Philip Zimbardo In the western world, we all seem to be driven by the clock. The question that I hear frequently asked is, “what time is it”?  In this wonderful interview with author and psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo, we explore the meaning and value we place on time, as well as his time perspective inventory.   His book entitled, “The Time Paradox“, reveals how to better use your most irreplaceable resource, based on solid science and timeless wisdom

The reality is that we are all going to run out of time at some point in our lives.  In other words we are going to exit this physical plane of existence and move on to a spiritual realm.  We are all going to die, and this life will end.  As Dr. Zimbardo points out, our time perspective reflects attitudes, beliefs, and values related to time.   He asks the question, do you spend more time thinking about the past, the present or future?  And when you think about the past, present or future are your thoughts positive, or negative, happy or sad, hopeful or fearful?  Your personal time perspective helps determine your answers to these types of questions and reflects your thoughts, feelings and behaviors–in fact, all aspects of your life.

Dr. Zimbardo states that while time perspectives will continue to emerge, change and evolve, for the Western world, he has identified six perspectives: two past, two present, and two future.  These time perspectives are called the: 1) past negative 2) past positive 3) present-fatalistic 4) present hedonistic 5) future 6) transcendental-future.

If you would like to determine your own time perspective I would recommend that you take the (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory) This is a very short questionnaire but something you will find quite useful in determining your personal time perspective.  You can access this questionnaire by clicking here.

If you are have ever wondered where does all the time go, or you are wanting to learn more about how your personal perspective about time effects your emotions, attitudes and feelings then I highly recommend that you read “The Time Paradox.”  This is a wonderful book that will provide each reader with a new and altered perspective about time and the value we place on it.

I hope you enjoy my interview with Dr. Philip Zimbardo and please visit his website for additional information about this book and others.  You can access his website by clicking here.

Roger Walsh M.D.It was a pleasure to have interviewed Roger Walsh about his book entitled, “Essential Spirituality“.  This book was originally recommended to me by a very good friend, and I am so glad that I made the effort to reach out to Roger and conduct this interview.

Roger Walsh is one of the foremost scholars on spirituality and psychology, his wisdom became so apparent as we dialogued about his book, “Essential Spirituality“,  that I could have engaged in a much longer dialogue with Roger.  I have invited him to return to do additional interviews-so stay tuned for a series of interviews with this wonderful man.

Rogers book is about the deep practices that each of us should cultivate and maintain in our life to reach a deeper connection to the Divine.  Roger has done extensive research into the various religious and spiritual practices that for centuries have assisted us in cultivating a deep spiritual connection.  He makes a point to differentiate between religion and spirituality, which I believe is important. The word religion has many meanings; in particular it implies a concern with the sacred and supreme values of life.  The term spirituality, on the other hand refers to direct experience of the sacred.  Spiritual practices are those that help us experience the sacred–that which is most central and essential to our lives–for ourselves.

The ultimate aim of spiritual practices as our author states ” Is awakening; that is to know our true Self and our relationship to the sacred. However, spiritual practices also offer numerous other gifts along the way. Gradually, the heart begins to open, fear and anger melt, greed and jealousy dwindle, happiness and joy grow, love flowers, peace replaces agitation, concern for other blossoms, wisdom matures, and both psychological and physical heath improve.  Virtually all aspects of our lives touched and transformed in some way.

If you are seeking to cultivate a life of joy, meaning and fulfillment then the spiritual path would be a great place to begin.  Our author Roger Walsh in his book “Essential Spirituality‘ provides the tools and practices that will assist anyone on the path of awakening.  His book is the best book that I have ever read on spiritual practices and the benefits associated with the cultivation of these practices.  I encourage all of my listeners to add this book as a must read if you are exploring the spiritual path.

 

If you would like to learn more about Roger Walsh, you can visit his website by clicking here or you can watch a short video on YouTube by clicking here.  Enjoy this wonderful interview with a very wise and knowledgeable scholar who speaks the truth to the common man and woman.

Gary ZukavI recently had the distinct honor of interviewing Gary Zukav about his new book entitled, “Spiritual Partnership-The Journey to Authentic Power“.   I know that many of my listeners remember Gary Zukav for his previous works entitled, “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” and “The Seat of the Soul”.   This new book dives even deeper into helping us all understand what is like to live beyond our five senses and become what Gary refers to as a multi-sensory being.

In our forty-five minute interview we cover a lot of ground, so I encourage you to listen carefully.  “Spiritual Partnerships” will assist in bringing awareness to what it is like to live in a world of equality, commitment, courage, compassion and conscious communications as is outlined in the Spiritual Partnership Guidelines.  Human Consciousness has and is shifting, we can experience more than our five senses.  We will be able to sense ourselves as personalities and souls at the same time, and know things we couldn’t before–meaning, information, reasons for past events and more.

We all have a choice, we can either choose to ignore the evolutionary process taking place and live as we have in the past. Or we can embrace the incredible opportunity to live our lives in alignment with our souls, and discover what Gary states is our Authentic Power.

When we embrace our authentic power we will create spiritual partnerships,  based upon equals for the purpose of spiritual growth.  These new partnerships will be different from all previous forms of relationship and serve a different purpose. Spiritual Partnerships are vehicles that multisensory individuals use to create authentic power and support one another.  In these new types of relationships we commit to aligning our personalities with our souls with the benefit being a life that our heart longs to live,  more fulfilled, grateful, patient, fully present, meaningful, creative and living.

This wonderful new book is certainly going to bring awareness to the shifts in consciousness in our world.  The greater our awareness and willingness to embrace our own shift, and become a more conscious loving, caring, compassionate human being, the closer we will be to transforming our world into a place of cooperation vs competition.

We can live in harmony, peace and abundance with living beings—what a wonderful place this world will be when we awaken to our own authentic power and use this energy to create lasting and meaningful spiritual partnerships.  I encourage all of my listeners to read and fully understand what is happening in the evolution of our species.  It is truly a beautiful thing, and you are part of it!

If you would like more information about Gary’s new book, ” Spiritual Partnerships-The Journey to Authentic Power” please click here to be directed to his website.  There you will find videos, and down loadable information about the Spiritual Partnership Guidelines.   Pleaseclick here to be directed to information on his upcoming workshop at Mt. Hood, Ore.

Robert Levine Ph.D.It was a kick interviewing Robert Levine.  He really has a grasp on how cultures around the world keep time differently.

In his book entitled, “A Geography of Time“, Robert Levine articulates the differences between clock time, nature time and event time.  Nature time is the time used by all forms of life and is determined by the sun and seasons. Event time is basically the time needed to perform the tasks of the day, and clock time is a more recent invention and is primarily a product of industrialization and commerce.

In my estimation it is somewhat unfortunate that most of our western culture works on clock time.  We hurry to go here, there and everywhere, and frequently miss the special moments that help to make our minutes, hours and days more enjoyable.

Robert did extensive studies throughout the world, and found varying paces and tempo of life.  He found that the quicker we speak, walk, eat and drive that the economic well being of these communities were usually better.  So I guess if you want to have a more financially rewarding life you should live in New York or Los Angeles.

The top five countries using the index of pace of  life or time consciousness are in order, (from fastest to slowest) Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Japan and Italy.  The five slowest or least time conscious countries are,  Syria, El Salvador, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico. By the way the US is 16th place in world standings.

You are going to love this interview with Robert Levine as we weave our way through”A Geography of Time” and discuss some very deep philosophical questions.  I pose the question about our pace of life, and our ultimate impermanence here on this physical plane.  We speak about the Buddhist perspective about time, and how this shifts whole cultures.

We certainly are a very productive, time bound culture but changing our pace would probably relieve much of the stress in our society that causes many of the physical aliments that are epidemic states.  We should as a culture learn how to pace our life which would lead to more enjoyment of life and would enhance our relations with others.   As Robert states he envisions an attitude of “multi-temporality” where by the person who has mastered time can move easily between nature time, event time and clock time as the situation and need requires.

This is a wonderful interview with a tremendous man, with lots of personality, insight and wisdom to provide to you.  Please click here to be referred to his website for additional information.

John RobbinsI have been an admirer of John Robbins for many years.  I first heard him speak in San Francisco in 2003 just after my oldest son Sean was diagnosed with Leukemia.  We took a trip to San Fransisco to attend a Green Conference where John was speaking about his book “The Food Revolution“.  It was this speech that made such an impact on both my son and myself that we altered our diets significantly in an effort to improve our health and be more environmentally sensitive.  I am proud to report that John’s message indelibly impacted our family contributing to our families improved health today.

John’s new book entitled ” The New Good Life” is probably one of the best books that I have ever read on living a life on less without the sacrifice.  The New Good Life is the path from conspicuous consumption to conscious consumption.  He advocates taking an active role in becoming  more aware of your purchases, and differentiate between your needs and wants.  Those of us who live in the United States for the most part have had plenty, and the previous consumptive patterns have helped to lead the current ecological and economic challenges we are faced with today.

As a result of our consumptive patterns I believe that we  need to look more closely at the choices we make when we purchase something,  and shift toward conscious consumption.  As John articulates in “The New Good Life” his life shifted significantly when he woke up one day last December to realize that 95% of his entire fortune disappeared as a result of his assets being mismanaged on Wall Street.

This book is as much about John’s personal journey, and how to learn to live on less while appreciating life.  It is a passionate manifesto on finding meaning beyond money, while delivering a sound blueprint for living well on less.  John teaches you how to create your own definition of success based on your deepest beliefs and life experiences, alleviate depression and stay fit with inexpensive alternative for high cost medicine, develop a diet that promotes better health and saves money, and how to protect yourself from future economic catastrophes.

The New Good Life” is a must read for anyone suffering through this economic downturn.  It is wonderfully written and extremely enlightening.

I highly recommend that you visit John’s website by clicking here and check out all of the cool resources as well as his videos.  Enjoy this great interview with a man on a mission to help people, help themselves while helping save planet earth!!!!