Sunday, December 13: IONS Holiday Open House

2-5 pm at the Institute of Noetic Sciences Retreat Center: 101 San Antonio Road, Petaluma, CA 94952

Bring: Your favorite cookies/sweets to share and a food donation for the Marin County food drive basket!

Join us in community for:

• Wine, sparkling waters and holiday snacks
• Music, singing and dancing
• Free gifts (books, DVDs, and CDs)
• Ongoing Tours of the "Cube" in IONS Research Lab
• Artwork and Games

RSVP to Rose Welch at 707-779-9214 or rwelch@noetic.org

Monthly Dinner Series, from 5:30-7:00 pm on campus here in Petaluma for dinner, with guest speakers.

Thursday, December 3: Tea Ceremony

In celebration of the current exhibition, The White Passages - paintings of Chiyomi Longo (sponsored by the Lucid Art Foundation), we have invited a master of the Japanese tea ceremony, Al Longo, to perform an authentic tea ceremony from 6:30 to 7:00 following a free reception from 5:30 to 6:30 (we have cancelled the originally scheduled Asian dinner). Al began his study of the Urasenke tea tradition under the tutelage of Ms. Soshun Shiozake in 1973. He received his first teaching certificate and chamei (tea name), Soki, from Hounsai Oiemoto, the grand master of the Urasenke Foundation. He was later awarded the title of junkyo ju (assistant professor) and given permission to wear the Urasenke mon (logo). Chiyomi Longo also studied tea and received her chamei (Sodai) and teaching certificate. Register now.

Thursday, January 21: Dinner Salon
Speaker to be announced in January newsletter.

Transformative Learning Workshops
 

January 29-31, 2010 – Speaking the Soul: The Transformative Power of Words with Kim Rosen
March 5-7, 2010 – Live from Your Strengths: A Journey Toward Increased Engagement and Meaning in Life Lauren Vanett, MA (online registration available soon)
March 19-21, 2010 – Green in Spirit: Healing through Permaculture and Biosynamic Gardening with Brenda Sanders
April 16-18, 2010 – Cells and the Sacred: Discovering the Cell as Messenger for the Marriage of Science and Spirituality with Sondra Barrett, PhD (online registration available soon)
April 16-18, 2010 – The Essence of Meditation: Returning to Ease with Peter Russell, MA (online registration available soon)
April 23-25, 2010 – Learning Telekinesis—Your Gateway to Mind Over Matter with Natalia Shareyko, MD, PhD, of the Institute for Biosensory Psychology in Saint Petersberg, Russia (online registration available soon)

May 21-23, 2010 – The Six Life-paths of the Human Soul and the Imprints of Conception with Ralph Metzner, part of the six-part Alchemical Divination Series
May 29-31, 2010 – Shakti Awakening with Dr. David Frawley, Dr. Dennis Harness, and Shambhavi Chopra (online registration available soon)
June 23-25, 2010 – Primordial Chi Gung with Donald and Cheryl Lynne Rubbo (online registration available soon)

We have some new and re-potted plants enlivening the campus and classrooms, and have retired all artificial ones. We have engaged a new plant service, Green with Envy, that is owned and operated by one of our retreat center clients, Felicia Schonborn, who brings her Creative Memories retreats to campus. Felicia's artistic talents with live plants are making our campus green and beautiful.

Two months ago we launched this section identifying specific needs for the retreat center that our supporters could purchase directly through Amazon.com and have shipped to us directly. There continues to be a rousing response around the world and we are grateful to the following donors for their gifts this past month:

• Kathy Page of Scottsdale, Arizona, donated 5 dry erase easels, 2 bird houses and 2 bat shelters
• Judy Scheffel of Malibu, California, for an Audubon bat shelter and a wooden checkers board game
• Annelie Zuern-Eyermann of Helmstedt, Germany, for an Audubon bat shelter

Click here to see pictures of donated items and their placements around campus.

You can enhance and support the Retreat Center by gifting us with some of our specific needs around the campus by visiting our Amazon.com "wish" list (click here). In small but significant ways, your help supports the retreat center, guests in their personal transformative journeys on the campus, and some of the animals that inhabit the land. We welcome your gift and invite you to make other suggestions.

Donate now.

Client Appreciation

The Land/Retreat Center staff hosted the third annual client appreciation dinner Tuesday, December 1. Some 20 musicians of the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers, one of our clients, played lively music during our festive reception. After guests enjoyed a delicious and beautiful meal, IONS President Marilyn Schlitz and Senior Scientist Dean Radin gave an overview of IONS' research projects and then fielded questions. Executive Director of the Land/Retreat Center Cathy Coleman gave an overview of the top projects of the retreat center: to build a hot tub, fifth classroom, and expanded parking lot, and to provide more audio-visual equipment for each classroom. Cathy noted that we are working to increase the occupancy/use of the retreat center so that we can build these enhancements, that will in turn help increase occupancy, and thus work toward an ever more sustainable operation. Our core message is to encourage all of our clients to work with us to bring more successful programs to campus and invigorate our programs with strong enrollments. Ideas and suggestions are welcome and can be addressed to Cathy at ccoleman@noetic.org. Thank you to all of our clients for your support and we wish you all a prosperous and blessed 2010.

Poet/philosopher David Whyte inspired 54 attendees at his recent workshop: Clear Mind Wild Heart: Finding Courage and Clarity Through Poetry. Below is a poem by Keith Van Vliet which he read following the David Whyte workshop during the open mic poetry jam. In an email to workshop manager Claudia Holt he wrote about the genesis of this poem as it relates to the IONS land: "The occasion was the first time that the whole board and donor group visited the site, and we were instructed to 'wander across the land and get the feel of it.' The purchase was thought to be well beyond IONS financial means so it was kind of a provisional visit. The story of Elda Hartley's generosity and challenge to the board makes a very interesting tale of IONS lore." Elda Hartley was part of that group visiting the site that day and she decided to gift IONS with a major gift to help put a down payment on the land. She had left IONS a bequest, but decided that she was so excited and inspired about the land that she wanted to give the gift during her lifetime rather than when she passed over. Elda's generosity and challenge to the board enabled IONS to be able to afford a down payment on the land.

Planning

The shadow of the hawk
glides silently over the ground,
through tight canyons, and
across green sweeps of hill
fresh with the blades of spring.
A jet rumbles high overhead
its sound, for a time
drowns out the song of the soil.
   I pause by a giant oak
   rest against a gnarled rock
   and contemplate the land.
This land was, is, will be,
while the plans we make will pass.
Wild nasturtiums carpet the ground
they too will pass, with their seasons.
Perhaps the gift I would ask of this place
would be...the secret of its permanence.

Keith Van Vliet

Thank You to our November Retreat Center clients!

IONS Board
Rejuvenate Training
Enneagram of Marin
Monroe Institute
Unity in Marin

We host retreats, workshops and client events on an ongoing basis throughout the year at the Retreat Center. Please click here to see our detailed events schedule.

Translucent Beings
Paintings by Toni Littlejohn

Exhibition: January 2-March 31, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 6th, 3-5 PM
Music by composer, Joyce Kouffman, of Point Reyes Music Retreats
Poetry readings by Nancy Bertelesen, Robin Leslie Jacobson and Devi Weisenberg

"Influenced by the Diamond Approach of integrating spiritual development with western psychology, my artwork is an experience in the practice of ego surrendering itself to the realm of being and then returning to self. The paintings in this exhibition reflect the impact of my recent trip to the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya. Masai warriors dance, chant their way around the fire. Their tall sinewy bodies transpose into streams of color and light, forms dissolving into wholeness, humans becoming luminosity." —Toni Littlejohn

Toni Littlejohn has exhibited her work widely in the Bay Area. She is a founding member of Gallery Route One and has been leading artist workshops "Wild Carrots" since 1992.