Coming Events

SEPTEMBER 2014

VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2

LIGHT is pleased to announce our upcoming events for September to December 2014.There is no admission charge for any of these events, but donations are gratefully accepted.

LIGHT Lecture SeriesThe talks will be held on three Tuesdaysin October and November.Attendees are invited to a buffet dinnerstarting at 6:00 p.m., with the talk tofollow at 7:00.Location: Charisma Restaurant

83D Sherbrook St.

Tuesday, October 7

Zain Mohammed: “Towards BeingOur Natural and True Self”Our Natural and True Self is essentiallyloving, compassionate, creative and pre-sent. It is the source of our happiness, joyand hope, and is intimately connected toa Reality that underlies all life and non-life forms. We are one with all of MotherNature, connected to her through a sacredrelationship of reverence, care and protec-tion. What then prevents us from beingour natural self? What separates us fromoneness with all of life? What can we doto help us move along a path to beingmore fully our True Self? The presenta-tion will share some thoughts of the wiseon these questions; participants will havean opportunity to participate in a ten-minute guided meditation developed byThich Nhat Hanh on our relationshipwith Mother Nature.

Dr. Zain Mohammed is a family therapist with theManitoba Association of Marriage and FamilyTherapy. He has trained in meditation at the BlueMountain Meditation Centre in California andhas been meditating daily for the last sixteen years.

Tuesday, November 4Douglas Staley: “The Great Chain ofBeing”The concept of a timeless, all-encompassingUnity underlying the diversity of life isoften associated with Plato, but a similarteaching is an integral part of many meta-physical, philosophical and spiritual tradi-tions. The presentation will explore theidea of a continuum of spiritual energyand intelligence existing in the universeand expressed as a hierarchy of levels,sometimes allegorized as: God–angels–humans–animals–plants–minerals.Using formulations as diverse as the fourelements, Jacob’s Ladder, Gurdjieff’s Rayof Creation, and the work of contempo-rary scientists and philosophers, the talkwill show the inter-dependence of life,the nature of impermanence and thereality of a timeless, sacred principle thatis the ground and source of all that exists.

Douglas Staley has studied a variety of spiritualtraditions over the last forty years, with a specificinterest in integrating Western and Eastern modelsof inner development.

Tuesday, November 25

To be announced.

Created by Canadian filmmaker, musicianand meditation teacher Daniel Schmidt,the film explores the nature of existencefrom the perspectives of modern scienceand traditional spiritual teachings. Thestated goal of the film is to awaken hu-manity to a new world view and higherlevel of consciousness in order to restorebalance and harmony on the planet.

(continued on page 2)Your task is not to seek love, butmerely to seek and find all thebarriers within yourself that youhave built against it.

- Rumi

This presentation is part ofWinnipeg’s Peace Days 2014.For more about Peace Days,see page 4.

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Tuesday, October 21 - 7:00 p.m.Jules Lavallee: “Spiritual Teachingsfrom a Native Elder”Each culture attempts to provide a basicstructure upon which to make sense oflife. We try to understand the Great

Mystery. Respected elder and teacher JulesLavallee will present the Coming of thePipe, the Teaching of the Pipe, the SevenSacred Teachers of the Pipe and othertraditional teachings. These spiritualteachings point us to a way that can bringus back into oneness with our Creatorand all of Creation.

Jules Lavallee has taught courses through theUniversities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, andcurrently works as an Elder for Red River Collegeand Addictions Foundation of Manitoba. He andhis wife Margaret founded the Red Willow Lodgehealing centre east of Anola.

Location:Harrow United Church - Lower Hall

955 Mulvey Ave. (at Harrow)No admission charge - donationsgratefully accepted.

Wednesday, November 19 - 7:00 p.m.Tanis Moore: “Sound and Healing”The vibrations of nature, musicalinstruments and the human voice havehealing qualities which deeply affect uson physical, emotional and spiritual levels.

Tanis will lead a discussion covering thevibratory healing effects of sound and howsound therapy can be used as an aid tohealing. Tuning forks will be available forthe chakras, meridians and solfeggio scaleso that participants can observe how theseare used in Tanis’s own healing practiceand to demonstrate the sounds of thechakras. Internet sources and referenceswill also be provided for further in-depthinvestigation and study.

Tanis Moore works as a healer centered around theCranioSacral Therapy protocol and includesmedical intuitive techniques, acupuncture,Therapeutic Touch and other modalities such as theuse of tuning forks in her practice. She has had aninterest in sound/healing vibrations since she firstheard of toning used in healing practices. Herexperiences with crystal bowls demonstrated thepower of sound vibrations and the drumming circleshe is involved with showed how energy is drawn tothe circle and can be directed with intention.

Location:Harrow United Church - Lower Hall

955 Mulvey Ave. (at Harrow)No admission charge - donationsgratefully accepted.

LIGHT Website Additions

A new series of essays entitled “AnExtended View of Man” will soon beadded to the Writings section of theLIGHT website. By integrating findingsfrom diverse scientific fields (archaeology,anthropology, genetics, sociology,psychology, history) with traditionalspiritual and esoteric teachings, theyprovide an overview of human history andthe spiritual evolution of humanity. Theyreveal the amazingly diverse expressions ofhuman activity and spirituality throughoutthe ages, as well as the discontinuousnature of the evolutionary process - whichis full of surprises and unexpected leaps ofdevelopment. The essays also presentalternative viewpoints on human historyand evolution (e.g., Atlantis) and explorethe possibility of an ‘inner circle ofhumanity,’ who guide the spiritual destiny

of the human race. Here is an outline ofthe topics covered in the seven essays:

•Science and biological evolution,alternative perspectives, progressivemodels of evolution, conscious evolution

•The dawn of Human evolution, theemergence of modern man, theNeanderthals, Homo Sapiens Sapiens orModern man, higher intervention in theevolution of Humanity

•Atlantis: myth or reality, the Great Floodand other cataclysms, Ancient Egypt

•The Inner Circle of Humanity, esotericknowledge and Schools, the Agriculturalrevolution, the Megaliths, the floweringof civilization

•The origins of Christianity, Jesus ofNazareth, Esoteric Christianity

•Timeless tradition of wisdom, WesternEsotericism, Islam and Sufism, Alchemy,the nature and continuity of the esotericstream

•Advaita Vedanta, Zen and TibetanBuddhism, Gurdjieff and the FourthWay, contemporary Sufism

We also wish to draw your attentionto previously added chapters under theheading Spiritual Writings, which presentthe essential, universal teachings of theworld’s wisdom traditions, selected toilluminate and challenge our under-standing of the human potential and thenature of reality in ways appropriate to ourcontemporary time and culture.

LIGHT Special Events

(continued from page 1)

Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds has wonnumerous international film festivalawards, including an Award ofExcellence at the Canadian InternationalFilm Festival, Vancouver 2013 and thePeace Award of Excellence at theInternational Festival for Peace,Inspiration and Equality in 2013. Thefilm is notable for its outstanding visualimagery and success in capturing theessence of timeless spiritual teachingsand their relevance to the challenges ofthe contemporary world. In the wordsof one reviewer: “The content is rich anddeep, presented in brilliant sequenceswith amazingly high productionvalues. The visuals are nothing shortof stunning and the subject matterimpeccably presented andresearched.”

Volume 12, Number 2 Page 3

In everyday life the vibrations ofsound and music accompany countlesshuman endeavours. We often hum a tunewhen happy, mothers soothe their babiesto sleep with gentle lullabies and repetitivemanual work is often accompanied byrhythmic music or song.

The invocation or repetition of wordsand phrases as a means of spiritual devel-opment is widely practised in manydifferent religious and spiritual traditionsthroughout the world. For instance,mantras have been used in Hindu,Buddhist and Taoist traditions forthousands of years, and the Sufis haveemployed zikrs in their spiritual practices.The early Desert Fathers recited “LordJesus Christ have mercy on me,” as part oftheir life of solitude and prayer, and the‘Prayer of the Heart’ is a fixture of EasternOrthodox Christianity.

These techniques have been employedto control the energies of the mind in avery specific manner: “The mind is achannel, a swift current of thoughts and amantra is a dam put in the way of thiscurrent to divert the water to where it isneeded.” When properly pronounced,parts of the body which are out ofharmony are re-orchestrated into a unifiedwhole. Each organ of the body respondsto the vibration of certain sounds whichhave healing properties.

It is believed that sacred words andphrases have great inherent spiritualpotency and are a link to the primordialenergy of the universe. For example, the

Sanskrit word “OM” represents divineShakti energy and signifies the ultimatetruth that all is one. When this powerfulspiritual energy is harnessed through therecitation of special sacred sounds it canbe projected for the purpose of healing.

Perhaps the most developed form ofsound is sacred or transcendental music.This type of music is based on mathe-matical laws governing sound vibrationsand their relationship to the humanpsyche: “Objective music affects all peoplein the same way. It not only touches thefeelings but transforms them, bringing thelistener to a unified or harmonious statewithin himself and thus to a new relationwith the universe which is itself a field ofvibration.”

Some examples of this spirituallyrefined music are Christian Gregorianchants, Indian ragas, the songs of theharmonic singers of Mongolia, TibetanBuddhist chanting, Western classicalmusic composed by Bach, Beethoven,Mozart and others, and the music ofGurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann.

The origins of sacred music can betraced to Neolithic times, when ancientshamans used their voices and rhythminstruments to heal and initiate others,and connect with the spirit realm. Thistype of music can also be found in someof the root cultures of the ancient worldsuch as Egypt and especially India, whichmight be considered the ‘mother source’for many later expressions of sacred soundsuch as mantras and chants. In the 6thcentury B.C., the esoteric school ofPythagoras in Greece codified many ofthe mathematical properties of music(vibration, the octave), a knowledge thatwas later transmitted to other countriesof the Western world.

Science now recognizes therelationship between the properties ofmusic and certain psychological andphysiological effects on the listener. Inrecent years there have been a number ofstudies which provide scientific evidencethat different components of musicinfluence different aspects of the human

being. It confirms what most of usintuitively understand: rhythm moves thebody, melody and harmony touch theemotions and musical form and structureappeal to the intellectual mind.

In a more subjective sense, sacredmusic can take the listener out of thenormal human condition to a new level ofexperience of an evolutionary nature. Wesee glimpses of a larger universe, imbuedwith sacred meaning and purpose. AtGurdjieff’s school in France in the 1920s,his student Thomas de Hartmann wouldplay Gurdjieff’s music on piano. Theeffects on the students were profound:“Some of them were so moving as to bealmost unbearable, and the tears wouldstream involuntarily down our cheeks.One of the pieces consisted of slow andsolemn chords of the most divine har-mony, and in the overtones one couldhear a sort of joyful singing as of the voiceof a seraph. The only thing comparable tothese hymns of Gurdjieff is some of thevery early church music such as can beheard in Notre Dame, and some of that ofBach, who at times touches the higheremotional centre.”

Mainstream Western science andmedicine are only beginning to discoverand accept the healing qualities of soundand music, although their efficacy hasbeen known in traditional cultures formillennia. With no debilitating sideeffects, this non-invasive form of therapyhas great promise as a treatment for bothphysical and psychological disorders,especially when combined with othernatural forms of holistic medicine.

Sound, Vibration, Music and Healing

LEARNING INSTITUTE FOR

GROWTH , HEALING AND

TRANSFORMATION

Phone: (204) 453-2717

E-mail: info@lightwinnipeg.org

Website: www.lightwinnipeg.org

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956 Dorchester AvenueWinnipeg, ManitobaR3M 0R9

DirectorsKaren BarkmanTim FreemanVictor PopowDouglas StaleyErnie Strauss

LIGHT’s membership yearbegins on September 1.To become a member:•Fill in a membership form•Attach $20 (cash/cheque)

or provide your credit cardinformation and signature

•Leave it at any LIGHT eventor mail it to the address atthe bottom of the form

Winnipeg will be hosting“Peace Days 2014: A Festival of Peaceand Compassion” running from ThursdaySeptember 11 through to the InternationalDay of Peace on Sunday September 21.The purpose of the festival is to advancepeace, social justice, compassion andhuman rights in the world. LIGHT will bescreening the film Inner Worlds, OuterWorlds as part of Peace Days (details onpage 1).

Peace Days was inspired by RotaryWorld Peace Partners in 2010, and grewout of a desire to celebrate the UnitedNations International Day of Peace,designated as September 21 each year. In2010, Winnipeg celebrated with a Concertfor Peace, where music was the medium tocommemorate the importance of workingtoward a more peaceful and compas-sionate society. Peace Days evolved, andin 2013 became a week-long festival withcommunity events from the InternationalDay of Democracy on September 15 to theInternational Day of Peace on September21. LIGHT participated by holding apanel discussion on “Spirituality andPeace” at Charisma restaurant on TuesdaySeptember 17.

The mission of Peace Days is topromote and advance peace andcompassion as well as highlight theharmony and cultural diversity of thecitizens of Manitoba by exposing thegeneral population to a multitude ofactivities and organizations that embodythe culture of peace and compassion.

This year Peace Days will include adiverse, stimulating program of eventsthroughout Winnipeg to appeal to all ages.

Beginning this year on September 11, tocoincide with the start of CompassionGames, Peace Days 2014 will be especiallyexciting as it also coincides with theofficial opening of the Canadian Museumfor Human Rights on September 20.

Besides the LIGHT event on the eveningof Tuesday September 16, you may also beinterested in some of the other eventstaking place during the week, including:

Tuesday September 16, 12:15 p.m.Statue of Gandhi near the CanadianMuseum for Human Rights“A Circle of Silent Contemplation”

Wednesday September 17, 7:30 p.m.St. Peter’s Anglican Church755 Elm St.Winnipeg Insight Meditation GroupA twenty minute guided meditation oncultivating peace in our heart towardsourselves and others.

For more information, visit the websitewww.peacedays.ca

Peace Days 2014