Change

Dear friend and colleague,
a major shift in my life is taking place. My stay here in Switzerland in the beautiful Gehrenhof in Staefa is nearing completion. I leave this place in deep love and gratitude for the learning and growth that took place here for myself and with my students.
The PsychoPolitical Peace Institute will continue to offer trainings and seminars in New York, USA, in Giessen, Germany and in Bali, Indonesia. Current events
I will spend more of my time in Indonesia, Java and Bali, where over the past few years a beautiful organic garden and retreat center unfolded. You are all invited to come visit and participate. www.jiwadamai.net

Have a great Indian summer,
Margret R.

Christmas seminar at Jiwa Damai, Bali

"I, We and It - aligning with the song of the earth"
We 22 – Tu 28 December 2010
Facilitator Dr. Margret Rueffler
Registration: Current Events
More information: www.jiwadamai.net

The seminar "Aligning with the song of the earth" provides a space where a deep connection with one's own heart and the heart of the earth unfolds. An alignment with the own potential and the potential of the earth in her present process of transformation takes place. A profound acceptance is needed, to see the symptoms of her movements as change. To align deeply with the heart of the earth and welcome the new. Language: depends on participants origin – English, German or both.
A minimum of six to a maximum of ten people is required for the seminar to take place.

Heart Meditation

Aligning with the song of the earth , a seminar experience Tue 22 - Mo 28 December 2009, in Bali with Dr. Margret Rueffler
Jiwa Damai - peace of soul - Agro-Permaculture and Retreat center, Br Bindu , Bali, Indonesia for individuals and groups

The Place is blessed with several natural springs supplying an abundance of crystal clear waters, which, according to the local population are endowed with cleansing and healing powers. The waters feed the pool and nourish the water lily ponds teeming with fish.Nestled in a tropical valley between Denpasar and Ubud at the end of a small Balinese Banjar(village) in a very secluded setting, Jiwa Damai reconnects you to the abundance and life-giving qualities of the earth and nature.An organic garden in this lush tropical setting honors and complements the local environment. More information www.jiwadamai.net

Aligning with Change A seminar in the series of The Psychology of Nations

Date: Sa 21 - Su 22 February
Time:10am -5pm
Fee: $US 300.-

How do I as an individual influence collective happenings? What is the relationship between individual emotions and mass events?
An introduction to the psychology of nations and the power of each individual, and with emphasis on how the individual can have a constructive or destructive impact on larger events.
A step by step discovery of the power of conscious choice and my influence on collective events.

A whole nation, comprised of people of different skin color and cultural backgrounds, chose to change the direction of the US by electing a person of different values than the previous leader.
The Afro- American group in the US fullfilled a dream when the nation consciously chose to elect an Afro-American as president and moved from being victimized into a position of strength.
The rest of the world felt great relief, seeing that change is possible, even more so seeing an Afro-American being elected

How do these individual choices impact you, the nation, the world?
We will explore our gift of the power of conscious choice that makes us an agent for change in order to understand the psychological laws and dynamics as well as the effects of conscious choice and its influence on the whole. What is my role as an individual embedded in a collective?

Dr, Margret Rueffler is a transpersonal psychologist and has explored the psychology of nations for the past 25 years. She teaches internationally and is a consultant and advisor to several institutions on how to introduce values into existing projects. For the past five years her activities have been focused in Indonesia on the prevention of collective violence.

The seminar/workshop will be based on the transpersonal psychological approach that emphasizes honoring the "Self" as the source of innate potential and acknowledging the "Self" in other individuals, groups and nations. We will use meditation, discussion, reflection, guided imagery, land ecture to explore these topics in depth.

for more information: www.pppi.net
To register email info@pppi.net

Yearning for peace

Most people I know, and those I meet yearn for peace. They deeply desire to live in peace. Yet in spite of all yearning, peace seems to retreat more and more to an unreachable distance.

Is peace an unattainable goal?

Peace is the goal of many people and nations. It is often spoken off, thought about and desired; however, it is very rarely experienced directly by individuals and nations.

In some Buddhist countries, like Bhutan in the Himalayas, where the population has lived in peace for many years, it seems that living in peace is only possible when controlled, limited access to the Western technology and its values is allowed.

The Aborigines of Australia lived in deep harmony and peace with each other and the earth when the mostly Western settlers took their lands and repressed their culture.

Why is peace such a distant goal?

Our society thrives on conflict - inner conflicts, conflict with others, with family and at work. We are in conflict with the earth, treating her as an enemy, abusing her. It seems that conflict is an integral part of our Western society and make-up, inherent in our cultural Christian heritage, possibly of humanity as a whole.

The dynamics of conflict, real or projected, lead to to a winner and loser concept and eventually to wars. Conflict is the result of one party's wanting to be right and believing that the other is wrong and should take on the perspective of the first party. If the second party refuses, a conflict ensues.

Personally, I believe that both participants in the conflict are losers, wasting their creative energy. Conflict is the precurser of violence and war, which, on a collective level, may lead to the death of many.

Is it possible to guide one's life energy into working creatively with others, into cooperation? In order to do this, a 180 degree turn and a conscious choice to let go of old habits are needed. Such a change would imply that both participants can be winners.

Ending a conflict and a war does not automatically bring about peace. These acts represent the end of a battle and killing. To live peace requires a deep change of inner attitude and awareness of the unconsciously held beliefs that lead to conflict. Through conscious choice I can allow one's life energy to flow into a dynamic cooperative interaction with others, into life-giving actions. Then I begin to live peace.

Living peace is not possible without inner peace. How can I learn to deal with my own inner conflicts? My change of attitude toward myself and my inner conflicts will allow the peace within to emerge.

Each human being carries the power of peace within. Access to this power, however, seems buried. Peace is carried by the strength of the heart. Peace unfolds and grows where love flows. The time to learn again to listen to the voice of the heart, to turn toward this inner voice of love and wisdom, is now. I can thank the heart for its daily work, pumping the lifegiving blood through the complex system of the body, and thus learn to love myself again. I can also express gratitude to my body as a gift and to the lifegiving earth for bringing it forth and nurturing it.

To live peace is a conscious choice of each human being and needs to be modelled. The unconscious collective belief that conflict is an integral part of our existence, which has been passed on through the generations, prevents lasting peace .

The creation of our inner peace will unfold out of a deep respect for one's self, nurtured by the flow of loving heart energy. It will extend and expand into the outer world, family, work, environment and be manifested in interactions with others. I will begin to honor and respect myself, others and creation. The winner-loser dynamics will become less important and will no longer determine my actions and life. Conflicts will be recognized as a waste of my precious creative energy.

My relationship to the earth as an enemy to be conquered will change. Exploitation and abuse will transform into alignment with the earth's deep nurturing life energy. I will be able to return once more to love her, to honour and respect her as a lifegiving planetary being.

This inner attitude fosters peace. Peace includes all the above. Peace is a process of growth, a state of dynamic cooperation, a vibrational frequency that calms and soothes the many pains and wounds suffered by humans and the earth. This vibration can weave through all beings and allows pain to relax and calm down.

In looking at the recent movements and shaking of the earth, the resulting tsunami and its effects, from this perspective, one can assume that we are in a continuous state of conflict with that which gives us life and nourishment. Wars, atomic explosions and the continuous exploitation of resources and destruction of the earth's atmosphere are abuses that cause major upheavals in the earth's innermost being. Long ago, major upheavals, which made continents move and gave birth to mountain ranges, took place on earth. Most of those changes were caused by the impact of outside shocks, such as meteorites, comets, and possibly small asteroids. Traces of metals foreign to earth have been found on land and in the oceans. The Himalayan mountains contain rudiments of shells from oceans, implying that they were once covered by water.

This time it is different. It is we humans who accelerate the changes and movements of the earth. When a child or an adult is having an emotional outbreak, a catharsis, one holds the person gently in one's arms, soothes him or her until he or she calms down. Yet, the earth, undergoing her process of change, is beaten and punished. Our fear of her declares her the enemy. She does not want to kill her children, and convulses in pain.

Can we, in spite of the many deaths that are a symptom of her pain, turn toward her? Initiate a deep peace with her by aligning with her process? This is what is needed to help her through her process of growth and transformation - to begin to return the love she gave and still gives in form of atmosphere, earth, food and nurturing.

Am I aware of her efforts and pains, when she moves the tectonic plates through earth and I see quakes, followed by volcanic activities which take many human lives? Can I finally learn to turn toward her lovingly, attune to her needs, align with her, and know when she has to move next, as the animals that sense her movements in advance and retreat to a safer place can do?

Can I love her again deeply, with her movements and changes? Peace, within and without, this dynamic state of cooperation, creates a frequency in which the earth can relax. The key to true peace within and without is to nourish the earth with my love, to thank her for her lifegiving nurturing and to be lovingly present throughout her transformation and changes.

Dr. Margret Rueffler

Transpersonal psychologist, internationally known teacher, workshop facilitator and consultant, has published several books and has researched The Psychology of Nations for the past twenty years. She is the founder of the PsychoPolitical Peace Institute, both in New York and Switzerland.

www.pppi.net

PsychoPolitical Peace Institute and Foundation
www.pppi

PsychoPolitical Peace Institute and Foundation
www.pppi.net

The psychology of nations

Working with Manhattan's multicultural population in my New York psychotherapeutic practice, through the years I have encountered clients of many different nationalities and religions. This has afforded me deep insights into the psyches of clients of various nationalities including Jewish ones and even children of holocaust survivors, often of Polish, German, and Russian descent.

One specific therapy session with a young Jewish man whose father came from Germany got me in touch with my theretofore unconscious German national heritage of World War Two and the holocaust.

German-American, born at the end of that war, this came as a genuine surprise to me, especially since the war had taken place before I was born. Exploring this, I found that my personal German heritage moved me deeply. For several years I struggled to accept my previously unacknowledged and unknown guilt and embarrassment of being German.

Recognizing and personally experiencing that inherited psychological pattern allowed me to understand the influence of collective patterns and traumata on the individual as well as the reciprocal influence each individual asserts, via thoughts and actions, on the collective. This influence can be either negative or positive. Once conscious, one has the freedom to choose the way s/he influences their own and collective patterns as well as the resulting national ones.

Clearly, the awareness and recognition of the deep wounds in the soul of a nation caused by the trauma of war (victims and oppressors alike both suffer) afforded me the opportunity to view the behaviour of a nation from quite a different perspective.

The Psychology of Nations: the Model and the Theory grew organically over years of personal experience and application, years which allowed me to research and explore behavioural and international patterns, prevention, and the healing of national traumata and to understand national collective processes. The Psychology of Nations is a wider framework for multiple applications of this awareness which are currently being researched and developed. They are taught theoretically and can be experienced as well.

What is the Psychology of Nations? As a "New Psychology" it is an emerging perspective, a holistic model which views the individual as an intricate part of a national collective. The collective in turn (seen here as a group with the same cultural, religious and linguistic background) is embedded in the consciousness of humanity as a whole. This perception allows one to view it as a living system bound by its own respective laws.

A nation's psychological heritage, individual as well as collective, is lived and expressed in the nation's current concerns, activities, and choices. The understanding of the interconnectedness of the individual and the collective and the power of the individual to influence that collective are basic to the transformation of the national collective unconscious. More, this very understanding brings with it an appreciation of the importance of individual choice and the assessment of the laws and principles which govern a nations development. In short, the complexity, the cycles, and the rhythms of psychopolitical events can and should become conscious.

The Psychology of Nations is based on the inner attitude of honoring the "Self" with its inherent developmental and evolutionary potential as the center and depth of an individual as well as of nations. This allows for the healthy integration of individuals into their respective nations and into the constellation of humanity and the planet itself. This new inner awareness can and inevitably will transform deeply rooted national patterns and lead to changes in the quality of life both of the individual and the collective, allowing them to grow and cooperate in harmony and in alignment with humanity as a whole.

Application: The Psychology of Nations is introducing PsychoPolitical Action Projects, working on location with multi-ethnic groups for the prevention and treatment of violence and collective traumata based on the psychological principles of

Compassion

Empowerment

Choice

Self-Help

in combination with psychological, emotional, financial and material support, and skills training. These projects are applied on location in cooperation with individuals and with sponsoring organizations.

(Healing a Collective, 1994 - 1998, Bakuriani, Rep. of Georgia)

(Can Collective Violence Be Prevented?, 1999 - 2002, Bali, Indonesia)

The Psychology of Nations researches the national psyche as a living system, its development, psychopolitical history, collective traumata and national consciousness within humanity as a whole. Prevention of violence, assessment of multi-ethnic tent ions, their mechanisms and how they develop are emphasized.

The Psychology of Nations can be experienced in seminars which familiarize the participants with the values of compassion, empowerment, choice and self help and which ultimately lead to a new inner attitude.

(Die Ermächtigung des Einzelnen, das Kollektiv zu verändern, etc.)

The Psychology of Nations includes several different areas all of which are applications of this model of consciousness such as PsychoPolitical Action Projects, research and theory, psychological intervention teams et. al, and are all based on the aforementioned values of compassion, empowerment, choice and self help.

Dr. Margret Rueffler, a transpersonal psychologist, is the founder of the PsychoPolitical Peace Institute of New York, USA, and of Staefa, Switzerland. For more than twenty years she has developed and researched "The Psychology of Nations" and trains people both locally and internationally. In addition, she has published books which have been translated into several languages.

PsychoPolitical Peace Foundation

Gehrenhof im Geren 5, CH 8712 Staefa, Tel: +41(0)1 926 8182 Fax: +41(0)1 926 8110

e-mail: found@pppi.net webpage: http://www.pppi.net