Presentations & Workshops

At the heart of every rite of passage, throughout diverse cultures and religions, is the same core teaching:

One must leave everything behind and die to all that has been – stepping into the creative chaos of unknowing to wrestle with the monsters of transformation – there to be born anew more emotionally alive and spiritually aware.

There can be no new life without first a dying. For millennia, indigenous people have known "how to die." Ceremonial rites of passage emerged pan-culturally supporting individuals as they let go of one stage of life—the “little deaths”—and were “reborn” into the next. And these rites supported people as they prepared for the final transition, the big Death that awaits us all.

A contemporary masterpiece of eco-therapy. Nine adolescents, guided by Meredith Little and Steven Foster, undergo a vision fast in the wilderness. Their parents join the elders' council when they return. Probes at the heart of the modern adolescent dilemma with gentle, lyrical, heart-wrenching strokes, even as it reveals a new yet very old way for youth and their parents to celebrate their coming of age.

"This video, and the work of Steven Foster and Meredith Little, will inspire and embolden many to follow their own true path, the path of the heart.” (Eric Utne)

"This video is a very powerful educational tool that should be widely available to young people and to the adults who care for them. I've never shown a video that people responded to so strongly.” -- Mary Gomes, Prof. of Ecopsychology, Sonoma State University , co-editor, Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind

In the last four decades, various avenues of modern consciousness research have revealed a rich array of “anomalous experiences” and observations that have undermined some of the most basic assumptions of modern psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy concerning consciousness and the human psyche in health and disease. Many of these observations are so radical that they question the basic philosophical assumptions of materialistic science.

Among the sources of this challenging information have been clinical and laboratory research with psychedelics, various forms of powerful experiential psychotherapy (such as primal therapy, rebirthing, and holotropic breathwork), field anthropology, thanatology, parapsychology, and work with individuals undergoing psychospiritual crises - “spiritual emergencies”.

In this slide illustrated seminar, we will review these remarkable data and explore the most important major revisions that would have to be made in our understanding of consciousness, of the human psyche, and of the nature of reality to respond to these conceptual challenges.

Healing the Wounded Imagination is fundamental to healing our relationship with the Earth, creating lasting, positive social change; and building a just global peace. Humanity has emerged out of some fourteen billion years of evolutionary activity. Human imagination is thus an aspect, a fractal-like manifestation of a larger, overarching dynamism active in the universe—a nonvisible, form-producing power that influences evolutionary change. It is essential we align ourselves with the creative flow of the universe, and cooperate consciously with it. To do so, we must literally change the neuro-landscaping of our minds and heal the wounds modernity inflicts upon the imagination.

Many know that reknowned Mexican Mazatec shaman, Maria Sabina, was the first to share the sacred mushrooms with the outside world. Few know however, that she had a unique relationship with Mexican psychiatrist, Salvador Roquet, M.D. In this presentation Linda Rosa Corazon, who worked closely with Dr. Roquet for over twenty years will describe their work together and the fascinating form of entheogenic psychotherapy that rose from their collaboration as well as other shamanic and psychedelic influences. Presentation will have an interactive surprise.

Intentional altered states, enable one to transcend the usual framework of spacetime and obtain insight into basic existential and spiritual issues – a process known as divination. Using the transformative symbolism of the alchemical traditions, we will discuss and practice the two main kinds of divination: those that look into the past, for healing and releasing entanglements – to the source and origin of our being; and those that look at future probabilities, for visioning and obtaining guidance – for the mission and destiny of our lives.

Ralph Metzner and special guests, including Kit Walker (keyboards and laptops), Brian Kelch (didgeridu), Blair Carter (guitar, digeridu), and others.