Harrisburg resident Charles Eisenstein, author of The Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics, is a faculty member of the Health Arts and Sciences program at Goddard College.

Before focusing on economics, Eisenstein spent time teaching yoga, learning about herbs and teaching at Penn State's department of science, technology and society. He wrote several books on sustainability topics, including The Yoga of Eating and Transformational Weight Loss.

Eisenstein has recently turned his attention to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City, and has written about his perspective on his blog (excerpted) at Reality Sandwich (Tinyurl.com/3oxn24v):

“Looking out upon the withered American Dream, many of us feel a deep sense of betrayal. Unemployment, financial insecurity and lifelong enslavement to debt are just the tip of the iceberg. We don't want to merely fix the growth machine and bring profit and product to every corner of the earth. We want to fundamentally change the course of civilization. For the American Dream betrayed even those who achieved it, lonely in their overtime careers and their McMansions, narcotized to the ongoing ruination of nature and culture but aching because of it, endlessly consuming and accumulating to quell the insistent voice, ‘I wasn't put here on Earth to sell product. I wasn't put here on Earth to increase market share. I wasn't put here on Earth to make numbers grow.’

The truth is dwindling rain forests, spreading deserts, mass tree die-offs on every continent; looted pensions, groaning burdens of student debt, people working two or three dead end jobs; children eating dirt in Haiti, elders choosing between food and medicine... the list is endless, and we will make it no longer possible to hold it in disconnection from the money system. That is why we converge on Wall Street, and anywhere that finance holds sway. You have lulled us into complacency for long enough with illusions and false hopes. We the people are awakening and we will not go back to sleep.”

Charles Eisenstein will speak on Sacred Economics from 7-9 p.m., Dec. 1, at Basildon Wellness, 4811 Jonestown Rd. Harrisburg. For more information visit BasildonFinancial.com/Wellness. Also visit AscentOfHumanity.com and Facebook.com/charles.eisenstein.