When Arianna Huffington announced last year that she was stepping down from running her digital news site, The Huffington Post, it created quite a stir. Her new venture, Thrive Global is a health and well-being “platform,” designed to promote well-being and productivity in the workplace. Months in the making, ThriveGlobal.com is up and active now. And with big names like Debra Eshmeyer, director of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! and Kobe Bryant participating, not to mention Huffington’s own namesake news organization and business savvy, success is a sure thing.

The trial of Wilhelm Reich is an unknown, untold story. The US Federal Court-ordered banning and burning of his medical and scientific writings is not taught in American schools. It is not even known to the legal profession. It has long been ignored by those who fight for First Amendment rights in the US. And you will never see Reich’s writings included in any of the thousands of annual “Banned Books” displays around the country each year.

Arianna Huffington announced last week that she was stepping down from running her digital news site, The Huffington Post. She said she’s planning to focus on a new company she has started, Thrive Global. Thrive Global is a health and well-being “platform,” designed to promote well-being and productivity in the workplace. As the press release stated, “It provides trainings, seminars, e-courses, coaching, and ongoing support based on the latest scientific findings from experts in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, productivity, sports, and sleep.”

As reported in The New York Times, Peter Wohlleben’s book, a surprise hit titled “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries From a Secret World,” has verified what many nature enthusiasts, and virtually all native peoples have believed for years: that plants, in this case trees, have feelings too. Since the publication in 1973 of “The Secret Life of Plants,” by Peter Tompkins, enormous research has shown that plants hear, feel, and communicate in a variety of ways.

Pro-football star and Superbowl champion, Tom Brady, has been making waves recently, speaking up in favor of organic food and an holistic approach to health. But what’s getting all the attention is his blasting of what he terms “poison” products, including such big names as Kellogg and Coca-Cola. As noted by the Organic Consumers Association, “Brady may have just done more good for kids, and more damage to Big Food, than we could accomplish in months.”

As recently featured on Fox News, Near Death Experiences have clearly entered the mainstream and reached the public awareness. One of the most fascinating examples of an NDE is that of New York resident Dr. Tony Cicoria. Cicoria is a practicing orthopedic surgeon, and is Chief of the Medical Staff and Chief of Orthopedics at Chenango Memorial Hospital. In 1994, when Tony Cicoria was 42 years old, he was struck by lightning near Albany while using a public telephone. He was about a foot away when a rogue bolt of lightning struck. He recalled seeing his own body on the ground surrounded by a bluish-white light.

Here at Merlian News, we are big fans of Stephen Dinan and The Shift Network. Some of our favorite authors, scientists and healers, such as Mingtong Gu, Jack Kornfeld, Robert Moss, Gary Zukov, Anodea Judith, and more, have participated in their courses and conferences. If you are not familiar with this exciting venue, check out their website at www.theshiftnetwork.com

Are you interested in joining in on a spiritual conversation? Check out Roland Comtois’s www.talkstreamspiritualradio.com. Roland, an internationally renowned channel and author of “And Then There Was Heaven,” interviews the most fascinating people for his talk show. He also shares life-affirming messages of hope and love on his Soul Stories radio show. You can tune in live to ask Roland your on-air questions!

I’m always up for a good show that investigates consciousness, the paranormal, or mankind’s possible evolution of greater mental powers, i.e, ESP, psychism, bending spoons, etc. Whether it’s Scully and Mulder outwitting Cancerman in their search for the truth, those hunky brothers who hunt for bad demons, or the young autistic boy who can predict events by focusing on numbers, I’m there with a bag of popcorn and the hope that this time, maybe, the show will have legs and maybe even offer, well — something new.