Chapter 2 - Metaphysical Learning Explosion - 1984-1990
1984 – 1990
This period marks a very significant development for me in many ways, including professionally and academically, becoming a very successful High School Physics teacher (from September 1985 through June 1990) and achieving my Masters Degree (M.A. Education 1989).
But the real development during these years came from my extra-curricular metaphysical activities.
Sometime in 1984 I read a book called ‘The Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra, and then attended his lecture at a New Age center in Manhattan.
This event launched a 5 year association with this Manhattan New Age center as well as a ‘summer-only’ New Age institute in upstate NY , where at first I volunteered and eventually became involved in the audio-recording department, audio taping 100’s of New Age lectures, workshops, seminars, and concerts.
This was an extraordinary 5+ years of explosive metaphysical learning for me !
After my rough experiences studying Physics at traditional academic institutions, I was seriously disillusioned with my view that Physics, and Science in general, could be a true ‘religious or spiritual path’.
Fritjof Capra’s book, showed me that the perceptions of Ancient Eastern Mystics (Taoists) were strikingly similar to the perceptions of modern Physicists. This realization began to resuscitate my mystical mission to find the ‘numinous’ in Physics and Science in general.
In addition to Frijof Capra, a slew of other Science-related mystical visionaries also wrote books and gave lectures and workshops at the Manhattan and Upstate New Age centers I was closely associated with.
Below is a list of some of the Science-related mystical visionaries I was influenced by during this period, either through personally audio taping their lectures or workshops, attending their lectures/workshops as a paying attendee, and/or being guided to read their books for one reason or another.
Gary Zukov (‘Dancing Wu-Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics’) , Fred Alan Wolf (‘Taking The Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists’), Robert Becker, M.D. (‘The Body Electric: Electromagnetism And The Foundation Of Life’), Richard Gerber M.D. (‘Vibrational Medicine’), Rupert Sheldrake (‘New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation’), Jeanne Achterberg M.D. (‘ Imagery in Healing: Shamanism in Modern Medicine’), G. Frank Lawlis ('Imagery and Disease: A Diagnostic Tool for Behavioral Medicine' -with Jeanne Achterberg M.D.), Bernie S. Siegel M.D. ('Love, Medicine, and Miracles'), James Lovelock (scientist and creator of the GAIA Theory of Earth ), Larry Dossey M.D. (author and Holistic Medicine pioneer), Lynn Margulis PhD (biologist and scientific visionary), Briane Swimme (‘The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story’) , Morris Berman (‘The Re-enchantment of the World’), Gyorgy Doczi (‘The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture’), Paul Deveraux (‘Earth-Mysteries’ researcher and author)...
....and many more that I can’t think of right now.
And this is only the science-related influences.....
Below is a much broader list of people who influenced my metaphysical development during this period. Again, either I personally audio-taped their lectures/workshops, attended their lecture/workshops as a paying attendee, and/or I was guided to read their books for one reason or another during this period.
Barbara Ann Brennan (Energy Healer and author of ‘Hands of Light’), Roslyn Bruyere (Energy Healer and spiritual teacher), Michael Harner (Shaman, Anthropologist), Alberto Viloldo (Shaman, anthropologist, teacher), Patricia Sun (Spiritual teacher), Jean Shendoah Bolen (Goddess visionary and author), Robert Thurman(Tibetan Scholar), Mathew Fox (Christian mystic), Robbie and Judith Gass (Spiritual teachers), Starhawk (theorist of feminist Neopaganism and ecofeminism. Author of 'The Spiral Dance', Alex Grey(Spiritual artist and visionary), Zev Ben Halevi (Kabalah teacher), Baba Olatunge (African drummer, spiritual teacher), Mickey Hart (former drummer for the Grateful Dead and spiritual teacher), Ysaye Barnwell (member of South African Singing group ‘Sweet Honey in the Rock’, spiritual teacher), Paul Winter (leader of the ‘Paul Winter Consort’ visionary, environmentally conscious music group), David Darling (visionary Cellist , spiritual teacher), Sam Keen (spiritual teacher), Gabrielle Roth (spiritual teacher and dance innovator), Allen Ginsberg (Poet, Buddhist, and cultural revolutionary), William Irwin Thompson (Cultural Historian and poet), Stephan Rechtschaffen (co-founder of Omega Institute of Holistic Studies and spiritual teacher), Mel Bucholtz (Holistic Psychotherapy visionary), Tenzin Gyatso ( the current Dalai Lama) , John Wellwood (Meditation teacher and psychologist), Delores Krieger (creator of Therapeutic Touch), Gehlek Rimpoche (Tibetan Buddhist Lama), Robert Bly (poet and pioneer of the Men's Movement), Ram Das (spritual teacher and author), The Pathwork (spiritual teachings channeled by Eva Perakas), Yogi Amrit Desai ( former Guru at Kripalu Yoga Ashram), Gurumayi Chidvilasananda (Siddha Yoga Guru), Osho / Rajneesh (Guru, spiritual visionary and innovator), Pema Chodron (Buddhist Nun and spiritual teacher), Pir Vilayat Khan (Sufi teacher), Neem Karoli Baba (Hindu Guru ), Nancy Napier (psychotherapist and Conscious Living expert), Rabbi Joseph Gelberman PhD (Kabbalah teacher and Interfaith Religion pioneer), Stanley Kripner PhD ('The Realms of Healing' with Alberto Villoldo), Stephen Levine ('Healing into Life and Death'), Ralph White (Program Director of The NY Open Center and authority on the history of the Hermetic Tradition, also Dennis Evenson, program consultant), Kyriacos Markides (anthropologist, and author of ‘The Magus of Strovolos’), Marija Gimbutas (Anthropologist of ancient Goddess religions), Barbara Walker (Tarot card visionary, Goddess researcher and spiritual teacher), Huston Smith (expert on World Religions), Ohashi (creator of Ohashiatsu bodywork), Joan Halifax-Roshi (Anthropologist and expert on Shamanism), Mary Greer and Rachel Pollack (Tarot card masters), Thich Nhat Hanh (Buddhist monk and spiritual teacher), Riane Eisler (author of ‘The Chalice and the Blade’), Brother David Steindl-Rast (Benedictine monk and spiritual teacher), Jose Arguellos (ancient Mayan Spirituality expert), Robert Hand (Astrologer), (Chungliang Al Huang (Tai Chi Master and spiritual teacher), Dorothy MacLean (Co-founder of The Findhorn Community in Scotland, and author of ‘To Hear the Angels Sing: An Odyssey of Co-Creation With the Devic Kingdom’), Mimi Lobell (Sacred Architecture authority), Roger J. Woolger ('Other Lives, Other Selves: A Jungian Psychotherapist Discovers Past Lives'), Wavy Gravy-Hugh Romney (1960's cultural revolutionary), Stephen Gaskin (1960's cultural visionary and expert on communal living), Assorted Tantra teachers (Steve and Lokita Carter, Lori Grace, Carla Tara, Devaka Sussman, ), Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (Buddhist monk and meditation teacher), Elke Petra Palm (Reiki teacher), Steven Post (Black Sect Feng Shui teacher), David Spangler (spiritual philosopher), Gary Snyder (environmental poet and Beat Generation philosopher), Assorted teachers from Landmark Education (formerly called 'EST'), The Theosophical Society, Various authors writing about Sedona, Arizona energy vortexes, Assorted Native American teachers and sweat lodge leaders, Linda Metcalf (Proprioceptive Writing pioneer), Annie Lennox (Neuro Linguistic Programming teacher), Rev. James Parks Morton (Pastor of St. John the Divine Cathedral in NYC), Francis A. Yates (author of ‘Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition’ ,’The Rosicrucian Enlightenment’, and ‘The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age’), Joslyn Godwin (author of ‘Robert Fludd. Hermetic Philosopher...’ , and ‘Harmonies of Heaven and Earth. The Spiritual Dimension of Music...’), John Michell (‘The New View Over Atlantis’),...
...and many, many more that I simply can't remember right now.
Sorry if you are someone who has had an influence on me and I forgot to mention you !