# Love & Power Institute

> for Planetary Sustainability


## Posts

- [Dream Interpretation Online Course](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/dream-interpretation-online-course/): Join us on Zoom to share dreams with a small group,maximum of 8, and everyone can find their own meaningsand learn from it.Let the symbolic source within you offer wisdom andguidance to everyone.Increase your dream recall and learn ways to find meaningin every element of dreams. REGISTER TODAY!$40-$400 total(sliding scale) Led by:Norman Brown, PhDInstitute Co-foundernmhudsonbrown@gmail.comMondays5:00-7:00 p.m. PDTBegins April 20, 2026 Led by:Jen Choate, MDInstitute Board Memberjjchoate@gmail.comTuesdays10:00-11:30 a.m. PDTBegins April 21, 2026 For more information or to register, email the instructor of thesession you wish to attend.
- [Interest-Excitement Blog #1](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/interest-excitement-blog-1/): What does this picture make you feel? Is it Fascinated? Scared? Confused? Uneasy? Curious? Excited? In 18721 the evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin proposed that emotions promote the survival and success of humans and animals. He proposed six emotions common to humans and many other animal species: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise. The modern psychologist Silvan Tomkins (1911-91) reasoned that we are constantly moving through changing environments with too many different sensory impressions to integrate into one useful response. Our emotions evolved to focus a spotlight on one segment of our environment, inside or outside ourselves, such as the big bug above —that amplifies and prioritizes that area of our attention and action. This more complete and systematic understanding of human emotions begins with nine namable categories visible at birth or soon afterwards (1962, 1963).2 Each emotion powers our behavior in its own way. Tomkins also observed three more inborn emotions than Darwin: interest, shame and contempt. The most surprising of these interest-excitement. Popular systems of emotions usually don’t name it because it’s like the air we breathe. It powers our attention and the habits of our minds. Some of the other names for it include curiosity, attraction, desire, eagerness, enthusiasm and (its peak intensity) excitement. Jaak Panksepp, a pioneer neuroscientist who studied the emotional behavior of animals, called the same drive the seeking system, or the drive to find and do what one needs for survival and success in life (1998)3. Interest-excitement offers us three gifts: cultural development by directing our attention towards whatever seems novel outside or inside of us, protection for survival in case of threat, and long-term evolutionary advantage by expanding our versatile relationship with our environment. Interest comes first in our approach to Emotional Versatility because it is the skeleton key that opens the door to understanding the contours of each of the emotions as well as their instinctual purposes and the ways personalities manage them. ‘Interest brings us knowledge and the urge to gain more knowledge. Learning from our experiences develops an increasingly complex skill set known as intelligence to guide us through our daily lives. Intelligence leads us to success in all forms of education and preparation for skilled professions. Our interest drive can also take new paths into creative thinking that shows up in imagination and many forms of artistic expression as well as in mechanical and scientific inventions. Interest-driven evolution has led to many new branches in our tree of knowledge, including religious pathways and knowing ourselves. We can turn our interest inward to study our emotions, including interest itself. The ancient Greeks’ and modern Buddhists’ interest in looking inward developed traditions of conscious awareness of many emotional forces that are driving us unconsciously. This emergence of these aspects of our complex nature from our unconscious is a major focus of Freud, Jung, the human potential movement and now the Love and Power Institute as well. Studying our own emotions can also lead to curiosity about others’ emotions and thus develop the power of empathy that connects us to other people. Empathy connects us to learning about ourselves through others’ reactions to us and to recent discoveries and scientific evidence that animals and plants have emotion-like reactions too.3,4,5 Another application of intelligence is critical thinking, which leads us to discover that there are not only beneficial but also challenging aspects of interest-excitement and of other inborn emotions as well. We will organize these readings for the Emotional Versatility class on each inborn emotion to include both beneficial and challenging directions and results. We will begin exploring these in the next blog. 1. Darwin, C.R. (1872). The expression of emotions in man and animals. London, R. Murray. 2. Tomkins, S.S. (1962, 1963). Affect, imagery, consciousness. New York, Springer Publishing Company. 3. Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press. 4. Bekoff, M. (2024). The emotional lives of animals. Novato, CA, New World Library. 5. Calvo, P. and Lawrence, N. (2022) Planta sapiens. The new science of plant intelligence. New York, W.W. Norton & Company., 1963). Affect, Imagery, Consciousness. New York, Springer Publishing Company.    
- [Dreamwork offers a path of evolution for humankind](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/dreamwork-offers-a-path-of-evolution-for-humankind/): I have been a professional dreamworker for over 20 years and have never heard a dream that didn’t excite me.  Dream work is always a path of personal growth and will stimulate creativity for all members of the dream group. At the Love and Power Institute our dream groups use a method of group work sometimes called the “if it were my dream” approach.  Participants are taught to preface all commentary with this statement and to keep  the observations in the first person. Doing so allows each person to take responsibility for their own observation based on their experience and does not require any special training or knowledge.  The benefit of this approach gives permission to every group member to fully participate in interpreting the dream thus benefitting as much as the dreamer themselves from the emerging meanings.  Each member thus has an opportunity to personally reflect on the themes presented by each dream in light of their own lived experience. For example, in a recent dream group, a dreamer –let’s call her Sarah–presented a dream that had the image of a fish: “I am with a few friends, and I am helping the local people dress the fish they caught for eating.  Apparently, I am quite knowledgeable on the subject and they come to me for advice,” she recounted. Using the preface “if this were my dream,” group members offered comments based in their personal reaction to the fish image.  One said the fish brought to mind  the idea that a fish does not know it is living in water, just as we rarely notice that we breathe air.  Another said the use of the expression, “dress the fish” reinforced the dream’s statement that the dreamer was “knowledgeable, as though she were a chef or an experienced cook, especially of fish.   Another said he associated the image of fish with Jesus’ loaves and fishes miracle in the sermon on the mount and thus the dream might be about communal nurturance.  Sarah herself confessed that she had been recently troubled by doubting her competence in her work and the dream was telling her that she need not be so troubled  and so on.  This work, which may take up an hour or more on this one dream, brings three gifts to the group participants:  First, every member of the group, whether they contributed directly to the work or not, has an opportunity to reflect on how the comments are true in their case which can lead to individual “ah-hahs.” This can be life changing.  Second, the work itself stimulates creativity which a musician once likened to the experience of a group jam session.  And third, the experience itself generates community among the participants which is deepened the longer the group stays together to work their dreams. There are many, and I am among them, who believe that dreams are not just the royal road to the unconscious, as Freud said, but is also the path to the evolution of humankind.  We are, after all, part of nature and share an instinctual base as members of the same species.  At the end of work on a dream I will ask the group members to apply the wisdom of the dream to the whole of humankind as though the dream carries a message for us all.  The image of the fish, therefore, may be telling us and all of humankind that we need to nurture all of humanity in order to survive.
- [How can we develop a new emotional manhood in a men's group?](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/how-can-we-develop-a-new-emotional-manhood-in-a-mens-group/): Introduction The men’s consciousness-raising movement, also known as the “Men’s Liberation” movement, emerged primarily in the 1970s alongside the second wave of feminism, when men (like me in 1972) began forming groups to discuss and analyze the societal pressures and expectations associated with traditional masculinity, inspired by feminist critiques of gender roles. Men began sharing personal experiences, which was quite novel at that time, and tried to understand how societal expectations impacted their lives, similar to the consciousness-raising groups of feminist women at the time.  The few hundred men I’ve guided and shared self-reflection and paths of personal development have progressed in self-awareness and changing gender roles. But our emotional dimensions remained in the background until 2019, when my Love and Power Institute cofounder, Marsha Hudson, and I led a weekend workshop on vulnerable emotions. Since then I’ve led a small zoom men’s group with a steady focus on the vulnerable emotions-shame, distress/anguish, fear and their frequent consequence, joy. And now we’re beginning a systematic project of improving our emotional intelligence. Why and How would we expand our emotional versatility as men? First let’s consider “why.” The major motive for “why” is that we need to help save the world we inhabit from us. Us includes both men and women. For men have spent much of their time for millennia making war against other animal predators, then other tribes of humans, and also with and against other animals and plants that we’ve eaten and exploited as well as natural resources we have weaponized to subdue and exploit each other and the rest of the planet. Now the planet and every species on it may go extinct except ants, cockroaches and some germs and microbes that can survive global climate catastrophes. Many more men than before need to make love not war and get better at it. And many more women than before need to raise less babies and devote more nurture to nature to rectify the balance of populations between us and zillions of other species. In order to adjust our roles and goals we all need to expand our awareness of the emotions that have guided our actions from within, whether we knew it or not. Now on to How We’re expanding men’s emotional intelligence by starting with the traditional men’s group practices of self-reflection, discussion of issues and exploring the aspects of normal masculine actions and attitudes that women have discussed and then researched. To this we’ll add confidential sharing in pairs to explore what has helped and harmed our relations with those that matter to us. We’ll also begin a deep exploration of one specific emotion through short readings, experiential exercises and private journal writing for two weeks at a time. Thus we’ll actually create a hybrid of the Love-and-Power-Institute’s Emotional Versatility Training course and the best of what a 10-week men’s consciousness group can offer. After getting to know a little about each other, we’ll spend a session delving into the first emotion, interest, curiosity, excitement, with its benefits and challenges. This emotion is so important that Darwin and all his followers through the last 150 years, including the brains behind Inside Out 1 & 2, have never noticed it. Yet interest/excitement powers human freedom and all of our population expansions and our discoveries, creations and achievements, both valuable and problematic, and it keeps on adding more innovations and new perspectives to our experience. Among the most precious gifts of interest is our curiosity that can make studying all the other emotions fascinating, even for the ugliest and scariest, like shame, anger, fear, distress/sorrow and contempt. Being interested rewards us so we can learn from difficult emotions and get more comfortable with each one as a force both for and against us in our lives.  Our 10 men’s group sessions will give us two weeks for each emotion. We will begin by exploring an emotion’s dimensions with its benefits and challenges and how we have reacted and experienced it in our lives. After a week of paying attention to that emotion we’ll share what we’ve learned with each other and use these discussions to deepen our trust and community with each other. Our Men’s Groups guarantee each person safety, confidentiality and equal participation. Expanding emotional versatility can lead to many other gains in personality. We’ll build closer friendships and loosen the shell of inner guardedness that keeps many of us from benefitting from sharing what’s important in our lives. When we understand our emotions, we can explore what helps and hurts us and practice repairing damaged and threatened relationships. For example, there are many fascinating pair-relations between emotions, such as interest and shame. For when we’re interested enough in a person to call or text them on our cell phone and all we get is an answering device or no response at all, we may feel awkward, a mild form of  shame, and start second-guessing whether the person likes us or not. We may stay uncomfortable or just switch our attention to something else. A different form of shame is “hurt feelings” that may actually warn us that a damaged personal connection needs some work. But if a supportive  men’s group is interested enough in understanding what happened to role-play the scene with the person involved, they might take notice of small moments of interest, disappointment, depression and irritation. and come to respect each of them. By slowing down this real-life experience the group could benefit from examining all four of these emotional moments or more in sequence with interest and respect. Then they could experiment with different feelings and ways to act towards the other person to begin the work of mending this relationship. Everyone involved could then consider and discuss similar approaches to their own comparable situations. Our men’s group experience and enhanced emotional intelligence will  bring brighter colored experience and wisdom into our lives. This communal practice can also lead to longer lasting men’s groups and train men in new habits that promote more lasting,
- [Another Professional Perspective on Inside Out 2 Emotions: Blog #3](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/another-professional-perspective-on-inside-out-2-emotions-blog-3/): by Norman Brown, PhD I’ve observed the typical emotions experienced and expressed by mainstream men. And I’ve studied the emotions available to both sexes as described by Silvan Tomkins, the father of modern systematic study of emotions. I’ll describe how both of these emotion systems are related to what I saw in Inside Out 2 and compare them to some of what we see in Inside Out’s 13 year-old girl.  First let’s muse a bit on what those emotions would be if they were experienced by a 13 year-old boy. We can begin with the perspective of Lisa Demour Ph.D., a specialist in adolescent emotions, who was one of two consultants who helped shape the structure and behavior of the cartoon characters in the film. In an hour-long interview on You Tube called “The Science Behind Inside Out 2,” she was asked how a similar movie about a boy would look. She responded that there would be two or three policemen present to suppress some of the emotions.1  Which of the nine inborn emotions would those be? Those to be suppressed would be Sadness, Fear, Anxiety, Embarrassment and probably Nostalgia. Nostalgia is inactive but vigilant in the movie, as a little old lady who could write memoirs much later in life. That means that the boy film needs five policemen to keep teen boys from being as emotionally expressive and potentially aware of as girls.1 And most surprising, joy herself, heroine of the girls film, is gradually being reduced from boisterous teenage horsing around to what men would enjoy mainly under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This kind of enjoyment risks injury and criminal prosecution, and that calls for both police and doctors to contain.2 Males seem like a threatened species with six out of ten ways of feeling presented in the movie suppressed, limited, or altered. Others are completely overlooked. There’s also one highlighted moment in the movie that is particularly different between girls and boys: One of the sweetest moments is part of the climax when Riley apologizes to her old girlfriends for avoiding and disrespecting them. A boy will almost never apologize to another boy unless they are guilt-tripped and/or forced to by an adult. Yet if an angry clash of wills or fists reaches a climax and then subsides, an intense friendship may follow. I’ve read dozens of stories by college students during over twenty years of teaching psychology of relationships who got into the principal’s office after a fight and became best friends with the other guy without ever understanding why. Similar intense friendships grow quickly on battlefields, though the new buddies aren’t enemies at first. In fact, a major contribution in the development of love and intimate relationships comes from an underground layer of intense emotions arising like a geyser, where they may fester awhile, still misunderstood. Another twenty-year-old student in the same class, after reviewing his romantic relationship history, came to a surprising conclusion: “All those fun-and-good-sex relations I’ve had just blew away with the wind. It was the ones with trouble at the start that lasted, even if the rough parts kept happening. That doesn’t make sense, but that’s what’s been happening.” To understand this, we’ll examine the works of the founder of modern emotional science whose main contributions were published in four volumes between 1962 and his death in 1991. Some of the fundamental inborn emotions he understood as well as how they work have been inadequately studied by most of the scientists who’ve come afterwards, including those scientists behind Inside Out #1 and #2. In our next blog we’ll explain some of these surprisingly novel understandings that could have added to the world’s most wildly popular emotional manifestos of today. 1. Dr. Demour appears in an hour-long interview, The Science Behind Inside Out 2, Greater Good Science Center, online.      2. Research shows that what’s called “co-rumination” among girls from the third grade into adolescence is far more prevalent than among boys (eg Rose, AJ 2003, online). Co-rumination is a fancy word for talking about unpleasant situations and relationships, which also includes “negative” emotions and naturally leads to not only closer relationships for girls, but also greater familiarity and facility with those difficult emotions and greater frequency of reported “emotional problems.” That’s what these Inside Out movies are about.  3. Research from hunter-gatherers to contemporary men shows that males, especially adolescent boys, are far more likely to engage in risk-taking than females (chronicled in    Joyce Benenson, Warriors and Worriers, 2014). 
- [Inside Out Act 2: Adolescence, an Uphill Climb. Blog #2](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/inside-out-act-2-adolescence-an-uphill-climb-blog-2/): By Norman Brown, Ph.D. Once initiation to womanhood (perhaps via the unmentionable experience of menarche) sets the main plot in motion, the most dynamic new character appears: the bright orange, big wide toothy-mouthed Anxiety, always hyper, with pin-ball eyes and fireworks-mohawk infecting everygirl by making everything imperfect into a problem that can’t be solved. Anxiety’s purpose is to anticipate future social dangers and make sure anything bad will get worse. In fact, she spoils Riley’s encounters with an older girl gang while alienating her old friends and foils her attempts to join the varsity ice hockey team that’s above her abilities and worsens these social catastrophes by overreacting.  Though Anxiety’s purpose is to make a mess out of every unfamiliar scene, she quickly becomes the star of this new teenage period, the antagonist to Joy’s protagonist. With Anxiety’s help, Anger, Fear, Disgust and Sadness get stronger and the plot takes a downward turn to enter the movie underworld’s perilous life tests. Anxiety also brings her own entourage of characters, all of them negative. First there’s Ennui who slumps over, a limp dark purple balloon oozing out her life-force with eyes barely open as slits. Ennui and Anxiety team up to promote not knowing how to act to please the older girls and not trust either parents or her old friends. Ennui isolates herself and lies in a hammock or couch in listless boredom, not finishing anything she starts and gazing back at the dwindling past. The twinkle in Joy’s Tinkerbelle sputters at the edge of giving herself up.  Along comes blue-green Envy smaller in stature than the rest. For she’s gazing with overflowing pupils at the larger-than-life statuesque figure of Valentina, admiring and wishing to be just like her—is she yearning but not trying? She seems entranced but  not able to act, contemptuous towards anyone inclined to look, but nobody does. She has nothing to offer but unhelpful criticism. But Embarrassment has a massively oversized body; he’s the shy, well-intentioned unhappy fat boy from everybody’s high school, unable to hide in his faded grey oversize hoodie. His whole pudgy face and bulbous nose blush rosy, and he tries to hide his eyes every time that something challenging happens but can’t keep from looking anyway. When he finally turns his hulking back on us, his oversized hoodie and slumping pants leave an inch-high slice of uncovered skin revealing his butt-crack. This closing surprise triggers our own embarrassing suppressed laughter, enlarging the silent embarrassment we all share to a crescendo as piercing as every adolescent girl might dread. Anxiety is the most dynamic adversary by far, pushing the action ever forward. She intensifies the tension between Riley and Valentina’s older hockey team and girl-gang. Later on Anxiety whips up a hurricane that knows no bounds and even invades the usually protected headquarters of her carrier’s brain. Taking over everywhere inside, she hurls and whirls all of the stable fixtures against the control tower’s inside walls until the central console—that is her grey matter–is wiped clean of any arms and legs and the whole operating system shuts down. Joy then gathers her bedraggled band together and sets out on some confusing journeys in search of ways to restore direction and sanity in herself. In one particularly psychological adventure, Joy and emotions reach the back of her mind and manage to clamber up the loose mountain of mostly negative emotional memory-bulbs at the top. Joy’s gang is stuck there with a self-conscious and self-hating image of herself until an unspecified construction-guy aims a cannon and blows the mountain up so they can float back to some new normalcy. Joy eventually manages to restructure her emotions with some respect for each of them, whether they’re experienced as negative or positive. From a disembodied voice with godlike authority, Joy and the theater audience hear the words, “Don’t let your emotions tell you who you are.” Now if I were an ordinary college-educated man, I’d think that sounds like a metaphor for the 18th century Enlightenment or a lightning bolt from a graphic novel. I’d also wonder who taught Joy how to rearrange and regulate the other emotions and how she developed the skills and wisdom to act adroitly and firmly to remake her personality so quickly. I’d suspect there was a mighty wise therapist on her shoulder or a new AI deity fumbling with the machinery behind the scenery.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              If I was an ordinary man-in-the-street, I’d think the best way to get rid of that nasty pile of memory-bulbs is to get an AR-15 and blast away at everyone around me. I’d know all women are insecure, hit bottom almost every week and act emotionally crazed for a bit of the days at their “time of the month.” They’re also dreamy, lazy, catty and worried they’re ugly, no matter how good they look. 
- [What Inside Out 2 shows us about Emotions. Blog #1](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/what-inside-out-2-shows-us-about-emotions-blog-1/): by Norman Brown Ph.D. Pixar’s Inside Out 2 opened in mid-June is now the highest grossing cartoon ever made, making 1.46 billion in its first six weeks. It’s unusual, like the first Inside Out, in that it doesn’t thrive on either violence or romance. Its tomboy heroine Riley plays on a girls’ ice hockey team in Middle School and seems to be destined for a glorious future in high school hockey until the emotional storms of puberty wreck the control panel somewhere inside her body, probably in her brain. This disastrous demolition sets off an unexpected emotional avalanche affecting all of her relationships with others. All of these are girlfriends her age or girl-gang members one or two years older, except for her parents. Of the latter, her father seems to be a goofy cheerleader, and her mother is a colorless prop who seems to be a backstage function.  Since the movie shows the nature of pre-teen and pubescent girls’ emotions, I won’t follow the plot line but explore the emotions instead, as symbolized by the characteristics and behavior of the cartoon figures. First, and most closely identified with our hero is the willowy yellow-glowing and multicolored figure of Joy, with a normal flesh-colored face on a head taller than the others that signals that she’s the leader over everyone. She usually has a buoyant, enthusiastic open-mouthed cheery smile, despite acting almost always as the decision-maker for the four other emotions in her entourage. As a many-generation offspring of the Disney imagination industry, Joy shares genetics with Tinkerbell, since she’s often radiant and apparently motivated by the pursuit of happiness for everyone. Thus it’s unsubtly shown that joyousness is the desirable path to social success, at least among women. Oddly enough, this big-smile joyousness appears now to be the winning strategy of Kamala Harris’s successful presidential campaign. Is that really natural, or just what the culture expects of women? The others always follow Joy, while occasionally expressing disagreement toward the matter at hand. First, there is Sadness, with a round pale-shadowy blue fragile-hearted face, who lets out weak sighs when the plot gets rough. She sometimes airs some doubts about what Joy wants, but always goes along with her. So Sadness also secretly symbolizes weakness, even helplessness, implying thereby that a sad female will also be weak. If I’m a man-in-the-streets reacting intuitively to this character, doesn’t that mean sadness is a weak feeling, so real men don’t get sad?     By contrast, Anger is a sputtering, all red stocky body, with a double-hump head and bulb-eyes like a Disney frog and angry intense-eyebrows and flaming spiky-hair, a hopping frustrated immature boy-bully, but usually impotently fuming. He never gets anything done. What does the little fuming frog suggest as a symbol? A boy having a temper tantrum because he’s too small to be effective and nobody ever pays attention to him. So in my every-man eyes anger never does anybody any good, and it’s certainly gets juvenile detention at any school. Fear’s pale purple body has an uncertain-gender chimney-head freaking out and wildly blowing smoke. S/he’s blabbering incoherently, in a frenzy to escape from whatever’s happening but hanging on to the others for dear life. At least Anger is ready enough to give and take a punch or two, but Fear is so unpleasant that her ungendered whole scene is just extremely shameful, and no normal human, male or female, would be caught dead feeling it unless in a Disney horror movie and already dead.  In a surprising contrast, Disgust is a slinky overdressed grass-green slippery snob in high-heels with constant negative reactions, saying “ee-uw” down her nose, recoiling from everything around and also without any impact. At least she can show us how to react to the others: with superior dismissal. So, I’d wonder, are all of these follower-feelings worthless without Joy at their head? If Riley’s the guide for how a budding adolescent girl would feel, it’s meeting every moment with an insistent cheery smile that conceals and stores her timid sadness, boiling rage, jibbering panic and quietly superior rejection. And as an everyman or boy in the streets, how should I react? Don’t believe that smiley-face. Play the same game she does, but expect volcanic drama if she’s triggered. Don’t worry, though. You can reassure and ignore her sadness, placate rage (and use flowers if she’s a grownup), reassure (and condescend to) her fearfulness and just stonewall her disgust. And now stay tuned for the second act.
- [Climate Action – Are we planning for an Economic and Environmental Collapse?](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/climate-action-are-we-planning-for-an-economic-and-environmental-collapse/): India’s Election Oversights: The Looming Threat of Climate Change India has just concluded a massive and intense election exercise to decide the future of the nation. However, there was almost no focus on plans and actions for combating the emerging threats of global warming and climate change, which pose prime existential risks to life and property, with looming economic losses for the nation. Climate change impacts such as extreme heat, rapid glacial melting, and unexpected devastating floods are becoming more frequent and severe, leading to increasing economic losses worldwide. Yet, the main cause of excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—over 50 gigatons per year—remains unmitigated and is, in fact, still increasing unabated. The random exploitation of Earth’s resources also continues to rise, destroying the rich biodiversity that has allowed human civilizations to evolve and prosper. The UN-based IPCC has warned humanity that whatever damage control can be achieved with urgent global climate actions before 2030 will determine the future of our next generations—our children and grandchildren. The problem is indeed global in dimension, but the solutions largely lie in regional or local actions that must combine coherently to create global-level solutions. However, even at regional levels, very little is happening, aside from the shift to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, or bioenergy, which are now cheaper than fossil-fuel-based polluting energy. Although humanity has very little time to recover and restore the Earth’s carbon balance, there has been no concrete action taken yet for serious and rapid decarbonization. It is well known that while visible atmospheric particulate pollution kills over 7 million people every year, the invisible GHG emissions will soon cause much wider death and destruction once we cross certain global atmospheric tipping points. The absence of action by leadership and society amounts to planning for disaster. One emerging solution is to make polluters pay at the individual level to reduce per-capita GHG emissions. This could involve heavily taxing communities where per-capita GHG emissions are above the global average. Funds collected under UN oversight could then be directed to low per-capita emission-poor countries to enhance their capacity-building efforts for climate resilience and adaptation activities. All these are measurable parameters and can be implemented transparently as a first step towards establishing climate justice. By Prof. Amitav Mallik,Founder Member and Trustee, PIC Source: PIC
- [Water Over Bridge: Dream Interpretation](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/water-over-bridge-dream-interpretation/): Dreamer: I am in late middle age, and born as the middle of 5 children. All of my life I had a dream that I am on one side of a bridge but water is fast flooding over it. My family is on the other side and I can’t get over to them. Just this past year I have stopped having the nightmare. Interpreter: It would help if you could point out particular times when you had that nightmare and connect them to what was happening in your life. It could also help if you could suggest a few things about your life that have changed in the last year. Dreamer: I have had the dream on a regular basis since I was very young. I can’t say anything in particular brought it on or stopped it. Interpreter: Okay. I’ll tell you what the symbolism of your dream might mean: If there are no details about the bridge, I’d guess that the bridge represents an unconscious separation between you and the rest of your family, with the ground of your existence or your sources of meaning and value different from those of your family. The water flowing over, it represents the emotional possibility of being swept away if you try to cross over to rejoin your family. It’s a well-known observation of middle children that some of them don’t feel like they have a particular niche or meaningful belonging to their family. In your case you might have continued yearning for easier closeness until last year, and you might have yearned for this ever since you were a child. Middle children are often better at getting along with others, especially when they don’t feel included among their siblings in their family of origin in the same way most of the others seem to be. These others typically include first borns, last-borns, oldest girl and oldest boy, and any child in any birth order whose role is well-known—such as smart one, funny one, cute/pretty one etc.  Interpreter Question: Does some of this normal unconscious emotional meaning fit for you?  Interpreter: If so, you might instinctively expect that trying to be re-welcomed into your family of origin would set off a tremendous flood of emotional distress in you, which might be more than you could cope with. Therefore you might actually never take the risk of trying to get the respect, meaning and signs of  love you want from the others in your family who all seem to have an easier time fitting in with the family than you do. Interpreter Conclusion: Dreams come to deliver a higher wisdom perspective on your life. So reviewing your thoughts and feelings about yourself vis-a-vis the others in your family might open up new possibilities for acting differently towards the siblings and parents that you may have felt more estranged from than you’ve realized. It might also suggest that you could begin to build individual bridges to one sibling at a time, instead of imagining that your whole family is different from you and you’re the only one that doesn’t fit in as well as the others. A similar sense of alienation might be present for some of the other siblings in your family, especially if there were certain ways of thinking, feeling and acting that seemed to be favored by the dominant people and other ways were considered outliers. Those siblings with “outlier attitudes” would be the first ones who could be delighted to receive an invitation to develop an individual relationship with you. That flooding water on the bridge between you and the other family members symbolizes a psychoactive event such as a flood of emotions that could begin to occur when you start to make a more stable connection with any of your family members. For the sense of safety and belonging, and its opposite, the alienation and longing for communal life, exist in many families to some degree. But you might be the one in your family who’s been most aware of it. Interpreter Question: What do you think about this perspective? Dreamer: Thank you. Your answer very much makes sense!
- [Lactating But Single: Dream Interpretation](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/lactating-but-single/): Lactating but single: dream interpretation
- [Every Man I'm Attracted To Dies](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/every-man-im-attracted-to-dies/)
- [Reflections on the Movie “Inside Out 2”](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/reflections-inside-out-2/): Reflections on the Movie “Inside Out 2” It is actually quite wonderful that Disney’s Pixar has produced not one but two movies about the emotions given that there has been remarkable little study of emotions in the psychological literature and remarkable little awareness of emotions in our daily life, especially for men.  In our culture men are discouraged from feeling fear, surprise, sadness, joy, and especially shame/embarrassment and women are discouraged from feeling anger.   In the animated film “Inside Out 2” the main emotion that takes the lead is Joy.  The other emotions, which are fear, sadness, anger,  and disgust portrayed in “inside Out 1, here joined with anxiety, embarrassment, envy and ennui now that our central character, Riley, has entered  puberty.  All of these emotions play a role, especially anxiety, in the themes of the movie.  But one wonders if Riley were a boy, would he have as large a palate of emotions does the female Riley? Let’s imagine Riley as a male, also named Riley.  What would a typical adolescent (American) boy be like emotionally?  First, what emotion would be the lead emotion, leading all of the others?  Would it be joy?  Unlikely.  More likely it would be a more serious emotion, one with intent, perhaps interest or curiosity.  And because American culture discourages males from feeling anything that appears “weak,” the emotional palate for the male Riley would be limited.  Not a good emotional range for the main character in a movie that wants to use as many as five primary emotions (joy, sadness, fear, disgust , and anger, with the later additions of envy, ennui, embarrassment (shame) and anxiety).  Maybe only two or three of all those emotions are easily accessible to a typical adolescent boy.           Indeed, it is because she is a girl that the emotion of Joy can be the ruling emotion in the film, since women are strongly encouraged to manifest happiness/joy.  I might even go so far as to say that while boys are expected to be serious, girls are expected to be happy.  They are expected to be good at smiling…all the time.  The result of this imperative is that girls, most especially when in public, smile a lot more than they would if they were expressing their honest emotions.  If they aren’t looking happy when in public someone often will ask them if there is a problem.  As though being serious, when female, suggests she is experiencing a problem, rather than not feeling like smiling. I know something about this since I was a very serious adolescent while being female.  My home life was chaotic and unsupportive as well as impoverished and I was bright and wanted to go to college.  I knew the only way I could was with scholarships to pay the way.  However, despite my good grades, I was only rewarded a small scholarship to attend the University of California, my college of choice.  When I asked my high school counselor why I didn’t receive more financial aid, she said, “You don’t smile enough.  We don’t want someone who looks unhappy to represent our high school.” I recognized even then the discrimination in her words.  I knew the boy who had received full scholarships and he was someone who was serious all the time.  He, like me, rarely smiled. So what then is the message of the film?  Well, certainly the film was breaking new ground in that it placed emotions in the center of the action, much like real life, and showed their influence.  But it followed the biases of the culture in depicting Riley, a girl, as at the whim of her emotions, and someone whose main emotion is, or should be, joy.  In depicting joy as the leader of the girl’s emotional life, the film reinforces one of our culture’s messages to women:  If you aren’t happy then there must be something wrong with you. So smile!!
- [What is Emotional Versatility Training?](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/what-is-emotional-versatility-training/): What is Emotional Versatility Training? The scientific study of emotions began with Charles Darwin who first taught that all higher mammals are driven by emotions that foster survival, reproduction and societal success. That means that all emotions help us succeed in our environment, even though over half of them feel more bad than good. In the twenty-first century, however, the ways we act on our emotions have made us a threat to our environment and ourselves. Our high intelligence has made us so powerful that we’re degrading our land, waters and air and spoiling our habitats. Also, our capacity for love has led us to vastly overpopulate the earth and drive many other animal species towards extinction. If we don’t seriously pursue our own evolution we may go extinct ourselves and take many other species of animals and plants down with us. Shortly after Darwin included humans in the animal world Freud taught that much of what drives us is unconscious. But Freud thought that the vital unconscious drive is libido, a sexual energy. Then 60 years later (1962) Silvan Tomkins began teaching that some of our most important unconscious drivers are actually our emotions.   At the Love and Power Institute we are introducing people to the nine inborn emotions and studying how they work, separately and together, as well as with action and thinking. These emotions are interest-excitement, joy, surprise, distress-sorrow, anger, fear, shame, disgust and contempt. All of them support our survival and success in groups since we’re not just individuals but a herd species. Each emotion has unique beneficial and challenging aspects, so understanding them helps us navigate the emotional landscape we share with others in our group and culture. Men and women normally approach emotions differently and are expressive of some and shy or unconscious of others. Exploring these differences carefully can improve our ability to relate with different sexes, cultures, generations and ethnic groups as well as people with different sexual orientations. Though some emotions feel good, like interest, joy, contempt and sometimes anger, and others feel uncomfortable, like distress, fear, shame and disgust, surprise just amplifies the emotion following it. But studying emotions actually feels pretty good, since it is interesting, and that improves how any other emotion feels. Thus interest is our secret weapon to help us learn a lot more about each emotion and how to operate with them more intelligently with each other. Our training begins with an unusual approach. Instead of focusing on common emotional situations or emotional problems, we study each of our inborn emotions individually to understand how each works. Then we can explore that emotion’s effects on many different aspects of life and how it interacts with other emotions.  When we respect the value, benefits and challenges of each emotion, we can more easily accept its appearance in our lives–and respect ourselves as emotional beings. For example, there are many fascinating pair-relations between emotions, such as interest and shame. For when we’re interested enough in a person to call or text them on our cell phone and all we get is an answering device or no response at all, we may feel awkward, a mild form of  shame, and start second-guessing what might be happening. We may stay uncomfortable or just switch our attention to something else. A different form of shame is “hurt feelings” that may actually warn us that a damaged personal connection needs some work. But if a supportive  group is interested enough in understanding what happened to role-play the scene with the person involved, it might take notice of small moments of interest, disappointment, depression and irritation. and come to respect each of them. By slowing down this real-life experience the group could benefit from examining all four of these emotional moments in sequence with interest and respect. Then they could experiment with different feelings and ways to act towards the other person to begin the work of mending this relationship. Everyone involved could then consider and discuss similar approaches to their own comparable situations. Another powerful interacting pair of emotions is joy and distress. When someone we like or love is gone for longer than we want, separation distress can, “make the heart grow fonder.” So when we get together again we’re “overjoyed,” and the person we have missed becomes more valuable to us. The balance between these opposite feelings regularly makes relationships more durable. These are just two examples of the breadth and depth of emotional versatility we gain in this class. And much of the learning is experiential, through many methods, such as pair sharing and two-chair work as well as the dramatizing exemplified above. With the trust that develops from these encounters group participants can explore and resolve emotional problems in their own lives. They can practice working on damaged relationships in subgroups and develop the courage and language to restore them. With these tools in hand, we can develop both the skills and courage to mend and enhance close family and friendship relations. Then we can then apply them to intergroup collaboration and conflict resolution between nations, ethnic groups and even the powerful industries, environmentalists and governments that hold the future of our planet between them.

## Pages

- [Terms of Service](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/terms-of-service/): Terms of service Effective Date: June 1, 2024 Love & Power Institute Website: Love and Power Institute Welcome to the Love and Power Institute website (“Site”). By accessing or using our Site, you agree to comply with and be bound by the following Terms of Service (“Terms”). Please read them carefully before using our Site. If you do not agree with these Terms, you should not use our Site. 1. Acceptance of Terms By using this Site, you agree to be legally bound by these Terms and all applicable laws and regulations governing the Site. You affirm that you are at least 18 years of age or possess legal parental or guardian consent. 2. Changes to Terms We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. Changes will be posted on this page and will be effective immediately upon posting. Your continued use of the Site after any changes constitute your acceptance of the new Terms. 3. Use of the Site 3.1. Eligibility You must be at least 18 years old to use this Site. If you are under 18, you may use the Site only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. 3.2. User Accounts To access certain features of our Site, you may be required to create an account. You agree to provide accurate and complete information and to update your information as necessary. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password. 3.3. Prohibited Activities You agree not to: •Use the Site for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any local, state, national, or international law. •Post or transmit any content that is defamatory, infringing, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. •Attempt to interfere with the operation of the Site or the networks or servers used to make the Site available. •Engage in any activity that could harm the reputation of Love and Power Institute. 4. Intellectual Property 4.1. Ownership All content on this Site, including text, graphics, logos, images, videos, and software, is the property of Love and Power Institute or its content suppliers and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. 4.2. License You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Site for personal, non-commercial purposes. Any other use of the content on this Site, including reproduction for purposes other than as noted above, without prior written permission, is strictly prohibited. 5. User-Generated Content 5.1. Submission of Content If you submit content to the Site, you grant Love and Power Institute a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. 5.2. Responsibility for Content You are solely responsible for the content you submit, and you agree not to submit content that: •Violates any law or regulation. •Infringes any third-party intellectual property rights. •Contains defamatory, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate material. 6. Privacy Your use of the Site is also governed by our Privacy Policy. Please review our Privacy Policy to understand our practices regarding your personal information. 7. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability 7.1. Disclaimers The Site is provided on an “as-is” and “as available” basis. Love and Power Institute makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of the Site or the information, content, materials, or products included on the Site. 7.2. Limitation of Liability In no event shall Love and Power Institute, its directors, officers, employees, or agents be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with your use of the Site. 8. Indemnification You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Love and Power Institute and its affiliates from any claim, demand, or damage, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to your use of the Site, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any rights of another. 9. Termination We reserve the right to terminate or suspend your access to the Site, without notice, for conduct that we believe violates these Terms or is harmful to other users of the Site, us, or third parties, or for any other reason. 10. Governing Law These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law principles. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in California for any disputes arising out of or relating to the use of this Site. 11. Limitation of Liability and Disclaimers 11.1. No Liability for Hikes and Programs Participants in any hikes, nature walks, workshops, or other programs offered by the Love and Power Institute do so at their own risk. The Love and Power Institute, its staff, and affiliates will not be held liable for any injuries, accidents, or incidents that may occur during these activities. Participants are encouraged to assess their own physical capabilities and consult with a healthcare provider before participating in any physically demanding activities. 11.2. No Substitute for Therapy The content provided on this Site, including information shared in blog posts, newsletters, workshops, and other offerings, is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or psychological condition. Reliance on any information provided by the Love and Power Institute is solely at your own risk. 11.3. Nature of Services The services provided by the Love & Power Institute, including but not limited to workshops, classes, consultations, and coaching sessions, are intended for educational and informational purposes only. These services are not a substitute for medical, psychological, or other professional care. 11.4. Non-Therapeutic Services The facilitators at the Love & Power Institute are not licensed physicians, psychotherapists, or mental health professionals. As such, the services offered do not
- [Privacy Policy](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/privacy-policy/): Privacy Policy Effective Date: June 1, 2024 Love & Power InstituteWebsite: Love and Power Institute Love and Power Institute (“we,” “us,” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website [www.loveandpowerinstitute.com] (the “Site”). Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access the Site. 1. Information We Collect 1.1. Personal Information We may collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Site, make a purchase, subscribe to our newsletter, or otherwise interact with our services. This information may include: •Name •Email address •Mailing address •Phone number •Payment information (credit/debit card details) •Any other information you choose to provide 1.2. Non-Personal Information We may also collect non-personal information, such as: •Browser type and version •IP address •Operating system •Referring website •Pages you view on our Site •Date and time of your visit •Other anonymous usage data 2. How We Use Your Information We may use the information we collect from you in the following ways: •To personalize your experience on the Site •To improve our website and services •To process transactions and deliver services you request •To send periodic emails, including newsletters and promotional offers •To respond to your inquiries and provide customer support •To administer surveys, contests, or other promotional activities •To enforce our Terms of Service and comply with legal obligations 3. Sharing Your Information We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer your personal information to outside parties, except in the following circumstances: •Service Providers: We may share your information with third-party service providers who assist us in operating our Site, conducting our business, or providing services to you, as long as those parties agree to keep your information confidential. •Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information when required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others. •Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal information may be transferred to the acquiring entity. 4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies 4.1. Cookies We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience on our Site. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. 4.2. How We Use Cookies We use cookies to: •Understand and save your preferences for future visits •Keep track of advertisements •Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions to improve our Site You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. If you disable cookies, some features of the Site may not function properly. 5. Security We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information. However, please note that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. 6. Third-Party Links Our Site may contain links to third-party websites. These websites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of those third-party websites. 7. Children’s Privacy Our Site is not intended for individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personal information from a user under the age of 13, we will delete such information from our records. 8. Your Rights Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information: •Access: You can request access to the personal information we hold about you. •Correction: You can request that we correct or update your personal information. •Deletion: You can request that we delete your personal information. •Opt-Out: You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the communication. To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information provided in the “Contact Us” section below. 9. Data Retention We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. 10. Changes to This Privacy Policy We reserve the right to update or change this Privacy Policy at any time. Changes will be effective immediately upon posting the updated policy on the Site. Your continued use of the Site after any changes signifies your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. 11. Contact Us If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at: Email: info@loveandpowerinstitute.com Love and Power Institute for Planetary Sustainability Home programs about donation Blog Contact emotional versatility classes COUNSELING men’s group Dream interpretation nature experiences workshops Privacy policy Terms of Service Contact Info loveandpowerinstitute@gmail.com
- [Donor Dashboard](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/donor-dashboard/)
- [Donation Failed](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/donation-failed/): We're sorry, your donation failed to process. Please try again or contact site support.
- [Donation Confirmation](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/donation-confirmation/)
- [Blog](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/blog/): Featured Post Interest-Excitement Blog #1 ByNorman Brown, PhD February 25, 2025 Uncategorized What does this picture make you feel? Is it Fascinated? Scared? Confused? Uneasy? Curious? Excited? In 18721 the evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin proposed that emotions promote the survival and… Read More Blog Posts Dreamwork offers a path of evolution for humankind ByMarsha Hudson, PhD November 25, 2024 Dream Interpretation I have been a professional dreamworker for over 20 years and have never heard a dream that didn’t excite me.  Dream work is always a path of personal growth and will stimulate creativity for all… Read More How can we develop a new emotional manhood in a men’s group? ByNorman Brown, PhD November 25, 2024 Emotions,Mens Work Introduction The men’s consciousness-raising movement, also known as the “Men’s Liberation” movement, emerged primarily in the 1970s alongside the second wave of feminism… Read More Another Professional Perspective on Inside Out 2 Emotions: Blog #3 ByNorman Brown, PhD October 14, 2024 Emotions by Norman Brown, PhD I’ve observed the typical emotions experienced and expressed by mainstream men. And I’ve studied the emotions available to both sexes as described by Silvan Tomkins, the father of… Read More Inside Out Act 2: Adolescence, an Uphill Climb. Blog #2 ByNorman Brown, PhD October 7, 2024 Emotions By Norman Brown, Ph.D. Once initiation to womanhood (perhaps via the unmentionable experience of menarche) sets the main plot in motion, the most dynamic new character appears: the bright orange, big… Read More What Inside Out 2 shows us about Emotions. Blog #1 ByNorman Brown, PhD October 1, 2024 Emotions by Norman Brown Ph.D. Pixar’s Inside Out 2 opened in mid-June is now the highest grossing cartoon ever made, making 1.46 billion in its first six weeks. It’s unusual, like the first Inside Out, in… Read More Climate Action – Are we planning for an Economic and Environmental Collapse? ByLove and Power Institute September 23, 2024 Climate Change,Nature India’s Election Oversights: The Looming Threat of Climate Change India has just concluded a massive and intense election exercise to decide the future of the nation. However, there was almost no… Read More Water Over Bridge: Dream Interpretation ByNorman Brown, PhD September 6, 2024 Dream Interpretation Dreamer: I am in late middle age, and born as the middle of 5 children. All of my life I had a dream that I am on one side of a bridge but water is fast flooding over it. My family is on the… Read More Lactating But Single: Dream Interpretation ByNorman Brown, PhD August 23, 2024 Dream Interpretation Lactating but single: dream interpretation… Read More Every Man I’m Attracted To Dies ByNorman Brown, PhD August 23, 2024 Dream Interpretation … Read More Reflections on the Movie “Inside Out 2” ByLove and Power Institute August 12, 2024 Emotions Reflections on the Movie “Inside Out 2” It is actually quite wonderful that Disney’s Pixar has produced not one but two movies about the emotions given that there has been remarkable little study of… Read More 1 2 Love and Power Institute Home about donation Blog Contact Privacy policy Terms of Service Contact Info info@loveandpowerinstitute.com
- [Contact](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/contact/): Contact Us Email Us info@loveandpowerinstitute.com Love and Power Institute Home about donation Blog Contact Privacy policy Terms of Service Contact Info info@loveandpowerinstitute.com (831) 222-0709
- [Donation](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/donation/): Donate now Other Ways to Support: Volunteer: Offer your time and skills to help us with our projects. Fundraise: Host an event or start a fundraising campaign on our behalf. Spread the Word: Share our mission with your friends and family. Thank You Your generosity makes our work possible. Together, we can create a better future. If you have any questions or need assistance with your donation, please contact us at info@loveandpowerinstitute.com Donate to Marsha hudson memorial fund Love and Power Institute Home about donation Blog Contact Privacy policy Terms of Service Contact Info info@loveandpowerinstitute.com
- [About](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/about/): ABOUT THE LOVE & POWER INSTITUTE​ The Love and Power Institute was founded in January 2025 by Marsha Hudson, Ph.D., and Norman Brown, Ph.D., with a mission to support the evolution of human consciousness as a critical path toward resolving the global climate crisis. They recognized a missing link in most environmental and justice movements: the inner emotional world of human beings. While many organizations work to protect land, water, animals, and skies, few address the emotional patterns that shape how we relate to each other and the planet. Love and Power was created to help bridge that gap—by deepening emotional understanding as a foundation for collective stewardship. The Institute began with small, regular group sessions focused on building empathy around challenging social and relational issues. Marsha and Norman also brought decades of experience leading weekly dream interpretation groups, offering an intimate path into the unconscious layers of emotional life. In 2025, Love and Power formally incorporated as a nonprofit and plans to launch its flagship course on Emotional Versatility, rooted in Silvan Tomkins’ Affect and Script Theory and other key psychological frameworks. This course—and the Institute’s broader offerings—invite participants into a fuller relationship with their emotional selves, one another, and the living world. Our nature-based programs further explore the vital connection between inner emotional life and our outer relationship with the Earth, encouraging a more loving, embodied, and sustainable way of being. Our Board members Open Recruitment Secretary Norman M. Brown, PhD Interim Chairman of Board Experienced in teaching, psychotherapy, dream interpretation Figen Ezer Treasurer Accounting, Economics, CPA Kristin Keller Healthcare Healthcare Executive, Community Activist, Counselor, and Mother Dr. Jennifer Choate Medicine Oncologist, Author, Researcher, Medical Director meet Our staff Bethany Taylor Emotional Intelligence Teacher Trainee | Social Media & Community Engagement Ajoy Mallik Grants, Finance Linkedin Nadirah Hope Executive Administrator meet our founders Norman M. Brown, PhD CO-FOUNDER of The Love and Power Institute for Planetary Sustainability Norman Brown earned a Ph.D. in Humanities and German Studies at Stanford. During his first professorship he found a calling as a leader in experiential education, both in dramatizations of folklore, literature and dreams and in summer backpacking courses in the Sierra. He also co-founded his first of many men’s groups, where he focused on emotions many years before this gained popularity. His second calling was to psychotherapy, leading to an M.A. in Clinical Psychology, an MFT license in 1976 and 41 years of practice ending in 2017. His second professorship included both humanities and psychology, where his central teaching focus was on love relations and led to a Psychology Ph.D. and writing the textbook “Love and Intimate Relationships” (2000) that combines current research and clinical and practical understanding. He has studied scientific approaches to understanding and changing emotions for over 30 years, which has led to his present endeavor to develop an effective program for improving our emotional versatility and thus stimulating the evolution of our species. He is a feminist and has been a member of the Millennial Association for Humanity and the Biosphere, founded by Paul Ehrlich, the International Association for Relationship Research, the Silvan Tomkins Institute and the Pachamama Alliance. Marsha Hudson, PhD CO-FOUNDER of The Love and Power Institute for Planetary Sustainability The late Marsha Hudson earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature at UC Berkeley with a focus on poetry. During her academic career she taught composition, critical thinking, and women’s studies at colleges in California, ending with UC Santa Cruz. As a graduate student she was active in the women’s movement, which included leadership in the development of the Women’s Studies Department at UC Berkeley. In the 80’s she entered management in the financial services industry and rose to the level of senior vice president with responsibility for a $11 billion portfolio. In 2002 Dr. Hudson earned a certificate as a gestalt practitioner and in 2005 she was certified as a dream work practitioner.  Dr. Hudson was active in the Association for the Study of Dreams, the Pachamama Alliance, The Human Awareness Institute, the Sierra Club, and the Milllenial Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. In 2013 she co-founded Next Stage Productions in Santa Cruz, California, and in 2018 with her partner Norman Brown, she co-founded the Love and Power Institute for Planetary Sustainability. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Literary Women’s Revolution: Essays From Marsha’s Salon (2005). Love and Power Institute Home about donation Blog Contact Privacy policy Terms of Service Contact Info info@loveandpowerinstitute.com (831) 222-0709
- [Home](https://loveandpowerinstitute.com/): Emotional Versatility for Planetary Sustainability MISSION STATEMENT To improve human nature by developing greater self-awareness, emotional intelligence and intimacy with the natural world. Link To Register For Online Dream Interpretation Course DONATE TODAY Donate to marsha hudson memorial fund “It helped me to feel connected to myself and others because of our willingness to find common ground through our desire to know ourselves and our emotional life. Turns out that we had diverse stories, yet our dialogues showed that we felt the same sensations in our body.” Cultivate Emotional Versatility Enhance your emotional versatility to navigate life’s challenges with resilience and empathy Strengthen Your Connections Build deeper, more meaningful relationships through the power of vulnerability and understanding   Foster Inner Growth Embark on an empowering journey of self-discovery and personal transformation, unlocking your true potential Promote Planetary Harmony Join us in creating sustainable relationships between humanity and nature for a balanced and thriving world research-driven insights Trait Emotional Intelligence and Environmental Behavior A study published in BMC Psychology found that individuals with higher trait emotional intelligence (TEI) exhibited stronger perceptions of climate change and were more engaged in pro-environmental behaviors. This relationship was mediated by a sense of connectedness to nature and feelings of love and care for the environment. Emotional Intelligence and Adolescent Environmental Behavior A systematic review published in Frontiers in Psychology examined how personality traits and dimensions of emotional intelligence relate to pro-environmental behavior among adolescents. The findings suggest that specific aspects of emotional intelligence are associated with increased engagement in environmentally friendly actions, aligning with similar studies conducted on adults.   Emotions as Catalysts for Environmental Behavior Change A study in Ecology and Society identified specific emotions—such as fear, hope, pride, and interest—as particularly influential in prompting environmental behavior change. By understanding and leveraging these emotional responses, interventions can be designed to effectively encourage sustainable behaviors. BeforeAfter Embrace Your Evolution Experience the power of emotional versatility and personal growth with Love & Power Institute. From grayscale to vibrant hues, witness the journey of transformation as we guide you towards a life filled with love, connection, and purpose. Contact us We’re here to help! Whether you have questions about our programs, need support, or want to learn more about the Love and Power Institute, reach out to us. Love and Power Institute Home about donation Blog Contact Privacy policy Terms of Service Contact Info email: info@loveandpowerinstitute.com Phone / text:(831) 222-0709

## Optional

- [Agent (MCP protocol)](websites-agents.hostinger.com/loveandpowerinstitute.com/mcp)

[comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)