Douglas Gillies, attorney and facilitator, is the author of 101 Cool Ways to Die and Prophet—the Hatmaker's Son. The Life of Robert Muller. His award-winning documentary "On the Edge" addresses the state of the world.

He was born in Long Beach, California in 1947, the third child of Robert and Jean Saunders Gillies. The family moved to Canada when Douglas was six months old. He and his brother and two sisters were raised in Galt, Ontario, a small manufacturing town where their uncle, Allan Holmes, was publisher of the Galt Reporter. more...

As a trial lawyer, Douglas learned that the legal system was good at solving disputes. However, most of the effort was aimed at figuring out who to blame for what happened in the past and how much it would cost them. He thought, we made it this far. Let's let bygones be bygones and see if we can find a way to use these tools to find a plausile course into the future. So he shifted from litigation to facilitation. He traded depositions for teleseminars. His recent series on the Fifth Dimension points to a new paradigm for responding to major urban disasters.

Jury trials taught me a fresh approach to facilitating—create order out of chaos. We ask the most important question first, then move into uncharted territory. There is no need to limit discussion or control the room. Just ask the most important question and listen. Be neutral and listen.

My books grew out of the meetings I facilitated. The documentaries were also based on those events. After we recorded 300 interviews on BetaCamSP, the writing and editing began. We looked for content in the transcripts, but the themes were found in the concensus—the patterns that emerged in the harmonics of the conversation, where participants' experiences overlapped.

Douglas has produced six documentaries. On the Edge features former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall, Ted Turner, Lester Brown, Oren Lyons, Huston Smith, and Carl Sagan discussing the need to make a concerted effort to restore a healthy balance to Earth's resources before it's too late. Ted Turner said, "We need to consume as little as we possibly can." Mikhail Gorbachev added, "Time is very short. It's shrinking."

Douglas spent three years in the editing room with Hollywood director Ron Dexter creating an impressionistic documentary that seamlessly weaves together the comments of speakers with images and sound in such a way that the program leaves the audience as more of who they are, rather than less of who they are. The result is a program that inspires the audience to join the discussion and get to work finding solutions.

Douglas next wrote the biography of Robert Muller. Prophet--the Hatmaker's Son tells the story of a young man who escaped the Nazi draft during World War II and left home to become a peacemaker at the United Nations. According to Ted Turner, "Robert Muller is one of the greatest men to come along in a long time." Margaret Mead described him as "the most brilliant man in the United Nations." Jean Houston said, "When the true history of the 20th century is told, Robert Muller's name will stand out as one of the greatest world servers of all time."

Robert Muller was responsible for creating the UN World Food Program, the UN Development Corporation, and the first Environmental Conference in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. This is the story of how the dramatic events during his early years resulted in the emergence of one of the world's first global thinkers.

"Books are preserved people." - Robert Muller

Douglas has completed two additional books. Paradise Earth was published in 2008. A companion volume to Muller's biography, this book is a condensed version of Robert Muller's 7,000 Ideas and Dreams for a Better World.

101 Cool Ways to Die is now available in paperback.

Only in America do you hear people say, "If I die...". As if there were an alternative. As if we could choose between dying and, say, a trip to Hawaii. This book invites readers on a light-hearted journey across the great divide between if and when.

It may seem like an uncomfortable topic, but consider the options—even God couldn't come up with a better solution!

So why not give some thought to some of the cool ways you could be living your life when you take your last breath—good old fashioned fun, living life like there's no tomorrow—and maybe taking a few extra risks.

One reader said, "I laughed so hard I almost died." Laughing might be a cool way to die. Not cool: litigating.