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Bob Bennet uses a synthesizing approach to teaching an
integrated understanding of the Course, and seeks to stimulate
class participation through using the Socratic methods. He also
uses of outside channeled materials from Edgar Cayce with whom
Jesus claims to have worked, the Jeshua Books as received
through Judith Coates, Archangel Michael through Ronna Herman,
and others to make a point or clarify one.
He is currently writing a book on "Cycles of Time in the
Bible,” and from time to time correlates Bible passages with the
Course. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of
Notre Dame, and a master’s degree from the University of
Chicago, as well as additional courses toward a PhD.
Christine L. Dixon-Bubick
Christine was born in a suburb of Lille, France and lived
there during World War II. She is a war orphan whose father died
for France at the beginning of the war when she was two. She has
vivid memories of the war and France’s liberation. At seven she
immigrated to the United States with her brother and mother and
she still recalls the shock of losing her culture, family, and
language.
Raised Catholic, Christine clung to the Catholic Church as
her only lifeline when she arrived in the U.S., hardly
questioning its teachings until she married and became a mother.
She then began to question the validity of the Christian god who
was both loving and vengeful. This god demanded illogical
obedience from his children and punished them for their
ignorance and weaknesses–weaknesses he supposedly gave them to
“test” them. She eventually fell away from the church and began
her spiritual quest.
In 1986, after much research and study, pain and misery, she
stumbled onto A Course in Miracles. It resonated with her
immediately. By that time, she was struggling to keep her second
marriage together. She knew she had found her road to truth
though for years she would be unable to explain what she was
reading and studying to others. She studied the Text and worked
through the Workbook three times before venturing into published
interpretations, particularly Kenneth Wapnick’s work. She led
groups in her home. Still, it was many more years before she
understood she was trying to make the Course fit into the
dualistic learning she had accumulated. Studying Ken Wapnick’s
material helped her begin to comprehend the metaphysics of the
Course as non-dualistic, just as the God of the Course is
non-dualistic. Changing her concept of God made all the
difference.
Christine leads a group at the Rocky Mountain Miracle Center
on Friday afternoons. She
leads on Sundays on a rotation basis, has served on the Board of
Trustees, and is currently involved in developing The School Of
Reason to benefit teachers and aspiring teachers of A Course
in Miracles.
Susan Dugan
Susan Dugan is a freelance writer and co-founder and teacher
in training at the School of Reason for teachers and aspiring
teachers of ACIM, an organization committed to understanding and
applying Course wisdom in our everyday lives. She has only been
practicing A Course In Miracles for five years, not nearly the
decades of some gifted Course teachers she has had the privilege
of studying with. But she comes to the teaching with a deep
longing to know, and a deepening understanding that she doesn't.
For Susan, the Course's unique power lies in it's practical
application. She teaches to learn, receiving what she gives.
Teaching helps her become more vigilant in practicing the unique
form of forgiveness at the heart of A Course In Miracles. She is
most interested in teaching classes geared toward the
transformative experience that springs from applying the Course
in our relationships.
To find out more about Susan's approach to practicing and
teaching ACIM, please visit her blog: http://www.foraysinforgiveness.com and feel free to post a
comment.
Mark Maraia
Mark Maraia has been a Course student since 1987. He has read
volumes of Ken Wapnick’s writings and has also listened to
thousands of hours of Ken Wapnick’s teachings on ACIM. Mark is
currently researching and writing a book that is heavily based
on ACIM and spiritual themes. He has authored two books on
professional services marketing: Rainmaking
Made Simple and
Relationships Are Everything! Growing Your Business One
Relationship At A Time.
Mark
is an internationally known speaker in his own field and has
taught class dozens of times at the ACIM class held at Unity
Church on University since August 2007. Mark’s teaching style is
Socratic and highly interactive. His classes are much more fun
and interesting when members of
class come prepared to share their struggles and
challenges with the group. This allows everyone to enjoy a
deeper, richer and more meaningful experience of the practical
aspects of forgiveness.
Tracy Small
Tracy Small facilitates an ACIM discussion group at 7:00
p.m., Thursdays, at The Rocky Mountain Miracle Center. The group
reads a section or two or sometimes only a sentence and then
discusses what they read. Tracy encourages all to participate--
nothing is required except a little willingness. He believes he
can learn something from anyone. The Course says the best way to
learn something is to teach it and all attendees are both
teachers and pupils.
The first time Tracy finished reading the second edition of
ACIM he realized that he didn’t understand any of it. At the
same time, he knew no mortal being could have spoken these
words. The author knew too much for any body to comprehend. The
only thing Tracy knew for sure was the message came from a
Higher Power. Since then, he has accepted the idea that
understanding is really impossible. The goal is to experience
these ideas.
On page 499 of the second edition, Jesus says, “ Forget not
that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the
keeping of the state of peace.” That is Tracy’s goal. He
believes the teachings are designed to teach us that the state
of Oneness is our only natural state. The world would be a much
better place if we accepted this idea. He wants to hang on to
his illusions for a while yet, but suspects we will be at
Heaven’s gate when we realize that we are indeed The One Holy
Son of God.
Stephanie Padilla
It was in May of 2001 that Stephanie
had been having a very difficult and stressful time at her job.
She was reading Eckhart Tolle’s, ‘The Power of Now’ and
practicing some of the exercises on how to be more present. One
of the exercises was to listen to the quiet. She was outside
letting her dogs out to do their business and noticing the wind
blow through the leaves in the trees, trying to just focus on
the stillness around the movement and an amazing thing happened.
She had a sudden and radical shift in perception. The dull, sad,
hopeless and lifeless world that she had always known suddenly
seemed different. She was aware of an amazing, vibrant, full,
and totally beautiful life force emanating from everything. It
was like nothing she had ever experienced before. This vibration
was soft, but strong. It surrounded and blanketed everything.
She felt how it connected her to everything.
Unfortunately, Stephanie was only able to
retain this awareness of the presence of life for about three
months before it began to occur to her that she was not going to
be able to hold her job since she could not keep any interest in
what she was doing. She began to imagine being homeless and
unable to care for herself. This fear eventually won out and she
lost this connection. She spun down into a deep and dark
depression. It was a terrible contrast to the bliss that she had
been feeling for months. It became very clear to her that her
choices had just been shown to her. She could either see the
vibrancy, the beauty, and the incredible nature of life and see
no value in the petty concerns of what she thought was her daily
life (what she would later know as her ego) or she could
pursue the concerns of her ego, but at the cost of everything of
any real value. She knew then that she needed to find a way of
letting her ego go for good. This is when she became a very
serious ‘A Course in Miracles’ student. Stephanie has studied
the writings of ACIM on a daily basis since this occurred.
Stephanie has taught weekly ACIM classes for five years.
Stephanie Padilla, M.A. is the owner of
True Directions, a company that supports individuals and
organizations in removing the obstacles that prevent the
realization their full potential. She is a consultant to local
businesses and governmental agencies, a speaker, a teacher of ‘A
Course in Miracles’, and a spiritual counselor. Stephanie is the
developer of Belief-Shifting, a technique for correcting errors
of the mind stored in the body’s energy system. It is an
elegantly simple method that releases the life-defeating
patterns of the ego. Stephanie feels that Holy Spirit works
through her to aid those who are ready to let go of the false
beliefs of the ego.
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Diane Collier
Diane, raised
Catholic, never attended a day of school (kindergarten through
college) that wasn't parochial. For years, she was an
unquestioning Catholic involved in the church.
Additionally, she
was raised in an alcoholic environment, becoming the family hero
- an overachiever, perfectionist and workaholic. After
many years "climbing the corporate ladder", "giving 100%", the
world seemed to want to raise the ante. "more, better,
faster, higher" became the world's mantra. With a life few
people would care to juggle, Diane began to realize she no
longer could (nor wanted to) run faster and jump higher. Surely
there must be a better way - her best thinking and prayers led
her to Al-A-Non and she began a spiritual journey...
In 1989, Diane was
introduced to ACIM (A Course In Miracles) and instantly became a
devoted student to the Three Volumes. Included in her early
studies was a 40 day retreat held in the New Mexico mountains -
facilitated by Tara Singh.
Her focused
spiritual life spans 25 years and includes: Al-A-Non (16 years);
ACIM (21 years); extensive study of The Infinite Way
(Joel Goldsmith), Echhart Tolle, Ken Wapnick, and Gary Renard; a
21-day stay at Sai Baba's Ashram in Puttaparthi, India.
During the past 25
years, she has facilitated endless classes geared toward
releasing belief systems: "Finding the Person You Lost",
"Relationships-The Right Changes", "Healing the Pain of a Broken
Relationship", and life Coach.
Having led a
portion of her life as the un-awakened (she called it the
"robotic shuffle"), Diane began to question the sanity or better
described insanity of life. Diane now chooses to live "The Sane
Curriculum" (ACIM T12-5) taught by the only sane teacher
- the Holy Spirit.
ACIM states that
the Holy Spirit takes you from a bad dream into a good
dream and finally takes you out of the dream. Anyone wanting to
awaken from their dream, join Diane and journey through the
Three Volumes, learning to release guilt through forgiveness as
directed be the only TEACHER who can/will wake you to the Truth.
Diane's class
emphasizes application rather than theory and experience over
theology.
Anna Kujawa
Anna Kujawa is “A
Course in Miracles” teacher of over 20 years as well as a
psychotherapist who practices in Denver Colorado. Anna has a
special love of working with children and their families. As a
Licensed Professional Counselor and a Registered Play Therapist,
she has assisted scores of children and families not just to
survive, but thrive through every type of challenging life
transition.
As a Course in
Miracles teacher, Anna facilitates Course students in learning
and practicing these profound insights to produce undreamed of
changes in every area of their lives. Anna teaches with great
depth of perception as well as playful humor for the purpose of
putting her students back into the hands of their own internal
teacher.
With her in depth
work with the human psyche as a Course teacher and a holistic
psychotherapist, Anna brings a unique insight and powerful
application to her public classes and personal counseling
sessions.
Anna currently
teaches “A Course In Miracles” class and is a founding member of
the Rocky Mountain Miracle Center in Denver.
Anna is also a
mother, a writer, and writes a Course In Miracles blog as well
as a parenting blog where she shares her own personal practice
of the Course as well as her parenting lessons.
As host of the
Television show "Miracles Connection" which she hosted from 1999
until 2003, Anna has shared A Course in Miracles in a variety of
media. As part of Anna's continuing media outreach into the
spiritual community, Anna has joined with Barbie Edwards in
co-hosting Conscious Living Radio Show.
David Morrissey
David was born and raised in Dodge City, Kansas and educated
K-12, and then 4 years of college at St Mary’s of the Plains,
under the careful tutelage of the Sisters of St. Joseph. He
moved his fast growing family to Colorado in the early 70’s and
spent the next decade climbing the financial ladder. Then one
day his heart was broken when he realized all that he had chased
and acquired just wasn’t going to make him happy. His spiritual
journey began.
David studied and was ordained a Divine Science Minister in
1988. A Course in Miracles was dangled in front of him
twice before he bit. It offered him the mind training and
discipline he had been seeking. Before he finished the first 365
lessons he knew he had to teach, for he truly believed in the
equality of the teacher and the student. Every Thursday for the
next 13 years his class met at the Divine Science Church reborn
as the Rocky Mountain Miracle Center.
David continues to talk and live the Course. “The law of
perception means we are always seeing our state of mind rather
than what is there to be seen,” he says. “We are as God created
us and there isn’t anything we can do to alter that–thank God.”
Joy Schultz
I grew up in Illinois and was raised in the Christian Science
church which I loved very much. In my later teen years I
wandered away and followed no spiritual path until I picked up
the Course in 1986. I have been looking to it for guidance,
light, and healing ever since. Since the fall of 2005 I have
been leading a weekly group.
I love the Course deeply. I love sharing the ideas with
others because it helps me so much and it helps me to learn it.
As the Course says "What higher function can there possibly be
than to help release the world from pain and fear?"
In 2004, my 17 year old son took his life. Everything in my
life was suspended. I spent much time with the Course, feeling
the presence of Jesus and asking for his help. While I am
incredibly grateful for the tremendous peace and healing I have been given, I realize I still have much to learn, practice, and
heal.
Please visit my new blog
www.joyofmiracles.blogspot.com to share my writing inspired
by the Course.
Jeanne Thomason
 After my brother died unexpectedly, I was ready for A
Course in Miracles.
Learning from many teachers, I deepened my understanding of
A Course in Miracles by reading books and listening to
tapes by Ken Wapnick. That is the reason at 7 pm on Thursdays I
feature Ken Wapnick’s video of the text.
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