tom coates Archives - Richmond IONS

Richmond IONS January 2024 Meeting

Richmond IONS January 2024 Meeting (January 20) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Thomas Coates and a celebration of our group’s 28th Anniversary.

Where: In person and online. 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, November 18, 2023, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, with a Potluck Lunch at the conclusion of the program. Also remember our FREE BOOK EXCHANGE. Bring books you’re done with to our meeting and take home all you like.

Richmond IONS January 2024 Meeting

“The Evolution of God in Human Consciousness and Implications for Humanity.”

Ideas about God or Gods have evolved substantially during the course of the current cycle of human history, which began roughly 6,500 years ago. Traditional indigenous cultures were more organically aligned with their natural surroundings than we are today.

They were animistic in their orientation and connected with spirits everywhere, which most often were mediated by tribal shamans. We are taught to believe that animistic/shamanic belief systems and practices later evolved into polytheistic religious belief systems, as illustrated by the various pantheons of gods of cultures throughout the ancient and
“classical” world, including the cultures of India, Babylon, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and many others.

We are also taught that starting between three and four thousand years ago, the Hebrews (later to become known as Jews) began developing the concept of monotheism, quite a novel idea at the time, and that it eventually gave birth to the two great monotheistic religions of Christianity and Islam, whose combined followers today comprise more than half the world’s population. There are many misconceptions about this which we will explore.

Notwithstanding humanity’s so-called evolutionary advances with respect to notions of God, the state of our modern world makes two matters crystal clear: First, the planet-wide chaos, conflict and environmental degradation we continue to experience is directly related to our conflicted concepts of God.

Second, in order to resolve such problems going forward, our concepts of God will have to evolve further still – from ideas which foster separation (among us as humans, between us and our environment, and between us and God) to one which fosters Unity with all-that-is.

This talk will build on the talk given in May 2023 by Robert Bushman (entitled “Who Is God? A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament”), and will offer suggestions about where we may go from here to initiate this next evolutionary leap in our consciousness, in order to save both ourselves and our environment.

About Tom Coates, our Richmond IONS January 2024 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 Colombian Andes Mountains retreat. He now is looking forward to undertaking a new role as an ambassador for Earth in the Galactic Federation.

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

Spiritual Practice Series August 2023

Spiritual Practice Series August 2023, , Tom Coates Our 9th installment of our Spiritual Practice Series will be held on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, and will feature a talk by Tom Coates. The talk will be entitled, “Letting go of Limiting Beliefs.”

This program is part of our new partnership with Sanctuary of Earth, Inc. These are on ZOOM only, which will offer live presentations focused primarily on spiritual practices (and referred to as “Spiritual Practice Series”).

This series is held on the first Wednesday of each month (except for July) from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., Eastern Time, and from 4:00 p.m. until 5:30 p.m., Pacific Time.

To join us, please click on https://zoom.us/join The Meeting I.D for ZOOM is 814 7835 9729, and the Passcode is Earthlove.

Please note this is a different Zoom link, Meeting ID, and Passcode than what we use for our third-Saturday-of-the-month meetings.

So there will be no confusion, please note that this new ZOOM-only speaker series is in addition to our traditional third-Saturday-of-the-month meetings, which are both in-person and online via ZOOM and include a potluck lunch.

Spiritual Practice Series August 2023, Description:

There is only one consciousness in Creation, and each of us is a unique aspect and divine spark of this all-encompassing whole.

The more fully we can know, integrate and embody this one truth or truth of oneness, the more fully we can recognize, engage with, and activate the Source of Creation, which lies hidden in plain sight within us.

The greatest impediments which deny us access to this divine self-realization are limiting beliefs – beliefs imposed on us from the moment of our conception from every quarter on Earth – parents, family, friends, society, education, culture, religion, governments, laws, and indeed ourselves.

These beliefs are designed to control, manipulate, separate, demean, diminish and limit us by causing us to believe, among other things, that we are far less than what we truly are.

This talk will focus on practices aimed at recognizing what some of those limiting beliefs are and the insidious holds they have upon us, on developing strategies for letting them go and expelling them, and on awakening to our inner divinity.

Tom Coates Bio:

Meeting info:

Spiritual Practice Series August 2023, Wednesday, August 2, 2023, 7:00-8:30 pm ET (4:00 – 5:30 pm PT). Join us at zoom.us/join, Meeting ID: 814 7835 9729, Passcode: Earthlove).

Cost: Suggested donation of $10 or more to https://www.SanctuaryOfEarth.org/donate

For more information:

See SanctuaryOfEarth.org, richmondions.com, or email Susanna Calvert at SusannaCalvert@gmail.com

Richmond IONS December 2021 Meeting

Richmond 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

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:

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 Meeting 2019

Richmond IONS December Meeting 2019 (December 14) and Central Virginia IONS Community Group Meeting. It will feature a talk by Tom Coates and music by Dan O’Neal.

Where: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New Parish Hall, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238

When: Saturday, December 14, 2019, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by a potluck lunch at the conclusion of the program.

Richmond IONS December Meeting Program

“Another Day at the Amusement Park.”

Our December 14, 2019 program will feature a talk by Tom Coates, our group’s only still-active original member. He is one of our most popular guest speakers. Dan O’Neal will provide live music. This is a continuation of Tom’s Self-discovery series aimed at exploring the multidimensional facets of human identity and every human’s search for his or her authentic Self.

The Dalai Lama has often identified Mao Tse Tung (nka Mao Zedong) as his “greatest spiritual teacher.” This is despite or perhaps due to the fact that the Communist Chinese, at Chairman Mao’s direction, invaded and annexed his native Tibet in 1950. They eventually forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India in 1959 and spend the rest of his life as a refugee in exile.

In this year’s installment of his search for Self series, Tom will examine a variety of social, cultural, political, religious, spiritual and other currents and themes, in an effort to determine how they may influence and shape our ideas, our beliefs, our behaviors, our experiences, our lives, our world and our reality.

Tom also will explore how the personal/individual and sociocultural/collective metaphors we choose to describe, define, conceptualize and contextualize our lives will either have the effect of expanding and enhancing our experience, our lives and ultimately our spiritual growth and evolution, or have the opposite effect – of contracting and limiting our experience and our lives; and stories – some farfetched, some miraculous, some disturbing – illustrating these points will be shared.

An open-mic discussion

Tom will conclude the program with an open-mic discussion of our group, its meaning and significance to its members, the larger community and the world at large, We’ll explore some of the challenges and opportunities we face as a group.

The meeting will also include an experiential meditation exercise. It will create a space within which each of us can personally access and experience new and deeper layers of meaning about who we are and the purposes of our lives at levels which surpass and transcend our rational, intellectual understanding.

This promises to be another blockbuster program. It will be a fitting way to conclude our group’s twenty-fourth year and usher in its twenty-fifth. As always, Tom promises some secrets known only to a few will be revealed. Another not-to-be-missed program for all who can attend! See you there!

About Tom Coates, Our Richmond IONS December 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 he 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 that his most significant unfulfilled ambition of this lifetime is to make
love to an extraterrestrial female, preferably of Pleiadean or Sirian origin.

About Richmond IONS AKA Central VA IONS Community Group:

To find out more about Central VA IONS Community Group (Richmond IONS), please CLICK HERE.

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 “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 Meeting, 12/15/2018

Richmond IONS Meeting December Tom Coates Richmond IONS December Meeting, and Central VA IONS Community Group Meeting will feature a talk by Tom Coates + music by Dan O’Neal

NEW LOCATION!

Where: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New Parish Hall, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238

When: Saturday, December 15, 2018, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. A potluck lunch will follow at the conclusion of the program.

Richmond IONS December Meeting Program:

“Choosing and Taking Responsibility for Your Life.”

Our program at our Richmond IONS December Meeting will feature a talk by Tom Coates. Tom is our group’s only still-active original member and one of our most popular guest speakers. Dan O’Neal will provide the music.

This is a continuation of Tom’s Self-Discovery series aimed at exploring the multidimensional facets of human identity and every human’s search for his or her authentic Self.

The Human Potential Movement And How It Has Affected Us

The Human Potential Movement had its origins in the 1960s, and was predicated on the hypothesis that our potential far exceeds our limiting beliefs about what is possible.

Its theme was that as sentient beings imbued with free will we can choose to awaken from our slumber and expand our consciousness, our awareness, our horizons, our capabilities and our potentials in every way we can imagine. And in doing so, we can free ourselves from limitations we previously took for granted and assumed were immutable.

The movement began 50+ years ago. In the meantime, it has been enhanced by parallel streams of information. In addition, it has included avenues of spiritual awakenings from a great variety of sources. These include channeled teachings, NDEs, OBEs, meditation, and more.

Breakthroughs in Science and Medicine

Moreover, they also include breakthroughs in science, medicine, and healthcare. These have mapped the human genome and extended life expectancies.

Tom will explore how these pathways have had the effect of awakening us to greater capacities for realizing who we are at ever deeper levels of our own being. They have also led us to accepting and taking ever greater degrees of responsibility for our lives, our destinies and our development of mind, body, and spirit.

In addition, Tom will also explore how these spiritual pathways are now converging with a host of new scientific discoveries. They indicate that the shifts occurring are not merely developmental but evolutionary in character. Also, the pace of human evolution is quickening precisely as the Mayan Calendar predicts.

As with earlier installments, the goal of this talk will be to enable everyone there to penetrate even more deeply into the mystery of his or her own authentic Self at its deepest levels.

This promises to be another blockbuster program. It will also be a fitting way to conclude our group’s twenty-third year and usher in its twenty-fourth. As always, Tom promises some secrets known only to a few will be revealed.

This is a not-to-be-missed program for all who can attend. See you there!

About Tom Coates, Our Richmond IONS December 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. Tom has been a member and contributor of the Richmond IONS chapter since its formation in early 1996.

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.

Recordings of Tom’s Presentation & Supplement:

Click HERE for the recording of the meeting

Click HERE for the recording of Tom’s additional comments

About Richmond IONS AKA Central VA IONS Community Group:

To find out more about Central VA IONS Community Group (Richmond IONS), please CLICK HERE.

About Our Richmond IONS Facebook Page:

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

Upcoming Richmond IONS Meetings:

To find out about our upcoming meetings, please CLICK HERE.

To be included in our mailing list, please click the “Contact” button at the top right of this page and send us a message.

To share your thoughts and any feedback, please leave a comment below:

Central VA IONS Group Meeting December 16, 2017

Featuring a talk by Tom Coates + music by Dan O’Neal

Where/When: River Road Church – Baptist, 8000 River Road (NW corner of River and Ridge Roads)

When: Saturday, December 16, 2017, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, followed by potluck lunch at conclusion of program.

Central Virginia IONS Community Group Program Title:

“Avatars & Other Life Memories, a Longer View”

Our December 16, 2017 program will feature a talk by Tom Coates, our group’s only still-active original member and one of our most popular guest speakers, with music by Dan O’Neal. This is a continuation of Tom’s Self-discovery series aimed at exploring the
multidimensional facets of human identity and every human’s search for his or her authentic Self.

This year’s talk will include a brief review of some of the channeled teachings of the Ra Group and the Michael Group discussed in December 2016, and examine the correspondence between those teachings and some of the latest scientific thinking.

Tom also will explore in some depth the phenomena of memories of other lifetimes ranging from very recent to, in some instances, lifetimes reaching back thousands of years or longer.

In recent months we have been treated to fascinating talks on past lives by Jim Tucker, M.D. (August 2017) and Joanne DiMaggio (October 2017), both of which were focused almost entirely on immediate or relatively recent past lives. Tom’s focus will be on recurring themes played out in multiple lives over long spans of time.

These recurrent themes have the capacity to surprise us in a multitude of ways, and reconnect us with others whose souls we have collaborated with repeatedly in incarnate form over eons. Two layers of such soul reunions Tom has encountered in his own life will be shared to illustrate this point.

This program also will include an exploration of what happens when we die, drawn both from Tom’s own memories and experiences and from communications and contacts with departed loved ones. The goal of this talk will be to enable everyone there to pierce ever more deeply into the mystery of his or her own authentic Self at its deepest levels.

This promises to be another blockbuster program and a fitting way to conclude our group’s twenty-second year and usher in its twenty-third. As always, Tom promises some secrets known only to a few will be revealed.

About Tom Coates, Our Richmond IONS Presenter:

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 that his most significant unfulfilled ambition of this lifetime is to make love with an extraterrestrial female, preferably of Pleiadean or Sirian origin.

About Central VA IONS Community Group:

To find out more about Central VA IONS Community Group (Richmond IONS), please CLICK HERE.

To find out about our upcoming meetings, see below for our January event with Eben Alexander…

and please CLICK HERE

Richmond IONS Meeting, December 12, 2015

Featuring a Talk by Tom Coates

“Peeling Away Layers of the Onion – Soul Stories Lost and Found.”

Our December 12 program will feature a talk by Tom Coates, our group’s only still-active original member. His talk will mark the 240th monthly program of our Richmond area IONS Community Group and pave the way for our 20th anniversary celebration in January 2016. Music will be provided by Dan O’Neal.

Tom’s theme will be “multidimensional explorations into who we are, what we are doing here, and how we create and manifest the world we want.”

As his program title suggests, Tom will use what he refers to as “soul stories,” drawn from his own experience and from his lifelong fascination with and study of the human soul, to inform the subject. And, in keeping with the season, those stories also will include a unique rendering of the life of Jesus and the soul which gave rise to his remarkable life, gleaned from many years of channeling inquiries and guidance.

This is a version of the Jesus story no one is likely to have heard before and underscores that his life was even more extraordinary than commonly believed.

We live in a period of intense transition, one in which many of our most long-held and cherished assumptions about ourselves and our world are being swept away, and one in which it often seems the only constant is rapid, unrelenting, unexpected, unforeseeable, dramatic change.

To help ground us and get us through this topsy-turvy cycle, the program will conclude with a group exercise designed to assist all present to rediscover, reawaken and reconnect with their Authentic Self, the true identity hidden within each of us, and to integrate and sustain that Self through and beyond this sea of change in which we are now immersed. As always, Tom promises some secrets known only to a few will be revealed.

About Our Presenter:

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.

Richmond IONS Meeting, December 13, 2014

Featuring a discussion moderated by Tom Coates

“Tao to Earth – Remembering and Reclaiming Your True Identity.”

Our December 13 program will feature a discussion led by Tom Coates aimed at exploring some of the many layers of the concept of identity, of who and what we are, and the multitude of ways in which expanding our concepts of identity will expand our horizons, open us to new opportunities and give greater meaning to our lives, while limiting and restricting those concepts will have exactly the opposite effect.

We all have traits or characteristics by which we seek to identify ourselves or others. These commonly include such factors as species (humanoid, reptilian, avian, insectisoid, aquatic, etc.), age/life stage (infant, young, old, middle aged, etc.), racial (caucasian, mongoloid, negroid, etc.), physical (height, weight, eye color, hair color, skin color, etc.), sexual (female, male, hermaphroditic, transgender, etc.), familial/tribal/ethnic (family, lineage, tribe, clan, ethnic group, etc.).

In addition, they include factors such as linguistic (English, French, Chinese, Swahili, etc.), political, nationalistic, geographic, ideological (American, Canadian, liberal, conservative, capitalist/communist, etc.), religious and philosophical beliefs/belief systems and affiliations (Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, etc.).

Then, there are factors including the following: socio-economic (rich/poor, haves/have-nots, royalty, nobility, aristocracy, peasants, untouchables, slaves, etc.), vocational, educational (unskilled laborers, tradesman, geeks, professionals, scientists, bankers, etc.), behavioral (smokers, nonsmokers, drinkers, teetotalers, meat eaters, vegetarians, etc.), and others.

As our culture encourages, we most often identify ourselves and others through a combination of factors like these. The key element of every identifying factor is that it separates us (or any other to whom we apply it) from those who do not have or share it while simultaneously connecting us with those who do.

This is our present identity paradigm, but its reach, though compelling, is superficial, and fails to provide us significant insight or understanding about who and what we truly are at the deeper levels of our being.

The goal of this program will be to penetrate beyond those outer layers and to discover, awaken, connect with and integrate our Authentic Self, the true identity that lies hidden within each of us. As always, Tom promises that some secrets known only to a few will be revealed.