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 The winter 1998-99 we engaged in an experiment in living - an intentional community - or as we came to call it a community of conviction in the words of Kaye Ashe. Our conviction or shared values are based on A Course In Miracles and include accepting 100% accountability for our experience of life, that we create our own reality albeit largely from subconscious directions; that everyone and everything is a mirror of our own beliefs and patterns and that healing is the act of bringing these pieces home, of pulling back the projected judgements both negative and positive that they may no longer stand in our way of joining; letting go of our grievances and parting the clouds of illusion that we may see the Light that we each are; that all our thoughts and actions reflect our relationship with our Self and ultimately with God.
In order to live these truths, to bring them into practice in our everyday lives we rely on the model and the tools of Psychology of Vision, Chuck and Lency Spezzano's breakthrough discovery of the steps we take on our journey to oneness and the way through at each critical point. We use this map or chart as a navigational aid to guide us in our next step that we may avoid the potential obstacles in our path and find our way home with ease and grace.
What actually happened?
iTransform sessions were facilitated by Bunny with support from other community members. Jane was called on to lead meditations and to select and play music for processes Bunny set up. Education, through explaining the premises of the work, was provided by all as we were invited by Bunny to do so. Insights were often spontaneously shared. Bunny guides the session intuitively. One individual is chosen to be the focus person who will lead the group mind forward in the area of their choosing. Bunny uses multiple card decks to indicate key ideas or processes to explore. She describes her work as being a sleuth of the subconscious, elucidating the primal beliefs running our lives, assessing their effectiveness in getting us what we want, and assisting us in making new choices in alignment with who we really are Often Bunny would intuit an assignment during or following a process which would support ongoing transformation. We learned that if we didn't do the assignment, the assignment would do us, in that opportunities for healing would continue to present themselves until the assignment was completed. This same format is used in our scheduled community meetings and open to the public meetings. It is always the intent to make the session educational as well as therapeutic/transformational so that we can continue to reap the benefit, through applied use of the tools learned, in our daily lives and thus it is learning to live a spiritual life. |
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Community 1999-2000 This year Bunny was involved with Psychology of Vision seminars with her teachers on Oahu from the time we arrived in Hawaii until early December and then we both set off for India for an Ayurvedic cleansing and to participate in the Psychology of Vision Millennium Event. On our return to Hawaii we met Rick in the airport who was on his way to join us. Bunny was again on Oahu for an Advanced Training, so our community living experiment did not get into full swing until her return late January. We then commenced with Wednesday evening sessions for the four of us in the home and for any others who wished to join us and did regular individual sessions with Rick until his departure. Community 2000-2001 Our experiment in living continues to evolve. Jane’s father passed away just as we returned to Hawaii and we were called back to Colorado where we spent 5 weeks with her mother. This resulted in our offering an invitation to Jane’s Mom to join us in Hawaii in January and then was extended to include Bunny’s Mom. As soon as their travel arrangements were set we heard from Jodi who decided to join us for an Intensive Retreat beginning the day Jane’s Mom arrived. So to accomodate everyone in community Bunny decided to hold daily e Living and working in community, exposing our ego minds and the conflict they generate with our higher minds, places each of us in a situation asking for our willingness to see beyond our own and others errors, to be vulnerable, and to hear and respond to the calls for love. We hold that each of us is doing the best we can in any given moment and when hurting, support one another to look for a better way, one in which we all experience the love that we are. Through our daily study of A Course In Miracles we were focused for some time on guilt versus guiltlessness and with Rick’s encouragement and support decided to expand our offerings by organizing two 10 day Retreats entitled “Guiltless in Paradise” to be held at our home November 12-23, 2001 and February 11-22, 2002. We look forward to this expansion of our community and the influx of gifts it will bring. The experiment in this form is complete now and we have sold our Hawaii home and so community in this location is now a wonderful memory. To read Shirley's Experience of Living in the Community of Conviction |
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Living together provides the mirror for us to see ourselves. Our top priority in community is to address our emotional issues as soon as we are aware of them. All other aspects of our lives together revolve around this imperative.
Bunny and Jane are titular owners of the home and 3 acre orchard and desired that each community member treat it as their home, accepting responsibility for maintaining it and initiating projects as necessary. Pam, who is steward of the property year round, has a work exchange arrangement for her room (10 hours/week) and contributes monetarily to utilities and food. Shirley and Kim received room and board for 4+ hours of work/day, additional work time compensating for transformational sessions with Bunny. Bunny facilitated individual sessions and group processes and was the initial contact person and arranger for those joining the group. Correspondence was done largely by email. Jane was financial manager, orchard manager, gap filler and Bunny's assistant. Each member was accountable for honoring their commitment. The fairness of the exchange was a topic of discussion on several occasions.
Our lifestyle was holistic, nurturing body, mind, and soul. What was included in our program drew on the talents and desires of each community member. We practiced meditation, Qi Gong walking, ate breakfast together, studied A Course In Miracles and other inspirational readings, did projects in the orchard, garden or house, ate lunch together, continued projects, practiced Yoga or Continuum before dinner together. On Wednesday evenings we held a workshop open to the public. Usually we had one other facilitated session for the community during the week. Members exchanged Reiki and massage with each other in the evenings. Outings to the beach, volcano, farmer's market tended to occur spontaneously about once/week often in conjunction with other activities i.e. attending Unity Church in Kailua-Kona, shopping, visiting friends. Each member was free to choose what they participated in. However, it became clear amongst the five of us and even more so when others joined us that there were certain activities or a certain number that had to be done together in order to generate the sense of belonging and contributing to community. We definitely were not a crash pad or base camp for those wanting to see the Big Island nor 
for those pursuing their own personal retreat. We were a
community of conviction and those not sharing our convictions moved on, having provided a mirror for our next step in healing. Several group sessions were held around this issue exploring such topics as freedom, commitment, specialness, and control. These often began as discussions/arguments between two or more individuals. When Bunny become involved she would ask us to focus on process rather that content; what pattern was being played out, for example rebellion, revenge, control, perfection, unworthiness etc. Sometimes a session would evolve as we found that dwelling on content only provoked our egos and addressed the issue on an everyday life level.
as a blessed child of God or Light of the world. Specific processes are set up with the focus person and one or more group members representing significant others for the focus person. These processes include taking back projections (judgements)/letting go of grievances so that nothing stands between us and joining the other; integrating polarities; forgiveness (how old is the child who behaves in this way); going to the root of the problem; asking who needs my help (the leadership principle); giving the gifts I came to give; accepting accountability - if I were to know, how come I would want it this way, what does it allow me to have/do and what does it allow me not to have/do; identifying beliefs and decisions underlying my behavior; determining whose plan for my happiness I am following - the ego's or Higher Mind/God's; examining the stories both happy and dark that run my life and how they can become conspiracies; seeing what I idolize; looking at the lessons I came to learn; noticing how far off my center I have gone and asking to be carried back to my center; working with the hidden self; giving appreciations; choosing the Truth; having a structured argument/discussion; giving the problem/pain to the Higher Mind or God; using transformational communication; exploring the Oedipus/Electra complex; letting go of attachments; prayer.
These were supplemented with group sessions as needed when our egos shouted too loudly or interferred with our true life plan. In March Danielle arrived for a two week personal Intensive. She received daily bodywork and individual sessions in exchange for a monetary contribution. This was a very gratifying experience for all concerned. Because of these Saskatchewan connections we were encouraged to schedule a Canadian Priarie tour, giving workshops and private sessions in Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg during our summer in Canada.
vening sessions with Jodi as our focus, allowing our Mom’s to participate and experience our “work” in action. Along with Pam, who continues to live in the Hawaii home year round, we had a group of 6 meeting regularly. Jody also had individual sessions with Bunny. She worked in the orchard with Pam and made a monetary exchange. As always, our personal interactions and the challenges of everyday living brought issues to the fore which we addressed in our evening groups. Because this format was so successful and we were all benefitting from the daily groups, we carried it on after Jody’s departure, continuing to work with our Mom’s until they left and then with our next Intensive participant, Mary Jane, who arrived the day after the last Mom left. By now our group had expanded to include Rick, who had been with us the winter before, and returned to give his energies to the orchard, garden and kitchen where his talents as chef extraordinaire of w
orld vegetarian cuisine were appreciated by all who joined us in the community. M
ary Jane’s Intensive included nearly daily bodywork as well as individual Psychology of Vision sessions and our evening groups in exchange for work in the orchard, occasional Trager sessions and a monetary contribution. She was with us one month.