Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, was interviewed by Europocket.tv on the importance of connecting and understanding people from other cultures.  During the interview, Paulo Coelho says that he connects to others by writing to himself.  He says he writes each of his books in order to understand himself better.  He does not try to write something that others will necessarily relate to or try to create a hit book.  Coelho says it is through writing that he discovers parts of his mind that were in the dark, both positive and negative aspects.  

     While this may sound a bit self-centered, Coelho says that by discovering and sharing these parts of himself through writing his novels, he is able to connect to other people across all cultures and countries who may be searching for the same hidden aspects within themselves. 

      This idea is similar to Marianne Williamson’s famous quote,

      “…as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates other.”

You can watch the four minute interview with Paulo Coelho below: 

     Robert Scheinfeld, author of Busting Loose from The Money Game, is a teacher in the upcoming movie Leap!  In the interview below, he talks about breaking free from our illusions.  He discusses the importance of reminding ourself that we are an Infinite Being.  When we live from this perspective, the world transforms into a humorous amusement park because we are no longer obsessed with figuring out how to deal with all of the burdens that occupy the limited mind.  We still take responsibility for our actions in the world, but we begin to see the deeper meaning and impact of our thoughts and actions from the perspective of our Infinite Being.

      Seven Pounds looks like it could one of the top movies this Holiday season.  Will Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a fateful secret who embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.  The director and producer of Seven Pounds also directed and produced Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith.  Seven pounds will be released Dec. 19.  You can watch the trailer below.

     The Secret Millionaire is an unscripted series where each week one of the wealthiest Americans worth millions of dollars, will go undercover into one of the most impoverished and dangerous towns in America.  They spend 10 days living there on a meager budget meeting with financially destitute individuals.  Their job is to meet as many people as possible who have shown a dedication to helping others or incredible stories of trying to overcome tremendous odds.  On the final day, the Secret Millionaire meets with the chosen recipients and reveals his or her true identity and intention - to give them a sum of at least $100,000 of their own money to change their lives forever.

     Three compelling themes this series examine include living outside your comfort zones as the millionaires are taken away from their lavish lifestyles and thrust into impoverished areas, helping others, and how money has the potential to change people’s lives for the better.  Other philanthropic reality shows such as Oprah’s Big Give and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition have been successful.  This show looks like it could be a hit too because of its unique fish out of water element to see how millionaires will respond to living in and giving back to disadvantaged communities.

     The Secret Millionaire airs on Fox this Wed. at 8/7c.  You can watch a sneak peek for the show below.

      This is one of the best versions of Amazing Grace I have ever heard.  It is taken from Il Divo’s album The Promise.  One of the comments on YouTube for this video sums it up by saying:

      “I know for sure, I have a soul when I hear this…I cry and chills run up and down my spine.”

      This song takes us directly to the place inside us that knows only joy and takes delight in the physical expression of beauty.  The music video for Amazing Grace from Il Divo’s The Promise album is below.

      Epiphany Talk Show is an online radio station hosted by spiritual intuitive Deidre Howard that covers a wide range of spiritual topics with some of today’s top doctors, authors and visionaries.  Some of the topics they discuss include anthropology, hidden truths, aging, angels, God, law of attraction, Spiritual Guides, healing, 11:11, the Bible, 2012, energy, peace and much more.

      This past week, host Diedre Howard interviewed Dr. Bruce Lipton about how our beliefs impact our physical bodies.  Dr. Bruce Lipton has a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, was a professor at Stanford and is the author of the Biology of Belief.  After teaching medical students at Stanford how our cells work, Dr. Lipton began to question the traditional notion that our genes control our traits and behavior.  He cited a study on the placebo effect that shows our beliefs and expectations can determine our physical traits, behavior and ability to heal.

      For example, Dr. Bruce Moseley conducted a ‘fake’ surgery on patients who wanted to get arthoscopic knee surgery.  The doctor made an incision in the placebo patients’ knee three times with a scapel to make it feel like a real surgery and leave a scar.  However, he did not conduct the actual arthoscopic knee surgery.  He just told the patients he performed an arthoscopic knee surgery.  The result was that six months later, the placebo patients had much less pain, no complaints about the operation and some were able top play basketball again.  This study shows that the patients’ expectations and beliefs that they were going be healed caused the healing, not the surgery itself.

      You can listen to Deidre Howard’s interviews with other experts on Epiphany Talk Show.  Below is another interview with Dr. Bruce Lipton on The Biology of Belief.

      Last night Christina Applegate and Dr. Michael Beckwith appeared on Larry King to talk about how Christina survived a breast cancer diagnosis and more remarkably how she viewed it as an opportunity.  The timing of her diagnosis could not have been worse considering it was a couple weeks after her ex-boyfriend died from a drug overdose and her two cats had recently died too. 

      However, she said that with the help of Dr. Michael Beckwith, she began to look at her breast cancer as an opportunity.  She began to remove stressful habits from her life and eat foods with healing qualities.  Additionally, she began to see that life in her body was not permanent.   A short three minute clip of the interview is below.

      In 1966, John Lennon outraged many Church officials when he said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.  Now, however, the Saturday edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said the remark can be written off as the bragging of a young man grappling with unexpected success.  The newspaper also wrote that the Beatles’ “White Album” shows how creative the Beatles were in comparison to “standardized, stereotypical” songs made today.

     Below is a music video of the Beatles hit song Imagine.

      Leap! the movie explores the ageold question about whether or not the world is an illusion.  Albert Einstein said, “Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”  Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven in within you.” and ”I am in the world, but not of the world.”  If Jesus was in the world, but not “of the world”, then where was He of? and what is the relationship between the place where the Kingdom of Heaven within you is and the world? 

      The film interviews visionaries, scientists and authors such as Dan Millman, Robert Scheinfeld, Joe Vitale, Gary Renard, James Twyman and Cynthis James about whether the world is an illusion or if our perception of the world is an illusion.  The film invites us to ask the question, if the world is an illusion, what then?

       The trailer for Leap! The movie is below: 

Angels and Demons, the prequel to The DaVinci Code, released its trailer.  The movie stars Tom Hanks and opens 2009.  The film follows Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist.  He discovers that the Illuminati, an underground organization who has a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church, may play a role.  Langdon travels with a beautiful scientist, Vittoria Vetta, to find the answers.  The trailer teaser is below.