This article first appeared in the Nov/Dec 2006 issue of Science & Spirit.

 

Let There Be Sleep

by Barbara Stahura

 

In a nation flooded with artificial lights, artificial stimulants, and, perhaps, an artificially inflated drive toward productivity and excitement, a simple good night’s rest can be surprisingly hard to find. (continued)

 

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This article appeared in The Year in Veterans Affairs & Military Medicine, 2005-2006 Edition, published by Faircount Media Group. (Click here to see a pdf of this article.)

 

The Silent Injury Comes Home from War

by Barbara Stahura

 

The term “IED” has found its way into common parlance as the war in Iraq and Afghanistan continues. It stands for “improvised explosive device.” While the word “improvised” seems to suggest a thrown-together, homemade bomb that might or might not work, the reality is much more terrifying. At least one IED produced enough deadly force to lift and flip a 25-ton armored vehicle off a roadway, killing the 14 Marines inside. Others turn cars into bombs that explode on street corners, killing or injuring civilians and military personnel who happen to be nearby. Others strapped to people become living bombs. IEDs have become the signature weapon of the insurgents. And one of the injuries they cause is becoming the Iraq war’s signature injury: traumatic brain injury, or TBI. (continued)

 

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This interview first appeared in the October 2005 issue of  Science of Mind.

 

Biology is Belief: A Conversation with Bruce Lipton

by Barbara Stahura

 

When Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., was a research scientist and medical school professor, he made an amazing discovery about the biological mechanisms by which cells receive and process information: Rather than our genes controlling us, our genes are in fact controlled by environmental influences outside our cells, including our thoughts and beliefs. Accordingly, we are not “genetic automatons” victimized by biological inheritances from our ancestors. Instead, we truly are co-creators of our lives and our biology. Lipton describes this new science, called epigenetics, in his book, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles (2005: Mountain of Love/Elite Books). Full of citations and references from other scientists conducting leading-edge research in this field, this book could literally change your life at its most fundamental level. (continued)

 

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This essay appeared in the Jan.-Feb. 2005 issue of Science & Spirit.

 

Riptide

by Barbara Stahura

 

In my favorite photo of us, we’re astride Ken’s BMW motorcycle in our Tucson driveway. Ken is laughing at the camera as I, sitting behind him with arms clasped around his waist, kiss his ear. We wore none of our usual protective equipment—full-face helmets, boots, jackets, gloves—because we had jumped on the bike strictly for the photo. Months later, Ken was wearing all his gear when he took his other motorcycle, a Ducati sport bike, to run some errands. But when a white sedan turned suddenly in front of him, there was nothing he or his equipment could do to prevent what happened next. Ken hit the passenger side near the back wheel; helmet striking steel, face smashing into helmet, brain slamming into skull. He crashed to the asphalt. The sedan disappeared. (continued)

 

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This interview was published in the Sept. 2004 issue of Science of Mind.

 

Allowing Success: An Interview with Dr. Wayne Dyer

by Barbara Stahura

 

Dr. Wayne Dyer has made it his life’s mission to raise the spiritual consciousness of the world, and from the looks of things, he’s succeeding. His latest book, The Power of Intention, published earlier this year, quickly sped to the top of the bestseller lists, including those of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Many of Dyer’s 20-plus other books have also been bestsellers, including his first one, Your Erroneous Zones, in 1976, which sold 25 million copies in its first year. His personal appeal is no less powerful, as evidenced by his numerous speaking engagements on motivational, spiritual, and higher consciousness topics. In conjunction with the new book’s release, he taped a 3-hour special of the same name for PBS, which was viewed by millions of people around the country as it was aired 1700 times over several weeks. (continued)

 

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This article appeared in the May-June 2004 issue of Spirituality & Health.

 

Healing From the Darkness of Torture

by Barbara Stahura

 

A Cherokee creation story holds that after the Cherokee country was created and the sun lifted to the right height, the animals were told to keep watch for seven days. But by the seventh night, only Owl, Panther, and a few others stayed awake. Because they did not succumb to sleep, they were given the power to see in the dark. (continued)

 

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This article appeared in the March-April 2004 issue of Science & Spirit.

 

A River Runs Through It

by Barbara Stahura

 

At the tail end of the summer monsoon, a storm deluged the far-east side of Tucson. A driving rain pelted the bare, desert soil for more than an hour, accompanied by marble-sized hail that hit the ground and bounced. I walked through the house, opening windows with enough overhang to keep out the wet, delighting in the feel of the moist air and the sound of pattering rain. A rainstorm feels more of a miracle in the desert than it does near the southern tip of Lake Michigan, where I grew up. (continued)

 

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This article appeared in the Sept./Oct 2003 issue of Spirituality & Health.

 

Lessons from Mindful Corporations

by Barbara Stahura

 

One day Ray Anderson realized with a jolt that he was part of the problem.

 

It was August 1994, and the CEO and founder of Interface, Inc., the world’s largest commercial carpet manufacturer, understood how much environmental degradation his company caused simply by following perfectly legal, commonly accepted methods of operation. (continued)

 

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This article appeared in the May/June 2002 issue of Soroptimist of the Americas.

 

Living in Fear

by Barbara Stahura

 

Three true stories of indifference, and worse:

 

In 1996, a pregnant Kajal Khidr of Iraqi Kurdistan was accused of extramarital sex by her husband's relatives. They cut off her nose and threatened to kill her when her baby was born. She received medical treatment and escaped to a women's shelter. Unable to obtain assistance from her own family or elsewhere in her own country, Khidr fled abroad with the help of human rights workers. (continued)

 

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This article appeared in the Spring 2002 issue of Spirituality & Health.

 

Global Consciousness?

9/11 Sent Earth’s “Electrogaiagram” Soaring

by Barbara Stahura

 

More than half a century ago, theologian Teilhard de Chardin conceived of an emerging web of global consciousness, which he dubbed the noosphere. Many people believe he foretold the Internet, but Princeton physicist Roger Nelson says Chardin was referring to something much more magnificent: a consciousness connecting all life on the planet, a Gaia mind. In 1998, Nelson and a group of colleagues from various anomalies-research fields created the Global Consciousness Project (GCP) to seek scientific evidence for it. (continued)

 

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This article appeared in the July 2001 issue of Science of Mind. It won a 2001 PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from The National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

 

Another Way of Doing Justice

By Barbara Stahura

 

Pinned to the floor of your bedroom by a man’s foot and watching as his accomplices murder your husband and rape your teenage daughter is something most of us, thankfully, will never experience. Even more rare would be for that wife and mother to fight for the rehabilitation of the two offenders who will one day be released from prison and to fight for a life sentence, rather than execution, for the shooter. Yet all this happened to Cheryl Ward-Kaiser, who decided at the outset not to be revictimized by the criminal justice system and to fight for justice, not vengeance, for the people who wrecked her life. In the process, she has restored herself and helped her victims and their families begin their own restoration. (continued)