The New Dimensions Café

Gary Gach is a lifelong meditator. He’s been an actor, bookshop clerk, dishwasher, hospital administrator, office temp, stevedore, teacher, and typographer. He was Lay-ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2008 and is the founder of SEE, which stands for Spiritually Engaged Economics. He facilitates a weekly practice group of Mindfulness Fellowship, in San Francisco. His many books include The Complete I...

Arjuna Ardagh is a writer, public speaker and founder of the Awakening Coaching Training in Nevada City, California. It’s a training program dedicated to the awakening of consciousness within the context of ordinary life. His books include The Translucent Revolution (New World Library 2005), Leap Before You Look: 72 Shortcuts for Getting Out of Your Mind and into the Moment (Sounds True 2008), Las...

Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph. D.  is an internationally acclaimed evolution biologist, futurist and author. Her books include EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution (iUniverse 2000), A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us --The Evolution of Life on Earth (coauthors Brian Swimme & Sidney Liebes) (John Wiley & Sons 1998) and Biology Revisioned ( coauthor Willis Harman) (North Atlantic Books 1998)&...

Anne Scott is the founder of the Dream Weather Foundation. She leads workshops and retreats for women in diverse communities and organizations around the country. The focus of her work is restoring the link between feminine wisdom and social change, and on the healing nature of dreams. She has spoken to audiences in the U.S. and from Switzerland to India. She is the author of: Serving Fire: Food f...

Richard Moss, M.D. left the practice of medicine at the age of thirty to alleviate suffering by finding greater spiritual understanding. He is internationally known and respected as a visionary thinker, teacher, and author whose work bridges science, psychology, energy medicine, and spiritual-awareness practices. He guides seminars and retreats in North and South America, Europe, and Australia, an...

Rachel Kaplan is a gardener, somatic psychotherapist, and educator who offers consultation with a permaculture focus for businesses, non-profits, schools and community groups. Rachel lives in Petaluma, California with her partner and their daughter on a little homestead they call Tiny Town Farm. Her books include: Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living (with K. Ruby Blume) (Sky...

Susan Piver is a graduate of a Buddhist seminary and an authorized meditation instructor in the Shambhala lineage. She has written for Body and Soul, Self, O: The Oprah Magazine, Reader's Digest, and the Shambhala Sun, and has been featured on Oprah, CNN, and Today, and in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and other national print publications. She is the author of five books, including: How Not...

Hank Wesselman, Ph. D. is a respected paleoanthropologist who has worked with noted anthropologists around the world including in Ethiopia investigating the mystery of human origins in the Great Rift Valley. Besides his training and scientific work, he is a shamanic student, practitioner, and teacher, now in the 30th year of his apprenticeship. He lives with his wife Jill in Hawaii. In addition to...

James Baraz has been teaching meditation since 1978, and the 10 month "Awakening Joy" class since 2003, which can also be taken on-line. Thousands have taken the course. He leads retreats, workshops, and classes in the U.S. and abroad, and is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California. He is the co-author with Shoshana Alexander of Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will...

Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher who, for over three decades, has been teaching in the fields of poetry and spirituality. As a cancer survivor, Mark remains committed to the usefulness of daily inner life. He devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship. He is the author of many books including Reduced To Joy (Cleis Press 2013) , Seven Tho...

Lisa Tracy is the author of Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family's Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time (Bantam 2010). She is a journalist and the former Home & Design editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. She now lives in Lexington, Virginia, where she teaches creative nonfiction.

Apricot Irving currently lives in the woods outside Portland Oregon, but has lived in Haiti, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. She returned to Haiti in the spring of 2010 to cover the earthquake for the radio program This American Life. She’s a recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation writers award and an Oregon Literary Fellowship. Her renowned oral history project, BoiseVoices.com, is a collabora...

Larry Dossey, M.D. is the executive editor of Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing , and served as co-chair of the Panel on Mind/Body Interventions of the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including: Prayer Is Good Medicine: How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer (HarperOne 1997). The Power of Premonitions: How Knowing the Future Can Sh...

Robert Fuller, Ph. D. is a physicist and former president of Oberlin College. He has consulted with Indira Gandhi, met with Jimmy Carter regarding the President's Commission on World Hunger, and worked to defuse the Cold War in Russia when it was known as the USSR. As Fuller reflected on his career he realized that he had been, at different times in his life, a somebody and a nobody. His periodic...

Alan Watts was a British-born American philosopher, writer, speaker, and counterculture hero, best known as an interpreter of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. He wrote over 25 books and numerous articles applying the teachings of Eastern and Western religion and philosophy to our everyday lives. During the 1960s Watts became well known as a lecturer, writer, and radio and TV personality,...

Rick Hanson, Ph. D. is a psychologist with a deep interest in neuroscience and mindfulness. He is a senior fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California Berkeley and creator of the year-long course The Foundations of Well-Being. He is the author of many books including Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (New Harbinger 2009), Just O...

Ricardo Stocker, Ph. D. grew up in Argentina, moved to Europe when he was 25 years old and now lives in California. He studied at Emerson College in England, Prescott College in Arizona, and at Saybrook University in San Francisco. He’s a counselor, homesteader, musician, and professor of Psychology and Communication at Mendocino College. He is the author of Our Compassionate Kosmos: Awakening to...

Linda Tucker, an ecological activist, grew up in South Africa during Apartheid. In 2002, she founded the Global White Lion Protection Trust , an organization that works to protect not only the white lions, but also the indigenous communities and knowledge of the Tsonga and Sepedi cultures, which celebrate the white lion as a sacred living heritage. She is the author of Mystery of the White Lions:...

Lisa Schrader is a workshop leader, author, speaker and coach and founder of Awakening Shakti. Her work has been featured on Oprah and Oxygen. She is a graduate of UCLA and a faculty member of The Shift Network, where she also hosts the annual Shakti Summit global event. She is the author of: Kama Sutra 52: A Year's Worth of the Best Positions for Passion and Pleasure (Quiver 2009) (e-book) Gettin...

Cheryl Krauter, MFT is a marriage and family psychotherapist with almost 40 years of experience in the field of depth psychology. Her own voyage through cancer combined with her experience as a therapist brings a unique perspective to her clients. She conducts talks and workshops on living with the uncertainty of life threatening illness. She is the author of Surviving the Storm: A Workbook for Te...

David Hanscom, M.D. is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in complex spine problems in all areas of the spine. He has expertise in adult and pediatric spinal deformities such as scoliosis and kyphosis. A significant part of his practice is devoted to performing surgery on patients who have had multiple prior spine surgeries. He works for Swedish Neuroscience Specialists in Seattle,...

Lydia B. Smith has been involved in the film industry for more than a quarter of a century. She has produced films for CNN and PBS. She is a licensed spiritual practitioner of the Agape International Spiritual Center and the United Centers for Spiritual Living. In the spring of 2008 she walked the Camino de Santiago. She is director and producer of the documentary film: Walking the Camino: Six Way...

Rick Hanson, Ph. D. is a neuropsychologist who writes and teaches extensively on personal growth and contemplative practice. He is a co-founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, and editor of the Wise Brain Bulletin. His books include: Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdo m (New Harbinger 2009); Just One Thing: Developing a B...

Alan Kaufman is the Bronx-born son of a French-Jewish Holocaust survivor, and a recovering alcoholic with 23 years of sobriety. He’s a former Israeli combat soldier and a novelist, memoirist, and poet. He was instrumental in the development of the Spoken Word movement in literature. He’s Dean of The Free University of San Francisco. He is the author and editor of many books including: Jew Boy (Fox...

Judith Orloff, M.D. is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at U.C.L.A., and has been a presenter at medical schools, hospitals, universities, and the American Psychiatric Association. For more than two decades she has helped patients achieve physical and emotional healing through the synthesis of traditional medicine with intuition, energy, and spirituality.  She is the author of: The...