Removing the Veil

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

You yourself are under your own veil.
-Hafiz

Q:  I have been traveling the road to higher consciousness for many years and it has been a long hard journey. Fortunately there have been occasional Divine Breezes along the way, but I cannot say I feel any closer to God for my efforts. Also, sometimes traveling gets so lonely and I wish I had someone to talk to about this struggle; can you help me understand, why the difficulty and mystery? (more…)

"Living On Light": an Experiment

by Naveena Shine

Part of the vision for the New Age is to ground into this earth, capacities that utilize the vast new energies that are emerging through the cosmic universe into the consciousness of all beings. The following experiment, if successful, can be a huge part of that and give us the ability to attune our physical realities to be nourished by the pure source of light.

I am Naveena Shine, both the founder of Living on Light and the subject in this experiment. The experiment is designed to bring into our Universe a whole different paradigm of living. In this paradigm of living, human beings do not have to eat or ingest any kind of food into their stomachs in order to thrive in this world. At “Living On Light” we propose that we have a nutritional source already embedded within our body/mind/Spiritual systems that can give us exactly what we need to be healthy and well. Since we do not yet know exactly what that source is we are symbolically calling it Light.

If this capacity is real, it will change everything we know about ourselves, everything we do in our lives and everything we do on our planet. (more…)

Action at a Distance

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff 

Whoever is initiated by us and follows us and loves us, whether he is near or far, wherever he is, even if he is in the East and we are in the West, we nourish from the stream of love and give him light in his daily life.

-Bahaudin Naqshband

In this quote from one of the great Sufi masters we have a description of one of the natural laws of the universe. Action at a distance: this phenomenon describes how some objects can affect others, depending upon their relationship, at varying distances.

Consider the effect of a young child’s hand magnet as it pulls along a paper clip or the gravitational effect of the moon against the ocean tides. On our planet, feel the warm, life giving rays of our sun, generating tremendous heat millions of miles away, and the electric tug, at our heart, when our beloved enters the room. (more…)

Higher Knowledge: Enriching & Enabling Factor

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Most people would agree we all want to live in a kinder, more humane world.  A world where there is respect for human life, economic resources are shared, and the old and infirm are treated with dignity.  In each of these areas there is room for improvement.  Economically many are still without the basic necessities of life and go hungry.  Even in the richest country on earth, often the sick go untreated.

Further most would agree, somehow, as a planet we need to work together to share our natural resources and improve our collective circumstance.  It is at this point, when we try to identify and prioritize what areas need improving and how we are to accomplish this all, we start to disagree and things break down.

Rationale or linear thought is able to tackle some of these problems, offering possible solutions; however this form of thought is not able to solve all problems.  It has limitations and, in some areas, is like the cart and horse that is without a driver and going around in circles.  Generally, for problems which involve the needs of divergent groups, there is no balancing factor and the needs of one group bounce unsuccessfully against the needs of others.  In situations like this, self-interest repeatedly rears its head and there appears to be no corrective.  Many are slow to accept that the needs of the individual are bound to the needs of the many.

What is the corrective to this harmful self-interest?  What factor reconciles the needs of different nations while sharing the earth’s resources in an ecologically sound manner?  (more…)

Family & Community

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Q:     Speak to me of family.  Spiritually what is the significance of this grouping?

Each is a member of two families: their birth/marriage family and the larger, human family.  In both, meaningful membership and participation is essential to balanced living.  Each person must feel they are loved and protected, and have the opportunity to express, without fear, who they are. Each is a unique soul and has something to contribute and learn.

In a family there is a connection, love and bonding.  This connection occurs of many levels: it may be biological, emotional and spiritual.

Spiritually, the members of a birth/marriage family have entered the earth phase together to learn from each other.  On an inner level, their souls are connected.  Sometimes the lessons are painful and other times joyous.  This connection extends beyond time and space.

Similarly humanity is one family.  We have all come from the same source (God) and one day will return home after experiencing the many worlds. (more…)

Magnificent Monastery

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

For the longest time, I wished that I had a church, temple, mosque or synagogue to attend. I could find no special place that called to my heart and helped my soul sing. In years past, there had always been a place: top of a close by hill; stream just below a reservoir dam; tree lined chapel set beside a lake; shaded path through a nearby park; or an old stone church, late at night, when no other person was there. In these holy places, I learned to hear the quiet whispers that flowed through my heart; some from my soul and others from that distant shore. These moments of joyous, quiet solitude and contemplation filled me with peace, reminding of my far away Home. (more…)

Spiritual Traveler: Why Must there be Suffering?

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Show me someone
Whose life has been easy?
And I will show you
Half a person.
-SB

For the spiritual traveler every day life problems offer an opportunity to learn and move forward along the Path.  Potentially running late to work, not having enough money to pay for gas and wondering whether the kids are coming down with a cold, all stressors- at some point on a spiritual level- offer the opportunity to go deep within our selves.

Once the problem passes and/or is resolved, the traveler wonders: why is life filled with so many ups and downs? Why must there always be clouds to cover the sun? (more…)

Spiritual Traveler: Remember

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

Everything is dependent upon remembering. One does not begin by learning, one starts by remembrance. The distance of eternal existence and the difficulties of life cause one to forget. It is for this reason God has commanded us: Remember!”

-Sheikh Ismail Hakki

*              *

Traveler:         If the purpose of life is to join in Kingship with the Creator; then, why weren’t we born with this awareness firmly fixed in our conscious mind? Why do we go through the struggle or journey of reaching this realization? Wouldn’t it simplify things if we were born Awakened to this Reality? (more…)

A Week of Sustainable Living in an Intentional Community

Niánn Emerson Chase

I, along with Gabriel of Urantia, founded the intentional community of more than one-hundred people who now all live at Avalon Organic Gardens & EcoVillage located in the Tubac/Tumacácori area. It was more than two decades ago in Sedona (located in north-central Arizona) that Gabriel and I, with our three small children (an infant and two-year-old twins) began the journey of striving and struggling to create and maintain a culture more sustainable than the one that dominates Western civilization and increasingly the rest of the world. Within a few months of us beginning this adventure, others started to join us in our commitment to a vision that we all shared. Together we participated in the unfoldment of an intentional community that continues to expand on many levels—quantitatively and qualitatively. (more…)

"Glaciers are the canary in the global coal mine"

Interview with James Balog
by Jason Francis

James Balog, founder of the Extreme Ice Survey, discusses climate change as evidenced by the massive systemic changes wrought by humans in the basic chemistry of the planet. April 2013; source: © Share International

James Balog has been a leader in photographing, understanding and interpreting the natural environment for three decades. He has a graduate degree in geography and geomorphology and is an avid mountaineer. To reveal the impact of climate change, Balog in 2007 founded the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), the most wide-ranging, ground-based, photographic study of glaciers ever conducted. The project is featured in the highly acclaimed documentary Chasing Ice, which has won numerous awards worldwide. Balog is also the author of eight books; his most recent, Ice: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers, was released in the fall of 2012. Jason Francis interviewed James Balog for Share International. (more…)