The Power of Music: ‘I am’ (Professional and personal development)

Explore key aspects of the emerging *human* spirituality and how it is expressed through sacred music.

Thursday 11th November 2021
19:00 – 21:30 (Greenwich Mean Time)

Online via Zoom

The Power of Music series is made up of three workshops hosted by Steve Banks, ‘I am’ is the second in the series. The workshops can be attended as a stand-alone seminar or in succession.

Who is it for?

This workshop is open to anyone interested in music (particularly choral and ‘spiritual’ music), and the arts in general as they relate to spirituality. Also, anyone with an interest in psychology and spirituality (personally or professionally), especially psychosynthesis or Ken Wilber’s Integral model.

If you attended Steve’s first ‘Power Of Music’ seminar at the Trust, this and the third session (on 20.1.22) will take you further along the journey. If you missed the first seminar, don’t worry, each one works perfectly well as a stand-alone seminar.

Workshop purpose:

We are at a time in society when a number of powerful cultural changes are together driving the emergence of a new understanding of spirituality which transcends individual traditions: a *human* spirituality. In the second of three workshops, we will explore some of the key elements of this emerging new spirituality and how they are conveyed through music in ‘Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio’, Steve’s powerful new choral work which will have its world premiere on 14.5.22 in London and streamed live.

In the first workshop, Steve explored how, in an appropriate context, sacred music can act as a vehicle for personal and collective transformation. In this second workshop, we will look at the shift of identity from the personal self to the transpersonal self, or ‘I am’, and how this can be conveyed through the transition from music into silence; and with that, the shift from time to eternity. The third workshop, on 20.1.22 will explore the extraordinary power of music to open the heart to love and compassion, life purpose and service.

Our approach:

Psychosynthesis applied to psychotherapy is a non-pathologising and unique approach that combines both psychology and spirituality. It is a transpersonal and holistic process that helps the individual deal with patterns of behaviours which inhibit or prevent living life in meaningful and fulfilling ways. It brings us into contact with the life journey to meaning and wholeness.

Roberto Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis, wrote eloquently in ‘Psychosynthesis: A Manual Of Principles And Techniques’ about the powerful part that music can play in spiritual, collective and cosmic psychosynthesis. We will explore all three, with a particular emphasis in this seminar on the spiritual: the personal and transpersonal ‘selves’; death and the ‘mystical death’; time and eternity.

What to expect?

Steve will talk briefly about the cultural changes which are driving the emergence of the new human spirituality, and the key aspects of it which we will explore in this seminar, namely:

• a spiritual path rooted in a rational (as opposed to mythic) worldview;
• the answer to the fundamental spiritual question, ‘Who am I?’ (and ‘Who dies?’);
• what is ‘eternity’?

We will listen to three movements from the Blue Pearl oratorio and explore how the music draws the listener towards deep spiritual experience, with a particular intentional relationship between sound and silence, experiencing the music as a guided meditation.

In breakout groups and in the whole group we will discuss what has been brought up by listening to the music, and by Steve’s presentation.

Learning outcomes:

This seminar will bring into focus and clarify your understanding of your spiritual path, and of those you are guiding along their path.

It will offer food for thought about the emerging spiritual movement which transcends religious denominations: a *human* spirituality.

It will explore how a new kind of sacred music, listened to with the right intention and in the right ‘space’, can act as a catalyst for individual psycho-spiritual – and cultural – transformation: sacred music as a meditative practice, ritual, or communion.

Ticket price: £20

Trainer:

As a violinist, drummer and singer, Steve Banks has performed classical, folk, and world music with ensembles as diverse as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Carnival Band. He has also worked as an economist and has applied psychosynthesis as a counsellor and in leadership development. He is deeply immersed in Ken Wilber’s ‘Integral’ theory and has presented at the Integral European Conference.

Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio:

Steve’s major new choral work for our times, Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio, expresses and celebrates the unity (in diversity) of the earth, and of humanity – what Assagioli referred to as ‘global psychosynthesis’. ‘Blue Pearl’ is what the earth looks like from space: a fragile, living planet in the unimaginable vastness of space.

You can read more about ‘Blue Pearl’ and listen to a demo recording at www.stevebanks.info.

Ahead of it’s premiere on 14th May 2022, Steve is building up a network of people who want to support the project and help him spread the word. If you would like to help, you can sign up to his e-newsletter at www.stevebanks.info/contact/