In this interview, David talks with Merryn Jose about his extraordinary life experiences and his work as a spiritual healer. In 1990 David L. Cunningham was a captive of Saddam Hussein for 100 days during the Gulf War. He was one of many “human shields” strategically placed in prisons adjacent to the Iraqi military’s armament facilities. He made his personal peace with God and pledged to use his spiritual healing “gifts” to heal others if and when he was allowed to live and be released from captivity…

Monique Fay is a pioneer and a visionary in the fields of photography and healing. Her practice, based in Santa Barbara, CA, offers a unique synthesis of skills, wisdom and experience. She is the author of The Book of Fay and has just released The Apprentice Cards, a wonderful set of healing cards geared toward inspiring insight and personal transformation. The photos are stunning, and the experience of working with them immersive and powerful.

Do animals have spiritual experiences? Yes they do! We’re not the only spiritual beings by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. in Animal EmotionsIn conjunction with Psychology Today blogger, Steven Kotler, I’ve been pondering whether nonhuman animals (“animals”) have spiritual experiences and are they religious.

I had a startling vision a couple of decades ago that led me to research Sacred Geometry. When I did, I was astonished to find that the beautiful symbols I saw in my vision have been known about and studied for thousands of years. From the Ancient Chinese geomancers to Plato, from the Egyptians and the Hindus, through to the modern work of Nassim Harimein (video), the same powerful geometric shapes recur over and over again.

Many years ago I, too, had what they now call an “STE,” or Spiritual Transformative Experience. Like others, I only told my mother and a few close friends at the time. In my case, I was fortunate in that it was not preceeded by an accident or life threatening illness, instead it came seemingly out of nowhere one evening. Just like a Near Death Experience, I was enveloped in light, spoke with guides, and felt the ecstatic bliss of unconditional love.

Those who seek a greater spiritual dimension may be searching for glasses that are perched upon our head. Now, after all the experiences I describe in my new book, I see and feel spirit everywhere. We swim in spirit, we breath it, and it breathes us, interpenetrating every cell. We need only open our eyes and hearts in moments of free attention.

You’ve probably heard of Dr. Andrew Newberg’s work on meditation, even if you didn’t realize it — he’s the scientist who did the ground breaking studies of Tibetan monks meditating that showed how dramatically it changed the brain . He went on to study nuns praying and Sikhs chanting and found similar brain states as those of meditation. His ground breaking work led to the development of a new field of science called “neurotheology,” which studies the relationship between the brain and religious experience.

Happy New Year to all our dear readers, writers, and staff! We hope that 2021 is a year of growth, learning, and creativity. As Neil Gaiman said, “May your year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books, and kiss someone who who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

I remembered a conversation in which I suggested that the original Santa was a shaman of the Sami, a reindeer-herding people of Lapland, reputed to have the power to call up the winds and fly through the air, and that the reason his coat is red is that it was the flayed skin of a reindeer. I have seen Sami drums with images of a shaman flying through the three tiers of the shamanic cosmos on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. But while there is a rich ethnography on Sami shamanism, I could think of no source that would be suitable for a young boy. So I took on the assignment of writing my own version of the first Santa, addressed to a boy in danger of losing his belief in Christmas magic.