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Champion for Conscious Cooperation: Tahdi BlackstoneBy Ann Barczay Sloan, Women’s Networking Editor
“We can live as though everything is a miracle Yet another extraordinary woman in my life!I first met Tahdi around 1995 when I was co-leader of a local IONS group in Orange County, CA and I was invited to a gathering of various area leaders held at her delightfully unusual home in a remote section of California’s San Fernando Valley. Tahdi’s house is a small wooden cottage with a big brick fireplace, but what really makes this place so appealing is the huge deck in the back of the house. There are old live oaks overhanging, tropical and desert plants in an informal array, lots of outdoor tables and chairs, tinkling wind chimes, and, at evening gatherings, the flickering of countless candles. And now I must explain that – though this deck is in “back” of the house - when you are out there, it is clearly the front of the house, because it overlooks miles of valley, trees, hills, and vast fields with massive boulders scattered about as if by a powerful giant. It’s probably because of this primeval vista reminiscent of Africa that Tahdi has named her home “Serengeti West”. When I lived in California, I always loved going to Serengeti West and attending Tahdi’s events, whether informal gatherings or salons featuring various luminaries in the consciousness movement, such as Planting the Peace Pole with Deborah Moldow from the United Nations, or conversations with people like Dr. Matthew Fox, lecturer, author of almost 30 books and Founder/President of University of Creation Spirituality; James O’Dea (President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences), and Mark Dubois, Recipient of the Beyond War Award. Who is Tahdi and what is she all about?Tahdi does not hesitate for a moment as she tells me: “I most want to help turn the world into a family that includes and honors all life and creation, and to support and work with organizations doing that.” As such, she’s definitely on the right track! Rev. Dr. Tahdi’s formal title is Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Founder / Director of the IONS ~ L.A. Community Group. She is a Member of the World Board of Unity-and-Diversity World Council, and Board of Directors of Arts Olympus whose vision is a global cultural exchange. In her home, she runs a healing center with light and sound frequency generators “where miracles abound”, she smiles. If you think this sounds like a complicated or heavy load, Tahdi is a most warm, light-hearted woman who makes just about everything she undertakes seem virtually effortless. I’d better explain some basics about IONS at this point!For those who are not familiar with this highly respected world-wide organization, here is a brief definition found in their mission statement:
My Interview with TahdiAnn: To start with, would you please explain your unusual first name? Tahdi: Tahdi is the Chinese word for the personal pronoun "His". As a name it means "God's" or "belonging to God" because it came in the context of a little Bible verse song that I sang as a small child. Ann: Who gave you this name - your parents? Tahdi: Actually, it came to me in the middle of the night some years ago during one of those "dark night of the soul" periods… But instead of the usual nightmares, this time I woke up singing this little song - and when I came to that word "Tahdi" I was "told" that that was my new name. I argued with whatever was "telling" me: it was dumb sounding, it was not a name, people would tease me, I did not like it. At the time I had no idea what the word meant until my father later explained it. Yet this simple name change brought such overwhelming comfort that outweighed the unfashionable part because each time someone called me that - they were unknowingly reminding me of my true identity. Just like in The Lion King: "Remember who you are!" I wonder how many other gifts I / we have trashed because they were unfashionable? Ann: I know you are involved in an amazing number of activities - would you tell us what they are about? Tahdi: I see our life purpose to serve as a rallying flag – a wake up call - showing new alternatives, new possibilities, new ways to live from heart rather than greed. Thomas Aquinas uses beauty, light, love, joy and justice-making interchangeably. He says that "Joy is man’s noblest act." Living with these qualities is the opposite of living with greed and materialism. I want my life to be about that difference. My "job" on earth is to explore and bring the best information I know of on the planet to whoever wants to hear it. So I pull people together, put on conferences, seminars, Wisdom Circles (*) and also encourage and help others to start groups of their own. Besides serving on those boards of directors, I give laughter seminars combined with Dr. Bruce Lipton’s information, serve as a consultant, and I love my little healing "Lighthouse" with the brilliant frequency technology of light and sound that gets such amazing results. This device has never had one bad side effect, and has created such relief from pain and other miracles for people that I love being part of offering it. As far as my income that pays my bills and buys my freedom to do as I please, I wholeheartedly believe in Network Marketing where people help people and make money only as they help others get financially successful. I much prefer that to massive advertising budgets for TV commercials that we know lie to us about most things! I also believe we should diversify our income as seriously as we diversify our investments. A lot of people need an extra stream of income, or realize that the one they now have could come to an end any time! I love network marketing for making that so easy and possible! I’m in lots of companies to help my friends, but the one I chose for income producing and fundraisers for the organizations I love is the world’s first healthy coffee. It has been scientifically proven to be even more effective than the company claims. And because everyone drinks coffee (it is the 2nd largest commodity next to oil) I don’t have to spend my time explaining it. It is delicious and based on China’s ancient and most powerful herb - ganoderma lucidum - that anyone can look up for themselves. Ann: Please share some details on your extraordinary childhood in China! Tahdi: My parents were missionaries. Daddy was from 3 generations of missionaries to China. Mother felt "called" to go when she was a young child and prepared all her life. Daddy had a gorgeous voice, and when they met in New York with the other missionaries, and Daddy was asked to sing at the big farewell banquet, she was asked to accompany him on the piano. This was the start of a long-standing life together giving concerts all over China – they called it musical evangelism, and were invited places that no missionary would have been allowed. That created a very different lifestyle from what we think of as the usual ‘Missionary’. Our life and home were always filled with music which brought a different "joy" than the proverbial sermons. All four of us kids were born in China… My little sister and I were born during WWII (she didn’t make it, died at 4 months old.) Between the Japanese and the communist takeovers we had to evacuate and leave everything behind four times. On one occasion our Chinese friends came in and buried our belongings in the back yard so the Japanese wouldn’t find them - and then brought them to us when the war was over. We still have that mantle clock to this day! That incident has been my definition of love all these years! In some places where we lived in China they had never seen a white person, so my platinum blond curls and blue eyes made them scream “Yang gwei tse” (“foreign devil”) at me, pinch me and pull my hair. Fear was everywhere, and seemed to permeate everything. Then as Fate would have it, General Claire B. Chennault asked Daddy to be the chaplain of the famed Flying Tigers until the war’s end, so they were always welcome at our house any time of the day and night for music, food, counseling, partying, or just hanging out. It was definitely the best of times, living with their bravery, courage, humor, and loving companionship - and the worst of times with the bombs, the terror, devastation, starving orphans and poor people in the gutter, with their open, fly-studded, wounds, just waiting to die. No wonder I hate war with such a passion - however much I adored the Flying Tigers, and have loved attending their annual reunions when Mother (who is now 102!) could make it. Ann: What is the prime goal, the mission of what you’re doing with your life? Tahdi: I want to help create a world ruled by compassion, wisdom, creativity, beauty, to explore and spread the power of consciousness – and to help any organization involved in doing that. This is why I so believe in networking and small groups where we can start our journey to transformation. And it is why I so love flying the banner of The Institute of Noetic Sciences founded by that brilliant astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who had such a profound, inspiring and life changing spiritual experience returning from the moon. IONS is now led by James O’Dea, who is the best combination of contemplation and activism I know of, and a really amazing circle of Board members who are each awesome in their own right - including Edgar, of course. Ann: I’m really inspired as I see how in some way you are continuing to live life in a missionary mode, so to speak – but now on a much vaster scope, world-wide! Tahdi: The world is too interconnected and interdependent to think we can accomplish anything separate from each other – we have to think globally and act locally, as the saying goes. For my part, I want us all to discover that our human potential is to expand into a life of Consciousness, and be conduits of The Spirit – to explore what we can do collectively and to discover that consciousness (when we understand, apply and live it) is a greater power than weapons. Our having a physical life is a tiny fraction of what’s possible - and it is not even the fun part. Don’t you love that saying, "We are a spiritual being having a physical experience, not a physical being having a spiritual experience"? Thomas Aquinas tells us: "Joy is man’s noblest act." I want us to discover that joy, beauty and love are much more fun than money, and that our children and our creativity are worth way more than BMW’s and big houses… Then Life with a capital L can really begin! One of the reasons I love IONS so much is because for me it has the largest, most inclusive umbrella and vision with their mission statement:
It thrills me to be part of that. Ann: So, how did you first connect with IONS, and how did you arrive at your current position with IONS ~ L.A.? Tahdi: It’s been a long complex journey! After years of fundamentalist Christian boarding schools, and then years working with battered and abused children with the Juvenile Court, the combination of what people were doing to each other, what the system was doing to everyone, what I became in it, plus an accident, a divorce and my own emotional, spiritual and physical collapse made me promise God, if I survived, I would never again work for anyone or do anything I didn’t totally believe in. After months of pain and recuperating, I went to a wonderful University run by Matthew Fox where I got my Master’s degree (and recently my doctorate.) It was thrilling and life-changing. I learned there from Dr. Brian Swimme that what the earth needed most was not for a few people to make big shifts and serve as shining examples, but for millions and millions of us to make small shifts to take care of the earth and each other – to wake up and get conscious. After graduating from this University I went on staff at a beautiful prestigious church, and it was during this time I discovered IONS - the only Institute I ever heard of studying and researching Consciousness. That was when I raised the first rallying flag, to see if others wanted to get together as much as I did. Since that time almost 20 years ago, we have met every month - and for many years we met weekly as well! The conferences and seminars we’ve put together have brought us fantastic speakers and fascinating information to be able to make some major shifts. Ann: Yes, I’ve had the privilege of attending some of these events! You have put together such dynamic conferences with such amazing speakers and leaders - the crème de la crème of the consciousness movement - and you always make it look so effortless! Tahdi: I sure don’t know about effortless - it doesn’t feel like that from inside, but I’m happy if it looks like that from outside!! Yes - it’s sooo thrilling to watch and experience ourselves and others open up and transform through the richness of telling each other our truth, the depth of sharing in the Wisdom Circles, and learning to listen with no judgment - just curiosity and openness. Ann: How much of your work would you say is focused on women? Tahdi: I don’t believe in exclusion of any sort: race, religion, or sex, but mostly women are the ones I especially want to "wake up". Why? Because we humans are turning into the only species who do not protect our young - whether it is through war, abuse, poison in our household cleaners, toxins in our detergents, chemicals in our aquifers, air, oceans and soil… or listening to lies and buying missiles instead of education, healthy food, safe neighborhoods, and outlets for their creativity… Instead we kill our kids’ creativity, and we allow the schools to close the music and art programs in order to have more ROTC!! Really!!! And the list goes on and on and on. Women should be our main focus and concern, because, in one week, they could stop all war, all the wanton destruction of the earth, the dumping of toxic chemicals, the clear cutting of ancient forests, destroying the rainforests for hamburgers and the mountains for coal, starving our children and turning them into sex toys – and yet they play powerlessness games and get bought off by their rich or redneck husbands. How very ironic! Ann: What are some ways you promote your various projects? Tahdi: Through the Internet, seminars, word of mouth, and also www.Shift-In-Action. (See References) Ann: Whom does your network currently include? How far does your network extend? Tahdi: My main focus is on IONS groups - and these IONS groups exist around the world. My work is, of course, primarily the L.A. area, with heavy internet contact across the U.S. and with some other countries. But I strongly believe that the world now is too small for us to indulge in nationalistic and provincial pettiness. Ann: You also have a brother who is deeply involved with IONS. What is his role? Tahdi: Yes, my brother Bob is in Sacramento, California: He and his glorious wife, Carolyn, serve as the regional reps of Northern California supporting all the community groups in that area. They founded and run the Sacramento group with their really dynamite steering committee and have some wonderful speakers at their monthly meetings. Their group’s meditations and experiments in consensus and cooperative leadership are inspirations to the rest of us. They have a wonderful week in the Redwoods every summer that is gorgeous for reconnecting to nature. Bob was on the IONS Board of Directors and continues to love them dearly. I think they both feel that all of their life training and experiences – Carolyn’s background as a teacher, and Bob’s as a minister from Princeton, Political Science professor with his Ph.D. from USC, and high level positions with the State of CA are being put to good use with the important and expansive mission of IONS and now with the organizing of the community groups that is just starting, Both he and Carolyn have always been great visionaries and have lived their lives on the cutting edge of what’s most important. Ann: Which of your projects are you most passionate about at this time? Tahdi: Taking really good care of my 102 year old Mother is my primary commitment now. After her, my major focus is on building the IONS community groups all over the globe into an interactive, proactive network that can be a big WAKE UP CALL!!! We have recklessly destroyed the trust and respect built up through the years both here and abroad and it is our job to create safe places for people to look at themselves and what we are doing. Only with an open, forgiving heart can people shift, transform and grow their own spiritual lives into joyful activism to heal the earth, the fear, and the hatred we have grown around the world. We cannot hear our inner Guidance unless we listen with our hearts and then use all our strength to follow that Guidance to make the difference needed. So, we are planning our first IONS Community Group conference for community group leaders and members, and for anyone interested in joining us to create groups for communicating and growing who we want to be - and creating a world that works for all. Ann: How do you envision this conference? What makes it different? Tahdi: I envision a conference where people really have time to meet, listen, share and learn from each other - with no outside speakers, but where ‘us folks’ start finding our Inner wisdom, our voices, and start using them. I’m also excited about starting Wisdom Circles with children and youth of different ages, races, religions etc., so they start early learning to go inside of themselves for wisdom about how to address the state of the world and what they want to do about it. We intend to film some of them and then share these films with other sister Wisdom Circles around the world so the youth can start being an active part of the solutions. Ann: What are some positive experiences you’ve had through connecting with networks? Benefits, expected and unexpected? Tahdi: There are sooooo many! Lifelong friendships have formed, teams of co-creators and partners have developed, all of our experiences have been enriched and broadened. The broader and more inclusive the experiences, and more fun we have with them, the more we can embrace the diversity that is all of us and enjoy the magnificence of it. Then we become world citizens – and then ultimately we can lose our fear. Ann: What are your plans and goals for the future - especially regarding networking activities? Tahdi: I will do more and more networking to build win/win situations instead of win/lose. More and more organizations will build fundraising programs around network marketing activities because the old tin cup isn’t working as well these days - and we have to learn how to co-create and cooperate or we go extinct! It’s that simple! We’ll also have more fun doing it!! I will increasingly make fewer plans but be more ready, anticipating and thanking God for the surprises and delights that show up constantly and unexpectedly. I will continue to build my IONS groups and create spaces where people can find the wisdom within and share it. As a byproduct, I will continue to use my healthy coffee company (Gano Excel USA) as fund raisers for organizations and non-profits that are doing creative and necessary work in the world. Ann: What’s the achievement you’re most proud of at this time? Tahdi: Maybe keeping my promise to only work for what I really believe in and staying my course. The times I have risked and fought for what I believed in and held firm to unpopular positions. Learning that the universe is conspiring for our good, and that God really wants us filled with His joy. That was hard to come to from my fundamentalist background that fills us with such guilt and horror about how evil we are. Ann: Any concluding thoughts you would like to share with us, Tahdi? Tahdi: I think all of us can identify with the earth… We have a lot of wounds, a lot of clear cutting and devastation and scars - but also like the earth we have a lot of beauty, miraculous working parts, mystery, a lot of valuable resources worth mining, and definitely an ability to applaud - to really feel awe as we discover eagles, elephants and desert flowers, sea shells, trees and skunks, dolphins, water and sunrises… Matthew Fox paraphrases Thomas Aquinas when he says, “All creation is on parade – every creature needs applause.” What a wonderful world it would be if we all looked for the best in each other – in all creation - to applaud. Say we can do that! We have the ability to applaud every kind of people, child, animal, tree – and that’s what I’m called to do now is applaud, everything and everybody I can: all the miracles of creation. We only take care of what we love, and the earth has never needed our love and care more than at this time. Whatever I focus on expands. And that is networking – creating understanding, laughter, acceptance and applause – creating a big playpen where we can all play together in peace, safety and joy as co-creators. Isn’t it thrilling how healing that could be? As Dr. Bruce Lipton says in his brilliant book, The Biology of Belief: we can create heaven on earth if we just choose love instead of fear. References: Contact information: Institute of Noetic Sciences Listing of IONS Community Groups Email AnnS@TheNationalNetworker.com">Ann or Post a Comment on TNNW Blog. |
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