The Center For Conscious Living
10101 Slater Ave Suite 237
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 968-4202
To: Those with a possible interest in The Fourteenth Adventurers in ConsciousnessI,
October 2007 – May/June 2008
I am sending this letter to those who have expressed an interest in participating in an Adventurers group or who I think might be interested in such a group. This will be the 14th yearly Adventurers in Consciousness I Group that I’ve led, and I am looking forward to beginning this journey once again.
This extended group experience is designed to provide support for those who've done preparatory healing work of traditional counseling and who are drawn to the work of
* Increasing conscious awareness of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their Beingness and learning how to live consciously
* Opening to their soul's journey
* Exploring and opening to unconditional love, the gateway to wholeness, and
* Seeing and experiencing ourselves and our relationship to the Divine from a larger perspective.
This program has been very successful because those who commit themselves to this level of self-exploration and self-development create a synergy as we deepen our exploration of the transformational energies of the heart center. This program is designed for those who are ready to move beyond individual therapy to a collective process and who desire to explore The Mystery of Life and our own individual manifestation of this mystery.
ABOUT THE GROUP
We'll be working not just with what we know on the conscious level, but most particularly learning to explore other levels of our psyche commonly identified as The Unconscious. It's those things of which we're unconscious that have the most power over us. Knowledge of the unconscious will, however, open to us greater and greater awareness and understanding of that which is conscious. We'll be primarily learning the tools for this deeper exploration, as well as practicing using them in this journey of transformation. The key to our exploration of these levels will be our opening to the experience of Unconditional Love, that is, opening to the heart center, the fourth chakra.
I wish to place no particular limitations or directions on this group; It will arise out of our own process. It will be one of deepening process, of self-exploration, of developing, and continuing our development of a path of inner work. However, our work will include:
* Exploration of question: `Who Am I?'
* The basics of Heart Centering and Unconditional Love as the fundamental core of this work of transformation
* Stabilization of the worrying, fearful mind
* Understanding your personal pattern and inner dialogue
* Work with the multi-dimensional self, projections, shadow, and dreams
* Development of intuition
* Learning basics of hatha yoga and conscious breathing
* Work with energy, energy sharing, and meditation
*Movement, drumming and chanting
* Deepen your own spiritual connection and experience
I'll feel free during each session to create, or allow to come forward, the particular direction that seems appropriate for the time. Therefore, I would like for you to come in comfortable, casual clothes, as we'll do gentle yoga or movement each session.
We each are living out our experience of the Mystery, living our own pattern. As we open to the fullness of what this means, we realize that this journey into The Mystery of Wholeness requires the experience non-judgmental observation and Unconditional Love. We find we can ignore nothing of our past, that it all must be brought forward and incorporated within the bigger framework of who and what we are. My hope is that we each will take steps to live out more fully who and what we are. This work will stabilize the therapeutic work previously begun.
This is a time when we must leave our expectations behind, and open to the new, to the unknown, to the adventure of conscious exploration of the psyche and of Consciousness, itself. This is a time of peeling away the layers, learning to live everyday centered in unconditional love and inner peace, even though the changes around us are continuous and often upsetting.
IS THIS GROUP FOR ME?
You may be asking if you'd fit in this group and if you've done enough background work. The most important quality I look for in a participant for this group is a willingness to be vulnerable and learn to move beyond the fears and limitations of your inner child and to live from a mature adult perspective. The fearful wounded inner child will certainly make appearances. I'll respond to this fear by providing information to help you understand your fears, as well as teach you certain processes to quieten the fears, heal your childhood woundings, stabilize yourself, and contemplate your next steps. If you're currently working with a lot of new material regarding healing childhood woundings or find yourself overwhelmed with personal material with a lot of emotional reactivity, this group may not be the one for you at this time. And I say `may', because situations can be different. If you have a question about this, feel free to talk to me about it. If you have an interest, let's trust this desire for inner development.
MORE ABOUT JUDITH
Some of you may not be familiar with my work, so let me tell you a little about myself. I come from a traditional west Texas religious family and was heavily engaged in the Southern Baptist church throughout childhood. In my late 20's I went to the University of Maryland where I earned a doctorate in Counseling Psychology. After that I was engaged in researching stress with law enforcement officers with L.A. County Sheriffs Department, teaching as associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, and counseling psychologist, at CSULB. In the late 70's, I began my work with Brugh Joy and Jean Houston, as well as with other transpersonal teachers. I have continued in depth work with Brugh over the years and consider myself to be student of his very profound work. I have attended Jean Houston's Mystery School as well as Gay Luce's Mystery School, and a number of other intensive programs sponsored by these teachers. This has been a long process of transformation of who I am and how I do psychological work.
In 1981/1982 I began to conduct the Anger workshop, began the study of hatha yoga and the yogic tradition in 1982/3, took a sabbatical from the University in 1983/4, and then began to watch my life change. In 1985 I left the University and founded the Center for Conscious Living. I've been leading 4-12 day residential intensive conferences for 11 years. My exploration of Life has led me to China, India (3x) (including Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Government is in exile and where I attended a certificate class in Tibetan Medicine), Nepal (4x), Bali, Borneo, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey, and Tibet. I've also engaged the study not only of Christianity, but also of Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Judaism, and Carl Jung. My work with Joseph Kurian, a teacher/healer from India, has taught me an immense amount about the energy system of the body and the influence of the Marmas on our lives, and I have had many years experience with Chinese Medicine/acupuncture. I'm interested in the basic human psycho-spiritual patterns (archetypes) and how these appear in culture after culture in their own unique, but similar ways. I am also an Ordained Minister, ordained in 1993 by the Living Bible Center, a New Thought Center in Mesa, Arizona.
I feel fortunate that I have had many opportunities for exploring the edges and expanding my edges to include more and more of The Mystery of Life. It is my desire to bring to others the benefit of the experiences I've gained during this many years of inner exploration. I always expect the unexpected to show up and, do my best to welcome it when it does. I am always in process. There is always something deeper to explore.
THE COMMITMENT
Participation in this group involves your making a major commitment of time, energy, and resources in service to your own personal development. Just thinking about making such a commitment can activate a variety of thoughts, feelings, and fears.
Always there is the question about making a long-term commitment to a process like this. In joining the group, you are making a commitment to attend all sessions, unless there are unforeseen, non-negotiable problems, and I recognize that there may be some times when you're totally unable to come to the weekly meetings.
With regard to the financial commitment, you are, in effect, purchasing a place in the group and will be responsible for the entire cost of the group, whether you are present or not. The cost for the 9 months of weekly sessions, and 3 Friday night/Saturday Intensives is on the attached sheet. This is payable weekly, or at the beginning of the month for the month. I recommend that you have a buddy to contact if you have to be absent so you can have a report of our work, even though the experience of the group will never be what the report was.
This long-term commitment is necessary because we're engaging a birthing process. We're building trust and creating a safe, ongoing space to allow for an evolving sense of yourself, and understanding of consciousness and the Mystery of Life. I'm asking that you stay with the process for this period of time so that as a collective energy we can deepen our process and allow time for birthing and transformational processes to occur. The commitment to this process over time provides the inner support you need to make changes in your old, familiar well-practiced patterns. Be assured that your process is ongoing, even if you have to miss a session.
The work deepens, regardless. This work is not about `fixing' the ego, fixing yourself, living up to some childhood ideas about who and what you are. It is about engaging a bigger picture of what it is to be conscious, of your soul's pattern, and `you as you are'.
Once the group begins to cohere, any dropouts would be significantly noticed and affect the group process. This safe space of the group helps us deal with apprehensions that can arise as our work becomes more challenging. Your inner fearful child will receive much needed support both from the development of more mature aspects of yourself, as well as from fellow Adventurers, who are also engaging the same process of unlayering and opening to new insights. Whatever arises in the process of the group can and must be handled within the group. As we develop trust in our collective process we can deepen our work and learn how to apply our collective learnings to our outer life. We are one mystical body.
In summary, this extended period of time together is valuable for several reasons. It assists you in the following ways:
* Making, and holding on to, changes in mental attitude and behavior;
* Allowing clarity in the directions of your next step to arise;
* Exploring your own life pattern, and
* Opening your own body to the energy and breath and intuitive aspects of your development.
As group leader, I plan my schedule as far ahead as possible. I recognize however, that life is unpredictable. As carefully as I try to plan my schedule, it's possible that something unpredictable will come up for me. Except for any rare unforeseen situations, I will give you ample lead-time if my schedule changes and I will make appropriate financial/schedule adjustments as needed. We will not meet during Christmas or Thanksgiving holidays.
In addition, I'm asking an additional commitment from you during this period. I am asking you to make a commitment to abstain from mind-altering substances and alcohol. Preferably, I'd like to ask you to completely abstain during this time, but at least to limit your intake of alcoholic beverages to special occasions, and at the very most, no more than a serving of wine or beer per week. Sometimes it's easy to divert ourselves from our inner development by engaging in numbing activities, which are not bad in themselves, but they take the edge off of what we're experiencing. And while, for some these substances have a place, during this period of time, I'm asking for this abstinence. I would ask you to consider total abstinence, or at least conscious partaking, of any substance or activity into which you flee for avoidance, denial, of numbing of feelings of what's going on for you. These avoidance activities could include such activities as food, sex, cigarettes, shopping, TV, house cleaning, work, physical activity, etc. This process is primarily about becoming conscious of ourselves and our lives. We'll discuss this the first session and give you an opportunity to make such a commitment to the group.
As we engage the process we will join the multitudes of others who have preceded us on this path of opening to our own depth processes, not what our hopes and fears and parental dreams have heretofore directed us to.
Remember the words of the third Zen Patriarch: "The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences."
MATERIALS
I want each of you to keep a journal and bring it each week (preferably at least 8 1/2 x 11), and to have a medium-to-large drawing pad. The notebook and drawing pad can be the same. I will have crayons, or you may bring your own. You will also need to purchase The Voyager Tarot Cards that we will use to assist in the opening of our intuitional ranges. I will have sets available for purchase as I can purchase at a bulk rate. The cost for these is usually $32.00-35.00. Let me know if you want to purchase one of these decks. I know that you will find working with these very helpful. I ask for the Voyager deck because their lay out is particularly well suited to our work with intuition.
As we engage the process we will join the multitudes of others who have preceded us on this path of opening to our own depth processes, not what our hopes and fears and parental dreams have heretofore directed us to.
If you have questions about the group or these commitments, feel free to call, giving me a time when we might talk. I'm looking forward to this 13th Section of the Adventurers Exploration in Consciousness, as well as to your joining me and the other Adventurers as we work together. The group will be limited to 12 participants.
After you complete Adventurers I, you will be eligible to continue in Adventurers II composed of anyone who has completed Adventurers I. We meet once a week, every other week on Thursday night and for a Friday night/Saturday Intensive about every two to two 1/2 months. Participation in the Thursday night session is on a 4-41/2 month commitment and the intensives are on a session-by-session basis. This provides ongoing support and deepening with a group of people who have completed the same body of work.
Namaste,
Judith Milburn, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist PSY 5649
PS. There is a possibility that I will be attending a professional conference in India in early January. I will let you know by early October if I am doing to do that and how long I will be gone.
SCHEDULE FOR 14th ADVENTURERS IN CONSCIOUSNESS GROUP
WEEKLY MEETINGS
. Time- 7:00PM - 10:00ish Wednesday Evenings
Cost - $75 per Wednesday night session
If I have to cancel a group meeting for any reason, there will not be any charge made for that session. Otherwise, in committing to the group, you are financially responsible for all sessions and Intensives.
This is the probable schedule for the 2007-2008 Adventurers
October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
November 7, 14, 21, 28
December 5, 12, 19
January 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
February 6, 13,20,27
March 5, 12, 19, 26
April 2, 9, 16, 23- no meeting on April 30
May 7, 14, 21, 28
June 4, 11, and perhaps the 18th and 25th if we decide to add these last 2 dates
WEEKEND INTENSIVES
There will be three weekend intensives in the 8-month series. These dates will be determined by the group as whole at the beginning of the group. If it works to schedule the first Intensive in November, we will, otherwise we will schedule it as early in January as possible, and then spread out the other two Intensives over the next months. Cost $220 per weekend
Friday evening 7:00pm- until completion, around 10:30 pm
Saturday 10:00am- until completion, around 9:30-10:30 pm ish
TOTAL COSTS
The probable schedule as listed above has 35 sessions. So, for 35 weekly sessions at $75.00 per session, the cost would be $ 2,625.00. Three Weekend Intensives at $220.00 each would be 660.00
Total for the 9 month series = 3,285.00
This is payable weekly at the time of the group, or at the beginning of the month for the month.
Sometimes we can work with your Health Care coverage for full or partial payment, depending on your policy insurance. Send Insurance information, perhaps copy the front and back of your card, with your application and Mellissa, my office manager and check your benefits. See bottom of page 8 for necessary information.
APPLICATION
To enable me to know your background, I am asking you to complete the Adventurers Application attached to this letter. This signed application returned to me will be confirmation that you understand the nature of the group and are willing to engage the commitment. I can then ascertain whether this group is what you are looking for. If you have questions, feel free to call me.
Namaste,
Judith Milburn, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist
PSY5649
APPLICATION
ADVENTURERS IN CONSCIOUSNESS
This application will give me general information about you, as well as your background so that I can ascertain that you have has appropriate preparation for The Adventurers Group. Respond to the questions on another sheet of paper and attach to this basic information sheet. Also, send your Insurance Information if you want us to see if it might be used for
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name Birthdate
Home Address Telephone
Fax
Business Address Telephone
E Mail-
Cell Phone Pager
Educational Background, Degree(s)/Year
Area/s of study/interest
Profession
By submitting and signing this application, I agree that if I am accepted into the Adventurers Group that
* I will attend all sessions, unless unavoidably prohibited from doing so
* I will keep the financial agreements as specified,
* I will maintain the other commitments regarding abstinence,
* I will keep the confidentiality of the group members.
___________________________________________________________ Signed Date
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
Please answer as specifically as possible on another sheet of paper and attach to application. Length is not important, but give me some degree of detail so that I can have a good picture of where you are at this time.
1. What prior psychological counseling/study/experience have youengaged in? (Having a lot of therapy is not bad or good, nor is having a little). Are you dealing with newly discovered childhood abuse issues? If you are, I've found that this group does not give the type of support for these issues. Individual counseling would be favored at this time.
2. What brings you to want to commit yourself to a period of personal deepening and exploring the nature of psycho-spiritual awarenesses of Life?
3. What are the areas of personal development are you wishing to open to the next step at this time?
4. Briefly summarize any other relevant information regarding your psychological and spiritual interests/ experiences/ development/history.
5. Are you in any other group at this time? If so, what?
6. What does commitment mean to you? And do you see any difficulties in keeping the commitments you are making?
7. Would you be interested in, and able, to attend a weekend residential intensive away from this immediate area, say in the mountains, etc., near by? We would make this as inexpensive as possible. This is not a requirement; I'm only exploring your interests.
If possible, please attach a copy of your insurance card and then provide the information not covered on the card.
Name of insured
SS# of insured and DOB
Place of employment of insured
Your own SS# (if you are not the insured)
Group number, if relevant
Address
Phone Number