KAL DAVID

Born and raised in Chicago, Kal’s recording career began as a teenager when, as a member of Kal David and the Exceptions, he was signed to a contract with King Records and later to Vee-Jay Records. Another member of the group was Peter Cetera, who later became the vocalist for a band known as Chicago.

Later on, Kal joined musical forces with guitarist Paul Cotton to form the group, The Rovin’ Kind. This band recorded for Dunwich Records and following a name change to Illinois Speed Press and a move to Los Angeles, Kal and Paul hit their stride, recording two critically acclaimed albums for Columbia Records, Illinois Speed Press and Duet. ISP was so loved that these albums have recently been re-released by popular demand.

Kal and Paul’s efforts with Illinois Speed Press served them well, for as Paul went on to become guitarist for Poco, Kal moved to Woodstock, New York, where he formed the Fabulous Rhinestones with ex-Electric Flag bassist Harvey Brooks. They recorded three well-received albums: Fabulous Rhinestones, Freewheelin’ for Paramount Records, and Rhinestones for 20th Century Records. With the Rhinestones, Kal refined his talents as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter to the point where even today, long after its disbanding, the group is remembered with fondness and respect for its musical contributions.

While in Woodstock Kal met his singing, writing and production partner, Miss Lauri Bono, who is a featured member of Kal’s band. After a move to Los Angeles in 1978, Kal and Lauri made a commitment to the Blues. In the studio or on tour, it was evident in their work with Blues great, Etta James, or Louisiana’s own, Johnny Rivers, Kal on guitar and Miss Lauri and Kal on vocals. In the mid eighties Miss Lauri did a short stint with Bette Midler as a Harlette and Kal joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers as featured vocalist and guitarist, replacing Mick Taylor.

As a solo artist in his own right, Kal recorded two albums for SoulCoast Records, Never a Dull Moment and Double Tuff featuring the Tower of Power Horns. With chart topping, impressive sales internationally and numerous television appearances, including a one hour Kal David special on Ohne Filter, Germany’s premier concert series, Kal’s reputation for amazing performances has grown.

A move to Palm Springs, California in search of a more relaxed and creative environment resulted in a decision by Kal and Lauri to open their own incredible Blues club, Blue Guitar. They successfully ran and performed there for more than 6 years. Many of the Blues greats like King Earnest, Finas Tasby, Johnny Dyer, JJ “Badboy Jones,” and Randy Chortkoff and many more were often featured artists in their shows. They delighted many audiences from near and far. They created a “Blue Guitar family,” and when they sold the club in 2004 to keep up with the demand for touring, they were inducted into the Palm Springs Walk of Stars and presented with their own star in front of Blue Guitar. Three live CDs; Kal David… Live at Blue Guitar… by Request, Kal David… Live at Blue Guitar… Last Call and Lauri Bono… Live at Blue Guitar… Last Call, were recorded there.

Kal’s dedication to the proliferation of the music he loves has inspired him to pass along his knowledge and experience to the younger generations. As a guest artist at the esteemed Berklee College of Music, Kal has given several lectures/performances for eager groups of some of the finest upcoming talent in the country. In addition to Berklee, Kal has also taught at the National Guitar Workshop. He and Lauri raise funds and give lectures whenever possible to put instruments and music back in the schools. They believe that every child should have the right and access to music education. It is a proven fact that it helps in all other aspects of learning. Music defines our lives and lights the fire of passion. In another teaching endeavor, Kal’s very popular Blues Guitar Master Class DVD series is fueling the fire for a lot of new and established guitar players. Kal says, “It is incredibly wonderful and satisfying to share my years of learning and passion for what I do with a class and know that I have made a difference in their lives!”

In 2010 Kal and Lauri self produced their latest CD, Crossroads of My Life on the Crytone Record label. This CD pays tribute to Kal’s past 40 years in the recording business… reworking old favorites and newly written songs, all culminating in the title track, “Crossroads of My Life.” The CD has received critical acclaim, and the honor of being in the top 100 for radio play for 2011.

To fully experience Kal David’s tremendous talent, you must see him live. Kal’s soul-baring voice and blazing guitar playing along with Miss Lauri’s sassy, soulful vocals will provide you with an unparalleled electrifying performance!

“Years ago I started a jam at the Cinegrill, in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel…. It was one of those nights when a lot of players were just coming on stage unannounced and took a turn playing the Blues. One of those players was Kal David. Kal just plugged in and started playing on some long blues medley we were playing. When it came to his solo, it was like a flashback to my childhood in South Louisiana when the real players such as B.B. King, Johnny Guitar Watson, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, and the like would come thru town. The best of the players knew, this guy was the real deal…. I had found my favorite guitar players all wrapped up in one. Kal’s vocal style and sound matched his guitar playing – it was also the “real deal.” Growing up in Chicago had served him well. However, his singing and playing have since evolved into much more. Kal David has become a combo of all the best Blues guitar and vocal styles of the last 35 years….”
-Johnny Rivers

ED LANTZ

Ed Lantz is an entertainment technology engineer, entrepreneur, immersive experience designer and innovator in giant-screen digital cinema. He left aerospace engineering in 1990 to transform old-style planetariums into 360-degree immersive visualization environments, designing over a dozen permanent digital dome theaters worldwide while at Spitz, Inc. including the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, National Space Center in Leicester, UK, the Glasgow Science Center in Glasgow, Scotland and Papalote Museo del Nino in Mexico City.  He also led the product development of the SciDome digital planetarium which has sold over 100 units worldwide.

Ed founded Vortex Immersion Media in 2007 to bring VR, immersive and interactive experiences into mainstream arts and entertainment markets. Vortex produces immersive and interactive media experiences for themed entertainment, VR Cinemas and numerous Fortune 500 companies including Condé Nast, EMC², IBM, Live Nation, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Nestle, NFL, Nike, Nokia, Sprint and Turner Broadcast. The company has produced 360 concert dome venues as large as 60 meters in diameter with capacity of 3,000 people for artists including Scrillix, Diplo and DJ Snake (dot Party for Production Club) and Childish Gambino (Pharos for Live Nation).

Vortex also operates the Vortex Dome, the first commercial immersive media production studio and events venue located in downtown Los Angeles. The Vortex Dome hosts a wide range of arts and entertainment co-productions including live stage shows (Pasión, BollyDoll), fine arts performances (Blue Apple ballet), live concerts (Ceremony with James Hood) in addition to immersive arts educational activities (classes for CalArts, USC and Relativity University).

Ed has published numerous articles in journals and trade publications on immersive media and virtual reality, is a public speaker on panels and keynote talks including at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and is a regular contributor to ACM/SIGGRAPH. Ed’s personal focus is on the unique cognitive properties of next-generation multisensory “sentient” environments, the merging of virtual and real storytelling worlds, and the development of fulldome theaters as next-generation entertainment and performance venues. Ed holds two U.S. patents on immersive theater technologies, was awarded a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering with minor in Quantum Physics and Electromagnetics from Tennessee Tech University, and is a founder of the trade association IMERSA. He co-authored DIGSS 1.1 (Digital Immersive Giant Screen Specifications) in cooperation with the Giant Screen Cinema Association, is a member of ACM/SIGGRAPH and IEEE, co-chaired the VR Villa at SIGGRAPH 2015, is a board delegate on the Producer’s Guild of America’s New Media Council and chairs the Boards of nonprofit organizations c3: Center for Conscious Creativity and is a past board member of Create Now.

AL SANCHEZ

(As posted on hayhouse)

Our beloved friend and founder Louise Hay transitioned this morning, August 30, 2017 of natural causes at age 90. She passed peacefully in her sleep.

Louise was an incredible visionary and advocate. Everyone who had the privilege to meet her, either in person or through her words, felt her passion for serving others.

Considered a founder of the self-help movement, Louise was dubbed “the closest thing to a living saint.” She published her first book, Heal Your Body, in 1976 (at age 50) long before it was fashionable to discuss the connection between the mind and body.

Louise started what would become her life’s work in New York City in 1970. She began attending meetings at the Church of Religious Science and then entered a ministerial program. She became a popular speaker at the church, and soon found herself counseling clients. This work quickly blossomed into a full-time career. After several years, Louise compiled a reference guide detailing the mental causes of physical ailments and developed positive thought patterns for reversing illness and creating health. This compilation was the basis for Heal Your Body, also known affectionately as “the little blue book.”

Louise was able to put her philosophies into practice when she was diagnosed with cancer. She considered the alternatives to surgery and drugs, and instead developed an intensive program of affirmations, visualization, nutritional cleansing, and psychotherapy. Within six months, she was completely healed of cancer.

In 1980, Louise began putting her workshop methods on paper. In 1984, her second book, You Can Heal Your Life, was published. In it, Louise explained how our beliefs and ideas about ourselves are often the cause of our emotional problems and physical maladies and how, by using certain tools, we can change our thinking and our lives for the better.

You Can Heal Your Life became a New York Times bestseller and spent 16 weeks on the list. More than 50 million copies of You Can Heal Your Life have been sold throughout the world.

In 1985, Louise began her famous support group, “The Hayride,” with six men diagnosed with AIDS. By 1988, the group had grown to a weekly gathering of 800 people and had moved to an auditorium in West Hollywood. Once again, Louise had started a movement of love and support long before people began to wear red ribbons on their lapels.

In 1987, what began as a small venture in the living room of her home turned into Hay House, Inc.: a successful publishing company that has sold millions of books and products worldwide and now has offices in California, New York, London, Sydney, Johannesburg, and New Delhi.

“Meeting Louise changed the direction of my life,” said Reid Tracy, President and CEO of Hay House, Inc.

“Her passion for serving others translated into everything she did. Simply by working alongside her, an analytical accountant like me transformed into someone who became aware of the power of affirmations and self-love. Being able to learn from her has been one of my life’s greatest blessings. The beauty of Louise was that you didn’t have to work alongside her to learn from her, you felt like you were there with her with every word you read or heard.”

Hay House has published works by many notable authors in the self-help movement, including Dr. Wayne Dyer, Doreen Virtue, Dr. Christiane Northrup, and Esther and Jerry Hicks, among others.

Louise was very vocal in her belief that age was irrelevant to achieving one’s dreams. To that point, at 81, Louise released her first-ever film on her life and work, You Can Heal Your Life: The Movie.

Hay House will carry on Louise’s legacy and continue to publish products and online learning courses that align with her message of self-improvement and self-love.

Louise Hay’s estate, as well as all future royalties, will be donated to The Hay Foundation, a nonprofit organization established by Louise that financially supports diverse organizations supplying food, shelter, counseling, hospice care, and funds to those in need.

Jeremy Witcher is an empathic seer who works to redistribute and balance energies. He currently works with his husband Prophet Calvin Witcher. Together they teach their spiritual communities through their School of the Prophets and other curriculum and book materials. His passion is to help those in transition; be it a transition in faith, society or culture. Jeremy is a father of four boys, a writer, group facilitator and spiritual mentor.

In 2017, Jeremy became an Amazon Bestselling Author of the book Positive Minded People: Inspiring Stories of Overcoming Adversity for Living a More Positive Life. 

JAIME APLIN'S BIO

I am a speaker, retreat facilitator, author and transformational mentor. I create space to help others uncover the love they have within themselves and allow them to feel “FREE TO BE ME”.

Much of my own personal journey has been to discover my own SELF LOVE. A love that I had never truly experienced before.

Learning to love myself has been one of the most confronting, yet liberating experiences of my life. It wasn’t like I just woke up one day and decided to start loving myself, it was beautifully born from me hitting rock bottom in my life, and living my darkest hour. I was struggling in the depths of depression, living a life paralysed with anxiety, and trying to escape the reality of the world as I knew it. I wasn’t feeling anything in my life, I was numb. And then, for the first time in a long time, I felt a little light shining within me, it was my soul starting to awaken. It started to allow me to believe that my life was destined for so much more than the pain that was holding me prisoner.

The more I made time for myself, to find out what lit me up, the more I discovered who I truly was. And now feeling so truly aligned with my soul purpose, I really do know what it’s like to love me, because I do accept myself - the good, the bad and ugly.

When we can accept our GOOD, BAD & UGLY bits, we can truly discover the love that lies within ourselves.

That's unconditional love. The love that we were born with.

Because once we understand UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for ourselves, our heart starts to OPEN up to having UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for others.

That's when we can CONTRIBUTE to making the world a better place.

Filled with nothing but LOVE.

One Love.

MORE INFO:
* FB: @jaimeaplin
* IG: jaimeaplin

Bennie Mayberry is the founder of Positive Minded People (PMP), a 6,000+ Meetup.com community group that produces uplifting content and events in Los Angeles. He has produced over 100 positive events in the past 7 years, attended by thousands through PMP, and has been featured in Success Magazine, CBS, PBS and picked up by numerous digital media outlets.
 

MORE INFO:
* Twitter / FB: @benniemayberry 
* IG / Snap: @KingBennieLA

Dr. John A. Horton is a family medicine doctor in Westlake Village, California and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years. He authored the book (along with W. Timothy Gallwey and Edd Hanzelik) 'Inner Game of Stress:  Outsmart Life's Challenges and Fulfill Your Potential' available on Amazon.

Dr. John Huber is a Clinical Forensic Psychologist; Chairman of Mainstream Mental Health; Professor of Psychology, Texas State University.

Dr. John Huber, a mental health professional and university professor that has been in mental health for over twenty years. His experience began as a School Psychologist. Today, he is in private practice as a Clinical Forensic Psychologist, and he is a practitioner with privileges at two long term acute care hospitals.  In addition, he taught undergraduate and graduate psychology at Texas State University from 1996 until 2017.  Dr. Huber will provide the public face for Mainstream Mental Health.

As Chairman of Mainstream Mental Health management, their common goal is to help people get mental health services. The target market for services are underprivileged and underinsured youth, veterans, and their families. Both of these groups are taught to be wary of mental health labels. They are often told that there is a lack of access to needed resources. Negative peer pressure through fear of the consequences of being ostracized scares these people in need away from psychological treatment. Additionally, many community programs do not “kick in” until after an individual has a serious mental breakdown.

The primary goal is to help before that breakdown occurs.

There are two parts to our goal. First, we must provide a way to make out-patient therapy and out-patient mental health services financially practical to the individual. Second, we must reduce the stigma of “mental health” treatment. The focus is slightly different at each level but the goal remains the same; empower the young person or veteran to make positive changes in his/her life before a crisis evolves.

Over time, Mainstream Mental Health will create an environment that will be an invaluable resource to the young and the veteran alike to stop the fear in seeking help and problem solving; and embrace each other and our differences as part of the normal human condition.

Mainstream Mental Health is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

http://www.mainstreammentalhealth.org/

HEART BY HEART

FEATURING ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF HEART

S T E V E    F O S S E N

AND

    M I K E    D E R O S I E R  

The Band Includes Legendary Bassist Steve Fossen and Iconic Drummer Mike Derosier As Well As Breakout Vocalist Somar Macek Recreating the Music of HEART. 

HEART fans don’t have to feel so “Alone” anymore! With the recent announcement of an indefinite split between Ann and Nancy Wilson, music lovers will be happy to know that Heart By Heart, which features original founding HEART members Steve Fossen and Mike Derosier, have announced that it will be hitting the road with acclaimed vocalist Somar Macek leading the helm.

The Heart By Heart tour will bring back all of the favorites from the multi-platinum selling band including “Barracuda,” “Crazy On You,” “Alone” and more by perfectly recreating the songs of HEART. 

“We don’t consider ourselves a ‘tribute band’ but rather the second generation of HEART,” explained Fossen. “With Mike and me at the helm and Somar on vocals, we can, once again, help bring out those musical nuances and ignite the energy within our own band that made HEART one of the most beloved rock groups of our time.” 

In order to play the songs the way they were conceived, Fossen and Derosier have surrounded themselves with musicians who share their philosophy for excellence. Lead vocalist Somar Macek delivers a “jaw dropping performance” with her vocal range and stage presence, which is only enhanced by guitarist and vocalist Lizzy Daymont’s powerhouse performances. 

Rounding out the band is Randy Hansen, a guitarist known in Europe and America as the premier ‘Hendrix’ tribute artist who also collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola on “Apocalypse Now” and ultimately helped him win the Academy Award® for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture. Together, Heart By Heart has become a force to reckon with, with successful shows across the country and rave reviews wherever they perform.

For more information about Heart By Heart visit, https://www.heartbyheart.com

About Annette O'Toole:

She is publisher of '2012 The Awakening' website. Her goal is to help others awaken to their Divine potential. In the last seven years, publishing has been a labor of love dedicated in Service to Humanity.  In that time, she’s published nearly 13,500 posts covering over 250 categories, making “2012 The Awakening” website a virtual encyclopedia of information for those on the path of awakening. Annette has been senior admin for Facebook's Galactic History Discussion Page since late 2013.

Annette will also be offering ascension guidance on her Patreon page in later 2017 and has recently been featured in Andrew Bartzis' Age of Resolution series on the purpose of weather and hurricanes at this time.

Libby Handros

Producer

Libby began her producing career working on the award-winning PBS series Inside Story, the first ever regularly scheduled examination of press performance to appear on television.  Eventually, she went on to inherit the company when its founder, Ned Schnurman, passed away.

Her producing credits include numerous specials for PBS, network and cable television.  They include, The Jews of Moscow with Hedrick Smith, Star Wars: The Bottom Line and a series of special reports on campaign finance reform for The Nightly Business Report.  The company teamed with Djali Rancher productions to produce Bling: A Planet Rock, airing on VH1 and collaborated on the 2006 film, Stadium Story: The Battle for New York’s Last Frontier. 

Bob Costas, America’s premier sport’s journalist, said of her special Hardball: Baseball From the Inside Out, “it was fascinating in the way it captured not just the dynamics of baseball’s cut-throat competition, but the spirit and shared experience of the men who play the game.  Only someone who knew and appreciated both the game and the craft of television could have put it together.”  David Bianculli of The New York Daily News said her program Baseball Hall of Fame Scrapbook: The Seat of Power, “comes very close to achieving what, this year, seems impossible: It almost makes you feel good about baseball again.” 

Ms. Handros also produced the highly controversial and critically acclaimed documentary, Trump: What’s the Deal?.  Other producing credits include The Hunt for the Pearl Harbor Files which was broadcast as part of the 50th anniversary commemorations of Pearl Harbor, Round-Up the Usual Suspects hosted by Pia Lindstrom on the making of the movie classic Casablanca, and Mid-Life Baby a special for Discovery Health. 

Recent features include The American Ruling Class, a first-of-its kind dramatic-documentary musical exploring our country's most taboo topic: class, power, and privilege in our dominally democratic republic, and Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle, a delightful exploration of the proposed wind farms off the Nantucket Sound.  She has also produced numerous award-winning commercials, industrials, and even the occasional political biography.

ABOUT Trump: What’s the Deal? - A film by Libby Handros

In 1988, business mogul Leonard Stern commissioned a television documentary to be made about Donald Trump, but the film was never aired because Trump managed to prevent its circulation.

“He did everything he could to suppress this documentary,” producer Libby Handros said. “And back in the day when we made the film, there were only a handful of networks. You had a few independent entities, but everything was controlled by big corporations, the three networks. And Donald was threatening lawsuits and stuff and they just didn’t need to take that on, even if the lawsuit would have no merit in the end.”

The documentary, Trump: What’s the Deal? is now available to be streamed online.

“Now that Trump is running for president, it is time for the American people to meet the real Donald and learn how he does business. The old Trump and the new Trump? They're the same Trump,” notes the film’s website.

Trump: What’s the Deal? chronicles the real-estate developer and presidential hopeful’s rise to power. His self-described “addiction” to acquiring cash and real estate drove him to build developments in Manhattan, Atlantic City, Palm Beach, and Los Angeles. He skirted the law on multiple occasions throughout his career, underpaying his workers, associating with mob bosses, committing union fraud, harassing tenants, and ignoring environmental regulations, yet managed to evade legal retribution.

“It’s the American dream gone berserk,” actor Christopher Reeves jokes in the film.

Often Trump’s developments were unprofitable, but he kept acquiring new properties anyway, continuing his construction projects with a Sarah Winchester-like delusion. His perpetual publicity stunts and position as the "poster child for 1980s greed” kept his image as “the people’s billionaire” afloat for a while, but he eventually began facing criticism for his antics from the media. The film delves into his tumultuous personal affairs, stubborn business behavior and descent into bankruptcy, ending with the introduction of his Monopoly-esque board game, Trump: The Game, which parodies his attitude toward life with the motto: “It’s not whether you win or lose, but whether you win!”

Bela George Lugosi (born January 5, 1938 in Los Angeles, California), also known as Bela Lugosi Jr., is an American attorney and the son of actor Béla Lugosi. His legal actions in Lugosi v. Universal Pictures led to the creation of the California Celebrities Rights Act.

The Celebrities Rights Act or Celebrity Rights Act was passed in California in 1985, which enabled a celebrity's personality rights to survive his or her death. Previously, the 1979 Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs, as a copyright would have. The court ruled that any rights of publicity, and rights to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death.
 

About Bela Lugosi...

Synopsis

Bela Lugosi was born in Lugos, Hungary on October 20, 1882. He ran away at age 11 and worked odd jobs including stage acting. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1921 and was cast as the lead in a Broadway production of Dracula. He became nationally known when a film version of the play was released in 1931.

Early Life

Actor. Bela Lugosi was born as Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko on October 20, 1882 in Lugos, Hungary, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His birthplace was only some fifty miles away from the western border of Transylvania and the Poenari Castle, the legendary home of Vlad the Impaler, the historical Dracula, whom Lugosi would portray to great acclaim on both stage and screen. Although descended from a long line of Hungarian farmers, Lugosi's father, Istvan Blasko, broke with family tradition to become a baker and banker. Bela Lugosi was a temperamental and rebellious child. "I was very unruly as a boy, very out of control," he later admitted. "Like Jekyll and Hyde, except that I changed according to sex. I mean, with boys I was tough and brutal. But the minute I came into company with girls and women, I kissed their hands… With boys, I say, I was a brute. With girls, I was a lamb."

Lugosi attended the local grammar school in Lugos and then continued on to the Hungarian State Gymnasium at the age of 11, in 1893. However, Lugosi hated the strict discipline and formality of the State Gymnnasium, and one year later, he dropped out of school and ran away from home. Traveling on foot and relying on the occasional odd job and the charity of strangers for food and lodging, Lugosi finally settled in a small mining town named Resita, approximately 300 miles south of Lugos. He worked in the mines and also as a machinist's assistant. However, Lugosi was captivated by the touring theatrical troupes that came through Resita and set his heart on becoming an actor. "They tried to give me little parts in their plays, but I was so uneducated, so stupid, people just laughed at me," he recalled. "But I got the taste of the stage. I got, also, the rancid taste of humiliation."

In 1897, Lugosi left Resita to join his mother and his sister Vilma in Szabadka. In 1898, he returned to school but dropped out after only four months and took a job as a railroad laborer. Soon after, Vilma's husband managed to land Lugosi a place in the chorus of a traveling theater company. Displaying remarkable raw talent despite his lack of education or training, Lugosi quickly ascended from the back of the chorus into leading roles as he traveled across Hungary performing with the troupe. By the early 1900s, he had been accepted into Hungary's Academy of Performing Arts with a specialty in Shakespearean acting. Adopting the name "Lugosi" as a reference to his birthplace of Lugos, throughout the first decade of the 20th century he toured the Austro-Hungarian Empire performing male lead roles in such Shakespearean classics as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew. In 1913, he joined the Hungarian National Theater in Budapest and starred in more Shakespearean plays, as well as Cyrano de Bergerac and Faust.

Although members of the National Theater were exempt from military service, in June 1914 the highly patriotic Lugosi put his acting career on hold to fight for Hungary against Russia in World War I. After being discharged from the army due to health problems in 1916, Lugosi returned to the National Theater and delivered a celebrated performance as Jesus Christ in The Passion. Over the next few years, Lugosi gradually transitioned from stage acting into Hungary's rapidly growing silent film industry. In addition to acting in many silent Hungarian films, Lugosi organized Hungary's National Trade Union of Actors, the world's first film actors' union. He was a staunch supporter of the 1919 Hungarian Revolution that briefly brought Bela Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic into power, and as a result when the revolution collapsed Lugosi found himself a wanted enemy of the new government. "After the war, I participated in the revolution," he said. "Later, I found myself on the wrong side."

In 1919, Lugosi fled to Vienna, as legend has it buried beneath a pile of straw in wheelbarrow. From there he traveled to Berlin where he quickly found work in the German cinema. Lugosi appeared in several German films in 1920, most notably The Head of Janus, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Despite this quick success in Germany, Lugosi decided to immigrate to the United States; after a brief stop in Italy, he set sail for New Orleans, arriving on December 4, 1920. From there he immediately made his way to New York City, where an already sizeable Hungarian theatrical community welcomed him with open arms. Lugosi plunged himself into New York's Hungarian theater as an actor and director of many Hungarian productions over the next several years. Despite not yet having a firm grasp of the language, he made his English-language stage debut in a 1922 production of The Red Poppy, for which Lugosi memorized his lines phonetically. Since silent films still predominated, Lugosi's language skills were not a barrier to his acting in American movies. He made his American film debut in The Silent Command (1923) and then appeared in The Midnight Girl (1925).

Dracula

In 1927, Lugosi accepted the titular role in the American theatrical run of Dracula, a play based on Bram Stoker's gothic novel of the same name. Lugosi's Dracula was unlike any previous portrayals of the role. Handsome, mysterious and alluring, Lugosi's Dracula was at once so sexy and so haunting that audiences gasped when he first opened his mouth to speak. After a half-year run on Broadway, Dracula toured the United States to much fanfare and critical acclaim throughout 1928 and 1929. "It is a marvelous play," Lugosi said. "We keep nurses and physicians in the theatre every night… for the people in the audience who faint." With the popularization of "talking pictures" – movies with sound – Universal decided to make a film version of Dracula starring Lugosi. The 1931 film, entitled The Strangest Passion the World Has Ever Known, was a smash hit and forever immortalized Lugosi's chilling portrayal of Dracula. Although countless actors have played Dracula since, to this date vampire enthusiasts idolize Lugosi as synonymous with the character.

Throughout the 1930s, Lugosi was typecast as a Hollywood horror villain – playing monsters, murderers and mad scientists – in dozens of B-list films. His most notable performances were Murderers in the Rue Morgue (1932), White Zombie (1932), International House (1933), The Raven (1934), Dracula's Daughter (1936) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). While none of these roles were especially noteworthy in isolation, Lugosi's cumulative body of work during the 1930s established him as one of the first great stars of the horror genre. Nevertheless, throughout his entire career Lugosi was frustrated by his inability to break through into other types of films. "I am definitely typed, doomed to be an exponent of evil," he said. "But I want sympathetic roles. Then parents would tell their offspring, 'Eat your spinach and you'll grow up to be a nice man like Bela Lugosi.' As it is, they threaten their children with me instead of the bogey-man."

After a few lean years in the late 1930s, when horror movies fell out of vogue in Hollywood, in the 1940s Lugosi once again began appearing in countless horror films as well as sequels and spoofs such as The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Despite his prolific acting career and high profile, due to Universal's ruthless compensation system and his own careless spending, Lugosi lived the majority of his adult life deeply mired in debt. He spent the last few years of his career in the early 1950s back on the stage in revival productions of Dracula as well as Arsenic and Old Lace.

Later Years and Legacy

In 1956, Lugosi began work on a sci-fi thriller called Plan 9 From Outer Space. However, he passed away in the middle of filming on August 16, 1956, aged 73. Lugosi was fittingly buried in his Dracula cape.

Despite Lugosi's death, Plan 9 from Outer Space was completed with director Ed Wood's wife's chiropractor taking over his part. The final version of the film bizarrely mixes footage of Lugosi as well as footage of his replacement (who looks nothing at all like him), one of many oddities that make Plan 9 From Outer Space both a cult classic and a film many critics have called the worst of all time.

Bela Lugosi married five times. In 1917, while still in Hungary, he married Ilona Szmik. They divorced two years later, when Lugosi fled for Germany and Szmik refused to leave her native land. In 1921, shortly after arriving in New York, he married Illona von Montagh, but they too divorced after three years in 1924. Lugosi married his third wife, Woodruff Weeks, in 1929; their marriage lasted all of three days. In 1933, he married his fourth wife, Lillian Arch, and they remained married for twenty years before finally separating in 1953. He married Hope Lininger in 1955 and they stayed together until his death a year later.

The actor who became synonymous with Dracula, Bela Lugosi paved the way for the incredible proliferation of vampire movies in Hollywood. His depiction of Dracula as at once dangerous and mysteriously sexy continues to shape the way vampires are portrayed in such pop culture phenomena as Twilight and True Blood. However, Lugosi was much more than a one-hit wonder who played out the rest of his career in B-grade slasher movies. He was a multitalented and immensely gifted performer who mastered Shakespearean acting in Hungary before coming to define the American horror film genre. Nevertheless, despite his dozens of films and stage performances, Lugosi lives on for posterity not so much as an actor but as the personification of his greatest character. When he performed as Dracula, Lugosi spoke for his own personal legacy as much as for his character when he pronounced the immortal line, "I am Dracula."

Gale Glassner Twersky, A.C.H. is a HypnoCounselor/hypnotherapist, Motivational Speaker and President of Glassner Associates Hypnosis for Personal Growth and Wellness since 1999. Gale's HypnoCounseling practice was in Montclair, NJ from 1999-2009 before being relocated to Los Angeles, CA area in 2010. Also in 2010, Gale was the honored recipient of the International Hypnosis Federation Award for Excellence in Communication. Besides being an experienced certified teacher of English and Oral Communications, Gale is certified in Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapy and has several specialty certifications including Past Life hypnosis, Hypno-anesthesia and Spiritual counseling. Additionally, Gale is a certified instructor/trainer of hypnosis. She heads the Glassner Associates Hypnosis certification training program.

In 1993 Gale founded Soul Sisters, a personal growth and spiritual development group that still is active in NJ. For seven years Gale served as a columnist writing articles about hypnosis for the Montclair Life and Leisure newspaper. In 2005 she authored and recorded in partnership with Nightingale-Conant, Corp., her 9 CD program, Reprogram Your Subconscious: How to Use Hypnosis to Get What You Really Want that quickly became and still is a Top Seller for seven years. In 2006 Gale published her single CD, Relax, Release and Dream On that has been #1 mp3 Spoken Word Download on Amazon.com. In 2010 she completed the updated and greatly expanded paperback/eBook edition of the 9-CD Series: Reprogram Your Subconscious: How to Use Hypnosis to Get What You Really Want that is a culmination of over thirty years of her dedicated life's work in the personal growth and spiritual development field.

In 2012, Gale created the Reprogramming Hypnosis Specialist certification program that prepares and also certifies hypnosis professionals as Reprogram Your Subconscious Practitioners. In 2014, Gale began offering a One or Two Day Intensive Care Retreat. The Retreat is a unique and highly effective, one-on-one, individualized approach. This format is especially conducive to activating comprehensive Reprogramming Hypnosis goals of self-improvement.

My name is Lucille Trice. I am a Licensed Practical Nurse, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Lymphatic Therapist, and Full Service Esthetician in the state of Florida. I have enjoyed my career in nursing for over 24 years.  I began my career as a field medic for the United States Army and earned my nursing license while serving. After my honorable discharge, I continued nursing up and down the east coast finally settling in Florida and working for the Lee Health system.  My primary background is in Cardiac medicine and Pediatrics.  I walked away from the hospital setting a few years ago in search of a way to continue to help people within a less stressful environment. I now look forward to applying my knowledge of the human body and my medical experience to help people improve the quality of their skin, general health, and relieve their pain through the application of holistic/vegan skincare and therapeutic massage therapies.

Kathryn is a Women’s Spiritual Empowerment Coach, Yoga, Meditation Professional, Women’s Retreat facilitator and Higher Self expert.

A native of NY, Kathryn learned meditation and yoga as a small child, and continued her spiritual quest as she traveled the world obtaining her formal and informal education. Always an entreprenuar and dedicated ambassador for non profits

Her Entrepreneurial and passionate spirit lead to starting her first company while in college at Bond University in Australia. After many successful years in the marketing in non profit segments, Kathryn took the leap into her true purpose as a coach.

Kathryn believes that we are all here to live into our unique purpose, to do so we must align with natural law, listen to our inner guidance, honor our desires and become fearless in the pursuit of what sets us free. This belief comes from direct experience, she was her own first client and now shares the teachings and practices that have brought her a life of purpose, freedom and infinite possibilities.

Her style weaves together esoteric and modern teachings, intuition and somatic experiences. She has trained with powerful teachers all over the world, studying in depth the various forms of meditation and yoga, yogic and tantric philosophy, leadership development, psychology and alternative healing therapies. Her purpose is to awaken and explore the power of the divine feminine.

Angel Ribo, known as The CEO Confidant, is an International Speaker and the Preeminent Advisor to CEOs. Corporate and entrepreneurial CEOs hire Angel to bridge the gap globally for expansion and exposure because they have limited themselves to their immediate market: their own backyard. So Angel helps them understand, discover, and design a plan to go into international markets. There is a science and a secret to taking things globally, and that is his mastery.

In a nutshell, this is what Angel helps CEOs do:

1. Identify the top cultural differences to conduct business in that area.

2. Find the right local partners to go in this journey together.

3. Learn the most important local business development strategies and tactics they have to use to generate revenue in that country.

In the last 19 years, Angel has helped more than 1,500 CEOs in 33 different countries. He was born near Barcelona, has lived in 8 countries, and speaks 5 languages fluently. Angel is now based in Texas, where he cares for his family and runs his Business. Early in 2017, he launched his international foundation, Wisdom for Kids, and he has helped hundreds of underprivileged kids in Latin America become entrepreneurs using their local resources.

Nicki Williams is a qualified Nutritional Therapist, author, speaker and founder of Happy Hormones for Life, helping women over 40 to get back to their absolute best – slimmer, energized, more productive and in full control of their hormones!

After failing to find any medical help for her symptoms of exhaustion, weight gain and hormone issues herself in her early 40’s, she discovered that she could turn things around using diet, lifestyle and natural supplements.

She went on to qualify as a nutritional therapist and hormone expert, and now helps women all over the world with her online programmes, hormone testing, workshops and individual and group coaching.

She has recently published her first book;

It’s not you, it’s your hormones; The essential guide for women over 40 to fight fat, fatigue and hormone havoc.

Daniel Gutierrez is a bestselling author, international master business/life coach, renowned motivational speaker and spiritual teacher.  His search for deeper truth and human excellence has taken him around the world to study with Sanskrit priest and Buddhist monks in the Himalayas and deep in the Andes and Amazonian jungle to work with Peruvian shamans.

Based in Los Angeles, Daniel has been the cover story in Latin Business Magazine and listed in its “Top 100 Hispanics in America, Cypen Magazine and most recently Color Magazine.

Daniel has served as President of PRIMER, a prestigious national leadership organization based in New York City. Mr. Gutierrez has also served as an advisor to the Department of White House Personnel for the Obama Administration and currently serves as the President of the Holistic Chamber of Commerce in Long Beach, California.

Once a high-powered executive and in-demand consultant who graced the covers of Latin Business, Cypen and Color Magazines, Daniel Gutierrez realized that there was more to success than a 7-figure earning potential. As President of PRIMER, a prestigious national leadership organization and an advisor to the Department of White House Personnel for the Obama Administration, Daniel was a highly regarded and deeply revered leader. Though Daniel was listed as one of the “Top 100 Hispanics in America” along Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, actor Edward James Olmos, and CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, something was still missing.

To find fulfillment, Daniel decided to dedicate the next chapter of his life to becoming a Master of Mindfulness. During the past 10 years he has led quests to the heights of the Machu Picchu, the depths of the Amazon and the top of the Himalayas. After the boardroom, now Daniel has been guiding entrepreneurs and experts in deep dive mindfulness immersions. Though mindfulness is a lifelong practice, Daniel has become known for giving life-altering strategies in as little as 60 seconds. When facing extreme pressure, executives go from high-strung to highly productive. Daniel has even turned Wall Street cubicles from a place of stress to pads of serenity. 

A beloved mentor and sought-after motivational speaker, Daniel was featured in the documentary Luminous World Views as one of eighteen world-renowned transformational thought-leaders. He is a bestselling author, who is excited to release his fifth book, Radical Mindfulness.