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May 28, 2004

A New CMED Institute Workshop Series:
From Intuition to Mysticism: A Personal Journey into Our Passion for God

Since we introduced our first CMED Institute on "Sacred Contracts and the Study of Archetypes" in 2002, it has been a remarkable success. People from as far away as Turkey, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand make the trip three times a year to participate in a program that explores their archetypal patterns and the agreements they made with the Universe prior to this life -- agreements that determine their experiences and relationships in the physical world.

In the past year, many of these students have asked me, "What's next?" They wanted to know how they could continue this work after their two-year CMED program is completed. I have given a great deal of thought to that question and, motivated by their interest and by extraordinary recent experiences, I am announcing with deep excitement a second CMED program: From Intuition to Mysticism: A Personal Journey into Our Passion for God. This program was inspired in part by the profound changes that have occurred in my own life during the past two years, beginning with the first CMED Institute and continuing into the subject of my most recent book, Invisible Acts of Power. This book is a compilation of more than 1,200 letters sent to me by wonderful people who shared their experiences of acts of service that they received from family, friends, and strangers, as well as acts of service they provided to others. As I organized this book, I met with one extraordinary discovery after another about the nature of generosity: why we are giving, why we must be giving, and why we cannot be generous. I came to understand many aspects of the human spirit that I had never encountered before, not the least of which was the realization that generosity is a biological necessity.

In the course of writing this book, I turned to the writings of many of the great theologians, mystics, and spiritual teachers who have contributed to the journey into the soul. Sometimes I spent as much as eight hours a day reading and rereading texts, including the work of Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Rumi, and Plato, as well as Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and Hindu sacred texts. I had not been so saturated in the richness of the Sacred since doing my graduate degree in Theology years ago. This experience led me into the domain of spirituality in a way that I had not visited since my graduate work in mysticism and spiritual phenomena, such as the profound consequences of a near-death experience. My thesis research was my introduction to the delicate connection that exists between an intense spiritual experience and the difficulty people confront when attempting to re-enter their ordinary life following the experience of being absorbed into the Light of Divinity. Several people, for instance, told me that prior to their near-death experience they had "believed" in God and the afterlife, but now they "knew" that heaven exists. They had experienced the heat and brightness of mystical Light. They had been transformed by an experience that only others who shared the "death and rebirth" archetypal journey would understand.

Although this would seem to be an experience one should be grateful for, many people felt completely overwhelmed by their exposure to such a heightened state of consciousness. They reported that their state of ecstasy was followed by a swing into a state of despair and depression. The inability to cope with nurturing this mystical experience, along with returning to a five-sensory world that had become the embodiment of the Eastern sense of the physical world as "illusion," sent many people spinning downward into feelings of isolation, separation, depression, and a loss of appetite for their familiar life. Even though their initial reaction to their mystical near-death experience had been the closest to "enlightenment" that they had ever encountered, still that level of consciousness requires interior spiritual scaffolding to remain real. Most people who have near-death experiences are not familiar with the mystical experience, and assume that a "spiritual high" simply maintains itself without effort, as if it were a permanent state of consciousness. These individuals had no way of knowing that when they begin their descent back into the five-sensory world, they become vulnerable to a kind of "spiritual separation anxiety" that is extremely difficult to describe to those who have not had the same experience. That may seem a peculiar turn of phrase, but people do go through separation anxiety from exposure to extremely pleasurable altered states of consciousness. Aside from the chemical power inherent in an addictive substance, incidentally, a major appeal of so-called hallucinogenic drugs is a need to return to a highly pleasurable psychic state of consciousness that could be described as "chemical spirituality."

Since completing my education, my life has taken me down a path of research into the nature of intuition, including a 22-year long active practice as a medical intuitive. Simultaneously, I continued my discussions and correspondence with people experiencing a profound deepening in their spiritual life as well as many in the throes of "mystical despair." I realized that, like the near-death survivors I had interviewed as a grad student, these people were also experiencing the effects of existing simultaneously in two domains of consciousness. They had one foot in a five-sensory world motivated by the fear of survival and the other in a spiritual realm beckoning them to unleash their highest potential. These people were not imagining the reality of spiritual intimacy; they had been absorbed into the power of the invisible world. They were not imagining the presence of angels; they had met their angels. They were not imagining that they had a purpose, a Contract in this life to fulfill; they had been consciously directed to return to their physical life because their purpose had yet to be fulfilled.

Mystical experiences, of course, are not uncommon. Yet until the advent of our contemporary spiritual culture, they were mainly confined to people living in monastic settings removed from social distraction, who found support through access to a spiritual director. Within a monastery or ashram, residents are familiar with the demands of the spiritual life as well as the nature of self-examination, prayer, and meditation. They are instructed on the essential practice of silence, for example, because it is understood that one's interior dialog with the Divine is sacred and not to be shared in open discussion. Because our contemporary spiritual culture is in its infancy, a great many assumptions based on spiritual innocence, for instance, that your personal spiritual life is as important to others as it is to you, end up leading one to a state of isolation. People are accustomed to seeking acknowledgment for their intellectual, artistic, athletic, financial, parental, and other life roles. Now we've added "spiritual accomplishments" to that list, but such yardsticks of growth are neither "accomplishments" in the classic sense, nor meant for public viewing. This is the first of many examples of "spiritual mismanagement" that made me realize that I needed, and wanted, to develop a year-long program combining spiritual direction with classic studies of mysticism and a contemporary examination of the science of intuition.

We are a spiritual culture between cultures. Part of us is grounded in the physical world of matter and survival, while another part is awakening to a rich interior life in which are conventional values and support systems seem to spin out of control. The individual experiences a crisis unique to this era of human evolution, in which the rigorous demands of the spiritual life merge with the intense demands of day-to-day life. The result is that many people end up frozen between worlds, filled with the burning desire to pursue their spiritual potential while fearing that such decisions will dismantle their physical world and their security. We have yet to construct the method, the intellectual and spiritual preparation, for being a "mystic without a monastery."

The second CMED program, From Intuition to Mysticism: A Personal Journey into Our Passion for God, was developed partly in response to this pressing social need for combining mystical life with the demands of work and family. But in addition, in the past forty years our culture has experienced a major expansion in psycho-spiritual vocabulary, as words such as "psyche," "chakras," the "collective unconscious," and "archetypes" have entered our public discourse. We have also begun to have access to more and more writings on mysticism, altered states of consciousness, and the spiritual process than had ever before been available to the mainstream. In response to this changing culture and the need for personal spiritual direction and support, this three-part CMED program has been designed to provide a year's instruction on the nature of intuition, the mystical process, and the art of healing. Participants will gather for a series of three intensive three-day weekends, during which the mystical writings and teachings of prominent spiritual figures of all traditions will be introduced and discussed. You will learn spiritual exercises, such as meditation and yoga, along with techniques for energy healing and spiritual journaling. We will also introduce students to the fundamentals of medical intuition as a personal practice. The hands-on work of the weekend workshops will be augmented with extensive reading assignments. Just as with the first CMED program on SACRED CONTRACTS, participants will have the pleasure of engaging with prominent guest lecturers with an expertise in these areas of study.

COURSE OUTLINE

FIRST SESSION: THE NATURE OF INTUITION

This session will examine the multi-dimensional nature of intuition, from survival intuition to an awakening of intuitive guidance to the interpretation of dreams and the phenomenon of channeling. In addition, we will explore in depth our cultural attraction to intuition and developing intuitive abilities. Examining intuition as hybrid spirituality is essential, as this is a widespread assumption within today's culture. Is intuition a gift or a skill? Can a person really develop intuitive abilities and if so, how? Are we afraid to be intuitive? Do we really want a clear intuitive channel or are we actually seeking a means to "see the future" so that we can make safe and secure life choices? How do we interpret intuitive guidance? These and so many other essential questions will form the core itinerary for this intriguing first class.

SECOND SESSION: FROM INTUITION TO MYSTICISM: CROSSING THE SPIRITUAL BRIDGE

Mysticism and the perception that one is a mystic attract many people. But what exactly is a mystic? Has this new spiritual culture of ours spawned an Aquarian archetype of the Mystic? This session will lead participants into a deep examination of the classical mystical experience, and then direct that instruction into our contemporary culture. The works of the great mystics of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, as well as other cultures, will be discussed with an emphasis on how their teachings can support a person living and working in the everyday world. The nature of prayer, the practice of silence, and the fundamentals of spiritual direction will be emphasized in this intensive class.

SESSION THREE: THE ART OF HEALING AND THE SCIENCE OF MEDICAL INTUITION

Healing is an intuitive-mystical art and gift. Practice and discipline are required for an individual to develop these skills, and included in that practice is the need for a basic knowledge of the science of medical intuition for personal use. This session focuses on providing participants with rigorous instruction in all of these areas. We will include lectures on Spiritual Alchemy as the foundation of the art of healing.

NOTE: This class is an introduction to the Science of Medical Intuition. This is not meant to be a three-day course in MI for professional application.

I have no doubt that this new CMED program will be as spectacular.

This program is not in any way a parallel of Sacred Contracts, nor is the first CMED program a prerequisite for this one. Unlike that program, which combines a year of personal study with a year of instruction on working professionally with archetypes and doing professional readings for others, this program is aimed solely at personal spiritual work. During the months between each session, we will provide students with prayers, required reading, and further meditation instruction. This workshop will not address specific issues relating to health, finances, relationships, or emotions. Our goal instead will be nothing less than helping you to craft a lifelong spiritual practice, one that you can rely on and build on for years to come.

Because it is never easy to learn even the simplest spiritual practice in one weekend workshop, we will follow up each seminar with monthly feedback and support online from myself and the faculty. We will address your questions and challenges between workshops, and offer suggestions for augmenting and improving your practice as you move through the year.

A PERSONAL RECALL

Just for fun, I'm adding this little memory of mine because this experience was most certainly a part of the early inspiration for this CMED program.

Several years ago, I gave a workshop at my undergraduate college, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, in Terre Haute, Indiana. The workshop ran almost a week and took place during an especially hot spell in an area that is notorious for 90-degree heat and humidity. During registration for the workshop, at least ten women started crying from the heat and complaining that the college dorm rooms were neither air-conditioned nor furnished. These were raw rooms with only beds and ceiling lights. (Students furnish their own rooms, of course, but all the students were gone for the summer - leaving the rooms bare and dismally uncomfortable.) But despite all that, or perhaps because of it, I felt that I was home. Back on my old campus, I felt free to teach in a way that I had never before experienced. This college is also a convent, the Mother House of the Sisters of Providence. The grounds comprise a lovely church and three chapels, as well as a grotto that is a replica of the grotto at Lourdes, where St. Bernadette had visions of the Blessed Mother. For the first time in my teaching career, I experienced a freedom of expression that would be out of place in an "ordinary" workshop. I was able to share teachings from classical mysticism, to discuss the nature of miracles, the lives of saints, the presence of angels, and why we long for a connection to the Divine.

I mentioned to the participants that during the workshop I would once again attend chapel as I had when I was a student, and that they were free to find their way to any of the sacred places of prayer on the convent grounds. One special chapel in the convent has never been without at least one person praying in it around the clock since it was built over 150 years ago. I have always loved that extraordinary chapel, and soon many of the participants found their way into its precious silence. This workshop woke up something profound in my soul that has never gone back to sleep. But at the time, I did not have a path, a way to weave that part of my life into my daily work, at least not as directly as I would have liked. By the end of the first day, by the way, no one minded the heat, the empty rooms, the threadbare bath towels provided by the college, or the dreadful cuisine. We had entered the rarified altitude of the Divine together. This workshop ended with the entire group joining in a candlelight prayer gathering at the grotto. Ever since that workshop, I have held the vision of finding a way to work more directly with spiritual material.

At last, I discovered that way with the CMED Institute, which was my opportunity to teach the way I have always wanted to teach. Here at CMED I am free to introduce any and every level of the Sacred alongside a rich, penetrating exploration of our psyche and soul. You sometimes forget as a teacher that you are moving deeper and deeper into your own spirit with each class you teach, because you are so comfortable with the people who are with you. I have always loved teaching, as I hope is clear to all of you who have ever been with me in a classroom. But there is something special about having my own Institute. With this second CMED program, I am expanding the range of the Institute's teaching, with further expansions planned for the future.

Continuing Education Credit
CMED is recognized by the National Board for Certified Counselors (provider #6115) to offer continuing education for National Certified Counselors, and adheres to CEC guidelines. Criteria for 22 hours of Continuing Education Credits for each CMED class.

Link to Intuition to Mysticism

Contact information: cindy@myss.com

You Are a Healer... What Every Healer Needs To Know

June 18-19 - East Brunswick, NJ
December 3-4 - Albuquerque, NM

The Healing Power of Positive Energy
*a special event following Caroline Myss is offered by Judith Orloff, M.D.*

June 20 - East Brunswick, NJ
December 5 - Albuquerque, NM

Whether or not you are consciously aware of it, the Healer archetype plays a powerful, integral role in your life. The Healer has many presentations—from someone who actually works one-on-one with those who are confronting physical illness, to guiding others (or you) through emotional, psychological and spiritual crises. Everyone holds the potential of the Healer, regardless of whether it comes under the title of “professional.”

The Healer will always draw you in to something that needs to be healed in the arena in which you live, in which you work and within yourself. This seminar is about learning…about understanding… about exploring your life and your work as a healer—not about healing others.

It is easy to put others before yourself because you have been reared in that paradigm—a paradigm that often results in an unhealthy cycle. You learn to care for others; then resentment builds that you yourself were not cared for or that all you do is care for others; and finally, you go off to find some way to care for yourself so that you can then return and continue to care for others.

Somewhere amid the concerns of wanting to be available to others, of wanting to also take care of yourself, of assuming degrees of responsibility that are just a shade more intense than they should be and of missing or ignoring your own signals, exists the greater mystery of the Healer and the art of managing/maintaining/consciously relating to the energy that runs through that archetype as a part of your spirit.

How can you come to understand the Healer within? What do you need to know about your own art, about your own archetype? How do you sustain yourself? How do you become a tough, good healer? What is it that is essential for you to know? How do you know when your skills are changing? How can you sense looming burnout? How do you know when you are remaining attached to the energy field of someone, or to a cause or to a situation, that’s potentially toxic to you?

Join Caroline Myss as she explores the art and science of the Healer. Experience how developing a rapport with this inner resource can transform the manner in which you will embrace the rest of your life. And discover the means to truly care for your self by engaging with this subtle, transcendent energy.

How You Will Benefit - back to top

Caroline Myss has a talent and commitment for reading her audience. What she teaches is relevant to both the people present and current events that affect us all. Caroline covers topics such as…

Myths and the nature of the Healer archetype
The effect the Healer has on your energy field
Recognizing the archetypal initiation challenges presented by the Healer
What it means to truly care for your self, when you are involved or in practice as a Healer
The best environment for the Healer and how to maintain it
Identifying which healing arts you are meant to practice
The relationship between chronic fatigue and the Healer
Protecting yourself from over-exposure to the energy patterns of other people
How to create psychological boundaries when you’re leaking energy
And still more for professionals (and lay people, too)...

Recognizing the symptoms of Healer-fatigue
Preventing burn-out and exhaustion when you are on a path of service
Tools you & your clients can use for self-examination
The role of self esteem in healing
How the energy of archetypes manifests in the psyche
Insights for working symbolically with clients
Workshop Schedule - back to top

The Caroline Myss seminar runs from 7:15-9:30pm Friday and 9am-5pm Saturday. The new Judith Orloff workshop runs from 9am-1pm Sunday in the same hotel as the Myss seminar.

Locations & Accommodations

Call the hotel directly to reserve your room. Ask for the reduced "Caroline Myss seminar" rate. Reserve early. Reduced rates are guaranteed until the date listed or until the rooms we have set aside for us are gone, whichever comes first.

June 18-20 - East Brunswick
Hilton East Brunswick
800-445-8667
3 Tower Center Blvd.
East Brunswick, NJ 08816
Hotel rooms: $95 until May 24

December 3-5 - Albuquerque
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa
505-867-1234
1300 Tuyuna Trail
Santa Ana Pueblo, NM 87004
Hotel rooms: $99 until November 12

Registration Options

Register online now
Use our secure voice mail call 800.395.8445. Please have your credit card in hand and give us all of the information requested on the registration form.
Print out and fax your registration form to 317.328.1475, including credit card information.
Mail the registration form with payment to:
The ConferenceWorks!
7138 English Birch Lane
Indianapolis, IN 46268-5723
Please do not mail your registration later than one week prior to the workshop - use fax, web or phone only.

Travel

Worldtek Travel can get you the best fares and schedules on any airline with one toll-free call. Contact Worldtek at 800.683.0336 and specify the "Caroline Myss seminar in (city name)."

Link to Mapquest for driving directions.

Work Exchange

A limited number of work exchange positions are available for people able to assist on-site in exchange for a reduced registration fee. For more information call 317.329.8445.

Refund Policy

Refunds must be requested in writing. Full refunds minus a $35 per person processing fee will be given for requests received more than one week before the seminar. Requests received within one week of the seminar will either be refunded 50% or given a transfer to another seminar. No refund requests will be honored post-seminar.

Tax Deductions may be allowed for educational expenses, including tuition, travel, meals and lodging undertaken to maintain and improve professional skills.

Continuing Education Credit

AHP has been approved as a pro- vider of Continuing Education Credit by the organizations or Boards listed below. The Caroline Myss seminar has been approved for eight (8) credit hours. The Judith Orloff workshop has been approved for four (4) credit hours.

Counselors: AHP is recognized by the National Board for Certified Counselors (provider #5360) to offer continuing education for National Certified Counselors and adheres to CEC guidelines. California LCSWs & MFCCs: Course meets the qualifications for continuing education credit for MFCCs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, provider number PCE 604. Social Workers: The State of Illinois Department of Professional Regulation for Registered Social Workers, license #159-000118. Nurses: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider #CEP8738 for eight contact hours (Myss) and four contact hours (Orloff). Massage Therapists: The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and the Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP) do not certify any programs, but will accept these hours if the individual massage therapist feels they are applicable to his or her practice.