<font face="Verdana"><font color="#800000">Finally! The Neuroscience
Movement gives us evidence-based best practices to create intelligent and
compassionate human relationships. The Mindsight Symposium in Portland, Oregon,
October 21-23, 2005, for healthcare providers, parents, and educators, is
sponsored by Vanguard in Action - a positive psychology study and support
community. This annual gathering will promote a scientifically-based cooperative
interdisciplinary approach to the major public health issues of our times. It
has been called a “Woodstock of the Mind” and promises to be a seminal event. Go
to </font><a href="http://www.vanguardinaction.org">www.vanguardinaction.org<font color="#800000">
for more information.</font></font>

<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="#003300">The Science & Poetry of
Mindsight



The Mindsight Symposium will attempt to sketch a new geography of the Self, one
in which the visible and poetic physiology of the brain can be wed to the
invisible and transcendent field of the mind. This new dance will have great
consequence for the way we picture ourselves and the way we voyage towards
healing and wholeness. In a sense, mindsight is the unification of the
scientific, the imaginative and the mystical worlds. Our Symposium is intended
as an imaginative adventure towards a new land of being - where each of us
without even suspecting it - is already an adept native. It is the awakening of
the deeper knowing in us that knows us better than we even know ourselves.



Our Symposium leaders will be clinical scholar and interpersonal neurobiology
pioneer Daniel Siegel, M.D. and the internationally acclaimed poet and
philosopher, John O'Donohue, Ph.D. The Mindsight Symposium is hosted by Vanguard
in Action, a positive psychology study and support community, directed by Jane
Fortune, LCSW in Portland, Oregon. This integrated "Woodstock of the Mind"
promises to be a mind-opening experience for all who attend.



On our first day we'll explore the role of awareness of moment-to-moment
sensations in our daily lives and how this mindful way of living can enhance our
mental and physical health. On the second day we'll journey further into how we
cultivate our minds to give birth to our sense of creativity in both work and
play. A focus on relationships will be the heart of the third day. We'll explore
how the creative architecture of our mindful approach to each other can deeply
enhance the ways our brains and minds link to each other in professional,
social, intimate, and parent-child relationships.



Recent neuroscientific research gives us evidence-based best practices to create
intelligent and compassionate human relationships. Through scientific study of
the human brain and nervous system we have come to understand the profoundly
interconnected nature of our minds. Only about 25% of our brain development has
occurred by birth. It is through our relationships that the brain develops and
the mind emerges. Now that we have begun to understand that neural processes and
thus brain development are altered by relationships, neuroscience can help us in
the development of health practices for optimal human growth throughout the
lifecycle.



This annual event has been conceptualized to encourage a scientifically-based
cooperative interdisciplinary approach to the major public health issues of our
times. It is also a celebration of a paradigm shift in our understanding and
knowledge about human complexity and connection through neuroscience.



Imagine a gathering of people that creates the opportunity to explore the nature
of the human mind in our life, work, and relationships with each other. The
First Annual Mindsight Symposium will offer such a gathering of scientists,
clinical scholars, poets and philosophers who will focus our attention on the
deep layers of mental life that often lie beneath the threshold of our everyday
awareness. Awakening our minds to this often invisible dimension of human
experience enables us to deepen our self-understanding and promote health and
happiness in others and in our selves. The Mindsight Symposium is conceived as a
gathering of minds from throughout the world to expand our sense of the
interconnected nature of our lives.



Science, technology and our global economy have created the opportunity, as well
as the responsibility, for greater cooperation and collaboration among people
from different disciplines. We'll be integrating concepts and practices, ideas
and experiential learning, so that attendees will have "take-home" experiences
that can directly enhance their personal and professional lives after the event.




Recall that the dictionary definition of the psyche includes the mind, the
intellect, the spirit, and the soul. May we begin this dialogue that focuses on
the heart of who we are. Our hope is that the Symposium will be a transformative
experience. </font><font color="#800000" face="Verdana" size="2">

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