Richmond IONS February 2022 Meeting

Richmond Ions February 2022, Elena MustakovaRichmond IONS  February 2022 Meeting (February 19) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Elena Mustakova-Possardt, Ed.D., LPC.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM (Meeting ID: 865 1815 1952, Passcode: 142841) and in person at River Road United Methodist Church, Contemporary Worship Center, 8800 River Road, Richmond, VA 23229.

When: On Saturday, February 19, 2022, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.




Richmond IONS February 2022 Meeting

“Global Unitive Healing”

Our February 19, 2022 program will feature a talk by Elena
Mustakova-Possardt, Ed.D., LPC, an Arlington author, clinical researcher, developmental psychologist, and spiritually oriented psychotherapist, philosopher and metaphysician. Dr. Mustakova addressed our group in September 2015 and November 2017 and is back to discuss her new book, Global Unitive Healing (Fall 2021).

In her new book, Dr. Mustakova introduces a practical healing methodology for individual lives and nations in an ailing world. Her mission is no less than to awaken humanity to a collective authenticity and a unifying language of the heart for a diverse and interdependent global society.

Step by step,she weaves a path informed by the way of unity – a mid-19th century evolutionary leap of consciousness, which integrates Eastern and Western spiritual thought.

Claudia Weiss, IONS Board Chairman, contributed the Afterword for her book, and observes: “In her call for global unitive healing, Dr. Mustakova points to the need for a new ‘organizing paradigm that helps us understand and navigate global change and restructuring.’ That may be what will manifest the ‘Golden Age of Humanity’ she invokes.”

Dr. Mustakova will review with our group the multiple forms of wisdom she discusses in her book and how they may be combined into an integrated vision and accessible blueprint for inner and outer transformation.

She will share real life case studies to show how individuals can emerge from shattered lives and experience the journey
from confinement to wholeness and universal interrelatedness.

She also combines philosophical and mystical traditions as seemingly diverse as Ken Wilber’s integral philosophy with the teachings of the Baha’i faith. (Baha’i was a spiritual offshoot of Islam in Iran in the mid-19th century, which in many ways parallels the New Thought movement in the West that originated around the same time.)

In addition to her many other gifts, Dr. Mustakova is an exceptionally gifted and compelling speaker, and we are very pleased to have her back in person.

About Elena Mustakova, our Richmond IONS February 2022 Meeting Presenter

Dr. Elena Mustakova-Possardt is an Arlington-based psychotherapist and native of Bulgaria, who emigrated to the United States at 29. She has taught clinical psychology and related subjects at five universities in four countries (Zimbabwe, Switzerland, Bulgaria and the U.S.).

Now, she devotes herself full-time to private practice and has over seventeen years of clinical experience with individuals, couples, and families dealing with anxiety and depression, relational dynamics, addictions, and severe mental illnesses.

As a scholar and educator she has authored Critical Moral Consciousness: A Study of Morality in a Global Historical Context (Praeger, 2003), co-authored a volume entitled Toward a Socially Responsible Psychology for a Global Era, and her most recent book, Global Unitive Healing (2021). See www.elenamustakova.net for her full bio.




About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS January 2022 Meeting

Richmond IONS January 2022 Ben CampbellRichmond IONS  January 2022 Meeting (January 15) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Ben Campbell.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM (Meeting ID: 865 1815 1952, Passcode: 142841) and in person at River Road United Methodist Church, Contemporary Worship Center, 8800 River Road, Richmond, VA 23229.

When: On Saturday, January 15, 2022, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.





 

Richmond IONS January 2022 Meeting

“Richmond’s Unhealed History”

Our January 15, 2022, 26th Anniversary program will feature a talk by the Rev. Benjamin P. Campbell, Pastoral Associate at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, longtime community leader and activist, and author of Richmond’s Unhealed History (2013).

In his detailed look at the history of Richmond, Ben Campbell examines the contradictions and crises that have formed and shaped the city over more than four centuries. John Moeser, PhD, of the University of Richmond, describes Richmond’s Unhealed History as a “unique book which should be
required reading for every Richmonder, better yet, every American.”

Ben argues that the community of metropolitan Richmond is engaged in a decisive spiritual battle to transcend the self-created shackles of its turbulent past as the slave capital of North America.

He believes that Richmond, more than any other city in the nation, has the potential for an unprecedented and historic achievement. Its citizens can redeem and fulfill the lofty ideals of their ancestors, proving to the world that race and class divides can be conquered by the deliberate and prayerful intention of honest and dedicated citizens.

Ben Campbell has been an indefatigable advocate for racial equity and justice through his 55+ years as an Episcopal priest. In light of the events of recent years the tenor of his message has never been more timely or more important than it is today.

Those events include Charlottesville in 2017, the removal of the Confederate monuments on Richmond’s Monument Avenue in 2020 and 2021, and the Capital insurrection of January 6, 2021. They also include  the populist resurgence of Jim Crow-style voter suppression laws now being enacted in state legislatures across the country.

There also has never been a more important time for Richmonders to step up and light the way for others to follow. This promises to be another great program and a perfect way to celebrate our 26th Anniversary.

About Ben Campbell, our Richmond IONS January 2022 Meeting Presenter

A native of Arlington, Virginia, the Rev. Benjamin P. Campbell studied political science and economics at Williams College in Massachusetts and studied theology as a Rhodes Scholar at the Queen’s College in Oxford.

He received a Masters in Divinity plus an honorary Doctorate in Divinity from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1966.

He came to Richmond in 1970, has ministered to three Episcopal churches, and served as Communications Director and Program Director of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. He directed two non-profit corporations – the Richmond Urban Institute, and Home Base, Incorporated, a neighborhood-based low-income housing corporation.

In 1987 he co-founded and became Pastoral Director of Richmond Hill, an ecumenical Christian community and retreat center on Church Hill . He is co-founder of the Micah Association, which links more than 100 faith communities to 25 inner city elementary schools in Richmond, and of the Armstrong Leadership program. Currently, he serves as Board Chairman of the GRTC, and as a Pastoral Associate at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.




About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS December 2021 Meeting

Richmond IONS December 2021 Meeting, Tom CoatesRichmond IONS  December 2021 Meeting (December 18) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Tom Coates.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM (Meeting ID: 865 1815 1952, Passcode: 142841) and in person at River Road United Methodist Church, Contemporary Worship Center, 8800 River Road, Richmond, VA 23229.

When: On Saturday, December 18, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.





Richmond IONS December 2021 Meeting

“Awakening the Heart and Soul of Humanity – The Next Phase.”

Our December 18, 2021, program will feature a talk by Tom Coates, our group’s only still-active original member and one of our most popular guest speakers, in collaboration with his sidekick, Taliesin St.Clair.

Between January 15, 1981 and March 15, 1984, three seekers named Don Elkins, Carla Rueckert and Jim McCarty held 106 channeling sessions with an off-world “sixth density” group called the Ra.

As a result, the people of Earth were given the five volume The Law of One” series, plus a number of ancillary works since then. Most who are familiar with The Law of One consider it the most complete and highly advanced metaphysical and conceptual framework of creation and consciousness which has ever been made available to humanity.

Recently Tom was gifted with a series of downloads from his own sources of spirit guidance which appear to offer a substantial expansion of the framework set forth in The Law of One. He will share that expanded framework with us and the expanded opportunities and understandings it offers both to humanity and to our galactic brothers and sisters, including the Ra.

Tom has dedicated more than a decade of his annual talks to our group to the exploration of who we are at the deepest levels of our being. This year’s presentation will carry that theme further than ever before and will point the way how we, as a species, by engaging the better angels of our nature, can save ourselves and countless other species from extinction.

It will also show us how to transform the human experiment on Earth from an abysmal failure to a resounding success, and how we, as individuals, can experience the true joy and purpose of Creation merely by allowing ourselves to know who and what we truly are and getting out of our own way.

This promises to be another great program and a fitting way to conclude our group’s twenty-sixth year and usher in its twenty-seventh.

About Tom Coates, our Richmond IONS December 2021 Meeting Presenter

Tom Coates is a Richmond-based lawyer who has represented numerous spiritually oriented and public interest groups throughout his career. He was a co-founder of Richmond’s Ekoji Buddhist Sangha in 1985, and has been a member and contributor of the Richmond IONS chapter since its formation in early 1996.

In his spare time, he enjoys reading, creative writing, painting, woodworking, alpine skiing, biking, backpacking, sailing, time travel, metaphysics, and relaxing with his family at their ancient Outer Banks beach cottage and their Appalachian Mountains retreat.

He is very pleased to report that his most significant previously unfulfilled ambition of this lifetime – to make love to an extraterrestrial female – has now been fulfilled.





About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS November 2021 Meeting

suzanne munson, richmond ions november 2021Richmond IONS  November 2021 Meeting (November 20) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Suzanne Munson.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM (Meeting ID: 865 1815 1952, Passcode: 142841) and in person at River Road United Methodist Church, Contemporary Worship Center, 8800 River Road, Henrico, VA 23229. 

When: On Saturday, November 20, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our ZOOM calls are password protected. You need to be on our email list to get the link and the password for each ZOOM event.

To get on the mailing list, just click on the Menu button at the top right of this page, and then on the Contact button. Then send us a message that you want to be added to our email list, and we’ll add you.





 

Richmond IONS November 2021 Meeting

“Jefferson from Beyond the Veil.”

Our November 20,2021 program will feature a talk by Richmond author, historian and CV IONS Community Group member, Suzanne Munson, to discuss her intriguing new book, The Metaphysical Thomas Jefferson.

Prepare for an intriguing visit to the mind of Thomas Jefferson, from his place in spirit. In her new book, The Metaphysical Thomas Jefferson, writer Suzanne Munson asked several Jefferson scholars: “If you could speak with Thomas Jefferson today, what questions would you ask?”

She presented the inquiries as a “class exercise,” as she had taught some Jefferson history at the university level. These questions, plus some of her own, were channeled through a respected medium, Jana Anna, in eight hours of recorded sessions.

The subjects were wide-ranging: Jefferson’s current views on government, foreign policy, higher education, race relations, the media, the military, religion, slavery, and other Founding Fathers, including Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson quipped, “Who knew Hamilton would become a song and dance man?”

Suzanne learned of Jana Anna during a Richmond IONS presentation several years ago by Irene Kendig, author of Conversations with Jerry and Others I Thought Were Dead, an international book award winner consisting of seven compelling readings by this medium.

Suzanne concluded that if Jana could channel “regular” people, why not someone famous? Why not Thomas Jefferson? The Metaphysical Thomas Jefferson is trending well on Amazon and received this review from Jeffrey Long, M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences: “Future leaders of America need to read this book.

The wisdom it contains could help steer this country in the right direction for generations. This is a remarkable, exceptionally well-written work, with the ring of reality.”

Suzanne was a guest speaker for our group in 2019 about her previous book, Jefferson’s Godfather: The Man Behind the Man, and we are extremely pleased to have her back.

About Suzanne Munson, our Richmond IONS November 2021 Presenter

Suzanne Munson holds an undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland, earned a master’s degree in education from Virginia Commonwealth University, and attended The Executive Program at the Darden School of
Business at the University of Virginia.

She teaches courses on the Wythe-Jefferson legacy at UVA, William and Mary, and University of Richmond OSHER affiliates and at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. She also gives talks about these two Founding Fathers to various community groups and historical associations.

Suzanne previously spoke to the RichmondIONS chapter in May of 2019 regarding historical and metaphysical connections to her first book, a biography of George Wythe, Jefferson’s Godfather: The Man Behind the Man.

Her new book is currently earning excellent reviews and 5 stars on Amazon. Suzanne lectures frequently at the college level on the Wythe-Jefferson legacy. For more information:

www.suzannemunson-author.com.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.





About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS October 2021 Meeting 1

Ravi Tallapragada, Richmond IONS October 2021Richmond IONS  October 2021 Meeting (October 16) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Ravi Tallapragada.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM and at River Road United Methodist Church, Contemporary Worship Center, 8800 River Road, Henrico, VA 23229.

When: On Saturday, October 16, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by a potluck lunch. See the detailed ZOOM instructions in the email.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our ZOOM calls are password protected. You need to be on our email list to get the link and the password for each ZOOM event.

To get on the mailing list, just click on the Menu button at the top right of this page, and then on the Contact button. Then send us a message that you want to be added to our email list, and we’ll add you.





 

Richmond IONS October 2021 Meeting

“My Journeys in Consciousness.”

Our October 16, 2021 program will feature a talk by Ravi Tallapragada, Indian-American Engineer, Philosopher and Mystic.

Every life is a journey in consciousness, mostly meandering, seldom a straight line. Many among us seem to pass through their lives from beginning to end in a trance-like in an somnambulistic state, without ever seeing or appreciating the infinite variety of divine connections life offers at every turn, in every nook and cranny.

A lesser number of others seek to bring greater degrees of awakening, self-awareness and intentionality to their lives, and dedicate themselves to exploring and understanding the grander, broader and deeper aspects of meaning and existence − both in respect to their own individual lives and in respect to all life and all that is.

Ravi Tallapragada, our guest speaker this month, falls squarely into the latter category of fully awake, intentional seekers (“Enlightenment cannot be found by seeking, but it can only be found by seekers.”). His talk this month will be a fascinating sketch of his journey to date.

The search for meaning, for essence (soul or atman) and for humanity’s connection (or not) with the divine is as ancient as humanity itself, and began literally at the dawn of the emergence of humans on Earth as a sentient species, if not before.

Among the oldest extant writings and teachings on such subjects are the four Sanskrit Vedas (circa 1500 BCE) − the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda and the Athar-Veda − which, collecively are both the foundations and the Bible of Hinduism, Earth’s oldest religion and still one of its largest.

From his early childhood, Ravi, born of a Hindu family in India, began attending a Roman Catholic (Jesuit/Salesian) parochial school. As a precocious and perennially contemplative student, he began seeking common threads, patterns and motifs from and within the Hindu teachings and traditions of his family and culture and the Christian teachings and traditions of his scholastic education.

As he grew, his horizons expanded, he emigrated to America, and his conceptual framework expanded as well, eventually encompassing all sacred traditions worldwide, and the deepest understandings of self and soul which accompany them.

Ravi’s path has been (and continues to be) one of applying a “beginner’s mind” of endless curiosity, wonder and delight, with a heavy dose of critical thinking skills thrown in for good measure, to all waypoints of his journey, and we look forward to him sharing it with us.

About Ravi Tallapragada, our Richmond IONS October 2021 Presenter

Ravi, a native of Chennai, India (formerly Madras), was influenced by JFK’s Moonshot speech to the US Congress to pursue engineering with strong desire to work at NASA.

After college in India, he came to the U.S. for graduate school. His career was in Telecommunications and Digital Signal Processing in R&D, Product Designs, and Services Development, and later as an IT consultant to the U.S. government in the D.C. area for many years, where his late wife was a neonatologist.

He had a weekly local TV show in Northern Virginia on Hinduism for several years, drawing upon the study of literature and commentaries in Comparative Religion and the Spirituality of India.

In 2019, Ravi, along with several of his college mates, had a personal visit with the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, India. He has one son Naren, who is a graduate of MIT in Physics and Electrical Engineering and has a PhD from Harvard in the Field of Cancer Cell Biology.





 

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS September 2021 Meeting

Richmond IONS September 2021 Antonia AlbanoRichmond IONS  September 2021 Meeting (September 18) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Antonia Albano.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM and at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New Parish Hall, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238.

When: On Saturday, September 18, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by a potluck lunch. See the detailed ZOOM instructions in the email.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our ZOOM calls are password protected. You need to be on our email list to get the link and the password for each ZOOM event.

To get on the mailing list, just click on the Menu button at the top right of this page, and then on the Contact button. Then send us a message that you want to be added to our email list, and we’ll add you.





Richmond IONS September 2021 Meeting

“Geometric Technologies… for the Next Octave of Infinite Possibilities.”

Our September 18, 2021 program will feature a talk by Antonia Albano, Mid-wife and Messenger for the Geometric Technologies of Love and co-owner and operator, with husband Barney Brown, of the Heartstone Lodge and South River Highlands Retreat, near Lexington, Virginia.

Antonia has had a life-long fascination both with how the un-manifest is made manifest and how the un-manifest is integral to our existence and permeates all life with its intelligence. While on a modern day vision quest in 2004, Antonia began to draw shapes that have become the focus of her life.

This exciting presentation to explore gifts from a more advanced civilization and the realms of the Seraphim and Cherubim, the highest of the realms in the Judaea-Christian hierarchy of angels, being offered in pure love to “jump start” Earth’s humanity and all life into the next evolutionary trajectory.

By aligning with their frequencies of light, we will be taken “beyond our ability to cognate,” offering us a preview of what is possible for human evolution.

Employing informative understandings-to-date, visuals with animations, signature songs, new sacred geometry and kinesthetic experiences, Antonia will share some of her journey these past 17 years with both the Geometric Technologies of love and the new, first time presented, Geometric Technologies of Conscious Creations!

She will connect the dots that lead to the non-dual union of opposites, look at the significant role the golden ratio plays in this conscious evolutionary pivotal axis in human history, new light codes, new sacred geometry… all here at this moment in time because we have asked and we have been heard!

These geometric technologies “represent a latent possibility within ourselves” to grow and evolve into union with Source… opening to the infinite possibilities of the Divine within and without.

About Antonia Albano, our Richmond IONS September 2021 Presenter

Antonia Albano has been facilitating workshops on the raising of human consciousness since early 1990s. This has taken her through many interesting and diverse fields, most moving into the esoteric sciences and sacred geometry. She is the founder of the World Love Project, Virginia’s Celebration of Love multi-day event and the Healing Resonance council.

She has been involved for over three decades with the California based Alohem Center for Transformational Studies and co-founded the California Institute of Mind-Body Awareness just north of San Francisco where she spent time as a Transformation Coach and Spiritual Mentor.

Antonia and her husband Barney Brown own and operate The Heartstone Lodge/South River Highlands Retreat, a 250-acre retreat center near Lexington, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley, which serves as the International Headquarters of the World Love Project.

She continues exploring esoteric studies, expanding her inner knowing and dissolving illusions. See www.CelebrationOfLove2018.com, www.SouthRiverHighlands.com, and www.HeartstoneRetreat.com





About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS August 2021 Meeting

Richmond IONS August 2021 Susanna Wu-Pong CalvertRichmond IONS  August 2021 Meeting (August 21) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Susanna Wu-Pong Calvert, MAPP, Ph.D.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM and at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New Parish Hall, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238.

When: On Saturday, August 21, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by a potluck lunch. See the detailed ZOOM instructions in the email.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our ZOOM calls are password protected. You need to be on our email list to get the link and the password for each ZOOM event.

To get on the mailing list, just click on the Menu button at the top right of this page, and then on the Contact button. Then send us a message that you want to be added to our email list, and we’ll add you.





Richmond IONS August 2021 Meeting

“Zero to Light Speed: Social Entrepreneurship and Healing.”

Our August 21, 2021 program will feature a talk by Susanna Wu-Pong Calvert, MAPP, PhD, Founder and Convener for Mission and Vision of the Foundation for Family and Community Healing.

Not long ago Susanna Calvert thought all the boxes in her life were already checked – she had a happy marriage, a loving husband, two grown sons, a home near the James River, two post-graduate degrees and an extremely successful career in academia.

But the deaths of both her husband and her older sister in 2018 upended what she thought were the rock-solid foundations of her life. These losses became a catalyst which catapulted Susanna onto a still unfolding spiritual journey of awakening and discovery.

In her talk Susanna will share her path and insights from the journey which led her to abandon a 26-year career in higher education and professional development to start a nonprofit aimed at healing work both locally and on a global scale, a 501(c)(3) social entrepreneurship called the Foundation for Family and Community Healing (FFCH).

Created and guided by divine inspiration, FFCH is a community composed mostly of passionate intuitives whose mission is to offer healing and transformation to everyone and everything, primarily through online relationship skills education.

FFCH’s focus is on fostering healthy relationships within ourselves and with each other by activating the loving force that connects us all. It includes healing connections with and within individuals, groups and communities, and with Mother Earth herself.

Given its unique history and the energetic residue associated with it, Susanna believes Richmond is an ideal launchpad for FFCH’s mission, as well as an exceptional laboratory for testing and refining its programs.

She also believes the life-or-death environmental issues we face globally, like climate change, are at heart relationship issues as well, and that they will be resolved only when our relationship with Earth, Gaia, which has given birth to us and nurtured our evolution, is itself more fully understood and appreciated. We invite all to join us
for this timely and important program.

About Dr. Susanna Wu-Pong Calvert, our Richmond IONS August 2021 Presenter

Dr. Susanna Wu-Pong Calvert, MAPP, PhD enjoyed 26 years in higher education as a faculty member, administrator, and facilitator/coach in leadership, career, professional, and personal development at VCU and the University of Georgia.

She’s published hundreds of articles, blogs, abstracts, and books over her career. Currently, she is Founder and Convener for Mission and
Vision at the Foundation for Family and Community Healing, the lead for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond’s Earth Ministry, board member of the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth, and a cabinet member of Emerge Virginia.

Dr. Calvert has a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco, and several coaching credentials.

She has two adult sons, a beautiful grandbaby, two dogs, and a perfect, unruly garden and lawn as part of her home near the James River in Richmond, VA.





 

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS July 2021 Meeting

Richmond IONS  July 2021 Raymond MoodyRichmond IONS  July 2021 Meeting (July 17) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Raymond A. Moody, Jr., M.d., Ph.D.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM and at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New Parish Hall, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238.

When: On Saturday, July 17, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by a potluck lunch. See the detailed ZOOM instructions in the email.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our ZOOM calls are password protected. You need to be on our email list to get the link and the password for each ZOOM event.

To get on the mailing list, just click on the Menu button at the top right of this page, and then on the Contact button. Then send us a message that you want to be added to our email list, and we’ll add you.





Richmond IONS July 2021 Meeting

“God Is Bigger Than the Bible.”

Our July 17, 2021 program will feature a talk by Raymond A. Moody, Jr., M.d., Ph.D., world renowned philosopher, psychologist, physician, metaphysician, public intellectual and author, about his fifty plus years of consciousness research, as seen through the prism of his most recent book, God Is Bigger Than the Bible.

Dr. Moody has four post-graduate degrees – an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, a PhD in psychology from the University of West Georgia, and an M.D. degree from the Medical College of Georgia.

He has been a student and avid investigator and researcher in the fields
of epistemology, phenomenology, ontology and eschatology ever since he was an undergraduate philosophy major at UVa in the early 1960s.

During his extended stay in Charlottesville, Ray encountered the late Dr. George Ritchie, a Richmond general practitioner and later a psychiatrist in Charlottesville and Richmond, and learned of Dr. Ritchie’s apparent clinical death and subsequent return to life while a soldier in World War II (which Dr. Ritchie recounted in his book Return from Tomorrow (1978)).

His interest sparked, Ray began investigating similar stories while a graduate student at UVA, and what he observed became the basis for his first book. Ray Moody is known the world over as the granddaddy of the near-death experience (“NDE”).

Indeed, he invented the term while writing that first book, Life After Life, which became a runaway international bestseller almost as soon as it was published in 1975. The term NDE has been the coin of the realm to describe this phenomenon ever since and the fame it brought Dr. Moody catapulted him to the forefront of the global consciousness movement, where he has remained ever since.

In the forty-six years since Life After Life came out, he has authored and published twelve more books on NDEs and closely related subjects, always using the lens of these types of numinous experiences as a pathway for gaining insight about the nature of being.

God Is Bigger Than the Bible is Dr. Moody’s latest exploration of these ultimate questions and concerns, and we are elated and grateful beyond measure that he has agreed to address our group in person as our guest speaker. Again, Welcome back!

About Dr. Raymond A. Moody, our Richmond IONS July 2021 Presenter

Dr. Raymond A. Moody, Jr. was born in Porterdale, Georgia and currently resides in Sarasota, Florida. He entered the University of Virginia in 1962 and received his undergraduate degree (BA) there in 1966. Thereafter he earned an M.A. (1967) and a PhD in philosophy (1972) at University of West Georgia, and an M.D. degree (1976) the Medical College of Georgia.

He has authored and co-authored 13 books on near-death experiences and closely related topics, and he and his work have been featured in numerous movies and TV shows seen worldwide. Ever since publishing Life After Life in 1975, he has been and continues to be a much sought-after speaker at such venues as The Omega Institute, Esalen Institute, the IONS International Congress, the IANDS Annual Conference, and at numerous symposiums around the world. He also is a frequent guest on radio and podcasts, and many of his talks are on YouTube.





 

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS June 2021 Meeting

Richmond IONS June 2021 PasulkaRichmond IONS  June 2021 Meeting (June 19) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Diana Walsh Pasulka, PhD.

Where: Online and in person, through ZOOM and at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New Parish Hall, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238.

When: On Saturday, June 19, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by a potluck lunch. See the detailed ZOOM instructions in the email.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our ZOOM calls are password protected. You need to be on our email list to get the link and the password for each ZOOM event.

To get on the mailing list, just click on the Menu button at the top right of this page, and then on the Contact button. Then send us a message that you want to be added to our email list, and we’ll add you.





Richmond IONS June 2021 Meeting

“American Cosmic – UFOs, Religion, Technology.”

Our June 19, 2021 program will feature a talk by Diana Walsh Pasulka, PhD, Professor of Religion at UNC Wilmington, about her most recent book, American Cosmic – UFOs, Religion, Technology (2019).

In American Cosmic, Dr. Pasulka chronicles her encounters with several individuals whose lives have been dramatically altered through the phenomena of UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligences and technologies.

She writes, “In 2012 I began a research journey that produced American Cosmic and also changed the way I understand my reality and my life. I encountered two accomplished and well-known scientists who believed they were researching the phenomenon commonly known as UFOs.

They do not draw conclusions about the nature of the mysterious phenomenon, but they do provide a unique method of inquiry that leads to what I believe creates the conditions for spiritual experiences and knowledge. I compare them with other practices found within the history of religions.”

One of the two primary subjects of Dr. Pasulka’s research is a successful aerospace engineer, entrepreneur and inventor of cutting-edge biotechnologies, who credits the inspirations for his inventions to psychic downloads from
ETs.

The other is a distinguished scientist at a prestigious university with a childhood history of ET encounters, who for decades has pursued an obsession with ET artifacts and a quest to comprehend the evolutional and cosmic significance of ETs and their technologies on our lives.

Dr. Pasulka’s presentation will recap the highlights of her years-long research project which resulted in American Cosmic and her conclusions about its religious implications. This will be our group’s first in-person program since February 2020, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to resume with such an exciting speaker and timely topic. Welcome back to all!

About Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka, our Richmond IONS June 2021 Presenter

Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and former head of its Department of Philosophy and Religion. Her research spans Catholic history to New Religious Movements.

Previous books include Heaven Can Wait (2014), as well as many anthologies that focus on the impact of technology on religious beliefs and practices. American Cosmic is critically acclaimed and earned a Publisher’s Weekly starred review as well as mentions in the New York Times and other major newspapers and magazines.

Dr. Pasulka is an invited speaker at institutions including Harvard University, the Guggenheim Museum, the Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein’s podcast as well as numerous other venues in the U.S. and Europe.

Her current projects include two edited volumes, Believing in Bits: New Media and the Supernatural, co-edited with Simone Natalie, and Post Humanism: The Future of Homo Sapiens, co-edited with Michael Bess.

Other work involves being the lead investigator on an ongoing study of Catholic manuscripts and saints at the Vatican Secret Archive and the Space Observatory. There she is the only university professor with a contract to translate and digitize several sacred texts, specifically the canonization records of the saint Joseph of Copertino and the nun Maria of Agreda, both of whom were alleged to levitate.





 

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

Richmond IONS May 2021 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS May 2021 Meeting Joanne DiMaggioRichmond IONS  May 2021 Meeting (May 15) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Joanne DiMaggio,.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, May 15, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. See the detailed ZOOM instructions in the email.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our ZOOM calls are password protected. You need to be on our email list to get the link and the password for each ZOOM event.

To get on the mailing list, just click on the Menu button at the top right of this page, and then on the Contact button. Then send us a message that you want to be added to our email list, and we’ll add you.





Richmond IONS May 2021 Meeting

“Edgar Cayce and the Unfulfilled Destiny of Thomas Jefferson Reborn”

Our May 15, 2021 program will feature a talk by Joanne DiMaggio, Charlottesville author, spiritual counsellor, past-life researcher and regression therapist. She’ll speak about her latest book, Edgar Cayce and the Unfulfilled Destiny of Thomas Jefferson Reborn.

On June 23, 1936, Edgar Cayce gave a life reading for two-day old Thomas Jefferson (T.J.) Davis, the nephew of his secretary, Gladys Davis. In that reading, Cayce identified one of T.J.’s past lives as that of Thomas Jefferson, adding that in this life T.J. could do for the world what Jefferson did for this country.

Based on an eight-year research project, this presentation
examines why that never happened, despite the fact that T.J. spent much of his childhood living in the Cayce home. It presents a classic case of karma in action and the free will’s series of twists and turns that created the obstacles that T.J. felt powerless to overcome. T.J. is 84 now and resides quietly in the Charlottesville area.

Joanne, one of our country’s pre-eminent past-life researchers, assures us that we’ll find T.J.’s story both endearing and moving. We are pleased to welcome her back, as she always is one of our most engaging speakers.

About Joanne DiMaggio, Our Richmond IONS May 2021 Presenter:

Joanne DiMaggio, MA, CHt, is a member of Unity of Charlottesville, where she founded and was director of the Unity Holistic Healing Center from 2013-2020. Born and raised in Chicago, she has lived in the Charlottesville, Virginia area since 1995.

Joanne is a respected expert on the topic of reincarnation, as well as soul writing, which she describes as a written form of meditation. She has been actively involved with Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) since 1987 and has been the Coordinator for the A.R.E. Charlottesville, Virginia team since August 2008.

She earned her master’s degree in Transpersonal Studies and
her Spiritual Mentor certification through Atlantic University. Her thesis on inspirational writing served as the basis of her first esoteric book: Soul Writing: Conversing with your Higher Self (2011).

She also is the author of Your Soul Remembers: Accessing Your Past Lives Through Soul Writing (2013), and Karma Can Be a Real Pain: Past Life Clues to Current Life Maladies (2016), and I Did It to Myself… Again! New Life-Between-Lives Case Studies Show How Your Soul’s Contract Is Guiding Your Life (2020).

Joanne has been professionally pursuing past-life research and therapy for over 30 years. She is a graduate of the Eastern Institute of Hypnotherapy, and completed additional training in hypnosis at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

She also studied under Dr. Irene Hickman, a pioneer in the field of non-directive hypnotherapy. The years she spent as the head of PLEXUS, her own past-life research center outside of Chicago, enabled her to interact with some of the country’s leading past-life professionals. For more about Joanne and her services, visit www.joannedimaggio.com.





About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS Community Group is an unincorporated association and a local community group of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, an international association based in Petaluma, California (www.noetic.org).

We do not promote any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and we are open to all. Central VA IONS entirely depends on voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

We appreciate a love offering at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings take place each month at locations announced in its program notices (currently on Zoom) and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

Please also visit and “LIKE” our Richmond IONS Facebook page

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

Looking for our upcoming meetings?  Please CLICK HERE.

To get on our mailing list, please click the “Menu” button and then the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.