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Inspired Creations & Acts of Hope
The Creations and Acts below demonstrate inspiration on all levels. The Earth Angels concerned have either written works, which both help and inspire others, or have acted in such a way to inspire hope in the Human Race. Although we said we would only be covering the Earth Angels in the video, we felt that the story of the US. Air Force mans selfless act in Iraq was too important to not include as an act of Hope (click below to view each entry).
Movies/Documentaries/TV/Music/Tools
- An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore
- Dwain Briggs Inspired Creator of Music
- Rider-Waite Tarot Deck – ©Us Games Inspired Tool
Individual Acts Of Hope
- John Gebhart US. Air Force - Iraq
- Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor Published Author and Neuroanatomist (brain scientist)
YOU CAN HELP US ADD OTHERS TO THE LIST: GO TO MAIN EARTH ANGEL PAGE TO LEARN HOW
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Official poster of the Documentary An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore accepting the Oscar for best Documentary with other members of the crew at the Academy Awards 2007 (Screen shot, copyright held by ABC Television)
Our first Creation of Hope is the Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” This informative documentary succinctly hi-lighted the plight of the Earth and called all concerned citizens to action. It was this documentary that led to the Earth Angel Event, Live Earth. Once again it is an excerpt for the entry on the Inspired Wikipedia that we turn to:
An Inconvenient Truth is an Academy Award-winning documentary film about climate change, specifically global warming, presented by former United States Vice President Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim. A companion book authored by Gore has been on the paperback nonfiction New York Times bestseller list since June 11, 2006, reaching #1 on July 2, 2006.
The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opened in New York and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006. Earning $49 million at the box office worldwide, An Inconvenient Truth is the fourth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the United States, after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and Sicko. The film’s distributor, Paramount Classics, is donating 5% of the box office receipts…from the film to the Alliance for Climate Protection (of which Gore is both founder and chairman)…An Inconvenient Truth…is also being used in school science curricula around the world. Global warming skeptics have criticized the film, calling it “exaggerated and erroneous”…
The film includes many segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is unproven or that warming will be insignificant…The documentary ends with Gore arguing that if appropriate actions are taken soon, the effects of global warming can be successfully reversed by releasing less CO2 and planting more vegetation to consume existing CO2. Gore calls upon his viewers to learn how they can help him in these efforts…
The Associated Press contacted more than 100 climate researchers and questioned them about the film’s veracity. All 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie said that Gore conveyed the science correctly…Republican Senator Jim Inhofe…statement that “global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” appears in the film.
RealClimate, a group blog maintained by eleven climate scientists, lauded the film’s science as “remarkably up to date, with reference to some of the very latest research.” Michael Shermer, scientific author and founder of The Skeptics Society, wrote in Scientific American that An Inconvenient Truth “shocked me out of my doubting stance”…
Al Gore has stated, “Tipper and I are devoting 100 percent of the profits from the book and the movie to a new bipartisan educational campaign to further spread the message about global warming.”…
The film received a positive reaction from critics. It garnered a “certified fresh” 93% rating at Rotten Tomatoes (as of May 21, 2007), with a 94% rating from the “Cream of the Crop” reviewers. Film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film “two thumbs up”. Ebert wrote: “In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.”
Journalist Ronald Bailey argued in the libertarian magazine Reason that although “Gore gets [the science] more right than wrong,” he exaggerates the risks.
The film has received a number of various awards worldwide.
The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Documentary Feature and Best Original Song for Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up”. It is the first documentary to win a best original song Oscar.
The film received special recognition from the Humanitas Prize, the first time the organization had handed out a Special Award in over 10 years.
2007 Stanley Kramer Award - The Producers Guild of America; recognizes “work that dramatically illustrates provocative social issues”.
The President’s Award 2007 - The Society for Technical Communication “for demonstrating that effective and understandable technical communication, when coupled with passion and vision, has the power to educate—and change—the world.”
For his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming including the Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore has been nominated with Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize…
President Bush, when asked whether he would watch the film, responded: “Doubt it.” He later stated that “And in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects, and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment.” Gore responded that “The entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming and he [Bush] has today again expressed personal doubt that that is true.” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino stated that “The president noted in 2001 the increase in temperatures over the past 100 years and that the increase in greenhouse gases was due to certain extent to human activity”.
In September 2006…Australian Prime Minister, John Howard said he would not meet with Gore or agree to Kyoto because of the movie: “I don’t take policy advice from films.” Former Opposition Leader Kim Beazley joined Gore for a viewing and other MPs attended a special screening at Parliament House earlier in the week.
In the United Kingdom, Conservative Leader of the Opposition David Cameron has urged people to see the film in order to understand climate change…
Following the issuing of the IPCC report into Climate Change on February 2, 2007 and following on from the The Stern Review into the economic effects to the UK from climate change, the UK Government announced that it would be issuing a copy of the DVD of An Inconvenient Truth together with further reading material on this subject to every secondary school in England and Wales to increase educational awareness of the issues raised in the movie. This is currently subject to a challenge in the High Court on the basis that schools are legally required to provide a balanced presentation of political issues.
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DWAIN BRIGGS
Dwain Briggs is included in this section as an inspired Creator. This Earth Angel has truly created something beautiful with his music, and the I.D.E.A. Foundation for the Benefit of Humanity is pleased to honor his contribution to part of the solution. However, we feel that others have sung his praises most eloquently, and so we will let some of them speak to the impact Dwain Briggs music has had on them. We will address the reviews of Dwain’s latest CD Echoes of a Modern God latter, but first a brief synopsis on Dwain taken from his web site.
The multi-talented Dwain Briggs has shared the stage with many celebrated and best selling authors in the spiritual community including Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Dannion Brinkley, Dr. Joan Borysenko, James and Sallye Redfield, Louise Hay, Dennis Weaver, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Gregg Braden, Dr. Ramond Moody to name a few. In 2003, he was a featured vocalist on the Grammy nominated album, Solace. He has released three albums of his own including his latest, Echoes of a Modern God.
The unique impact of his voice and music has made Dwain an integral part of transformational events worldwide. His renditions of both traditional and contemporary sacred music as well as his own original compositions have set the tone for ordinations and world peace conferences. Along with performing concerts and events such as these, Dwain has been a special guest soloist at hundreds of churches, temples and spiritual communities.
Those who experience his music find a singular and profound connection. Dr. Norma Milanovich, author of The Light Shall Set You Free, has said, “Dwain’s voice sends out a vibration that touches a person a the heart level. Even a casual listener cannot escape this effect.”
Dr. Paul Leon Masters has stated, “The ethereal quality of Dwain’s voice is what one might expect to hear upon entering Heaven.” Like the ancient Psalmist, Dwain gently reminds us that music and sound is truly the timeless and universal language of unconditional love.
“Powerful honest and sacred, Echoes of a Modern God opens the door to empowering memories of our deepest love through rich melodies and timeless words; the feelings last long after the music ends.”
Gregg Braden, Best-selling author of
The Isaiah Effect and
Walking between the Worlds
“I love the entire Echoes CD. The lyrics, music and singing are so divinely inspired. I really love the lyrics on the title track. This is truly a time of transformation on the earth.”
Peter, Roanoke, VA
“There are musical technicians and true artists. Dwain Briggs is an artist that sings from that spiritual dimension of the heart. His singing touches something deep in you because it originates from that which is deeply spiritual in him. In my forty years of full-time ministry, I have never seen a performer so consistently bring a sense of spiritual inspiration and sensitivity to an audience.”
Dr. Paul Leon Masters, Founder of the University Church Institute
“Words cannot express the feelings that come over me when Dwain sings. I always describe his music as the sound of Heaven.”
Karen Schieb, Founder of the Universal Lightworker’s Conference
“When Dwain came to our sanctuary to set-up and rehearse, I heard one of the most beautiful voices I have ever experienced in my whole life. I stood by the door so I could hear better and started to get teary-eyed. His singing was like hearing an angel from Heaven. Absolutely incredible!”
Mary O’Reilly, First Church of Religious Science, Las Vegas, NV
“There are a few musicians who embody their music and express it with every fiber of their Being. Dwain Briggs is such a musician. He sends his music straight to the soul, opening and lifting the energy of all who listen, hear and sense his inspiring music.”
Rev. Sandhi Scott, Mastery of Life Center, Las Cruces, NM
“Dwain’s music sends out a vibration that changes a person at the heart level. Even a casual listener cannot escape this effect. You have to hear his music to know what I am saying.”
Dr. Norma Milanovich, President of the Athena Leadership Center and author of the Light Shall Set You Free
“To be lifted up by this sensitive vocalist, writer, composer is to enter the temple of contemplative prayer. Healed, centered and renewed we can come back to our busy lives, bringing with us a sense of serenity and love that helps to heal all we touch. If you have the opportunity to purchase Dwain’s recently released CD you are truly blessed. If you have the opportunity to hear him sing you are twice blessed. Don’t miss him.”
Rev. Amaryllis Phillips, University Church Institute
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RIDER-WAITE TAROT DECK – ©Us Games
Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
This Inspired Creation has been in existence for nearly a century. We feel however that it maybe as important a creation as any modern invention, which helps Humanity progress. This is because the Major Arcana or 22 titled cards conceal through imagery and color the Ancient Wisdom. According to the entry for the deck on Wikipedia, “The images were drawn by artist Pamela Colman Smith, to the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite, and published by the Rider Company.
Rider-Waite Tarot Tableau – ©Us Games
While the images are deceptively simple, almost child-like, the details and backgrounds hold a wealth of symbolism…” The entry goes on to relate, “The cards were originally published in December 1909, and the symbols used were influenced by the 19th century magician and occultist Eliphas Levi. In 1910, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite was published, providing an overview of the traditions and history behind the cards, criticism of various interpretations, and extensive descriptions of their symbols..”
We were interested in the two creators, Pamela Colman Smith (Artist) and Arthur Edward White (producer), dealing with the artist first, again we turn to the entry for her on Wikipedia:
Pamela Colman Smith (February 16, 1878—September 18, 1951) was an artist, illustrator, and writer… Smith was born in Pimlico, Middlesex (now London), England the daughter of an American merchant from Brooklyn, Charles Edward Smith and his Jamaican wife Corinne Colman. Due to her father’s job with the West India Improvement Company, the family often moved, spending time in London, Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York.
Pamela Colman Smith
Smith’s mother died when she was just 10 years old, and, often separated from her father due to his work, she was taken under the wing of the Lyceum Theatre group in London led by Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Bram Stoker. Her early teens years spent traveling around the country with the theatre group did much to influence her later art work.
By 1893, Smith had moved to Brooklyn to be with her father, where, at the age of 15, she enrolled at the relatively new Pratt Institute and studied art under the noted artist teacher Arthur Wesley Dow. She graduated four years later, and returning to England in 1899, she became a theatrical designer for a miniature theatre and an illustrator. She joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1903 and met Waite.
In 1909, Waite commissioned Smith to produce a tarot deck with appeal to the world of art, and the result was the unique Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck (Rider being the name of the publisher), which has endured as the world's most popular 78-card tarot deck…
Smith wrote and illustrated several books about Jamaican folklore, including Annancy Stories (1902) which were about Jamaican versions of tales involving the traditional African folk figure Anansi the Spider. She also did a great deal of illustration work for William Butler Yeats and his brother Jack, but apart from the tarot deck, her art found little commercial success…
Arthur Edward Waite (October 2, 1857 - May 19, 1942) was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer, R.A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of western occultism - viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of proto-science or as the pathology of religion.”
A.E.Waite
Waite was born in the United States. Waite's father, Capt. Charles F. Waite, died when he was at a very young age, and his widowed mother, Emma Lovell, returned to her home country of England, where he was then raised. As they were not well off, Waite was educated at a small private school in North London. When he was thirteen, he was then educated at St. Charles' College. When he left school to become a clerk he wrote verse in his spare time. The death of his sister, Frederika Waite, in 1874 soon attracted him into psychical research. At twenty-one he began to read regularly in the Library of the British Museum, studying many branches of esotericism…
A.E. Waite joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1891, became a Freemason in 1901, and entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. The Golden Dawn was torn by further internal feuding until Waite's departure in 1914; a year later he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, not to be confused with the Societas Rosicruciana. By that time there existed some half-dozen offshoots from the original Golden Dawn, and as a whole it never recovered.
Waite was a prolific author with many of his works being well received in academic circles. He wrote occult texts on subjects including divination, esotericism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, black and ceremonial magic, Kabbalism and alchemy; he also translated and reissued several important mystical and alchemical works. His works on the Holy Grail, influenced by his friendship with Arthur Machen, were particularly notable. A number of his volumes remain in print, the Book of Ceremonial Magic (1911), The Holy Kabbalah (1929), A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (1921), and his edited translation of Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual (1896) having seen reprints in recent years.
Stuart R Kaplan
It appears that the original publishers of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, the Rider Company are no longer in business. The current publishers of the Rider-Waite Tarot is US Games Systems Inc. www.usgamesinc.com The company was founded in 1968 by Stuart R Kaplan, who is still very much involved in the day to day running of the company. And so we would like to thank Mr. Kaplan for preserving this invaluable creation so that Daphna Moore could use the Archetypal images in her book The Rabbi’s Tarot to provide the means to uncover the Mysteries hidden within the 22 Major Arcana.
We would also like to thank U.S. Games Systems Inc. for granting us permission to use the card's images on our web sites and to comply with Bobbie Bensaid's (Vice President, Administration) request, we add the following:
Please include the following credit line:
Illustrations from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck®, known also as the Rider Tarot and the Waite Tarot, reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Copyright ©1971 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further reproduction prohibited. The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck® is a registered trademark of U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
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JOHN GEBHART
US. Air Force - Iraq...John Gebhardt holding an Iraqi child as she recovers from a gunshot to the head in the hospital
We received this as a mass e-mail and felt that because it epitomizes the creation of hope that it must be included now. A US. Navy man James Gates, tells the story of John Gebhardt’s selfless act, he relates:
John Gebhardt’s wife, Mindy, said that this little girl’s entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head...but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John’s hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair. The girl is coming along with her healing.
He is a real Star of the war, and represents what America is trying to do.
This, my friends, is worth sharing with the WORLD! Go for it!! You'll never see things like this in the news. Please keep this going. Nothing will happen if you don't, but the American public needs to see pictures like this and needs to realize that what we're doing over there is making a difference. Even if it is just one little girl at a time.
James Gates U. S. Navy
James we couldn’t agree more and are honored to include such a selfless act of hope here.
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Dr. JILL BOLTE TAYLOR
Although Dr. Jill is the author of the book My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey she is entered in the Inspired Act of Hope category. The reason is not for the stroke she suffered, but for her selfless willingness to share the deeply personal and dare we say, sacred experience with Humanity. The information below was taken from Dr. Jill and Life Celebrating Life’s web sites.
Jill Bolte Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained and published brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of a curious Neuroanatomist, she watched her mind completely deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered her mind, brain and body.
In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill shares with us her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the right and left halves of her brain. Having lost the categorizing, organizing, describing, judging and critically analyzing skills of her left brain, along with its language centers and thus ego center, Jill’s consciousness shifted away from normal reality.” In the absence of her left brain’s neural circuitry, her consciousness shifted into present moment thinking whereby she experienced herself “at one with the universe.”
Based upon her academic training and personal experience, Jill helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can ‘tend the garden of our minds’ to maximize our quality of life.” Jill pushes the envelope in our understanding about how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel, and how we react to life’s circumstances. Jill teaches us through her own example how we might more readily exercise our own right hemispheric circuitry with the intention of helping all human beings become more humane. “I believe the more time we spend running our deep inner peace circuitry, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet.”
Now in its 11th year, Indianapolis Life’s Celebrating Life program recognizes individuals who have overcome difficult challenges to participate in the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, the largest half-marathon in the country. Celebrating Life candidates are nominated by people who know the challenges that their friend or family member is facing and have seen first-hand the strength and determination of their nominee. Celebrating Life award recipients receive an engraved award and a $5,000 donation is made in his/her name to the not-for-profit organization of the recipients’ choosing. The organizations selected by recipients are often those that have been an integral part of the recipient’s recovery or support network.
Jill participating in the May 5, 2007
OneAmerica 500 Festival
One of the three 2007 Indianapolis Life Celebrating Life recipients was Jill Bolte Taylor of Bloomington, who experienced a stroke in 1996 that left her in a complete vegetative state. She has since completely recovered and she is inspiring others through her story of survival.
The nominators wrote, “Jill is a beacon of hope. Everyone she meets is touched by her passion, her love of people, and her spirit. Her joy expands the universe.”
Jill and her mother GG at the May 4, 2007
500 Festival Champions Dinner
Today, Jill continues to serve as the spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Bank and is the president of the Greater Bloomington Area affiliate of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She also teaches neuroanatomy at the IU School of Medicine.
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