Special Events

The Solarium Coffee House has existed since February of this year. It will now begin to take place at the I.M.U. on Tuesday nights. Concurrent with that will be a lecture series, anywhere from 45 min 1.5 hours.
Up to now topics have been such as Shamanism, Ayurveda, fermenting foods, dancers and musicians, TAO-ism, puppetry workshop, bookbinding, herbology, meditation, philosophy, in short it’s about people sharing their passion,  any topic in the area of thoughtful living. You are invited to join the coffee house as well as offer a lecture to share your field of interest, your expertise with others.

Sept 7th- Lorna Johnson - Who is the Dark Goddess? How has this powerful archetype manifested throughout different cultures as Innana, Kali, Medusa and many others? How has her disappearance from modern cultures and, worse, her demonization by patriarchy, caused the spiritual and ecological challenges and imbalances we face today? And what can she teach us that is critically relevant to overcoming these challenges? We will explore these and other questions in an introductory lecture/Q&A that will shed light on a shadow that has been banished from our cultural, spiritual, and psychological experience for far too long, and to great detriment.  

Sept 14th- Amona brief sample lesson and lecture about the main principles of the Feldenkrais Method which consists of two modalities – Awareness Through Movement group classes and Functional Integration individual sessions. In short, the method offers a unique approach in which a greater skillfulness and flexibility of body and mind is achieved through a very gentle, exploring and experimenting awareness process. Recognizing our habitual patters, finding new ways of doing what we do, not only makes our lives more effortless but also more adventurous and fresh.  This method also proves extremely effective with any neurological disorders such as MS, also stroke recovery and such.

Sept 21st- Stephen C. Walker - Chinese culture, as we know it today, tends to get identified as "Confucian", and one of the central tendencies of Confucianism is to
systematically privilege family and other close relations over strangers. Buried deep in China's past is an alternative school of thought, called Mohism, that bases its ethical theory on the equal moral consideration of all human beings. The Mohist ethical doctrine is often translated "universal love", partly because of its supposed resemblance to Christian views. They claim that the only alternative to love is hate (neutrality is not an option), and that caring for my father more than for a beggar does not mean that I love my father more. Even more startlingly, they claim that converting the world to the path of universal love is trivially easy, and they can't understand why it hasn't already happened. By the end of this evening, we may be wondering the same thing.

September 28th - Dave Rempis - very popular avant-garde jazz musician (saxophonist) that frequently tours the US and Europe and plays in many groups in the city will give a talk on a music/improvisation topic that is yet to be specified. www.daverempis.com

Past Lectures

July 13th - Theo Economides - Theo has sung in, directed, entered competitions with, and arranged music for barber shop quartets for a number of years. He will explore history and discuss the felt experience of harmony including leading the group in some simple harmonic singing.

July 20th - Michael Anderson - "Caravan of Small Despairing" part 2.  A continuation of his talk on leaving the priesthood and continuing his spiritual journey after leaving "the faith".

August 3rd - Joy Davis - she will draw on her vast experience with movement, improvisation, yoga, and spirituality. 

August 10th - Jia Khechari - Jia is a sound healer and tantrika that does workshops and group sessions. 

August 17th - Lorna Johnson - Lorna will share the insights and perspectives that accompany her on her personal growth journey drawing from various media sources - specifics to be announced.

August 24th - Matthew McMunn + friend - short presentations that they were their final projects to graduate college.  Matthew's talk concerns the Boy Scouts and some deeper aspects of it that may not be immediately apparent, for better or for worse.

August 31st - Meg Anderson - Meg will explore the collapsing of dualistic perspectives and popular examples of this in literature and philosophy, particularly William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" and Friedrich Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil"

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If you are interested to offer a lecture, please contact Jeremy at (865) 385-1825.