Changes in health may be turning points for soul

Healing Journeys hosts Thomas Moore at its free conference Saturday 23 June and Sunday 24 June 2012 at Spartanburg Methodist College, Spartanburg, South Carolina. This Cancer as a Turning Point from Surviving to Thriving event is for people: "touched by cancer or any life-altering condition; caregivers, family members, or friends of someone touched by cancer or other illness; physicians, nurses, social workers, and other healthcare providers."

According to the program schedule Moore speaks Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. about care of the soul. In her Director's Reflections for April 2012, founder and executive director Jan Adrian writes "What's missing in Mind-Body-Spirit?", drawing attention to Moore's column "Care of the Soul: Mega-Soul" in the March-April 2012 issue of Spirituality & Health magazine. Adrian writes:

"I recently read in an article by Thomas Moore that 'The classical trinity has always been “body – soul – spirit.' He said, 'Even ‘enlightened’ healthcare workers speak easily of 'mind-body-spirit' medicine, not even noticing that the soul is missing.'

That ‘enlightened’ healthcare worker could be me. I feel like I have often ignored my soul, giving all my attention to body, mind, and spirit. For the sake of this conversation, 'Spirit' is the non-material world, the energy through which we all connect, and through which we connect to the Divine, however we conceive of it. 'Soul' is the thing that makes me unique. It’s my personal life force. It’s what makes me feel alive. Thomas Moore says, 'a soulful life and fun go together.'"

Register online for this free conference.
Charges apply for lunch, Continuing Education credits, and overnight accommodations if desired.
1 June 2012 is the deadline for accommodation reservations at the college and for reserving linens.
17 June 2012 is the deadline for lunch meal orders.
Tax-deductable donations to Healing Journeys help to keep Cancer as a Turning Point a free event. Scroll to the bottom of the online registration form for details. Donations are gratefully received.

Osler Symposium: Doctoring in the 21st century

Thomas Moore participates in the 2nd Osler Symposium: Doctoring in the 21st Century in San Diego, California from Saturday 20 October to Tuesday 23 October, 2012 at the Catamaran Hotel. The 2012 Osler Symposium brochure includes schedules, activities and a registration form for this event designed for physicians and open to all healthcare professionals. Early bird pricing applies until 31 May 2012.

Thomas Moore's Schedule: Tuesday 23 October 2012

Time	Event
9:45 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.	Care of a Doctor's Soul
12:15 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.	Going Forward: Panel Participant
3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. 4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.	Breakout Sessions:  The Doctor as Spiritual Guide

The Doctor as Spiritual Guide – Thomas Moore
"In the ordinary Western mindset, a doctor takes care of the body and others tend to the psyche and spirit. But you can’t split a person into parts that way. A patient’s spirituality is always implicated in illness, maybe more so there than in other parts of life. Patients often look to the doctor for spiritual guidance, correctly understanding that you really can’t tend a human being’s suffering and leave out the spirit. A doctor may think that the spiritual is not within his purview or that she isn’t qualified to address it. In this session, doctors will be encouraged to find it in themselves to speak to spiritual concerns of patients at least in a small way, and guidance will be offered to help doctors prepare themselves for this aspect. Thomas Moore will call to mind physicians in other cultures who are necessarily spiritual guides, too. Besides, if a doctor were to speak to the spirit and soul as well as the body, the doctor would have a much richer experience and would be less likely to suffer a setback in morale. In other words, it would be good for patients and doctors. This session is meant to inspire and educate doctors in this exciting area of medicine."

Moore was a keynote speaker at the Inaugural Osler Symposium held 14 May to 20 May 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Spirituality to keep the ordinary with the sacred

In this recent essay "Natural Mystics" Thomas Moore describes his approach to introduce his event on Monday 23 April 2012, A Religion of One’s Own at Isbourne Holistic Centre in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, U.K.:

"For most of my life, especially since I began reading Teilhard de Chardin, I’ve been interested in a spirituality of the world. Call it, as my friend Lynda Sexson does, 'ordinarily sacred,' or 'the sacredness of the commonplace,' as my friend Alice O. Howell does. These days I want to focus on the experience of being absorbed by the holiness and beauty of the natural world and ordinary life. I’m calling this approach 'natural mysticism.'

I’ve always thought of mystics as extraordinary people who achieved a phenomenal union with God or the source of life through their intense meditations. But then I began to notice certain artists who were profoundly engaged with the world, so much so that they, too, seem to be mystics. Think of William Wordsworth and William Morris in England, or Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson in America. They were much in the world and yet developed a mystical attitude toward life.

One thing interesting about each of these people is that their deep absorption in the natural world and in the subtleties of ordinary life led them to be unique individuals and to express themselves in sublime ways. ..."

Moore states, "We are entering a new era, and the old forms of spirituality are fading. Guilt, moralism, dogmatism, rote learning, and empty rituals are disappearing, to be replaced by a more personally engaged spirituality. I hope that we are also heading for a visionary style that doesn’t divide the ordinary from the holy or the secular from the sacred."

Moore at retreat for Spirituality Section of ACR

The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) Spirituality Section announces its 7th annual retreat from Friday 1 February to Sunday 3 February 2013 to be held at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, California. Thomas Moore is the keynote workshop leader for this weekend.

According to the announcement, "This year’s retreat theme is all about the Care of YOUR Soul ... making sure you have all the inner resources you need to continue to make a difference in the work you do and the life you live! ... The ACRSS retreat is designed to support all practitioners who have a spiritual practice (or who are feeling disconnected from that Universal Energy and want to reconnect). Join us as we walk together on our journeys toward personal, psychological and spiritual growth."

This retreat is open to non-members.
Early bird prices are to 1 June 2012:
Section Members: $395 U.S.
General: $495 U.S.
Additional pricing is set for an optional pre-retreat day.

Register online or call 703 234-4141 for more information. Download the ACR Spirituality Section Retreat flyer to share with colleagues.

Weekend workshop about care of soul and spirit

Online registration is open for Thomas Moore's weekend program from Friday 9 November to Sunday 11 November 2012 at Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut: Care of the Soul and Spirit. Visit the Wisdom House program page. Scroll down to Moore's event, listed by date. Click the Register button for Program #TM 11-911.

Care of the Soul and Spirit
"This workshop will teach us how to be soulfully spiritual and spiritually soulful. It will show how to be open-hearted and attached to life, and, at the same time, spiritually detached and related to the very ground of being. It will not avoid the dark places but also indulge in the humor and positive graces of a thoughtful life as we aim at establishing a vibrant and mature spirituality."

Friday 6:00 p.m. dinner to Sunday lunch
Fees:
$195 (shared room, hall bath)
$235 (private room, hall bath)
$265 (private or shared room with bath)
$165 commuter
Non-refundable deposit: $50 U.S.
Scholarships available

Barque coverage:
25 Nov 2011 "Wisdom House hosts 2012 program with Moore"

Let's return soul to its place with spirit and body

For Dayton Daily News, Pamela Dillon writes "Author to discuss spirit and soul of medical practice" that describes Thomas Moore's keynote speaking engagement at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University's Medicine and Spirituality Conference today, Thursday 12 April 2012.

Dillon quotes Dr. Evangeline Andarsio, chairwoman of the conference: “'From (Moore’s) experience having a disease himself, he talks about the patients and how they need to be open to the idea of their illness being a transformative experience.'  Andarsio is co-director of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine Healer’s Art program. 'This conference will not only touch health care professionals but patients, as well,' she said. 'In fact, we’re all patients.'"

Barque coverage:
5 Apr 2012 "Moore describes soulful approach to healthcare"
9 Nov 2011 "Moore speaks in Dayton, Ohio, 12 April 2012"
6 Oct 2011 "Medical-Spirituality Conference hosts Moore"

Big souls go deeper with problems and emotions

Thomas Moore writes "Care of the Soul: Mega-Soul" for Spirituality & Health's March-April 2012 issue. In this column he considers the meaning of a big soul:

"I think I know one answer from my experience as a psychotherapist. I’ve encountered people who, in dealing with their problems, just don’t have enough space in them. Maybe they haven’t allowed life to affect them much. Life experiences stretch you, when you let them have their impact. Maybe they haven’t allowed emotions that frighten them, like anger, sadness, or desire. Let some of those in, and your soul will get bigger, fast. Maybe they haven’t reflected much on their experience. An unconscious soul is a small one."

He also discusses "small-idea syndrome" in which people get their ideas from superficial sources. Moore questions the value of popular directives such as "Be in the moment" and "Be authentic." He offers some big soul characteristics and names people who exemplify big soul to him. Read this column and respond on Thomas Moore's public Facebook page.