Columbia University: Spirituality in Education Conference

In November 2022 hundreds of educators, philanthropists and nonprofit representatives gathered at Teachers College at Columbia University for a conference on spirituality in education organized by the Collaborative for Spirituality in Education, The Collaborative was created to spearhead a global movement based on the idea that children are innately spiritual and benefit from exploring spirituality at school.

I participated in this event with both an online presentation as well as an in-person workshop, as described below:

• The Chakra Journey and Making Decisions - In this online presentation I explained and demonstrated how to use the chakras for important decision making. The Chakra Journey enables a person to slow down and tap into a more spiritual place that honors Mother Nature and incorporates gratitude towards the universe, ancestry, and divination elements. Using the Chakra Journey to inform one's choices can be a valuable practice to learn at any point in one's life, especially for students who are at the cusp of so many life choices and potential changes as they contemplate their paths in the future. My online presentation can be viewed by clicking the image on the right.

• In Person Workshop: Celebrating Community and Authenticity in the Classroom with the Sacred Spiral - In this presentation I spoke about how the Sacred Spiral represents an inward journey of self-discovery. It also symbolizes how each unique individual can come together with others to create a one-ness, a beautiful wholeness to form a caring, loving community.

Columbia University: The Awakened Campus Summit

In April 2022 the Spirituality Mind Body Institute (SMBI) at Teachers College, Columbia University hosted the Awakened Campus Summit: Spirituality and Mental Health for College Students. This landmark online gathering addressed the current mental health crisis in young adults and the resulting opportunity to foster wellness through campus-based support for student spiritual development.

My online presentation on the Sacred Spiral is presented at right.

International Association for Near-Death Studies:

The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) is a North Carolina-based non-profit organization originally founded in 1981 to study and provide information on the phenomena of the near death experience (NDE). Today it has grown into an international organization with approximately 1,200 members worldwide. In one of its publications the organization has formulated its vision as one of building "global understanding of near-death and near-death-like experiences through research, education, and support”.

At an IANDS conference in 2021 I led a panel discussion with top leaders in NDE studies discussing using NDE wisdom to help our young.

Scientific and Medical Network:

The Scientific and Medical Network “SMN” is a creative international forum for lifelong transformative learning. SMN is part of a worldwide contemporary movement for assimilating spiritual understanding, bringing together scientists, doctors, psychologists, engineers, philosophers, complementary practitioners and other professionals, in a spirit of open and critical enquiry, to explore frontier issues at the interfaces between science, consciousness, wellbeing and spirituality.

I presented the following three talks online at the ‘wine bar,” an informal discussion on various topics in the fields of science, consciousness, wellbeing and spirituality:

• Rudolf Steiner - Emergency Pedagogy for Ukrainian Crisis - I provided a history of emergency pedagogy for children in crisis/war situations and the importance of using this knowledge in today’s Ukrainian crisis. HERE is a link to a slideshow that I presented in connection with this session.

• Shamanic Chakra Andean Archetypes and Using the Chakras - I discussed the history of the Andean (Inca) shamans using the chakras as a tool for living abundantly. Click HERE to view a slideshow of this presentation.

• Entheogen (Plant Medicine) and Their Future in expanding consciousness and helping with PTSD and other ailments.  I presented history and research on the use of entheogen for expanding consciousness,  We followed up with a discussion on the implications of this for our world.