By Letha Hadady–The San Francisco Chronicle reported March 25, 2009 that health officials are seeing a new type of Tuberculosis patient, someone who isn’t poor or homeless or a newly arrived immigrant. TB is being found in low-risk settings–an affluent high school, a law office, bars, at a venture capital firm. The global economic crunch is packing us closer together as people lose homes, jobs, and health insurance. Read More

By Phillip Moffitt -In my role as a Buddhist meditation teacher, I’ve observed a phenomenon that I call the “stigma of suffering syndrome” among many beginning students. They are uneasy with the fact that their lives contain suffering; therefore, they are ineffective in coping with whatever difficulties and disappointments arise. For such individuals to admit to suffering would mean defeat, humiliation, or shame because they did not measure up to our culture’s view that winners don’t suffer. Their ineffectiveness manifests as passivity, helplessness, guilt, or self-hatred.

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By Bernie Siegel, MD

As doctors we are not trained to communicate and understand the power of our words as they relate to a patient’s ability and desire to survive. It is also not only doctors but all the authority figures in our patient’s lives that affect their ability to survive and the outcome of their disease. Parents, teachers, clergy and physicians change lives with their words. It is hypnotic for a child or patient to hear an authority figures words. As I am always sharing, wordswordswords  can become swordswordswords and we can kill or cure with either words or swords. Read More

First off, I am not impartial or unbiased when I say, “I love Reiki.” I have been practicing the Reiki System for 16 years and teaching for 14 years, and earn my livelihood this way. Just so you know that upfront. Read More

Chocolate took the world by storm as soon as it emerged from Meso-America in the Renaissance. It has always been loved for its flavor, its romantic associations, and its enduring status as the champagne of foods. But now we are coming to realize that chocolate has both a health-giving and sacred dimension. For the indigenous peoples of Meso-America it was, of course, the drink of the gods and played a major role in many sacred ceremonies. But it is also packed with anti-oxidants and other elements highly beneficial to good health. The story below reveals that at last, thankfully, chocolate can join red wine as a pleasure, a sacrament, and a delightful source of well-being.  - Ralph White Read More

We are, of course, over the moon about our impending move into a magnificent and centrally located new home in the heartland of Manhattan. Recently we sat down with our Board Chair, Walter Beebe, to get his thoughts on the process leading up to the Open Center’s impending  move in early summer. Read More

Fundamentalist Christians living in the United States must live with some serious cognitive dissonance. People who are ideologically like the former president really intrigue me. I am not speaking of neo-cons per-say, but specifically those who believe it is their duty, bestowed upon them by the Almighty, to spread democracy around the globe. Read More

I was in the shower this morning  thinking:  “Oh, when the markets come back and the business world revives, I’ll have more money.  I’ll feel more at ease.  I’ll be happier.”  Of course, three years ago my clients and I had more money.  And I remember that my clients and I were upset about various world events, our elected officials, our jobs, our commutes.  And we were worried about our money, too.   We were no happier back then than we are now.  The opportunity for today is to let go of the myth that more money will make us happy. Read More