The power of gatherings

The first annual Ideas Festival: December 8-9th, 2007

Imagine the planet earth, and from space, every living being appears as a dot of light. The higher the concentration of love, the brighter the light. The brighter the light, the more it becomes a beacon of inspiration for the rest of the world. This past weekend, there was a very bright beacon emanating from Oceanstone in Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia where over two-dozen people gathered for the first annual Ideas Festival.

My dream was to create a two-day celebration of our humanity, of the aspects of us that make us unique and that connect us to one another. My goal for the event was to provide an opportunity for unique voices to be heard, for meaningful conversations to be had and for every participant to push the limits of their own thinking. The mantra for the weekend was “Inspire and be inspired” and I wanted for all who participated, whether they were presenting or attending, to leave the festival at the end of the two days more alive and connected.

The presentations and conversations were focused around the theme: Visions of Oneness. Everyone came with the desire and the courage to show up with an open mind and an open heart, to just be their authentic selves and speak from a place of passion. As these elements were present, the conversations were transformative and powerful. As presenters communicated from the heart, their voice carried an energy that was inspiring and reached the creative part of other individuals. The greater connection between all of us was palpable from the moment the first presentation started.

Louise LeBrun, founder of the WEL-Systems Institute, opened the weekend with her keynote address: Awakening to the genius within: Living large doesn’t have to be hard! She set the tone in a wonderful way by inviting us to dare to be bold, authentic, and beautifully weird, moment-to-moment in our lives and in our conversations with each other. With her though provoking and life changing remarks, she encouraged us to live at cause in our life and to be the creator of our own reality by inspiring ourselves first.

Lori Walton, founder of Exploring Our Potential Consulting, delivered the address entitled: Diversity: Every persons story and shared how diversity played out in her own life. In a very open and loving way, we were invited to be part of the intimacy of what it means for here to be seen and heard. She also invited us to sit back and take in the sounds and the vibrations of her new self-made drum and her spoken word poem. The drum vibrated as an extension of her being and it brought sensations of ancient wisdom. Its sounds were enchanting and playful.

Gabriella Larranaga took us into an experience of relating to our bodies and our minds with the art of yoga through her presentation: Relaxing the body, undoing the mind. The slow, gentle and invigorating movements of yoga were welcomed by all especially after sitting down for two hours. For some of us, the exercise brought a new awareness of our own bodies. It helped get a sense of what it feels like to exist within our bodies and brought an awareness of the areas that might need more attention. For others, it allowed energy to move more freely and emotional releases to occur.

Then we broke for a healthy lunch catered by Susan Morin from Rhubarb Grill and Café. Conversations were flowing over vegetarian lasagna and connections were made.

After lunch, Leona MacDougall from Inn-power Productions shared with us her beautiful and moving spoken and sung word poetry with her presentation: In Every Way I Can: Words-art-melody. The vibrations in her voice were haunting and the honesty behind the stories the poems told was freeing. It made me feel like life should be sang and danced.

Sarah Irwin was invited for an artist dialogue. Through the telling of her journey has an artist, she conveyed her belief that we are all artists if we just take a moment to stop our busy life… pay attention to our true selves... and engage it. If we only took some time out of our days to be creative, we could manifest our dearest dreams. And doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy.

Charlene Pearce’s interactive presentation Blood Follows Energy: 40 minutes with Savãsana, Pranayana, and Tadãsana introduced us to polarity therapy and three yoga positions. The movements woke us up, got our blood flowing and enlivened us as the first day of the festival was winding down. With a powerful collective chant to mother earth, we close day 1 with a sense of connectedness between all of us and with the earth. As the glorious sun was going down on Saint-Margaret’s Bay, the energy in the room was flagrant and I was rendered speechless by the intensity of the vibrations.

I took a moment to reflect at the end of Saturday and realize how perfect it had been and how I wanted it to be the same on Sunday. But I knew that it would be different and just as magnificent.

Internationally renowned guest speaker, Dr. Roger Morin, opened the second day of the Festival. He presented A Lattice Approach to Knowledge with audio visual support, illustrating with numerous pertinent examples the commonalties between different areas of studies: psychology, commerce, economics, philosophy, literature, biology and physics. He demonstrated how modern researchers are interested in a more organic approach to knowledge, a model that is call Complex Adaptive Systems. He explained that with this CAS, links can be made between science and spirituality and ancient wisdom can be proven scientifically. He concluded powerfully by speaking of parallel universes and black holes and his believes around these notions. The questions and comments that followed were most interesting as the participants got a strong sense of the direction the scientific community is taking and its openness to these phenomena.

Dr. Carole MacInnis, founder of the Oceanstone Institute, addressed the audience by engaging in a dialogue with her son, Scott MacInnis, who had just experienced three weeks ago what some call a spontaneous awakening. As she guided him with questions that would enlighten the process he went through, Scott would answer from the heart with such clarity and love. He explained his method of dismissing thoughts that belonged to his ego and not to his true self and how he can sustain the state of illumination he felt so strongly a few weeks ago.

After breaking for lunch, we gathered back for an entertaining performance art presentation by Kery-Lynn Calp : Surrendering to ourselves. With humor and honesty, Kery-Lynn illustrated by means of an energetic monologue the process of surrendering to her true self. The authenticity in her performance brought tears to my eyes and invited all of us to free ourselves from unhealthy external expectations.

As the founder of LifeSpace, I offered an interactive workshop entitled: Lemurian Huna: The call to remembering the Great Dream. I started by telling the story of the journey of my discovery of Huna, of my personal spiritual evolution and my travels to Kauai where I studied with Kahuna Laura Kealoha Yardley. In the second part, I lead the group in a guided meditation ritual where we breathed to the Three Selves of Huna and I proceeded to rattle and chant. The clarity of vibrations of the chant coming out of my being surprised me and brought me and some others back to ancient time, an ancient gathering, just like this one.

With her informative presentation: Health beyond nutrition: A different conversation, Amy McNaughton instructed us on the harmful ingredients found in many common comestible products, from the Centrum multi-vitamin to popular brand toothpaste. She also presented her singular and novel approach to nutrition by bringing it back to the individual, to what really goes on inside, from an holistic point of view.

We closed the Festival with a series of vitalizing movements lead by Charlene Pearce and we gathered around a symbolic center of wisdom represented by five lit candles and engaged in an open forum. Again, the sunset was phenomenal and the connection amongst us was very strong. Some offered their gratitude for the moment and for the opportunity to gather. Some expressed in different ways the immense love they felt at this magical time. Some shared the new thoughts, the insights they had through out the weekend. Some opened up about their dreams for humanity and for Gaia.

Throughout the weekend, different people were moved and inspired by different things. When witnessing someone weeping, many were moved by the moment of authenticity while others were presented with a great invitation to see why the situation created discomfort within them. When presented with scientific facts about the universal divine order, some had their core shaken while others felt it was confirming something they knew deep inside.

Because of the size of the gathering, the collective energy in the room was palpable. Healing was happening all around and releases could be felt. There was so much love to be shared and witness. The world vibrated at a higher frequency because of all the individuals that gathered that weekend.

The aspiration was to provide a time and a space that was open and inviting enough that individuals would feel safe to BE themselves in the moment, to express themselves and speak from the authentic place inside them, which is a place deep within the body. The particular structure and tone of this event allowed for those criteria to be present. The difference between a conference where information is shared without the disposition of safety and openness and the Ideas Festival where real, intuitive and emotional conversation were had, is in people leaving the event not just believing but knowing. We need to use our intellect to believe in a piece of information but when we experience the information, we no longer believe, we know.

And that is what happened this weekend. We all knew we were one… because we experience it, in all its majesty. We felt it in the tissue of our bodies. We were the oneness. I used to trust that choosing from intuition would lead me to growth and love. After this event, I now know. It is not about the visions of oneness anymore, or the expression of it. It is oneness. And we are it.

I am deeply thankful and grateful for everyone that participated in the event and for all who took part in the manifestation of my dream. It makes me wonder: what stops us from doing this more often? Why does it have to be a special event for us to be One?