Laura’s Annual Letter

October 2022

Greetings from Psychic Horizons! I hope all of you are well, fine and dandy. 

I’m currently teaching a 7-week course on Effective Meditation. I hope many of you are keeping up with your meditation practice, it’s clear from those in the class that not everyone does! (Not that I didn’t know that already…) It can be so valuable, especially when things are in some turmoil and flux. We can pay attention, but making separations, and being who we are separate from all of that is so important. We need to be flexible, and ground through all the transitions.

I recently did a blog on “Happiness is a Decision”. I’m sure most of you are aware of this principle. It was really a reminder. We are happy because we choose to be. We can set our energy to be a happy person. Our circumstances may be dire, our relationships very problematical, and our financial situation miserable. Well, those are our circumstances, but they are not our identity.

This is especially true in times of change, and we are definitely in a time of change. I have realized over the years that my circumstances really depend on the vibration in my crown chakra. If my vibration is low, or if I am afraid about the future or if I feel down for some reason, then the vibration in my crown drops and things don’t go so well in my life or in the occurrences around me. But if I keep the vibration in my crown up regardless of what’s happening, then things go much better, and I can find solutions.

The good news is that all of us who have been at PH know about neutrality, grounding and owning space. The events of the outside world don’t have to take over our space, and we don’t need to merge with them, either. We know how to make separations. We know how to stay within ourselves, and to remember who we are inside. We can live based on who we are, and not succumb to what may be out there.

Our meditation practice helps us to see that healing happens in spite of the difficulties. It also helps us to own where we are in our lives, and that we have chosen to be here in this time and place. This makes this transition personal as well as global and can be a healing for us as individuals. We can empower ourselves through that realization.

PH situation 

Psychic Horizons remains completely on zoom, and things keep moving along. Although some of us miss having in-person classes, this is working. We don’t know yet whether we will open to in-person classes or what form it will take. Our student body has shifted to many more at-distance students, including international, plus we are finding that people do not want to drive into the city, park, etc., when they can just stay home. So we’ll see. We now have students/TNTs from Dubai, UAE, Turkey, Italy, Canada, Portugal, and all over the US.

Staffing changes:

Rev. Bana Biri will be coming on the staff in January, teaching from Toronto. Rev. Karry Dontchos from North Carolina is in the TNT program and doing great. She and Rev. Devi are also learning how to teach the Ministers Class from Bruce.

Affinity Giving: Sustainability, Tithing & Giving

The “Affinity Giving” program is available to all of you who would like to donate to the teaching of integrated meditation and healing. This is a program where you can donate a monthly amount as a tithe/donation to Church of Natural Grace/Psychic Horizons, or a one-time gift. You can be an Affinity Giving Monthly Supporter at any amount you feel comfortable with.

As a reward for being an Affinity Giving Donor, you will receive my monthly blog! There’s no other blog like it anywhere, and you receive great benefit from it!

The purpose of “Affinity Giving” is two-fold:

1. To create a dependable financial base, or financial grounding, for Psychic Horizons/Church of Natural Grace, to allow us to continue to create the ripple effects of our integrated meditation and healing work to more people. This is something we need!

2. To allow you to invoke the harmony of the universe through the Law of Prosperity. Regular and systematic giving clears away that which tends to block free flow, and creates order. Withholding money tends to bind and limit.

Go to Giving Back or call with a credit card or mail in a donation.

We are very grateful to those of you who already give regularly. The Church is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so your tithes (and all donations) are tax-deductible, as is your donation to the fund-raiser. Other people, particularly near the end of the year, are looking for tax-deductions to help with their taxes. Please ask!

One-time Donations:

You can also give one time donations. If you have benefitted from your time here, please give back in whatever way you can, we appreciate it. Go to One-Time Donation.

Fundraising

Annual fund-raising, & 1-time donations:

Last year we had an online fund raiser Gala. It was great! We had many attendees, and donors, and the program was very interesting. We had live music from Rev. Eve Chosak, who used to be the choir director. We also had short talks from a recent graduate, Boo Trundle, and from Neda Bajalo, a current CT student, plus meditations, and wonderful s’mores boxes that were mailed.

Our annual fundraiser will be coming again on Saturday, March 11, 2023, at 5 pm Pacific time. This will once again be an online event. We are in the planning stages now, and it’s going to be fun and interesting! A separate letter and email will be sent outlining the Gala. The theme will be “Strength in Community”. I hope all of you will plan on being there!

Please consider giving at the same level as last year, or more, if your finances are healthy. Our work is as important as ever. Our pivot to online has been successful and has made the PH meditation and healing tools more accessible worldwide. Our goal is to continue these vital services and serve more and more folks. We need to raise funds in order to continue the work.

Our annual fund-raiser can raise enough money to help keep us going throughout the entire year. We depend on your donations and much appreciate them. Please plan to donate to the fundraiser this year.

Amazon Smile

We are registered with Amazon Smile as Church of Natural Grace. You shop just as you would on Amazon.com, except you go to smile.Amazon.com to shop, designate “Church of Natural Grace” to receive your donation, and Amazon donates 0.5% of your dollar to us!

eScrip

You can register with eScrip and we receive a percentage of your credit card purchases from many participating merchants (such as Safeway). Please log on to eScrip.com and click on Sign-up. Our Group ID # is 5200117 under Church of Natural Grace.

Your Emails 

If you are not receiving our mails, one of two things are happening: 

1) We don’t have your email address, so please send! (Psychic@PsychicHorizons.com) or

2) Sometime in the past, you asked not to receive our emails.

If you would like to get information from us, please let us know. 

Web Sites and Social Networking and Events 

Our website has many interesting things on it! The website is mobile friendly, has more stuff such as pictures, and you can sign up for classes, make payments, pay for memberships, etc. We are in the process of updating our website, with the help of Revs Athena Tergis, Shirley Edwards and Bruce van Horn.

Please note that my blog is also on the website, Laura’s Blog Archive. We send the blog out to Affinity Giving members first, then put it up on the website at a later time. It’s worth reading!

You can now follow us on Instagram! Hilal Al-Shammari, who is in Bahrain, has been doing a great job with our Instagram posts. You can follow us @psychichorizons.

We have been on Yelp for quite some time, so please write a (favorable) review.

We also have two Facebook pages, a group page that you join (Psychic Horizons San Francisco), and a public page (Psychic Horizons). Both are quite active, so please post! It’s a fun page, with some interesting stuff.

Community and Church

Church services are a great way to meditate and say hello to the God of Your Heart. The meditations and sermons have great information. We usually have 25-40 people online for church, so please come join that spiritual community.

6:30 pm Pacific Time, Zoom.us, ID 415-643-8801

Rev. Hatt Kelley is now leading a free, Guided Meditation before church services. This is a slow and simple meditation designed to bring you into your body and in communication with yourself.

4:00 pm Pacific Time, Zoom.us, ID 415-643-8801

Next services are Nov 13 and Dec 11, where we will celebrate Hanukah and Christmas.

For more information on all of the above, go to Church.

Thank you’s

The entire Psychic Horizons staff, so great. Wow!

Rev. Maurizio Bronzetti

Rev. Lili Hibarino

Rev. Geeti Mahajan

Rev. Michelle Comeau

Rev. Laura Hopper

Rev. Lawrence Nallan

Rev. Shirley Edwards

Rev. Philippe Jestin

Rev. Leah Shapiro

Rev. Bob Evans

Rev. Devi Kaur

Rev. Judy Tergis

Rev. Manpreet Komal

Rev. Bruce van Horn

We want to extend a very special thank you to volunteers from this past year: All of you who helped us with the healing clinics – thank you! 

Rev. Susan Corlett – wonderful planner of the Fundraisers

Rev. Shirley Edwards – graphics, website maintenance, database updates

Rev. Bob Evans – volunteer help when we need it, help with technology

Rev. Hatt Kelley – workshop teaching

Rev. Katie King – insurance, marketing and Board meetings

John Sullivan -- for his invaluable help in all things printed, folded and cut

Rev. Judy Tergis - volunteer when needed, always with a smile

Rev. David Varela – help with projects in the building

Referrals

We also want to acknowledge all of you who send referrals here. About 75% of our students come from referrals, many of them yours. You are the best advertising!

Blessing 

In uncertain times like this, I am again reminded of the importance of meditation. In Psalms 119, a combination of verses say:

“Let me understand the teaching of your precepts;

Then I will meditate on your wonders…

for you have set my heart free.”

Our lives are many, as are our blessings. It is important to remember our blessings as we go through the day, and that any difficulties are temporary. May your soul be restored; the God Within is with you always.

The theme for our fundraiser this year will be about the Strength of Community. The energy of our Community can heal and create more gratitude.

May all of us acknowledge ourselves, our friends and family, our God in our lives. We are all growing together in this time and place. May peace, prosperity and happiness be yours.