Anyone who has ever experienced an unexplained, spontaneous healing, or the failure of modern medicine’s miracles to cure them knows there is more to personal transformation than can be logically explained. Our ancestors lacked pollsters, university studies, and The Weather Channel, yet faced the same survival challenges we do, the ones that don’t alter with time. Without CNN reporting, they relied on the wisdom and experience of tribal elders who bore witness to patterns distinguished over time. With the most knowledgeable members apprising them, each was positioned to make the most profitable choices possible. Gurus, shaman, and spiritual sages continue to walk among us in modern times.

Medicine may have come full circle now that ancient remedies are employed to treat current ailments. With the U.S. recently ranked 37th in a study on world health care, and a prior CNN report relating U.S. hospitals as the 8th leading cause of death in this prosperous nation, certainly there is room for improvement. A Supreme Court ruling just blessed the HMO pursuit of the profit motive over private subscribers’ access to health care. Meanwhile an estimated forty million Americans possess no health insurance at all. In this climate it becomes increasingly clear that preventive intelligence is worth pounds of purported cure. The essential care and maintenance of the body temple is increasingly falling to its owner; no wonder then that so many are seeking the tools of recovery. A great demand exists for novel ways to moderate diet, improve lifestyle, and even shape cognitive processes in pursuit of optimum health. The numbers are telling as they drive an “alternative lifestyles” movement which can no longer be labeled a fringe group marginalized to those nether regions reserved for society’s rejects. With the recent mapping of the human genome, the big/essential questions are making the talk show hit list. Larry King interviewed both the Dalai Lama and Deepak Chopra the very night this achievement was christened into the public stream of consciousness. Mr. King asked his esteemed guests why so many people are turning towards Yoga and Eastern spiritual practices. The very question suggests an awakening in progress. A virtual gold rush, it mines the links between mind, body, and spirit. To foster this holistic engagement a wide body of classes, courses, self-help tapes and videos, novel forms of healing accompanied by trained body workers, foods, vitamin supplements, and guides to the intuitive inner planes have burgeoned. This movement boasts striking demographics. With a fiscal bottom line of $230 billion per year and growing, the question is why. Since it falls upon history to define a phenomenon after it has happened, it’s fairly certain that those living during the revolutionary ascension of spirit informing the Renaissance did not identify/recognize themselves as such. It may be argued that a similar meteoric process is presently underway. In an epoch of ubiquitous media making full use of a virtual trunk show of magical devices, one wonders if events of global proportions can now be marketed into existence? A groundswell has indeed begun, and it’s drawing millions into its cerebral wake with reverberating ripples already influencing the currents of medicine, psychology, literature, and mainstream culture. Beyond the pervasive shaping mechanism media deploys, three other notable factors figure into this nascent Renaissance. First, the medical model is failing a great many people. Citizens are being forced to reach higher and wider for answers to the physical challenges they face. Best selling new age medical gurus offer the compelling revelation that the state of the body mirrors whatever is held in mind and/or spirit. Indeed the process of endeavoring to recover wellness is a venture which transcends a focus on the body alone. Second, the new millennium is imbued with a certain mythology. Its very newness invites fresh visions, views, and ventures which will act to enlarge human possibility and potential. What it means to be a human being in the 3rd millennium is reformatting those templates shaping purpose, passion, and possibility. Definitions in science, medicine, and physics are already shifting in radical ways based on the realization that the whole determines the parts. This awareness is catalyzing a revolution in previous systems of scientific inquiry altering the scientific method itself. The mapping of the genome exists in parallel with a new phase of exploration into the inner timeless domains of our selves. The third factor hinges on the “new prosperity” which ironically has not proved satisfying to the soul. The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies, by Yale professor emeritus Robert E. Lane states that wealth in society appears to be inversely proportional to the happiness of its members. Regardless, a great many continue to forfeit time, relationships, and inner peace in pursuit of the holy grail of greenbacks; while a significant segment of the population has shifted its pursuit to “higher hungers.” These factors converge to produce a steady stream of seekers. Prosperity encourages the quest the hungry cannot afford to address. And while neither life experience, nor higher consciousness comes cheaply, of the varied seminar-expo events, I have chosen to write about my direct experience (both as lecturer and observer) with Whole Life, most democratic in the mix. An average weekend spent at Omega’s facility runs about $550 (with accommodation and food); Silva Mind Control’s three-day training programs run about $400 without either. “Higher education” seminars hover in the $300 range for tuition alone. In addition to its fee-based program, Whole Life generously provides an evocative menu of free options fit for fiscally challenged seekers of truth. With these expos emerging as annual events in major cities, individuals can conveniently explore a vast array of exotic topics under one roof. Exposure to novel ideas is virtually risk-free, demanding a minimal financial investment. For some the experience may prove priceless, catalyzing a life-affirming shift in personal priorities. And while a price-tag can’t be attached to true enlightenment, as the singer noted, “we are living in a material world.” Putting on the “New Age Ritz” involves phenomenal expenses. Whole Life has watched its numbers grow having operated their popular events for a decade. Attendance in large cities averages ten thousand. Most people will spend several hundred dollars (temptations encourage spending more) so business promises to be good. One thing the varied seminars hold in common is their interest in keeping the new age pop star names up in neon lights. Modern programming devices have shaped the public imagination rendering individuals virtual homing pigeons responding to “brand name” cues. Assured proximity to top-selling authors draws thousands to the big tent where wonders wait inside. P.T. Barnum could have learned something here. As the various seminars compete for attendees, each distinguishes itself by offering unexpected activities, speakers, and workshops. To their credit, Omega provides guests with a quiet, tree-lined lakeside campus in upstate (Rhinebeck) New York. This year some of their featured options include: a workshop on improvisational acting facilitated by Alan Arkin, the cathartic power of forgiveness inspired by Desmond Tutu, and Whirling Dervishes. Body and Soul (Omega’s unofficial road-show) offers Marianne Williamson (whose books frequent The New York Time’s Bestseller List), Maya Angelou, Deepak Chopra, and Dr. Andrew Weil, and a sterling cast of Ph.D. authors and charismatic teachers. Jean Houston, Bernie Siegel, and Thomas Moore of Conversations with God fame lead the list at the Compassion in Action expo-event, along with Matthew Fox author of Original Blessing.

What I find most fascinating about the eclectic curricula is the open ways it ponders and explores the very questions that would have landed seekers before courts awaiting the dire fate of heretics several centuries ago. Today pilgrims may escape that outcome indulging in schedules filled with intriguing conceptual flights of fancy. An added array of spectacular stimuli waits to engage all mortal senses upon venturing into the new age casbah. Delicacies from all over the world tempt senses you may have forgotten you possess. Here one is destined to encounter delights of many dimensions… from auric readings, to elixirs drawn from produce crushed in a modern juicing device. One may dine on well-spiced Indian curry, sample coffee made from nutty herbs, note the effects of clustered water, employ a turban-clad Hindu to analyze the future written in your palm, enjoy the benefits of the latest massage technique, purchase fragrant incense, travel through time plugged into a headset drifting off on Tibetan chanting, accept the exotic allure of oils pressed onto the skin, and more! One woman purportedly reached orgasm when a singing Tibetan bowl sent its naturally calibrated vibrations through all her chords (translation: nervous system) adding new dimension to the phrase, “ring my chimes.”

Since the body is the instrument through which we play our lives, the case for periodic tuning makes sense. When those agencies purportedly in existence to fulfill this function fail, or pass the task increasingly to the money changers/gate keepers (HMOs etc) the sacred goes out of the healing field. With profit the bottom-line and the rites of access cumbersome, many are being drawn to self-help practices and increasingly, alternative healing modalities. Dr. Andrew Weil’s self-help newsletter presently reaches 450,000 subscribers; and Discover Magazine’s interview (August l999) entitled “Why So Many Doctors Hate Andrew Weil,” cites that 51% of Americans now actively pursue non-traditional cures. The political muscle produced by those numbers has forced insurance companies to cover alternative modalities including hypnotherapy, acupuncture, and massage. The health care paradigm is altering, while concepts of personhood are shape-shifting the underlying notions of psychology. These developments add fuel to the emerging human potential movement. More and more individuals are coming to realize that emotions, diet, and belief structures impact their bodies. In most instances a worthwhile quality of life results from a balanced interplay between mental interests (aliveness), lifestyle choices, and willingness to experience rather than repress one’s emotions (respecting the preamble: harm none). In terms of the inner person, humanity is collectively confronting a rubric whose dimensions lie outside of known parameters. Popularly received books on spiritual mediumship for instance are redefining the after-life experience. Providing a measure of comfort to persons caught in the undertow of bereavement, this material adds weight to the already published accounts of those who purportedly returned from near-death experiences to share their journeys to “the light.” Even scar tissue has been studied for possible clues to past life traumas recapitulated in the present. Dr. Ian Stevenson from the University of Virginia has assembled two volumes of material linking hundreds of cases. This material was featured on a recent A & E special focused on the question of the after-life (May 2000). The very notions which appear to make a person a person are expanding in ways that profoundly challenge previous academic assumptions. A transfiguration process is at work. While scientists advance in defining the physical template of matter, the hidden mysteries concerning the spiritual cause informing life with that which makes each truly unique remains unsolved. This quest is compelling to many. It may well mark a new manifest destiny for the individual, an exploration akin to man’s first steps on the moon. Deepak Chopra and Gary Zukov are two best-selling authors who poetically merge the wonders of science with the sacred uncharted spheres of our untapped inner dimensions. Author Louise Hay lays out a convincing case for the effects of belief and emotions upon body tissue in her book You Can Heal Your Life. The intrinsic relationship between psyche and soma is mostly disregarded by Western medicine. Its power is analogous to tiny droplets of water relentlessly acting upon stone to shape it accordingly. We are a population increasingly influenced by images and experiences based on speed, and run the risk of losing sight of life’s subtleties. Just as the grain of sand calls for the formation of the oyster’s pearl, our own bodies build “stony wounds” from small unceasing (as in unhealed) irritations. No wonder that books dedicated to treating the whole person (the mind-body dimension), mediumship, life after life, the out of the body walk, self-help, and healing relationships are best sellers! These issues are finding their way into films like Frequency and The Sixth Sense, and filling convention centers with highly intelligent life. Demographically speaking, the average seeker is aged 38, makes $53,000 a year. 67% are female, and 70 % are professionals, 80% are college graduates. Critics of this spiritual tour de force might link this collective fascination with the pursuit of a new Narcissus. Observation suggests the body of seekers can be divided into two basic camps: those who must seek answers as they face life-threatening or soul-wrenching conditions; and those who wish to gain higher understanding, a sense of purpose which transcends the worth allocation of market capitalism’s current value system. There’s even an event scheduled each year in Washington D.C. intended to heal the healers known as Family Therapy Networker. It draws thousands of therapists who tune themselves with creativity workshops, while catching up on the latest therapeutic breakthroughs. Taken together these trends suggest a Renaissance of global proportions is stalking everyday people in their daily walks of life. Collectively we possess the capacity to shape a new vision of ourselves and the world for this 3rd millennium. Consider the alternative: a pervasive, quiet desperation driving pharmaceutical stocks to inflate Wall Street as millions reach for their anti-depressant tablets. Author Richard Bach put it best in Illusions: “Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.” In other words, if we had the answers, why would so many be searching? And what do growing cancer rates, alcoholism, obesity, drug abuse, road rage, and domestic violence add up to? In my view, these portray the shrieks of human canaries caught in virtual coal mines (darkness) unable to breathe in the stagnant air of their daily existences. They rage against the dying of the light in the only ways they know how. With these epidemics undermining the quality of life for so many, American society can hardly assume it’s on a progressive course requiring neither revision, nor examination. Such conceit marks the perception of an addict. It is based entirely on denial. Honestly confronting these complex social disorders, we are encouraged by the wise words of Albert Einstein who stated that no problem could be solved at the level of thinking that generated it. Those searching for larger definitions are taking those first profoundly affirmative steps in the direction of serendipitous discovery. Y2K did not deliver on its millennial fears; and those who counted on the return of the messiah to save them from themselves face the ensuing letdown of being confronted by business as usual. The transformation they await must come from within! Fortunately the anticipated millennial shift has not entirely transpired with the popping of champagne corks; there is a larger process in motion. With health food stores emerging in every town USA, new age titles clinging to best seller lists, racks of alternative lifestyle magazines the rage, and whole life seminar events booked in major cities... evidence that a growing population is actively exploring previously uncharted domains is irrefutable. With survival urges met, the question now becomes what quality of life is to be led? Modern America’s embarrassment of material riches has left a different ache in its wake. Loving relationships are rare. The urge to know propels new ways to grow. For centuries perception has been limited; first by the church, then that torch was passed to science and academia. Our minds have largely been trained to exhaust knowledge in highly specialized areas. Modern education is based on a separation of disciplines, a kind of tyranny by category. With everything catalogued by external qualifiers, the ability to see the whole has been crippled. We are so trained to gauge specific phenomena; we lose sight of how the parts affect the whole. Out of darkness must come light; so previous perceptual references fall like an ancient tree. From it emerge new and vital forms. The result is eclectic. Life affirms itself by ingeniously adapting to insure continuum. Many persons are returning to nature and natural products to tap this inexorable force, realizing that a key component of healing the whole person consists of seeking the genuine element. Twentieth century marketplace tactics have convinced a great many consumers that man-made substitutes for such basic manna as breast milk are superior to the real thing. Increasingly populations have been separated from the actual sources of spiritual and nutritional nourishment. The transposition of value from the real to the artificial has become so automatic, were it not for the emergence of holism, future generations would be so divorced from source they would not even recognize what has been forfeited, what indeed has been lost. True nutrients are reduced to efficient fast food filler. Individuals are taught to medicate every stage of human life; put to sleep when the initiation of the birth process offers a gateway to transformed understanding; drugged out of genuine feelings throughout adult life, and now fed “substantial equivalents” for organic vegetables. (No wonder sperm counts are down, with entire sea-beds rendered dead zones, and the weather perilously out of joint.) Entire populations are cut from life’s own umbilical chord. The varied lecture circuits boast a high percentage of medical doctors and phDs within their ranks because so many of us are broken. And while the holistic approach may not provide definitive answers, it encourages an honest, impassioned encounter with life. This initiative is guaranteed to be meaningful. Mystery eternally engages us; it may well be what we were put on this earth to pursue. As Robert Louis Stevenson once related, it is the quest--not getting there--which is important. Taken from a completely different perspective, let us consider the Eastern Tantric tradition. It represents the counter-balance to human sexual practice in the Western world. Here the goal-oriented sports model aimed at rushing to the finish line of orgasm defines the act. There the goal is maintaining (through subtle movements) a state of continuous, conscious communion intentionally delaying the inevitability of being “consumed by that which it was nourished by.” Life rewards humanity through those who extend the reaches of our understanding. Great Master teachers left timeless lessons behind. Today’s new age guides borrow from these sages. Key instructions championed by all include the need to forgive, turn the other cheek, and cast the perceptual net to the other side. Metaphysical author Emmet Fox described these incentives as the call to build new “mental equivalents.” The Ancient I ching (purportedly three thousand years old) states unequivocally that battles with evil can never be directly won. Any struggle with evil by nature embroils the individual indefinitely. Evil has borne long witness to human nature. The best strategy therefore is to make “energetic progress in the good” by investing in innovative alternatives. The composite costs of fighting fat (diet plans are a multi-billion dollar business with 40% of our population reaching obese proportions); fighting crime (our prison population leads the world, with prison labor a virtual new form of slavery); fighting disease (a plethora of pharmaceutical drugs are pushed nightly on television without teaching more enduring wellness models); and fighting global enemies (as we clench our fists wondering what to do with all the effete, toxic weapons requiring “safe” storage) is staggering. We cannot provide “adequate health care” when our society simultaneously markets a dangerous array of products directly designed to undermine health. This hypocrisy is not easy to face; but how else to overcome those illusive trends threatening this nation’s body and soul? The New England Journal of Medicine published recent findings to conclude that over l00,000 Americans die from lethal pharmaceutical drug combinations each year, with a purported 2 million left seriously injured! These legal drugs (in dangerous combination) now hold the dubious position of being rated the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S! Dr. Andrew Weil estimates that twenty million Americans use anti-depressants, while a MS. Magazine article cited a higher figure. One might reasonably wonder what percentage of our adult population is not under some form of chemical mood management, and/or asleep at the proverbial wheel of life? (This begs the question: who poses the real drug threat in our nation?)

The seeker of truth recognizes the old answers don’t work. If they did these social disorders would not have reached epidemic proportions. We tend to look microscopically at the big picture, analyzing depression without bringing obesity into the discussion. Or violence is considered, without examining the impact of alcohol. These fractured arguments are deceptive in their failure to grasp the true fabric of the shorn American tapestry. Instead our nation’s current fiscal stupor is focused entirely on capital gained without monitoring what has been sacrificed. In this context seekers are drawn back to the wisdom of the Ancients to consider: “What profiteth a man to gain the world and lose his soul.” We are reminded that the kingdom of heaven is within; that the greatest treasure rests inside of the soul. Indeed this possibility is driving countless thousands to mine the hidden core of the self left long unattended. Treasure salvers collect at conventions to learn what other explorers have discovered. Otherwise each is left to believe the crisis he or she faces is unique. The machinations of the market place have so thoroughly pushed the themes of choice and independence, that we personalize issues more fairly relegated to the regions of common concern. As individuals gather to share their awakenings, the miraculous power of catharsis is generated from synergy: “two of more gathered together.” The fruits of this exposure will eventually shape and inform the world of our descendants. Meanwhile confronting where society needs mending, we learn to work together to fix what’s broke. Since companionship purportedly exceeds wealth as a source of happiness, and the inverse relationship between happiness and societal wealth is no longer a secret, more disillusioned seekers will be persuaded to soon come aboard. Besides, those with access to luxury cannot exorcise soul pain with capital alone; although convention speaker Stuart Wilde advises, “it’s a lot better to do pain when you’re rich.” Money has not proven effective in the cure of cancer in the U.S. either. Whole Life featured a team of oncologists committed to examining cutting-edge treatment models used in clinics around the world. The U.S. assumes a conservative stand in this regard, relying primarily on chemotherapy and radiation; while other nations embrace a number of alternative programs designed to support the individual in the recovery process. (This medical strategy is termed “host supportive,” in contrast with the Western model based loosely on warfare as per “attacking” the disease.) The newest approaches ultimately endeavor to weave back together what has been torn asunder.

Holism suggests an attitude of conscious responsibility for lifestyle choices. The belief that personal salvation will be delivered through the Mdeity or a most favored messiah is dangerous, and keeps a great many people from amending their behaviors in ways that could make the qualifying difference in their lives. This is not to discount prayer which proves statistically sound as a timeless tool in healing.

The body itself bears witness to each individual’s experience. Counting both lovers and massage therapists (frequently interchangeable) in double digits, I can say without reservation that skilled body workers intuitively read the language of flesh, and know where pressure has been stored, knotted into tissue to mark the journey of the years. The body doesn’t lie; it has no reason to! It records our experience as constantly as the old tree embracing ringed patterns to reflect the qualities of time in its own language of sentience. Many don’t explore their core issues until the body sends pain: the ultimate wake-up call! Others, according to Catherine Myss, exhaust vital reserves of psychic energy by retaining secreted wounds snugly under the rug of ordinary consciousness. In her best seller Anatomy of Spirit, she explains why some people fail to heal: “When an illness is part of your spiritual journey, no medical intervention can help until your spirit begins to make the changes the illness was designed to inspire.” The body itself acts as a message system when perceived as a complete energy gestalt.

Holism is also committed to putting the pieces back together. We can learn from the shaman not to separate the human estate from that of nature; nor the legacy of time from its link with heavenly clockworks. Life cannot be broken into separate categories any more than national borders emerge as lines on maps. These conceptual divisions disguise the unified energy field we reside within. Each individual influences society and the environment is by extension impacted by what people do. These truths do not require expensive studies for they are self-evident. Holism demands that we use both sides of our brains. With only the oar of logic--based on a history of empirical data--guiding mankind’s shared vessel, it is doomed to circle endlessly. History need not repeat if the right brain intuitive gift for inclusion was utilized as a counter-balancing navigational aid! Imagination and intuition are instrumental to those inventive processes which inform human life with fresh possibility. We were designed with both realms in mind for a reason! As the joint splendors of our inherent sentience meet in a vital marriage of minds unimagined possibilities emerge. Deepak Chopra explains: “Through the window of science, we are experiencing a climatic overthrow of the superstition of materialism.” As the western mandate of “you create your own reality” merges with the Eastern law of karma the net result is an exciting fusion process not entirely discernible during our present conception phase. All who join this search add their weight to the momentum, and stir the pot with novel flavors. And while there is no substitute for direct experience, the following samples were drawn from the educated platters served at The Whole Life Expos:

We begin in a lecture hall so crowded, the maintenance staff is forced to move a portable wall to make room for Deepak Chopra’s grateful fans. A gifted speaker, Dr. Chopra wows audiences by utilizing inspired metaphysical metaphors to make his case for the limits of science and ordinary sentience. He opens the door to wonder, guaranteed to delight the poet Ferlinghetti. Without pause, Deepak moves gracefully from one anecdotal illustration to the next enlarging the perceptual dimensions of his audience. Key points Dr. Chopra shared with a stunned public include:

1. There are three ways to examine reality: through the eye of flesh—a sensory approach; through the heart of nature—that characterized as natural intelligence by Pythagorus, and finally through the eye of the soul-—a Blake-like mystical view capable of witnessing “eternity in an hour.”

2. Citing the findings of physicists, Deepak concludes that matter is the expression of the ineffable. Atoms breathe out pieces of organs; and DNA itself is constantly engaged in change. We share breath with other living beings; and our bodies are not fixed structures. You are not in a body, the body is in you!

3. Thought creates light. The Cosmos holds infinite creative potential, along with an organizing power. Every intention connects with everything else to orchestrate its own fulfillment.

4. Everything is Spirit. There is nothing else but disguises.

5. Every Saint has a past, and every sinner a future.

6. You cannot have only light. Pleasure and pain are required as contrasts.We create through these opposing energies.

Dr. Chopra is a tough act to follow. Fortunately his lecture was given on Friday evening as a “paid event,” and I could return to Whole Life with a refreshed brain the next morning. Lectures resumed at eleven A.M. with three or more “gratis” sessions offered each hour. I began my day by attending a forty-five minute workshop on the uses of the sage plant. The popular mechanism known as “smudging” has been employed by shaman for centuries. It is believed to “cleanse” personal space. Ms. Denise Credle demonstrated an obvious respect for the plant, while advising the audience of approximately a hundred listeners that the plant had its own oils: DNA designed to function as a messenger system in the spirit world. She recommended while passing out samples, that we start a “union” with this power by trusting in our own rituals. She explained the use of floral baths, herbal purification “technologies,” and related tools of her unusual trade.
I next ventured to a fee-based lecture. Whole Life ingeniously designs a menu of lecture options featuring top speakers at the peak of their costs pyramid. Newly published authors hold the middle sphere; and those with self-published books or wares to share tend to populate the bottom echelon open to the public without tuition.

Susan Shumsky, author of Divine Revelation offered a workshop entitled, “Becoming Spiritually Street Smart.” She endeavored to guide this new generation in its wanderings through the nether worlds by providing “safety cues.” The Bible referred to a time of false prophets. Perhaps that time has come. Today virtually anyone can hang out a shingle proclaiming “spiritual channel,” and claim access to discarnate contact. Ms. Shumsky provided ten tests for authenticity in monitoring this mortal quest for numinous connection. Some of her advisements included: weighing the quality of encounter by determining the type of feelings--peace, clarity, or other--drawn forth; looking for personal cues, signs, and unfailing signals; evaluating the actual message related; and observing how one feels as a result of the interlude to determine its viability… or otherwise.

My next session was led by Mr. R. T. Stone who left a job in corporate America to share his revelations as published in The Journals. A truly affable man whose statements made perfect sense, he shared a brief version of his essential truths with a packed “house” of several hundred guests. These verities included:

1. Ignorance does not excuse an action.

2. The history we’re taught is mostly propaganda.

3. Sex should be celebrated. And the ability to love should be the most cherished thing.

I took a short break, and headed over to the new age casbah for delicious amenities before returning to an afternoon workshop led by Eagle Soaring. To establish his credibility in the “Medicine Walk,” Eagle related tales of his own prophesied destiny. With Indigenous American sensibility he stated the modern world had learned best how to destroy people, but neglected to address the real reasons we were here: to learn to love, help, and heal one another. He related that most people had forgotten their higher purpose; and that Creator often sent animals as totems to provide direction. He reminded us that our own perceptions are tricky. After all there are whole portions of the spectrum we can’t see, and an array of sounds we can’t hear. He went on to describe the movement of small creatures prior to earthquakes; and how Native Americans had learned to decipher their language with the ready capacity to move their villages in an hour if necessary. He believed such observations to be useful in that earth had recently begun a vast geologic process of healing in order to cleanse itself. (While earth change prophecies derive from many sources, some have recently amended their reports to suggest that as mankind evolves to willingly embrace the light, the need for cataclysms is lessened.)

The following Sunday morning I returned to listen to a profound lecture offered by author Sherill Sellman who flew in from Australia to share striking data compiled in her new book, Hormone Heresy. Speaking mostly to a room full of women, she made the following critical points based on conscientious personal research:

1. Too many doctors are influenced by vested interests, primarily those related to pharmaceutical companies.

2. Much of what’s touted in women’s magazines (on female health) is pure money-based marketing.

3. Hormone replacement has been instrumented since the 1930’s with parallel increases in strokes, blood clots, and toxic liver responses.

4. The myths of menopause are in dire need of worldwide revision.

5. The U.S. does 750,000 hysterectomies a year. By age fifty nearly one in every two women risks having her uterus removed! Birth control pills given to teenage girls tend to shut down their ovaries with no guarantee they will start up on demand again!

6. Women’s’ bodies are big business. The chemicals prescribed at every age and/or phase change render the female population one massive guinea pig experiment.

The workshops I attended in l999 were fascinating, and inspired me to join the ranks as a future lecturer. Whole Life’s team managed a complex set of events in superb fashion. The choice of the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center was a sound one. Parking, rest rooms, air temperature, and accessibility all supported the needs of thousands of visitors. (Similar considerations are taken into account when the event is held in other major U.S. cities.) For Whole Life Expo ‘2000 I attended the following lectures:

From the opening night’s feature menu I chose mystical frontiersman Stuart Wilde. Introduced as a modern Merlin, he certainly fit his given name. I found his “wisdom” both obnoxious and compelling. Attending multiple events one can’t avoid the realization that many speakers essentially say the same thing, even if they arrive at shared hypotheses from extraordinarily different/distinctive directions. Wilde entertained an audience of approximately six hundred with poignant tales of his own dark night of soul. He probed the parable of Parcifal’s search for the Holy Grail, and concluded that each had to enter his shadow side in order to heal. He proposed further that we all have this dark side, and described the subtle shapes it assumes in the modern world. He marveled at the mechanisms through which God’s Grace melted the gap between the isolated self and the waiting pool of humanity. He stated that the true revelation of God’s love allots to each the permission to have anything and everything. Ironically at this level of awareness one finds wanting itself exhausted. He went on with conviction to state that we all have to save people by opening their hearts; that it only takes a second to open a person which can lead to an incalculable chain reaction. He furthered this notion by stating that we all have a collective responsibility to fix the systems we live under; that no one else will save us. He had the audience utter, “Love me” as an exercise intended to shift perception from blame and judgment to unconditional acceptance. He called this the melting of the gap. Repeating the adage as a mock mantra as we exited his lecture, interesting conversations with strangers ensued.

The following morning I chose a workshop intended for “star children.” Jaculin Dorman introduced herself to a small audience by stating she was legally blind. Following nature’s law of compensation, she developed the gift of inner sight. Seeking to establish empathy with listeners she suggested that “star children feel different. They don’t feel earth is their home.” Ms. Dorman offered further that the Universe was based on mercy and compassion; and each of us was born to fulfill a life-theme. She compared modern times with those of Atlantis making the unsubstantiated statement that only a handful of souls awakened during that epoch of previous transformation. This time she proudly announced “the overseers” were pleased that awakened souls now numbered millions. She promised that earth—as Gaia, a sentient being—had begun a monumental shift of dimensions, and believed the internet was playing a role in this transition. She comforted listeners by suggesting that cataclysms were not “required by all;” and that the only power darkness had been given was that of illusion… used as its primary tool.

From this lofty domain, I ventured to the world of more grounded medicine for my next lecture. The National Foundation for Alternative Medicine had sent a small coterie. The speaker Michael Gnatt clarified that “conventional medicine” as understood in the United States differs substantially from conventional medicine as practiced (and defined) in China. He explained that the U.S. had begun to explore complementary programs in the treatment of cancer; but these procedures served largely as garnishes. The main ingredients still consisted chiefly of chemotherapy and radiation. His group was committed to the “best case series method” for rigorously testing the emerging results of novel cancer treatment programs deployed by other nations. The most promising in their study thus far is The Huffland Clinic in Germany. It utilizes the following components: dietary detoxification assisted by nutritional therapy, the removal of bad teeth, pancreatic enzymes, oxygen therapy, acupuncture, hyperthermia, and varied physical and psycho-spiritual therapies. (Some of these treatments are banned in the U.S.) He also addressed the politics of health care in America, a force currently driving new forms of coverage. In the final analysis the answer to cancer appears to exceed one treatment focus alone.

My final workshop was listed in the Whole Life guide as “Finding Your Soulmate.” Books on this topic were boldly displayed on tables inside the new age flea market tent, so it was no surprise that speaker Evelyn Rice found her lecture room filled with solo seekers. Since women out-number men three to one at these seminars, savvy single guys might endeavor to tap a new dating strategy simply by attending! The conservatively dressed girl next door speaker immediately engaged her audience. While popular author

Barbara De Angellis dresses up raw human sexuality behind cozy relationship metaphors, Ms. Rice instead focused on building that solid foundation intended to support an enduring soulmate relationship. Its three requisites are: l.Both partners must share the same reality 2. Both must share communication 3. Both must share a genuine affinity.

Earnest soulmate seekers’ “prep work” consists of finding--and committing to--their core purpose (or life work). From that level of integrity a partner can theoretically be attracted to meet and support that criteria. She advised listeners to write down the three things most important to them in an intimate relationship, while cautioning the audience not to assume the resigned attitude, “that someone is better than no one.”

Ms. Rice was professional and efficient. She passed out helpful literature while giving her future workshops a plug. Humorously relating personal anecdotes of the “been there, done that” school of experience, she won favor. Maintaining the popular Madison Avenue notion that we all deserve the quality loving relationship we desire, its bittersweet promise has yet to deliver to countless still single multitudes who have already purchased the “how to have great relationship books,” and done their affirmations righteously. The Apostle John stated, “And the greatest of these is love.” My own mentor Vincent believes love to be a gift from God which cannot be merchandised, or invoked on demand by repetitious mantras of “I deserve.” It comes when it comes by Grace. In the meantime we can prepare for the feast by learning how to become better people--and partners. To this worthy cause of action Ms. Rice gently reminded the rapt, hopeful audience that it’s all too easy to project unsolved personal issues onto prospective new partners once the honeymoon phase passes. Love remains a relatively rare phenomenon in our world. Even literature is none too kind to lovers.

Thanks to modern technology, you can now take many of these modern sages home with you. Notable best selling authors like Wayne Dyer are easily acquired on videotape. It has been said that the teacher arrives when the student is ready. UPS can certainly expedite the sacred encounter. We’ve also been advised that we’re made in the image and likeness of Creator. A considerable reversal of this hypothesis has apparently transpired. As our notion of what constitutes a human being broadens, so does our understanding of the Divine. Should we presume only the natural world is directed by a process of evolution? I prefer to believe this mandate extends to our inner spirits as well. For if “there is a divinity that shapes our ends,” a probable map exists for each soul’s unfolding inner journey. This possibility could prove inspiring to the young. Continuing to engage in processes of standardization cripples their imaginative wingspans rendering them dull-minded passive consumers of thought, not the authors of new doctrines.

In summary the 3rd millennium invites a new manifest destiny which belongs to those individuals brave enough to explore the inner terrain, a frontier as broad as space and just as mysterious. Here we may discover what makes us both human and Divine. This timely action serves as a counter-balance to those forces which have already developed technological excellence without the requisite spiritual responsibility to use the new tools wisely. It’s clearly time to collectively challenge those “rites of excess” which draw profit from maiming society’s members. Instead we might endeavor to reward creativity. The Ancient Egyptians held initiation ceremonies to honor the onset of adulthood and welcome new members into their ranks. Indigenous tribes around the globe ingeniously followed suit. What rites of passage does modern society offer? The right to own a gun, wield motor vehicles like weapons, assume credit indenture, consume pornography, alcohol, and cigarettes? These intrinsically bankrupt rituals have created the very vacuum nature abhors compelling the enlightened to reconfigure a mass movement to nurture the light. It is an unmistakable response to our culture’s disproportionate emphasis on violence, death, and loss. A spiritual explosion is now taking place inspiring mankind to transcend the divisive ideological gaps which otherwise maintain those age-old conflicts born of limited belief systems. These retrograde attitudes literally cost the world its life-sustaining ecosystems, as these are exchanged for the latest weaponry. Perhaps the Ancient Hebrew directive: Tikkum Olam: the work of repairing the world remains contemporary; for we cannot expect to pour new wine into old wineskins and witness better results. Einstein was correct. New mental equivalents are required. Those who step outside predictable parameters have begun the work of dreaming a new world into shape and form. Mankind’s Divinely inspired journey began with light in Genesis, and must proceed from there. (To those who would label these pursuits “occult,” let them be reminded that ancient knowledge is neither dark nor hidden, but waits for those with eyes to see. Many now witness to this timeless truth.) If we indeed return to bodies as believers in reincarnation attest, we’ll get to see the fruit of this mission on the karmic rebound. It may well be worth waiting for!