I was recently a plenary speaker at Integral Spiritual Experience 3, at Asilomar Conference Center, in Pacific Grove, California. After my presentation, which was almost identical to the one listed below as the main presentation I now deliver to all secular and religious audiences, I was asked by nearly a dozen people, “Where can I go to to learn more about the science-based ‘big integrity’ approach to spirituality and cultural transformation that you just presented?“

The following is intended as a resource for those interested in deepening their knowledge base and/or improving their skill-set re living in big integrity (in right relationship to Reality/God) and supporting others and our species in doing the same. This list of resources is for religious and non-religous folk alike.

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“The most profound insight in the history of humankind is that we should seek to live in accord with reality. Indeed, living in harmony with reality may be accepted as a formal definition of wisdom. If we live at odds with reality (foolishly), then we will be doomed, but if live in proper relationship with reality (wisely), then we shall be saved. Humans everywhere, and at all times, have had at least a tacit understanding of this fundamental principle. What we are less in agreement about is how we should think about reality and what we should do to bring ourselves into harmony with it.”  ~ Loyal Rue, Religion Is Not About God

QUESTION: How do we (as radically diverse individuals, groups, and societies) support each other in growing in ‘right relationship to reality’ so that, together, we can ensure a just and healthy future for the entire body of life?

What follows are links to some of the best resources online and in print for dwelling in right relationship to reality, individually and collectively. Here you will find perspectives and tools to help you live authentically, love deeply, relate joyfully, contribute meaningfully, die peacefully, and leave a sweet legacy—regardless of your background or beliefs, or whether or not you meditate.

These resources reflect humanity’s current global collective intelligence—i.e., our best evidential, science-based understandings—of (A) how life works, (B) how your life works, (C) how social systems work, and, given all this, (C) how to thrive and help our world thrive in the 21st century and beyond.

What follows is intended to help you enjoy maximal success and fulfillment (and deepest communion with God/Reality) in this life and this world, by honoring your real nature (as evidentially understood). If you are honestly more concerned with what happens in a supposed afterlife or otherworldly, supernatural realm, I suggest you stop reading now and consult with your priest, minister, rabbi, guru, or imam. The following is probably not for you.

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Right Relationship to What’s Real and What’s Important TODAY

• The main program I’m now delivering in ALL secular and religious contexts (from Roman Catholics and Mainline Protestants, to Evangelicals and Emerging Churches, to skeptic gatherings and science conferences, to New Age, Eastern, and Integral groups, to the United Nations) can be found on YouTube in two versions: one narrated (in two parts) and one live. Both are accessible HERE. This program shows how a meaningful, science-based view of human nature, death, and the trajectory of big history makes sense of our world, clarifies our priorities, and offers a realistically hopeful and deeply inspiring vision of the future.

• “One-on-one with Michael Dowd”: NH Public Television documentary on me and the above program.

• What’s New? on The Great Story website: links to TONS of wonderful, free online stuff, posted and edited by Connie Barlow

• Everybody’s Story: Wising Up to the Epic of Evolution: Loyal Rue

• Loyal Rue, Religion Is Not About God – 6 minute YouTube video

• “Richard Dawkins for Christians and All Spiritual People?“:  Text & YouTube reviews of Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True

* 3-minute YouTube introduction, by Richard Dawkins

* 6-minute YouTube video introduction to Richard Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality

* 23-minute YouTube video introduction to Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality

• “Good and Bad Reasons For Believing”: letter by Richard Dawkins, written to his (at the time) 10-year-old daughter, Juliet

• “What’s Real? What’s Important? Evidence as Divine Guidance”: blog post by Michael Dowd

• “Kinship with the Cosmos” – Neil deGrasse Tyson: (8-min YouTube clip)

• “We Are All Connected”: Symphony of Science music video featuring Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bill Nye the Science Guy

• “Religion Is About Right Relationship to Reality, Not the Supernatural”: blog post by Michael Dowd

• Thank God for the New Atheists: sermon by Michael Dowd published in Skeptic magazine / shorter version published in Australasian Science

• The New Atheists as God’s Prophets: podcast 2 hours after I learned I had cancer / sermon audio / interview with The Infidel Guy

• Journey of the Universe: Brian Swimme & Mary Evelyn Tucker (book and film)

• ”Coming Home to Reality“: audio of a sermon by Michael Dowd

• “The Evidential Reformation: Humanity Comes of Age”: blog post by M. Dowd

• “Evolutionary Spirituality: Coming Home to Reality”: blog post by M. Dowd

• “The Salvation of Religion: From Beliefs to Knowledge”: blog post by M. Dowd

• “Evolution and the Revival of the Human Spirit”: secular sermon (text): Dowd

• Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World: Michael Dowd (endorsed by 6 Nobel laureates and other science luminaries, including noted skeptics and atheists, and by religious leaders across the spectrum). Here is an 80-second book trailer.

• Carl Sagan: Apple Pie (introduced by Michael Dowd) - 2:28 minute YouTube clip, by Connie Barlow

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Right Relationship to Your History and Self: Knowing Who & Where You Are

• 13.7 Billion Years of Evolution in 85 Seconds: YouTube clip

• What Is The Great Story? The Epic of Evolution: our common creation story (Lots of really great stuff linked from this page!!)

• This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity: David Christian

• Born With a Bang / Lava to Life / Mammals That Morph, 3 kids books: Jennifer Morgan

• The Universe Is a Green Dragon: Brian Swimme

• Canticle to the Cosmos DVDs: Brian Swimme (12 one-hour programs)

• The Dream of the Earth and The Great Work: Thomas Berry

• The Universe Story: From Primordial Flaring Forth to Ecozoic Era: Swimme & Berry

• The View From the Center of the Universe: Joel Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams

• The Cosmic Society – 3 minute YouTube clip: Nancy Ellen Abrams

• Nancy Ellen Abrams: “View From the Center of the Universe”: 9-minute YouTube interview

• The New Universe and the Human Future: Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack

• Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century: Howard Bloom

• A Theory of Everything: Ken Wilber

• Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution: Steve McIntosh

• Cosmos: Carl Sagan (13 hour-long episodes): On DVD or free viewing on Hulu.com

• Wonders of the Solar System: BBC TV series with Brian Cox

• “Kinship with the Cosmos” – Neil deGrasse Tyson: (8-min YouTube clip)

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011, Omaha: 1-hr YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “My Soul”: 5-minute music video

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Right Relationship to Time: Honoring the Past, Ensuring a Healthy Future

• The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and Pursuit of Social Justice: Peter Corning

• Evolution’s Arrow: The Direction of Evolution and Future of Humanity: John Stewart

• “The Evolutionary Manifesto: Our Role in the Future Evolution of Life“: John Stewart

• The Trajectory of Human History: Ever-Expanding Cooperation and Compassion: blog post by Dowd/Stewart

• Humanity: The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants: Russell Genet

• Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny: Robert Wright

* Ghosts of Evolution – 5-minute music video celebrating deep-time eyes, by Connie Barlow

• The Empathic Civilization: Jeremy Rifkin

• The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined: Steven Pinker

• The Rational Optimist: Matt Ridley

• Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future: Duane Elgin

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011: Omaha: 1-hour YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “The Play” – 5-minute YouTube music video

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Right Relationship to Your Instincts: Harnessing Your Inherited Drives (more accurate model than “ego”, “id”, “shadow”, “sinful nature”, “inner demons”)

• Thank God for Evolution: Michael Dowd (Parts III and IV: Chapters 8-13)

• Physical instincts: Your reptilian brain’s cravings for safety, sustenance, and sex

Experiential exercises for honoring and taming your physical instincts

• Social instincts: Your old mammalian brain’s drives for bonding, status, and play

Experiential exercises for befriending your social instincts so they serve you

• Interpretive instincts: Your neocortex’s quest for knowing, meaning, & morality

Experiential exercises for mastering your interpretive (self-deceptive) instincts

• Co-creative instincts: Your prefrontal cortex’s zeal for wholeness & contribution

Experiential exercises for unleashing your creative, self-giving instincts

• Evolutionize Your Life: Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow: How to eliminate self-judgment and create a big-hearted life of purpose and joyful integrity by honoring your Stone Age Instincts. (It’s basically about how new discoveries in evolutionary brain science clarify how to gain freedom from self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors, cultivate healthy relationships, and thrive in the face of life’s challenges.) Free online teleseminar / 5-week online course

• Supernormal Stimuli: Deirdre Barrett

• Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain: David Eagleman

• Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Human Sexuality—How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships: Christopher Ryan & Cacilda Jetha

• The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness: Joan Roughgarden

• Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People: Joan Roughgarden

• You Still Don’t Understand: Richard Driscoll

• Evolutionary Psychology 1: The Science of Human Nature: Allen MacNeill (7 hr audio)

• The Moral Animal: Robert Wright

• The Science of Good and Evil and The Believing Brain: Michael Shermer

• The Age of Empathy: Frans de Waal

• The Male Brain and The Female Brain: Louann Brizendine

• The Happiness Hypothesis: Jonathan Haidt

• Straight from the Heart: Paul and Layne Cutright

• Getting Real: Ten Truth Skills You Need for Living an Authentic Life: Susan Campbell

• The 5 Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find By Embracing Them: David Richo

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011, Omaha, NE – 1-hr-YouTube clip

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Right Relationship to Death: Living Life Fully by Celebrating Your Mortality

• Death Through Deep-Time Eyes (main webpage portal) by Connie Barlow

• Litanies: (1) The Gifts of Death (2) Is This a Universe We Can Say ‘Yes’ To? by Connie Barlow

• In the Beginnning: Stardust Video – 3 minute YouTube clip, by Connie Barrow

• “Thank God for Death: Could Anything Be More Sacred? More Necessary? More Real?”: blog post by Michael Dowd

• “Time and Death: Secrets of Evolution with Sagan, Cuvier, Darwin, Eiseley, and Barlow”: 9-minute YouTube clip

• “Tree Talks About Death” (a.k.a, “Even Stars Die”) by Connie Barlow

• “How Doctors Die: An ICU Nurse Responds”: blog post

• The Scientific Understanding of Our New Sacred Understanding of Death by Connie Barlow

• “Death, Budgets, and Generational Justice”: by Connie Barlow: YouTube clip / blog post / podcast

• “Death Through Deep-Time Eyes”: audio sermon by Connie Barlow

• Connie Barlow’s YouTube program on a sacred, science-based view of death: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, finale

• “Immortality Projects in the Internet Era: The Rise of Volunteerism, the Demise of Consumerism, and the Democratization of Cultural Progress”: blog post by Connie Barlow

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011, Omaha, NE – 1-hr YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “One More Circle ‘Round the Sun” – 4-minute music video

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Right Relationship to Your Social and Ecological Context—and Your Legacy

• Green Space Green Time: The Way of Science: Connie Barlow

• Peter Mayer: “My Soul” – 5 minute YouTube music video

• The Sacred Depths of Nature: Ursula Goodenough

• Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World: Joanna Macy

• Gaia’s Garden, Second Edition: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture: Toby Hemenway

• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things: Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart

• Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution: Paul Hawken, et.al

• Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World: Paul Hawken

• Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, & Society in the Age of Transition: Charles Eisenstein

• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism: Howard Bloom

• Reflections on Evolutionary Activism and The Tao of Democracy: Tom Atlee

• Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity: Peggy Holman

• EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want: Frances Moore Lappe´

• Religion Is Not About God: How Spiritual Traditions Nurture our Biological Nature and What to Expect When They Fail: Loyal Rue

• Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist: Joan Roughgarden

• Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society: David Sloan Wilson

• Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives: David Sloan Wilson

• The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time: David Sloan Wilson

• Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World: David Gershon

• Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening: Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, et al.

• The Moral Landscape and Letter to a Christian Nation: Sam Harris

• Is Biblicist Christianity Bankrupt?: Michael Dowd’s public blog debate with Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. (The NY Times iNewp service: “The People’s Press” also ran this debate as a series: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

• The Success Principles: Jack Canfield

• Landmark Education’s “Curriculum for Living” (The Forum, Advanced Course, SELP)

• Practicing Radical Honesty: Brad Blanton

• “Kinship with the Cosmos” – Neil deGrasse Tyson: 8-min YouTube clip

• Michael Dowd, Darwin Day Celebration 2011: Omaha: 1-hr YouTube clip

* Bruce Sanguin: Evolutionary Christianity: 7-minute YouTube clip

• Peter Mayer, “Holy Now”: 5-minute music video

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Right Relationship to Children: Inspiring Evolutionary Educational Materials

BEST BOOKS:

• Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story: Lisa Westberg Peters and Lauren Stringer

• Born With a Bang / Lava to Life / Mammals That Morph, 3 kids books: Jennifer Morgan

• Bang! How We Came to Be: Michael Rubino

• Billions of Years, Amazing Changes: Laurence Pringle

• The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True: Richard Dawkins

ONLINE TEXT, AUDIO, and VIDEO:

• Evolutionary Curricula for Children and Youth: main portal on TheGreatStory website, by Connie Barlow

• Imprinting is NOT Indoctrination (by Connie Barlow): Introduction / podcast / PDF

• Inspiring Naturalism for Families: podcast interview with Jon Cleland Host

• The River of Life: programs for kids based on Richard Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale

• “Tree Talks About Death” (a.k.a, “Even Stars Die”), by Connie Barlow

• Skeptic’s Dictionary for Kids: portal to lots of great stuff (Robert Carroll)

• Remember Who You Are: middle school curriculum by Connie Barlow, based on The Lion King

• Evolutionary Songs: Ages 6 to Adult

• We Are Made of Stardust curriculum by Connie Barlow, plus recommended resources

• Coming Home to North America: how to become indigenous to this continent

• Celebrating North America: scripted plays by Connie Barlow

• Evolutionary Parenting: Jon Host: (1) An Introduction, (2) Thoughts About Holidays