by Stephen Simon

As always, my list includes my own personal favorites, not the films I consider best, a classification I find to be both impossible and absurd. I have no idea what the “best film” is. I only know the films I enjoyed the most. Happy 2010!

Hollywood film directory Stephen Simon continues his Movie Mystic on the movie 'Cold Souls'.

It feels so good to have a movie to write about again. For those of you who have followed this column for the last seven years, please know that, as long as films like COLD SOULS are released, I will continue this column, even though it will be on an irregular basis. Now, to the film.

Journeys with Jelila

Bali based healer writes about healing, here she starts a new column for Holistic Asia.

Relax, breathe, and imagine yourself running along a sunny beach, with a dog.  On the way, you meet an old man, and show him a piece of paper you have written on, seeking clarification.  Talk to him for as long as you wish, and when ready, gently return, bringing what you learned.

In our occasional series on 'How i came to my Path' Australian based Tracy Woolley writes about how she found her passion: photography winning awards and all the time aware of the blessing of finding her way in life.

How long have you been a photographer? I really have been a photographer most of my life actually. I remember when I was about 10 my father was very enthusiastic about it and would spend hours in camera stores buying all sorts of equipment. I got my first camera then and just mucked around. It was when I decided to go back to University and complete an Art History degree in 2005 where I chose a Photography elective that I realized that it was my passion!

by Bobsy

The tribe slowly gathered under the hot balmy Bali sun.

They came from all over the world, from all races, creeds and colours to gather in a lush & green corner on the outskirts of Ubud.

They came for the 2nd annual Bali Spirit Festival of Yoga, Dance & Music held from April 28th until May the 3rd at the picturesque Purnati Space for the Arts.

by Charles Whitehead

When you think of your own life, your relationships with those you love, or the astonishing way your children develop, play, create pictures, and invent imaginative stories, do you ever feel you are being sold short by scientists and “experts” who tell you that you are “nothing but a bunch of neurones”, or that everything you do is hard wired in your brain  and controlled by “selfish genes”?

by Dr. Gino Yu

Most people use money and technology, but don't know the underlying mechanisms of how they work. Similarly, most people go about their daily lives using consciousness, but don't know how it works. In the case of money and technology, we know that someone somewhere has an understanding of how things work. In biology we have an understanding of how most systems in the body work, down to the level of cells and DNA. We can build replacement body parts and train the body to re-grow new tissue with gene therapy. However with consciousness, top scientists today still have no idea how conscious experience arises.

So, it has already begun. The drumbeat of doom and gloom about the so-called end of the Mayan Calendar in December, 2012 can now be heard, seen, and read with increasing frequency in all forms of media.