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History of Conferences
From February 1992 through the present, the
Marion Foundation has held approximately 45 conferences
featuring almost 100 distinguished speakers. These weekends are
intimate gatherings of people from Marion and beyond, and the
result is a vibrant and singular sense of community — a
community of keen learners. Participants share a zest for
exploring the frontiers of human potential and the evolution of
body/mind/spirit. They also share an adventurous curiosity about
current insights into the universal values that can serve as
keys to living in a rapidly changing world.
May 2002 From Personal Transformation to a Movement: Transforming Empowerment of the Individual to the Collective (Innovative Frontiers in Philanthropy)
Wangari Maathai once again left us
awestruck during her recent workshop in Marion May 19-20. She
told us her story about her experience of opening to a new way
of belonging. During her childhood she was a member of the
Legion of Mary, which in its simple way of giving to others,
created in her a desire to live for the common good. “The
moments that I am most alive are when I’m being useful to
other people.” From experience grew learning, critical
analysis and a commitment to intelligent action.
November 2001
In spite of access to the written word for
many thousands of years, in spit of Gutenberg, and now the
computer, in spite of astounding new revelations primarily over
the last 150 years, we retain widely differing, contradicting,
and confused views about our own past. The Taliban have not been
the first to destroy cultural records and artifacts of art,
science and religion. We've been doing it ourselves with great
enthusiasm for thousands of years. We are on a quest remarkably
similar to that of Alex Haley when he set our to write Roots.
Here was a people whose past had been ripped from them most
violently, placed in a new culture under new terms, and cut off
from their own cultural, historical and spiritual past. Is it
too outrageous to suggest that western culture in general, seen
over a spectrum of 5000 or more years, is subject to a similar
challenge? After listening to Christopher Knight, John
Lash and Elaine Pagels address their subjects with
great depth of passion and insight, I would say yes, this is
indeed the case.
May 2002
The Second Biological Medicine Seminar of our
Two Year Series took place over the weekend of May 3-5, 2002,
here at the Marion Foundation.
April 2002
Nineteen women and two very brave men gathered at
Healing Arts in Marion to spend Saturday, April 27th,
with Deborah Keir to explore the nature of intuition and
its expression in our daily lives. Amid sunshine and flowers,
we learned the difference between impulsivity and intuition,
between mind projection and intuition. Intuition arises when we
are in our bodies, not our minds, and when we listen deeply to
ourselves. It can come up when one is quiet or when one is active
and engaged, but there is no mind — there is only “a
knowing without a knower”. Deborah presented a continuum that
ranged from the Outer World (our material reality) to Oneness
(unity experience). Somewhere after Thinking and Emotion, comes
Intuition — situated between our Body and our Essence. Our
senses are the conduits for intuition; the mind is the saboteur.
What mind story are you telling yourself that prevents you from
feeling and allowing your intuitive wisdom to come through? We
studied each other’s faces and photographs to gain impressions
that were intuitive rather than mental. The synchronicities of
description were amazing! We, at the Marion Foundation, thank Deborah
very much for collaborating with us to
present this workshop. It was a wonderful use of the Community
Fund, and we hope to have a follow-up very soon.
April 2002
Just about four years ago, Joan Anderson
spoke at the Marion Foundation about her book A Year by the
Sea. Joan Anderson struck a chord with many readers with her
memoirs about her year-long break from her marriage and time of
independent self-discovery.
January 2002
On the evening of January 28th, Wangari
Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, captivated an
audience of approximately 200 people at the University Club in
New York City as she recounted many colorful stories about her
days growing up in the “Rift Valley”, a region in Kenya. As a
child, Wangari viewed this area as the whole world nestled
between mountains and beneath clouds held up by the horns of the
water buffalo. One day Wangari traveled to the top of these mountain
ridges and discovered there is a world beyond “Rift Valley”.
It’s through these journeys and risks in life that we realize
there are many other worlds to see and learn from. Wangari also
described how, as a little girl, she would wade in waters full
of water lilies in an attempt to collect “beads”, or frog
eggs. Wangari later realized that the water disappeared because
of deforestation so there were no beads for children to chase. Through
these rich and vivid stories, we
learned why Wangari is so passionate about preserving the
environment and educating communities to take individual
responsibility and local action. At the end of her lecture,
Wangari, as gracious as ever, expressed tremendous gratitude for
all who have supported her over the past 25 years.
December 2001 The start of the Second Two Year Biological
Medicine Network Seminar and Workshop Series took place the
weekend of December 7-9 at the Marion Foundation. There were 81
participants including many new practitioners. Dr. Rau
“kicked off” the weekend with a free lecture that was open
to the public in Lyndon Hall at Tabor Academy and the auditorium
was full! He touched on many of the basics of biological
medicine from our inner milieu, children’s health to
autoimmune diseases and cancer.
May 2001 Each of us is blessed with a particular soul signature written over many lifetimes. David La Chapelle who tells the story of the world — poet, playwright, essayist — met with twenty of us May 18-20 at the Marion Foundation to help us learn how to move toward self-awareness. We’re being sung to You each have a unique relationship with the
Absolute. Each of you has a part to sing that adds to the beauty
of a Universal chorale. You have a capacity for self-awareness,
for awareness of a vast field of energy calling you into being.
An. informing power is waiting, present, and accessible. And the
more you open yourself, the more it moves into your being to
create you. We all long for this connection with the Absolute as
the Absolute longs for us.
May 2001
This was the first of the annual advanced
seminars designed for the cadre of practitioners who had
graduated from the first two-year course completed last
September at Foxhollow. Two knockout speakers from Europe joined
Dr. Rau and Dr. James Odell in presenting more
illuminating material.
May 2001 Introduction to Biological Medicine Lecture
May 10th was a Big
Day for BMN. On a day of glorious spring sunshine, apple and
Japanese cherry blossom in full bloom, the main auditorium of
the splendid campus of Tabor Academy was packed full. Dr. Rau
transfixed 150 or so invited guests at a daylong introduction to
biological medicine. The event was filmed for a new series of
videotapes that we have for sale and we also have Healing
Places the poignant and edifying video that tells of
Nathaniel Baldwin’s life changing visits to Dr. Rau.
April 2001
April 27th — 28th,
oncologist and author of Journey Through Cancer, Dr.
Jeremy Geffen taught us many ways in which to cope with the
physical, mental and spiritual suffering that cancer patients
and the like often experience. Dr. Geffen finds many of his
patients share common feelings of terror and alienation. In
working through Dr. Geffen’s seven-level program, many
discover how life’s a journey is one that can be filled with
unbounded love and joy! Along with conventional treatments, Dr.
Geffen also offers holistic, mental and spiritual forms of
therapy. He encourages us to “stop doing and start being”,
whether or not we’re dealing with an illness. It’s important
to figure out our goals and life’s purpose. Quiet, even silent
time alone is also critical to overall healing. Dr. Geffen is
the Founder and Director of the Geffen Cancer Center and
Research Institute in Vero Beach, Florida.
April 2001 Indigenous Traditions, the Diversity of Humanity and the Survival of Languages (Innovative Frontiers in Philanthropy) Innovative Frontiers in Philanthropy (IF) continues to build partnerships with its grantees and donors by organizing learning opportunities for both. Last month the Marion Foundation hosted a Dialogue on Indigenous Traditions, the Diversity of Humanity and the Survival of Languages. The Dialogue was inspired by the visionary work that project partner, Nouvelle Planete, is supporting in Peru to preserve cultural and biological diversity. Jeremy Narby, Coordinator of the Amazonian projects for Nouvelle Planete and anthropologist extraordinaire, joined us in Marion to lead the dialogue. Accompanying Jeremy Narby were Never Tuesta and Lucy Trapnell, founders of the Program of the Educational Training of Bilingual Teachers of the Peruvian Amazon. The day’s discussion was an exemplary element of the “partnership” philanthropy Innovative Frontiers strives to achieve. Donors, friends and project implementers joined together to learn from one another, share ideas and seek solutions that will promote change. In a note from Jeremy Narby, he thanked the Marion Foundation and added: The Marion Foundation is doing just what it is set out to do, namely a new kind of philanthropy, where the point is to bring resource people together as much as it is to raise money and distribute it to well identified causes. I’ve never seen anything like it. It makes me feel full of energy to keep on keeping on. I also believe all the more strongly that the world can truly be changed if we just keep on going in this direction.
For more information about Nouvelle
Planete’s work in Peru or to inquire about any of our other
project partners, contact the Marion Foundation at (508)
748-0816 or
IF@marionfoundation.org
October 2000 Bridges to Healing: Grieving and Forgiveness
This was a follow-up to what was started in
our Death as Teacher workshop. We wanted to look at two
important aspects of dying, which we felt needed a better
understanding: grieving and forgiveness. Mitch
Davidowitz started us off with a full and rich conversation
on the different ways we grieve and what is missing in our
culture that doesn’t allow for the “space” needed for
grieving. As he said, “we need to give our sorrow words and
share our stories.” If we can open ourselves up to the meaning
of grief and loss, it can become an active and sacred part of
life.
March 2000 Death as Teacher: Learning about Life Through Facing Death
This was a workshop with Betsy MacGregor, M.D.
who has been witnessing the dying process for
many years through her work with patients at Beth Israel Medical
Center in New York City. She guided us through the various
approaches to death through slides and stories of her patients
and then asked us to look at those close to us who have died as
well as what our own dying process might look like. We were a
small intimate group, which allowed for in-depth sharing and
story telling. We learned to understand death as a part of life,
a giving up of control and a process of forgiveness. We
understood that by looking at death, we are looking at life and
how to live courageously, honestly and compassionately. Dr.
MacGregor was a wonderful teacher and companion for what is so
often thought to be a dark and difficult subject.
October 1999 A “New” Cosmology: Reconnecting to the Rhythms of the Universe
The speakers were Brian Swimme, Karen Barrows,
and Judi Smith. All
three were highly original people, each of whom manifested an
extraordinarily gifted performance persona, having in common a
gentle flamboyance. The message of the insights from all three
speakers was a new humanism and an old wisdom, as well as the
entrancing scientific discoveries of laws of behavior of vast
and miniscule phenomena in the cosmos, what Brian Swimme calls
the scientific basis of the “new” cosmology. He put it
beautifully: “The human becomes the form that the universe
uses” to become self-awareperhaps each of us left the
conference bearing our own little beginning fragment of the
eventual universal awareness.
August 1999
A small group met
for a weekend in early August to learn from John
Lash, who had previously presented at our “New
Understanding of History” conference about our galaxy and its
place in the universe. As stated in Michael Baldwin’s
write-up, “It was, I guess, a ‘primer’ for understanding
something about the universe and our place in it. I wish a
version of this would be taught in every school. I think it
would be enormously helpful. As a prologue, I think what John
was saying was to keep your mind’ open and go to the school
of wonderment and mystery, rather than obsessive-compulsive
understanding. Understanding is secondary. We are living in an
anomalous universe and when we appreciate the anomaly, we will
discover ourselves.
May 1999 Paracelsus Seminar II - Biological Medicine
Our second Paracelsus/Foxhollow seminar for
European biological medicine was held at the Marion Foundation
May 14 to 16. The speakers included Dr.
Thomas Rau, Dr. James Odell OMD, Dr.
David Nye DDS, Dr. Byron Braid MD, Dr.
Robert Zieve MD, Dr. Maria Gabrielle, ND and Dr.
Jake Johnston, FACEP.
The third seminar is in December 1999 and the
fourth in May 2000. You must have completed one previous seminar
in order to attend. Also at this seminar the Biological Medicine
Network was launched as a collaborative effort by the Marion
Foundation, Foxhollow Wellness Center, and Paracelsus.
March 1999 Michael T. Murray, N.D. Lecture and Workshop
On March 19 and 20 Michael
Murray, a leading authority on natural medicine, shared a
wealth of experience and knowledge about natural approaches to
common ailments and conditions such as osteoarthritis, hormone
therapies, heart disease, depression, menopause, stress,
cholesterol and the aging process. He encouraged us to
incorporate into our lives the four cornerstones of good health,
which are: a positive mental attitude, diet, exercise, and
supplementary measures such as body work, nutritional
supplements and homeopathy. Dr. Murray stressed that 80% of the
world’s population still relies on natural remedies; however,
in the last 20 years there has been a resurgence in the
popularity of botanical medicine in developing countries. We are
beginning to utilize the healing power of nature by first
looking at prevention as the best cure and treating the whole
person (body, mind and spirit) when identifying the cause of an
illness, not the symptoms that are created in its wake. All
diseases have their origin at the cellular membrane level, and
we must have strong building blocks to ensure good health. We
should seek out health care providers who are teachers and
inspire us to be healthy, and we need to be proactive and take
responsibility for our own well-being.
January 1999
Many of the attendees didn’t quite know what to expect from the
experiential workshop presented by William Buhlman, author of
Adventures Beyond the Body. Surely
they were intrigued by the topic, particularly because it
challenged the comfort zone of their usual realities.
November 1998 A New Understanding of History
Our speakers were Graham Hancock, Wendy Hunter
Roberts, and John Lash. Our facilitator was Alan
Atkisson. The intention of the conference was to co-create a
better understanding of the future by opening our eyes to a past
that we had forgotten.
October 1998 Paracelsus Seminar I — Biological Medicine
In early October,
the Marion Foundation held the first of four 4-day seminars on
biological medicine, the first of its kind in the Northeast. Dr.
Thomas Rau, head of the Paracelsus Klinik in Switzerland,
led the seminar. Other presenters included: Ken Thorp, James Odell
from the Foxhollow Wellness Center in Kentucky, which is setting
up the first Paracelsus satellite center in the U.S., Byron
Braid, Robert Zieve, and David Nye.
April 1998 The Levels of Power and Energetic Anatomy
Caroline Myss, Ph.D., author of Anatomy
of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing and Why
People Don’t Heal and How They Can. On Friday night,
Caroline gave a talk about Consciousness
in the Human Energy System to an overflow crowd of 600
people. At the Saturday workshop, she inspired us all to begin
our personal and societal healing with the simple act of
forgiveness. Forgiveness is essential to healing — we either
get “bitter or better.” Caroline took us through the chakra
system and the three astrological ages in order to demonstrate
to us that the time to act is now, and that belief is the most
important component of energy medicine. She challenged us to
investigate how open our minds are, what kind of choices we
make, and who makes them.
November 1997
Current economic models are based on competition, unlimited growth and the
paradoxical view that resources are both scarce and limitless.
When you assume scarcity, you hoard, compete, skimp and
scrounge, and view others as competitors. There is very little
room for generosity, celebration or grace. When you assume
unlimited resources, you waste, splurge, indulge, and become
gluttonous, and there’s no need for discipline or stewardship.
Only if you assume sufficiency can you take responsibility while
practicing generosity, and cut waste while leaving room for
beauty and excellence. Above all, this conference was about
awareness, not knowledge, not even perhaps complete
understanding. If you grasp intuitively that the world may be
running out of control, you don’t need to fill your head with
facts, which illustrate the point.
The conference ended with all participants
pledging actions and resources as a personal step in moving
“From Growth to Balance.”
April 1997 Reclaiming Our Responsibility for Healing
What is a healthy human? What kind of society will foster the
creation of a healthy human? According to Riane Eisler,
author and cultural historian, a healthy human is one
who actualizes caring, creativity and curiosity, and a society
that fosters this is one based on partnership, not domination.
Our most important capital is human, and a sense of social
connectedness is critical to our health, stated Fraser
Mustard, president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced
Research. Dr. Kenneth Thorp, diagnostic radiologist,
asserted that the strongest factors in disease are the educational
and socioeconomic levels, and until we honor human relationship as
much as we do technology, we will only be treating the symptoms, not the
“upstream causes.” Janet
Amare, healer, teacher, and writer, spoke of the “moments
of healing” when a person connects to a higher level of
possibility and where there is a perception that you have a
choice.
February 1997 Male and Female: The Hunger for Wholeness
This workshop focused on the relationship
between our masculine and feminine aspects — internally as
well as externally. The integration and partnership of these two
parts of a whole are essential for both personal and global
transformation. Marion Woodman, Jungian analyst and author,
and David Whyte, poet and author, created a dynamic conversation between
themselves and with the attendees that invited participation and
that was enlivened with poetry, compassion, insight and humor.
To quote Marion Woodman, “If men and women are to be equal
partners in the outer world, the foundations for that
partnership must first be laid within themselves.” We
celebrated the diversity within the unity and vowed to continue
the conversation between and within the sexes that was
eloquently begun by Marion and David.
November 1996 The Poetry of Solutions: Taking the Natural Step
This conference represented the culmination
of our ongoing association with The Natural Step/U.S. (TNS/US).
We believe it to be the most significant movement for economic
and environmental change that has appeared in the last
half-century. Founded in Sweden in 1989 by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert,
featured speaker, The Natural Step is
radical in its focus on “upstream” changes as opposed to
“downstream” damage control. Dr. Robert eloquently described
his personal journey that led to the development of this
environmental philosophy based on inclusivity and consensus. Paul
Hawken returned to deliver the scientific basis of TNS,
making it both incontrovertible and humorous — no mean feat! Ray
Anderson, another repeat performer, announced that his
company, Interface, Inc., had become the first major U.S.
corporation to become a Natural Step company. James
Parks Morton, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
in New York City, shared his personal spiritual journey and
reminded us of the value of tears, surprise and love and the
ever-present reality of poverty throughout the world. Donella Meadows,
author of Beyond the Limits, passionately
articulated our responsibility for the plight of the environment
while still holding out some hope for positive change. Rigmor
Robert, Jungian analyst, enchanted us with her personal
story and the ancient myths that showed the eternal duality of
the universe — god/demon, male/female — and the energy that
comes from the struggle for wholeness.
April 1996 Reconnecting and Relationships
This conference featured Daniel Goleman, author of
Emotional Intelligence, Matthew
Fox, author of The Reinvention of Work, Ray
Anderson, President and C.E.O. of Interface, Inc., and
Ola Ivarrson, Director of Corporate Purchasing at Scandic Hotels.
How do we implement The Natural Step principles of merging the
interest of business growth and environmental sustainability?
How do we reconnect with others and focus on agreement, group
effort and cooperation? How do we learn to give back, replenish
and restore the environment and still prosper economically? How
do we learn by Monday
morning to implement environment-friendly products in our
homes and our workplaces? These and other timely questions were
raised this weekend during a conference marked by a remarkable
absence of ego and a one for all attitude of shared interests
and mutual consideration. Daniel Goleman spoke about emotional
intelligence (e.q.) — how to harness the power of emotions to
be happier — and also more content in our workplaces. Ray
Anderson spoke of his quest to make Interface a total Natural
Step company while Ola Ivarrson showed us how his company uses
The Natural Step principles. Matthew Fox brought the spirit of
this cosmological cooperation all together — exemplified on
the last day of the conference as, hands in each other’s
hands, we celebrated our connection with all beings of the earth
in circles of harmony and peace — echoing Rilke’s words:
“Walk your walk of lament on a path of praise.”
March 1996 New Perceptions of Death and Dying and the Survival of Consciousness
New developments
in non-ordinary states of consciousness associated with quantum
physics strongly suggest that there are certain aspects of our
consciousness that are eternal, ageless, and not limited by time
and space. Do these aspects survive physical death? This
conference examined that question, and focused on the dying
experience itself. Charles
Tart, pioneer researcher in altered states of consciousnes
and one of the founders of the transpersonal psychology
movement, spoke on the survival of consciousness with humor and
warmth, making the near-death experience accessible to all. He
underscored the importance of a receptive mind open to the field
of all possibilities — including mystical experiences.
February 1996
Dr. Christiane Northrup, author of Women’s Bodies,
Women’s Minds, board certified gynecologist and
obstetrician, graduate of Dartmouth Medical School, and
co-founder of Women to Women, an innovative health care center
for women in Yarmouth, Maine, delivered her message, Choosing
Hope, Health and Joy: Taking the Leap of Faith That Heals Your
World to a standing room only audience of over 600 people,
in chairs, on the floor and standing in the back of the room
during this evening lecture and one-day workshop. Chris Northrup
thinks science should truthfully acknowledge what it doesn’t
know, “and leave
room for mystery, miracles, and the wisdom of nature.” Indeed,
Dr. Northrup teaches women how to tune into their female
intuition for healing and how attitude is the most important
factor in health care — “you must give yourself positive
input. WHAT WE PAY ATTENTION TO GROWS. Thoughts become their
physical equivalents over time. The cause of illness is the
disparity between what you believe and how you live.”
November 1995 Business Unusual: Learning, Designing, Solving
This conference was highlighted by: (1) Paul
Hawken (keynote speaker), award-winning entrepreneur and
best-selling author of The Ecology of Commerce and Growing
a Business; (2) The Honorable James George, distinguished Canadian ambassador
(retired), author, and founder of The Threshold Foundation,
which recognizes organizations worldwide that initiate solutions
to pressing problems of our day; (3) Charles
J. Hess, co-founder, Inferential Focus, Inc., a New York
City market intelligence firm specializing in the early
detection of social, business, political and economic change;
(4) John Hazen White, C.E.O., Taco, Inc., and (5) Theresa
M. Szczurek, President and C.E.O, Technology and Management
Solutions. The weekend connected essential learning principles
to effective business solutions in response to new corporate
challenges. As Collins and Porras have written, “The last
thing a visionary company would ever do is to follow a cookbook
recipe for success... Building a visionary company is a design
problem, and great designers apply general principles, not
mechanical lockstep dogma.”
June 1995 Doing Business in a Changing World
This conference featured Paul Hawken, founder,
Smith & Hawken, Inc. and author of The
Ecology of Commerce and The Next Economy;
Joan Borysenko, founder of the Mind/Body Health Sciences and author
of Fire in the Soul and Minding the Body, Mending the
Mind; and David Whyte,
poet and author of The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the
Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. How do the
body, mind and spirit cope with the stress of the modern
business world? What are some solutions? Can we find joy in the
workplace? To answer these questions, Dr. Joan Borysenko
addressed matters of mind/body health in the workplace; Bart
Nourse, executive director of the Marion Foundation, applied
insights of certain enduring philosophies to business strategy
and decision-making, and the poet David Whyte related insights
found in poetry to the frustrations of corporate life. Paul
Hawken explained how to boldly redesign business so that both
business and the environment work in harmony for the sake of all
beings and Mother Earth.
March 1995
What is consciousness and how might it be
changing in modern times? The weekend began with a primer on
consciousness, examining the history of philosophy on the matter
of mind and the history of science on the matter of paradigm
shifts. Corporate consultant, futurist, and physicist Peter
Russell referred to his two groundbreaking books, The
Global Brain and The White Hole in Time, arguing that
technology is allowing for the evolution of a species-wide
“brain,” a development that gives us a window of opportunity
to address the massive global problems facing humanity at
present. Colin Wilson, author of over fifty books, including the
international best-seller, The Outsider, dazzled the
audience with both his originality and his widely-read authority
on how to maintain the kind of consciousness requried to
experience life at a powerful “peak” level. Rhea
White, director of the Exceptional Human Experience Network,
explained how extraordinary experiences seem to contribute to an
individual’s own consciousness evolution and spiritual growth
and openness. Dr.
Stanislav Grof, psychiatrist and best-selling author of The
Holotropic Mind and The Adventure of Self-Discovery,
examined the transpersonal nature of non-ordinary states of
consciousness, especially as manifested in the birth experience
induced by his “holotropic
breathwork.” Dr. Grof presented a slide show that revealed
universal archetypes of the unconscious to which breathwork can
connect the psyche.
February 1995 Business and the New Exceptionalism in America
This conference, our first dealing with the
newly emerging business paradigm, launched a three-part 1995
series entitled Business in Transition. Bart
Nourse, executive director of the Marion Foundation,
revisited the historical concept of “American Exceptionalism”
arguing that to meet the challenges of profound global change in
the workplace, we can adapt and utilize certain
“exceptional” cultural strengths, the willingness to start
over again in the frontier of consciousness, the sense of
community volunteerism (not isolated outposts but within a
global village) and an orientation to a future of growth — not
a future without limits but of sustainability. Michael Murphy returned to discuss in greater detail the exceptional
human capacities that he researched in his book — capacities
that have been deployed by the Arizona Public Service Company,
operators of the western hemisphere’s largest nuclear power
reactor, where application of Murphy’s integral practices have
led to increasing productivity and significant cost savings.
Professor Michael Ray
from Stanford Business School gave an in-depth overview of the
timely importance of the so-called “new paradigm in
business.” Carol Osborn, author of How Would Confucius Ask for a Raise?
linked her understanding of the enduring Chinese text, the Tao
Te Ching, to decision-making and managerial practices in the
workplace. Finally, Rev.
Matthew Fox gave a standing-ovation talk about his
best-selling book, The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of
Livelihood for Our Time, arguing that work without spiritual
purpose is empty, yet work with spiritual purpose is absolutely
vital to the critical times in which we live.
September 1994 Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Times
With a cast of six speakers, this gathering
constituted the Foundation’s most ambitious weekend. (Indeed,
it was rated as one of the six best national conferences in 1994
by Sounds True, Inc.) The theme was extraordinary human
potential in a demanding era of profound and historic change. Dr.
Willis Harman, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences
and a founder of the World Business Academy, opened the weekend
with an overview of the sweeping assumptions that characterize
the world of conventional science and business — assumptions
that will require fundamental transformation in the face of 21st
century challenges. Professor
Richard Tarnas, author of the best-selling The Passion of
the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our
World View, placed our times into a larger, 3500-year-old
perspective, pointing to the male-female duality as critical to
appreciating our changing moment in history. Douchan Gersi, explorer and filmmaker who has documented the story
of traditional peoples worldwide, articulated what the wisdom
traditions of so-called “primitive” societies can teach us
moderns of the post-industrial age (urgent and timely). Marilyn
Ferguson, author of the classic The Aquarian Conspiracy:
Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time, discussed
the attributes of visionaries, those extraordinary people who
will help guide us through extraordinary times. Michael
Murphy, who helped to launch the modern human potential
movement with his founding of the Esalen Institute over thirty
years ago, addressed his study of exceptional human capacities
as put forth in his book The Future of the Body: Explorations
into the Further Evolution of Human Nature. Dr.
Joan Borysenko, whose optimistic spiritual psychology is
framed in her work Fire in the Soul, concluded the
conference, revealing the strengths latent in the soulful depths
of every individual.
March 1994
The conference looked out into space, not as
the great void, but as a frontier of boundless intelligences and
possibilities. At the same time, the speakers examined the
frontiers of inner space, of consciousness itself, and its
limitless potentialities. Edgar
Mitchell, sixth and final Apollo astronaut to walk on the
moon and founder of the 45,000 member Institute of Noetic
Sciences (consciousness studies), gave a stunning talk on the
latest in brain research, the mind’s ability to slip into a
“non-local” state (like quanta), and the mystical experience
of “unitive awareness” (oneness with the universe). Dr.
Steven Greer also explored the meditative capability of
non-local mind, linking this to the apprehension of
extraterrestrial intelligences (the probability of which most
astronomers acknowledge) and the implications for human life.
Finally, Zecharia Sitchin,
author of The Earth Chronicles, provided tantalizing data
from ancient Sumerian texts indicating the intriguing
possibility that intelligences long ago knew about life on
Earth.
September 1993 Emerging Worldviews and Personal Awakenings
Gordon Clough, founder of the Ontological Society and instructor at
Santa Barbara City College in California, served as the sole
presenter in a conference that integrated many of the
Foundation’s studies over the previous two years. Combining
lecture, discussion, and videos, Clough wove together the
insights of such groundbreaking thinkers as Dr. Stanislav Grof,
Rev. Matthew Fox, Marilyn Ferguson (these three speakers have
since spoken at subsequent Foundation conferences), Joseph
Campbell, Professor Carl Sagan, Professor Rupert Sheldrake, Ram
Dass, Riane Eisler, Saul-Paul Sirag, and Elaine Pagels. The
conference reinforced the sense that not only is the world
changing, but the way humans look at and understand the world,
the pervasive assumptions that shape our worldview, are
themselves transforming and enlarging, perhaps radically so —
during this watershed period of history unrivaled by historic
shifts in the past. The common denominator of the emerging
worldview is its emphasis on the transpersonal, the spiritual,
the holistic, the planetary.
February 1993
The conference explored the limitations of,
and some alternatives to, western medical practices. According
to an oft-cited report published in the New England Journal of
Medicine, Americans now spend roughly equal sums on alternative
medical treatments as on conventional methods. Aided by holistic
healers, Dr. Monique Tiberghien and Dr.
Beata Priore, members explored as a group, as well as
through individual appointments, options in nutrition, sound
therapy, and energy healing, among others.
October 1992 Quantum Physics and the Holographic Universe
Many thinkers in the vanguard of quantum
physics suggest that, from the atom to the universe, reality is
best understood holistically — not reductionistically —
since reality is not apprehended via isolated bits of lifeless
matter but as an interconnected fabric of living consciousness.
The perceiver of that reality is the human mind, itself a part
of that total fabric. Fred
Alan Wolf, author of The Eagle’s Quest, explained
the links between principles of modern physics and those of
“primitive” wisdom traditions exemplified by shamanism. The
distinguished physicist David
Peat reported on his book The Looking Glass Universe
and demonstrated how reality is closer to the fantastic world of
Alice in Wonderland than to the predictable clockwork of the
Cartesian/Newtonian model. Musical innovator Jerry
Vassilatos concluded the conference by discussing the
vibratory essence of the universe as revealed through the study
of sound.
February 1992
Do we live in a purely material and
mechanistic world or are there phenomena which suggest that ours
is a world full of wonder and mystery? Are many of us locked
into certain assumptions that emerging worldviews are
challenging? Indeed so, agreed February ’92’s four speakers.
Dr. Kenneth Ring,
professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut and author
of The Omega Project, discussed his 15-year-long research
into “near-death experiences.” (Gallup reports an estimated
12 million Americans have experienced NDEs, which seem to
indicate that consciousness endures beyond bodily death.)
Astrologist Leonie Starr
and author John Mitchell,
both from Britain, reported on the intriguing phenomenon of
“crop circles” as well as the ancient pursuit of “sacred
geometry.” Dr. Norma
Milanovich addressed intelligence gleaned from so-called
“non-local mind.”
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Metahistory Quest Copyright 2002 - 2008 The Marion Institute. |
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