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June
17-21 - Institute of Noetic Sciences 13th International
Conference in
Tucson, Arizona
June 28 - Artist Reception and Opening of
Summer Exhibit
July 22 - Monthly Dinner Series with astronomy
focus, The Sacred Beauty of Inner and Outer Worlds
August 14-16 - Noetic Sciences Workshop with
Nine Gates Mystery School
August 27 - Monthly Dinner Series featuring
local vineyards and wineries
September 10 - Monthly Dinner Series with
Fariba Bogzaran, PhD
September 13 - Retreat Center Art Auction
September 18-20 - Noetic Sciences Workshop
with Chris M. Bache, PhD and guest Dean Radin, PhD
September 25-27 - Noetic Sciences Workshop
with Cassandra Vieten, PhD, Noetic Sciences Director of Research
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Monthly
Dinner Series, from 6-8 pm on campus here in Petaluma
for dinner, with guest speakers. (Dinner is $25, or $35 with
wine.)
Register
now for the next dinner series on July
22. (We're skipping June because of our big conference,
Toward a Global Shift: Seeding the Field of Collective
Change.)
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Transformative
Learning Workshops
Nine
Gates Mystery School Weekend: Explore the Teachings of Ancient
Wisdom
Friday, Aug 14 – Sunday, Aug 16, 2009
Gay Luce, PhD and Deborah Jones, MA
Why are the teachings of ancient wisdom schools relevant
today? What keys to spiritual development—both practical and
magical—are held in the heritage of these schools? This workshop
offers our felt responses to these questions.
Drawing from multiple spiritual traditions and ancient wisdom
teachings, this highly experiential workshop will be an adventure
into sacred space. Through rituals, ceremonies, and vigorous
spiritual practices you will explore aspects of knowing that
surpass the rational and help shift how you live your life.
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What's
New?
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Recently we welcomed members of Phytosphere Research and the
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to our campus.
They have been doing research on Sudden Oak Death (SOD) for
several years and are completing the official manual on SODS
for the State of California. For two hours, we visited several
groves on the property and for the first time we were getting
an honest overview of the SOD situation and learning how to
identify trouble spots, and what to do about them.
The good news is that our situation
is not as dire as we'd thought. We have a unique woodland
island up here of mostly coastal, valley, and live oak, buckeye,
and bay trees. Our property is high enough and dry enough
to minimize the spread of SOD, which is dictated by wet conditions
and flourishing bay trees. We do have some infected trees
in various stages of illness, but SOD is not running rampant
through our woodland.
Our management effort will include
mapping our groves, removal of small bays creeping up on oaks
(the great need for this can be observed around the second
Big Oak behind the labyrinth), removal of some bay trees and
bay branches, trimming of dead material, removal of downed
wood, selective spraying of some trees (minimal), planting
of buckeye and valley oak (an oak that is apparently immune
to SOD!), a Sacred Healing Group activity, Reiki healing,
and expansion of walking paths. More to come as we advance,
but this is good news. With our sacred trees, we can breathe
a sigh of relief.
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We
know how difficult it can be to cross Highway 101 for those
driving northbound to get to San Antonio Road. We recently
learned that CALTRANS has an active project to complete the
exit at the Redwood landfill just south of us. This is a 16-mile
project that breaks ground in June 2011 and includes an access
road from that exit to San Antonio Road. Meaning those traveling
northbound on Hwy.
101 will reach our campus via this new exit, which will
be safer than the current turnoff. Though we'd like to see
it sooner, the access road is scheduled to be completed in
June 2013.
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Funding
Opportunities
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Make it
possible for The Green for All Program to offer its 9th Art
in Action Summer Camp for 22 to 28 lower income
youth at the Retreat Center campus. This program is in peril
and may be cancelled, but your generosity can save it! Can
you help? (More details in our May
newsletter.)
Yoga/Hot Tubs/Massage Center. Our focus
on health and healing as well as fostering community makes
this a high-ranking project at the retreat center. And
we need funding to make this dream a reality. We welcome small
and large contributions toward manifesting this vision.
Our permaculture garden is looking beautiful and is full
of vegetables recently planted and flowers. This garden has
been restored and upgraded by the capable hands of professional
gardener Bryan Singleton, who is also our resident caretaker.
Currently he is funded for gardening work only a few hours
a week. We're also in need of landscaping and gardening
work on the front of our administrative buildings
and the Retreat Center dormitories. Sponsoring the beautification
of our property with specific attention to our building landscaping
would enhance the beauty of our campus. If
you’re interested, please contact Robert
McDowell, Director of Development for the Property
and Retreat Center.
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What's
Cooking?
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Deborah Day is part of our amazing culinary team here at the
Retreat Center and comes to us via her recent training at
Bauman College. Their philosophy of SOUL food, Seasonal -
Organic - Unrefined - Local has been a great inspiration and
influence for Debbie's culinary style, as well as her mentor,
Chef Shannon Hughes. The idea is allowing quality ingredients
to stand strongly on their own, with minimal fussing and intervention
in the preparation process, preparing delicious dishes with
five ingredients or less. Debbie has recently become responsible
for ordering the food in the kitchen. Remaining committed
to local, fresh, organic products, Debbie is reviewing vendors,
products, and costs to help the kitchen continue its outstanding
reputation while becoming a more cost effective operation.
Debbie grew up in a household with
her Mom always cooking and when she went away to college studying
to become an English major, her first job was in the dorm
kitchen. And she has stayed in the food service industry ever
since, moving to Hawaii and spending five years in a local
natural foods store as the Sweets & Savory Baker, working
with pizza, breads, muffins, cookies, etc. This experience
grounded her natural foods interest and instinct, which drew
her back here to the San Francisco Bay area to attend Bauman
College. Below is one of Debbie's infamous cookie recipes.
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Volcanos
Makes about two dozen cookies
- 4 cups of assorted nuts (e.g. 1
cup each of almonds, sunflower seeds, cashews, walnuts),
ground in a food processor, medium pulse (not too coarse
not too fine, somewhat like large grains of sand)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/2 jar of 100% Fruit Preserves
Mix by hand. Portion into one inch
balls. Press and indent center with thumb. Bake at 300 degrees
for 10 minutes. Dollop with fruit preserves, and bake again
for 10 more minutes. Cool and Serve. (Asian-inspired variation:
use sesame seeds as one of the nut options and use tahini
instead of almond butter).
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Art,
Culture & Consciousness
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If
you're not already signed up, please do join us for a reception
on June 28th from 3-5 p.m. here on campus in Petaluma, California
for the artist reception and opening of our summer exhibit,
The Sacred Beauty of Inner and Outer Worlds, featuring
photography of cells and the Hubble photographs of outer space.
Register
here.
The Inner World aspect features
Sondra Barrett, PhD,
who first used a microscope searching for cellular clues and
cures for research while on the faculty of UCSF Medical School.
A surprising photographic exhibit on the chemicals of the
brain at the Academy of Sciences showed her that the microscope
could be used to create art from science. And life began revealing
itself in new ways as she began photographing vitamins, minerals,
and the substances of life. Her first audiences were children
with cancer who wanted to see their cells and the hidden beauty
inside themselves.
In 1982 she began photographing wine
in preparation for her first show as artist-in-residence at
Sterling Vineyard.
Each foray into the invisible world
opened unusual patterns of both beauty and information. What
may appear to some as simple abstract crystalline structures
instilled in Sondra the quest for 'meaning in the molecules.'
Trained as a scientist who deciphered patterns and connections
between form and function, Barrett sometimes calls herself
a molecular archeologist-code finder. She interprets within
molecular patterns of minerals, chemicals of taste, wine,
and mind-altering substances stories with roots in ancient
wisdom and inner knowing.
Wine Up Close shows the story
of life, vitality and death, maybe even soul and personality.
The hidden beauty of wine will amaze you as you drink in this
exhibit. At the Opening Reception, Sondra will take you on
a visual journey from ‘cell to soul,’ from vine to wine as
she shares compelling imagery that bridges science, art and
the spiritual.
Her photography has won awards from
both Nikon and Olympus and has appeared in Scientific
American, San Francisco Chronicle, The World
of Fine Wine, and numerous wine publications. Her work
has been shown at Sterling Vineyard, Grgich Hills Cellars,
Napa Valley Museum, Barry Singer Gallery, Diablo Art Gallery,
and 2009 Bioscapes Museum Tour. Her first book will be out
this summer.
Our July newsletter will feature the
Outer World aspect of this exhibit, with Sam Hoffman.
Register
here.
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Contact
Us
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Lisa
VanderBoom 707.779.8224
events@noetic.org
The Retreat Center at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
Located on 200 acres of beautiful rolling hills just 25 miles north of
the Golden Gate Bridge, we offer meeting facilities, cuisine, and accommodations
for 5-120. Our clients offer educational programs, workshops, and retreats,
with a broad focus on health, personal growth, and transformation.
We also welcome weekend workshops and retreats for small groups (fewer
than 25). Many programs are open to the public.
The Institute of Noetic
Sciences is a nonprofit membership organization
located in Northern California that conducts and sponsors
leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness—including
perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition.
The Institute explores phenomena that do not necessarily fit
conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment
to scientific rigor.
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