Savasana has never been more relaxing than the moment I give in to the swinging, silk hammock.

Most yoga lovers look forward to Savasana, the corpse pose at the end of every class that requires total relaxation. I usually struggle to turn my brain off, to submit to the peaceful state.

Not this time. Im spent. This isnt your average yoga class. Ive dared to try aerial yoga at Lucia Aerial Performing Arts.

Have you seen the lovelies of Kansas Citys Quixotic mastering the silks and trapeze? Im not one of those sky-high dancers, but I do like to try the latest fit crazes. Last year, I experimented with Mixed Martial Arts fitness, the trampoline workout and the Bar Method.

This year, I believe I can fly. Or at least peacefully swing back and forth in the purple silky hammock that Ive made my Savasana cocoon. I could lie here for hours.

Ashley Prohaska did this to me. She worked me out hard enough to yearn for stillness, but not in a boot camp way. She encouraged me to challenge myself. Youre stronger than you think, she said more than once.

Aerial yoga requires you to do three things: Trust yourself, fight your fears and find your center. The hammock, made of stretchy yet sturdy aerial silks fabric, is used to suspend the spine and other parts of the body to enhance traditonal yoga poses even the upside down ones. Just like mat yoga, with practice, you can improve your flexibility, balance and strength.

When I walk into Lucia Aerial at Town Center Plaza in Leawood on a Thursday afternoon, I dont know what to expect from the class. And then I see my teacher Ashley. Shes ballet dancer tiny. She smiles, but her vibe is very go-with-the-flow casual. As I take off my coat, I notice shes listening to Madonnas Material Girl.

I hope you dont mind 80s and 90s music, she says. And sometimes I sing.

I love her. Instantly. She and her sister Jenny (former director at Quixotic School) opened the studio a few months ago. There, you can take lyra (aerial hoop), silk, trapeze, contortion, aerial yoga and childrens classes, too. Ashley used to teach introductory silks classes at Quixotic School but got into the aerial silks about four years ago when she and her sister took a class at Voler, another aerial academy and performance group.

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Getting the hang of aerial yoga, the latest fitness craze

The words molecular biology thriller dont come up a lot when describing movies, but director Mike CahillsI Origins aims to be different. The film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this week, revolves around around the concept ofirreducible complexity, the argument put forth by proponents of intelligent design who believe some biological systems are too intricate to have evolved naturally.Its not an easy concept to cram into a suspense thriller, but Cahill had a guiding principle: Make a movie compelling enough that even an evolutionary biologist or staunch atheist might stop and ponder.

In the film, a young molecular biology Ph.D. student named Ian Gray (Michael Pitt) is researching the development of the eyes organs often cited by intelligent design proponents as examples of irreducible complexity in an attempt to put the argument to rest forever. In the process, he discovers that eyes may not be the unique fingerprints we think they are, and may even have deeper and more ethereal purposes. The story is told from the perspective of Ian,a scientist and skeptic who was partly inspired by one of the most noted evolutionary biologists and staunch atheists in popular culture, The God Delusion author Richard Dawkins.

I really got into Richard Dawkins [while making this movie] and kind of based the character off of him, said Pitt. If you could you convince Dawkins, then you will convince everybody. So we were setting up a really big challenge.

(Spoiler Alert: Some spoilers for I Origins follow.)

Will I Origins succeed in this quest? Eh, probably not. In a funny observation on Film.com, James Rocchi wrote, at one point, Ian reads a Richard Dawkins book, and you can imagine Dawkins popping into the scene and saying to Cahill, like Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall, You clearly know nothing about my work

Michael Pitt

I Origins isnt truly out to scientifically challenge the famed evolutionary biologist on the merits of his work, however, only to use them as a conceptual framework for exploring a fantastical metaphysical possibility a riff on the eyes being windows to the soul.Its believed that the irises of the eyes are as unique as fingerprints, but after Ian meets a Sofi(Astrid Bergs-Frisbey), a girl with unusually beautiful eyes, he discovers that she may have an eye-twin somewhere out there. Its a finding that leads the character to question if there really could be a god in the gaps.

My role models are scientists, my favorite people in the world are scientists, Im obsessed with scientists. I think what they do is magnificent, Cahill said. I also hold in the highest respect people in various religious communities. Im [just] interested in where those intersect.In addition to Dawkins, Cahill also cites the Dalai Lamas The Universe in a Single Atom, and the works of Carl Sagan as influences on his work.

The intersection of science and faith is a ripe topic for discussion and has been for quite some time but its a topic that doesnt get tackled much in Hollywood, especially not in narrative films. In recent memory only Prometheus and Contact, come to mind. So even though occasionally Cahills film treads on the sacred ground of trying to turn skeptics into soul-searchers, his film is to be commended for trying to do something most films dont. Sci-fi spiritual journeys arent everyones jam, but if youre into it, I Origins ruminates on the divide between faith and science in a way that feels strangely intimate.

Despite the recent announcement that the film had picked up the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, an award for science-themed movies, critical unanimity seems unlikely. According to varying reviews out at Sundance, where the film was picked up for distribution by Fox Searchlight on Monday, I Origins was either a movie weighed down by drab scene work and inelegant storytelling or the best science vs. faith film since Contact.

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A Smart Movie That Questions Evolution (Yes, It's Possible!)

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 23, 2014

Hailed by John Robbins, John Perkins, Angeles Arrien, Vicki Robin, Lynne Twist, Julia Butterfly Hill and other great minds of our generation, 'The Holy Universe: A New Story of Creation For The Heart, Soul, and Spirit' breathes life into the cold, scientific worldview of the universe, transforming our physical history into a living storyand provides us with powerful insights into navigating the global ecological, social, and spiritual crises now facing our world, and provocatively argues the crises we face today just might be the best thing that ever happened to humanity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Holy Universe: A New Story of Creation For The Heart, Soul, and Spirit Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: New Story Press (October 2013) ISBN: 9780985933906 Genre: Spirituality | Fiction | Ecospirituality Retail: US $17.95 | CAN $19.95 Distributor: Small Press United ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New author David Christopher left behind lucrative corporate and airline careers to address his lifelong desire for answers to mans eternal question of our place in the Universe. The dialogues he created in The Holy Universe are the result of a fifteen years of deep immersion in the works of new thought leaders such as Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, Miriam MacGillis, James Lovelock, and celebrated Big History academicians David Christian and Fred Spier. Christopher wrote the book in part for people like him who call themselves spiritual but not necessarily religious. David lives in Northern California.

Inspiring Promotions is a boutique public relations agency dedicated to promoting some of today's best authors and speakers. Visit http://www.inspiringpromotions/authors then contact us to schedule a media appearance at 415-250-1380 or email suzanna(at)inspiringpromotions(dot)com.

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New Author Hailed by Experts as a ‘Kahlil Gibran for the 21st Century’

For seven years, painter Doris Colbert Kennedy has been searching for God in infinitesimally small spaces. She's read about quantum physics, from the cosmic to the gluinoscopic in scale. Guided solely by intuition, she's documented her journey in oil paint on 30 canvases that will be on display in Spirit and Memory: Contemporary Expressions of Cultural Heritage at the City Gallery. Curated by the renowned artist Jonathan Green, the show also includes work by artists Alvin Staley and Amiri Farris. Green says when creating a show, he seeks artists who demonstrate a great deal of mastery with their materials and techniques. Kennedy, Staley, and Farris have each exhibited all over the United States and have taught art at the university level. Whether their work is realism or more abstract in style, a thread of spirituality weaves through their explorations.

Kennedy describes her collection as intuitive realism. "This is a discovery of mysteries," she says. "My paintings are answers to questions about the nature of reality."

Her canvases abound with rich, multi-layered colors. Their lines move with soft grace, tremendous velocity, or sometimes a little of both. Each one took months to create. She applies paint in sweeping strokes, wipes it off, and then, once the layers dry, adds more paint. For Kennedy, returning to a painting takes effort. She has to stop and re-focus on its mindset and energy. One painting, "Edge of Coherence," transformed itself several times prior to completion. Only when each one is finished does Kennedy step back, ask its meaning, and assign a title.

Kennedy hails from Washington, D.C., where she was the artist-in-residence at Howard University, one of the nation's oldest and most esteemed black universities. In addition to Howard, she has taught at the Corcoran School of Art, American University, the Maryland College of Art and Design, and the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Locally, she volunteers with students at Burns Elementary, which she says is a great school. "The kids are marvelous. There's so much potential there for what I want to do."

While working on her current collection, she delved into quantum physics, reading physicist's Brian Greene's book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and Lynn McTaggart's The Field, which explains how quantum physics works in people's lives.

For Kennedy, intuition regularly collides with the cosmos. While painting "World Sheets," she was studying string theory, trying to decide whether she agreed with its ideas. "I set the canvases on the floor and stepped back to look at them," she says. "I felt this force, like the path that swept out from space, like a string."

When the painting debuted at the American Center for Physics in College Park, Md., an audience member at one of her talks told Kennedy she had just returned from India where she witnessed a religious ceremony of a deity being reinstalled. Part of the ceremony involved three priests, each standing at a fire. She said the bands of colored smoke rising toward the temple bore a striking resemblance to the patterns and colors in Kennedy's painting. Kennedy says she has never visited India nor studied its religious ceremonies.

Physicist Margie Morse felt a similar pang of familiarity when she saw the diptych "What Are Space and Time Really, and Can We Do Without Them?" Morse will discuss her experience with the painting in detail during an artist talk on Feb. 9.

The Rev. Ed Kosak of the Unity Church of Charleston will also be part of that discussion, representing the God part of the equation. Kennedy says she encountered Kosak through a bit of kismet. Upon first moving to Charleston, she met a woman who asked, rather spontaneously, if she was an artist and then urged her to check out the Unity Church's Sunday services so she could introduce Kennedy to two of her friends. One was a fellow artist, Elena, with whom Kennedy would become friends and share a studio space. The other was Rev. Kosak, a Unity Minister with a knack for inspiring and energizing his congregation with his Sunday sermons.

"His church is so unique," says Kennedy. "So many unique things happen. That woman I met could read my energy. It's not serendipity, it's bigger. It's a big collapse of energy, things falling into place."

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For Doris Colbert Kennedy, painting reveals the mysteries of the universe

FMT LETTER: From TK Lee, via e-mail

In each and every divinely ordained religion, its author acknowledges the presence of the one true Creator and who is attributed with every conceivable name and quality from Fashioner of the universe, the Essence of Essences, the Unknowable, the Divine Force, the Absolute, the most Merciful, the Almighty, the All Wise, the all Compassionate to Love.

These prophets,saviours or messengers attested that their revelation descended from the Almighty and they never acclaimed what they revealed as their own. All created things, from the cosmos to the sub-atomic world, owe their existence to this One Creator.

Can we comprehend or know the Creator? It is foolish to think that we can pin down this Divine with all the names and attributes we can imagine or fully describe just one of its qualities. Take for example, the attribute Justice the ocean of divine wisdom surges within this exalted word, while the books of the world cannot contain its inner significance.

It is utterly impossible for human beings to describe the indescribable Ancient Eternity, the most manifest of the manifest and the most hidden of the hidden, let alone conceive the all Powerful Being in our finite minds. Can an ant, a living creature, ever comprehend the station of a human being?

In his Revelation, a Prophet singled out a name for the Creator in the vernacular language of his era. In the English language the name of the Creator is called God and is emphasised with a capital G to underscore its singleness. Further God is referred to as He, Him and Himself. There is no capital letter in the Arabic language and thus the declaration there is no allah but allah and when rendered in English, there is no god but God, emphasising on the oneness and aloneness of the Creator.

All the Manifestations of God laud and speak of this identical Entity. Through Them we are guided to know, love and worship Him. We are taught to develop these spiritual attributes and qualities potentially in each of us. A human being is regarded as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.

Our very existence on earth is due to the grace of God. We members of one race, the human race, belong to Him. He is not exclusive to any one religious group. We are His servants or His children.

True religion engenders unity, love and harmony not only among its adherents and with believers of other faiths. It reveals to us a purpose of life. While there are differing doctrines, followers of every faith embark upon the same journey the spiritual path leading to the majestic presence of the one loving Father.

It is not just through religious rituals but rather through sacrificial love for the other thereby raising ones consciousness to a state where an individual sees in the other the face of God, regardless of colour or creed.

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What’s in a Name?