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 By Stephen Dinan, founder and CEO of The Shift Network
Are you interested in feeding your family from your own home garden?
It’s deeply satisfying to know your meal was cultivated by your very own hands… from sourcing and saving seeds to building up fertile soil to capturing rainwater that nourishes your crops.
Or are you contemplating your next step in expanding your family garden — adding chickens or beekeeping to the mix? (Fresh eggs and raw honey at your fingertips? Yes please!)
During the Gardening & Homesteading Skills Summit, which will take place October 17–19, today’s most innovative farmers, educators, tradespeople, and off-the-gridders — including Marjory Wildcraft, John Jeavons, David Crow, Sally Fallon Morell, and more! — will share the “how-to’s” of modern homesteading in urban and suburban settings...
They’ll show you everything you need to know — from seeds to soil to irrigation to canning and preserving. They’ll also guide you in step-by-step best practices for raising chickens, beekeeping, and more. And, they’ll share how you can make herbal remedies from your own garden and advance grassroots healthcare initiatives.
Plus, if you’re passionate about living in the healthiest, most sustainable way possible, you’ll discover easy-to-follow guidance and environmentally friendly practices for protecting our planet’s precious resources while providing for your family, community, and beyond.
This is your chance to join a global community of people who want to grow more, shop less, and save the planet... an emerging, multi-generational movement to return to home gardens and revive practical skills for living healthfully, happily, and holistically!
You can register for this information-packed summit here.
In this edition of The Catalyst, we’re excited to present a 23-minute video teaching from Michael A. Singer, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Untethered Soul. (You can also sign up to attend Michael’s free one-hour virtual workshop this Saturday!) Another treat we’re sure you’ll enjoy is a 52-minute video interview with Larry Dossey, MD, conducted exclusively for The Shift Catalyst, about the nature of consciousness
You’ll also find feature articles by K. Ruby Blume, the host of the Gardening & Homesteading Skills Summit, who shares tips on October gardening; Merissa Alink, who shares 10 tips for beginning gardeners; Shift faculty Holly Tse, who explains how Chinese Reflexology can ensure healthy breasts; and Dr. Eben Alexander, author of the bestselling Proof of Heaven, who offers insights into the healing power of our minds.
Our Profile section includes heartfelt reflections from Isabelle Price, who shares how her journey led her to write a book celebrating the wisdom of the Divine Feminine; and former Shifter Byron Belitsos, who explains how a near-death experience at age nine set him on a path that culminated with the publication of his new book about the evolving soul.
And our featured artist is Marcus Maria Jung, who creates sculptural work from parts of trees.
Last but not least, we would love to hear your answer to the question, “What environmentally friendly practices are you currently doing and what additional skills would you like to learn?” To share your thoughts in our Facebook Page community, click here.
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Experiencing Your Untethered Soul with Michael Singer
In this 23-minute video featuring Michael Singer, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Untethered Soul, Michael simply, eloquently, and brilliantly shares deep insights about the practice of letting go of every attachment to free yourself from the quagmire of ceaseless thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Click here to register for Michael’s free one-hour virtual workshop on Saturday, October 21: Experiencing Your Untethered Soul: Discover the Joy, Equanimity & Love of True Surrender.
Vivian Castleberry: A Tribute to a Trailblazing Woman Journalist & Peacebuilder
By Philip M. Hellmich
 In June, I had the delight of interviewing Vivian Castleberry, a 95-year old legendary journalist and peacebuilder. Vivian had done groundbreaking work in Texas around women’s empowerment and later helped organize people-to-people peacebuilding efforts between the United States and the former Soviet Union. When I interviewed Vivian, she had advanced cancer and was allowing it to run its course without treatment, grateful for her family and full life of service. I was deeply touched by Vivian’s presence, humility, wisdom and accomplishments. I often found myself in tears during the interview. Vivian recently passed away. We want to honor Vivian and her family by sharing with you this interview with her. Click here to listen to the interview. You also can read Vivian’s obituary in The Dallas Morning News by clicking here.
Larry Dossey, MD on the One Mind and Unity Consciousness
Video Interview with Phil Bolsta
In this exclusive 52-minute video interview for Catalyst, Larry Dossey, MD explores the very nature of consciousness and shares insights from his book, One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters.
 My experience with precognitive dreams was several decades ago, and I'm happy to say that we're not in the same place currently. There's an increasing openness toward these things in the medical field. Just to give you an example, back when I had that experience with those precognitive dreams, there were three medical schools in the entire country who had any formal coursework looking at the role of consciousness and spirituality in healing. Now, the vast majority, something like 90 to 95 medical schools out of 130, have formal coursework exploring these outcomes.
One of the major factors in this has been the entry into medicine of women. The majority of medical school enrollment nationwide now is made up of young women, and nurses have played an enormous role in terms of opening the profession to these issues. The fact is that women, nurses and doctors, women simply don't struggle with these phenomena like we men do. So hats off to women. They have helped to bring this way of thinking around.
To watch the video and read the text, click here.
 Global Shift Meditation —
Free Event on the First of Every Month
Join The Shift Network, The Gaiafield Project and people around the world for Global Shift Meditations on the first of each month. On October 1, we featured Elizabeth Debold, a Harvard-trained developmental psychologist, leading authority on gender development, and author of the bestselling Mother Daughter Revolution. Click here to listen to the free recording and to register to receive future free recordings.
 Your Voice
We want to know: What environmentally friendly practices are you currently doing and what additional skills would you like to learn? To share your thoughts in our Facebook Page community, click here.
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October in the Garden
By K. Ruby Blume
 October is the time to start to harvest our year and take stock of what has grown and flourished and what has struggled to survive. It is time to start the process of letting go of what is no longer needed and to prepare our larders for the leaner times.
Work in the garden this time of year includes pulling out and clearing the dead and dying from the past season, weeding, saving seeds, and preserving the harvest. Here are a couple “how-tos” from the archives of my generalist brain to help you along.
To read more, click here.
10 Practical Tips for First-Time Gardeners That You Need to Know
By Merissa Alink
 The gardening season is almost upon us and perhaps this year is your first time planting a garden. Growing your own garden can be a wonderfully enjoyable thing to do, even if you do have a few weeds to pull. But it can also be a little bit confusing when you first get started or even a little disheartening if you aren’t sure how to get things set up. If only it were as easy as just planting seeds and watching yummy things grow!
Never fear! If you are a first-time gardener and you have some questions before you get going, this is an article for you. Hopefully, after you finish reading this you will feel a little more empowered and ready to get your hands dirty this gardening season.
To read more, click here.
Chinese Reflexology for Healthy Breasts: Learn How to Massage Your Feet for Natural Breast Health
By Holly Tse
Click here to register for Holly’s free online mini-workshop on Wednesday, October 18: The 3 Essential Chinese Reflexology Points for Women at 40, 50 & Beyond: Ancient Wisdom to Balance Your Hormones, Remove Energetic Blocks & Reignite Your Vitality.
If you’re looking for natural treatments and ways to keep your breasts healthy, learn how to clear energy blocks in your breasts by massaging your feet. When energy is blocked or not flowing smoothly, that’s when physical symptoms can appear. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, breast lumps and breast cancer are simply the result of stagnant Qi. Thus, to clear physical blocks, you must get your Qi flowing.
Somewhere out there is a woman whose life could be completely transformed simply by reading this article. I know it. I can feel it. Thus, I kindly ask you to please share this article with all the women in your life—mothers, daughters, wives, and girlfriends. Thank you!
To read more, click here.
The Healing Power of our Minds
By Eben Alexander, MD
 Based on the new book, Living in a Mindful Universe: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness, by Eben Alexander, MD and Karen Newell
Can human beings truly demonstrate the power of mind over matter, where sheer force of will is enough to determine an emergent reality in the physical world? When viewed from the proper perspective, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
To read more, click here.
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Creativity as a Doorway to Spirit
By Isabella Price
 When I moved from Switzerland to the U.S. six months before the World Trade Center collapsed before our incredulous eyes on 9/11, I had no idea where this journey into the great unknown would lead me — let alone that it would take me into the crucible of an ever-deepening connection to Spirit
The truth is that at that time I didn’t yet consciously realize that I was on a spiritual path and had been a seeker all of my life.
Looking back, I would say that my move to the U.S. led to a great opening, an expansion of my Being. As we cut our ties to the comforts and safety of a previous life, we become a blank canvas that harbors infinite potential and possibilities.
Click here to read more.
The Soul-Synthesis Hypothesis: Paranormal Reflections on Soul-Making
By Byron Belitsos
 One hot and humid summer day in 1962 in suburban Cincinnati, I was engaged in aimless play at our neighborhood pool like any other nine-year-old boy. At one point, I jumped into the kids’ end of the pool. Or so I thought. Instead of gently hitting the bottom four feet down, I was now lost in ten feet of water. I was so startled by the unexpected depth that I began to panic, for I had not yet learned to swim. I struggled and churned, frantic to get my bearings. In a flash, time slowed down as I entered a place of sheer terror, which suddenly crossed over into a timeless paranormal state. But before I could inhale a gulp of water, I was pulled free by a vigilant lifeguard. In the few moments before the rescue, I had a near-death experience (NDE), including what is now called a “life review.”
To read more, click here.
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DREAM BIG Summit
Have you ever wanted to know exactly how to manifest your purpose, your soulmate, and a better life for yourself and even the planet? Or, do you need some inspiration to stay motivated and keep the faith in these times?
You are warmly invited to the DREAM BIG online summit. Come and listen to 30+ speakers presenting deep insights into how magical this universe is, and what you can do to help bring about a greater life for yourself and the planet.
Click here for more information.
The Homesteading Guide
By K. Rubly Blume
 This do-it-yourself manual to urban sustainability by K. Ruby Blume, founder and headmistress of The Institute of Urban Homesteading, and Host of the Gardening & Homesteading Skills Summit, contains a wealth of information. Click here to read more and access this guide as a 12-page PDF.
Everyday Cheesemaking: How to Succeed Making Dairy and Nut Cheese at Home
By K. Ruby Blume
 Everyday Cheesemaking is an introduction to DIY home cheese making made simple and accessible. K. Ruby Blume introduces you to the concepts, equipment, and ingredients necessary to making cheese at home successfully the very first time you try. The book offers clear instructions, humorous stories, and dozens of recipes and troubleshooting tips. You'll learn about running a small home goat dairy and how to make non-dairy cheese recipes using nut milks. With its light and practical approach, this book is perfect for anyone who is itching to get started and impress their friends and family with delicious homemade cheese. Click here to order your copy.
The Gardening and Preserving Journal
By Merissa Alink
 Have you ever wished that you could remember just which squash seed you planted last year that gave you such a wonderful crop? Where had you ordered it from? How much were you able to harvest? Have you gotten to canning season and forgotten which recipe you really wanted to try this year?
Features of The Gardening and Preserving Journal include:
- Before-harvest pages to keep track of what you have left and possibly preserved too much of
- Gardening info and layout pages, to draw out your garden plan, decide what you will use on your garden, and to keep track of anything new you are trying
- Seed information pages, to note where you get seeds from, what kind they are, how much they cost, if they did well, and more
- After-harvest inventory pages, to keep track of what you can, dry, freeze, and put in cold storage.
- Recipe pages to keep track of all of the delicious things you want to make and preserve
Click here for more information and to order your copy.
Goddess Power: Awakening the Wisdom of the Divine Feminine in Your Life
By Isabella Price
 Goddess Power: Awakening the Wisdom of the Divine Feminine in Your Life takes you on a journey into the heart of the Goddess traditions. The wisdom of the Goddess is urgently needed to restore and heal the Earth and yourself at this critical threshold in history. This leading-edge book offers an empowering message on how we might evolve toward higher consciousness by re-establishing a healthy balance and integration of both the archetypal “masculine” and the “feminine.” Find your own Goddess power and change your life! To order your copy, click here.
The Sattva Summit
November 7–13 at the Sattva Retreat in Rishikesh, India
The Sattva Summit is a boutique conscious gathering, offering the opportunity for yogis from across the globe to gather as a community for a week of deep healing, expansion and reasonless joy at The Sattva Retreat, a luxurious sanctuary nestled in the foothills of the Himalayans. We will gather as a community to deepen in our silence through daily group meditation and rituals, harmonize with the body in our yoga practice with globally renowned teachers, connect to ancient yogic wisdom and the evolutionary teachings of consciousness, and nourish our bodies with healing foods from leading Ayurvedic chefs of India, while enjoying live music, chanting and dancing. We will also have the opportunity to discover the beauty that Rishikesh has to offer, including hikes to Himalayan villages, temple tours, ganga dips, cave meditations, rafting, ayurvedic spa treatments, cooking classes, and much more! Click here to watch a short video invitation to the Sattva Summit.
Costa Rica Retreat with Karuna from Light On Kundalini
December 2–9, 2017
Blue Spirit Yoga & Meditation Retreat Center in Nosara, Costa Rica
 Join us for a week of deep spiritual exploration in the serene and beautiful surrounds of the Blue Spirit Yoga and Meditation Retreat Center in Nosara, Costa Rica (Blue Spirit has been named a Yoga Journal “Best Yoga Escape 2017”). We will be breaking down the walls of resistance by going deeper into peace and tranquility through meditation. The week will include in-depth exploration of the technology of Kundalini Yoga for re-rooting, rest and restoration of the Complete Self from the stresses of daily life. You’ll develop a fulfilling everyday discipline, creating devotional practice with Sadhana at the ambrosial hour, meditation and chanting, and breath walks on the oceanfront, experiencing deep immersion into the Soul! For more information, click here.
The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a collection of audio and video interviews featuring Indigenous leaders from around the world sharing prayers, sacred songs, prophecies, spiritual teachings and pathways to healing, as well as concrete examples for birthing a new era — one in which all members of the human family are treated with respect, understanding, compassion and justice. This sacred wisdom is important medicine for us all. The production of The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a gift from The Shift Network, designed to inspire, inform and involve you by highlighting the voices and important messages of Indigenous leaders from around the world. We thank all the speakers who have contributed to this body of knowledge! To learn more, click here.
Book by Stephen Dinan: Sacred America, Sacred World. Infused with visionary power, Sacred America, Sacred World is a manifesto for our country’s evolution that is both political and deeply spiritual. It offers profound hope that America can grow beyond our current challenges and manifest our noblest destiny, which the book shows is rooted in sacred principles that transcend left or right political views. To order your copy, click here.
 World Peace Library. Designed for the layperson and professional peacebuilder alike, the World Peace Library has over 425 audio and video interviews with some of the most remarkable, inspiring peacebuilders in the world available to you at NO COST. You’ll find hundreds of hours of inspirational, peacebuilding, compassion-spreading talks and trainings at your fingertips with this FREE global resource. There’s no way you can’t come away from the World Peace Library deeply inspired, transformed — and part of the solution. Click here to find out how to take peace to the next level — and help co-create a global culture of peace that leaves a legacy of good for our children, our children’s children and all of humanity and life on earth.
If you would like to submit something to The Catalyst, please see the submission guidelines: click here.
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2017 Catalyst:
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(#21, 10/15)
(#20, 10/1)
(#19, 9/17)
(#18, 9/3)
(#17, 8/20)
(#16, 8/6)
(#15, 7/23)
(#14, 7/9)
(#13, 6/25)
(#12, 6/11)
(#11, 5/28)
(#10, 5/14)
(#9, 4/30)
(#8, 4/16)
(#7, 4/2)
(#6, 3/19)
(#5, 3/5)
(#4, 2/19)
(#3, 2/5)
(#2, 1/22)
(#1, 1/8)
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Pick a topic from the Gardening & Homesteading Skills Summit that you’d like to learn and mark your calendar to listen to the speaker who can educate you on it. Then follow up by taking one step — even a small one! — to get you headed down the road to mastery!
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 The 3 Essential Chinese Reflexology Points for Women at 40, 50 & Beyond: Ancient Wisdom to Balance Your Hormones, Remove Energetic Blocks & Reignite Your Vitality — A Free Virtual Event With Chinese Reflexologist, Author & Dragon Spirit Guide Holly Tse. Discover simple, ancient secrets for relief from key physical and emotional imbalances that are unique to women at 40, 50, and beyond. Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at 5:30pm Pacific
 Experiencing Your Untethered Soul: Discover the Joy, Equanimity & Love of True Surrender — A Rare Video Interview With #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Michael Singer. Connect with your soul essence beyond the stress of your mind and let go of the subtle attachments that prevent your deeper nature from emerging. Saturday, October 21, 2017 at 10:00am Pacific
The Rise of the Fierce Feminine: Embracing the Wild, Liberated, Passionate Power of Life — A Free Virtual Event With Mystic Scholar Andrew Harvey With Special Guests Caroline Myss & Mirabai Starr. Deepen in the gifts of the Fierce Feminine to speak and act from wisdom, cut through denial and illusion, and help birth a new future for all. Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 5:30pm Pacific
 The 4 Foundations of Intuitive Healing: Clearing Emotional and Energetic Blocks to Liberate Your Intuition & Healing Gifts — With Intuitive Healer and Trainer Wendy De Rosa. Dissolve emotional and energetic blocks to establish clear boundaries, heal yourself and others, and come home to your authentic Self. New 7-week Live Training Starts Thursday, October 26, 2017
More Upcoming Events: (all subject to change)
October
• Stan Grof & Rick Tarnas 7-week course
• Satyen Raja 7-week course
• Suzanne Scurlock-Durana 7-week course
• Burt Goldman 7-week course
• Gardening & Homesteading Skills Summit
• Robert Moss 13-week course
• Anodea Judith 7-week course
November
• Margaret Paul 7-week course
• David Crow 6-month program
• Holly Tse 7-week course
• Andrew Harvey & Caroline Myss 7-week course
• Arjun Das 7-week course
December
• Andrew Holecek 7-week course
• don Oscar Miro-Quesada 13-week course
• Linda Backman 7-week course
January
• Hank Wesselman 7-week course
• Donna Eden 12-week course
• Suzanne Scurlock-Durana program
• Chloe Goodchild 16-week program
• Caroline Casey 12-week program
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Support the Victims of the Las Vegas Shooting
The National Compassion Fund is pleased to partner with the Las Vegas Victims Fund. You can contribute directly to support the immediate and long-term needs of the victims of the October 1 shooting in Las Vegas. Your gift will provide critical support to the victims and their families. 100% of the funds received through the National Compassion Fund Las Vegas will be distributed directly to victims. Click here to donate.
WEDO
WEDO is a global advocacy organization established in 1991 by former U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug and feminist activist and journalist Mim Kelber. WEDO has been a leader in organizing women for international conferences and actions, earning a reputation as a trailblazer in the international women’s rights movement.
WEDO recognized that the hard-won policy commitments to women’s rights that emerged from the major UN conferences of the 1990s were not enough to improve women’s daily lives. WEDO has spent the last few years focused on deeper collaboration with Southern partners to increase the number of women leaders at all levels, to implement global policy gains at the national level, and to hold governments accountable to their commitments on women’s rights.
Click here to visit the WEDO website. Click here to make a donation to WEDO.
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City Slicker Farms
City Slicker Farms empowers West Oakland community members to meet the basic need for healthy food for themselves and their families by creating organic, sustainable, and high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens. These spaces provide healthy, affordable food and improve the environment. We seek to serve all West Oakland residents, prioritizing people who have least access.
Our farms and gardens demonstrate the viability of a local food-production system, serve as community spaces, empower children and adults who want to learn about the connections between ecology, farming, and the urban environment, and give West Oakland residents tools for self-reliance.
Click here for more information. Click here to make a donation and to watch a 3-minute video, "Uprooting Food Injustice in West Oakland."
Honor the Earth
Our mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. Honor the Earth develops these resources by using music, the arts, the media, and Indigenous wisdom to ask people to recognize our joint dependency on the Earth and be a voice for those not heard. For more information, click here. To make a donation, click here.
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Marcus Maria Jung
Shift staffer Shashi Tusken writes:
Marcus is an amazing artist. He creates sculptural work from parts of trees. One of the most amazing things about his work is that he doesn't cut any trees down; he uses trees that have fallen in the forest and or trees that were cut down for some reason. Some of his newer pieces came from burned trees that were cut down after the Valley Fire. My husband Ray and I have four of his pieces in our home. I think he'd be a good fit for this issue because part of Gardening and Homesteading Skills includes recycling and reclaiming what others might see as debris.
Click here to visit Marcus’ website.
Dance of Creation, Destruction and Rebirth (burned Manzanita on a metal base, 4.5 feet)
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