The Art Of Flipping The Dark Side

Posted originally to Anastasia's Exploring Your Dark Side: The Adventure Of A Lifetime

Think of it this way -- 

Have you ever wished you could help influence -- in a healthy way, of course -- the discounting, denial and lying you see in some around you?

I know how -- as part of a team -- a WE!

We'll show you how.

We've got the method -- success guaranteed if -- you do your part.

Just in time for Election 2024!

We'll show you how -- to come out a winner! It begins -- on our end -- with your participation in our Ms Class: Season Two, facilitated by Anastasia, its follow-up online Study Group, led by Board Member Jill Catlett

Vetting has now begun.

Contact Jill @

We, Like Yourselves, Are "Those Organisms" That...

..have been overloaded, -- many times since the pandemic began...

And we have come apart -- fragmented, individually and together, again and again. And we have also reorganized ourselves, again and again and are reorganizing still, at a higher level. Just as the man, Ilya Prigogine, said.

We feel frequently exhausted, emotionally and physically -- burned out. Give it a name -- "Pandemic Burnout."

Getting through the ordeal that actually has no end in sight is hard work, every day. Yet celebrating that we are still alive -- and healthy is not far behind in our minds and our hearts though with a touch of survivor's guilt.

All in all, I celebrate those of us now birthing Black Bear Mountain Village out of the pandemic, like a newborn. A+ for how we've come through our labors -- so far.

I say this with pride -- and -- hope because together we did this! And what we achieved made our offerings to others ever more powerful and profound and that's saying a lot cause we were quite something before. Through tough times, we came through with our dedication to navigating the needs of running our organization, the New Horizons-Small "Zones of Peace Project, now becoming BBMV-- while doing our best to survive Covid and all the many hardships it brought, complicating our lives' complications that were already complicated -- 

Coming out the other end of countless obstacles -- everyday we see the truth of Prigogine's theory in our personal and shares lives. Transforming the lead of ourselves and our lives into gold, Murat would call it.

Transformation! A far cry from mental illness. Yet i credibly demanding, nonetheless -- a choice to be brsve in tough times and come through ever more gentle and certainly more conscious, more aware.

This is Black Bear Mountain Village becoming, a small "zone of peace."

Our gifts that now comes out of our having mental health crises during the pandemic and now -- "We have a mental health solution" to pass on to you.

Everything we are and have is now becoming --

A mental health solution, uniquely born and bred of the Covid Pandemic -- beautifully merged and refining all we had before and more.

Join us! Find out more.

Ms Class: Season Two applications now being accepted.

Contact Jill @ Black Bear Mountain Village

"Overload An Organism With Stimuli And It Will Fragmentm

Originally posted to: Anastasia  The Storyteller

 ...and reorganize at a higher level," stated Ilya Prigogine, winner of the 19..Nobel Prize for biology, summarizing his discoveries in creating his "Theory of Dissipative Structures that had won him the prize.

Look at yourself, your friends and family, your co-workers, the members of your community. Aren't you and all those around not living this phenomenon right now -- greatly the product of our pandemic.

Prigogines theory illuminates the process of human evolution under stress. And yet we still have choices: personal and collective transformation is one way. Mental illness, suicide and other forms of violence are others.

It is a choice.

Exploring Notions of Altruism Vs Polarization

Under Construction

The "United" States of America were founded on the premise of unity. Altruism -- "One for all and all for one."

Has this ideal worked so far? If not, why not? And -- how can we reestablish this unity of our Founding Father's? This belief in respond-ability to one another rather than the divisiveness we see all around us today? The harm -- and outright violence and destruction?

My friend, Mike Corrigan, sparked my thinking on the subject more than a decade and a half ago, writing and speaking out as he had on "America's "Secret" Civil War" which demonstratably is no secret anymore.

What to do? What to do?

After fifty years!! of research and the development of innivative "counterculture" strategies, I have concluded that the guidance Mahatma Gandhi urged for building world peace --

"We do best to carve out territories or zones of peace where violence and deceit won't be used" makes the most sense to me. The Black Bear Mountain Village Project is an experiment in such a way of being and living that will teach you how.

Vetting for participation in our Ms Class: Season Two that will teach you how to create and sustain your own small "zone of peace" begins November 1.

Discussiton in progress.

We Here, At Black Bear Mountain Village, Are Having Mental Health Crises

.. and we are succeeding at resolving them. So we say with pride -- We've also got a mental health solution -- the Black Bear Mountain Village Project, based on more than six decades of experience designing and applying strategies to help heal and transform the lives of individuals, relationships and communities.

"Dedicated to building -- and-- sustaining small "zones of peace"

Low cost -- relatively

Durable mental health strategies and solutions 

Replicatable -- share what we offer and pass it on to your friends and family.

Vetting to become a participatant/fellow traveler -- a.k.a. an off site Auditor -- meaning participate by phone or on zoom -- begins November 1st.

Look for details

Altruism Moves Onto Center Stage As: Our Traveling Together Takes Shape

When at last I (Anastasia, driver/guide) had determined a route for our Ms Class: Season Two by establishing a Black Bear Mountain Village (BBMV) Bus Ride journey as our initial curriculum agenda, I offered my fellow travelers an activity for our group as we go -- destination AWE. My intentions, on a personal level, being the realization of my lifelong desire for people around me to be as community to one another. I grew up this way the first eight years of my life and I know what community can mean for MENTAL HEALTH,  spiritual growth and overall commynity well-being.

As driver/guide on this bus I am following the lead of "the community educator" in the original story. Well -- maybe yes, maybe no. The creation of a small "zone of peace" community is, on my part, quite intentional when I'm in the driver’s seat as I am in the present scenario, but not exactly that teacher's goal, rather a byproduct of happenstance in his particular scenario.

intentional community building is excellent (And we're going to be more and more available to help you do that if you wish, as in learning "How to revitalize your play group "Pandemic Pod".)

Nontheless, in a manner similar to how that story goes, I invited everyone in our Ms Class, after their having heard the Bus Ride Story read by Board Member Sue, to do the Spectrum Of Love Inventory, specificallty applying attributes and concepts to our ways of treating ourselves personally. (Read Murat’s Bus Ride Story Adventure

 See archival link -- "Bus Ride.").

Having done so, I turned my focus back onto Sue, my one remaining student from "Season One," the others present, apart from myself, presently being auditors, onsite and dial in.

Two attributes, "altruism" and "compassion," stood out to Sue as "weakest" toward herself. 

"Interesting," I .mused." Now what, I wondered, realizing I was a bit adrift as to what to do next, having not ever before been in the position in which I now find myself, having stepped out of my role as D.C. area psychotherapist leading groups and seminars into the position of heading an onsite, daily living-together- in one form or another community, rather than a once a month intense "Discount Derby" weekend as before. (See Truth or Dare GAME).

At our next Tuesday afternoon class, we took up the subject of altruism as a community learning project. I am going to be writing about that project here as our Adventure progresses.

Look for more stories of our BBMV Bus Ride Story Adventure as it progresses -- with our coming Ms Classes exploring (as per Murat) the connections between: altruism, MENTAL HEALTH, ISOLATION and a concept he defined as "Ecological body consciousness."

More to come.

Our Adventure Has Begun

Our destination is AWE l! And it's unbridled potential is gorgeous!

We have now had two official Ms Classes: Season Two and two follow-up "informal discussions with a purpose" that we call Sohbets taking from Murat’s teachings and traditions.

We are on our way -- our nearly fearless leader for the adventure -- Me/Anastasia -- having, after several unsatisfactory start up sessions -- according to my aspirations -- gotten our travel plans in order and focused, for the most part. It's good for a driver to know where she's heading, especially when others are relying on her. And now, our carefully selected, starting-out-traveling- companions, Troy and Jill, having appropriately coalesced with us -- off we go -destination AWE!

FYI: The coalescing came of our having merged our working intentions into the shared vision that is now "becoming Black Bear Mountain Village,"  It has been a labor of love and sometimes pain and heartache, over the past year, that now brings us into a communal like-mindedness around certain values and principles of living. Our efforts were DIFFICULT but our hard won progress has been worth the effort. 

Like mindedness is one of three essentials that Murat stressed for being a community, at least in the exceptional manner we encourage and teach. We are grateful for our successes and are now ready to work together to achieve other community essentials. The other two main ones are Synergy and a Vibration of Love among members.

Having thus set our intentions -- body, mind and spirit -- to traveling together, our first stopping and exploring spot, particularly important for our newcomers, was to introduce them to Murat’s Bus Ride Story Adventure (Read it if you haven't so you can follow along with us as we travel.) so we can use it to help guide us as we build our small "zone of peace" at Black Bear Mountain Village -- our every intention.

So it began -- with everyone present doing the Spectrum of Love Inventory, tallying up our strengths and weaknesses to give each of us personal guideposts of what we need most to develop in ourselves as we travel.

You can do that inventory too and grow alongside of us as we travel.

More to come.