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During the past month, The Stream has continued our journey toward integrating higher consciousness into everyday life. We had two transformational group experiences: at the monthly Spiritual Service (in which we focused on our words for the year) and an in-service led by Beth and her new partner, James Maynard, for the purpose of strengthening our connection to the Brotherhood. For those of you not familiar with the Brotherhood, it is a metaphor for the consciousness manifested in such ascended masters as Jesus, Buddha, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, St. Germaine and many others.
Those of us in attendance at the in-service had an experience of higher consciousness that enhanced our ability to connect to it and bring its wisdom into our lives. We left feeling calmer and clearer, and even those who could not attend have felt the energetic shift. That’s one of the benefits of being a collective!
Don’t miss the Mind/Body/Spirit Expo this weekend (see Upcoming Events) for our booth (shared with James Maynard) and the presentation by James and Beth on Sunday at 11. It’s another opportunity to grow stronger together.
Hot off the press! James has offered The Stream to share his booth at the Conscious Living Expo at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel, Friday February 11-Sunday the 13th. Call Erica at 760-529-2488 if you can help.
Our strength also comes from having a broader base. In January, we experienced an influx of people joining Intuition Training, wanting to develop the power of using intuition to guide them. Men Getting Real with Men also made a leap forward, signing a statement of intention together and solidifying their connection via a powerful workshop about overcoming the fear of relationships. A new group of 14 people started the Sex and Spirituality series of workshops and support groups. These are all on top of the regular workshop series for Living with Reality and all the other mutual support groups and workshop series already in progress.
Rozz Hopson is editing the video from the Healing Arts Theatre in preparation for offering HAT to other venues. Todd Benton is working hard to prepare content for a proposal to WorldShift Media , one of Ervin Laszlo’s organizations to bring consciousness to the world via all types of media.
We collected more than $2300 in year-end donations! Wonderful news! If you would like to donate and haven’t, please do so via our website donation tab or contact any staff person. We always welcome the strength that comes from an influx of green energy. Smile.
We all hope to see you on the 5-6 at the Mind/Body/Spirit Expo and at the Spiritual Service on the 13th at 9.
I want to close this month’s newsletter by asking us all to send chi for Terry Davis, who is making her transition from the seen to the unseen (her word for the year). As I write this edition of The Current, Terry is the process of dying. We celebrate her life and her spirit and her commitment to consciousness. She completed her work here before the end of this life and we applaud her efforts and her commitment to growing until the end. We will always think of her fondly.
Much love to all and peace,
Helen Hillix-Di Santo, MA, MFT
Stream Spiritual Director
Staff and Board of The Stream
At our latest Board Meeting, we determined that this has been the year of shifting from our own personal healing (“What about me?”) to focusing on what we have to contribute to the healing of the collective. It has been a year of feeling highly rewarded for our efforts and seeing the benefits of that shift of focus in all that we do, personally and for the collective.
Here are some highlights of our year:
· The Spiritual Activist Movement was re-launched this year via a peace rally co-hosted by another group of activists in downtown San Diego, as well as two booths at Earth Day events in San Diego and Malibu
· The Healing Arts Theatre performed readings from Memoirs of the New Age, by Beth Green, at the Controversial Bookstore in San Diego
· The San Diego News Network published Beth’s spirituality columns.
· The Stream Men’s Group created and signed its Declaration of Purpose and Intent
· The Stream “went on the road” as Beth traveled to Lone Pine and Bishop to lead Living with Reality workshops
· Irvin Lazslo published Beth’s article in his Science and Spirituality Forum; articles in this forum are re-published in the Huffington Post
· Beth published Memoirs of the New Age, launched with a media campaign.
· The Stream established a relationship with Worldshift Media to provide content for their upcoming multi-media project.
· The Stream strengthened and expanded its Daily Check-In Calls, part of the mutual support call program
· The weekly Spiritual Direction Call has offered weekly support from the Spiritual Director
· The Stream continues to provide transformative workshops (Living with Reality, Sex and Spirituality, Food and other topics), counseling, food plans, intuition training, monthly spiritual services and other programs. Check out the website for current offerings at www.thestream.org
· Beth Green and Todd Benton launched a business consulting group, Reality for a Change at www.realityforachange.com
We feel grateful for the beneficial energies of all forms that supported to make these steps forward. We realize there are other challenges ahead-in fact I had some agonizing technical challenges simply getting this newsletter out!-but we have all grown stronger, are integrating that strength and will continue to be guided by the future and embrace it.
We at The Stream hope you will honor all the challenges you met this year and all the growth that you’ve experienced because of these challenges.
Happy New Year to each and every one of you!
Love,
Helen, Staff and Board of The Stream
(In writing this blog, I want to say upfront that The Stream is not a religious organization and, even though I’m using Christian and Jewish references in this blog, it is to illustrate the principles discussed in the Living With Reality Book and I felt they were appropriate and timely during this holiday season.)
Winter ought to be a wonderful time to be on a train. All snug behind our window we can look out and see the wonderful snowy world pass peacefully by. But what if the train is caught up in a sudden blizzard?? Sometimes the cold blast and mountains of frosty stuff can stop even a steam boiling locomotive.
This, I think, is what stops many of us from continuing on into what Beth describes as “The Ego Twice Born”. Those cold, sobering memories, filled with twisted logic, fear and shame, stop us from believing we CAN change. What example do we have, we ask, who truly has done this?? This was my question until the answer fell on me, perhaps out of heaven itself. The text is from the Gospel of Luke, in the New Testament: In the Magnificat, the glorious poem of praise to her God by Mary, a young woman of incredible strength and vision is revealed. Listen to her words:
My soul doth magnify the Lord
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior.
Mary reveals her love and admiration for God, the Source and her joy and trust in the Source to save her. She affirms her sense of Oneness with God: her soul mirrors God. Mary is doing exactly what Beth advocates: saying Yes to the Source, and acknowledging our Oneness.
For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
There is a lot in these two simple phrases that we gloss over at Christmas: At this time in history, a small statuette of amber is valued more highly than a live human slave. Poor people often asked to become the slave of a wealthy Roman, as that slave had better treatment and rights than a free poor person.
The situation for poor women in this society was even worse. An innocent young Jewish woman, raped by a Roman soldier, still faced death by stoning at the hands of her own people if she became pregnant.
Mary acknowledges that God/the Source, not only understands her plight, but (as Beth insists we must do) affirms her right to exist AND to be a blessing to others, even future generations!! Mary, secure in her mature ego, has thrown off the yoke of self-centeredness and shame that could have easily overwhelmed a poor, pregnant-out-of wedlock teenager. She is, indeed, also saying Yes! to our collective thriving.
We fellow humans have been blessed by this teenage girl with enough love and passion and connectedness to her own soul and to God and to her fellow human beings to melt all the cold ill winds trying to blow her away. If she and her son were on the train stopped by a blizzard, they’d be out front shoveling snow, tending to the injured and laughing, thanks in large part to their Jewish traditions.
Let’s learn from this story. Let’s see that when we listen to the Source and not our egos, when we remember our oneness, we can become a blessing to ourselves and everyone around us. And it has been so for thousands of years in every culture known to man! Let’s commit to devoting our lives to making a difference by supporting our egos to mature and bringing this blessing to the collective. It can start by reading and living the Living with Reality principles. That’s my New Year’s resolution. What’s yours?
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy New Year and may your journeys be blessed!
Mary Stine
So here I am at the train station called Living with Reality, with all my “baggage” and a thin volume for the ride titled “The Myth of Creation.” I’ve always loved historical mystery novels, so I’m looking forward to this one, looking forward to my next set of challenges in “Ego, Instinct and Evolution.” Except, as Beth points out, we all know at our core that this “myth” is true: we were once “All-One.” I have read another author whose patients, under hypnosis, consistently described this as “the great ball of God.” I can only say that at an early age I “missed” being with some greater One. I somehow knew there was a greater home beyond my own small physical one. I longed to feel and understand the experience of being part of something greater than myself, probably to help me escape the pain of my family. I have a vivid early memory that illustrates this.
When I was about three I can remember going with just my dad over to his parent’s farm for an evening family reunion. My dad was hanging around in the kitchen, chatting with his mother and snacking on everything in sight. When he complained that there was no red jello with bananas, something in my grandmother snapped and she reminded him that I was probably not really HIS child, and, therefore, not truly a Perry….then she realized that I was sitting quietly under the table.
There followed a quick discussion of where else I could be at that moment. Fortunately my cousin Jill, just six months older than me, bounced into the kitchen and announced that she was going outside to be with her brothers. Taking the cue, I then announced that I would go outside to join MY (non-existent at that time) brothers. The adults laughed at this, but I mercifully escaped into the deep blue summer night filled with stars and the perfume of pine and cedar and the clear voices of my musical cousins and their guitars. And I remember thinking that Someone greater than my own father was out there, waiting to welcome me. My wonderful, gentle uncles were very kind and sweet to me, and I felt connected to God every time I looked up at the star filled sky.
This is, of course, a clear example of what Beth describes as early ego at work… my ego had already determined that I was much safer being quiet and “hiding”, especially with my own mother, and now it seemed, with my father’s family, as well, and often in plain sight! When that failed, as it obviously did on this summer evening, my ego quickly decided that I needed to find the first opportunity to escape! And as Beth clearly states a little farther along, “no matter what strategy the child adopts, it still knows that it is a burden!” That was reinforced in spades for me that night, especially if my father was raising a child that wasn’t his own! From the perspective of LWR, I can see that my sense of alienation was burgeoning under that table, feeling the sting of doubt about whether I even “belonged” in this Perry family. My ego got ever stronger, feeling the need to protect myself from even more threats now.
Unfortunately, I am still carrying those “sheer terror survival” techniques around with me today…and obviously they don’t work as well as they did at age 3! The good news is that now I can not only have compassion for myself (at age 3 and now), but I can have compassion for all other living beings struggling with the same EGO issues. And I finally have an explanation for all the warrior and war movies that studios keep churning out and that many men (and some women) never tire of seeing. After all, if life is a struggle from the very beginning, then we are in a way, all warriors, at least as far as the Ego is concerned
I’m looking forward to how Living with Reality can help all of us “warriors” transform into calm, centered peacekeepers.
Please feel free to come to my cabin for tea and discussion.
Love,
Mary Stine
The Stream is Finding an Audience in the World!
November has been an unexpected and amazing month! I know, I know. We always say that. And, the funny thing is, it’s always true! That’s what makes The Stream such an exciting community to be a part of. Well, let me share the exciting news without further adieu.
First, the Healing Arts Theatre (HAT) production the Memoirs of the New Age at the Controversial Bookstore on November 27 was a huge success! The Bookstore thanked Beth for “raising the vibrational frequency of the energy in the whole store.” One of the audience members, spoke for many when he said, “The Guest Spot was totally hilarious … joined with open energy and open heart….and bingo, I felt so fulfilled to be there. It was obvious that I was not the only one that had this experience…strangers excitedly opened the deepest part of their suffering like it was an ordinary thing to do. It was masterful Beth…a thought that came up was that the energy that was generated in that room was large enough to surround thousands of people.” He described Rozz’s chanting as “soulful”, Ann’s reading of About Winter as “clear, pure embodied soul” and Christine’s reading of Angry Prayer as “potent and penetrating.” If you missed this performance, be sure to stay undated for the next chance to participate and to bring your friends to an event you won’t soon forget! Many thanks to Rozz Hopson on her excellent directorial debut and for her devoted cast and crew and the countless hours they all spent preparing for the performance.
The next major thrust of our energy and excitement has come from a variety of sources wanting to publicize content from Beth and The Stream. The world seems to have finally noticed that Beth has something to offer the larger audience of people seeking consciousness! Below you will find all the current organizations and publications that have asked Beth/The Stream for content to publish.
- Next , Professor Ervin Laszlo has published Beth’s blog Reclaiming Science and Spirituality from the Ego in his Science and Spirituality Forum. Click www.ervinlaszlo.com/forum to go to their site and read the blog. It’s a challenging view of what motivates many scientific and spiritual teachers.
- Dr. Laszlo also recommended Beth to World Futures: A Journal of General Evolution, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02604027.asp , an academic journal publishing works that explore evolutionary change in nature and society. Beth will be submitting an article to them for publication.
- Another organization, EsoGuru, an online site featuring the “greatest minds in esoterics” has asked Beth to provide them with content for their website, which contains blogs and other content from Ram Das, the Dalai Lama, Krishna Das and other well known spiritual leaders. Check out their site at www.esoguru.com.
- WorldShift 2012, www.worldshift2012.org is a global social network dedicated to sustainable transformation and conscious evolution. Todd has been working with them toward the goal of The Stream (including Beth, of course) providing content for their upcoming campaign to spread consciousness via multi-media outlets, newspapers, TV, radio, internet. We are currently developing a plan to organize and provide this content for their campaign.
The annual Stream year-end fundraiser is in progress during December. Don’t forget us in your tax-deductible donations. We will make good use of any and all donations to help support human consciousness, whether it be in physical upgrades and maintenance to Streamhaven or in support of our programs and publications or the scholarship fund to help worthy students participate in programs. We are available to support you, also if you need help in asking the Source.
And, finally, this month, please join us for the last Spiritual Service of the year, Sunday, December 5, 9-11 a.m. at Streamhaven. Check the calendar and website for more information at www.thestream.org .
Happy Holidays to everyone. We all have so much to be grateful for this holiday season and our community is among the things at the top of my list, always.
With love, peace and chi,
Helen Hillix-Di Santo, MA, MFT
Stream Spiritual Director
The Current, November, 2010
The thrust of our work this month has revolved around our ongoing mission to bring higher consciousness into everyday life, taking it to the streets! We all can contribute simply by living our principles and getting the support to be able to be more consistent in our commitment.
One of the best resources you can use to bring higher consciousness to the streets is to go to Beth’s Place and follow the many conversations that are taking place there and to bring Beth’s Place to others. She is writing phenomenal blogs about everything from knowing when to persevere and when to surrender, to letting God speak now and not pretending that He/She only spoke thousands of years ago. There are regular blogs about the process of reading and integrating the Living with Reality book into our daily lives as well as the Memoirs of the New Age.
We are also excited about Beth being asked to submit a blog to Ervin Laszlo’s Forum on Science and Spirituality. You can check out his work there and see that his organization Worldshift shares many of the same goals as The Stream.
Remember the Spiritual Service on Sunday from 9-11. Come and bring a friend!
I almost quit reading Living with Reality (LWR) at the Introduction. What kind of author would write “Ego, Instinct, and Evolution: Are We Ready to Change?” Doesn’t she realize that many of us are grabbing our hats and trying to dash to the door?? Doesn’t she remember that old Jimmy Durante routine “Did ya ever have the feeling that ya wanted to stay–combined with the feeling that ya wanted to go??” At least Jimmy had a piano!
But I was reeled back to the “piano seat” by the next sentence: “If suffering were sufficient motivation for change, humanity would have transformed a long time ago!” I could not deny the truth of that; in fact I have examples too close and numerous to list. I keep falling into the same old self-protection and procrastination routines with my husband. I keep seeing some of my girlfriends divorcing and then marrying the same type of inappropriate partner. (Prior to reading The Stream newsletter, The Current, I would have just called these guys jackasses and losers…but I’m learning to have compassion and not be so judgmental.)
Most of all, if suffering were sufficient, mankind would have abandoned any type of war thousands of years ago. But no, we are still clinging to our wars, teeny and huge, along with all our resentments and grudges and revenge plots. I’m sick of waking up and reading about yet another war, somewhere. Living with Reality gives me hope that I may be able to make a difference, by changing myself, first. I now begin to fully understand that wonderful song I sang so hopefully as a young teenager– “Let Peace Begin with Me.”
..I also recall going to tent revivals and hearing the preacher thunder that “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!!” I had no idea how true that was at age 14. Yet, weak flesh or no, I am willing to commit to this change of which Beth speaks. I am willing to take on the ego and to work to help my ego evolve, become twice born as LWR describes. I have finally found the nerve and the will to drive to the train station, so to speak, and even buy the ticket. Of course, I am probably slogging along a lot of worn out and useless baggage. If I can figure out which bags are useless, I’ll put them down by the trash bin, and move on down the track, on the train.
Join me for what I imagine to be the ride of my life,
Mary Stine
The Current, October, 2010
Taking my cue from Monday’s LifeForce Workout, I’ve been focusing on the miracles in my life.
The Stream is doing the same, and it’s been amazingly easy lately!
Books and publishing miracles
We have so many exciting events to report, where to begin? Let’s start with the publication of
Beth’s latest book, Memoirs of the New Age, now available on Amazon and iUniverse. It’s a provocative,
delicious, transformative read that will hopefully find its way into the wider world through the support
of a professional book publicity firm out of New York. Even with their support, there is much to do so if
you’d like to help, please call Todd Benton at 760-731-4855. Also, don’t forget the book clubs and other
groups, classes and services that can be found on our website: http://bit.ly/dcYCQW.
One of the main thrusts of the publicity campaign is making people aware of Beth’s new
website, http://www.bethsplace.org/. This new site is gorgeous and full of inspiring content written by Beth;
our Memoirs blogger, Irene Townsend; and our Living with Reality blogger, Mary Perry Stein. We’re
looking forward to some energetic exchanges evolving from these blogs.
Living with Reality: A Book of Wisdom has come back from the copyeditor and under review by
New World Library. The publisher, whom Beth met at a book marketing conference, said the book was
“substantial” and worth examining as a potential title.
Arianna Huffington was another presenter at the marketing conference and after connecting
with Beth via email introduced Beth to two editors at the Huffington Post to pursue the idea of Beth
contributing blogs.
Partnering with Alliant International University
Moving on to another amazing miracle; The Stream is beginning a partnership with Alliant International
University, San Diego campus, Center for Integrative Psychology (http://www.integrativepsychology.net/). Last
week, we met with two of Alliant’s faculty in an exciting and energetic exchange of ideas and a deep
sense of kinship on both sides. We feel an alliance with Alliant! Our next meeting is on October 7 to see
where our partnership can proceed.
New leadership at The Stream
Another exciting development this month involves Rozz Hopson (formerly Stream Music
Director) becoming Director of the Healing Arts Theater for The Stream. She has a real passion and
vision for integrating music, song, chanting, acting, reading the books and creating drama from Beth’s
works. We presented a powerful and healing HAT event in the past using The Autobiography of Mary
Magdalene. Rozz would like to use Memoirs as the inspiration for the next event(s), possibly in
conjunction with book signings. Please contact Rozz if you’d like to participate.
We also want to congratulate and welcome Brad Roberts and Scotty Ensign, who are now the
co-leaders of the Stream Men’s Group. They completed a workshop on relating last weekend and all felt
inspired by the level of honesty and reality that they were able to co-create in the group. If you know a
man who longs to be real with other men (and women), call either Brad (858-254-6103) or Scotty (760-
789-9025).
And, last but not least, of the miracles is that Beth has found a car she can actually drive! It’s a
Prius and it just fits her, with technology that supports her weaknesses and beauty to match her own
glow. We all celebrate the freedom that this affords you, Beth! Mazal tov!
So, let’s all focus on the many, many blessings and miracles of our lives. Who knew that our rag-
tag group of consciousness enthusiasts would find ourselves, among other things, talking with university
officials and Arianna Huffington? You never know what the Source has in store, so for those who are
facing difficult financial and/or emotional times right now, let’s choose in this moment to think of the
miracles that we all have right now. When we choose to see and experience our lives as miraculous, it
opens up possibilities that we might not notice otherwise. So, look around at your life and see what is
miraculous and embrace it! And let’s work hard together to keep bringing the miracles our way!
Love, peace and chi to all,
Helen Hillix-Di Santo and The Stream Staff and Board
by Mary Perry Stine
I started reading Beth Green’s book, “Living with Reality”, at the urging of a mutual friend. It didn’t take too much urging, as I had already read some of Beth’s newspaper columns and some excerpts from “God’s Little Aphorisms”. Besides, I had been struggling with “what is reality” for a long time. The “reality” promoted by Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and some religious and political groups has never quite seemed true to me. I have spent most of my life feeling like a misfit, without even being an alien, an addict or a misanthrope. And I have read numerous self-help books, along with many tomes on various religions.
Once I started reading “Living with Reality” I was hooked! And I began to experience several of what I call “Duh!! (forehead slap)” moments. The preface, “What We Are and What We Could Be,” was the first of these. It starts with: “Life is a struggle”! Duh!! Of course, why should I even try to go on denying that?? And what is wrong with struggling anyway?? Aren’t we supposed to learn better from struggling? And, according to Beth, everyone and everything struggles–this is the reality of existence. Another “Duh!” For once, a self-help book that didn’t immediately make me feel like a lone idiot and a failure.
Beth reminds us that we all once had childhood dreams of a better, fairer world….and that we do not have to abandon those dreams as adults. We just have to learn how to transform ourselves into more conscious, accountable humans. As we transform, so will others, and so will our world. We will finally be able to see those childhood dreams, a pure vision of God’s dream, begin to happen. Now I just have to find out how to do this.
I’m going to keep reading and keep blogging and sharing my own reactions to the book as I go along. I welcome your comments to my blogs, so that we can co-create a dialogue and support each other. I’m looking forward to co-creating some interesting relationships, thus healing that sense of alienation that I’ve carried all my life. Are you up for the journey with me? Let me know! See you soon.
by Manuela Ippolito Livingston
Sometimes we have communication challenges even within our groups in The Stream.
Recently, our LWR book study group had some issues. We each had a reaction to how the
group was running. Instead of getting in touch with our own individual pain and expressing that
pain directly, it was so much easier to point the finger at each other. All that did was blame and
shame one another and we were missing the opportunity to take in what the other person was
saying, digest it and support each other—at least at first. With some guidance, we were
supported to see that each one of us was being triggered by the upset in the group and that we
had regressed to some old, habitual and strongly held pattern from childhood. We were not
able to see reality at all. We only experienced our own feelings and we saw that the ego then
used those emotions to tell us we were threatened and needed to defend ourselves against
each other. Not a good dynamic for a Living with Reality mutual support group!
After we each saw our piece, we were able to follow The Steam amends process (see
Platform Seven, page 371, in Living with Reality: a Book of Wisdom), which led us to feel compassion for
ourselves and the others. We were all surprised to see that our reactions were not about the
logistics of the call. Our reactions were all about feeling separate and unloved by each other.
Understanding and clearing the blocks to our connection allowed the connection to Source to
break through, as well. Remember in the format of the LWR meeting, it talks about how pain is
inevitable but that much of our pain is self-created and comes from our disconnection to self,
others and life itself (the Source)? This was a prime example. We were also able to remember
a tool from Platform One, page 122, about “I AM that.” We were finally able to see ourselves in each
other and the caring flowed again.
I see this often in my relationships. I so often take everything so personally instead of
looking at the whole picture and being able/willing to see the other person’s pain as well as my
own. Depending on the day, mood, tone and what I ate that day, one comment can be taken so
many ways. This experience of getting the support to see what it means when I take things
personally and the damage it can do to me and to others was very enlightening.
The one variable in life that seems to stay constant is the Source. If we truly connect
to it, with no agenda, we can remain much clearer when it comes to our relationships. The key
is that we no longer feel alone when we are connected to the Source, so we have the strength
to remember to NOT take things so personally. I can then stay connected to myself and have a
chance to even connect to the other person. Imagine that!
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