The Medicine Within YOU—Personal and Planetary Healing is the theme for this year’s annual New Year’s Conference held at the international headquarters of Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Va. This conference invites participants to rediscover the path of beauty that was once known to all our ancestors. Speakers include Ken “Bear Hawk” Cohen, author of Honoring the Medicine, who shares Native American sacred Earth teachings,  Mark Thurston, PhD, Judith Stevens, Henry Reed, PhD, and Peter Woodbury—all will explore personal and global transformation, living in harmony with the natural world and healing bodies, souls, and the planet.

Kenneth “Bear Hawk” Cohen, a health educator and practitioner of indigenous medicine, has trained with Native American and other indigenous elders for more than thirty years. His work is strongly endorsed by his adoptive Cree Indian family and elders from several nations. He was an apprentice to Rolling Thunder, Keetoowah, and other noted North American Indian medicine people and is a member of several medicine societies. In 2003, Ken won the leading international award in energy medicine, the Alyce and Elmer Green Award for Innovation and Lifetime Achievement.

Mark Thurston, PHD, is an educator, psychologist, and author of nineteen books about personal spirituality. He worked with the A.R.E. and Atlantic University from 1973 through 2008, and is a cofounder and course leader for the Personal Transformation and Courage Institute. Mark is now senior fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Consciousness and Transformation, in suburban Washington, D.C., where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on consciousness, meaning, and conflict transformation.

Judith Stevens, a former A.R.E. staff member who served as manager of the worldwide Search for God Study Group Program and originated A.R.E.’s Prison Outreach Program, has studied the Cayce readings for more than forty years and is the author of the forthcoming book Edgar Cayce’s Tools for Abundance. She will lead the New Year’s Eve meditation. Henry Reed, PhD, Director of the Edgar Cayce Institute of Intuitive Studies, is a visionary psychologist who has, for more than forty years, used his dreams and visions to create extraordinary experiences for others. Peter Woodbury, MSW, a Harvard University graduate and psychotherapist who focuses on the use of spirituality and faith as tools for transformation, is a popular A.R.E. tour leader and speaker on the Edgar Cayce perspective.

Ellen Cayce, who served on A.R.E.’s staff for fifteen years, will lead a special morning World Peace Meditation that has been celebrated every New Year’s Eve at A.R.E. for more than twenty years. Patrick Belisle, director of A.R.E.’s Office of Development and a longtime student and teacher of the Cayce material, will help you find your own path through joyful service to others.

Celebrate 2010 with an exciting New Year’s celebration featuring music, dancing, fellowship, food, and fun, followed by a peaceful midnight meditation to usher in the New Year. Special thanks to The Heritage Store for underwriting our New Year’s celebration.

Open to all, The Medicine Within YOU—Personal and Planetary Healing is scheduled for December 28-31, at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., 215 67th Street, Virginia Beach, VA 23451. Admission is $255, with special pricing for a single day or single presentations. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for this conference are approved by IACET and provided by Atlantic University. The conference is approved for up to 15.58 contact hours or 1.56 academic CEUs. For more information or to register, contact the A.R.E. conference registrars at 757-428-3588, ext. 7401, or go to EdgarCayce.org/conferences.

Held concurrently with the adult conference, there is also a youth track for this event. Teens, ages 13 to 17, are invited to attend Where Are YOU in the World? at the special tuition rate of $250 which also includes food and lodging. A residential program entitled The Cayce Principles: Inside and Out is open to young adults between the ages 18 and 25. Tuition of $250 includes food and lodging for four nights. Finally, a special $45 children’s one-day program, Making My Mark in the World, is open to kids ages 5 to 12.

More about the A.R.E…
Edgar Cayce founded the non-profit Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) in 1931, to explore spirituality, holistic health, intuition, dream interpretation, psychic development, reincarnation, and ancient mysteries—all subjects that frequently came up in the more than 14,000 documented psychic readings given by Cayce, who died in 1945. The mission of A.R.E. is simply to help people around the world change their lives for the better through the ideas and information found in the readings. The Virginia Beach headquarters is a popular site for locals and tourists with free daily lectures, a Health Center and Spa, the Cayce/Reilly® School of Massotherapy, an extensive metaphysical library, a meditation garden, a stone labyrinth, and a bookstore and gift shop. Visitors from around the world come to our conferences to hear expert speakers on subjects like ancient mysteries, holistic health, and spiritual development. A.R.E. also maintains an affiliation with Atlantic University. Through its many programs, services, publications, and membership outreach, Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. provides individuals from all walks of life and a variety of religious backgrounds with tools for personal transformation and healing at all levels—body, mind, and spirit. For more information about Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., please visit EdgarCayce.org.