Meditation is a solitary practice right? Not necessarily. Our latest guest on our podcast is not only creating community through this individual practice, he is also pioneering a study on the effect of deep meditation on the collective consciousness.                             We are delighted to have Barron Hanson on our podcast. Barron is a fellow Vedic Meditation teacher based in Australia, and has a long history of bringing people together, designing transformative experiences, creating films, and generally working to make the world a better place. His latest project, more like a family of projects, is centered on researching and documenting the “Maharishi Effect” which suggests that if 1% of a geographic population starts meditating, it can have a seismic effect on the collective. Barron wanted to see what would happen if 1% of his community in Nowra learned to meditate, and the study and documentary about the initiative is called “Be Here Nowra.”  As a compliment to “Be Here Nowra,” Barron also is spearheading a festival called “Here In Nowra” to invite meditators from all over the world to enjoy a month-long festival in October 2024 devoted to vedic philosophy, practices and teachings. It also will play a role in a study through the University of Wollongong to explore the effects of collective consciousness within the community.  And….Meditation Without Borders is going to be there as to host a talk, a teacher’s workshop on outreach teaching, and a 5-day women’s rounding retreat.  We couldn’t wait to sit down with Barron to hear how all of this came about, and to learn more about the personal journey of birthing such an ambitious and inspiring project.  If you would like to learn more about the Here In Nowra Festival, here is the link: https://www.here-in.world/Notes:3.00 Arriving in NYC6.32 “I´ve always had lots of energy, the problem was channeling it.” Barron Hanson6.52 “I started to move into things that could be more relevant and helpful to share a state of consciousness and making the world a better place.” Barron Hanson7.10 Maharishi Effect11.00 Challenges11.16 “It’s not the size of the group med, it’s what you do with it.” 12.50 Importing meditators and studies on it15.00 Invitation to come to Nowra and studies 17.40 Be Here Nowra Festival 18.00 Lighthouses and Loneliness20.00 Individual flavors of different teachers23.00 Experiences of building a community for Isabel and Kristen30.00 Waves and consciousness34.00 Coming back home to Nowra 42.00 Geysers of Creativity and Consciousness“The story of Nowra is trying to express itself through me. I’m helping Nowra to express its own story. I’m not the driver of this, I’m the conduit.” Barron Hanson46.40 Meditation Without Borders in Nowra47.00 Be Here Nowra events48.00 Call to Action50.00 The feeling of service that comes with meditation51.00 The feminine becoming lively  Contact InfoHere-in.world