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2007 Ways of Knowing Symposium History of Partnership: Inner Connections Life Science Foundation and Center for Spirituality and Healing
As Nancy Nelson turned the pages of her October 1998 Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine, she was struck by the quote next to a woman’s picture and the article entitled, Body and Soul. “This is someone and something our organization might be interested in someday,” she said to herself as she clipped the article to place it in her ‘Ideas’ folder at work. Seven years later Nancy’s insight guided the Life Science Foundation in Excelsior, MN to partner with the organization lead by the woman behind that face. Dynamic and determined, Mary Jo Kreitzer continued to pursue the vision. In 1995 her hard work and that of others culminated in the founding of the Center for Spirituality and Healing in the University of Minnesota’s East Campus Mayo Building. Designed to provide complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) education for the University’s health care students and the public, The Center’s programs had expanded in 1997 and by 1998 Mary Jo was looking for allies. Faculty member Dr. Robert Patterson, a biomedical engineer, recognized the need and suggested she contact Buck Charlson, a man he’d heard was interested in and curious about different forms of healing. Mary Jo made several attempts to find Mr. Charlson, but didn’t have any luck. “Over the years I thought about Buck Charlson many times,” she reports, “and wondered if he knew about the Center and our common interests.” Buck Charlson is the founder of the Life Science Foundation. In 1998 both women, Nancy Nelson of LSF and Mary Jo Kreitzer of CSH, were wondering about each other and intuiting that a relationship between their organizations would be beneficial for everyone. In January 2005, seven years later, Nancy suggested that Sharon Franquemont, LSF’s Education Director, visit CSH. This visit lead to a dialogue between the two organizations within months. The fulfillment of Nancy and Mary Jo’s inner connection was begun. In the intervening seven years both organizations
engaged in activities which were to lay the ground work for collaboration
on The Taking Charge web site (www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu)
and the Ways of Knowing Symposium Series (www.lifesciencefoundation.org). For
example, Life Science Foundation identified the importance of CAM and
related fields to its interest in expanded ways of knowing, the science
of consciousness, and spirituality. While LSF was doing that,
The Center for Spirituality and Healing developed a CAM on-line learning
web site for health care professionals and had begun hosting a similar
on-line site for the public. When the project’s future
was in question due to funding constraints, the two organizations explored
becoming partners in the site’s CAM module development. The Taking
Charge web site received national recognition in an October 2007 CNN
report on Complementary Alternative Medicine and a national award for
Health Care Standard of Excellence from the Web Marketing Association The
award, part of the 2007 Web Awards competition, recognized the site
for “ourstanding achievement in website development.” Other
winners included Walt Disney Internet Group, UPS Whiteboard, and Biggs/Gilmore
Agency. Life Science Foundation also sponsored a relevant series – Conversations About Intuition – and Elizabeth Lake, Development Director of CSH, was among the Minnesota leaders invited to attend. A final activity of the 2005 series was a World Café in which the participants envisioned an upcoming conference focused on intuition. They held that such a conference should:
This 2005 blue print vision, the Center’s CAM expertise and contacts, and LSF’s long history with these topics combined to create the 2007 Ways of Knowing Symposium. These envisioned goals were achieved and What The Bleep II star, Dean Radin, was a featured speaker. Approximately, one hundred physicians, nurses, researchers, CAM providers, and health care administrators attended the invitation-only event. At the Symposium’s conclusion, the participants asked that LSF and CSH create a 2008 Ways of Knowing Symposium. Planning for 2008 has begun. Inner threads of relationship and connection are part of a large-scale intuitive process. Krishnamurti, a philosopher, maintained that intuition was the highest form of intellect. Intuition operates at the macro or universal level as well as the micro or individual level. Intuitive threads do not exist apart from the actions taken based on logic, but are part of the web of life.
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