Caroline Myss
I have worked with Caroline since 1997 and consider her one of my closest friends and a continuing inspiration in my own spiritual writing. We are currently teaching a two-year course in archetypes and Sacred Contracts at her CMED Institute in Chicago. Our collaborative project entitled HEALING CARDS: A Daily Practice for Maintaining Spiritual Balance, a 50-Card Deck, was recently published by Hay House.

Caroline's site offers a wealth of knowledge and information about her work, a selection of public forums on a large number of spiritual topics; and contacts with resident experts in alternative healing and holistic medicine. I have just completed an extensive guide to the world's religions, based on updated information from my book "The Joy of Sects," exclusively for Caroline's site. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Just Energy Radio with Dr. Rita Louise

The Guthrie Center
Great Barrington, MA
The Center was founded by songwriter Arlo Guthrie, son of the classic American songwriter and troubadour Woody Guthrie, in an 1866 church--the church where the song "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree" began and where the movie "Alice's Restaurant" was filmed. The Center's Mission Statement reads in part:

"We respect the rich heritage that our Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Moslem ancestors have handed down over the centuries. We anguish with traditional peoples everywhere whose ways of life are disappearing in the modern world. We struggle with them to preserve their own ways when they are threatened such as in Tibet or here in North America. Our teachers are from many paths and many traditions. And following in the present day traditions of service and compassion as exemplified by Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, Neem Karoli Baba, Swami Nityananda and others, the activities at the Trinity Church are flexibly designed to serve the ongoing needs of the local and international community."

The Pluralism Project
Harvard University
Developed by Diana L. Eck, noted author and professor or Eastern religions at Harvard University, the Pluralism Project studies and documents "the growing religious diversity of the United States, with a special view to its new immigrant religious communities. How Americans of all faiths begin to engage with one another in shaping a positive pluralism is one of the most important questions American society faces in the years ahead."

This well-run site focuses on how "foreign" religious traditions are changing as they take root in American soil, and in turn how their presence is changing the nature and understanding of religious tolerance in the cultural environment of the United States. It includes information on world religions as well as links to important news articles regarding incidents of religious intolerance, especially in the wake of Sept. 11.

OurFaiths.org
"Meeting the World, Faith to Faith"
Created by Lynne Bundeson, longtime moderator of religion bulletin boards for the Microsoft Network (1995-2000) and Prodigy (1993-95, and my predecessor at Prodigy), religion journalist and the author of eight books. OurFaiths boasts an active forum with many interfaith topics, plus forums and chat rooms on world religions, and links to news items regarding the role of religion in political and social issues.

The Interfaith Center of New York
East 30 Street
New York, NY
Founded in 1997, The Interfaith Center of New York "seeks to promote greater understanding and harmony among people of different faiths, ethnic and cultural traditions, and to make New York and the world safe for religious difference." Their site features information, links, and fascinating news stories relating to many of the world's religions, including many excellent audio-visual features.

Sarlo's Guru Rating Service
For sheer comprehensiveness and good humor, this site is worth knowing. It's a "compilation of mostly non-mainstream religious leaders," with an emphasis on lesser known Eastern gurus, and many Americans with Sanskrit names, although it also includes Native American, Gnostic, Pagan, and other leaders. Sarlo identifies himself only as a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, one of the few spiritual masters ever to have been deported from the U.S., and Sarlo's ratings of individual gurus are the least interesting and reliable aspect of the site. But it has links to hundreds of teachers's Web sites, as well as "anti" sites critical of certain gurus, run by disgruntled former disciples, and this is a useful service.

Adherents.com
Excellent statistical site containing "over 41,000 adherent statistics and religious geography citations for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns." As the site boasts, researchers can use it to answer such questions as: How many Quakers live in Indiana? What are the major religions of Nigeria? What percentage of the world is Buddhist? Draws on primary research sources such as government census reports, statistical sampling surveys and organizational reporting, as well as citations from secondary literature that mention adherent statistics, and presents the information in easily readable comparative charts. Perhaps the most comprehensive listing of the world's religious denominations on the Web, it also includes many useful links to individual religious sites.

Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Offers fairly encyclopedic definitions on most of the world's religions, striving for an even-handed treatment of disputes between denominations. The site does an especially good job of delineating and explaining the differing views of Christians, including mainline Protestants, born-again and fundamentalist Christians, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and other sects of Christianity. It also features sound coverage of Neopagan traditions and a useful glossary of terms.

Overview of World Religions
Those who prefer the scholarly approach could hardly do better than this comprehensive site under the editorship of religious scholars from St. Martin's College, UK, and Marburg University, Germany. In addition to excellent essays and descriptive charts covering the major traditions, it features useful timelines and brief essays on the development of religions by geographical region, including not only Asia, Europe, and the Americas, but also Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Oceania, and Polynesia. Drawing on contributions from dozens of scholars and experts from around the world, it's fairly dry reading but full of useful information