Willis Barnstone is a poet, translator, biblical scholar, memoirist, anthologist, teacher, and painter. He is a former O’Connor Professor of Greek at Colgate University, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, a Guggenheim Fellow, and winner of numerous literary awards, including the Emily Dickinson, Lannon, and W. H. Auden awards. In 2015 he was recipient of the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award. He is translator of the Greek Lyric Poets, a literary historical version of the New Testament, and poets as diverse as Sappho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jorge Luis Borges, Antonio Machado, Wang Wei, and St. John of the Cross.

Barnstone’s life’s work includes over 75 books including With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires (University of Illinois Press 1999), The Poems of Jesus Christ (W.W. Norton & Company 2012), The Poetics of Ecstasy: Varieties of Ekstasis from Sappho to Borges (Holmes & Meier Pub 1983), The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice (Yale University Press 1995), Sappho and the Greek Lyric Poets (Pantheon 1988), The Other Bible (HarperOne 2005), The Apocalypse (editor, translator) (New Directions 2000), The Gnostic Bible (Shambhala 2009), The Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas (W.W. Norton and Company 2009) and A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now (editor with Aiki Barnstone) (Schocken1992)

Interview Date: 3/9/2015 Tags: Willis Barnstone, cafes, conversation, poetic word, poetry, The Good Beasts, prose, Jesus as poet, Arts & Creativity

Eric Maisel, Ph.D. is a licensed family therapist, a creativity coach, and author of more than 40 books. He also conducts writing workshops and trains creativity coaches. His books include Life Purpose Boot Camp: The 8 Week Breakthrough Plan for Creating a Meaningful Life (New World Library 2014), Secrets of a Creativity Coach (Motivational Press 2014), Why Smart People Hurt (Conari Press 2013, Fearless Creating (Tarcher 1995), Van Gogh's Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression (New World Library 2007), Mastering Creative Anxiety (New World Library 2011), Making Your Creative Mark (New World Library 2013), Natural Psychology: The New Psychology of Meaning (Natural Psychology Press 2012), Rethinking Depression (New World Library 2012), Brainstorm: Harnessing The Power of Productive Obsessions (New World Library 2010), Creativity For Life (New World Library 2007) and Coaching the Artist Within (New World Library 2005)

Interview Date: 1/15/2015 Tags: Eric Maisel, writing, creativity, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, DSM5, mental health reform, morning writing, meaning boost

Margaret Wheatley is an internationally acclaimed writer, speaker, and teacher. She began caring about the world's peoples in 1966 as a Peace Corps volunteer in postwar Korea. She is cofounder and President Emerita of The Berkana Institute, a charitable foundation that works with people around the world to strengthen their communities using the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions, and environment. She is a guide in leading people back to understanding who we are as humans, being able to create the conditions for our basic qualities of generosity, contribution, community, and love. She is a grand contributor in creating an Island of Sanity in the midst of wildly disruptive seas. Her books include Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (Berrett-Koehler 1992), Perseverance (Berrett-Kohler 2010), Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope in the Future (Berrett-Koehler 2009), So Far from Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World (Berrett-Koehler 2012) and Who Do We Choose To Be: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity (Berrett-Koehler 2017).

Interview Date: 8/19/2010

Douglas Grunther is the creator and host of the “Woodstock Roundtable” an award winning radio talk show covering philosophy, depth psychology, and spiritual insight. He is also a dreamwork facilitator. He is the author of The Quantum & The Dream: Visionary Consciousness, AI, and The New Renaissance (Epigraph Books 2024)

Interview Date: 11/15/2024 Tags: Douglas Grunther, scientific materialism, climate change, dream appreciation, intuition, collective intelligence, swarming bee intelligence, collaboration, Black Plague, empathy, wisdom, dream appreciation, Jeremy Taylor, Elias Howe, sewing machine invention, creative visualization, daydreaming, intuitive flashes, perception, Marshall McLuhan, Buckminster ”Bucky” Fuller, Science, Personal Transformation, Dream, History, Social Change/Politics

Brenda Peterson is a novelist, nature writer, and writing teacher. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and O: The Oprah Magazine. Her books include Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals (W. W. Norton 2001), Duck and Cover (Backinprint.com 2004), I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth (Da Capo Press 2010) and Your Life is a Book: How to Craft & Publish Your Memoir (co-author Sarah Jane Freymann) (Sasquatch Books 2014)

Interview Date: 9/11/2014. Tags: Brenda Peterson, memoir, self publishing, query letter, eBooks, Editing books, typography, Spirituality, Religion

Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, Center for Applied Neuroaesthethics (known as the IAM Lab) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she’s a faculty member in the Department of Neurology. Ivy Ross is Chief Design Officer of Consumer Devices at Google and has led teams that have won hundreds of design awards. She’s a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient and was ninth on Fast Company’s list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2019. Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross are Co-authors of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. (Random House 2023)

Interview Date: 10/14/2024 Tags: Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross, aesthetic mindset, curiosity, playful exploration, sensorial experience, colored pencils, color is a vibration, chromasonics, Art & Creativity Health & Healing, Personal Transformation

Hope Johnson is a teacher of mysticism who draws on the teachings of Jesus from A Course in Miracles, as well as the Buddha, the Bhagavad Gita, yogic philosophy, quantum physics and other traditions. She leads free weekly online wisdom dialogues and free daily lessons on A Course in Miracles that involve reading a lesson with insightful commentary for practical applications in daily life. She also offers one-to-one guidance towards recognizing and embracing the ever-present reality of love. She is also the founder and creator of Miracle Botanicals Essential Oils. She is the author of Unschooling For Parents, Protecting Innocence, A Mystics Guide To Awakening With Children (Hope Johnson 2019)

Interview Date: 11/1/2024 Tags: Hope Johnson, A Course in Miracles, fear, enlightenment, perception, guilty consciousness, guilty mind, uncertainty, weaving world with concepts, ego, the great awakening, Armageddon, new renaissance, being the love of God, relaxing the ego, Holy Spirit, cult, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Religion, Spirituality

Mark Gober is a senior member of the Sherpa Technology Group in Silicon Valley, California, a firm that advises technology companies on mergers and acquisitions and business strategy. He previously worked as an investment banker analyst in New York. Mark graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University and has collected and surveyed a large body of research of various scientific papers and books about consciousness, biological processes, psychic phenomena, near-death experiences, and quantum physics. He is the author of An End to Upside Down Thinking: Dispelling the Myth That the Brain Produces Consciousness, and the implications for Everyday Life (Waterside Press 2018)

Tags: Mark Gober, scientific materialism, consciousness, conventional view of science, psychic phenomena, remote viewing, clairvoyance, previous lives, rencarnation, savants, brain filters, Diane Hennacy Powell, autism, Dr. Jefffrey Mishlove, epigenetics, Max Planck, Science, Death & Dying, Parapsychology/Paranormal, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Intuition/Psychic