Apr 18-20, 2008
The way we live our lives separates us from the best of our human spirit. Our mind is split. We all experience some emotional pain because our socially conditioned self, the ego-mind, tricks us into what John Dore calls our shadow mind — our sorrow, anger, fear, shame or guilt. Ego separates us from what he calls sacred mind. Our very essence is sacred. We are made for love, peace, joy. When we learn to align ourselves fully with the source of love that lives within us, we can experience bliss.
The challenges we encounter in our relationships reveal which part of mind we have followed — sacred mind or shadow mind. We all have “unfinished business” from past relationships that we need to “recover” from. We need to grieve the loss of the “love that could have been,” to discharge toxic anger and resentment, to move through fears that hold us back, to release shame that others have put into us, and to resolve guilt by practicing true forgiveness.
We have all touched the sacred mind, felt it and known it, if only for brief moments. This workshop offers experiential methods for transforming the pain of shadow into the peace and joy of our sacred nature. These practical methods of release are designed to loosen the grip of ego and return us to love.
The work John offers is central to resolving conflicts in our relationships — with the gods, with others (especially those we love), and with ourselves. Alternating with the emotional release work, we will enjoy profound peace, as well as the calm joy and playfulness of Spirit.
John Dore, a professor of psychology, literature, and linguistics at City University in NYC for 30 years, has published extensively in the field of human development and is currently completing a book called Emotional Recovery. He has been a psychotherapist for more than 25 years and has been in recovery himself for as many years. Dr. Dore has conducted hundreds of workshops, groups, and personal retreats, using many modes of healing, always seeking ways to teach others how to create their own healing practices. A longstanding friend of Rowe, where he co-founded our Mens’ Wisdom Council, he brings a certain zaniness and wildness to his work that makes it particularly exciting and enlivening.