“Science, when properly handled, can be the expression of the fulfillment of the spirit”
In this intellectually stimulating and easily understandable talk, Rich Blum addresses Meher Baba’s explanations about science and technology. Noting the teachings from every Avataric Advent vary according to the time and culture (while the underlying truth is the same), Rich points out that during Baba’s advent science and technology have advanced to “extreme degrees.” From Darwin to Freud to Einstein, Rich examines each theoretician’s work through the lens of Meher Baba’s teaching, seamlessly tying together science and spirituality. He then goes on to contemplate how Baba may have reacted to more recent scientific advances such as AI.
Video, 1:02:09
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
September 4, 2026
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded October 2, 2026
The Art of Praise as a Path to God: Session Six
In this last session, Ward Parks shares a few of the themes and poetic concepts Francis Brabazon used in his book Stay with God. The book is a song and narrative performance of “The Divine Theme,” using The Ten States of God as outlined in God Speaks. In the book, Francis includes themes of devotion to and from God, using art as the medium, suggesting that the highest form of art is God descending into human form. Ward discusses how Francis uses many historical and mythical references to develop his themes. Baba was very pleased with Stay with God; He read it several times and encouraged some of his followers to keep more than one copy in the house.
Video, 1:31:25
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
October 19, 2025
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded July 3, 2026
The Art of Praise as a Path to God: Session Five
In this stimulating and captivating session, Ward Parks takes a deep plunge into Francis Brabazon’s Stay with God. Using the foundations that he laid in the last four sessions, he examines Stay with God in terms of its structure, symbology, and its great epic conventions. Like a digging expedition, the five parts of the book reveal the different dimensions of the Avatar and the brilliant literary tools that Francis used to fulfill Baba’s order to write this book which in Baba’s words would be second only to God Speaks. The series will conclude next week with Part six which will continue to explore this masterpiece.
Video, 1:35:15
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
October 19, 2025
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded June 19, 2025
The Art of Praise as a Path to God: Session Four
Ward Parks’ 4th session on Francis Brabazon’s poetry is called “Cultural Critique and Eschatology in The Word at World’s End.” Ward describes the first half as being a “torrent of images depicting modern life…cold and empty, hammering relentlessness…of those who have forgotten God,” but the second half is conversely full of praise. The last 20 minutes includes a musical version of Francis’ poem “Hymn To God The Man,” by Sam Saunders and The Wineshop Singers. Francis read The World at World’s End to Baba every morning and He was full of big grins and chuckles.
Video, 1:41:50
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
October 18, 2025
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded June 12, 2026
The Art of Praise as a Path to God: Session Three
In this third session, Ward Parks explores the writing styles Francis Brabazon used in The East-West Gathering, his poetic chronicle of the great 1962 darshan at Guruprasad. Ward examines the many unique, strange and exceptional analogies and metaphors Francis used in describing the extraordinary gathering. Meher Baba referred to it as “…. the most important meeting of this incarnation.”
Video, 1:42:36
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
October 18, 2025
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded June 5, 2026
Meher Baba Visits Locarno, Switzerland
This moving video by Michael LePage starts out like a travelogue and then moves to an intimate description of Baba’s time at the basilica of Madonna Del Sasso. By the end, one is left with the feeling of what it may have been like to be there with Baba and the mandali. The film was researched and narrated by Donata Mazzoli. Just a note, in 1952 Meher Baba returned to Locarno as He was recuperating from His accident. He stayed in the home of Ronco Dei Fiori, which is just down the street from where narrator Donata grew up.
Video, 9:34
Courtesy of Michael LePage
Uploaded May 29, 2026
The Art of Praise as a Path to God: Part Two
In the second part of his series “The Art of Praise,” Baba scholar Ward Parks presents “The Art of the Ghazal.” In this session, he analyzes the patterns, crafty structures and poetic elements of Francis Brabazon’s beloved ghazals and songs. Some of the work Ward explores are: the structures of the Italian Sonnets, Shakespearean sonnets, and Persian ghazals. Meher Baba throughly enjoyed the ghazals of Hafez and Rumi, and He urged Francis Brabazon to write his own lover-to-Beloved ghazals, even though, at the time, Francis was not interested in this style.
Video, 1:37:05
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
October 17, 2025
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded May 22, 2026
Session Seventeen — Meher Baba’s New Life — “Review and Summary”
Session Seventeen of Ward Parks’ presentation on Meher Baba’s New Life.
“Review and Summary”
Streamed May 17, 2026
Copyright 2026. Meher Spiritual Center. All Rights Reserved.
Uploaded 5/18/2026
The Art of Praise – Session 1: A Presentation by Ward Parks
Baba scholar Ward Parks guides us through the first of a six-part series on The Art of Praise as a Path to God. He focuses on how poetry can and has become a path to the Divine. He examines how Francis Brabazon, resident mandali & poet to Meher Baba, used his sonnets and ghazals to give praise to His Beloved. Meher Baba, in turn, hailed Brabazon’s epic devotional Stay with God as second in importance only to God Speaks.
Ward explores the concept of praise and complaint as a spiritual dialogue, wherein the lover suffers the pangs of separation from the Beloved. Ward then reviews different styles of poetry, including examples from Shakespeare, and then wraps up the presentation with a scholarly and spiritual explanation of Brabazon’s Australian Arti.
Video, 1:35:15
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
October 17, 2025
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded 5/15/2026
Session Sixteen — Meher Baba’s New Life — “The Free Life”
Session Sixteen of Ward Parks’ presentation on Meher Baba’s New Life.
“The Free Life” February 1952 – April 1953
Streamed May 3, 2026
Copyright 2026. Meher Spiritual Center. All Rights Reserved.
Uploaded 5/8/2026