A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances

Human evolution has changed the exterior world we live in, but since the industrial revolution the exterior world has had an enormous impact on the inner world of those under the influence of industrialization. We now have an industrialized interiority that has new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting toward ourselves and others. This new inner life is impacting the health and wellbeing of so many individuals that new ways of self-development are being explored.

To recognize the impact of our industrialized interiority is to begin to understand the ways in which people are trying to move forward toward healing. Before embarking on the use of “plant medicine” to bring about inner change, we need to know what in us is seeking to be healed.

A Bridge to Spirit is a way of understanding where we are in
our inner world and the various pathways being utilized to progress toward an enriched inner life that is not caged, ruled, and blunted by the internalized effects of our outer existence. It speaks of the new bridge to the spiritual life needed to heal the disconnect created by a spirit-devoid external life that is in turn changing our interiority.

“The heart is the internal bridge in the human body. It is the bridge in our relationships from one human being to another. And it is also our eternal bridge between the spirit and the world. Our individual human heart is the mystery center through which we participate in the collective progress of humanity. Strengthening the heart’s activity on all levels supports the bridge in body, soul, and spirit. In turn, it supports the healing of the un-bridged experiences induced by substance use. The strengthening of the heart restores balance and harmony and supports the circulation of the life-giving gifts of the heart.”

—LISA ROMERO

LISA ROMERO is an author of inner development books, a complementary health practitioner and an adult educator who has been offering healthcare and education enriched with anthroposophy since 1993. From 2006 the primary focus of her work has been on teaching inner development and anthroposophical meditation. Through the Inner Work Path Lisa offers lectures, courses and retreats for personal and professional development, in communities and schools worldwide. Steiner Books has published; 'The Inner Work Path' focusing on meditation practice, 'Developing the Self' written after years of working with Waldorf teachers to support their inner work and pedagogical understanding of child development, 'Living Inner Development' offering an understanding of the inner experiences and results of various inner development exercises, 'Sex Education and The Spirit' to help awaken an understanding of our communal responsibility for the healthy development of gender and sexuality within society, and "Spirit-led Community" which introduces spiritually healthy guidelines for lessening the negative influence of technology on the inner life. For several years Lisa was the lecturer of Health & Nutrition and Male/Female studies at Sydney Rudolf Steiner College, where she continues to give lectures to the tutors on inner development. Since 1999 she has been presenting on the subject of gender, sexuality and spiritual life. She has been working with Waldorf schools as a part of their health and wellbeing curriculum, working directly with the students, teachers and parents on this theme. Lisa has contributed to and is an adviser on Health and Personal Development for the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework. She has developed training courses, and facilitates professional development on this subject for teachers and health professionals. Lisa designed and facilitated EduCareDo 'Towards Health and Healing' which has offered 8 year-long courses focused on working with therapists from all modalities, as well as Waldorf teachers, toward cultivating the depth of anthroposophical insight through practical applications of therapeutic and pedagogical methods. Lisa is a contributor, tutor and director of Inner Work Path, EduCareDo, Developing the Self Developing the World and the Y Project. EduCareDo is an organisation delivering a distance education course of self-awakening study in the foundations of anthroposophy. Developing the Self Developing the World delivers community education, and the Y Project supports the bridging of young people into healthy community life. Lisa's capacity to deliver esoteric wisdom with insight and understanding allows her to meet the diverse needs of a range of communities and professions. Essentially, her work springs from the inner work, meditation and exercises, together with a dedication to the path of unfolding consciousness.

Ella Lapointe is an artist and illustrator proficient in a wide variety of drawing and painting media, in figurative, as well as non-figurative and poetic visual styles. Her illustration projects include: 52 non-figurative illustrations, or moods, to The Calendar of the Soul verses by Rudolf Steiner, cover art and inside illustrations for Stella Natura - a biodynamic planting calendar, a cover and graphic work featured in the magazine Being Human; several illustrations and cover art for Das Goetheanum (a weekly publication from Dornach, Switzerland, with international distribution). She has also illustrated poems by Christian Morgenstern, Rainer Maria Rilke and others. She has contributed 7 years of monthly cover images for Chanticleer- The Newsletter for the Berkshire-Taconic Branch of The Anthroposophical Society. She is currently completing a self-initiated project with watercolor illustrations of a Children's Story for the Holy Nights. http: //ellapointe.com