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Show Th Women's Room By Kate McCutchan Pam Blackwell has been an adventurer since she was a child. At 17, she traveled alone to Cuba to discover what a revolution really was. Today, her journeys are more of an inward nature, taking her to the realm of the unconscious, where she works with dreams and Gestalt techniques. Pam has earned her Bachelor's Degree in Education and her Master's in Educational Psychology, but that is only half the storv. Xn September 19, Pam is holding a GestaltDream Retreat. The Retreat is described as "an intense experiential workshop using Gestalt techniques and dreamwork. Designed for people in the helping professions and those interested in expanding their inner lives with new experiences of a creative and spiritual nature". She is offering this experience in different doses, at different dates: one-day workshops on September 19 and November 12 (cost $25) and three-day workshops on September 25-27, October 16-18 and November 13-15 (cost $75,00, including meals & lodging). You may reach her at 467-3345 for further info and reservations. "I've done a lot of traveling and a lot of high-risk things. I've been terrified at one level and determined to find out all there was to know on another. I left a position as a high school counselor to live in a bakery truck at Big Sur. I was at Esalen, studying with Fritz Perls (father of Gestalt Therapy), meeting the people who were drawn there by the excitement of psycho-spiritual development: George Harrison, Joan Baez, Ram Dass, Ravi Shankar. When Nixon was re-elected in '72, 1 left for Europe. When Watergate broke in '74, I returned, feeling it possible for democracy to function once again in America." "By this time, I had lived out most of my Luke Skywalker fantasies and I dedicated myself to motherhood. (Pam has a daughter aged 10. She has been divorced for 8 years.) I went into Jungian analysis for several years and worked exclusively with dreams. I liked the idea of apprenticing and learning by being around healers and teachers. I worked on myself in freudian and jungian terms, postulating the concept of a soul or higher self in an attempt to open higher centers of my creative and spiritual natures." "I have been searching for the 'inner demons' as an adventurer and dreams have been the most important aspect of my search; for the last 5 years I've focused on dreamwork. It is the work of my heart." "I moved to Utah in 1977, drawn here by its atmosphere of prevailing morality. I feel I can render the best service here. I am committed to ecological sanity and a new-world vision." Just before we finished the interview, Pam asked me to put in a special word for one of her pet projects. She is selling Tibetian rugs for the native ,;people exiled from their homeland in 1958 by the Communists. "They are an exquisitely beautiful people," she told me, "who have suffered a great deal. Through them we have the purest direct line of esoteric teachings in the world. The rugs they make are rare and lovely. I've been .trying to help them by selling their products here in the states. Twleve dollars a month can sponsor a child's education; medical supplies are in deman d. I don1 atg whatever clothing I can to help them through the harsh winters." "1 was Dleased 'to pave met her. Pam Blackwell is an - .adventurer, teacherfguide-nd a friend to humanity. A f s 'i ' F ' ' -. . - .. i |