In the Fall of 1966, Elizabeth and I stuffed our suitcases and camping gear into the trunk of our Dodge Dart and headed west to San Francisco. We were off to begin a year long internship with the Glide Foundation of San Francisco. Many ministers speak of being “called” to their profession. I was feeling…
One day the woman doctor pulled me aside and said I needed to get help. I should attend a T-group. I had no idea what a T-Group was. I literally pictured a group of people sitting around drinking tea. She said she had looked around to see what programs were available and the only thing…
Of all my experiences, I feel the most ambivalent about the 1970’s and our time in the Creative Initiative Foundation. I was initially pulled to their vision of a world more aligned with the teachings of Jesus. They made a distinction between Jesus as Teacher and Christ the Savior. Here was a new organization that…
“You are a mess!” I am standing in front of Evelyn Sullivan with nothing on but my skivvies. Evelyn is probably in her early 70’s and she is clearly not happy with me. Winona had told me about Evelyn and the unusual energy work that she does. She also told me not to be late….
In July of 1984 I attended a conference outside of New York City on Organization Transformation. During an open mic session, a short man with dark, curly hair got up an announced that he would be demonstrating his work with human energy systems. Intrigued, I decided to attend. His name was Jeff Krock. Like a…
“Well, you have really done it this time, Van Horn. How do you get out of this mess?” This was my inner critic speaking. Whenever it calls me Van Horn I know I am in trouble. My father used to call me this when he was annoyed with me. But my inner critic was right:…
“What the hell am I doing?” That is me talking to myself in a shocking moment of realization. I was alone in front of a group of Western Electric managers. We were about to begin a management training seminar. I would be their trainer. There was no co-trainer like I had had before. The year…
With experiential learning, there is no way of knowing what participants are going to do or say or how they will react during a workshop. At times the trainer has to be creative in responding to unexpected behavior. I came to think that occasionally I could do “magic” if I stayed alert to the possibility…
I learned for myself the importance of creating safety in the classroom. For most of the 1970s I was the Training Officer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Early in that decade Lab management had laid off the Training department. Soon after they realized that they still needed a training fuction, just one that was…
I have used magic mushrooms (psilocybin) only once, but this one time changed the direction of my life. People who use drugs for recreation usually just pop them into their mouth and wait to see what happens. It is a bit like going on a carnival ride at the amusement park. At the carnival ride…
