Explorations in Consciousness:

The Monthly Cycle

 

Next Workshop:

Saturday Afternoons: Next Set:

July 21, August 18, September 22, 2018

12:45 P.M. to about 5:00 P.M.

 

In our on-going monthly meetings, we will explore consciousness in a safe container formed with the help of grounded individuals open to expanding their sense of themselves, others, and the Universe. 

 

In June, we concluded another set of great sessions that included 1) examining several stories for underlying beliefs that, when challenged, opened up the stories to wider interpretations; 2) doing Byron Katie's "The Work" to loosen a limiting belief that is taken for reality; 3) watching and discussing two short videos in which each main character gets a visit from his future self.

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NOTE: the September Circle will be our annual trip to Gettysburg National Military Park at twilight to help some of the ghosts of the Civil War dead to go into the Light. This is not to be missed!  LIMIT: 10 participants.

The general format of the meetings (which may change over time) will involve a quick check-in, mini-lectures, experiential exercises, and lots of sharing and discussion, ending with a ritual check-out. Though this is not a therapy group, it will certainly be therapeutic in its effects.

The primary intellectual and spiritual grounding for the group will be Jane Roberts' Seth Books. However, the structure and content of the Circle will evolve over time, embracing many new trends and discoveries in consciousness research. With the help of such modalities as hypnosis, NLP, improvisation, movement, drawing, clay-structures, sand-tray, mandala-making, mask work, storytelling, role-playing, films & video, dreamwork and other interactive activities, we will seek out the wonders of the human psyche.

Over the course of many monthly meetings, we hope to explore, among other topics, past-lives, future-lives, probable selves, counterpart selves, channeling, karma, angels and spirit guides, crystals, labyrinths, the Law of Attraction, medical intuition, chakras, energy healing, and shamanism. The list of healers and resources we can draw upon is enormous, but includes Jane Roberts, Neale Donald Walsch, Michael Newton, Roger Woolger, Edgar Casey, Brain Weiss, Pat Rodegast, David Sutphen, Hank Wesselman, Carlos Casteneda, James Redfield, Sanaya Roman, Christine Breese, Bruce Lipton, Carolyn Myss, Sandra Ingerman, Bartholomew, Marianne Williamson and scores of others. 

Participants must be grounded and anchored in this world, meaning that their primary focus is in this incarnation and that they are dedicated to bringing whatever they learn from altered states of consciousness back to ordinary reality to enhance it for themselves and others.

Participants are expected to do a bit of "homework," including buying and reading certain texts, as well as some other activities, to enhance their enjoyment of 
the monthly meetings. 

All members of the Explorations Circle sign up for three sessions (a "set") at a time, each SET costing $165.00 (non-refundable) and payable either before or on the night of the FIRST session of the set. If anyone who wants to join the Explorations Circle knows before the start of the set of Circle sessions that he or she cannot make one of the three meetings, that person should contact us as soon as possible at soulsrvr@erols.com; we can then discuss an exception for that meeting. You may also contact us if paying for three sessions all at once creates a financial bind for you.

All participants will have to fill out a registration form. If you are under the care of a therapist, you may have to seek written permission from that therapist to be involved in the group.

Touched by Otherness

Memorial Day, 2007, was memorable in a way unusual for me- most often, I find time to meditate on and pray for the military dead and their families. Almost forty years ago, I might have been one of them during my Vietnam tour of duty. That experience was one of my major encounters with "otherness" in my life, a sense of altered reality, albeit one mostly, thought not entirely, of pain, horror and deep sadness.

But during that peaceful, warm day in 2007, wafted along by a gentle breeze, my now former wife and I were pedaling (yes, not paddling) our double-seated kayak about a third of a mile off the municipal beach near Lewes, Delaware. 

We had cruised about a mile, relaxing and conversing while getting some gentle exercise. I was about to maneuver the rudder for our return to our embarkation point when my former wife, pointing out toward the vastness of Delaware Bay, asked me, "What's that?" What she was looking at approximately a quarter-mile away seemed to be the churning of water in front of a small cruiser. As we stared for a few seconds at the compelling sight, we soon realized that we were watching a pod of dolphins leaping in unison- and coming straight at us!

To say that we were excited and scared a bit is an understatement. We each had seen dolphins many times from the shore, from a large fishing vessel, and from our own 25' boat. I had even "swum with the dolphins" in a tank in Florida. However, in all cases, including the tank experience, the dolphins had remained at a distance. But, this time, in a kayak rising merely nine inches above the water, we could do nothing but wait for these great mammals to do with us what they would.

And what they did can be described only as "playing." Besides two and three of them at a time making those leaping curves out of and back into the water, several others made direct advances toward the bow of the kayak, dipping under it just in time to avoid hitting us. Others swam up from either side, again diving just in time under the kayak, their beautiful shapes reflecting yellow-white sunlight from beneath the water. Several times, one of them, from about 6-8 feet away, would simply raise its entire head out of the water, apparently to look at us and laugh. What really intrigued me was the sound of several blowing water out of their blow-holes out of sight directly behind the kayak and seemingly so close that I could have reached back and touched them. They were as large or larger than our thirteen-foot kayak and as wide in diameter. What deeply affected us was their staying with us for nearly 20 minutes- they left only after we had first left them to break the spell that would have led us into the open sea. "That made my day," grinned my former wife. And mine, too.

But this awesome event also made more of my days as I began to feel even more deeply what the experience truly meant to me. Once again, "otherness" had overtaken me, but this time in play, joy and wonder! These dolphins were the embodiment of the sheer, utter presence of the "other." They were not of my world but certainly enjoyed visiting it in their unspeakable wildness. The undeniable factualness of them was wonder incarnate. They were here. And so was I. 

As the days passed, I realized how much I needed periodic experiences of such "otherness." When I get stuck in mundane reality, limiting beliefs, in mental and emotional cages of my own making, I crave a sense that there is more than what I currently think and feel. We all yearn for this "otherness," this sense that we are a part, even a very small part, but nevertheless an indispensable part, of ALL THAT IS. This feeling is the essence of holiness, of the Whole, of the blessed, the sacred. Some of us get it by engaging thoroughly in a creative project, or meditation, or exercise, or music, or lovemaking or anything else that puts a significant "pause" into the non-stop, constricting routines of our lives.

A few days after the event, I looked up the meaning of dolphin to Native Americans in Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Cars. "Dolphin teaches us how to use life-manna through our breath," they say and tell the story of the Dolphin's meeting with Grandmother Moon: Asked by her to swim to the "rhythm of her tide weaving,"Dolphin learned to breathe in a new way," thereby entering the Dreamtime. As a result of being given the new breath, "the gift of the primordial tongue," Dolphin later began carrying messages seeking solutions to problems from the Children of Earth to the Divine Otherness, who reaffirmed that "we are all whole in the eyes of the Everliving One." In other words, Otherness is "other" only until we are reminded that our limiting beliefs make it so. 

Learning to breathe differently to enter Otherness or to allow the Otherness to enter us (or, ultimately, to become aware that Otherness and we are One) is at the heart of what I am focusing on more and more and helping others to do as a hypnotherapist. Dolphin came to me as Grandmother Moon had come to Dolphin: to give the gift of how to experience and explore the Otherness of the Dreamtime and thus expand my consciousness. In place of the fractured, fearful, heavy breathing that accompanied the eruption of otherness in a brutal way in my life 37 years ago, in the lives of my Vietnam comrades and now in those of my brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dolphin showed me a new way of breathing deeply into my expanse of spirit. 

Come explore this phenomenon with me in my ongoing offering, Explorations in Consciousness: The Monthly Group.

Testimonials for Explorations in Consciousness:
 

The Explorations in Consciousness weekend challenged my beliefs about what our 'selves' really are. Being able to see my 'self' from the perspective of future, past, and counterpart selves helped me to see my own uniqueness. I felt safe enough to stop the chatter of my conscious mind and allow my inner self to speak clearly and act freely. As usual, Joe pushes the envelope when designing distinctive and challenging personal growth experiences and, yet, maintains safety and acceptance within the group dynamic.

C.Z., Data Warehouse Architect
 

Joe Mancini's workshop allowed me to imagine "other lives" and thus discover different aspects of myself that were hidden away in my subconscious. The structure was both fun and transforming, culminating in the integration of all those lives I had imagined. I left there on a real, natural high; and I am still processing the insights that came from that weekend. But I am not surprised at the value gained from working with Joe, for he is a truly insightful facilitator of individual and group processes and an inventive leader of transformative events.

E. R., Nurse
 

Consciousness exploration is not a typical weekend activity for a busy manager. But being open to new options in the power of the mind has proved a productive and useful pursuit for me with Joe Mancini. The workshop opened access to new areas of brainspace which have enhanced my intuitive and creative powers, while reducing over-analyzing and random judgments. I have always been told that we only use 10of our brain capacity. This workshop has given me the means to double that utility. As someone who interacts with powerful people all the time, I find that my work with Joe has improved my confidence, insight, intuitive powers and my ability to connect with people of all genders, ages and backgrounds. I have found my interaction more authentic and grounded. This course is one more new and very powerful method in the work I have done with Joe over the years. 

L.B., VP, Federal Govt. Relations for Major Federal Professional Services Firm
 

Through one of the many ingenious exercises in the weekend, I figuratively (or was it literally?) stepped into the shoes of several other people I met while under hypnosis, people facing similar issues as I am, but who deal with them vastly differently. For a short time, I took on their thoughts, their feelings, even their bodies. Skeptical, I wondered how I could ever benefit from this brief relationship with imagined people so unfamiliar and foreign to me. But stepping so effectively and intimately into the "other" actually helped me recognize more of myself; for I saw immediately how several, long-denied emotions and possibilities for self expression became instantly available to my psyche for the first time, perhaps since childhood, perhaps ever. What an awakening! I was astounded at how relevant and powerful this experience was for me. I will never forget it. Next time, it could be your turn. You won't regret it.

S.M., Writer/Consultant
 

The Exploration of Consciousness weekend was an incredible experience! At times I felt like I was coming out of the clouds and seeing a clear sky for the very first time. Having taken this wonderful journey has broadened my horizons to an incredible and miraculous level. As a result This voyage has had profoundly positive effects on my relationships with my family, friends and the employees I lead. Joe and Liz, are an incredible team, who, with their vast wisdom and love, have helped me see life in a completely new and beautiful way.

S.F., Federal Government Supervisor

 

For me, Joe's workshop was a subtle, yet effective tool in creating what I want for my life. A week after my experience at Joe's retreat I had breakthroughs in two areas of my life. One was my relationship and the other my health. I highly recommend Joe as a facilitator for you to reach your goals.

L.E., Internet Entrepreneur

 

Imagine being guided into a trance state, a type of light sleep akin to lucid dreaming, in which you remember your experiences in great detail. Imagine letting your subconscious delve into lost, forgotten, hidden, repressed, neglected parts of your psyche, your memory, your ideas and fantasies, your emotions, your past and possibly your future. Imagine examining, reflecting upon, analyzing, learning from what you see in your mind's eye during your trance. Imagine understanding what you do, need, want, feel, believe in. Imagine shaping your future self based on these experiences and insights. And imagine doing so seven times in two days, in a secure circle of like-minded soul journeyers, guided by the sure hand of Joseph Mancini, magician extraordinaire, mentor, guru, student of the inner arts. That was my awesome experience of the Explorations In Consciousness weekend!

J.Z., O.D. Specialist
 

 

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"...translated into simpler terms, each portion of energy [from an invisible particle to a galaxy] is endowed with an inbuilt reach of creativity that seeks to fulfill its own potentials in all possible variations--and in such a way that such a development also furthers the creative potentials of each other portion of reality."--Seth from Jane Roberts' Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment: A Seth Book.