Misc. News & Resources
Wednesday, August 2, 2000
"News,
Inspiration,
& Consumer Protection
for Spiritual Seekers"
------------
NHNE: Misc. News & Resources
Wednesday, August 2, 2000
Current Members: 1730
------------
To subscribe, send a blank email message to:
nhne-subscribe@egroups.com
To unsubscribe, send a blank email message to:
nhne-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Appreciate what we are doing?
You can say so with a tax-deductible donation:
http://www.nhne.com/main/donations.html
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
QUOTABLE:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things
you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
--- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
CONTENTS:
DREAMS:
An Online Newsletter for Dreamers
A Report From ASD's July 4th Washington, D.C. Conference
A COURSE IN MIRACLES:
A New York Judge Tackles The Copyright Mess
Course Copyright Reference Links
OUTSTANDING EMAIL & WEB RESOURCES:
NHNE's News List
EarthBrowser
Webshots
Great Speeches In History
NOVA Transcripts
ShowBiz Daily Box Office Report
Quicktime Movie Trailers
Top 100 Websites
INSPIRATIONAL STORY:
Inspirational Story: Princess Misha & The Toad
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
DREAMS:
AN ONLINE NEWSLETTER FOR DREAMERS
In January of this year, I introduced all of you to Susan Amon, the
creator of a dream journal software program called "Dream Temple"
and asked for volunteers to help her fine-tune her innovative program.
Over 100 people signed up to help and Susan incorporated many of the
suggestions she received into version 2.0, which is currently available
at:
http://www.DreamTemple.com/
Not content to produce one of the world's best dream software programs,
Susan is now publishing a much needed dream newsletter. Along with including
news and tips for people who use her dream journal software, Susan's
newsletter, called "Dream Flights", also reports on current
events, research and important gatherings in the world of dreams. In
her current issue, Susan writes about a conference she attended in Washington,
D.C. in early July that was sponsored by the Association for the Study
of Dreams (ASD) (see below).
I'm delighted to see that a versatile and well-connected dream newsletter
has finally appeared online and hope everyone who dreams (that's all
of us) will support Susan's efforts by subscribing and telling others
about this important resource. To subscribe, send a blank message to
<DreamFlights-subscribe@egroups.com>.
--- David Sunfellow
------------
THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS FROM THE ASD CONFERENCE IN WDC
By Susan Amon
Dream Flights Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 2
http://www.DreamTemple.com/newsletter/vol_1_2.html
If I could have floated through the conference in my dream body I would
have attended simultaneous sessions, interacted with the presenters,
and perhaps in a lucid state edited some of the presentations! But alas,
the party was focused in the physical plane where one foot still precedes
another in an inevitable pattern of near predictability. Thus my account
of the conference will be of my personal experiences and perceptions
of the sessions I chose to attend and not meant to be representative
of the whole conference as you did/might have experienced it.
The conference schedule offered a number of different types of formats
for presenting information and experientials, including panels, papers,
workshops, demonstrations, lectures, and morning dream groups. There
was even a computer cafe where there were several laptops available
for attendees to access a conference website where one could explore
the subject of dreaming on the Internet, thanks to Scott Hughs and Jean
Campbell.
I've been to a few conferences on the subject of consciousness, health,
and new age stuff but for me this conference "makes the cake."
As a newcomer to the conference I felt a warm welcome from the "regulars"
who were curious and open to who I was and what I was doing. I don't
know if this was because many of the presenters and attendees have known
and worked with each other for a long time or the simple fact that people
who have worked with their dreams tend to be very open in general as
they've witnessed the strange and wonderful created by their own minds.
Now I'd like to walk you through the conference sessions as I attended
them, most of them in any case. The first session I attended was a panel
of dream researchers talking about the Future of Dream Studies with
Mark Blagrove, Ph.D, Clara Hill, Ph.D, and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. The
most interesting discussion to me was the exchange about how in order
to competently engage in multi-cultural studies i.e. Western, Shamanic,
Sanoi etc., dreaming traditions, one needs to know enough about themselves
and the different cultures to effectively distinguish between "valid"
or having therapeutic qualities and "authentic" origins where
the method can be determined to have come from that tradition. Dr. Krippner
goes on to say, and I am paraphrasing quite a bit, that in the absence
of this sort of discernment one can be somehow "mesmerized"
by these new and exotic methods for their own sake which has brought
us to an "age of mishmash" where people become "excessive
eclectic" rather then truly engaged in the multi-cultural study
of dreams.
Onward to a workshop for the afternoon with Rita Dwyer called Dreaming
as a Call to action: Taking the First Steps. This workshop was one of
seven in a series called The Mythic Journey, I was only able to attend
this one. There were at least 30 people packed into the workshop where
Rita lead us on a journey through a dream we selected for ourselves.
The process was a series of questions called the TTAQ technique (Title,
Theme, Affect, Questions) which leads dreamers through a series of 10
questions and dream sharing to quickly arrive at personal meaning(s)
for our dream. At the end of the workshop we were talking about one
of the last steps in the process which was how can we share our discoveries
with the community around us. At this point Robert Moss suggested that
we make it a point in each day to talk to someone about dreaming who
may not have had any exposure to working with their dreams. This process
is far to vast for me to convey here and as of yet there is no website,
please email me if you want further information about The Mythic Journey
and I'll send you contact info on the authors.
More dream work. Next I went to another workshop lead by Montague Ullman,
Ph.D called Appreciating Dreams: The Montague Ullman Group Approach.
Dr. Ullman is one of the founding fathers of sleep and dream research
and over the years has taught thousands of people the basics of how
to work with dream groups in a respectful and compassionate manner.
It is basically a four-step approach, where the safety of the dreamer
is a primary tenet of the process in that the dreamer remains in control
at all times while the group is working with their dream. On another
note: there were so many many people is the room I could only sit silently
in the back picking up occasional phrases hardly tracking the content
of what was being exchanged among the people in the front. However,
this gave me opportunity to just sit back and watch the exchanges through
the mannerisms of Dr. Ullman and the group. It was like watching a beautiful
rhythmic dance, Dr. Ullman would gesture as he was addressing the group
smiling as he spoke, then there would be a reaction in the group at
which point one person would then share, then all of the sudden I would
hear the phrase; "If this were my dream..." and so it went
for about an hour and a half.
The next day started with a history lesson about the shock waves sent
through the field of psychology as a result of the the famous Dream
Telepathy experiments performed at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn,
NY in the 1960's. At that point in history it seemed bold enough to
have delved into the mysterious world of dream research let alone telepathy!
Dominic Potts, J.D., a medical-legal trial attorney, presented the "case"
in a dramatic way by reading wild criticisms from other "professionals"
in the field of psychology then countered by quotes from a Dr. Childs
who gallantly defended the integrity of the Ullman-Krippner experiments.
We then heard first hand accounts from the people who designed the original
experiments: Robert Van de Castle, Ph.D, Stanley Krippner, Ph.D, and
Montague Ullman, Ph.D. I was struck by the fact that the strongest criticism
was from fellow psychologists initially and least from people in related
fields of science. Then I reminded myself of how scary it might be for
a therapist to realize that their patient was able to ease drop of their
lives so "innocently." If you are interested in reading more
about this fascinating experiment and the history of dream research
find a copy of the "cult" classic book "Dream Telepathy"
written by Montague Ullman, Stanley Krippner among others which was
an outcome of these experiments.
In the afternoon I went to a session titled Research on 'Intensified
Dreams' and Their Waking Life Impact. I came into this session late
just as Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D was finishing his presenting his paper
"Big Dreams': New Data on Their Phenomenology" which I am
now very sorry I missed judging by the quality of what little I did
hear. The next paper to be presented was by Bonnelle Strickling, Ph.D
titled "More Dreams about God." This was most inspiring. As
she took the podium I felt transported in the Temple of Sacred Dreams.
Her graceful presence and gently rhythmic voice made sure that every
word could be absorbed as she shared the gripping narrative of the slow
but sure transformation of clients she1s been able to help. At next
years ASD conference she promises to present a paper titled "More
Dreams of God II."
In the evening I went to Gail Bixler-Thomas, M.A. presentation titled
Dreams: Artwork of the Collective Unconscious: A Website. If Gail's
name seems familiar to you it's because Gail is the webmistress of last
months featured website in Dream Flights. She is an energetic, computer
enthusiast who has so much to offer in her work and vision of creating
safe and exciting environments for troubled kids to express their dreams.
In this session we were walked through a beautiful slide show of her
website and stories about those who have contributed dreams accompanied
by dream artwork created by the dreamer. Fortunately there were only
a few people there which made for a very intimate group. Most of the
attendees were very computer "inclined" thus we were able
share our experiences with the Internet and dreams in depth.
By this time in the conference I'm starting to get antsy sitting for
hours on end but the panel I had long awaited was coming up next. First
thing in the morning was the panel on Long-Term Journal Keeping: Taking
Stock and Looking Ahead. Panelist were Cynthia Pearson, Ed Wirth, Richard
Russo, M.A., Dennis Schmidt, Ph.D, and Gloria Sturzenacker. What impressed
most me listening to this panel was how unique the journaling process
is for each of us. And that as we spend more time with our dreams exploring
different models for understanding our dreams our journals and personal
journaling process become works of art. Most of the panelists used a
combination of paper journals (text, drawings), filing systems, and
computers to work with their dreams. There were wonderful sychronicities,
dreaming and waking, shared among the panelists about each others presentation.
It was delightful to watch the panelists in this process of discovery,
something we can all relate to. However, I was a little surprised that
none of panelists talked about the role that readily available dream
journal software and computers could play in dream journaling although
someone in the audience did raise the question and gave my software
a plug!
Of all events for me to miss was the global Internet event Dreaming,
the Internet, and the Imaginal Realm: A Cyber-Conversation. In this
session people logged into the Computer Cafe chat room and spoke to
presenters Jayne Gackenback, Ph.D, Richard C. Wilkerson, and Robert
Bosnak through Firetalk, an Inerent voice phone software application,
where they shared their vision and experiences about the growing number
of people sharing dreams on the Internet. Why did I miss it? Well, just
about everybody who had told me they wanted a demo of the Dream Temple
to show up for this event so I was in the hallway giving demos. Anyway...
Many thanks to Scott Hughs for his technical expertise in making this
event happen!
On the the evening on the third day of the conference we all got together
at 10PM for the Annual Dream Telepathy Experiment. The idea here is
to test the dreaming minds ability to tune into a visual target, which
will be broadcast telepathically during the night. This event was loosely
patterned on the experiments in dream telepathy documented at Maimonides
Dream Laboratory mentioned several paragraphs earlier. Rita Dwyer and
Robert Van de Castle, Ph.D presented the experiment and Pia Kieding,
Ph.D was the designated sender. The way it worked was Pia selected one
of four envelops presented to her each containing a picture. When she
returned to her hotel room she was to open the envelop and broadcast
the image to conference members. To learn more about this event visit
the following website:
http://www.asdreams.org/telepathy/contest2000/index.htm
On the last day we continued a full day of sessions, while many were
scouting out costumes in the WDC area for the annual Dream Ball where
the winners of the Dream Telepathy contest would be announced. The idea
behind the Dream Ball is that we were to dress up like our favorite
dream character. About one third of the attendees dressed up. Yours
truly went as Swami Dreamananda who was promising to give flute lessons
that would imbue the student with special psychic powers, this is an
actual dream character that appears in my dreams from time to time.
My costume was no more than a hotel towel pinned to my head in a swirl
and a blue azurite stone fastened to the front with bubble gum accompanied
by a very poor East Indian accent. Some of the other dream characters
were the Grimm Reaper who no one could identify, The Phoenix, Kings
and Queens, Chairman Mao, Pharohs, sorcerers, beatnik, a philanthropist
who arrived to help ASD out with funding etc..
Before my trip to/at the ASD conference I thought about what I might
expect to find; would it lean to the side of science or would it be
more creative and expressive? I found both and a lot more in between!
This conference, in my experience, was quite a melting pot of opportunities
for dream discovery, similar to dreams themselves. It seemed that whatever
end of the spectrum your interests lie, one could find a course of study
that would challenge as well as nurture ones' understanding of dreamwork.
Whether you are in the "dream" business or just interested
in dreams and dreaming this conference has a tremendous amount to offer
in terms of learning and meeting up with fellow dreamers. I'm still
excited about all the new ways of working with my dreams and life in
general. That alone is worth the price of admission!
To learn more about ASD and the conference please visit the ASD website:
http://www.ASDreams.org
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
A COURSE IN MIRACLES:
A NEW YORK JUDGE TACKLES THE COPYRIGHT MESS
We have sent out several updates concerning the Course In Miracles
copyright controversy. And now, finally, a judge has issued a preliminary
opinion on the mess.
In the current episode, Penguin Books (the publisher of "A Course
In Miracles"), The Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM),
and Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) requested a partial summary judgment
on their claim for copyright infringement, and for a preliminary injunction.
The New Christian Church of Full Endeavor and Endeavor Academy (EA)
countered by asking for a summary judgment to dismiss all claims.
So what happened? Tom Whitmore, a lawyer and member of the Course In
Miracles Society (CIMS), an organization that seeks "to end once
and for all any secular claims to ownership and control of the Course",
summarized the opinion issued by New York District Judge D.J. Sweet
this way:
"Although he (Judge Sweet) disposed of most of EA's legal arguments
and positions in his 59 page opinion issued on July 21, 2000, Judge
Sweet dealt Wapnick and FACIM what is likely to be a fatal blow: Sweet
has said, in effect, that if Endeavor can prove its allegations of extensive
pre-copyright copying of the Course with the encouragement or permission
of Judy Skutch, the 1975 copyright covering the main body of the Course
will be held invalid and the infringement suit will be dismissed. Judge
Sweet seems to have only barely come up short in his evaluation of the
evidence presented in Endeavor's favor to support its claim that A Course
in Miracles was cast into the public domain by the extensive copying
and recopying that occurred in 1975, before copyright was claimed by
FIP. The concerns voiced by Sweet that the evidence presented by the
Academy contains potentially inadmissible hearsay and that EA did not
properly notify FACIM of the existence of the witnesses to the premature
distribution can be easily dealt with at the trial, by having witnesses
available to testify in the flesh who are timely and properly identified
in the pretrial witness lists exchanged by counsel."
Judge Sweet's opinion, which includes a blow-by-blow historical overview
of the Course copyright controversy, can be found here:
http://www.whitmorelaw.com/Copyright/Resources/00-07413.PDF
COURSE COPYRIGHT REFERENCE LINKS:
Course In Miracles Copyright Information:
http://www.whitmorelaw.com/CIM_Copyright.html
PAST NHNE REPORTS ON THE COURSE COPYRIGHT SITUATION:
D. Patrick Miller's Course Controversy Overview:
http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srcoursemiller.html
Wapnick on the Hugh Lynn Version of "The Course":
http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srcoursehlcversionfollowup.html
A Course in Controversy:
http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srcoursehlcversion.html
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
OUTSTANDING EMAIL & WEB RESOURCES:
NHNE NEWS LIST:
http://www.egroups.com/group/nhnenews
While there hasn't been much traffic on NHNE's Main List (that's this
one) in recent months, our news list continues to receive several posts
a day. Here's a quick sampling of recent stories:
- Giant Trap Set for Monster in Lake
- Dinos Died Suddenly
- The Amazing Healing Properties of Honey
- Men Have a Biological Clock Too
- Sniffing Out E.T.
- Stalinist Gulag Is Recreated As Theme Park
- Did Microbial Life Come To Earth On A Meteorite?
- Another Dinosaur Extinction Theory
- Little Green Men Might Be Same As Us
- Carnivorous Robot Is Born
- Roman Colosseum: First Show In 1,500 Years
- Man Attempts To Sell Pieces Of Cheops
- Ring of Carousers Posing As Monks
- Parrot Learns To Surf The Web
- Greek Myths Not Necessarily Mythical
- Inventor Building Rocket In Back Yard
On average, I send out three or four messages a day to this list. Subscribers
can choose to receive these messages individually, in digest form (all
of the day's posts in one message), or leave them on the Web to review
at their convenience.
To subscribe, send a message to:
nhnenews-subscribe@egroups.com
To review current posts:
http://www.egroups.com/messages/nhnenews
------------
EARTHBROWSER (For Mac and Windows):
http://www.earthbrowser.com/
Looking for a program that allows you to track weather and geological
changes all over the Earth? EarthBrowser may be what you're looking
for. Along with providing a beautiful, full-color picture of a rotating
Earth, EarthBrowser also shows the latest weather, earthquake, volcano,
and cloud cover. With a click of your mouse, you can get instant weather
reports from many of planet Earth's major cities, as well as see and
track down detailed information concerning all of our planet's major
volcanic and earthquake activity. You can also grab the Earth and rotate
it in any direction you want and zoom in and out to get a detailed image
or a far off view from space. The clouds are updated from satellite
images on an hourly basis and the shadow travels across the globe all
day long. Amazing!
------------
WEBSHOTS:
http://www.webshots.com/
Looking for a quick and easy way to change that boring picture on your
desktop? Webshots offers a wide variety of spectacular desktop images
along with a software program that can automatically change pictures.
------------
The History Channel's
GREAT SPEECHES IN HISTORY:
http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/
Hear the words that changed the world! From Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
"I have a dream" speech to Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball,
the History Channel's vast collection is drawn from the most famous
broadcasts and recordings of the twentieth century.
------------
NOVA TRANSCRIPTS:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/
------------
SHOWBIZ DAILY BOX OFFICE REPORT:
http://www.showbizdata.com/contacts/dailybox.htm
QUICKTIME MOVIE TRAILERS:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/
------------
TOP 100 WEBSITES:
http://www.100hot.com/directory/100hot/
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
INSPIRATIONAL STORY:
PRINCESS MISHA & THE TOAD
By Joan Sutula
From Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul
Some years ago, our family expanded to include a one-year-old Siberian
husky named Princess Misha. Like all Siberian huskies, Misha had an
innate love of the outdoors, and of course, the cooler the better. She
would lie curled up in a ball on top of a snowdrift on the coldest of
winter days with her tail flicked over her only vulnerable spot -- her
nose. When fresh snow fell, she would lay so still that she soon disappeared
under a blanket of snow and became a part of the landscape. Every so
often, she stood up, shook off, turned in a few circles, and then laid
back down to keep watch over her domain.
On warm summer days, she found the coolest corner in the house and
spent her days napping. Then after her nightly walk, she'd spend the
rest of the evening stretched out on the cool cement of the front patio.
All through the hot summers and into the fall, this was her nightly
ritual.
One summer evening, as we sat out on the front patio relishing a late-evening
breeze, we saw a small toad hop out of the grass, then down the sidewalk
to a few feet away from where Misha was lying. Suddenly Misha stood
up, walked over to the toad, picked it up in her mouth and then walked
back to her resting place and lay back down. She then put her chin down
on the walk, opened her mouth and let the toad hop out while we watched
in astonishment. The toad sat there in front of Misha's eyes, the two
seeming to stare at one another for some time. Then the toad hopped
down the walk and back into the grass.
On other nights that summer, we noticed this same ritual. We commented
on the fact that Misha seemed to have a fondness for toads. We worried
because some toads can be poisonous, but since she never experienced
any ill effect and never hurt them, we didn't interfere. If she spotted
a toad in the street on one of her walks, she would actually run over
to it and nudge it with her nose till it had safely hopped off the street
and back on to the grass, out of harm's way.
The following summer was the same. Misha enjoyed cooling off by lying
out on the front patio after nightfall. Many times, we noticed a toad
within inches of her face. At other times, we watched as she walked
into the grass and came back to her resting spot with a toad in her
mouth, only to release it. The toads always stayed near her for some
time before hopping off into the night. The only difference from the
previous summer was that she spent more nights in this manner, and the
toads were bigger. A toad always seemed to be close at hand.
One night early in the third summer, after letting Misha out, we watched
as a large toad hopped out of the grass and over to her, stopping inches
in front of her. Misha gently laid her head down so that her nose almost
touched the toad. That was when it finally dawned on us -- perhaps there
was just one toad! Could Misha have shared the past three summers with
the same toad? We called a local wildlife expert who told us that toads
can live three to six years, so it was entirely possible. Somehow these
two unlikely companions had formed a bond. At first it seemed so strange
to us. But then we realized we were very different from Misha too, but
the love between us seemed completely natural. If she could love us,
we marveled, why not a toad?
Misha had a minor operation that summer, and we kept her indoors for
a while afterwards to recuperate. Each night she went to the front door
and asked to be let out, but we didn't let her. Instead, leash in hand,
we took her for short walks. One evening a few days later, I went to
the front door to turn on the porch light for guests we were expecting.
When the light came on illuminating the front stoop, there, to my utter
amazement, sat Toad (as we came to call him), staring up at me through
the screen door! He had hopped up the three steps from the patio, and
we supposed he was looking for Misha. Such devotion could not be denied.
We let Misha out to be with her pal. She immediately picked the toad
up in her mouth and took it down the steps where she and Toad stayed
nose to nose until we brought her in for the night. After that, if Misha
didn't come out soon enough, Toad frequently came to the door to get
her. We made sure that the porch light was turned on before dark and
posted a big sign on the porch, "Please don't step on the toad!"
We often laughed about the incongruous friendship -- they did make
a comical sight, gazing into each other's eyes. But their devotion sometimes
made me wonder if I should regard them so lightly. Maybe it was more
than just friendship. Maybe in her stalwart toad, Princess Misha had
found her Prince Charming.
By Joan Sutula from Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul
Copyright 1999 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
From the Chicken Soup for the Soul Mailing List.
To subscribe: http://www.souperspeakers.com/soupemail.html
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The mission of NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE) is to answer humankind's oldest,
most perplexing questions: Who are we? Where are we from? What is the
origin and purpose of life? Instead of relying on ancient or contemporary
wisdom, or the knowledge of isolated experts, we are building a global
network of seekers from all walks of life, from all parts of the world,
lay people and professionals alike, that can pool talents, experience,
and resources to unravel life's great mysteries.
We also believe that our planet is passing through a time of profound
change and are seeking to create a global community of like-minded people
that can safely pass through whatever changes may come our way and help
give birth to a new way of life on our planet.
------------
David Sunfellow, Founder & Publisher
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
a 501(c)3 non-profit organization
P.O. Box 2242
Sedona, AZ USA 86339
Primary eMail: nhne@nhne.com
Secondary eMail: nhne@wildapache.net
NHNE Website: http://www.nhne.com/
Phone: (928) 282-6120
Fax: (815) 346-1492
Subscribe NHNE Mailing List:
send a blank message to <nhne-subscribe@egroups.com>
Review Current NHNE Mailing List Posts:
http://www.egroups.com/messages/nhne/
Subscribe NHNE News List:
send a blank message to <nhnenews-subscribe@egroups.com>
Review Current NHNE News List Posts:
http://www.egroups.com/messages/nhnenews/
Appreciate what we are doing?
You can say so with a tax-deductible donation:
http://www.nhne.com/main/donations.html
