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Annual Report 2003-2004

We are honored to have President and Mrs Bahls with us to open the 8th. year for The Independent Scholars' Evenings. President Bahls has entered the community as the new president for Augustana. It is a very significant occurrence in our area. The experience he brings to this community along the Mississippi is most opportune.

We welcome many new faces. It is encouraging to see more and more new faces as the years advance. Many organizations have many different yardsticks to measure their progress. In our organization we measure our progress by the work produced by residents of the area as they realize and verbalize their potential. Obviously, potential can never be fully realized since it is a growing phenomena.

But the progression and the journey have some landmarks... and those are our measure of progress: This last year Lisa Arbisser and Dale Haake revealed their potential of composing poetry. John Golden fulfilled his dream for setting up an Integrative Medicine practice under the auspices of Genesis. Trinity, consequently, embarked on an Enrichment Center exploring different wholistic modalities.

For those who have been following the Institute, Genesis was the first hospital to authorize meditation and prayer during surgery. It was the only hospital in the country to do so. Now there are 4 - 5 more and growing. This was a direct consequence of Dr. David B.Larson's visit to the Institute in 1999 and his presentations. A little information on Dr. Larson for the ones who are unfamiliar with his work. Dr. Larson was the Director of the National Institute for Healthcare Research in Washington DC and had been at the National Institute of Health as well as with the Institute for Mental Illness. He spent over 20 years of his life dedicated in the research on the power of distant healing modalities. He proved through scientific research that people who are prayed for heal better and are more healthy than people who are not prayed for. This has translated to the ERA 3 healing that is mentioned by Dr. Larry Dorsey. For more information on ERA 3 healing, please look up our website www.qcinstitute.org. Dr. Larson was a psychiatrist and in his presentations gave extensive evidence that modern psychiatry still believes that those who are spiritual are necessarily insane. It is very unfortunate that a few years ago Dr. Larson died suddenly at the young age of 52.

For those who are new here.. a brief run down of the past achievements.. David Hill finished his book "The Sword of the Nazarene" ..and within the 1st few years, he had designed the Logos program that was so popular at Augustana. The Logos program deals with the study of the history of science to be taught to students being trained for medical school. His Logos program was born from the interaction of the co-learners at The Independent Scholars' Evenings where he noticed the gap in the availability of this information after meeting people from various walks of life. Kathleen Cox has finished and published her Maeve and numerous essays have been written after that. One event which is very interesting was a series where Katheen wrote about Artists inspriring Artists and then David wrote an essay on the same topic after being inspired by her work. So did Roald Tweet, who will be sharing his essay with us soon. I wrote an essay on the meaning of the symbol of the SuAstika and also an essay on Mahima- the Sanskrit concept for Divine Play and Illusion. Our international Independent Scholar was Prashant Shah who choreographed a very moving piece called 'My Mind is Lost'.. reflecting the world situation.. and he is currently working on one for the river which he will be bringing to us soon. Parallel to the Independent Scholars' Evenings is our ongoing work on "Life on the Mississippi.. The New Millennium" - the manuscript that we are maintaining with contributions from the Independent Scholars and the attendant co-learners. We have had an exciting few years. And with the presence of Augustana and her tremendous acumen, the next years will be even more exciting.

Welcoming speech for 8th. year given by Narveen S. Virdi President and Founder The Institute for Cultural and Healing Traditions, Ltd.