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James O'Dea
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James O’Dea is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and was until recently its President. The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a non-profit membership organization founded in 1973 by astronaut Edgar Mitchell which explores the frontiers of consciousness and global paradigm change. James also spent ten years as the Director of the Washington Office of Amnesty International, where he testified before Congress, met with U.S. presidents and numerous foreign heads of state and government leaders, and represented Amnesty International to the State Department, the White House, and the World Conference on Human Rights. Subsequently, he spent five years as Executive Director of the Seva Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to international health & development issues in Latin America, Asia, and on American Indian reservations. Seva is a Sanskrit word meaning service. Prior to that James lived and worked in Turkey and Lebanon, and witnessed civil conflict, war and massacre, which influenced him deeply. James founded and co-led with Dr. Judith Thompson an international series of "Compassion and Social Healing" dialogues funded by The Fetzer Institute. The dialogues, spanning a seven year period, brought together leaders and activists in a variety of fields related to human rights, peace, and social reconciliation initiatives. James and Judith are currently involved in a major initiative to expand the theory and practice of social healing funded by the Kalliopeia Foundation Since 2008, James has been a member of the Evolutionary Leaders, a group convened by Deepak Chopra and Diane Williams to unify efforts in support of evolutionary changes in political, economic, ecological, scientific and health and healing arenas. He is also a member of the Global Systems Initiatives, an organization bringing a whole-systems approach to complex global issues, founded by Louise Diamond. He regularly participates in the Language of Spirit Dialogues which are convened by the SEED Graduate Institute for Native Americans, Physicists, and thought leaders. He lectures all over the world, and has essays published in numerous magazines and books including currently The Mystery of 2012 (Sounds True); Consciousness and Healing: An Integral Approach to Mind Body Medicine (Elsevier) and Earthrise: The Dawning of a New Civilization in the 21st Century (Goi). His new book, Creative Stress: A Path for Evolving Souls living through Personal and Planetary Upheaval, is due out March 2010. |
JAMES O'DEA