My husband Steve and I just drove across America. It took three weeks as we made our way at a fairly leisurely pace, from California to Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, crossing over into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie on our way to our destination: Bala, Ontario in the Muskoka…

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of humanity. Climate change, overpopulation, unending war, environmental, health, and economic disasters… it goes on and on. It seems like there are only a few ways to face it: bury your head in the sand (business as usual); party while you still can; fight the good…

It seems that every day we become more aware of how the excesses of modern life wreak havoc on the lives of others half-way around the globe. For example, recently I have become more cognizant of the fact that many of our modern tools such as computers and cell phones are made from minerals whose…

In the October 2012 issue of the Active Consciousness Newsletter, I wrote about my growing fascination with Hawaiian mysticism — sometimes called Huna. My interest in the wisdom of Hawaii was triggered when I began reading the Spiritwalker trilogy of books by Hank Wesselman, who now teaches workshops on the subject. I can also highly…

A few years ago, while I was writing Active Consciousness, I was talking to an acquaintance about higher dimensional space and how I believed human awareness could transcend the boundaries of our three-dimensional physical bodies. He immediately said, “You’ve got to read this book — The Ever-Present Origin” and wouldn’t let up until I agreed…

I live in a somewhat rural area on the outskirts of a giant metropolis — the San Francisco Bay Area. When I sit outside, I see mostly trees and fields and a few nearby houses. But when I quiet my mind, the first thing I notice is the noise. Lots of it. The sounds of…

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about John Lennon. Somehow, a few of his songs continue to touch the hearts of humanity in a way that few other artists have achieved. How many of us haven’t teared up, at least just a little, when listening to Imagine? With one small song, Lennon captured the inner…

In November 2012, I took my first-ever private retreat at Vajrapani Institute in the Santa Cruz mountains. For two days, I was by myself in my own little cabin, alone with my thoughts, my Self, my dreams. The institute is affiliated with the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, and the lay people who run it dedicate themselves…

It wasn’t my original plan to start off 2013 with an article about something as difficult as the killings in Newtown, CT. But perhaps it is good to start off the year with a resolution for true change. Needless to say, the most obvious lesson we can take away from the sad events in Newtown…

Recently I’ve become fascinated by a notion I’d like to explore much more in 2013 — our critical role in tending the soul of the Earth. The idea was brought to my attention at the 2012 Science and Nonduality (SAND) conference in San Rafael in October. In several of his talks, Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee…