Contents
The Teacher's View
GROWING TOGETHER
by Kerry Keller
The first question received after they completed in just short of an hour was, "which one of you was the practiced speaker?''
No one could tell.
What these students experienced was how attentive every one was to their messages.
► One gentleman is already placing goal-purpose-activity=success into his business environment.
► One teenager recognized symbols in her dream the next day, telling how she thinks about her self.
► A teacher from another school opened her perspective of what she could do in her own classes.
► One, formerly uninterested, husband sat in the front row and is now telling friends all about what his wife is studying at the School of Metaphysics.
► One brother and one boyfriend are interested in the next starting class.
I wanted to pass along some of the experiences from a class project that Deb, Silvia, Violetta, Gladys, Marjorie and Sharon created in their Thursday 
evening class. About three months ago they requested permission to create a book of affirmations with the Universal lessons each affirmation provided them as students during their lessons. They were on lesson 9 at the time and chose different topics to express significant changes in who they were becoming. Their thought form was one of giving, because they wanted to produce something that could be sold and distributed to create public awareness, to tell more people about the value of this education they were receiving.
When advised, publishing is planned and perfected through SOM Publishing, this class made some significant choices to re-think and re-direct their product, still desiring to influence others about their learning. They chose to turn their affirmation book into a collective lecture, knowing that only one of them had any sort of experience in public lectures. So they chose to each speak for 9 minutes, one following the other to create about a 55 minute presentation. For the last 11 weeks they have rehearsed, visualized, re-written, practiced, supported, critiqued and grown with each other for an hour and a half before each weeks class. Each one selected their own life skills and Universals to highlight with what has been important in their transformations. Most of them gave a spur of the moment practice run to Dr. Laurel Clark about a month ago. They quickly and eagerly received her suggestions and re-wrote and practiced, some with mind maps to be more precise, simple and to the point.
To initiate their debut as lecturers they visualized, planned and selected the activities to present their expression for the first time at a Bolingbrook School Bar-B-Q. Friends, families, and students from the other Chicago schools were invited to a sunny day of friendship and the intro of 6 speakers. As mother nature would teach, it rained and poured during the cooking and sharing food. The kitchen was transformed into a buffet, as cooking during a wind and rain storm continued inside and out. I was impressed with the clarity of their intentions, their shared effort without hesitation to aid each other to give everyone a great experience. They have seen clearly how their energy towards an evolving thought form built for 11 weeks. They were able to shift with the unplanned interruptions of the storm without a blink, to refocus on what needed to be re-thought and re-directed. I don't know when the last time our school had 33 people in it, so I can tell you the energy was grand!
We seated all those souls into our bookstore, mostly in chairs to hear each of the anticipated speakers. The class mates were nervous yet confident, certainly excited. The first question received after they completed in just short of an hour was, "which one of you was the practiced speaker?'' No one could tell. What these students experienced was how attentive every one was to their messages. One gentleman is already placing goal-purpose-activity=success into his business environment. One teenager recognized symbols in her dream the next day, telling how she thinks about her self. A teacher from another school opened her perspective of what she could do in her own classes. One, formerly uninterested, husband sat in the front row and is now telling friends all about what his wife is studying at the School of Metaphysics. One brother and one boyfriend are interested in the next starting class.
Each of these women will also share with you their experience and learning with their own responses to follow. One more thing, after cleaning the school that evening we sat to discuss what went well and what could be improved. There were plenty of lecture forms suggesting they take their collective lecture to the public. And there was no hesitation. They were already to consider how to improve by listing what they could have planed, executed and visualized better.
I learned so much from each of them, including how I can raise my own bar to better influence and lead students that want to make a difference.
The Students' View
Meeting the Challenge of Creating Your Reality
by Deb DiSandro, Gladys Anderson, Violetta Chavez, Silvia Galvan, Sharon Mundy, and Marjorie Halsey
When I first learned that we had to create a class project, I had many reservations. What would we do? How would we all get along? How would we fit in one more thing? It took us a couple of weeks to think of an idea that worked for all of us, but once we did, the energy seemed to propel us forward almost effortlessly. We created a program titled, "From Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life" in which each of us presented a ten-minute talk highlighting a personal challenge we had faced and how the School of Metaphysics is helping us to see that Thought is Cause, and that we have the power to change our thoughts. We each picked a different area of focus. Since only one of us had public speaking experience, we came to class an hour and a half early every week for two months to prepare our talks.
The day of the event, family, friends, students and directors came to support us as we delivered our presentations. We felt relatively calm and confident after all of our practice and visualization and no one could tell which one of us was the actual experienced speaker! We raised money for the school by asking for donations and also created affirmation booklets that people could purchase.
“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to see how the understandings we are learning can create such wonderful, life-changing experiences.” – Deb DiSandro
Our class project brought many opportunities for our us to learn and grow as a team and as individuals. Since our class was a combination of two classes, this project truly unified us as a group and gave us the opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper and more personal level. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to see how the understandings we are learning can create such wonderful, life-changing experiences.Thank you,
Deb
Bolingbrook Class Project can be describe in one word, AMAZING!
Our class has such a great harmony, this is why the class project was a success.
We all work together and supported each other through out the whole process, what an amazing experience. The day of the event was amazing as well, everyone who came to the event was happy and glad to come out and support us.
“It turns out that all the things I have worked to acquire, really aren’t success at all. Success is about knowing who you are, knowing your purpose and serving others!” – Gladys Anderson
When I first start writing my speech, it was very difficult because it was a very personal story about my childhood! It brought out that my ego has been pushing me to acquire things so that I could appear to be successful (money, house, cars and beautiful clothes and jewelry) because I had something to prove to my mother boyfriend who said that I would never be nothing! It turns out that all the things I have worked to acquire, really aren't success at all. Success is about knowing who you are, knowing your purpose and serving others! I am so thankful to be at the School Of Metaphysics!
Love & Light,
Gladys Anderson
We all decided as a group to host a BBQ and lecture to share the same awareness and knowledge to others that we have learned here at SOM. We all know how truly blessed we are and feel that others can learn and benefit just as we have. We each had a topic to speak about from stress to motivation, love and self-value, prosperity & abundance, and also how our thoughts effect our body on a cellular level. Our overall message to friends and family was that Thought is truly the Cause for our way of life – We are our own Creators. We practiced and rehearsed for about 2 months before each class and also came up with an idea of having affirmation booklets to aid others in motivation, self-value and overall health/wellbeing. The energy from our entire class was phenomenal! We visualized the event with at least 20 people, selling a few booklets and also visualized the entire venue from start to finish with great success. One of the students led us through a meditative projection before the arrival of guests to ensure everything would run well with great ease and with everyone receiving our lectures. It was a success!!!
– Violetta Chavez
For our class project we organized a BBQ where we all presented a speech about our own personal experience with SOM. Overall, the event was wonderful allowing me to experience many of the tools we are learning such as concentration, focusing, visualization, and several of the laws, as well. We had a great team and leader that kept us on track of our project.
I took initiative and jumped out of my comfort zone a few times and was able to catch many of my limited thoughts. Being part of the creation of an event where we are learning to view existence with a new perspective is powerful. I enjoyed creating, learning, and working with all the people that were involved from our wonderful teacher, Kerry Keller, to all of our audience who in turn gave us great feedback.
As a final thought, I am glad to have been part of the wonderful event and I hope we continue to inspire.
Silvia Galvan
As a group, we were asked to create an event that would both promote our school and raise money. After sharing several thoughts, we decided to give a collective discussion with each of us sharing a speech that was specific to something that we are learning in our classes.
In the beginning we each had a different topic, as the practice days continued, we seemed to become fluid to the thought form that "Thought Equals Cause" and while we each had a unique and individual approach to what we wanted to share, the theme remained evident that our thoughts can transform and cause our lives.
Every week, for aproximately two months, we arrived early to class to practice our speeches. Deb, our professional public speaker, was amazning at not only at inspiring confidence in us, but in helping us perfect our content so that we could focus on three key elements that we wanted to share.
As a group, we encouraged and gave constructive advice to help us advance! We formed a GPA and kept in mind that the most important thing we were doing was sharing our light and love! We created a book of affirmations that we would ask for a donation of $5.00 to purchase. We created a flyer announcing our event and we decided on May 29, from 2-5 to hold a bbq for our family and friends! Kerry invited people from the surrounding schools in our area to come and offer their support!
Prior to the event we participated in Karma Yoga and we cleaned the school and brought in beautiful, loving energy! We were each designated to bring items for the bbq and we all arrived an hour and a half prior to the event to prepare! Before our guests arrived we did a Kudalini Projection in the room that we were giving our speeches!
A tremendous storm came through as we were preparing the food and Kerry was so amazing to stand outside at the grill while a down pour of rain soaked him, we joked about him not having to worry about his hair : ) He was a wonderful role model as he never uttered a complaint!!
“We asked for evaluations and many people said that they thought we should take our speeches public! They also commented that they could not tell who the professional speaker was, what a compliment!” –Sharon Mundy
Our family and friends arrived, everyone was so loving and supportive! We enjoyed great food and conversation and the speeches began. I noticed all eyes full of attention and it appeared that many were receiving our pictures as we spoke!! It was a proud moment as I watched my fellow classmates present with such confidence and love! We asked for evaluations and many people said that they thought we should take our speeches public! They also commented that they could not tell who the professional speaker was, what a compliment!
We all stayed at the end and discussed what we learned. We discovered that we needed to have our goal, purpose and activity in place a little sooner and we, without doubt, discovered that although we all visualized a beautiful day, we needed to have a plan B! The rain did come with all it's splendor!
For my own learning, I could not feel more blessed to be surrounded by such a beautiful group of women. We all created and worked in such a complimentary way with each other. The event bonded us closer together and it was a true learning to experience that first hand and example of what we are learning and how our thoughts and desires created this event!
I am looking forward to perfecting our speeches and sharing them with others. It is a gift to not only share what we are learning, but to be experiencing such joy for the first time in my life! I can literally feel our Creator and the Universe blessing us more with each passing day!
Sharon Mundy
Our group project was a barbeque for our family and friends that gave us the opportunity to share what we are learning at the School of Metaphysics and how it is helping us to change and create our lives on purpose. We gave individual talks about our personal learning with a theme of 'Thought Is Cause' and sold affirmation booklets to help support the school. This allowed us the chance to identify any limiting thoughts associated with public speaking and also to learn about ourselves through the experience of organizing and planning the event. We prepared for this event by practicing our talks weekly for about 2 months prior. Luckily we have a student who is a professional speaker who guided us through the process from our initial ideas of the talks down to the finishing touches to the final version. I learned that what I have to contribute really does matter! It was wonderful to have as much support as we did, from each other, Kerry, Dr. Laurel, and students / teachers from other branches in the Chicagoland area. It was great to see so many smiling faces in the audience and to feel that our pictures were being received.
Marjorie