Board of Administrators: Vitor Rodrigues; President,
Vladimir Maykov, Bernadette Blin and Jason Wright                   

Newsletter Editor: John Drew

 

EUROTAS NEWSLETTER 28                                   
1 September 2005                         

Dear Friends – please print this or circulate to those who might be interested and ask them to send an email for their own copy.

1. A letter from Vitor Rodrigues, our President after the Moscow EUROTAS Conference

2. The Moscow EUROTAS Conference – What the Russians thought

3. The EUROTAS Board of Administrators and EUROTAS Delegates Meeting in Moscow

4. EUROTAS/GRETT Conference in France 5-8 October, 2006

5. Ways through the Wall: Approaches to Citizenship in an Interconnecting World -The book of the EUROTAS and CTP London Conference 

6. The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology meets with United States Organisations

7. Daniel Gaylinn of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology seeks information and offers collaboration to EUROTAS Associations

8. The EUROTAS website: our Webmaster explains the EUROTAS Forum

9.  The Russian EUROTAS Conference; a view from the US

10. The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology (CTP) in collaboration with The Institute for Transpersonal Psychology (ITP)

11. News from our former President

12. Would you like to write about alternative business ethics?

13. Jan Mojsa writes about CTP Activities in August

14. Psychotherapy, Yoga and Spirituality Second Conference of the Yoga and Psychotherapy Association of India (YPAI)

15. A last thought

1. A letter from Vitor Rodrigues, our President after the Moscow EUROTAS Conference

Dear EUROTAS Delegates and Friends,

I am very happy to be back in contact with all of you to say how much I enjoyed our EUROTAS Congress, our meeting in Moscow and the support I received for my proposals and the possibility for us to move EUROTAS further in our time of great need.

I have been reading about archetypes and the way they can give birth to several myths and the way myths can influence history – the same myth being reborn eventually several times in different areas of our globe and different moments of history.

Of course, the higher one can raise our consciousness, the closer one gets to the universal mind as the fountain of archetypes, myths and history. According to such vision, a great leader is always someone who got in touch with some myth in accordance with a certain nation and who incorporates this myth. So people can feel that following this myth and this leader they are following something that has a sense. Europe needs sense and it is loosing sense because lots of modern historians and politicians believe history to be only a matter of economy, local interests and struggles among people. Lots of humans are totally intoxicated with consumerism and a modern prostitution of old myths and archetypes. Our modern hero is a vague shadow of the archetype of the hero and our modern concepts of human value are pitiful things if one is to consider the values of consciousness expansion and human holistic development against the way nowadays an important human is one with lots of money, fashionable clothes, power and prestige and his achievements are to be found in what he owns, bodily incomplete sex and prestige. They are lacking the possibility of history to have a purpose and historical moves to be the unfolding of this purpose, to be found in myths and archetypes. For me, EUROTAS is one small but important hope for Europe to regain some sense and some inner purpose. It can become an important group leader.

So I was extremely happy to see the way our meeting in London was followed by our meeting in Moscow, the quality both had and the way we are developing a worldwide network of fellow workers for spirituality, sense in purpose all over the world. In Moscow, I had a feeling of the presence of an inner world beyond nationalities being presented and appearing through strong and harmonious national colours – as it should be. Also of course I am very pleased to witness the way effort and good will played – again – its part in making it all happen. 

So again: we have huge possibilities even if we are a small bunch of people but we must channel them in useful ways. Let me suggest some:

1.  As John Drew said, we can send our work through our EUROTAS website so that it can be an important meeting point and a resource for both general audiences and researchers in the transpersonal field;

2.   We can find useful links to our website and send them

3.    We can start inquiring about who will write  articles from each country to our future joint book on European Spirituality and we can even start working on them

4.   We can prepare short comments and summaries about books, articles, transpersonal work underway in our countries, the past, present and future of Europe and so on

5.  We can answer each email from the President of EUROTAS even if we do it only to say we have received his last email!

6.  We can participate in the EUROTAS forum but for this we must be able to make a commitment in this direction. We are EUROTAS… so, ASK NOT WHAT EUROTAS CAN DO FOR YOU BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR EUROTAS (I just borrowed this one from JFK but I totally feel it)

7.  And we can start paying the membership fees for Eurotas (if we have not already done so). The Membership fee for 2004 was 150 € and for this year 2005 we have agreed is 200 €. Of course, some countries are expected to pay according to their possibilities (actually they were generous and some have paid already 2005 fees in Moscow). So, please, the Associations who haven’t paid the 2004 fee, do it along with the fee for 2005. You can transfer the money to the  bank account I prepared for receiving Moscow’s money:

Portugal
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria
Vitor Jose Fernandes Rodrigues (EUROTAS)
IBAN: PT50 0019 0044 0020 0044 8535 3
BIC: BBVAPTPL

When you do transfer money, please let me know  also by email so I can track in a better way who has paid. I wish you all very nice holidays with lots of rest and inspiration

Warmest regards,      

Vitor Rodrigues

2. The Moscow EUROTAS Conference – What the Russians Thought

Here are two charming views about the Conference from Gennady Brevde and Tonu Souidla which show another aspect of the recent EUROTAS conference.

Gennady writes: “Tonu is one of the main persons of the first generation of the Russian Transpersonal Community (he was consulting editor for IJTS and JMB). He is Estonian, 66 years old, living and working in the Institute of Cytology RAS in St.  Petersburg, PhD and DSc, author of more then 70 articles in biology & transpersonal fields. Now, as I know, he collaborates mostly with JTP.

Susanna and I shall go and spend the rest of our vacant time (2 weeks) in wild forest in Karelia - 200 km north from St Petersburg, 40 km from Finland, no traces of civilization, water from lake, meals from fire, etc. We'll be in contact after it.”

Love

Gennady

Gennady Brevde the special organizer with his team writes about the Moscow conference:  “After   receiving   your   newsletter   I   was  eager  to  write some notes  -  SPECIAL  enough  to  reflect  not the contents, but the SPIRIT of our meeting  -  and I was waiting for SPECIAL inspiration. At last it came, I have written the enclosed text today.  I hope it will be useful for the next Newsletter.

“The Moscow conference was a fair of significant, enriching and fruitful exchanges. What did we have to bring and offer? Our thoughts, ideas, methods, techniques, principles, approaches. What did we gain? New thoughts, methods, techniques, that - from now on - became ours,  because all the unexpected things that we had touched, one way or another, met profound and inspiring resonance in our minds – and newborn hints appeared from the deep layers of our consciousness. What we had to bring and offer beyond our thoughts, ideas, approaches – as essential ground for them, as a necessary base for us to be the part of the transpersonal paradigm and community – was our hearts, opened with and for love.

What are open hearts doing when they meet one another? – They begin to exchange love, to unite, to turn to a single whole endless heart, for some incomprehensible reason divided into indivisible parts. And in this process exchanging of glances, smiles, sudden and non-important phrases are more significant and enriching then exchanging of methods, techniques, principles. The state of consciousness, in which you are ready to address your brother-in-hearts - “may I give you a hug” is more transforming then any other states – both ordinary and altered.

Thus, we have lived in Moscow and become incredibly enriched: we gained and took with us a grand, huge, endless heart consisting of our open hearts, united and filled with love.”

Love to all those who came - Gennady

Tonu Souidla writes: 

“Every morning we started with memorable rituals. The first half-sleepy attendants had the privilege to watch the Laconian wrestling of the organizers, headed by Vladimir Maikov, with countless cables and wires. Quite mysteriously, bye and bye, the small human team managed to triumph, cleared the scene and--in the open space created by spiritual triumph over matter--Nadine Deletaille performed Gurdjieff/de Hartmann and Bach with gentle awakening effect for the countless transpersonal beings present.

Pleasant ritualistic relapses occurred during daytime. One afternoon burning candles united presentations by Parini, Galuska, Drogalina, and Krentz into a most delightful trans-European transpersonal flow... Well, to keep the story short, I would like to mention just a few other highlights: presentations by David Lukoff, Stuart Sovatsky, Ingo B. Jahrsetz, Tanna Jakubowicz-Mount and a dialogue by Brian Lancaster and Robert Frager all afforded a glimpse of transpersonalism at its best. I was also happy to have some stimulating exchanges with the chairman of the Latvian Transpersonal Psychology Association, Vladislav Kenga, to discuss sundry matters with my dear friend Jeanna Drogalina-Nalimov, and to meet a rare person, Roulette Wm. Smith, interested like myself in an unlikely combination of transpersonal psychology and molecular genetics. A stimulating experience for an old transpersonalist who only infrequently haunts such conferences.

3. The EUROTAS Board of Administrators and EUROTAS Delegates Meeting in Moscow

4. The EUROTAS/GRETT Conference in France 5-8 October, 2006

5. Ways through the Wall: Approaches to Citizenship in an interconnecting world– the book of the London EUROTAS and CTP Conference

Our book has been published. We hope EUROTAS supporters will purchase copies because of the intrinsic interest of the book and also to help EUROTAS finances! Special price for orders before 1 September for EUROTAS Newsletter readers is £10 and postage will be £2 UK, £4 overseas.

WAYS THROUGH THE WALL
First Stone Publishing
ISBN 1-904439-54-3
Softback 234 x 156mm
304pp
Publication: June 2005   Price: £15.99

Any order can be emailed, posted, phoned or faxed direct to the First Stone office - details below.

Cheques should be made payable to First Stone Publishing Ltd. Orders by post to:

Ways through the Wall
First Stone Publishing
PO Box 8
Lydney
Gloucs GL15 6YD
UK

E-mail enquiries to: WTTH@firststonepub.co.uk

The office will reply to the e-mailer with details of how to order

By phone with credit or Switch card to 0044 (0) 1594 560600

Publisher’s Introduction

Many people from different backgrounds, cultures and faith traditions are beginning to review their concepts of consciousness and spirituality. All agree that more sense and meaning has to be made of our complex, interconnecting world society that is changing at an unprecedented rate

Ways through the Wall is a book of short essays that demonstrates how some concepts of transpersonal psychology are contributing in a practical way to our thinking about this fast-changing world

The twenty-eight contributors to Ways through the Wall are members of the international transpersonal community. They range from distinguished academics, writers, members of the faith traditions and leaders of spiritual traditions in their own countries to professional practitioners in hospitals, schools and other organisations. They are linked by their common concern for enabling the development of an interconnecting world and their practical experience of working to make things happen

This unique book is an invaluable source of hope and ideas to those who seek a way through the wall that prevents our deepest thoughts and spiritual longings from reaching their true expression in a modern, often unheeding, world. It will appeal to professionals interested in a wide variety of approaches as much as to the general reader searching for leads and ideas on their spiritual path.

6. The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology (CTP) visits United States Organisations

Jason Wright, Chair of the UK CTP Council writes:

The trip from CTP to San Francisco to build links was very successful. Jan Mojsa and I spent two weeks at the beginning of April in the bay area sharing ideas and developing the possibilities of links between American and British transpersonal practitioners.

We met with the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP), California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), JFK University and the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP).  There were many ideas for collaboration and shared projects, particularly with ITP. This has begun to develop well and we are building bridges across the Atlantic, which was further reinforced at the Eurotas Conference in Moscow.

Concrete possibilities that might be implemented soon could be the exchange of teaching staff, courses, and research projects, which might generate a practical basis for institutional exchange. There was a great deal of complementarity between organisations and more to build on than just good will, which in itself was considerable. There is the possibility to deliver the ITP Doctoral Programme in the UK and to develop student links and exchanges drawing upon CTP’s clinical expertise. Also it may be possible to develop inter-agency research projects with particular specialist agencies to share skills and develop the field.

It seems extraordinary that such a short trip should have generated so much energy but I think this is the coming way for Transpersonal Psychology and its development, lead in large part by the efforts of organisations such as EUROTAS.

From CTP’s point of view it is important to recognise the input of Olga

Louchakova and Shani Robbins of ITP who put so much work into this event. If it were not for this input I doubt the exchange would have happened, let alone been such a success. To emphasise our sense that there is much that can come from us all working together, both Olga and Shani will be running workshops at CTP

7. Daniel Gaylinn of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology seeks information and offers collaboration to EUROTAS Associations

Greetings Transpersonal Associate

Please accept my apologies if you have already received this message.  My name is Daniel Gaylinn and I am the Executive Director for the Association for Transpersonal Psychology.  We are located in Palo Alto, California in the United States. Our website is www.atpweb.org. I was pleased to discover information about your transpersonal association on the internet.  I am quite interested in learning the extent of development of transpersonal psychology in your location. The Association for Transpersonal Psychology is in the process of developing an international network of transpersonal organizations to exchange ideas and share resources and information. 
  

We are interested in receiving more information (such as the extent of your membership and the association's professional identity), and about any other transpersonal associations of which we may not yet know.  In the near future, we are planning to conduct a survey of international organizations to build an on-line international transpersonal network. Please let us know if you will be interested in participating. In return for your time and efforts, we would like to offer you a free one-year International Membership with us, providing you with access to the 'Members Only' area of our website. There you will find PDF files of all 36 years of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and more than 200 audio presentations from previous ATP conferences.
 
We thank you kindly for corresponding with us and look forward to a fruitful collaboration.

With kind regards, Daniel Gaylinn Executive Director ATP 

E-mail:  Dan@atpweb.org
Phone:  650-424-8764
Fax:  650-618-1851
ATP PO BOX 94303
50187 Palo Alto California  94303 USA

8. The EUROTAS website: our Webmaster explains the EUROTAS Forum

The EUROTAS website is getting recognized across the world as an independent and authoritative site on transpersonal matters in Europe. Increasingly important is the EUROTAS Forum

Chris Hall our webmaster writes:

The EUROTAS Forum is a very useful way to exchange transpersonal ideas and thought and it can be accessed by everyone. We hope that the creation of this new forum will help weave threads related to this important event. We hope that you will visit the EUROTAS Forum which is accessed from the organisation's web site at www.eurotas.org or you may go directly to the Forum by putting the link http://www.eurotas.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi in your browser.

You will also find many other interesting topics on the Forum relating to transpersonal affairs and we hope that you will take the time to visit and wave your own threads into the tapestry as we very much want to hear from you.

With warm wishes,

Chris Hall
Webmaster

EUROTAS is a not for profit organisation representing the member organisations of European Transpersonal Associations. EUROTAS respects your privacy, should you wish to be removed from our Forum email list, please respond to this email with the word REMOVE in the topic line.

9. The Russian EUROTAS Conference a view from the US

Glenn Hartelius has written an extensive report of the Eurotas Conference in Moscow which will be shortly on the Eurotas Website. Here are some excerpts from it:

Russian Soul

A report from the 2005 EUROTAS conference in Moscow

Glenn Hartelius

The 2005 EUROTAS conference exemplified its theme of “Human consciousness and human values in an interconnected world.”  The Russian Association of Transpersonal Psychology and Psychotherapy graciously hosted over 200 participants from more than 20 countries, with the support of several other organizations.  Vladimir Maykov, Gennady Brevde and a team of volunteers guided us through four days of presentations (June 23-26), translating tirelessly between English and Russian.  The following pages constitute a small tour of the conference, offering a series of six presentations drawn from the 70-some offerings on the program.  These were selected for their ability to reflect the flavor of the conference, and for highlighting topics that were more original in character, or less widely known.  Vladimir Maykov (Russia) opens the conference by situating it in the context of a Russian transpersonal project that reaches back to antiquity.  He speaks from a uniquely-informed vantage point, as one of the most accomplished members of the Russian transpersonal community, and part of the underground transpersonal movement in the late Soviet era.  Jason Wright (UK) draws on his work with addicts to weave a story of how psychological healing can grow out of rebuilding narratives that are the very fabric of “self.”  Jason’s work reaches deep into theoretical and scientific realms to understand experiences of transformation he witnesses with his clients.  Vitor Rodriguez (Portugal) offers a glimpse into his clinical experience with the diagnosis and treatment of psychic attack.  He begins with a fascinating clinical story that shows the practical value of an esoteric approach.  Mark Burno (Russia) shares fruits from 30 years of practice using “spiritual culture” as an avenue to therapy.  He makes an insightful distinction between idealist and materialist approaches to spirituality.  Rupert Tower (UK) uses an enchanting Russian fairy tale to lead us into the shadow, frankly broaching issues of power and leadership in psychotherapy training organizations.  Tanna Jakubowicz (Poland) rounds out this mini-series with an inspiring call to direct action.

As Vladimir Maykov concluded in his presentation: “The Russian transpersonal project of today is more highly professional and many-sided than ever before.  Many academic scientists have been drawn to this perspective, yielding a community in which intensive searches are conducted in many directions; there is no strict adherence to any one epistemology or theoretical framework.  Russia, a country with centuries-old transpersonal roots, is poised to speak with the entire world in the common language of the transpersonal.

Glenn Hartelius is a mind/body theorist, clinician and teacher, with a particular interest in developing critical methodologies for the felt sense.  He is completing his Ph.D. studies in East-West psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. 

10. The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology (CTP) in collaboration with The Institute for Transpersonal Psychology (ITP)

Jan Mojsa writes from the UK:

I hope you are enjoying the summer thus far.

Last Sunday, Olga Louchakova presented us with an inspiring workshop - 'Prayer of the Heart'. It was a precious occasion for all the people (new and old CTP members) who attended. Olga's workshop is part of a series of 3 summer workshops from faculty members of ITP (the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto). Their workshops are aimed at helping to explore a transpersonal perspective in working with difficulty and confusion, in particular arising from the terrorist attacks. Prof Shani Robins is to present a workshop entitled 'Wisdom Therapy' and Dr Judy Schavrien is to explore Post Traumatic Stress.

Please check our updated website: http://www.transpersonalcentre.co.uk. You might notice there is a new section called 'Resources'. In this section we hope to keep a regular updated page of articles of interest (e.g.bulletins and UKCP news) and helpful links. Please help us to keep this page 'alive'.

Kindest wishes

Jan Mojsa

11. News from our former President

Wilfried Belschner our former President wrote to a number of Eurotas colleagues with photographs which have just come to light of the London Conference in 2004 and sends greetings. We hope he will come to the Loire (France) Conference in 2006. As an Emeritus professor (in March 2006) he can still teach and do research and can coach postgraduate students for their dissertation and habilitation as long as he wishes but without formal obligation! (seems a good situation!) ”This means, too, that the spring and summer months are absolutely free for travelling - and we don´t know yet when and with which destination we will start for this trip. So, everything is possible - and this open situation I enjoy.”

Warm regards,

Wilfried

12. Would you like to write about alternative business ethics?

Dear John,

I would like to inform you that I edit a new book series entitled "Frontiers of Business Ethics" for Peter Lang Academic Publishers in Oxford. The series is dedicated to alternative business ethics approaches. Please find enclosing a short description of the series.

If you have something to offer for this series or know somebody who may have, please let me know.

Yours,

Laszlo

Frontiers of Business Ethics
Series Editor:
Laszlo Zsolnai
Business Ethics Center,
Corvinus University of Budapest

This series is dedicated to alternative approaches that go beyond the literature of conventional business ethics and corporate social responsibility. It aims to promote a new ethical model for transforming business into humanistic, sustainable and peaceful forms. The series publishes monographs and edited volumes with fresh ideas and breakthrough conceptions relevant for scholars and practitioners alike.

VOLUME 1

Laszlo Zsolnai and Knut Johannessen Ims (eds): Business within Limits: Deep Ecology and Buddhist Economics. 2005

The series is published by Peter Lang Academic Publishers in Oxford.

All correspondence should be sent to

Laszlo Zsolnai
Professor and Director
Business Ethics Center
Corvinus University Budapest
Budapest 5, P.O. Box 489
1828 Hungary
Phone/Fax: 36 1 482 5844
Email: laszlo_zsolnai@interware.hu                                       

13. Jan Mojsa writes about CTP Activities in August

I hope you are enjoying the summer thus far.

Last Sunday, Olga Louchakova presented us with an inspiring workshop - 'Prayer of the Heart'. It was a precious occasion for all the people (new and old CTP members) who attended. Olga's workshop is part of a series of 3 summer workshops from faculty members of ITP (the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto). Their workshops are aimed at helping to explore a transpersonal perspective in working with difficulty and confusion, in particular arising from the terrorist attacks. This coming Sunday, Prof Shani Robins will present a workshop entitled 'Wisdom Therapy' and the following week Dr Judy Schavrien will explore Post Traumatic Stress.

Please check our updated website for further details of each individual workshop - http://www.transpersonalcentre.co.uk

www.transpersonalcentre.co.uk (click on the 'stop press' button. You might notice there is a new section called 'Resources'. In this section we hope to keep a regular updated page of articles of interest (e.g.

bulletins and UKCP news) and helpful links. Please help us to keep this page 'alive'.

Kindest wishes

Jan Mojsa

14. Psychotherapy, Yoga and Spirituality Second Conference of the Yoga and Psychotherapy Association of India (YPAI)

Dear Colleagues,

I invite you to participate in the International Conference in India during November 2005. If you or your colleagues are interested in it, may I request you to contact me? We look forward to welcoming you to India  

For more information and further correspondence, please contact:

GANESH SHANKAR-Director

BDS-1, Sagar University, Sagar-470003(M.P.) India

Phone: 0091-7582265539, Fax: 0091-7582220916

Mobile 09826281931

Email: gshankar_sgr@sancharnet.in and/or

ganesh_shankar58@yahoo.com

15. A last thought:

The website needs active participation in the EUROTAS Forums. There are needs to contribute articles and information about Associations and yourself to the EUROTAS newsletter and we would ask you to buy a few copies of “Ways through the Wall” to support EUROTAS finances. All thoughts please to our President Vitor Rodrigues at psicosophos@mail.telepac.pt  and copy to the Newsletter Editor profdrew@eurotas.org  for passing on to those interested in your queries

As ever

Love

John Drew

Newsletter Editor