“Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun…!”
Joanne and I just returned from five wonderful days at the Colorado Seth Conference in Longmont, CO, about 45 miles north of Denver. This was our second visit, and it felt like a family reunion since we saw so many familiar faces. I can’t tell you how incredible the group feeling gets and I hope that many of you will consider going next year!
“The Committee” that organizes this event is loaded with talented, creative, and fun-loving folk. It includes Jim and Carol Funk, Jim and Loretta Gilbert, Dawn and Morgan McKay, Nancy and Helen Walker, and others who always help along the way. They are truly an amazing group that I’ve nicknamed “The Not Ready for Psy-time Players” because they always put on an entertaining Saturday evening program as well as run a first rate conference. Seriously, if you’ve ever considered going to one of these events but have resisted, it’s time to plan to attend next year.
The venue was at a new location this year, something I was grateful for. Last year in Winter Park, after spending five days at 11,000+ feet, I came home with “altitude sickness” not to be confused with attitude or attadude sickness! But seriously, those migraine headaches that lasted for five days after the conference were not fun! So Longmont is a much more breathable 5,300 feet or thereabouts, and the views of the distant Rockies are still breath-taking at dawn and dusk.
The first people we encountered upon arrival were Chris and Judy Johnson, related to the beloved Harry Johnson who was not in attendance this year. We got squared away in our hotel room and proceeded over to the main room in the Residence Inn for group dinner and orientation. As people arrived, we began to feel right at home. There were a large number of folks from the East Coast who had frequented the SNI conferences in New Haven, CT back in the 1990s. Again, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see familiar faces that span decades of interest in the Seth Material. It’s fun to go back and explore to our roots, so to speak, and celebrate the work of Seth, Jane, and Rob whose originality continues to amaze, inspire, and transform.
The conference program featured a wide variety of speakers ranging from academic backgrounds to practical everyday life experiences to a fabulous art workshop. So there was a variety to choose from, so many in fact, that they held double sessions.
I gave my talk on Thursday evening, and it was well received if not challenging! I spoke about Ken Wilber’s integral approach and how it could be applied to channeling in general, as well as to the Seth Material and Jane Roberts’s Aspect Psychology. Jane created her Aspects framework to help explain her own experiences with Seth, Seth II, Sumari, Helper, Probable Selves, and more. Click here for the PowerPoint slides and video in the integral section of the Library.
I also noted during my talk that twelve of the ninety-four registrants had contributed articles or other other to our Library. That's thirteen percent of those present! The list included Laura Davis, Lynda Dahl, Mary Dillman, Paul & Jo Helfrich, Chris Johnson, Jon Klimo, Kerstin Sjoquist, Michael Steffen, Rich Stammler, Robert Waggoner, and Sue Williams.
There were so many fun conversations, meals, and presentations that I can’t possibly do justice to everyone. So I will let a few pictures tell a few stories from our perspective.
The little black shape between the “d” and “e” of “Residence Inn” is the Raven we heard as we walked from the main room back to our hotel room on Thursday. At first we didn’t know what it was, it was just sitting there serenading us with a gentle cackle. This bird just happens to be a totem animal of Joanne’s, so it was an interesting “reminder from Rose” to relax, enjoy ourselves, and share the news that Joanne has begun to channel Rose.
Next, Jon Klimo is the leading academic researcher on the channeling phenomenon and did a presentation on “Quantum Idealism”—his model of All-That-Is in relation to the Seth Material. He reminded us that Seth doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but is part of a proud legacy of authentic perennial teachings that reach back thousands of years. Also, altered states are a natural part of human history, and our current consensus reality doesn’t honor them enough: yet. His presentation complemented mine as well. It was as if the silences in my talk were explicated in his, and vice versa. In other words, while we may use different labels and words, our ideas correspond very nicely. His can easily be situated within Wilber’s AQAL matrix.
Joanne gave her talk Saturday morning on Spiral Dynamics integral and did a great job. She talked about the work of Clare Graves and Don Beck who have researched how belief systems develop in all humans. Graves’ research involved over 50,000 subjects in first-, second-, and third-world countries to find the deep codes or memes that affect how our belief systems develop from “seedling” to “sapling” to more mature “tree” stages. Along the way we can “arrest” or even “close” to further development, and that’s a natural part of reality creation. But when we are “open” we will tend to move into increasingly complex belief systems that can manage greater amounts of data and perspectives, truly beginning to hint at a global kind of perspective hinted at in Seth’s Dream-Art Sciences from The “Unknown” Reality, Vol 1. Since Seth readers are familiar with the crucial role of belief systems and core beliefs in respect to reality creation, many in attendance were very interested! Click here for her PowerPoint and audio files.
Next, the below are just a sampling of the many attendees:
Anne Dahl & Helen Steffen
Nancy Walker (Mistress of Ceremonies)
Jim Funk (gettin’ his groove on)
Rich & Tess Stammler & Ghost Image
Jen, Lynda, & Denise
Tristan (who recorded all the sessions)
The Break Room in between sessions.
One of the highlights each year is the Saturday evening skit that the “Not Ready for Psy-time Players” put on. This year the theme was The Channeling Zone, a spoof on reality TV shows that held a nation-wide search for the next uber-channeler. We saw a hysterical video of some of the applicants who didn’t quite make it. My favorite was the woman whose entity channeled Dolphin via fits and contortions that would have made an Olympic gymnast proud. Five finalists appeared live, and had fifteen seconds to engage their “energy personality” and Zen answer a question. Each finalist and judge had their own idiosyncratic quirks that kept the audience in stitches. I almost pulled my stomach muscles from laughing so hard, and figure I added another ten years to my lifespan from the release of pent up energies!
Five Finalists
Three Judges
Morgan Holds Up the Results
Everyone shined in their moments in the spotlight, and this group is a bunch of hams! But it was all in good fun. Speaking of which, the title for this blog entry came from one of the finalists’ impromptu answers. The mic was given to Lynda Dahl to ask “The Big Question” to the finalist who channeled Joan d’Arc (can you guess which one?) Lynda’s question was, “In ten words or less, what is the meaning of life?” Without hesitation clearly channeling her entity Melinda, err, Joan responded, “Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!” which brought down the house, and really summarized the entire event for me!
After the big show, some folks retired to Denise’s hotel room where Lynda Dahl and Michael Steffen (both co-founders of NewWorldView 1.0) engaged a Ouija Board session that lasted over an hour. I videotaped about an hour of it. Click here for some footage. It covered a wide range of questions and topics, and I was reminded of the classic SNI 1999 Elmira conference where Michael and Rob Butts engaged the Ouija Board. Rob said it was the first time he had been on the board since the very early experiments with Jane when Seth first came through! As always, it was interesting to observe the group energy, questions, answers, and reactions. Folks even took turns trying to take dictation, which is no easy task!
As Sunday rolled in people begin to leave. The morning session is always lighter, and Carol Funk and company regaled the audience with interesting anecdotes that explored the conference theme: The Universe Leans in Your Direction. Jim Funk always puts together a video montage of past conferences and some highlights from the current conference. One of which was Lynda Dahl’s Friday night session The Greatest Story Ever Told—her take on how Seth’s “safe universe” applies to us all. She included two tapes made by her partner Stan Ulkowski reading Seth quotes that used to set the stage for SNI conferences, and it was very moving to hear Stan’s voice again, as he passed away suddenly in early 1999 effectively bringing a close to SNI’s string of Seth conferences. It was marvelous to see Lynda on stage with Stan in the background speaking passionately about Sethian ideas!
All presenters touched on the conference theme in their own ways. So it was fun to see the group explore its impact from various angles. As the conference went on, I was struck by how The Seth Material represents a postmodern revisioning of something that went very, very wrong with premodern forms of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and on and on, namely, the many variations of “sinful self” teachings that devalue the human body, its needs, and appetites including our sexual natures. Further, modernity continues the trend with its “meaningless universe” that tells us all to get in now while we can, because there’s nothing after death.
I was struck by how Seth’s “safe universe” teaching had affected me for over thirty years since I first began to apply the material. I am now 52 years young, and at that stage in life where my parents’ generation is slowly passing on to the next big chapter of reality creation. I notice how sick and dysfunctional so many adults and seniors are because they have bought into some version of the “sinful self” or “meaningless self” worldviews. It’s no wonder that so many fear death and dying because they don’t believe in an afterlife and have no practical experiences with Spirit or Source to tell them otherwise. As such, there is a pandemic of dysfunction and disease that could be avoided or minimized. I wondered, looking back over the past thirty years, why I have been able to avoid any serious dis-ease or dys-function, and this conference really, really brought it home to me.
Seth’s “safe universe” tells us that we are born into a “state of grace” and can NEVER leave it, unless we believe otherwise and Zen our experience becomes like so many we see around us. How sad! It pisses me off and rightly so! It doesn’t have to be that way. What kind of institutions dare to impose such bullshit on us, and why do so many buy into it and never learn to see beyond? I’m reminded of Jane’s Psychic Manifesto and American Vision that express my feelings in much grander poetic terms.
I felt incredible gratitude and appreciation to the folks who put on this year’s conference and gave us a chance to explore this core principle of The Seth Material. And I hope we continue to revisit and share these critically important ideas as the years roll by!
Sunday also saw another milestone. Joanne shared with the group that she channeled Rose and had a blog called In the Rose Garden. People were curious and very supportive! So Jo decided to raffle off a free Rose session that was won by Helen Steffen, Michael and Anne’s mom, and Joanne performed her first “official” Rose private. It went very, very well! We recorded audio and video and sent Helen a double CD just today. So though it’s only been just over five months, Rose, Jo, and I continue to learn more about each other with each passing day.
I also continue to learn more about energy exchanges in their many, many forms. It was wonderful to talk to Jon Klimo over dinner on Thursday and share his many insights, which were very validating. He has written a definitive tome on channeling that sold out in the store, and talks about many different styles and types of channeling. So his work is something I highly recommend to anyone interested in a postmodern, integral, scientific view of the channeling phenomenon.
Finally, those who spend the extra night often get together for a “final supper.” We went to a nearby Italian restaurant and gabbed, ate, and drank until it was time to say our farewells. We ended the evening with Chris and Judy Johnson who, recall, were the first people we saw upon arrival. We said our “goodbyes” as we had an early flight. But as it turned out, I was three hours off and we were able to sleep in Monday morning. As Joanne and I ate at late breakfast, lo and behold Chris Johnson’s smiling visage appeared. Perhaps he thought he was seeing thought forms, but quickly realized it was Paul and Jo in the flesh. We explained my mistake, and he told us he was bringing his SUV around to pack and leave. As he left us, he offered one of those UK sendoffs that probably mean something like an affectionate “bon voyage.” Chris smiled as he walked away and muttered, “Wankers.” 
A perfect ending to a most memorable trip!