Any religion or no religion at all is fine for this course. Atheists and agnostics are certainly welcome, as are Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Zoroastrians, Native Americans, and Jews. All are welcome here.

The Heart is universal. If you want to explore your heart and heal your own heart wounds, you are welcome. If you have a heart for service and want to help heal the wounds in the Heart of America, you are most welcome here.

Please don’t worry about this at all. I will teach you what is called Heart Rhythm Meditation. It’s easy and charming, and remarkably powerful as a meditation. HRM was revived by Puran and Susanna Bair of iamHeart.org.

They studied the meditations of the early Christian Mystics – the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 4^th and 5^th centuries. These remarkable God-Realized men and women primarily meditated with their hearts and their breathing. HRM combines our heart and breathing to easily keep our focus in our hearts. It is remarkably healing, especially when combined with the power of our intention.

We will use this connection between the rhythm of our heartbeat with the rhythm of our breathing. It is deeply restorative and healing to connect these two rhythms of our bodies. It creates a deep sense of balance within ourselves, and we tend to spontaneously connect to the rhythm of nature and the earth.

The Desert Fathers and Mothers used this balanced state to draw nearer to the Divine. Great artists use this state to draw Beauty into their work; Great scientists use this state to see and explore the workings of creation. Great teachers use this state to impart Wisdom to their students; Great mechanics use this state to become One with the machines they are building or repairing.

We will use this harmonious and balanced state to heal our hearts and the Heart of America.

This is not exactly a scientific phrase, is it? The Heart of America is very real, even if science cannot yet measure it.

Perhaps you can feel the difference between the Heart of New York City and the Heart of San Francisco? There is a different “feel”, right? How about the Heart of Iowa vs the Heart of Hawaii? Both are wonderful states, but there is a different “feel”.

How about growing up – did one family in your neighborhood have a different Heart than another family? Most of us would say yes to that, I think.

Every city, every state, every group of people, even every distinct land mass has its own feel.

This unique ‘feel” comes from the accumulated experiences of the people in that geographical area. There is a memory in the psyche of America. In the Bible they might call this the Book of Life – the record of events for a country or an individual.

This is true for ourselves as individuals, and it is true for us as a nation. Our conscious mind might forget our experiences, but they are not gone, only suppressed.

The heart is the center of our energetic body. What makes each energetic body unique is the unique experiences collected and stored within us. This is our “Heart”.

The Heart of America is the collection of all our experiences, past and present, good and bad.

We can use the power of heart-centered meditation to access this vast storehouse of impressions – both within ourselves as individuals, and within our collective experience. This is the first step in healing and restoring this energy.

This is really a continuation of the prior question – What is the Heart of America?

The Heart of America is the collection of all our experiences, past and present, good and bad.

Much of the history of America is beautiful – we are a generous and tolerant people, living with the Divine Ideals of Freedom and Liberty and Equality. But there are also times of darkness in our past, where our lower passions and fears control our behavior and these Divine Ideals are ignored.

Let me suggest something radical: We exist as individuals and as a nation to express Divine Ideals.

Many people might think that dogs exist to develop and exhibit Loyalty and Courage. And that we humans exist to develop and express Love, Harmony and Beauty or some set of Divine Ideals.

Let’s turn that upside down: Dogs exist because the Divine Qualities of Loyalty and Courage want to express themselves. We exist because the Divine Quality of Love wants to express itself. Wounds in our energetic body- our “heart” – keep us from expressing the Divine Ideals of our blueprint, our soul.

When we as a nation act from our lower passions and fears, we create a wound in our collective energetic body. This wound blocks the energy and the expression of the Divine Ideals that our nation was founded on.

Think about the genocide and massacres of the Native Americans. This is a deep wound in the psyche of our nation. It has not gone away over the passage of time. We may not think about it much, but it weighs us down and keeps us from moving into complete alignment with the Divine Plan for our great nation. Deep down we all know this.

So how do we heal this? Feeling guilty is not really very healing, is it? Nor is suppressing the topic, which we do by default. We don’t know what to do, so we do nothing. Time actually does heal wounds, but this could take centuries.

Other obvious wounds in the Heart of America: Slavery, Racism, our treatment of minorities and immigrants – legal or not; Pollution, Wars, the Atomic bomb, our farming practices and the treatment of our soil and water; genetic engineering, the extinction of so many species, etc etc.

We don’t want to address this politically – pointing blame does not heal.

We must heal these wounds spiritually and at the level of the energy patterns that cause the wound.

Once the wounds of America are healed or even just softened, we can begin to act from the depth of our hearts. We will experience the underlying Oneness of our people, and freely choose to help and share and act from benevolence rather than from fear and greed.

This will be true no matter what political or economic system we live under. It’s not the system – it is the generous, open, and loving nature of our hearts that inspires our action and lifestyle.

Most of us have a sense of or even the experience of meditating with our mind. This means different things to different traditions, but broadly it involves concentration, philosophical contemplation, or using a mantra or sound-thought to transcend to the field of Infinite Silence within us. These and other approaches to mental meditation all have their own great value.

The heart is the center of our energetic body. To access the heart, we need to use the field of energy. We do this through our breath and our intention.

In mental meditation we may experience finer and finer levels of thought until we experience the field of Infinite Silence; here we begin to experience finer and finer levels and Qualities of energy until we experience the field of Pure Energy, or as well call it, the vastness of the Universal Heart.

Infinite Silence and the Universal Heart are closely related. We could say they are two sides of the same coin. Which would you prefer? A quiet mind or an open, loving heart?

I am clear that opening the door to the Universal Heart is the next stage of human evolution, and I invite you to join me in creating the Culture of the Heart in America.

We all have wounds. Some wounds are easy to heal, and others can be deep wounds that impact our life dramatically. If a child’s parents die or abandons the child, that child may have a deep wound and spend the rest of their life wanting safety or love – but never quite getting it. This would be a deep wound.

A disappointment in the 3^rd grade, a dating partner who just isn’t interested in go further with us – these might be surface wounds – or they might be reflections of a deeper wound we can’t see or feel, but we remember this petty wound because it is a symptom of a deeper pattern or wound.

This is the surface description of a wound, and we all have seen this in other people. Perhaps we see it in ourselves. But we all know our past experiences influence our decisions and choices today. These are wounds.

• We draw our life experiences to us, based on our wounds. We can see this in a person who divorces their spouse for whatever good reason. But when they remarry, they unwittingly draw in a new spouse with the exact same personality. We do this until we learn to forgive or draw boundaries – both actions of a healed heart.
• Our wounds can control our behavior, keeping us from fulling our life’s purpose.
• When we act or speak from our wounds, we are victims.
• When we act or speak from the Wholeness of our Heart, we are powerful leaders and change-makers.

We can heal our wounds. Think about Nelson Mandela. He was imprisoned and tortured. We all would have understood if he emerged from prison as a bitter, wounded man – a victim of brutality. But somehow he healed these wounds in his heart and forgave his tormenters. He emerged from prison with a forgiving heart which let him act and speak from the Wholeness of the Universal Heart. He became a great leader for South Africa, and we all love him for this.

It is the inner exploration of wounds that allows us to heal them and understand them. The mystics of the Heart can actually see or subtly feel such wounds. They are blockages in the energy system of our being, and the Heart is the center of our energetic body.

3 Types of Energetic Wounds of the Heart:

• Some wounds are Leaks – energy leaks out of them instead of being used to accomplish our goals.
• Some wounds are Numb spots – like a scar. We can’t feel anything in this part of our heart.
• Some wounds are Hot spots – inflamed. When our experience in life touches these points, we erupt.

Our wounds block our connection to the Divine Qualities of the Heart. How much Compassion can you give when you are hurting inside? How Loving can you be when you can’t love yourself because of guilt and self-judgement? How much Courage and Power can you draw upon, when these very energies are blocked in your heart?

This is why we must heal the wounds in our heart – and heal the wounds in the Heart of America.

That’s the big question, isn’t it?

This kind of healing doesn’t happen on the surface value of life. Better policies on the political level would be very nice, or perhaps even a revamping of our political system might help. But deep down, we all know that if we are collectively still acting from our wounds, we will get wounded results.

That’s why this course is non-political. Everyone, Blue or Red or somewhere in between, is welcome. This is not about getting other people to join our view, so please no rants and no preaching to the choir.

When we meditate with our heart as individuals, we heal and transform the energies of our individual hearts. This allows us to reflect the Divine Qualities that are the underlying building blocks of creation. (Please also see the answers to these FAQs:  What are the Wounds in the Heart of America?  What are the wounds in my own heart?)

When we meditate as a group, something extraordinary happens. We heal both our own wounds and we start healing the collective wounds in the Heart of America.

We all have an individual “pool” of anger or hatred or jealousy or whatever, right? We can’t heal the universal pools of dark energy until we heal our own pool, first …. unless we meditate in a group.

Three things happen in a group meditation:

1. Our group intention directs our energy to healing these universal wounds.
2. Whoever is going deeply into meditation that day will draw everyone else to a deeper level. Maybe we are tired or ate poorly the day before, so normally we wouldn’t have a great meditation. But in a group meditation we entrain with the deepest person that day.
3. The science of group meditation kicks in – 10 people meditating together have the impact of 100 people meditating alone. This in itself has been well researched in published, peer-reviewed studies. If you find this hard to believe, it can be found in other sciences like the science of acoustics. Two speakers together have the sound of 4 separate speakers; 10 will have the effect of 100 separate speakers.

This is why I am inviting you to join me in the great project of Healing the Heart of America.

Not only will we start the process of healing the wounds of our beautiful country, but each of us will move in the direction of having the open, loving heart we have always dreamed of.

First, we will feel a wave of love penetrating our nation.  And second, our politicians and the media will start to report with love and positivity, creating even more love and compassion in our citizens.

I know this sounds close to impossible, but I have a very clear intuition on this. We are the minor spiritual healers here, acting in alignment with gigantic, powerful, spiritual forces that will send this wave of love across America and the world. 

Our blessing for doing these meditations is that we start living from our hearts and can “see” the deep divisive problems in America from our hearts. From the vastness of Peace these current problems stop troubling us and we live in peace while the world shifts into glory.

After 40+ years of meditating with my mind, in 2013 I began exploring the process of meditating with my heart.

Right away my heart started sending me messages and visions. It was extraordinary and sweet …. and then it happened. My heart opened up to the pain and the wounds in the Heart of America.

The pain in the hearts of all Americans began to pour into me. The Native American massacres, the slavery of the Blacks, the oppression of all the minorities, the pain of hunger and poverty, how we treat the mentally ill, the cry of the environment, the prisons … all of this pain poured into my heart.

I could not handle it, and I shut it off. It stopped, to my deep regret. Now, how I wish I could open up my heart again and feel and heal those wounds.

I am clear I was given that experience as a message: It’s time to heal the wounds in the Heart of America.

I understand and know Heart-Energy so much more clearly now. I know how to shift and heal these wounds in the Heart of America, but I need your help to do this.

This course is the beginning of my journey to heal the wounds in the Heart of America. I don’t think in one month we will heal the deepest wounds in the Heart of America. But we will start, and who knows where it will go from here?

iamHeart is a spiritual school focused on creating the Culture of the Heart here in America and the world. The two leaders are Susanna and Puran Bair, the authors of three bestselling books on spirituality and the heart. While the organization is located in Tucson, AZ, most of the teachings happen online with occasional retreats and residencies.

Puran and Susanna Bair researched the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 4^th and 5^th centuries. They found these amazing God-Realized mystics focused on Heart and Breath in their spiritual path. From this Susanna and Puran revived Heart Rhythm Meditation, which we will use as the foundation for healing the wounds in the Heart of America.

I started HRM in 2013 as I saw it as part of my Christian mystical tradition. I took one web course and had such amazing experiences I immediately signed up for their two-year School of the Heart called iamU. I graduated from iamU in 2015 and was invited to join the board of directors of iamHeart. In 2018 I became the chairman of the board of directors. It is a truly great school, and I am honored to serve on the board.

This question can be answered on three levels.

Financially, I am paying for it. I am offering this as my own donation to the healing of America.

Legally, the Church of the Holy Spirit Charitable Trust of Fairfield, IA is the sponsor. Donations will go to the church, an IRS approved 501 (c) (3) religious organization. This course is offered by this church.

Spiritually, I was in for a bit of a surprise as to who has stepped up to sponsor this project. iamHeart has exposed me to many great spiritual teachers from many traditions. This includes the great Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan who first brought Universal Sufism to the West at the beginning of the 20^th century. He stripped away all the Islamic requirements from Sufism and made it available to everyone regardless of religious affiliation. He also predicted that women would become the spiritual leaders in the future – and this is happening now.

His first-born child was a daughter, Nur-i-Nisa. She was also a great spiritual being. She opposed Hitler out of a fierce love of Liberty. She became a very well recognized war hero in WWII both in France and Britain. Known as the Spy Princess, she was the last British spy in France. Eventually she was captured and killed by the Germans after several attempts at escape. Her German interrogators, after the war was over, reported they were very touched by her and recognized her as being quite extraordinary. They noted that she would not speak an untruth so simply remained silent during interrogations.

I do a form of meditation where I invite spiritual beings into my heart. I merge with them, become One with them, as a way of assimilating their Divine Qualities and Wisdom. I invited Nur-i-Nisa to share her heart with me, and she showed up with great clarity.

To my surprise, my heart asked her if she would sponsor this project of healing the wounds in the Heart of America. I got a very clear “Yes”, along with the sense she was quite happy to be asked.

To my even greater surprise, Nur-i-Nisa then brought in the Goddess of Liberty. This was off-the-charts unexpected, but it was completely obvious that the Goddess of Liberty was here with us and would be sponsoring this project as well. I did not have a clear communication with the Goddess of Liberty – her presence is so vast and powerful it is unfathomable.

I did ask Nur-i-Nisa if I should keep this sponsorship private. After all, it is a bit “out there” to claim such an experience and sponsorship. The answer was “Yes, let the world know”. I am a minister and a successful businessman, and I do live in Iowa rather than La-La land. There you have it!

Below are pictures of the Statue of Liberty and Nur-i-Nisa. The Statue of Liberty is the focal point or symbol of the Goddess of Liberty. She was well known – even described – by the Founding Fathers and early American patriots such as Thomas Paine.