Neil Douglas-Klotz

Neil Douglas-Klotz

I grew up in a multicultural family. My grandparents (both sides) were refugees from Europe with German, Jewish, Russian and Polish blood in their veins. They followed their track to the ethnic neighbourhoods of Chicago, where my parents met and married.
I was raised by Christian parents who were both devout and freethinking. They brought into my early life the impulse to worship and praise, as well as to question everything that constricted and opposed the injunction "love your neighbour as yourself." My father was a chiropractor, my mother a student of the health education of Edgar Cayce; they raised me with a respect for the body and the wonders of nature found therein, as well as a disdain for the superficial innovations of humanity that polluted both body and nature.
Hearing from childhood German, Yiddish and Polish in our home, raised on the stories and miracles of Jesus, taught the practical truth of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, I formed an interest in language, spirituality, the body and ecological justice early in life. In many ways, I have been pursuing these interests ever since.
After graduation from college in 1973, I pursued a career as a journalist in the fields of social justice, environmentalism and consumer protection for several years before turning to the following questions: Why do people change? What causes me to change? Is there a more powerful level of motivating change than that of ideas? In pursuing these questions, I returned to interests I developed in college that centered on: the body and changes of attitude and behaviour, mystical and "expanded" states of consciousness, and the early pre-religious roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
I pursued some of this study academically through the University of California, Berkeley. But most of it found me seeking out teachers from the native traditions of the Middle East, Pakistan and India who introduced me to the other modes and methods of learning as well as the body-oriented spiritual practices that accompanied this study. Beginning in 1976, I was very privileged to study with the early students of the American Hebrew/Sufi mystic Samuel L. Lewis, who introduced me to the body prayer meditations called the Dances of Universal Peace. One phase of this intense period of study led me on a three-month pilgrimage in 1979 to sacred sites and teachers in Turkey, Pakistan and India.
In 1982, I founded the International Network for the Dances of Universal Peace (now based in Seattle, WA), a multicultural resource center for those who chose this form of peacemaking through the arts as their forum for both peace "demonstration" as well as spiritual practice. Over the past 15 years, I have been actively involved in leading educational exchanges and citizen diplomacy trips with the Dances to Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and to the Middle East.
From 1986 until 1996, I served as a faculty member of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality and a member of the Core Faculty since 1990. During its "golden age," the ICCS was a gathering place for scientists, artists, educators and learners from many different cultural and racial backgrounds. Many of our students were non-US citizens and I enjoyed the opportunity to teach and learn across the differences and within a rich field of diversity. This diversity, at its best, provided a sort of "quantum field" of uncertainty in which real inquiry and learning occurred for us all.
In September 1993, I co-led a group of students from Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Canada on a citizen diplomacy/educational trip to Jordan, Israel and Syria. Serendipitously, this occurred exactly during the signing of the Israel-PLO accords. We were greeted warmly and were able to share discussions and artistic and cultural exchanges with many different people from all the varied sides of the confrontation. I continue work in this area, both individually, and collaboratively through the International Association of Sufism.
During my sabbatical to finish my doctorate, my partner and I moved to Europe. It both allowed me to be nearer to my Middle Eastern connections and seemed more welcoming to the type of multicultural work we were both doing (my partner, Kamae A Miller, is also a published writer in the field of sacred dance.) We enjoyed the change from a bustling Northern California urban environment to the rolling farm fields of Thomas Hardy country in Dorset and, since March 1999, to Edinburgh, Scotland, another multicultural arts and music center. My fluency in German and some other European languages also enables us to continue our educational exchanges and lectures throughout Europe, which is at a very intriguing time of its evolution, socially, politically and spiritually.

Banana Rose - An Novel (Book)

Neil Douglas-Klotz

ISBN:9780553375138

Format:Book  

USD $22.50

 

HIDDEN GOSPEL (Book)

Neil Douglas-Klotz

ISBN:9780835607803

Bridging the gap between the historical Jesus of the scholar and the Jesus of faith of Christian believers, this book will appeal to anyone looking for an alternative spiritual vision of Jesus and his message.
Format:Hardback  

USD $35.37

 

Long Quiet Highway (Book)

Neil Douglas-Klotz

ISBN:9780553373158

Format:Paperback  

USD $16.22

 

Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish (Book)

Neil Douglas-Klotz

ISBN:9781417704828

Format:Prebound  

USD $29.78

 

The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish (Book)

Neil Douglas-Klotz

ISBN:9780142196359

Format:Paperback  Pages:336

USD $17.38

 

WILD MIND - LIVING THE WRITERS LIFE (Book)

Neil Douglas-Klotz

ISBN:9780553347753

Natalie Goldberg, author of the bestselling "Writing Down The Bones," teaches a method of writing that can take you beyond craft to the true source of creative power: The mind that is "raw...more details
Format:Book  

USD $23.78

 

WRITING DOWN THE BONES (Book)

Neil Douglas-Klotz

ISBN:9780877733751

This text offers encouragement and advice on many aspects of the writer's craft, from "first thoughts" to the use and misuse of adverbs, from where the best places are to write - both public and private - to developing your skills in the art of listening. Based on the premise that writing creatively helps us to comprehend and value our lives...more details

USD $22.50