Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:00] Speaker B: I want to welcome everybody to a little conversation with Henry Curtella. We have an ongoing series of collaborations through the years, don't we?
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Yes, it sounds like we're doing more podcasts, and now we're doing workshops together, and it's a fun collaboration we're developing.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Tell everyone a little bit about the podcast.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Well, it's under the umbrella of Amberlight International, which is the nonprofit that I co direct with my partner, Kathleen Mean. That organization is a nonprofit spiritual educational. We were really inspired by the universal spiritual sufi message of Anayakan, who came from India. He's really talking about the perennial philosophy, finding the themes that flow through so many different traditions. But there's an essence to all of them. A thread that runs through all of them does so much to help us not get caught up in forms, dogmas. And so we started to explore that more and more, using what we knew as a foundation. But we began to see how everything was starting to fit together. So we developed a series of podcasts that we call chemical dialogues. The idea behind alchemy from a spiritual or mystical point of view is changed, and Carl Jung was heavily into alchemy. He learned to apply it in his psychological know.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: You've talked about Amberlight international and alchemical dialogues and the non denominational spiritual explorations that are found in amberlight. And I'm just wondering, what brings us together is sort of like the unraveling Religion podcast. And sort of, if you could speak for a minute about the cross collaboration between alchemical dialogues and the Unraveling Religion podcast.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Well, I think you should talk about unraveling religions and ground and sky and your education and training center.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: So unraveling religion actually began in 2007, if you can believe that. Since that time, I've been interviewing deep explorations of people who have really examined the mechanisms and pieces of what comprise our psychology, our spirituality in relation to religion and psychology. Unraveling religion has 43 shows. The reason for unraveling religion really ties into sort of the support of mental health. When we have a strong existential or spiritual foundation, it so deeply enhances our ability to cope with stresses in our mental health. If we do not have a strong spiritual or existential foundation, oftentimes when stress comes at us or difficulties or obstacles that are moderate or significant, we are less able to handle and cope with those events and traumas which can spin off into symptoms and conditions that are mental health distress. So that's really the whole point of unraveling religion. Out of that, I have another program, education training center was established in 2013, but founded 2023, incorporated as a 501. And it really seeks to address mental health distress and its marginalization. When we see trauma or psychological distress, isolate us and keep us from relationship and connection. Education Training center really seeks to support that through a series of programs and services. Some of the services that we provide are counseling services. We provide consultancy for organizations about mental health. We do trainings in mental health first aid and safe zone training, which is for the LGBTQ plus community. And then we have community events. And then some of the programs of education training center are, as I mentioned, unraveling religion. There's ground and sky poetry series. There's Kyose Meditation program. There's also Manjushri Press where we publish books and then oak tree films. And so those are the programs and services of education training center. And so all that is the whole impetus of education training center is to support mental health. I was just wondering, Henry, if we could talk a little bit about our collaboration that we're coming up for 2024. Spirituality and everyday life.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: So we've been on each other's podcasts.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Yes, we have been.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: We are co hosting an event, ground and sky poetry, but the Amber Light edition. We just co hosted a workshop about the importance of connections and relationships. So we've decided that we're going to do four workshops in 2024. So the theme for the year is spirituality in everyday life. That's really what we're talking about. It's in your everyday life. It's part of your being. That's what we're going to explore in a series of four workshops during the year.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: And do you feel like sort of sharing the four topics that we're going to address in 2024?
[00:04:56] Speaker A: We have the spirituality of relationship and mentoring, spirituality and psychology and mental health, spirituality of service and spirituality in the arts.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't tell you how excited I am because you go into it. You and I will go into it with a general idea theme. What opens for people is so exciting. The collaboration and how you see things in a certain light that I'm able to piece things together that I've been putting builds a kind of sanctity in the community, a sanctified sharedness, a trust, an implicit trust, and a growth toward the community, toward a wisdom.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: The wisdom starts coming through the community, starts coming through all of us, but at the same time, know that there's so much that everybody has and that fits with the whole theme, with spirituality in everyday life.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: In February, May, August, November, we are very excited to offer this series of experiences, events, spirituality and everyday life.
