Journeys and Awakenings presents a surprisingly diverse array of writers with penetrating insights into how we can help awaken a better world. Spanning a wide swath of disciplines and cultures, what ties them together is their deep appreciation for the universal kinship at the heart of all spiritual and religious traditions. Each essay lights a path to a different place of wonder within us. Whether it is an astrophysicist asking if the universe has an inner life or a spiritual activist working with runaway teens at a New York City bus station, this is a book which feeds our highest aims. In turn, these perspectives, stories and accounts of an artist, a philosopher, a teacher, an entrepreneur, a paleontologist, a choreographer, an ecologist, an atheist, a spiritual guide, a social worker, and others - make this book a vital companion as we engage the world before us. Writers and interviewees include: William Irwin Thompson, Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Christopher Bamford, Jane Goodall, David Spangler, Lee Irwin, William C. Chittick, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Winona La Duke, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Nambaryn Enkhbayar, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, Adam Bucko, Satish Kumar, Sister Joan Kirby, Yuval Ron, Charles Eisenstein, and others, each a luminary in their field.