Linda Hassler - SE
IONS Network
As a Network Council regional rep, I'd like to report on my
own
Memphis group, Noetic
Explorers, then on the groups in my region. First, my own. We've
been meeting monthly for an entire 11 years. My oh my, have we
learned a lot! Most of my Memphis-area friends have been made
through leading this group. That's a huge benefit to us, making
friends, to say nothing about all we've learned or been exposed
to over these years.
Here are some
of the programs we've had in 2006:
1) We watched "The Secret" last spring, and some of us
realized the importance of correcting SUB-conscious beliefs that
could stand in the way of applying the Law of Attraction.
2) Around the same time, we had a Certified Psych-K
practitioner as a speaker who has been practicing this for 13
years. Personally, I decided to use Psych-K to change
destructive subconscious beliefs. I'm enormously impressed. I
recently completed the Advanced Psych-K Course.
3) We watched "ONE, the Movie" at the beginning of 2006. It
featured impressive commentary from Robert Thurman, Barbara Marx
Hubbard, Father Thomas Keating, Sufi Master Llewelyn
Vaughan-Lee, and many, many others. See the web site to buy this
film,
www.onethemovie.com/
4) In December, we saw "Zen Noir", the campy, zany,
fun-filled, yet lesson-based film. See the fabulous web site,
www.zenmovie.com/
5) In August, we heard a speaker on Dr. Masuro Emoto's
water philosophy
6) In November, we had a speaker on the virtues of going
meat-less
7) And there were several other topics during the year.
The
Nashville noetic group has been
going for 13 years under the leadership of Linda Jones Ellis,
and they are going strong. The group is called First Sunday, and
Linda puts out what is probably the grandest group newsletter of
them all. That's based on size, ambition, color, IONS
information included, and three-four pages of local ads. Their
meeting topics are similar to mine—wide-ranging—plus
they also show the occasional film. Linda may have joined this
IONS email group by now; I'm not sure.
The new group
in
Columbia,
Tennessee, is flourishing under
the leadership of Deanna Naddy. She seems quite happy that she
took this on, and they have just shown "The Secret" and are
hosting a digereedoo player who will stress the importance of
breath in mastering this instrument.
The
Knoxville, Tennessee, group is
newish, perhaps close to two years old. The leader, Stephen
Anthony, already ran a New Thought organization, the Oasis
Institute, there. But he took on a separate noetic group to
augment the types of programs he offers in that city. A Memphis
friend of mine moved to Knoxville, and I was able to steer her
to Stephen. She reported that she loved the new group and had
made several new friends through it.
The
Chattanooga, Tennessee, group
has changed leadership recently, but John Rennie continues as
the IONS rep. John and his wife, Nancy, have visited the IONS
campus more than once and have attended the Mystery School
co-sponsored by IONS. The Rennie's live in
Knoxville
and travel to Chattanooga for IONS meetings there. That group is
quite vital and has several college professors as members.
That makes
five groups in
Tennessee.
Two people, both PhD's, have tried to start a group in
Alabama,
but they don't live close enough to the larger cities nor to
each other to get groups going - not yet, anyway. A third IONS
member living in
Huntsville
wants to have an IONS branch within the Consciousness Study
group he is part of.
In
Louisiana, two of the four IONS
groups folded after Katrina. One leader moved to Texas, and
another leader had so many repairs to make to his property that
his small group went "out to sea." Two leaders remain there,
however. The longest-running is that of Lois Wright. Bob Maurice
has a unique group called "Dimensions
of Life" which meets weekly on Sunday mornings when
other people are either playing golf, staying home, or going to
church. I have met with them, and they are a dynamic and
participating group of wise folks.
The
Louisville, Kentucky group
remains a mystery to me. Suffice to say that the "new" leader
took on the job in 2001 and is still leading the group.
It's
wonderful to read reports of your various groups. I'm enjoying
hearing about all of you, and I hope to meet you at our 2007
Conference in August. This weekend in
Memphis,
I'm attending the Media Reform Conference with 2,500 other
people. The three-day conference is sponsored by Free Press (
www.freepress.com/conference/ ) with Bill Moyers
the most honored speaker. We'll also see and hear Van Jones, Amy
Goodman, Helen Thomas, Jane Fonda, Geena Davis, Danny Glover,
Jesse Jackson, and other media reform activists such as those
who work to save the Internet from corporate control, etc.
Keep
communicating, everyone,
Linda Hassler
Submitted 1/11/2007 by
Linda Hassler
Linda Hassler is a member of the IONS Elder and Network
Council, and has served on the IONS Stewardship Council as well
as for the Community Groups Network on the Board of Directors.
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