William Spear

William Spear is an internationally recognized educator, consultant, author and lecturer on integrative medicine, feng shui, the I Ching, end-of-life care, and personal transformation. He has written the forward and introduction to many books on these subjects. His clarity and ability to synthesize complex and diverse material is inspiring, insightful and empowering. Spear is an original Kushi Institute faculty member and an international senior macrobiotic counselor. Macrobiotics considers all factors that influence our lives: our foods, our lifestyles, the environment, climate and geography in which we live. Spear was featured in the September/October 1997 issue of Macrobiotics Today. As well as contributing to many books on health, Spear had articles published in the East West Journal: "The Beat Goes On" about the correlation between diet and heart disease. He is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. Since co-founding one of the first suicide-prevention hot lines in the U.S. in 1967, Spear has been a principal caregiver for many terminally ill persons and their families. Additionally, he has worked extensively with drug abusers and prisoners on death row. He has advised healthcare providers and hospice workers about end-of-life, and in 2003 he helped design the first free-standing hospice in the state of Maine. At the Symposium on Healthcare Design in 2002 he gave a presentation on "Understanding Environments that Nourish Body, Mind and Spirit at the End of Life." Spear's non-profit foundation formed in 1983, Fortunate Blessings Foundation, is dedicated to education for the well-being of human life and the environment. This includes studies on the effect of the environment on health, the relationship of diet to disease, the care and support of people dying of cancer and AIDS; of nuclear-accident survivors, especially children, in Chelyabinsk, Ukraine; and of people affected by the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. Internationally, Spear conducts educational programs and projects that acknowledge our common unity as one family on this small planet. In immediate response to the December 26, 2004 tsunami disaster in South East Asia and then after the May 2006 earthquake in Central Java, Indonesia, Spear led Fortunate Blessings Foundation teams of mental health professionals to assist orphaned and traumatized children. In 2009, Spear traveled to Samoa where he and his team trained hundreds of medical students, doctors and clergy in response to the earthquake there. In all three countries, Spear met with local officials, policy makers, child protective services, community organizers, relief workers, etc. to devise strategies for coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. While in Java, he wrote and provided the booklet: Care for Caregivers: Helping Children Work Through Trauma. At the heart of Spear's work is the five-day experiential workshop, The Passage: A Journey that Transforms Life, that he has conducted since 1987 in North America, Europe and Australia. The workshop draws on years of work in bio-energetics, in-depth training with the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Center, Tibetan lama Sogyal Rinpoche and three decades of assisting people face unresolved issues, illness, life challenges, and whatever inhibits a person from experiencing life fully in the present moment. William Spear's approach to design - Intuitive Feng Shui® - is presented in his book, Feng Shui Made Easy: Designing Your Life With the Ancient Art of Placement - Revised and Updated Edition (North Atlantic Books). The first edition was translated into twelve languages and hailed by the New York Times as "the most user-friendly explanation of feng shui for American audiences." In 1993 Spear served as the first honorary President of the International Feng Shui Society in London. Spear serves as a member of The Special Advisory Board for Developmental Delay Recourses, a nonprofit organization dedicated to meeting the needs of those working with children who have developmental delays in sensory motor, language, social, and emotional areas. (www.devdelay.org) Spear has lectured at numerous international conferences and appeared on all media in the U.S. and Europe, including features on CNN, the BBC, the CBS Morning Show and many others. He has spoken before the United Nations Macrobiotic Staff Group, appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health and Aging, and the National Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. He maintains a private practice in Litchfield, New York and London. Current information about Mr. Spear's activities can be found at www.williamspear.com which will be available when the revised edition of Feng Shui Made Easy is released, November 16, 2010.