Mind and Supermind has a long history in Santa Barbara of bringing cutting edge and conscious learning to the community. Mind and Supermind Classes are presented by Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) as part of their School for Extended Learning. In my experience, selfless service does indeed change the world, the world inside me and all around me. We all go through stuff.” Then a little tearfully she added, “There are really amazing people out there with good hearts.”įor me the Freedom to Choose Project is about the loving and also a reminder that the wisdom and caring for another human being is inside each one of us. I learned a lot from the others in my exercise group in a short time. I also felt comfortable opening up to a stranger which surprised me. “I was so impressed with the video of Jo, the incarcerated individual. She came at my urging since her son will soon be sentenced to his prison term. She has been confiding in me because she feels the stigma many families experience when a child or sibling or spouse is incarcerated.

He’s only 17 but will likely be sentenced as an adult. Victoria, a colleague at work, has a son who has been involved with a court case for the last year or so.

The experience from the experiential exercise was very good. There were so many golden nuggets coming from David and Bonnie I couldn’t write fast enough. Dana, an RN and long-time friend involved with social justice including a local project for tattoo removal for gang members shared, “it wasn’t long enough. I had invited many friends to attend and spoke with two of them a few days later about their experience of the evening. One person shared that she didn’t realize that she would actually learn something in each role of the experiential exercise and that raised her awareness about engagement with people over all. The idea of actually being listened to with someone seeing your loving essence was a revelation to many. Large group sharing was brief but filled with familiar comments as people realized that we all have more in common than we have differences. When David and Bonnie introduced the evening’s exercise with the handout Finding Your Freedom to Choose, the room buzzed in the tentative but soon intimate sharing within each exercise group.įTC’s Pathways to Freedom workshop at Valley State Prison David also discussed why service is good for your physical health and cited recent medical research that validates this idea.Īs someone who has been with the program for many years, I have repeatedly watched “strangers” become connected through the experiential exercises used in FTC’s workshops. They engaged the audience in both the practical theory of the work – referring to Viktor Frankl as well as the neuroscience to illustrate how and why change is possible for any of us. There they presented the work of FTC which included a video testimony from one of the original incarcerated women who attended the first FTC project at Valley State Prison when it was a women’s facility. The evening was billed as “How Selfless Service Can Transform You and the World.”īonnie and David took front and center with their usual warmth, welcome and humor. More than 60 people gathered on April 2nd 2018 to hear Mind and Supermind speakers, Drs. It was a most worthwhile evening!” – Spencer Sherman, Mind and Supermind Moderator The other participants I talked with all had similarly revealing experiences. I learned something significant and very helpful about myself in doing the exercise. This was due both to hearing about the amazing work they do in prisons, and to the listening exercise they led us through. Bonnie and David Paul to be especially meaningful. “I found the Mind and Supermind lecture presented by Drs.

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