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Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences

Winter 2007 Workshop Offerings

Greetings, and welcome to our November news update.

The Board of Directors of the Jungian Center held its annual meeting on October 24th, a gathering that celebrated the creation and initial year of operation of the Center. The Board took note of the hard work that went into the creation of the Center’s catalog, student and faculty handbooks, and the policy handbook. If you would like copies of any of these (aside from the catalog, which is available at the Center’s Web site), please contact us with your mailing address and we will be happy to send you these items.

We are now in the midst of planning the courses that will be offered at various locations around northern Vermont in the Winter term (January-April). We will be advertising these in Seven Days, as well as through flyers and posters in the Burlington, Waterbury and Montpelier areas.

If you live outside northern Vermont, please be aware that many of our courses can be taken via distance learning, and you don’t have to wait for us to formally advertise a course offering: If you are interested in any course listed on our Web site, please contact us to see if it is suitable for distance learning, and we will send you the particulars about signing up.

The following are SOME of the courses we will be running in the months ahead. We will update this list as faculty contact us with details of the courses and workshops they are planning to offer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winter 2007 Workshop Offerings

Sponsored by the Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences

INTRODUCTION TO DREAM WORK, Jan 6,14,20,27, 2-5PM, 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury VT; $50; Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Learn how to work with your dreams, connect to your inner life and empower yourself in a safe, supportive setting. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author, with over 30 years of experience in Jungian analysis, dreamwork and leading adult programs.

This four-week workshop explores the methods, experiences, and applications of dream work, drawing upon our historical and cultural heritage. A wide array of psychological theories underpinning the study of dreams is also included. Students are required to maintain a dream journal, and to attempt analysis of their own dreams and those of their classmates. Hands-on experience in dream interpretation is stressed.

INTRODUCTION TO TIBETAN BUDDHIST MEDITATION, Jan 13, 10-5, 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury; suggested contribution, $15; Info. call Sue, 802-244-7909 or Herb 802-223-6822. Learn the basics of this very powerful approach to meditation from an experienced student of Tibetan Buddhism. Led by Dr. Herb Propper, teacher and student of Lama Norlha, Rinpoche.

This one-day workshop provides participants with a variety of experiences drawn from the rich tradition of Tibetan meditation practices. Targeting anyone interested in exploring this form of meditation, it presumes no familiarity with Buddhism or experience with other types of meditation.

FINDING YOUR MISSION IN LIFE, Feb 3 & 17, Mar 10, 2-5PM, plus individual session, 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury VT; $75; Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Discover the unique way you are meant to make a difference in the world and open your life to joy, meaning and wonder. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

Every person alive has a unique soul mission, a special way he or she is meant to make a difference in the world. When we discover our purpose we open our lives to greater joy, meaning and wonder. Using techniques suggested by the holistic healer Edgar Cayce, students handle a variety of tools and instruments to determine their purpose for living. Besides learning ways to get intuitive guidance about personal mission, participants in this workshop also discover their personality type and assess their range of talents.

VISIONEERING, Jan 7, Feb 4, Mar 4, Apr 1, 2-5PM, in Burlington or Waterbury; $90. Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Learn a scientifically-based technology to harness the power of vision that allows you to create the future out of the future and move your life ahead. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

This workshop applies Bernoulli’s principle (the basis for all forms of aerodynamics) to the realm of personal life, to jump-start dreams and hopes we have for the future. Participants learn what vision is, the power it has, and how to use it in very practical, grounded ways, to bring about changes in their own lives. With over 30 exercises, and a modicum of readings, this 12-hour workshop runs over 4 months (meeting on one afternoon a month), to allow members the time to develop a vision, apply the principles and use the exercises to realize a dream. Topics include the 4 stages of the visioneering process; the laws and principles behind the process; visioncasting; requirements and implications of visioneering; incubating a vision; your personal situation, timing and potentials; synchronicities and other signs; the ask-seek-knock process and the use of the “positive pause.”

INTRODUCTION TO JUNG, Jan 10,17,24,31, 7-9PM, at 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury VT; $50. Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Get a basic overview of Jung, his thought & legacy, along with hands-on work; learn your type, your unique set of activated archetypes and more. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

A basic overview of Jung, the man, his thought, and his legacy to psychology and our world. As a primer on Jungiana, this course introduces key concepts in Jung’s thought, e.g. the shadow, the anima/animus, archetypes, the 4 functions, the 2 orientations, the personality types, the collective unconscious, the complex, compensation, enantiodromia, imagoes, individuation, introjection, libido, the night sea journey, the levels of the unconscious, projection, identification, the psyche, the Self, the self-regulation of the psyche, the meaning and value of symbols, the temenos, synchronicity, and the transcendent function. In addition, the course describes the major stages in the individuation process (like the mortificatio, the transitio, the coniunctio), and offers a portrait of the process of Jungian analysis. In the experiential component, participants gain hands-on experience doing dream interpretation, identifying their personality type, and discovering their unique set of activated archetypes. Highly recommended for all who plan to take courses in alchemy, archetypal psychology, field theory, the psychonaut’s journey, Jungian dream theory and practice, the Mysterium Coniunctionis, and the psychology of dreaming.

Other workshops now being planned:

Creative Writing with Soul II, led by Janet Schneider; a follow-up to the very popular initial course that ran in Fall 2006. Details will be posted in our next blog.

News Update from the Jungian Center - October 2006

In the last month, we’ve been busy in many parts of Vermont and well as other parts of the world, via our distance-learning option. In Montpelier, Herb Propper gave a Psychodrama workshop. In Burlington, Janet Schneider has been offering a creative writing course built around Jung’s thought. In Waterbury, Sue Mehrtens has offered an Introduction to Meditation course, and will be running a 4-week introductory course on Jungian thought in late October and early November. Current students are also requesting a course on dream work which we will probably be running in Waterbury. Contact us (244-7909) if you are interested in this introductory 4-week course.

Our faculty is expanding. In September, Christopher Sloane joined us. Chris has his bachelor’s degree in transpersonal psychology from Burlington College and is a mental health counselor as well as a group facilitator for a variety of organizations and groups. He will be offering courses in metaphysics, healing and psychology in the future (times and dates to be worked out). Sabina Evarts joined us in October. She will be teaching mandala drawing and soul work through creativity, as well as additional courses in the Via Physica and Via Practica. Sabina is a great networker and has put us in touch with several other potential faculty members. We welcome Chris and Sabina to our endeavor!

We are now in the process of planning the Winter term program. In the “News Update” for November we will post specifics of what the faculty would like to teach. If there are any courses or workshops that you would like offered, please let us know as soon as possible, and we will try to accommodate your request.

Upcoming Events at the Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences Late Summer/Early Fall

Despite the blisteringly hot summer weather (most unusual for Vermont‹but that may change, with global warming), we have been busy preparing a host of courses and workshops for the Fall (now just a few weeks away), interviewing new faculty, and working with newspaper ad reps and others to get the word out about who we are and what we do.
If this is your first visit to our blog, welcome! Please check out our Web site, if you haven¹t done so already. We update our site through this blog every month, and you will find here news of new faculty, upcoming courses and ideas about what the Center might do in the longer-term future.
If you have thoughts, hopes or dreams about how the Center might grow, and the services it might provide to the public (in line with our organizational mission and values), please let us know.

Upcoming Courses and Workshops

Here are some of the courses that are in the works for our Fall term, which begins on September 12th. The courses that can be taken via distance learning are marked with a *. More detailed descriptions of the content of these courses are at the end of this blog.

INTRODUCTION TO MEDITATION, 9/12,19,26, 10/3; 7-9PM at 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury VT; $50. Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Get a basic orientation to an essential practice of the spiritual journey; learn over a dozen techniques in this workshop that is more experiential than intellectual. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

*THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DREAMING, 9/13,20,27,10/4,11,18,25,11/1,8; 7 to 9PM, at
55 Clover Lane, Waterbury VT; $100. Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Learn the historical, cultural and theoretical underpinnings of dreams along with dream interpretation techniques. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

*INTRODUCTION TO JUNG, 9/14,21,28,10/5; 7-9PM, at 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury VT; $50. Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Get a basic overview of Jung, his thought & legacy, along with hands-on work; learn your type, your unique set of activated archetypes and more. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

PSYCHODRAMA & THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, 9/30, 12-4PM, 138 Main St., Montpelier; $50. Info, call Herb, 802-223-6822. Explore your personal connections to archetypes and discover how they can inform and enrich your life. Led by Dr. Herb Propper, certified psychodrama trainer and therapist.

*VISIONEERING, 9/18, 10/16, 11/13, and 1/8/07, 6:30-9PM at 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury VT; $90. Info, call Sue, 802-244-7909. Learn a scientifically-based technology to harness the power of vision that allows you to create the future out of the future and move your life ahead. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

New Faculty

Over the summer Janet Schneider has joined our faculty as a teacher of Jung-related creative projects. Janet is a poet, published author, student of herbalism and a devotee of Jungiana. She is currently creating a series of creative writing courses that she will be teaching for us in the coming months. We welcome Janet to the Center!
For those of you based in central Vermont who want to develop your creativity in an on-site format (that is, not via distance learning), we have another teacher of creativity based in Randolph, Carmella Cyr. For more information about Carmella¹s courses, you can contact her at (802) 728-4698; or 1781 Tatro Hill Road, Randolph.

Course Content in Detail:
tIntroduction to Jung: A basic overview of Jung, the man, his thought, and his legacy to psychology and our world. As a primer on Jungiana, this course introduces key concepts in Jung¹s thought, e.g. the shadow, the anima/animus, archetypes, the 4 functions, the 2 orientations, the personality types, the collective unconscious, the complex, compensation, enantiodromia, imagoes, individuation, introjection, libido, the night sea journey, the levels of the unconscious, projection, identification, the psyche, the Self, the self-regulation of the psyche, the meaning and value of symbols, the temenos, synchronicity, and the transcendent function. In addition, the course describes the major stages in the individuation process (like the mortificatio, the transitio, the coniunctio), and offers a portrait of the process of Jungian analysis. In the experiential component, participants gain hands-on experience doing dream interpretation, identifying their personality type, and discovering their unique set of activated archetypes. Highly recommended for all who plan to take courses in alchemy, archetypal psychology, field theory, the psychonaut¹s journey, Jungian dream theory and practice, the Mysterium Coniunctionis, and the psychology of dreaming.

tIntroduction to Meditation: This course provides a basic orientation to one of the most essential practices of the spiritual journey. Called ³receptive prayer,² ³contemplation,² ³sitting,² zazen, and ³the art of inner listening,² meditation offers manifold benefits to the spiritual seeker. We consider some of the schools of meditation as we work with over a dozen techniques drawn from Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Tibetan and zen traditions. Because the purpose of the course is to equip students with this most valuable tool, the format is much more experiential than intellectual, although some readings are discussed and a lengthy bibliography is provided. The goal is both to inform and to immerse participants in meditation, to encourage the development of a regular, daily practice.

tThe Psychology of Dreaming: This 9-session workshop explores the methods, experiences and applications of dream work. It covers historical and cultural perspectives along with the psychological theories underpinning the study of dreams and dream work. The format includes a combination of discussion of the readings, dream sharing and dream interpretation. We consider the value of dreams, the history of dreaming, dream theory and the scientific research on dreaming, as well as a variety of techniques for incubating and interpreting dreams. Each session will combine theory with ³hands-on² activities working with the students¹ dreams, so participants gain personal experience working in the unconscious. The goals are: to help participants become aware of the reality of the psyche; to give participants multiple opportunities to get to know their ³Inner Friend,² while they learn a variety of techniques to work with and interpret their dreams. Readings include a packet of excerpts from several books as well as a tips and techniques pamphlet.

_Psychodrama and the Collective Unconscious: Archetypes in Our Personal Life. This 4-hour workshop introduces participants to the spontaneous group role-playing methods of psychodrama, which can be a powerful vehicle for exploring personal connections to archetypes. It also allows us to discover new ways in which we can inform and enrich our lives. ³The human brain is the vehicle of imagination. PsychodramaŠgives us courage, returns us to our lost unity with the universe and re-establishes the continuity of life.² J.L. Moreno, father of psychodrama.

Visioneering: This workshop applies Bernouilli¹s principle (the basis for all forms of aerodynamics) to the realm of personal life, to jump-start dreams and hopes we have for the future. Participants learn what vision is, the power it has, and how to use it in very practical, grounded ways, to bring about changes in their own lives. With over 30 exercises, and a modicum of readings, this 10-hour workshop runs over 4 months (meeting on one evening a month), to allow members the time to develop a vision, apply the principles and use the exercise to realize a dream.

Introducing New Programs

Distance learning opportunities

Many courses offered by the Center are available in multi-media format. All the courses in the Via Investigativa are suitable for distance learning. Some of the courses in the other 4 paths are too; check with us about specific courses.

On-site programs

Courses and workshops in various formats are offered at sites around northern and central Vermont throughout the year. Notices about these offerings appear on the “Upcoming Events page of this site. Advertisements also appear in the local print media: Ever Changing magazine, the “Courses” section of Seven Days, and occasionally, as block ads in the Burlington Free Press and The Times Argus. As some offerings have limits on class size, you should try to register early for our programs.

Many of our workshops use a short-term or week-end format well suited for those who wish to combine a vacation trip to the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont with a learning experience. Waterbury is the #1 tourist destination in Vermont, thanks to the presence of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. Within a 20-minute drive are 3 major ski centers (Stowe, Mad River Glen & Sugarbush), Vermont’s largest city (Burlington) and a wealth of tourist attractions. Take advantage of our special combination packages:

* a week-end workshop (one-day or two-day)
* special reduced rates at the historic Old Stagecoach Inn (some restrictions apply)

Welcome to Jungian Center News

This site will serve to supplement our website, offering you the latest news, events, and last minute changes. Please visit our website where you will find a full description of the Jungian Center, who we are, what we do and what we offer.