New World Now: Recent Episodes
Unity Online Radio
The mission of New World Library is personal and planetary transformation, and the books it publishes are designed to awaken consciousness in individuals and the world. Kim Corbin interviews the authors about their inspirational ideas and practical materials on spirituality, personal growth, psychology, and more.
In this uplifting conversation, recorded live at Copperfield’s Books in Novato, California, beloved New World Library authors Marc Allen, Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK), and Scott Stabile offer inspiring perspectives and practical advice for dealing with doubts and fears so we can use our lives to make a positive difference in the world.
Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (a.k.a. SARK) shares how her practice of deeply grieving while wildly living—together like bird wings—has allowed her to feel more love while navigating the loss of her fiancé and coauthor Dr. John Waddell, who died shortly after their book Succulent Wild Love was published.
Want more time and energy for your family, friends, and personal passions? Whether you work in a small or large company, telecommute, or own your own business, the time management tactics that Helene Segura offers in this inspiring conversation about her book The Inefficiency Assassin are designed to help you operate more efficiently during your workday, so you can have a life outside of it.
Kim Corbin talks with Seeking Jordan author Matthew McKay who explains how he gained access to knowledge he never thought was possible to possess, after searching for, finding, and communicating with his murdered son through channeled writing sessions. He also offers examples of the profound wisdom his son Jordan has shared with him from the other side about things like what happens when we die, the spirit world, life purpose, and more.
From family to career to self-fulfillment, being busy has become a way of life for the majority of women today. In this inspiring interview, lifestyle consultant Yvonne Tally offers today’s overscheduled women (and the men that love them) practical, mindful, and effective solutions to the frustrations caused by the time-strapped lifestyle so many of us experience on a daily basis.
If you regularly eat when you aren't hungry, choose unhealthy comfort foods, or eat beyond fullness, the breakthrough mindfulness practice called Inner Nurturing that Julie M.Simon, author of When Food Is Comfort, offers in this inspiring conversation can help. Her powerful step-by-step program offers the practical skills you need to nurture yourself with the loving-kindness you crave so you can end emotional eating once and for all.
When women are empowered with money, they become “difference makers.” They transform not only their own lives but also those of their children, their families, and their communities at large. In this inspiring conversation, Meriflor Toneatto, author of Money, Manifestation, and Miracles, offers men and women alike practical advice for clearing our emotional blocks around money so we can create the life of our dreams.
Seeking ways to do more than temporarily alleviate the symptoms of her own debilitating anxiety, author Corinne Zupko began to study A Course in Miracles, mindfulness meditation, and the latest therapeutic approaches for treating anxiety. As she healed her own mental anguish, she compiled the perception-shifting process she shares in this inspiring conversation about her book From Anxiety to Love: A Radical New Approach for Letting Go of Fear and Finding Lasting Peace.
We all yearn to have time for our personal goals and creative dreams. In this inspiring interview, Jennifer Louden, author of The Life Organizer, shares practical, heart-centered strategies for heeding the still, small voice within through mindfulness and steady listening.
Does the thought of hanging lights and attending holiday parties make you want to grab your sleeping bag and run for the nearest cave? In this empowering conversation, Nurturing the Soul of Your Family author Renee Trudaeu offers practical tips for making the most of this holiday season by doing less and experiencing more.
“You’re too old, not pretty enough, barely talented ...” Recognize that voice? It’s the voice of the inner critic. It’s negative, catty, and judgmental. In this fun, high-energy interview, Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves author Amy Ahlers says, “Your inner critic is a liar!”
What makes us break our diets, or run up our credit cards, or be attracted to all the wrong people? We know these aren’t healthy things to do, but sometimes we just can’t help it. In this inspiring conversation, psychotherapist Susan Anderson says that our self-sabotaging behaviors come from an aspect of our personalities that most people aren’t consciously aware of—their Outer Child. She explains the many ways that the Outer Child can wreck havock on our adult lives, and offers a three-pronged program for stopping its self-defeating behavior.
Drawing on her wide experience studying spiritual teachings from around the world, Opening to Meditation author Diana Lang teaches a gentle, guided approach to meditation that is very easy to implement. In this inspiring interview, she promises that meditating is as simple as breathing and explains how it reconnects us with our foundational essence of soul and self, where peace and centeredness are always available.
In this inspiring conversation about the transformational power of expressive writing, author Sandra Marinella offers dynamic methods you can use to understand, tell, and edit your personal story in ways that foster resilience and renewal. She also shares her own experience of using journaling and expressive writing to navigate the dark nights of her own soul, including breast cancer, postpartum depression, and more.
With her clear-eyed, inspiring, and sweeping vision, futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard says that the crises our world is currently facing are not precursors of an apocalypse, but the natural birth pains of what will become an awakened universal humanity. In this inspiring conversation with host Kim Corbin, Barbara reframes problems as evolutionary drivers and explains how each of us is being called to fulfill our creative potential, so we can be active participants in the greatest adventure in human history—our conscious evolution.
It can be easy to feel like it is impossible to make a difference in the world. However, in this inspiring conversation about his new memoir Big Love: The Power of Living With a Wide-Open Heart, author Scott Stabile promises that nothing stands to transform us, our relationships, and the world more than a commitment to living our lives from love. Scott stresses the importance of standing up for what we believe in and offers an empowering perspective for reframing our relationship to fear as we put our love into action in the world.
What happens when you fully commit yourself to love? Endless good, says author and social media sensation Scott Stabile, who came to that conclusion by overcoming plenty of bad. Scott’s parents were murdered when he was 14. Nine years later, his brother died of a heroin overdose. Soon after that, he joined a cult that dominated his life for 13 years before he summoned the courage to walk away. In this inspiring conversation with host Kim Corbin about his memoir Big Love: The Power of Living With a Wide-Open Heart, Scott shares how, through it all, he has become evermore committed to living a life from love, while encouraging each of us to do the same.
While the English language frequently refers to what our bodies know, such as “gut feelings” or our hearts “reaching out” to others, many of us have learned to ignore, deny, or even mistrust our body’s inherent wisdom. In this inspiring conversation, Kim Corbin talks with author Suzanne Scurlock-Durana about how stress and trauma can cut us off from our body’s guidance system. Suzanne also provides practical tools and guidance for connecting with key wisdom areas of the body like the heart, gut, and pelvis, so we can use them to better navigate our lives.
Fresh on the heels of her recent engagement, host Kim Corbin talks with veteran couples therapist Linda Carroll about the mysterious, difficult, and wondrous journey through five distinct and essential relationship stages that lead to wholehearted love.
Bill Philipps shares his amazing journey of going from a horrid childhood to becoming one of the most beloved psychic mediums in the world. He explains why he first denied and then embraced his gift and offers a firsthand account of how spirits communicate with him. He also promises that we don’t have to be psychic to receive and recognize the signs and symbols that our loved ones from the other side use to connect with us. He'll explain how we can become more attuned to their messages.
As the author of Woman Most Wild: Three Keys to Liberating the Witch Within, proud witch Danielle Dulsky knows all about the power, possibility, and magick that come with deep feminine wisdom. In this fascinating interview, she reveals the true nature of witchcraft: an ancient spiritual path that rejects religious dogma in favor of female empowerment and reverence for the earth.
What does it mean to “become more conscious” or to “awaken”? Are the enormous challenges humanity is currently facing a precursor to a collective shift in consciousness? Can the positive traits associated with wakefulness transcend the negative traits associated with sleep before our present crisis leads to catastrophe? These are the kinds of questions psychologist Steve Taylor tackles in this insightful discussion, which is a continuation of his initial conversation with Kim Corbin that aired April 6, 2017. Steve is the author of The Calm Center and The Leap, both of which were personally selected for publication by Eckhart Tolle as part of New World Library’s Eckhart Tolle Editions imprint.
In this fun and lively interview, Rev. Maria Felipe introduces her real-word approach to living based on A Course in Miracles and shares how it helped her go from a life based on insecurity and fear to one full of love and power. She explains how banishing the “cuckoo voice of the ego” allows us to connect with the loving voice of our inner wisdom and promises that with a willing attitude and an open heart, true happiness isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable.
Throughout the past five years, in the first study of its kind, linguist Lisa Smartt has collected more than 1,500 accounts of final words from those who were a few hours to a few weeks from dying. In this expansive conversation, she decodes the symbolism of those last words, showing how the language of the dying points the way to a transcendent world beyond our own. Lisa is the author of Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death.
What does it mean to be enlightened or spiritually awakened? In this comprehensive discussion, psychologist and best-selling author Steve Taylor draws upon his years of research as a psychologist and on his own experiences to explain what it means to be an awakened person in the world. Steve is the author of The Calm Center and The Leap, both of which were personally selected for publication by Eckhart Tolle as part of New World Library’s Eckhart Tolle Editions imprint.
Most of us are well-acquainted with the "inner critic." It’s the negative inside our heads that likes to tell us that we aren't good enough, smart enough, and/or thin enough. In this inspiring interview, renowned meditation teacher Mark Coleman explains how mindfulness and compassion can help free us from our inner critic. He offers practical tools that can radically shift the way we think and feel.
Brad Warner didn’t expect his whole life to change when he randomly signed up for a class in Zen Buddhism as a young punk rocker in Akron, Ohio, in the late 1980s, but it did. Now some 30 years later, he’s an ordained Soto-Zen priest and best-selling author who is celebrated for his hilarious, edgy approach to Zen. In this fascinating interview, he explains how the practice of intentionally sitting down and shutting up every day has the potential to improve not only our individual lives, but the world around us as well.
We’re all striving to live with a more peaceful heart. Yet there are also times when we need to draw upon the courage and strength of a warrior’s spirit. In this timely interview, Way of the Peaceful Warrior author Dan Millman explains how embodying a peaceful heart and a warrior’s spirit at the same time allows us to act with strength, integrity, and compassion, even when confronted with life’s most challenging moments.
In a world that seems to get more divided by the day, it can be easy to feel like we don’t have control or can’t make a difference. In this far-reaching interview, self-love expert Christine Arylo shares how the paths of self-love and "the feminine wisdom way” can empower us to get clear about what is our part to do in our work, families, and communities, so we have a chance at shifting and shaping this world into the kind we desire to live in. Christine is the author of Madly in Love With Me and Choosing Me Before We.
If anyone can be called a self-help, self-actualization pioneer, it is New World Library cofounder Shakti Gawain. In this special episode that celebrates the 40th anniversary of her international best-seller Creative Visualization, Shakti explains how that book, and New World Library, first came to be. She also talks about growing older, following intuitive guidance, discovering our higher purpose, and much more.
Mental strength coach Cara Bradley explains what it means to be on the verge—to show up in this exact moment and meet our potential to shine in all aspects of our lives. She also offers practical tips, strategies, and practices that are designed to help us live from that place on a daily basis. Cara is the author of On the Verge: Wake up, Show up, and Shine.
How do we “agree to disagree” with someone whose views are in sharp contrast to our own? Is there a silver lining in these changing political times? How can we be the change we wish to see? These are the kinds of questions best-selling author Christine Hassler answers in this uplifting interview, which includes practical tools and wisdom from her national best-seller, Expectation Hangover.
Is it possible to love the life you have—acknowledging and accepting the conditions of your life exactly as they are—and to drop the struggle to make it different? That question is at the heart of this interview with internationally best-selling author Roger Housden. He encourages us to offer a persistent, deep, and courageous yes to life as it is unfolding right now, no matter how dark or light it happens to be.
As an overwhelmed procrastinator, frustrated overachiever, and recovering perfectionist herself, Sam Bennett knows all the ways we can avoid reaching our goals. In this inspiring interview, she explains how small shifts in the right direction can yield big results in the realization of our creative dreams. She offers several small things we can easily do to get unstuck and experience greater joy in our daily lives.
We all want to give and receive love without reservation, but very few of us have learned how to do this on a consistent basis. In this fun and uplifting interview, beloved artist and best-selling author SARK, a.k.a. Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, shares six powerful habits for feeling more love more often—whether you are soulfully single, looking for love, happily partnered, in the midst of uncoupling, or anywhere in between.
At one level or another, we all carry around some form of baggage, trauma, adversity, or pain from the past. Whether it’s a result of what others have done to us, what we have done to others, or even the harm we’ve done to ourselves, this inner emotional clutter directly affects our ability to live a fulfilling life. Drawing upon both modern science and ancient practices, special guest Donald Altman explains how managing emotional clutter begins with managing our brains. He also offers easy-to-use practices for dissolving emotional clutter, whether it is old emotional wreckage from our childhood or new emotional clutter that can build up daily if left unchecked.
New World Library publisher and president Marc Allen tells the wonderful story of how he went from living in poverty to becoming a multimillionaire—and shows how we, too, can live the life of our dreams. He puts it so simply: Our dreams will manifest as soon as they become stronger than our doubts and fears. He offers simple, concrete practices for moving beyond our limiting beliefs in an easy and relaxed, healthy and positive way. No matter how many disappointments, setbacks, or failures we may have experienced, Marc’s practical guidance empowers us to work with the creative forces of the universe to make even our wildest dreams a living reality.
Vincent Bugliosi, who successfully prosecuted Charles Manson, is the author of mega best-sellers Helter Skelter and Outrage (about the prosecution of O.J. Simpson). In his latest, The Divinity of Doubt: The God Question, his prosecutorial eye takes on the greatest target of all: God. In making his case for agnosticism, Bugliosi has written a powerful indictment of God, organized religion and theism. And, with his incisive logic and devastating wit, he exposes the intellectual poverty of atheism and skewers its leading popularizers: Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.
Laura and Christopher examine the capture and death of bin Laden and our nation's response. They share commentary from Marianne Williamson, Wayne Dyer, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Deepak Chopra and more. What do such events mean to the soul of humanity, and how can we utilize this event to move forward in human evolution? What does this say about our shadow side and the pursuit of any who perpetrate significant crimes against humanity?
It's not just the latest tsunami. Peculiar events in nature—millions of fish washing up in California, scores of birds falling from the sky in Italy and the United States, and some 100,000 dead drum fish washed ashore in Arkansas—are happening with more frequency. Are they related? Laura and Christopher take the controversial but cautious step of sharing material from respected source Lama Sing (channeled by Al Miner) that clearly delineates the prospect of accelerating earth changes in our very near future. Rather than fear them, what opportunity might they provide? And how do we find God in the midst of disaster?
“When we accept the invitation to participate in Spirit’s cosmic celebration,” Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith says, “we align ourselves with the Law of Emergence and become vehicles of that which seeks to express in, through and as us.” In this episode, Rev. Beckwith will share how a unified intention and commitment can pave the way for a new spiritual culture to emerge through the New Thought-Ageless Wisdom movement. Rev. Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center and Association of Global New Thought, was featured in the best-selling book and film The Secret and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live. He was also recently featured in the PBS national television special The Answer Is You.
Legendary hip hop producer Russell Simmons has transcended a rough past to become respected not only in the music world, but as an author and proponent of a metaphysical power of possibility. The title of his newest book, Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All, may sound like "The Secret: Part 2," but it's really a forward-thinking inspirational look at what Unity considers New Thought. Is this a first: Hip Hop and Unity-style spirituality? Listen in to hear Simmons talk with Laura and Christopher about his evolution and why this book, why now, and for whom.
Don Lattin, author of the new best-selling book The Harvard Psychedelic Club, examines how the introduction of LSD to American culture—chiefly via Tim Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), Andrew Weill and Huston Smith—revolutionized the way we see God and forever changed the spiritual landscape of our nation.
Corinne McLaughlin, author of The Practical Visionary and founder of The Center for Visionary Leadership, gives her perspective of the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Arizona. McLaughlin looks at the symbolic, metaphorical and very real meaning of this event—and what it means to the soul of a nation. Laura and Christopher will also wend in clips of Giffords, Jon Stewart and Deepak Chopra, and quotes from Marianne Williamson, Neale Donald Walsch and others.
Author Charles Eisenstein has written a compelling new book, The Ascent of Humanity, which suggests that the gathering crises of our age demonstrate that our current way of being is on the verge of collapse. And this collapse is setting the stage for a revolution in human beingness whose stirrings we already begin to feel. What is the purpose of the grandeur and the ruin we have wrought? If civilization is to collapse, why? And what for? Will we then go back to the Stone Age, or will we be born into something entirely new? More than anything, The Ascent of Humanity and Charles' interview with Christopher and Laura, are about how to create the more beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible.
Historians refer to several Great Awakenings throughout our country’s history. Recently PBS’s “God in America” highlighted these “Awakenings,” but did so in terms of broad, usually fervent evangelical movements. What about the metaphysical, mystical underpinnings of these movements? Have they been largely missed or skirted by historians? And what of Awakenings to follow? Christopher welcomes Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America, to discuss the vital underpinnings of spiritual movements—and render insight on some American Awakenings of their own.
Today Laura and Christopher welcome Unity minister Diane Scribner Clevenger into the studio to discuss an emerging Atheism—with a more pronounced "feminine" tone. The program will also incorporate sound bites from comedian and author Bill Maher, author S.E. Cupp and author Mitch Horowitz.
Is July 4 a psyche birth force? Occult America author Mitch Horowitz joins Christopher and Laura as they discuss the amazing synchronicities that swirl about July 4 and the metaphysical founding of our nation. Did the fact that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4—50 years to the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence—mean anything to the soul of a young nation? With clips from Caroline Myss, Mark Victor Hansen, Jacob Needleman and others.
New Thought churches watched as their evangelical and spiritually conservative counterparts got political in the 1980‘s ... and remain so today. Unlike its American Transcendental founders, has today’s New Thought movement been reluctant to speak out on social issues, fearing they could be politically charged? That’s the challenge for “Unity in the World” that dares to get involved in the social realms, such as promoting a Department of Peace, despite the possibility of political overtones. Rev. Dorene Lake, co-founder of Unity in the World, joins Laura and Christopher for this one-hour conversation.
From recent 7.0-magnitude earthquakes to the world-galvanizing event of the Icelandic volcano ... are we seeing an indication of quantum change in the earth’s geosphere? Or is it simply “weather as usual”? Laura and Christopher speak to author/speaker Gregg Braden (Fractal Time, The Science of Miracles) about these recent events and how they may or may not dovetail into his perspective of what 2012 represents to us ... and the planet.
Almost 80 percent of Christians believe that Jesus will come again ... and 20 percent of them believe it will happen in their lifetime. That's tens of millions of Americans who believe Jesus' return is imminent. Based on what you, ask? Largely on modern Christianity's interpretation of one book in the Bible: Revelation. In some instances it can turn potentially deadly—witness the recent arrest of nine Michigan Christian militia members for plotting to kill “anti-Christ” government representatives, “preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive.” With so much focus on one text, might it not behoove us to take it out and give it a once-through with a New Thought lens? Laura examines the "Book of Revelations" and the Second Coming in both literal and metaphorical terms and how it impacts our present generation.
The new HBO series on the life of Jack Kevorkian brings up a moral dilemma: If we are gods, as the Bible suggests, do we not have the right to decide when we die? Is there a soul price to pay if we cut our lives short of our "natural" demise? Or is it a sign of our own divinity if we choose the time, place and manner?
Laura and Christopher speak to Matthew Fox, best known as the catholic priest excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in the 1990s. Due to controversy surrounding his denial of original sin, he was forbidden to teach theology by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fox discusses the spiritual crisis that Roman Catholicism now faces and how it may come through this as a more authentic force of love and spiritual awareness. The panel addresses the shadow side of religion in general, including scandal, sexuality and denial.
In Western theology, if you think Satan makes his first appearance in Genesis, think again. From the inception of Christianity, to the Tarot, to modern religion, human beings have struggled with the notion of a devil. And even if you see yourself as a sophisticated New Thought soul-thinker who has moved past the need for such things, what’s all this about “the ego”—hasn’t it become the new devil? Isn’t that just as problematic as the old notion? If you believe in such things as angels, can demons be that far behind? In the end, Satan may be the most misunderstood character in our religious annals … and isn’t it time we show him a little sympathy?
Christie Collbran’s very public “defection” has placed the Church of Scientology on the front pages again. The most recent National Geographic—not to mention HBO’s Big Love series—unearths some of the more notorious elements of Mormonism. As with Unity, these are virtually homemade American religions that have, at times, been assigned the “cult” label by the orthodox mainstream. Perhaps the comparisons end there. What are the truths and myths about these belief systems, where are they headed and what do they have in common with either the conventional or New Thought ends of the religious spectrum?
Is there such a thing as a "true religion?" Is it a choice between literalistic theism and scientism? Where do you fall along the belief spectrum? Friday, March 5, New World Radio host Christopher Naughton and special guest Unity minister Diane Scribner Clevenger interview Jack Call, author of the recent book, God Is a Symbol of Something True: Why You Don't Have to Choose Either a Literal Creator God or a Blind Indifferent Universe. The conversation ranges from the "traditional" belief systems many of us were brought up in to the notion of a personal God, the more deistic views as held by Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries, to the beliefs of those who just aren't sure.
The Ego—in the classic metaphysical sense—always needs an enemy, an “other” to justify its existence, its fear, its need to vanquish an adversary. Now that we no longer have a definitive enemy as in bygone eras—the British Crown, the Germans, the Japanese, the Russians—who will the Ego now choose as its reason for dissatisfaction? Terrorism is too amorphous. So why not your political enemy as the bogeyman? Niels Nielsen, author of God in the Obama Era, addresses why political squabbles are nothing new but may be reaching a new low. And maybe it signals a new breakthrough beyond the ego’s need to blame an enemy.
Okay, admit it—that word has always sent a bit of a shiver up your spine, no matter how metaphysically-inclined you are, right? Imagine how middle America feels about it! When did the word occult get such a bad reputation? Author, media commentator and publisher Mitch Horowitz joins Laura and Christopher and explains, from his new book Occult America, how the occult has shaped American thinking and spirituality and is set to play a bigger role in the years ahead.
It’s entertaining, riveting and visually sumptuous. But like many archetypically-driven movies before it—such as Star Wars—does the movie Avatar have similar import with a message that some say is spiritually powerful—and flies under the radar of the conscious mind? Audio includes clips of Bill Moyers, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and numerous films.
Laura and Christopher welcome their first phone-in guest of the new year, Dr. Garland Landrith, best known for his appearance in What the Bleep Do We Know? They will examine the latest scientific experiments on the impact of prayer and meditation … and why dedicating yourself to a meditation practice may be the greatest new year’s gift you could give to yourself—not to mention the world. The program will examine everything from the Transcendental Meditation studies of the '60s to Larry Dossey’s groundbreaking work of the ’80s and ’90s as well as a somewhat controversial Unity-based experiment of this past decade.
Based on the Thomas Moore account of Celtic Christmas, what are the universal spiritual principles that anchor this celebrated holiday? How do other religions, spiritual disciplines and perspectives contribute to the richness of this venerated date? And how did a pagan celebration morph into the most revered holiday in Western culture?
2012 marks the end of the Mayan calendar. Should we be worried? Or is it all just hype?
Unity calls itself, "a positive, practical, progressive approach to Christianity based on the teachings of Jesus." But does Unity represent a dangerous schism from mainstream, traditional Christianity? Or with its roots deep in American Transcendentalism, is Unity the Great Unknown American religion … possibly on the cutting edge of what Christianity … might become?
There's a new Conservative Bible Project that wants to change what it calls 'liberal bias' in the Bible. Reinterpreting the Bible is as old as the documents themselves. And liberal theology has its own brand of interpretation too. With such a strong conservative interpretation "push," could the result be that the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary is ready to catch?
What does the dramatic increase in psychotropic drug prescriptions in the United States say about the soul of the nation? Why have bipolar diagnoses risen 4,000 percent in one decade? What do recent fines against pharmaceutical companies—the largest in our nation's history—say about our own awareness regarding these medicines and the industry that produces and sells them? Christopher and Laura welcome an in-studio guest who has gone through her own medical experiences. Together they cull information from various sources, including clips from Deepak Chopra, Elizabeth Gilbert, Helen Fisher and others to create an informative, if not controversial discussion. And the biggest wild card? It could be … The Placebo Response.
From town hall blow-ups to shouting at the president in the halls of Congress; from incivility, whether on the tennis courts, the baseball diamond or at award shows, there’s a seeming river of anger, if not rage, coursing through our national veins. How does one remain politically and socially active—and yet remain untainted by the seeming lowest emotional common denominator we see in current American society?
With a Newsweek cover looking ominously like the 1967 Time magazine cover asking, "Is God Dead?," Newsweek editor Jon Meacham suggests the decline and fall of Christian America. He cites a recent survey that found that the percentage of Americans identifying themselves as Christians has dropped from 86 percent in 1990 to 76 percent today. Are we seeing the denouement of a Christian America? Is the cultural and political influence of conservative Christianity in the United States waning? And if so, what will fill the void? Laura and Christopher address the issues raised in this recent, seminal Newsweek cover story and roll in audio clips from Clay Jenkinson, Jon Meacham and others.
On election night 2008, after Obama’s victory, Oprah Winfrey told CNN, "It feels like a shift in consciousness." That’s not the sentiment in some religious circles that see a spiritual foreboding in Obama’s presidency. Beyond the notion of hope and change, does Obama’s election to the highest office in the United States demonstrate an inner shift in global awareness?
Strict vegetarianism has been the tool of ascetics and adepts inferring the holy life. But even in New Thought circles, that stance softened considerably in the latter 20th century. Now, with global warming and factory farming issues raising our awareness, is vegetarianism, or at least dramatically cutting back on our meat consumption, the path of the conscious spiritual journey?
Laura and Christopher examine two films (Zeitgeist, The God Who Wasn’t There) in national consciousness that claim that the Jesus story is nothing more than rehashed myth based on Horus, Dionysus, Krishna, Mithra and other deity-figures. How does metaphysically-oriented Christianity look at these films and their claims? What impact will these films and their message have on the evolution of Christianity and spirituality in general?
Thomas Jefferson, third president and author of the Declaration of Independence, once said, "I trust there is not a young American now living who will die a Unitarian." Much like jazz or baseball, Unitarianism is almost wholly a unique American form of expression. Three of the first six American presidents were Unitarians. Many at the fore of 19th-century American Transcendentalism movement called themselves Unitarians. This religion—Unitarianism—once a staple in the American religious diet, is now barely a blip on the screen. What does it share with other New Thought Religions? And is it readying for a comeback? Laura Barrett Bennett and Christopher Naughton examine Unitarianism in its own words ... and share some of the funniest and good natured-jokes about this long-standing American belief system.
Tired of the Jerry Falwells, Pat Robertsons and the James Dobsons? There is an emerging Christianity that calls itself progressive. And while that might seem refreshing, does it fall into the same political trap as conservative Christianity? A recent Pew Research survey indicates that more and more people are leaving the religion of their parents—and many are seeking out New Thought churches or dropping out of religion altogether. Audio clips of Marcus Borg suggest that people are moving in the new direction of “progressive Christianity” or “progressive Spirituality,” but what is that exactly? And are there pitfalls by co-opting the term "progressive?"
If atheism was once the belief system that dare not speak its name, the times they are a-changing. Of late, books by Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins have sold in the millions ... so this may be the new age of Atheism ... but in the end, could atheism turn out to be spirituality’s best friend? We will listen to audio clips of Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens and George Carlin extolling the new atheistic populism. But perhaps their worldview is closer to a progressive, metaphysical worldview than they realize.