“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

In each moment, each of us is engaged in creation. Creating song. Creating a walk to the park. Creating a meal. Creating a dialogue on why the sky is blue, with a child. Creating anxiety, sitting in a line of cars, not moving. Creating a happy memory from 1969. Creating love.

As we expand and connect these moments, we see our path, where we were, and where we are. The wisdom learned along the way. An experience that will not be forgotten soon. Something that touched the soul. Or perhaps, a routine part of the day that suddenly became steps walking upon a moving planet, in gratitude, instead of going down the sidewalk to get the mail. Every moment, in its full glory, is to be celebrated.

“If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” ~ Barry Lopez, in Crow and Weasel

During the next twelve months, The Edge invites you to share your experiences with us, so we can share them with the community at large. Each featured topic in 2012 relates to your experience, to your journey, your pathway, and what you felt and how it has shaped your life. Simply share a story about a life-changing experience you have had, and how it impacted your life from that moment on. It is about you as you travel through your own story, unfolding the magic and how that magic impacted your life.

Submissions are 700 words or less and due on the 7th of each month prior to publication date. Include a brief bio at the end of the article sharing who you are, what you do and how you can be contacted, along with your mailing address for our records. Send submissions to editor@edgemagazine.net, submit online at Edgemagazine.net/submit-articles/ – and address questions to 651.578.8969.

2012 FEATURED TOPICS

• January: My Unexpected Awakening (deadline Dec. 7, 2011)
• February: Love, Revealed (deadline January 7)
• March: If I Could Do Anything… (deadline February 7)
• April: The Joy of Collaboration (deadline March 7)
• May: Friends for Life (deadline April 7)
• June: How I use my Intuition (deadline May 7)
• July: From the Mystic : Experiences I’ll Never Forget (deadline June 7)
• August: My Struggle with Fear (deadline July 7)
• September: The New Me: Reports from the Transformation (deadline August 7)
• October: An Unexplained Experience from the Beyond (deadline September 7)
• November: I am so Grateful… (deadline October 7)
• December: Intentions for the New Year Ahead (deadline November 7)

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” ~ Gilda Radner

We are living in magnificent times. We believe each human being is magnificent and has an incredible part to add to the tapestry that is life. By removing labels — rich and poor, educated and uneducated and even leaders and followers — each individual has the opportunity to reclaim his or her place in the whole, and to unfold and bloom and share the wonderful gifts each possess. We exist within a field of synchronicity, where the many attributes of each individual can combine with those of others, to create something new. But for any of this to happen, each of us must show up, take our places, unfold and begin to experience our potentials with others. Truly it is time to immerse and indulge ourselves in experience.

It’s about experience as you weave your way through a never-ending string of ah-ha! moments. It’s about the healing you’ve endured to become whole again, and the amazing insights and wisdom that were left in the wake of your struggles.

It’s about a given moment when senses awaken, eyes wide open to truth, when the whole universe moves in complete synchronicity, as you stand on a street corner in the middle of the day. It’s about being, and the experiences you choose to create. Your experience is just as relevant — and vital to the whole — as anyone else’s on the planet.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman

The Edge seeks experiential writing in 2012. Simply share an experience you’ve had. May your writing be ripe with detail and emotion. Describe how something felt, to you. Share what the experience was like for you, including any magic or inspiration or illumination that resulted from it.

Experiential writing is a surprisingly powerful way to open and illuminate your personal inner wisdom. There’s something magical that happens when we read about the experiences of others like us, and then find tremendous resonance with the story. Not only do we feel authentic inspiration, but more importantly, the fact that we perceive the author to be more like ourselves removes the self-defeating barrier we tend to keep that says, “I’ll never be like her,” or “I’ll never be as wise as he is.”

For this purpose of sharing our experiences, let’s step outside of the teacher-student paradigm, into a middle ground where we are all just humans, being. We are neither teachers nor students. We are a beautiful ocean of vibrant souls sharing powerful stories about their journeys so that others may realize the power of their own experiences and one day come to share them, as well.

For more insight on sharing your story in The Edge, read: edgemagazine.net/guide-to-experiential-writing/

The following are other ways to contribute to The Edge:

• Poetry: We seek poems of any form and convention, up to 40 lines in length. Send 2 to 3 unpublished poems and a short bio to poetry@edgemagazine.net. Attach poems to your email in Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF (.pdf). Topics should be compatible with those of The Edge magazine.
• Press Releases: Send in your news. When you make progress, share it with us and we’ll let everyone know. Expansions. New businesses. Accreditations. Good news. Special Events that require further description. Include a contact name, address and phone number. Press releases are edited for clarity and length. We do not guarantee their publication.
• New products: Please call 763.433.9291, email or visit Edgemagazine.net/advertising/
• Letters To The Editor: We welcome feedback from our readers via e-mail or in written correspondence. Include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity or length. We do not guarantee their publication.

Alison Scott

Perched atop a hill overlooking Lake Harriet, Alison Scott, one of the Twin Cities’ most popular voices in the local music scene, will sing her heart out under a silver dome — all to help out a neighbor in need.

Alison Scott and guitarist Kevin Bowe will be performing a fundraiser at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, in the stained-glass sanctuary of Lake Harriet Spiritual Community in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Southwest Minneapolis. All proceeds will go toward Lake Harriet Spiritual Community, a vibrant, non-denominational spiritual center located in a gleaming, 100-year-old historical building.

Like nearly every non-profit organization, LHSC was hit hard as a result of the recession, seeing decreased donations and vacant rental spaces. However, through aggressive fiscal management, radical organizational changes and marketing ingenuity, LHSC is back on its feet once again and better than ever. To keep its momentum going toward becoming the preeminent transformational center in the Midwest, LHSC is continuing to look for creative ways to bring new people in the door and increase financial support.

Last year, LHSC’s Spiritual Director Theresa Rose invited Scott to sing at one of her Sunday morning services and noticed an instant correlation between Scott’s music and LHSC’s mission to become a center for conscious living. As a result, Rose reached out to Scott once again to ask for help. Since Scott hails from the quaint Minneapolis neighborhood and thoroughly enjoyed her previous experience in the one-of-a-kind venue, she immediately accepted.

“The first apartment I ever had all on my own was in Linden Hills,” Scott said, “and I hope to move back someday. It’s a wonderful community in Minneapolis and it sets a great example for other neighborhoods. I’m happy to contribute to it whenever possible, especially in conjunction with such a great performance space.”

Rose is delighted with the collaboration.

“Alison has an enormous heart and her talents are unlimited,” she said. “Her energy is exactly what we want for LHSC, and we are so grateful for her contributions to help us sustain and grow in this tough economic climate.”

While LHSC is not paying a fee for Scott’s appearance, they will be encouraging sales of Scott’s CDs and will have a bank of computers at the ready to give each attendee an opportunity to instantly “Like” Scott’s newest Facebook page. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $10 each.

For more information, visit LakeHarrietSpiritualCommunity.org or contact Theresa Rose, spiritual director, at 612.922.4272 or theresalhsc@gmail.com. For information on Alison, visit AlisonScott.com. Lake Harriet Spiritual Community, a Center for Conscious Living, is located at 4401 Upton Ave. S., Minneapolis.

“Duplicate the ritual that was done 26,000 years ago
and create a ‘pineal choir’…
The old souls who remember this ritual will be there.
Collect them from all over the planet.
It will be a celebration like no other.”
 ~ Kryon, November 2010

At the level of quantum understanding, everything in the universe is simply waves and vibrations. The production of particular tones and overtones may therefore directly tap into a deeper level of quantum reality. The deep, peaceful states produced with Tibetan chants or the mantras of meditation show the power to relax and recharge the body with sound.

In 2001, Dr. Todd Ovokaitys began the process of remembering an ancient, sacred practice of toning that activated the pineal gland and created profoundly expansive experiences. He intuitively knew the tones’ power and their intrinsic benefit and impact on life extension, enhanced well-being and increased health. They produced especially profound states of mental stillness and allowed an expansion to subtler states of awareness.

Unaware of any higher purpose for the tones, he called it The Pineal Toning Technique ™ and began to teach small groups how to use them for personal growth and healing. According to Kryon – an angelic entity channeled by Lee Carroll – Dr. Todd is the only Human on the planet with these multi-dimensional tones.

In 2003, Kryon identified Dr. Todd as Yawee, a high priest in the days of ancient Lemuria and the choir master who developed the pineal tones and led an ancient choir in their annual ceremonial ritual.

Finally, the bigger picture was revealed; Dr. Todd’s Pineal Toning Technique ™ is actually modeled after an ancient Lemurian system that used these vibratory resonances to produce a deeply peaceful and centered state of being. This allowed the activation of the pineal gland and the intrinsic ability of the body to heal and rejuvenate while opening the inner perceptual pathways to enhance intuition.

In November 2010, it became clear why the Pineal Tones™ came with such familiarity to Dr. Todd when Kryon said, “The irony here is that this is not the first time you have sat in front of Yawee and had him give you the tones. For some of you there is a remembrance… You’ve sat at his feet before…it rings in your DNA and you know it. More than sounds…they make colors when you tone. It is actually the light you make that makes the difference. Light is quantum.”

Kryon then spoke directly to Dr. Todd saying, “I wish to take you back in time. Only thirty thousand years [ago to] Lemuria… I take you into a stadium, Yawee. It is filled with almost 800 people. Four hundred are on one side facing the four hundred on the other side. You, Yawee, are in the middle, and they are singing pairs of pineal tones, creating quantum magic.”

Since Dr. Todd’s sacred assignment was to assemble a ‘pineal choir’ of several hundred people from all over the world…to sing the tones in pairs and activate their pineal transmitters…at a specific time for a sacred purpose…he felt the urgency to begin anchoring this concept quickly.

So he named it ‘The Lemurian Choir Project’ and vowed to offer as many seminars as possible to reach as many people as he can before the final performance in 2012. Then he went back to teaching the tones just as he had been for past ten years.

But he added something very special to the program – the sacred energy of the intention of this higher purpose…and the invitation to all of the old souls that are called to be there.

Come experience this immersion in personally transformative tonal vibrations that can send intensified waves of healing throughout the entire global energetic grid system. The Lemurian Choir project is building to the ultimate re-creation of an ancient method of choiring, lost in antiquity.

On December 21, 2012 in Maui, Hawaii, we will transmit vocal harmonics through time and space, sending a message unsung for 26,000 years…we remember…and we thank you.

Dr. Todd will be presenting a Rehearsal Seminar teaching the Lemurian Pineal Tones ™ in Minneapolis, Nov. 5-6. See www.lemurianchoir.com for details or call Anita at 952.221.6372.

What happens when liberating spiritual teachings blend with the most effective emotional healing methods? A productive, results-oriented therapy that becomes an awakening experience in each session. Eric Christopher, Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy, Certified Hypnotherapist, specializes in emotions – anxiety, fear, depression or any stuck, unwanted feeling or pattern.

Eric J. Christopher, hypnotherapist

From his own 20-year quest for spiritual truth, Eric knows that beneath the most disturbing emotions or negative beliefs lie wholeness, wisdom and deep peace. Therefore, he guides clients to experientially feel this aspect of themselves in each session. From this perspective, solutions replace problems, deep insights and harmony overshadow turmoil. His approach reveals the truth of Einstein’s words: “You can’t solve a problem at the level of consciousness that created the problem.” The problem dissolves from a “deeper” or “higher” perspective.

Freedom from a negative emotional issue (anxiety, depression, “stuckness”) is achieved when two things happen:

• You dissect the problematic emotion to its subconscious core, revealing a body sensation and a memory which carries a false, unconscious belief.
• You view the issue from a dimension of yourself that already feels whole and secure, untouched by the problem.

“I often ask my clients toward the end of the session: ‘Is there anything in the universe than can harm you?’ The answer is always an emphatic ‘NO!’ because they are tuning into and responding from a soul aspect of themselves that possesses ‘clear seeing’ without fears.”

Many people find that after years of counseling they still have old beliefs that trigger them during stressful times. Eric guides clients to see through these limiting subconscious beliefs that underlie depression and anxiety. Although we can intellectually understand our problem, we’ll repeat the same patterns until the body and subconscious are fully aware of the truth. While immersed in “true seeing,” you become free from the grip of negative subconscious beliefs. As you go within, you truly get what you need. More than a therapy, it’s an awakening experience. A session is tailor-made for each client using a variety of therapeutic modalities.

For more information, visit www.ericjchristopher.com or call him at 651.649.1952.

“Being Human 2012: Science, Philosophy and Your Life,” where pioneers in the exploration of human nature — from behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, social anthropology and philosophy — will come together for the first-ever multidisciplinary event of its kind. The purpose is to engage the public in a conversation about how recent revolutionary insights from science and philosophy challenge basic assumptions about human nature and how these insights can fundamentally shift one’s experience of daily life. The first-annual Being Human event will be hosted at the Palace of Fine Arts, in San Francisco, on March 24, 2012.

“We live at the dawn of a scientific revolution. Recent findings from science and philosophy promise to overthrow long-held biases and stories about what it means to be human,” said Peter Baumann, founder of The Baumann Foundation, sponsor of the event and a San Francisco-based think-tank that explores the experience of being human in the context of cognitive science, evolutionary theory and philosophy to foster greater clarity about the human condition.

“Many of these fresh insights can have a profound impact on our experience of daily life,” Baumann said. “We are delighted to bring these new understandings into the public arena, so that they are accessible to anyone who is curious about their own experience. Ultimately, our goal is to serve as a bridge between the theoretical and the practical, and to foster increased well-being.”

Moderating the event is Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a leader in the field of mind-body medicine and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people (2006). He is best-known for his research on brain plasticity, his collaboration with the Dalai Lama and studying the brain activity of meditating Tibetan Buddhist monks.

“This promises to be a unique event,” Davidson said, “where we will explore together the frontiers of understanding human nature, asking questions such as: How does the non-conscious mind influence the decisions we make? What is the relationship between self and culture? Are you who you think you are, or is that just an illusion? What does science tell us about our relationship with fellow humans? What are the evolutionary origins of the human mind?”

Among those who will share their latest insights include:

• New York Times best-selling author David Eagleman, “the kind of guy who really does make being a neuroscientist look like fun” according to the Times, and who, in his recent best-seller Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, rounds up the latest discoveries about the mechanics happening below the surface of conscious awareness.
• Beau Lotto, artist and neuroscientist, who leads the world’s first public perception research space, Lottolab Studio within London’s Science Museum, exploring scientific and philosophical understanding of human perception.
• Jon Kabat-Zinn, internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and mindfulness meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness practices, especially mindfulness-based stress reduction, into the mainstream of medicine and society.

Tickets for “Being Human 2012″ are: Special Seating $250, General Admission $135, Students $75. Register at www.beinghuman2012.org. For more information for each of the speakers, visit www.beinghuman2012.org/speakers.

The Afterlife Education Foundation recently announced that its Second Annual Afterlife Awareness Conference will take place March 9 -11, 2012, in cooperation with Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, VA. The conference will feature workshops and presentations by a nationally-recognized consortium of researchers, educators and counselors in the field of death, bereavement and afterlife research.

The conference was organized to meet the need for a national discussion on the metaphysical aspects of death, dying and bereavement, including after-death communication, out-of-body experience, near-death experience, psychic research, hospice care, grief processing and related studies. This year’s roster of presenters includes some of leading names in the field, including Dr. Stuart Hameroff, Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Melvin Morse, Bill Guggenheim and PMH Atwater. The conference will also include gallery-style readings by noted psychic mediums Suzane Northrop.

“This conference is an extraordinary opportunity to look at death and bereavement in a new light,” explains Terri Daniel, president of the Afterlife Education Foundation, the non-profit educational organization that sponsors the yearly event.

“Our audience is made up of hospice workers, clergy, the bereaved and the curious,” she says. “We’ve all found, throughout our years of practice, that understanding how consciousness continues after the death of the body is a key to providing wisdom and comfort for the bereaved and overcoming the fear of death.”

Detailed information on the conference can be found at www.AfterlifeConference.com.

One in five combat service men and women will develop some degree of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to a Veteran’s Affairs study. The need for trauma treatment is a central focus for tens of millions of combat veterans and for everyone who has been touched by these men and women.

Medication and talk therapy have been standard treatments. Newer options are available that have been documented as effective on PTSD through research studies and testimonials. Those who suffer, however, are often unaware of these options.

These new alternatives are being viewed with optimism. One method, called Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), is profiled in the documentary film Operation: Emotional Freedom. Thousands of copies of the film are in circulation worldwide. Many veterans, family members, and practitioners have learned the techniques employed and taught to subjects in the film. What was intended as a video and research study has grown into a movement for learning and change. It has grown beyond an American story, bringing messages of hope, understanding, and healing for veterans, military families, and communities touched by the aftermath of war.

On November 11, communities around the world will pause to honor those who served. Beginning this year, in dozens of cities worldwide, the 11/11 PTSD & Trauma Awareness Day will also take place in multiple locations. Sessions will include presentations on PTSD, along with its treatment and recovery. The interested public, therapists, and officials are invited to help us create greater awareness and support for those affected by war. The multiple award-winning Operation: Emotional Freedom movie will be made available for screenings.

In the Twin Cities, veterans, family members and the general public is invited to attend a special gathering from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, at The Center for Harmonious Living, 12201 Minnetonka Blvd., Minnetonka, MN (call 952.938.1929). For more information, contact Valerie Lis at Valerie@CoursesForLife.com or call 763.315.0086.

All are welcome to attend this free event. If you are not a veteran, meet one and say thank you.

LynMarie uses her intuitive, medium, skills and other training to help you change things in your life instantly. LynMarie works from the 7th plan pure energy with the creator. LynMarie can change your Life in Finances, Relationships, Health or What ever you need in your life now! LynMarie works one-on-one with 3 Monthly Packages. She offers individual sessions, teaches Theta Healing basic and advanced classes, and Manifesting and Abundance classes. Come learn and experience this magical work on Monday nights from 7-9 pm in Hugo, MN.  Call or email LynMarie for location or more information.

Michael Michalko is the author of Creative Thinkering: Putting Your Imagination to Work, Thinkertoys, Cracking Creativity, and ThinkPak. While an army officer, he organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and international academics to find the best inventive thinking method. He has expanded and taught these techniques to numerous Fortune 500 companies and organizations.

Author Michael Michalko

What do you know now about the application of creative thinking in business that you wished management knew?
Michael Michalko: Creativity demands that we should approach a problem on its own terms and look for a multiplicity of ways of looking at it and a multiplicity of ways of solving it. We are not taught that. We have been taught that there are clear constraints on what is logical and what is not.

We tend not to challenge things we have not been taught and tend to pretty much accept things the way they are. This is particularly true in business where you hear, “this is our policy,” or “this is the way it has always been done here,” or similar expressions. Whenever I hear these expressions, I think of an experiment that was done with five monkeys.

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stair, spray all the monkeys with ice cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result–all the monkeys are sprayed with ice cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and will want to climb the stairs. To his surprise, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Again, replace a third monkey with a new one. The new one goes to the stairs and is attacked. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing the fourth and fifth monkeys with new ones, all the monkeys that have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? Because as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been around here.

We think of idea-creation in organizations as usually being about new product development (e.g., the next Post-It Notes). What other kinds of innovation do you help organizations do?
MM: Creative thinking is a productive thinking process that applies to any problem or situation in your business or personal life. In business I help organizations become more creative in manufacturing, sales, marketing, advertising, motivation, meetings, recruiting, growth, future enterprises.

Is the ideation process easier or harder to sell to organizations (especially businesses) in times of accelerating change and uncertainty?
MM: This is like asking someone if selling oxygen so people can breathe is easier or harder to sell in times of good health or in times of bad health. You cannot survive without oxygen. So it makes no difference what the person’s health is. Similarly, innovation is the lifeblood of industry and it needs to be cultivated and nurtured by all organizations in order to survive in good times and bad.

Does more pressure in a company mean generally less creativity?
MM: 3M, for years, has had a reputation for creating a climate for innovation because they don’t put pressure on the creatives. An example is the work of Spencer Silver, a 3M chemist who liked to play around with chemicals just to see what would happen. One of the things that happened was his invention of the special adhesive that made Post-it notes possible.

And so Silver, in a “Eureka” moment, discovered he had developed an adhesive that created an impermanent bond. But the problem was how to use his discovery. The company climate permitted Silver to continue with his efforts, but no one could develop it into a useful product. Silver had found a solution, but he just couldn’t find a problem to solve with it. The breakthrough came when another 3M employee, Arthur Fry, got his inspiration. Art was a member of a church choir and used paper slips as bookmarks in the songbooks to identify the songs to be sung. Sometimes the paper would fly off and create problems. The idea of using Silver’s adhesive to make a better bookmark came to him while singing in the choir.

The bookmark inspired him to think of other paper to paper applications where only part of the paper was coated with the glue. The problem was 3M did not have the equipment to do this so management was not enthusiastic about Fry’s application. Consequently Fry designed and built his own machine in his basement to manufacture the forerunner of the Post-It note. The machine was too large to get out of his basement, so he blasted a hole in the wall to get the machine to 3M. He then demonstrated the machine to management, engineers, sales people, and production managers. His demonstration generated the enthusiasm to get management committed to the Post-it note. As soon as the note was produced it accounted for over $300 million in business.

What is the most widespread creativity technique in companies? Is it effective?
MM: Brainstorming, and no it is not particularly effective. This is because the ideas are judged and criticized and dismissed as they are generated in the usual brainstorming session.

While researching the lives of Einstein, Heisenberg, Pauli and Bohr, physicist David Bohm made a remarkable observation. Bohm noticed that their incredible breakthroughs took place through simple, open and honest conversation. He observed, for instance, that Einstein and his colleagues spent years freely meeting and conversing with each other. During these interactions, they exchanged and dialogued about ideas which later became the foundations of modern physics. They exchanged ideas without trying to change the other’s mind and without bitter argument. They felt free to propose whatever was on their mind. They always paid attention to each other’s views and established an extraordinary professional fellowship. This freedom to discuss without risk led to the breakthroughs that physicists today take for granted.

Einstein and his friends illustrate the staggering potential of collaborative thinking. The notion that open and honest collaboration allows thinking to grow as a collective phenomenon can be traced back to Socrates and other thinkers in ancient Greece. Socrates and his friends so revered the concept of group dialogue that they bound themselves by principles of discussion that they established to maintain a sense of collegiality. These principles were known as “Koinonia,” which means “spirit of fellowship.”

The Koinonia principles they established were:

• ESTABLISH DIALOGUE. In Greek, the word dialogue means “talking through.” The Greeks believed that the key to establishing dialogue is to exchange ideas without trying to change the other person’s mind. This is not the same as discussion, which from its Latin root means to “dash to pieces.” The basic rules of dialogue for the Greeks were: “Don’t argue,” “Don’t interrupt,” and “Listen carefully.”
• CLARIFY YOUR THINKING. To clarify your thinking, you must suspend all untested assumptions. Being aware of your assumptions and suspending them allows thought to flow freely. Free thought is blocked if we are unaware of our assumptions, or unaware that our thoughts and opinions are based on assumptions. For instance, if you believe that certain people are not creative, you’re not likely to give their ideas fair consideration. Check your assumptions about everything and try to maintain an unbiased view.
• BE HONEST. Say what you think, even if your thoughts are controversial.

The ancient Greeks believed these principles allowed thinking to grow as a collective phenomenon. Koinonia allowed a group to access a larger pool of common thoughts which cannot be accessed individually. A new kind of mind begins to come into being, based on the development of common thoughts. People are no longer in opposition. They become participants in a pool of common ideas, which are capable of constant development and change.

What are one or two secrets for cultivating creative genius?
MM: Two fairly simple things you can do to cultivate your creative genius are:

• Constantly try to improve your ideas and products
• Challenge your assumptions

Thomas Edison believed that every new idea is some addition or modification to something that already exists. You take a subject and manipulate or change it into something else. There are nine principle ways you can manipulate a subject. These are arranged into the mnemonic SCAMPER. You isolate the subject you want to think about and ask the SCAMPER questions to see what new ideas and thoughts emerge.

Think about any subject from improving the paperclip to reorganizing your corporation. You’ll find that ideas start popping up almost involuntarily, as you ask if you can:
S = Substitute something?
C = Combine your subject with something else?
A = Adapt something to your subject?
M = Magnify or modify — add to it or change it in some fashion?
P = Put it to some other use?
E = Eliminate something from it?
R = Rearrange or reverse it?

Thomas Edison was also tireless in his persistence to change a subject into something else through trial and error. In Edison’s laboratory, there is a staggering display of hundreds of phonograph horns of every shape, size and material. Some are round, square, angular, thin, short, squat while others are curved and as long as six feet tall.

This collection of rejected ideas is a visual testament to Edison’s approach to creativity — which was, in essence, to try out every possible design he could imagine. Once asked to describe the key to creativity, he reportedly said to never quit working on your subject until you get what you’re after.

What is conceptual blending and how can it help us be more creative?
MM: Creative thinkers form more novel combinations because they routinely conceptually blend concepts objects, concepts and ideas from two different contexts or categories that are conventionally considered separate by logical thinkers. It is the conceptually blending of dissimilar concepts that leads to original ideas, concepts and insights.

Leonardo da Vinci was the first to record the interesting fact that the human brain cannot deliberately concentrate on two separate objects or ideas, no matter how dissimilar, without eventually forming a connection between them. No two inputs can remain separate in your mind no matter how remote they are from each other.

Leonardo da Vinci was the first who wrote about the importance of introducing random and chance events to produce variation in his thinking patterns. Leonardo suggested that you will find inspiration for marvelous ideas if you look for random subjects to conceptually blend with your challenge. He would gaze at the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or the shape of clouds or patterns in mud or in similar places. He would imagine seeing trees, battles, landscapes, figures with lively movements, and so on, and then excite his mind by conceptually blending the subjects and events he imagined with his subject. Da Vinci would occasionally throw a paint-filled sponge against the wall and contemplate the random stains and what they might represent.

Once while standing next to a pond, he wondered how “sound” travels. When he tossed pebbles into the pond, he noticed the wave of ripples each pebble made. At the same time, he heard a church bell ring in the distance. Suddenly he got his “Aha!” — sound travels in waves.

What makes a genius a genius?
MM: Geniuses do not get their breakthrough ideas because they are more intelligent, better educated, more experienced, or because creativity is genetically determined. University of California Professor Dean Keith Simonton observed that creative thinking demands the ability to make novel combinations. If you examine most any idea, you will discover that the majority of ideas are created by combining two or more different elements into something different. Simonton’s conclusion about genius is “Geniuses are geniuses because they form more novel combinations than the merely talented.”

You talk about incubating thinking. What does that mean and how do we do it?
MM: Incubation makes use of subconscious processing of information. It usually involves setting a problem aside for a few hours, days, or weeks and moving on to other projects. This allows the subconscious to continue to work on the original challenge. The more interested you are in solving the challenge, the more likely your subconscious will generate ideas.

Henri Poincare, the French genius, spoke of incredible ideas and insights that came to him with suddenness and immediate certainty out of the blue. So dramatic are the ideas that arrive that the precise moment in which the idea arrived can be remembered in unusual detail. Charles Darwin could point to the exact spot on a road where he arrived at the solution for the origin of species while riding in his carriage and not thinking about his subject. Other geniuses offer similar experiences. Like a sudden flash of lightning, ideas and solutions seemingly appear out of nowhere.

Modern science recognizes this phenomenon of incubation and insight yet cannot account for why it occurs. That this is a commonplace phenomenon was shown in a survey of distinguished scientists conducted over a half-century ago. A majority of the scientists reported that they got their best ideas and insights when not thinking about the problem.

Our conscious minds are sometimes blocked from creating new ideas because we are too fixated. When we discontinue work on the problem for a period of time, our fixation fades, allowing our subconscious minds to freely create new possibilities. This is what happened to Nobel laureate Melvin Calvin. While idly sitting in his car waiting for his wife to complete an errand, he found the answer to a puzzling inconsistency in his research on photosynthesis. It occurred just like that, quite suddenly, and suddenly in a matter of seconds the path of carbon became apparent to him.

Ideas came while walking, recreating, or working on some other unrelated problem. This suggests how the creative act came to be associated with divine inspiration–the illumination appears to be involuntary.

When you have a really tough challenge and can’t see the answer, what is your favorite technique for unlocking your brain?
MM: When I am stonewalled, I just start typing “O peaceful gloom shrouding the earth” over and over and over. Eventually, typing this phrase over and over unlocks something in my brain and the ideas start flowing. It’s going through the motions of writing that un-sticks my mind.

Most people presume that our attitudes affect our behavior, and this is true. But it’s also true that our behavior determines our attitudes. Tibetan monks say their prayers by whirling prayer wheels on which their prayers are inscribed. The whirling wheels spin the prayers into divine space. Sometimes, a monk will keep a dozen or so prayer wheels rotating like a juggling act in which whirling plates are balanced on top of long, thin sticks.

Many novice monks are not very emotionally or spiritually involved at first. It may be that the novice is thinking about his family, his doubts about a religious vocation or something else while he is going through the motions of spinning his prayer wheel. When the novice adopts the pose of a monk, and makes it obvious to himself and to others by playing a role, the brain will soon follow the role they are playing. It is not enough for the novice to have the intention of becoming a monk: the novice must act like a monk and rotate the prayer wheels. If one has the intention of becoming a monk and goes through the motions of acting like a monk, one will become a monk.

If you want to be an artist, and if all you did was paint a picture every day, you will become an artist. You may not become another Vincent van Gogh, but you will become more of an artist than someone who has never tried.

For more information on Michael Michalko and Creative Thinkering, visit www.CreativeThinking.net.
Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com

At Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S, Minneapolis, 612.822.4611, www.magersandquinn.com

• Thursday, Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m. — Twin Cities Live Book Club to discuss Room, by Emma Donoghue — The Twin Cities Live Book Club wraps up its discussion of Emma Donoghue’s novel Room at 6 p.m. and goes until 8 p.m. Enjoy free refreshments from Lucia’s To Go. Win prizes and discuss the book with Elizabeth Ries. No RSVPs are necessary for this event.

Room by Emma Donoghue is a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances. To 5-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough… not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

• Monday, Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m. — Adam Fell and Karolyn Redoute read from their poetry — Adam Fell is the author of I Am Not A Pioneer. He was born and raised in Burlington, WI, and holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives in Madison, where he teaches at Edgewood College.

Karolyn Redoute received an MFA from Indiana University. She enjoys the blue waters in Michigan, her home state, and in Minnesota, her adopted state, but loves the ocean best.

• Tuesday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m. — Chuck Klosterman visits Minneapolis to read from his second novel, The Visible Man. The Current’s Steve Seel will lead the discussion following the reading. — Austin (TX) therapist Victoria Vick is contacted by a cryptic, unlikable man who insists his situation is unique and unfathomable. As he slowly reveals himself, Vick becomes convinced that he suffers from a complex set of delusions: Y__, as she refers to him, claims to be a scientist who has stolen cloaking technology from an aborted government project in order to render himself nearly invisible. He says he uses this ability to observe random individuals within their daily lives, usually when they are alone and vulnerable. Unsure of his motives or honesty, Vick becomes obsessed with her patient and the disclosure of his increasingly bizarre and disturbing tales. Over time, it threatens her career, her marriage, and her own identity.

Interspersed with notes, correspondence, and transcriptions that catalog a relationship based on curiosity and fear, The Visible Man touches on all of Chuck Klosterman’s favorite themes: the consequence of culture, the influence of media, the complexity of voyeurism, and the existential contradiction of normalcy. Is this comedy, criticism, or horror? Not even Y__ seems to know for sure.

Chuck Klosterman is the New York Times bestselling author of Eating the Dinosaur, Downtown Owl, Chuck Klosterman IV, Killing Yourself to Live, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, and Fargo Rock City, winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He has written for GQ, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Spin, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Believer, A.V. Club, and ESPN. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Steve Seel will lead the post-reading discussion. Steve Seel co-hosts weekday mornings on The Current (89.3FM) with Jill Riley from 6-10 a.m. A longtime a DJ and producer, he has a wide knowledge of music from classical to rock, experimental and jazz, and is an accomplished musician himself.

• Thursday, Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m. — Kathie Bergquist discusses Windy City Queer: LGBTQ Dispatches from the Third Coast. Several contributors will also appear — The Midwest’s queer history comes alive when editor Kathie Bergquist and several contributors discuss the new anthology of writing about Chicago, Windy City Queer. The contributions of the Midwest and, specifically, Chicago to LGBTQ literature have been invaluable, yet largely uncelebrated over the last century. This anthology charts a map of queer Chicago and showcases its thriving urban arts community, which boasts a unique history, legacy, and sensibility deeply rooted in the urban Midwest.

Here is a first-rate collection of queer voices from Chicago’s literary landscape. Celebrated writers Edmund White, Achy Obejas, Sharon Bridgforth, Brian Bouldrey, E. Patrick Johnson, Carol Anshaw, David Trinidad and Mark Zubro are joined by emerging voices from the queer literary scene. The pieces span all literary genres, from fiction and poetry to memoir and essays, and portray a full gamut of gay Chicago lives from the everyday to the quirky, from public spectacles to quiet intimacies, from family life to nightlife, from dating to marriage, from loving to mourning.

Kathie Bergquist teaches writing at Columbia College Chicago. She is co-author of A Field Guide to Gay and Lesbian Chicago, and her writing has appeared in such publications as Advocate, OUT, Girlfriends, and Diva as well as in several collections, including Best Lesbian Romance 2009 and Out in All Directions. She is a former editor of the Windy City Times Pride Literary Supplement and a former fellow at the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Emerging Writers Retreat.

This event is co-sponsored by Quatrefoil Library. Quatrefoil Library is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2011. The volunteer-run, non-profit library collects, maintains, documents, and circulates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer materials and information in a safe and accessible space. Quatrefoil’s collection includes books, videos, DVDs, and sound recordings, which members may check out, as well as a large collection of non-circulating periodicals. Learn more at www.qlibrary.org.

• Sunday, Nov. 13, 4 p.m. — Tom Montgomery Fate reads from Cabin Fever: A Suburban Father’s Search for the Wild — Try to imagine Thoreau married, with a job, three kids, and a minivan. This is the serious yet irreverent sensibility that suffuses Cabin Fever: A Suburban Father’s Search for the Wild, as the author seeks to apply the hermit-philosopher’s insights to a busy modern life.

Tom Montgomery Fate lives in a Chicago suburb, where he is a husband, father, professor, and active member of his community. He also lives in a cabin built with the help of friends in the Michigan woods, where he walks by the river, chops wood, and reads Thoreau by candle light. While he divides his time between suburbia and the cabin, Fate’s point is not to draw a line between the two but to ask what each has to say about the other. How do we balance nature (picking blackberries) with technology (tapping BlackBerrys)? What is revealed about human boundaries when a coyote wanders into a Quiznos? Can a cardinal protecting chicks from a hungry cat teach us anything about instincts and parenting? Fate seeks a more attentive, deliberate way of seeing the world and our place in it, not only among the trees and birds but also in the context of our relationships and society.

A seasonal nature memoir, Cabin Fever takes readers on a search for the wild both in the woods and within ourselves. Although we are often estranged from nature in our daily lives, Fate shows that we can recover our kinship with the earth and its other inhabitants if we are willing to pay attention.

FOR YEARS, CERTIFIED LIFE COACH LEIGH COHEN WYATT has helped clients achieve their goals, resolve emotional traumas and personal problems,and reach success in both their private and professional lives they never imagined possible. In today’s age of uncertainty where depression, foreclosures and distress are the norm, Leigh provides a nudge in the right direction along with the tools to get them moving toward their goals again.

Her services empower people to take control of their lives and achieve their professional dreams while maintaining a spirituality fulfilled life. Specifically, she shows them techniques to turn temporary failures into successes, thereby turning pain into a positive healing lesson.

“Not only do I encourage, motivate and inspire my clients, I supply the tools they need to escape the hardship they find themselves in,” said life coach Leigh Wyatt. “I have yet to see one individual not achieve tremendous progress and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to help.”

She recently added details to her coaching website about her intuitive readings and coaching sessions. The site includes more information about arranging online, phone, and in person coaching sessions. While limited to the greater Minneapolis before, Leigh has now extended her coaching services to the entire country.

For more information about Leigh Cohen Wyatt Life Coaching, please visit her website (www.leighcohenwyatt.com), send her an email (leighcohenwyatt@yahoo.com), or call her at 763.684.1453.

The Edge Life Holistic Expo weekend will overflow with opportunities to expand one’s knowledge about a wide-array of health, wellness and spirituality topics through exhibits, free workshops and expert seminars. Intuitive and psychic readings, energy balancing, mediums, specialty products, a bookstore, strolling musicians, Native American drumming, and more will fill the exhibit hall creating a relaxing atmosphere ideal for those in search of mental and physical wellness.

The expo takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. Admission to expo hall (includes free workshops) is $7, or $5 each for groups of two or more. Tickets for speaker events, and weekend passes for all events, are additional. Advance discount tickets available at www.edgelife.net, or by contacting Gary Beckman at gary@edgelife.net or 763.427.7979.

Among the many keynote speakers are:

• “A Powerful Spiritual Workshop for Parents of Today’s Children” — Children of today are the most power beings on the planet. They are sensitive and creative powerful spirits. Teachers Sunny Dawn Johnston, Chanda Parkinson and Insiah Beckman will share information and tools needed to support the children of today. You will learn how to recognize clues that your child is struggling spiritually and what you can do to support their healthy development.
• John DeSalvo, Ph.D., presenting “Using Enochian Magic to Meditate & Open up to High Spiritual Realms” — Dr. DeSalvo has spent years studying and developing his simple technique, Enochian Meditation. This practice uses Enochian Calls that act as long mantras and produce an altered state of consciousness to open up dormant areas of your brain, which he believes will allow you to communicate with angels in higher heavenly realms. During the workshop, he will walk you through this technique and explain his research.
• Toni Parri will introduce her film Serotonin Rising free at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. She is the producer and director of the film, which explores the idea that humans are hard-wired to be unselfish, and unselfish acts ignite a primitive part of the human brain that usually responds to food, receiving money and other physical pleasures. A Q&A session will take place after the free screening, which is available to the first 350 attendees.

For more ticket or event information, contact Gary Beckman at gary@edgelife.net or call 763.427.7979.

“Two years ago, my doctor said I would die of cancer without radiation. With Chow Qigong and other alternatives, today I’m well and live a full life.” – J.C., San Jose, CA

People around the world are seeking cost-effective means of keeping themselves healthy in an increasingly urban environment where stress takes its toll. Teaching people to help and heal themselves and others through the discipline of Qigong is an ancient art and gift that has been passed down through the ages. Now Minnesotans can experience it from one of the leading Qigong experts and healers in the world.

Qigong Grandmaster Effie Chow, Ph.D., R.N., L.Ac., hosted by the Qigong Connection, will present a healing and training event November 4-6 at the Minneapolis Marriott Southwest, 5801 Opus Parkway, in Minnetonka.

Qigong is an essential part of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Along with the necessity of laughter and hugs, participants will learn specific meditations and energy exercises, both physical and mental, designed by Dr. Chow to help you experience the innate healing energy that exists in all of us and to help you connect deeply with the power that guides personal healing on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual planes.

Dr. Chow grew up in a small town in British Columbia where she witnessed family and friends routinely practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), using food, herbs, acupuncture, cupping, moxa, Qigong and tai qi with some dramatic and life-saving results. Ignorance and ethnic prejudice in the 1940s discouraged these practices. Dr. Chow went into nursing in the 1950s, quickly becoming aware of the revolving door concept: people going in and out of the hospital, rarely getting totally better.

After the premature death of her father from a side reaction to medication, Dr. Chow commenced a 10-year search and study of TCM and Qigong in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and the U.S., witnessing many “miracles.” Taking the best of both systems, she founded the East West Academy of Healing Arts in 1974. Today Dr. Chow teaches TCM and Qigong internationally and maintains a clinical practice (attracting patients worldwide), specializing in critical cases, including stress, stroke; cancer, and respiratory, emotional and neuro-muscular conditions “where all else has failed,” using her original Chow Integrated Healing System/Chow Medical Qigong.

For years her message has been, “Qigong in every household in the world will optimize health, promote vitality in longevity, and prevent, delay and cure serious illnesses naturally!” She has been working tirelessly to bring together Eastern and Western medicines and TCM practitioners to help this become a reality, and she founded the World Congress on Qigong/TCM to build an international platform for Eastern medicine so that the two approaches could become a unified body. The 14th World Congress on Qigong/TCM will be in Toronto, Canada, from May 25-28, 2012.

Dr. Chow has also founded the EWAHA Qigong Institute, the American Qigong Association, the American Medical Qigong Association and the World Qigong Federation. She was one of the original 15 people appointed by President Bill Clinton to be part of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine policy.

For more information, and to register, see qigongconnection.com, phone 952.215.2027 or email chowqigongevent@aol.com.

Artists frequently face two major problems: predicting what subject matters will resonate with the buying public, and getting exposure for their finished pieces. By creating PostandPaint.com, business executive Lonny Kocina hopes to help starving artists – as well as budding art students – overcome those barriers to success.

Submitted photo for artists at PostandPaint.com to represent on canvas.

The concept is simple, and completely risk-free for consumers. You upload a favorite photo that you would like turned into a work of art, for example a pet, grandchild or a scene that evokes fond memories. Artists go to the site to find photos they feel inspired to translate into art. You may suggest a medium, such as oil or charcoal, but the artists are free to apply their own creativity. Once completed, the artist uploads a photo of their finished masterpiece, and sets the purchase price. While you are not obligated to buy the art, you have 60 days to decide if you want to purchase at the set price. If not, then the artist is free to sell it to someone else.

Throughout the years, Kocina also has privately pursued his own passion for creating one-of-a-kind paintings from cherished family photographs. Similarly, PostandPaint.com will enable others to own original artwork that holds deep significance to them.

“We’re storing millions of digital images, but very few are viewed, displayed and enjoyed as much as their printed predecessors,” says Kocina. “Rather than losing this vital piece of Americana that tangibly and emotionally links one generation to the next, I believe people will embrace the idea of having original art in their homes and offices. Art is basic human expression. In a time when we are surrounded by technology, it is soothing to gaze upon something creative that also carries personal meaning.”

Artist and business executive Lonny Kocina's offers this creation in response to the submitted photo

Kocina is excited by this concept. “The Internet is filled with untapped opportunity, and that’s how economies grow–from creating something out of nothing. It’s that entrepreneurial spirit of thinking up stuff that people end up wanting,” says Kocina. “The market here is gigantic–just think about the number of walls out there that could be filled with custom artwork instead of generic, mass-produced copies.”

In addition to bringing more visibility to experienced artists, Kocina adds that PostandPaint.com will be useful for students searching for subjects to help them complete classroom art requirements. “Throughout my adult life, I have actively sought to help young people achieve their dreams, whether it is through company internships or by volunteering my time to teach marketing at the local college. Because art is such a deeply personal passion for me, it is gratifying to finally have a means for helping artists establish and grow their careers.

“PostandPaint.com will help conceive a tangible artistic history for a new generation, while creating income and – as important – exposure for the dedicated artists who are keeping these art forms alive,” says Kocina.

Lonny Kocina is founder and president of Media Relations, Inc., one of the top performance-based public relations firms in the country since its inception in 1988. Since the company started, it has grown to serve more than 1,000 businesses globally. Prior to founding Media Relations, Kocina held the position of marketing director with Investment Rarities Inc., a precious metals investment company with more than $4 billion in sales. He is the author of Media Hypnosis: Unleashing the Most Powerful Sales Tool on Earth, and Reach & Teach Product Promotion: Teaching Consumers to BUY.

at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S, Minneapolis, 612.822.4611, www.magersandquinn.com

• Wednesday, Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m. – Henry Emmons, M.D., discusses his books The Chemistry of Joy, and The Chemistry of Calm
Renowned psychiatrist and therapist Henry Emmons integrates mind-body and natural therapies, mindfulness and allied Buddhist therapeutics, and psychotherapeutic caring and insight in his clinical work. Dr. Emmons obtained his medical degree from the University of Iowa College of Medicine and did his residency in psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where he was Chief Resident. Dr. Emmons is in demand as a workshop and retreat leader for both healthcare professionals and the general public. He practices general and holistic psychiatry and consults to several colleges and organizations nationally. He currently serves as Consulting Psychiatrist at the Allina Medical Clinic in Northfield, MN. The Chemistry of Joy presents Dr. Emmons’s natural approach to depression – supplemented with medication if necessary – blending the best of Western science and Eastern philosophy to create your body’s own biochemistry of joy. Integrating Western brain chemistry, natural and Ayurvedic medicine, Buddhist psychology, and his own joyful heart techniques, Dr. Emmons creates a practical program for each of the three types of depression: anxious depression, agitated depression, and sluggish depression. This flexible approach creates newfound joy for those whose lives have been touched by depression–and pathways for all who seek to actively improve their emotional lives. The Chemistry of Calm presents a step-by-step plan to relieve anxiety and restore physical and mental strength. Marrying the Eastern techniques of meditation with the traditional Western solutions of diet and exercise produces a dramatic effect. Using this program, Dr. Emmons has helped countless patients reduce their anxiety and reclaim the resilience that is their birthright.

• Friday, Oct . 7, 7:30 p.m. – Chris Bohjalian reads from The Night Strangers
From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Skeletons at the Feast and Secrets of Eden, comes a riveting and dramatic ghost story. In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home’s new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin 10-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure. Unlike the Miracle on the Hudson, however, most of the passengers aboard Flight 1611 die on impact or drown. The body count? Thirty-nine – a coincidence not lost on Chip when he discovers the number of bolts in that basement door. Meanwhile, Emily finds herself wondering about the women in this sparsely populated White Mountain village – self-proclaimed herbalists – and their interest in her fifth-grade daughters. Are the women mad? Or is it her husband, in the wake of the tragedy, whose grip on sanity has become desperately tenuous? The Night Strangers is a poignant and powerful ghost story with all the hallmarks readers have come to expect from bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian: a palpable sense of place, an unerring sense of the demons that drive us, and characters we care about deeply. Chris Bohjalian is the critically acclaimed author of 12 novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, and Midwives, which was a selection of Oprah’s Book Club. His work has been translated into more than 25 languages and twice became movies (Midwives and Past the Bleachers). He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter. Visit him at www.chrisbohjalian.com.

• Sunday, Oct. 9, 4 p.m. – Beryl Singleton Bissell reads from A View of the Lake
Beryl Singleton Bissell, nationally renowned author of The Scent of God, shares her experience of life on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior in this collection of essays that follows her journey to find her place in a small northern town. Fans of her first book will feel right at home with the warm, insightful prose that has made Bissell so successful. For residents or frequent visitors, and hopeful travelers who have yet to experience its charms, A View of the Lake is a direct route to the North Shore. These tales of the singular joys and challenges of moving from a city to a rural area will resonate with anyone who dreams of downsizing, picking up and moving to a life alongside a lake and its denizens. Each chapter captures the nature of the North Shore and the ways in which everything and everyone is shaped by the Big Lake. Beryl Singleton Bissell was born in Saddle River, NJ, grew up in Puerto Rico, and for the past 30 years has called Minnesota home. Packing several lifetimes into one, Bissell was a cloistered contemplative nun for 15 years before becoming a wife, mother, widow, single mom, divorcee, bereaved parent and grandparent. She’s online at www.berylsingletonbissell.com.

• Monday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. – Paul Metsa discusses his new memoir Blue Guitar Highway and plays music!
This is a musician’s tale: the story of a boy growing up on the Iron Range, playing his guitar at family gatherings, coming of age in the psychedelic ’70s, and honing his craft as a pro in Minneapolis, ground zero of American popular music in the mid-eighties. “There is a drop of blood behind every note I play and every word I write,” Paul Metsa says. And it’s easy to believe, as he conducts us on a musical journey across time and country, navigating switchbacks, detours, dead ends, and providing us the occasional glimpse of the promised land on the blue guitar highway. His account captures the thrill of the Twin Cities when acts like the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and Prince were remaking pop music. It takes us right onto the stages he shared with stars like Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. And it gives us a close-up, dizzying view of the roller-coaster ride that is the professional musician’s life, played out against the polarizing politics and intimate history of the past few decades of American culture. Written with a songwriter’s sense of detail and ear for poetry, Blue Guitar Highway conveys all the sweet absurdity, dry humor, and passion for the language of music that has made his story sing. Metsa is a legendary musician and songwriter from Minnesota. Born on the Iron Range, he has been based in Minneapolis since 1978. He has received seven Minnesota Music Awards and has played more than five thousand gigs, including forays to Iceland and Siberia. He lives in Northeast Minneapolis with his faithful dog, Blackie; a dozen or so guitars; twenty-five orange crates of LPs; hundreds of books, compact discs, magazines, and vintage postcards; and several kitchen cupboards full of old cassettes.

• Wednesday, Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m. – Photographer Scott Pasfield discusses Gay in America, co-sponsored by Quatrefoil Library
Photographer Scott Pasfield and several of his Minnesota subjects will appear to discuss Pasfield’s new book Gay In America, a groundbreaking, stereotype-shattering and unprecedented 224-page book of intimate photos and deeply personal stories from 140 gay American men, with an introduction by activist Tom Kirdahy and his husband, playwright Terrence McNally. Pasfield traveled 52,000 miles across all 50 states over three years, gathering stories and documenting the lives of gay men from all walks of life. At turns joyful and somber, reflective and celebratory, each narrative and image is an enlightening look into the variety of gay life in the United States. “I wanted to create a book that would change opinions and educate; to produce a profound collection of ordinary, proud, out gay men who defy clichés and stereotypes.” His striking and perceptive portraits reflect the same beautiful diversity found in any sampling of our population. Each of these men is unique and whole, complex and fallible, just as we all are. They come in every size and shape, every religion, color, profession, and background. There are farmers, writers, doctors, lawyers, artists, teachers, and students; there are fathers and husbands, activists, and businessmen. Some are successful, some are struggling, some are political, some are wealthy, some are wounded, and some are deeply content. Their commonality draws from a single shared trait: their homosexuality. These are men who are attracted to men, and have chosen not to disguise that truth. For many, there have been harsh consequences to this decision, but also deep rewards. The message that prevails is one of great hope that true equality is close within our reach, if only we would grasp it. Learn more about Gay In America at www.gayinamerica.us. Scott Pasfield is a New York-based portrait photographer who specializes in portraiture. His work has appeared in numerous publications, from BlackBook to Fortune, Poz to Gotham. His clients include the Independent Film Channel, Time Inc., and the American Red Cross. Scott has taught at the Santa Fe Photography Workshops and is a member of Platon’s celebrated Nutopia Forum. He and his partner Nick divide their time between New York City, Long Island and Vermont. This event is co-sponsored by Quatrefoil Library. Quatrefoil Library is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2011. The volunteer-run, non-profit library collects, maintains, documents, and circulates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer materials and information in a safe and accessible space. Quatrefoil’s collection includes books, videos, DVDs, and sound recordings, which members may check out, as well as a large collection of non-circulating periodicals. Learn more at www.qlibrary.org.

Friday, Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m. – Sonya Huber reads from Cover Me : A Health Insurance Memoir
Growing up in middle-class middle America, Sonya Huber viewed health care as did most of her peers: as an inconvenience or not at all. There were braces and cavities, medications and stitches, the family doctor and the local dentist. Finding herself without health insurance after college graduation, she didn’t worry. It was a temporary problem. Thirteen years and twenty-three jobs later, her view of the matter was quite different. Huber’s irreverent and affecting memoir of navigating the nation’s health-care system brings an awful and necessary dose of reality to the political debates and propaganda surrounding health-care reform. “I look like any other upwardly mobile hipster,” Huber says. “I carry a messenger bag, a few master’s degrees, and a toddler raised on organic milk.” What’s not evident, however, is that she is a veteran of Medicaid and WIC, the federal government’s supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children. In Cover Me, Huber tells a story that is at once all too familiar and rarely told: of being pushed to the edge by worry; of the adamant belief that better care was out there; of taking one mind-numbing job after another in pursuit of health insurance, only to find herself scrounging through the trash heap of our nation’s health-care system for tips and tricks that might mean the difference between life and death. Sonya Huber teaches creative writing in the low-residency MFA program at Ashland University and at Georgia Southern University. She is the author of Opa Nobody, as well as several essays which have appeared in publications such as Fourth Genre, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Washington Post Magazine. More information is available at www.sonyahuber.com. This event is cosponsored by the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition. MUHCC is dedicated to establishing comprehensive single-payer health care for all Minnesotans through advocacy, education, lobbying, and community organizing. They believe that health care is an essential human need, that unequal access to health care is an injustice, and that a single-payer system is the only system that can provide comprehensive, affordable, high quality health care for each and every person. Visit www.muhcc.org for more information.

• Tuesday, Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. - Russell Banks reads from his new novel Lost Memory of Skin
Lost Memory of Skin shows us a troubled society where zero tolerance has erased any hope of subtlety and compassion. Suspended in a modern-day limbo, the young man at the centre of Russell Banks’s uncompromising and morally complex new novel must create a life for himself in the wake of incarceration. Known in his new identity only as the Kid, he is shackled to a GPS monitoring device and forbidden to go near where children might gather. He takes up residence under a south Florida causeway, in a makeshift encampment with other convicted sex offenders. Barely beyond childhood himself, the Kid, despite his crime, is in many ways an innocent. Enter the Professor, a university sociologist of enormous size and intellect who finds in the Kid the perfect subject for his research. But when the Professor’s past resurfaces and threatens to destroy his carefully constructed world, the balance in the two men’s relationship shifts. Russell Banks is the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Affliction, Cloudsplitter, Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone and The Sweet Hereafter.

• Wednesday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m. – Henry Rollins discusses Occupants
Musician, author, poet and photographer Henry Rollins has searched out the most desolate corners of the Earth – from Iraq to Afghanistan, Thailand to Mali, and beyond – for the past twenty-five years, articulating his observations through music and words, on radio and television, and in magazines and books. Though he’s known for the raw power of his expression, Rollins has shown that the greatest statements can be made with the simplest of acts: to just bear witness, to be present. In Occupants, Rollins pairs visceral full-color photographs – taken in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and elsewhere over the last few years – with writings that not only provide context and magnify the impact of the images but also lift them to the level of political commentary. Simply put, this book is a visual testimony of anger, suffering and resilience. Occupants will help us realize what is so easy to miss when tragedy and terror become numbing, constant forces – the quieter, stronger forces of healing, solidarity, faith, and even joy. Rollins joined the Southern California band Black Flag as vocalist in 1981. Upon its demise, he formed Rollins Band, and has been making records, writing books and touring the world ever since. Rollins has averaged over one hundred shows a year for over 30 years. He also performs in movies and TV shows and hosts a weekly L.A. radio show. He lives in Los Angeles.

The Holistic Moms Network (HMN) will host its 8th annual Natural Living Conference on October 1 at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, CA, to share information on holistic living and parenting. Keynote speakers are Robyn O’Brien, speaking on what parents can do to clean up our food supply, and actress Mayim Bialik, author of an upcoming book on natural parenting.

The Holistic Moms Network is a national non-profit organization that connects parents interested in holistic health and green living.

“The landscape of childhood has changed,” O’Brien says. “In the face of the surging rates of allergies, autism, ADHD, asthma, diabetes, childhood cancer and obesity, our children are no longer guaranteed a safe and healthy future. And as parents around the country look to exercise precaution based on recommendations from the President’s Cancer Panel in the hopes of preventing the onset of many of these conditions, I am honored to be working with the Holistic Moms Network to help inspire change as health care is about more than managing these diseases in our children. It is about preventing them in the first place.”

The annual event unites members and attendees from across the country who share an interest in living healthier and more sustainably. Community-building and support are at the heart of HMN’s mission.

“Holistic Moms Network,” Bialik says, “represents all that is good in this crazy confusing world of ‘competing’ parenting styles: following our intuition, getting educated, and getting support for our choices. That’s the kind of community I am honored to be a part of — and honored to represent.”

In addition to the event’s speakers, a series of workshop sessions are offered on a variety of holistic living and parenting topics.

“The Natural Living Conference brings parents together to learn about natural wellness options and approaches so that they can make informed, educated decisions for themselves and their families,” said HMN founder and Director Nancy Massotto, Ph.D. “Connecting with hundreds of other parents who are passionate about good health and green living inspires people to make positive change in their lives – for their well-being and for the health of the planet.”

Workshop sessions at this year’s conference include:

• Making an Informed Vaccination Choice with Dr. Lauren Feder, M.D., a holistic pediatrician
• Food & Mood: Nine Steps to Calm Your Anxious Mind with Trudy Scott, a food mood expert, nutritionist and author
• The Smart Mama’s Guide to Non-Toxic Living with Jennifer Taggart, an environmental attorney, eco consultant and author
• Happiness is an Inside Job with Jennifer Waldburger LCSW, parenting expert and psychotherapist

To register for the conference, visit http://annualconference.holisticmoms.org or call toll-free 877.HOL.MOMS. For more information on Holistic Moms Network, visit www.holisticmoms.org.

Manose, a bansuri flute maestro, left, joins Deva Premal & Miten in concert.

Deva Premal & Miten, world-renowned singers of sacred, contemporary music , will visit the Twin Cities for the first time as part of a 25-city U.S. tour in support of their new album, Password, which marks a new direction in their unique blending of East and West, embedding the energy carried by ancient mantras into a rich fusion of sound and silence.

“An Evening with Deva Premal & Miten with Manose” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, at The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis. The local concert is presented by Raising the Consciousness, the radio show for conscious living, which also produces music and wellness events. Tickets are available at www.raisingtheconsciousness.com and at the door. Tickets are $35, and VIP seating (the first four rows) are $55.

Deva Premal & Miten began their journey into love and music in 1990 when they met at an ashram in India. They have spent the last 21 years introducing millions of Westerners to the beauty and power of Sanskrit mantras. As Deva expresses it, “Mantras are passwords that transform the mundane into the sacred.” Thus, the artists have named their newest mantra album Password.

Deva and Miten created the mantra genre with the release of their album The Essence in 1998. Since then they have released ten albums, all of which topped New Age and Amazon.com charts worldwide. Password represents a shift in direction for the duo, with the introduction of Danish producer, RajRishi, who brought the cream of Copenhagen’s jazz players into the mix. The result is a substantial, musically refined album with sublime arrangements of ancient mantras, complimenting Deva’s soulful vocals. The album also features Manose, the ever-present bansuri flute maestro from Nepal.

Deva and Miten’s mission is the creation of the sacred; music born out of meditation with a deep longing to nourish and enhance the experience of the silent, peaceful, blissful space within us all. They look on their music as a spiritual practice; hence, the music transcends the concept of “entertainment,” inviting the listener into realms beyond the stress and concerns of daily life into a deep sense of inner peace.

For more information, visit www.RaisingtheConsciousness.com or call Keith at 612.741.4982.

Chrism, a spiritual master who awakens kundalini in groups of people safely, will lecture and present a weekend seminar in September in the Twin Cities.

Kundalini is an evolutionary energy that is designed for humanity’s next step toward a luminous physical and spiritual expression. Chrism notes that kundalini is in everyone, and that it is an untapped resource of divinity within us all that is waiting to be awakened and experienced.

Chrism, a native of California, offers the awakening of kundalini as well as continued support throughout the kundalini awakening experience. Chrism comes from a place of disciplined love and disciplined intention within the parameters of forgiveness, spiritual balance, service to others and spiritual evolution. Kundalini, as it expresses through Chrism, is the teacher.

“Never has the time been so right and crucial for a change of this magnitude to be explored and initiated,” Chrism says. “Kundalini  is a belief system, a physical practice, and an overt action upon the body. It is a condition and a force of union that is tactile in its expression upon the individual.”

Chrism will be offering a lecture on Friday, Sept. 16, at The Healing Loft in Minneapolis, and a weekend seminar on September 17-18 in New Brighton, MN.

For further information, visit www.KundaliniAwakeningSystems1.com, email ekundalini@gmail.com or call 239.246.5608.

A Psychic Symposium that will provide the public an opportunity to learn about the world of spiritual and psychic phenomena will debut this month in Fargo, hosted by Edge Life Expos & Events. Keynote speakers will offer valuable insight and advice for living well and exhibitors will include intuitive readers, wellness products, healing resources, animal communicators, aura photos, jewelry, crystals and other unique gift items.

The event will be from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Fargo Civic Center, 207 4th St. N. Admission is $7, or $5 each for groups of two or more people.

Keynote speakers will be:

• 9:15 a.m. – Mas Sajady, a quantum healer and medical and psychic intuitive who has had two near-death experiences. He will explain the inner workings of miracles and how to instill them in your life. Tickets are $13.
• 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. – Troy Parkinson, a noted medium who will give readings from the other side in this gallery-style event. Troy is the author of Bridge to the Afterlife: A Medium’s Message of Hope and Healing and as a filmmaker he has worked on projects for Discovery Health Channel and History Channel. Tickets are $15 in advance or $25 at the door.
• 2:30-4 p.m. – Tiffany Johnson, a renowned psychic, healer and ordained minister will present a lecture on her experiences of growing up psychic, frequently asked questions about psychics and mediums, and answer audience questions. She is the author of Seeds of Thought, and Picture Yourself Developing Your Psychic Abilities. Tickets are $20 in advance or $30 at the door, or with a copy of her book Seeds of Thought, $30 in advance or $35 at the door.

For more information and advance tickets, visit Edgelife.net or call toll-free 877.776.5344.

The International Aromatherapy Conference and Wellness Expo, hosted by the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA), will take place September 29 – October 3 at the Minneapolis Marriott Southwest in Minnetonka, MN.

The event, focused this year on “The Future of Aromatics in Integrative Healthcare,” will present an array of industry leaders who will be presenting on a variety of topics, including the use of aromatherapy in clinical setting, spa, personal care and other integrative therapies, as well as aromatherapy research and natural perfumery.

The conference also will focus on core principles of aromatherapy including, the impact of essential oils on the human body, chemistry, the limbic brain and psychoneuroimmunology. The event will include a lecture on the business pitfalls facing natural health care providers, and aromatherapists in particular, as well as an educational retreat offering of daily aromatic yoga. This conference is a part of the AIA’s mission to unite aromatherapists from around the world in an effort to advance research and professionalism within the aromatherapy industry and to provide public education through scientific research and educational programs. Its goal is to bring conventional medicine and natural therapies, with emphasis on professional aromatherapy, into a more harmonious relationship.

Participants will learn how essential oils are being used in clinical environments, hospice and palliative care, cancer care, skin care, massage and spas, psychotherapy, Eastern medicine and yoga, among other integrative therapies from dynamic and engaging speakers. New techniques to enhance healing practices will be presented. Attendees may receive up to 30 contact hours for fully attending the conference.

For more information and registration, call toll-free 877.531.6377 or go to http://alliance-aromatherapists.org/2011_conference_registration.htm.

The Sexual Alignment Process, intended to assist people in aligning their sexuality with your heart and the Light of the Self, is a series of light initiations that take place over the course of two and a half days – September 16-18 – in the Twin Cities.

Each initiation is connected to and builds on the previous one. This opens flow through the light bodies and physical body and allows for resurrection and rejuvenation energies to be fed throughout the body. The initiations work in the areas of the heart, spine, neck, head and the entire body, opening an illumination point in the back of the skull. The process works with the male and female alignment within the individual, as well as creative expression and Unity consciousness.

This work is useful for people who have suffered sexual abuse in this or past lifetimes, and people who have “let go” of their personal power due to this life or past-life experiences. People with spinal injury and or disease and all people on their journey to the enlightened state can use this work to accelerate spiritual growth.

For more information and registration, call Joanne at 651.452.2895, email wakefieldjfob@gmail.com or visit wayshowerj.com.

Max the Crystal Skull, one of only two crystal skulls still believed to be ancient – reportedly 36,000 years old – returns to the Twin Cities for a rare public appearance during the last weekend of September.

The rare skull was found in Guatemala and was given by indigenous healers to a Buddhist lama healer and later taken to Houston, Texas. Before the lama died, he gave the crystal skull to Jo Ann Parks, whom he had befriended after treating her daughter. Many people who have had contact with Max have received remarkable advice and healings.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, Jo Ann Parks will give a public presentation on Max the Crystal Skull at the Hilton Garden Inn, near I-494 and Bass Lake Road in Maple Grove. Mrs. Parks, an entertaining Texas lady in her own right, will discuss crystal skulls and tell how she received Max and kept him in a closet until he started hollering at her. The cost for the presentation is $25. Attendees will have an opportunity to briefly touch Max at the end of the evening.

There will be limited time for private meditations with Max during the weekend. Registration for private time with Max begins August 15. To register, or for more information, contact Dale or Sheryl Fisher at 763.420.9017.

Author Ruth Montgomery was one of the first to coin the phrase “Walk-In”  in her book, Strangers Among Us, referring to a soul transformation. Walk-Ins are souls who enter a body when the original soul has either completed its task or development or has suffered a traumatic experience and is ready to move on.

It is believed that many Walk-Ins are now in body on Earth to assist the planet with its vibrational shift. Marilyn Harper and Adironnda & Company, through their collective guidance, are being directed to gather walk-ins, their family and friends together October 7-9 in Phoenix, AZ, for the debut Walk-Ins Welcome Conference.

Anyone attracted to the terms “walk-in,” “soul transformation” or “galactic being” are invited to this event that will educate, support and connect the walk-in experience. The conference will take place at Embassy Suites Phoenix North, and registration is at Adironndaspiritualhealer/walk-ins/ Special discounts on hotel rooms are available until September 7.

Those connected with the Walk-In experience say many such souls enter the body without conscious memory, and the adjustment can be jarring and detrimental for the person as well as family and friends. The Walk-ins Welcome Conference offers support to make the transition smoother.

Guest speakers will include:

• Lenedra Carroll – Author of The Architecture of All Abundance, Lenedra is an artist, poet, author, entrepreneur, singer and philanthropist. She has also managed the career of her daughter, singer/songwriter Jewel.
• bj King – World renowned mystic and artist, and intergalactic channel
• Rev. Kari Chapman – Channel for the Archangel Michael, owner of Namaste Wisconsin
• Leandra Murray – International Psychic, Opening to the Animal Oracle and the Symbols of Siddhi
• David K. Miller – Founder of the Group of Forty, as directed by the Arcturians. He channels spiritual masters such as Sananda, Vywamus, the Arcturians, and the energies of the Archangels.
• John Schulte – Channel, Exposing the Masters Within, Gateway 2011-2012 Activations and The Pass Process
• Marilyn Harper of Adironnda & Company – Clear channel, award-wining speaker, integrational facilitator of spiritual healing
• Kathleen Farrell and Chuck Cunningham – SoulTones, an experience of a vibrational, integrational concert utilizing crystal and Tibetan singing bowls

For more information, visit adironndaspiritualhealer.com/walk-ins/walk-ins-welcome-conference/

“The Poetics of Receptivity: The Power of the Anima and its Movement in Our World,” a profound, soul-pounding commentary on feminine power and receptive wisdom, will be presented at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14 at the Carondelet Center in St. Paul, featuring author and spiritual teacher Dr. Christina Donnell, accompanied by cellist, Dr. Anna Vazquez. The event will take place in Room G-1, and the suggested donation is $10.

The stirring combination of Christina Donnell’s lyrical prose style and her transmission of the unseen, with the authentic virtuosity of cellist Anna Vazquez, promise to carry the audience to an imaginary plane seldom experienced in our culture. “This will be an evening to remember,” promises the sponsoring Winds of Change Association.

Christina Donnell, Ph.D., is the author of the five time award-winning book, Transcendent Dreaming. She spent more than two decades studying Eastern traditions and the shamanic energy practices of the Q’ero Indians of Peru, which helped her to awaken a form of dreaming that expands consciousness and allows the dreamer to identify with the intelligence that animates the universe. Larry Dossey, M.D., wrote in the foreword to her book, “Has the universe birthed Christina Donnell because of an urgent need in a desperate time? One is tempted to think so.” Because of her lyrical prose style, she has been compared to a modern-day Rumi.

Anna Vazquez, D.MA, is a classically trained cellist who has explored where music, spirituality and healing overlap, whether it is through classical music, devotional chanting, improvisation or a fusion of world music, folk and jazz. Anna’s cello music resonates through body and mind, evoking awareness of being. She has a Doctorate of Music from the University of Minnesota.

For more information, visit www.carondeletcenter.org or www.christinadonnell.com.