In this world of hyper-specialization, something is being lost. The brilliance of our humanity is being dimmed as we get narrower and narrower in our focus. Our ability to think globally is one of the most wonderful parts of being human and the intellectual rewards are immeasurable, and key to our growth as people and as a species.

But, as importantly, allowing ourselves to gratify all our passions – Australian film, Chinese cooking, the history of infectious disease – we become more whole as humans, giving us additional ways of connecting with people and shifting our relationships with them to make our interactions fulfilling, nurturing and healing.

Imagine a chef. He’s not just a chef, but a brilliant one. His subtle layering of flavors, passion for top-quality ingredients, preoccupation with all aspects of food – he is a creative genius. But the genius of cooking is an earthy one; taste, texture, color, even sound, are part of the visceral experience of cooking. In addition, anyone who has worked in a commercial kitchen can tell you that it is a hot, sweaty pit of hard work and rough language, populated by a cast of questionable characters. But this chef has a passion for something else. He has a fascination with astronomy; he even has a large telescope that he goes home to late at night after the kitchen is closed. Astronomy is about everything cooking is not; it is, for practical purposes, intangible, abstract and cerebral. There are those who would say that the time this guy spends reading about astronomy and staring at points of light that are light-years away is a distraction from his real work. But the real deal is that by accessing these other parts of himself, he gives them opportunity to grow, becoming an entire person.

The result: he creates dishes that respond to many points of view, food that speaks to his customers on a heart level. That’s the real reason why he’s a great chef.

Michelangelo (architect, engineer, sculptor, painter) and Leonardo da Vinci (scientist, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician) were, and still are, held up as archetypal geniuses who were given the latitude to express their multiplicity of interests and skills. Shoot forward to the 20th century, and we see that Richard Feynman (theoretical physicist, bongo player, safe cracker) and J. Robert Oppenheimer (nuclear physicist, theoretical astronomer, political activist) were loudly and frequently criticized for the fact that they let their other interests “distract” them from their “important” work. Yet, these are the people who capture and hold our attention over time.

Thinking is three-dimensional. The more places you can stand and look at a situation, problem or relationship, the more you can see. Additional perspectives give additional insight, and additional insight promotes more creative problem solving. One could speculate that we actually become more brilliant by developing our passions.

Human relationships are three-dimensional too. The more of these parts of ourselves that are expressed, the more places you can stand in relationship to others. We have a much greater ability to access the parts of ourselves that are like the other person. This is the opportunity for the heart connection, the place that allows us to be completely present with others, letting go of preconceptions and judgments, and just be with each other.

Being three-dimensional gives voice to parts of our intellect that are crying out to be heard. Someone who is being shackled will eventually either die or rebel. Shackle the sub-selves, and we become less of who we were or who we could be. The regret that results from that suppression produces someone who is bitter, depressed and intolerant, setting up a vicious circle of misery. Not only are they no longer contributing as effectively intellectually, but are precipitating a cascading negative effect throughout the matrix of humanity.

The more of our sub-selves we can allow to exist without judgment, the more we can extend that to our relationship with others. We need not have a deep, intimate relationship with everyone we meet; we only need to allow them to be most completely themselves. We are far better equipped to do so if we give ourselves the same consideration.

Everywhere, sound, vibration and frequency moves me as it has moved cultures for millennia. Sound provides a doorway in consciousness, an avenue for outward creation, and a pathway in to the deep reaches of our being:

• Recently as I walked down the National Mall in Washington, D.C., I heard an ancient rhythm from a ceremonial drum ricochet through the marble and limestone canyons formed by government buildings and the monuments of our nation’s memories.

• Outside the vast sprawl of Såo Paulo, Brazil, I listened in a small, unassuming temple to three great bass congas bellow a charismatic beat that melded a room filled with eager devotees into an entranced frenzy.

• In my imagination from atop my hill in Kansas, I still hear the medicine drums calling tribes to council and the thundering cadence of bison hooves in mass moving across the valley below.

Long before I understood sound as a doorway, I noticed how drumming brought people together. Without words, without melody, drums sing a universal language, perhaps it is the language of Spirit. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a drum solo in a rock band or the underscore of an indigenous chant around a fire, the sound touches something elemental within us and collectively. We pay attention.

Creation stories from around the world implicate sound as primordial, the vehicle by which the universe formed. The sound is “Hu” to the Sufi, “Om” to the Hindu, “Kung” to the Taoist, and “the Word” to Judeo-Christians. Native American and Andean traditions say the sound of the drum represents Earth’s heartbeat. I know that when I listen to the drum, I hear all these sounds in its resonance. It connects me not only with the deep states of consciousness within. It connects me with creation itself and draws me into relationship with the heartbeat of our Earth.

This relationship with our planet is more primal than sharing life with a mate, yet it is easily overlooked. It came naturally with the innocence of childhood. Once we approached nature with wide eyes, fascinated by every firefly, tadpole and daisy. We couldn’t wait to talk to our pet, converse with a passing toad or find a unicorn in the clouds above our head. Our storybooks told of adventures shared by fairies, elves and frogs that turned into a prince. As children, we drank in our surroundings anxious to learn from – and about – the world we had come here to inhabit, not as observers but as participants. As children, the world was our lover; we cherished every offering it provided and traded our wonderment for the blessings of creation eager for the exchange.

In mass, as adult inhabitants, too many have forgotten this relationship. Perhaps it was with the rise of Western theologies or during the Industrial Revolution, but somewhere as a species we went to war with our planetary partner. We assumed that whatever we did had little or no effect on a big ball of dirt; it was our resource. We forgot she was once our lover, once the source of our wonderment and vitality. We forgot she had a heartbeat. Like any relationship, when one partner ignores the other’s heart long enough, things get shaky, stormy and hot.

Andean mystics describe our personal existence as occurring within a universe of living energy with which we constantly exchange. Adding to our childlike wonderment, it suggests we enter into a deliberate, respectful relationship with this energy at large. ayni (a Q’ero word pronounced I-nee) is a state of reciprocity, a sacred interchange with everything – yes everything. In Christian terms, it is doing unto others, as you would have them do unto you, but in the Q’ero culture of Peru, it means helping the people in your community and caring with respect for your neighbors who may happen to be mountains, forests, plants, animals or minerals. The idea is that we are always giving and taking with everything around us. The energy exchange is constant and we must be consciously “giving at least as good as we get” to everything without measuring what we’re getting back. That’s a formula for success in any relationship.

If I have drummed up your interest, I would like to take these ideas a bit further, to where they have led me.

Our imbalanced relationship with creation, and our fellow beings, is noticeable to me – and probably to you. We can deny the problem and rationalize that someone else will fix it or respond. But how? Perhaps like me, you sense a shift coming on this planet in your bones and that more is asked of us than to fearfully wait for deliverance.

My first response was writing a book. In it, a shamanic character says, “Do what you know, learn all you can and trust that the rest will be provided.” Heeding my character’s words, “Now is the time to do what I’ve been learning for.”

Here are a few things I’ve learned, along with what I am going to do.

In the past decades, physicists have peered into the depths of the subatomic particle world only to discover that there aren’t really particles there. Instead, they found a world of vibrating energy that seemed affected by our observation, by our interaction with it. Physicists describe the interference patterns of energy at the subatomic level as “nodes of resonance.” You might call my next response to the relationship problem a “node of resonance” in a larger world, a pattern formed by the interaction of my work with drumming and sound, Peter Russell’s book, The Global Brain, and Lynne McTaggart’s work in The Intention Experiment. Could these ideas work together? Can we use them to affect the living energy world in a positive way? If energy follows thought, why not try.

The Global Brain proposes a systems perspective of how life is developing on this planet. Throughout Earth’s history, certain essential elements reached a critical population density, a new property emerged, and the whole became greater than the sum of its parts. I’ll leave it to that author to explain his full premise, but the key element here is that critical population was about 10 billion. We are now approaching that population as a species on this planet. The Intention Experiment studied how applied intention, the subtle energy of directed thought, positively affected the outcome of illness. It is not the only such study. Her work and that of others demonstrate that our thoughts – our intention – influence the world from the smallest level to our very being.

Can we enhance an intention’s effect by using the sound of the drum to deepen consciousness and reiterate the beat until we approach the critical threshold of 10 billion?

We live in an extraordinary time. On one hand, we see a rise of hope in the world that offers the promise of bonding us together and overcoming a hard time. In contrast, we see that divisions between nations, political parties and religious extremes seem unfazed. Some prophesy that we have come to the end of our days, while others say we are about to advance.

Here is an idea in response to this current paradox: 10 Billion Beats. Without doctrine or dogma, its simple agenda is to foster goodwill within the entire living family on the planet in which we live, move and have our being. I know it does not solve all the problems, but as a family relationship therapist with several years of experience, I’ve seen division before. I’ve learned that before a family can find solutions, they have to hear each other’s heartbeat.

10 Billion Beats is a Global Intention Experiment that will use drumming to send a wave of positive intention around the world. Starting in Central Kansas, it will follow the sun through the time zones at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18 (Sept. 19 as it crosses the dateline). It is to continue the energy exchange giving at least as good as we have received. This project is for everyone like me who is crazy enough to think they can change the world and everyone else for whom they want to change it. That includes you. The idea is admittedly huge. This is a grassroots movement – it is not a commercial event – and it will only work if people like you get excited, if people like you participate, and if people like you tell others about it.

You and I may hear, and even play, different drums. That is as it should be, but for a short period on one day this fall, perhaps we can find a common beat. The Sufi Mystic Hazrat Inayat Kahn (1983) said: “All things being derived from and formed of vibration have sound hidden within them, as fire is hidden in flint, and each atom of the universe confesses by its tone, ‘My sole origin is sound.’”

Everywhere, sound moves us. I invite you to catch the beat and be the wave. Confess your tone along with 10 Billion of them, join in, and let’s drum up the new world!

To get involved with 10 Billion Beats, visit If this resonates with you, please visit www.10billionbeats.com.

MINNEAPOLIS – As spring makes its way to the Twin Cities, so will a spate of new films promoting cultural understanding of people across the globe. This is the primary mission of the Beyond Borders Film Festival, which features films and cultural performances with a strong emphasis on cultural heritage. The festival will become a permanent fixture in the Twin Cities’ arts scene, appearing annually.

These monks are featured in the film, Unwinking Gaze.

“My hope for the festival is to use film to bring together people from different communities and cultures, people who would not ordinarily be sitting in the same room together,” says festival founder Cortland Dahl, who divides his time between Minneapolis; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Bodhgaya, India. “Our aim is to show artistically significant films that also have the power to inform people about the world’s rich cultural and spiritual heritage, about the important issues that are confronting our world, and to inspire them to get involved at a grassroots level.”

From Wednesday, March 25, through Sunday, March 29, the Beyond Borders Film Festival will showcase a variety of films at the recently renovated Parkway Theater at 4814 Chicago Ave. S. in Minneapolis.

What to expect:

• March 25-26 – Films and performances by and about Native Americans. The White Earth Urban Community Council will host a drumming circle, and Ojibwe jingle dancers will also be featured. Well-known advocate and former vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke, local film producer and community activist Sydney Beane, award-winning Mohawk writer/director Tracey Deer, and Minnesota filmmaker Missy Whiteman will make special appearances. Native American items will be sold in a silent auction.

• March 27 – Films spotlighting Buddhist wisdom, including The Unwinking Gaze by director Joshua Dugdale, which provides behind-the-scenes insight into the recent working life of Tibet’s revered Dalai Lama; another award-winner, The Dhamma Brothers by director Jenny Phillips, focuses on the influence of an ancient meditation discipline on maximum-security prison inmates in Alabama; and Daughters of Wisdom, Barry Perlman’s film about 300 nuns living in a remote monastery in Northeastern Tibet.

• March 28-29 – Screening of new, A-list independent films from emerging and cutting-edge American directors, as well as exciting new world cinema from countries including India, China, Canada, and Turkey.

• And for children: Special programming to encourage them to stretch their imaginations and learn about different people and cultures. The children’s film program will run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings and will include a variety of animated film shorts. Thursday and Friday’s kids’ program will include a performance by an Ojibwe storyteller.

Ticket prices are $10 per screening for adults, and $5 per screening for children. An all-access pass for the entire festival is $75, $30 for a five-show pass (doesn’t include opening or closing night; tickets for those nights are $15 at the door and $12 online). Visit www.beyondbordersfilmfestival.com

Critically acclaimed independent films
Several films on the Beyond Border’s line-up have recently received recognition at large film festivals and have garnered other critical recognition. The Austrian film Revanche, one that has won 14 awards, including awards from the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival, the 2008 Berlin Panorama, the CICAE and the 2008 Diagonale, has now been nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film. It will receive its Twin Cities premiere at the Beyond Borders Film Festival.

Art & Copy was recently screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and Tricks, which has played to international acclaim, is Poland’s entry to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Lance Daly’s Irish film Kisses, a unique coming-of-age story set in the night streets of Dublin, won the Best Feature Award at the 2008 Galway Film Festival, and has screened at the Toronto, Telluride, London and Palm Springs film festivals.

The festival’s finale will include the highly anticipated film Sugar, also an official selection at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the dramatic category Grand Jury Prize. And Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the film’s directors and the directors of the 2006 hit Half Nelson, will make guest appearances. Sugar was nominated for the IFC Spirit Award’s Best Screenplay.

The weirdly hilarious Big Man Japan, a mockumentary that one one-line critic calls “gleefully bizarre” and the San Francisco International Film Festival described as “an immensely pleasurable, amusingly outrageous future cult classic,” is part of Magnolia Pictures’ Six Shooter Film Series. It is the festival’s midnight madness show. It held the same spot at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.