by Stacey Nemour, black belt in Kung Fu, and highly respected martial artist

It is said when the student is ready the teacher will appear. In this case, spiritually-aware people in entertainment and media have been waiting for a movement that will echo the awakening now happening around the world. And it has arrived, in the form of “GATE.”

John Raatz is the founder and Eckhart Tolle and Jim Carrey are honorary co-founders. The Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment (GATE) is shepherding the emerging and rapidly expanding transformational entertainment and media genre worldwide.

I interviewed John about the upcoming “GATE 2,” which is an event that cultivates, promotes and advances collaborations between transformational content creators and purveyors, and it is open for all those interested in being part of the expansion of the transformational genre that is currently happening around the world.

According to John, “Many have thought that religion, big business or government would save us … but, with most of these institutions in serious disarray today, the one remaining infrastructure through which wisdom and possible solutions can flow is the entertainment industry and all forms of media. Many people within the industry are already transformationally oriented. One of our missions is to bring together these individuals and assist them in creating and disseminating content of a transformational nature for the benefit of all humanity, of the world.”

Raatz feels that each person in the entertainment and media industry has a role and a responsibility to facilitate personal, social and global transformation. He explained his observation that “there is a schism between the business and creative sides of the entertainment industry. One that’s usually been there. Often, the creative side wants to develop meaningful, more transformationally oriented product, while the business side is focused on commercial value. Once in a while, they coincide.

“This also reflects a general split in our culture — an imbalance that favors commercial success over deeper, more personal success on a human level. Whatever is happening on a microcosmic level is also happening in the larger reality; it is all mirrored back. And now’s the time to try to find a healthier balance, when so much of our world is threatened in so many ways. That’s what GATE is seeking to do in the entertainment and media industries.”

Raatz continues, “Many Native American tribes would sit in council when they had an important decision to make. If it was determined that the decision would negatively impact any of the next seven generations, they simply would not do it. We need to bring more of that spirit to the decisions we make in all aspects of our lives.”

Eckhart Tolle, author and spiritual teacher, GATE honorary founder, notes, “The only actions that don’t cause opposing reactions are those aimed at the good of all. Inclusive, not exclusive. They join; they don’t separate. They are not for ‘my’ country, but for all of humanity, not for ‘my’ religion but for the emergence of consciousness in all human beings.” That spirit is also often embodied in transformational entertainment and media, according to Raatz. Tolle will be speaking at GATE 2.

Jim Carrey, actor/activist and GATE honorary founder, has said, “I am so lucky to be a part of this community, and to do something that is of value.” Carrey will also be speaking at GATE 2.

John identified the audience for transformational entertainment and media as one that is rarely paid attention to: what he calls the Cultural Creatives. In early 2000, two sociologists were commissioned to record Americans’ values and lifestyle preferences. Some of the 19 characteristics these Cultural Creatives relate to are: preservation of nature, a strong awareness of planet-wide issues, spirituality as an important aspect of life, maintaining loving relationships, intense interest in spiritual and psychological development, and wanting to be involved with creating a new and better way of life.

It was determined that 50 million Americans then fell into that category, with an additional 90 million Cultural Creatives in Europe. The numbers are even larger now, as this is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. and world population. The book that resulted from this research was The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World, by Paul H. Ray., Ph.D., and Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D.

Raatz notes: “At GATE, we want to be the supporting mechanism that assists those in the entertainment and media businesses who are transformationlly oriented to speak their truth through their work. And guess what! That’s monetizeable! The audience is ready!”

Raatz is not new to aligning his spiritual light with his creative expression. He is the founder and principal of the pioneering “transformational” marketing and PR firm, The Visioneering Group, whose mission is “Linking Spirit, Vision & Progressive Values with Compassionate Communication to Promote a Positive and Sustainable Future.”

Established in 1988, Visioneering exclusively serves the Cultural Creatives (body/mind/spirit) market, and was the first such firm to do so. He played a large part in putting the game-changing transformational film “What the Bleep Do We Know?” on the map, following with “Peaceful Warrior.” He worked with Madonna on her “Ray of Light” album and set up a private screening for her of “What the Bleep.” She was so moved by it that she introduced John to her teachers at The Kabbalah Center, which became a Visioneering client. Over the years, the company has worked with a wide array of authors, musicians, filmmakers and influential spiritual teachers, whom he calls the “Leading Lights of Consciousness.”

Raatz has been teaching Transcendental Meditation since 1976 and found, 30 years ago, when he started in the film business, that many well-known celebrities, such as Merv Griffin, Mike Love, Clint Eastwood and Ned Beatty, were also practicing TM. At the time, they formed an organization to teach it to people in the entertainment business.

The upcoming GATE events will be held Feb. 4, 2012, at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif. For more information and discounted tickets, visit http://www.gatecommunity.org. Use Promo Code TRANSFORM for an additional 20 percent discount.

Review by Associate Editor, Jamie Jackson

Spiritual Growth is Not What You Think
By Doyle Barnett

Maybe everything that happens to you isn’t always for the best; maybe it is possible to make grave spiritual mistakes that could impede your evolution for a very long time….

Could it be, that to grow spiritually you have to transcend all spiritual beliefs?

For those seekers among us who are stuck, entranced or disillusioned by our quest for the spiritual grail, Doyle Barnett arrives lance in hand, to prod us toward ultimate clarity. This is a book whose time has arrived. It is a course in spiritual philosophy. In the name of tough love, Doyle challenges us to pull up our spiritual socks via a series of radical questions, the answers to which determine the reader’s progression beyond dysfunctional spiritual beliefs through to each of several stages of personal awareness.

Yet at the very moment you feel your courage might desert you, Doyle’s irreverent and self-deprecating humor repeatedly softens up the entire exercise.

Doyle writes from his profound spiritual and life experiences. In his quest for truth he invested his “heart and soul into many different religions.” A search made even more powerful following a traumatic childhood, debilitating chronic illness and a near death experience.

After thirteen years as a practicing Christian, followed by a year at a Zen monastery, Doyle joined the Brotherhood of the Sun. Isolated from the outside world, he practiced his monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He meditated twice daily for nine years, sometimes for periods of sixteen hours a day, non-stop.

For several years he worked and studied with American Indians. He slept in tee-pees, tracked and hunted animals, studied wild herbs, did vision quests and fasted for days in search of the Great Spirit.

For three years he lived with the followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a master from India.

Finally, he delved into the modern metaphysical movement: “For four years I consulted more than forty psychics, sought spirit guides and did soul retrievals. Eventually, I outgrew the relentless cycle of belief upgrading. I quit searching for hand-me-down spiritual beliefs to use as replacements for my old beliefs. For the past twenty-three years, I tried to purge myself of all borrowed spiritual beliefs in order to live life more authentically. I sought a more objective truth rather than confirmation of what I wanted or needed to believe.”

Doyle poses the now almost perennial question: “Six billion people make up the top twenty-two religions in the world. Considering the condition that the earth is in, how much is all this religion helping?”

Neither are New Agers let off the hook. He observes that most of today’s seekers don’t really know what they are doing and think that attaining new beliefs will somehow make them wiser and more spiritual. Eventually, however, they trade in these beliefs for new ones and assume they are becoming even more spiritual, whereby “the spiritual path of seekers has become the Tao of belief upgrading, or in essence, the modern metaphysical movement.”

For many, this process of belief upgrading can continue until death. For others, “the stimulation of their spiritual egos finally grows old and they realize they ‘know’ nothing for sure – it’s all just beliefs.” He exposes some of the fallacies, superstitions and hypocrisies of the modern metaphysical movement and encourages seekers to replace their spiritual fantasies with a genuine reality check.

Doyle does not eschew belief or faith and is by no means anti spiritual. Nor does he seek to replace his readers’ beliefs with a brand new set of his own. He merely points the way toward the only intelligent, sensible –and indeed spiritual – direction available and allows readers to make their own choices. His conclusion is a most satisfying, inspiring and enjoyable read.
This intelligent, authentic, heart-felt and funny book is a must have companion for any truly genuine seekers.

Doyle Barnett has lectured throughout the US and has been a frequent guest speaker on national radio and television. He has been published in national magazines and newspapers and is the author of two books on communication tips for couples. He lives with his wife in Santa Barbara, California. They swing dance, rock climb and regularly spend time in God – the Great Out Doors.
Website: DoyleB.com

Acclaim for “Spiritual Growth is Not What You Think.”

I enjoyed this book very much. I found it stimulating, provocative, challenging, and disturbing! The topic is timely and relevant – baby-boomers en masse are coming out for spirituality, needing direction and guidance.
Nancy Marriott
Co-author with Candice Pert of
“Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d.”

This book is an important reminder that all beliefs place limits and boundaries upon the ineffable spirit. This is a valuable guide to the pathless path: The genius of one’s own genuine spiritual experience. This work will help us lighten our beliefs and dance more with one another.”

Harold H. Bloomfield, MD
Author of “Making Peace with Yourself,” “How to Heal
Depression,” “Life Mates” and “ Love Secrets for a Lasting
Relationship.”

by Keith Goetzman
Source: New Humanist

Satan’s henchmen are trying to remove God from our schools, our government, and even our private lives, goes the frequent Christian conservative complaint. Well, author A.C. Grayling has gone a step further and taken God out of the Bible.

The Good Book: A Humanist Bible is Grayling’s attempt to create an inspirational book without a supernatural being at the center, writes Matthew Adams in New Humanist’s May-June issue.

“The way I made it,” Grayling tells Adams, “was to plunder from the great traditions texts on which I had performed redaction, weaving them together, editing them, interpolating other texts and sometimes my own, just as the Bible makers worked on their texts. It was tremendous fun.”

Writes Adams in “The Man Who Would Be God”:

The inclusion of a scientifically coherent creation story is probably the most markedly irreligious aspect of The Good Book, and might well end up, when the creationists get to hear about it, being the most controversial. But the work as a whole has none of the combativeness that one might expect. [Grayling says:] “This book is not against religion, it just ignores religion, and by ignoring it shows that there is as much if not more of a resource already in our hands.”

Like the Bible, The Good Book is organized by book, chapter, and verse and laid out in double columns. But the Bible never sang the praises of nonprocreative sexual love, described Newton’s discovery of gravity, or incorporated the ideas of great thinkers from Thucydides to Kant to Darwin.

Here are some verses:

• “Let us help one another, therefore; let us build the city together. Where the best future might inhabit, and the true promise of humanity be realized at last. —The Good, Chapter 9, Verses 10-11

• “Do I love you for the fine soft waves of hair That fall about your neck when you undress? Or that ivory pillar of your neck, or your breasts Soft and fair with rosy nipples crowned?” —Songs, 108

• “This is the final consolation: that we will sleep at evening, and be free for ever.” —Consolations, Chapter 26, Verse 31

Read more

We live in extraordinary times. We are waking up to both the consequences of our unconscious actions and our unlimited potential to be living interconnected parts of a unified field of love in action. This evolutionary process represents the positive equivalent of the atomic bomb and accelerates each day at the same time as we recognize our cultural imperative to transform ecocide into living by soulful design and a deep connection to the oneness of life.

“Humanity is being taken to the place where it will have to choose between suicide and adoration.”
~ Teihard de Chardin

NPD features thought leaders and evolutionary activists and philosophers who are helping accelerate the evolutionary shift that is underway. Jan Phillips is clearly an evolutionary catalyst whose integrative and empowering work in the world is touching increasing numbers of individuals on the path of conscious evolution.

In her latest empowering book, No Ordinary Time, award winning visionary author Jan Phillips “calls us to mindfulness and reminds us that “evolutionary action is rooted in silence and stillness, as visionary ideas arise from spiritual practice.”

“This is “a book for people conscious of their power and ready to co-create new sacraments and ceremonies that celebrate the Divine that dwells within us. It is a handbook for people committed to justice, peacemaking and spiritual integrity who are eager to evolve themselves spiritually and creatively.”

“It is a guide to reclaiming your spiritual authority, rethinking your inherited beliefs so you can create a life that is prophetic, ecstatic, and true to your soul. It bridges the One and the many, East and West, masculine and feminine, darkness and light through an array of stories, poems, prayers and songs.”

No Ordinary Time is written in the form of a medieval Book of Hours that helps readers remain spiritually mindful throughout the day. And, it reflects an inclusive paradigm that honors the Divine in its myriad forms.

If you live from a belief that the Divine and mortal are one or wish to, No Ordinary Time will act to support that understanding and the actions that derive from it. As Jan says, “We are not here to debate what God means but to live out the meaning of God, to BE the God we want to see in the world.”

Jan, who started her spiritual journey as a nun and left to live her larger calling in the world, offers us the gift of sharing her intimacy with the Beloved so that we might become familiar with this mystical state.

No Ordinary Time is not so much a book to be read as a sacred moment by moment practice to be engaged in. The result will depend completely on the readers readiness to dive deep into the words and allow them to penetrate to the core of their being and thus embody the ideas presented so beautifully. This is in stark contrast to most books whose ideas we read and forget the next day.

Readers might discover anything from inspiration to a new empowered path. But few will be left unaffected by the experience.

If you are committed to exploring and living your destiny in service to life, No Ordinary Time is an extraordinarily practical wisdom teaching and gift you can give yourself that can help you embody the Divine in your own unique way. You can order the book here.

A few quotes from No Ordinary Time will provide a sense of the luminous teachings in store for you. It was one of the most challenging tasks I have ever had as NPD editor to pick a few quotes from Jan’s powerful book. I ended up copying hundreds and every one was an empowering wake up call from the Divine. So here are some that reflect Jan’s diamond sky mind:

“Our religions and culture have conditioned us toward a deadly passivity that has kept us from bringing forth what is within us, from accessing and expressing that vital spirit within. We have created a life system that has not only outgrown its usefulness, but is actually keeping us from evolving into our next phase of consciousness—the recognition of our own divinity. The violence that is erupting all over this planet is arising out of our failure to create, to shape our lives and our culture with the tools of illumined imagination.”

“This is our chance to BE the ones we’ve been waiting for—to be prophetic, poetic myth makers conspiring in the evolution of a conscious culture, a compassionate culture. As my mystic friend David says, “WE is just an acronym for Who Else?”

“The threshold we’re at right now is a precious one. The whole world is in our hands, and every one of us has the power to act consciously or not. If we do, what will change is us, what we’ll save is ourselves—and what will happen in turn is a heightening of our joy and a deepening of our relationship to whatever we cherish.”

“The requirement of this hour is an awareness of our oneness. It is openness to a new story that will surface in our lives, our families, and our communities when we come together and speak from our hearts. It is a willingness to see ourselves as co-creators of the world we are immersed in, and to shape the world that we want to leave our children and grandchildren.”

“To bring about a world of unity, a planetary community, we must begin to image it, speak it, and believe it into existence. To end war, we must begin to say war is obsolete, and it is time to ban it, just as we banned slavery, child labor, witch burning.”

“To protect the planet or the poor, we must begin to say—convincingly and collectively—that corporations can profit as they wish, but not at the expense of the environment, of human rights, and of the communities in which they do business. This is not a revolution against something, it is an evolution toward something… toward a better quality of life for the whole human family.”

“The old ways are disintegrating before our eyes, as well they might, rooted as they are in the soil of separateness. Profit before people is a concept that should soon be history, for it fails to stand up to the tests of this day. Is it good for the whole? Does it harm the system??

“It is our relationships that sustain us personally—heartening us, empowering us, comforting us. It is our relationships that ground us, support us, inspire us—even in the darkest times. And collectively, as we search for solutions to our global undoing—the poverty that eats at us, the health crises that are decimating populations, the grave imbalances between those who have and those who have not—it will be in relationships that our answers will unfold and our fears subside.”

“Transformation originates in people who see a better way or a fairer world, people who reveal themselves, disclose their dreams, and unfold their hopes in the presence of others. And this very unfolding, this revelation of raw, unharnessed desire, this deep longing to be a force for good in the world is what inspires others to feel their own longings, to remember their own purpose, and to act, perhaps for the first time, in accordance with their inner spirit.”

“We will not find our answers in books or facts or science or religion or anything than has been constructed by minds from another age. The problems we face can only be solved when we stop looking behind us for answers and begin looking within and around us. Our insights will come from communion and convergence, and this must happen both within ourselves and in our relationships with others.”

“While it once seemed there was a “you” and a “me,” we now understand there is only one of us. And while it once appeared that one was giving as the other received, we know now that giving is receiving.”

“The sustainability of any entity depends on its coming into harmony with whatever surrounds it in a mutual give and take that makes it more or less indispensable to the whole in which it is embedded.”

“As we grow in this awareness, becoming more intimate with ourselves, with the earth, with each other, our capacity to see and feel and heal expands. We intuit what is needed and respond. We see what is missing and offer that. We feel where there is pain, and place our hands upon it. We listen each other into being, offering ourselves in relationship, in service and joy. And our interactions then become more meaningful, heartening, wholesome.”

“I can imagine that people looking back on our world from a hundred years in the future will be horrified that we allowed 40,000 children a day to die from hunger when there was plenty of food to go around. That we poisoned our rivers, destroyed our forests, considered war a viable option. I can imagine them with saddened faces, poring over documents of our devastating history, trying to understand the suicide of children, the stoning of women, the obesity of one nation and the starvation of another. Why we spent more on smart bombs than smart children. Why we killed people to show people that killing people is wrong. Why so many billions of dollars were spent on drugs, plastic surgeries, prisons, and weapons, when just a few of those billions could have met the basic needs of every person on the planet. We are all involved in one of the greatest mysteries on earth: why don‘t we care for each other?”

My friends Gordon Davidson and Corrine McGlaughlin have been on the front lines of social transformation for many years from their work at Findhorn, to starting their own community in Massachusetts, to working with leaders in Washington to catalyze transformational politics. In their inspiring and empowering new book, The Practical Visionary: A New World Guide to Spiritual Growth and Social Change, they offer shining examples and supportive tools that anyone can use to join the ranks of the practical visionaries around the world by playing our unique role in accelerating the new paradigm’s emergence.

“Practical visionaries Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson offer the most inspiring, comprehensive and practical guide to spiritual growth and social change yet written. This remarkable book includes everything from practical tools to help us clarify our vision and chart our own path, guided meditations that can help us deepen spiritually, examples of innovative solutions that highlight what is possible, different ways that practical visionaries transform problems into creative solutions, and much more. The book gives us a wider sense of what is possible and offers hope for the future – so important in these times. The book inspires, and even challenges, us to find our part in creating the kind of society we wish to see, offering the tools to make our own vision a reality. Bravo!” –Kim Weichel, co-author, Healing the Heart of the World

To order a copy for yourself or as a gift for a budding Practical Visionary, visit Amazon. Amazon has both the book and a Kindle version.

Excerpt from the book:

Spiritual Approaches to Financial Crisis
© 2010 by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson

In the midst of financial crisis, personal and/or collective, how can you change your consciousness and weather the storm? How can you attract or protect financial resources and be prepared for any future upheavals? Here are some spiritual approaches that are always important but especially needed in times of crisis:

Deepen your trust in a Higher Power and in your higher purpose. Putting God or Spirit first is the best insurance policy—the ultimate safety net. Prioritize what’s essential in your life. You’ll attract the resources you need to fulfill your soul’s purpose and make your contribution to a better world. Meditate to calm your subconscious fears, invoke creative solutions, and make wiser financial decisions.

Stay present in the moment. Not even the best financial experts know what will happen to the economy in the future, so the best approach is to stay aware and awake in the present so that you can be flexible and respond as needed. When fears of the future arise, focus your intention in the present and allow your intuition to guide you.

Focus on emerging opportunities. Be alert to new doors opening as old ones close. Crisis can sometimes bring wonderful surprises and much needed changes that are blessings in disguise.

Be practical, and do your financial homework before investing in or buying anything of significant value. Don’t believe everything you see or hear. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Despite all the corruption and deceptions coming to light recently, there’s still more corruption in the system that has not been exposed. So it’s important to research everything as thoroughly as you can, using alternative as well as mainstream sources.

Invest some of your resources in the New World. Find quality companies that are ahead of the curve in honoring the triple bottom line—people, planet, and profit—as they’ll do better in the long run. Keep a very diversified portfolio so that all of your eggs aren’t in one basket.

Welcome change, and embrace it. Explore where you may be stuck in old patterns—physically, emotionally, mentally—in relation to money, and release these patterns through conscious awareness and choice. Invoke your spiritual will to help release the old patterns and strengthen more positive patterns.

Practice detachment from personal comfort, and release the need to be in control at all times. Be flexible and flowing so that you can adapt to any personal or collective upheavals that might emerge. The world is undergoing rapid change right now. Let go of needing any particular outcomes for yourself personally.

Transform anger into forgiveness. Acknowledge any strong feelings catalyzed by recent crises, such as anger toward greedy or dishonest bankers, corrupt government regulators or anyone who contributed to your financial problems. Then work on releasing anger at your mistakes and the mistakes of others and embrace forgiveness.

Uncover and explore the deeper fears behind your worries. Honestly face what you most fear—poverty, bankruptcy, etc.—and understand what fear can teach you. Is there any rational basis to your fear that you need to face squarely? Keep a larger perspective so that fear doesn’t overwhelm you.

Appreciate the many wonderful things you already have. Avoid focusing on your impoverishment and what you lack, and give thanks for what you have—the many blessings in your life, such as family, friends and good health.

Simplify your lifestyle to reduce your spending. Do you really need all of that stuff? The planet could certainly use some lightening up and reduction of energy use. Go deeper and explore what quality or experience you are trying to satisfy with a material product, and discover a new way to draw this quality into your life.

Develop practical self-sufficiency. It’s empowering to know how to grow food in your backyard garden, collect rainwater from roofs and create independent sources of water and heat. In this way, you know you can survive any problems without the systems you usually depend on.

Be a producer, rather than a consumer, of energy. Like the sun, your soul is a creative generator of energy. Your ego, on the other hand, often seems like an endless, hungry, black hole needing to be filled. Invoke your soul, and get juiced up so that you can give energy to others.

Create community and networks of mutual support. Good relationships help you get through all kinds of problems and bring you new, creative solutions. Overcome isolation through connection with others, which will help you attract what you need.

Be generous to others as an act of confidence in an abundant universe. There are always others in greater need than you, and what you give from your heart will return to you a hundred fold—it’s true! When you help others, you experience a “helper’s high” that is spiritually more satisfying than any material reward.

Although you might feel fearful about facing tough economic times, in reality the economy isn’t a monolithic entity. It’s a financial climate influenced by our collective consciousness, as Eric Butterworth noted in his brilliant Spiritual Economics. So work on transforming any negative attitudes about money and appreciate money as simply a flow of energy and life force. Donate and/or invest in the New World as a vote for a positive future for yourself and for humanity.

Interested in participating in Visionary Leadership Training with Corinne McLaughlin to be held March 19 to May 15, 2011 in the San Francisco area and by Video Teleconference? Click here to learn more.

Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson are co-authors of Spiritual Politics (Foreword by the Dalai Lama), Builders of the Dawn, and The Practical Visionary, from which this article is excerpted. They are co-founders of The Center for Visionary Leadership in CA, and co-founders of Sirius, a spiritual and ecological community in MA. Corinne coordinated a national task force for President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. Gordon was the Founding Director of the Social Investment Forum and of CERES, The Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies. They both are Fellows of The World Business Academy and The Findhorn Foundation. To contact the authors: corinnemc@visionarylead.org; www.thepracticalvisionary.org; www.visionarylead.org.