Richmond IONS April 2022 Meeting

Richmond Ions April 2022 Isabel BolivarRichmond IONS  April 2022 Meeting (April 16) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Isabel Cristina Bolivar.

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 16, 2022, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.




Richmond IONS April 2022 Meeting

“My Shamanic Walk on the Spiritual Path”

Our April 16, 2022 program will feature a talk by Isabel Cristina Bolivar, Columbian-American traditional energetic healer, wisdom keeper and teacher.

Isabel (Isa) Cristina Bolivar’s journey was the successful immigrant story until twelve years ago, when she reached a fork in the road. Every success story is not without its challenges, and when Isa faced her challenges in 2010, she experienced a “Now what?” moment.

On a trip to her homeland of Colombia, she met Carlos Palchucan, a traditional Amazonian shaman, and was persuaded to experience an Ayahuasca ceremony.

During her shamanic journeys, she discovered the answer to her question and the choice was clear which way to go, but that was just the beginning. Even though Isa had been interested in esoteric wisdom and studied Reiki energy healing, the initiation she experienced during her shamanic journeys offered her far more- ̶an expanded understanding about herself, her relationship with the Divine, her soul journey, and her unfolding life purpose.

Isa continued studying with Carlos Palchucan while also learning about other shamanic practices as well as western healing modalities. She eventually synthesized all these practices into a non-traditional shamanic way of living in a multi-dimensional universe.

Isa will share some experiences of her shamanic journeys, and about other shamanic ceremonies and rituals such as Moon Dancing Circles, Sahumadora (the art of incense), Kambo, plant medicine, and quantum consciousness, both from the Spanish and U.S. perspectives.

She has remembered and fused many lifetimes as a shaman in many cultures and honed her shamanic skills to serve as a bridge between the South American traditional culture and Western contemporary culture, and to help people heal the wounds which separate them from their true self, and restore them to their innate gifts and inner wisdom.

Isa’s story is the classic hero’s journey, and she shares her story to remind us that we are all heroes.

About Isabel (Isa) Cristina Bolivar, our Richmond IONS April 2022 Meeting Presenter

Isabel (Isa) Cristina Bolivar is a South American natural born shaman and traditional energetic healer. She has trained with several shamans in the ceremonies and rituals, plant medicine as well as contemporary concepts of quantum consciousness, and remembers shamanic past lives.

She offers what many consider deep and life changing connections to one’s true self, in finding one’s life purpose, and in healing one’s spiritual, emotional and physical ailments. She has a gift to “see in the dark into hidden realities.”

Her credentials and certifications include Certified Reiki Master/Teacher; Facilitadora Conexion Cuantica con el Ser (Quantum Consciousness);
Certified Sahumadora Humitos Sagrara Colombia (the art of incense); Moon Dance Circle (Ustaka Yolotl Metzl); Tarot and Angel Card Reading with Doreen Virtue; QHHT Practitioner Level II (Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique); and Bearer of Tabaco Medicine and the Obsidian Pipe.

She is Co-Sponsor of the RVA Holistic XPO and offers workshops/retreats in the U.S. and in Colombia. Isa resides in Richmond, Virginia and can be reached on Facebook and Instagram.




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 March 2022 Meeting

Richmond IONS March 2022 Ryan ChappellRichmond IONS  March 2022 Meeting (March 19) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Ryan Chappell.

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.

If you missed the meeting, you can watch the Zoom recording here:
https://www.quietmindrva.com/ions-presentation



Richmond IONS March 2022 Meeting

“Being and Playfulness – A New Paradigm”

Our March 19, 2022 program will feature a talk by Ryan Chappell, a Richmond-based energy worker, massage therapist, spiritual philosopher and channel.

Unlike most of us, Ryan is, at the soul level, a first-timer on Earth, despite being an old soul by any measure. A classic wanderer within the Ra framework, Ryan has come here from a higher density planet (in the Andromeda Galaxy) to assist humanity in this time of dramatic planetary transition and transformation.

From a young age Ryan began identifying distorted and erroneous ideas, assumptions and beliefs from and upon which massive social, cultural, religious and political infrastructures have been built.

Relying on his own observations, experience, intuition and channeled information from himself and close colleagues, Ryan set out on an ambitious undertaking to deconstruct flawed and distorted paradigms.

He also set out to start from scratch to create new frameworks and paradigms for unseen realities designed to expand human consciousness, personal freedom, empowerment and autonomy rather than to further contract consciousness, or further limit and restrict personal freedom, power and autonomy.

The focus of Ryan’s talk will be on human identity, relationships and cultural programming, and how those aspects of our lives may be adversely affected by distorted ideas and emotions or favorably affected by greater clarity.

We live in a vibrational universe, wherein our thoughts and emotions emanate from us into our environment like the ripple effects of pebbles tossed into a pond. An essential step in humanity’s expansion and ascension will be to gain a deeper grasp of how reality works and to take responsibility for our own vibration – i.e., for our thoughts, emotions and actions.

Ryan will offer tools to help us more fully comprehend this process, as well as to make it easier, faster and more fun. In some important ways, Ryan’s talk will pick up where Tom Coates’ December 2021 talk to our group left off, and further build on that expanded framework, with the ultimate aim of offering a new framework/paradigm which will bring greater joy and harmony to the lives of all.

About Ryan Chappell, our Richmond IONS March 2022 Meeting Presenter

Ryan Chappell is a native Richmonder and owner of Quiet Mind Massage. His outside-the-box approach has made him a rising star in Richmond’s spiritual community whose influence will be felt for many years to come.

Of his background, Ryan observes, “People have been telling me I’m an old soul since I was a child. In my teenage years I observed emotional healing experiences in adults in my presence as if they were in a therapist’s office.

It was a common experience for me to look calmly into the eyes of someone crying while explaining a traumatic experience they’d had. I just seemed to attract these kinds of encounters into my life one after another.

People would naturally feel safe around me because my emotions are pleasant and serene, my mind is quiet and peaceful. This perspective has enabled me to see the world in a different way.”

Ryan can be reached at quietmindrva.com.

If you missed the meeting, you can watch the Zoom recording here:
https://www.quietmindrva.com/ions-presentation



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 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.