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Guest Occupation: Business Coach, Speaker, Teacher, Trainer
Guest Biography:

Mitch Pogue is a seasoned manager with more than 20 years of hands on real world experience guiding and influencing workers in the workplace in the United States. His work teams have become some of the most productive and effective in the history of their organizations with high engagement and mutual satisfaction. In his personal practice as a leader, Mitch has become aware of key principles and practices that harmonize with the universal aspects of human nature creating ideal environment in which positive human engagement occurs naturally and relationships and performance flourish without force, coercion and control. His life mission is to reveal the foundation leadership paradigm shift that will transform today's workplace in America and around the World.

Guest Category: Business, Management, Education, Philosophy, Personal Development, Motivational
Guest Occupation: Writer, Poet
Guest Biography:

Allen McNair a published writer of short and epic poetry who has illustrated his work in marker art and acrylics.  I have written and published a major work, I Dream of A'maresh, through CreateSpace and AuthorHouse.  I have contributed my earliest written work to Thresholds' literary magazine, The Musing Place and the Chicago Writing Alliance publication, Journal of Ordinary Thought.  In 1990, straight out of Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor's degree, I lost my job and became homeless.  Much of my early writing of poetry was inspired by this shocking experience of losing my housing.  I am now enrolled in the Maharishi University of Management Master's degree program in Vedic Science, the theoretical basis for Transcendental Meditation.  I now live on my own in a one-bedroom apartment with my cat, a Siamese Yellow-Tail, Butterscotch.

Guest Category: Arts, Literature
Guest Occupation: NFL Analyst
Guest Biography:

Richard Ray Roberts, Jr. (born June 3, 1969 in Asheville, North Carolina) is a retired American professional football player. He played nine seasons in the National Football League as an offensive tackle.

Roberts graduated from Asheville High School in 1987 and played college football at Virginia, where he won the Jacobs Trophy in 1990 & 1991 as the ACC's top blocker.[1]

At 6'6" and over 300 lb., he was the tenth overall selection in the 1992 NFL Draft, taken by the Seattle Seahawks. After four seasons in Seattle, he finished his career with the Detroit Lions.

Following his playing career, Roberts returned to the Seattle area and was an assistant football coach at Interlake High School in Bellevue. He earned a master's degree in intercollegiate athletic leadership from the University of Washington in 2007. Roberts also worked as a diversity specialist at Microsoft and did local sports radio for the Seahawks. He became the head coach at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland in 2008, and resigned in June 2010 after posting consecutive 1-8 seasons.

Guest Category: Sports & Recreation, Professional, High School, College
Guest Occupation: Engineer, philosopher, psychologist, lawyer, judge, author, motivational speaker
Guest Biography:

Michael Sage Hider obtained a B.S. Degree in Metallurgical Engineer from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Having been in the Air Force ROTC Program, he was commissioned into the United States Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. In the Air Force, Hider’s first assignment was to participate in hypervelocity impact studies at Eglin Airforce Base, Florida. He was then selected as part of an elite group of engineers to perform underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. Hider says that after conducting atomic bomb tests during the day, it was those many long and quiet nights in the Nevada Desert which allowed him much time to deeply reflect on what matters most in life. He concluded that obtaining and maintaining Enduring Peace of Mind, perpetual and deep contentment at the center of your being regardless of what has occurred in your life, is the greatest treasure in the world. It became obvious to him that perfect peace is much more valuable than fame and/or fortune, silver and/or gold. That is the peace of which Confucius, Buddha, and Jesus spoke. Those musings launched him on his lifetime journey which would ultimately lead to his development of the theory of how a person can obtain and maintain Enduring Peace of Mind through all the vicissitudes of life. After three years of active duty and some reserve time, Hider was honorably discharged from the Air Force with the rank of Captain. In further pursuit of his quest, Hider entered Seminary where he delved deeply into the matters of Theology, Philosophy, Latin, and Greek. It was during this scrutiny that he conceived of the concept of shaping one’s life by the use of Good Life Truths and positive thought dwelling. He came to realize that outside circumstances and conditions do not determine what your life is like nearly as much as the thoughts upon which you choose to dwell. Hider later enrolled into the Master of Arts Program at the University of Toledo, Ohio. He majored in Philosophy with a strong minor in Psychology. From these studies evolved his technique of “The Art of Thought Dwelling to Obtain and Maintain Enduring Peace of Mind”. Based on that effort, Hider graduated at the top of his class, with honors. Seeking more personal freedom, Hider entered Law School at Santa Clara University, California. He was a trial attorney for eleven years in Merced California. He then ran for and was elected a Superior Court Judge in Merced County. During his tenure as a judge, Hider presided over civil and criminal cases touching every aspect of life and the law. Combining that rich and unique experience with his conclusions concerning the importance of controlling one’s thought dwelling, led to his authoring his highly acclaimed book, “Spiritual Healing-Making Peace with Your Past.” The book is based on the premise that “I alone am responsible for how I feel every conscious moment of my life.” The book is now in its second printing by Tate Publishing. In addition to his studies at the University of Cincinnati, Toledo University, and Santa Clara University, Hider has matriculated at Ohio State University, San Jose State University, and Stanford University. Hider has taught courses in mathematics, science, philosophy, and /or law at Merced Community College, Chapman College, and the University of San Francisco’s Master’s Program. After thirty years on the Bench, Hider recently retired and now devotes full time to public and motivational speaker.

Guest Category: News, Careers, Alternative Health, Energy Healing, Love & Relationships, Physics & Metaphysics, Personal Development, Christianity, Access Consciousness
Guest Occupation: Pit River Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
Guest Biography:

Morning Star Gali has been deeply involved with the cultural, political and spiritual activities of her nation and urban Indian communities in the San Francisco Bay Area from a very early age. She grew up listening to stories of injustice, and attended demonstrations and marches while still in a stroller.

Gali was a teenager when her father became the first full-time Native prison chaplain hired by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). In that role, he provided cultural and spiritual support for, and advocated on behalf of, incarcerated Indigenous people in California prisons. She grew up knowing about the incarceration of her father, and was present at many of his presentations and his educational events for “Native Americans against the death penalty.”

Now, Gali is making it her mission to shed light on a little-known problem: the disproportionate impact of the criminal and juvenile justice systems on Native Americans. Native Americans have never been accurately accounted for in the criminal justice system, nor in other governmental records. The Bureau of Justice did not keep data on Native Americans until 2006, and the fact that there are more than 50 non-federally recognized tribes in California skews the data-collecting process in prisons. Additionally, Native Americans as a category are often considered “statistically insignificant” by researchers; therefore, data related to Native American behind bars is often nonexistent. Data that is available show that the Native American inmate population in California jumped from 145 per 100,000 Native Americans in 1980 to 767 per 100,000 in 2000. In addition, according to a 2014 report by CDCR, recidivism rates are highest among Native Americans.

Gali will document the crisis of mass incarceration among Native Americans in the state. Using her extensive network, organizing and community-based and engaged research background, she will mobilize Native nations, incarcerated Native Americans and their families, allies and policy leaders to address and shift the tide of over-incarceration and human rights violations within corrections institutions. She also aims to build solidarity and power among Indigenous Peoples throughout California, enabling them to restore sovereign rights and to heal, care for and resolve differences among their people on their own terms and by their own tribal governments.

“The first prisons for Native peoples were reservations and boarding schools,” Gali said. “State sponsored extermination policies against Native communities are continually carried out today within the U.S. prison system. My vision is to decriminalize Indian Country and Tribal Nations.”

Gali’s work is groundbreaking, and can lead to a significant shift in narrative and policies for Native Americans in California As part of her Leading Edge fellowship, she will:

  • Track, document and publicize accurate information about the number of Native American adults and youth incarcerated in California’s criminal justice system.
  • Organize community-engaged research and writing projects about the root causes of incarceration in her community, including elevating the stories of those incarcerated in collaboration with those individuals and families.
  • Support and defend the rights of Native Americans in the prison system to engage in ceremonial practices in prisons.
  • Work with tribal leaders to assert full sovereignty by bringing tribal citizens into the tribal court system and offer culturally rooted post-incarceration support.

A member of the Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe in Northeastern California, Gali currently works as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Pit River Tribe. Prior to returning to her ancestral homelands and working for her tribe, she served as a volunteer and advocate on behalf of Indigenous incarcerated tribal members in California and worked with a number of Indigenous-led grassroots organizations in the Bay Area for over a decade.

Hailed as a leader in the Native American community, Gali leads large-scale actions and assists with organizing Native cultural, spiritual, academic, and political gatherings throughout the state. She has been the lead organizer since 2006 for the now prominent “Thanks-taking” sunrise ceremony at Alcatraz, an annual commemoration of the 1969-1971 occupation by Native activists of the island within the ancestral territories of the Ohlone people. The sunrise ceremony, coordinated by the International Indian Treaty Council is now is attended by over 5,000 people each year.

“I want to see our families back in balance with each other,” Gali said. “I want healing restored in our community. I want to bring our incarcerated brothers and sisters back home and for them to know they’re needed back in our tribal communities.”

Morning Star Gali is deeply involved with the protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock in North Dakota.  Her organization - the International Indian Council Treaty - has been trying to bring attention to the abuses and excessive violence by the National Guard and police against protestors there and elicited a response from the United Nations in this statement released below by the IICT:

Statement on “Excessive Force” at Standing Rock from the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly Nov. 15th 2016

Respectful Greetings,

Maina Kiai, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association called the response of law enforcement to the peaceful protests against the DAPL pipeline as “excessive force”.  In a UN release issued yesterday, November 15th 2016, the Special Rapporteur stated that “Law enforcement officials, private security firms and the North Dakota National Guard have used unjustified force to deal with opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline”.

See more at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20868&LangID=E#sthash.Zg0evMtd.dpuf

According to the release issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, his statement was also endorsed by the Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz; the Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Karima Bennoune; the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, John Knox; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Michel Forst; the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Léo Heller; and the current Chair of the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, Pavel Sulyandziga.

IITC was honored to be able to submit information and testimony to this Special Rapporteur including from Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault, Grand Chief Edward John (UNPFII)  and IITC’s human rights observer Roberto Borrero to this Special Procedures Mandate Holder for the achievement of the Special Rapporteur’s report.

See more at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20868&LangID=E#sthash.Zg0evMtd.dpuf

EXCERPTS FROM STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE RESOLUTION NO. 406-15  SEP 2, 2015

WHEREAS, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation was established as a permanent homeland for the Hunkpapa, Yanktonai, Cuthead and Blackfoot bands of the Great Sioux Nation: and

WHEREAS, the Dakota Access Pipeline threatens public health and welfare on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation; and

WHEREAS, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe relies on the waters of the life-giving Missouri River for our continued existence, and the Dakota Access Pipeline poses a serious risk to Mni Sose and to the very survival of our Tribe; and .

WHEREAS, the horizontal direction drilling in the construction of the pipeline would destroy valuable cultural resources of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; and

WHEREAS, the Dakota Access Pipeline violates Article 2 of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which guarantees that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe shall enjoy the “undisturbed use and occupation” of our permanent homeland, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council hereby strongly opposes the Dakota Access Pipeline; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council call upon the Army Corps of Engineers to reject the river crossing permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline...

Guest Category: Earth & Space, Education, History, News, Politics & Government, Society and Culture, Spiritual
Guest Occupation: Mr. Ingrasci is the Founder of the Hoffman Institute Foundation
Guest Biography:

Charles “Raz” Ingrasci has been a student and pioneer in the field of expanding human potential for some 45 years! Raz is a UC Berkeley graduate and has been an executive, consultant, and facilitator within the “Human Potential Movement” since 1972. Along with being a Hoffman teacher, he founded the Hoffman Institute Foundation in 1998.  "The Hoffman Process is the most highly effective method for people to heal, discover their true nature, and live a more free, open, loving and spontaneous life.”  Raz took the Process in July of 1989. From that experience he had three major take-aways: “I knew my marriage would last; I could be a great dad to my young children; and that I’d found work worthy of devoting my life.” Raz lives in the San Francisco-Bay Area with his wife of 35 years, Liza.

What is the Hoffman Process?  Founded in 1967, by Bob Hoffman, the Hoffman Process is a week-long residential and personal-growth retreat that helps participants identify negative behaviors, moods, and ways of thinking that developed unconsciously and were conditioned in childhood. The Process will help you become conscious of and disconnected from negative patterns of thought and behaviors on an emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual level in order to make significant positive changes in your life. You will learn to remove habitual ways of thinking and behaving, align with your authentic self, and respond to situations in your life from a place of conscious choice.

Guest Category: Arts, Education, Health & Lifestyle, Kids & Family, Physics & Metaphysics, Psychology, Science, Self Help, Spiritual
Guest Occupation: Chiropractor, Director-Gerson Treatment Center
Guest Biography:

Dr. Patrick Vickers is the Director and Founder of the Northern Baja Gerson Clinic (Gerson Therapy). His mission is to provide patients with the highest quality and standard of care available in the world today for the treatment of advanced (and non-advanced) degenerative disease. His dedication and commitment to the development of advanced protocols has led to the realization of exponentially greater results in healing disease. Dr. Vickers, along with his highly trained staff, provides patients with the education, support, and resources to achieve optimal health.

Dr. Patrick was born and raised outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the age of 11 years old, after witnessing a miraculous recovery from a chiropractic adjustment, Dr. Patrick’s passion for natural medicine was born.

Dr. Patrick obtained his undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Life University before going on to receive his doctorate in Chiropractic from New York Chiropractic College in 1997.

While a student at New York Chiropractic College(NYCC), Dr. Patrick befriended Charlotte Gerson, the last living daughter of Dr. Max Gerson, M.D. who Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dr. Albert Schweitzer called, ” One of the most eminent geniuses in medical history. “

Dr. Gerson, murdered in 1959, remains the most censured doctor in the history of medicine as he was reversing virtually every degenerative disease known to man, including TERMINAL cancer.

Upon graduating from NYCC in 1997, Dr. Patrick went on to study the Gerson Therapy directly under Charlotte Gerson at her home in San Diego, California. While living with Charlotte, Dr. Patrick spent several months going through Dr. Gerson’s handwritten files of all his active patients from 1910-1959; files that Charlotte has kept in her home to this day. Included in those files were hundreds of handwritten letters from Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, to Dr. Max Gerson. Schweitzer and Gerson were best friends after Gerson cured Schweitzer’s wife, Helena, of terminal tuberculosis when she had just 3 months to live.

Gerson also cured Schweitzer, himself, of severely advanced diabetes, in SIX weeks, eight years before Schweitzer won the Nobel Prize.

After several months of studying Dr. Gerson’s files, and several more months interning at the Gerson Clinic, Dr. Patrick opened chiropractic and Gerson clinics in Peru, Guatemala and Mexico before returning to the United States, in 2008, to open up this non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on the Gerson Therapy.

Since that time, Dr. Patrick has been traveling around the world lecturing at international embassies, Latin American medical schools and other miscellaneous venues. More information at: http://www.gersontreatment.com/

Guest Category: Education, Health & Lifestyle, Medicine, Self Help
Guest Occupation: Singer/songwriter and recording artist
Guest Biography:

NESTA

Singer/songwriter and recording artist Nesta is creating music inspired by living in the moment. Recently, her focus has been electronic dance music and the fusion where it meets pop music. The line between these genres is becoming a blur and Nesta is dedicated to telling stories using powerful, honest lyrics combined with interesting beats and tempos.

Nesta describes her songwriting as a tree. She starts at the root by picking a tempo or baseline beat, from there she adds lyrics and melodies which represent the branches of the trees. Her background vocals and extra instruments symbolize the blossoms of a tree and the completion of a new song. She is inspired by girl power and strongly influenced by the dominant vocals and storytelling of Janis Joplin, Florence and the Machine, Aretha Franklin, Pink, Sia, Lana Del Ray and Lorde.

One of the most rewarding parts of her career so far, is when she is able to perform every aspect of her show on her own, which sometimes includes aerial acrobatics. When she finishes a show, it reaffirms her purpose within the music industry and why she works so diligently toward this dream of hers that is becoming her reality. She has also developed a thick skin and accepted that everyone is going to have an opinion, but she is fervent with her message and sees her art as her blessing. Outside of music, Nesta is also passionate about wellness and helping rescue dogs find loving homes.

Nesta has clear goals and a concise plan to grow her fan base and make her music available to international music consumers. Nesta is now under the wing of elite US based management company, Arrow Music Agency after recently signing an exclusive worldwide management deal. This new union will help build Nesta’s profile internationally creating diverse opportunities. Arrow Music Agency is headed up by Chris Sobonya (President), and has a roster of worldwide artists from countries such as the US, Canada, Sweden, The Netherlands, New Zealand, UK and Australia.

Guest Category: Arts, Performing Arts, Music