Spiritual Master Wayne Teasdale

October 2004. Brother Wayne Teasdale has died after a long battle with cancer. A service will be held Saturday, October 23, at 9:30 am at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Bede Griffiths Association (For Wayne Teasdale Grant), C/O John Douglas, Treasurer, Bede Griffiths Association, P.O. Box 851521, Richardson, TX 75085-1521.

Although Brother Wayne is no longer with us physically, his wisdom and the interspirituality movement that he inspired live on and grow daily. Dr. William ("Bill") Hayashi, a professor at Columbia College (Chicago) and multi-traditional practitioner, is a long time friend and associate of Brother Wayne. He offers us this story for inspiration and reflection:

"The most powerful memory I have of Brother Wayne was after a meditation/prayer session with him in the hospital. He shared with me that he had had a vision: He was a Buddhist monk living in a mountain monestery. He had gone too close to the cliff and had fallen over. At first he was very frightened, but then he relaxed and realized that it would be all right. He told me he was fine when he reached bottom."

Brother Wayne Teasdale was a lay monk who combined the traditions of Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism in the way of the Christian sannyasa. A teacher and activist in building common ground among the world's religions, he served on the board of trustees of the Parliament of the World's Religions. As a member of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, he helped draft their Universal Declaration of Nonviolence. He was also committed to the cause of a free Tibet.

Teasdale was an adjunct professor at DePaul University, Columbia College, and the Catholic Theological Union, and co-ordinator of the Bede Griffiths Trust. He held an M.A. in philosophy from St. Joseph University and a Ph. D. in theology from Fordham University. He lived at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Ronda LaRue Spiritual mentor and author

"Truly we are, each of us, first and foremost artists.                  
Experience creating a clay pot, a prayer, or a
business plan from the fully attuned “listening
state” of embodied presence, and the innate
wisdom of your soul will forever be awakened to you
as healer, artist, and sage.


I invite you, come, celebrate the mystery! Come,
nourish the life you were born to live; and step into
the magnificent love affair with life!" – ronda



Ronda LaRue, M.S., has an unusually diverse and rich background blending science, art, psychology and the sacred into a deeply transformational playground of inquiry, healing empowerment and celebration of who you really are!

An avid student of eastern philosophy, western religion, earth gnosis, modern physics, and transpersonal psychology, Ronda's work is devotional toward the sacred inner knowing that is the ground of all being, and who you really are.

Academic Degrees:
Ronda LaRue has a Master of Science degree in Applied Social Psychology (Research and Evaluation Methods) from Texas Christian University, with an emphasis in social psychology and human/social behavior.

Her Bachelor degree from the University of Texas, Dallas, is a three-way degree in sociology, psychology and business.

Ronda has been a business consultant for organizations nation-wide since 1986 (founder and president of InfoVision Systems) and a spiritual teacher, facilitator and guide of living inquiry, healing insight, and living mystical artistry for over 15 years.

Philosophic/Religious Orientation and Influential Mentors:
Ronda’s orientation is influenced by her life-long introspection and wide repertoire of investigation and learning. Ronda was brought up in an spiritual home where Christianity was seen from the larger perspective of inner responsibility of following the "Christ-like" path toward realization that extends beyond any religious dogma or denomination.

Fascinated early on with the questions of why we are here, what really matters, and how to know truth, Ronda became a life-long student of western and eastern religion and philosophy, psychology, social systems, and physics. Her work today is non-denominational, devotional, and openly respectful toward the sacred fullness that is already who you really are before and beyond any system of belief or superimposed religious structure.

Over the years, Ronda has studied a wide repertoire of sacred, scientific and mystical understandings. In particular, Ronda has been profoundly influenced by the works of: Richard Moss with whom she studied for 4 years (energetic & integrated transpersonal psychology); Stephen Aizenstat (dream tending and archetypal systems of symbol and imaginal intelligence); J Krishnamurti (beyond the limits of mind); Michael Harner (shamanic attunement and practice); Jack Zimmerman (relational shamanism and energetic transmission); Brugh Joy and Carl Jung (shadow and archetype integration of self); Gurdjieff (freeing repetitive blocks and conditioning); William Rand (Reiki master and Kahuna healing arts training); Deepak Chopra (cosmic potentiality/spiritual laws); John Welwood and Ken Wilber (integrated cosmology of eastern and western understanding); Hafiz (impassioned poet/mytic/seer); Leonard Cohen (one "darned sexy and soulful poet/songwriter!")

Ronda brings to these significant orientations, the added qualities of dynamic attunement to one's unique creative power through the art of seeded inquiry. Ronda's work has become deeply transformational with a focus on full Self-Realization, embodied realization and freedom of Being.

LIFE WORK:   Ronda  LaRue considers herself very much, "an inner/outer bridge" in that she has walked the delicate line of being well "in"(volved in) and yet not "of" (caught up by) the world. She has managed to maintain a deeply mystical and poetic approach to life while having been a respected and successful (and self proclaimed "type A") business entrepreneur for more than 24 years (InfoVision Systems) as well as a recognized visual artist and poet with several of her works in private collections both nationally and abroad. (Explore this web site for more.)

Ronda says that she can very align with her client and relate to her/his worldly issues and linear mental blocks because she has been there too... In fact, because she has made consciousness her life long inner study coinciding real work in the real world, Ronda is able to "re-enter" this space of worldly and egoic perception with her client, and from there point to the way "out' to a much richer inner landscape of wisdom and soulful artistry.

Ronda feels most blessed by the passion she feels for seeing others find and free their soulful nature to living as true artists of life. According to Ronda, reclaiming the artistry of living Presence is precisely what the ancient sages as well as today's contemporary seers point toward when they talk about: "becoming enlightened", "entering the Kingdom of Heaven", realizing "The Power of Now", "ending the search", Loving What Is"... In short, Remembering Who You Really Are.



HER PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

About 4 years ago I was in one of those deeply contemplative states where I was searching, yearning for some greater understanding of life. This led me to ask what I call the "Awakening Questions":

"What is the purpose of life? Why am I here? What is my calling?"

And when I asked these questions from the very depth of my being, what I heard bounce back was this: "I want to know Truth.  I see no reason to live other than in service to the spiritual journey."

As the saying goes "Be careful what you ask for". Two months later "all hell broke lose!"

What was happening during this time of seeming chaos, loss, and dis-ease was actually a profound dissolution of over-self-identification with the ego-Ronda and a slowly seeping in ability to hear and attune to the musical language of Love that is forever our inheritance, authority and wholeness.

I’ve been an avid reader of sacred texts, new thought metaphysics, psychology and physics for years.  But none of that prepared me for my own undoing and the great mythic journey that is required when we heed the call of reclaiming Soul as the seat of our life’s authority and highest purpose.  What I hope and see that this book can do for others is to shine night light on the invitation that is being presented through our  challenging life circumstances and struggles - and the inevitable times of darkness and decent into the realms of death that purges old patterns and foreshadows our eventual realization and stepping more firmly into an a priori and inextinguishable light – the light of our True Authentic Being.

Author James Van Praagh

New Age Witchcraft



New Age holds the belief that the ultimate reality is energy.  Energy is composed of molecules in vibration.  In the physical realm we normally experience, molecules vibrate at a slow, but constant speed.  This makes everything appear solid and dense.  In the spiritual realm; however, James Van Praagh claims that these molecules vibrate at a much higher rate.  Mr. Praagh states that he can feel these vibrations and energies around him as they shift and change.  Praagh professes to be a medium with the gift of clairsentience, i.e., he can sense the presence of spirits that are nearby.  He also claims to be able to communicate strong feelings and emotions from spirits to the sitter (victim).  Praagh also claims to be clairvoyant, i.e., able to see things, events, and spirits which others can't see.

I've been watching The 700 Club lately, analyzing it, and I see Satan at work.  I see them as borderline psychics, who exploit Christianity to make money and con people.  On the show, Gordon Robertson and Terry Meeuwsen regularly join hands in a prayer segment, which is then followed by a psychic type reading, where they specify details of who is being healed in TV land.  It's creepy!  Are The 700 Club hosts, Pat Robertson, Gordon Robertson and Terry Meeuwsen, psychics?  On a recent show, Gordon and Terry prayed while holding hands, and then claimed that the following healings had taken place as a result of their prayers on TV ...

Someone with an "abscessed right tooth," has just now been healed.

Someone with "twisted intestines" has just been healed.

Someone paralyzed on the right side, particularly the right side of the face, has just been healed.

A man with a plate in his skull is having continual problems, and the doctors just don't know what to do.  Terry said she saw the bone reforming around the plate and the man's pain was gone, he was now healed.

These are the crazy and absurd claims of these so-called "Christians."  As I listened to their bizarre claims, I wrote them down, as listed above.  How can they claim to see such healings?  Folks, this is CLAIRVOYANCE (i.e., Apparent power to perceive things that are not present to the senses), and is exactly what the Satanic psychics do!!!  How in the world would Gordon Robertson and Terry Meeuwsen know who is being healed?  How can you see someone's bone reforming inside their head?  The Word of God never teaches any such demonic practice.  I dare you to show me from the Bible, where God said he would give us some mystical power of being able to see or know what is going on in someone else's body.  It is extremely dangerous to dabble in familiar spirits.  The hosts of The 700 Club are leading the public to believe that they have some special power with God, the ability to see who is being healed.  They do not!  It is a psychological scam to seduce suffering people into giving The 700 Club more money.  And it works!  The Christians Broadcasting Network (CBN) took in $160,000,000 in 2005 alone!

Clairvoyance is of the Devil, whether it is being performed by James Van Praagh or The 700 Club.  None of the Apostles in the Bible had such powers.  Only God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.  Nowhere in the Scriptures are we ever directed to seek or expect clairvoyant experiences.  Clairvoyance is an occult practice, like astral projection or astrology.  This is all New Age witchcraft, seeking spiritual power from sources other than God.  Those who claim to have such powers in the name of God are liars.  These are children of the Devil, Modernists who appear to be Christians, but are not.  Remember, even Adolf Hitler claimed to be a Christian...


James Van Praagh quotes


"If you're on the path you're meant to be on, everything falls into place; the Universe is telling you that. If you are not on the right path, you will experience roadblocks all along the way, and this is also the Universe telling you to stop, look, and ask if this is where you are supposed to be."

"Love is never static, but always evolving. Love is simultaneously random and ordered, so intangible and yet a part of everything, and when we attempt to limit it or categorize it, we get into trouble."

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."

"And in the end, its not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."


About James Van Praagh 


Born       -  August 23, 1958 in Bayside, New York, The United States

Gender   -   male

Website  -   http://www.vanpraagh.com/


His very natural, easy-going style would lead you to believe that James Van Praagh is chatting with a friend on the telephone, not communicating messages from the grave. James is a survival evidence medium, meaning that he is able to bridge the gap between two planes of existence, that of the living and that of the dead, by providing evidential proof of life after death via detailed messages. "I'm clairsentient," he explains, "which simply means clear feeling. I feel the emotions and personalities of the deceased. I am also clairvoyant," he adds, clarifying that, "the first is feeling, the second is seeing, very much like Whoopi Goldberg in the movie, Ghost." The true essence of the messages are the feelings behind the words. James is an expert on this subject, since he has been in touch with those feelings most of his adult life. "The spirits communicate by their emotions. No words exist in the English language, or any other for that matter, which can describe the intense sensations." And His two best-selling books are Talking to Heaven (1997) and Reaching to Heaven (1999).

The popularity of his books combined with his celebrity clientele and appearances on Oprah, Larry King and other talk shows have made Van Praagh something of a minor celebrity himself. In 2002, CBS aired a miniseries based on his writings, "Living With the Dead," starring actor Ted Danson. A short-lived TV talk show, "Beyond With James Van Praagh," also debuted that year. In 2005, Van Praagh was Co-Executive Producer for the CBS primetime series "The Ghost Whisperer" starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.