March 8, 2002

COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER FOR
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF INTEGRAL STUDIES

Women's Spirituality Events

Lucia Birnbaum and dark mother Art Exhibit

CIIS is hosting an art exhibit, March 1-31, in honor of Black History Month, Women's History Month, and the publication of Professor Lucia Birnbaum's dark mother: african origins and godmothers, published by IUniverse. It is curated by Adriana Marchione and Tricia Grame, with illustrator-artists of the book and artists of juried exhibit, including Tricia Grame (book cover art), Eleanor Dickenson, Rose Frances, and Max Daxchu. (third floor, Namaste Hall, and fourth floor) For more information on Lucia's booksignings, email wsdesk@ciis.edu or phone 415.575.6255.

Luisah Teish
The Mirror in the Water:
Women, Water, and Spirituality

Luisah Teish, a chief in the Ifa/Orisha tradition of Nigeria, explores the sacred relationship between water, women, spirituality, and ecology. Friday March 22, 7:00-9:00pm: lecture; $10; open to the public (women and men). Saturday, March 23, 10:00am-5:00pm & Sunday, March 24, 11:00am-2:00pm: workshop (women only); $225. Saturday, March 23, 6:30-9:30pm: performance and ritual; open to the public (women and men). More information.

Alice Walker
Healing the Universal Heart
The Huston Smith Lecture Series on Religion

Activist and visionary Alice Walker shares her timely reflections on healing, intimacy, and the transformation of the difficult in a lecture on Thursday, April 11, 7:30-9:30pm. Tickets: general $25; students, seniors $15; the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1187 Franklin Street, San Francisco. More information.

Arisika Razak, Isoke Femi, and Yeshi Neumann
The Heart and Soul of Justice

Professor Arisika Razak, Isoke Femi, and Yeshi Neumann present a soulful exploration of unlearning racism, social justice, and multiculturalism on Friday, April 26, 7:00-9:00pm: Lecture; $10. Saturday & Sunday, April 27-28, 10:00am-5:00pm: Workshop; $225. To register, call Life Long Learning, 415.575.6175, or the Women's Spirituality Program, 415.575.6255. More information.

SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY Lecture Series & Workshops Claudio Naranjo What is the difference between the function of a lama, a guru, a mentor, and a transpersonal therapist? How do we learn to trust spiritual authorities when so many in that position have enacted scandalous behaviors? How do we learn to discern between true teachers and false ones? Hear some of the most provocative thinkers and teachers on the topic of spiritual authority address these questions in a series of lectures and workshops hosted by the East-West Psychology Program and Professor Mariana Caplan ('94), author of six books including the forthcoming Do You Need a Guru? Understanding the Student-Teacher Relationship in an Era of False Prophets. Lectures are from 7:00-9:00pm (for various locations, visit www.ciis.edu or pick up a Lifelong Learning brochure at kiosks around the Institute). March 25, Claudio Naranjo, An Uncommon Journey: The Trials and Tribulations of a Modern Mystic April 1, John Welwood, The Psychology of the Student-Teacher Relationship April 8, Lee Lozowick, Crazy Wisdom, Rock 'n' Roll, and Slavery to the Divine April 15, Robert E. Svoboda, The Guru as Heavyweight April 22, Angeles Arrien, Promises and Pitfalls in the Student-Teacher Relationship: A Cross-Cultural Perspective April 29, Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path May 6, Mariana Caplan, Spiritual Responsibility: The Principles and Practice of Conscious Discipleship May 13, Jai Uttal, A Celebration of Devotion: An Evening of Chanting and Dialogue Three daylong workshops featuring additional guest lecturers will be offered to help attendees process their personal relationship to spiritual authority: Do You Need a Guru?, with Lama Palden Drolma, March 23, 10:00am-6:00pm; The Psychology of the Student-Teacher Relationship, with Ford Greene, April 20, 10:00am-6:00pm; Lover and Beloved, with Mariana Caplan, May 11, 10:00am-6:00pm. 37 CEUs; academic credit available. To register, call Lifelong Learning, 415.575.6175. Lectures, $20 each; $120 all lectures Lectures & Workshops: $395 (entire lecture series plus 3 daylong workshops) Call 415.575.6175 or visit this web page for more information.

BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

CIIS Professor Edits ReVision

East-West Psychology Professor Jorge N. Ferrer edited and contributed to the Fall 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 2) issue of ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation (Jorge is consulting editor to ReVision). Other CIIS faculty members--Psychology Professor Kaisa Puhakka (former editor of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology) and East-West Psychology faculty members Mariana Caplan and Marina Romero--also contributed to this issue.

The CIIS InnerLight Bookstore has copies, or you may visit www.heldref.org/html/body_rev.html to order.

Watch the May issue of Inner Eye for a full listing of recent publications by faculty, alumni, and students.

Alumni News

Urusa Fahim, who recently successfully defended her doctoral dissertation in the Integral Studies Doctorate Program with a concentration in Learning and Change in Human Systems, is teaching a course on Cross-cultural Team Development and Leadership for the School of Business and International Studies at the Dominican University, where she has taught since 2000.

Michael Korson '97 (Integral Counseling Psychology) is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private psychotherapy practice in San Francisco (near CIIS). His particular focus is on couples counseling, men's issues, and working with people in the creative arts fields. Michael is also a therapist in the Outpatient Mental Health department at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, where he works in the Partial Hospitalization Program with people suffering from acute mental illness.

BethAnn Albro-Fisher '93 (Social & Cultural Anthropology)
Back on the East Coast, BethAnn Albro-Fisher is working at a national nonprofit that is bringing contemplative awareness into the culture in surprising ways. She says, "For the past year or so we have been working on a research project with the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (directed by Mirabai Bush, also founding board member of the Seva Foundation) that is mapping contemplative practice in secular programs and institutions."

BethAnn, who is director of New & Emerging Programs at the Center as well as a yoga instructor, complements her roots in a deeply spirited Catholicism with mindfulness meditation and dance in the spirit of Isadora Duncan. She also creates rituals for family and friends that celebrate interconnection and spirit; supports terminally ill patients and their families as a hospice volunteer; is a bicycle enthusiast; and the mom of baby Adrienne.

For details on the research project in which BethAnn is involved, visit www.contemplativemind.org/about/news.html.

Art Finds a Home at CIIS

The CIIS Aesthetics Committee, chaired by Adriana Marchione, is bringing more compelling art exhibitions here this spring. Currently the third floor and Namaste Hall feature the evocative Dark Mother exhibition. Coming in April are two new artists, Diana Guarneros and Cindy Male.

Mexican painter Diana Guarneros blends a myriad of rich resources into her paintings, expressing herself through different techniques. Her paintings in the exhibition Creative Force speak the language of symbols. In her themes, Diana evokes a spiritual transcendence, described as "visual meditations."

Shown: Quetzalcoatl by Diana Guarneros.

Cindy Male's exhibition, Caribbean Color, is art made with fabric, using dyes and pigment to create patterns of energy through line, color, and texture. She describes her work as a process of "becoming conscious, attending to life's miracles, and remembering."

Shown: Fern by Cindy Male.