Latest News

We are excited to share that we have a new collection of Summer Solstice presentations available as a new podcast series. Like our other podcast series, this collection is also available at YouTube, Spotify, Audible (Amazon Music), and Spreaker. During the 1980s Roger Weir annually delivered Summer Solstice presentations. We are making the following six presentations available in this collection: The Tao of Journeying (1980), Summer Solstice with Theodore and Jayne Sturgeon (1981), Summer Solstice Celebration (1982), Summer Solstice (1983), Summer Solstice: Theodore Sturgeon Memorial (1985), and Summer Solstice (1988). The Shared Presence Foundation is excited to release these as a series in conjunction with the 2024 Summer Solstice.

As noted in the previous news entry, the Star Wisdom Man series is now available as a podcast. We just published the 6th episode in the series of 13. We will continue to release one episode a week on Saturdays.

The entire Ancient Rome series is completely available on YouTube and our podcast channels.

Our YouTube channel just reached the 500 subscriber milestone this month!

Meanwhile we continue to make more and more content available on YouTube and other channels (e.g., Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, Spreaker).

We recently published a new presentation series on YouTube and simultaneously as a podcast: Star Wisdom Man.

The entire Ancient Rome series is almost all available on YouTube and our podcast channels. Check it out!

We have just launched a new podcast series:Ancient Rome: Rome, Essenes, Alexandria, and the Book of Enoch. The podcast series is available on many common podcast platforms, including Spotify and YouTube. Presentations for this series will be published to these different portals approximately 3 times per week.

Other series which we have recently published to different platforms (e.g., YouTube, Spotify) have included:

• Ecumene (1996-1997)
• Plato (1990)
• Plato II (1991)
• Plato's Theory of Education (1990)
• Shared Presence (2009)

In addition to the distribution of content, we have also been busy with some website changes. An ongoing project has been the transcription of all presentations. This is time consuming! But, we are gradually moving forward and making the transcripts available. They are accessible from the list of courses. An example of this can be seen on the Gandhi (1983) course page.

Please subscribe and follow us on our...
YouTube channel
Spreaker channel

As another year ends, another one begins. 2023 was a year of many accomplishments. During this past year we added new video content to our YouTube channel and new audio content to our Spreaker channel. We also funded a number of research projects and community organizations through our Prepared Adult Initiative (PAI). In addition to funding early childhood education-related research, PAI established an Instagram presence under the Zero to Six Parents identity.

In the first part of 2024 we have plans to make presentation transcripts accessible to our site visitors. An example of this is already in place on the Gandhi series page. We also have plans to do some technical changes to make the website more user-friendly and include increased functionality.

This year's Montessori Working Group Retreat featured a public element – Montessori Symposium - where scholars Dr. Angeline Lillard and Dr. Solange Denervaud each shared information and data related to their work studying the efficacy of Montessori education. Denervaud is a neuroscientist who examines the effects of Montessori education through analyzing brain imaging. Lillard is a developmental psychologist who examines the impact of Montessori education using psychological measures. Each have been the recipient of monies from the Shared Presence Foundation to support their studies. Additionally, Dr. Angela K. Murray, who coordinated the Montessori Research Working Group Retreat, has also been the recipient of monies to support her study related to "entrepreneurial tendencies."

We have taken the leap into the world of podcasts in order to make the presentation series by Roger Weir more accessible. Therefore, we have begun to publish new podcasts for each series. As part of this effort we are distributing these podcasts to several platforms. These links go directly to our content on the respective platforms: Spreaker, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music / Audible. In order to find our podcasts on Spotify and iHeartRadio please search for "Shared Presence Foundation" within podcasts. Our goal is to publish/distribute all of the series listed on the website as podcasts. As part of this process we are reviewing and editing the audio recordings so that the best version is available. Currently our focus is to get all of the series listed on our YouTube channel published as podcasts. Additionally, as we make the series available as podcasts we will be including an embedded audio player on the page for each series. Keep checking back as we continue this effort.

At the end of April we began posting videos for the Ecumene: Development and Pattern within Human Intelligence (1996-1997) series on YouTube. The videos for this series have gradually been added to this playlist. As of today's date there are 39 videos available. Stay tuned as more videos are posted regularly!

In mid-May we published a new Podcast series based on the Hermetic America: Transformational America presentation series from 1985. This 13-week course explores the works of Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, William James, and John Dewey. The podcast doesn't include the 9th lecture because the audio quality is not satisfactory.

At the end of April we began posting videos for the Ecumene: Development and Pattern within Human Intelligence (1996-1997) series on YouTube. The videos for this series will gradually be added to this playlist at a pace of about 3 per week. This 2-year cycle course, which includes 104 presentations (about 100 minutes each), was conducted by Roger Weir from January 1996 through December 1997. Mr. Weir delivered these presentations weekly at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood, California. Just like all of Weir's 2-year cycle courses, this one is arranged into 8 quarterly sections (Nature, Ritual, Myth, Symbol, Vision, Art, History, and Science) with an Interval presentation in between each section.

As indicated in a previous news item, we began posting videos for the Hermetic America Future (2008) series on YouTube. The archives only contains videos for 9 of the 13 presentations (presentations 5-13) and these videos are now available on our YouTube channel.

We recently began adding videos from the Hermetic America Future (2008) series on YouTube. The audio and other details regarding this series are also available here. It should be noted that the Shared Presence Foundation archives only contains 9 of the 13 presentations in this series (presentations 5-13), but we have chosen to make this series available regardless. As is the case with many of these courses, Mr. Weir delivered these presentations weekly at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood, California.

Additionally, we recently finished adding all 13 presentations from the Hermetic America (2008) series on YouTube. Other information about this series can be found here.

We just began posting a new video series on YouTube - Hermetic America (2008). Similar to many of these courses, Mr. Weir delivered these presentations weekly at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood, California.

Also, the entire series of videos for the 2-year cycle Ecumene: Development and Pattern within Human Intelligence (1994-1995) is available on YouTube. This 2-year cycle course - similar to others - includes 105 presentations (about 100 minutes each) and was conducted by Roger Weir from January 1994 through December 1995. As indicated previously, Mr. Weir delivered these courses weekly at Whirling Rainbow (Weir's personal residence located on Hyperion Avenue in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California). Just like all of Weir's 2-year cycle courses, this one is arranged into 8 quarterly sections (Nature, Ritual, Myth, Symbol, Vision, Art, History, and Science) with an Interval presentation in between each section.

We just launched another podcast series! The Hermetic America: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau series is now available as a podcast on Spreaker and other popular podcast platforms like Spotify.

New Artist pages are being added to the site. We have gradually been reviewing presentations and adding tags for each artist mentioned in the individual presentations. By doing so we hope to create new avenues for exploring and accessing the presentations. An example of these artist pages can be found here: H. G. Wells.

We just launched a new podcast series! The Hermetic America - Our Critical Heritage is now available as a podcast on Spreaker and other popular podcast platforms like Spotify.

Videos for the entire first year of the Ecumene: Development and Pattern within Human Intelligence (1994-1995) series are now available on our YouTube channel. Access all of them via this playlist. Mr. Weir delivered these courses at his personal residence, known as "Whirling Rainbow", located on Hyperion Avenue in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

Less than two months after reaching the 100 subscriber mark, the Shared Presence Foundation YouTube channel crossed the 200 subscriber mark. As of today, the YouTube channel has 201 subscribers.

The Shared Presence Foundation YouTube channel officially reached 100 subscribers today.

As part of ongoing archival efforts the SPF team is always seeking to resolve discrepancies in information about the presentations and presentation series. One such discrepancy related to the Tao Te Ching series has now been solved. This week we finally discovered that the series experienced an unplanned hiatus due to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Previously, the only details we had were from audiocassettes for the first presentation and the course syllabus. The recent digitization of the videos for this series provided the missing link and helped solve the discrepancy.

An evaluation of the videos revealed inconsistencies from the fifteenth presentation onward. The course syllabus indicated the fifteenth presentation was scheduled for April 30, 1992, yet the date on the videocassette for the fifteenth presentation was identified as May 7, 1992. So, we went to the tapes. In the May 7th presentation, Roger Weir stated, “we now come back after a week's hiatus courtesy of Los Angeles' situation…” Turns out that April 30, 1992 coincides with the Los Angeles riots. Given this, we have concluded that this series, which was scheduled to be a 24-part series, was ultimately only 23 presentations. It is feasible that this series was ultimately 24 presentations but at this point in time the evidence indicates there were only 23. Separately, the syllabus indicates the presentations were scheduled for “Tuesday Evenings,” but they actually happened on Thursdays. Our archival team is pleased to have resolved these discrepancies.

We are pleased to announce that videos for the Ecumene: Development and Pattern within Human Intelligence (1994-1995) series will be gradually released on our YouTube channel. This is a 2-year cycle course by Roger Weir and we will be releasing 2 to 3 videos per week. The videos are organized into a playlist. This 2-year cycle course - similar to others - includes 105 presentations (about 100 minutes each) and was conducted by Roger Weir from January 1994 through December 1995. Mr. Weir delivered these courses weekly at Whirling Rainbow (Weir's personal residence located on Hyperion Avenue in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California). Just like all of Weir's 2-year cycle courses, this one is arranged into 8 quarterly sections (Nature, Ritual, Myth, Symbol, Vision, Art, History, and Science) with an Interval presentation in between each section.

SPF attends public open education event in North Carolina. SPF staff traveled from various states to meet at the Public Montessori Conference and Retreat organized by the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS). This event brought together 200+ educators in public Montessori to discuss and learn about the educational and funding landscape for ideal, natural learning for children. The materials and modality of Montesorri and many other 'ideal' learning approaches are complementary to the Learning Ecology first-year cycle as developed by Roger Weir. The phases developed by Nature, Ritual, Myth and Symbol as a natural progression are seen in situ in these schools. Coursework related to this is included in the following presentation series: The Learning Civilization, Interstellar Learning, Stellar Civilization, Differential Consciousness (1998-1999), Differential Consciousness (2000-2001), Ecumene (1994-1995), Ecumene (1996-1997), and Spiritual Personality.

The Shared Presence Foundation has supported research and efforts of some organizations in attendance through the Prepared Adult Initiative project, and we look forward to supporting the development maturation and education sciences further in the coming years.

This quarter has been a continuance of ongoing projects, specifically the production of transcripts and videos.

Transcripts

Currently, we have over 250 transcripts in at least a first draft state. To create these transcripts we begin by using an automated speech to text engine to process the audio into written text. We have relied on the services of Rev and more recently Sonix.ai for this process. After this raw text is created we have someone go through and clean up the text. This process involves listening to the presentations and adjusting and correcting spelling and grammar issues in the document. This results in the first draft. The second draft process requires a more detailed review of the transcript and the presentation to ensure accuracy.

Videos

We have been digitizing and publishing videos to YouTube gradually. Currently, our YouTube channel contains 9 different presentation series: A New Aion (1994), Tao Te Ching (1992), Differential Consciousness (2000-2001), Interstellar Learning (2004-2005), Quintessential Dimensions of Consciousness (2009), The Learning Civilization (2006-2007), Parayan: Refreshing the Way to the High Dharma (2014), Jesus in Alexandria and Mary Magdalene: The Origins of Shared Presence (2008), and Mary Magdalene and Jesus' Great Way (2008). We look forward to gradually making more videos available via our YouTube channel.

The year of 2021 was busy and productive for the Foundation. Some highlights include the release of a new book, the continued distribution of a previously published book, and completing the digital capture of Roger's presentations on audiocassette and various video formats.

Published books

The book, The Bodhisattva and the Space Age: The Great Idea in Our Time, was released on March 20th, the Spring Equinox. Another book, Hermetic America – Our Critical Heritage: Abraham Lincoln, was previously published by the Foundation in 2020 and we have continued to distribute it freely across the nation in select cities by way of the Little Free Library network. These books are both available for purchase directly from the Foundation and through Amazon.

Audio and video presentations

Over the course of approximately four years we have been digitizing the recorded presentations of Roger Weir. This audiovisual content is contained on audiocassettes and various video formats (e.g., VHS, Beta, MiniDV, Hi8, VHS-C). The corpus of this collection spans from 1980 to 2015 (36 years), encompassing a total of 159 presentation series and approximately 2,025 individual presentations. The physical extent of this collection includes more than 3,220 audiocassettes and more than 2,200 videocassettes of various formats. The audiocassettes cover presentations across the entire 36 years, meanwhile the videos only cover 25 years of content, spanning from 1991 to 2015. This is likely due to the limited availability of consumer videorecording technology pre-1990. We are pleased to report that the digitization of all this content has been completed and this includes the contents being backed up on physical hard drives and in a Amazon Web Services S3 bucket. These measures will ensure the continued existence and availability of these presentations into the foreseeable future.

Where the audio and video presentations can be found

So, what happens with the digitized audio and video content now? Well, over the course of the past two years we have been making the audiorecordings available on this website. This content can be accessed in the presentations section of the website. On the other hand, we have been doing a phased rollout of the videorecordings. As we make the video content available a link is included on the presentation series page to the video hosted on our YouTube channel. Currently the video for 9 series are available on the channel with more slated for release in the near future.

Transcriptions

Another next step after the digitization of the audio and video recordings is the transcription of the individual presentations. The intent with this is to make the presentations more accessible by making the presentations available in different media - text, aural, and visual - to accommodate different learning styles or personal preferences. The transcription process is a daunting task that is partially being aided by artificial intelligence which creates a baseline transcript of the presentations. AI analyzes the audiorecordings and processes the language into text which then can be edited and revised by a contractor. This entire workflow is cumbersome and time-consuming but the end goal is well worth it. The automated transcriptions have relied on a service provided by Rev.com and more recently Sonix.ai. We have discovered that Sonix provides a product with more potential, including translation to other languages and the ability to export subtitle files which we can include with the videos when we post them on YouTube. Currently we only have a limited number of transcriptions in a state of relative completion. As this project moves forward we will be including links to the transcripts on the same page as the respective audiorecordings.

Stay tuned for more updates and quarterly reports about the Foundation's activities.