In the first half, consultant Joel Garbon discussed his 25 years of travels through a fascinating international scene some call the free energy underground. He reported on the various stories of energy breakthroughs, as well as attempts to suppress them. While there are a lot of good things going on with wind and solar, the types of technology he focuses on are "new forms of generating energy that go far beyond the conventional renewables. So these may be frontiers in physics, new understandings; it may be learning how to finally measure and deploy forms of energy that always existed" but only now do we have a technology platform to convert them into a usable product, he detailed.

Cold fusion technology is becoming more robust and closer to commercialization, and he believes we'll possibly see the deployment of the first industrial applications of it within the next three years. Using either hydrogen or water, there are many variants to the cold fusion process, but generally they're seeing 3-4 times as much thermal energy coming out as the electrical energy being inputted, he cited. A company out of Seattle called Global Emergent Technologies is developing the work of a German inventor, Marcus Reid, that involves a self-charging crystal power cell and nano-structuring. It results in a continuous output of electrical current that is thought to be operating out of the "quantum fluctuations of the vacuum" or so-called "zero point energy," Garbon enthused.

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In the latter half, psychiatrist Dr. Norman Rosenthal, who first described seasonal affective disorder and pioneered the use of light therapy for its treatment, spoke about maximizing the mind's potential via meditation. The type of meditation he recommends is Transcendental Meditation or TM, a simple technique in which people sit comfortably twice a day for twenty minutes at a time, close their eyes and repeat a specific mantra or sound. "What you find is that the time you spend doing it is actually repaid in terms of being more efficient and also enjoying your life," he remarked.

People from all walks of life can benefit from TM, said Rosenthal, who cited such examples as former SF Giants pitcher Barry Zito being "in the zone" when pitching during the 2012 playoffs, wealth fund managers finding their work in the finance world enhanced, and a ballet dancer whose fainting spells ceased when she became a practitioner. TM, which can be thought of as a body-mind practice, can also do a lot for a person's physical health-- it has been shown to lower blood pressure, and improve heart health and sleep patterns, he added.

News segment guests: Howard Bloom, Gary Ridenour