The Retreat Center launches its first fundraising event, Art, Wine, and Spirit Benefit on Sunday, September 13 from 4:00-6:30 pm. Please join us for a festive afternoon. You can register in advance and pay at the door ($35).

This silent auction benefits the thoughtful development of the Retreat Center at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Top projects this will help fund are the building of a hot tub and deck, and an expanded upper campus parking lot. Click here for a list of auction items.

Featuring:

• Keynote Speaker: Mike Grgich, Grgich Hills Estate
• Exquisite appetizers prepared by the Earthrise Kitchen Staff, paired with biodynamic and organic wines
• The Sacred Beauty of Inner and Outer Worlds, the art of Sondra Barrett and Sam Hoffman

The following is a partial list of what will be served:

• Ghee-grilled quesadillas with roasted poblanos, brie, mango chutney and pine nuts
• Rosemary cashews
• Figs with goat cheese, mint, lavender and honey
• Dukkah (Egyptian street food), a delicious mix of spices, seeds and nuts for olive oil basted bread
• Sliced ham with fig mostarda
• Rumaki (Medjool dates wrapped with an almond and prosciutto)
• Curried gravenstein apple salsa served with plantain chips
• Dry jack polenta triangles with romesco sauce

Wines we will be enjoying include:

• Benziger 2008 Signaterra Casey's Block Savignon Blanc (Demeter certified bidynamic)
• Benziger 2005 Oonapais (Bordeaux blend) (Demeter certified bidynamic)
• Grgich 2006 Napa Valley chardonnay (their first certified biodynamic chardonnay)
• Chateau Veronique Red from Organic Wine Company
• and others

Please register in advance and pay at the door ($35).

It is uncertain at this writing if Mike Grgich will be well enough to attend. If not, Ivo Jeramaz, his grand nephew, Vice-President of Vineyards and Production at Grgich Hills Estate, will be the keynote speaker. Both Ivo and Mike will share their passion about wines, sustainability, and biodynamics.

Next Show: White Passages
Artist: Chiyomi Longo

October 1 - December 30, 2009
Opening reception: Sunday, October 11, 2009
Co-sponsored by Lucid Art Foundation
Curated by Fariba Bogzaran

Chiyomi Longo earned a Masters of Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute. For over 15 years, she has created works she describes as "steps along a path of ongoing discovery." White Passages is a series of powerful paintings expressing a fluid interconnection between the visible and the invisible. Using organic forms, Longo's work brings lucidity, concentration, passion and sensuousness. Peter Frank, art critic and historian, described her style as Natural Abstraction, which embody her ideals of harmony, unity and the cycles of nature.

2010 Schedule of Art Exhibits

January-March: Artist Toni Littlejohn
April-June: Group Show of Bishop Pine Preserve artists
July-September: Arts and Consciousness Group show
October-December: Arts and Science Group show

Earthrise is the proposed new name for the Retreat Center at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. We have been trying out this name informally and seeking feedback for several months. It seems to be taking hold, and we have received a lot of positive feedback. At a meeting last week of the IONS’ Board of Directors’ Land and Retreat Center Committee, the name Earthrise was given a strong affirmative vote to recommend to the board the adoption of this name.

Our new potential name was born in tribute to the legacy of our founder, astronaut Edgar Mitchell, and the profound shift in consciousness he experienced by seeing the earth from space. That experience lives on at the retreat center where many join us here for deep work that is shifting personal and global awareness.

Monthly Dinner Series, from 5:30-8:00 pm on campus here in Petaluma for dinner, with guest speakers. ($35, please register in advance and pay at the door.)

September 13 - Retreat Center Benefit and Art Auction (see top of this issue)

Please mark your calendar for next month's dinner series on October 15: Poetry as a Spiritual Practice with Robert McDowell and other Bay area poets.

Guest comment about our August 27 dinner salon:
"Thank you for such a great event last night at IONS. One of the best nights I spent in a long time! Excellent food, good company, wines to live for, food for thought, heartful hosting, deep art! I don't know any my senses which was not tickled! With appreciation!"

September 18-20 - Working with Fields of Consciousness: Practical Strategies for Group Leaders with Chris Bache, PhD and guest Dean Radin, PhD
September 25-27 - Mindful Motherhood: A Meditation and Yoga Retreat for Pregnant Women and Moms with Cassandra Vieten, PhD
October 9-11 - Extraordinary Dreams: Working Creatively with Dreams in Your Life Practice with Fariba Bogzaran, PhD and guest Patricia Garfield, PhD
October 24-25 - Circle of Stones: An Autumn Retreat for Women with Judith Duerk, MS
October 30-November 1 - Integrating with Your Shadow—Connecting with Your Guide with Ralph Metzner, PhD
November 20-21 - Clear Mind Wild Heart: Finding Courage and Clarity through Poetry with David Whyte

The Retreat Center asks for your help and partnering toward the growth and development of the premiere healing center we all dream of. Here are some important needs from our list:

Hot Tub and Yoga Deck. We are inviting contributions to make this much desired facility a reality. Several potential clients have told us that a hot tub is essential for them to commit to booking with us. Not only would this add a desirable feature to the retreat center, but it would bring more business and contribute to a more sustainable endeavor. Contributions of any amount will be restricted to this project. Help us make the dream come true!

New Classroom and Community Building. We are in great need of a fifth meeting room so as to be able to serve some groups who need several classrooms at once for their work. This classroom could also double as much needed community gathering space at the retreat center. Contributions large and small are invited and welcomed for this project that we need to fund immediately.

Volunteers Needed!

Timber cutting and hauling.
Gardening/landscaping.

Contact Robert McDowell, Director of Development rmcdowell@noetic.org, 707-779-8215.

Donate now.

Metzner Alchemical Divination has been a long-time client of the Retreat Center, offering workshops and retreats. And most recently has partnered with IONS as an educational provider in our Transformative Learning Workshop series. The next workshop will be: Integrating with Your Shadow—Connecting with Your Guide, October 30-November 1.

Ralph Metzner Ph.D. is a psychologist and writer, who participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass). Dr. Metzner is a psychotherapist, and Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he was formerly the Academic Dean and Academic Vice-president. His books include The Unfolding Self, The Well of Remembrance, Green Psychology, and a new series of books on The Ecology of Consciousness.

Dr. Metzner has been involved in consciousness research, including psychedelics, yoga, meditation and shamanism for over 45 years. He is a co-founder and was the President of the Green Earth Foundation, a non-profit educational organization devoted to healing and harmonizing the relationship between humans and the Earth, and a signatory to the 9/11 Truth Statement. He conducts workshops on consciousness transformation and alchemical divination, both nationally and internationally.

www.metzneralchemicaldivination.org
www.greenearthfound.org

A big Thank You to our Retreat Center clients in August!

International Association of Yoga Therapists
Art in Action
Stress Free Schools
Global Cooperative Forum
Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
Foundation for Shamanic Studies
Friendly Favors
Bay Area Non-Violent Communications
Veriditas
UCSF
Rejuvenate Training
CIIS
Enneagram Center of Marin
CSETI – The Disclosure Project

Annual Client Appreciation Dinner is Thursday, December 3.

We host retreats, workshops and client events on an ongoing basis throughout the year at the Retreat Center. Please click here to see our detailed events schedule.

Meet Monica Sallouti

One of our relatively new chefs at the Retreat Center Kitchen is Monica Sallouti. Monica is a Certified Natural Chef, a graduate of Bauman College in Penngrove, CA. Bauman College is a Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts School, emphasizing the use of whole, organic, seasonal and local foods. Monica has a passion for planning, preparing and serving delicious, highly nutritious and beautiful food.

Cooking for family and friends since she was a teenager, Monica was fortunate to have two patient and talented grandmothers to teach and mentor her. Her Lebanese grandmother lived with her in São Paulo, Brazil. Her California grandmother owned and managed a health-food store in Petaluma (for 20 years). Each grandmother, in her own way, taught the importance of using the freshest ingredients to achieve perfect dishes. Every dish was prepared with love and care. Photos of each one bless her kitchen and remind her to keep love and care at the center of everything.

A life-threatening (and life-transformative) encounter with metastatic melanoma in her late 20’s created an interest in self-healing. Food, cooking and health were inextricably linked in her quest for health. Now 15+ years later, she brings that same care to clients on their healing journey. Her special area of expertise is cooking for those with illness or disease, which means being able to meet clients’ therapeutic needs with appropriate ingredients and cooking methods for cancer, candida, blood sugar regulation, cardiac health, etc.

In addition to working in the kitchen at the retreat center, Monica founded a personalized chef services and catering company in 2008. Services include catering in homes and offices, preparing meals in client’s homes, providing custom grocery shopping, pantry rehab, a Shop, Wash & Prep service (so clients can “just cook”), as well as personalized grocery store and farmer’s market tours.

A Sonoma County native, she resides in Santa Rosa, California with her partner, her daughter and their animals. Her only absence from living in paradise was to live in São Paulo, Brasil for 10 years with her extended family. Monica can be contacted at Sallouti@sonic.net.

The Organic Wine Company is proud to partner with the Retreat Center at the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Join the EcoWine Club now or try our introductory organic wine sampler pack. We are offering this suite of wines at the introductory price of $39.99.

Your purchase of our carefully crafted, organically grown wines will support a network of small vineyards practicing sustainable farming throughout the world. For the past 30 years The Organic Wine Company has tirelessly promoted these pioneers and their worthy endeavors in support of a healthier planet and a healthier YOU.

Joining the Ecowine Club now helps inspire fresh thinking, creates economic opportunity, brings pleasure to your palate and protects the well-being of our most precious commodity...Mother Earth! In addition, 5% of your purchase will be donated to support the green, sustainable development of Earthrise Retreat Center.

To learn more about the Organic Wine Company, its founder, mission and product line, click on: www.ecosalon.com/organic-red-wine

To try our wines and experience what responsible drinking of organically grown wine will do for you, visit www.theorganicwinecompany.com or go directly to our Earth Rise Sampler, or call us at 1-888-ECOWINE.