Channel: ConverZations that Matter
ConverZations that Matter: Frontiers of Race, Cosmology, and Consciousness brings consciousness studies down to earth, making them real and relevant for everyday life, looking especially at questions of race, cosmology and consciousness. Host Belvie Rooks explores the full spectrum, from street realities to cosmic visions of human potential, with guests committed to harnessing frontier science and philosophy in the service of healing.
Belvie is an IONS board member and executive producer of Watts Up!, an IONS-sponsored documentary about 17-year-old Demaria Perry's journey from Watts, California to the Quest for Global Healing Conference in Bali. The critical conversations that Demaria shared with such visionaries as IONS founder Edgar Mitchell and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Bali during filming inspired the ConverZations that Matter series.
In a moment that captured the heart of the Quest for Global Healing Conference, Edgar Mitchell was walking to lunch after hearing the stories of panelists when Dedan Gills (mentor to Demaria Perry) asked him, "How are you doing?" Overcome with emotion from the stories, Edgar began to weep. He said, "When I looked back from space, the planet I saw was so beautiful. It hurts me deeply that there is so much violence and pain." Dedan put his arm around Edgar, comforting him as he wept. Dedan later shared, "Here I was, an African American from an impoverished background in this beautiful place with my arm around the sixth man who walked on the moon. That's magic. That's healing."
Watts Up! homepage: www.wattsupjourney.com
Listing of recorded teleseminars in this channel
November 26, 2008
The leadership landscape has changed. Today its call touches all of us. It is as local as sitting at your own desk or as global and collaborative as differences, distance, and technology will take us.
October 22, 2008
Founding President of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Charles Halpern discusses the creation of a new kind of activism, grounded in the practice of wisdom.
September 24, 2008 | 4 comments
When he was eighteen years old, Erich Jarvis stood at a crossroads: should he be a professional dancer or a scientist? Not only is his personal story compelling but his dedication, perseverance, and enthusiasm for his field of science is inspiring.
August 27, 2008
Author, Thomas DeWolf discusses with host Belvie Rooks, a journey he and nine relatives embarked on to explore their ancestor’s participation in the African slave trade from 1769-1820.
July 23, 2008
Visionary cultural activist, organizational planning consultant and ceremony leader, Roberto Vargas, DrPH, discusses family communication and family activism with host Belvie Rooks.
He is author of the book Family Activism: Empowering Your Community Beginning with Family and Friends, in which he draws from his personal experience to provide valuable tools for use among our close relationships, to foster love and action to serve each other, and to advance the change we desire in our society.
June 25, 2008
This seminar will offer a candid view of the challenges of operating a mission-driven, values-based business and how Berrett-Koehler Publishers is dealing with those challenges. Berrett-Koehler founder Steven Piersanti shares how this company seeks to be owned and operated by and in the interests of all of its stakeholders — employees, authors, customers, service providers, suppliers, publishing colleagues, and others...
May 28, 2008 | 1 comment
William Poy Lee is a profoundly gifted and insightful writer. In his memoir THE EIGHTH PROMISE, he weaves the journey of his Toisanese family from their small, 500 year-old village in China to America—specifically San Francisco’s Chinatown.
April 23, 2008
Juliet Ellis is truly a citizen of an emerging multi-cultural reality in which many of the old categories used to define and describe our identities in the world are no longer a comfortable fit.
March 26, 2008
A licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Steve Siler has worked in private practice in Mendocino, California for many years.
February 27, 2008
Jeanine Canty is passionate about both environmental and cultural issues, focusing on the role culture plays in developing a sustainable worldview and the process individuals go through to reach heightened awareness.
January 23, 2008
Coumba Toure reminds us that consciousness shift is a global phenomena. Coumba is a young 33-year-old visionary, social innovator and African social entrepreneur finding solutions to some of the most critical issues and challenges confronting the world and Africa.
November 21, 2007
Dedan Gills is a Los Angeles writer and poet, as well as a State Certified Addiction Specialist. He is also an Anger Management and Conflict Resolution Facilitator who works with at-risk youth, the homeless and people in various stages of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and abuse.
October 17, 2007
Dr. Michael Lerner is interviewed by Carl Anthony in this important, thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation between two important thought-leaders in the movement for a more inclusive and sustainable future.
September 26, 2007
Guest host Ruth King discusses the power and importance of silence with her guest Dafina Kuficha, who is the founder of the Center for Global Silence. This thoughtful discussion explores the many ways in which silence can be beneficial and utilized as a daily practice to get in touch with Divine guidance.
August 22, 2007
Join Converzations That Matter guest-host Ruth King and her guest Faith Adiele, who is the author of Meeting Faith: An Inward Odyssey (W.W. Norton), which received the PEN Beyond Margins Award for memoir. Faith, who was raised as a Unitarian, chronicles in her memoir the twists and turns in her spiritual journey that led her to becoming Thailand's first Black Buddhist nun.
July 11, 2007
Jim Conlon is Director of the Sophia Center, a wisdom school celebrating earth, art and spirit, at Holy Names University in Oakland, California. He has been engaged in community organization and development, depth psychology, journalism, popular education and graduate programs in theology and spirituality in Canada and the United States for many years.
May 30, 2007
In this interview with host Belvie Rooks, John Powell explores how to engage the specificity that comes with race, religion, or culture while also finding the universal common ground. He explores seeing suffering as a great teacher, and diversity is something that operates on both inner and outer levels. Throughout he calls us to a place of greater wisdom, depth, and respect.
April 18, 2007 | 1 comment
Host Belvie Rooks and guest Mary Evelyn Tucker had an engaging discussion on "Honoring the Spirit: Befriending the Earth."
Mary Evelyn Tucker is a co-founder and co-director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. With John Grim, she organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press.
February 28, 2007 | 1 comment
Ruth King MA, is a respected voice on women and rage. 
January 10, 2007
Join the host of Converzations that Matter, Belvie Rooks, as she dialogues with SIA founder Stephen Dinan about the interface between spirituality and social justice. 
November 15, 2006 | 3 comments
Join host Belvie Rooks and guest Steve Ryals as they discuss Steve's new book Drunk with Wonder. 
October 4, 2006
Join Vincent Harding in dialogue with Belvie Rooks on "Reclaiming the Vision, Living the Dream".
Dr. Harding was very involved with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a friend and colleague, and is is currently a professor Religion and Social Transformation.
September 5, 2006
Free for non-members! Download this 5-minute audioclip from Edgar's teleseminar. To download the complete teleseminar, join Shift in Action today!
July 20, 2006 | 6 comments
Join Riane Eisler in dialogue with ConverZations That Matter channel host Belvie Rooks on "Spiritual Courage: Putting Love into Action." Riane Eisler is best known for her international bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, and is president of the Center for Partnership Studies, a nonprofit organization founded to apply her findings to all spheres of life through research and education. 
June 8, 2006
Together, Walter and Belvie explore how we can relate from our spiritual essence and common humanness while also enjoying the richness of diversity and difference. Such a stance is at the heart of moving beyond polarized identities and into the creation of a truly wise global civilization.
April 26, 2006
Join Noliwe Rooks in dialogue with ConverZations That Matter channel host Belvie Rooks on "Watching Race: Movies, Media and Popular Culture: A Conversation About Gone With The Wind, Roots, and Crash." Prof. Rooks is Associate Director of African American Studies at Princeton University.
March 15, 2006
In this teleseminar, Johansson shares stories and ideas from the book about how an open mind and a willingness to explore ideas outside your field of expertise can help break down barriers that inhibit new discoveries.
February 1, 2006
Matthew and Belvie range over a broad sweep of Western history, looking at how our relation to the Black Madonna reflects our relationship with the feminine, the earth, and our sense of awe in the face of the mysteries.
December 12, 2005 | 2 comments
Deepening the Dialogue: Unveiling the White Elephant with Carl Anthony, recently appointed Acting Director of the Community and Resource Development Unit at the Ford Foundation.
Carl and host Belvie Rooks discuss, among other things, ecopsychology, the pursuit of purity, sustainable development for cities, and issues of race during and post-Katrina. They provide a big picture vision for incorporating issues of social and racial justice into the fabric of our cultural evolution.
November 8, 2005
Join author and professor Barbara Holmes and Belvie Rooks to explore the frontiers of race and consciousness in a discussion entitled "Race and the Cosmos: An Invitation to View the World Differently." Dr. Holmes is the author of a book of the same name and is the Vice President of Academic Affairs/Dean at Memphis Theological Seminary.
September 23, 2005 | 1 comment
Join spoken word artist and educator Drew Dellinger in this heartfelt and edgy dialogue on the role of cultural stories in shaping our worldview. Along with host Belvie Rooks, Dellinger explores the necessity to face the shadowy worlds of racism, sexism, and other –isms as we sculpt a new and positive cosmology founded on sustainability and justice. 
August 11, 2005
Join mathematical cosmologist Dr. Brian Swimme and host Belvie Rooks in a heartfelt discussion of evolution and its potential to produce deep shifts in consciousness, as well as in our understandings of race and identity. Their discussion ranges from the role of catastrophe in evolution to the shift beyond objective science to a more participatory viewpoint. 
July 3, 2005
Brian Swimme discusses the central challenge to the evolution of human consciousness during the 21st century: learning to live as a unified energy. Then, Dr. Michael Beckwith presents the paradigm shift that consciousness is the First Cause of all being, and discusses how we may apply the spiritual science of co-creation to accelerate our individual and collective evolution.