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Richmond IONS June 2021 Meeting

Richmond 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 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 (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.

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:

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 April 2021 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS April 2021 Meeting (April 17) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Dr. Mary Sanders.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, April 17, 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.

How 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 April 2021 Meeting

“A Chakra Health Class.”

Our April 17, 2021 program will feature a talk by Dr. Mary Sanders,
DC, Portland, Oregon and Vienna, Austria-based chiropractor, energy therapist and chakra healer.

At our meeting, Mary will teach us about the relationship between our seven primary energy centers, i.e., our chakras, and our health. She will help us explore the seven primary chakras and their anatomy, along with their important connections to different parts of our bodies.

Mary has been trained as a medical intuitive and facilitates both in-person and remote healing from a distance via phone. Quantum physics has demonstrated that consciousness is nonlocal, and anecdotal evidence has shown that remote energetic healing work, including prayer and other modes, can be just as effective as hands-on contact.

She holds sacred space, a space filled with compassion, non-judgment and neutrality, for clients as they reconnect with their own original essence and personal power. The end results can be quite dramatic and transformative, and have practical, tangible and
noticeable beneficial effects for her clients in their everyday relationships with themselves and others, both in their work and in their personal lives.

Combining years of clinical practice and experiential wisdom, Mary has shown proficiency in supporting clients with a wide variety of physical, psychological, and emotional ailments.

Physical issues such as structural alignment and visceral function, psychological imbalances such as chronic depression and anxiety disorders, and emotional imbalances such as excessive anger, fear and sadness, are common conditions that respond well to intentional
energetic healing practices and chakra balancing.

Mary has presented talks to a number of IONS community groups
around the country and we are very pleased to have her as our guest speaker this month.

About Dr. Mary Sanders, Our Richmond IONS April 2021 Presenter:

Dr. Mary Sanders “knew” at a very young age that she wanted to grow up and have her hands on people. She was diagnosed as hearing impaired at the age of three but was acutely aware of “feeling/sensing” others early on.

Her innate skills became desensitized to some extent during her childhood, but when she attended chiropractic school in 1991 she was reconnected with the energetic properties of the human body. She was in private practice in Colorado for 22 years before moving to Vietnam, where she went through an identity crisis and deeply questioned her purpose in life.

She completed her Yoga Teachers Training in Bali and got back into meditation. Mary’s curiosity to better understand the power of the brain led her to study Positive Psychology, neuroplasticity, meditation and mindfulness. She applied those skills in South America in the educational arena for 5 years via a non-profit, Aviva Education.

Soon after the death of her mother and sister she experienced a renewed awakening as to the importance of life and resolved to further align her actions to support personal transformation and the evolution of consciousness. She enrolled in the Academy of Intuitive Medicine in Sausalito, California and after two years she completed her Masters of Intuitive Medicine ®.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

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 2021 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS March 2021 Meeting (March 20) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Albert Moore.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, March 20, 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.

Richmond IONS March 2021 Meeting

“Experiential Introduction to the City of Union.”

Our March 20, 2021 program will feature a talk by Albert Moore, a New York, Santa Fe and Richmond based architect, urban designer and mystic visionary.

Since November 11, 1991, when he experienced Union with All-That-Is, Al Moore has been accustomed to having visions, insights, inner knowings, and remembrances about the original way of Being human as embodied Souls.

His experience in Union led him to travel the world, studying with masters of shamanism and energy work. Then he applied these experiences to his professional expertise in architecture and the design of the complex systems we call our cities, towns and
communities.

Al invites us to imagine floating in the universe, completely free from any and all your beliefs in separateness. In this state you become aware that you are the extension of the light of your Soul. You know the real you, eternal and unlimited in your creative capacities.

Imagine too, during this Union, that you have a knowing that you and all humans have parts to play in orchestrating humanity’s remembering of Union. The system collapsing around us is simply the way creation works. There is nothing wrong!

You know that humanity is approaching a critical mass of remembering Union. And then Earth organically restores Herself to reflecting our Union. Everything changes!

At our Richmond IONS March 2021 Meeting

At our March 20, 2021 meeting, Al will share the visions and insights which came through his conscious awareness when he asked, “What does human life and Earth look like when humans have remembered their Union with All-That-Is?”

Al will discuss the steps he took to prepare himself to embody Union in his physical, mental, and emotional fields. Then he will take us on a journey inward to enter a simultaneous parallel reality where Earth reflects our collective Union.

He’ll draw upon excerpts from his book, Eyes In The Mirror, to paint a picture of the social systems of New Earth, and he’ll present a layout and details for a City of Union. A question and comment period will conclude his presentation.

About Albert Moore, Our Richmond IONS March 2021 Presenter:

Albert Moore has always been a visionary. As an undergraduate in architecture at Pratt Institute, he was fascinated by the effects on human behavior of geometry, proportion, light, color and texture.

While pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University, he applied behavioral design concepts to support positive human interaction in designing urban environments.

In his architectural practice, he developed a theory that architecture can transform human consciousness. Al presented applications of these concepts at the International Design Conference for rebuilding Bosnian cities.

After 45 years as an architect and urban designer, Al has returned to his visionary roots. Albert offers small group and individual mentoring sessions in Self-Mastery to prepare for Union and New Earth. He can be reached at: albertcmoore@gmail.com.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

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 2021 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS February 2021 Meeting (February 20) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Vickie Griffith.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, February 20, 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.

Richmond IONS February 2021 Meeting

“How to Give Up the Need to Be Right and Get What You Want.”

Our February 20, 2021 program will feature a talk by Vickie Griffith, Florida-based author and hypnotherapist, about her latest book,
entitled You Can Be Right About Everything and Still Have Nothing.

You are doing all the right things to grow your life, yet it still feels stagnant. Your family is unattached or bickering with each other. Your boss is getting on your last nerve and it is getting harder to enjoy your work. You have gone to seminars, read the latest spiritual or self -help book, but you are still stuck.

Same people, same office, same issues every day. Nothing seems to go right for you. You wake up in the middle of the night worried about money, your children, your health. You are plain tired out, worried, stressed and anxious.

It is not for lack of knowing what to do. You are a smart person. It is not for lack of working hard. You work hard. The truth is the self-help industry has you confused. Do you work a bit harder or stop working so hard? Do you seek outside advice or listen from within, to your own inner voice?

And they tell you it is all your fault, that you cannot have it all. Or can you? There is partial truth to “it is your fault,” but not in the way you think. It is not that you cannot stick to the plan. You have had some success or done it before. It is not hard work or putting in more time that gives you what you want in life.

It is something sneakier and slier that you do not even realize is the reason you give up. Your need to be right is keeping you stuck.

But hold on. You are taking that the wrong way. It is the need to prove your faulty and flawed belief systems are right that is getting in your way, and she’ll offer plenty more on that during her talk.

Vickie previously addressed our group in September 2016 and was one of the most engaging speakers we’ve ever had. We are very pleased to welcome her back.

About Vickie Griffith, Our Richmond IONS February 2021 Presenter

Vickie Griffith struggled with her weight until…she stopped dieting. As a reserved, fat, unhappy teenager, she lived every day as a wall flower. Due to her lack of confidence and a low self-esteem, she was good at sabotaging any efforts to lose weight and keep it off.

That is until she lost 49+ pounds and has kept it off for over 20 years, using simple, easy to implement tools that stopped the food cravings, managed anxiety, and stopped the sabotage. She went from a ho-hum, unhappy, fat existence as a teenager to a certified hypnotist, an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) professional, a professional speaker, and a regularly featured radio and television show guest.

She is the author of Stucked UP!: A Breakthrough Path to Getting Unstuck and co-author of Life Boosts with two New York Times Best Selling Authors, plus her current book. Her infectious enthusiasm and deceptively low-key, casual approach leave a lasting impression on her audiences.

Vickie loves to travel throughout the country offering keynotes, coaching, and workshops. She, along with her husband, Terry, moved south to escape the cold Michigan winters. They settled in Virginia for 15 years.

When the winters became too cold here, they moved further south and now live in Florida with their two dogs Surrey and Kim. She jokes that she has become one of those Floridians that she used to laugh at; bundled up when it is 70 degrees outside with mittens, a coat, and a scarf.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

We are not associated with any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and is open to all. Central VA IONS is entirely dependent upon voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

A love offering is requested at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Richmond IONS/Central VA IONS meetings are held each month at locations announced in its program notices 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 be included in 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.

Please share your thoughts and any feedback by leaving a comment below:

Richmond IONS January 2021 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS January 2021 Meeting (January 23) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Dennis Lutz.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, January 23, 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.

Richmond IONS January 2021 Meeting

“How to Maintain A High Vibration Throughout the Day − An Instruction Manual.”

Our program on January 23, 2021, will feature a talk by Dennis Lutz, a nonpareil holistic energy healer and light worker, well known to our group, who splits his time between Richmond and Sarasota.

Dennis practices a broad-spectrum holistic approach which includes therapeutic bodywork, energy work, breath work, spirituality, chakra balancing, diet, nutrition, exercise, yoga, meditation, hypnotherapy and essential oils for well-being.

Dennis not only uses a variety of hands-on physical protocols, but also practices remote energy healing. He has often has found this to be just as effective as in-person protocols.

With all the fear and judgment going on around the planet these days, Dennis’ intention is to share what he has been doing to keep his and his clients’ frequencies high in this environment. You are your own healer.

Every cell in your body listens and responds to your thoughts and feelings, so it is a good idea to pay attention to where they may be taking you. We are all beings of light, which is why we show up on infrared cameras.

Why Our Vibrational Frequency Is So Important

Our vibrational frequency determines our emotional and physical condition and we have the power to control it ourselves. If we choose to, we can enhance our own energetic field (and those of others) by expressing optimism, hope, love and freedom.

Currently, in part due to the pandemic, the dominant themes are more fear-based doom and gloom, and positive narratives seem few and far between.

Dennis will show us that the way to change the default system in our subconscious mind is by repetition and provide us with ways to quicken that process. The greater your awareness, the higher
your vibration, and the easier it becomes to let go of negative energy (if that is your desire).

Using specific methods, products, and tools, some at a cost, some not, requires only the time it takes you to focus on it. You already may have your own methods or may be completely content with where you are and that is perfectly fine.

Dennis had his own “aha!’’ moment 11 years ago. He realized that everything is perception and that our perception creates our reality. If you perceive yourself with little power, that is what is going to show up.

All of us are vibrating on frequency bands that create feedback loops. They shape our experience in positive or negative ways, and in expansive or contractive ways.

We are all magicians, creating as we think, feel, speak and act. Dennis’ talk will give us tools to expand our repertoire of magic we can create and manifest in our lives. This is especially helpful during these turbulent times.

About Dennis Lutz, Our Richmond IONS January 2021 Presenter

Dennis Lutz, CMT, SET, is a graduate of The Institute of Structural Energetic Therapy in Lutz, Florida. Dennis has studied and practiced Advanced Pranic Healing, Yuen Energetics, Structural Energetic Therapy-Cranial and Structural Core Distortion Releases.

He has also studied Advanced Cranial Structural Balancing, Pelvic Balancing, Head Neck and Shoulder, EVM, Full Body Torsion, Upper Body Torsion, Flexion, Shear, Carpal Tunnel, Lower Leg and Feet protocols, Cranial Structural Energetics and Emotional Energetic Release Therapy.

In addition, he trained at the NMT Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. His website is at http://www.therapeuticbodyworkers.com.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

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 be included in 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.

Please share your thoughts and any feedback by leaving a comment below:

Richmond IONS December 2020 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS December 2020 Meeting (December. 19) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a discussion moderated by Tom Coates.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, December 19, 2020, 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.

Richmond IONS November 2020 Meeting

“Reimagining Our Lives in the Time of the Coronavirus.”

Our December 19, 2020 program will feature a discussion moderated by Tom Coates, our group’s only still-active original member and one of our most popular guest speakers. This is a continuation of Tom’s self-discovery series aimed at exploring the multidimensional aspects of human identity and every human’s search for his or her authentic Self.

2020 will be indelibly enshrined in our individual and collective memories as the year of the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. It will be for us what the plague year 430 B.C. was for Athens and 540 A.D. was for Constantinople, what the Black Death was for Europe between 1347 and 1365, what 1665 was for London, and what the so-called Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 was for the world a century ago.

Its cause, its origins, its effects and virtually everything else about it have been made all the more challenging, murky, mysterious and difficult to comprehend and manage due to its appearance at the onset of a presidential election year in the United States.

It’s also due to the many conflicting and politically charged streams of information now at our fingertips through our current variety of media outlets, especially social media. Everything about it seems an impenetrable enigma, as in Churchill’s famous 1939 quote about Stalin’s Russia, “It’s a riddle, wrapped in mystery, inside an enigma….”

At this point, almost all of us know someone, a family member or close friend, who has contracted Covid-19, and everyone’s lives have been deeply touched and/or dramatically affected by it. Tom will explore the history of earlier epidemics and pandemics in search of parallels between our experiences today and those of our forebears.

All in attendance will be invited to share and discuss their own experiences, perspectives or any special vignettes, angles or insights they may have on this subject, including the kinds of questions about the meanings and purposes of our lives events like the coronavirus pandemic force us to confront and closely examine.

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

About Tom Coates, Our Richmond IONS December 2020 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 or their Appalachian Mountains retreat. He still reports his most significant unfulfilled ambition of this lifetime is to make love to an extraterrestrial female, preferably of Pleiadean or Sirian origin.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

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 be included in 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.

Please share your thoughts and any feedback by leaving a comment below:

Richmond IONS November 2020 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS November 2020 Meeting (November. 21) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Charlie Kouns.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, November 21, 2020, 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.

Richmond IONS November 2020 Meeting

“Imagining Learning − Youthful Visions for a New World.”

Our November 21, 2020 program will feature a talk by Charlie Kouns, co-founder of Butterfly Farm Sanctuary, near Ashville, NC.

Vladimir Megrè, in his 9-volume Ringing Cedars series, made famous the experimental school at the village of Tekos, in southwestern Russia near the Black Sea, founded by educational visionary Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin in 1994.

The school embodies a revolutionary approach to education in a free-flowing, creative student-driven style which upends traditional pedagogical structures in which, by all accounts, has produced results beyond the wildest dreams of most educators.

Charlie Kouns, an American educational visionary in his own right, set out in 2007 on a personal quest to explore ways our approaches to education, especially at the secondary level (K-12), might be improved.

There are few invitations being extended to young people to participate in the examination, visioning and crafting of a new public educational offering in the United States. With high dropout rates, low engagement, walk-outs and protests, students are expressing a high degree of anger and frustration with education as it currently stands.

For eight years, Charlie Kouns travelled the United States, gathering teens together into Listening Sessions – where they expressed a profound wisdom as to how they would reinvent education if given the chance to do it on their own. These sessions ended with the presentation of their visions in 4×6 foot paintings.

The clarity, insightfulness and consistency of their visions was powerful and moving. Charlie will be presenting – for the first time – the collective voice of what was shared in these sessions. He will share the origin of this effort, the process, some of the paintings and the themes from their collective voice.

About Charles Kouns, Our Richmond IONS November 2020 Meeting Presenter:

Throughout most of his professional career, Charles Kouns has been in positions of listening and helping others hear what it is they have said to learn and transform. His skills as a facilitator and convener of open and authentic spaces into which others can safely speak their feelings, ideas and deep truths have long been recognized and appreciated.

As an educator for many years, primarily in the Richmond area, he taught young people from middle school all the way to graduate school. He also had a 15-year career in leadership in advertising and public relations both for corporations and advertising agencies, even running his own for more than seven years.

During this time, he helped establish working environments that were open and supportive, thus empowering the people he led to excel through
self-responsibility, cooperation and freedom to take initiative. In 2007, he founded and has led Imagining Learning, a national research initiative to discover how young people would transform education without the influence of adult voices.

Through creative, art-based Listening Sessions that he has led across the United States, Charlie has worked to create a national collective voice of young people’s wisdom about education, as they are underrepresented in the public discussion about change in education.

Currently, he walks arm in arm with his beloved partner Stella and his other beloved partner Mother Nature, at Butterfly Farm Sanctuary, a 22-acre spiritual retreat center they co-founded, nestled in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina, near Asheville.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

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 be included in 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.

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Richmond IONS October 2020 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS October 2020 Meeting (October. 17) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Debra Diamond, Ph.D.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, October 17, 2020, 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.

Richmond IONS October 2020 Meeting

“What Really Happens in the Afterlife?”

Our October 17, 2020 program will feature a talk by Debra Diamond, Ph.D. She is a renowned Baltimore psychic, medium, author and death doula. Debra will speak about her book Diary of a Death Doula: 25 Lessons the Dying Teach Us About the Afterlife (2019).

Sooner or later, everyone eventually asks questions about end of life. What happens to me when my physical body dies? Is there an afterlife? If so, where do I go? Do my loved ones meet me? Will they usher me to the next plane of existence?

Based on Debra’s work as a death doula and medium, she will provide us with practical insights into how to deal with someone who is dying and a better understanding for communication and acceptance at end of life and death.

She will explain how our loved ones in spirit are present at end of life and how our energy fields and chakras transform at end of life. In addressing these issues, Debra will explain how consciousness transforms at end of life and death.

A New Understanding of Death

Debra will provide us with a new understanding of death, not as an end as so many believe, but as a doorway and transition into the next leg of our soul’s journey, and as an opportunity for transformation, both personally and collectively.

Thoughtful, compelling and engaging, Debra’s Diary of a Death Doula offers fascinating and profound new insights into the soul’s journey at end of life and in the afterlife. As a gifted psychic and medium, Debra brings a unique perspective to her volunteer work as a death doula at a hospice facility. She is able to participate in remarkable ways with her subjects in their transitional and transformational journeys into the afterlife.

We first met Debra in May of 2016, when she addressed our group about her then just published first book, Life After Near Death. Her Diary talk promises to be another rare treat for our group. We are very pleased to have her back for a return engagement.

About Debra Diamond, Ph.D., Our Richmond IONS October 2020 Meeting Presenter:

Debra Diamond, Ph.D., is a gifted intuitive, channel, medium, psychic, healer, death doula and author (Life After Near Death: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Transformation in the Extraordinary Lives of People with Newfound Powers and Diary of a Death Doula: 25 Lessons the Dying Teach Us About the Afterlife).

She lectures, presents workshops and works with clients individually to assist in healing and expansion to enable them to live richer, fuller and more abundant lives.

Debra is certified in Reiki, a graduate of the Holistic Studies Institute of New York, has completed mediumship training at the Arthur Findlay College in the UK and has trained at the Carl Jung Institute in Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland. In addition, she has studied in Bali, trained in shamanism and worked with spiritual teachers in Colorado, New Mexico and Cassadaga, Florida.

In her previous life on Wall Street, Debra often appeared on CNBC,
hosted her own radio show on CNN, was profiled in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post. She was also a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Diamond provides readings and consultations and is dedicated
to the empowerment of her clients. Her website is www.DebraDiamondAuthor.com.

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Richmond IONS September 2020 Meeting on Zoom

Richmond IONS September 2020 Meeting (September. 19) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Dr. Nelson Marquina.

Where/When: Online only, through ZOOM, on Saturday, September 19, 2020, 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 password for each ZOOM event.

Also, if the meeting is coming up right away, the webmaster will send you the instructions and the password directly.

Richmond IONS September 2020 Meeting

“EMF Update – 5G and Beyond.”

Our September 19, 2020 program will feature a talk by Nelson Marquina, MSc, PhD, DC, President, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of USA Laser Biotech, Inc.

Dr. Nelson Marquina is one of our most popular and frequently requested guest speakers, and for good reason. Always on the cutting edge of technology, Nelson is a developer of photonic and bioelectromagnetic systems and treatment protocols. He has spent much of his professional life investigating and researching both the beneficial and the adverse health effects of modern technology.

He has also been developing strategies and techniques for enhancing beneficial effects while diminishing or avoiding adverse effects. Such pursuits often bring us face-to-face with what philosophers call the mind-body problem − Is our human experience a result of just evolutionary brain chemistry or a bit more than that?

In addressing this, Nelson will explore how EMF, including 5G, affect our nervous and endocrine systems, and their influences on our physical and mental health, our emotions and our spiritual experiences. Nelson assures us we will not need a background in physics to understand the profound implications of these influences.

He also promises to keep physics and mathematics formulas to a minimum. He does offer one cautionary note, that some of the questions about the nature of the self and our perceived nature of reality he will explore may have unsettling implications.

He will present examples of how EMF can promote health and also can cause brain aging, memory loss and dementia, and offer practical measures we can take to protect ourselves and our family members. We are extremely pleased Nelson is willing to take time from his busy professional schedule to address our group once again.

About Dr. Nelson Marquina, Our Richmond IONS September 2020 Meeting Presenter

Dr. Nelson Marquina was born in Perú and now lives in Richmond, where he is the Chief Technology officer of Laser Biotech International. His early exposures to shamans in the Peruvian Andes influenced his view of the world and his later interests in biophysics, psychology, and healthcare.

He earned a Master of Science in mathematical statistics from Worcester Polytechnical Institute and doctoral degrees in systems engineering from the University of Houston and in chiropractic medicine from Logan University.

He also extensively trained in the US and in Japan in acupuncture and energetic medicine, which qualified him to be certified by the Virginia Board of Medicine in Asian Meridian therapy, and Korean and Japanese acupuncture.

Nelson is a former Senior Scientist at NASA/Johnson Space Center and he has served on the faculties of the University of Houston in Systems Engineering, Virginia State University in Biophysics, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Minnesota in Electrical Engineering, and at Logan University as the director of research.

He also held engineering and management positions with GE, Honeywell and Lockheed Electronics in research and development in US
government and NASA related projects. He has conducted seminars in technical and healthcare areas across the US and in countries such as
Japan, China, Australia, Perú, Argentina, and Canada. His website is www.laserbiotech.com.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

Central VA IONS is not associated with any religion, religious organization, doctrine or set of beliefs or practices and is open to all. Central VA IONS is entirely dependent upon voluntary donations of its members and friends to support its programs, mailings and other costs.

A love offering is requested at each meeting from those attending who are not dues paying members. Central VA IONS meetings are held each month at locations announced in its program notices and are open to all. Our website is at richmondions.com.

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