Our meeting times are:

2nd 1st Day (Sunday): After 11am Meeting (~12:30) at the Meetinghouse

4th 1st Day (Sunday): 5:30pm potluck in one of our homes.

To find the location of the potluck, call Joseph at 612-272-6461. To get on the Young Adult Friends e-mail list-serve, contact Matthew at matthewfbyrnes@gmail.com

Many of you have heard me be enthusiastic about Mary Conrow Coelho’s book,
Awakening Universe, Emerging Personhood: The Power of Contemplation in an Evolving Universe (which I will abbreviate as AUEP)

For many months I have said I will be leading a reading group on it, because I see in Mary’s version of  “The New Universe Story“  the possibility of sane, spirit-filled, conversation among all the peoples of the world.

Now I find myself in the embarrassing position of having a new enthusiasm that is pulling my attention away from Mary’s work, even though I continue to think her work is profoundly important.

My new enthusiasm is involvement in the Transition Town movement, getting our local communities ready for the transition from today’s petroleum-based industrial civilization to a slower world, one more in harmony with the natural rhythms of Gaia.

“But wait!!” one faction of my inner committee says, “You can’t start bringing the Transition movement to your local community until you’ve shared how important Mary Coelho’s work is!“
It’s a crisis of loyalties on my inner committee.
So here’s the compromise we’ve worked out:

I am setting aside my original ideas of leisurely discussions of the book, going over it one chapter at a time.
The urgency I feel about making optimistic plans for the coming world means I will compress what AUEP means to me into four one-hour sessions,
and I will highlight Mary’s vision as the best description we have of our underlying reality, an understanding of reality that will be crucial, in the tumultuous times ahead.

I will offer this as a workshop/seminar in July and August, second and fourth Sundays, 9:45 to 10:45, at the Twin Cities Friends Meetinghouse.

Each session will be open to anyone on a drop-in basis, although my presentations will be geared as much as possible to people who have come to the previous sessions.

July 11

Overview of seminar
Overview of peak-oil/climate change/Transition Town movement, and the need for spiritual underpinnings.
Intro to Mary Coelho’s Awakening Universe Emerging Personhood (AUEP)

July 25

The first two major sections of AUEP, through page 128.

August 8

Sections III & IV of AUEP

August 22

Section V of AUEP
Summary and Next Steps for moving into a new society, a new relationship to each other and the Earth.

• I need to remind myself these will be only one-hour sessions
• I can’t possibly do justice to the material in this time-frame, but I need to get started with a synthesis of Transition Town and AUEP.
• I imagine each hour will begin with a 30-minute presentation followed by discussion. Hopefully further discussion can happen online.
• On alternate Sundays in the same time slot we will have Experiment With Light, practice sessions. I see Experiment With Light not only as traditional Quaker practice, but also as a practical application of Mary Coelho’s thought.

For people who already know what Experiment With Light is, and who are still looking for opportunities to practice, we plan to host practice sessions on the Sundays of July 4 & 18, and August 1 & 15.

All are welcome. You may come to any one session without participation in any of the others.

However, we assume you have some background (see above).

We will gather at 9:45. Please do not arrive after the Meditation prompts begin, promptly at 10:00. We will be using the 20-minute program which many people already know.

Friends are encouraged to bring writing materials, and at the end of the meditation there will be time for journaling or sketching.

We will close with a few minutes of optional sharing about our experiences, ending right at 10:45, with plenty of time to get to 11AM Worship.

If you are thinking you would like to be part of a group, please click here and fill in times you would be available to meet.

Happily, I have heard good reports from people using the Experiment With Light (EWL) process.

Several people would like an opportunity to learn more about EWL, experience the meditation and perhaps join a meditation group, so I am scheduling a final “Launch Session” at the TCFM Meeting House.

May 2, 1:15 – 3:PM

This Sunday session will be a repeat of the one done April 18 and will include a chance to participate in the basic “Meditation on the Individual” developed by Rex Ambler. There will also be a chance to ask questions. We will also include a period of group-formation.

In earlier EWL posts on this website I have already offered almost everything I have.

EWL-1

This presents background information on EWL, with the basic instructions in Fox’s language and in Ambler’s, and some of my thinking about why this is valuable.

EWL-2

At the beginning and end of this post are links to valuable resources. The middle relates to the February Launch Sessions and is out of date unless you are thinking about leading a future Launch Session yourself.

EWL-3

This post contains practical suggestions for how a EWL group would get itself up and running.

EWL-4

Most of the important stuff in EWL-4 is repeated in this post.

Sunday April 18, 1:15 – 3:00 PM

There will likely be a second meeting in this series

Sunday May 2, same time

I (Richard Fuller) am announcing these times now so that people can plan for them, even though the details have yet to be worked out.

Earlier EWL events have been warmly received. I have learned from them, and am changing things to reflect those lessons.

Basically, we will cover the same ground as in the earlier meetings. Almost everything I have to offer on the topic can be found in the earlier posts: EWL-1, EWL-2 and EWL-3. As we get closer to the meeting date I will re-cast this material as I see it applying to this pair of meetings.

More on the April 18 meeting

That’s potluck Sunday. If you come to 11:00 worship, you are encouraged either to eat at potluck or to bring a brown bag lunch and eat in the conference room. We will get the meeting underway when people are done eating, not before 1:15, but perhaps a little later, depending on how slow the potluck line is.

This meeting is open to all friends in all Quaker meetings in the area.

If you think you might come to the April 18 meeting, it would help me to know what background you have with EWL, and what most interests you, for 4/18 and 5/2. I have created a little poll at Doodle.com that I would like you to take, so I have a better sense of the needs and interests you-all will be bringing.

If you also think you might like to be part of an ongoing EWL group, I would like to know in advance, as I am trying to develop a scheduling process that will work better than the one we used in the last round. I’m trying a poll at Doodle.com. Click here to go to the poll and fill in your availability. No commitment, just availability.

Or, please send times during the week when you would be available for a regular monthly meeting to Richard.Osbo.Fuller[at]gmail[dot]com. If you don’t have access to the internet, please write days and times you are regularly available on a piece of paper and give it to me or mail it to me.

• A private home?
• TCFM’s “New Classroom,”
  or one of the classrooms in the old building,
  or the Grotto?

2. Your group needs to decide on what format your meetings will have.

In Britain, Lois interviewed Bronwen, who had been part of an EWL group that has met monthly for 10 years. She described that group’s format.
The group begins by doing a check-in (5 minutes each) sharing what has happened in their lives since they met last.
They follow the steps on the recorded meditation which take about ½ hour.
They each separate (go into different rooms or the garden) and reflect for about 20 minutes on what has occurred for them during the previous half hour.
They regather and share for 5 minutes each what has emerged for them, or they can choose to pass.  The process takes about two hours.
They have tea together after the meeting.

Bronwen said the following expectations & understandings keep the group purpose clear and distinguish it from a therapy or support group.

Expectations/Understandings:

• There needs to be a selection process for group membership
• People are encouraged to try 4-6 meetings before deciding whether they want to continue
• When people have made a commitment, the group is closed.  If someone leaves, the group decides whether to replace that person.
• After the session, people should plan the next session
• Groups of 5-7 people are optimal (otherwise the meeting would take too long)
• Group members do not question or comment what others have said; they can ask for clarification if they don’t understand what has been said
• Personal boundaries need to be clear
• People should not expect revelations – sometimes ideas, images might emerge days after the session (not every understanding is in the form of words)
• Rex Ambler focuses on concerns “What are your concerns?”  However, in Bronwen’s group they focus on whatever emerges as important, significant – could be joyous
• No one is in the lead
• The Light shows you what to understand and what to take action on; it will not show more than you can deal with

A group that is forming will benefit from discussing what format, expectations & understandings seems right for them. Which of these from Bronwen’s group do you want to adopt? Modify? What would your group add?

3. I think the biggest challenge may be getting a satisfactory set-up with the meditation prompts.

(I have some suggestions, but I don’t have a standard solution that will work for everybody.)

First Principle: It is good to have a recording.

(You can have a group member keep track of the time and read the prompts at the right intervals, but to focus on doing this means that person can’t really open themselves up to the meditation. At least most people can’t.)

Questions related to a recording.

• Will you use a cassette tape?
• Or some sort of recording that gets played on:
  A CD player?
  A computer?
  A MP3 music player?

The choices around a recording interact a little with the location you choose to meet in. If you meet in a home, it makes sense to rely on whatever sound system is available there. If you meet at the meetinghouse, you’ll need something portable you can bring.

Your group will need to decide on the length and wording of the meditation they want to use.

(See “technical notes about recordings,” below, if you want to hear more of my suggestions.)

For the EWL launch meetings I’m using a mp3 sound track recorded by Eric Ambler that lasts just under 20 minutes, which I bought from QuakerBooks.org.

On the Charlie Blackfield website there are free, down-loadable mp3 recordings that run from 30 minutes to 40 minutes long.

Technical notes about recordings

For people with cassette recorders,

probably the easiest thing is to make a recording in your voice, using one of the following sets of prompts.

Short Form of the EWL Meditation prompts based on Rex Ambler’s original

1. Relax body and mind.  Start by making yourself perfectly comfortable and consciously release the tension in each part of your body.  Then relax your mind.  Let yourself become wholly receptive.
2. In this receptive state of mind, let the real concerns of your life emerge.  Ask yourself, ‘What is really going on in my life?’ but do not try to answer the question.  Let the answer come.
3. Now focus on one issue that presents itself.  Keep a little distance, so that you can see it clearly.  Let the light show you what is happening.  Ask yourself, ‘What is really going on here?’  Let the answer come.  It may be a phrase or an image that comes, showing you what’s happening.
4. Now ask yourself, ‘Why is it like that?’  Don’t try to explain it.  Just wait in the light and let the answer come.
5. When the answer comes, welcome it.  If it is the truth, you will recognize it immediately, even if it seems painful or difficult.  Trust the light.  Submit to it.  It will then begin to heal you.
6. As you accept what is being revealed to you, you will begin to feel different.  Accepting the truth about yourself is like making peace.  Your body may respond quite noticeably to this change.  This is the beginning of changes that the light may bring about.  It can show you new possibilities for your life.
   (But if none of this happens on this occasion, do not worry.  Notice how far you have got this time and pick it up again another time.)
7. When you feel ready, open your eyes, stretch and bring the process to an end.

Brief Experiment with Light Prompts

1. Relax your body and mind.
2. In this receptive state of mind, let the real concerns of your life emerge.
3. Now focus on one issue that presents itself.  Ask yourself ‘What is really going on here?’  Let the answer come.
4. Now ask yourself ‘Why is it like that?’
5. When the answer comes, welcome it.
6. As soon as you accept what is being revealed to you, you will begin to feel different.  It’s like making peace.
7. When you feel ready, open your eyes, stretch your limbs, and bring the meditation to an end.

(There are other prompts for meditations printed in PDF format on the http://www.charlieblackfield.com/light/medits.htm website. You can choose one or modify one to your liking, and then record it in your own voice, tailoring the silences to the total length of time you want it to be. )

If you want to use a recording on a basic CD player, I have CDs available with a 19-minute recording

with prompts very similar to the “Brief…Prompts,” above. (Such a standard CD recording is called an “analog recording.”)

If you want to play a recording on a Computer, or similar digital device that plays “mp3s”,

I have digital CDs available with the 19-minute recording on them. These disks also have recordings focused on groups of people and on the world, and several audio lectures by Rex. These are copies of a package sold by QuakerBooks.org (above), and we would want to reimburse them $12 for any copy I distribute.

What I NOW know about digital recordings

I have recently learned that there is a difference between regular music (and other audio) Compact Disks that have been around for years and some newer recordings called “MP3″ which may be recorded on the same kind of silver disk, but need a newer kind of CD player. Only the newer CD players are able to play the CDs that have MP3s burned onto them, in addition to the “regular audio (analog) CDs”. If a CD player can play MP3s, it will likely say so somewhere on the player. If your CD player doesn’t say that, it probably won’t play any of the MP3 EWL meditations mentioned above.

During her presentation and after, I have received much interest and good advice about the upcoming three sessions, outlined below.

General thoughts about the 3 launch sessions

I have two audiences I’m presenting to: Observers and Engagers.
Observers are friends who want to learn more about what Experiment With Light is, but probably don’t want to be in an Experiment With Light Group.
Engagers think they want to be in a 5-8 person group that meets regularly for several months, working with the EWL process. They may know some of the people they would like to have in their group and may feel nearly ready to go. At the other extreme, there may be some folks who are pessimistic about finding group members who can meet at a time that is good for them. In either case, Engagers think that they might like to be part of a group, if things work out.

February 15 is for Observers. Engagers are also encouraged to come. The focus is on:

• What is Experiment With Light?
• Where did it come from?
• What do these people do in the EWL groups?
• How might I become part of such a group?

I will try very hard to end by 8:30. This will allow time for Observers to discuss what has happened informally and it will be an opportunity for Engagers and potential Engagers seek each other out and to have preliminary conversations.

February 22 is for Engagers. Observers are welcome. The focus of the evening activities is to make it as comfortable as possible for Engagers and potential Engagers to

1. Find a group of people who can meet when they can meet.
2. “Try the process on for size” with this potential group, to see how they feel when they are in the middle of it.

March 1 is for Engagers. I do not expect to present any new material or offer any new experiences. The evening will focus on supporting groups that have formed and are launching, and also individuals and groups that still need more people or more something else, before they are ready to go.
I won’t have much idea of my March 1 plans until the end of the Feb. 22 session, and a lot will not be decided until March 1, when we see who shows up, and what they need.

Experiences in a EWL group will touch tender places, as do many spiritual experiences. I think people are likely to have their best experiences if the group is fairly compatible, and feels safe to each participant. Therefore I encourage people to seek out friends with whom they would like to share the experience, and to personally encourage them. I hope Engagers will come to the Launch Meetings with half a mind of who they want to be in a group with, as well as an openness to people they don’t know who seem to be on their wavelength.

More sessions in March or April

Several people have already expressed regret at not being able to make the these first sessions. While I’m not promising anything until the end of this series, I’m inclined to offer the series again this spring, on weekend afternoons.

(EWL groups are welcome to form outside of this process. This is not like the NYM spiritual-nurture process, where there was an oversight body that kept track of things. Once a group of people decides they want to do EWL together they just do it, as they see fit. The Launch Meetings are designed to get them off to a good start, but that’s it.)

Monday Feb. 15 Meeting: Orientation

7PM at TCFM.

1.    Welcome, Handouts.
2.    Short Intro lecture.
3.    Q&A
4.    Short-form EWL exercise, 30 minutes, including a little time at the end for making notes. No small groups sharing.
5.    Anticipate second session.
6.    Close by 8:30, or not long after,
allowing time to mingle, discuss, and find kindred souls.

Monday Feb 22:  Form-up of tentative groups and a meditation session with optional sharing.

7PM at TCFM.

1. Brief Intro.
2. Participants will have a chance to see who is available at times they are available.
3. Based on this experience, we will settle into “try-it-on-for-size-groups” to do the EWL excercise.
4. Exercise:  Same as 4 above, but this time followed by optional sharing in the small groups, five minutes each.
5. Anticipate the third session.
6. Close around 8:30.

Monday March 1: Follow-up & Support Session

7PM at TCFM.

• Established groups looking for another member or two, or just wanting another practice session before launching on their own.
• Folks still looking to get into a group
• Time for provisionally-formed groups to
  • Settle on how many sessions they want to meet for, before doing an evaluation.
  • Each group might review the Friargate group’s suggested guidelines and reach consensus on what specific guidelines their group will use.
  • Agree on a time, place and convener for their meeting.
  • Get sound recordings or other materials they may not have been able to obtain on their own.

More Resources

Free resources available at:

http://www.charlieblackfield.com/light/

There are lots of audio downloads, including several versions of the meditations. And talks by Rex Ambler, like  Early Friends and the Light, an introductory talk by Rex, given at a residential workshop in Oxfordshire:

There are also  .PDF files, with printed versions of the meditations.

Available from Quaker Books Philadelphia:

Downloadable audio and text

Experiment With Light Mp3s

A Set Of 9 Audio Files And 3 Text Files In .pdf Format

BY REX AMBLER, RE-MASTERED BY MADISON MONTHLY MEETING
These are the remastered Mp3 audio files, prepared by Madison Monthly Meeting, of Rex Ambler’s ‘Experiment with Light’ process lectures and meditations. Ambler examines early Friends experiences of the Light and then describes a practice for modern Friends that can help them access the Light to transform themselves and, then, to look more outwardly. “The discipline of light as practiced by early Friends is a practical discipline which opens up the truth about ourselves and the world and transforms our relationship with them.” Audio files include a lecture by Rex Ambler on the process and five meditations for individuals and groups. An outline for a 4-session course included. Mp3 download.

Books

Rex Ambler: Light to live by – an exploration in Quaker spirituality

A brief introduction to the Experiment with Light, originally presented in German as the 2001 Cary Lecture.

Truth of the Heart: an anthology of George Fox

edited by Rex Ambler

John Lampen (ed.): Seeing, Hearing, Knowing – reflections on Experiment with Light

A recent book built around personal stories of spiritual search and discovery arising from the practice. It is intended for those who use Experiment with Light or wish to know more about it. First published in 2008.

The books are also available from www.QuakerBooks.org and other places.
Some may also be available as audio books from the British website Talking Friends.

Richard Fuller

By Richard Fuller

BACKGROUND

The most wonderful and terrifying thing George Fox said was that we can all have a direct connection with the Divine. We do not need priests or other intermediaries to give us guidance about how to live our lives. This got George into a lot of trouble in the mid-1600s and many of his followers, as well. And yet there must have been something to it, as the movement now called the Religious Society of Friends persists, even without the hierarchical structure and accumulated wealth of an established church. In the late 20^th century a British Friend, Rex Ambler, studied Fox’s writings very carefully, along with the writings of some other influential Friends of Fox’s time. It seemed to him that George had a program for tuning to the Inner Light, even though he never systematized it in his writings. Rex distilled out the steps of this program and has been using them himself and presenting them to Quaker groups for most of this decade. Over 100 Experiment with Light groups have sprung up as a result of Ambler’s work. Of course these Quaker groups have added their own variations and refinements to Fox’s program, as Ambler understood it, but the basic steps, simplified to their minimum, follow the same form.

Here is that form, assembled in Fox’s original language.

Experiment with Light (EWL) meditation by Klaus Huber, August 2000, using edited passages from George Fox’s writings

(When this is done as a meditation there are several minutes of silence after each step.)

1. Keep within. For the measure is within, and the light is within, and the pearl is within you.

2. Let the light that shines in everyone of your consciences, search you thoroughly, and it will let you clearly see. As the light opens and exercises your conscience, it will let you see invisible things, which are clearly seen by that which is invisible in you.

3. As the light appeared, all appeared that is out of the light, darkness, death, temptations, the unrighteous, the ungodly; all was manifest and seen in the light.

4. Do not look at the temptations, confusions, corruptions, but at the light that discovers them. For looking down at corruption and distraction, you are swallowed up in it; but looking at the light that discovers them, you will see over them. There is the first step to peace.

5. The light will lead you out of darkness into the light of life, into the way of peace and into the life and power of truth.

6. Living in the truth ye live in the love and unity. In the light walk, and ye will shine.

Here are the same steps, with a double variation. They were written by Rex Ambler in modern English, and this is his variation focused on “the world,” rather than “the individual.” (Because here I am offering the conceptual outline rather than the full one-page meditation guide, I have trimmed out much of Rex’s supporting text.)

1. Relax body and mind. Start by making yourself perfectly comfortable…. We want to know the truth about our world. So let yourself become wholly receptive.

2. In this receptive state of mind, let the real issues of the world emerge. Ask yourself: “What is really going on in the world? … Don’t try to answer yourself. Let the answer come. Let the light show you what is happening.

3. Now focus on one issue that presents itself, … let a word or image come that says what it’s really like, what it is that touches you.

4. Now ask yourself what makes it like that. … then wait for an image, a word, a memory. Be open to the truth, hard though it may be, and it will surely be revealed to you.

5. When the answer comes, welcome it.

6. Now finally, consider how you need to act.

When you feel ready, open your eyes, stretch your limbs, and bring the meditation to an end.

Both these forms of the Experiment with Light meditation are from published sources, and both can be found at: http://www.charlieblackfield.com/light/

This website is an excellent place to begin your own investigation.

Also,  www.QuakerBooks.org has seven related resources. Searching QuakerBooks.org for “Ambler” and then for “experiment” will display them all. The most basic book to start with is Rex’s Light to Live By. It’s short, readable, personal and presents Rex’s basic discovery process, and the resulting practice he developed. Ambler has also compiled an anthology of Fox’s writings, titled Truth of the Heart.

The TCFM library also has resources.

In early 2010

Lois Yellowthunder presented a general introduction to EWL at the January 31 Adult Ed hour.

We will had two “Launch Meetings” not long after. Our goals were:

1. Give anyone in TCFM who is curious about the Experiment With Light (EWL) exercise the basic information and a chance to practice, briefly.
2. Help one or more ongoing Experiment With Light groups form.
   These should be only five-to-seven people per group. More than this make adequate sharing difficult. Once a group is established, it is on its own, guided by the published materials, Spirit, and the common sense of its members. For this reason, people should select others whom they trust and feel they can work with. There are a variety of issues we will cover like guidelines for sharing and for (not) giving advice.
3. Consider whether, as a Meeting community, we want to do more, hold additional EWL orientation sessions, or whatever.

Why do I think this is a valuable exercise?

I was raised in the religion of scientism, so I was taught to believe that doing something like this was silly. “Superstitious.” I have grown to recognize that my training did not adequately explain the real world I experience. Still, I cannot embrace the “God-He” of popular culture that my parents were reacting against.

Early Quakers were way ahead of me on this one. They were acutely aware of the dangers of the current “Father-God” thinking and they were just as aware that there was “something” available to us. One of the central Quaker beliefs is that the “something” is essentially unnameable. It lives in each of us in a place beyond the reach of words. To worship in silence is an act of faith that “there is something going on.” Something that connects us to…. Fox’s words, above, deliberately point to something beyond the words, using several terms, as if none were adequate.

Rex Ambler points out that, in his early preaching, George usually had only a day or two before he was run out of town. His method of getting in touch with the Inner Light, the Seed, the Pearl, was so simple that it could be taught in this short time, including the Q&A. And then, repeatedly, when Fox or other Quakers returned to one of those towns a year later, they found a group had formed and survived a year under the church radar, practicing their Experiment with Light. The method had put them in touch with a sustaining power.