Inaugural Celebration

On September 3-5, we celebrated the Inauguration of the IAM University of the Heart at the beautiful Hacienda del Sol in Tucson, AZ. We felt strongly that we needed a very special event to mark the Inauguration of IAM-U, which is a new kind of university, an international school that uses online courses as well as live events such as retreats and skills development to convey the experience of the One Heart. Our Inaugural Celebration was a sacred ceremony that recognized our students and faculty through spiritual invocation and the power of breath directed through the heart.

We also raised money to support the Financial Aid fund, intended to help us bring more diversity to the Class of 2012, as well as future classes. We raised a total of $11,300 (net of our expenses, it was $7,700) to support the IAM-U Financial Aid Fund. For the Class of 2012, we have given $22,225 in Financial Aid! We thank the gracious support of all our donors, who have contributed time, energy, goods, services, and money; without you, the IAM University of the Heart would not exist.

We are delighted to report that we’ve met our goal of creating an incredible Class of 2012! Twenty-three remarkable seekers on the path of the heart have committed to create our Inaugural Class, graduating in the summer of 2012. We have students from Australia, Austria, England, Germany, and the US. Thank you to all who are with us on this grand journey toward the One Heart!

Our Inaugural Celebration began on Friday, Sept 3rd, 2010, with our Inaugural Fundraising dinner. The evening began with an introduction by IAM Co-founders Puran and Susanna Bair, followed by music by Alex Tentser and Anna Glender, who both gave remarkable performances; Alex graced us with original compositions.

We also enjoyed songs by Melinda Connor and her daughter Caitlin Connor, and poetry read with great flair by IAM teacher Bonnie Colby.

Our festivities continued on Saturday, with a free event that was open to the public. We began the day with a very powerful meditation using sound practices, led by Puran and Susanna. We enjoyed a wonderful presentation by Dr. Bob Nunley, of Holos University (shown below with his guitar). Bob spoke about the partnership between Holos University and the IAM University of the Heart, where students can earn a Master’s Degree in Theology by taking the IAM-U program plus some additional coursework and a MA thesis from Holos. (Learn more here.)

We had a wonderful presentation from Howard Glasser on “Igniting Your Greatness”.

We also enjoyed a lively discussion on the theme of “How To Create The Culture Of The Heart” from a panel of IAM-U teachers, including (from left) me, Hafiz Alistair Beattie, Elijah Imlay, Susanna, and Puran.

Puran gave a wonderful presentation on “What Is Illumination?”. The day concluded with Susanna and Puran granting me an initiation as the President of the IAM University of the Heart. The ceremony continued with an invocation of the faculty of IAM-U, and a reading of the names of all the students. We went forth with joyful hearts, feeling the emotion of the day very strongly.

For those of you who would like to participate in IAM-U, but cannot commit to the whole program, we invite you to take 101: Introduction to Heart Rhythm Meditation, which starts Sept 27th. You can earn 3 credits toward IAM-U; the course has been enriched with new material, new evaluation, new tools, and new weekly conference calls with streaming video. Learn more here.

For those who would like to become full-time students of IAM-U, we are accepting applications for the Class of 2013, which begins September, 2011. Learn more about the curriculum here.

Welcome to IAM-U!

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p.s. Our photographer, Kathleen Dreier of Esens Photography, did a wonderful job with the photos from the event, including many wonderful shots of those of you who attended. You can purchase photos directly from this website.