‘The Formula for Creating Heaven on Earth’ by David Sunfellow (Updated)

Many of you have heard about “The Formula for Creating Heaven on Earth” or “The Formula.” I introduced the idea in my two-part YouTube presentation called “How Near-Death Experiences Are Changing The World.” Essentially, I’ve been trying to identify the universal truths presented by near-death experiences and wrestle them into “a formula” that we can use to transform our lives. After a year of teaching classes in Sedona that have focused on applying NDE truths in our personal lives, I’ve finally created a chart that illustrates the key aspects of The Formula. Here it is: Version 1.0…

Steven Pinker: Humankind Is Getting Nicer

What may be the most important thing that has ever happened in human history is that violence has gone down, by dramatic degrees, and in many dimensions all over the world and in many spheres of behavior: genocide, war, human sacrifice, torture, slavery, and the treatment of racial minorities, women, children, and animals…

New Movie: ‘Cloud Atlas’ (Updated)

“Cloud Atlas” explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Written and directed by Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, the film is based on the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell. With an ensemble cast to cover the film’s multiple storylines, production began in September 2011 at Studio Babelsberg in Germany. The film is scheduled to be released on October 26, 2012. Mitchell’s novel won the British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award and the Richard & Judy Book of the Year award, and was short-listed for the 2004 Booker Prize, Nebula Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, and other awards…

All Things Integral (Updated)

Articles, books, websites, social networks, resource pages, video hubs, and more concerning all aspects of the integral movement.

Gabby Reece On Marriage

In her new book, “My Foot Is Too Big for the Glass Slipper,” beach volleyball star Gabrielle Reece opens up about her relationship with surfer husband Laird Hamilton. Reece talks about divorce, marriage, sex, relationships with others, and how she used the idea of being of service to her husband and children to save her marriage…

Brene Brown: ‘The Power of Being Vulnerable’ (Updated)

Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame — and a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness, posing the questions: How do we engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to embrace our imperfections and to recognize that we are enough — that we are worthy of love, belonging and joy? Brené is a nationally renowned speaker and has won numerous teaching awards, including the College’s Outstanding Faculty Award. Her groundbreaking work has been featured on PBS, NPR, CNN, and has appeared in The Washington Post, Psychology Today, and many other national media outlets. Her 2010 TEDx Houston talk on the power of vulnerability (watch here) is one of the most watched talks on TED.com, with over 6 million views…

New Book: ‘AFGEs: A Guide for Self-Awareness and Change’

Bibliophile writes: “In this down-to-earth guide for dealing with life’s challenges (AFGEs), Barbara Whitfield and Sharon Cormier tell us what it takes to live a life of meaning and joy. The collaboration of the two authors offers two unique perspectives to consider, both equally wise and candid. In surviving near-death experiences both authors learned that there is more to life than they had previously thought. They teach us how living from conditioned responses can limit us and how living from the Soul has no limits. In this book they synthesize all the teachings they have incorporated in their own lives as they deal with their own AFGEs. This highly enjoyable book is for anyone who wants to live a conscious and empowered life with peace and joy.”

Listening to Music Increases Immunity, Reduces Stress

Before surgery, listening to music is more effective at reducing anxiety than prescription drugs, report researchers. In a large-scale review of 400 research papers about the neurochemistry of music, researchers have shown that playing and listening to music has clear benefits for both mental and physical health…

Quote: A Wise Person…

“A smart person knows what to say. A wise person knows whether or not to say it.”

– Author Unknown

Reality Show Searching For Reincarnated Children

A Los Angeles production company is currently holding a nationwide casting call for children who claim to have, or have had, past life memories for a new reality series, “Ghost Inside My Child,” scheduled to air on the Bio Channel later this year…

Dreams (Updated)

Pulse Resource Page on Dreams…

Dream Basics by David Sunfellow

A two-page handout on why dreams are important, how to remember them, how to interpret them, and how to use them to transform your life. This handout was created by David Sunfellow for his near-death experience class in Sedona, Arizona…

Quote: Steve Jobs

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” — Steve Jobs

How Technology Threatens Intimacy

Many of us may be turning away from close relationships. Studies show that we’re spending increasing amounts of time playing video games and surfing the web instead of hanging out with friends and neighbors, so much so that some researchers have even suggested that technological isolation is at least one contributing factor to the decline in marriage and committed long-term relationships. All of which means that our capacity to hide in addictive technologies could be turning more and more of us into intimacy-phobes…

The Nine Common Characteristics Of The World’s Longest Living People (Updated)

Working with a team of scientists, we found the nine common characteristics of all the world’s long-lived people. The secret of how to live longer lies not in diets or excise programs but in creating the right surroundings. These nine characteristics we call Power 9™ can help you get up to 12 good years out of life and help you look and feel younger at every age…

Why Seventh-Day Adventists Live Longer, Happier, Healthier Lives

In one idyllic community in southern California, Adventists live 4 to 7 years longer — and more healthily and happily — than the rest of the country. A look at their diet, lifestyle, and philosophy…

Carla Golden: ‘If You Are Still Drinking, You’re Not Done Yet’ (Updated)

Carla Golden writes: “I’ve been crafting this blog post for months. Why so long? Because I’m scared to post it. That’s how I know I must post it. It’s going to be a long post and it’s not for everyone. It’s only for those who wish to lead a self-honest, clean life. OK….here it goes….”

NDE Researcher Kenneth Ring: The Golden Rule Dramatically Illustrated (Updated)

NDE Researcher Kenneth Ring writes: “For [decades] we have been hearing about near-death experiences (NDEs), those transcendental episodes of light and love that so many people who have experienced the beginnings of death have recounted for us upon returning to physical life. By now, these travelers tales have become very familiar to us, and they have certainly helped to fashion a much more positive vision of the nature of death itself. Recently, however, NDE researchers such as myself have been more concerned with the question of what those of us who have never had such experiences ourselves can learn from those who have about how to live our daily lives. In short, what do all these beautiful stories have to contribute in a practical way to how we go about living our ordinary lives in the world? Specifically, how can we make use of this body of knowledge about NDEs so as to live with greater self-awareness and spiritual insight?”

Jill Bolte Taylor: Does Our Planet Need A Stroke Of Insight?

I’ve come to understand that the two issues of mental health and global health are closely linked — if not one and the same. Similar processes we use to improve our mental health can help us make better, more responsible decisions as a society — by focusing on the compassion and integrity of our right brain, rather than the judgment, punishment and deception of our left brain…

David Sunfellow: ‘How Near-Death Experiences Are Changing The World’ (Updated)

On January 27th and March 16th of 2012, David Sunfellow gave two talks in Sedona entitled “How Near-Death Experiences Are Changing The World”. The following two-hour, two-part video is a summary of the information that David shared during these presentations…

Raymond’s Near-Death Experience

The following near-death experience is told by a man named Raymond, now deceased. It was posted on YouTube by Raymond’s grandson. Raymond recorded his story on a tape recorder for others who might find it helpful. According to Raymond, in May of 1978, when he was 67 years old, he woke up with a severe backache. He was taken to a hospital where doctors and nurses tried, unsuccessfully at first, to figure out what was wrong. As the hours and days wore on, Raymond’s condition worsened to the point where he knew he was going to die. Sensing death was near, Raymond prayed, long and hard, for God to spare his life so he could care for his wife, who was struggling with cancer. Eventually, the illness took Raymond’s life and he passed over to the other side where he encountered a group of angels. At about 23:50 into the story, Raymond says one of the angles told him this…

Story: ‘The One I Feed’

There was grandfather, his little grandson often came in the evenings to sit at his knee and ask the many questions that children ask. One day the grandson came to his grandfather with a look of anger on his face…

New NHNE Facebook Page on Relationships!

NHNE now has a new Facebook page on relationships. NHNE’s relationship page is dedicated to the rarest, most valuable of all earthly treasures: conscious, caring, healthy relationships — first, with our fellow human beings, and then with the rest of creation…

12/18/12 Sedona NDE Class Notes

This update includes information about how the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings is probably viewed from the other side, comments from class members about this horrific event, news about the 20th anniversary of the publication of Betty Eadie’s book, “Embraced by the Light”, news about NDEr Barbara Whitfield’s new book “Another F*king Growth Experience”, and a calendar listing all the classes that will take place in January…

Movie Worth Seeing: ‘Jodhaa Akbar’

If you are looking for an interesting movie, with a beautiful message, take this one for a spin. It’s long, but worth it. One Amazon viewer writes: “It is a beautiful story about a wise leader who bucks tradition and chooses compassion over bloodshed, openness and acceptance over intolerance. It is also a wonderful love story.”

Story: The Power of Words

There was once a wise sage who wandered the countryside. One day, as he passed near a village, he was approached by a woman who saw he was a sage, and told him of a sick child nearby. She beseeched him to help this child. The sage came to the village, and a crowd gathered around him, for such a man was a rare sight. One woman brought the sick child to him, and he said a prayer over her. “Do you really think your prayer will help her, when medicine has failed?” yelled a man from the crowd…

Mary Breastfeeding Jesus: Christmas’ Missing Icon

With all the familiar scenes associated with the holy family today — creches and church pageants, postage stamps and holiday cards — we are missing an obvious element of the mother-child connection that modern Christians are apparently happy to do without: a breast-feeding infant. Jesus certainly wasn’t a bottle baby. So what happened to Mary’s breasts? It’s a centuries-old story, but one that has a relatively brief answer: namely, the rise of the printing press in 15th-century Europe…

Panic Attacks & How To Row Your Boat Back To Saner, Calmer Shores (v1.1)

OK, something has happened (or hasn’t happened) and you notice that you are spending a lot of time worrying about it. What could happen. What might happen. How your life will probably be ruined by whatever real or imagined event you are pondering. You begin to feel panicky. Not too much at first, but the more you ponder your circumstances, they worse they seem, and the more panicky that makes you feel. A little voice inside you is telling you that you are over-reacting, but you are too upset to listen to it. And you don’t want to believe this voice anyway. So you keep focused on the problem. The more deeply you examine the situation, the more evidence you discover to support the idea that things are really awful. Terrible. Getting worse. By now, your thoughts and emotions are out of control. They are looping around and around. You’re starting to feel sick. Your head hurts. Your stomach aches. You feel like you might throw up. You’re having a full-fledged panic attack. Now that you are in the middle of an emotional hurricane, how can you row your little boat back to saner, calmer shores?

Mr. Happy Man – Johnny Barnes

Johnny Barnes is a Bermuda native found waving to passing traffic at the Foot of the Lane roundabout in Hamilton, Bermuda, from roughly 3:45 am to 10 am, every workday, rain or shine. A Bermuda institution mentioned in several guidebooks and profiled in a documentary film, he is known for waving and saying “I love you, God loves you,” to passing commuters during the morning rush hour into Hamilton…

NYPD Officer’s Kindness Sparks Online Sensation

A tourist’s snapshot of a New York City police officer giving new boots to a barefoot homeless man in Times Square has created an online sensation…

All About Emanuel Swedenborg

All about Emanuel Swedenborg. “People who have had near-death experiences peek through the door of the after-life, but Swedenborg explored the whole house.” — Kenneth Ring, founder of International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS)

The Clearness Committee

Parker J. Palmer writes: “Many of us face a dilemma when trying to deal with a personal problem, question, or decision. On the one hand, we know that the issue is ours alone to resolve and that we have the inner resources to resolve it, but access to our own resources is often blocked by layers of inner “stuff” — confusion, habitual thinking, fear, despair. On the other hand, we know that friends might help us uncover our inner resources and find our way, but by exposing our problem to others, we run the risk of being invaded and overwhelmed by their assumptions, judgments, and advice — a common and alienating experience. As a result, we often privatize these vital questions in our lives: at the very moment when we need all the help we can get, we find ourselves cut off from both our inner resources and the support of a community. For people who have experienced this dilemma, I want to describe a method invented by the Quakers, a method that protects individual identity and integrity while drawing on the wisdom of other people. It is called a “Clearness Committee.”

The Pathwork Lectures On Relationships

The Pathwork Lectures provide the best, most clear and inspiring material I have ever come across when it comes to the importance of human relationships — especially male/female relationships. What follows are quotes from some of my favorite lectures, including Pathwork Lecture 44: “The Forces of Love, Eros, and Sex”, which presents the best overview of relationship dynamics and potentials I have ever encountered…

Shadow Work: Insights From The Pathwork Lectures

Before integral perspectives came along, the Pathwork Lectures of Eva Pierrakos provided the best, most inspired overview of personal growth and the spiritual path that I had ever come across. Along with being exceptionally “integral” in the way they view and encourage personal growth, the Pathwork Lectures are unique in terms of how much, and how clearly, they deal with shadow issues…

Robert Augustus Masters: ‘The Art of Listening’

He is speaking slowly and carefully, accurately describing the verbal dynamics of what has just happened between himself and his partner. Several times she starts to speak, but he gently waves her off, saying that when he’s done, she’ll have her turn to speak. On he goes, deftly dissecting the tiny argument they’d gotten into five or so minutes ago. She leans toward him, her eyes sad, her jaw tightening, as if fighting to hold back her speech; she is afraid that if she interrupts him, he will very likely label her as immature, or — though he’d never say it outloud — as a bitch. So she keeps quiet. Two more minutes pass. He’s still not done.
Finally, she breaks eye contact, looking down. He shows no sign of noticing. She’s thinking about leaving him, and he doesn’t have a clue. The signs are there, and have been for a while, but he’s missing them. When he stops a minute later, she has nothing to say. Tears cover her face. They never argue again. Such brilliant cognition, such an incisive, finely nuanced mind, but such emotional retardation — this is what she writes about him, a few months after she has left him…

Death & Dying (Updated)

Pulse Death & Dying Resource Page…

11/13/12 Sedona NDE Class Notes

Notes from Sedona’s November 13th, 2012 NDE Class. This update includes information by or about NHNE’s new YouTube Channel, including several NDE play lists and two huge video archives of first-person NDE accounts, David Sunfellow’s “How Near-Death Experiences Are Changing The World” YouTube presentation, Becki Hawkins, Barbara Whitfield, Andy Petro, and a Vietnam War veteran who describes how his NDE left him unable to shoot anyone anymore…

New Hit Series: ‘Call The Midwife’ (Updated)

Call the Midwife is a moving and intimate insight into the colorful world of midwifery and family life in 1950’s East London. We are introduced to the community through the eyes of young nurse Jenny Lee as she arrives at Nonnatus House to live and work as a midwife alongside an Order of Nuns…

Jon Bon Jovi’s ‘Soul Kitchen’

The vision at Soul Kitchen is to serve healthy, delicious, and when possible, organic meals. At the Soul Kitchen you will notice there are no prices on the menu and you might have been seated with someone you don’t know. Customers pay the minimum donation or volunteer in some way to earn a voucher for a meal. The Soul Kitchen has served over 11,500 meals, most recently 31% of their diners were people in-need; and volunteers have donated over 12,200 hours of time to the program…

NOVA: ‘What Are Animals Thinking?’

We humans have long wondered how animals see the world — and us. Does your dog really feel shame when it gives you that famous “guilty look?” What is behind the “swarm intelligence” of slime mold or a honeybee hive? How can pigeons possibly find their way home across hundreds of miles of unfamiliar terrain? In this episode of NOVA scienceNOW, David Pogue meets — and competes — with a menagerie of smart critters that challenge preconceived notions about what makes “us” different from “them,” expanding our understanding of how animals really think…

‘One Laptop Per Child’ Unleashes The Genius In African Children

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) performed a bold experiment. They dropped off closed and taped boxes with Motorola Xoom tablets and without any instruction in two remote Ethiopian villages. The tablets were preloaded with alphabet-training games, e-books, movies, cartoons, paintings, and other programs. About 20 first-grade-aged children each were given a tablet in Wonchi and Wolonchete respectively — two isolated rural villages without a person that can read or write. Within four minutes after the tablets were dropped off, one of the children figured out how to turn on and use the tablet. Within five days, they were using about 47 apps per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android…

Quick List of Prominent Near-Death Experiencers (Updated)

A quick list of prominent near-death experiencers, including links to their websites, Facebook & Google+ pages, Twitter feeds, and related resources…

The Island Where People Forget to Die

Doctors said that Stamatis Moraitis had lung cancer. They gave him nine months to live. He was in his mid-60s. Moraitis considered staying in America and seeking aggressive cancer treatment at a local hospital. But he decided instead to return to Ikaria, where he could be buried with his ancestors in a cemetery shaded by oak trees that overlooked the Aegean Sea. At first, he spent his days in bed, as his mother and wife tended to him. He reconnected with his faith. On Sunday mornings, he hobbled up the hill to a tiny Greek Orthodox chapel where his grandfather once served as a priest. When his childhood friends discovered that he had moved back, they started showing up every afternoon. They’d talk for hours, an activity that invariably involved a bottle or two of locally produced wine. I might as well die happy, he thought. In the ensuing months, something strange happened. He says he started to feel stronger. One day, feeling ambitious, he planted some vegetables in the garden. He didn’t expect to live to harvest them, but he enjoyed being in the sunshine, breathing the ocean air. Elpiniki could enjoy the fresh vegetables after he was gone. Six months came and went. Moraitis didn’t die. Instead, he reaped his garden and, feeling emboldened, cleaned up the family vineyard as well. Easing himself into the island routine, he woke up when he felt like it, worked in the vineyards until midafternoon, made himself lunch and then took a long nap. In the evenings, he often walked to the local tavern, where he played dominoes past midnight. The years passed. His health continued to improve. He added a couple of rooms to his parents’ home so his children could visit. He built up the vineyard until it produced 400 gallons of wine a year. Today, three and a half decades later, he’s 97 years old — and cancer-free. He never went through chemotherapy, took drugs or sought therapy of any sort. All he did was move home to Ikaria…

Dr. Lani Leary: ‘Preparing for a Meaningful Death’

Bob Olson of AfterLifeTV writes: “This is a conversation that everyone one of us needs to have, yet few are prepared for in life. Too many people in our society have no idea how to properly help a loved one who’s dying. We don’t know what to say, how to act or what needs the dying have. Similarly, many don’t know what to say to the grieving or how to act around their presence either. This Afterlife TV episode offers a revealing conversation with Dr. Lani Leary who is an authority on how to find peace and meaning in both death and bereavement.”

Quote: David Sunfellow

“Unlike spiritual paths that arose from the ideas and inner experiences of lone, isolated human beings, the path presented by near-death experiences is emerging as a direct, grassroots revelation that millions of people from all over the world are receiving and sharing. If we explore this newly emerging path deeply enough, we discover that all religions, philosophies, and cultures are honored; that science and spirituality are celebrated; that both the human and spiritual side of our natures are cherished and embraced. In short, near-death experiences present us with a universal, all-inclusive, perfectly integrated spiritual path that revolves around three core truths: 1. We are all one; 2. Love is the essence of life; 3. We are here, in this world, to become perfect embodiments of the divine.” — David Sunfellow

10/23/12 Sedona NDE Class Notes

David Sunfellow writes: “For the last couple of months, we’ve been studying The Light & The Light Review (pdf). Tonight we dove into the final part of this paper, “6. Life Reviews from God’s Perspective”. The ideas presented in the final chapter of this paper are enormously important. Understanding them is critical not only living healthy, happy lives, but also to learning how to love ourselves more deeply and, by extension, others…

New Book: ‘Science and the Afterlife Experience’

Just how strong is the case for the survival of consciousness beyond death? You may never get a better answer to that question than in the pages of Chris Carter’s Science and the Afterlife Experience, the concluding volume of his masterful trilogy on science and the paranormal. The first two books — Science and Psychic Phenomena and Science and the Near-Death Experience — had been important books for me, so I eagerly awaited this third book. The book is organized around three major lines of evidence: the apparent past-life memories of children, apparitions, and purported messages from the dead through mediums. With each of these three lines, Carter first presents a series of well-researched and well-documented cases. These cases are an education in themselves. They are so impressive that I found many of them stretching my view of what is possible…

Becki Hawkins Coming To Sedona (Updated)

Becki Hawkins, a hospice nurse and a chaplain, is the author of “Transitions: A Nurse’s Education About Life And Death”. She sat by the bedside of seriously ill and terminally ill patients for more than 30 years as an oncology and hospice nurse. During that time, she listened to patients describe various kinds of spiritual experiences, including near-death experiences. Becki will be sharing these stories, including the lessons she learned from them, Tuesday, October 9, 2012 in Sedona…

Past Life Research (Updated)

Past Life Research Resource Page…

Forget Self Esteem; What Is Really Needed Is Self-Compassion

A growing body of research, including new studies by Berkeley’s Juliana Breines and Serena Chen, suggest that self-compassion, rather than self-esteem, may be the key to unlocking your true potential for greatness…