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Participating in the Ongoing Groups is one of the ways that FIONS fosters community: members get together in a more intimate setting to explore their many areas of interest and to enjoy each other's company.
Focused Intention
“Using your thoughts to change your life and the world.”
Following Lynne McTaggart's suggestion (The Intention Experiment), this group meets on the first Monday of each month to join the growing collective that understands the extent to which our focused intention can influence matter. The initial group focus is on Integral Health. Participants also have the opportunity to present their individual intentions and ask for group support. Jane Hughes Gignoux, Certified Celebrant, and author of Some Folk Say: Stories of Life, Death, and Beyond facilitates this group. Call Jane at 212-580-1007 or email janehg4@verizon.net for more information.
Spiritual Enquiry
The focus of the Spiritual Enquiry group is spiritual practice; finding ways of accessing our inner depths through meditation and self inquiry. The group looks to the teachings of sages like Ramana Maharshi, the Dalai Lama, as well as teachings from other traditions. On occasion guests are invited to make presentations, or to lead meditations. The members of the group also share their own spiritually-inspired poetry, art and music. Sessions include screening of videos, follow-up discussion, and a period of silence.
The group meets once a month in the chapel at Marymount College. Richard Schiffman facilitates this group. If you are interested in becoming a member, please call FIONS at 212-741-2207 and leave a message.
Book Discussion Group
The Book Discussion Group discusses books chosen from those listed in IONS' publications and similar sources. The emphasis is on exploring an expanded view of reality and on gaining insight that can change our personal ways of operating in daily life.
Recent selections have included: James Greist, Chaos; Eckard Tolle, The Power of Now; Bradford Kenney, Ed., Ropes to God.
This group meets at 3:30 pm in the Greenwich Village area, second Sunday of each month. For information and location, call Barbara Terwilliger at 212-989-6812.
Exploring Dreams
A dream workshop offers a way to look into the creative resources often hidden in symbols in our dreams. “Dreaming is a kind of thinking while we’re asleep”, says Allen Flagg, facilitator of the dream workshops, including the bi-monthly Dreams at the Riverside Church series.
Allen believes that dreams can be nurtured toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and incorporates elements of the Montague Ulmann system of understanding dreams in the discussions. Call him at (212) 532-8042 for more information or to join one of the dream workshops.
New Physics Group
Physicists speak of the "third revolution" in physics, the first being identified with the work of Galileo, Newton and their contemporaries, the second, coming at the turn of the century with the theory of relativity, quantum theory, and the discovery of radioactivity. The "third revolution," the new physics, unlike the first two, in which specific developments led to explanations in well-defined areas, cuts across a wide swathe of ideas: black holes, subatomic particles, self-organizing chemical reactions to name but a few.
The New Physics group follows the breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Astrophysicist Piet Hut, PhD, a recent speaker at FIONS, proposes extending the study of space, time and energy to include the human dimension of intentionality. This is an exhilarating vista of the human part of the universe becoming able to interact consciously with the whole, including itself.
The New Physics Group meets on the last Sunday of the month. Call Allen Flagg, facilitator of the group for more information. (212) 532-8042
Ultimate Issues
Ultimate Issues will cover topics of cosmic importance that cross the boundary between spirituality and scientific speculation, and encompass both. Examples include reincarnation, the existence of evil, consciousness, metaphors for God, the nature of time, ESP, precognition, and the Bible Codes. The Quantum Theory and Quantum Holography may point to a new understanding of reality and individual identify. No prior scientific or religious background is required.
Making Meaning
Making Meaning is a monthly forum where FIONS members and guests enquire into an aspect of life. Each month, a participant is invited to introduce a topic and lead a group inquiry. Topics range from children’s experience of nature, to holotropic breathing to how humans make choices.
By perceiving, interpreting, connecting, and so forth, we are constantly making meaning of things that defines what we do and feel. In gatherings such as this, the discussion opens up old meanings and something new emerges.
The group meets monthly on a weekday evening, 6:30-8:30 pm (Regular, ongoing participation is not required.). Dates and topics are given in the newsletter. Dorothy Baker facilitates the group. more information call FIONS at (212) 741-2207, or e-mail us at mailbox@fions.org.
Please put Making Meaning in the subject area of your message.
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