Spiritual Development Program

Beth Love

5 Saturdays, June 1–29, 3:00–8:00pm

ILM Fireside Room & Kitchen, Fee:  $150 plus $50 materials fee

Would you like to eat more healthfully but need inspiration, education, and support to do so?  Are you interested in learning about the impact of your consumption choices and bringing them into alignment with your values?  This class may be just what you’re looking for!  Each week we will prepare and eat an amazing, organic vegan meal in supportive community.  Together we will explore the spiritual quality of Abundance through engagement with delicious, life-giving foods.  We will confront and transform beliefs in scarcity and embrace and embody the spiritual Truth of sufficiency.  Field trips and expert guest facilitators will enhance our experience.

Beth Love is an accomplished gourmet vegan chef who loves to share what she knows about food, spiritual principles, and healing.  An Inner Light Practitioner of Higher Consciousness, Beth will graduate from seminary in May with a Masters in Divinity.

Pat Hanson, Ph.D.

Saturdays, June 22, 9:30am–2:00pm

ILM Fireside Room, Fee:  $35 in advance, $40 at the door; add $5 for lunch

Many grandparents may not see their grandchildren as often as they’d like, or at all. Most of us will be long gone by the time children might want to know the gifts their elders passed to them. This workshop for men and women regardless of grandparent status, will create a safe space where we will learn healthy ways to deal with separation, real or imaginary, from loved little ones. It will use tools designed to release negative energy and transform it to forgiveness. We will learn ways to leave a legacy of love now, setting positive intentions for our descendents.

Pat Hanson, Ph.D., has two grandchildren that she has been kept from seeing. She is a veteran health educator, public speaker, workshop facilitator and writer. Her book, Invisible Grandparenting: Leave a Legacy of Love Whether You Can Be There or Not, will be available June 2013.

Kinsha Em

10 Fridays, March 22–May 31, 6:00-8:00pm

ILM Social Hall, Fee:  $150/series or $15/session drop in

Please bring a yoga mat.

A fun inside-out journey, using several meditation styles: gentle movement accompanied by drum rhythms and natural body music, and art play.  A body awareness experience designed to bring you closer to getting to know who you really are.

*No previous dance or movement experience required.  All ages and abilities welcome.

Kinsha is a dance of the spirit – fully embodying the joy of being present with life as it flows through her with ease and grace.  “Dance keeps me open-minded and free at heart.  It’s an expression of my soul and deepest emotions.”

Kath Robinson

9 Wednesdays, April 3–May 29, 7:00–9:30pm , ILM Social Hall

Fees: $150

For singers, musicians and music lovers who seek to deepen their experience of the Divine.  We’ll focus on becoming more spiritually available to music and more musically available to spirit, and experience the power of community singing as a transformational force.  Through singing, vocal exercises, sound healing, transformative conversations and personal inquiry we’ll release old thought patterns, heal critical messages and increase our capacity for musical excellence by being an instrument of the Divine.  This class culminates in an Evening of Community Praise–a night of music ministry and magic with our Inner Light House Band on Wednesday May 22.  This course qualifies as a pre-requisite for ILM Choir membership.  No experience necessary.

Kath Robinson is a New Thought practitioner, music minister and inspirational teacher. She is a member of the Inner Light Ministries Choir and has provided a variety of music ministry classes at Inner Light since 2007 including, “Singing as a Spiritual Practice,” “SingIN,” “Community Praise,” “The Power of Sung Prayer” and soloists workshops.  As a workshop facilitator Kath offers a safe place to sing, where Spirit leads and healing, authentic expression takes place.  Kath offers spiritually grounded vocal coaching, classes, small groups and workshops through her ministry called Living in the Soul of Your Voice.  Before coming to Inner Light, Kath sang for 7 years with the A Cappella group VocaMotion-Voices to Move the Spirit.

Lupe Peru

Saturday, May 18, 9:00am–6:00pm

Inner Light Center & Grounds, Fee:  $45

All Proceeds Benefit Inner Light!

Plant and garden care provide us with an abundance of metaphors for our own nurturance & self care, especially while in times of transition. Come cultivate practices that revitalize, uplift and sustain body, mind & spirit while we garden. You will learn how to focus your life’s energy so you and your garden thrive. Come prepared for a day of conscious exploration and fun, both in the class and working with plants in the landscape at ILM. Dress comfortably; hats, sunscreen, garden gloves and water are recommended. Bring hand clippers and lunch to eat on-site.

Lupe Peru is an award winning landscape designer, a garden creator at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show and a graduate of ILM’s Practitioner program. As a leap of faith, she left a career in the computer industry to make her passion for gardening her livelihood.

Beth Love

5 Saturdays, June 1–29, 3:00–8:00pm

ILM Fireside Room & Kitchen, Fee:  $150 plus $50 materials fee

Would you like to eat more healthfully but need inspiration, education, and support to do so?  Are you interested in learning about the impact of your consumption choices and bringing them into alignment with your values?  This class may be just what you’re looking for!  Each week we will prepare and eat an amazing, organic vegan meal in supportive community.  Together we will explore the spiritual quality of Abundance through engagement with delicious, life-giving foods.  We will confront and transform beliefs in scarcity and embrace and embody the spiritual Truth of sufficiency.  Field trips and expert guest facilitators will enhance our experience.

Beth Love is an accomplished gourmet vegan chef who loves to share what she knows about food, spiritual principles, and healing.  An Inner Light Practitioner of Higher Consciousness, Beth will graduate from seminary in May with a Masters in Divinity.

Kaylie Dugan and Sara Walpole

Do you feel the call to bring your gifts and talents to make the world a better place? Are you dreaming of starting a new business, project or activist group and are unsure how to bring it into reality? You are not alone! Learn the specific strategies and skills necessary to share your talents and ideas with the world. Understand the role of finances, money and resources in assisting you to realize your dream. Work with buddies [other students] and mentors [successful business/activist folks] to improve and hone your ideas. We’ll use the little gem of a book, Creative Mind and Success by Ernest Homes and the “Dream Clicking” workbook by Kaylie Dugan to guide our progress.

Kaylie Dugan has been a successful entrepreneur for many years, and her specific skill set is in branding, marketing, consumer research and brainstorming. Now she brings the secrets of her consulting to Fortune 500 companies to your enterprise.

Sara Walpole is a self-named “dream machine” who is passionate about bringing people together in community. She brings her Practitioner consciousness, background in community building and big heart to create sacred space for us to move courageously toward making our dreams real in the world.

Kath Robinson

Experience the blessing of song, prayer, sound and breath in a whole new way as we study the 5 step affirmative prayer practice of New Thought Ancient Wisdom, along with the corresponding 5 elements of Soul Voice Development. This class is a deep exploration into the nature of sound, the human voice, and the spiritual principles that govern the activity of singing. Chants that amplify and anchor each of the 5 elements in our own authentic movement in consciousness will be taught and sung each night along with experiential exercises that strengthen our connection to the Divine Voice within and all around us.

Kath Robinson is a New Thought practitioner, music minister and inspirational teacher. She is a member of the Inner Light Ministries Choir and has provided a variety of music ministry classes at Inner Light since 2007 including, “Singing as a Spiritual Practice,” “SingIN,” “Community Praise,” “The Power of Sung Prayer” and soloists workshops.  As a workshop facilitator Kath offers a safe place to sing, where Spirit leads and healing, authentic expression takes place.  Kath offers spiritually grounded vocal coaching, classes, small groups and workshops through her ministry called Living in the Soul of Your Voice.  Before coming to Inner Light, Kath sang for 7 years with the A Cappella group VocaMotion-Voices to Move the Spirit.

Beth Love

What comes to mind when you hear the word “family?”  For most, the word conjures up mixed associations.  Can you imagine family as a place of joy, harmony, and empowerment?  Can you imagine your family consistently employing powerful spiritual tools for healing and transformation?  If this sounds appealing, please join our Family Prayer Circle!  Gain tools for developing and/or deeping a prayer practice; use spiritual practices to enhance family relationships; transform old generational patterns; and raise the vibration of unity and love.  Participation in Pray Day and Families Ministry PrayIN groups are part of this class.  Open to everyone, regardless of age or definition of family.

Beth Love is the founding and current Inner Light Families Minister.  In her ministry with children and families, Beth loves to empower through the use of prayer, an easily accessible and super potent tool for healing and transformation.

Sibyl Piediscalzi

This class is designed to make Ernest Holmes’ Science of Mind Core Concepts come alive!  Using these Principles as Tools for Spiritual Transformation, students will discover, through a variety of experiential exercises, Who They Really Are–a Place in Consciousness for the Divine to manifest.  Using SOM Core Principles, Sibyl Piediscalzi will lead participants in a journey of self-discovery to move each person forward in spiritual evolution, to become “Isness” in individualized expression.  Discover that place within you where your existence discovers Itself within the context of God’s Isness.  Don’t just exist–Live Your Life as One in the One.

Sibyl Piediscalzi:  Teacher and Leader of Spirituality/Healing Workshops, Healer, Reiki Master Teacher, Shaman, and former Yoga Teacher, Sibyl brings a wide variety of teaching and experiential techniques to transform and “initiate” beings into Beings.

Grandmaster Jay Dunston

Students will learn martial arts techniques through rhythmic movement to oriental music.  Students are encouraged to embody whatever spiritual quality that surfaces that allows them to deepen their connection to “Spirit” and articulate development of mind and body.  The early start allows us to start the day with full power, and to solidify our intent to be present, focused, and in harmony.  Taekwondo dance was developed as a way to practice and develop an outlawed martial system by disguising it as dance.  Techniques can be modified to compensate for certain ailments and conditions.  Consultation with a physician is recommended before beginning.

Grandmaster Jay Dunston, an Inner Light Practitioner and patient and compassionate instructor, has over 40 years experience in the martial arts. He is a grand master in Taekwondo, Hapkido, the founder of his own system, and an inductee in the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Valerie Joi Fiddmont

Singing Circle Fall 2012 Theme: Heart

Music is the creative expression that celebrates life. It has the power to inspire, heal, and transform both the artist and the listener. This workshop teaches how to minister through music and to give of one’s self as an act of service. In addition to learning music, participants will learn how to ground their spiritual awareness through the study of Spiritual Principles. The Singing Circle will also provide the musical inspiration at the Sunday Celebration Service on December 9th. Join the fellowship and fun. Be a blessing.

Valerie Joi Fiddmont is an Inner Light Practitioner of Higher Consciousness, the Minister of Music and Arts for Inner Light Ministries, the founding director of the Inner Light Choir, and creator of the ILM Singing Circle. She is dedicated to sharing a message of uncompromising love through song.

Rev. Deborah L. Johnson is a teacher’s teacher. She studies and lives with the nuance of the original texts to help us understand the intent of those tenets in our own language. She is the Founding Minister of Inner Light Ministries International. She has compiled two volumes of Spiritual Letters entitled, “The Sacred Yes” and “Your Deepest Intent” and is currently working on the third.

Shira Stone

The Softening Heart is a powerful yet gentle method created by Shira that combines the deep inner work of psychotherapy, the movement and energy in the tones of the voice, and the wisdom attained by deep listening. We will be using the voice as a vehicle through which the emotions and body can express themselves. Through being heard, an organic shift takes place in which we can experience our authentic wholeness, and a more compassionate relationship can develop within each participant and their world.

Shira Stone is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Religious Science Practitioner. She has been helping people transform their lives through sound healing for almost 30 years. Shira has served as a sound healer at several cancer centers, and has presented her work at universities and on radio.

Beth Love and Kathy Schmidt

Would you love to spend a day creating and playing in spiritual community?  Connecting with others while allowing Spirit’s beauty to flow through you?  Making lovely, functional gifts to give to loved ones?  Join us for a gift-making workshop for all ages.  We will pray together and play together.  Gift possibilities include paper lamps, decorative baskets, herbal salves, marbleized paper, handmade cards, journal covers, paper gift boxes, jewelry, and more!  A per project materials fee will be charged for some projects to cover costs.  Unleash your creative potential and allow your inner artist to come out and play!

Kathy Schmidt loves to craft.  Scrapbooking and card-making are her specialties.  Kathy is a founding member of Inner Light’s Magic and Adventure Ministry.  Beth Love loves being in the zone while allowing God to create beautiful objects through her.  She passionately shares her love of crafting with people of all ages.  You can see some of Beth’s art in the ILM Bookstore.

Sajohn Daverly

A ten-class series with Sajohn Daverly, author of Bhagavad-Gita: The Ambrosial Sat-Song of Sri Krishna. A satsang is a communal gathering for exploring the truth of one’s own being, utilizing the language of the heart. Down through the ages, a great many have attended satsang with Sri Krishna through his Gita (song) communicating the truth of what we are prior to all philosophies and learned beliefs. By deeply listening with the heart, one experiences a penetrating resonance that gradually ushers in a profound transformation on many levels. It becomes clear that Self-realization does not imply self-reinvention, and that yoga does not involve a ‘uniting’ of things as much as a recognition of what was never separated to begin with—your own eternal unborn nature.

Inner Light Ministries presents an evening of silent meditation, bhajans (devotional songs), readings, and engaging interactive discussion with Sajohn Daverly, who has been assisting in the writing, editing, and proofreading of books and magazines presenting the Eastern wisdom teachings since 1979. Previously ordained into one of the traditional branches of the Swami order during his three years living in India, he has been sharing his spiritual insights with groups and offering individual consultations since 1996.

Rev. Deborah L. Johnson

Sexuality is an integral part of our spiritual journey, a precious gift that informs how we see ourselves, our relationships, and the world. Gender identity, sexual physiology, and sexual orientation are not static. They manifest along continuums of expression. They are also laden with societal expectations and norms. Reconciliation of these norms with our spirituality and sexual authenticity increases our spiritual availability. The workshop focuses on integration, self-affirmation, and balancing our inherent yin/yang energies so that we may unleash our latent powers. The workshop requires honest self-reflection and the creation of sacred healing space. To further your growth, alternate take assignments will be given to those who have taken the workshop before.

Rev. Deborah L. Johnson

This Holiday Season, give yourself the give of freedom. Give yourself the gift of release. How wonderful would it be to remember your spiritual power when engaged with family members? How liberating would it be to release past hurts and wounds, to put down the stories of who did or didn’t do what to whom? Imagine a sense of peace with loved ones no longer on the earth plane. How different would life be if there were no karmic pull from generations past? What if you were able to see family members in a new light? What if you discovered new found compassion by tapping into reservoirs of forgiveness? What if communication opened that has been stymied for years? What if you simply felt comfortable with all of your family, not just some?

Even if you have taken the workshop before, there are still new revelations awaiting you. Apply the principles to other areas of your life. This workshop is an adventure into the territory described above. The terrain may appear to be hilly or rocky; it may look like a ravine or a raging river. Whether it feels like Arctic cold or Sahara heat, a path of redemption awaits your first step. Reconciliation is possible. Peace can be yours, regardless of what you or anyone else is doing or has done. Know that you are free.

Rev. Deborah L. Johnson is a teacher’s teacher. She studies and lives with the nuance of the original texts to help us understand the intent of those tenets in our own language. She is the Founding Minister of Inner Light Ministries International. She has compiled two volumes of Spiritual Letters entitled, “The Sacred Yes” and “Your Deepest Intent” and is currently working on the third.

Valerie Joi Fiddmont

Gospels songs are often inspired by Biblical texts. Music brings the Scriptures alive like mantras in the soul. This unique class explores personal applications of ancient wisdom through metaphysical Bible study and choral singing. Join us for this joyous and heartfelt experience.

Note: Due to the Carnegie Hall preparations, there will not be a Singing Circle this year.

Valerie Joi Fiddmont is a Musician and Bible scholar par excellence. She studies and lives with the nuance of the original texts to help us understand the intent of those tenets in our own language. She is the Minister of Music and Arts for Inner Light Ministries, where she is the founding director of the Inner Light Choir and creator of the ILM Singing Circle Music Ministry Experience. She also directs the UCSC Gospel Choir and shares her ministry of love and music with local students from all walks of life. Her CD of original compositions, Singing the Sacred Yes, was released in 2006. She is currently working on her latest CD due out in November of 2011

Lauren Parker Kucera and Kristin Masters

This course offers an informed & supportive curriculum to examine the role white people play in the current racial environment and to begin to repair the damage done by past generations. How do we do this? We move beyond good intentions to take responsibility for the impact of our actions on others. We grow our cultural intelligence and empathy. We celebrate our cultural heritage. We learn about the costs of white privilege. We get off of the Hero/Victim/Villain triangle. Who attends? White people on a spiritual path who seek to make tangible the idea of “we are all one” by looking at whiteness and privilege…without burdening people of color in the learning process. Participants limited to 40, snacks provided, please bring a lunch. (Partial scholarships available)

Lauren Parker Kucera is an educator, facilitator, social justice activist, mother and artist. Lauren co-founded coAction, a racial justice and diversity training group working with educational institutions and non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. She is particularly committed to working with schools to bring about the dialogue, analysis and change around institutional racism, sexism, class-ism and other inequities that get in the way of learning and realizing our creative and spiritual potential. She produced the film, Shades Of Youth, Youth Speak on Racism, Power and Privilege and is working with a team of artists and youth activists presenting it throughout the U.S. and Canada. Lauren holds a B.A. in Psychology and a Master’s in Multicultural Education. She is an active participant in co-ministry at Inner Light Ministries.

Kristin Masters Kristin is a woman committed to creating a world that works for everyone. She has long been a facilitator and trainer, and loves helping groups find ways to move toward the goals of their good work more easily. She is currently engaged in learning, teaching and sharing compassionate Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

Rev. Leslie Heyboer and Rev. Janet Ring

Have you ever noticed that grief can become even harder to bear when everyone is supposed to be “happy”? We’ll tell the stories about our loved ones; we’ll honor them ; we’ll talk about strategies for nurturing our hearts which seem to be more tender during the holiday season or important anniversaries. And, we’ll break bread together with a potluck lunch.

Rev. Leslie and Rev. Janet are both ordained ministers and Practitioners at Inner Light Ministries. Rev. Leslie has done pastoral care work in hospitals, churches and hospices. Rev. Janet is the Team Leader for the new Pastoral Care Ministry at ILM.