The author of The Power of Now reveals the things that keep us continually frazzledand how to remove them from our lives. Peace is one of the most important human experiences. If you don't have peace, then you're not able to appreciate whatever else you do have. In fact, you may not even be able to recognize the good in your life because you have not recognized the good in yourselfyet. Here are a few things that may be getting your way: 1. You Mistake Peace for Unconsciousness Sometimes people feel peaceful when they become very tired. Others think that peace is what you feel after having a few drinks or taking drugs. (People use these substances, because they long for inner stillness and quiet.) Being half asleep or desensitized by drugs or a few glasses of wine can keep you from feeling your anxiety, fear, anger, resentment or worry. But this relief only lasts a short time. That turmoil is still therebecause peace is not unconsciousness. Peace is not being asleep or being numb. It's the opposite. It's a state of heightened aliveness, when we become more conscious rather than less, and this requires an awareness of the kinds of thoughts that habitually go through your mind. 2. You Mistake Peace for Happiness Many people think of happiness as a goal, something you're working toward that will eventually make you feel good or at peace with your life. To me, however, happiness is usually associated with a high that occurs when something nice happens. You feel happy when you get the job or find a $100 bill on the street. You feel happy leaving for vacation. But very often the vacation doesn't turn out the way it's supposed to, or it comes to an end, or while on that vacation you only think about the problems you're going to find when you come back home. In all of these cases, the happiness is temporary. After a while it subsides, and then, quite often, you'll even feel suddenly low. Because happiness isn't peace.

Happiness is actually quite superficial, whereas peace is deeper. Peace is immune to the polarities of life: the highs and lows, the hots and colds, the so-called goods and so-called bads. This is why peace is so crucial. Nobody goes through life without encountering all these experiences, inspiring or upsetting. When someone close to you dies or you have a health problem or you lose our possessions, you probably can't feel happy. Nobody could. But do you need to feel in absolute despair? Do you need to feel devastated? If you are at peace and connected with that deeper level in you, those kind of emotional extremes don't occur. You'll have a calm that is not affected by whatever happens in the world, because you have an acceptance and understanding of whatever happens in the world.

Next: Are you looking the right way?

Go here to read the rest:
Eckhart Tolle: Why You Aren't At Peace Right Now - oprah.com

IACS Conference 2016

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the 15th International Conference on Children's Spirituality - Spirituality and the whole child: interdisciplinary approaches which will be hosted by Dr Kate Adams at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK.

It will run from Tuesday 26 July Friday 29 July 2016. We welcome abstracts for a range of papers, presentations and workshops on the conference theme, and on childrens spirituality more widely.

Our international key note speakers will be:

Please join us for a thought-provoking and stimulating conference, set in the heart of the beautiful, historic city of Lincoln.

For more details see http://www.bishopg.ac.uk/childspirituality

Download the call for papers here.

On Saturday 4th October, IACS hosted a day event for UK members and other professionals interested in children's and young people's spirituality. 35 delegates attended the event, held at Woodbrooke Study centre in Birmingham. The event was well received and it provided a great opportunity for networking and learning together. A selection of photos can be found in the member's area.

A personal reflection on the day can be read here.

The 14th International Conference on Children's Spirituality was held in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela between 7th and 11th of July 2014. The theme was: 'Our children need peace: the role of the arts, ecology and social networks in children's spirituality'. A small number of scholars and practitioners (including a number of children) took part in a week of papers, workshops and discussion on topics of spirituality, digital culture and the arts.

For the sake of Children: hidden forms of power in caring for children's spirituality.

This conference was held in Leuven, Belgium between 10th and 13th July 2013. It was hosted by Professor Annemie Dillen and explored the complex relation between care and issues of power in situations where children's spirituality is at stake.

This conference was held at East Anglia University in Norwich, U.K. between 1st and 5th July 2012. The theme was 'Spirituality and Physicality: Crossing Thresholds' and was inspired by the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Photographs, videos and slideshow presentations from the conference are now available from the member's area.

Click on images to enlarge:

The Politics of Children's Spirituality

The 11th International conference on Children's Spirituality was held between 1st and 5th August in Richmond, Virginia, USA.

Photos and videos from the conference are now available from the member's area.

Click on images to enlarge:

At the AGM, the constitution was ratified and a copy can be found in the members area.

It was also proposed and agreed that the association should now be known as the 'International Association for Children's Spirituality' and any correspondence from now on will bear this name.

This conference took place at the The Hong Kong Institute of Education (Tai Po Campus) between 19th -23rd July 2010.The theme was Spirituality and Resilience.

Conference information as well as photo albums and and a short media clip of events are available in the member's area.

Click on images to enlarge:

See original here:
The International Association for Children's Spirituality ...

Dr. Jacob Liberman is a pioneer in the fields of light, vision and consciousness, and author of Light: Medicine of the Future, Take Off Your Glasses and See, and Wisdom From an Empty Mind. He earned a Doctorate of Optometry from Southern College of Optometry, a Ph.D. in Vision Science from the College of Syntonic Optometry, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the Open International University for Complementary Medicines. He is a Fellow Emeritus of the American Academy of Optometry, College of Optometrists in Vision Development, College of Syntonic Optometry and International Academy of Color Sciences, and Past President of the College of Syntonic Optometry. He is also the recipient of the H.R. Spitler Award for his pioneering contributions to the field of phototherapy. Dr. Liberman has shared his discoveries and insights with more than 2,000 audiences worldwide and been enthusiastically endorsed by luminaries in the fields of health, science, spirituality and sports. He is the inventor of the Color Receptivity Trainer, Spectral Receptivity System and EYEPORT Vision Training System, the first FDA-cleared medical device that significantly improves visual performance. Dr. Liberman is the Founder of Exercise Your Eyes, Inc. and President of the International Society For The Study Of Subtle Energies And Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM). He is a faculty member of the Institute for Scientific Exploration and serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Science, Spirituality and Sustainability. His most recent project, EYELIGHT, will revolutionize our understanding of how light interacts with the body by evaluating the composition of light entering and exiting the eyes.

Follow this link:
Who is Dr. Jacob Liberman? | JacobLiberman.org

The friction between science and religion stretches from Galileos famous letter to todays leading thinkers. And yet were seeing that, for all its capacity for ignorance, religion might have some valuable lessons for secular thought and the two need not be regarded as opposites.

In 1996, mere months before his death, the great Carl Sagan cosmic sage, voracious reader, hopeless romantic explored the relationship between the scientific and the spiritual in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (public library). He writes:

Plainly there is no way back. Like it or not, we are stuck with science. We had better make the best of it. When we finally come to terms with it and fully recognize its beauty and its power, we will find, in spiritual as well as in practical matters, that we have made a bargain strongly in our favor.

But superstition and pseudoscience keep getting in the way, distracting us, providing easy answers, dodging skeptical scrutiny, casually pressing our awe buttons and cheapening the experience, making us routine and comfortable practitioners as well as victims of credulity.

And yet science, Sagan argues, isnt diametrically opposed to spirituality. He echoes Ptolemys timeless awe at the cosmos and reflects on what Richard Dawkins has called the magic of reality, noting the intense spiritual elevation that science is capable of producing:

In its encounter with Nature, science invariably elicits a sense of reverence and awe. The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the Cosmos. And the cumulative worldwide build-up of knowledge over time converts science into something only a little short of a trans-national, trans-generational meta-mind.

Spirit comes from the Latin word to breathe. What we breathe is air, which is certainly matter, however thin. Despite usage to the contrary, there is no necessary implication in the word spiritual that we are talking of anything other than matter (including the matter of which the brain is made), or anything outside the realm of science. On occasion, I will feel free to use the word. Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or of acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

Reminding us once again of his timeless wisdom on the vital balance between skepticism and openness and the importance of evidence, Sagan goes on to juxtapose the accuracy of science with the unfounded prophecies of religion:

Not every branch of science can foretell the future paleontology cant but many can and with stunning accuracy. If you want to know when the next eclipse of the Sun will be, you might try magicians or mystics, but youll do much better with scientists. They will tell you where on Earth to stand, when you have to be there, and whether it will be a partial eclipse, a total eclipse, or an annular eclipse. They can routinely predict a solar eclipse, to the minute, a millennium in advance. You can go to the witch doctor to lift the spell that causes your pernicious anaemia, or you can take vitamin Bl2. If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate. If youre interested in the sex of your unborn child, you can consult plumb-bob danglers all you want (left-right, a boy; forward-back, a girl or maybe its the other way around), but theyll be right, on average, only one time in two. If you want real accuracy (here, 99 per cent accuracy), try amniocentesis and sonograms. Try science.

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? There isnt a religion on the planet that doesnt long for a comparable ability precise, and repeatedly demonstrated before committed skeptics to foretell future events. No other human institution comes close.

Nearly two decades after The Demon-Haunted World, Sagans son, Dorion, made a similar and similarly eloquent case for why science and philosophy need each other. Complement it with this meditation on science vs. scripture and the difference between curiosity and wonder.

See original here:
Carl Sagan on Science and Spirituality Brain Pickings

According to many spiritual teachers, all human beings are, in reality, spiritual beings on a human journey. We reincarnate as human beings in order to evolve as souls.

Our ultimate aim is to become fully conscious and capable as unique individual expressions of All That Is.

It is a long journey, but thats okay because the soul is eternal.

The souls journey is really a process of evolving. This means growing in consciousness, steadily progressing through different levels or stages of consciousness.

How do we grow in consciousness? Through taking on challenging experiences in physical form. These cause us to make important, soul-searching choices and call upon us to discover our inner resources.

But why in physical form? Why would a perfectly happy spiritual being decide to inhabit the physical realm with all of its limitations and difficulties?

It is precisely so that we can experience the state of what feels like total separation from others and from the rest of reality. Only by going into this physically separated human form can we know ourselves as beings in our own right, and not just as well undifferentiated blobs of energy. Being physical throws our experiences and choices into extremely sharp relief in a way that is not possible otherwise. This is how we learn who we are and how to become all that we are.

In other words:

Choice and the ramifications of choice provide the essential lessons of life. In a very real sense, you choose to be here in order to make choices.

Messages from Michael

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

We are here to know ourselves and be all we can be, step by step. And according to the teachings of the entity known as Michael, there are 35 steps to the reincarnational process. The body and personality you have now are merely the vehicles you have chosen for this latest step in your journey.

But why 35 steps?Why not 36 steps? Or 10? Or 100?

It is simply because, according to Michael, we go through five major stages of evolution through reincarnation. And, within each stage there are seven increments or levels to be completed. (Yes, it is rather like a computer game.)

5 x 7 = 35.

Each single step requires a whole lifetime to complete. In fact, each step usually requires more than one lifetime. Typically, the entire journey of 35 steps takes well over a hundred lifetimes.

So lets look at the journey in more detail. Well start with the five major stages of soul evolution through reincarnation.

The Michael teachings describe a sequence of five cycles or stages of soul evolution. They are named after the stages of human development:

Each of these five corresponds to a specific level of development in capability and self-awareness within the individual soul.As the soul goes through each stage, thefocuschanges,moreexperience is gained, and consciousness expands.

Incidentally, the same pattern of soul evolution has been identified by the hypnotherapist Michael Newton (right). His groundbreaking research was published in the best-selling book Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives (Llewellyn, 1994).

The books by Newton and his students draw upon thousands of transcripts of people who, under hypnotic regression, have re-experienced being between lives. From the higher perspective of their soul they are able to explain what happens after death and before birth. This includes information about the levels of consciousness through which reincarnating souls evolve.

What Newton and others have discovered is that souls between lives exist in light-form, and that each soul emanates a particular colour of the spectrum which indicates its current level of consciousness.

The spectrum begins at white (all colours) but then goes through red, yellow, green, blue, to deep purple and violet. From low frequency to high frequency. The least evolved souls the newbies have a pinkish hue. The oldest souls those nearing the end of the whole reincarnational cycle have a blueish hue.

Although the spectrum is a continuum, Dr. Newton has found that it can be divided into five distinct stages or levels of evolvement, from Level I to Level V. These can be mapped onto the five stages given in the Michael teachings, from Infant soul to Old soul.

So, for example, souls in the middle (or third) stage of reincarnation are referred to as Young souls in the Michael teachings and they are at what Newton would call Level III. They will have a yellowish or golden hue.

(As an aside, both Newton and the Michael entity also identify higher levels of soul evolution which do not involve reincarnation.)

The stages of reincarnation (or soul age) can also be likened to the stages of metamorphosis we see in nature, such as egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. In reincarnation, though, what changes is not the physical form but the mode of consciousness, especially the form of self-awareness and as a result the way of relating to others.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Soul age affects how anindividual lives, thinks, acts, andcomes across to others.

Stage 1 Infant Souls

Infant souls focus on immediate survival needs.They flourish in simple environments close to nature, such as remote tribes or rural, pastoral settings.

In the context of modern society, however, they can come across as uncivilised simpletons or yokels, and may even be deemed to be psychopathic or have some sort of developmental disorder.

Psychologically, infant soulsare naive, impulsive and pre-conventional, acting on impulse or habit with little or no thought for consequences.

Because they lack both social understanding and self-inhibition, they are capable of committing antisocial or immoral acts without any sense of wrongdoing. As such, they do not fit well within modern society and may end up in prison or in psychiatric units.

While they may lack the moral principles, social graces and cultural understanding of older souls,Infant souls are in a sense completely innocent, being without pretense or agenda.

Stage 2 Baby Souls

In contrast to Infant souls, Baby souls think a great deal about the rights and wrongs of their actions.Their lives are about safety, security, structure and order rigidly so.They like to live incommunities that arehighly principled and civilized (think of the Amish).

Baby souls come across to older souls as rather square strictlyconventional and conformist. Both their beliefs and their actions are largely rule-bound, so they are often ultra-conservative, traditionalist, orthodox, upright, moralistic, religiously devout, and mindful of law and order.

That said, they will occasionally give in to temptation, or temper tantrum, and break the rules themselves but then might find themselves tortured with guilt and shame.

They are acutely aware of the rights and wrongs of peoples actions, including their own, though they have little insight into the motives behind them. Bad behaviour is sinful, and thats that.

Stage 3 Young Souls

Young souls tend to be extravert, outward-bound, worldly, frenetically energetic, brash, competitive, political, ambitious and individualistic. Life at this stage is about thinking for oneself andassertingoneself as an individual.

Young soulsare more ego-driven than others, keen to make their markin the world. They are generally attracted to some form of worldly success fame, fortune, power, glory. In fact, they are more fearful of death than souls at other stages, and those who arent sure about life after death may be anxious to make a big impact on the world stage, to create some kind of symbolic immortality for themselves.

Young souls cling to their ownopinions, with a certainty that their own perspective is the right perspective, and their way ahead is by far the best way.Theyare veryaware of their own agendabut do not really question it.

Stage 4 Mature souls

Mature souls tend to be more reflectivethan younger souls, with a growingunderstandingof self, growingempathyfor others, and a desire for authenticity in both. Life is less about proving oneself, and more about exploring right relationship.

Mature soulconsciousness is no longer egocentric, in the sense of being limited to ones ownperspective and agenda, but is capable of accommodating multiple perspectives and different agendas. In fact, there is now atension between what I want and appreciating what you want, or between the personal and the interpersonal.

Thismakes life much more complicated sometimes overwhelmingly so. On the one hand, mature souls reject narrow-minded values. Yet on the other hand, they are able toempathise with whoever holds those same values. Fixed opinions are replaced by a sense of ever-shifting perspectives It all depends on how you look at it.

This disappearance of solid ground can behugely stressful, but it kicks off a search for deeper meaning and self-understanding, whether through art, psychology, philosophy or spirituality.

Mature soulstend to question everything, including their own motives, and are prone to do a lot of soul-searching (literally).

Stage 5 Old Souls

Old souls tend to exude some degree of depth, gravitas or wisdom that is quite obvious. In children, it can be most striking (think: old head on young shoulders) For having moved beyond the stresses and conflicts of the Mature soul, Old soulshave a growing sense of inner peaceand freedom the freedom to enjoy being very much in the world, but not of it.

Compared to younger souls theyare relatively calm, measured, untroubled and stable, unattached to social structures and cultural expectations, being sure of their own existence and inner strengths and their compassion for others.

On the other hand, finding themselvesin a world that is so conflicted, chaotic, frantic, and superficial can be utterlydepressing.

ForOld souls, the aimof life is to findtrue self-expression and fulfillment. As such, they tend to go their own unique way in life, letting go and letting be, in a detached way that may seem very weird and eccentric to younger souls.

Late-stage old souls find themselvesconsciously participating in the evolution of all-that-is, and often focus on teaching spiritual wisdom with great compassion.

Note: These descriptions emphasise the differences between stages. In reality, though, there is a gradual blend from one stage to the next. A person at the start of the Mature stage, for example, will act mostly like a Young soul but with elements of Mature soul nature beginning to emerge.

Here are the five stages of soul evolution through human reincarnation, together with the typical learning experiences associated with each stage:

So we begin reincarnating as Infant souls, complete novices at physical existence. At this first stage we are largely in a state of incompetence and terror, frankly. But through experiences and choices we learn and grow. We steadily progress from being Infant souls to Baby souls to Young souls to Mature souls. Finally, we enter the fifth stage as accomplished Old souls, the experts of human existence.

As infant souls we learned about choices having to do with survival, as baby souls choices having to do with moral codes and ethics, as young souls choices having to do with mastery of achievement, as mature souls choices having to do with relationships, and as old souls choices having to do with the nature of oneness with the Tao. An infant soul would therefore not understand the choices of an old soul although an older soul would likely have more understanding of the nature of younger soul choice having had them.

Michael, via Victoria Marina

To look at each stage in more detail see:

Stage 1. The Infant Soul

Stage 2. The Baby Soul

Stage 3. The Young Soul

Stage 4. The Mature Soul

Stage 5. The Old Soul

The six or seven billion people on the planet span the whole range of stages, but the average is said to be somewhere just past the mid-point of stage 3 (see chart below). In other words, this world is currently dominated by Young souls whose primary focus is competitive self-advancement.

Within each stage there are seven discrete steps to go through. In the Michael teachings, they are called levels, so in each stage we proceed from 1st level to 7th level. Calling these levels can be a bit confusing (since Newton refers to the five major stages as levels), so I sometimes prefer to call them steps.

So each stage of reincarnation has seven distinct learning steps. For example, we begin the whole journey at step 1 as Infant souls, learn that lesson, then undertake step 2 as Infant souls, and so on. On completing the 7th step of the Infant stage, we then begin the 1st step of the Baby stage.

The early steps in any stage are about experiencing life at this new stage of evolution, learning the essential lessons through appropriate experiences.

The later steps are about expressing those lessons, demonstrating this level of consciousness in action.

For example, in the Young soul stage, the first three steps from 1st level Young soul to 3rd level Young soul are about discovering the meaning of free will and self-determination; the last three steps 5th level Young soul to 7th level Young soul are about demonstrating the meaning of free will and self-determination in action. (The middle step 4th level Young soul is about consolidating the lessons learned.)

The first step or level of any stage is like putting a toe in the water; the final step is like teaching others how to swim:

This sequence of seven steps is repeated through each stage, making 35 steps in all from the beginning of reincarnation to the end.

In case youre wondering, Im at the 5th level of the Mature soul stage. My current lifes lesson is about outwardly expressing my Mature soul consciousness.

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

So, we start our evolutionary journey at level 1 of stage I (as 1st Level Infant souls) and end it at level 7 of stage 5 (as 7th Level Old souls).

There are 35 steps in all. And each single step requires at least one lifetime to complete.

A single step can be done in one lifetime but often thats too big a stretch, so an initial life may undertaken as a taster, followed by one or two more which really go for it.

Sometimes a life is interrupted, and the soul will just have to start over in the next life. Also, some lives are undertaken for reasons other than the specific intent to develop. For example, one lifetime might be undertaken primarily to assist another soul in their development. And some lives are taken on primarily for the death experience, for karmic reasons. These can be very short, of the order of days, weeks or months.

Taking into account all the gaps spent in the non-physical state between lives, a single step is typically accomplished in about 100-300 years of Earth time.

The whole journey of 35 steps usually takes well over 100 lifetimes. Hence, the whole journey is likely to take of the order of 7,000-8,000 years, but possibly a lot more if the population is low and opportunities to incarnate are few.

You cannot skip any of the steps, nor would you want to (from the souls perspective). You wouldnt rent a movie but then skip to the final credits just to avoid the whole process of sitting through the movie. In fact, its more like a computer game. You are playing the game because you want to, and at some level you actually love it. And you know perfectly well that you need to master one level before you can move on to the next level. Thats what the game is all about.

Theres no tyrannical deity controlling the game, forcing you to keep at it, deciding who gets to graduate and who doesnt. Its just the natural dynamic of life and the evolution of consciousness. A tadpole cannot suddenly transform into a full-grown frog. A baby human cannot suddenly take on a professional career or family responsibilities. Theres a natural, inevitable sequence to go through. And weve all signed up for it.

Well, at the level of spirit or essence, all is one, all is love, all is joy. This is all very nice, but consciousness longs to experience more and more of what there is to experience, the utter richness and fullness of life.

By fragmenting into zillions of conscious entities, each of whom has its own experiences and perspective, and each of whom can make its own choices about what to experience. Any soul can choose to continue being submerged in all-that-is, albeit with little sense of self. Alternatively, any soul can choose to undergo the experience of life in a separate physical form, interacting with other souls in their own physical forms. This is the ultimate way to experience oneself as a self.

We have all made this choice: to use the human form as a vehicle to help us become more conscious of ourselves as the amazing beings we are. The aim is to experience every possible experience that enables us to emerge more and more consciously and fearlessly as ourselves. We begin as helpless infants for whom the experience of separate existence is quite terrifying. But we end as autonomous, self-realised beings for whom human existence is the most amazing way of being, feeling joyful and free and sharing love with the whole of life.

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Reincarnation: the 35 steps of - Personality & Spirituality

Question: Is it possible to have a friendship with the ego? Or a friendship between the false I and the real I? ET: The ego, in the way I use the term, isnt really the ego if you recognize it. In other words, if the ego is operating in you, you wont even know it. []

Question: Im 34 years old and have a good job and a good home; Im married to awonderful man. I have bad anxiety, and I have no idea what I want from my life. I havelow self-esteem and I get defensive easily. Im rarely content or grateful. My thinking is sonegative. I need approval from []

There are many accounts of people who experienced that emerging new dimension ofconsciousness as a result of tragic loss at some point in their lives. Some lost all of theirpossessions, others their children or spouse, their social position, reputation, or physicalabilities. In some cases, through disaster or war, they lost all of these simultaneouslyand found []

The mind exists in a state of not enough and so is always greedy for more. When youare identified with mind, you get bored and restless very easily. Boredom means themind is hungry for more stimulus, more food for thought, and its hunger is not beingsatisfied. When you feel bored, you can satisfy the minds []

You cannot see space, of course, nor can you hear, touch, taste, or smell it, so how doyou even know it exists? This logical-sounding question already contains a fundamentalerror. The essence of space is no-thingness, so it doesnt exist in the normal sense ofthe word. Only thingsformsexist. Even calling it space can be misleading because []

What is a negative emotion? An emotion that is toxic to the body and interferes with itsbalance and harmonious functioning. Fear, anxiety, anger, bearing a grudge, sadness,hatred or intense dislike, jealousy, envyall disrupt the energy flow through the body,affect the heart, the immune system, digestion, production of hormones, and so on. Even mainstream medicine, although []

Read more here:
Eckhart Tolle | news

Rev. Michael Dowd is a former pastor, sustainable communities organizer, and bestselling pro-future evangelist, whosework has been featured inThe New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television nationally. His book, Thank God for Evolution, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, noted skeptics, and religious leaders across the spectrum. Michael has delivered two TEDx talks and a program at the United Nations. He has also conducted two acclaimed online conversation series: "The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity" and "The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness". Dowd's passion for proclaiming a pro-science and Nature-honoring message of inspiration what he calls "the gospel of right relationship to Reality" has earned him the moniker 'Rev. Reality', as he speaks prophetically in secular and religious settings about our sacred responsibility to future generations.

Connie Barlow is a science writer, evolutionary educator, and professional audio, video, and text editor. Her 2001 book, The Ghosts of Evolution (Basic Books), was Amazon.com's top-recommended science book for several months. Her previous books, Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science (Copernicus Books), Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life (MIT Press), and From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected Writings in the Life Sciences (MIT Press), all explore the nexus of science, meaning, and inspiration. Now mostly retired from speaking, Connie is a leader in the rapidly emerging field of assisted migration. (See her "Climate, Trees, and Legacy" video blog.)

Michael and Connie both climate hawks have spoken to more than 2,000 groups throughout North America since 2002: from Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical Christian churches; to skeptic, freethinker, and atheist gatherings; to grade school, high school, college, and university classrooms; to New Thought, New Age, Pagan, and Eastern Spirituality venues. They have had an especially large impact within the Unitarian Universalist Association, as they've spoken in nearly half of all the UU churches and fellowships in the United States (450+) and their work was featured on the cover of the UUA national membership magazine, the UU WORLD, twice: in 1997 and again in 2006.

2016

BASECAMPS... - Michael: January 1 - March 18, 2016 - Salt Lake City, UT - Connie: January 1 - March 21, 2016 - Fort Payne, AL - Both MD & CB: March 21 - April 14, 2016 - Fort Payne, AL - Both MD & CB: April 17 - May 31 - Cullowhee, NC

UTAH

WYOMING

OKLAHOMA

ALABAMA

BASECAMP: March 21 - April 14 - Ft. Payne, AL (Lookout Mountain)

GEORGIA

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

BASECAMP: April 17 - May 31 - Cullowhee, NC

KENTUCKY

OHIO

THE SECOND HALF OF 2016

We expect to either be based in New Mexico (July-Aug-Sept) and then the Pacific Northwest (Oct-Nov-Dec) OR be based in Michigan (July-Dec). We probably won't know one way or the other, however, until April.

For the list of speaking engagements already completed, click: PAST ITINERARY.

To invite us to present in your community, visit our PROGRAMS page or click to SEND US AN EMAIL.

Excerpt from:
itinerary - The Great Story Website created by Connie Barlow

Shantikunj is an academy for social and spiritual awakening. It is a spiritually charged pilgrimage center that has given righteous direction and long lasting peace-happiness to the lives of crores of people. Here, about 24 lakhs (24,00,000) Gayatri Mantra are chanted daily by dedicated spiritual seekers and about 1000 people tale part in the Gayatri Yagya.

This is an ideal center that imparts training to the masses based on divine spiritual principles. Training on Scientific Spirituality is imparted here free of cost. All thesacramental rites are conducted here in accordance with the divine Indian culture and by arousing divine inspirations; all these are conducted free of cost.

"The souls of Risis residing in the Himalaya in astral bodies had to be summoned, invoked and installed here in Shantikunj. Temples of various gods have been built at various places but living installation of the souls of all the Risis at one place cannot be found elsewhere. It is still more important to know that not only mere idols of Risishave been installed here for symbolic worship but anyone sufficiently purified and fine-tuned can feel the strong vibrations of their particular energies. Thus, Shantikunj and Brahmavarchas represent the energies of all the Risis." -Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya (my life, its legacy and message)

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Shantikunj Ashram (All World Gayatri Pariwar)