The May meeting of the New Hope Metaphysical Society was an unusual one in that we invited audience participation as the main form of “edu-tainment” for the evening. Entitled “Spiritual Poetry and Storytelling Jam (or Slam, if you will), we invited members of the NHMS community to share stories/ poems and accounts of their own spiritual journies, mystical experiences, synchronistic events or paranormal encounters and the like.
Many of us in the NHMS community juggle between two worlds, the one of materiality and spirituality. Often, these two worlds do not match or validate one another. So, we felt it was important to offer people an opportunity to validate their spiritual experiences as they have little opportunity to do so within the confines of a conventional “9-5″ world. So we took it upon ourselves to create a forum at our May Meeting where people could express their deepest, most imtimate spiritual selves without fear, ridicule or rejection.
So, the response to this call was small but intimate. About twelve people showed up, but all who came were very interested in participating and had a lot to share. Since we had a small group to work with, we moved our chairs into a circle. Loretta Vasso facilitated the circle and called on each one of us to share with the group poem or story. Jim DeSantis read his poem about reincarnation, I read my story about my moonlit night walks and how I connected to Mother Earth and the energies of nature, Tracie Nichols shared her story about connecting to the spirit of a mountain in Wyoming (Sage Mt.) and how she cleared negative emotional energy from it, another woman shared her stories of visiting South American shamans as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company and how she took a ‘trip’ with the hallucinogenic drug Iowashka (I’m not sure of the spelling!) One man talked about the spiritual value of mentoring poverty stricken kids in North Philadelphia, and my husband, in similar fashion, talked about the spiritual aspects of working in the poverty stricken city of Camden and how there are positive forces operating now to regenerate the city. All in all, it was quite a fascinating evening and quite emotionally moving. We all felt a close bond to each other for sharing so deeply and intimately about our personal experiences. Many in the group emailed or called us just to say how much they enjoyed the evening and how powerful an experience it was for them.
So, because this was such a great experience for all involved, we will be offering more programs like this in the future. For we want the NHMS community to continue to have the opportunity to share their spiritual journies together in an atmosphere that is supportive, nurturing and validating. We feel we can do so within the context of these type of audience participation programs and creative formats.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our first Spiritual Poetry and Storytelling Jam, they were the pioneers and courageous souls who took the first step to a greater sharing and validating of our hearts, our minds and ultimately, our spirits!
Amy Bortner-Gialuco, Managing Director
New Hope Metaphysical Society