steadily since 2013, when the overall number of students engaged in some type of online learning was roughly 5.3 million. As of the most recent available data, that number had risen to over 6.7 million, an increase from roughly one quarter to almost one third of all students.

The table below further illustrates the growth of online learning and the steady increase in online course and degree program enrollment over a five-year period, from 2013-2017. While the total number of students enrolled in college and university programs has remained relatively stable at roughly 20.5 million, an analysis of IPEDS data indicates that the number of students enrolled in online courses and in fully online programs grew by more than 1.4 million, from nearly 26 percent to almost 33 percent of all students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

In practical terms, the data suggest that students currently enrolled in a college or university program and those who are considering a bachelors or graduate degree program are likely to have opportunities to take online courses, as well as options for pursuing a degree through a fully or partially online program. At the undergraduate level, for example, an analysis of the IPEDS data reveals that the proportion of undergraduates enrolled exclusively in online courses had reached 12.98 percent by 2017 (up from 10.19 percent in 2013). Over that same period of time, the percentage of students enrolled in at least one online course rose from 12.57 percent to over 27 percent or more than one in four students.

Similarly, professionals with a bachelors or a masters degree who are considering going back to school to add new skills, advance in their current field, and/or switch careers can typically do so from their home or office through online courses and degree programs in many if not most areas of study. As an indication of that trend, the number of graduate students who completed some or all of their courses online grew from just under 30 percent to 37.95 percent from 2013 to 2017. Within that data, the segment of graduate students who completed their degree exclusively online went from 22% to nearly 29% over that same period.

Career advice, academic guidance, and personal insights from leading women in business, engineering, science, technology, and other historically male-dominated fields, coupled with in-depth investigative reporting on workforce trends, academic training, and more. Read More

OnlineEducation.com aims to equip current and aspiring students with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about online degree programs. Appling to and potentially enrolling in an online or a campus-based undergraduate or graduate program involves making important and consequential decisions that can have short- and long-term implications financially, personally, and professionally. There are many factors to consider, some of which may be unique to online learning while others are not. Addressing these factors in order to simplify the decision-making process for those interested in pursing an online degree program is one of the primary goals of this site.

Among the relevant variables and differentiating factors that are important to consider when choosing an online program are issues related to instructional methods, enrollment options, and program structure. Understanding the importance of accreditation and state authorizations can also be helpful for reasons detailed in the sections below.

Online programs use digital platforms to stream lectures and deliver course materials via the Internet, which means that students must have the proper technology to engage in online learning and complete online coursework. Technology requirements vary by program, but a secure Internet connection and a functional laptop or desktop computer is generally adequate. Some programs may also utilize mobile apps, which can be advantageous for students who commute to work and like to study on the go.

However, students should be aware that there are two different modes of delivery of online courses: synchronous and asynchronous instruction. The instructional method determines whether or not students must be logged on to a programs LMS at specific times for lectures and other class activities. Synchronous instruction takes place in real-time, so programs and courses that utilize this mode of instruction have scheduled meeting times for classes. In contrast, asynchronous instruction does not have a real-time component and allows students to access pre-recorded lectures and presentations at their convenience, 24-7.

Synchronous instruction provides more structure as it more closely resembles traditional classroom instruction, but also provides less scheduling flexibility. In contrast, asynchronous instruction offers more scheduling flexibility, but requires more self-discipline and self-motivation to keep up with lectures and assignments. Students should choose a program that offers the type of instruction method they think will best fit their own personal learning style.

Online programs are generally designed to accommodate students who have work or other commitments outside of school. However, enrollment policies vary by program, which can be an important consideration when choosing an online program. For example, some programs have fixed full-time and/or part-time tracks and course sequences, which determine the number of courses students are expected to complete per term and the order in which all or most of those courses must be completed. Other programs have flexible enrollment policies, allowing students the freedom to select the number of courses they take per term within certain limits.

Full-time enrollment allows students to complete their degree in less time, but requires taking more courses per term. Part-time enrollment allows students to take fewer courses per term, but students take longer to earn their degree. Students should carefully review their personal and professional obligations to determine if they have the time to pursue a program full-time or if part-time would be a better option.

A consumer guide to online degree programs, featuring interviews with experts on the mechanics of online learning, detailed reporting about trends in online education, and insider advice for choosing an online degree program. Read More

The traditional academic calendar begins in the fall and encompasses two 15-week semesters (fall and spring) and, in some cases, a shorter summer session. Some online programs adhere to this schedule, offering courses two or three time per year and giving students the option of several annual start dates. There are also programs that operate on a quarterly system, offering four ten-week terms per year.

However, there a many online degree programs that utilize alternative academic calendars, offering courses five, six, or more times per year during shorter terms that last four, five, six, or eight weeks. These programs may have more start dates and they typically allow students to take just one or two courses per term without significantly extending the time it takes to earn a degree.

While the overall time to completion is typically the same for programs that use traditional versus alternative academic calendars, the student experience can be different. In a masters program that uses a traditional calendar, full-time students often take three courses over a 15-week semester, which means they must complete readings and assignments for three courses concurrently. Programs that use five-week terms compress 15-weeks of learning into five weeks, allowing students to focus on one course at a time while completing three courses sequentially in the span of a traditional 15-week semester.

While the overall completion time does not change, the number of hours a student should expect to devote to classes and coursework per week also does not change based on the format, as it is more dependent on full-time versus part-time enrollment. For example, students who are working full-time may prefer part-time enrollment where they take one or two courses per 15-week period, which can reduce the number of hours required for schoolwork per week. Whereas programs that use 5-week terms, where students take one course per term, do not really have full-time versus part-time enrollment options. Students should expect a full-time course load every term. For students who enroll full-time, the difference is probably not as significant.

Institutional accreditation, which is administered by seven regional boards, is a relevant consideration for any type of degree program. It serves as an assurance that the school offering the program meets or exceeds general standards for quality and integrity in the field of higher education.

Selecting an online program offered by a regionally accredited college or university is a reliable way to ensure that the school offering the program has undergone formal institutional assessment and has demonstrated that it possesses the resources deemed necessary to properly administer undergraduate and/or graduate degree programs. Institutional accreditation can also be helpful for students who need to transfer credits from one program to another, as schools are generally more likely to accept credits earned in programs offered by accredited institutions. Finally, the federal government and some state agencies may require schools to be accredited in order for students to receive certain types financial aid and loans.

In addition to institutional accreditation, some types of degree programs may receive programmatic accreditation. Programmatic accreditation is administered and granted by national organizations in fields such as business, counseling, nursing, psychology, and social work. Selecting an online program that has programmatic accreditation can be advantageous in several ways. In fields that require licensure, programmatic accreditation may serve to assure students that a programs curriculum provides adequate training for eventual licensure. It can also provide potential employers with assurance that graduates from that program are prepared for work in a particular field, and assure students that a program offers coursework and other types of training (clinical practicums, professional residencies, field education, and/or labs) designed to properly prepare graduates for a professional career in that field.

A series of state-by-state reports that provide an overview of accredited public and non-profit private colleges and universities offering online masters degree programs in many of the most common fields and areas of graduate study, including business, computer science, education, engineering, healthcare, nursing, and social work.

One of the inherent advantages of online learning is that it allows students who do not live near a college or university to earn an undergraduate or graduate degree without having to relocate or commute to classes. It also gives applicants a broader range of potential options to explore for earning a degree in a particular field, which can be particularly helpful in cases where there are no local school offering a particular type of degree program. Many but not all online degree programs accept qualified applicants regardless of where they reside, and some programs charge the same tuition for in-state and out-of-state online students.

Note: While many programs charge the same tuition for in-state and out-of-state online students, there are programs that charge higher rates for students who are not residents of the state. Tuition differentials for in-state and out-of-state online students are more commonly found at public universities than at private schools, although this is not always the case. Students interested in out-of-state programs should research tuition costs to make sure they have the most up-to-date information before applying.

However, colleges and universities offering online degree programs typically must receive formal authorization from a states board of education in order to enroll students who live in that state. In other words, a school must be authorized by the state in order to enroll students from that state.

The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) is attempting to address problems related to online programs receiving authorization in all 50 states and other US territories. However, some online programs may choose not to accept applicants from certain states for a number of reasons, including the complexities of the state authorization process. Certain types of online degree programs, particularly programs that require field placements, supervised internships, and clinical residencies, may also restrict admissions eligibility to students who reside in some but not all states.

Potential applicants to online programs offered by out-of-state schools should research state authorizations carefully prior to submitting applications. For programs that require on-site, in-person field placements, internships, and/or residencies it is also advisable to contact a program administrator regarding these requirements prior to applying. Finally, because licensure requirements in many professions vary by state, potential applicants to out-of-state online programs in fields that require state licensure should make sure that a programs curriculum provides adequate training for eventual licensure in their state.

There are many online degree programs that do not require students to attend any on-campus sessions. However, some programs incorporate a limited number of campus visits and/or other in-person instructional sessions. There are also hybrid programs that offer some courses online and others on campus or have courses that utilize a mix of online and on-campus instruction. While there are no universal standards for what constitutes an online program versus a hybrid program, programs that require students to take entire courses on campus for one or more terms are generally considered to be hybrid programs. OnlineEducation.com researches program formats and classifies programs accordingly; programs that require student attendance at more than two or three campus sessions per year are not currently listed on the site.

In-person orientations, workshops, labs, networking sessions, and other campus-based activities can enhance the online learning experience. They provide opportunities to meet face-to-face with instructors and classmates and may help students forge a connection with the college or university offering the program. Additionally, hands-on training may be necessary or preferable in some fields. By utilizing a limited number of campus visits or a hybrid format, schools can offer students the convenience and flexibility associated with online instruction, while providing complementary and/or necessary in-person instruction.

However, campus visits, which can last from two or three days to a week to ten days, require travel, which may be inconvenient and/or burdensome for some students. In addition, attending campus-based sessions and short-term residencies can add travel and lodging expenses to the cost of earning an online degree. Potential applicants should factor these additional costs into the overall expense of an online program prior to submitting an application.

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