Join Us For Prayer Circle at Its New Day & Time ~ Tuesday, 10pm ET

August 19, 2018 By Regina Dawn Akers

Live Prayer Circle by Awakening Together

Led by Rev. Carrie Rae Christiansen
Each Tuesday, 10 pm ET,
Directly Following Gentle Healing

Submit a prayer request for prayer circle
(Please submit requests by 2pm ET on Tuesday.)

NTI Philippians says, “‘I pray for you’ means, I know who you are, and I know who I am, and I know what we are together. ‘I pray for you’ means, I know we are not separate, but connected through God, which is mind and spirit. ‘I pray for you’ means, I recognize our oneness, and I recognize that as I ask for you, I too shall receive. ‘I pray for you’ is a statement of faith that all you see and sense and experience is not all there is. It is a statement of realization that effect is the result of intent, and intent can be affected by you.”

Compassion is realizing the answer is present even though the one with a prayer request may not sense the answer. Our role in response to a prayer request is to be silent in love, not denying the experience of form and not seeing it as reality. As we hold this space, we speak to the universe in recognition of the call for help while also recognizing the loving universe is fully present.

Prayer circle is in harmony with Awakening Together’s fifth core value:

We accept all forms as temporary appearances permitted through enduring awareness of Self. We live this value by honoring all appearances and all experiences while continually reflecting on changeless truth.

Prayer circle is a concentrated opportunity to practice this core value.

You are invited to join us for Prayer Circle.

The Board of Directors Has Approved Our Purchase of a Retreat House in La Veta, Colorado

August 15, 2018 By Regina Dawn Akers

On Sunday, August 12, at the quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors, the Board approved our plan to purchase 807 E. Field Street as the Awakening Together Retreat House. The Board also approved a new Retreat House Policy.

Our scheduled close date is August 27. We still have two milestones between now and the close date, which are obtaining insurance and the bank appraisal.

We will continue to keep you informed of our progress towards acquiring a new retreat house.

Announcing August’s Movie Watcher’s Movie: “Peaceful Warrior”

August 14, 2018 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Join us for our next Movie Watcher’s Group on Sunday, August 26 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT.

This month, we will revisit a movie we have seen before, “Peaceful Warrior.” Dan Millman is a gifted young athlete bound for Olympic gold who will do anything to be the best. Driven by success, Dan has got it all: trophies, fast motorcycles, fast girls, and wild parties. But Dan’s world is turned upside down when he meets a mysterious stranger in a gas station who holds the power to tap into new worlds of strength and understanding. The young man discovers that he has much to learn and even more to leave behind in order to master this new vision of greatness.

As you watch the movie, watch for themes we have been examining in our Gentle Healing Group.

In addition, you can find the movie playsheet, at this link: Peaceful Warrior Playsheet. Review the playsheet prior to watching the movie as it provides helpful questions designed to facilitate a spirit centered movie watching experience.

Most importantly, remember to ask for Guidance prior to watching the movie and bring your insights to the Movie Watcher’s Discussion Group.

The movie is available to rent on Amazon, Vudu, Itunes and YouTube.

Join us for our Monthly Satsang with Dean Sluyter, Sunday, August 19, 7:30 – 9 pm ET (4:30 – 6 pm PST)

August 12, 2018 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert interviews Dean Sluyter in a pre-recorded Satsang.

Dean Sluyter (pronounced “slighter”) has taught natural methods of meditation and awakening since 1970. His five highly acclaimed books include Natural Meditation (Amazon #1 stress management bestseller, and Nautilus Gold Medal winner for best mind-body-spirit book) and Fear Less: Living Beyond Fear, Anxiety, Anger, and Addiction. Dean gives talks, workshops, and retreats throughout the United States and beyond, from Ivy League colleges to maximum-security prisons. His media appearances have included National Public Radio, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Coast to Coast AM, The Dr. Oz Show, and O, The Oprah Magazine.

A grateful student of Eastern and Western sages in several traditions, Dean has completed numerous pilgrimages and retreats in India, Tibet, Nepal, and the West. He is known for conveying authentic teachings in forms that are relaxed, accessible, and down-to-earth. When not writing or teaching, he narrates audiobooks, makes music, and happily tools around town on his Vespa.

Dean’s Website: FearLessBook.net

Dean’s Books:

Results of the Trustee Election

August 7, 2018 By Regina Dawn Akers

Thank you for voting in this year’s Awakening Together Member Board of Trustees Election.

Your new Trustees, in alphabetical order, are:

Anne Blanchard

Carrie Christiansen

Kathy Smith

Congratulations to each of the newly elected Trustees.

They will begin their service on Monday, September 17.

A special thank you to Meg Reinhart for her willingness to serve.

Starting in August, the Sanctuary is Closed on Mondays

August 1, 2018 By Regina Dawn Akers

The Awakening Together Sanctuary has new hours of operation. Starting in August, our hours are:

Sunday: 9:15am ET – 10:30pm ET
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 9am-10:30am ET, and
6:45pm ET – 11:30pm ET
Wednesday: 11:15am ET – 11:30pm ET
Thursday: Closed
Friday: Closed
Saturday: Closed

Our Sanctuary hours change from time-to-time, because of changes in how the Sanctuary is used. We decided to close on Mondays, because very few people came into the Sanctuary on Monday. Also, there were unfilled slots in the Monday schedule.

In the future, if there is a new teaching or group that interests our members, we may open the Sanctuary on a day or evening that will accommodate that. For example, since earlier this year, the Sanctuary is open on Tuesday mornings to accommodate a second Gentle Healing Group.

We can expect the Sanctuary hours to change from time-to-time as we serve the spiritual interests of our members.

Awakening Together is Under Contract to Buy a Retreat House in La Veta, Colorado

July 23, 2018 By Regina Dawn Akers

Norma Clarke (AT Vice Chairman of the Board), Lisa Hester (AT Treasurer), Jacquelyn Eckert (AT Vice President-Minister) and Regina Dawn Akers (AT President-Minister) toured 807 E. Field Street with a realtor in June. They agreed it would be a good starter retreat house for Awakening Together.

We made an offer on that house on Tuesday of this past week. The seller counter-offered on Thursday. We countered that offer, and the seller accepted our counter on Saturday. Interestingly, we were informed of the seller’s acceptance on July 21, 2018, which is Awakening Together’s 5-year anniversary. We “opened our doors” with our first gathering on July 21, 2013.

Thank you to the members who agreed to donate so that we could purchase this house. Since our special member meeting on July 1, we have raised $32,000 dollars thanks to your generosity.

Our scheduled close date is August 27, 2018. There are still steps to take before we are able to close on the sale of the house, including approval from Awakening Together’s Board of Directors. We will keep you informed as we move forward in this process.

See a video of the house and surrounding area

True Discernment Begins August 9, 2018

July 20, 2018 By Jacquelyn Eckert

True Discernment is an 11-week class that significantly enhances spiritual discernment. The purpose of True Discernment is to help participants become absolutely clear regarding:

How ideas about self can hinder and help during the awakening process.
How giving meaning produces both time and the sense of self.
The usefulness of the following tools: journaling, contemplation, and spiritual aspirations.
Inquiry practices that are helpful on the path of awakening.
How inquiry practices expose false beliefs.
A primary obstacle that can block the helpfulness of inquiry.
The difference between dishonest and proper use of denial.
Blocks to absolute love, natural compassion and guiding intuition.
How to practice forgiveness, hear/intuit inner wisdom and allow the miracle of grace.
The difference between analysis and inquiry, between beliefs and truth, and between purification and repression.

Thursday afternoons, 1:00pm-3:00pm ET, August 9 – October 18, 2018

Cost for this 11-week course is $220.
A workbook and over 30 audios are provided to all class participants.

Click here to register

Learn more about True Discernment

Introducing the Nominees for the Member Board of Trustees

July 20, 2018 By Jacquelyn Eckert

The following members have been nominated for the Member Board of Trustees. Ballots will be sent to all members via email on Monday, July 23. To help you make a decision as to which candidate(s) to support, a list of nominees with a short biography for each appears below. In addition, please join us for our Member Meeting on Sunday, July 22 at 7pm ET in the Awakening Together Sanctuary Home, where each candidate will be given an opportunity to address the membership.

Nominees

Anne Blanchard

Anne grew up in a family where EST training was a part of daily life. Later in life, she began attending the Center for Conscious Living in Moorestown, New Jersey, where she began to refamiliarize herself with various New Thought and nondual teachings. Anne jumped into sincere and dedicated full time spiritual practice with both feet when she joined Awakening Together on an India Pilgrimage. Anne teaches regularly in the Awakening Together Sanctuary. In her weekly Wednesday program, Unfiltered, Anne shares her experience of purification and awakening, unfiltered and as it happens. Raw, reflective, brave, and infused with clarity, Anne’s open honesty inspires us all to dive deep into the spiritual journey instead of simply skimming the surface.

Carrie Christiansen

Carrie found Awakening Together online through direct guidance arising from a powerful desire to find the next stage in her spiritual development/awakening in the summer of ’13 when AT was in the early stages of becoming officially organized. She immediately recognized the beauty and clarity of the wisdom and intention the organization is based in and has been a devoted and grateful member since then. She began the MPP training as soon as it was offered and was ordained as an AT minister in Feb. of ’16. She is currently a member of the AT Board of Trustees, first elected in July of ’15, and has also taught in the sanctuary and facilitated the AT prayer circle since that time. She leads the Sunday Gathering in the AT Sanctuary on 5^th Sundays.

Horses have been her lifelong passion, profession and profoundly rich ground for both self and Self awareness. Her other great passion is teaching, both through horsemanship and spiritual classes. The MPP curriculum is very dear to her and there is really nothing she finds more delightful than spending time supporting and observing others in their awakening process. She teaches MPP online for AT, also in her equally beloved brick and mortar community The Center for Conscious living in Moorestown, NJ (suburban Philadelphia), and in prison at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia through the combined effort of AT and a wonderful prison ministry, Heart 2 Heart. And, as of this summer is now offering selected MPP classes to her Youth Horsemanship Intensive Program Students (HIPsters 😉 at their request! She understands her role in this lifetime as a “cross-pollinator”, combining many approaches to spirituality/Life, thereby contributing to the process of bringing different organizations, systems and individuals together for the growth and benefit of all.

Carrie’s initial awakening experience was facilitated via a “dark night” experience that led her to a solitary study of ACIM for some length of time in the early ’90s. It was a magnificent time of discovering clarity and learning to deeply rely upon inner wisdom for which she is profoundly grateful. Her subsequent spiritual journey has led her to many studies, and in addition to being an AT minister she is also a Religious Science Practitioner, and an ordained interfaith minister through One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in NYC. Besides being mindful in her life in general and keeping up with what she’s teaching, her current spiritual practice has been AT’s Gentle Healing Group since it’s inception.

Carrie is absolutely devoted and committed to being in service to the AT principles and membership, and to the continued growth and expansion of Awakening Together as an organization, which she feels strongly is high service to all.

Kathy Smith

Despite being raised Catholic, and trusting God was loving and real to at least some degree, He still seemed separate from me then. Our relationship was partially guilt-driven, rote, sometimes fear-filled, and mostly uninspiring, and ultimately stale.

I was introduced to ACIM in the late 80’s in Las Vegas. It threw me for a loop. I recognized truth within its pages in a way that was undeniable. Out went the Catholic Church and ACIM became my everyday singular focus, my Love, and its lessons my practice for over 25 years.

About six to nine months prior to A-T’s inception, a strong feeling or intuition came to put ACIM aside. I had been a little antsy with it. The prompt was like a ‘militant’ suggestion, an order, if you will, to put it aside. I wasn’t sure why. Later, I could see more clearly how my singular focus had slid into a fundamentalist ditch without my noticing so much. When I followed the prompt to lay it down, I felt a bit uncertain about what to do now. But I rested there anyway, just kind of patiently waiting. Nothing seems to move quickly on my spiritual path so far. I am a plodder it seems.

Months later, I attended a retreat in Santa Barbara that Regina was hosting. She announced the formation of A-T at this gathering. Instinctively I knew this was my answer. I love our core values. I love our MPP curriculum. I love our inclusivity, cooperation, companionship, caring, and commitment. Our values resonate of an openness that has helped me see beyond my own formerly closed borders. I am more open to everything now, intertwined with He as Me to Be free. Grateful for the shift and for all of us joined in common purpose. ❤️

Meg Reinhart

Meg has been inspired by the beyond-ness of this physical realm since she was a kid. From age 3 til 22, she was submerged in all things creative and expressive; from dance to painting, to Watts and Campbell and Jung, from writing studies to university, but she grew tired and wanted to find the IT that made those things TICK. And so the great curiosity of WHO AM I began! But after several years of an addictive fast decline to destroy the body, she found WHO AM I-NOT and was greeted with the potential of a physical death. She turned around to another voice, only to hear about a new kind of death: the one of the mind. Since 2013, she has been living a life that can be described as devotional: intentionally committed to transcend that which is unreal. Meg became an AT minister in 2018 and falls deeply in love with all teachings that come from truth a little more every day. She feels like she is just beginning this beautiful life of service and higher purpose. You can find her “things” @meg__ly on Instagram.

July 8 Update on Our Intention to Make an Offer on a Retreat House

July 8, 2018 By Regina Dawn Akers

On July 5, Ricky Tims announced that their new house at Yellowstone Creek Ranch survived the Spring Fire. That was great news for them, and it was the news we were waiting for. Now, we are taking steps toward making an offer on their other house on Field Street, next to Wahatoya Lake in La Veta.

Since our special member meeting on July 1, we have raised $3500 in additional donations for the Retreat House plus $20,850 in commitment letters. That totals $24,350 of our $37,000 goal.

We are currently in the process of communicating with the La Veta town government to get permission to have a retreat house within the city limits. We are also working with a bank to get approval for a mortgage loan. When we have both approval from the town and loan pre-qualification from the bank, we will be able to make an offer on the house.

If you would like to help us meet our fundraising goal of $37,000, please consider sending a commitment letter, which is a commitment to donate a specific amount when an offer is accepted.

Information About Commitment Letters

Fire Update: The Spring Fire has burnt 106,985 acres and is the third largest fire in Colorado history. However, the fire has slowed considerably and is now 55% contained. I visited La Veta yesterday and saw that although the burn scar is large, La Veta remains as beautiful as ever. None of the places I typically visit when I go to La Veta have been touched by the fire.

See the pictures I took in La Veta yesterday

Note: You will see the house in the 5th picture, which is labeled “View from Wahatoya Lake.” It is the brown house next to the lake.