Where We
Are...
At it's heart the community movement is about sharing stories
and creating new stories. These stories help us move forward in
respectful, pragmatic motions. In a troubled world or physical
body, community can be a transformational antidote. It supports
us in making person-by-person shifts that are healing to the individual,
society, and the whole of humanity. Surf this site and the links
off this doorway to get a full perspective of the real-time story
of community transformation. You will be amazed at what is happening
all around us. The bridge to the future story is already in the
making and ours for the shaping.
Stories
Help Us Heal
It is important to tell stories, and equally important
that these stories be heard. As the Native American teacher Black
Elk said, "I am going to tell you the story of my life... and
if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell
it." Stories evoke the power of experience. They remind us
that unknown forces are at work in each and every one of us, no
matter how ordinary we may appear to be. They remind us that no
one gets by with a perfect, unscarred life, and now and then,
everyone shines with the divine. Stories inform us of resources
we otherwise would not know to look for. They tell us that, however
the details differ, we all feel the same emotions. This reminds
us that we are not alone in our own private soup, that we all
belong to the same human family.
Stories connect us one to another. They provide
pathways and solutions. They give us courage. Cultural anthropologist
and teacher Joan Halifax writes, "Stories are medicine because
they teach us about and prepare us for the experience of change.
Through the story, we connect to a more realistic vision of who
we really are."
Throughout this website, many healing stories are shared so they
may serve to inform, inspire, or guide you. They are shared in
the spirit of transformational community. It is our stories that
provide the "spiritual glue" that holds this virtual community
together.
Let me tell you the story of how this community, The Institute
for Authentic Process Healing, came about.
The Birthing
of a Community
The main reason for healing is love.
- Paracelsus
The Institute for Authentic Process Healing (IAPH) had a natural
birthing process. It is the offspring of The Institute for Staged
Recovery (ISR). I was a cofounder of ISR in 1995 and had the pleasure
of helping to bring it into the world. After six years of building
and participating in its groups and workshops a core group of
25 volunteers wanted to go further. We realized that the potential
we had tapped into was larger than imagined. We were receiving
hundreds of emails from people looking for help with their serious
life challenges and we could not adequately respond to them. We
met on January 29, 2000, to envision how the IAPH and this website
could better meet this need.
From that meeting came the intention to give away
what we had been learning. This rose from one of "the fruits of
the tree" in the advanced healing of Staged Recovery, to be of
"Service to Others" and "Give Back to the Universe." We met bi-weekly
in a wisdom circle format to continue creating community and planning
how to make theinstitute.org all it could possibly be.
The creation of a nonprofit entity and this website were our first
projects. The nonprofit foundation was charted by New York State
in August, 2000, with IRS status approved in December, 2000 and
the website went online in May, 2001 (its official public unveiling
date is September 10, 2001).
Please accept it as a gift of unconditional love.
We are a community because we share a belief in Authentic Process
Healing and the experience of its profound effect in our lives.
With this opportunity to expand our world, we invite all of you
who want to explore and heal with us to do so in virtual community.
This whole website was developed via the internet. Aside from
our biweekly meetings, the writing, editing, research and design
have been done in cyberspace.
If what we are sharing resonates with you we encourage you to
join our community and share it with those you love. The more
of us uniting around these ideas, along with other "Cultural Creatives"
(see link), the more we are able to positively influence the global
mind. According to Peter Russell, the internet is the first conscious
manifestation of an unencumbered global mind and force. Let's
do it consciously, creatively, and respectfully.
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