Library
Video: Depth Hypnosis, Shamanism, and Altered States of Consciousness with Isa Gucciardi
Isa Gucciardi and Laura Chandler discuss Depth Hypnosis – the highly effective therapeutic model Isa developed – which combines elements of shamanism, Buddhism, energy medicine, and transpersonal psychology. Isa explains how she works with altered states of consciousness such as meditation, hypnosis, guided visualizations, and the shamanic journey, as well as dream work, somatic therapy and shamanic healing practices to help clients transform deeply held patterns so that they can lead happier and healthier lives. This interview takes place at the Sacred Stream Center in Berkeley, CA.
Community Event: Ahhhmuse: Crystal Trunk Show, Readings, & Workshops
Ahhhmuse is Marilyn and Tohmas Twintreess, two beautiful beings who have listened directly to spirit daily…for decades. They travel internationally, offering thousands of living crystals, quantum-leap workshops, evolutionary tools, spiritual books, sentient gems, superfood elixirs, amazing singing bowls, and glorious jewelry. As stone guardians and listeners, they work directly with elementals and the plant/mineral/animal kingdoms, helping evolving humans learn how to connect directly with spirit in extraordinary ways. Being with Ahhhmuse is a profound experience – it isn’t just being in the presence of so many thousands of crystals or beautiful resources – it’s about how they listen deeply to each person, to assist that being with exactly what they need in the moment they’re in.
Blog: Managing Initiation
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
In traditional cultures, the way a culture meets and manages the initiatory processes of its individual members is one of its defining qualities. The management of these initiations is generally accomplished by helping the initiate move through a ritual of some kind. Initiatory rituals can be very elaborate and well defined. In fact, anthropologists generally learn about a culture through the study of initiation rituals.
Rituals and culturally defined structures are good management tools to direct and hold the power of the initiatory process. However, a significant drawback to many rituals and cultural structures is that they have been designed to direct the power that is released in the initiatory process into the society’s structures, rather than dedicating it to the initiate.
A Meeting of the Ways with Diane Solomon and Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.: Huna, Ho’oponopono, and the Nature of Forgiveness
Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D., and Diane Solomon, host of A Meeting of the Ways, explore the Huna concept of ho’oponopono and the nature of forgiveness. They also discuss Isa’s upcoming workshop on the Big Island of Hawaii, where students visit sacred sites, including Kīlauea, the active volcano on the island.
Blog: Awakening the Wisdom of Ancient Hawaii
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
While Laura Chandler and I were in Iowa during the past week on our book tour for Coming to Peace, I found myself talking more about my childhood in Hawaii than I normally do as the friendly and curious people in Iowa asked questions about the history of the book. Everyone was interested in Hawaii and the ancient Hawaiian practices that are discussed in the book.
In August, I will be teaching a workshop on the Big Island of Hawaii called Huna: The First Psychology. As I answered questions about the workshop, I was reminded of Max Freedom Long’s reports on his research in the Hawaiian Islands in the early part of the 20th century. His book The Secret Science Behind Miracles offers a peek into the experience of the Hawaiians after a century of colonization, and his reports on his research into the body of work he named Huna is very compelling.
Blog: Buddhist Perspectives on Grief and Loss
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
In Robert Thurman’s prelude to his translation of Bardo Thodol, commonly translated as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, he takes to task scientific materialists’ perspective that death is a terminal state, a state of nothingness where life is destroyed. He points out that these materialists “have never observed even one material thing become nothing. Why should the energy reality of a state of awareness [life] ……be the exception to the law of physics that energy is conserved and only transformed?”
I have always appreciated Dr. Thurman’s willingness to take on monolithic prejudices, in the name of science, in response to spiritual questions. I have always felt the wholesale rejection of notions such as the possibility of life after death and the existence of spirit was highly unscientific. In order to step into the universe of life beyond death from the Buddhist perspective, we have to allow ourselves to be disabused of the ways in which we may have unwittingly digested the viewpoints of scientific materialism on these subjects simply because they dominate in our education system.
Video: Robert Thurman Discusses Man of Peace with Isa Gucciardi
Isa Gucciardi sits down with renowned Buddhist scholar, Dr. Robert Thurman, who has co-written a no-holds-barred graphic novel about the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Article: Sustaining Enlightened Activity in Difficult Times
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
The theme we are going to speak about today is enlightened activity and the courage and dedication that it takes to sustain it.
It has taken courage for each of you to set out on the path toward consciousness in general and the path of Depth Hypnosis in particular. As a client it takes courage and dedication to look deeply at the issues that create obstacles in your life. And as a practitioner, it takes courage to step into the deep levels of integrity that are required to meet another person in the place where they are suffering.
Blog: Plant Medicine: An Interview with Isa Gucciardi
Q. What led you to develop your new series of workshops on plant medicine?
A. Plants have always been a big focus of interest for me. I started studying Native American herbal medicine when I was 20, and I have studied with some really wonderful teachers. The plants themselves have taught me a tremendous amount. We have other classes where we study the intelligence of plants (Mesa Verde) and explore the use of plants in healing (flower essences, in Advanced Integrated Energy Medicine) here at the Sacred Stream, but I thought it was time now to focus on understanding the intelligence of psychotropic plants in healing.
Special Announcement: Sacred Stream Offering Series of Workshops in Iowa’s Quad Cities Region This May
Starting May 9, Sacred Stream will be offering some of their most popular workshops in Iowa’s Quad Cities region. Courses available include: Coming to Peace: Methods of Conflict Resolution (Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center, Hiawatha), Expanding Consciousness: The Four Immeasurables Resolution (Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center, Hiawatha), Embracing the Sacred Feminine (Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Wheatland), Consciousness and Integrated Energy Medicine (Bettendorf Public Library, Bettendorf), and The Path of Service and the Nature of Suffering (Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Wheatland).
Blog: Embraced by the Sacred Feminine at Menla
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
While I was on my way from California to Menla Retreat in New York, three feet of snow had been falling at Menla. Robert Thurman and I had scheduled our Embracing the Sacred Feminine course at the Spring Equinox with the idea that the Great Mother would be revealing herself through emerging bulbs and leaf buds. The weather in the Catskill Mountains is, however, unpredictable at any season. So, rather than sunning myself under budding apple trees at Menla, I found myself with bare trees, silent snow, and dark nights. Yet the power of the land of Menla became even more evident in the dark sparkle of winter.
Blog: Mindful Leadership: Learning to Lead with the Heart and Mind
By Hal Adler
Have you given any thought to how you can be a better leader through mindfulness? This is a topic I’ve been passionate about for years, way before its mainstream acceptance. As mindfulness continues to grow in popularity and becomes the latest health and wellness craze to infiltrate the workplace, it’s as if we’ve finally been given permission to talk about this stuff openly.
A Meeting of the Ways with Diane Solomon and Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.: Embracing the Sacred Feminine at the Spring Equinox
Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D., and Diane Solomon, host of A Meeting of the Ways, continue their discussion about the Spring Equinox and explore the concept of the Sacred Feminine and its relationship to the spring season. They touch upon some important insights about the Sacred Feminine that have emerged from the classes that Isa has taught on the subject for the last 15 years. Isa also talks about her collaboration with thought leader and Buddhist scholar, Dr. Robert Thurman, in co-teaching a class called Embracing the Sacred Feminine, and discusses the role of the feminine within Buddhist philosophy.
Blog: Embracing the Feminine
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
As I am preparing to return to Menla Retreat in the beautiful Catskill Mountains in Phoenicia, New York to teach Embracing the Sacred Feminine with Robert Thurman, I am struck by the change in public discourse around the feminine experience that has occurred since the last time we taught this class together. With the ascendance of a president who grants permission, through his words and actions, to publicly humiliate women without negative consequence, others have become emboldened to repudiate women’s rights. This repudiation, demonstrated in the U.S. Senate, demonstrated in the struggle for women’s reproductive rights, and demonstrated in the rejection of a woman president can only be a function of a larger misogyny. Misogyny has always been part of the cultural fabric – not only in the U.S., but also in many, many other cultural settings. Yet the current bald demonstration of it at this point in our history is shocking.
Blog: Coming to Peace Within Yourself
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
In my book, Coming to Peace, I focus on how to resolve conflict in families, communities, and between individuals. Just as important, I also attempt to help people understand the deeper reasons conflicts arise in the first place. Often the causes are far more complex than a simple misunderstanding between people suggests.