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ICRL is proud to officially release its new look ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
President's Note
I don't know about you, but to call 2025 a year of turbulence would be a vast understatement for me. There have been downs where ups should have been, ups where I expected to drift, and sideways shifts on every straightaway. It leads one to wonder just how all of this will look in... a week? A year? When we finally step outside the storybook altogether?
Of a certainty, what has made the ride bearable at the worst of times and completely delightful at the best has been the presence of families - and that word must be plural, for there are many. The ICRL family is one for which I have exceptional gratitude, and I wish to share my appreciation with and for all of you who read these notes, who join in our events, who open unexpected doors, and who just generally remind me that the world is filled with far more wonderful people than... well... you know... less wonderful people.
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Creating a new website for ICRL has been a labor of, well, mostly labor. While I will say that the outcome is extremely gratifying, the months leading up to it were an intense journey of fighting with formatting (a battle that rages on still), (re)learning to code in PHP (with the help of ChatGPT, which sometimes has provided guidance while on its own flavor of LSD), and working out kinks that I never knew could get kinked. And while the addition of content is, of course, unending, the result has certainly been worth the investment.
When you visit the new site (for surely you will, right? right?!? :-), you will find it to be fresher, more responsive, and hopefully more intuitive. All the basic information about ICRL has been packaged into a clean portal that can be accessed anywhere by clicking on the ICRL icon (the same one I included above), and there are navigation links down the righthand side. When you register (for surely you will register, right? right?!?), you will have the ability to bookmark your favorite pages as well.
We have two membership levels: ICRL Friend and ICRL Family. The former is free, and provides basic access to information, and the latter asks a nominal charge but provides a continually growing wealth of additional content (articles, recordings, tools, and more). In the upcoming months we will be adding features for interacting with others (as desired), getting updates by text rather than email, features customized to you (which is why you have the option to include some info about yourself, such as your favorite elements and animals, when you register or afterwards if you prefer), and many other cool features that are in the works. In addition, ICRL Family members will see that they have special pricing for a lot of our offerings.
 Beyond just a new look, there is a lot more on the site. Some content updates every day, such as Jeff's Thought of the Day (and yes, these are all written by me personally and come from a practice of communing with nature, animals, and other curious sources); other content is added as events happen, which you can see on the home page in a growing collection of panels. There are new ways to connect with ICRL, new opportunities to engage as an individual or an organization, and in the upcoming weeks the site will enable you to join dedicated initiatives too. And on a slightly longer timeframe you can look forward to seeing course offerings and even a social media interface where you can interact with people with a common interest in consciousness matters, but without ads or any of the other negatives that we have come to accept in the typical social media sites.
I hope you will take a few minutes to register and take a look around. And if you have suggestions for new content or other improvements (and definitely if you encounter any issues), please let us know!
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We have several new Exploring Consciousness discussion sessions scheduled. The next is this Saturday, August 9th at 12:00 EDT on the topic of Life as Narrative. Later in August you can also join for the reprise of The Nature of Intuition, followed by sessions in September and October on Order and Chaos and Levels of Self. And with the new website, we have also added the ability to register automatically for all E.C. sessions, so be sure to take advantage of that (but after registering as ICRL Family to take advantage of the discount!).
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Conferences and More Conferences
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As we shared in past newsletters, there has been a lot of presenting going on in 2025 - several online talks with the Pari Center, numerous in-person presentations in the beautiful country of Spain, to the Annual Gathering of the SMN in the UK for the official unveiling of the online Facets of Human Experience interactive art exhibit (which you should definitely check out if you haven't already, and check out again if you did before because new art has been added), and finally back to Spain for some talks and workshops at the amazing Festival of Consciousness.
But that's all in the past. Here are some upcoming opportunities:
September: Join Jeff for his talk, Syntropy: A Scientific Expression of Purpose in Life and Beyond Death at the Science, Arts, and the Sacred Series hosted by the Pari Center, September 2-9. There is still time to reserve your spot for this amazing opportunity in Tuscany, Italy.
October: This year at the annual Science and Consciousness conference at the beautiful Broughton Estate in Yorkshire, UK, Jeff will be giving a presentation entitled Interwoven Threads: We Are the Story. As a special opportunity, if you reserve your place before the end of August, use the discount code SACREDSUMMER10 to receive 10% off the price of both the registration and accommodations
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When times grow turbulent, it's all too easy to get caught up in rage, sadness, and a myriad of other emotions that threaten to drag us ever downward. It is in times like these that practicing gratitude - and especially in a supportive environment - can make all the difference. Join us online each Saturday at 11:00 am (east coast time) and take a few minutes to remember the good things that are happening in your life. We promise, it will make you feel better!
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Help Spread the Word
ICRL relies on its family to help ensure that our activities continue. Please consider helping out by sharing this newsletter with others, and/or by making a supporting contribution. Thank you!!
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