Material Spirituality: Thermodynamics.
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Don Bosco #39;s spirituality 1
An animated video of some 3 mins duration to take you through the basics of Don Bosco #39;s spirituality - this is part one, with two more to follow.

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From Fear to Love: Working with Fear #39;s Transformational Power (Self-Help Spirituality)
Learn how to work with the energy of fear. Shift from limitation to mastery. Become empowered to change your life and achieve your goals. * * * TRANSFORM YOU...

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Jon Burr - What I Learned about Diet, Spirituality and Repeated Bass Lines from Horace Silver
From "The Hang" I Played with Horace Silver.

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Jon Burr - What I Learned about Diet, Spirituality and Repeated Bass Lines from Horace Silver - Video

Alexia Torke - The Impact of Religion and Spirituality on Surrogate Decision Making
"The Impact of Religion and Spirituality on Surrogate Decision Making" Alexia Torke, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine, Indiana University Center Scientist,...

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Newswise NEW YORK, NY A thickening of the brain cortex associated with regular meditation or other spiritual or religious practice could be the reason those activities guard against depression particularly in people who are predisposed to the disease, according to new research led by Lisa Miller, professor and director of Clinical Psychology and director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The study, published online by JAMA Psychiatry, involved 103 adults at either high or low risk of depression, based on family history. The subjects were asked how highly they valued religion or spirituality. Brain MRIs showed thicker cortices in subjects who placed a high importance on religion or spirituality than those who did not. The relatively thicker cortex was found in precisely the same regions of the brain that had otherwise shown thinning in people at high risk for depression.

Although more research is necessary, the results suggest that spirituality or religion may protect against major depression by thickening the brain cortex and counteracting the cortical thinning that would normally occur with major depression. The study, published on Dec. 25, 2013, is the first published investigation on the neuro-correlates of the protective effect of spirituality and religion against depression.

The new study links this extremely large protective benefit of spirituality or religion to previous studies which identified large expanses of cortical thinning in specific regions of the brain in adult offspring of families at high risk for major depression, Miller said.

Previous studies by Miller and the team published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (2012) showed a 90 percent decrease in major depression in adults who said they highly valued spirituality or religiosity and whose parents suffered from the disease. While regular attendance at church was not necessary, a strong personal importance placed on spirituality or religion was most protective against major depression in people who were at high familial risk.

Miller is also affiliated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. Her co-authors were Ravi Bensal at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI); Priya Wickramaratne at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia and NYSPI; Xuejun Hao and Bradley S. Peterson, M.D. at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and NYSPI; Craig E. Tenke at NYSPI; and Myrna M. Weissman at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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Spirituality and Religion May Protect Against Major Depression By Thickening Brain Cortex

Jan. 16, 2014 A thickening of the brain cortex associated with regular meditation or other spiritual or religious practice could be the reason those activities guard against depression -- particularly in people who are predisposed to the disease, according to new research led by Lisa Miller, professor and director of Clinical Psychology and director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The study, published online by JAMA Psychiatry, involved 103 adults at either high or low risk of depression, based on family history. The subjects were asked how highly they valued religion or spirituality. Brain MRIs showed thicker cortices in subjects who placed a high importance on religion or spirituality than those who did not. The relatively thicker cortex was found in precisely the same regions of the brain that had otherwise shown thinning in people at high risk for depression.

Although more research is necessary, the results suggest that spirituality or religion may protect against major depression by thickening the brain cortex and counteracting the cortical thinning that would normally occur with major depression. The study, published on Dec. 25, 2013, is the first published investigation on the neuro-correlates of the protective effect of spirituality and religion against depression.

"The new study links this extremely large protective benefit of spirituality or religion to previous studies which identified large expanses of cortical thinning in specific regions of the brain in adult offspring of families at high risk for major depression," Miller said.

Previous studies by Miller and the team published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (2012) showed a 90 percent decrease in major depression in adults who said they highly valued spirituality or religiosity and whose parents suffered from the disease. While regular attendance at church was not necessary, a strong personal importance placed on spirituality or religion was most protective against major depression in people who were at high familial risk.

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Spirituality, religion may protect against major depression by thickening brain cortex

Customers wait in line in to buy an IPhone at Jordan Landing in West Jordan, Utah.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

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Technology and religion are continuing to find new ways to interact with each other.

In recent weeks, new iPhone apps have been developed to aid people in their spiritual lives. One of these apps called SoulPulse actually lets people measure their spirituality in real time, according to Religion News Service.

Currently, 714 people are using the app, which allows users to answer two surveys every 14 days, according to the apps website. Users will answer questions about their spiritual awareness and even what theyre thinking about including when they sleep, the apps website said.

After the 14 days are up, users receive a report that shows how spiritual they were and patterns about spirituality and religion, the company website said.

The app and study were created by Pastor John Ortberg and Bradley Wright, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut, RNS reported. Ortberg came up with the idea because he was interested in studying human psychology and spirituality, according to RNS.

Why do people change or not change? Why is change so hard? What do you need to know about yourself to become your best self? These seem like gaping holes in our knowledge, Ortberg told RNS.

Ortbergs app isnt the only one with spiritual connections thats been making headlines recently. The Huffington Post published an RNS article that showed six different religious-themed applications that cant be found on the iPhone, including one that sorts out Jewish celebrities.

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Siri's religious beliefs examined as religion and technology continue to mix

Pushya Abhishek - The festival of sensory spirituality demonstrates the beauty of Krishna and the gl

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Pushya Abhishek - The festival of sensory spirituality demonstrates the beauty of Krishna and the gl - Video

No, they're not just atheists.

Spirituality is a big story in politics. Maybe as big a story as religion. Its been more than a decade since evangelicals helped George W. Bush win the White House, and weve gotten used to the idea of the values voter, of religion as a political force. But while the evangelical bloc seems to have frayed a bitand liberal mainline religion continues to lose influence, another major religious category is gathering force and deserves politician and pundit attentionthe spiritual but not religious vote.

A fifth of Americans check none on surveys of religious preference. Among the young adults under 30 who helped propel Obama into office, a full third check none. Atheist pundits are quick to claim these gains for their own, but that is not the casenearly 70 percent of nones report belief in God or a universal spirit, and 37 percent describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. This may or may not be the story of the decline of religion, but it is clearly also the story of the ascent of spirituality.

Smart politicians and media observers will pay attention to this trend. There is the potential for spiritual voters to exert major influence this year and in 2016. Religiously unaffiliated voters are strongly Democratic in national elections, and a majority are socially progressive on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. But there is growth possibility for Democrats. While religious nonaffiliation has expanded rapidly in recent years, nones account for a flat 12 percent of voters in presidential contests since 2008. Over the same period, the percentage of nones identifying as Democrats fell slightly, while the percentage identifying as independents increased to halfgood news for Republicans and third-party candidates. Republicans are unlikely to wring much from spiritual voters; but Democrats stand to gain significantly, or lose out, depending on their ability to inspire them.

The question is, will politicians study the category well enough to identify and appeal to broadly shared values and longings? Spiritual voters are a diverse cohort and do not come hand-delivered as a political blocbut there are shared values and experiences that call out for political cultivation. Their support for progressive causes links up with a broader unease with religious, political, and financial institutions viewed as tainted by wrongheaded values and jaded self-interest.

But the other side of religious nonaffiliation, and what politicians often neglect, is that for spiritual voters the sacred strongly persists. Reading them narrowly as atheists or secularists misses out on the political rewards that come from constituents feeling seen and understood. This sacred is various, but it coheres for many in its resistance to religious enclosure and its support of certain progressive values. Politicians fire up religious blocs through careful attunement to religious values. Better attunement to spiritual values will help inspire spiritual voters.

Scholars may be of limited help with this effort, although were coming around. An influential tradition in sociology views religiously unaffiliated spirituality as flimsy egoism that turns away from community and nation, that is socially and politically corrosive. The late Robert Bellah, patron saint of this point of view, complained that his archetypal spiritual individualist has made the inner trip and hasnt come back out again. Sociologists who study religion, with some notable exceptions, have commonly written off spiritual but not religious folks as lukewarm participants in political and civic life.

This is questionable for many reasons, not the least of which is that the religiously unaffiliated have been an important Democratic stronghold in recent decades. And while some research does indicate that spiritual people participate less than religious people in civic and political life, the reason may have less to do with a social defect of individualized spirituality than with politicians, scholars, and journalists mishandling the opportunity to connect.

But in the last several years, sociologists and other religion scholars have begun to take spirituality more seriously, and to think more expansively about its social and civic manifestations. Some of us are finding that spiritual but not religious people usually do care, and deeply, about community and civic participation. The difficult part for them is finding communities and ways of engaging civically that jibe with their spiritual approaches. This requires a careful jujitsu. They are often uncomfortable with narrow religious affiliation (Muslim, Christian, Jew) that would welcome them into traditional religious communities, and traditional religious communities have historically been major routes into civic participation. On the other hand, new spiritual but not religious communities are difficult to establish: What will hold parishioners together aside from what they are not? And if they find common ground and the community holds, do they not eventually become their own religion?

This is not an impassable dilemma. With a third of young adults checking the no religion box, we cant afford to let it be. For politicians, it may be a major opportunity, and for more than empty posturing. If the social project for spiritual people is to identify forms of community and civic participation with which they feel at home, then politicians have the opportunity to be partners from the inside, to help to shape these community and civic forms.

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'Spiritual but Not Religious': A Rising, Misunderstood Voting Bloc

(PRWEB) January 15, 2014

Spirituality & Practice featured Mark Nepo's Reduced to Joy, Maggie Oman Shannon's Crafting Calm: Projects and Practices for Creativity and Contemplation, and Phil Cousineau's Burning the Midnight Oil: Illuminating Words for the Long Night's Journey into Day in a collection of 2013's best spiritual reads.

Their list highlights the Viva Editions titles under the categories of "Calm, Joy, and X - The Mystery:"

Burning The Midnight Oil is hailed as "an engaging, entertaining, and edifying anthology of poems, prayers, and philosophical ditties for nighthawks."

Crafting Calm "offers the spiritual thinking behind 40 crafts projects and practices designed to create calm, comfort, contemplation, creation, community, and connection with others and Spirit."

Reduced to Joy collects "73 poems on the harvested meanings and memories of a full and rich life."

With such a broad range of titles, Viva Editions truly has a book-of-the-year for every reader.

About Viva Editions

Books for Vivacious Living!

Viva Editions are books that inform, enlighten, and entertain. The very name, "Viva!", is celebratory. And while Viva Editions is a line of books that are as fun as they are informational, the intention behind Viva is very seriousthese are books that are truly helpful and intended to enhance people's lives. Viva Editions was founded at a pivotal point in time, as the stock market plummeted, the economy softened, and businesses tightened and cut back. Viva focuses on expansion, courage, and joy in life. In short, Viva is about the very best in the human spirit. As publishers, we need to be aware of the different economic environment we are publishing inand respond to what people really need. Now is the time for fresh thinking and stripped-down self-help books that caused inspiration to spring into action. Viva books open hearts and minds. Viva authors are practical visionaries: people who offer deep wisdom in a hopeful and helpful manner.

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Books for a Spiritual Journey: Three Viva Editions Titles Named Best Spirituality Reads of the Year

EXETER Water Street Bookstore and We the People present Thomas Moore, author of the new book, "A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World," in conversation with author Katrina Kenison, on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church in Exeter.

The New York Times bestselling author and trusted spiritual adviser offers a follow-up to his classic "Care of the Soul."

At a time when so many feel disillusioned with or detached from organized religion yet long for a way to move beyond an exclusively materialistic, rational lifestyle, "A Religion of One's Own" points the way to creating an amplified inner life and a world of greater purpose, meaning, and reflection.

Thomas Moore was a monk for twelve years, a musician, a university professor, and a psychotherapist. He writes regularly for Psychology Today, The Huffington Post, Spirituality & Health, and Resurgence Magazine. He lectures widely on holistic medicine, spirituality, psychotherapy, and the arts. Moore has been awarded numerous honors, including the Humanitarian Award from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and an honorary doctorate from Lesley University. Moore is the author of eighteen previous books, including "Care of the Soul," "Soul Mates," and "Dark Nights of the Soul." He lives in New Hampshire.

Katrina Kenison is the author of "Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment." With the candor and warmth that have endeared her to readers, Kenison reflects on the inevitable changes wrought by time: the death of a dear friend, children leaving home, recognition of her own physical vulnerability, and surprising shifts in her marriage. She finds solace in the notion that midlife is also a time of unprecedented opportunity for growth as old roles and responsibilities fall away, and unanticipated possibilities appear on the horizon.

This event is in partnership with We the People, a lecture/film series put together by the Congregational Church of Exeter, Christ Church, First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Water Street Bookstore. We the People seeks to explore issues at the intersection of faith and life.

This event will take place at Christ Episcopal Church, located at 43 Pine St., and is free and open to the public. Please call (603) 778-9731 or visit http://www.waterstreetbooks.com for more information.

FREMONT Nick Kakouris of Fremont Pizzeria will host the Exeter Area Chamber Business After Hours at 431 Main St. on Jan. 21 from 5-7 p.m.

Please join us for an evening of networking with Nick and his friendly staff. This will be a great opportunity to network with friends, new and old, while getting to know this great local business. Get to know their business, as well as the people attending.

Exeter Area Chamber members, their guests, and any business seeking more information about Fremont Pizzeria are welcome to attend. Everyone is urged to bring plenty of business cards. This event is free for members and there's a $10 fee for non-members.

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Discussion with author Moore at bookstore

Presentation on Oneness at the 3rd Global Conference on Spirituality, Lisbon, Portugal
"What does Oneness mean to you? A Survey in a Spiritual Organization" named presentation at the 3rd Global Conference on Spirituality, Lisbon, Portugal March...

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Presentation on Oneness at the 3rd Global Conference on Spirituality, Lisbon, Portugal - Video

Folks who have just knocked back two drinks say they're really aware of God at that moment.

And good sleep enhances a sense of God, joy, peace and love.

Who knew?

Actually, about 160 people, so far, know such details about their spiritual lives. They were the first participants in SoulPulse, a newly launched on-going study of spirituality in daily life.

It's an "experiential" research survey inspired by pastor/author John Ortberg and conducted by a team led by Bradley Wright, an associate professor of sociology at University of Connecticut and author of "Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites ... and Other Lies You've Been Told."

Twice a day for two weeks, participants receive questions asking about their experiences of spirituality, their emotions, activities and more at the moment the text messages arrive.

SERIOUS QUESTIONS

Were they feeling satisfied, loved, happy, hostile, sleepy or stressed? Were they more or less aware of God when they were commuting or computing or hanging out with family and friends?

The participants so far are too few and too similar to draw national trend data; they're chiefly highly educated evangelicals who know Wright or Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park (Calif.) Presbyterian Church and their friends. But Wright's team aims to have 10,000 people enroll at SoulPulse.org over the next three years. Their answers will be aggregated to look for overall trends.

"The idea came to me because I'm interested in psychology, spirituality and the nature of the human condition," said Ortberg, who also has a doctorate in psychology.

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New app let's users monitor their spirituality in real time

Death. Family. Loss. Love. Wealth. Poetry. Spirituality. Genocide. Prejudice. Sherman Alexies new poetry collection, What Ive Stolen, What Ive Earned, demonstrates the National Book Award-winning writers ability to tackle big themes, weaving them together in the context of his Indian identity and with his wry, unapologetic sense ofhumor.

And he wastes no time doing it. Alexie takes on all these topics in the collections first poem, the wide-ranging and powerful Crazy Horse Boulevard, always through the lens of his Indian identity (a member of the Spokane Tribe, he uses the term Indian almost exclusively

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What Ive Stolen, What Ive Earned by Sherman Alexie poetry, (Hanging LoosePress)

Death. Family. Loss. Love. Wealth. Poetry. Spirituality. Genocide. Prejudice. Sherman Alexies new poetry collection, What Ive Stolen, What Ive Earned, demonstrates the National Book Award-winning writers ability to tackle big themes, weaving them together in the context of his Indian identity and with his wry, unapologetic sense ofhumor.

And he wastes no time doing it. Alexie takes on all these topics in the collections first poem, the wide-ranging and powerful Crazy Horse Boulevard, always through the lens of his Indian identity (a member of the Spokane Tribe, he uses the term Indian almost exclusively). He addresses being Indian in a white world (Most of the people who read this poem will be white people), as well as within Indian culture, on and off the reservation (Among my immediate family, Im the only one who doesnt live on the reservation. What does that say about me?). The poem brings historical prejudices into a modern context, and Alexie calls things as he sees them, especially when it comes to the choices people make from what he sees as places of luxury (If my sons, Indian as they are, contract some preventable disease from those organic, free-range white children and die, will it be legal for me to scalp and slaughter their whiteparents?).

The focus on racial and cultural identity comes through strongest in the books first section. Happy Holidays pointedly discusses the complicated relationship modern Indians have with American holidays. Sonnet, with Slot Machines wrestles with the politics of Indian casinos and issues ofgambling.

Slot Machines is one of many so-called sonnets in the book; the poems comprise the second section and are scattered throughout the others. In labeling these poems sonnets, Alexie initiates a conversation about form, forgoing the traditional 14-line rhyme and metrical structure and instead following formulas of his own. This reinvention of form allows Alexie to stay true to his own voice, never sacrificing his natural vocabulary for the sake of someone elses definition of poetic. Yet Alexie pays homage to formal poetry and to his literary forbears by recognizing the significance of the forms constraints while giving it his ownspin.

Whatever form he uses, Alexie stays true, too, to his own style of storytelling. And What Ive Stolen, What Ive Earned is, at its core, a book of stories, told piecemeal, which hit the reader with their poignancy in the way Alexie weaves the seemingly disparate pieces together. In Sonnet, with Tainted Love he does this with a missing persons case, nightmares and the movie Dirty Dancing. Hell links Dante, Jimmy Durante, Moses and a fear ofheights.

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Poetry works show Alexie at his best - Sun, 12 Jan 2014 PST

Written by Corwin Gibson January 9th, 2014

Like many who have made Sedona their home, Christopher Loren came to Sedona in search of spiritual answers, but after 16 years, hes changing all the questions.

Loren grew up in a religious household and went on a journey over the course of his life, moving from one religion or spiritual doctrine to the next even at one point finding himself in a cult before beginning to question the role of spirituality in his life.

I started a spiritual journey 30 years ago. I was about 19, I became a Christian, and in a five-year period I did missionary work in Haiti, I had a local cable Christian show in California where I preached the gospel, I was involved with a missionary organization up in Oregon, I was part of a group in Ohio which ended up being a cult and I escaped them on foot, he said, listing off his experiences. So it was a five-year journey through the Christian universe, so to speak, and I began asking better questions.

For the full story, see the Friday, Jan. 10, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.

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Loren escapes cult & challenges spirituality

international seminar on Science, Religion and Spirituality
My Presentation on Role of technology on the same.

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international seminar on Science, Religion and Spirituality - Video

January 10, 2014|8:42 am

New York based photographer Serge J-F. Levy, visited six maximum security prisons across the country between 2002 and 2003 to photograph inmates embrace spirituality in a series of images called, "Religion in Prison."

The project was sparked by Levy's own curiosity and what he found through each interaction with those incarcerated who are Christian, Jewish, Wiccan, Muslim and Buddhist, and how religion brings out their softer side, despite their labels as criminals.

"There's this sincere desire on the part of many inmates to try to understand the state of their soul," Levy said, according to Slate.com. "They're trying to understand their predicament, and I think that spirituality in prison not so infrequently dovetails with a form of analysis or therapy. I think there's a sense of introspection and evaluation of one's life that happens within these religious environments."

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/ny-based-photographer-enters-6-maximum-security-prisons-to-capture-inmates-embracing-their-religion-112110/

Carrie Underwood Praising God With 'How Great Thou Art' Will Leave You in Tears (VIDEO)

Spreading God's Glory Online

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Documenting Faith in Prison

VANCOUVER -- One of the oldest and most elegant buildings on the University of B.C. campus will soon be switched from the study of spirituality to economics.

The stone-faced Vancouver School of Theology, built in 1927 as a seminary for Protestant clergy, has been sold to the university for $28 million, it was announced today. It will become the new home of UBC's school of economics.

VST has trained thousands of United, Anglican, Presbyterian and other clergy in the past 86 years. But principal Richard Topping says the building, with its stunning views of Bowen Island and Howe Sound, is too large and too costly for its 115 full- and part-time students.

Many Canadian Protestants will grieve the loss of the venerable building, said Topping, a Presbyterian theologian. "There's a certain amount of lament. And not for a moment would I want to conceal that."

The Christian graduate school will move this summer into a smaller, adjacent building on the north side of the UBC campus, called Somerville House. The school will retain its A-frame Chapel of Epiphany.

Proceeds from the sale of the recently renovated theological building, formally called Iona and informally referred to as "The Castle," will go to renovating Somerville House and moving into it, and to an endowment fund.

Asked about the symbolism of a Christian school of theology becoming a secular school of economics, Topping said, "There can be overlap. Economics, when it's properly done, is also a discipline devoted to human flourishing and the common good."

Vancouver School of Theology, which has a 999-year lease with the University of B.C., got into property redevelopment in a big way the past decade. To upgrade the Iona building and create operating funds, the school worked with real estate developers to build hundreds of rental units and luxury condominiums along Chancellor Boulevard in UBC's so-called Theological Neighbourhood, which includes two Catholic colleges and a Baptist institution.

But, given the 2008 economic downturn and with funding decreasing from main line Protestant denominations, Topping said revenue from the redevelopment has not been strong enough to maintain both the Iona building and school operations.

UBC plans to take possession in July of the 100,000-square-foot building at 6000 Iona Drive, which includes a chapel and library. UBC's Vancouver School of Economics will begin using the facility in September 2015.

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Vancouver theology building converts from spirituality to economics

Spirituality and the Material Realm Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa
Dr. Edward Viljoen, author of The Power of Meditation, speaks at The Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa - Socrates, Peace Pilgrim, St. Francis, it #39;s all...

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Spirituality and the Material Realm Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa - Video