Traveling to a New America - Speaker Series Via Skype

EL CERRITO, Calif. - July 7, 2016 - PRLog -- James Hilgendorf's speaker series, "Traveling to a New America", is now available for speaking engagements nationally via Skype video, in addition to in-person talks.

James Hilgendorf is a filmmaker, speaker, poet, and the author of ten non-fiction books that are opening up the way to a new vision of ourselves, a new dream of America, and a new religion for the world.

"Traveling to a New America" is his latest project, during which he will be traveling through the small towns and big cities of America, introducing people to a new vision of their lives - of who they really are, and what they - and America - have the potential to become.

Many of his talks are in-person; but he is also scheduling talks with groups all across the country via Skype video.

"There is a spiritual vacuum in our country," he says, "indeed, throughout the world, that is growing ever deeper; and this vacuum is not being filled today by our major religions. Twenty to twenty-five percent of Americans now regard themselves as adhering to no religion at all, and this percentage is growing all the time.  Nor is this vacuum being filled up with atheism and the new secular humanism.

"It is a new world.  Science itself, ever since the advent of quantum physics has been telling us we no longer live in a classically defined world.  This is a quantum world.  And our mainline religions are no longer able to help us cope with the enlarged vision of our world and our universe.  We seem alone, in an incredibly materialistic and uncaring cosmos."

Hilgendorf is a Buddhist, and the worldview of Buddhism colors his thoughts and talks - particularly the Buddhism of the Soka Gakkai International, the largest Buddhist lay organization in the world now, with 12,000,000 members in 192 countries and territories around the world.

"Buddhism is totally in sync with science", he says.  "Just as quantum physics reveals, we live in a participatory universe.  We are interconnected with each other in profound ways, and in ways that make it necessary to finally transcend the limitations and smaller identities of our major religions that tend always to isolate and separate us from one another.  Only look at the Middle East today, and you see Jew, Muslim, and Christian at each others' throats, each assuming an identity that excludes the other."

One of Hilgendorf's books is "Life & Death: A Buddhist Perspective", of which a few reviewers wrote:

"If I were to teach a basic college-level course in religion, philosophy, or metaphysics - call it Spirituality 101 - this book would be required reading.  In fact, it would be the first week's assignment.  Having read all or parts of nearly a thousand books dealing with spiritual matters, I cannot recall another that so simply and effectively blends the fundamentals of religion and science." - Michael E. Tymn, Journal of Religion and Psychical Research.

"A must-read!  I am serious when I say that reading James Hilgendorf's 'Life & Death: A Buddhist Perspective' was a life-changing experience.  It has changed the way I will live the rest of my life." - Lisbeth Gant-Britton, author of "African American History, and former UCLA adjunct professor in African-American Studies.

In his talks, Hilgendorf does not just talk about Buddhism, but also brings in commentary from famous people throughout history, from science, from psychology, from literature, from a wide range of insights, to open people up to a new vision of their true identity and their place in the universe, to life here and now, to eternity.

Hilgendorf has most recently given talks at the Unitarian Universalist congregations in Santa Rosa and Berkeley, California; the Humanist Association of the greater Sacramento Area; and via Skype video to the Humanists of the Triangle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Humanists of Colorado in Denver.

This is a comment from his recent Berkeley talk:

"James' presentation was full of interesting information and ideas.  He presented ideas from great thinkers of the past, as well as more modern ideas on how our society has come to be where it is now, where it could be headed and what we need to do to get there.  His knowledge about the world's religions and his Buddhist background made for a thought-provoking presentation and generated a number of very interesting questions and comments from our audience." - Barbara Rockhold, Chair of Personal Theology Speaker Series at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley.

For further information on the author and his books, see his website at: http://www.jameshilgendorf.org.