THE BAY AREAS MAGAZINE FOR CONSCIOUS COMMUNITY SINCE 1974

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM

NOVEMBER 2014 | FREE

BAY AREA
TRANSFORMATION
Honoring the Pioneers

GIVING THANKS
Path to Health
and Happiness

EVERY PICTURE
TELLS A STORY
Our Covers Through
the Decades

THE COMMON
GROUND INTERVIEW
Bob Weir, Gratefully

19742014

YEARS
OF GRATITUDE

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contents

FEATURES

NOVEMBER 2014

52

40 Years of Gratitude 19742014

52

The Common Ground Interview:

Bob Weir, Gratefully

60

By Rob Sidon

40 Years of Common Ground Covers

A Pictorial Retrospective

DEPARTMENTS
on our radar
18

On Beatniks and Be-Ins

20

Heroes of the Sexual Revolution

22

The 40-Year Advance for LGBT Equality

24

The Social and Ecological Crisis

26

Bay Area Buddhism

28

Peter Coyote

38

A Healing Revolution

40

The Whole Food Movement

42

Psychology and the Contemporary

Western Spiritual Tradition

42

Musings on the Hippie Era

By Wes Nisker
By Chas August

Reasons to Be Grateful (Kiss Cam Not Included)

By Tom Ammiano
Root Causes
By Randy Hayes

How the Golden Gate Rises from the Mist

By Lama Surya Das
Profile of a Bay Area Renaissance Man
By Terry Bisson

healthy living

46

IN EVERY ISSUE

From the Publisher

16

Green Scene

30

Common Ground founder Andy Alpine

People in Your Neighborhood

34

Happenings =70

Professional Services Directory 55 72

Last Words

82

1974 to 2014
By Dana Ullman

A 40-Year Review
By Ed Bauman

By Mariana Caplan

44

The Neuroscience of Gratitude

46

The Saints of India and the

Tsunami of Yoga

Why Thankfulness Makes Us Healthier

By Ocean Robbins

By Jeffrey Armstrong and Kavindra Rishi

art & soul

50

Reviews

The Grateful Life

The Physics of Angels
The Sacred Seed
The Science and Practice of Humility
Watershed: Music Inspired by the Place That Connects Us

The Bay Areas Magazine for Conscious Community since 1974

775 East Blithesdale Ave. #222, Mill Valley, CA 94941
Phone: 415-459-4900 or 415-505-1410
www.commongroundmag.com
Common Ground is published by Common Ground Publishing Inc.

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Rob Sidon
Art Director
Tom Lorphanpaibul
Senior Editor
Carrie Grossman
commongroundeditorial@gmail.com
Music Editor
Lloyd Barde
Copy Editor/Proofreader
John Vias
Distribution
Alice Tokars, Reliable Distribution
alice@reliabledistribution.com, 415-637-4280
Display and Directory Advertising
Rob Sidon 415-505-1410
commongroundmag@gmail.com
Ganshet Nandoskar 415-251-7651

This hopeful book

integrates spirituality and
activism, and sounds a
wake up call to a culture in
crisis. It explores waking
up what it is, and how it
can happen individually
and in culture.
By consciously evolving
and waking up, we engage
more in the world and help
solve the immense
challenges of our time.
Waking UP is available at
Amazon.com and some Bay
Area bookstores.

WakingUpJourney.com

Contributing Artists
Drew Altizer, Jay Blakesberg, Martin Cohen, Emily Goodman, Ron Henggeler,
Mark Kuroda, Rosie Mcgee, Susana Millman, Scott Strezzante
Suggest a story or artwork
Consult our website for guidelines. Email submissions
to commongroundsf@gmail.com.
Submit a letter to the editor
Email commongroundsf@gmail.com
with the subject line letter to the editor.
Suggest an event for the calender
Email commongroundsf@gmail.com
with the subject line calendar event.

Taylor Hawke, a Bay Area

resident, serves on the
Steering Committees of
350 Bay Area and 350
Marin.

Bill McKibben: A fascinating account of how our biggest global crisis may
relate to some of our smallest internal battles. Provocative!
Rabbi Michael Lerner: Waking UP reminds us that the consciousness that
can save this world is not solely what we do inside ourselves, but also what
we can do together to save the life-support-system of the planet.

14 NOVEMBER 2014

Contributing Writers
Tom Ammiano, Jeffrey Armstrong, Chas August, Ed Bauman, Terry Bisson,
Mariana Caplan, Paige Churchman, Sarah Cirillo, Lama Surya Das, Randy Hayes,
Wes Nisker, Anna Padaka, Kavindra Rishi, Colin Rolfe, Ocean Robbins, Dana Ullman

We like to think of Common Ground as a Bay Area beacon of positivity, and this since 1974. As
of the May 2009 issue, the publication is under independent ownership, reflecting an increased
focus on local trends in green living, social change, health and wellness, spirituality, and personal
growth. It is our ongoing intent to make a lasting, substantive, positive change around the block
and around the world. The distribution of our magazine is free and supported solely by our dear
advertisers. We thank them for making this possible, though the publication assumes no liability
for improper or negligent business practices by advertisers. Please notify us in the event you have
a compliment, complaint, or comment. Advertisers of products and services are fully and solely
responsible for providing same as advertised. All contents Common Ground Publishing Inc.

from the publisher

40 Years of
Gratitude

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t has been a roller coaster assembling this commemorative issue, akin

to October baseball. Gratefully, the Giants prevailed with Madison
Bumgarner (the ace pitcher, who wears the number 40) and so have
we. Our goal was to gather essays from experts who witnessed the transformation within the various sectors representing Common Grounds
bailiwick. We sought to honor the trailblazers whose efforts have made
the world a better place.
Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Dead is my esteemed
interviewee. Bob tells the story of the night he met band mate Jerry Garcia on New Years Eve in 1964 and never had to interview for another job
again. He candidly recounts being at the hot center of the psychedelic
movement, the transformative 70s, the lucrative 80s, and the loss of
Jerry, his wingman, in 1995. A self-described professional kid, Bob experienced every nuance of the sex and drugs and rock n roll culture, but
never lost his ardent spiritual flame. Throughout, he envisioned spending his golden years in a monastery. Read the interview to find out more.
I caught up with Andy Alpine, my mentor who founded Common
Ground. Andy discussed his gratitude for California (he came from New
York) and how the magazine put him at the hot center of the human
potential movement.
Jeffrey Armstrong offers a masterful essay on the spiritual yoga culture weve inherited from India, while Lama Surya Das outlines the relevance of Buddhism to the Bay Area. Dana Ullman and Ed Bauman have
respectively written about advances in health care and the food industry.
Charles August shares how the sex positive movement has blossomed,
while Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who worked side by side with Harvey Milk, chronicles the giant steps toward equalization of the LGBT
contingent.
Mariana Caplans essay delineates the emergence of spirituality in
contemporary psychology, while Randy Hayes, who founded Rainforest Action Network, examines the root causes of our environmental crisis. Wes Scoop Nisker, another who was also there shares anecdotes
about 60s idealism and how that set the groundwork for the Common
Ground era. Terry Bisson profiles his famous college classmate, Peter
Coyote, the quintessential Bay Area Renaissance man.
Finally, we take a walk down memory lane to expose the legacy of four
decades of sometimes stunning magazine covers. To some readers these
will be remindersto others a first.
To our staff: Carrie Grossman, my so-called partner in editorial crime,
thank you for your sensibility and for your part of a productive dialectic. Tom Lorphapaibul, my graphics pro, thank you for kicking ass. Your
layouts are sober yet breathtaking and you get it done. John Vias, my
copy editor, youve no idea how much I honor your skills. You make
everyones writing better; you are cherished. Ganshet Nandoskar, thank
you for helping keep the wheels turning. To our readersand advertisers, thank you. To anyone connected to keeping this magazine aliveI
simply cup my hands in gratitude. Ive no words but thank you, thank
you, thank you.

A College of Massage Therapy

16 NOVEMBER 2014

To the next 40!

ROB SIDON, Publisher and Editor in Chief

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on our radar
NOVEMBER 2014

On Beatnicks
and Be-Ins
Musings on the Hippie Era
BY WES NISKER

rothers and sisters, lovers and friends,

are you hip yet? Can you dig it? If not,
just put some flowers in your hair and
some flowers in your pipe, and suddenly
we are in San Francisco during one of those
dreamy summers of love. You have started the
day with a toke or two, and now youre heading
toward the park to see whats happening, and
youre groovin on the scene as a Volkswagen
van full of laughing hippies drives by with Sergeant Pepper blasting away on the radio, and
suddenly you cant decide whether to spend
the day trying to save the world or just savor
the world . . . and so you have another toke.
Im just trying to explore some of the history
behind the fact that you are now reading the
40th anniversary issue of Common Ground. Its
a matter of honoring the ancestors and giving
a nod and a bow to those who gave birth to
what is now known as the new age.
Our magical mystery tour begins just after
World War II, when the baby boom was born
and America became a superpower, taking
over the former European colonies with television and Coca Cola and dreams too rich to
ever be fulfilled. It was an America where the
cars had started to grow fins, and the terrorists were called communists, and the American dream was just starting to put everyone to
sleep.
And in the heart of the new empire, a bunch
of young rogues and visionaries began to articulate a different sensibilitya counterculturea movement that drew on the ideas of
European dada and existentialism; a movement that turned toward the East, to the Tao,
the Buddha, and the Jai Jai Ram; a movement
fueled by the drumbeats of essential Africa
and that found its American voice in the musical forms of jazz and rock n roll and in the
writings of the beatniks.
It was the gang of Jack Kerouac, mad to live
and to dig every note in the great riff of life,

18 NOVEMBER 2014

driven along the road by the crazy looping solos of Charlie Parker and the offbeat chords
of Thelonious Monk. The beatniks were romantics and mystics at heart. As Ginsberg
said, they were beatifically beat, searching
for what Kerouac called the golden eternity.
And in their travels they saw the light come
shining down from the East, and before long
they were introducing strange new words into
the hipsters jive lexiconwords like karma
and dharma and mantra and Tantra. And
it all sounded so exotic that I finally decided
to come to San Francisco to become a beatnik. But I was too late to make the scene, so I
got assigned to the hippies instead. And I am
proud to say I was a hippie! Can I get a witness?
The hippies were idealistic and optimistic
and became known as flower children. Thats
because we dragged Bohemia out of the dark
bars and coffeehouses for a few brief years of
colorful frolicking in the sun, celebrating the
Age of Aquarius, always accompanied by the
ecstatic wail of electric guitars. And we spent
a lot of our abundant free time experimenting
with consciousnessyes, by ingesting illegal
substancesbut also through meditation and
yoga and the new psychologies of gestalt and

bodywork and breath-based therapies.

I was part of that grand conspiracy of young
people whoat least for a few yearsrefused
to join the straights and their consumer
economy, known to us as the system. We rejected the old-world mentality of our parents,
with their Depression-era fears of scarcity and
war, and their uptight puritan morality. Instead, we sought a new ethos and mythology,
one that would celebrate life and sexuality and
nature. One that would embrace the world
as one.
Okay, so maybe we were a little nave. Or
maybe we just had it too good. As the psychologist Paul Goodman wrote in his famous book
Growing Up Absurd, It was destined that the
children of affluence, who grew up without
toilet training, and freely masturbating, would
turn out to be daring, disobedient, and simpleminded.
So maybe thats why we started chanting,
We want the world, and we want it now! We
were poorly potty trained and prone to tantrums!
But we were just trying to create a better
world, and especially trying to stop our government from conducting a criminal, horrific
war. But at heart, the hippies werent very po-

litical. We had no analysis or five-year plan.

Instead, our revolution was expressed in gatherings known as be-ins, communal celebrations of just being. Heres the San Francisco
Oracleonce a Haight-Ashbury journalannouncing that the first human be-in would
take place in Golden Gate Park: The spiritual
revolution will be manifest and proven. We
will shower the nation with waves of ecstasy
and purification. Fear will be washed away. Ignorance exposed to sunlight. Profits and Empire will lie drying on deserted beaches.
Yes, it was a spiritual revolution! And if the
hippies have a legacy, its in this journal you
are reading and in the yoga and meditation
centers now in every town in America. And its
also in the modern environmental movement
that got its start in the late 60s with back-tothe-land visions of eco-topia, plus a Whole
Earth Catalog of appropriate technologies,
now becoming a testament to our vision and
prophecies and also necessary for our survival.
The hippies were right, and still right on! Its
time to scale down and simplify. It is time to
re-create community, and celebrate existence
and make a whole new world full of peace,
love, and good vibes.
So, in honor of the hippie legacy, I propose
that somewheremaybe on the mall in Washington, DCthere should be a statue erected
to the unknown hippie. People could visit
and leave old buttons, beads, flowers.
And maybe in honor of all the offbeat ancestors who seeded the so-called new age, we
could hold an annual day of remembrance and
tribute, a day when we turn off all our isolating computers and just go out into the streets
and start talking to people about life, or about
how to end all the disgusting wars or deal with
climate change. Or else we could go to the
park and just sit down and feel the earth, and
maybe even give her a big hug like the hippies
used to, and then vow to do everything we can
to see that this little biosphere project continuesthis awesome experiment in life and
consciousness. And then, brothers and sisters,
even if its just for a few hours, lets banish our
sorrow over what is happening to the world,
let go of the fear and the greed, and then have
ourselves a good old-fashioned be-in. Lets celebrate life and the mystery of it all!
And remember, as always, if you dont like
the news, go out and make some of your
own.
Wes Scoop Nisker is a Buddhist meditation
teacher, author, radio commentator, and performer. Wess famous tagline is: If you dont
like the news, go out and make some of your
own. WesNisker.com
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 19

on our radar sex

Heroes of
The Sexual
Revolution
BY CHAS AUGUST

n honor of Common Grounds 40th anniversary, here is a brief list of some of the
Bay Areas heroes of the past 40 years. I am
a relationship and intimacy coach, as well as
a sex, love, and intimacy workshop leader, so
my heroes are the brave men and women who
risked everything to bring sex out of the closet,
out of the gutter, out of the darkness, and into
the light.
I think of these men and women as the heroes of the revolution. Im talking about the socalled sexual revolution that the media talked
about in the 1960s. You see, we won the sexual revolutionsex norms actually changed,
and there was a dramatic shift in values related
to sex and sexuality. Sex became more socially
acceptable, both inside and outside the strict
boundaries of heterosexual marriage.
We won the war, but we lost the aftermath.
By the mid-1970s we all knew we were supposed to have somehow shaken off the narrow
attitudes and roles of the 1950s, but most of
us had no tools or training for this brave new
sexually awakened world. Thank goodness it
all began to change, right around the time this
magazine was first published. Teachers, coaches, workshops, and trainings started showing
up to help lead all of us out of the chaos and
into fulfilling, shame-free sexuality and relationships.
The Bay Area has been particularly blessed
with a rich and varied collection of teachers
and coaches working in and around human
sexuality. A few that come readily to mind
are Lori Grace and her Celebrations of Love
relationship skills training center; clinical sexologist and psychosexual expert Claudia Six;
Reichian therapist Michele Newmark and her
Center for Healing and Expression; Nicole
Daedone and her Orgasmic Meditation teaching at One Taste/SF; all the resident and visiting teachers, workshop leaders, and therapists
at Harbin Hot Springs clothing-optional spa,
retreat, and workshop center; Steve and Lokita
Carter and their EcstaticLiving Institute and

20 NOVEMBER 2014

Tantra trainings and classes; alternative healer

and channel Evalina Rose; Celeste and Danielle, creators of the Somatica Method of Sex
Therapy and Relationship Coaching; Dossie
Easton and her groundbreaking book The Ethical Slut; sex-positive feminist Susie Bright; and
sex columnist Isadora Alman (Ask Isadora).
Let me introduce you to a cross-section of
my personal Bay Area heroesteachers and
leaders who made a real and lasting difference
for everyone reading this.

Maggi Rubenstein
Maggi Rubenstein has been called San Franciscos godmother of sex ed. In 1972 she
began working at the National Sex Forum at
Glide Memorial Church, offering workshops
and courses about everyday human sexualitymasturbation, pornography, mens sexuality, womens sexuality, sex and disability, and
much more. In 1976 these trainings became
the basis for an accredited program that became the Institute for the Advanced Study of
Human Sexuality. In 1973 she also cofounded
the Bisexual Center and the San Francisco Sex
Information Hotline (SFSI). Graduates of the
SFSI training program include Isadora Alman,
Susie Bright, Patrick Califia, Carol Queen,
Midori, and Violet Blue. The organization an-

swers about 3,000 phone calls and about twice

as many emails every year.

Starhawk
Starhawk is a writer of both fiction and nonfictionThe Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred
Thingthat explores and celebrates what she
calls feminist neo-paganism, ecofeminism,
and the use and abuse of power. She believes
our patriarchal society has confused eroticism
with violence and domination, and she passionately advocates sexuality as sacred because through it we make a connection with
another selfbut it is misused and perverted
when it becomes an arena of power over, a
means of treating anotheror oneselfas an
object.

Marty Klein
Dr. Marty Klein is a licensed marriage and
family therapist and certified sex therapist as
well as an author, speaker, and advocate for
understanding and accepting sexuality. His
self-stated goal is to tell the truth about sexuality, helping people feel sexually adequate and
powerful, and supporting the healthy sexual
expression and exploration of women and
men. In his own words, Ive continually called
attention to the social and political conditions

that keep so many of us feeling guilty, confused, scared, and hopeless about our sexual
feelings, experiences, and relationships.

Joanie Blank
Joanie Blank is a writer, publisher, sex therapist, and family-planning counselor. In 1975
she wrote and published her first book, The
Playbook for Women About Sex. Leading support groups for women who wanted help to
be orgasmic, or more orgasmic, Joanie often
suggested trying sex toys, including vibrators.
Sadly, the only places such things could be
purchased were through mail order or at local adult bookstores. The mail order info was
mostly found only in mens sex magazines, and
the local stores did not feel safe or inviting to
most women.
In 1977 Joanie opened Good Vibrations,
the first women-oriented sex toy shop in the
Bay Area (and only the second such shop in
the country). Good Vibrations offered sex information and education, featured erotica and
books about sexual health and pleasure, and
pioneered the concept of, in Joanies words, a
sex-positive, clean, well-lighted place to buy
sex toys.

Del Martin
The late Del Martin was the first openly gay
woman to be appointed to the SF Commission on the Status of Women (SFCOSW) by
then mayorGeorge Mosconein 1977. Martin
joined forces with other minority SFCOSW
commissioners, such as Kathleen Hardiman
Arnold and Ella Hill Hutch, to focus on the
nexus of gay womens rights and racial and
ethnic discrimination. Martin was ahead of
her time in understanding the cultural aspects
of gay health.

Sandy Mama Reinhardt

Mama is a leader in the leather,
BDSM, and LGBT communities and is very
active in the fundraising arena for her annual
Breast Cancer Dinners; LeatherWalk (for the
AIDS Emergency Fund and the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund), which kicks off Leather
Pride Week leading up to the Folsom Street
Fair; and Toy Drive for Camp Sunburst, a
program for children and families living with
HIV/AIDS. She has devoted her life to helping others by networking and organizing community activists for short-term and ongoing
campaigns.

Joseph Kramer
Joseph Kramer, PhD, is one of the foremost
teachers of erotic massage in the world. In

1984 he founded the Body Electric School

in Oakland, where he trained thousands of
professional massage therapists, erotic body
workers, and educators. The Body Electric is
the worlds largest community network offering safe sex education todayand for the
last 25 years. Body Electric is committed to
expanding peoples understanding of the role
that sexuality can play in their personal and
spiritual lives.
Joseph has also created and distributed
one of the finest collections of videos about
our bodies and our sexuality. Videos like Fire
on the Mountain and Fire in the Valley offer
shame-free, easy-to-understand instructions
for genital massage and play that have delighted, educated, and transformed thousands of
adults sex lives (including my own).

Stan Dale
No list of my heroes could be complete without including my friend and mentor, the late
Dr. Stan Dale. In 1972, after being pushed out
of his psychotherapeutic call-in radio show in
Chicago after 19 years for being too supportive of the anti-war movement, Stan moved to
Santa Rosa and restarted his show. And he began looking for a home for the Stan Dale Sex
Workshops, which later became the Human
Awareness Institute.
Stan was the only person Ive known well
who truly loved everyone. He believed and
taught that everything we humans do could
be seen as acts of love or cries for love. Stan
liked to say that every second we get a second
chance to move toward love and loving connections. His workshops were, and are (theyre
still going strong seven years after his passing), powerful, heart-opening experiences that
are juicy and fun, risky and completely safe,
shameless and innocent.
So, lets raise a glass and offer a toast to our Bay
Area sex heroes. These past 40 years theyve
helped make all of us more tolerant, more
loving, more sexually liberated, more educated, more alive, and spicier than we might
otherwise have been. And a toast to Common
Ground and 40 years of promoting workshops
and events that transform us all.
Chas August is a workshop leader, hypnotherapist, and marketing director for Human
Awareness Institute Global (HAI.org). He is
also a Life, Relationship & Intimacy Coach,
and his offerings include the Healing Anger
Workshop, Techniques for Listening, Conflict
Transformation, and Couples Communication.
ChasAugust.com

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Come and meet the faculty and

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Oakland CA
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 21

on our radar equality

PHOTO: RON HENGGELER

The 40-Year
Advance
for LGBT
Equality
Reasons to Be Grateful
(Kiss Cam Not Included)
BY TOM AMMIANO

f I think about 40 years of gratitude, it has

to be gratitude for the changes weve won.
But we still have more to do. Today we have
a president who refers to gay men and lesbians
as our brothers and sisters. Thats not what
we had for most of the past four decades.
Those were decades of silence in the face of
a disease killing our people and decades in
which we were told that dont ask, dont tell
was a policy we should like. We are grateful for
how far weve come from that.
The focus of my gratitude, however, is on
the activistsgay and lesbian and transgender
and bisexual activists and our allieswho have
worked for this change. It hasnt been handed
to us. Ours is not a passive gratitude. We came
out and went out to get what we deserved. Im
thankful for that.
Look at all the positives weve seen: official
acknowledgement of the rights of transgender
people, positive images and support in popular culture from Modern Family to the Harvey
Milk postage stamp, the emerging voice of
LGBT athletes, and yes, the growth of marriage equality. If Rip van Winkle fell asleep in
the Castro in the 1970s and woke up today, his
head would be spinning.
Giddy gratitude, however, is balanced by sober sadness. I dont want to be Debbie Downer,
but you have to recognize that in the depths of
the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, we lost beloved
friends every week. Even as we fought for attention to the epidemic and fought against
homophobic bias, some of us could not even
count on living until 2014. The odds were
against us, it seemed, and yet here I am.

22 NOVEMBER 2014

I am here, and Ive been here since Harvey Milk was a leader. Thats why I often find
myself reminding people of Harveys advice
that gratitude for progress has to be accompanied by vigilance. We must stand sentinel,
or what we have built can be eroded away in
a flash. History has shown this over and over.
Closely connected to that is Harveys message
that the LGBT struggle has to be allied with
other struggles. We have to connect the dots
to other communities. We have worked with
labor, with the disabled community, with those
concerned about housing, with those seeking
funding for mental health services.
In part, its because those struggles are our
struggles. Its also about having friends when
you need them. Without the support of a
union, the struggle I faced as a teacher coming out 40 years ago would have been harder.
Housing? Homelessness rates are highest
in the LGBT community, especially among
youth. Every issue is our issue. LGBT is truly
everywhere.
That doesnt mean I think assimilation is the
answer. I have a more gay liberation perspective. We are different; we arent cookie-cutter
people. Our community contributes in its own
unique ways, and we dont want to apologize.
Not apologizing is something we learned
from having to battle AIDS. Im grateful that
we learned it, but I wish we didnt have to. We
had to push for the recognition that this disease was affecting people and needed to be addressed, and it took political will to make that
happen.
We can be grateful that weve reached a time
when the medical community doesnt just consider it a gay disease. So many things about
the LGBT community used to be reduced to
how we had sex. When you said gay, people thought everything was about sex. Now,

theres way more recognition that there is a

gay culture. We are not just in a few neighborhoodsCastro, Polk, Valenciabut all over
the city. You can do that when youre not worried about being beaten up, when youre not
worried about being evicted because youre
gay. These are big things that we should be
very grateful for.
There are still a few frontiers for the LGBT
community, and we can at least be happy that
they are discussed. One area is the realm of gay
and lesbian athletes. That they can come out
at all is a step, but many are still closeted or
punished (losing endorsements, for example)
for speaking out about who they are. And you
would think were still back in high school with
the limits on public displays of affection. Its
rare to see a same-sex couple holding hands,
let alone kissing in public, outside the safe
neighborhoods.
And as a baseball fan, Im disappointed that the Giants Kiss Cam doesnt
seem to find any gay or lesbian fans. In
San Francisco! If one of the baseball players wants to volunteer for same-sex
Kiss Cam, Im willing. The team had a slogan around the early 1990s, Weve got a Giant attitude. If they can bring about Kiss Cam
equality, then wed have a Giant gratitude.
Tom Ammiano has served San Francisco for
four decades as a teacher, civil rights leader,
educator, supervisor, and assembly member. In
1975, he became the first public school teacher
in San Francisco to make his sexual orientation
public. He was elected to the School Board in
1990, to the Board of Supervisors in 1994, and
to the California Assembly in 2008. His bills
have protected domestic workers, transgender
students, domestic partners, victims of bullying, LGBT foster youth, and tenants.

AMMA

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SF Bay Area | 2014

November 19*
Morning program begins at 10:00am.
(until approx 3pm)
Evening program begins at 7:30pm
(until very late at night)

Devi Bhava Free Program

November 22*
Program begins at 7:00pm

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November 20-22*
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visit www.Amma.org
or call (510) 537-9417
Om Lokah Samastah Sukino Bhavantu May all beings everywhere be happy Om Lokah Samastah Sukino Bhavantu May all beings everywhere be happy

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 23

on our radar issues

The Social
and
Ecological
Crisis
Root Causes
BY RANDY HAYES

ince its inception, Common Ground has

shined a light on the social and ecological issues facing our planet. Over the last
40 years, these concerns have become ever
more pressing, and we can no longer turn a
blind eye to the challenges. We must heal the
root causes of our planetary crisis.
As founder of the Rainforest Action Network, my influences have come from rubbing
shoulders mostly in the southwest deserts near
the Grand Canyon and in Northern California.
This was with many Hopi elders and other fine
people such as the nature poet Gary Snyder,
David Brower, Hazel Henderson, Fritjof Capra, and Donella Meadows. The learning curve
continued more recently with people such as
Public Media Centers Herb Gunther and Jerry
Mander. Here is a little bit of what Ive learned.
While others in this special issue of the magazine will discuss specific gains, you might look

24 NOVEMBER 2014

at those articles in light of this analysis of the

root causes. I believe the house is on fire.
This and the next few decades will be tumultuous. A deeper analysis of the core problems is a key step to get from false solutions
to the real deal. There are various valid ways
to conceptualize the root causes of our social
and ecological crisis. I adapted this list from a
Foundation for Deep Ecology document, adding four or so points. The list evolves as I learn.
How do you see it? My suggestion is to take
what you agree with and add items to your
own list.
Patriarchy/Anthropocentrism The assumption of human superiority over other
life forms, as if we were dominant over natures laws, ecological principles, or the web
of life. Natural carrying capacity is not harmonized with equitable and dignified lifestyles, sensible technologies, the size of our
population, and the needs of other creatures.
Patriarchy is a manifestation of this sense of
superiority.
Irresponsible Economic Growth The
prevailing ethic of Western society that unlimited economic growththe market economy
with billions committed to commodity accumulation, consumption, and wasteis desirable and possible on a finite planet. This
cheater economy externalizes pollution
costs and ignores carrying-capacity issues. The
true-cost economy is the alternative.
Technology Worship The prevailing paradigm that technological evolution (especially
industrial technology) is invariably good and
that problems caused by technology can be
solved by more technology.
Technological Lock-In Given our reliance
on fossil fuels, individuals have little choice to
opt out. People have the feeling that they are
unable to change their lifestyle (e.g., they have
to drive to work, as there is no public transportation). To solve our environmental problems,
we are asking people to change almost all their
behaviorshousing, transportation, eating,
shopping, vacationing, and morewhen as we
know from dieting and smoking that singlebehavior changes are extremely hard.
Modern Chemistry The invention of substances for which the planet does not have organic counterparts capable of biologically degrading or productively integrating in natural
cycles.
Mass Media The domination and advance-

ment of viewpoints that serve the interests of

the industrial world and suppress alternative
views, keeping them from the public consciousness. What was once called the free
press is now called the mass media.
Concentration of Power The loss of
public governance due to the concentration of
power within a small number of corporate executives and business owners is detrimental to
nature and to societys future.
Lack of Holistic Thinking Insufficient
education in whole-systems thinking in countries planet-wide. This leads to ecological illiteracy, lack of appreciation for wild nature,
and lack of ecological design. Indigenous communities, more exposed to natures ways, have
much to offer to better understand a holistic
worldview or perspective.
Lack of a Geologic or Long-Term
Perspective Actions based on the desire
for short-term gratification (such as quarterly profits) can degrade the conditions for
life and reduce the options for subsequent
generations. The industrial economy seems
unable to deal with complex, long-term problems. We are capable of both good and evil,
yet when the chips are down, industrial society tends to be more motivated by fear and
greed than by altruism.
Insufficient Leadership and Institutional Mandate Locally, nationally, and
globally, there has been a failure of leadership.
Despite the best efforts of many, there is no
institution powerful enough to challenge business as usual and make the sweeping changes
essential for survival. Current messages and
techniques have failed to raise planetary concerns to the top of the list. Issues such as the
economy/jobs, terrorism/defense, health, education, crime, and religion dominate the political agenda in almost every country.
Remember that there is no economic development on a dead planet. There is no social
equity to be found there, either. Perhaps the
rising number of extreme weather events and
economic downturns will create the context
for change at a scale commensurate with the
problems we face. Use those windows of opportunity to your advantage and jam through
the deeper solutions. Your work can lead us to
a better world.
Randy Hayes founded Rainforest Action Network (RAN.org). He is executive director of
Foundation Earth. EarthFDNEarth.org

on our radar religion

Bay Area
Buddhism
How the Golden Gate
Rises from the Mist
BY LAMA SURYA DAS

n the early seventies, my own late Lama Kalu

Rinpoche, the Dalai Lamas yoga teacher,
looked out over the twinkling Bay Area lights
and said, It looks like thousands of butter
lamp offerings laid out on an altar. This was
how he saw the great bay, via BuddhaVision.
As Bay Area Buddhism goes, so goes Buddhism in the West. San Francisco
and its surrounding environs
have long been a hotbed and vital breeding ground for dharma
practice and study, along with
sangha community. Early American Buddhas and bodhisattvas
doubtless abounded at Saint
Franciss beautiful bay. John Muir
was certainly one among them,
in contemplative reverie deep in
his beloved redwood groves on
Mount Tamalpais.
Buddhism in California specifically begins with mid-eighteenth-century Chinese immigration to the Gold Mountain
(America), hoping for lessimpoverished and freer lives.
Americans would come to Buddhism later, after World War
I, then in earnest in the fifties
and countercultural sixties, and
since.
Just visit the Japanese tea garden or de Young Museum in
Golden Gate Park, and you will
get the picture, if not enlightened. I often meet people there.
San Franciscos Chinatown has
long been the most fascinating in
the entire Western world. More
fascinating yet is this infinite
spiritual journey, from Berkeley
to Buddhahood and back, and
becoming American Buddhas.

26 NOVEMBER 2014

For we are all Buddhas by nature; we only have

to recognize and awaken to who and what we
truly are.
City Lights, poet Lawrence Ferlinghettis
hip paperback bookstore on North Hill in San
Francisco, was a beacon for artists, intellectuals, Buddhists, and bodhisattvas, including
Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Diane Di Prima,
and Allen Ginsberg. Then came the exemplary
pioneers among the first wave of Asian master
teachers to come ashore, such as Suzuki Roshi, Tarthang Tulku, Kobun Chino Sensai, and
the female Burmese teacher Rina Sircar. Mike
Murphys groundbreaking Esalen Institute in
Big Sur welcomed innumerable erudite spiritual luminaries. Even Lama Govinda left India
to rest in the shade near Green Gulch Farm
Zen Center in Muir Beach, and eventually
passed away nearby. In 1969 the San Francisco
Zen Center acquired a building on Page Street,
where Governor Jerry Brown often showed up.
Frank Ostaseki would later start its pioneering

Zen Hospice Project, now the countrys largest Buddhist hospice center. The next wave
brought in American teachers trained in both
Asia and the West by Eastern masters: Richard Baker-Roshi and Bill Kwong Sensei, and
then Reb Anderson, Mel Weisman, Baba Ram
Dass (spiritual pioneer), and others. Three of
the foremost longtime Buddhist publishers,
Shambhala Publications, Parallax Press, and
the Nyingma Dharma Press, began in Berkeley, as did the Wind Bell, Inquiring Mind (Vipassana community) journal, and The Turning
Wheel (of Engaged Buddhism).
In the late seventies, Jack Kornfield pioneered west from the seminal Insight Meditation Society hed founded with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg in Massachusetts,
and other friends who trained under the great
gurus in Asia, to build what would become
Spirit Rock Meditation Center on sacred Native American land in Woodacreperhaps the
most prominent center in the Bay Area today.
Besides their intensive insight
meditation (Vipassana) and loving-kindness (metta) retreats and
programs, Jack and his associates
established the first authentic
multiyear Buddhist teacher training in the Western world, still unequalled today, and are helping
further the mindfulness movement.
The most recent wave of Bay
Area dharma teachers includes
Americans trained mostly by
Americans: Mel Weitzman, Paul
Haller, Blanche Hartman, and
James Baraz. Noteworthy among
todays youthful local Buddhas are Adyashanti and Anam
Thubten Rinpoche, Ari Goldfield, Rose Taylor, Norman Fisher-Sensei, Shaila Catherine, and
Will Kabat-Zinn, each and all of
whom I happily recommend to
anyone interested.What would
a Bay Areayana be without
Silicon Valley, including heavyweights Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison,
Mitch Kapor, and Dustin Moscowitzall heavily influenced
by Buddhist thought, practice,
and ethicsand many others?
Chade-Meng Tans 60-day SIY
(search inside yourself ) course
at Google is worth mentioning,
as well as the burgeoning world
of online courses, teacher train-

ings, virtual retreats, mindfulness apps, and other upcoming, ever more
envelope-pushing, immersive, virtual reality techniques for entraining
positive mental states, including concentration and creative visualization, compassion and altruism, mindfulness and equanimity. Mengs SIY
specifically aims to help secular practitioners develop attention training,
self-knowledge, and self-mastery, intent upon contributing to cocreating
a more peaceful and sustainable world.
Weve been almost painfully devoted to preserving our precious treasury of ancient traditions and timeless lineages, yet adaptation-innovation also remains an important touchstone in the New World. Buddhadharma is currently experiencing a resurgence in todays mindfulness
movement. Moreover, Buddhism has had a terrific impact on several
significant aspects of American life, from healing and neuroscience to
psychotherapy, poetry, architecture and the arts, nonviolent social activism, higher education, vegetarianism and whole foods, animal rights, interconnectedness, and the environment. Three thousand research papers
on the power of compassion and mindfulness training alone have been
published in the last two decades, fomenting an entirely new discussion
about the global impact of inculcating these values and practices in modern people and societies. Today, there are over 5,000 Buddhist centers in
North America, and fully half of all Western Buddhist teachers are women, unlike in the Old World.
But whos thinking about Buddhism for the future? Where will tomorrows enlightened leaders arise from, and who are the Future BuddhaFarmers of America? Contemporary Buddhist systems thinkers like Joanna Macy and analysts like David Loy and Ken Green write well about
the interdependence of worldly and spiritual dharmas, but almost no
one is discussing Dharma Large and the future of timeless wisdom development on this endangered globe. Those of us concerned with passing on our accumulated wisdom and transformative lineage traditions to
future generations are keenly aware of the challenges and opportunities
involved. If Lord Buddha himself walked among us, who would recognize
him? Would he be arrested, in his faded, patched robes?
Jewish-Buddhist grandmother Sylvia Boorstein, a psychotherapist by
trade, writes that Buddhism is an inside job. We are the bridge between
heaven and earth; lets join hands, heads, and hearts, and act to make
our survival on this endangered planet sustainable by turning the base
metal of human nature into Buddha nature. Equanimous acceptance is
its own transformative, alchemical magic. One moment of total awareness is one moment of freedom and enlightenment. For the sake of our
children and all generations, lets co-meditate and Occupy Spirituality,
awaken together, further the We-volution, keep lobbying for enlightenment through our compassion in action, and make this dreamlike reality
a good dream rather than a nightmarefor the peace, happiness, and
ultimate benefit of one and all.
For me, the Middle Way is Buddhas greatest teaching. Time is coemergent and almost simultaneous, so what does the future hold? It begins right now. If you want to know what your future life will be, look
at your Being and Doing nowthe great Middle Way between past and
future. Its now or never, as always. Carpe diem.
Lama Surya Das, whom the Dalai Lama affectionately calls the
American Lama, is an authorized lama in the Tibetan Buddhist order and founder of the Dzogchen Center (Dzogchen.org).
He is the author of the bestseller Awakening the Buddha Within
and 12 other books, including his latest release, Buddha Standard
Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now. Surya.org
AskTheLama.com

800.457.6213

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COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 27

on our radar profile

as ambitions; you learn to shut up

and listen. Meditation is work. Stillness is learning.
There was always work to do.
Motorcycles to fix, protest songs
needing new verses, lame trucks
cared for like lame friends, a wrench
to polish like a chalice. A Buddhist
robe to sew, but still with a secular
Jew inside, always forgiving but never accepting the half-truths and easy
lies of the American dream.
Free Leonard Peltier. Stop the Keystone pipeline. Save the family farm.
Imagine, if you will, a Zen lay
priest with a love for long guns, for

Peter Coyote
Profile of a Bay Area
Renaissance Man
BY TERRY BISSON

28 NOVEMBER 2014

Peter Coyote

Caravans of hippies crisscrossed the country, from Olema in Marin, to Black Bear in the
Sasquatch country, to Libre in the Colorado
Sangres. They called themselves the Free Family.
But California always called him back. The
Bay Area for him was where world met Spirit,
like the cliffs shaped by the sea. As everlasting
as clouds.
The Haight was a garden at first, then a zoo.
Drugs lofted you into the arms of the angels,
then dropped you into the maw of Hell. Falling can feel a lot like flying, at first. The trick
is to land on your feet. Then raise your arms to
catch your friends and lovers.
Jerry Brown was just weird enough to appoint him to the California Arts Council.
There, he gathered bouquets of wildflower artists who had never been picked before, but the
experience changed him as well. He learned to
turn adversaries into colleagues and then into
friends. They elected him chairman but never
bought him a car.
Peter learned to keep the old VW running.
When a few lucky breaks led to Hollywood,
he grabbed the brass ring but held it at arms
length. He worked with the stars, but always
went home to Mill Valley and the stern instruction of the redwoods.
He rewrote the ending of E.T.
Zen was a door into a quieter room, more
spacious still. Compassion changes everything:
diets as well as hearts, understandings as well

PHOTO: MARTIN COHEN

e came from the East and never looked

back. Well, maybe once or twice. But
California rang him like a bell.
Growing up in Jersey, in the arms of a big
Jewish family, he learned the art of disputation from old commie uncles. On Marthas
Vineyard, folk songs from Tom Rush. In New
York, the fierce discipline of modern jazz from
Buddy Jones, Charlie Parkers roommate.
At Grinnell, a small college in the Midwest,
it was history, literature, theatre, the humanities. He liked the heft and hope of that last
word.
He wanted to be a writer.
He came to San Francisco to study poetry
with Robert Duncan and was soon seduced
into the Mime Troupe, which took on the task
of waking up America.
There was a war on. There was work to do.
Peter had several giftsmovie star looks, a
Henry Fonda voice, and a ready laugh. Plus the
ability to laugh at himself.
Fame was fun, even by the spoonful. (Those
who say it isnt, lie.)
Bill Graham was a familiar soul. So was Janis
Joplin. The Sixties were a soul-opening time.
Some burst into blossom, some into flame.
Some just burst.
Emmett Grogan was a familiar soul. The
Diggers took theater straight to the people.
Liberation was the play. The audience members were now the actors. The streets were the
stage.
Between the acts the Diggers fed the flower
children. Break a leg.
Enlightenment came in bits and pieces, like
sunlight through tall trees. Drugs, music, lovers, teachers. Teachers, always teachers. Savants and shamans from more-ancient tribes
(the Modoc, the Ohlone, the Beats) shared a
potlatch of the spirit.
The times, they were a-changing.
He changed his name from Cohon to Coyote, in honor of the trickster god he met the
first time he ate peyote. Trust your luck. Save
the planet.

soft chants and loud engines, for bluegrass

and bebop, for chamomile tea and Cuban cigars, who numbers Hells Angels in hospital
and Weathermen in prison among his dearly
beloveds.
We met at that same small college 50 years
ago. I went east, Peter went west, but we were
both riding on the same wild, sweet wind, so
we never lost touch. Change was in the air.
There was work to do.
Still is.
So Coyotes busy writing books, wrenching
on his old Dodge, sitting zazen, making films
and narrating documentaries, and speaking
out on things that matter like wildlife, old
growth, political prisoners, healthy food, human rights (not just equal but abundant) for
all. Hes still learning new guitar licks, tightening up his poems, fitting world and Spirit
together as best he can. Reminding people of
the beautiful creature thats within them, and
listening to others. Always listening.
Peter does good work.
Terry Bisson is the author of Any Day Now and
an editor with PM Press in Oakland. Peter Coyotes newest book, The Rainmans Third Cure,
will be published by Counterpoint next year.

green scene

Giants win
the Series!

MARK KURODA

Ralph Metzner, Rob

Sidon, Stanislov
Grof at CIIS Grof
commemoration, SF

MARK KURODA

Tim and Tara

Dale (Yoga Tree)
celebrate 15 years,
in GG Park

Tim Dale, Janet

Stone, Yvonne
Schellerup, Tara
Dale, GG Park

Marissa LaMagna and

Dana Frasz, Earth Island
Institute fundraiser

William Keepin,
Satyana Institute,
honoring Stan Grof

SCOTT STREZZANTE, SF CHRONICLE

DREW ALTIZER

Sarah Drew,
Fort Mason

Rachel Maddow
and Willie Brown
at his Breakfast
Club in SF
Nick Day, Steve Raspa,
Lee Menichella at Burning
Man Decompression, SF

Lindsey Allen
(Rainforest
Action
Network) and
Atossa Soltani
(Amazon
Watch) at RAN
fundraiser

Nick Morgan, David

Shearer, Ana Roth. Helen
Arrick, Russ Eddy at
RAN fundraiser, SF

Dennis Darring and Miche

Sirgent (Bio K-Plus)
at Venus, Berkeley

Jack Kornfield
honoring Stan
Grof, Hotel
Whitcomb in SF
Julian

Yoga Tree 15th

anniversary
Sara Laine, Mymuna
Damone, Valerie
Grossman at
Terrapin Crossroads

30 NOVEMBER 2014

Nora Clifford, Jennifer

Wills, Danielle Hirsch,
Mike and Tara Schon,
Corte Madera

Matt Segall and

Becca Tarnas
at Stan Grof
commemoration, SF

MARK KURODA

Kenji Williams,
Bella Gaia,
San Rafael

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green scene

Tony Montenieri, Susan Celia

Swan, Eve Ensler, Colleen
Creegan at Bioneers

Eve
Ensler and
Rob
NASCAR
driver
Leilani
Sidon
at Bioneers
Munter
with Rob Sidon
Conference
at RAN fundraiser, SF

Janice Mirikitani and Cecil

Williams (Glide Memorial
Church) at Bioneers

Vandana Shiva,
speaking at Bioneers
Conference, San Rafael

Sevenine Fleming
(Greenhorns-Farm
Hack), Bioneers

2014 Brower Youth

Award recipients, SF

Owsley Brown,
Bioneers
Conference
Adyashanti and A.
H. Almaas at SAND
Conference, San Jose

EMILY GOODMAN

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
(13) rapping at
Bioneers

Elson Haas and Debra

Giusti at Bioneers
Joshua Fouts and Kenny
Ausabel (Bioneers)

Rupert Spira
at SAND
Conference

EMILY GOODMAN

EMILY GOODMAN

Will Pye,
San Jose

Suzy Adra,
SAND

EMILY GOODMAN

Jacqueline Hodes and Kelsey

Barrett (Ohlone Center for
Herbal Studies) at Bioneers

32 NOVEMBER 2014

John Roulac
(Nutiva) at Bioneers

Maurizio and Zaya

Benazzo, SAND
Conference in San Jose

EMILY GOODMAN

Paul Stamets
at Bioneers
Conference

EMILY GOODMAN

Lothar Shafer and

Puppetji at SAND

T H E B AY A R E A S P R E M I E R YO G A S T U D I O S

Workshops & Events

Teacher Trainings & Intensives

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people in your neighborhood

Andy Alpine
Common Ground founder
BY ROB SIDON

Forty years ago you launched Common

Ground with the idea of federating the
then nascent conscious communities.
Did you ever imagine that the magazine
would survive so long?

Not at all. I was a dropout lawyer getting into

the California lifestyle and just going moment
to moment, but it took off. It was the social
network of the time. In certain ways it went
viral. We started to put out 5,000 copies, then
10,000 copies, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, up to over
100,000. It filled a specific need of the time.
But not thinking 40 years in advance.
I remember vividly the first time we
met. Do you?

I remember you coming into the office, sure.

I have a confession. I never told you this,
but the day before meeting we talked
on the phone, and I remember thinking,
Hes got a New York accent; I am probably not going to like this guy. Of course
my prejudice disappeared immediately
when I saw those soft blue eyes of yours.
You looked like Gandalf the White. Then
I agreed to sell some ads, figuring Id
stick around for about three weeks.

Make some money and move on. But we had

an initial heart connection. I respected your
business sense as well as your own spiritual
bent. You reminded me of me. I was a New
York lawyer, but within me was someone
who had studied Zen Buddhism and Chinese
language and those sorts of things and had
come to California to let that bloom. Common
Ground was the vehicle.
One thing Ive noticed in the job is that
so many ideologies, causes, activist
movements come to my attention. Its
a challenge not to get drawn to all of
them. Was that your experience?

Actually, I didnt because at that time there

really was a separation between the spiritual
folkthe so-called me generationin contrast
to the political movements of the time. There
34 NOVEMBER 2014

Rob Sidon, Common Grounds

current publisher, and its founder
and original publisher, Andy Alpine

was even some animosity between these different camps.

The great divide between the marchers and meditators. Thats a big ambition of mineto further bridge that gap.
Increasingly, I see activists embracing
spiritual pursuits while yogis understand the dharma of eco-activism, for
instance.

I see that when I read Common Ground now;

we need to learn to share the planet. I was sad
to learn that the Bay Guardian stopped printing, as did Open Exchange. I was always grateful to [Open Exchange publisher] Bart Brodsky
for the healthy competition. We kept each other honest, kept each other moving.
A number of related publications have
come and gone: Share Guide, Bay Area
Naturally, Yogi Times, Vision, Psychic
Reader, Eucalyptus. I might be forgetting
some. Thankfully, were going strong. The
issues seem to vanish at the distribution
points. The Bay Area is a tough crowd. I
call it the been there, done that crowd.
So we have to be sharp and offer a diversity of expression.

Youre doing a terrific job. You are the right

person to take over. You have that spiritual
depth combined with journalistic curiosity
and the right business skills.
Barely a day goes by where I am not
grateful for what you started 40 years
ago. Common Ground is the granddaddy of them all, setting a precedent for
similar magazines around the world,
showcasing the alternative. Any other
gratitude you want to share?

Im grateful to Common Ground for transplanting me from New York City and giving
me a right livelihood here, in a transformational capacity. I was trekking in the mountains of Vietnam about 15 years ago when I
met a farmer there who spoke some English.
He reminded me how fortunate I am to have
been born an American during this period of
time. The opportunities are endless for you,
he said. Here I am, what can I do? Maybe get
a little extra plot to plant some more tobacco.
He was intelligent. I saw myself in his eyes, and
it really touched me. He couldve been me; I
couldve been him.
Im grateful for the staffers that have come
through. Sherman Chickeringmy original

people in your neighborhood

partnerand Sharon Skolnick designed the
listings. David Ackerman-Gray, who brought
me into the digital age when he came as production manager. Diane Hilton kept the ship
on even keel. We had one person, Barbara
Bell, who brought national attention because
she channeled Barbie Doll. It was very funny,
but people wanted to interview her. Karin
Kinsey for her layouts. Virginia Lee did our
interviews. Lisa Kristine contributed so many
amazing covers. And all the people I am forgetting.
What sorts of things have you been involved with since Common Ground?

with the help of the magazine. Weve

been a clearinghouse for all the isms.
What can you say about the 70s and
80s, when the human potential movement was blooming?

It was a vibrant time, a time of experimentation on every level. For me it started with the
alternative lifestyle. We created the Briarpatch,
which was a community network of about 200
small businesses helping one another. It was
the time of E. F. Schumacher, who wrote Small
Is Beautiful, advocating simple living and the
fact that people werent fundamentally interested in driving around in fancy cars and
such. They just wanted to find out about

I have published a special interest and adventure travel magazine and website for travel
agents. The idea had come during meditation,
the idea of doing a directory listingstyle trade
publication. Ive a number of passions, notably
scuba and travel. With my wife, Daya, weve
been to many exotic places such as Burma,
Laos, Vietnam, India, the Maldives, and Fiji.

Yes, I remember seeing you whirl at a

performance at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Had you already started the magazine
when you discovered Sufism?

It was only a year or so after starting Common

Ground that I got involved. But the magazine
helped me to develop that avenue. I had a spiritual bent and caught my love of God through
my father in synagogues, but it was covered
over. I didnt practice a lot of Judaism; however, through Sufism I was able to touch and
develop that relationship with God.
Common Ground has a long track record of connecting peoplestudents to
teachers and vice versa. Ive heard many
stories of people who found their path
36 NOVEMBER 2014

My volunteer work is part of the Center for

Attitudinal Healing. Originally, I was visiting
cancer patients in hospitals who couldnt come
to groups. Currently, I co-facilitate a support
group of individuals with life-threatening illnesses, caregivers to people with life-threatening illnesses, as well as couples where one or
both of the participants has a life-threatening
illness. Ive been doing it for over 20 years.
How has your inner work affected your
approach?

When someone is hit with an illness, we always try to find out if they have a practice
something they can turn to each daya place
where they can tap in to get beyond the physical pain and fear. We dont give advice, as one
of our tenets is that each of us has our own
best answers. My own personal life has been a
spiritual test. Ive learned so much from listening to people and drawing on the information
gleaned over all these years.
What else makes your heart leap?

In publishing you mostly used your spiritual name Bahauddin. What does that
mean, and how did you discover Sufism?

It means glory of the faith. It was given to me

by my teacher, Wali Ali, a disciple of Murshid
Sam Lewis. I discovered Sufism as an EST volunteer at a Kahutec comet celebration. There
was singing and moving and dancing and
people chanting Allah, Allah. Growing up a
Jewish guy from New York and hearing about
the problems in Israelthe Six Day War, etc.
Allah was considered the bad guys God, but
I didnt let that get in the way. After a year of
Sufi dancing, Allah became just another word
for God. Later, I was initiated into the Mevlevi order of the whirling dervishes.

You volunteer extensively with cancer

support groups.

One of the early Common Ground covers.

To see more, turn to page xx.

themselves. The Briarpatch was created as

a way to find out about ourselves through
a humanistic approach to business. That
morphed into learning about resources for
personal transformation, which was the
magazines original tagline. For me it was a
time to learn about my personal transformation. We used to joke because part of me
is the Jewish lawyer from New York, Andy
AIpine, who wanted to handle business as a
businessman. Then there was Bahauddin,
who wanted to handle it more broadly, from
the heart. So theres always that balancing
act.
I can relate. I always liked that phrase I
learned from you: Operate a business
with heart. I am curious how youve
observed your fellow classmates of
your generation, so to speak, and how
theyve grown up along the path.

The people around me have stayed with it each

in our own way; it wasnt just a fad. We might
not do as much of the practice we did, but at
least we know the importance. Its not just
a small part of life but a continuing part. Its
what keeps us healthy.

When I see people hug one another, when I

see people develop and heal themselves. My
heart leaps when I see my dog running up and
down the hills in the sunset, in the beauty that
surrounds us. So much of my life is involved
with the woman I love, so my heart leaps when
we are together. We love the Giants and the
Warriors and watch just about every game together.
Back in 2002, when the Giants were in
the World Series, your infectious enthusiasm carried over to me. But you started as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan as a kid,
right?

I was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan until Walter

OMalley left and took the Brooklyn Dodgers
with him. Now were beyond avid Giants fans.
Even our dog wears the colors.
Since 2010, its just been sumptuous.
I never thought Id see a day when my
moods would be predicated, at least in
part, by the outcome of sports contests.

You just get enraptured with it, riding the

wave, like surfing.
Well check in for the 50th anniversary
issue. In the meantime, lets get home
and watch some World Series baseball.

Go Giants! Dont stop believin.

Rob Sidon is publisher and editor-in-chief of
Common Ground.

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COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 37

healthy living alternatives

A Healing
Revolution
1974 to 2014
BY DANA ULLMAN

1974

is not just 40 years ago; it is

also many revolutions and
evolutions ago.
At that time, alternatives to conventional
medical care were exceedingly rare, and people who sought them were usually considered
fringe, weird, or just hippies. And yet, history
repeatedly shows us that much of todays medicines may be tomorrows quackery, and some
of todays quackery may be tomorrows medicines. These past 40 years have verified this
historical pattern, and we are all better for it.
In 1974, doctors were taught that vitamin C
prevents scurvy but had no other significant
health benefits. In fact, food was not considered to have any real impact on physical or
psychological health. Milk was considered for
every body (despite large numbers of adults
being allergic or hypersensitive to it), wheat
was the staff of life (problems from gluten
were not even considered), and TV dinners
were a relatively new invention.
In 1974, the mind and the body were seemingly two separate things. The concept of the
mind influencing the body was denied, and
psychosomatic symptoms were the catchall
diagnosis for anyone with symptoms that doctors could not understand.

The Health Revolution Cometh

A convergence of many revolutions occurred
in the early 70s. The back to the earth movement led to appreciation for organic foods.
The womens movement led to increased selfcare and mutual care. The human potential
movement led to acceptance of the dynamic
interactions between the mind and the body.
The environmental movement led to the realization that polluting our planet leads to our
polluting our bodies. And the emergence of
a natural health movement led to respecting
that inner doctor inside all of us and to the
recognition of the importance of using gentle
38 NOVEMBER 2014

therapeutics that nourish and nurture our own

self-healing propensities.
Those of us who live in the San Francisco
Bay Area can and should be proud that so
many of these revolutions were started or
strongly influenced by key players and organizations here.
Each of these revolutions and evolutions
fed each other, helping to make each stronger,
more sophisticated, and
more integrated into
our lives and culture.
The organics movement grew with the gardening and the grow
your own efforts. It
also changed the world
of nutritional supplements away from the
simple A, B, and C vitamins, as well as various
minerals, to the incorporation of powerful
herbal remedies and
superfoods. The organics movement also collaborated with the environmental movement
that sought to minimize
pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and later, sought to insist upon
proper labeling of GMOs.
The womens consciousness-raising groups
of the 70s helped to revolutionize our malebased culture and spiritual practices to help
us all to learn to respect the mother and the
sister in each of us so that we can live our lives
in greater balance. Women had suffered from
the over-medicalization of their bodies, and
female and male feminists have actively sought
to explore safer, more gentle, and more ecologically sound treatments rather than militaristic surgical interventions that invade womens
bodies.
The human potential movement not only
helped to spawn various consciousness-raising practices to know thyself, but also led to
growth of various bodywork disciplines that
sought to understand and treat peoples emotional and physical ailments through touch
and alignment. Diverse spiritual practices also
emanated from and were popularized by the
human potential movement, helping to create
a real rainbow of sacred ceremonies and practices, including those like meditation and yoga
that have profound benefits for mind, body,
and spirt.
The environmental movement helped to
plant important seeds to a paradigm shift
that took us from living in a human-centered

world with a man dominating nature mentality to co-living on a planet Gaia with plant,
mineral, and animal kingdoms in a mutually
sustainable way.
The natural health movement incorporated
all of the above revolutions and developed
strategies and practices that helped people
treat themselves and their families with healthy
foods, healing botanicals, and immune-en-

hancing homeopathic medicines. While some

chronic diseases require the attention of medical or health professionals who are trained and
skilled in specific natural therapies, today an
increasing number of medical doctors practice
integrative medicine and utilize many natural therapeutics before resorting to more risky
conventional medical interventions. Further,
the emergence of licensed naturopathic physicians, acupuncturists, and chiropractors make
access to natural treatments accessible and often reimbursable.
We all stand on the shoulders and walk in
arms with those before us who helped to lead
one or more of these revolutions. Although
this world is very far from perfect, we can and
should be grateful for the contributions from
previous generations that have brought us
here. And it is now the responsibility of each of
us to take us further toward a healthier planet
and healthier inhabitants of it.
Dana Ullman, MPH, CCH, is the author of nine
books, including the popular guidebook Everybodys Guide to Homeopathic Medicines and
his latest, The Homeopathic Revolution: Why
Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose
Homeopathy. He practices in Berkeley, seeing patients from all over the world via Skype.
Homeopathic.com

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COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 39

healthy living eating well

The Whole
Food
Movement
A 40-Year Review
BY ED BAUMAN

orty years ago, mainstream Americans

were eating meat and potatoes, macaroni
and cheese, Wonder Bread, bologna and
mayonnaise sandwiches, Big Macs, Cokes, and
Kool Aida chemical feast of manufactured
food products. Thankfully, a new message entered the food conversation: a return to fresh,
whole, natural foods. Healthy-food enthusiasts
suggested we eat more out of the box, such
as brown rice, miso, and seaweed; hummus
and greens; yogurt and granola; whole wheat
bread, avocado, and sprouts.
In 1974, the whole food movement was a
quaint counterculture alternative. It was often dismissed and marginalized by the press
and big food producers. Whole food enthusiasts were called health nuts. I was one, as
were many of you. Today, although backlash
still persists, there is greater acceptance of the
movement. Consumers, farmers, manufacturers, researchers, and even doctors are riding
the whole food bandwagon.
Lets look at the process, people, and trends
that have contributed to this movement, and
at what lies ahead on the food frontier.

Whole Food Pioneers

Nearly 40 years ago, I moved to Berkeley from
an organic farm outside of Amherst, Massachusetts, to teach holistic health and nutrition at the Berkeley Holistic Health Center.
Once in the East Bay, I became a fan of Chez
Panisse restaurant, the epicenter of the farmto-table movement. Alice Waters brought in a
new style (California cuisine), taste, and ecoliteracy. Other traditional fine dining chefs
Jacques Pepin, Thomas Keller, and John Ash
like Alice Waters, loved European elegance
and insisted on flavor, freshness, and top-quality ingredients. Gourmet international food
blew open the bland American palate set to
40 NOVEMBER 2014

salt, sugar, and fat instead of savory spice and

nuanced flavor. Nutritional foodies appeared
in the 70s with a dizzying variety of whole
food approaches. Ann Wigmore touted a raw
food diet with sprouts and wheatgrass. Michio
Kushi popularized Japanese-based macrobiotics. Paul Bragg advocated radical healing with
raw apple cider vinegar and water fasting. John
Robbins made the case for an earth-friendly
vegan diet. Ayurveda brought traditional East
Indian food to the West with savory curries,
ghee (clarified butter), and chai tea. Italian

food became the Mediterranean diet. Many of

us tried all of these approaches, seeking to find
our way.

Co-Ops and Health Food Stores

The food co-op movement burst onto the
scene in the 1970s, reflecting the spirit of community, sharing, and leveraging group buying
power. Co-ops were locally owned, and staffed
with a mix of employees and volunteers. The
food was fresh and healthy. Health food stores
soon followed, offering a wide array of supple-

ments, packaged foods, and a stable of refrigerated and frozen food items. In 1978, John
Mackey, a vegetarian, worked in a food co-op
in Austin, Texas. Borrowing money, he and his
girlfriend started a small health food store. In
1980, they merged with another local health
food store and changed the name to Whole
Foods Market. Now there are 399 stores and
counting in the US, UK, and Canada.

Farmers Markets
Since 1976, the number of active US farmers
markets has grown from about 350 to well
over 3,500, or an average of 75 per state. Buying food outdoors, in the midst of a marketplace with growers standing proudly behind
the fruits of their labor, brings the message of
people, food, culture, and community together
in a vibrant way that is fun, healthy, and socially uplifting.

Organic Food
Rachel Carsons apocryphal 1962 book, Silent
Spring, was so titled as a lament for the loss of
songbirds and harm to all life from the overuse
of DDT. The European biodynamic farming
methods of Rudolph Steiner inspired Ameri-

can small farmers to focus on conservation,

natural soil cultivation, and pest control. The
Green movement emerged in the 1970s and
has steadily grown, with organic food as its
centerpiece. Naturally (pun intended), the giant food conglomerates have relentlessly challenged the nutritional and health benefits of
organic food, despite published research from
a highly reputable 2010 study by Newcastle
University in England. Genetically modified
foodsfound in soy, corn, canola oil, and cottonseedare the latest toxic threat from the
manmade alteration of nature. Jeffrey Smith,
of the Institute for Responsible Technology,
has spelled out the documented health risks
of GM foods and advocacy for GMO labeling.
Many countries have total or partial bans on
GM foods. Why not the US?

Whats Ahead
Whole, fresh food and nutritional bars, powders, and supplements are making inroads into
the mainstream and are exceeding the growth
of mainstream food products. Public schools
in California and across the country were
mandated to implement nutrition and physical
activity programs by 2010. Diet sodas and can-

dy are being removed from a growing number

of schools. The garden-to-school movement
is taking off, with farmers contracting to grow
organic food for schools, and children seeing
once again that their food comes from a garden or pasture, not a supermarket or feedlot.
Michael Pollans battle cryeat food, mostly
plants, and not too muchis a great food
mantra.
Media are still influencing consumers to buy
more fast foods, sodas, and diet products than
salmon, quinoa, and kale. We have a growing
global ecology, food distribution, and health
challenge. Individually, lets hold the whole
food movement accountable for staying in integrity and be grateful for the flavors of health
we are so blessed to enjoy.
Ed Bauman, MEd, PhD, founder of Bauman
College: Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts
and the National Association of Nutrition
Professionals, has been at the forefront of the
holistic health and nutrition renaissance for
the past 40 years. He is the author of the bestselling Holistic Health Handbook, Flavors of
Health Cookbook, and Whole Food Guide for
Breast Cancer Survivors. BaumanCollege.org

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 41

healthy living spirituality

Psychology and the

Contemporary Western
Spiritual Tradition
BY MARIANA CAPLAN

would give an arm and a leg to have been at

Esalen naked in the hot tubs in 1967 with
Michael Murphy and George Leonard, processing and recovering from an encounter
group led by Fritz Perls; or to have sat around a
table in the lower Haight with Alan Watts and
Haridaus Chaurduri, dreaming up what would
eventually become The California Institute
of Integral Studies (CIIS); or to have studied
alongside Claudio Naranjo and Hameed Ali
(A. H. Almaas) as they were learning a new
tool called the Enneagram from their teacher,
Oscar Ichazo; or to have been in Golden Gate
Park tripping with Ram Dass, Timothy Leary,
and Ralph Metzner in an attempt to discern
whether LSD and MDMA (ecstasy) could really replace years of therapy and meditation
. . . or not.
Even though I may have needed several
years of subsequent psychotherapy to recover
from such intense and at times psychologically
risky explorations, it would have been worth it.
Each of these individualsa few who continue
to teach locally and can still be accessedpossessed extraordinary intelligence, passion, and
vision, combined with a courageous willingness to delve into the deep psyche. They were
trailblazing the still-new field of psychology,
which is just 135 years old, compared to 2,500
years of Buddhist psychology and the 4,000- to
5,000-year-old yogic model of transformation.
Most of the great leaps forward in the past
40 years in psychology, and its increasing intersection with spirituality, have emerged in
the Bay Area. Even the great pioneers who did
not live here always came through town, and
still do. One of the things I love most about
living here is the ceaseless flow of opportunity
to study with the worlds greatest teachers of
psychology and spirituality, and to participate
in the developments in these fields as they
emerge. After the publication of my book The
Guru Question in 2011, a man called to ask
for a recommendation for a teacher of integrity whom he could access without having to
cross a bridge. Is he for real? I thought. What

42 NOVEMBER 2014

a blessing we are given to have access to the

great developments in Western psychology
and spirituality a stones throw away, even if
we have to cross a bridge to get there!
Innovations have emerged from every psychological angle you can imagine, including
some you have to stretch your imagination to
get your mind around. John Gray, and John
and Jennifer Welwood, brought to public attention the path of conscious relationship.
In another part of Mill Valley, their neighbors
Stanislav and the late Christina Grof were creating the first Spiritual Emergence Network so
that those having spiritual crises would have
access to trained psychologists experienced in
these areas instead of a psychiatric diagnosis
and medication. And Roger Walsh forged the
still-emerging field of Transpersonal Psychiatry, so that medication, meditation, and psychotherapy could be approached as complementary modalities to treatment.
A. H. Almaas formed The Diamond Approach, while Claudio Naranjo and his protgs brought the Enneagram to a much wider
audience. Joanna Macy and others linked
Deep Ecology and Ecopsychology to the field
of psychology, and the beloved Angeles Arrien
taught people to age consciously, and provided
an important bridge between cross-cultural
and indigenous wisdom and psychology.
The new psychologies proliferated in the

alternative universities that sprung up, including The California Institute of Integral Studies,
John F. Kennedy University, and the Institute
of Transpersonal Psychology, now Sofia University. Transpersonal Psychology became an
accredited field of study, initially supported by
Ken Wilber, who later denounced the field in
favor of his Integral Theory. There is a buzz
around Nondual Psychology these days, and
many scholars in the alternative universities
are legitimizing a psychological exploration
into shamanic plant medicines.
In the 1970s, Thomas Hanna introduced
the term somatics, and the field greatly accelerated. Many excellent new approaches
and schools of Somatic Psychology have subsequently emerged, including Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy,
Feldenkrais, Core Energetics, and iRest. Strong
momentum continues in the emergence of
body-centered psychotherapies due to their
effectiveness in treatment.
In the past two decades, Western Buddhism
as a whole has embraced the value of psychotherapy as a support to spiritual practice, and
most recently has begun to include neuroscientific insights as taught by Rick Hanson, Kelly
McGonigal, and others. Still newer is Western
yogas embrace of innovations in psychology,
with an increasing number of academic psychology programs integrating yoga studies
into their curricula, and yoga trainings that
teach somatics and psychology.
When I hear young psychologists criticizing
pioneers like Sigmund Freud, or the experiments of the Bay Areas early psychonauts, I
think how lucky we are to have had such daring forefathers and foremothers who provided
the foundation upon which we can continue
to build the extraordinary tradition of psychology, which many people consider to be an
emerging spiritual tradition in the West. Any
of us whose lives have been touched by psychology have benefitted from the passionate
explorations of those who have come before
us. Let us aspire to draw upon the best of what
they learned and continue to evolve the field
with integrity and discernment.
Mariana Caplan, PhD, MFT, is a Bay Area
psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and author of six
books on psychology and spirituality, including
Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on
the Spiritual Path and the forthcoming Yoga
and Psyche. Besides teaching on the relationship between yoga and Western psychology, she
specializes in somatic approaches to support
spiritual practitioners, teachers, and communities of all traditions to heal from complex
spiritual trauma. RealSpirituality.com

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healthy living studies

actually grateful for? Its a question that could

change your life.
Recent studies have concluded that the expression of gratitude can have profound and
positive effects on our health, our moods, and
even the survival of our marriages.
As Drs. Blaire and Rita Justice reported, a
growing body of research shows that gratitude
is truly amazing in its physical and psychosocial benefits.
In one study on gratitude, conducted by
Robert A. Emmons and his colleague Mike
McCullough, randomly assigned participants
were given one of three tasks. Each week,
participants kept a short journal. One group
briefly described five things they were grateful
for that had occurred in the past week, another five recorded daily hassles from the previous week, and the neutral group was asked to
list five events or circumstances that affected
them, but they were not told whether to focus
on the positive or on the negative. Ten weeks
later, participants in the
gratitude group felt better about their lives and
were a full 25% happier
than the hassled group.
They reported fewer
health complaints and
exercised an average of
1.5 hours more.
Why Thankfulness Makes Us Healthier
In a later study by Emmons, people were asked
to write every day about
BY OCEAN ROBBINS
things for which they
were grateful. Not surur world is pretty messed up. With
prisingly, this daily practice led to greater inall the violence, pollution, and crazy
creases in gratitude than did the weekly journthings people do, it would be easy to
aling in the first study. But the results showed
turn into a grouchy old man without being
another benefit: participants in the gratitude
either elderly or male. Theres certainly no
group also reported offering others more emoshortage of justification for disappointment
tional support or help with a personal proband cynicism.
lem, indicating that the gratitude exercise inBut consider this: negative attitudes are bad
creased their goodwill toward others.
for you. And gratitude, it turns out, makes you
Another study on gratitude was conducted
happier and healthier. If you invest in a way of
with adults having congenital and adult-onset
seeing the world that is mean and frustrated,
neuromuscular disorders, with the majoryoure going to get a world that is, well, more
ity having post-polio syndrome. Compared
mean and frustrating. But if you can find any
to those who were not jotting down their
authentic reason to give thanks, anything that
blessings nightly, participants in the gratitude
is going right with the world or your life, and
group reported more hours of sleep each night
put your attention there, then research says
and feeling more refreshed upon waking. The
youre going to be better off.
gratitude group also reported more satisfacDoes this mean to live in a state of contion with their lives, felt more optimism about
stant denial and to put your head in the sand?
the upcoming week, and felt considerably
Of course not. Gratitude works when youre
more connected with others than those in the
grateful for something real. Feeling euphoric
control group.
and spending money like you just won the lotPerhaps most tellingly, the positive changes
tery when you didnt is probably going to make
were noticeable to others. According to the reyou real poor, real quick. But what are you
searchers, Spouses of the participants in the

The Neuroscience
of Gratitude

44 NOVEMBER 2014

gratitude [group] reported that the participants appeared to have higher subjective wellbeing than did the spouses of the participants
in the control [group].
Theres an old saying that if youve forgotten the language of gratitude, youll never be
on speaking terms with happiness. It turns out
this isnt just a fluffy idea. Several studies have
shown depression to be inversely correlated
to gratitude. It seems that the more grateful
a person is, the less depressed they are. Philip
Watkins, a clinical psychologist, found that
clinically depressed individuals showed significantly lower gratitude (nearly 50% less) than
non-depressed controls.
Dr. John Gottman has been researching
marriages for two decades. The conclusion
of all that research, he states, is that unless a
couple is able to maintain a high ratio of positive to negative encounters (5:1 or greater), it is
likely the marriage will end.
With 90% accuracy, Gottman says he can
predict, often after only three minutes of observation, which marriages are likely to flourish and which are likely to founder. The formula is that for every negative expression (a
complaint, frown, put-down, expression of anger) there needs to be about five positive ones
(smiles, compliments, laughter, expressions of
appreciation and gratitude).
Apparently, positive vibes arent just for
hippies. If you want in on the fun, here are
some simple things you can do to build positive momentum toward a more happy and
fulfilling life:
Keep a daily journal of three things you are
thankful for. This works well first thing in
the morning, or just before you go to bed.
Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner,
or friend something you appreciate about
them every day.
Look in the mirror when you are brushing
your teeth, and think about something you
have done well recently or something you
like about yourself.
Sure, this world gives us plenty of reasons to
despair. But when we get off the fast track to
morbidity and cultivate instead an attitude of
gratitude, things dont just look betterthey
actually get better. Thankfulness feels good, its
good for you, and its a blessing for the people
around you too. Its such a win-win-win that
Id say we have cause for gratitude.
Ocean Robbins is an author, speaker, father,
and CEO of the 150,000-member Food Revolution Network. To learn more about his work,
visit FoodRevolution.org.

Do you sense the angels among us?

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healthy living yogapedia

The Saints
of India
and the
Tsunami
of Yoga
BY JEFFREY ARMSTRONG
AND KAVINDRA RISHI

They brought spiritual secrets that had been

passed down for thousands of years, and there
was no angry God, hell, or coercive proselytizing. If the British conquered the world for 300
years with violence, India conquered it in 50
years with wisdom, and today there are over
100 million non-Indian yogis throughout the
world.
Along with yoga and enlightenment, another surprising force migrated from India.
One might wonder how the country famous
for meditation and cows could go from primitive to taking over computer technology in just
a few years. The answer is that India is not only
the oldest mystic culture but also the oldest
scientific culture. Scientists use Latin to name
new discoveries, but Sanskrit is the parent language of Latin and Greek. Sanskrit is almost
as precise as a programming language. There
is a huge library of mystic and scientific knowledge in Sanskrit called the Vedas. For many
years, Germany has had the largest Sanskrit

n 1974, tsunamis were flooding

our planet. But these were not
waves that drown you and wash
your home away. These waves
started out in India, spreading east
and west until they encompassed
the whole planet. What washed
ashore, first in New York and San
Francisco, and then everywhere
else, were the healing waters of
ancient yogic wisdom that had sustained and fed the Orient for over
10,000 years.
In 1600, India was the wealthiest
country in the world. By 1900, bled
of its wealth by British colonialization, India appeared to be a broken
and subdued giant. But the giant
was only sleeping. Under the cover of the social change and transformation that was the 1960s, an
unexpected group of immigrants
from India were quietly invading North America, the citadel of
material power. The soft-spoken,
well-mannered invaders had no
money, did not know each other, and were not
here to promote a religion or political agenda.
They were neither Marxist nor capitalistthey
were mantra-preneurs! Spiritual teachers,
mystics, and professorsunfunded, longhaired or bald, nondenominational, universal, peace-loving, profound, loving, and equal
opportunity.
With a common source of knowledgethe
ancient Vedic libraryeach master carried
their own unique flavor, lineage, and mojo.

46 NOVEMBER 2014

Those ships returned carrying Indian gurus

with their Vedic books of wisdom and science,
which they subsequently taught at the library
of Alexandria. From that transfer of knowledge, Greek, Roman, and eventually European
culture developed roots directly connected to
the India of 2,000 years ago.
During the last 50 years, we have witnessed
another historic sharing of Vedic culture at the
port of San Francisco, in the midst of a psychedelic transformation, a musical renaissance,
and a cultural revolution ignited at the modern AlexandriaBerkeley. We went from Be
there then to Be here now. On our 40th anniversary, Common Ground is honoring the
many gurus and mantra-preneurs of India
who have been and are still reshaping our
lives, and who were always nudging us gently
toward sustainability, biodiversity, and universal respect for all life. What all these modern
pundits of mystic or scientific thought have
been spreading worldwide is based upon the
desire for all beings to be free while
cooperating with the laws of nature
and each other. Join in as we offer
Namaste and pranams to a few of
the game-changing spiritual teachers who have shared the wisdom
jewels of their ancient culture.

The Dawn of Eastern

Wisdom in the West

library in the world outside of India. Quantum

physics, rocket science, medicine, surgery, and
many other scientific disciplines were borrowed from this ancient Sanskrit library by the
Germans.
Remarkably, this process of India sharing
its wisdom with the world has occurred before. Roman records state that during the time
of Jesus, 150 ships a year left Rome to import
luxury items from India. The most famous
seaport of the time was Alexandria, Egypt.

The early signal that Vedic waves

were about to arrive came in 1841
in Boston through Emerson, Thoreau, W. H. Channing, Parker, and
others who, from the Unitarian far
left of Christianity, began to study
translations of the Bhagavad Gita,
Upanishads, and Puranas. It was
too soon to publicly call themselves
yogis, so they came to be known as
the American transcendentalists,
but behind closed doors they really
were the Boston Brahmins.
Then in 1893, a dashing young
spiritual genius called Swami
Vivekananda took a steamship
from India to speak in Chicago at
the Parliament of Worlds Religions. In seven
minutes, his articulate and compelling message of universal brotherhood electrified the
audience. He then toured the US, attracting
thousands of students and publishing books
on Vedic philosophy in English.
During the Roaring Twenties, more underground yoga practice blossomed. By the end of
World War I, yoga and the push to modernity went into high gear. In 1920, Paramahansa
Yogananda set up a permanent camp in Los

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COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 47

healthy living yogapedia

Angeles and founded the Self-Realization
Fellowship, whose yoga teachings included an
altar with a picture of Christ and a picture of
Krishna. Twenty-five years later, thousands
of hippies would read his Autobiography of a
Yogi and become yogis themselves. Until the
60s, yoga gradually gained momentum. Jiddu Krishnamurti, an eloquent yoga philosopher, arrived in California in the 1930s and
touched thousands with his profound lectures
on self-realization. Indra Devi, known as the
first lady of yoga, opened her pioneering yoga
studio in 1947. Swami Vishnudevananda, disciple of Swami Sivananda, immigrated in 1958
and soon thereafter founded the first yoga ashram in the West, thus extending the Sivananda
branch of the modern yoga movement.
As the 1960s counterculture began to take
hold, the Veda flood began in earnest. The Kennedy assassinations, war in Vietnam, psychedelics, rock music, sexual revolution, racial
integration, nuclear weapons, womens liberationthe whole fabric of Western civilization
ripped open in a historic moment that changed
everything. Now, an entire generation of disenfranchised youth were looking for new alternatives and directions. With psychedelics as the
amplifier and rock n roll as the carrier, the ripples of Vedic culture became a wave and then a
flood. Every entrepreneur needs a historic moment, and the mantra-preneurs now found that
by divine design, this moment was theirs.
A global rock concert of new thought and
emotion, of universal love, inner visions, outer
freedom, a breaking of sectarian boundaries,
and opposition to military solutions began to
emerge. Leading this new vibration was a master sitar player named Ravi Shankar, whose
mystic concerts and enchanting vibrations
reached everyone. Along with the exotic vibration of Indian music came gurus chanting
mantras, the magic portals of mystic vibrations connected to realms beyond.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi carried the secrets
of Transcendental Meditation to millions and
opened the doors to Ayurvedic medicine,
Vedic astrology, and many Vedic sciences.
Deepak Chopra was one of his influential students. Swami Satchidananda, creator of Integral Yoga, with his long hair and beard, became both a symbol of and the grand elder for
the Woodstock generation. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami brought us Krishna. His street-wise
and ecstatic presentation of the Hare Krishna mantra echoed through urban centers and
finally over the radio from the lips of George
Harrissons My Sweet Lord.
In the ashtanga yoga world, several disciples
48 NOVEMBER 2014

of the great teacher Krishnamacharya (including Indra Devi) soon made yoga a household
word: T. K. V. Desikachar, whose approach is
called Viniyoga and emphasizes yoga therapy
and individualized instruction; Pattabhi Jois
developed his physical style of Ashtanga Yoga,
while B. K. S. Iyengar, whose books Light on
Yoga and Light on Pranayama are widely used
along with his style, which is associated with
meticulous postural alignment and precise
methods of teaching.
Bikram Choudhur y, a disciple of
Paramahansa Yoganandas younger brother,
Charan Ghosh, became famous for his 26-posture asana sequence, taught in a heated room.
Yogi Bhajan, whose disciples were vivid in their
white clothing and turbans and who called his
group 3HO (healthy, happy, and holy), taught
Kundalini Yoga, a unique blend of mystic yoga
and the Sikh tradition. The silent yoga master, Baba Hari Das, shared his pure yogic vision in the mountains of Santa Cruz for many
years and is also known for producing the first
full-stage productions of the Ramayana to be
performed outside of India. Yogi Amrit Desai founded Kripalu Yoga on the East Coast,
teaching a spontaneous flow of yoga postures.
Swami Rama founded the Himalayan Institute,
promoting raja yoga, with its philosophical
and deeply meditative approach. Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual master, poet, musician, and
athlete, taught and inspired the likes of John
McLaughlin from the Mahavishnu Orchestra,
as well as local musical heroes such as Carlos
Santana and Michael Narada Walden.
Ramana Maharshi, who left his body in
1950, transmitted the grace of Advaita Vedanta to his disciple, Papajiand he, in turn,
transmitted the nondual teachings to several
Western students who now share the wisdom
of awakening as teachers in their own right.
Rajneesh, or Osho, failed in his attempt to
create a commune in Oregon, but that did not
diminish the profundity of his many writings
and his insistence upon freedom as the ultimate goal of life. Swami Muktananda, a disciple
of the great Bhagavan Nityananda, passed the
ancient siddha yoga initiation on to thousands in a tradition that is carried forward by
siblings Swami Chidvilasandanda (Gurumayi)
and her brother, Nityananda. Satya Sai Baba
never left India, but his mystic powers attracted
millions and had airliners full of amazed disciples flying to India from around the world.
Likewise, from a humble abode in Northern
India, Neem Karoli Baba (Maharajji) extended
his enlightenment to the West through devotees like Ram Dass (whose epic book Be Here
Now, published in 1971, influenced millions),
Krishna Das and Jai Uttal (whose kirtan music

is ubiquitous in yoga studios), and Larry Brilliant, who founded the Seva Foundation.

hough less represented (until recently)

than their male counterparts, there has
been a wave of female teachers, embodiments of the Divine Mother, sharing their
feminine grace in the form of darshan (blessings). Anandamayi Ma, who never left India
and passed in 1982, was known as the guru to
the gurus. Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma)
attracts thousands who come to receive her
transformative hug blessings and participate
in humanitarian service at the MA Center in
San Ramon. Conversely, Shree Mas ashram
in the Napa County is very discreet. Mother
Meera, based in Germany, travels periodically
to the West, as does Karunamayi, who offers
blessings and Vedic fire rituals for world peace.

The Wisdom of India

These teachers and many more have acted as
carriers of the vast Vedic library and its streams
of ancient wisdom. At least 10,000 years of
wisdom has flowed down the Himalayas to
become the wisdom waves of this most recent
cultural exchange between Mother India and
the greater world. Our planet is poised at an
unprecedented tipping point. Our ability to
alter matter through technology is both amazing and a threat to all life. We are redefining
life on earth with scientific powers, but their
use is currently distorted by greed and abuse
of power. If we are to use the powers we have
unleashed for the good of all, we will need all
the wisdom we can getancient and modern.
While the yogic knowledge, preventive
medicine, vegetarian diet, and global vision
of a cooperative society have emerged from
India, some interesting trends are also appearing. One of these is that 70% of yoga
practitioners are female. Other trends include
many subjects that our technological culture
has overlooked or ignored, including right exercise, preventive medicine, wholesome diet,
organic farming, healing use of herbs and massage, natural childbirth, education in universal
knowledge, correct breathing, meditative life
skills, male and female intimacy skills for relationship, peaceful methods of overcoming
differences, knowledge of keeping water pure,
regrowth of wilderness animal populations,
and protection of all creatures that share the
planet. Our consumption of meat, alcohol,
and GMO foods are increasingly excessive and
toxic. Our addiction to nonrenewable energy
must be overcome quickly.
In addition, yogic philosophy teaches meditation upon a Divine both male and female,
something missing in modern culture. The

result has been a distortion of our social relationship with the feminine and an exploitive
attitude toward Mother Earth and all female
beings. What may not be immediately obvious
is that all of these are related subjects and values that are necessary for perfection in yoga.
Could it be that the female yogis of our world
are actually the immune cells in the body of
Mother Earth? Are they the heart and thought
leaders asking us, through yoga, to learn to live
sustainably? It may appear that the majority
of gurus and mantra-preneurs were men, but
what if all of them consciously believed in and
were serving the vision of a male and female
Divine and were espousing the same views
that our many female yogis around the world
are now embracing?
Could it be that India and yoga are not a religion but rather a set of universal cooperative
values and ways of living that allow us to live

in harmonious yogaconnection or union

with the Divine, nature, and all beings? What
if the tsunami of ancient wisdom flowing from
India is, like water, something that belongs to
everyone? What if what appears to be many
contradictory philosophical views is actually
ideological biodiversity? What if we are divine
beings growing and learning over thousands of
lives in a grand curriculum where the universe
is a university and our planet is a campus?
We are not only honoring the mantra-preneurs and gurus of India, but truth tellers,
seekers, and wisdom carriers of all types and
from all cultures who also rode the waves of
this flood of culture. That is the universal spirit of yoga, the healing waters of the Ganges
of universal truth flowing to water our arid
hearts so that a beautiful garden may grow
there. Too idealistic, you replybut in a dangerous world, is there such a thing as too much

love, forgiveness, or hope?

From Common Ground to everyone, we
hope the waters of divine joy and enlightenment are always flowing in your hearts. And as
the yogis teach, go within and find your blissful
connection to the Divine, look without in order to live in harmony and peace with the laws
of nature, and look around to become friends
with all entities living on this sacred earth.
Namastewe bow to the Divine within your
heart.
Jeffrey Armstrong (Kavindra Rishi) is a yoga
philosopher, inspirational speaker, relationship expert, Vedic astrologer, and teacher of
the Vedas for over 40 years. An award-winning poet and best-selling author of numerous books including Spiritual Teachings of the
Avatar and Ancient Wisdom for a New World.
JeffreyArmstrong.com
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 49

art+soul reviews

BOOKS
The Science and Practice of Humility
By Jason Gregory
In this fascinating
book, comparative religion and East/West
philosophy scholar
Jason Gregory moves
beyond our basic understanding of humility as an attribute to
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outlining how being
humble can lead us to
life as a jivanmukta, one who is fully liberated.
The book breaks down our preconceived
notions about the why of our being, leading
us through a three-step progression of understanding the great work of eternity, allowing
our perception of reality to evolve, and discovering truth through the science of humility. Along the way we learn that our warrior
mentality of trying to change the worldeven
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undertake refining our consciousness, the
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This practice does not ask us to renounce
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simple path of the sage.


The Grateful Life

The Secret to Happiness and the
Science of Contentment
By Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons

SARAH CIRILLO

The Physics of Angels

Exploring the Realm Where
Science and Spirit Meet
By Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake
It may seem unlikely, reads the beginning of
50 NOVEMBER 2014

the preface to The Physics of Angels, that a scientist and a theologian would discuss angels
in the twenty-first century. Both disciplines at
the end of the modern era appear equally embarrassed by this subject. Yet for the next 219
pages, internationally acclaimed spiritual theologian Matthew Fox and biologist and awardwinning author Rupert Sheldrake breathe new
life into a sacred concept lost to the machine
cosmology brought about by the seventeenth
centurys scientific revolution.
The Physics of Angels doesnt discredit either science or theology, approaching each
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scientific and astronomical knowledge, Fox
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angels that may be
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thought about them
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Aquinass views on
angels as the governing body of the universe, the authors take into
account how our knowledge of the universe is
expanding every day, as is the universe itself,
pointing out how interconnected science and
religion can be.
COLIN ROLFE


Did you know that there were two words that

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Various authors
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SpiritualEcology.org
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Bob Weir, Saint of

Circumstance

52 NOVEMBER 2014

THE COMMON GROUND INTERVIEW

{ BY ROB SIDON }
ob Weir was born out of wedlock in San Francisco in 1947. His adoptive family first lived on
upper Broadway and eventually moved near
Palo Alto, where as a 17-year-old he met Jerry
Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Ron
Pigpen McKernan, and cofounded the Warlocks in 1964. The band was renamed the Grateful Dead in
1965. We caught up with Bob at his home in Marin County
for a candid discussion commemorating Common Grounds
40th anniversary issue.
Common Ground: The theme of this issue being 40
Years of Gratitude, I thought you could tell the story
of how the Grateful Dead got that name.

Bob Weir: It was a dark, stormy November night at Phils

house in Palo Alto, with Jerry and I and Phil. The bands name
at the time was the Warlocks, but we found that another
band had trademarked that name. Wed been a couple weeks
trying to come up with a new name with limited success. In
a fit of frustration, Jerry sprung off the couch and ran over to
the biggest book he could see on Phils shelf, which was a dictionary of musical terms. He just ran through the pages and
stuck his finger in, and thats the name he landed on. It is an
ethnomusicological term having to do with a genre of ballads
from Northern Ireland and Scotland as catalogued by Francis
Child, I think from the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
Its a thoughtful name for a band. What has been the
effect of carrying that name?

I hated it at first but was outvoted, so we stuck with it. Whats

been the effect of carrying that name? I have no idea. It probably held us back in some regards.

PHOTO: JAY BLAKESBERG

You met Jerry in 64. Can you tell the story?

I was with a couple of friends walking the back streets of

Palo Alto on New Years Eve at about 7:30, headed to a coffeehouse to get some music and celebrate. We heard banjo
music coming out of the back of a local music store and just
knocked on the door and got invited in. We knew who it was;
we knew it was Jerry. He was waiting for his banjo students,
and I said, Jerry, listen, its 7:30 on New Years Eve, and I
dont think youre going to be seeing your students tonight.
He agreed and asked if we played instruments. We all eagerly
nodded yes and broke into the front of the store to grab some
instruments. We played all night and had a wonderful time.
We decided at that point we had enough amateur talent to
start a jug band, which were popular at the time. We started
practicing that week and got a gig shortly thereafter. Off it
went from there.
You never had to interview for another job again?

No, not really, no.

Having no idea what you were about to get into.

Neither of us did. But we were game for anything.

Were you drawn to spirituality at a young age?

I was. My folks had me going to [Episcopal] church, and as

soon as I found out about God, I wanted to meet this dude.
How did the path unfold?

Its been a long and winding path, for sure. When I was
a kid I paid attention in Sunday school as best I could, but
there were lots of diversions. I ended up being an altar boy
in church. Like I said, I wanted to meet God, so I thought,

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 53

yesterday, I was talking to an old-timer

at the gym, who was telling me about
the idealism of 60s. He used the phrase
keeping the dream alive, which
sparked my curiosity.

1968, Golden Gate Park

Im still quite idealistic; I was born that way.

Kids by nature are idealistic, and I never outgrew that and hope my brethren in that movement havent outgrown that, and maybe when
we get to be older and revered, we will help to
bring that worldview back around to greater
prominence, like it was back then.
PHOTOS: ROSIE MCGEE

With that phrase, this old-timer described sharing art for arts sake, as opposed to commercialism.

Okay, well, this is one way to do it. In the

act of being an altar boy, I spent a lot of time
fucking around because we really couldnt
hear what the preacher was saying up in front.
There were the girls in the choir we were flirting with. I didnt get serious about spirituality
because the Christian experience for me was
pretty much a pro forma, by-the-letters thing,
and after a while I became aware that it wasnt
lighting me up.
In my early to mid-teens, Zen Buddhism
became a popular subject in the press. Alan
Watts wrote a famous book, which caught the
fancy of the forward-thinking American public. He ended up being one of my neighbors
when I first moved to Mill Valley.
What was the effect of Zen Buddhism
on you?

I liked it. I figured okay, there was no mention

of God in this religionwhich was good because I had been frustrated in my attempts to
meet God by praying and stuff. I didnt get a
particularly satisfactory return on my investment. All I wanted to do, like I said, was just
meet the Divine if there was such a thing.
What you were expecting from the
meeting?

I had no expectations. I didnt know if something was going to talk to me or move through
me or any of that kind of stuff. I was open and
available, but nothing happened. But the Zen
approach, with the poems, the haikus, the expressions of the great mysteries through miseriesthat was attractive to me and accessible
for some reason.
In my late teens I met a guy named Neal
Cassady, about whom books are written. He
was the Dean Moriarty character in On the
54 NOVEMBER 2014

Road and figured prominently in Jack Kerouacs books and was a most remarkable man.
We spent a lot of time together, on the bus.
Neal taught me how to drive, for instance. Every now and again I find myself pulling a Captain Neal behind the wheel. But he was like no
other human that I had ever heard of, much
less met. I think the guys mind transferred
through time and space at will.
He was tapped into somethinga wizard in his own way?

Ill make an illustration. He was a guy, the only

guy I ever met, who could drive through rushhour traffic in San Francisco at 5560 miles
an hour, never stopping for a red light or for
traffic or stop signs. He was on the sidewalk,
he was on the other side of the street. It didnt
matter. He never hit anything. At the same
time, he had one hand on the steering wheel
and one hand feeling up his girlfriend in the
middle seat, while I sat shotgun. He would play
the buttons on the radio that would come up
with some dialogue with my own inner voice,
and it was hisI wont say it was his voice, but
it was coming through, I guess as his fingers
were hitting the buttons on the radio. It was
pretty amazing to watch and be a part of.
Not just some gonzo but a Zen master,
in your book?

Yeah, of some sort. He wasnt just your average

cookie-cutter yahoo, by any means.
You were smack-dab in the middle of
the psychedelic movement. What can
you say about that era?

Well, all Ill say about that era is I hope its not dead.
Its funny you answer that way because

There were two or three years that we were

starving artists and lived a great life. Then we
became increasingly successful, and we still
had great lives, but we moved on to another
mode of existencewe were relatively successful artists. I think almost necessarily the
cream of the crop in any artistic endeavor is
going to go through that transformation.
What is the effect of success?

It took a number of us out. Too much success

too soon is something that you have to be fast
on your feet to live through.
The band was known for ingesting heroic doses of acid. My long-held curiosity
has me asking how you kept it together
to even stand up on stage, let alone remember lyrics and play instruments.

There were times during the acid tests when

we would go onstage and try to start playing
in such a profound state ofwhats the word
Im looking for?bewilderment, disorientationthat we would just bail and come back
when done peaking. That was when we started
developing our style of performance and band
improvisation, of taking a simple riff and working it pretty endlessly and then moving on to
something else. It was leaderless; the leader
was the song.
Where did the discipline and grounding
come from despite being so far out on
the astral plane?

We had spent enough time living on top of

each other in a communal style that we learned
to listen to each other, to make room for each
other and appreciate each other to the point
where we could accept each others leadership
at any minute regarding any given idea that
was presented. We spent all our time together,
whether we were practicing music or just raving, just kicking things around. There was very
little that was straightforward. We specialized

in taking what someone was saying out of context and redirecting the conversation in whatever direction. Just for fun we would make
sure that nothing ever made senseexcept in
the greater sense. The conversation was, in a
sense, poetry. We rapped a lot. I dont know
how to more clearly describe that, but its evident in our music.
Like echoes, musically speaking. If Jerry
would uncork a phrase that led somewhere,
then I would take something maybe about
three-quarters of the way through that
would suggest something different, perhaps
in a harmonically contrasting directionand
that would become an overlay. There would
necessarily be a conflict in Jerrys harmonic
development on top of which I suggested
something he hadnt intended. The resolution of that conflict would be to morph that
kind of stuff. All art is tension and release,
conflict and resolvethat is where art is
born. Our entire lives were art, not just what
we did on stage but what we did in conversation and everything. There was very little we
could say that we didnt already know about
each other. In a conversation with any of the
guys, there was little they could say that we
didnt know was already coming. We were
pretty intimate, so where do you go from
there? We found a place to go; its most evident in the music. What we found were surprises, endless surprises, coaxed out of our
ensembles efforts.

All human needs for community, conversation, creative camaraderie were answered. You would want everyone in the
world to have that experience, right?

nature. That fueled what was happening out

here on the West Coast, and it spread to some
degree worldwide.

Right. I sure would. The world would be a different place if people could have that experience.

Richard Alpert migrated to India and

met his guru. Its a beautiful story and
a beautiful path. Did you ever connect
with a spiritual master, per se?

To my understanding, there were two

fundamental approaches in the psychedelic era. One was that of Ken Kesey
and the Merry Prankstersballs out, on
the bus, extraverted, and in the world.
The other was the scholarly, introverted
Timothy Leary approachin controlled
environments, a studied trip into the
psyche.

That was the East Coast approach as we saw it,

and ours was West Coast. No, we never went
there. I met Tim Leary and particularly Richard Alpertnow Ram Dassearly on, but we
were never exposed to that scholarly approach,
and we were kind of bemused by it. For us LSD
was an active exploration but also an act of
rebellion. Our whole thrust was rebellious in

No. Everybody was everybodys guru in our

view. I wish I had met and maybe someday I
will walk into a guru, but at this point it hasnt
happened.
Here in the Bay Area, Common Ground
came together as a magazine during the
post-hippie era, as part of the human
potential movement. Isnt that about
the time you kicked into high gear as a
songwriter?

Yeah. In the early 70s I was in full stride as a

songwriter.
Whats your recollection of the zeitgeist
of that time?

Clockwise from top: 1971, with Jerry Garcia,

Eiffel Tower, Paris; 1969 Live Dead outtakes
(left to right): Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Tom
Constanten, Ron Pigpen McKernan, Phil Lesh,
Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart; 1973 with Jerry

A beautiful insight into being one of

the boys. And the effect of psychedelics on the dialectic?

PHOTOS: ROSIE MCGEE

Because of our profound disorientation being

high on acid, I might play something, but one
of my bandmates would probably hear and react differently from how I would expect. Like
if you just turn on the radio but dont know
where the phrase began. We used to do that
as an exercise. Wed turn on the radio and
pick something off, and somebody would hum
what they had just heard. Insofar as no one
knew where it began, it was out of context, and
wed riff off of that. We would do that in the car
going to rehearsal and in normal conversation.
We just got adept while we were taking acid
at hearing things differently from how they
were originally intended, so that any idea, any
phrase presented had surprises in it. Its a very
difficult concept to get across. Basically, wed
learned to listen to each other intently in a
situation that was close to pandemonium and
make our own sense of itand re-present it.
It sounds fantastically fun.

Yeah, it was.
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 55

We were trying to organize ourselves and

make sense of the explosion that happened in
the 60s and grab the forward-leaning shards
that we could pull together to engineer a new
direction, musically. I think we found some
success there and put out some good albums
and discovered an approach that was going to
bring us to new places.
It seemed like the beautiful songs for
ages and harmonies came together in the 70s.

Yeah. We were listening to everything except popular music and

learned from each other. Jerry was
deep into country and string band
music and all that kind of stuff from
his bluegrass days. We also listened
to blues and jazz idioms. From early
on Phil brought the modern classical. We just listened to everything,
tried to assimilate it and bring it to
some sort of fruition.

Christ, drugs took the lives of a lot of people

in my life. I was good friends with Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and needless to say, Jerry.
Drugs took them out. Beyond that, it very
much diminished the capacity of a number of
other folks that are still alive. They had an effect on my life. I had to take painkillers for a
shoulder issue for a number of years, and thats
something Im still dealing with. You have to
differentiate between the drugs we took dur-

1979

Any caution to youth?

Bottom line: youre better off

straight. Stay the hell away from
heroin; itll take you out. Itll ruin
your life. Meth, the same thing.
Cocainestay away from cocaine
and any of the addictive drugs. Try
not to take sleeping pills in your
life. If you have a chronic pain issue, better to figure out how to
deal with it other than with pain
medication.

Can you summarize the 80s?

We were basically the same kids

playing in a very different sandbox
where the trappings had changed.
Now there were drugs that werent
available in the 60s, particularly cocaine and heroin. I guess the heroin
was available in the 60s and early
70s, but I never saw much of it.
By the time the 80s came around,
it was fairly abundant. Herpes and
AIDS came along. That put a different complexion on the free-love
aesthetic of the 60s.
We had become fairly enormously popular, at least with Grateful
Dead heads, playing stadiums. That
changed things for us. It wasnt as
easy for us to go out and mingle, so
we were forced to group together
more tightly.
Is there a period that you consider a creative zenith?

I loved what we were up to in the late 80s. Jerry was in great shape, having slipped the bonds
of his drug existence for a few years. We had
come together and become strong singers. We
had a good sense of dynamics and were a good
band. If we had been able to maintain that
plateau as a band, some monumental music
might have resulted. We lost Brent [Mydland],
then Jerry also receded back into the drugs.
Drugs cast their long shadow. Can you
talk about their un-beautiful facet?
56 NOVEMBER 2014

I say, no matter what I do, just give me this

amount. That was a tough job. I gave him a
daily allotment. Hed trust me. Every now and
again he would invite me to join him, and I
would. But I never got into it. It was fun to
go into his world on a given evening after a
show, but its not a place I found I wanted to
stayor at least that part of his world. It was
fun going into that little corner of his world
where he didnt let other folks in. A place to
visit but you wouldnt want to live
there. He did. Im not sure.

Have you had that conversation with your own daughters

yet?

Not so far. I think theyve got the

good sense. Theyve seen the elephant. Ive had pain issues and
dealt with them unsuccessfully, and
theyve witnessed that; they can see
where that goes.
The 90s were the most commercially successful, no? It
seemed the Gen-X crowd had
found you.

ing the acid tests, the LSD. There was a shadow

to that experience too, but it was just a situation where we had to pick up the pieces of our
existence after it had been completely blown
up and rearranged by the insights that we had
during the experience.
What can you say about heroin?

I cant find much good to say about heroin.

I tried it a time or two. For instance, I used
to carry Jerrys dope around on tour; I used
to be his bagman. At the beginning of the
tour, he would tell me, Okay, no matter what

The 90s were very much an extension of what happened in the late
80s. I think in 87 we had a single
[Touch of Grey] accompanied by
a video, and it escalated our popularity to the point where we were
sort of over the top. We just stayed
that way from then on.
Since the beginning, it seemed that about
every four or five years wed get a new sea of
young faces in the front rows of our shows.
Their older siblings would turn them onto us.
Our music is a little complicated for younger
teens, with the rough edges being a little more
than they could take. The ones that were up
to a little adventure in life were the ones who
related, and wed have a new freshman class
with big numbers starting in the mid-80s and
through the 90s, until 1995, when we had to
call it quits.

What are you willing to share about losing Jerry?

It was time to become reflective and reinvent

myself. With the Dead, the way Jerry and I left
it off, he was supporting me when I was singing, and I was supporting him when he was
singing. I would direct the band when he was
singing, and he would direct the band when
I was singing. We focused on each other intently and tried to supply what the song called
for. Because the role of the singer,
whether it be me or Jerry or whoever, was to step out of the mix and
just not even be thereto get out
of the way and let the character tell
the story.
With the singer having incapacitated himself, so to speak, its important for his wingman to supply
the nuts and bolts, the foundational
materials, for that song to build itself
around. Jerry and I, doing the bulk of
the singing, were deepest into those
principles. After Jerrys departure, if
I was going to get out of the way, I
wasnt going to have that wingman.
I had to figure out how to be that
wingman and get myself out of the
way at the same time. Im still trying
to refine that skill, but Im getting
better at it.

but certainly have my share of blessings.

I dont know about angels. If so, they provide
misdirection from time to time. I find my way
forward by triangulation, going off my path
and then from those missteps I manage to triangulate to where I am headed.
Youve been famous since you were a
teenager. Whats the effect of that?

There are good parts and bad parts. Good

You once said to me that peoples projections of him, as a

guru, is what killed him.

What are you most grateful

for?

Ive been lucky. I was fortunate. Hell, to begin

with I was born out of wedlock and at a time
when that wasnt a great thing. Right off the bat,
I got adopted into a wonderful family. Things
picked up from there. I have my temptations
PHOTOS ON THIS SPREAD: JAY BLAKESBERG

In some regards, if youre famous you have to,

because that notoriety is something of a hindrance. I carry a lot of associations for a lot
of people. Last night I was at a big
party that the San Francisco Giants
2009
threw, and since Im kind of associated with that outfit and that community, its sort of incumbent on
me to show up and hobnob a bit,
which I did. There were a couple
thousand people there, and I didnt
know many who came up to me.
Being famous, you just have to sort
of take it on the chin that youre going to be having conversations with
people who have had a number of
drinks and want to talk about their
past revelries.

Right, or Jerry Garcia, for instance.

Jerrys fame was such a burden to
him he finally just hid from it with
drugs. Thats what it was all about.
It was painful to him to not be able
to get out into the world without
being battered by peoples notions
of what he amounted to. It was different from who he really was.

Youre not going to develop that

kind of collaboration very quickly
with anyone. Worthy of mention
is the fact that when he died, he
was in the act of trying to shed the
drugs again. He was in a rehab facility when he had his heart attack.

A long time ago your sister Wendy described you to me as someone who has
two good angels on his shoulders, while
most of us have a good one and a devilish one.

It seems the rich and famous build walls

around themselves.

Hey, you got it good compared to pop stars like Michael

Jackson or Madonna.

You never recaptured that kind

of collaboration?

Well, number one is the gift of having been able to live a life where I
was able to stay a kid. To never have
to grow upto live with the wonder that a kid
finds and stick with that.

knows who you are and you dont know anyone. On the other hand, I get to play and sing
for a living, which is all Ive ever wanted to do.
So back and forth, back and forth.

parts, you can spread a little light every now

and again where other people wouldnt have
as much opportunity. A smile from someone
whos famous goes a little further than a smile
from regular folk. Wish it werent that way, but
it seems to be.
You have to watch what you do because people are watching. If youre not setting a good
example, there are people who are apt to follow in that example, which is not a good thing
for anyone to do.
Aside from that, there are times when its
tough to be in crowds, especially if everyone

Yeah, basically, because he wasnt.

He was just a guy on a quest, and
a lot of folks figured he had found
something that they needed to access. He hadnt found anything
other than his direction in life, which was to
play and sing and make music and be who he
was. He didnt have some sort of gem to offer
people. Popularly, that was what a lot of people
thought. He was not a guru. He wasnt there to
dispense some sort of divine method of attaining enlightenment, other than by his example.
He did seem to embody the old-soul archetype of a shaman.

Something like that. In the moment when

we were working together, we could let some
light shine through. We found a way to open
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 57

Natasha with
daughter
Monet

your friends tease you when both your

children turned out to be daughters?

Karma, karma, karma. How does it feel to be

a dad? I got that from a lot of people.

PHOTOS: SUSANA MILLMAN

If you could talk to your younger self,

what advice would you give?

Stick with it. Have faith in your footsteps. I

wouldnt have done things differently. I would
have advised myself to make the mistakes that
I madetoo numerous to mention herebut
be humble enough to admit that they were
mistakes. And to learn from them.

Wedding photo with

longtime lyricist John
Perry Barlow and bride
Natasha Muenter-Weir

up some heavenly windows, I guess. But it was

momentary. We knew it. We knew that if we
worked together we could oftentimes tap into
that, but that was as far as it went.
You know the lyric: Once in awhile you
get shown the light, in the strangest
of places if you look at it right. Deadheads spend a lot of time peeling back
and interpreting lyrics.

If they are looking for divinity, theyre probably looking for a divinity within themselves
rather than in what we were doing.
Bob Dylan, someone you knew well, famously has that problem of people interpreting his lyrics. You saw how fame
affected him.

Right. Hes done a remarkable job of overcoming the shackles of his fame. Hes had to just
insulate himself from a great deal of the world,
but hes a master of disguises. He can go out in
the world and not be recognized; Ive seen him
do it. That wasnt something Jerry was able to
do. Jerry was born with a physical look about
him that you couldnt disguise.
Bottom line: fameis it worth it?

Excellent question. Ask me later.

Ha! When later?

When Im lying on my death bed.

Weve talked about drugs and rock n
roll but not about sex. What was it like
to be a young man and have countless
women willing to have sex with you?

It was fun, though a bit distracting. Id probably be further advanced as a musician had it
not been for the availability of the sexual and
romantic encounters. Im romantic by nature,
as most men tend to be. The combination of
my nature and my situation made it difficult,
58 NOVEMBER 2014

I would tell myself to relax and not fret

so much. Gods got this one.

if not impossible, for me to settle down until I

was about 50, though I tried numerous times
in my life. Each time it seemed to blow up in
my face. At least that situation offered me the
opportunity to shop around. A lot of guys I
know have been married a number of times,
whereas I am married once. I was wondering
to myself if it was possible to maintain the rock
n roll tomcat lifestyle with anything resembling grace. I looked around, and from what
I could seeI was looking at Mick Jagger, for
instancethat prospect looked pretty dismal
to me.
What do you mean about Mick Jagger?

All I can say is Im looking at a guy who was

in his 50s and still sporting about, and it just
didnt look that graceful to me. At the same
time, Ive always loved kids, and I met a girl
who was a teacher who was real good with kids
as well as making me laugh, which not a lot of
girls could do. We had a wonderful romantic
relationship, so I finally settled down.
Yeah, you got the great girl from the
North Country. What are your appreciations about married life?

Its given me a family and another focus in my

life, a fuller measure of fulfillment. Curiously,
I had always harbored the notion that I might
spend my golden years in a monastery, but
Im a family guy so its put that notion off for
a while.
Seriously? Youd envisioned the endgame in a monastery?

Yeah. If I had stayed single, I eventually

wouldve ended in a monastery. It was a short
step from a single existence to a monastery.
Its a longer step from a family existence to a
monastery.
Given your active single lifestyle, didnt

Right. Though Im not sure that I put this on

God or any higher self. My higher self is here
my flesh. My higher self is me working my way
through all this stuff. Its tough for me to find
words for it, but its all one big continuum: the
mistakes, the learning, the revelations and the
closing of that loop, the fulfillment of that revelation and the growth it provides.
Some people call it Godthe whole
thing, the mistakes, the whole thing.

Im God. As Jesus said, The Kingdom of Heaven is within. That implies to me that one is divine right now if one just has the ability to realize it. That ability is there to be found.
That ability, if it comes at all, tends to
come later in life. What do you make
of the phrase youth is wasted on the
young?

No, I dont believe that because Ive been a professional kid all my life. I solidified into what I
am and what Im doing somewhere around the
age of 14 or 15. I met Jerry, and that just crystallized and formalized. Im a musician and an
adventurer of sorts. I realized that before I met
Jerry, but after that meeting we were off into
the world, in our little joint endeavor.
Do you have hang-ups about aging?

Hell no. Its going to hurt a little bit, but pain

and suffering is part of lifepart of the lesson
that you learn and how you deal with it. Theres
pain early in life in terms of the frustration of
what you cant do, that you learn. But then as
you get older, a new set of limitations arise.
Thats always going to be part of existence.
I just received a batch of photos of you
as a young longhairall that youthful vitality. Do you ever look at those photos
and think those were the days?

I find that youthful vitality in the characters of

many of the songs I sing. I live there again. My

Bob Dylan and

the Dead, 1987

next few years with the ascendancy of digital

music, which right now is in infant form, music
will re-ascend to cultural prominence.
Youre on a winning streak. Every time
you sing the national anthem before a
Giants game, the team wins.

[Knocks his own head] Knock on wood.

Will you sing for the World Series?

PHOTO: JAY BLAKESBERG

Because there are no more superstitious people on earth than baseball players, the Giants
would love to have us sing. To my understanding that request is in. In the playoffs they have
their say, but when it gets to the Series, not so
much. Major League Baseball and Fox Sports
are looking for something considerably glossier than yours truly.
The suits take over.

Lets say when it comes to the World Series,

the suits take over.
quest to manifest some sort of fulfillment in
my existence takes youthful vitality. I find that
in the morning every day. Its a matter of embracing that and bringing it to focus and good
use. Like I say, Im a professional kid. Theres
an openness that I try to embrace, and on a
good day I do bring it to my life.

Soul Survivors: Mickey

Hart, Phil Lesh, Bill
Kreutzmann, Bob Weir

What connections do you make between gratitude and humility, gratitude

and charity?

A phrase that I heard when I was in my early

teens that more or less formalized an approach
for me in life was this: There but for fortune
go you or I. In other words, I really do try to
put myself in other peoples shoes.

I got involved in the environmental movement because it just doesnt look right to me
when I see what were doing to the planet,
the disrespect that humanity brings to our
planet, our life-support system, the planets
life-support system. Now, by having kids the
issue is compounded because that disrespect
is going to affect them. Somethings got to be
done; Ive got to do what I can. We supported Greenpeace as soon as we learned about
them, which was right when they were starting. We did benefits and stuff like that to get
them rolling.
Other shit that pisses you off?

Too much and too deep to get into here. Lets

just say the enemy here is massive willful ignorance; it somehow must be overcome.

PHOTO: JAY BLAKESBERG

Youve long been focused on environmental charities.

Besides our sports teams, any special

appreciations about the Bay Area?

I am a pathological 49ers fan, but sports is the

cherry on the sundae. The Bay Area is a huge
wellspring of creativity and to some degree,
enlightenment. We have a couple of major universities here, Berkeley and Stanfordhotbeds
of learning. From learning comes creativity.
Television was invented here, the Internet. The
nonprofit culture, the yoga culture is important
here. There was a time when the Bay Area was a
hotbed of music, and I think gradually over the

For our 40th anniversary issue, any final

remarks to our readership, which is one of
the groovy thought leaders by the bay?

I definitely like the worldview thats promoted by Common Ground. Its been one hell of
a ride. I imagine it will continue to be that. It
will continue to be, period. Im grateful to have
been born into this time, into this place. Very
grateful.
Rob Sidon is publisher and editor-in-chief of
Common Ground magazine.
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 59

1970s

Four Decades of
Common Ground
Common Ground pioneered the eco-health-wellness premise 40 years
ago and helped advance a higher vision for our planet. Starting with
black-and-white newsprint that eventually led to colorful recycled
stock, the magazines covers have traced the eras with bold panache
and alternative style. Weve compiled a retrospective we hope you will
appreciate. Some images you may have missedand some you may remember. We sincerely thank the photographers and illustrators along
the waytoo many to namewhose impressive art speaks volumes.

60 NOVEMBER 2014

1980s
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 61

1990s

62 NOVEMBER 2014

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 63

2000s

64 NOVEMBER 2014

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 65

May 2008 | SF | Free

Power To
The Peaceful
Spearheads Michael Franti
tells a truth you can dance to

rock The Bike

Carbon-free musicians
pedal a new sound
october 2006 | SF | Free

free music for your playlist

Think The Ditty Bops,
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Ugandan Coffee
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Comes To NorCal

Roots

Final
Countdown

The new restaurant in

SFs first green hotel

Plastics

Leos new film asks: How many celebrities

does it take to change a culture?

Permeating Our
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Words

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Escape from Affluenza

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How to stop eating our oceans to
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TANTRIC CONSORT
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SEX AND SPIRIT

Wisdom of the
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THE NEED
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Healthy,
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DAY IN THE WORLD

A Pictorial Expression
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The Ephemeral Architecture

of Burning Man

Advanced Practice
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18 THINGS
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AWAKENED
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The Art of
Mayumi Oda

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SMART METER
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Health Risks and

Privacy Concerns

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John
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ApocAlypse
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COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 69

happenings
NOVEMBER 2014

11/1416 Green Festival at SF Fort Mason Center

The Herbst and Festival pavilions at Fort Mason replace the beloved Concourse Exhibition Center as
home to the 13th iteration of the popular Green Festival. With more than 300 sponsors and vendors,
the festival features products and services from a wide selection of categories like food, health and
wellness, nutrition, body care, fashion to energy, transportation, home construction, gardening, and
design.
Bring the family to visit the unique stages and pavilions, including the Sustainable Beer and Wine
Garden; Yoga Pavilion, featuring free yoga instruction and classes; Family Fun stage with interactive
and educational activities for young eco-warriors; Vegan/Vegetarian Food Court, featuring local artisanal cuisine; and Lifestyle Stage, featuring experts on the green business and technology sector, and
a special section focusing on how SF neighborhoods promote green living. Ford and BMW will be providing neighborhood test drives of the latest eco-friendly models. In cooperation with Global Exchange
and Green America. Come visit our booth. See you there, at 2 Marina Boulevard. GreenFestivals.org

70 NOVEMBER 2014

11/69 O+ Festival, Petaluma

Art in Exchange for Healthcare
Discover the O+ Festival, a three-day, community-run celebration of music and the arts whereby participating artists exchange their contributions in return for healthcare services from
art-loving doctors, dentists, and other wellness
providers at the O+ Clinic. This grassroots solution aims to offer healthcare for the creative
community. By programming the festivals art
and music events in various venues, O+ supports and unites local businesses and residents,
artists, musicians, and doctors, strengthening
the fabric of a community to make it more sustainable and vibrant. Founded in Kingston, New
York, in 2010, the second branch of national
expansion begins on Petalumas Putnam Plaza.
Learn how you can attend and participate at
OPositiveFestival.org.

projects. Join Burning Man cofounder Harley

Dubois and Flux Foundation cofounder Rebecca Anders for a conversation about female
leadership as a catalyst for creative expression
and community building. At CIIS Main Building,
79 p.m. CIIS.edu/publicprograms

11/15 Lila & Love: Bhakti Night

at Yoga Tree Corte Madera
Join a luscious evening of yoga at 7 p.m., followed by soulful kirtan led by Adam Bauer, Ben
Leinbach, David Estes, Lakshmi Devi, Christine
and Friends. DJ Eric Monkhouse takes over at
10 p.m. 67 Tamal Vista Boulevard.
Amma

In 2013, Jonathan Stack and Dr. Doug Stein

launched World Vasectomy Day with the hope
of informing people about vasectomies and
bringing these services to those furthest afield,
and to inspire men to engage in the conversation about family planning. A hundred doctors
in 25 countries conducted 1,000 vasectomies
in a 24-hour period, to the intrigue of journalists and bloggers worldwide. Learn more from
a doctor near you. WorldVasectomyDay.com

Join a public forum with renowned speakers Daniel Ellsberg, Norman Solomon, Trevor
Timm, Marjorie Cohn, and Ahmed Ghappour
to discuss the publics need for greater transparency and constitutional protection from
government intrusion and abuse. Learn why
independent media and whistleblowers have
emerged as a powerful check on the corporate
lobbyists hold on Congress. At 7:30 p.m., St.
Johns Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave.,
Berkeley. BrownPaperTickets.com

11/13 Women of Burning

Man: Fueling Creativity
and Community at CIIS
Women hold pivotal roles in creating community around the world. Burning Man culture advances the role of women in creating community through playa art and through organizations
such as the Flux Foundation, where volunteers
learn skills such as welding and creating art

11/2023 Meet Swami

Vidyadhishananda
Hailing from the ancient nath lineage in the
Himalayas, KriyaYoga meditation adept Swami Vidyadhishananda offers a free lecture
series on Vedic spiritual philosophy. Sanskrit peace chants, guided meditation, and
a close-up greeting with the swami are part
of the fellowships on 9/20 in Santa Rosa,
9/22 in San Rafael, and 9/23 in Santa Clara.
Swamahiman.org/events

11/7 World Vasectomy Day

11/9 Whistleblowers and

Independent Media: A Check
on Government Power

Swami
Vidyadhishananda

11/22 Black Rock Arts

Foundation ARTumnal
Gathering

11/1922 Amma, the

Hugging Saint, in Castro Valley
Renowned humanitarian and spiritual figure
Mata Amritanandamayi makes only two appearances in the US in the fall, at the MA Center in Castro Valley and in Michigan. Free public
darshan program Nov. 19, followed by a retreat
Nov. 2022, and a final public program on the
evening of Nov. 22. MA Center, 10200 Crow
Canyon Road, Castro Valley. Carpooling sometimes required. Amma.org

11/20 Annual Pachamama

Alliance Luncheon Fundraiser

Enter an enchanted world of interactive art experiences, stunning live performances, an array
of local and national DJ talent, and a sumptuous
pre-event dinner with live and silent auctions,
absinthe tasting, and special gifts. Considered
one of SFs grooviest gatherings at the Bently
Reserve, 400 Sansome St. BlackRockArts.org

11/27 Thanksgiving Workshops

at Yogaworks in Marin
Consider spending Thanksgiving morning with
James Higgins (Larkspur) or Christy Brown (Mill
Valley), setting the tone by cultivating gratitude
through the quieting, calming, centering effect
of yoga, practiced mindfully. A two-hour gratitude workshop from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. as a precursor to a soulful holiday. Yogaworks.com

Join friends and Pachamama Alliance leaders

to learn about their work to protect one of the
most biodiverse places on earth. One of the
largest nonprofit fundraisers in the Bay Area
takes place at the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason Center, and you can be part of it. Donations
raised aim to transform the systems and structures standing in the way of our shared dream
of a thriving, sustainable human presence on
this planet. Pachamama.org
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 71

professional services directory

Business & Professional Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Certification & Degrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conferences, Workshops & Classes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Healing & Wellness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Intuitive Arts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Massage & Bodywork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Psychology, Counseling & Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spas, Retreats & Travel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Special Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spiritual Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Resources for a Well-Balanced Lifestyle

Welcome to our thriving village of skilled healers and active doers a community
of progressive, heart-centered individuals and companies commited to the pursuit
of physical health, mental bliss, social justice, and a sustainable world.

Business & Professional Services

Accounting
MAKE MORE MONEY, MINIMIZE
TAXES & HAVE MORE FUN.
Financial prosperity and spirituality used
to be looked at as opposite ends of the
spectrum. After more than thirty years
as a C.P.A., I discovered that being a whole
person includes financial maturity as well as
personal growth. After establishing a successful practice in N.Y.C., I began to look for
more meaningful ways in which to relate to life. While exploring the metaphysical, my
family and I found our way to Marin in 1977. I spent the next 10 years leading trans-

formational trainings, human potential workshops and seminars throughout the USA
and internationally. I reached a nurturing balance in my own life, and now through
the blending of Financial Principles with Transformational work, I am able to support
peoples Financial Well-being in a unique way.
I enjoy productive and nurturing relationships with my clients. What we do together
is: set up low-cost efficient accounting systems; establish simple yet essential money
management, tax planning and business practices; reduce worry and stress; establish
real priorities; clean up old messes; make more money, minimize taxes and have
more fun.
It may be a perfect fit.
Call IRVING WILLIAM BERNSTEIN, C.P.A.
415.389.8500

Acting to Solve Debt

ADVOCATES IN BANKRUPTCY
Move Forward with a Financial Fresh
Start!
When you find yourself struggling each
month to balance bills that seem overwhelming, when you find yourself financially swimming furiously just to stay afloat, youre closing yourself off from the opportunity to move
on and up to success.

to the time the foreclosure sale was stopped.

Imagine Lowering Your Car Payments While Keeping Your Vehicle and Other Assets:
I restructure your financial picture so that you can move forward while maintaining
what you already have. I ensure the safety of your car, your home, your business.
Imagine Reenergizing Your Business:
The number one reason businesses fail is poor cash flow. I immediately and dramatically improve your bottom line, allowing you to focus on making your business a success.
Imagine an Attorney Who Offers Personal, Creative Service:
I pride myself on the individualized attention I give. For example, Ive lowered mortgage payments for contractors during the rainy season, and for teachers during the
summer months.
What I Offer:
Free Consultations Evening & Weekend Hours Payment Plans Money-Back Guarantee Offices in San Francisco & Pacifica Small Business Turnarounds Member
Better Business Bureau
If you want to reenergize your business or your personal financial life, call me.
415.351.2265
www.ebankruptcycenter.com
BANKRUPTCY CENTER OF JOHN D. RAYMOND
A Creative Debt Relief Agency

Professional DJ
DJ HEARTBEAT
MESMERIZING, MAGICAL MUSICAL MIXES
Lloyd Barde has an instinctive gift for providing music for creative movement, dance & healing. As DJ Heartbeat, Lloyd brings an exquisite
depth of knowledge and presence to his work
as Movement Wizard, playing music that invites the body to move and inspires the heart
to soar. Besides his vast music collection, spanning six decades in all styles, is his innate sense of reading the room and tuning into his
audience. His music is at once playful, unexpected, and lends a special live magic.

Dances, weddings, private parties, fund-raisers, birthdays, and whatever else might
suit your musical fanciesall are fair game for DJ Heartbeat. Let him co-design the music you really want to include at your events! Since 1985, DJ Heartbeat has brought
his magic mixes to Barefoot Boogie, Rudramandir, Groove Garden, Spirit Rock,
Inverness Yacht Club, World Dance & Fitness, Larkspur Caf Theater, and Rosie
the Riveter as well as countless private events.
Of all the many DJs I enjoy in the Bay Area, DJ Heartbeat is the most inventive and
spontaneous and fun, with his ability to respond to the dancers energies around him.
Hes the best alternative DJ I have ever heard! W. Lewis

Business & Professional Services

Business & Professional Services

Get a second chance!

I am a lawyer specializing in the field of bankruptcy, a legitimate legal tool we can use
to remove your draining burden of debt.
I love my work because bankruptcy is one of the few areas of the law where quick,
dramatic results are obtained. Over the past 19 years, I have helped over 10,000 people
move forward in their financial lives.
I can help with:
Credit Card Harassment IRS Stopping Car Repossessions & Lowering Payments
Preventing Home Foreclosures Student Loans
Imagine a Fresh Start Within a Single Day:
I typically get a federal court order preventing any kind of bill collection within 24
hours. I once saved a home in 38 minutes from the time a client came into my office
Business & Professional Services

72 NOVEMBER 2014

Call or email Lloyd aka DJ Heartbeat:415.924.4848

Lloyd@well.com, www.lloydbarde.com/dj-heartbeat.html

Certification & Degrees

Certification & Degrees

Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine

BECOME A LICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST
If you are seeking a new and meaningful career in healthcare, you may wish to
research becoming a Licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist, two of the fastest growing
healthcare professions in the U.S.
With campuses in San Jose and Santa Cruz,
Five Branches offers Masters and Doctoral
Degrees in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The college is nationally accredited and offers Federal financial aid. Minimum entrance
requirements are 2 years of college.

Since 1984, Five Branches has trained exceptional medical professionals in Acupuncture, Herbology, Dietary Medicine, Qigong and Tuina massage, the five major branches
of Chinese Medicine. We are proud to have the highest passing rate in the California Licensing exam. Our faculty are practicing physicians, most with over 20 years
medical experience in leading hospitals in China and the U.S. Our clinic sees over 100
patients a day.
We invite you to visit our campuses, or request a free catalog at:
(toll free) 877.838.6789
email: tcm@fivebranches.edu
3031 Tisch Way, San Jose, CA 95128
200 7th Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95062
www.fivebranches.edu

Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine

CHINESE MEDICINE
Traditional Chinese Medicine is more
than just needles and formulas. TCM is the
art of acupuncture, acupressure, herbal prescription, Taiji Quan, and meditation, based
on the foundation theories of yin and yang,
the five elements and eight principles. The
Academy explores the methodologies of
proper healing while preserving the cultural
and spiritual aspects of the inner self. Before you can heal others, you must know how
to heal yourself.
The Program The Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine is an accredited,
professional degree curriculum designed to prepare graduates to become effective,
competent, and caring members of the Chinese medicine profession. The Tui Na Massage Therapy Certificate is a California BPPVE approved 180 or 300-hour program in
specialized Chinese, acupressure (massage) therapy.
Location and Facilities The Academy is located in vibrant Oakland, California, just
across the bay from San Francisco. The Academy campus is near Oaklands City Center

and Elihu Harris Plaza, and easily accessed by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) public
transportation system.
Admissions Admission is open to all qualified applicants. Equal educational opportunities will be provided to all persons, regardless of race, religion, gender, national
origin, marital status, sexual preference, age, or physical handicap.
Academics The program emphasizes the cultivation of the intellect and an understanding of human nature. The ability to analyze, evaluate, and effectively translate
Chinese medical information into practical clinical use is essential.
The Clinic The teaching clinic is a clinical program of TCM that is open to the public.
The clinic provides high-quality care at low cost, offering complete alternative medical
services to the community.

Ayurvedic Certification
THE AYURVEDIC INSTITUTE
The Ayurvedic Institute offers authentic
comprehensive introductory and advanced
Ayurvedic education. Founded in 1984 by
internationally recognized Ayurvedic expert,
Vasant Lad, Ayurvedic Physician, B.A.M.&S,
M.A.Sc., and licensed by the state of New
Mexico since 1994, its programs include:
Ayurvedic Studies Program - Level 1
30-week residential program, 730 hours: Students learn to live an Ayurvedic lifestyle
and offer lifestyle counseling and education to help clients improve their health and
wellness by practicing an Ayurvedic lifestyle. M-1 visas available.
Ayurvedic Studies Program - Level 2
30-week residential program, 735 hours: offers continued training in Ayurvedic
theory and practice for students planning a clinical career as an Ayurvedic practi-

tioner including lifestyle management, Ayurvedic herbology, and Ayuryoga recommendations.

Ayurvedic Studies Program - Level 3 Pune, India
Students study with Dr. Lad for 120 hours to learn the healing application of Ayurveda to patients in a clinical setting.
Weekend Seminars and 7-Day Intensives - offer in-depth Ayurvedic topics. Continuing Education Units are available.
Panchakarma Therapy authentic, classical Ayurvedic 5-Day program for healing,
cleansing, and rejuvenation.
Located in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico, facilities include classrooms, yoga
studio, correspondence course, retail store, and herb department.

Herbalism
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF
HERBAL STUDIES
Founded in 1978 by Rosemary Gladstar,
CSHS is one of Americas oldest centers for
herbal education. Our goal is to empower individuals with the skills, spirit and experience
needed to be capable community herbalists.
CSHS is located on 80 acres in Forestville, CA,
including a medicinal garden with over 250
species of medicinal plants. Classes from one day to our 8-month intensive.
What is growing in the garden will guide each class as we focus on the medicinal

plants that are ready to harvest and utilize this season. Our exploration will span from
the medicinal to the magical, and the cultural to the culinary. Each session is a blend of
lecture and hands-on time in the garden and lab.
Upcoming classes
* Mushroom Walk: November 15
* Medicinal Mushrooms: November 22
* Herbal Holiday Gift Making: December 6

Certification & Degrees

Study at one of our four locations, or complete our Nutrition Consultant Program
from home with our structured yet flexible, Distance Learning Program.
We also offer a comprehensive 8-week personal growth course, Nutrition Essentials
for Everyone, which teaches the core concepts of holistic nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

Certification & Degrees

Certification & Degrees

Certification & Degrees

BAUMAN COLLEGE:
NATURAL CHEF & NUTRITION
CONSULTANT CERTIFICATION
Change the world through nutrition.
NATURAL CHEF Master a healthful holistic
approach to culinary arts. Certify in 7 months.
NUTRITION CONSULTANT Learn a therapeutic approach to the promotion of optimal
health and wellness. Certify in 18 months.

Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences

1601 Clay St.
Oakland, CA. 94612
Phone: 510.763.7787
Fax: 510.834.8646
Website: www.acchs.edu
E-mail: info@acchs.edu

Free catalog. 505-291-9698

PO Box 23445, Albuquerque, NM 87192-1445
www.ayurveda.com
registrar@ayurveda.com

See our website for class details.

For information call (707) 887-7457
CSHS P.O. Box 39, Forestville, CA 95436
E-mail: cshs@cshs.com, Website: www.cshs.com

Berkeley, CA Sonoma County, CA Santa Cruz, CA Boulder, CO

Distance Learning
Schedule an appointment with an Admissions Advisor or contact us to find out more.
baumancollege.org 800-987-7530

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 73

Ayurvedic Training
STUDY AUTHENTIC AYURVEDA
IN THE EAST BAY
Vedika Global fulfills its mission to ignite
a community healing and wellness movement via Ayurvedic Medical Education (Gurukula), Community Workshops (Satsangha)
and Ayurvedic Charitable Clinics (Seva).
Make a Difference - Harness the power of
Vedika Globals signature education programs complete with personalized and spiritualized training, practical hands-on
learning, excellent clinical training and customized graduate support.

Give your personal health and wellbeing a Jumpstart!

Join Vedikas popular two-month self-care course which includes:
Hands-on teaching and seasonal care instruction In-class demos of nutrition rules
and recipes Step-by-step guidance in self-care rituals to heal the body
Become an Ayurveda Community Educator: 1 year Certificate Course in the Science,
Philosophy & Spirituality of Ayurveda
Become a Certified Ayurveda Health Counselor: 2.5 Year Specialist Diploma in
Ayurveda Preventative Medicine & Community Health

Massage and Aquatic Bodywork Training

HARBIN SCHOOL OF HEALING ARTS
At Harbin Hot Springs
For over 30 years, the massage and aquatic
bodywork school at Harbin Hot Springs has
been teaching classes. Formerly known as
the School of Shiatsu and Massage, Harbin
is now the owner and operator of the school.
We offer 258 hour Massage Practitioner,
558 hour Massage Therapist and many more

training programs. Courses include Massage, Anatomy, Kinesiology, Pathology, Shiatsu, Deep Tissue, Craniosacral, Trigger Point Therapy and our renowned aquatic bodywork classes in Watsu, Waterdance and Healing Dance.
Our Training Programs can get you started in a new career in massage therapy. But
our classes can also be taken individually for personal growth or to add skills for established bodyworkers. Taking classes here at beautiful Harbin Hot Springs, located just
north of the Napa Valley in Middletown CA,is a wonderful way to connect with body,
mind and spirit.

Massage School on Maui

MAUI SCHOOL OF
THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE
Become a Licensed Massage Therapist while
enjoying the sun and sea of Hawaii! Our 650hour professional program is one of the most
comprehensive and prepares you for a richly
rewarding career. $5,500 tuition makes our
school one of the most affordable anywhere.
The school is located on the beautiful island
of Maui where the warm ocean, gentle climate and lush tropical beauty encourage
inner harmony, deep relaxation and support of ones healing process. Curriculum
includes: Anatomy & Kinesiology, Swedish, Hawaiian Lomilomi, Hydrotherapy & Spa

Treatments, Deep Tissue & Neuromuscular Therapy, Assessment & Clinical Treatments,
Shiatsu, Sports Massage & Therapeutic Exercise, Reflexology, and Body/Mind Integration. Our popular student clinic is supervised by MSTMs exceptional and experienced
faculty. 12-month part-time programs and 7-month full-time programs begin every
September and March. Maui School of Therapeutic Massage is licensed by the HI
Department of Education and is approved for VA benefits. Graduates are eligible for
licensure in most states and countries. Student visas are available. We also offer programs for transfer students to receive their Hawaii license. For more information and
catalogue:

HAVE A CAREER YOU LOVE AS

A MASSAGE THERAPIST!
Since 1979, National Holistic Institutes mission has been Helping People Have Work
They Love! Its never too late to start an exciting career in massage therapy. NHI is one
of the largest and most respected massage
therapy schools in the nation because of
the dedicated staff, exclusive massage therapy focus, and real-world experience.

7 California Campus Locations: Emeryville, San Francisco, San Jose, Petaluma, Sacramento, Studio City (Los Angeles) & Santa Ana (Orange County) Nationally Accredited Lifetime Career Placement Assistance Financial Aid available for those
who qualify Daytime, Evening or Weekend Schedule
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, massage jobs are expected to increase
more than 20% from 2006 to 2020, faster than the average for all occupations.
NHI provides flexible schedules to meet your busy lifestyle and we have trained staff that
can provide a variety of financial options to assist you in getting the training you need.

Certification & Degrees

Certification & Degrees

Certification & Degrees

Certification & Degrees

Pursue a
Rewarding
Career in
Massage
Therapy!

Vedika Global
admissions@vedikaglobal.org
510-601-8334 www.vedikaglobal.org

707-987-3801, registrar@harbinschoolofhealingarts.org
www.harbinschoolofhealingarts.org

MAUI SCHOOL OF THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE

P.O. Box 1891, Makawao, HI 96768
808-572-1888
www.massagemaui.com, info@massagemaui.com

Contact National Holistic Institute today at 888.771.7008

NHIMassage.com NHI.edu/disclosure

Conferences, Workshops & Classes

Conferences, Workshops & Classes Breathwork

GROF HOLOTROPIC BREATHWORK

Stanislav Grof is one of the most important pioneers in the scientific understanding
of consciousness. He and his wife, Christina,
have contributed both to its intellectual and
experiential understanding through their
work with Holotropic Breathwork.

Deepak Chopra
Join Stanislav Grof, M.D., for the experiential weekend workshop, The Adventure of Self-Discovery, or his Friday evening
lecture, The Healing Potential of Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness. Stan Grof

is the co-originator (with Christina Grof ) of Holotropic Breathwork and one of the
founders of transpersonal psychology
Through effective breathing, powerful music and a safe and honoring space, Holotropic Breathwork allows you access to your own inner healing wisdom. Each individual goes on a personal inner journey that can include aspects of your personal
biography, psychological death/rebirth, and all types of transpersonal states and experiences.
There will be time for questions and discussion with Stan Grof. Emphasis is placed on
integration of the breathwork experience in a supportive environment.
January 16 (evening) through 18 (12:30pm), San Francisco (near airport), CA.
Or join one of our 6-day retreats in Taos, NM, Pennsylvania & Joshua Tree, CA.
workshop@holotropic.com, 415 383-8779

Consider Placing Your Ad in Common Ground.

Connecting People for 40 Years. Call 415-505-1410.
74 NOVEMBER 2014

Healing & Wellness

Allergies
BE ALLERGY FREE
Adults and children are often free of allergies in 3 or 4 sessions.
Noninvasive Painless Drug-Free No Needles No Rotation Diet
Common allergies that can be cleared:
Hayfever Grass Dust Animals Chemicals
Food Bees Other allergic reactions
Allergies often stem from old feelings of
fear, confusion, loneliness or sadness. These emotions, held in acupuncture meridians,
unconsciously exert their influence over our current thoughts and body functions. Our
work together accesses these emotions and memories releasing them, allowing the

body to return to health. People who have been plagued all their lives with allergies
experience great relief, sometimes after just one session. The allergies do not return.
I have a Masters Degree in Social Work and have been trained by the originators
of Option Therapy and Bio-Energy Balancing. I developed this effective and versatile
method using a synthesis of my education and clinical experiences. I have over 20
years experience working with adults, children and animals.
For the past eighteen years, I have been working with the connection between body
and mind with exciting results. I am committed to creating a safe place where issues
can be worked through with respect and gentleness.
Dont let your allergies limit your life any longer!
Lynn Corwin
415.456.2648

Healing & Wellness

Experience the power of Soul Healing:

Soul Healing sessions Karma Cleansing for life or specific conditions
Soul Readings Soul Wisdom classes
Peggy Werner and Ximena Gavino are Worldwide Representatives of Master Sha.
They are advanced Soul Healers, Soul Teachers and Soul Communicators with a powerful Third Eye and the authority to read all levels of the Akashic records, past, present
and future, and to offer Divine Karma Cleansing for a condition or life.

Healing & Wellness

BE
ALLERGY
FREE

MASTER SHAS
LOVE PEACE HARMONY CENTER
Heal the soul first; then healing and transformation of every aspect of life will follow.
Master Zhi Gang
Soul Healing focuses on the soulyour
soul, the soul of your organs, your house, your
relationships, your business, your finances,
etc.
Soul Healing brings divine love and light to transform the energy and spiritual blockages that are often the root cause of challenges for any aspect of your life, e.g., health,
relationships, business, finance, spirituality.

Visit website for intro events and classes. Call for an appointment!
Master Shas Love Peace Harmony Center
1549 California St., San Francisco, CA 94109
415.971.7373
www.LovePeaceHarmonyCenterSF.com
info@LovePeaceHarmonyCenterSF.com

Healing Music
MEDITATIONS TO SUPPORT
SOBRIETY & RECOVERY by
JOHN BRADSHAW & STEVEN HALPERN
Addiction is often about an inner emptiness,
a spiritual vacuum. Let John Bradshaw guide
you in two meditations to support spiritual
well-being. Program includes information on
stress, addiction and spirituality, plus bonus
album: Lullabies for your Inner Child. MP3

available now; CDs 11/11/14. Healing music is a meaningful gift that lasts all year long.
John Bradshaw is an iconic figure in the self-help movement, a # 1 New York Times
bestselling author, PBS series host and counselor.
Steven Halpern is Grammy nominated recording artist, composer and sound healer whose music has helped millions experience the inner silence in meditation to fill
the spiritual vacuum. His music provides the soundtrack for Bradshaws Inner Child
workshops, PBS series and recordings.

Nutrition
THE AWARE BODY: MARY SERPHOS,
CERTIFIED HOLISTIC HEALTH COACH,
LICENSED PSYCHOTHERAPIST,
INTEGRATED NUTRITION COUNSELING
As a certified nutrition consultant, licensed
psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher,
focused on results, I work with individuals
and families to help them eat and feel better.
After creating a personalized, goal- focused
plan I team with clients to tackle obstacles, expand self-awareness and address
chronic health concerns. I have helped clients recover from Lyme disease, Chrons
disease and other digestive disorders, migraines, depression, chronic fatigue, and diabetes. I have helped children, teens, men and women improve body image and lose
weight. Comprehensive programs that are either one, three or six months long are

suggested based upon clients personal needs. These programs include:

Science based nutrition education A balanced menu plan designed around nutritional preferences (gluten-free, flexitarian, locavore, nourishing traditions, vegetarian)
Cooking support 3-7 day mindful whole body cleanse Grocery store tour Meditation and mindfulness coaching Emotional health support An integrated stress
reduction plan
The overall mission of The Aware Body is to provide clients with restored balance,
revitalized health, improved relationships, increased energy, and personal transformation.
Graduate training and degrees: Smith College School for Social Work and The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Call for a consultation and begin your results-focused,
fully supported program for improved health.

Internal Cleansing
GENTLE, INTUITIVE DETOX
Cleansing SUPPORT IN MARIN
Consciously Woods Gravity Method Colon Hygiene
Woods Gravity (also known as colonics) is now available to
Method Colon the Bay Area community! This is the original
Hygiene method used by Dr. Robert Woods and Dr.
Norman Walker, and allows for a simultaneous
Anjali Krystoak in/out flowmeaning water enters and exits
at the same time.

Unlike other modalities, no machines, motors, or pumps are used. I will be administering treatments at Project Detox, a body cleansing studio in San Anselmo that
offers customized cleansing programs reflecting each persons unique physiology.
I am present throughout the session, intuitively supporting you in your treatment, and
utilize Do Terra essential oils and abdominal massage. With this sought-out technique,
we gently awaken the bowels with triple filtered UV water to do what they are
meant to dorelease. Please visit my website to find out more about colon hygiene
and other offerings. It would be my pleasure to be of service!
Anjali Krystofiak Email: Anjali@cleansingconsciously.com
CleansingConsciously.com
641-919-7929

Healing & Wellness

Healing & Wellness

Healing & Wellness

Hear samples at: StevenHalpern.com/Bradshaw

Facebook.com/StevenHalpernFanPage

Mary Serphos, LCSW, CHHC 415-412-5490

mary@theawarebody.com www.theawarebody.com

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 75

Healing & Wellness

Hormone / Allergy / Thyroid / Nutrition

DISCOVER A WAY TO END YOUR
HORMONAL IMBALANCES
Tired of being told Its all in your head and
that you need to learn to live with it?
Experiencing:
Fatigue Anxiety Panic Attacks
Cold Hands / Feet Cold Sensitive
Headaches Cramping
Sugar / Bread Cravings Low Libido

Hypnotherapy, Dharma Coaching

SHAMANIC HYPNOTHERAPY & DHARMA
LIFE COACHING
Is emotional, mental or spiritual pain
getting in the way of you experiencing a
joyous expanded self?
If so, theres an antidote
As your guide, I offer tools that guide
you back to your joyous authentic self. My
expertise focuses on transforming mental,
emotional and spiritual pain through integrating Shamanic Hypnotherapy and
Personal Development Coaching with Eastern Spiritual Practices to offer you the
most cutting-edge coaching system available today. Let Shamanic Hypnotherapy,

Healing & Wellness

Hair Loss / Thinning Constipation Muscle Aches Sinus Congestion

Bloating Belly Fat Brain Fog
Call now to schedule a consult to learn more about natural hormone balancing. The
first 33 people to call receive our initial examination for only $47 ($240 value).
Triad Of Health Family Healing and Hormone Balancing Center
4340 Redwood Highway, Suite D318
San Rafael, CA 94903
(415) 459-4313 Office
www.triadofhealth.net
and Dharma Life Coaching support you healing:
Anxiety & Depression,
Emotional & Sexual Pain, Addictions
Loss of Life Direction, Confidence & Purpose
Relationship Problems
Emotional Disconnection & Energy Blockages
Join me today, as you awaken your joyous wisdom within, allowing your creative purpose & spiritual gifts to shine.
Maitri Joy, MS CHT CLC
Wings of Bliss Coaching
(415) 990-8977 www.wingsofbliss.com maitrijoyclc@gmail.com
Individual & Couples Sessions Available.
2 office Locations; Marin/SF & Sonoma

Healing & Wellness

BEYOND SOMATIC THERAPY

CREATING DEEP & LASTING CHANGE
Decades ago, I created 5 simple
direct steps to transform problems
simply and directlyonce and for all.
TRANSFORMING EMBODIMENT changes
the very underpinnings of short & long-term
struggles, transforming the essence from
pain into healing. You will find that recurring
issues, mysterious physical symptoms, unwanted emotions and the beliefs that
construct your experience are finally transformed.

Working at somatic, energetic, cognitive and karmic levels, transforms your past and
present. What sets me apart is that I survived a near death twice and a 3 yr long
kundalini awakening that connected me directly to Source.
Elizabeth has an incredible gift to see the unknown, understand the complicated,
and make sense of life events. She is able to put together pieces that are often unclear,
seeing the whole and healing deep wounds, as a result. Clients have benefited from
this groundbreaking work that blends Buddhist, Taoist and Hawaiian traditions
with psychic insights since 1983. Let me help you find answers and understanding.

Facial Skin Health

DISCOVER MICROCURRENT FACE
REJUVENATION
Microcurrent skin rejuvenation is a holistic
approach to aging at your own pace, using
color and microcurrent light. Sessions are
non-invasive, without side effects, pain,
or healing down time. In addition, I use
the Bemer microcirculation body pad
that improves capillary microcirculation by
allowing increased oxygen and nutrients to reach the skin and body cells.

The sessions are successful to:

* Encourage Collagen Production * Smooth Fine Lines and Wrinkles
* Firm Skin Tone * Improve Skin Texture
* Diminish Blemishes * Minimize Puffiness * Lift Eyebrows
Therapy benefits are felt after the first session. Noticeable results generally occur
after three sessions. Dramatic results are seen after ten sessions. Depending on
your age and skin condition, microcurrent therapy requires 10-20 sessions followed
by maintenance once every 4 to 6 weeks.

Healing & Wellness

ELIZABETH BURKE MA 415 925-1509 In person or by phone. For details =>

www.healingorigins.com Call in Nov and receive 10 % off.

Call Renita Zies for a free consultation.

Package deals are available. (408) 348-8302

Intuitive Arts
Vedic Astrology
VEDIC ASTROLOGY
Vedic Astrology (Jyotisha) was developed
by the illumined seers of ancient India to
help individuals attain the fourfold goals of
human existence: Dharma (Life Purpose),
Artha (Prosperity), Kama (Pleasure), and Moksha (Spiritual Liberation). It is renowned for
its spiritual depth, predictive accuracy, and
practical applications.
Since 1972, Stephen Quong (Umananda) has travelled extensively throughout India,
Nepal, and Sri Lanka, meeting and studying with many of the greatest masters of Vedic
Astrology and Palmistry. In addition, he has been closely associated with Shree Anandamayi Ma and other highly respected spiritual teachers, whose guidance, blessings
and personal example have been a major influence in his life and work.
Stephen is one of a very few Americans honored by the Indian Council on Astrological Sciences with the titles of Jyotisha Kovida, Jyotisha Vachaspati, and Life Fellow,
and is respected by astrologers and clients around the world for his expertise in Vedic
Intuitive Arts

76 NOVEMBER 2014

Astrology. Upon meeting him in 1993, K.N. Rao, then director of the largest astrology
school in India, told a client, Go see Stephen Quong. He is the best Vedic Astrologer in
America.
A personal consultation with Stephen will include helpful, practical advice offered
with loving-kindness, as well as in-depth astrological analysis and predictions for the
future. Business, legal and financial issues can be discussed. All consultations are private, confidential, and tape-recorded for your convenience.
Stephens international clientele includes prominent spiritual teachers, healers, political leaders, business executives, portfolio managers, attorneys, scientists, doctors,
psychologists, musicians, artists, and writers. People from all walks of life are welcome
as clients.
To receive a free brochure and a sampling of unsolicited client testimonials, or
to schedule a personal consultation, please call:
STEPHEN QUONG
PO Box 4524, Antioch, CA 94531
(925) 754-8858, Fax: (925) 754-8575
E-mail: quong@jyotisha.com
Website: www.jyotisha.com

Massage & Bodywork

rather than a bulldozer approach which characterized much of the current structural body work approaches.
This very slow movement directing the tissue repositioning discourages triggering
the pain receptors, thus changing the entire dynamics of body restructuring. In
the course of my 35 year career Ive performed restructuring programs on clients
demanding the highest levels of achievable performance including professional
athletic champions.
Non-series work is also available for short-term problems such as:
Repetitive Stress Carpal Tunnel Whiplash Tennis Elbow Sciatic Nerve Injuries
TMJ & Cranial Problems (which can often be corrected in several sessions.)

Advanced Structural Integration

PROVEN METHOD OF ELIMINATING
CHRONIC & ACUTE PAIN AND RESTORING
Advanced
BALANCE & STABILITY TO THE BODY
Structural
During my 35 years practicing Certified
Integration Advanced Structural Integration, Reviwith
talizing and Improving Body Structure, I
Eugene Sage developed a unique approach; now making
this work much easier to receive, as well as,
35 Years Experience
providing 90% longer permanence than
traditionalTen Series. I work deeply within the connective tissue layersmolding,
stretching and repositioning them, but using slow, melting, sensitive movement

Eugene Sage, Advanced Structural Integration510-506-6085for informationor

to set-up appointment.40% off first session.

Rolfing
ROLFING with KATE
INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS & CLASSES
Rolfing is a manual therapy that frees
restrictions in the connective tissue, which
allows for new movement and pain-free
postures.
Over time, old injuries and postural patterns
cause strain and movement restrictions. The
body needs assistance to release these patterns to return to a more natural state of structural alignment.

Rolfing need not be painful; more gentle methods may bring better results.
Results are permanent.
BENEFITS:
Release from chronic tension and pain Balances your body
Better athletic performance
Feel better than before the pain began
Learn new posture and movement habits Reduce injuries
Release from emotional ruts
Helps your entire body move better
Kate Spaulding, MSc.
(510) 919-0153
Shattuck near Cedar mile from Berkeley BART
www.RolfingWithKate.com
Email: KateSpaulding52@gmail.com

Massage & Bodywork

On Site Massage
EXPERIENCE ON-SITE THERAPEUTIC
BLISS WITH GIANNA AND WILLOW
Allow your body, mind and spirit to settle
into the serenity of Sonoma Valley with
a therapeutic massage delivered to you
on-site. We are Gianna and Willowa
deeply experienced duo of professional
therapists, specialized in customizing our
expertise to meet individual needs. We

blend techniques, adjust touch to your preferred pressure and respond to the unique
rhythm of breathpermitting you to surrender into a state of blissful tranquility.
Our Wine County On-Site Massage is unique, combining: Acupressure, Aromatherapy, Deep Tissue, Swedish, and Lymphatic techniques through 60, 75, or 90
minute sessions. We will travel so individuals, couples, and groups can enjoy healing
and relaxation delivered to your home, vacation rental, hotel room, or retreat. Consider the gift of massage as an offering to enhance a party, wedding, wine event,
seminar or business retreat.
Contact Gianna or Willow at 707-363-5630
Email: winecountryonsitemassage@gmail.com
Schedule an appointment to let the healing begin.

Massage & Bodywork

Hellerwork
ROY STRASSMAN - DEEP
TISSUE HELLERWORK
FLEXIBILITY, FLUIDITY & FREEDOM FROM
PAIN
Hellerwork is a powerful system consisting of a series of eleven 90-minute, deeptissue structural bodywork and movement
education sessions designed to re-align your
bodys muscles and joints, and re-educate

movement. Hellerwork can also be experienced in non-series tune-up sessions.

Relaxing deep-tissue massage, based upon Hellerwork principles, is also available at a reduced rate.
House calls available
Roy Strassman, M.S. has been practicing Hellerwork for 28 years and is one
of founder Joseph Hellers original students. He currently practices in the Bay Area
(including at Absolute Chiropractic in Alamo) and Sacramento.
Roy works with his hands, but feels with his heart. When he works on you he weaves
decades of experience, a lifetime on the spiritual path, and years of direct study with his
teacher into a tapestry of healing that has to be experienced to be believed. Just give him
one chance and youll see what I mean. -Stanley Young, Climate Change Communications Professional
Learn more and have a PAYMENT OPTIONAL SESSION by contacting Roy at (510)
232-5700 or roystrassman@aol.com, roystrassman.com

Massage & Bodywork

Massage & Bodywork

their movement.
The sessions provide long-lasting relief from tension, stress, aches and pains.
Properly aligning your body helps you regain your natural well-being and grace in

Psychology, Counseling & Therapy

Psychology, Counseling & Therapy Breathwork

REICHIAN THERAPY
Come alive to your sexuality and joy of
life ...
Reichian Therapy is a non-verbal breathing therapy. Whereas talk is a great way
to avoid what youre feeling, there is no
way to avoid your feelings while lying there
breathing in a Reichian session. Over time,
chronically stiff and hard muscles blocking
sensation and energy flow will soften. Eventually, the rage we hold in our muscles
will surface, giving way to more feelings of pleasure, freeing blocked energy and
sexual dysfunction.

We spend an enormous part of our energy holding back basic needs and feelings
which weve learned were not OK. An effective way to free these blocked energies,
release anger and reawaken to your natural vitality and pleasure is through the
breathing, movement and sounds of Reichian sessions.
Michele T. Newmark, M.S., D.D., has been involved in the study of human sexuality for over 30 years. The basis for her work is grounded in Reichian Therapy. Michele
has an ongoing private practice in Santa Rosa and in San Francisco at the Center
for Healing and Expression. She also holds classes on Tantra, Yoga and Breath, an
Exploration of Sexual Energy and The Tantric Art of Self-Pleasuring for women.
San Francisco: 415.775.6145
Santa Rosa: 707.538.3778
www.thecenter-sf.org

Consider Placing Your Ad in Common Ground.

Connecting People for 40 Years. Call 415-505-1410.
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 77

Psychology, Counseling & Therapy

Aninha
Livingstone, Ph.D.

SUPPORTING WOMEN RESPOND

TO THE CALL OF THEIR SOUL
Walking the path of the Souls call asks
much of us. As women, we must learn to trust
our inner guidance, to break patterns in our
female lineages, to honor difficult emotions
but not let them stop us, and to stand tall in
the wisdom we carry. We are not meant to
do this alone.

Psychology, Counseling & Therapy EMDR Counseling

NOURISHING YOUR TRUE SELF

What is your deepest desire? I can help
you discover how you hold yourself back
Deeply
from what you most want. Often what holds
Healing us back are unacknowledged competing valTherapy ues. Through deep inquiry, body awareness
and present-moment attention, I help honor
Suzanne
Berens, MFT where you are now, as well as open up to the
richness that lies dormant within you.
Humanistic-existential, somatic and transpersonal modalities inform my work. I also
Psychology, Counseling & Therapy Relationship, Sexuality & Erotic Integrity

CLAUDIA SIX, PHD

KNOW YOURSELF, BE YOURSELF
Erotic Integrity is about knowing who
you truly are as a sexual being, and living
that authentically. My style is direct and
compassionate. Your difficulties make perfect
sense. I work with individuals and couples.
My work is very similar to marriage and
couples therapy and has an added focus on
sexuality. As a Clinical Sexologist,I am inherentlysex-positive.
Create a relationship that works? I can help.
Single: - Why cant I find a mate?
- Why he wont call (its not personal)
- Why its not personal (really)
Psychology, Counseling & Therapy

ACTIVATE YOUR SONS NATURAL

MASCULINE WISDOM
Whats Happening To Our Sons? Young
men are at alarmingly high risk for irresponsibility, laziness, feeling entitled, struggling in
school, legal issues, immature social behaviors and emotional problems--as well as drug,
alcohol and digital addiction.
The Purpose of My Work: To show parents
and their sons how to develop more caring and cooperative relationships by respectfully responding to each others needs. As a result, young men are better prepared for
Psychology, Counseling & Therapy A Joyful Loving Therapy

RE-MOTHERING
UNDERMOTHERED WOMEN
Many of us undermothered women have
a deep vision of who we could be, an undeniable longing for the life we are meant
to live. Yet we are afraid to act on the dreams
and aspirations embedded in our souls
code, for fear of not being loved. The pain
of not living out our truths manifests in many

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78 NOVEMBER 2014

NEW THIS FALL:

Clarity Process on-line: A seven week process for gaining clarity of calling. We will
dive into non-linear processes such as expressive arts, somatic awareness, and landbased practices to unearth your unique genius. (Open to both men and women)
CONTINUED OFFERINGS:
A Womans Clarity Process: A deep & rich process for women seeking clarity of calling.
Rituals for Change: A potent shamanic approach to meeting and creating change.
Aninha Esperanza Livingstone, Ph.D.
Ancestral Wisdom for Purposeful Living
www.aninhalivingstone.com, (415) 458-8321
I invite you to call me for a free 20-minute consultation
am trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing). When we
have sustained traumabe it physical, sexual or emotionalour traumatized
parts lag behind what our adult selves know intellectually about the present moment.
EMDR is an evidence-based modality that is highly effective for integrating our scared
and limited parts with our wisest and most grounded selves.
With warmth, compassion and sensitivity, I help you let go of old patterns that no
longer serve you and embrace your strengths and inner wisdomso you can live in
a more soulful and authentic way.
Suzanne Berens, MFT
3179 College Ave. 3C, Berkeley, CA 94705 and
1600 S. Main St., Suite 240, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
(510) 541-8868 www.TherapistBayArea.com
- Commitment phobic (its not just the guys)
- Newly dating again? You can feel prepared.
Coupled: - Not feeling appreciated?
- Feel like you never do it right?
- How to make your woman happy
- Why he doesnt read your mind
- Birds do it, bees do itAre you?
- Avoiding sex to not get turned down? -Learn how to change that.
Ambivalent? Humans are ambivalent creatures. I will help you understand how your
choices serve you, thus empowering you to make choices that support what you really want.
Claudia Six, MA, PhD is a Board Certified Clinical Sexologist, and a Relationship
Coach, practicing in San Rafael. (415)453-6218
www.drsix.net drsix.net/erotic-integrity/
I invite you to call for a free 15 minute consultation.
a life of happiness and independence.
How I Help Parents By integrating ageless family wisdom with the sciences of adolescent brain development, parent bonding, personal growth and stress management, I teach parents how to restore caring and mutually beneficial relationships with
their difficult or defiant sons.
Dr. Mark Schillinger, DC is a pioneer in the field of family dynamics and adolescent
young men.
ChallengingTeenageSons.com
1050 Northgate Dr. San Rafael, CA.
(415) 785 8818
info@ChallengingTeenageSons.com
symptoms: depression, anxiety, loneliness, eating disorders, etc.
I have 34 years of experience guiding undermothered women of all life styles to feel
loved and cared for. It can be such a wonderful, nourishing experience to have
your emotionality, sensitivity, and spirituality embraced by an attuned mothering figure. When you learn to re-connect with your deep feminine wisdom, you
can soulfully manifest your lifes work and create loving relationships that your heart
and body are hungering for.
You are very welcome to call me for a free phone interview.
Soonja Kim, LCSW (License # : 10157)
510.558.0410
www.motheringwomen.com

Psychology, Counseling & Therapy Somatic Healing

Wisdom of The Body provides multidimensional therapy for helping professionals, and others on a path of personal growth
and transformation. Clients who have exhausted other modalities often report that
WoB sparks healing on a level they hadnt
known was possible.
Benefits of multiple sessions include:
-Deeper, longer, sounder sleep
-Abatement of chronic physical symptoms
Psychology, Counseling & Therapy Healing Workshop

RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS? CAREER

BLOCKS? PARENTING CHALLENGES?
ANGER? DEPRESSION? FEAR?
The Process for Personal Change is an
effective, short term, intensive therapy for
relief from your emotional pain. In nine
weeks, you will discover emotional healing
and personal transformation. The Process
helps you to decode and come to terms with

-Enhanced calm, connectedness, vitality and well-being

-Shifting of thought and behavior patterns
-Awakened emotional intelligence, particularly self-awareness
During your time, we unearth and answer your deepest longings for healing and
transformation with intuitive and multifaceted offerings. Your session may include
touch, movement, dialogue, cognitive insight and psychospiritual attunement. With
synergistic intuition, we co-create your experience.
[L]ike Family Constellation meets Hakomi meets Gestalt meets psychic energy
workThis is cutting edge somatic healing. Ilya Yacobson, L.Ac
Jill Nagle (415) 509-6430, Jill@WisdomOfTheBody.com
WisdomOfTheBody.com (live in July)
the messages you received in childhood. These messages tell us who we are, how we
behave, and most importantly, how we judge ourselves. But they are not necessarily
relevant for us as adults.
The Process is presented in steps which combine the best aspects of group and
individual therapy. It skillfully utilizes understanding and techniques similar to modern
depth, humanistic, gestalt, cognitive, and transpersonal psychologies.Your Process
therapist helps you maximize your growth in a safe and nurturing environment.
While other forms of therapy can take years, the Process can achieve even better
results in only two months.
Institute for Personal Change
TheProcessWorks.org 650-737-1368 Licensed

Spas, Retreats & Travel

Guest Houses
COMMONWEAL
Commonweal, a nonprofit institute with
service and research programs in environmental health, is located on a beautiful 60acre site overlooking the Pacific in the Point
Reyes National Seashore, near the small town
of Bolinas, about one hours drive from San
Francisco.
Our three furnished guest houses are
available to small groups for retreats, workshops, conferences, and similar uses which
are compatible with Commonweals nonprofit purposes and with the peaceful, iso-

lated rural environment.

Pacific House is a historic, 12-bedroom building with a stone fireplace in the large
living room and a fully equipped kitchen. Bothin House and Kohler House are smaller
guest houses nearby, with two and three bedrooms, respectively, and with fireplaces.
Because the houses are often booked well in advance, early reservations are recommended.
For additional information, please visit our website:
www.commonweal.org
COMMONWEAL, P.O. Box 316,
Bolinas, CA 94924
415.868.0970

Hawaii Retreat
KALANI OCEANSIDE RETREAT
Revel in the spirit of aloha in our secluded retreat on the lush southeast coast of
the Big Island of Hawaii.
Kalani celebrates nature, culture and wellness on our 120 coastal acres of botanical
splendor along black sand beaches, near the
worlds most active volcano, where we invite
you to meditate, sunbathe, play with dol-

phins, practice in our daily yoga classes, dance, discover hidden waterfalls, and more.
Enjoy our comfortable accommodations, delicious healthful cuisine, massage therapies; relax by our Olympic-size pool; or just lay back in Hawaii!
Kalani is one of the most potent and nurturing retreat centers in the world Shiva Rea
Come to vacation, to attend a workshop, or bring your own group to this corner
of paradise called Kalani...

Retreat & Workshop Center

HARBIN HOT SPRINGS
Whether you are visiting for the first time
or returning after many years, now is a great
time to experience Harbin Hot Springs, our
non-profit retreat center located in the wine
region north of Calistoga.
Hike 1700 acres of wilderness soak in
natural hot, warm and cold spring pools...
warm yourself in the sauna or on one of the
clothing-optional sun decks... then schedule a nurturing massage, Watsu or pampering spa treatment. Our restaurant serves breakfast and dinner daily, or prepare your

own vegetarian meals in the guest kitchen. Be sure to visit our garden, market, book
store and cafs.
Free guest events include daily yoga and weekly dances. Weekend workshops and
massage classes are held throughout the year. Secluded conference facilities for
groups up to 300 are available. We also have openings for residential employment.
Call or visit our web site for more details on any of these offerings.
Stop by for a day visit, or choose camping, dorms, private rooms or cottages for overnight stays. Room reservations are recommended. Ask about reduced weekday rates.
Reservations:
(707) 987-2477 (10am to 5pm)
CA toll-free 1-800-622-2477
Middletown, CA 95461
www.harbin.org/cg

Spas, Retreats & Travel

Spas, Retreats & Travel

Spas, Retreats & Travel

www.kalani.com
kalani@kalani.com
800.800.6886 or 808.965.7828

Consider Placing Your Ad in Common Ground.

Connecting People for 40 Years. Call 415-505-1410.
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 79

Spas, Retreats & Travel

Spas, Retreats & Travel

30 Years of Paradise
in Downtown
San Anselmo

IONS EARTHRISE
For Your Workshops, Retreats, and Events
IONS EarthRise, the transformative
learning center of the Institute of Noetic
Sciences, is the perfect location for
your eventsmultiple meeting rooms,
exceptional meals, and lodging for 100+
guests on 194 beautiful acres.

We invite you to hold your event here. We also invite you to join us as a participant
in an incredible line up of transformative workshops and events.

Day Spa
SHIBUI GARDENS SPA
Pronounced: Shi - boo - eean unpretentious sense of tastefulness or virtue; humility)
Nestled in a quaint and serene San
Anselmo garden setting, Shibui has been
happily serving its community for over 30
years. Employee-owned, Shibui offers various
professional massage therapy modalities

including Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, Swedish, Deep Tissue, Shiatsu, NeuroMuscular

Therapy, Cranial Sacral, Visceral, Prenatal, Sports Massage and more. These
modalities can be combined for an even deeper lasting effect with certified therapists
many of whom have 20 or 30 years of professional training and experience.
Or just come with the heavenly goal of relaxing and restoring after a hectic day in
the hot tubs or cedar wood sauna. Sit in the garden before or after your session to soak
in the serenity before venturing into whatevers next. Discounts for wellness, seniors and
children. You deserve a break; come make an appointment for paradise today.
Shibui Gardens Outdoor Spa
19 Tamalpais Ave., San Anselmo, CA
(415) 457-0283; www.shibuigardens.com

To hold your event here, contact:

Lisa Koester, CMP, Sales Director: 707.779.8202 or lkoester@noetic.org
To take a workshop: www.IONSEarthRise.org or 707.781.7401
IONS EarthRise, 101 San Antonio Rd, Petaluma, CA 94952

Special Products
Special Products

Dietary Mineral Supplements

TRUE COLLOIDAL SILVER, GOLD,
PLATINUM, ZINC, SILICA
MesoSilver is one of the only True Colloidal
Silver products being produced in the world
today. MesoSilver has the smallest silver particles (not ions) ever produced (.65 nm). The
Particle Surface Area (which determines effectiveness) is many times higher than any
other product on the market.

Contrary to older and incorrect scientific assertions, a true silver colloid is NOT clear.
Compared to true colloidal silver, all home generators, as well as most silver products being sold are ionic silver, which IS clear and colorless. The problem with ionic
silver is that, by definition, it has a (positive) charge, which immediately reacts with
the chloride ions (negative charge) in the stomach acid or bloodstream to form silver
chloride. Silver chloride has not been shown to have the same antimicrobial effects as
nanoparticle (true colloidal) silver. Therefore, while ionic silver is a fine antimicrobial
agent externally, when ingested, ionic silver is of little use. A true colloid (especially
with sub-nanometer particles) is much more effective.
Learn more about MesoSilver Silver at www.purestcolloids.com
Call: 609-267-2112

Special Products

Healthy Juicer: Manual Wheatgrass Juicer

GET HEALTHY AND DETOX WITH
THE HEALTHY JUICER!
The Healthy Juicer is by far the best manual
leafy green and wheatgrass juicer on the
market! The best part? It is only $49.99! Super
easy to clean (only four main parts) makes it
a quick 3-minute cleanup with only a quick
rinse needed. So whats the trick with the
easy clean-up? No internal screen to clog,

scrub or cleanup! Juicing leafy greens is by far the best way to detox, clean your system
and give yourself natural energy. Wheatgrass has more protein per ounce than beef!
The Healthy Juicer has a 1-Year warranty and a 30-day money back guarantee.

Visit www.HealthyJuicer.com for more information, product demonstration

videos and store locations!

Spiritual Practices
Shamanic Studies
DANCE OF THE DEER
The Dance of the Deer Foundation sponsors seminars, pilgrimages and ongoing
study groups throughout the world, particularly in the U.S., Mexico and Europe.
These programs are led by Brant Secunda,
a recognized shaman in the tradition of the
Huichol Indians of Mexico, and are usually
held at beautiful and sacred places of power.
They emphasize the importance of ceremony for personal well-being and for the continued survival of the environment and Mother Earth, and they provide a rare opportunity to experience Huichol Indian Shamanism.

Participants in these programs take part in Huichol ceremonies, the sacred Dance
of the Deer, vision quests and pilgrimages to places of power. They learn practices of
shamanic health and healing, and how to approach sacred places of power and bring
that power into their hearts to help them live more balanced lives.
Special Upcoming Programs and Retreats:
-Menla Mountain: Weekend Shamanic Retreat Phoenicia, NY Nov 14-16, 2014
-Pacific Ocean: West Coast OnGoing Meeting Santa Cruz, CA Dec 3-7, 2014
-New Year Retreat: Initiate Your Intentions Nevada City, CA Dec 30-Jan 3, 2015

Meditation
SELF-REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP: BAY
AREA TEMPLE & MEDITATION CENTERS
The more you feel peace in meditation,
the closer you are to God.
Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of A Yogi

your divine essence. WEEKLY SERVICES: Each week our centers in the Bay Area hold
inspirational services that focus on meditation and spiritual ideals for everyday living.
By applying these principles, you can create a life of lasting happiness and harmony in
body, mind, and soul. We would love to have you join us for silent meditation and readings from the writings of Yogananda! To learn more, please visit the SRF home page at
www.yogananda-srf.org or contact one of the locations below for details.

Spiritual Practices

Spiritual Practices

PARAMAHANSA
YOGANANDA
Fo u n d e r
(1893-1952)

The timeless, scientific methods of Kriya

Yoga meditation taught by Paramahansa Yogananda help dissolve the inner barriers between you and the infinite Peace that is
80 NOVEMBER 2014

DANCE OF THE DEER FOUNDATION

CENTER FOR SHAMANIC STUDIES
P.O. Box 699, Soquel, CA 95073
831.475.9560 E-mail: info@shamanism.com
Website: www.shamanism.com or www.danceofthedeer.com

SRF Berkeley Temple510.984.0084

SRF Sacramento Center916.483.9644
SRF Los Gatos Center408.252.5299
SRF San Francisco Meditation Group415.584.8270

Not getting found

in Search Engines?
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COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 81

last words

Water has a memory and carries within it our thoughts and

prayers. As you yourself are water, no matter where you are,
your prayers will be carried to the rest of the world.


Dr. Masaru Emoto (July 22, 1943October 17, 2014)

Once in a while you get shown the light in the

strangest of places if you look at it right


82
82

Grateful Dead

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A hairpin turn
that makes your hair
stand up straight.

An 18-wheeler
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