A Bahá'í Perspective

Tim is a videographer who co-produced a documentary about 'Abdu'l-Baha's visit to America in 1912. 'Abdu'l-Baha is the son of Baha'u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha'i Faith. The video is called Luminous Journey: 'Abdu'l-Baha in America 1912 and can be found at href="http://luminousjourney.org/"LuminousJourney.org.

A Baha'i and authornbsp;of href="http://www.amazon.com/Human-Rights-Advancing-Civilization-Aaron/dp/0853985642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1384013062amp;sr=8-1amp;keywords=Aaron+Emmel+Human+rights"Human Rights in an Advancing Civilization; nbsp;andnbsp; href="http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Action-changing-World-Aaron/dp/0853985006/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1384013105amp;sr=8-1amp;keywords=Aaron+Emmel+Taking+Action"Taking Action in a Changing World, a handbook for positive social change; and a graphic novel called href="http://www.amazon.com/Zanjan-Aaron-Emmel/dp/1931847886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1384013141amp;sr=8-1amp;keywords=Aaron+Emmel+Zanjan"Zanjan with illustrations by Aaron Kreader. He co-edited the compilation called href="http://www.aaronemmel.com/cw/on-the-front-lines/"On the Front Lines, which has interviews and essays about teenagers and college students who are changing the world.

Arline grew up during the depression as a devout Catholic. A tragedy struck Arline after starting a family that put her spiritual search into high gear. Soon after she became a Baha'i and became an international traveler.

Mark is a web graphic designer. He describes his spiritual journey that includes his study of Wushu and his work with the actor Jet Li. Mark had several opportunities to live in China and describes his time there.

Jim is an occupational therapist and a musician. His first CD is called href="http://jimdennis.bandcamp.com/album/10-fingers-6-strings"10 Fingers Six Strings. We sample the pieces from this CD in our interview.

Justin is a 1st generation Filipino-American. He is a documentary film maker who is devoted to the field of international development. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Delaware. nbsp;He has done development work innbsp;in Belfast, Kenya, Tanzania, Honduras, and Uganda. nbsp;You can find Justin's work href="http://www.deleon-art.com/"here.

Rob is a Baha'i and author of a number of books about the history of the Baha'i Faith in America including ldquo; href="http://www.amazon.com/Abdul-Baha-America-Robert-H-Stockman/dp/1931847975"Abdul-Baha in Americardquo;, ldquo;Baha'i Faith In Americardquo; href="http://www.amazon.com/Bahai-Faith-America-Origins-1892-1900/dp/087743199X"Volumes 1 href="http://www.amazon.com/Bahai-America-Volume-Expansion-1900-1912/dp/0853983887"and 2, ldquo; href="http://www.amazon.com/Thornton-Chase-1st-American-Bahai/dp/0877432821"Thorton Chase: First American Baha'i, and ldquo; href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGPKCNI"The Baha'i Faith: A Guide for the Perplexed. Rob is also the Director of the href="http://wi.bahai.us/"Wilmette Institute, a Baha'i on-line learning center. We talk about Rob's books and the Wilmette Institute in the interview.

Ed is a Baha'i and has been a pioneer in the field of holistic nutrition for over 35 years. His vision and leadership have inspired thousands of people to transform their lives in the form of wellness, community, and peace. He received his M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in Health Promotion from the University of New Mexico. Ed created the Eating for Health model to teach individuals to make nutritionally comprehensive food choices and founded href="http://www.baumancollege.org/"Bauman College in 1989, with a mission to change the world through better nutrition and healthful living.

Steve is an artist who has an art gallery in Sante Fe. You can find his art work at href="http://stevenboonegallery.com/"stevenboonegallery.com. He also does photographic art and you can see this work at href="http://graphixshoot.com/"graphixshoot.com. Steve suffered a tragedy when his daughter died at a young age. He wrote a book about it called href="http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Traced-Sand-Steven-Boone/dp/0970604602"A Heart Traced in Sand. The book won a number of awards.

John is Professor Emeritus in English literature at the University of South Florida. He has published a number of works too many to list. His works include original poetry and novels, the translation of poetry from Persian and Arabic, and a sequence of works about the Baha#39;i view of physical reality. In the interview we focus primarily on the last area. The works related to the subject of physical reality include href="http://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Physical-Reality-John-Hatcher/dp/1931847231/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1371318834amp;sr=8-1amp;keywords=The+Purpose+of+Physical+Reality"The Purpose of Physical Reality, href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Arc-Ascent-Purpose-Physical/dp/0853983712/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1371318900amp;sr=8-1-fkmr0amp;keywords=The+Arc+of+Ascent+John+Hatchter"The Arc of Ascent, href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Ascent-Society-Imperative-Salvation/dp/1931847525/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8amp;qid=1371318942amp;sr=8-2-fkmr0amp;keywords=The+Ascent+of+Society+John+Hatchter"The As

Gustaff hails from Cameroon. He is an accomplished hand drummer from a tradition of drummers from his family. He travels around the country sharing his music. In fact he is on the road more than he is at home. He calls himself a 21st century nomad. Gustaff collaborated with other Baha'i musicians to create the CD href="http://gustaffbesungu.bandcamp.com/album/the-flight"The Flight. nbsp;In addition to hearing Gustaff's story, he explains the background for the songs on the CD. nbsp;Gustaff's next project is to create a CD devoted to the equality of Men and Women. nbsp;It will be called href="http://gustaffbesungu.bandcamp.com/track/shadows"Shadows.

Author of three works: href="http://www.amazon.com/Rejoice-My-Gladness-Life-Tahirih/dp/1931847843"Rejoice in My Gladness: The Life of Tahirih, nbsp;nbsp; href="http://www.amazon.com/Love-Which-Does-Not-Wait/dp/1890101176"A Love Which Does Not Wait, and nbsp; href="http://www.bahaibookstore.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=9290#.UaEWZ9LbPp0"The Nightingale, Baha'u'llah.nbsp;

Author of href="http://www.amazon.com/Bahai-Basics-Beliefs-Practices-History/dp/1618510177"Baha'i Basics: A Guide to the Beliefs, Practices and History of the Baha'i Faith, and the book href="http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Three-Wives-Five-Religions/dp/1931847894"Abraham: One God, Three Wives, Five Religions.

Grace is a mediator and author of the book href="http://www.negotiatingshadows.com/"Negotiating Shadows. Grace grew up in foster homes and eventually became an alcoholic. She describes her bottoming out and her road to recover and spiritual awakening. Grace shares excerpts from her book and insights for helping others with addictions.

Vasu grew up in Sri Lanka until he was 10 and then moved to India due to the civil war. He came to the US for a Environmental Sciences master program and ran into the Baha'is there. He found he can use his traditional Indian dance form, Bharata Natyam, to promote the teachings of the Baha'i Faith.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Nwandi received a degree in broadcast journalism from Howard University. Upon graduating from Howard University, Nwandi began teaching eighth-grade social studies, literature and language arts in the San Francisco Bay Area before accepting a position at CNN in Atlanta in 1992. At CNN, she became Associate Producer for three prime-time news broadcasts. In 1994, she was hired as Associate Producer for the TBS children#39;s series ldquo;Feed Your Mind.rdquo; For more than a decade, Nwandi has enjoyed working on all sides of many productions: anchoring Georgia Public Broadcasting's political series, ldquo;Lawmakers,rdquo; reporting for ldquo;Georgia Business Reportrdquo; and ldquo;Success Trackrdquo;. In 1999 Nwandi started her own production company called href="http://reveproductions.net/"Reve Productions. One of her most successful productions was Atlanta Public Schools Today or just APS Today which aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting stations. We share her vision

Lisa#39;s first published novel, Abby Wize: AW#256;, is available from national and local bookstores. We talk about her novel during the interview and share excerpts from the novel as well. nbsp;You can find the novel atnbsp; href="http://abbywizebooks.com/"abbywizebooks.com/

Gissou is the Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. Before becoming the Executive Director, she was on a trial team at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Prior to that, she was a Legal Analyst at the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and led field investigations in Turkey and Europe to collect documentation and interview over 150 survivors of human rights abuses perpetrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prior to her tenure at the Iran Human Rights Documentat Center, Gissou worked on war crimes trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) where she represented former government ministers from Bosnia and Kosovo in pre-trial, trial, and appellate proceedings. Her last duties at the International Criminal Court were to assist in proceedings related to allegations of crimes against humanity committed during the 2007/2008 post election violence in the Republic of Kenya. Ms. Nia completed her undergraduate studies in political

Peter is an investigator of geometric patterns that can be found throughout the planet and the universe. It all started when he was a mason and noticed patterns in the rock that he was fracturing. He realized that using these patterns to his advantage assisted him as a mason. He calls this science Gaiagraphic Life Studies and he says that it adds a dimension and connective tone to any community, individual, event, think tank, or conference. He tailors presentations to the people place and purpose of an event focus whether local or international in scope.He includes education on land survey techniques and land pattern discoveries as a context. He wrote a book called href="http://www.geometryofplace.com/gaiamatrix.html"Gaia Matrix where he focused his attention to the small town of Shelburne Falls, MA when applying this science. Peter is not a Baha'i, but I requested he apply this science to aspects of the Baha'i Faith. In so doing, Peter developed a set of visuals to assist in his explanation of the con

Bruce is a musician who has recently released a collection of songs called href="http://www.brucegrover.org/"Be/Still. Earlier in Bruce's musical career he was in a rock band called href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/littlea"little a. nbsp;During the interview we discuss and sample some of the songs from Be/Still.