CIL Events
CIL builds understanding and community through an exchange of learning among diverse groups and individuals. See upcoming events below as well as past events for an idea of their breadth and quality.
2024 Program Offerings
"Dreams: Your Personal Guides to Psychological and Spiritual Growth"
With Dr. Jean Benedict Raffa - Author & Educator
Thursday, May 30, 2024
7-9 PM EST - Zoom Event
$12 CIL members
$15 Non members
Once you have registered, you will be sent a zoom link for this event via email.
Please note: registrants do not need a PayPal account to make payment for this workshop. You can enter your credit card information as usual and the payment will be deducted from your account. PayPal simply processes the payment.
Based on her book, "Dream Theatres of the Soul", Dr. Raffa has created and will present a PowerPoint presentation that explains how a person's night dreams address various aspects of the psyche and how to identify and work with them to acquire greater self-knowledge. It describes what she calls the five "dream theatres" of Ego, Persona, Shadow, Anima/Animus, and Self. To illustrate this reality Dr. Raffa will share five of her Big dreams and the personal meaning she extracted from them which initiated and shaped her journey into wholeness.
During a Q & A session, participants are invited to bring a dream of their own they'd like to work with. Sharing is strictly voluntary.
Award-winning author,
Dr. Jean Raffa is a former television producer and college professor who, with the help of Jungian psychology, began following her passions for self-discovery, spiritual meaning, empowering the feminine in all of us, and writing during mid-life. Her books are "The Bridge to Wholeness: A Feminine Alternative to the Hero Myth, Dream Theatres of the Soul: Empowering the Feminine Through Jungian Dream Work", the Wilbur Award-Winning "Healing the Sacred Divide: Making Peace with Ourselves, Each Other, and the World", and the Nautilus Silver Medal award-winning "The Soul's Twins".
Learn more about Dr. Raffa at her website:
https://jeanbenedictraffa.com/
"Personal Narrative: Transforming Haunting Ghosts into Healing Guests"
with Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph. D.
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
7-9 PM EST - This is a Zoom Event
$17 CIL members
$20 Non members
Once you have registered, you will be sent a zoom link for this event via email.
Please note: registrants do not need a PayPal account to make payment for this workshop. You can enter your credit card information as usual and the payment will be deducted from your account. PayPal simply processes the payment.
Rather than conceptualize the power of ghosts that haunt us, I offer a personal narrative of ghost energies that have shaped my life for decades. In the creation of this story, I discovered the single most central archetype that has given this ghostly presence its unlimited energy.
James Hollis's illuminating text, Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives (2013/2015), has been a major inspiration for these reflections. They led me to consider an alternative to dispelling our ghosts: inviting them in as guests. The shift from haunting ghosts to healing guests can offer a new story to live by, one that constructs our identity more fully and generously on our individuation pilgrimage.
Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. has been teaching for over fifty years, from elementary special education teacher to secondary school students, and on to undergraduate and graduate students. He has taught at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture for ten years as well as the Fairhope Institute for Teachers for seven years in Fairhope, Alabama. He is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Pacifica Graduate Institute, a Fellow of the Dallas Institute and faculty member of The Jung Platform, directed by therapist Machiel Klerk. He has also taught student inmates in a major California prison using the thought of Joseph Campbell on personal myth.
Dr. Slattery is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 33 volumes, including seven volumes of poetry and one co-authored novel, as well as dozens of articles, podcasts and op-eds in newspapers and magazines. His most recent publications include The Way of Myth: Stories' Subtle Wisdom and The Fictions in Our Convictions: Essays on the Cultural Imagination.
Learn more about Dr. Slattery at his website:
https://www.dennispatrickslattery.com/bio
Past Events and Speakers
David Whyte
Noted Poet & Author.
“The Frontier of our Lives: Courageous Steps & Radical Simplifications” (2002)
View his website here.
Ysaye Barnwell
Ysaye Maria Barnwell is an American singer and composer. Barnwell was a member of the African American a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1979 to 2013.
Dr. James Finley
Student of Thomas Merton and clinical psychologist, Dr. James Finley teaches how connecting to our Divine indwelling can transcend fear and shame and awaken to our True Self. A faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation, he is the author of "Merton’s Palace of Nowhere" and "The Contemplative Heart", and the host of CAC’s podcast Turning to the Mystics.
Dr. Alan Fox
Alan Fox is an awarded Professor of Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy Department at the University of Delaware.
Thomas Moore
Best-selling author, Therapist, Speaker
"Care of the Soul" and "A Religion of One's Own" (2014)
View his website here.
Christian Wiman
Noted Poet, translator, editor, and essayist. “Hammer Is Prayer” (2016)
View his website here.
Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault
Principal Teacher and Advisor to the Contemplative Society.
"The Wisdom Way of Knowing" (2006)
View her website here.
John Phillip Newel
John Philip Newell, PhD, is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being.
View his website here.
Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor, sometimes called the “Johnny Appleseed of Dreamwork,” He was an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and had worked with dreams for over sixty years.
View his website here.
Carrie Newcomer
Carrie Newcomer is an American singer, songwriter and author. She has produced 19 solo CDs and has received numerous awards for her music and related charitable activities.
View her website here.
Dr. Marcus Borg
Leading historical Jesus scholar
"New Insights into the Nature of God" (2003
"God, Faith, Transformation: A New Way of Looking at our Religious Traditions" (2005),
"Being Christian in the 21st Century" (October 2012)
View his website here.
Sam Keen
Author and co-producer of an award winning PBS documentary, "Faces of the Enemy". His work was the subject of a PBS special "Your Mythic Journey with Sam Keen.
A Spirited Life in a Secular Age" (2011)
View his website here.
Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox is a spiritual theologian, an Episcopal priest and an activist for gender justice and eco-justice. He has written 37 books including "Original Blessing". Fox is the founder of the University of Creation Spirituality in California.
View his website here.
Roger Housden
"Love Language: Writing Your Heart Out
Author, Speaker, Writing Guide"
View his website here.
Jim Wallis
Jim Wallis is the Director of Center on Faith and Justice and inaugural chair in Faith and Justice at the McCourt School of Public Policy.
View his website here.
Monica Wikman
Pregnant Darkness: Alchemy and the Rebirth of Consciousness was published by Nicolas-Hayes in 2005
View his website here.
Brian McClaren
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for "a new kind of Christianity"
View his website here.
Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eisenstein is the author of numerous essays and books, including "Sacred Economics", "Climate—A New Story", and "The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible".
View his website here.