Greetings and Happy New Year, dear friends! I hope that the start of 2019 has been keeping each of you in the best of health and spirits. While the New Year entices us with possibilities for new beginnings, it also encourages us to reflect on the previous year – to consider what to build upon, and what to release. With the recent celebration of MLK day, juxtaposed with recent social events, we are reminded to consider how to best co-create our future, and honor diversity.
The past year has been an exciting year for CHI in terms of growth and collaboration. We’re excited to share our 2018 Annual Report with you, so that you can see what our community of scientists, healers, artists and educators have been manifesting together.
Some of CHI’s noteworthy tidbits for 2018: we’ve educated over 100,000 people on the science and practice of healing, we helped raise funds to promote peace and restorative justice for youth in San Diego, and we ‘ve fostered several cutting-edge collaborative research projects in consciousness and healing among 25 scientists, healers and spiritual practitioners world-wide. In 2019, we are excited to expand our healing research as well as in online and in-person education – including a one-day conference in Santa Clara on July 18th, 2019 with our partners, the Institute of Noetic Sciences (stay tuned for more details)! I am also excited to share that I have personally committed to writing a book on the Biofield with Sounds True Publications, which will be released in 2020.
However, the thing that excites me the most personally for this year for CHI, is the connection, expansion, and support of our diverse community, which will foster meaningful collaborations to promote the science and practice of healing. The power of diversifying our collaborations was especially felt during our CHI Delegation to India in November of 2018.
As always, this project began with a deep, heartfelt desire, which manifested into a shared reality. During a Spring 2018 CHI Partner meeting, CHI Founding Advisors, Rauni King and Mimi Guarneri, expressed their desire to bring some of our scientists to meet spiritual leaders in India, to share dialogue and possible experiences that would expand our view of consciousness and its role in healing. They had found tremendous value previously in such visits and thought bringing Western-trained scientists to discuss matters of consciousness with Indian spiritual leaders would expand the possibilities for research. Other partners agreed this would be a great step in fostering cross-cultural dialogues and collaborations in consciousness and healing.
“This sounds wonderful!” I exclaimed. “Our scientists would love to visit, learn from these spiritual leaders, and if possible, collect data on group meditation and prayer.” We had an ethics board approved project, entitled “The Power of We”, to examine possible EEG and EKG synchrony between individuals who meditate or pray together, and were excited about “bringing the lab to the temple”, versus bringing meditators to the lab. “Is there any funding to support this delegation”?
There was not, at least at that time. I was told to “trust” and “hold the space” for the funding to come in to support the researchers to go to India, foster collaborations and dialogue, and collect data for analysis and publication on group meditation and prayer. This was not unlike other successful projects we have had with CHI – they’ve always begun with a deep-seated spiritual desire, and we are beseeched to make it happen, with little to no initial resources at hand. While the process can sometimes be maddening, I’ve also recognized what it has taught me about faith, trust and collaboration.
As I began meeting with people and discussing the possibility of fostering this cross-cultural collaboration among Eastern and Western scientists in consciousness and healing, I was taken aback by the interest of supporters. The project, quite frankly, seemed to have a life of its own. Within a few months, we had raised just enough funds to send 5 scientists to Tamil Nadu, India, and visit several ashrams in the bhakti, jnana and integral yoga traditions – to both dialogue with spiritual teachers and scientists there, and to collect data on group meditation and prayer. The scientists were aware that the funding was minimal for the project – most chose to donate much of their time to collect and analyze data, because they felt the project was so important. Several CHI Board members, Miraglo Foundation Board members, as well as additional doctors and healthcare providers, joined us in the delegation. Rauni King devoted hours to coordinating the trip and fielding questions and requests, to make sure our delegates, most whom had never been to India, were feeling comfortable and secure. It was an “all-hands-on-deck” collaboration, with everyone contributing what they could, to make sure that the group was comfortable and had what they needed to proceed.
It is hard to describe what happened in India – to say that the visit exceeded all expectations is an understatement. Our delegation from the West was honored by the hospitality and generosity of time and interest that our Indian hosts offered, as well as awed by the deep and expansive view and experience of consciousness that was shared with us. Our Indian hosts told us how surprised and impressed they were by the humility, as well as the devout scientific and spiritual seeking of our Western delegation. It was enjoyable to see the shift of perception among many of the Indian priests, who first viewed our delegation and our EEG and other research contraptions with skepticism, and then, through dialogue and observation of our delegation, slowly began to form relationships and trust our scientists to the point where they requested to explore the research devices with us!
Our “in the field” data collection went extremely well, and we’re excited to analyze the data and report back to you and the larger scientific community this year with our findings. For more of an inside view on this trip, please see highlights of our recent delegation to India, where we share pictures and videos of cross-cultural spiritual and scientific dialogue on distant healing and physics, the creation of musical instruments aligned with spiritual principles, and more.
We know that CHI’s success is not only measured in the publications of cutting-edge research that we foster – but in real-world conversations and sharing of diverse perspectives that lead us, as a human family, to better heal ourselves. We are hopeful that we will be able to continue and expand the scientific and practice collaborations with our Indian and other consciousness and healing community members across the globe. And as this year has taught me much about faith and surrender, I am committed in 2019 to growing our shared global movement in a manner that honors the work that needs to be done, and truly supports the needs of those who are doing the work, for the healing of humanity. If you are ready to support this global movement in leading humanity to heal ourselves, please contact me.
I continue to be awed and fueled by our CHI community’s wisdom and heartfelt desire to elevate healing, and thank you for all you personally do to foster healing in others.
With love and gratitude,
Shamini Jain, Ph.D.
President and CEO (Collaborative Execution Orchestrator)
Consciousness and Healing Initiative