BELOW IS A SAMPLE OF PAST PRESENTATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS
(in alphabetical order)
Scroll down or click the links to see what presentations are/were featured at which
conference.
More presentations, workshops and
PRESENTERS are listed as
they're confirmed
C = Chicago, IL, B = Bryn Mawr, PA, H = Harbin Hot Springs,
L = Laguna
Beach, CA
Explore
bi-sexual polyamorous relationship in a safe and supportive
environment. This workshop is for
all levels of interest, especially for the bi-Curious as well as the
bisexually experienced. A theoretical and experiential guide
to the bi-poly option with guided imagery, pair and multiple partner
exercises. Using movement and dance, transformational theater and
role-playing exercises with opposite sex and same sex partners, we
explore the bi-poly option in fantasy and in
"reality".
We all have a motivation for having a given boundary. If
you're willing to reveal and share with your loved one what
you're trying to protect with that boundary, then there's an
invitation for the other to be a partner in your self-care.
In a healthy, intimate relationship, if you express your
interests -- that is, what lies underneath your position or
why you have that position -- then there's room for the other
to be a collaborator in your success. Are you ready for the
next step? Are you ready to develop the ability to play at a
level beyond boundaries?
Those of us who identify as polyamorous have had,
presently have (or will have) close relationships with those
in the monogamous world. Expanding upon the metaphor of
“bridge building”, John examines five dynamic functions of
active loving in this presentation. These principles may be
successfully applied developing, enhancing and maintaining
relationships both with those outside, and inside, the poly
community.
Co-housing provides opportunities for personal
growth and social support, but also presents
additional difficulties generally not found in other
forms of housing. This presentation explores
the joys and challenges of living in a co-housing
community. We compare co-housing communities with
other forms of housing: single-family homes, condos,
cooperatives, and communes. We also discuss how
co-housing communities sustain themselves by
emphasizing agreements, communication, and
conflict-resolution.
Rich Sposato currently lives in a co-housing
community in the Bay Area with his partner and
daughter.
Scott will provide a series of very practical tools & tips
for improving your communication. There will be two parts
to this workshop. The first part will be for lovers,
partners & intimate friends. Scott will present his
understanding of how to utilize Compassionate Communication
(aka: NVC, or Nonviolent Communication) in creating safe,
joyful and expansive relationships. Learn how to connect
more deeply and in a way in which your needs are being more
fully met.
Emmy award winning writer and producer
Scott Catamas will be discussing how to work
with the media in raising consciousness. He will show
segments of programming that he has produced for HBO,
NBC, FOX, SHOWTIME and other nationally broadcast
outlets.
Topics will include Crop Circles, Astronauts &
Military Officials talking about the real UFO stories,
Sacred Sexuality & Tantra, The Mayan Calendar &
Prophecies and the link between Metaphysics & Quantum
Physics. Between viewing dynamic segments, Scott will
lead brief discussions / Q & A with the audience.
The presentation will adapt according to the
interests of the audience. The primary focus will be
how we can best affect positive change /
transformation, through the media.
Scott Catamas is a multiple EMMY award
winning writer and producer, who was born & raised in
the L.A. area. He has worked with leaders in the
Conscious Media Movement throughout his adult life. He
is currently involved in a wide variety of film &
television projects, and travels between Tiburon
(Marin County) and West Los Angeles.
Centering
ourselves, we recognize,
accept, coordinate and synergize our own varied inner voices
that react to relationships and love. We share vulnerable
voices, converting interactions from sour to sweet. We see
aspects of other people sour us because they resonate our own
underexpressed voices. As we accept these voices in us,
we simultaneously enjoy their appearance in others. Accepting our varied inner selves helps us celebrate
diversity in others and builds our cohesiveness.
Use the Chrysalis Wisdom Council to
Transform Communication, Problem-Resolution, Visioning,
and Agreements with Your Partners.
The goal of any healthy relationship is to connect at the
deepest, most basic levels. However, inevitably, we all
face conflict. This conflict can come in the form of
disagreements, lack of common vision, irresolvable
differences (big and small), limited perspectives,
unexamined assumptions, misunderstood communications—and
more.
Poly relationships can be even more challenging than
monogamous one, requiring more honesty, greater
self-examination, clearer boundaries, more sensitive
listening, higher consciousness, and a broader
perspective. For this reason, polyamory requires better
tools.
The Chrysalis Wisdom Council is a transformational tool
that will enable you to find completely unexpected
solutions by thinking outside the chrysalis. In one short
session, you can typically cover more ground than in five
normal conversations – all the while talking a lot less.
In this hands-on workshop, you will experience the
Chrysalis Wisdom Council, and you will leave the workshop
an expert in the use of this powerful tool. You will be
able to use it to:
Develop a deeper understanding of your partner’s wants,
needs, and desires.
Communicate your own wants, needs, and desires more
effectively.
Develop your emotional safety agreements with your
polyamorous partners.
Resolve relationship issues that you haven’t been able
to tackle in years.
David
Hawkins has developed a cosmology of human consciousness that
takes us from the lowest to the highest levels of human
consciousness.He did this through research using applied kinesiology on
hundreds and thousands of people over ten years time.He found that regardless of race, culture, religion,
nationality, class, personality, state of mental health or
even personal beliefs, almost exactly the same cosmology
emerged with each individual.More
than that when each state was rated for the level of life
energy it represented, that too was, almost completely
consistent across the board of the people tested.
We'll
take that cosmology and apply it to relationships to determine
how each level impacts the possibility for polyamory. We've
also looked at our own relationship from Hawkin's perspective.We'll share this cosmology and our insights into it and give an
example from our own relationship as it relates to the
different levels.
Then you'll participate in a small group exploration of each
person’s current challenge in polyamory from the perspective
of the cosmology of human consciousness.You'll have the opportunity to bring to the table a difficult
or uncomfortable experience for you in the poly realm.You'll reflect upon and discuss your experience.
You'll ask yourself where are you, where do you want to be?What do you need to believe, know, do to be there?
Learn
to be a successful third, fourth, or fifth wheel!
Navigating the waters smoothly when entering an established
relationship can be rough. Shama & Don reveal
important pointers that make the journey easier.
You learn the most important aspects of how to deal with
exciting dynamics a new person brings; the wonders and the
potential pitfalls. Learn to create balance and harmony in
triads and beyond. Explore practical skills including
communication tools that can be used immediately to enhance
and expand the quality of all your relationships
This is a very
popular format and often the favorite part of the conference for
many. The panel is led by Janet
Kira Lessin and includes polys of several varieties and everyone else
who wishes to share how they make polyamory work for them.
The audience gets to ask question, so everyone's included.
Newbies get valuable answers to begin their poly lives. If you're
currently involved in poly relations and would like to be a part of
the panel, email: janetkiralessin@aol.com
Hypnosis demonstration
shows you how to slay the green eyed monster, release sexual
inhibitions which are no longer serving you, and how to share
full body multiple orgasms with your partners. Bring your
senses alive through guided fantasy, experience the delights
of sensual/spiritual connection through orchestrated
hypnomassage --for singles, dyads, triads and loving groups.
Romantic music heightens the intimacy.
This
presentation is about four people who agreed to share a part of their
intimate relationships with the world. Using photographs taken
earlier this year as a samples, we will discuss how this photo session
helped a poly family incorporate and partner in much less time than
it might have taken in the past. We'll also discuss how you can
use photography to both enhance your relationships and create images
that are erotic and sensual without being lewd.
There
are many good ideas and effective techniques that can be used to
manage jealousy. All of them work at least to some extent. This
workshop will include two others that are very powerful, easy to
learn, but not yet widely known within the polyamory community.
These are the methods originally pioneered by psychologist Roger
Callahan and methods invented by Dr. Edward Bach, a British
Homeopathic physician.
All men and women possess both masculine and feminine qualities
-- different people have different mixes of each. This workshop
helps you find what your intrinsic individual mix is -- and
experience the strength and freedom inherent in acting from that
authentic place. You're most powerful, effective and free when
you can animate both your masculine and feminine aspects from a
place of love and openness as opposed to fear and defensiveness.
The workshop helps men and women understand how to improve the
way they come across to the opposite sex in a way that makes you
irresistible in their eyes.
Select the lifestyle you feel you'd enjoy most from several
possible options--from poen relatonships to a multi-generational
group marriage. Terry and Paul Brussel Gibbons, now 50,
have lived a polyamorous lifesyle since their late teens.
They've been in a triad with Marcus Brussel Jenkins since 6-01.
Much of their personal belief system is based on Stranger in
a Strange Land, a science fiction novel from the 60s.
Many members of the poly and pagan communities got into this
lifestyle through science fiction-Robert Heinlein, Marion Zimmer
Bradley, Spider Robinson and others.
In this workshop we'll discuss Heinlein's "latest" novel, his
first written in 1938, which shows that all his other
Poly-oriented novels represented his true philosophy which was
presented over the years with full intent to educate/socialize
his readers regarding this lifestyle. Terry and Paul will
be happy to answer questions how triads work, share their
personal experiences, and help you figure out how to make your
dreams a reality.
We'll climax this workshop with a LOVE MAGNET guided meditation
led by Terry (a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist). This will
help you attract the love partners you desire while releasing
any jealousies or inhibitions that keep you from fully enjoying
your sex life with your primary partner(s) and any other lovers
you draw into your circle.
Compersion is an experience where I am uplifted when my partner is
uplifted through experiences that he or she shares with others,
including when those experiences involve love and sexuality. It
is the acceptance that those you love can love others and the capacity
to experience pleasure, and even joy and turn-on, when this occurs.
Compersion is essential to Polyamory.
Tantra is a spiritual path
that is conducive to compersion and which, if truly lived, flows
seamlessly into Polyamory.
In this workshop, we will
begin by revealing how this is so. Then, in twos, fours and
small groups, we will move into compersion, Tantra and Poly in a dance
that may be playful or soulful, mental or sensual, and that will
either stretch boundaries or provide the opportunity to stretch into
already extended boundaries with a variety of individuals or couples.
We will place you in situations in which you will have the opportunity
to experience or develop your compersionate nature in an enriching and
supportive atmosphere.
An
enduring, fulfilling two person partnership is rare enough.
Even most animals tend to pair-bond. It’s totally
impractical to think of expanding beyond the dyad, perhaps to
3, or 4? In Beyond the Dance of Two, we explore the
unique dynamics when more than 2 relate. We explore how to
keep a triad from being a pair plus one. Gain insight into
your relating style and how compatible it is for going beyond
the dyad. (Discussion and experiential exercises).
Polyamory is often defined as
several separate relationships going on simultaneously. However,
an alternative perspective, inspired by shamanism, tantra and
family systems theory, is to view it all as one single
relationship that encompasses multiple persons and multiple
points of responsibility. Viewing relationships in such a
manner can resolve a number of practical "problems" often
confronting people wishing to create and sustain non-monogamous
lifestyles.
"Safer" agreements are one of the cornerstones of successful relating,
in all aspects of our lives. We'll cover how to make more
successful agreements, what should and shouldn't be in a safer
sex agreement, and how to make agreements regarding emotional
safety. We'll also discuss the agreements in our lives we're
usually not even aware of. We will cover why agreements fail,
and how to help insure their success. We'll also discuss how
to recover when they fail. We'll be spending out time together
in a combination of lecture, interactive discussion, and
exercises.
Janet
and Dave orient all to the conference. They, oldtimers and
newcomers question each other and share experiences. This
orientation is especially designed for those new to
polyamory and/or for those attending their first polyamory
conference, - but all are welcome. It's a good place
to begin getting your burning questions answered, get your
feet wet and begin to get to know your fellow participants
at the conference.
Is
serial monogamy the normal human mating pattern? How then do
we explain other patterns including polygamy, polyamory, and
swinging? To address these questions, we examine
cross-cultural research on romantic passion as well as the
brain chemistry of romantic love. Next we compare
how the cultures of dating singles, swingers and polyamorists
engage pairbonding and romantic love. We consider how singles
focus on the differences between how women and men fall in
love and evaluate making a pairbonded commitment. Next we see
how polyamory mitigates against jealousy by celebrating
compersion and maintaining relationship hierarchies. We notice
how swinging culture teases up sexual attraction while
reinforcing the strength of the marital bond. We reconsider
the idea humans are serially monogamous. What keeps people
swinging, or practicing open marriage, polygyny, polyandry and
polyamory happy are the many different kinds of love they
access simultaneously.
We
play–first wordlessly. Then we talk and join small (6 -12
person) groups. Our group is our pod. Our pod supports
us getting what we want at the conference and in life.
Throughout the weekend, we talk with our pod mates about what
we learn about poly loving. We imagine taking new
lovers into our net. We roleplay joining established
lovers. Each day we report in our pod how we're doing fulfilling
fantasies.
While no one believes anyone can
literally duplicated the non-monogamous styles depicted in
Stranger in a Strange Land or similar stories, such
literature has nevertheless inspired people for decades.
Such tales can capture the imagination, arouse a vision
close to the heart, and indirectly impart many truths to
many levels of the mind. Just as mythology has empowered
people throughout the ages to live more courageously and
authentically, so too the tales of non-monogamous lifestyles
found in contemporary fiction offers a rich source of
inspiration to people wanting to live polyamorous lives in
the "real world".
Terry, Paul and Marcus
coordinate Live the Dream, an education and support group
based in Southern California for those who, originally
inspired by the writings of such authors as Robert Heinlein,
Robert Rimmer and Marion Zimmer Bradley are now ready to
LIVE such alternative lifestyles as cooperative living, open
relationships and group marriage.
Yes, there are such things! Totally
fun. Non-coercive. Interactive and participatory.
Touch/body positive, partner-changing, bonding,
clothing-optional, win-win for all.
As we explore the new dynamics
created in exploring the new vistas that the poly lifestyle
offers, there are many challenges that are often discussed in
books and workshops. While it is important to be prepared
for the pitfalls, it's more important to focus on WHY we are
really doing this journey in the first, second and third place.
Facilitators Donald Michael Kraig
and Shama will juicily and joyfully help you to remember the
fun, pleasure, expansion and tranformations that make this
wonderful lifestyle so worthwhile. Through role play and
various exercises, re-awaken your passion for freedom,
connection and pleasure. Swim in the energy of LOVE.
This workshop deals with the skills
and etiquette required for BDSM power exchange and how they are
applied in the real world to make life a simple pleasure.
The approaches to negotiation and conflict resolution that are
essential to successfully navigate the world of fetish and kink
have direct benefits if properly and discretely applied in the
world of relationship and business. With my submissive sex slave
as a demo helper, I will cover all the basic tools that we can
use as well as give a gentle and appetizing introduction to the
world of Slaves and Masters. Fun and enjoyable.
Right Relationships: What's
God's Plan for Earth(lings)?-
Devaka UP
Devaka guides experientials into the spiritual dimension of
polyamory. Meditations to transcend suffering, free our
intuition, liberate our spirit, dance our oneness
Ed
Seykota shares his powerful method of re-framing and combining
your emotional forms to enhance intimacy. Ed shows you how to
use sending and receiving to convert “problems” such as
jealousy and insecurity into positive elements on your
emotional control panel.Ed likes to use examples from the audience, so this is
a participatory lab course.For more information on the method, see www.tradingtribe.com
Learn
from Scott's extensive experience in working in the media. He has
written & produced successful Film, Television, Video and DVD projects
dealing with the themes of Sacred Sexuality, Tantra, Alternative
Lifestyles and Polyamory for such outlets as HBO, NBC, FOX, UPN, etc.
At over 65, many in our culture think that sex is over,
especially when you are still young. However, for many of us
in the "senior" category, an ongoing sex life is certainly an asset
although perhaps not as compulsive as when we were younger.
With Viagra, Cyalis and other boosts to male sexuality available,
this forum will present an opportunity to candidly discuss the
issues concerning men and women in their elder years. All ages are
welcome.
Theodore will talk about techniques and attitudes for getting turned
on and building the sexual tension leading to ecstasy and orgasmic
release.He will tell Stories of experiences which
enable the universal principles to be understood. Then personal
guidance for your own sexercises!
Oftentimes having a common goal can help
bring poly families together. But how do you achieve these goals?
One aspect of sensuality is the incredible amount of energy that can
be produced. If we could direct that energy to the common
goal, then nothing can stop us!
Sex Magick is simply the ability to do exactly this. In this
workshop, you will learn the basics of designing a magikal goal and
using sensual activities in the poly family to raise energy and
direct it to that goal.
Funshop Facilitators are Donald Michael
Kraig, author of Modern Sex Magick and Shama, Tantra
Educator, author of Polyamory 101. Come prepared to
have fun and make magick with your friends and lovers.
Getting what you REALLY want is
light-years ahead of merely avoiding the things you DON'T want.
What you really want is far beyond "settling" for what you are
"willing to tolerate", accepting what some belief system, the media,
political correctness or an authority figure has taught you to say
you want. This is especially true in intimate relationships,
and all the more so with non-monogamous relationships. Most
people are much clearer about what they wish to avoid than about
what they actually want. And this absence of clarity about
your true desires is often a major obstacle that stands in the way
of creating satisfying polyamorous relationships. Clarifying
your desires will put you way ahead of the game in polyamory.
You can't GET what you want until you KNOW what you want. (So what
do you want?)
We
frequently hear in the media how sex in
relationships eventually
becomes boring. Even some people in poly
relationships often find
themselves in a rut, doing the same old
thing while getting lesser
results. It doesn’t have to be that
way!
Through
Tantra, you can experience NOW how to
resurrect the passion and ecstasy in every
aspect of your life as you expand your
passion, your pleasure, and the depth of
your intimacy beyond your wildest
dreams! Step into a new paradigm of
love, of sex and of living. Shama
and Don Kraig guide you on this amazing
exploration of awakening, consciousness
and bliss.
Sophia's ceremonial songs
move us through energy exchanges that uplift and support
all-chakra connecting–meeting each other at the levels of
our inner Children, Sexual Adults, Warriors, Lovers,
Communicators, Visionaries and Spirits.
This
presentation teaches people to touch and/or
be present using focus and intention.
There's some lecture with lots of hands-on
time. This workshop prepares attendees
to get more from the workshops that follow
and to be better able to connect with
others.
World Polyamory Association 
