Our Humanity Matters was created to further the understanding of the meaning of humanity and its spiritual and existential challenges in mass media culture.
Articles
Directly experienced reality as the foundation of our meaning and existence
I recently read a great book by David Abram called The Spell of the Sensuous. This is a wonderful text on the subject of the phenomenology and our interconnectedness with our environment. In a soulful and intelligent way, he was able to articulate how very related we are to every element and being on this Earth and how magical this world is. He is able to speak from a place of complete immersion in the magical perceptions that appear when we are able to employ all of our senses.
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Podcasts
Conversation with Stephen Eric Bronner
Stephen Eric Bronner is a distinguished professor of Political Studies, Comparative Literature and German Studies at Rutger’s University. He is currently the director of Global Relations at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers, and is the Senior Editor of Logos, an interdisciplinary internet journal.
Anke Scheinfeld, MD., M.Ed is a Rudolf Steiner School educator in NYC. Prior to teaching she worked as a physician and researcher in Germany and the United States. Her main interest is in working to align the healing impulse of Waldorf education with preventative medicine.
Abdi Assadi, acupuncturist and spiritual counselor in New York City, discusses the problems of the world today as evidence of our increasing disconnect from our environment, our emotions, and each other.
Conversations
A Thoughtful Discussion on Today’s Media
Below are excerpts from a discussion between OHM founder, Tanja A.W. and Veselin, a New York City photographer and artist, held January 7, 2013, on the topic of the use of technology and media in today’s society. Tanja and Veselin touched on issues of the growing disconnect with our natural environment, the proliferation of information, responsibility in media, and the dangers media poses to our collective interactions with each other. They emphasized the importance of unmediated experiences and explored how we can harness the power of media to spur positive change and progress humanity.
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“We have been looking for love – and for God, the Beloved – in all the wrong places: “out there” in the world of competition and separation instead of “in here,” where the soul finds itself. Out there is fleeting and illusionary and demands that we prove ourselves over and over again to stand any chance of love; in here is a gentle acceptance of love that is already ours.
It is not surprising, of course, that we have been seeking love in ways guaranteed not to bring it to us. This is, after all, what we have been taught to do from birth because most of us have been raised in a society where love has lost its meaning.
The very word “love” has been misappropriated by our culture, overcomplicated, and turned into a sales tool meaning something very different from “beauty in the moment.” It is a biochemical reaction to a research scientist after a grant; something a cosmetic, perfume, or surgery can give you, if you are a fragrance manufacturer or a cosmetic surgeon; or a “proper response” that agony aunts and celebrities are paid to teach us about. Love, nowadays, stands for division, analysis, TV ratings, product brands, body modification – and the bottom line: how much money we have in our wallets – which is the very opposite of unconditional. Do any of us know what real love is or how to find it anymore?”
— Ross Heaven, The Way of the Lover: Rumi and the Spiritual Art of Love