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 By Stephen Dinan, founder and CEO of The Shift Network
At any time, an ordinary moment can become extraordinary. A conversation with the right person at the right time has the power to reshape the whole of your life and profoundly redirect your life path.
Perhaps one such encounter led to your spiritual awakening, or broke through the barriers of heartaches and emotional wounds that prevented healings and the building of healthy adult relationships. Or maybe it opened the passageway into the cosmic domain, which ultimately compelled you to examine the meaning and purpose of your own life.
You never can tell when the next chapter of your life will begin. Ordinary moments can lead to life-changing insights. Something within you inexplicably shifts, and you view a chance meeting, a casual conversation, a familiar ritual, with fresh eyes. The proverbial light bulb goes off, everything clicks into place, and life makes more sense.
Or maybe the moment will announce itself more dramatically. The foundation of your life may shift under your feet. A disease is diagnosed. A stranger reaches out in need. A new soul enters the world, or an old one leaves. These events, and how we deal with them, change our life, and more important, change us in the process.
Intent on controlling the circumstances around us, we are humbled repeatedly by the vicissitudes of life. This humbling can occupy either end of the spectrum of human experience. With a heavy heart, we may find ourselves surrendering to a force greater than ourselves. Or, we may sink to our knees, silently expressing gratitude for awe-inspiring gifts that gloriously reveal the profound beauty of life.
 Medical doctor Yvonne Kason has experienced many such moments — her reactions have varied from sheer terror to overwhelming gratitude to a peace beyond understanding. As she recounts in this exclusive video interview, after five near-death experiences and a magical Kundalini awakening that turned her beliefs and expectations about life upside down and inside out, she’s dedicated her life to sharing her hard-won wisdom with others...
Through her books, talks, and organizational work, Yvonne comforts, reassures, and encourages people who have gone through spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) to apply the lessons they’ve learned to live more peaceful, beautiful lives, secure in the knowledge that life is unfolding as it should and death is not to be feared.
 And author and spiritual teacher Joan Borysenko’s magical moment as she sat at her mother’s deathbed profoundly and permanently altered their relationship in multiple and surprising ways. She writes: “I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for this woman. I also felt the circularity of things, that she had given me physical birth and, in this moment, I was giving birth to her soul as it was leaving.”
And before you dive into the illuminating articles, videos, and other content below, we’d love to hear your answer to the question, What unexpected and seemingly ordinary moments changed your life in meaningful and lasting ways? To share your thoughts in our Facebook Page community, click here.
And be sure to check out the first installment of our video Q&A with Shift President and CEO Stephen Dinan, who will be directly answering your questions every month in Catalyst.
After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.
— Philip Pullman
Video Q&A with Stephen Dinan, President & CEO of The Shift Network
 In this new monthly feature, Stephen Dinan will be directly answering your questions in a video Q&A.
This month, he addresses the following questions:
- We just experienced a groundbreaking wave of women into office. How does that connect with the larger shift of our times?
- We've recently had some devastating news about climate change with the fires in California. How do you see that we as a “shift movement” can play a role in addressing this major challenge?
- You've noted that it's important to empower more leaders of the shift. How do you see that happening?
- The Shift Network recently acquired a property in Nevada City, California. What's your vision for this property?
Click here to watch Stephen’s Q&A video, read the transcript, and submit your question for next month’s Q&A.
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Yvonne Kason, MD on Spiritually Transformative Experiences
Video interview with Phil Bolsta
 In this exclusive 83-minute video interview for Catalyst, author and medical doctor Yvonne Kason describes her five near-death experiences, Kundalini awakening, and other spiritually transformative experiences. Her writings and research in these areas have fundamentally contributed to a deeper and richer understanding of these phenomena.
An excerpt:
Heroically, the pilot managed to do sort of a semi-guided crash landing onto the surface of a semi-frozen lake. The plane came down and skidded across the ice. And at first, it looked like we were going to be safe but we were skidding right to the edge of open water. The plane miraculously came to a stop right at the edge of the ice. But as soon as it stopped, the weight of the plane settled and it broke the ice and the plane started sinking very rapidly.
I had to get out of this plane really quickly. I was still in this state of peace but I knew I had to get out of the plane. I managed to eventually get out the front door, tried to get the patient out of the plane too but was unsuccessful. The plane nosedived and went down into deep water. I found myself there in open water in the middle of winter, wearing a heavy winter parka and winter boots, looking around in this blizzard, subzero weather.
To watch the video and read the text, click here.
My Mother’s Gift
By Joan Borysenko
 In the middle of the night, my twenty-year-old son, Justin, and I were sitting by her bed meditating when I suddenly had a very profound, very realistic vision. I was a pregnant mother giving birth, but I was also the baby being born. Throughout the vision I was perfectly lucid, and I was in my regular state of consciousness as well. I thought, How remarkable. I’m in two bodies and I’m conscious of being in both. And it occurred to me that that’s what the consciousness of God is, and that it’s present in every human being. Then my consciousness switched totally into the baby being born, and I found myself coming down a long dark tunnel and out into the light.
To read more, click here.
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“Visionseeker” Facebook Live Q&A
 Would you like to significantly expand your perception of who you are, enrich your spiritual life, and align with your place in the Ancestral Grand Plan? Shamanism Teacher and Anthropologist Hank Wesselman will be leading a special Facebook Live Q&A call on Tuesday, December 4, at 5:00pm Pacific to share how you can connect more deeply with your Spirit Teachers to live the sacred and authentic life of a Visionseeker. Click here to get a Facebook Messenger reminder when the event goes live.
“Threshold to Freedom” Facebook Live Q&A
 Would you like to discover a proven mindfulness technique for setting conscious intentions — and for renewing your mind, body, and spirit? Zen Buddhist meditation teacher and author Deborah Eden Tull will be leading a special Facebook Live Q&A call on Tuesday, December 11, at Noon Pacific to explain how you can get off the hamster wheel of self-improvement — and access your true essence and the present moment. Click here to get a Facebook Messenger reminder when the event goes live.
Your Voice:
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We want to know:
What unexpected and seemingly ordinary moments changed your life in meaningful and lasting ways?
To share your thoughts in our Facebook Page community, click here.
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“Basic Training” for Spiritual Warriors
By Michael N. Nagler
 Author and environmental activist Joanna Macy talks about three tasks needed to bring in a world of spiritual progress: create new institutions, change the culture, and stop the worst of the damage. At the Metta Center for Nonviolence, we feel that the worst of the damage has been to the human image — who are we and what can we become. Stop that damage, and we’ve laid the groundwork for all the other changes.
To read more, click here.
Yogi Tea, the Perfect Everyday Beverage
By Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa
 Yogi Tea was introduced to America by Yogi Bhajan, a yoga teacher from India, in 1969, long before anyone had heard of exotic chai. He served the concoction to his first American yoga students, who coined the name out of respect. This 6-herb beverage, besides being tasty, has a plethora of healing benefits and is a great staple to add to your daily routine. Essentially a mildly warming circulation enhancer, it bumps up disease resistance, stamina, liver health, and digestion.
To read more, click here.
How to Move from Concern to Action on Climate Change
By Wilford Welch
 Many people ask me what they can really do to make a difference [regarding] climate change]. My first suggestion is to start looking at your current actions through a new lens. Become aware of the actions you are unconsciously taking in your everyday life that are adding to the problem, and then choose among the numerous possible actions you could easily take to help solve the problem.
To read more, click here.
Love and Truer Healing
By Ronnie Figueroa
 I believe we are born with an innate ability and desire to love and be loved. There has been much research and testimonials that have suggested this to be true. However, how do we determine if our love is genuine and balanced?
To read more, click here.
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Weaving Threads of Courage
Web of Light Subtle Activism Series
Join Subtle Activists and life partners David T. Nicol and Kate Naga the first Saturday of each month for their Web of Light Subtle Activism Series, in which they tap into a different quality of our shared essential presence as a strand of light in the global Web. This month’s presentation, “Weaving Threads of Courage,” was designed to help absorb and transmute excess anger and aggression in the collective psychosphere. Click here to listen.
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Help the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota Recover from Storm Damage
 On July 28 and 29, storms and tornadoes whipped through the Oglala community on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. More than 450 homes were severely damaged by this natural disaster. FEMA has denied the Oglala Sioux Tribe Emergency Disaster Funds, leaving hundreds of families facing the winter months with broken windows and holes in their walls and ceilings.
Many elderly people, families, and their small children are facing the very real threat of freezing to death this winter if their homes are not winterized and their broken windows are not safely sealed. We are raising emergency funds to seal the broken windows for each of the roughly 450 homes that were affected by this storm. Our goal is to accomplish this by Christmas. Watch a 3-minute video about the storm damage here.
The Shift Network has an active commitment to Indigenous Peoples by working to help heal wounds, supporting Indigenous communities, and collaborating with Indigenous leaders. Please join The Shift Network in supporting our brothers and sisters at Pine Ridge. Click here for more information and to make a donation to repair and restore these homes.
Peacegame App
 Peacegame is a playful way to create more peace in your life. By playing, you reduce your stress, sleep better, transform your habits, and improve your relationships. All it takes is five minutes of your day, but don’t be fooled — it’s not just another meditation app; Peacegame is an empowerment tool for the modern change-maker. The game is built around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. To play, you complete quests in your everyday life. By completing these quests you make positive changes both in your own life and for the whole planet.
International Yoga Festival
March 1-7, 2019
 Join us for the world-famous annual International Yoga Festival on the banks of the holy Ganges river, nestled in the lap of the sacred Himalayas, the birthplace of yoga, at Parmarth Niketan Ashram. Receive the darshan and inspiring, uplifting wisdom of revered saints, and the teaching and touch of renowned yoga teachers from across the world from a wide variety of lineages — plus, ecstatic kirtan, divine Ganga Aarti, and much, much more. The International Yoga Festival is a truly globally unique event, bringing together so many masters from so many traditions, cultures, and countries in one sacred, beautiful place! Click here to register online.
7 Days of Rest
January 1-7, 2019
 7 Days of Rest and Reflection is the second global annual event dedicated to the healing and replenishment of the planet and all its inhabitants. Together, across the world, we will spend the first week of 2019, January 1-7, seeding the New Year with a collective field of restful reflection, cultivating sacred relationship of the feminine and masculine with each other, with the foundations of Life, and with all of Creation. For more information, click here.
Wisdom 2.0
March 1-3, 2019
San Francisco, California
 Wisdom 2.0 is the premiere gathering focused on exploring the intersection of wisdom and technology. Our flagship gathering is in San Francisco each year, where thousands of people from over 30 countries join in asking: “How do we live with greater MINDFULNESS, WISDOM, and COMPASSION in the digital age?” Past speakers include founders of Twitter, Facebook, and eBay. Click here to view the full list of speakers for this year’s event. Click here to register.
PGS — Intuition Is Your Personal Guidance System
 A remarkable new film on intuition, PGS – Intuition is Your Personal Guidance System, has been screening to sell-out audiences around the U.S. and is now available to stream online. The film, which details one man’s 3-year global search to find meaning after a voice saved his life, brings together some of the world’s leading experts on intuition, including Caroline Myss and James Van Praagh. Click here to watch the trailer.
Wisdom Man
By Camilla Chance
Access your free copy
 Camilla Chance met Aboriginal Elder Banjo Clarke in 1975, and at his request wrote down his story and philosophy. The book Wisdom Man turned out to be a 27-year long labor of love, and became an immediate bestseller in Australia. Camilla was the first non-Aboriginal to receive the prestigious Unsung Hero Award from Aboriginal people for her dedicated friendship and work for them "behind the scenes.” Camilla, whose work with the Aboriginal people were featured on Oprah's Angel Network, thinks that Indigenous people who are true to their old laws are living the closest to how we all need to live now, if our planet is to survive. To access your free copy, click here.
Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication
By Oren Jay Sofer
 We spend so much of our lives talking to each other, but how much are we simply running on automatic — relying on old habits and hoping for the best? Are we able to truly hear others and speak our mind in a clear and kind way? Say What You Mean is a step-by-step guide for meaningful conversations that bring people together. In this groundbreaking synthesis of mindfulness, somatics, and Nonviolent Communication, Sofer, a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication, offers simple yet powerful practices for healthier, more effective conversation. Click here to order your copy.
Transform the World into a Healthy and Sustainable Future
By Tom Bougsty, PhD
 The book confronts the ultimate challenge facing humanity — do we continue to evolve, or do we tragically devolve into our own destruction? Twelve major course corrections provide opportunities for us to evolve successfully. At the center of this success, two universal needs must be fulfilled: 1) sustainable living that prevents destruction and death and 2) healthy living that promotes growth and avoids sickness and suffering. In the end, we must learn to live and co-create in harmony with all reality. We then have the opportunity to evolve a living bridge to transport humanity and life into a successful, flourishing future. Click here to order your copy.
Longing for a New Story
 Longing for a New Story is for all people, and especially for leaders and change agents who are open to living a new view of leadership grounded in faithful followership of Spirit. It will serve as a good companion that will help us take an honest look at the challenges of our times without feeling overwhelmed; offer practical advice for how to disconnect from a story that is killing us; and give us a hope-filled way of living and leading until a promised new life-giving story fully arrives. The most vital work of our time is to make every corner of the earth a safe place for a child to be born. Click here to order your copy.
For several years, The Shift Network has hosted Indigenous leaders from around the world and invited them to share their sacred knowledge, rituals, and practices to guide us in a way of living that is sustainable, healthy, and just. We’re thus delighted that the Global Indigenous Wisdom Library makes this “virtual council” of leaders and their wisdom available for everyone, everywhere for free. 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 want to give a heartfelt thanks to Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. (“Brother Phil”) for his partnership in helping create this Indigenous Wisdom collection. And we thank all the speakers who have contributed to this body of knowledge. To discover more, 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.
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.
If you would like to submit something to The Catalyst, please see the submission guidelines: click here.
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Start a conversation with a friend or family member and share a story from your life that changed the way you looked at the world and your role in it. Ask them if they would like to share a story of their own. You will likely find that telling each other your stories deepens the bonds of your relationship.
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 Discover the Power of Puma Medicine — A Free Video Event with Peruvian Healer don Oscar Miro-Quesada. Embody the presence, clarity, and courage to hunt down your old stories, awaken your dreams, and “shapeshift” your future. Wednesday, December 5, at 5:30pm Pacific
 Finding Your Authentic Writing Voice — A Free Video Event with Bestselling Author and Teacher Mark Matousek. Discover 3 keys to discover, refine, and communicate your message. Saturday, December 8, at 10:00am Pacific
 Courting the Dream — A Free Video Event with Author, Teacher, and Dreamworker Toko-pa Turner. Learn how to listen to your body more deeply to receive the medicine of your dreams and experience greater freedom and personal power in your daily life. Wednesday, December 12, at 5:30pm Pacific
 The Alchemy of Awe — With Pioneering Contemporary Spiritual Teacher & Internationally Renowned Scholar Andrew Harvey. Walk through 7 initiatory gateways to open to a much richer, wiser, and more grounded, beautiful, and ecstatic life. New 10-week Live Audio Training Starts Tuesday, December 4
 Visionseeker — With Shamanism Teacher and Anthropologist Hank Wesselman. Greatly expand your perception of who you are, enrich your spiritual life, and align with your place in the Ancestral Grand Plan. New 4-month Live Audio Training Starts Tuesday, December 11
 Advanced Core Embodiment Process™ & Practices — With Leading Conscious Awareness Instructor & Bestselling Author Suzanne Scurlock. Activate your body’s 6 wisdom centers — to transform feelings of overwhelm, heal trauma, and access more joy and creative energy. New 3-month Live Video Mentorship Program Starts Thursday, December 13
More Upcoming Events: (all subject to change)
December
• Deborah Eden Tull 7-week course
January
• Toko-pa Turner 7-week course
• Mark Matousek 7-week course
• Winter of Wellness
• Rhys Thomas 7-week course
• Shiloh Sophia 7-week course
• Shift Mentorship Program
February
• Deb Soule 7-week course
• Caroline Casey 7-week course
• Holly Tse 7-week course
• Personality Typing Summit
• Chloe Goodchild 7-week course
• David Crow 7-week course
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The Euphrates Institute
A world of people practicing peace. This isn’t a lofty vision. It’s already happening, and in the places you would least expect it. Like the Euphrates River flowing though the war zones of Western Iraq, peace is already here. Euphrates is a grassroots peace building and educational organization equipping and empowering people in over 30 Chapters and 15 countries to be effective global citizens — people who understand the interconnectedness of our world and communities, and who are contributing to global change by healing themselves, their communities, and humanity. Our purpose is to inspire humanity to act from Oneness.
Our guiding principles:
• We believe the world is interconnected and interdependent.
• We believe there is a solution to every global challenge.
• We seek to humanize the Other.
• We get beyond headlines of despair and highlight the good.
• We agree that problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them.
If you’re looking to connect with others to be a more effective global citizen, join this community of practice to gain skills, community, tools, inspiration, and support from a worldwide network. Click here more for more information. Click here to make a donation.
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The New Story Community
This nonprofit organization establishes and supports spirit-informed communities of practice across the country and around the world. Today more than ever people want to be a part of a sacred community where they can give and receive nurturing, inspiration, and love. The New Story Community offers just that and helps individuals to live well and lead well in our increasingly dark and toxic times. We also offer a place where our souls are fed so that we can live and lead from that deep and sacred place.
For more information, click here. To donate, click here.
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Eleanor Brown
Eleanor Brown is, as one critic wrote, “a folk poet with her feet firmly on the ground, bravely going forth.”
In Eleanor’s own words: “I am a songwriter, musician, and creative activist. I believe that words, music, and rhythm have the power to connect, express, and uplift. I believe that art is necessary in these times. That songs have power. I write them because it feels natural and necessary. I write to record, remember, contain, release, grapple, make sense, make whole and give hope. I write songs that are unafraid to speak of the dark and songs that celebrate the light. I write songs that support us in rising together. I intend to live my life as soul-fully as possible, where embracing the unknown is essential and choosing hope beyond fear is necessary.
I’ve sung in forests, fire circles, and protest rallies; festivals, events and pubs; prisons, churches and schools; by the sea, on top of mountains and in front of thousands of people. I’ve been commissioned to write songs for the theatre, for personal celebrations, for women’s empowerment movements and social action projects. Through this I’ve had the privilege of performing in both the UK and the U.S.
Click here to hear samples of Eleanor’s music and to purchase her albums.
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