CONSORTIUm News

Fall-Winter, 2001: Psyche & Balance

Unity, Polarity, and The Sleeping Giant
A Note from Marjorie Cohn, M.A.

Things are changing so rapidly, what I wrote two weeks ago already seems out of date. Here we are, seemingly faced with a new world and complex decisions.

So much to say and yet also this numb feeling where there just aren't any words. Assimilating images and facts, not knowing what the future holds, and trying to understand what is going on are each challenges in themselves. Together, they can be overwhelming.  It is an odd, pivotal moment, the past behind us, the future, a dimly lit mystery.  And so many dissenting voices and theories.  With so much conflict, how can we begin to see any unity or truth?  As a friend pointed out, it seems the current situation is a matter of widely divergent views, with seemingly irreconcilable differences.  Can there be any unity within this deep a polarity?

We must try to peer deeper into the causes of what we are witnessing.  We should not be satisfied with simple scenarios which pit one group or forces of good and evil against one another. We must start to see that everything originates from the same source. And we must begin to see how we have been asleep, and it is possibly the results of our own actions which are beginning to wake us up. The big giant leaving bloody footprints, so big he cannot see he himself is bleeding, it is he that is beginning to wake up.  Crawling out of his sleeping bag, he wonders if he has been bleeding while he has slept, and in fact, he has left blood and giant bloody footprints right in his own bed. It is us that is bleeding but we don't see it until it is right where we live and our own technology is used against us.  Or perhaps the giant is so big, he cannot  see down to his own feet and the marks he makes on the world.

We see that we cannot go back to the way things were.  We have been catapulted into a new place. It is time for a new perspective.  How the United States responds in the upcoming weeks and months could affect the entire planet. We don't yet know how things are going to unfold.  Let us hope that our government makes wise and thoughtful decisions.  Let us hope for some renewal.  And let us hear and speak a new voice, a voice of unity, not the familiar roar of separation and revenge. If ever there was a call to "wake up" and be conscious, it would seem that time is now.  We must remember we are but visitors here and to treat our host with care.

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Based on this deep mind, body, spirit approach found in this part of the world, the JAMU Asian Spa Rituals cover a wide range of applications including Jamu Massage Ritual Spa Treatments, Bali Spice Treatments, Bali Sea & Flowers, Javanese Lulur, and Volcanic Earth Clay. Packaged in beautiful, exotic, and intriguing bottles and sets, this line is sure to bring a touch of the exotic and a sense of the deeply integrated lifestyle that inspired the line. 

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Caesar's Palace
Las Vegas, Nevada

Canyon Ranch
Tucson & Berkshires

Marriott's Spa
Rancho Mirage, CA

Ritz Carlton San Juan Hotel
Puerto Rico

Lulur Day Spa
Los Angeles, California

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info@jamuspa.com
JAMU
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Toll Free 877.626.JAMU

Introduction to Business & Consciousness Conference
By Marjorie Cohn, M.A.

In running Holistic Studies, I am interested in the service of the organization, not only on profit.  Focused on health, psychology, and social change, academic and philosophical interests, the organization, like any business, does need to make a profit.  But it is not just the focus of the work that is important. It is also the way operations are handled, the very foundation of the structure that interests me. From where does the work originate?  From what place, of awareness or lack of awareness inside myself am I conducting my interactions with others? While we can ask these questions of ourselves about all our interactions, with regard to this work, I ask them to link my awareness to the soul of the organization so that the work can come from a soul full place.

When we live in a world based only on competition, our organizations and lives can become devoid of soul, purpose, and awareness. We become automatons, rushing through life, trying to get to the next place wherever that may be.  Being naturally tribal and genetically connected to our ancient ancestors, we all need to have a sense of purpose and meaning, to see how we fit into our organizations and how our organizations are connected with the rest of the world. For many though, our experiences are just the opposite.  We go to work each day to pay our bills but without any sense of how what we do (or who we are) is connected to anything else.  And for many of us, our work and our lives don't feel connected to much of anything beyond day to day survival. Sounds pretty dismal.
But once we realize we desire a different kind of lifestyle, how do we make the transition from one mode of being to another?  How do we live a meaningful, connected life in a culture often based on separation, competition, and greed? Many of the values our culture is built on, such as our ideas of the self stem from concepts of separation and individualism.  How can we come from a place of cooperation and community in an environment based on survival and success? It seems there are two distinct value systems her.

The transition is likely not an overnight process and probably not an either or situation. More likely the two ideologies can and will exist side by side simultaneously, at least for a period of time. We hear about the changing face of business and how even big organizations are taking more responsibility for their actions as they learn for example, how to run effective businesses that are also environmentally wise. This is a great example of shifting values in the business world and how businesses are becoming more conscious and aware of their place in and how they affect the world. This example illustrates how an organization making environmentally wise decisions has realized that it doesn't exist independently from the rest of the world, is in fact connected to the world, and has a distinct place in the world's web of interconnection.  A decision like this affects not only energy going outward from the organization into the world but also internally within the organization and its members. 
Another area the conference focuses on is calling.   Many of us remember books like Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow, but is it always true?  What if you do what you love, but no money follows? I see people pursuing and living their dreams and others who've had to let their dreams slide as they return to work that offers steady source.  What is the difference between these people?  Luck? Skill?
These and others are just some of the topics to be presented at the upcoming 7th International Business and Consciousness Conference to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 18-22, 2002. As you'll see from the array of presentations, there is a rich diversity of topics and presenters including Carol Pearson, Michael Lerner, Neale Donald Walsch, Maria Nemeth, and Lance Secretan.

Some of the presentations include: Can Marketing Be Spiritual? Building Extraordinary Brands through the Power of Archetypes, The Soul of Money: Making a Profit, Making a Difference, Truth at Work Interactive Game, and Spiritual Transformation and Healing of the Workplace: Towards a New Bottom Line.

The Consortium for Holistic Studies is proud to be a co-sponsor of this innovative event.

For more information or a complete conference brochure, please contact:
The Message Company
4 Camino Azul
Santa Fe, NM 87508
Phone: 505-474-0998
Fax: 505-471-2584
www.bizspirit.com
message@bizspirit.com

2002 Int'l Business & Consciousness Conference
Where Profit and Purpose Come Together-by Barbara Gordon
January 18-22, 2002The Message CompanyPhone: (505) 474-0998
Santa Fe, New Mexicowww.bizspirit.commessage@bizspirit.com

When you get out of bed on Monday morning are you so excited about going back to work that you just can't wait to hustle out the door?  For most of us, work is a necessity, but not so often a source of joy.
The real question seems to be-have we been trading quantity for quality in our lives? We can acquire more, bigger, better, but in the end there may still be a feeling of emptiness inside.

The 2002 International Conference on Business and Consciousness was created to address these burning issues. This is a time when business controls a larger percentage of the world's economy than government. More often than not, the prevailing concern about the financial bottom line is at the expense of what we hold dear in life, yet there is evidence that it is possible to make a profit and still provide a healthy work place and care for the natural environment.

James Berry, founder of Natural Products Corporation, conceived a conference specifically geared toward the business community which would address spirituality and the desire to make a positive impact on the world.  "I was entrepreneurially oriented and wanted to meet with others who had similar interests. I looked around but found nothing that was suitable."  James believed that more responsibility would need to fall on businesses in the future to meet the social and environmental needs of the community.  It was looking like it was time for business to address itself from an entirely new perspective.

This will be the seventh annual conference addressing the idea of consciousness or spirituality in business. A deep sense of inspiration and community develops at these conferences. It is an example of the whole being more than the sum of its parts, which is due in part to the conference providing more of a forum for exchange than the traditional conference format.  It seems to be a matrix in which people can find the opportunity to go to a deeper place within, to discover their own inner resources and talents.

The upcoming event promises to be every bit as rich as its predecessors. Presenters at this January's conference will include representatives of many well known and successful businesses.  Daily themes of integrity, creativity, service, passion, and community will be addressed.

Presentation styles vary from a lecture format to experiential workshops with selected leaders, to the Open Space process wherein the participants create their own discussion groups.

You can experience a mountain sunrise immersed in qi gong, yoga, or meditation.  After a day of mental stimulation the evening events can bring you back to center with a variety of music, dance and entertainment ranging from soul soothing to outrageous.

Romantic Santa Fe and La Fonda on the Plaza invite you to let go of your hectic daily routine and indulge in a magical time of nurturing your body and soul, nudging the envelope and networking with entrepreneurs eagerly riding the crest of the future.

People who are attracted to this conference seem to have a common interest in global community, not just global economy.  As we change, and the businesses that we are part of begin to change, we are ultimately contributing to the creation of the global community to come.

This conference is truly a celebration.

Speakers and presenters include:
Lance Secretan, PhD International Relations, former CEO of the world's largest employer (Manpower Ltd.), author, Reclaiming Higher Ground: Creating Organizations that Inspire the Soul and nine other books, one in five of Industry Week's 100 Best-Managed Companies are his clients.         Keynote: The Keys to the Castle: Bringing Spirit Back to Life

Neale Donald Walsch, author, Conversations with God and many other books-Keynote with Brad Blanton: Honest to God in Business: Consciousness about Consciousness 
Presentation: The Business of Consciousness

Tom Gegax, founder, Chairman and Head Coach, Tires Plus (540 store chain), "Changing the World One Tire at a Time"  Keynote: Winning in the Game of Life-Personality and Professionally

Michael Stephen, former Chairman, Aetna International, former President and CEO, Aetna Canada 

Presentation: Spirituality in Business: The Hidden Success Factor
Stacey Hall, former Senior Marketing Specialist, FedEx, coauthor, Strategic Synchronicity: The Art of Attracting Perfect Clients

Gay Hendricks, PhD and Kathleen Hendricks, PhD, authors, The Corporate Mystic and Conscious Loving       
Pre-conference Intensive: Practical Magic: The Four Essential Relationship Skills Every Organization Needs    Post -conference Intensive: The Conscious Golf Experience: The Three Secrets of Sounds Business, Healthy Relationships and Superb Golf

Carol Pearson, PhD, President, Center for Archetypal Studies and Applications, author, The Hero Within, co-author, The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands through the Power of Archetypes            Keynote: Cars, Stars, and Starbucks: Mythic Branding and Enduring Success-Presentation: Can Marketing Be Spiritual?" Building Extraordinary Brands through the Power of Archetypes

Brad Blanton, PhD, founder, Center for Radical Honesty, author, Radical Honesty and Practicing Radical Honesty-Keynote with Neale Donald Walsch: Honest to God in Business: Consciosness about Consciousness        Presenation: The Business of Consciouness

Rinaldo Brutoco, founder and President, World Business Academy, President, Red Rose Naturals; Chairman, Dorasan Corp., founder Chairman and President, Omega Point Institute         Keynote: Business as a Spiritual Discipline

Michael Lerner, PhD, author, the Politics of Meaning, Spirit Matters, editor, Tikkun magazine-Presentation: Spiritual Transformation and Healing of the Workplace: Towards a New Bottomline

Gregg Levoy, author, Callings: Finding and Following and Authentic Life  Presentation: Callings: the Power of Passionate Work-Presentation: Following Our Callings: A Hands-On Workshop

George Zimmer, Chairman and CEO, The Men's Wearhouse.
Jan Brogniez, CEO, Perfect Customers Unlimited Presentation: Strategic Synchronicity: Mastering the Art of Attracting Perfect Customers and Employees

James Autry, former President, Meredith Magazine Group, author, Real Power and Life & Work: A Manager's Search for Meaning      Presentation: Love and Profit: Finding the Balance in Life and Work
Suzanne Maxwell, coauthor, Tales from Open Space, faculty, Center for Creative Leadership-Presentation: Open Space Technology-Your Burning Issues

Matthew Cross, founder, American Credit Systems, President, Leadership Alliance Presentation: Loyalty, Quality, and Unity: Restoring the Holy Grail of Business Success with the Interactive Master Strategy Process
Brenda Rarey, founder, Accountants for Social Measurement-Presentation: The Wealth of the 21st Century: The Treasure of Intangibles
Greg Tamblyn, musician, songwriter, recording artist, Shootout at the I'm OK, You're OK Corral and others.       Special Evening Event: The Grand Design: Music, Humor and the Cosmic Connection

Stephen Hacker, MBA, and Marta Wilson, PhD, directors, The Performance Center, coauthors, Work Miracles-Presentation: How Spiritual Consciousness Can Transform Your Workplace with Unprecedented Performance Results

Jens Jerndal, MD, DSc, former Attaché to the Royal Swedish Ministry fo Foreign Affairs, Knight of the Royal Danish Order, Albert Schweitzer Prize for Medicine-Presentation: Resonating to the New Millennium: How to Tell What Businesses Have the Greatest Potential for Success in the Immediate Future

Maria Nemeth, PhD, author, The Energy of Money and You and Money-Presentation: The Energy of Excellence: Coaching the Spirit to Action

Cliff Feigenbaum, coauthor, Investing with Your Values: Making Money and Making a Difference, publisher, Greenmoney Journal            
Presentation: The Soul of Money: Making a Profit, Making a Difference

Hal Brill, coauthor, Investing with Your Values, Making Money and Making a Difference and Investing from the Heart, cofounder, Natural Investment Services Presentation: The Soul of Money: Making a Profit, Making a Difference

Susan Winter Ward, yoga instructor, author, video producer, creator, Yoga for the Young at Heart

Tim Schreck, MBA, PhD, former professor of Industrial Psychology and Counseling-Presentation: Beyond Customer Service: Right Relationship:

When Our Product is Joy
For more info, please contact:
The Message Company
4 Camino Azul
Santa Fe, NM 87508
Phone: 505-474-0998
Fax: 505-471-2584
www.bizspirit.com
message@bizspirit.com

Book Reviews & New Book Releases
World Weary Woman by Cara Barker
World Weary Woman: Her Wound and Transformation - by Cara Barker-Published by Inner City Books, Toronto: Canada-www.innercitybooks.com

"A World Weary Woman is one whose characteristic response to stress is to struggle to achieve ambitious goals. To achieve means to succeed at something that is recognized by the collective.  However, she feels little joy in the process, suffering a disconnection from her feminine body wisdom and her creativity.  Her task is to find a way of living authentically that allows her to express what awakens her heart.

Many Type A women are World Weary. They are seekers.  It is this soulful quest for further development that informs this progression. World Weary Woman is not content to live mechanically. The provisional life exhausts her and she knows it.  She must detach from who she has been, in order to discover who she is meant to be." 

Cara Barker, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and psycho-social nurse.  She is a graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, and now practices in Kirkland, Washington.

From the Complete Catalogue, Summer/Fall- Inner City Books                 www.innercitybooks.com
Comments: by Marge Cohn

World Weary Woman seems to be an archetype.  It is the archetype of a woman lost in a masculine world, struggling with outer demands for perfection and what life should look like. She is cut off from her inner life, incessantly pursuing goals that are never met, dreams that are never achieved. Barker suggests "This is the nature of her wound: World Weary Woman believes her industry will help her achieve freedom. Instead, she ties herself in knots.  Activity is not the key to independence when unconnected to the Self, her inner center."

Barker explains how World Weary Woman comes to therapy grumbling about how it interrupts her day. She fidgets on the couch, arranging and rearranging the pillows. "Another chicken in the roost, scratching around for what she has lost." 

Barker outlines how she has gone to many experts, for a long time. None have been able to provide her what she is looking for. What she is looking for is deep inside herself, but she is too busy or too scared to notice or bother looking.  "Until she discovers that her source of wisdom as a woman comes from a place other than intellectual knowledge, she fights for answers in her head. Unconnected to the thread that would lead her to her own nature, she does not trust her instincts."

This book reminds me of Women Who Run with the Wolves, the classic by Clarissa Pinkola Estés on women's instinctual life.  But this speaks in a very particular way to a specific constellation of factors that create this predicament in women.  World Weary Woman is probably more common than we realize.

I once heard that although women's lib has been great for women, enabling us to get out of stereotypical female roles, the roles many women adopt, in going into the corporate world, are still essentially man's roles. In a sense, it is women trying to be men in men's roles, not be women in women's roles. I am not saying that women shouldn't be in the corporate world.  What I am suggesting is that the only role model we have for how to be in the corporate world is of the decisive, effective, and thus powerful man grinding out decisions in his high tech office. So although women might be as high on the corporate ladder as men, the roles remain basically masculine. This is why a woman might be very successful in this role yet completely cut off from her own nature and roots.  Is it any wonder then that depression is one of the highest disorders among women today?

In thinking about World Weary Woman and how she affects so many women I know including myself, I wonder about a couple of things.  First, as Robert Romanyshyn points out in Technology as Symptom and Dream, (1989) Routledge, in a patriarchal culture dominated by technological images of rockets and astronauts, it is women who carry the shadow of the culture.  It has always been women, from the days of the hysterics in Victorian Vienna which Freud treated to the anorexics of today. In most recent years, symptoms of depression are dominant and new diseases like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Epstein Barr proliferate, and it is mostly women afflicted. Are these diseases the many faces of World Weary Woman? And could it be that these women are weary not only because of the male female imbalance patterns that are present but because the Earth itself is weary? Weary from the male female imbalance that has permeated our worldview for the last several hundred years? 

While the name World Weary Woman seems as if it might apply to women only, I suspect it is actually a complex that affects men as well, although they probably wear it differently.  For it is not only women that are imbalanced, certainly the images and paths open to the majority of men in this culture are few. The old stereotyped images of what men should be and do still hold.  Men still have pressure to be "successful," "strong," and "independent." Things may have changed but these changes are slight.  Men are taught to accomplish via mastery, doing, and competition.  The principles are very yang.  There is little or no room for receptivity, hanging back, or contemplation. Thus we have imbalanced men, imbalanced women, and an unbalanced planet. We are all world weary.

This seems like an important book, speaking to a common but previously unidentified pervasive issue.  If you identify with this material, the book is probably for you. 

So how do we go about changing these patterns and restoring ourselves?   Certainly there are cultural factors that influence who we are.  But there are actions we can take individually to become more empowered and less influenced by external circumstances.  The first step might involve taking an inventory on your energy level and satisfaction with how things are flowing (or not) in your life. Do you feel like you a put a lot of energy into things but don't get where you want to go?  Like you're spinning your wheels? Do you end up feeling tired, drained, and exhausted?  Like you've got nothing more to give? These are some of the symptoms of what might be an energy imbalance. (Provided there are no other health issues.) If you feel this is part of your experience, what might be helpful, if possible, is a retreat, some time off from your regular action oriented routines.  If you're unable to get away, make some time for yourself each day where you can focus on your inner process and let go of the outer directed yang energy.  They say that all the answers are "inside" but we are usually too focused on what is outside to gain access to our inner sources of renewal.   

In this next book, Come From the Heart: A Guidebook to Healing with Divine Energy-by Ariel F. Hubbard, LMT there are some very practical exercises for centering oneself that can easily be learned.  There is a special Centering Meditation which is really nice and helps to pull our energy in from the outside toward our own center. There are also a lot of helpful centering tools for practitioners of energy healing.

This is a well organized book useful for energy healers or anyone that would like to do energy work for themselves. There are many, many practical exercises compiled into one resource.  The book is invaluable for helping latent healers realize that perhaps, yes, they can do this work and it is not so complicated. In fact, a lot of the information is common sense and what we might already know but haven't seen in this format. 
There are also practical meditation and energywork techniques for the beginning as well as the experienced energyworker.

Ariel also teaches techniques she has developed, such as the Directed Breathing Release, clearing your healing space, and understanding the session energy flow. You will learn about your own innate healing tools, as well as how to connect with your Higher Self, the importance of setting intention and how to stay Centered by oneself or when working with others. You don't need to be an energyworker to benefit from this book.

Not yet available in stores, the book can be ordered directly from
THE SOMA WORKS
1060 1/2 North Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Telephone: (949) 376-7662 
Toll Free: (877) 999-7662
www.somawork.com

New Release:
Your Body, Your Diet by Elizabeth Dane.  2002. Published by Ballantine Books, New York.