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| A Quarterly Newsletter from the Foundation of the Sacred Stream |
ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2007 |
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| Note from the General Manager |
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 Welcome to the August 2007 edition of the Sacred Stream newsletter. In this edition you’ll find the regular features, as well as photos, and some beautiful writings from our students in the Ancient Scotland class. We have just returned from the Orkney Islands in Scotland, where we had an exciting workshop, and inspiring teachings from Isa on Pre-Druidic knowledge and practices. Stepping off the plane in Orkney was like stepping back in time fifty years. Our runway was beside a cow pasture, and people still leave their doors unlocked and keys in the car when they run into the store. Cows and sheep abound the countryside, where Neolithic remains stack up on just about every farmer’s land. Some of the magnificent structures we visited were the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, and Maes Howe. Words fail to convey the magic of the land, and richness of the ancient culture. We can hardly wait for our return, and repeat of the class in the summer of 2009!
Among the exciting news back home is that we have been approved to provide CEUs for MEAC (for Midwives) and DONA International (for Doulas). Now our list of continuing education units has grown to include CEUs for Psychologists, MFTs, LCSWs, drug and alcohol counselors, acupuncturists, Doulas, and Midwives. In addition, we will be adding a new Ethics course on Buddhism, for those in professions that require a yearly Ethics course. We hope this will bring a new perspective on an old theme.
Looking ahead, we have many great events and classes coming up, including our new workshops in Costa Rica! Two courses will be offered at the very peaceful and beautiful mountain resort, Panacea de la Montagne (panaceacr.com) on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, in January 2008. The first is a unique and dynamic class on relationships. The other is a women’s retreat called, Moon Lodge. Please sign up now to reserve your space! Deadline for registration is October 15th.
Of course, it’s that time again, and the new semester is beginning in California this September with the Intro the Shamanic Journey workshop, as well as courses in Depth Hypnosis, and Applied Shamanism. A dream class, and the Buddhist Psychology Studies Levels 1 & 2 will also be offered this fall, as well as drumming circles, free talks and teleclasses. In 2008, we plan to be back teaching in New England. I look forward to seeing, or hearing from you soon!
Best wishes,
Laura
Laura Chandler
General Manager
Foundation of the Sacred Stream
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| Writings from the Scotland Workshop |
| The Scotland workshop was an inspiring experience for everyone. And in the tradition of the Bard, some of the participants even set their experiences to verse. The following are a poem by Sarita Shani, a song by Susan Alexander, and a poem by Lee Stickles, they all give a sense of the power of ancient Scotland. |
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 The Great Boat in the Sea: Journey to the Orkneys
By Sarita Sahni
Sea deep and mysterious
Holding all
in the womb of the earth.
The place that dies and is reborn.
Take a leap of faith
face fear with a seashell in your palm.
Hear the seals swimming onto shore
there is no shortage of time.
Ripples in the water
form grooves in the earth.
Seaweed embraces newborn skin
take in what you thought was never possible.
(click to read more)
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 Orkney Isles
By Susan Alexander
It's off to the Orkney Isles
To the land of sheep and cows
Where the colors of green are as varied as you've seen
And the rocks make the fences and houses
And the water's both fresh and salt
And the white swans swim in both
The oatfields sway to the wind and the fray
And the farmers all have boats.
But away on the moor with the bog and the peat
In the purple of the heather and the clover
Are the standing stones where the veil is thin
And spirits help the souls to cross over
(click to read more)
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 alignment
By Lee Stickles
Stream of consciousness through the stones
center of power a ritual
portal to death portal to birth
soul from above, soul from below
masculine stones feminine circle
grounding sun the moon of emotion
layers of earth expose
the earth circular shift
layers of time
masculine the sun the stone
of the earth the grounding force
feminine the moon the circle
the emotions of energy
center is of power
lines connect the stream of consciousness
times moves the energies collect
celebration of the moon
souls collected moving
to the sky the women exposed
the flower from center
(click to read more)
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| Foundation of the Sacred Stream Forms an Internet Community |
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We would like to invite all of you to connect with our new internet community! By popular demand, we have created an internet chat forum. Anyone can register and become part of the community forum chat. If you would like to discuss topics like: Depth Hypnosis, Applied Shamanism, Integrated Energy Medicine, Buddhist Psychology Studies and Destination Studies, please join our forum. Feel free to pass this information onto anybody else who is interested in these topics. Visit this site to register: www.purplerays.com/forum
You can also find us at the following sites:
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| Featured Practitioner: Loraine Van Tuyl, PhD |
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 I am honored to serve as a conduit to several rich lineages of ancient and contemporary wisdom and healing practices. I have a doctoral degree and license in clinical psychology, certifications in depth hypnosis and tai chi, and many years of rigorous training and practice in yoga and more recently shamanism. Over the past few years, I have integrated these practices into a refined system of checks and balances, where the strengths of one make up for the limitations of the other.
In my role as a psychodynamically trained-clinician, pregnant opportunities for healing revolve around the exploration and “correction” of unresolved child-parent patterns and developmental arrests of the client. The present-moment client-therapist relationship often serves as the filter through which these patterns are examined and repatterned.
After taking the Depth Hypnosis, Energy Medicine, and Shamanism series with Isa, I realized that clients, including myself, who were repatterned through these types of filters often ended up with more therapist baggage and soul parts than they bargained for. Working in trance states with both my own and clients’ guides and higher selves revealed how easy it was for a psychologically-trained clinician to be blind-sighted, and misinterpret, pathologize, project, impose biases, foster co-dependencies, disempower, enable shadow attachments, and get stuck in ego-agendas, dualism, denial, and resistance. More alarmingly, the focus on correcting early childhood relations as defined by concrete, narrow, and uni-dimensional worldviews of ordinary reality also meant that realigning energetic and karmic patterns according to each client’s divine purpose was sadly more often due to luck than skill.
Working on energetic imbalances and blockages on a purely visceral level through my rigorous yoga and tai chi routines has allowed me to effectively catch mental traps that may be overlooked even in trance states. The focus in my yoga practice has been on kundalini and spine strengthening, opening and clearing the chakras, detoxifying the body, and enhancing stamina and presence. The Taoist and nature-based exercises and movements in Tai Chi have greatly developed my ability to stay grounded and relaxed, cultivate chi, core strength and control, sustain supple integrated strength, embody animal and nature guides and wisdom, align the self with divine spiral energy, and release internal and external resistance through the dynamic balance and sacred dance of yin-yang forces. Tai Chi, being a soft, fluid, and internally powered martial art and contact sport, also allows me to carefully study and manage the flow of my energy, grounding, reactivity, swiftness, and balance in relation to another, and vice versa.
Many of my clients have over the years compromised their early connections with guides because of loneliness and an equally powerful desire to connect with another human being in a physical body. Because of my meticulous system of checks and balances, I now feel very comfortable, capable, and responsible in offering them both of these deeply satisfying and healing connections in ways that particularly maximize resilience, minimize resistance, and foster mutual wholeness.
My practice, Inner Balance Counseling, is located in the East Bay in N.Berkeley/Albany
Phone: (925) 642-1716
Website: www.innerbalancecouseling.com
Email: DrVanTuyl@innerbalancecounseling.com
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| Journey on It..."The Nature of Fear" by Michael Thomas |
The journeys presented in this column are offered from a place of teaching and service. The material that comes through a journey is considered to be sacred, and in traditional settings, the journeyer generally will only share the content in a particular context, as in teaching, sharing a vision, or for the purposes of healing. Our purpose in offering this column is to create a forum, like those created in our classes, where people engaged in a shamanic journey practice may deepen their work with the journey, and their understanding of the journey as a tool for healing. The journeys shared here are offerings meant to shed light on the reader's own process. We invite you to contribute a journey, or simple receive the journeys in the sacred manner in which they are intended. To submit a journey for consideration, please email Laura Chandler at laura@sacredstream.org
I only recently learned to journey and met my Lower World guide, a little spider monkey who can fly as well as climb really well. When I arrived in the Lower World he was very high up in a tree. I asked him what I needed to understand about the nature of my fear and anxiety. He told me to climb up into the tree. I climbed up and he did a dance, and told me to do the same. Then he pointed from the tree at something I couldn’t quite make out. He told me to jump. I told him that I was afraid and he said, “Let go of your fear. Jump!” Then he jumped. I followed and landed in water. We swam to an underground cave. He was inside with a light of some sort. He said to follow him. I got out of the water and followed him. The earth beneath me became muddy and thick and it was difficult to walk. He moved further and further away from me. The light grew dimmer and dimmer until he disappeared and I was stuck in this thick deep mud. I felt afraid and began to panic. Then I noticed there were trees with low hanging branches on either side of me. I grabbed hold of one of the branches and began to pull myself up out of the mud. I continued to climb up the tree until I reached the top and found my guide sitting there waiting for me, smiling. It is the same tree that we jumped from at the beginning of the journey.
Words do not describe how powerful this journey was for me. It was like the guide had taken me through my experience of fear and anxiety and shown me the other side of it. I still have a lot to learn about this, but what I understand about my fear as a result of this journey is that I do not trust myself. I hesitate and become stuck as a result of my fear, and anxiety follows. When I became stuck in the mud and the guide left me, I was alone, abandoned, frightened. I was left to fend for myself. I had to trust myself. And when I freed myself from the mud, I was reunited with my guide who had the general air of “See, that wasn’t so hard.”
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| Book Review: "Ghost Hunters" by Deborah Blum |
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By Laura Chandler
 For a moment in time, in the late 1800’s, many of the greatest minds in science were engaged in the study of psychic phenomenon and life after death. In the 20th Century, the scientific climate changed dramatically, and such study was seen as disreputable. “Ghost Hunters” may indicate another change of climate in the scientific community, though the title is most unfortunate. In “Ghost Hunters”, Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer Prize winning science writer, takes a serious look at this movement born during a unique period of history when science and the supernatural intersected for a brief moment. It was a time when psychology was in its infancy, and rationalists were challenging long held religious views on the nature of reality. Blum’s account does not take sides, but it does present a detailed and thorough investigation of this fascinating subject.
The book focuses on William James, who helped found the Society of Psychical Research (SPR), though he is best known for his work in the field of psychology. What is striking about this period is the great number of academics who took the subject seriously. Pulitzer prize winning physicists, Lord Rayleigh and JJ Thomson, are just a few of the many brilliant minds drawn to the subject of the supernatural. Blum conveys the sense of excitement that existed during this expansive time in history. She also shows the great lengths that James and his fellow academicians went to investigate supernatural occurrences, and prove them, or reveal them as fraud.
James and his colleagues met with the early waves of the coming scientific elitism of the 20th Century throughout their endeavors. James, who was educated in science at Harvard, and taught psychology there as well, had a great appreciation for the rules and logic of science. Yet, his disappointment in its ever-growing rigidity was clear. In his address as president of the SPR he states, “It is the intolerance of Science of such phenomena as we are studying, her preemptory denial either of their existence or of their significance except as proofs of man’s absolute folly that has set Science so apart from the common sympathies of the race.”
One thing is clear, the men and women Blum presents in her book were dedicated, and felt that the supernatural was worthy of scientific study. The task was to measure events objectively. In the end, what constitutes reasonable doubt is still subjective. The SPR revealed many frauds, but also discovered quite a few unexplainable phenomenon that, at the very least, raise a hair of curiosity. Blum does an excellent job of re-vitalizing the data that was so painstakingly collected by the SPR. She does not make claims, or hypothesize, but leaves it up to the reader to weigh the facts for themselves.
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| ASK ISA: This Month’s Q & A Addresses “Hypnosis and Mindfulness Training” |
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Is it possible to use hypnosis as a tool or aid in mindfulness training?
 Hypnosis is definitely a useful tool in mindfulness training, and mindfulness training is helpful in working with hypnosis. Both involve altered states of being. In these states, a person is less subject to emotional or mental reactivity, and better able to focus and concentrate in everyday interactions. There are many ways hypnosis and mindfulness might interact, or aid one another, particularly in achieving a deeper understanding of the self, and issues that cause pain, disruption, and even disease. Ultimately, hypnosis can be used as a tool for clearing obstacles to mindfulness practice.
Buddhist scholar, Thomas Kiernan, describes mindfulness as “ the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness”. Simply put, mindfulness is the act of being aware of the present moment. It is a process in which a person is engaged. In Buddhism, meditation is the primary method used to develop mental clarity and engage in mindfulness. (Please note that there are many types of meditation, all of which seek to move past the mind’s chatter. So, for the purposes of this article, I will use the term in a general sense of quieting the mind unless otherwise indicated.)
When a person enters into a meditative state, they are entering an altered state of consciousness. As the practitioner develops his ability to maintain presence and concentration in the meditative state, he is then better able to maintain presence and concentration in everyday situations, hence mindfulness. One way to describe mindfulness in action is that it brings the peacefulness of the meditative state into everyday interactions.
Read On
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| Upcoming Classes |
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 Free Teleclasses with Isa Guciardi, PhD
Healing with Depth Hypnosis
August 31, 2007; 1:30pm PST, 4:30pm EST
Buddhist Psychology Studies
September 6, 2007; 6pm PST, 9pm EST
Healing Techniques of Shamanism
September 10, 2007; 12:00pm PST, 3:00pm EST
The Cauldron of Relationship
September 26, 2007; 6pm PST, 9pm EST
Moon Lodge: Women’s Spirituality
October 9, 2007; 12pm PST, 3pm EST
On the West Coast
Free Talk: Healing Techniques in Shamanism at Elephant Pharmacy
August 19, 2007; 4pm in Berkeley
1607 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709
Free Talk: The Shamanic Journey at Elephant Pharmacy
August 26, 2007; 4pm in Walnut Creek
1388 S California Blvd, Walnut Creek, California 94596
The Eight-fold Path: Eastern Ethics in the Western Therapeutic Environment
September 8, 2007, 10am – 5pm
Free Talk: Buddhist Psychology at Elephant Pharmacy
September 9, 2007; 4pm in Walnut Creek
1388 S California Blvd, Walnut Creek, California 94596
Buddhist Psychology Studies
Level I: September 12, 19, 26 & October 3, 2007; 7:30pm - 10pm
Level II: October 8, 15, 22 & 29, 2007; 7:30pm – 10pm
Introduction to the Shamanic Journey
September 15 & 16, 2007; 10am – 4pm
Free Talk: The Cauldron of Relationship at Elephant Pharmacy
September 22, 2007; 4pm in Berkeley
1607 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709
Free Fall Equinox Drumming Circle
September 23, 2007; 6pm
Dream Group
Sept 25, Oct 23, Nov 20, Dec 18, 2007; 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Advanced Applied Shamanism Program Retreat
Part I: September 28 – 30, 2007
Part II: October 5 – 7, 2007
Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course
Part I: October 12 – 14, 2007
Part II: November 2 – 4, 2007
Part III: November 30 – December 2, 2007
Applied Shamanism
Level I: October 20 & 21, 2007; 10am – 4pm
Level II: November 10 & 11, 2007; 10am – 4pm
Winter Meditation Retreat
December 9, 2007; 6am – 6pm
Free Winter Solstice Drumming Circle
December 16, 2007; 6pm
The Cauldron of Relationship (for all kinds of couples)
January 7 – 13, 2008 in Costa Rica
Moon Lodge: Women’s Spirituality
January 15 – 20, 2008 in Costa Rica
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| Community News & Events |
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Drum Making Workshop with Kathy Woo, Shamanic Counselor & Depth Hypnosis Practitioner
- September 9, 2007; 10am – 3pm in Berkeley, CA
For more information, please visit: www.kathywoo.org
To register, contact Kathy by email: info@kathywoo.org or phone: 510-665-5694;
Ongoing Classes in the South Bay, CA with Karin Mellberg, Depth Hypnosis Practitioner
- Weekly Guided Relaxation & Meditation at Elephant Pharmacy, Los Altos. Begins again September 5, weekly on Weds. Evenings, 6 – 6:45pm
- Monthly Healing Drum Circle for Women with Breast Cancer, hosted by the Community Breast Health Project, Palo Alto. Sept. 8, Oct.13, Nov. 10, Dec. 8; 1:30pm – 2:30pm
On-Going Practice Group in Middletown, RI
An opportunity to share experiences, get support and feedback as well as practice what we have learned in the Foundation training courses. If you are interested, contact Katharine Rossi at redmoonelf@hotmail.com or 401-245-0398.
Healing Arts Center, Palm Desert
www.deserthealingarts.com/index.php
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