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Burl Hall is a masters level therapist living in Sabattus, Maine. He is currently working as an in-home therapist with families containing children that are at risk for out-of-home placement due to being in trouble with the law.
Burl is also president of AMMA, a non-profit organization designed to help develop community in the Lewiston/Auburn area and to foster self-reliance in this day of peak oil, decreasing pay and benefits, and increasing turmoil in the social, political, familial and environmental domains. At present, Burl is working with a group of people regarding funding issues and is beginning to work with a team of people on a grant to help launch AMMA.
In addition, Burl is head of the Lewiston/Auburn Area Permaculture and Transition Town Meet-Up Group. This group is designed to organize people wanting to foster a sustainable living style through the utillization of gardening techniques coupled with the buying of local foods and the utilization of diverse economic methods (e.g., time dollars, barter). This group covers the Lewiston/Auburn area in Maine, which includes Sabattus, Leeds, Litchfield, Poland, Livermore Falls, and Wales.
Burl is also a poet and writer. His passion is spiritual understanding. Burl has written "Sophia's Web: Understanding the Unity and Diversity of Religion, Science and Ourselves." (For reviews, see the book's site on Amazon). Burl has since updated this book and is working on publishing it under the title of "Sophia's Web: Reclaiming Wholeness in a Divided World." He also has a couple of pieces of fiction in the works as well as a book of poetry.
Burl's writings reveal a web that unifies Burl's personal dreams and life experiences with sacred scriptures and myth throughout the world. Through his own life experiences, Burl encourages readers to understand a unifying pattern to all religions and mythology in relation to how we operate as human beings in Nature.
Burl also looks at the underlying theme to ancient writings and teachings and links them to modern scientific theories such as the holographic paradigm as put forth in the work of physicist David Bohm and the neurological research of Karl Pribram. Burl furthermore identifies the universality of female and male roles in the creative process by focusing on Sophia, or Wisdom, as the conceiver of all thought and, ultimately, the entire universe. In Bibical lore, this is known as "The Word Made Flesh."
Saturday, May 19, 2012 Clean Air, Clean Minds (5 comments)
Discusses and debates the point of view that global warming is not occurring. The article speaks to the limitations of science as well as discussing the multiple domains in addition to global warming that our actions impact.
Thursday, May 3, 2012 Real Change: Only from the Inside Out (1 comments)
It is time that we move beyond being of this philosophy or that philosophy or even this religion or that religion. In Truth, Truth has no religion. Not of the denominational kind. But, it you know the origin of the term, religere, you realize that the term means "to connect". It is a verb, not a noun. To connect is to gaze passionately in the eyes of those you love. And, it is to experience the world in all its wonder.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Belly Dancing and the Revelation of Truth (2 comments)
Can we come into peace? Only if we are ready to make fundamental change. And, that change DEMANDS that we let go of our current conditioning. It requires a death. This article uses the motive of the virgin birth, identified as the emergence of creation from the Uncreated or Unamanifest, as the beginning mind set from which we can bith the new world.
Monday, April 9, 2012 The Unconditioned You and Us (6 comments)
The first step in healing ourselves and the planet is to rid ourselves of what we are now. We must die, or become empty in order to allow for a new human being and world to unfold. In reading many articles by liberals and those professing to be enlightened, I see the same mentality of the conservative dressed in a different outfit. Perhaps we need a radical change emerging from the inside / out. Change begins with you!
Saturday, March 31, 2012 Reflections on Derrick Jensen's A Language Older than Words (4 comments)
This article reflects and reviews Derrick Jensen's "A Language Older than Words" in relationship to our modern day sociological, ecological, economic, psychological, political and educational problems
Thursday, February 9, 2012 Bridging the Great Divide (2 comments)
Divide and conquer is the driving motive of modern day. Democrat vs Republican, liberal vs conservative, Christian vs Muslim,vs Jew all keeps us mesmerized in our blindness to the larger patterns. The question is,how much of this divisional politics is form philosophy and how much is driven by a conscious motive by the corporate gov't empire? Who knows. The real question is can we each see the pattern and say, "no more?"
Monday, February 6, 2012 Moving Beyond Conditioning and Into a New Creation (3 comments)
Mystic Christians identify Christ as the evolutionary potential of humanity. Yet, we have not evolved in the past 6,000 years while Christians are some of the most outspoken critics of the notion of evolution. What stops us from evolving? It is nothing less than our conditioning. Can we move beyond our conditioning and dive intot he infinite ocean of the non-conditioned where all potentials lie?
Saturday, January 28, 2012 Taking it Off: Reclaiming our Sacredness (6 comments)
For real change to occur, we are going to need to move beyond what we are now. We cannot continue going around in circles from revolutions (such as the French) which produces more of the same. For fundamental change to occur, WE must change.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Fractals and the Marriage of Religion and Science (5 comments)
This article works towards bridging religion and science / math. It discusses transcendence by the unification of opposites while leaving the reader with a well made video regarding the mathematic concept of fractals inherent in chaos theory.
Sunday, January 15, 2012 The Annunciation of Humankind (3 comments)
At this point, we can't wait for "them" to change. As George Bush JR. said, "if they don't change, we will." We can't expect the 1% or the gov't sitting underfoot the 1% to change. We must. But to do so we need to confront what gets in our way. That is to say, we need to let go to what we are living with today to engage in real change. What gets in the way? This is the article.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 Occupy Your Stomach: Occupy Your Life (2 comments)
Today we protest via occupy movements. Is this enough? So many times during the past 4,000 years we've had revolutions, change and so on. Yes, the Roman empire that killed Christians became the Chrsitian empire. So, when and how do we break the pattern? The first step is to see that we are stuck in a patttern.
Monday, January 9, 2012 E Pluribus Unim: In the Plurality is Unity (3 comments)
If humanity is to evolve, it must give up its sole dualistic philosophy. Philosopher Ken Wilber once called the state beyond duality as non-duality instead of unity. By stating unity you are denying diversity, hence he was asking what can get us past this hump. This article moves beyond the intellectual writings of Wilber and instead looks at our allowing ourselves to be whole within the Whole.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 Finding Our Balance Point (5 comments)
This article questions the basic assumption that human beings make: That we are the most intelligent creature in the world. Given our ecological behavior where we appear to be eating ourselves out of house and home, one must seriously question if we are indeed the sharpest tool in the shed. Indeed, it may be that we are operating like an out of control feeding frenzy seen by some species of bees. So, how do we wake up?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 the Philosophical and Political Advice of the Mystics: A New Years Unfolding (5 comments)
This article provides an introduction to the mystics occurring throughout the world nd nestled within the various religions. The artile entices us to let go of philosophies, scientific theories and religous dogma in attaining enlightenment.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 Frankenstein, Genetic Engineered Crops and India's Suit Against Monsanto (2 comments)
Genetic Enigeering and standardized farming are danger to our ecology and our livelyhood. Indeed, these forms of growing food illustrate the monstrous notion of standardization immanent in everything from medical care to psychotherapy to education and to industry.
Saturday, December 24, 2011 Merry Christmas: The Tale Told Throughout the World and What it Means to Us Today (6 comments)
This is an article for Christmas meditation. Do we really have to remain in a divided world filled with wars, tricksters and thieves preaching divisive religion, philosophy and science? Or can we see our wholeness in our diversity and say alongside the Self's (Yahweh, I AM) voice in Genesis, "And it was good!"
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 My Back Pages: 99% and Bob Dylan (2 comments)
Who needs to change? Is it us or them? What if it is us and them will follow suit? Dare we move beyond our intellectualized philosophical arrogance and enter a state of purity..."ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now," Bob Dylan sings.
Monday, December 19, 2011 Gardasil: Questioning the Ability of For-Profit Corporations to Dictate Legislation (1 comments)
Our children are being subjected to having to take a vaccine called Gardasil. In this article, we hear from feminist spirituality author and practitioner Vicki Noble who gave a talk to the Santa Cruz County School Board regarding her concerns about requiring children to take Gardasil. These words of Ms Noble are presented with her permission and suggestive editing of my input.
Thursday, December 15, 2011 Lots to Gardens: Bridging the People of Lewiston Maine Through Food Production and Sharing (3 comments)
This article is part of a series on sustainable living. This article focuses on a service called "Lots to Garden's in Lewiston, ME that helps people to lessen their dependence on corporate food systems and instead focus on growing their own while supporting local businesses.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci: What Does He Have to Teach Us in Modern Day (14 comments)
This article is a meditation on Leonardo Da Vinci's sketch of St. Anne and Mother Mary. It is used in this article as a meditaion of cosmological process and reality. Could it be that geniuses such as Da Vinci knew a reality that we have long eitehr neglected, denied or forgot?
Monday, December 12, 2011 Review of Kymatica (12 comments)
Change is not going to happen by external means. It can only happen when we change. Kymatica is a film hat makes this perfectly clear and is easy enough to get to. Just a tap on the link and you may watch this very important film
Sunday, December 11, 2011 Ecovillages: Towards True Independence? (1 comments)
This article gives an introduction to ecovillages as a way of diminishing the effects of the gov't / corporate structure in all arenas of our lives.
Saturday, December 10, 2011 Rigid Mind Control or Creativity? (6 comments)
This article explores how we have been conditioned in our society in such a way that our creativity is squandered to the service of the Man, the Corporate/Banking elite.
Thursday, December 8, 2011 What if What We Think is Real is a Lie? (5 comments)
The epistemology of the term religion is the French religere, meaning to bond together or unite. Unfortunately, religion has not lived up to its name and has, indeed, reflected our politics which is about warring divisions between nations, peoples and even the sexes. This article challenges that dualistic stance in the hopes that we can come to a resolve and enter a state of peace.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 The Existential Crisis: How Does it Affect the Kids? (11 comments)
We are in the midst of an existential crisis. To show the effects of this crisis, the author points to a video made by a young boy who exhibits the alienation so prevelant today in our conummeristic society.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 Eat, Drink and Be Merry (1 comments)
For true indendence from Wall Street, we must reclaim the growing, production and processing of our food. Where does that all begin? With the seeds.
Monday, December 5, 2011 Letting Go of Occupation (2 comments)
This article speaks to the need for deep change in our psyches. It also refers the reader to a John Trudell movie documenting how we have been brainwashed by our technologies.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 Are We Willing to Change? If So, How? (10 comments)
Are the Occupy movements enough or do we need to make fundamental changes within ourselves and how we view/relate to the world around us, including the bankers and corporate heads?
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 Ain't This America: The Psychopathology of Consummerism (1 comments)
This article identifies our consumer society as being sociopathic and entices the reader to change his or her habits. We can lead a more satisfying life without consumerism and its shop-till-you-drop campaigns.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 Let It Be and Let It Unfold (3 comments)
We are in deep trouble between environmental decay, the continued robbing of the working class and poor by the rich, and politicians whose pockets are lined by corporate interests, we are at risk for a major catastrophe. We also have a dangerous opporutnity to change. But, the change is going to entail a letting go to our current way of looking at life and living it. This article uses the virgin birth as a model for change
Monday, November 14, 2011 Why Occupy Wall Street? (4 comments)
Is just protesting enough? Or, do WE need to make major changes in our lifestyle in order to decrease our dependence on Wall Street and those that are controlled by Wall Street.
Sunday, November 13, 2011 Transcending Hierarchy (5 comments)
The Occupy Movement is as Bruce Toien states in his "Op Ed" piece, a critique of hierarchy. This article takes this insight further by contrasting leadership with the planet's and the bodily systems intereactions as a functioning whole.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 Taking Responsibility For Real Change: A Call For Creative Minds (2 comments)
Today, we are in a place where we are awakening to, and confronting, a horrible monster that has existed as the brains of humanity for the past 6,000 or so years. We have identified Wall Street Capitalism as that monster. In the past we have primarily pointed at our political systems such as Middle Ages Feudalism or dictatorial Kingships. Can we break the pattern?
Monday, November 7, 2011 The Earth Has Cancer And The Cancer Is Us (7 comments)
The Earth has cancer and we are that cancer. Knowing we are the cancer upon the face of the Earth, can we also learn to heal ourselves and the planet? After all, what is cancer if not normal cells growing abnormally? Can we turn it around?
Saturday, November 5, 2011 The Occupy Movement: Revolution Or Evolution (1 comments)
This article looks at religious teachings from across cultures and religions and the potential of human evolution in this day of Occupying the World. It is a continuation of the author's thesis that in this day and age we as a species need to evolve and not have a revolution
Sunday, October 30, 2011 Occupy The World, The Collective Consciousness And Human Evolution (1 comments)
This article discusses the ideas of a collective consciounsess in human beings (e.g., the collective unconscious postulated by Carl Jung) as well as the planet (James Lovelock's "Gaia Hypothesis") and asks the question: do we engage in true change or do we have a revolution and continue on the same route?
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 Femininity And Human Evolution (1 comments)
Article identifies the suppression of the feminine with the suppression of human evolution by linking the suppression of women to the suppression of the inner world of potentiality lying in all persons
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 The Occupy Movement: More Of The Same Or Real Change? (2 comments)
Whose behind the Occupy Movement? Some say communists, some Nazis and some other groups. Perhaps, though, the major parties involved are the people who are wanting a higher quality of life.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 To Evolve Or Not To Evolve? The Question Of Our Age (8 comments)
This artile asks the reader to begin to take charge of his or her life within community and move beyond the corporate empires. We start by taking the power out of the hands of Wall Street and placing power back in our own, in our families and in our communities.
Friday, October 21, 2011 Real Change Or Do We Stay Stuck (1 comments)
Do we engage in another revolution, or do we evolve? Can we tap into the deep emptiness within ourselves where infinite potential exists and engage in real change? Or do we keep having revolutions where we keep going in circles in a "meet the new boss same as the old boss" scenreo? Can we each spark an evolution that will be across all humankind? These are the questions we must turn to.
Thursday, October 6, 2011 Evolution -- or Revolution? (1 comments)
Should we focus on evolving by developing our individual and community powers or do we revolve, or have a revolution, which entails a "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" scenario?
Monday, March 7, 2011 Local Food Ordinance Passed in Maine Town (1 comments)
Sedgwick, Maine, a small coastal town in Maine, voted to adapt a local food and self-governance ordinance, setting a precedent for other towns in Maine and across the country. Could this be the beginning of more localized rule and the lessening of the rule of large corporations that fund our governments in order to control our lives for their benefit?
Sunday, February 27, 2011 Threads of Unity in the Great Divide Between Religions and Science (5 comments)
This article speaks to the ultimate unity of religion and science. Could it be that the United States Motto, "E Pluribus Unim" speaks a truth that could lead humanity to world peace?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 The Vision of Heaven and Hell from the Windows of a Bus (1 comments)
A bus of aging hippies go across the border of the United State into Canada on an educational day trip to research local markets. But, they were to learn much more than how to build a local market. They were to see a mild example of an emerging police state.
Sunday, February 13, 2011 Green Tea Anyone? (2 comments)
This article unites the philosophy exhibited by the Tea Party with green localization movements such as Transition Town. These green movements attempt to kindle a healthy ecology, in relation to healthy local economies, while fostering empowered lifestyles through localization. This trend towards sustainable lifestyles is then related to the primary emphasis of Tea Party politics, which entails an embrace of local rule.
Thursday, January 27, 2011 Healing Earth Healing Self (1 comments)
This article introduces the reader to the relationship between health and sustainable ways of growing food. It then links sustainable practices to healthy dietary practices and life styles. Article provides some initial advice regarding sustainable ways of purchasing and growing food while also identifying some of the benefits of changing how we purchase and / or grow food.
