"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

How many times must we prove these words? Violence does not lead to peace. Violence does not create peace. Violence cannot co-exist with peace. These are self-evident truths. We cannot indulge war and expect peace.

The tides of evolution are much like the tides of the ocean in that they are powerful, inevitable and can move, or go around, obstacles and can sweep away impediments that seek to divert or block their inevitable rhythm.

The course of human development throughout time is guided by evolution. … the inevitable progression of human achievements manifested through a precarious and ever changing blend of spiritual awareness and scientific knowledge.

… We live during such times. When the planet comes to the end of an evolutionary era and gets ready to rebirth or take an evolutionary shift, it can look frothy and chaotic

The early 'seventies was an amazing time for life-transforming books. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance appeared then, as did The Nature of Personal Reality, a Seth book.

And this was the time of two other mind-blowing reading experiences — both concerned with plants — that could have, should have, caused massive, far-reaching changes in the way scientists perceive our world.

My own introduction to plant communication occurred late one afternoon in 1974 when I came into my outer office to find a slender, raw-boned man, with graying hair and a really long beard, waiting for me with a little "black box."

I remember waking up one morning at home about 4:30 a.m., and I just knew that this was it. This was the day I was going to die. So I called a few friends and said goodbye. I woke up my hospice caretaker and told her. I had a private agreement with her that she would leave my dead body alone for six hours, since I had read that all kinds of interesting things happen when you die. I went back to sleep.

The next thing I remember is the beginning of a typical near-death experience. Suddenly I was fully aware and I was standing up, but my body was in the bed. There was this darkness around me. Being out of my body was even more vivid than ordinary experience.

Grace finds us always, even if we don’t realize we are seeking. The practices of diverse spiritual paths, faiths and traditions came to me unbidden, entering my life dramatically in February 1989, through an unexpected awakening of spirit. The source of that awakening was an extraordinary Indian Saint, Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. For a young, western, Catholic woman, this event was so firmly rooted outside the spectrum of my life experiences, it had the imprint of a miracle, yet it also felt completely natural.

At the time, my husband and I were living in Nassau the capital island-city of the Bahamas. Having both been raised in the temperate weather of …