1997 - Present - Listed in alphabetical order -
Click on the title to see the whole interview

Dr. Daniel Amen, MD
Issue: Sept/Oct 2010

BRAIN GAIN -BRAIN HEALTH AND ALZHEIMER'S PREVENTION
In 1906, German physician Alois Alzheimer presented to his colleagues the case of a 51-year- old woman with memory loss, language problems, and behavior problems. Her autopsy showed brain abnormalities that were thought to explain her mysterious symptoms. Since then, the number of Alzheimer’s cases has grown yearly; estimates suggest that more than 5 million people may have the disease. And in spite of decades of research, no definitive treatments or preventive measures have been found for the devastating, and often fatal, disease.

What if that’s changing, if we could detect and prevent Alzheimer’s? Daniel Amen, psychiatrist, brain imaging specialist, best-selling author of 23 books, and CEO and medical director of The Amen Clinics, claims it’s possible. In Amen’s view, a type of functional brain imaging known as SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) that measures the flow of blood in certain areas of the brain can identify Alzheimer’s. If detected early enough, he says, it can be slowed or even prevented.

Suzanne Arms
Issue: Jul/Aug 2000

THE RETURN OF COMPASSIONATE CHILDBIRTH
The entry into the world of another soul is among the holiest of events. But in our modern society, birth is still often treated with little reverence. Suzanne Arms is the author of the ground-breaking book, Immaculate Deception (1975), one of the first books to expose the horrors of modern hospital birthing practices. Arms wrote a follow-up book, Immaculate Deception II: Myth, Magic and Birth  (Celestial Arts, 1996), that both revisits hospital maternity wards and also looks into the far-reaching impacts that many birthing practices may have on our children. She also made a video, "Giving Birth: Challenges and Choices" (Birthing The Future, 1998). Arms has spent more than 30 years researching birthing practices around the world. What she found: The experience moms and babies have in hospitals is far removed from any natural paradigm, and may have a profound, negative impact later in life. Here, Arms shares some of her theories, as well as a vision for a more natural birthing model, with Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema.

Karen Armstrong
Issue: May/June 2008

JESUS AND JIHAD Karen Armstrong was once dubbed the “runaway nun.” She later called herself “a freelance monotheist.” Armstrong has rarely shied from controversy. As a free-thinking and highly respected expert on religious history, her outspoken commentary on religion has raised eyebrows, ruffled feathers, and alternately alienated and endeared her to audiences around the globe. At times outrageous—she once compared Pope John Paul II to a Muslim fundamentalist—at others deeply empathic, she is unfailingly meticulous in her research. Here, she shares her views on the war in Iraq, the events of 9/11, and the pervasive and deeply troubling split between Islam and the West.

William Arntz
Issue: Jan/Feb 2005

WHAT THE #$%*! DO WE KNOW? Who knew that the seed of an idea, germinating for 25 years in the mind of William Arntz, the movie’s mastermind, would take such a quantum leap, outselling the likes of The Exorcist and The Lord Of The Rings in some theatres? Here, Arntz talks about his inspiration for the film, his hopes for its impact and the next installment.

A NEW VISION OF MEDICAL CARE  
As medicine moves into the 21st century, complementary or alternative practices and conventional practices are beginning to collide. Meanwhile, a surfeit of complementary practices has left patients with many options-and, often, some confusion about which ones to choose. Here, Ravi Dykema, publisher of Nexus, interviews Rudolph Ballentine, M.D., author of Radical Healing (Harmony Books, 1999), about meshing diverse medical practices, creating a collective language and the nature of illness as a personal transformational process.

Richard Bandler
Issue: Sept/Oct 2009

MAGIC BRAIN CHANGE
Does significant and lasting change require extensive psychotherapy, understanding of the origin of behavioral problems, and years of grueling self-examination? Richard Bandler says no. Co-creator with John Grinder of Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), Bandler has spent the last 40 years helping people with serious behavioral and mental disorders achieve extraordinary changes in their lives, by altering the way the brain processes information. The process is fairly simple and straightforward, and much of the time, people see results in weeks or months – not years.

Marc Ian Barasch
Issue: Jul/Aug 2005

THE FACES OF COMPASSION Barasch asks the question “What if the driving force of human progress is not survival of the fittest, but rather survival of the kindest?” Here, Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema talks to Barasch about the nature of basic human kindness, the biological evolution of goodness, and how compassion can transform our individual lives and the world at large.

Martha Beck
Issue: Sept/Oct 2005

OUT OF MORMONISM AND INTO FAITH One woman's painful journey out of Mormonism and into faith. Beck's journey culminated in her brave and often chilling book, Leaving The Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith, a chronicle of her quest to develop an authentic spirituality and satisfy her deep spiritual longing, coupled with rare and compelling glimpses into one of history's most secretive religions and accounts of her personal attempts to deal with childhood trauma. Here, Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema talks to Beck about surviving sexual abuse, coming to terms with the Mormon church and the transfomative power of personal truth.

Herbert Benson, MD
Issue: July/Aug 2011

THE ANTIDOTE Herbert Benson, MD is the father of modern mind-body medicine. From the late 1960s onward, Dr. Benson’s breakthrough research at Harvard Medical School has demonstrated that the “relaxation response,” which can be elicited through a variety of methods including meditation is a natural antidote to stress. Benson continues to lead research into the relaxation response’s basic physiology and efficacy in counteracting the harmful effects of stress.

Neal Bernard, MD
Issue: Jul/Aug 2001

FOOD: POTENT MEDICINE
"To serve beef and dairy in schools is to condemn another generation to the same problems that we're seeing now-a population that is more out of shape than it has ever been and enormous rates of disease."

Steve Bhaerman,
aka
Swami Beyondananda
Issue: Mar/April 2008

ELECTILE DYSFUNCTION AND THE MODERN POLITICIAN Steve Bhaerman, also know as Swami Beyondananda has been a regular contributor to many Nexus-type magazines, written four books, Driving Your Own Karma, When You See a Sacred Cow, Milk It For All It’s Worth, Duck Soup for the Soul, and his latest, Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction, and has toured the country performing his comedy routine. He also designed and led workshops on Comedy as a Healing Art.

Pre-Swami, Steve Bhaerman started an alternative high school in Washington, D.C. and co-authored a book about his experiences, No Particular Place to Go: Making of a Free High School. A political science major in college, he later taught history to autoworkers at Wayne State University in Detroit as part of the Weekend College.

As you will see, middle-aged Steve Bhaerman aka Swami Beyondananda has a serious side, and he, like perhaps you and I, can’t sit by anymore and hum while bombs burst and ice caps melt. So he has focused his wit on politics with his latest book, Swami for Precedent.

Brad Blanton
Issue: Sept/Oct 1997

TELLING THE TRUTH Telling it as it is - Radical honesty, Blanton explains, is a kind of communication that is direct, complete, open and expressive, an authentic sharing of what you think and feel. "The point of radical honesty isn’t to invoke another oppressive morality, but to get in touch with our insides, to nurture a clear-headed foundation for being alive," he says. "If you are grounded in your experience, you can forgive yourself and your fellow beings and love life. If you really want to make your life work, stop being such a liar!"

Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.
Issue: Nov/Dec 2007

A BODY-MIND REVOLUTIONARY'S REMARKABLE JOURNEY With the publication of the best-selling Minding the Body, Mending the Mind in 1987, Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. firmly established herself as a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine. Trained as both a medical scientist and psychologist, she received her doctorate from the Harvard Medical School, where she also completed three post-doctoral fellowships.

Using this impressive background, she went on to start Mind-Body clinical programs at two Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals, using her classic medical training as a foundation for a deeper body of work--one that encompasses psychoneuroimmunology, relationship-centered healing, women’s health, religion and interspirituality. With these programs, and her classic book, she began a career as one of the most respected voices in the field of mind-body medicine.

Here, she speaks with stunning depth, perception and sometimes painful personal wisdom about the mind-body connection, interspirituality and the elusive quest for inner peace.

Robert Bosnak
Issue: May/June 1998

Julia Cameron
Issue: May/June 2001

THE WRITER'S WAY
Do you wish you could dance, but think you're a klutz? Did you dream of becoming a painter as a kid, but stopped drawing over the years? Or maybe you feel an urge to write, but are afraid of not measuring up. "Oh well," you may think, "I don't need to dance or write. My life is okay the way it is. Maybe when I'm older. Maybe later..."

Don Campbell
Issue: Jul/Aug 2007

THE EXTRAORDINARY POWER OF MUSIC At some point in our lives, each of us has been touched by the extraordinary power of music—be it a moving symphony or a snippet of a song that recalls a long-ago memory with striking poignancy. What is this power? How exactly is it that music touches us so deeply? Don Campbell—best-selling author of The Mozart Effect (Harper Paperbacks, 2001) and an internationally recognized authority on the transformative power of music–has made it his life’s work to answer these questions.

Judith Campisi Ph.D
Issue: Jan/Feb 2012

THE SCIENCE OF STAYING YOUNG In 1900, the average American could expect to live about 47 years; by 2010, that figure reached 78 years. But hand-in-hand with those massive gains in lifespan came a host of age-related, degenerative diseases that tarnish the golden years and cost the country billions of dollars in health care. And for every youthful, robust 80 year old on the tennis court, there’s a bedridden or wheelchair-bound counterpart who’s watching tennis on TV.

What causes cellular decline that leads to disease and, ultimately, death? And how can we slow the inexorable march of time and stay youthful for years to come? Anti-aging researcher Judith Campisi, Ph.D., a leading authority on senescent cells – older cells that have stopped dividing – has been asking these questions for more than twenty years.

Marc David
Issue: May/June 2010

FOOD ATTITUDE - AN INTERVIEW WITH MARC DAVID - A NUTRITIONAL INNOVATOR HELPS YOU IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH, LOSE WEIGHT, AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.
In a world where nutrition consists of numbers, measurements and the voices of experts, Marc David is on a mission to help you change your relationship with food. He approaches nutrition not by counting calories or grams of fat, but by exploring how our psyches drive our eating behaviors.

David Deida,
Charles Muir,
Saida Désilets
Issue: Sept/Oct 2007

SEXUALITY: INTIMACY, ORGASM AND SPIRIT - The new awakened sex ignites more than experiences of God and spirit. It expands intimacy between two people, it grows love. And it is for this reason too that couples flock to tantra workshops and sacred sexuality classes. Many have found that re-ignited passion injects a healing salve into their relationship, deepens their capacity to love, and may even save a rocky marriage.

In these three conversations we explore the potential of our sexuality and sensuality with two of the shining lights in this field: David Deida and Charles Muir. We also speak with an important innovator and teacher of a Taoist perspective on sexual awakening, Saida Désilets.

Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Ph.D.
Issue July/August 2010

A LONG STRANGE TRIP - Memories of a psychedelic journey - an interview with Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Ph.D.
How did a nice girl from the Bronx end up deep in the Peruvian rainforest, doing hallucinogenic drugs with shamans and native healers? For Marlene Dobkin de Rios, medical anthropologist and psychotherapist, it was an unlikely profession.

“My original plan as an anthropologist was to study embroidery in Guatemala,” she says. But this field “was kind of like Mt. Everest. When somebody asked Sir Hillary why he climbed Mt. Everest, he said, ‘Because it was there.’ This study was like my Mt. Everest.”

And it was a mountain worth climbing: de Rios went on to become a leading public speaker and authority in the field of hallucinogens and sacred plants, and to spend the better part of her life studying them. She also studied shamanic techniques of healing and psychotherapy with shamans, ethnobotanists, ayahuasceros and native healers.

Here, she talks to Nexus about the politics of hallucinogens, the million-dollar industry of plant psychotropics, and the very real dangers of being a thrill-seeker in a sacred world of healing plants.

Larry Dossey, M.D.
Issue: Jan/Feb 2007

MARRYING MIRACLES AND SCIENCE Can praying for someone increase his or her chances of recovering from an illness? Does positive intention influence the outcome of disease? And can we create miracles in healing through the power of our minds? A growing body of scientific evidence is suggesting that we can.

John Douillard, D.C., PhD.
Issue: Mar/April 2007

DIET ROULETTE: SETTLING ON ONE THAT WORKS What to eat? What to avoid? In our diet-obsessed culture, the answers to these questions get more confusing every year. But according to John Douillard, Ayurvedic physician and author of The Three Seasons Diet (Three Rivers Press, 2001), devising a lifelong eating plan is simpler-and more natural-than you may think.

Michael Eades, MD
and Amy J. Lanou, PhD
Issue: Sept/Oct 2004

Matthew Fox
Issue: Nov/Dec 2001

ORIGINAL BLESSINGS
Maverick priest Matthew Fox has been called one of the most important religious thinkers and teachers of our time because of his devotion to unleashing the suppressed mystical and life-affirming traditions of Christianity. His theology of "creation spirituality"-the belief that we are born in what he calls original blessing-has reinvigorated the faith of countless Christians and earned him the headline-making censure of the Vatican, who officially silenced Fox in 1989 and precipitated his dismissal by the Dominican Order in 1993.

John Gottman, Ph.D.
Issue: May/June 2011

LOVE ME DO - HOW TO NOURISH (OR FIND!) A LONG LASTING RELATIONSHIP If you’re an average Coloradan chances are good that a quarter of your adult friends over 30 have been divorced – and some of them, more than once. Why has the dissolution of marital bonds become such an epidemic? Are we ill-suited to monogamy, or has the sanctity of marriage simply lost its luster?

John Gottman, Ph.D., has been scrutinizing such questions for more than 40 years. As a world-renowned researcher on marital stability and divorce prediction, he has studied how emotions, physiology and communication affect a couple’s likelihood to stay or to split.

Nicole Grace
Issue: Jan/Feb 2011

GLIMPSING ENLIGHTENMENT You won’t find her photo on her website, or on the dust jacket of her award-winning books. In fact, few people even know what Nicole Grace looks like. “I don’t even let people take a photograph of me,” she says. “A cult can grow around a personality, and an idea of what enlightenment should look like. And I know enlightenment can look like anything.”

Bruce Granger & Michael Williamson
Issue: Nov/Dec 2010

HIGH TIMES -Parting the smokescreen around medical marijuana Ten years after the passage of Amendment 20 legalized medicinal use of marijuana in Colorado, pot shops are springing up faster than Starbucks. The city of Denver alone has an estimated 250 dispensary storefronts, and at last count, the state had issued more than 100,000 cards allowing registered users to buy medical marijuana. Pot has become so popular as an herbal medicine, that an estimated 1,000 applications were submitted per day by February 2010.

Stephen K Hayes
Issue: May/June 2009

WARRIOR FOR PEACE - A NINJA MASTER'S VIEW ON THE SYNERGY OF POWER AND LOVE How can you defend yourself when you’re under attack – physically or verbally – without resorting to aggression? What’s the best way to reach personal fulfillment and find a deep sense of peace? How can you share that with others? These may not be the questions you’d think a Black Belt Hall of Fame winner would ponder.

But for Stephen K. Hayes, founder of To-Shin Do, conflict avoidance, compassionately taking care of others and the pursuit of truth is the essence of martial arts.Hayes, described by Black Belt magazine as one of the 10 most influential living martial artists in the world today, was trained in Japan by 34th generation headmaster of the Togakure ninja tradition in the 1970s. After 30 years of training, he was awarded the judan (tenth degree black belt) from his teacher.

Here, he talks with Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema about spiritual intelligence, global peace, and the personal pursuit of a deeper truth.

Kathlyn Hendricks
Issue: Nov/Dec 2006

CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE BREATH AT A TIME Kathlyn Hendricks talks about the power of breath, the principals of a healthy relationship, and the magic that arises from authentic communication.

John Major Jenkins
Issue: Nov/Dec 2011

2012 APOCALYPSE, SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE, OR CRAZINESS? You’ve heard the prophecies. They come and go over one’s lifetime: predictions of sudden social change, economic collapse, nuclear war, ecological cataclysms, pandemics, Armageddon or humanity’s extinction. On the eve of the prophecy-laden year, 2012, we want to know, did the Maya really predict a cataclysm on December 21, 2012? And the Maya aside, why are gloom and doom scenarios so popular right now?

To answer these questions we consult a Maya calendar expert and popular author, John Major Jenkins. And we interview an academic scholar of American religion, J. Gordon Melton Ph.D.

K. L. Shankaranarayana Jois, Kali Ray and David Life
Issue: May/June 2004

WHAT IS YOGA? Side-by-side these two pictures clash: Yoga as a workout and yoga as a religious lifestyle. Maybe it is both.In this issue of Nexus we explore these and other questions with three renowned Yoga experts:

K. L. Shankaranarayana Jois holds a Ph.D in yoga from Rastriya Sanskrita Samsthanam in Tirupati, India. He is recently retired as a professor of Sanskrit at the Sanskrit College of Mysore, India, and he has a degree in Ayruveda. In addition, he is a hereditary Vedic astrologer. He and his wife, Vijaya, have founded a non-profit organization for the preservation of the wisdom and knowledge of ancient India, Bharati Yoga Dhama. We spoke with Dr. Shankaranarayana during his recent visit to Boulder.

Kali Ray was initiated as a swami by H. H. Ganapati Sachidananda of Mysore, India, and created TriYoga®, which is now taught at five centers around the U.S. Kali Ray has been a keynote or featured speaker at numerous yoga conferences in the U.S. and abroad. She has produced six newly-released DVDs titled, "TriYoga - Free the Hips," "TriYoga - Free the Spine," "Yoga for Two," "Yoga for Kids," "Cardio," and "Strengthening." We spoke with Kali Ray by phone.

David Life founded Jivamukti yoga with his wife, Sharon Gannon. They run a busy center in New York City and include among their students celebrities such as Christy Turlington and Sting. David Life has studied yoga around the world with many teachers including Shri Brahmananda Saraswati, Sri Swami Nirmalananda and Shri K. Pattabhi Jois. He is a contributing writer for several publications including Yoga Journal and Yoga International, and together with Sharon Gannon has co-authored two books, Jivamukti Yoga: Practices for Liberating Body & Soul and The Art of Yoga. We spoke with David Life at our offices in Boulder.

Byron Katie -
Issue: May/June 2005

WHO WOULD YOU BE WITHOUT YOUR STORY? Over the last 15 years, Katie has traveled the world, offering free public events, weekend workshops, conferences and a nine-day “school.” She doesn’t lecture or teach, but instead invites people to do The Work with her and with each other. Here, she shares the story of how The Work was born, and ways to learn to love what is.

John Daido Loori, Roshi
Issue: Nov/Dec 2005

WHEN THE SNOW HAS MELTED
Have you heard the famous question about the sound made by one hand clapping? It’s a Zen koan. If you know the answer, you may be enlightened! Maybe you’ve heard of haiku poetry, the Japanese Zen style of poem uttered in a single breath. Here’s the most famous one by Basho (1644-’94): An age old pond—/A frog suddenly leaps out/Splashing water.

The word “Zen” has so entered our language that even the new St. Julien Hotel in Boulder advertises itself with a photo of a limo sporting mountain bikes on the roof rack and the words, “Your Zen has arrived.”

Ed Lewis
Issue: Jan/Feb 2004

ALTERNATIVE FUELS IN COLORADO And their potential to change the world. New technologies have enabled people to extract portable fuel from non-fossil sources, such as leftover French fry grease and plant stems. Boulder Bio-diesel collects used oil from Sunflower Restaurant in Boulder (and many other places) and makes fuel out of it with a simple process. Boulder Rolfer Eric Fenz fills up his VW bug with the fuel, and feels good as he drives off, even though he pays a bit more for it than he would for regular diesel. His car's exhaust smells like a Chinese restaurant. It pollutes way less than a car burning diesel would.

Should this be our collective future? If so, how do we get there? To answer these questions, and many others, we interviewed Ed Lewis, who is the Senior Deputy Director of the Colorado Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation in Denver (OEMC), and is the State Biomass Coordinator for Colorado. He has been involved in numerous alternative fuel projects in Colorado over the last seven years, and is a well-respected expert in the field.

We also interviewed David Green, PhD, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (See page, "Can alternative fuels eventually replace petroleum fuels?")

Karen McCall
Issue: Sept/Oct 2011

ABUNDANCE WITHIN REACH Are you feeling uneasy about money and your future? So too are many people, and even whole countries, such as the USA! Headlines shout “Financial Turmoil!” Markets seesaw and worried politicians huddle around their paper-strewn conference tables. No wonder we’re afraid!

But according to Karen McCall, author of Financial Recovery: Developing a healthy relationship with money (New World Library, 2011) and founder of the Financial Recovery Institute – an organization that trains professionals how to help their clients change their relationships with money – our fear of impoverishment has less to do with these external events, and more to do with our internal state.

Ana Micka
Issue: Jul/Aug 2004

Dan Millman
Issue: Jul/Aug 2006

THIS VERY MOMENT IS MAGICAL
Dan Millman has influenced several generations of spiritual explorers through his best-selling novel, Way of the Peaceful Warrior (H.J. Kramer, 2000), through his ten other books, and through his lectures and workshops. (He recently headlined the Celebration Metaphysical Fair in Denver on March 18-19.)

Now his influence is likely to reach thousands more because his first book has been made into a major motion picture, “Peaceful Warrior,” starring Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz and Amy Smart.

Carolyn Myss, Ph.D.
Issue: Mar/April 2005

POWER, COMPASSION and GENEROSITY Myss talks about how we can become channels for grace, power and miracles through kind, compassionate and generous actions-—invisible acts of power.

Maria Nemeth, PhD
Issue: Mar/April 2009

FACING YOUR MONEY DRAGON Money confuses us, especially these days. We alternately love and fear it, shun and exalt it. We rely on it to relieve emotional pain, and turn to it for comfort and security. But rarely do we view our financial challenges as a path to wellbeing and even spiritual enrichment. Maria Nemeth, Ph.D., a coach and author on money, assures us that it is. The author of The Energy of Money; A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment (Wellspring/Ballantine, 2000), Nemeth is also a former associate professor of clinical psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and an associate clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at California State University, Davis. Her newest book, Mastering Life’s Energies: Simple Steps to a Luminous Life at Work and Play (New World Library, 2008), expands the insights from The Energy of Money, applying them to the whole of life. Here, Nemeth talks about the current financial crisis, the messages we convey by how we handle our personal finances, and the ways in which money is a fire-breathing dragon for all of us.

Britt Newell &
Iala Jaggs
Issue: July/Aug 2008

GOING NATIVE
Have you ever dreamed of selling everything and “discovering yourself” in a foreign country? You could really do it. You don’t have to be rich. One website claims you can live well in Bolivia for $9000 a year, $750 per month. The author of an article in the October 2007 issue of the E-zine “Escape from America Magazine” says you can live in the Philippines on a beach for $6276 per year, or $523 per month.

Or you can live more cheaply (and change your life) in the remote Costa Rican jungle. Iala Jaggs did just that.

Or consider rural Paraguay. Britt Newell found a wife, a large extended family and a peaceful world in a small town.

Nando Parrado
Issue: Sept/Oct 2006

A LOVE MORE POWERFUL THAN DEATH author of Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado, survivor of the 1972 Andes plane crash, reflects on spirituality, faith and what one can learn from death.

Stephen Porges, Ph.D.
Issue: Mar/April 2006

HOW YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM EFFECTS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS The Polyvagol theory is the study of the evolution of the human nervous system and the origins of brain structures, and it assumes that more of our social behaviors and emotional disorders are biological—that is, they are “hard wired” into us—than we usually think. Based on the theory, Porges and his colleagues have developed treatment techniques that can help people communicate better and relate better to others.

Paul Ray
Issue: Mar/April 2001

CULTURAL CREATIVES 
A huge social transformation is moving through the United States, one that crosses all boundaries-age, gender, religious affiliation, ethnicity and political position. This movement encompasses more than 50 million people, called the cultural creatives, whose values and lifestyle are playing a critical role in shaping the present-and the future-of the world. Cultural creatives are defined as people who care deeply about saving the planet, nurturing relationships, expressing peace, embodying social justice, and cultivating authenticity, self-actualization, spirituality and self-expression. They are both inner directed and socially concerned. And they encompass one in every four adult Americans.

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
Sept/Oct 2001

DISEASE CAN BE AN AWAKENING
Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, may have discovered what traditional medicine has long been missing: heart and soul. Author of the best-selling Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal (Riverhead Books, 1997), Remen has plenty of stories herself. She's a medical educator, pioneering healer and survivor of a life-threatening illness. And as one of the pioneers of the mind-body health movement, she's helping people to learn more about heart and soul in healing.

THE CREATION OF NIA Can we experience deep physical pleasure, even joy, in a workout? Can a fitness routine nurture exploration of the self and transform the spirit? Nia says yes. Part yoga, part martial arts and dance, this soulful workout incorporates movement from nine systems, including tai kwon do, modern dance, Feldenkrais and others, into an inspiring dance-like routine.

Don Miguel Ruiz
Issue: Nov/Dec 2004

THE LIFE OF A TOLTEC WARRIOR Sometimes the most important spiritual lessons are the simplest: Tell the truth. Don't take anything personally. Don't assume things. Do your best. And this is the essence of the Four Agreements, created by Don Miguel Ruiz, healer, shaman and modern leader of the ancient Toltec tradition.

Mark Schapiro
Issue: Jan/Feb 2008

TOXIC WARRIOR The cosmetics you use every day, the toys your children play with, the air inside the car you drive, all these introduce chemicals into your body. Are some of these chemicals toxic at the levels to which you are exposed? And if so, what can we do to protect ourselves? It is a question that scientists ask, governments ask, industry leaders ask, and ordinary people ask. And many of the answers are unsettling . . .

Tom Shadyac
Issue: March/April 2011

THE SHIFT HITS THE FAN Stories of fabulous philanthropic efforts abound among Hollywood glitterati. What you don’t hear about often are famous Hollywood moviemakers who ditch rich-and-famous lifestyles for mobile homes, swap private jets for bicycle commutes, even chuck their cell phones. That’s what Tom Shadyac has done. He is the widely acclaimed comedy writer, producer and director of such notable films as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty and Patch Adams.

Ed and Deb Shapiro
Issue: March/April 2010

THE PRIZE OF MEDITATION The inspiration for their latest book, Be The Change: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World (Sterling, 2009) "arose in response to the need to make sense of what's happening in the world," says Ed. "We wondered, 'Could something as subtle and understated as meditation also have an affect on business, conflict resolution, or politics? What change could happen if something so simple were to become a global movement?'"

The aim of this book, they say, is to make meditation as mainstream as yoga. Here, Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema talks with the Shapiros about meditation, both on the cushion and in the world.

Bishop John Shelby Spong
Issue: May/June 2006

CHALLENGING THE BIBLE The Bible is, arguably, the Western world's most widely read, frequently quoted and generally venerated text. In religious circles, it is beyond reproach. How, then, did a leader in the Episcopal church come to call some of the Bible's teachings “toxic” and label the book itself “the tribal story of a particular people... not the word of God”? John Shelby Spong, retired Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Newark, is a leading and provocative spokesperson for a progressive and scholarly approach to Christianity. Now considered the pre-eminent voice for liberal Christianity, Spong began questioning some interpretations of the Bible when he was only 14 years old.

David Silver, M.D.
Issue: Sept/Oct 2008

HUNTING YOUR CURE - Getting results by combining conventional and complementary medicine.To help you or your loved ones navigate the world of conflicting diagnoses, specialists, tests, healers and treatment plans, we spoke with David Silver, M.D., who practices the new specialty of Patient Advocacy, also called Medical Advocacy.

HOW SCHOOLS FAIL KIDS AND  HOW THEY COULD BE BETTER PART 1 - Ted Sizer

An interview with Ted Sizer, retired founder of the The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) 

HOW SCHOOLS FAIL KIDS AND  HOW THEY COULD BE BETTER PART 2 - Kathy Simon of  The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) 

A new environmental science teacher in a small city in the Northeast could see a river from her classroom window, and across the river, a factory. She and her students noticed a yellow liquid flowing out of a pipe right into the river. She abandoned the textbook, with its chapters on wetland ecology and pollution, in favor of doing a study of the river. They found that it was indeed polluted from multiple sources, including the factory they could see out the window. But once the students understood the science of the ecosystem, they wanted to get political. They wrote letters to the mayor and the CEO of the factory, and talked to local legislators. The students were excited and interested in what they were learning at school.

Konrad Steffen, Ph.D.
Issue: May/June 2007

WILL THE OCEANS RISE? WILL CROPS FAIL? Will future generations lament to their ancestors (us), “What the (bleep) were you thinking!?" A climate scientist convinces you to do something now about global warming.

PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM TOXINS Author of The Safe Shopper's Bible, Steinman speaks about organic food, baby shampoo and lotion, water quality, our over-sanitized lives, a lawsuit that resulted from Steinman's past whistle blowing, and other topics.

Jesse Govinda Thompson
Issue: May/June 2000

THE DHARMA BRATS - GROWING UP BUDDHIST IN AMERICA
I first realized the unique nature of my childhood when I heard that my peers and I were known as the "dharma brats." My parents were Tibetan Buddhists, disciples of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. So I grew up in the first generation of American Buddhists. My childhood included Buddhist schooling, attending Buddhist summer camps, and relating with a mostly Buddhist peer group.

COLORADO'S METAPHYSICAL SPRINGS In this interview by Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema, conducted at the Celebration Production, Inc. offices in Colorado Springs, we ask Shanti Toll about life as a metaphysical entrepreneur in the capitol of Christian activism. We ask him about the value of and the philosophy behind psychic readings. And we ask him about the community he loves: Colorado Springs.

David and Lila Tresemer
Issue Mar/April 2004

SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT Founders of Star House and All Seasons Chalice - When David Tresemer, a Harvard graduate raised in a world of private schools and privileges, first came to Boulder, it was part of a spiritual journey that had taken him from a PhD program in psychology to a rural farming community in Vermont, growing organic vegetables and delivering baby animals.His pilgrimage culminated 13 years later in the building of the Star House and All Seasons Chalice, a multi-faith, nature-based church that celebrates the seasons and lunar cycles with an eclectic blend of ancient rituals, indigenous wisdom and modern practices. Situated on 35 spectacular acres in Boulder's foothills, the church is surrounded by a tight-knit spiritual community that grows organic herbs and meets for regular prayer and meditation. Here, Tresemer and his wife, Lila Sophia, talk to Ravi Dykema about Darwinism, myth-based theatre and celebrating life through the seasons.

Neale Donald Walsch 
Issue Mar/April 2000

COMMUNICATING WITH GOD
Rarely has an author touched so many lives with a single theme. Neale Donald Walsch transformed a late-night self-described conversation with "God" into an international best seller by the same name. Walsch says his books are God's actual responses to his own soul-searching questions. More books in the series soon followed. To date, Conversations With God, Book One (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1996) has sold more than 1.5 million copies and spent an astonishing 130 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. In each piece of the trilogy, God is presented not as a wrathful and judgmental being to be feared, but a kind, loving and understanding entity who wants us to be happy. Walsch says he was recently summoned by God to write Friendship With God: An Uncommon Dialogue (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999), which details how to turn a relationship with God into a friendship. Communion With God, which tells how to elevate that friendship into a communion, is scheduled to be published by Putnam in the fall. Here, Walsch has a conversation with Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema.

William J. Walsh & Fernando Gomez-Pinilla PhD

YOUR BRAIN ON FOOD In 1972, William J. Walsh was working with ex-convicts, helping them return to society. While conventional wisdom of the day held that childhood influences were the main cause of behavior problems and mental illness, he learned that many of his clients were raised alonside siblings who had developed no law-breaking or criminal tendencies. In fact they were well adjusted, normal people. Walsh couldn’t understand, he says, “how some of these people who did such horrible things came from nice families.” He suspected that criminal behavior had a lot to do with genetics. Murderers, he suspected, likely had faulty brain chemistry.So he started testing people who had committed violent acts, ex-cons, imprisoned serial killers and mass murderers, including Charles Manson and Richard Speck. He tested their blood, urine and tissues, and compared them to samples from normal people. After many years of such research, Walsh discovered that indeed the violent people did have distinct biochemical imbalances, compared to the general population.

Shinzen Young
July/August 2009

THE RELUCTANT MONK "As long as you are focused, you are perfectly happy. It's when you get scattered that your life becomes unhappy. I came to realize that life is actually a giant biofeedback device."

How does a Jewish man born into a normal, middle-class American family end up a Japanese monk and scholar who hobnobs with neuroscientists? For Shinzen Young, it all started with a Friday-night double-feature at a tiny Japanese theater in downtown Los Angeles. That childhood exposure to Japanese culture fueled a lifelong passion and quest that lead Young to master several Asian languages, undergo rigorous training in each of the three major Buddhist meditative traditions, and become both a monk and a respected academician.

After many years in Japan, Young returned to the United States and set his sites on the growing dialogue between the meditative practices of the East and the technological science of the West. His studies in that field have led him to develop, among other programs, innovative pain-management techniques and a phone-based home practice. Here, Young talks to Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema about life in Japan, the rigors of meditation training, and the technological future of mindfulness practice.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Issue: Jan/Feb 09

A SAGE PRAYS FOR WAKING UP So few are the number of true visionaries, wise sages and religious leaders, that they can be counted on our fingers. How fortunate, then, are we in Colorado to count one of them in our region. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi—or Reb Zalman, as he’s best known—is the father of the Jewish Renewal movement, a teacher of Hasidism and Jewish Mysticism, a respected author of many books, and a participant in ecumenical dialogues throughout the world. And as a Jewish man who faced unthinkable evil during Nazi Germany and a rabbi who has studied many philosophies and religions, he’s extraordinarily well-equipped to offer vision and hope for our nation and the planet in the years to come.

Here, he speaks with Nexus about our current economic and environmental crises, the state of religion, an organismic view of the world, and his hopes and vision for our planet.

Robert Zubrin
Issue: Nov/Dec 2000

EXPLORING SPACE
The desire for space exploration goes far deeper than political ambition or economic drive. It satisfies, in a sense, the basic necessity of a civilization to explore, play and expand outward. Here, Robert Zubrin, author of Entering Space and The Case for Mars, talks with Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema about Mars, the human need for exploration and the possibility of a celestial civilization.