Some think the world careens toward apocalypse. Others see hope. Think the Dalai Lama. Or Joseph Campbell or Linus Pauling or Krishnamurti or Wangari Maathai. Another thing these visionaries have in common: at some point, they were interviewed by New Dimensions Broadcasting Media.
Stanford Libraries has acquired the archive of New Dimensions, an independent, listener-supported organization founded in 1973 to address cultural shifts. More than 6,000 hours of audio recordings showcase some 3,500 cutting-edge thinkers, spiritual leaders, artists, scientists, healers, ecologists and social architects. Stanford hopes to digitize the collection and make it available online, hosted on Stanford servers and available through search engines. The University and New Dimensions, which will retain copyrights and commercial rights, are hunting for funders and applying for grants.
The broadcasts have proven that they are more than just talk: when New Dimensions first championed Frederick Leboyer, author of Birth Without Violence, in 1975, there wasn’t one birthing center in the United States; there wasn’t one hospice for the dying when it interviewed Charles Garfield of the Shanti Project the same year. For listeners, the interviews are one way to foster a more creative vision of our collective future. As Buckminster Fuller said, “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.”
