July 22 - Monthly Dinner Series: The Sacred Beauty of Inner and Outer Worlds. Art, wine, music, and conversation.
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 - Benefit: Food, wine, and benefit auction.
September 18-20 - Noetic Sciences Workshop with Chris Bache, PhD and guest Dean Radin, PhD.
September 25-27 - Noetic Sciences Workshop with Cassandra Vieten, PhD.
October 9-11 - Noetic Sciences Workshop with Fariba Bogzaran, PhD and guest Patricia Garfield, PhD.
October 11 - Art Reception for Chiyomi Taneike Longo: White Passage.

Monthly Dinner Series, from 6:00-8:00 pm on campus here in Petaluma for dinner, with guest speakers.

Join us on July 22, featuring artist Sam Hoffman’s work in our series The Sacred Beauty of Inner and Outer Worlds. Register here.

(Photo at left: Galaxy M74, by Sam Hoffman)

Transformative Learning Workshops

Nine Gates Mystery School Weekend: Explore the Teachings of Ancient Wisdom
Friday, August 14 – Sunday, August 16
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.

Working with Fields of Consciousness: Practical Strategies for Group Leaders and Teachers
Friday, Sep 18, 6pm – Sunday, Sep 20, 2009, 1:30pm
Chris M. Bache, PhD, with guest Dean Radin, PhD

This workshop will explore the dynamics of collective consciousness in groups – the subtle mind-to-mind and heart-to-heart connections that ignite a deeper knowing in the room. It will provide practical strategies for strengthening these fields of consciousness and for working with them productively.

Mindful Motherhood: A Mindfulness and Yoga Retreat for Pregnant Women
Friday, September 25 – Sunday, September 27
Cassandra Vieten, PhD and Jnana Gowan

There could not be a better time to learn mindfulness than during pregnancy. When the full enormity of the journey you've embarked upon by becoming a mom sinks in, it's a great time to get into the best mental and emotional shape possible.

Based on research conducted at California Pacific Medical Center and the Institute of Noetic Sciences, showing that training in mindfulness during pregnancy reduced anxiety and negative emotions during pregnancy, and on the resulting book, Mindful Motherhood: Practical Tools for Staying Sane During Pregnancy and Your Child's First Year, participants in this workshop will learn essential practices and tools for weaving mindfulness into everyday life during pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood.

Extraordinary Dreams: Work Creatively with Dreams in Your Life and Practice
Friday, October 9 – Sunday, October 11
Fariba Bogzaran, PhD with guest Patricia Garfield, PhD

With dream awareness you move deeply into the great dimensions of the mind where wisdom lies, sip from the source of creation, and return with a gift. Extraordinary dreams are important portals that can help you and your clients open to new perspectives, generate insight toward transformation, and deepen understanding of your life path.

At this retreat we will focus on extraordinary dreams and how to work creatively with them. We will explore gifts of insight and inspiration from multiple dream types: lucid, creative, spiritual, mutual, and initiation dreams. You will experience dream intention and dream incubation for improving your waking reality.

The Institute of Noetic Sciences has six office spaces for rent at its beautiful hilltop Petaluma campus at this time. We are looking not only to rent the office spaces, but rather to draw in a collaborative partner who shares our values and purpose in some way to transform consciousness and build a better world. We are also looking for renter(s) who would bring their programs to the campus and partner with us by holding events at our retreat center.

These spaces are located all in one section of a building with four other office spaces, three of which are rented by Veriditas. Veriditas is an organization that facilitates programs based on walking a labyrinth. Veriditas has partnered with us to build a labyrinth on the property, and hosts their meetings and programs at our retreat center. It is this kind of multi-faceted and like-minded collaboration that we are looking for with whomever rents the available spaces.

These spaces are in a triple-wide modular building with breath-taking fabulous views. If you are interested in looking at the space or talking further, please contact Cathy Coleman, Executive Director, at 707-779-8171.

We invite your participation in the following calls for gifts:

Be part of making 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. Thanks to the following for their gifts so far:

• Betsy Gordon
• Anonymous

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.

Volunteer Opportunities:

Timber cutting and hauling. We need hundreds of hours of people power to implement our forestry care management plan. Can you donate ten hours? Twenty?

Landscaping and gardening work needed. Help enhance the beauty of our campus by sponsoring the beautification of our property. Volunteer time or donations are welcome.

If you're interested, please contact Robert McDowell, Director of Development for the Property and Retreat Center, 707-779-8215.

Bay Non Violent Communication is a new retreat center client who’ll be hosting two upcoming events. Their vision is to create a world where everyone’s needs matter and people have the skills to make peace, with a focus on leadership, diversity, families, safer communities and public outreach.

BAYNVC offers a host of projects and activities, including Leadership Programs teaching leaders the skills and consciousness needed for nonviolent social change, Family Programs for parents, youth and whole families the skills to live with compassion and connection, a Diversity Project, supporting the development of leaders and NVC teachers among people of color, and bringing the tools of Non Violent Communication to people in diverse communities working towards social change and peace.

They also offer support and low cost training to social sector organizations, public outreach to support and educate through classes, retreats and work with individuals an couples and a Safer Communities Project, which increases participants’ capacity to find effective and beneficial ways to identify and meet their needs, increase satisfaction and closeness with their families, co-workers and employers; and reduce their use of less effective strategies such as violence, crime and drugs and alcohol.

August 14-17 we will be hosting BAYNVC's workshop Women Saying "Yes" to What Is: A Retreat for Inner Peace and Transformation. If you are a woman wanting to live more courageously and to delve into deep work for yourself, then this retreat may be for you. Click here to register or for more information.

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

Rejuvenate Training
Mindful Partnership - Mindful Divorce
New Equations
Nine Gates Youth Mystery School
Rosen Method Bodywork & Movement
Stress Free Schools
Mind Body Awareness Project
David Spero

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.

Banana Bread (Vegan and Wheat-free)

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
6 count bananas pureed
4 cups spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cups soy milk + 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1-1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup flax seeds

Bake at 325 for 40 minutes and check for doneness with toothpick every 10 minutes after that.

Currently the Retreat Center Gallery is featuring the exhibition "The Sacred Beauty of Inner and Outer Worlds." Sondra Barrett's photographs through the microscope take you on a magical journey to the inner world of wine and the molecules of life.

Sam Hoffman's amazing metallic prints from the Hubble Space Telescope make outer space into fantastic art limited by our imagination.

Miljenko "Mike" Grgich, of the Grgich Hills estate winery, commented on Sondra Barrett's art, which is being published in a book:

As a winemaker for more than 50 years, I've always felt that making wine is much like raising children: You have to love them and guide them and you have to transmit to them the richness of your spirit. Now, Sondra Barrett's book, Wine's Hidden Beauty, presents dramatic proof of what I've longed believed, but could only feel: wine has a secret life and inner beauty that transcends its chemical components. Dr. Barrett's portraits of wine are a wonderful addition to our understanding of the art, science and spirit of winemaking.

Development Director for the Property/Retreat Center Robert McDowell spoke to 40 Rotarians at the Rohnert Park/Cotati Rotary Club on Tuesday, July 14. He presented an informative power point program about IONS' research program and IONS Property/Retreat Center offerings and development that we are calling "Earthrise." If you know of other organizations or meetings or businesses that would welcome a similar presentation, please contact Robert at rmcdowell@noetic.org or at 707-779-8215.

Earthrise, the Retreat Center at IONS, is a name that we have been trying out for the property and retreat center, which seems to be gathering positive energy. This name came from our association with our founder's trip to the Moon on which he saw the Earth rise in the vastness of space. We'd like to have your thoughts on this name.