Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Food and Faith: executive chef Katherine Miller

On Friday October 23rd, please join us for our new series focusing on Food and Faith. Over the course of the next 8 months, we will delve into how faith interprets and addresses the many issues surrounding food and water: from nutrition and hunger, access to food, to food and water security. Our first speaker is executive chef Katherine Miller.

As the executive chef of EnlightenNext, Katherine Miller is pioneering new ways of understanding health and wellness in the context of conscious evolution and spiritual enlightenment. Her insights and experience have been influenced by spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen, founder of EnlightenNext, whom she has been a student of for 18 years. Her first insight into spiritual life began 28 years ago with the study of Aikido and then Iyengar yoga, which she still practices and teaches today. In the late 80's she discovered the Indian spiritual teacher, Amachi, with whom she spent four years. Her passion for gourmet vegetarian food and optimum health has led to a unique style of cooking that integrates various principles of raw food "cooking," macrobiotics, and the newest scientific research into nutrition. Katherine is currently collaborating with other health professionals on the “Health is Wealth” initiative, a program whose mission is to engender evolution in regards to food and our spiritual, moral and ethical values.


Katherine will be speaking about food and health from her experience as a practitioner of evolutionary enlightenment and the understanding that faith in our purpose in life influences every aspect of our existence, including how we eat. She’ll pose provocative questions, such as: How do our motivations and preferences change as our understanding of life evolves? When we view ourselves not only as part of, but actually responsible for, the evolutionary process, how do we respond? Is the way that we care for our physical being – our health and vitality – reflect the understanding that we are here for a higher purpose? If so, what do we eat?

Our experience of faith and purpose deeply influences our appreciation for the life forms we depend on to live and grow. Our faith is also where we find the gratitude and humility to begin to pose these critical questions. As we find the answers, our goal is to put them into action in order to create a fundamental shift in our shared values – and the foundation for a new culture. What we put on our plates is a big part this.