Our beloved Barbara Fields passed Friday afternoon February 21, peacefully and surrounded by friends and family in her home in Ojai. The most appropriate epitaph for Barbara would be “Thank you, Angels!”; she had this engraved on the inside of her wedding band so that it would be pressed onto her skin at all times. She exemplified perfectly the “attitude of gratitude” we strive for. Her final fortune cookie read, “You find beauty in ordinary things; do not lose this ability.” Her favorite sources of beauty were other people; she loved people, and they felt it and responded in kind. Her smile and eye contact were like a beam of bright light shining right on you.
Barbara Ellen Fields was born in Chicago on February 8, 1952 and grew up in Chicago and Milwaukee. After high school and 1 year at Monmouth College in Illinois, Barbara took a couple of years to travel to Israel and Europe, eventually living in Copenhagen. Returning to the USA mid-70s, she moved to Santa Barbara, and graduated from UCSB in 1977 with a B.A. with highest honors majoring in psychology with a minor in religious studies.
She returned to Chicago with her first husband Tom Ravey and worked various jobs before going into video production with the Earth Network cable TV broadcast. In Chicago, she met Bill Bernstein in 1983; they were married from 1986-2003. In 1990, Barbara had her first diagnosis of breast cancer, and struggled with it on and off for the rest of her life with an unbelievably strong will to live and unparalleled courageous spirit of celebrating the life and relationships we are able to have. With her typical earnest energy and professionalism, she became a resource person for many other women facing cancer diagnoses and treatment.
It was in her capacity as a TV news producer that she volunteered for the 1993 Parliament of the Worlds Religions, held in Chicago; by the time the event arrived, she had advanced to be program director, launching her life-long career in inter-religious dialog and peace work (see below).
She returned to Santa Barbara in 2003 (because her job by then allowed her to live anywhere), met Stephen Pope in 2004, and the couple married (twice) in 2005. In their 20 years together, they travelled extensively, shared spiritual quests, loved music in many forms, and made their home in the Samarkand neighborhood of Santa Barbara (and, since 2023, in Ojai) a gathering place for friends and colleagues, hosting regular soirees, house concerts and film screenings.
Having had plenty of time to prepare for death, Barbara wrote her own career-oriented biography: Dr. Barbara Fields was Executive Director of the Association for Global New Thought. She was co-founder and project director of The Gandhi King Seasons for Peace and Nonviolence, the Synthesis Dialogues I, II, & III with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and coordinated U.S. omni-local initiatives for the Harvard-based Abraham Walk Initiative in the Middle East. She served as Program Director for the Parliament of the World's Religions centennial celebration in Chicago, 1993. Barbara was also conference coordinator for the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, the International Buddhist-Christian Theological Encounter hosted by Purdue University, and was a delegate to the UNESCO Seminar on Religion and Peace. Her awards include: Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; Religious Science International’s first Peace Award; the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Award from Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, The Peace Museum's Community Peacemaker Award in the area of Diplomacy. She has been Director/Producer of the Awakened World Conference Series 1999-2016, including the Awakened World International Film Festival in Santa Barbara, CA. She is a contributing author to three books: The Community of Religions, Two Hundred Visionaries, and Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power, and numerous articles and publications: Kosmos, Interreligious Insight, Unity Contact, and Science of Mind.
Barbara is survived by her brothers Steven and Kenneth, her niece Nico Yu Fields and her husband Stephen Pope of Ojai.
A memorial service will be held at the Agape Spiritual Center in Los Angeles on June 1, 2025 at 2:30 PM.
Barbara was also an active essayist, poet and song-writer; her final poem is included below.
SACRIFICE, by Barbara Fields (September, 2024)
[I might preface this by saying it “came through” after an intense staring session with Kai (our cat) few nights back while Stephen was out. She was the vehicle that prompted the higher thought, hence the reference to an opening portal. Seems to always work through that process for me: a prompt in the material world seeking an opening to the upper realms of mind.]
In her eye I see the sacrifice of God
putting forth such effort to inhabit that body and sustain that Being;
Struggling to be contained in creature form,
though no doubt more at rest as a tree in its sentient stillness.
This is the gift the Divine brings to every embodiment:
Its own Herculean consent to be conformed,
articulated, individuated, personalized,
Defying the unbroken primacy of infinity.
Maya?
So that Being can experience
so that awareness dawns
so that cognizance will evolve...
Evolve and return.
The agony of containment, the antithesis of freedom,
is the sacrifice of God, through Life, to God.
Once I see You I always see You...
And You always see You looking back.