Hi all:
(Update: 24June2010: We actually haven’t started yet, but if this sounds interesting, email me your skype name and I’ll add you to the list for when we get started… soon! :-)
A handful of our local (Rogue Valley, Oregon around the Ashland/Medford area) ACIM enthusiasts from the Wed. evening ACIM/DU group have been having way too much fun (at the ‘post meetings’ on Wed. evenings we call our ‘after parties’) to not extend it, so we thought it would be fun to have an informal Skype chat on a regular (or semi-regular) basis and just see where it leads… Skype (if you haven’t already used it) is a free application you can download and install on your computer with just a few clicks that allows free teleconferencing with video and audio (if just between two computers) and audio (if teleconferencing between 3 or more computers.) I’ve used it for several years and find it’s much better than the phone in many cases and best of all, free! (You call also use it for computer to phone and phone to computer calls for a reasonable rate, which is how skype is able to subsidize the free service. I’ve talked with friends and family in Europe, Australia, Canada and all over the US.
Here’s Jonathan‘s comments on the idea (from our recent meeting talking about this fun idea):
“Our Course study group is morphing into an experiential group as we share and offer insights into the practice of forgiveness, and how it continues to clear up our murky perspective on the world and our lives. We’re guided to extend the love and celebration, and so invite you to do the same! All students feeling called to the Course or connected works by Ken Wapnick, Gary Renard, and others are welcome. With close to 20 years of the Course combined between us, we realize that this is not an easy path, and even if it doesn’t feel so loving and celebratory at times, we aspire to offer a safe space with whatever transpires as a gift toward healing our minds with the love of the Holy Spirit.”
Anyway, we thought we’d give it a go and start an informal chat session this coming Monday (June 14, 2010) at 7PM PDT (for an hour or two) and just see how it goes. It could be a lot of fun! The intention is to share the same sort of inspiration, heart-to-heart connections and support for our mutual (eternal) interest as we do with all of our other (wonderful!) local study groups, just without the gasoline and logistics for carpooling, driving, parking, etc.
At some point, we could record the sessions and put them online (It’s quite easy to upload audio, and I think it might be fun to share with folks via the web. I sure enjoy a wide variety of online media from other ACIM students, ranging from Gary Renard & Gene Bogart’s podcasts, to videos from Nouk Sanchez & Tomas Vieira and Ken Wapnick, to Regina Dawn Akers‘ audio recordings, Philip Urso’s “Crash Course In Miracles” podcasts and much more; all of these have been inspirations to share our common interest in undoing the ego and it’s sneaky made up unconscious guilt in a fun and enjoyable way. There’s lots of audio and video and other resource links on ACIMblog already, BTW, if you haven’t checked them out…
If you are interested, there’s really only a couple of steps, and the first one you only need to do once.
1) Visit http://www.skype.com with your web browser (e.g. Firefox) and follow the (relatively simple) instructions to install it. (You don’t need a video camera to use skype, but it is very fun for 1-to-1 chats. We’re going to just use audio for now.)
2) Email me your skype address, with “ACIM skype chat” in the subject heading.
This way I can add you to my skype ACIM list (different from the Wed. study group email list); since there’s no geographic boundary (aside from perhaps 7PM possibly not being a convenient time for someone in London perhaps :-), there’s no reason we can’t invite ACIM-minded friends from around the planet. Please forward to anyone you think might be interested… The current limit is 25 (including the one who initiates the skype conference call) but we’ll deal with that when we get to that point. :-)
Then I’ll make a list of all the folks who want to get a ‘skype call’ Mon. evening at 7PM, and we’ll chat about ACIM with whoever show up! :-)
Since we’re not limited to just the Rogue Valley (although the off-planet connections are problematic for a while), this little invite is for any ‘serious’ student of ACIM. This page is where I’ll also post announcements for folks that just want to spontaneously attend any of the future sessions…
If you’re not interested in the ongoing idea, after trying it out, just let me know and I’ll remove you from the skype-chat list. If you’re busy or not interested in a particular session, just ignore the call (if you have skype running on your computer)
when it comes in (just like a regular phone call in that sense). Pretty easy, huh! :-)
Hope to see and/or skype with you soon!
Eternal smilezenhugs! :-)
