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Philip Hellmich & Emily Hine
Includes Training Sessions with 22 of the World’s Top Peacebuilders
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Discover the leading-edge practices and tools
you need to cultivate peace and healing in your
heart, family, community and our world.
Includes LIVE Training Sessions with these World Leading Visionary Peacebuilders:
We aim to empower 10,000 Peace Ambassadors by 2020 to help create a major shift towards peace in our world. It’s time!
With The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0, you have an extraordinary opportunity to discover how to experience true inner peace, transform challenging relationships and heal social wounds from the world’s experts.
If you are like us, the news for the past year has been very difficult. The escalating violence in the Middle East, the Paris attacks and the number of mass shootings are devastating to witness and hard to understand.
They are all connected to a fundamental lack of understanding in humanity of how to create a culture of peace and heal the roots of violence.
Studies have shown that peace begins in our mind and hearts, builds in our families and schools — and ultimately manifests in less and less violent cultures.
To become part of the solution, we have to start looking at our own culture first. Our society’s propensity toward violence is reflected in bullied children, abusive families, fear-ridden schools, broken marriages, toxic work environments and war-like politics.
We need to learn how to change... and soon.
We need to do all we can to move beyond damaging conflicts and find ways to live peacefully together...so that we can co-create a beautiful future where EVERYONE feels safe and can thrive and prosper.
To succeed, we are going to need to awaken to our highest potential as peacebuilders and take meaningful action, each in our own way.
The skills of cultivating personal peace, transforming conflict, and healing individual and social wounds are at the core of creating a healthy, vibrant, peaceful and sustainable world.
And that is why we have created The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0,, which has been called the best peacemaking training available. It is now reaching a new level of excellence with our “2.0” upgrade by bringing in the science of mindfulness and cutting-edge tools you can apply in your daily life, with your family and community.
Receive Life-Changing Wisdom
It’s essential for us to constructively and peacefully handle our differences, however it’s shocking that so few of us receive the skills for how to do so.
That’s why we have such a violent culture; we simply aren’t skilled at training people for peace, even though all of us want to feel safe and secure.
It doesn’t have to be this way — we can live peacefully and joyfully in our hearts and with each other — fostering harmonious families, schools, communities and even political cultures.
This IS our future, if enough of us dare to create it.
By participating in this extraordinary training, you’ll become part of a conscious, healing and inspiring community of Peace Ambassadors around the world — some of the brightest beings you’ll ever meet! There are currently over 1,000 Peace Ambassadors in 40+ countries.
These are people, who, like you, are committed to creating a life which radiates positive peace and is contributing to a world without violence at any level.
The esteemed leaders and participants will help you open your heart, clear your own history with damaging conflict or abuse, expand your knowledge of effective new paradigms for transforming conflict, and help you to become a beacon of peace.
You’ll be inspired by their stories, evolve from their practices and take heart from their examples, while adding to a “next generation peace movement” that is grounded in deep inner change and committed to outer action.
With the right training and tools you CAN make peace the new baseline for your life and contribute in making profound shifts across the globe.
And with the guidance of our world-renowned faculty, you’ll receive the most essential insights, cutting-edge ideas, resources and strategies to become an authentic ambassador of peace and healing in your community and in our world.
Instead of merely wishing or hoping for positive change to happen, you’ll know HOW you can make a significant difference.
Awakening the Presence of Peace in You
When we talk about becoming a “peacebuilder,” we don’t mean becoming some kind of passive daydreamer.
We are talking about empowering yourself to become an embodiment of the awakened presence of peace, a protector of the innocent, and a heart-based “warrior” of genuine love, truth and justice for one and all.
We all know world peace starts with inner peace. The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 is designed to take you on a journey of building the inner foundation of peace so you can be peace while powerfully acting for peace in our world. Our brilliant faculty will show you how to become an emissary for a deeper kind of global healing.
Over the course of 12 weeks, you’ll be guided in a step-by-step process — which includes cultivating genuine inner peace, healing personal and collective wounds, communicating peace, working with others to create community peace, and more.
The original Peace Ambassador Training came from the vision and passion of James O’Dea, the former President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the former Director of Amnesty International in Washington, DC.
Philip Hellmich and Emily Hine are taking James O’Dea’s original design and making it more accessible, relevant to current concerns, and focused on the practical skills you need to transform conflict in yourself, your family and community. They have built the Peace Ambassador Program 2.0 into something unprecedented by drawing upon leading-edge compassion and mindfulness practices.
The transformation that comes from peacebuilding can liberate your heart, mind and soul from negative patterns, resistance and fear — allowing you to become a more radiant and healing light in the world.
This training is for you if you are ready to...
- Experience a deeper sense of peace, calm and resilience in facing day-to-day challenges.
- Act from a place of inner peace and wisdom instead of reactivity.
- Help heal personal and collective wounds — and are open to discovering new ways to do it.
- Dissolve the walls around your own heart, so you can come to genuine forgiveness and healing around past wounds and teach others to do the same.
- Communicate in a healthy way that brings people, families and organizations together to work and collaborate on solutions more effectively.
- Integrate your spiritual practice with practical peacebuilding action.
- Receive a comprehensive peacebuilding blueprint that gives you the essential skill set and tools of a social leader and healer.
- Discover your highest role and take steps to manifest it in the world.
Participate in a Historic Movement
We at The Shift Network have set a bold goal of training 10,000 Peace Ambassadors by 2020. To make this happen, we are calling peacebuilders like YOU, to be part of a global movement to promote peace and play a role in exciting and practical global initiatives.
We’re partnering on numerous initiatives including:
- Vision 2020: Global Peace Education 555: with PeaceJam and 13 Nobel Peace Laureates, we’ll aim to bring peace education to 5 million students on 5 continents in 5 years.
- One Billion Acts of Peace by 2020: with PeaceJam, we’ll aim to inspire 1 Billion acts of peace by 2020.
- 1000 Cities of Peace by 2020: with International Cities of Peace, we’ll work together on creating 1000 cities of peace by 2020.
- International Day of Peace 2020: Our goal is to help make this annual United Nations event the largest celebration of peace in global history.
- Be The Movement: The Peace Alliance’s initiative is aimed at growing a movement of 1 million strong for peace, bridging personal peace with legislation for peacebuilding.
With the skills learned in The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0, you’ll be fully empowered to participate in these and other initiatives — while savoring peace in your heart, your family and community!
How The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 Works
The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 is a powerful 12-week journey into the heart of embodying and acting for peace.
We will start with mindfulness and inner peace as the foundation for all our work together. We will then go through successive steps of moving outward — learning how to heal personal and collective wounds, communicate peacefully and organize for peace.
The 90-minute classes will each be taught by a different guest faculty member — offering specific skills, insights, practices and strategies for that step of the journey. Each session will build on the previous one as we systematically go from inner peace to outer action.
Classes will be led by Philip and/or Emily, who will provide their own peacebuilding insights while weaving together the teachings from the guest faculty.
The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 is also The Shift Network’s certification process for leaders in The Summer of Peace, a global network of events and activities promoting the shift to a culture of peace. During the training, you will develop and hone a vision for how you can play a peacebuilding leadership role in this significant global event and initiatives building towards the year 2020. We’ll also offer many ways for you to apply your skills through our broader network.
During The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 Certification Program, you’ll discover ways to:
- Connect the inner and the outer — tapping into your essence and acting from a place of personal alignment to affect real outer change.
- Apply mindfulness practices to cultivate a deep sense of calm and to transform how you deal with conflict.
- Leverage the heart’s intelligence to transform negative emotions and to access your higher wisdom.
- Enrich and strengthen personal relationships by learning compassion practices based on ancient wisdom and modern science.
- Cultivate listening and dialogue to co-create a culture of peace in your family, workplace, organization or community.
- Increase your capacity for more authentic, positive and effective cross-race relations.
- Identify and heal old wounds in yourself and with loved ones, colleagues and community members.
- Radically forgive yourself and people who have harmed you, freeing yourself of negative emotions.
- Stand in the fire of opposing views and feel whole as well as hold space for others to do the same.
- Connect with an inspiring network of peacebuilders, friends and allies around the world.
- Manifest your greatest qualities in service to humanity’s emergence.
- Play a significant role in global peace initiatives and celebrations.
What You’ll Discover: Course Overview
Course sessions are on Wednesdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
The training will offer you an immersive experience in building skills with today’s top peace leaders and is divided into 4 pillars:
- Mindfulness, Inner Peace & Resilience
- Healing Personal & Collective Wounds
- Communicating Peace
- Mastering Systems Change & Organizing for Peace
Philip Hellmich and/or Emily Hine will lead all the classes and share their own insights about peacebuilding. They’ll also host guest faculty in the first 11 sessions (in the 12th and final session, Peace Ambassadors will share YOUR own insights and initiatives). Each guest faculty will teach on specific topics and then engage students in questions and answers.
Each pillar will be supplemented with bonus recordings from other renowned faculty to provide additional wisdom on each step of the peacebuilding journey.
Emily and Philip will bring the material to life by integrating the guest faculty teachings into a cohesive map for peacebuilding, from the personal to the planetary.
You’ll also have practices, readings and assignments that deepen your experience of the material and put you into close collaboration with other training members from around the world.
Pillar 1
Mindfulness, Inner Peace
& Resilience
These sessions in Pillar 1 will help you cultivate mindfulness, an inner awareness that supports emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being — the foundation for inner peace that is essential for all Peace Ambassadors.
Session 1:
Inner Peace: The Foundation for
All Peace (January 13)
Guest Faculty: Sister Jenna
In this session, you will:
- Experience your true Essence — a state of being beyond any name, title, gender or role.
- Access a state of inner peace and oneness that is always present.
- Become aware of patterns that can "block" you from experiencing inner peace — these thoughts come from A.L.G.A.E. (anger, lust, greed, attachment and ego) and feed the thoughts that cause us sorrow or more anger.
Guest Faculty: Sister Jenna is a spiritual leader, author, radio talk show host, renowned speaker and founder and director of the Meditation Museum I & II in metropolitan Washington, D.C. and director of the Washington, D.C. branch of the Brahma Kumaris, a worldwide organization with over 8,500 branches in 120 countries. She was selected as one of the EBW 100 Most Influential Global Leaders and served as a principal partner with the Oprah Winfrey Network and Values Partnerships on the Belief Team, a community of individuals from diverse spiritual, cultural and faith backgrounds.
Session 2:
The Science of Mindfulness
& Inner Peace (January 20)
Guest Faculty: Richard Miller, Ph.D.
In this session, you will discover:
- The latest Neuroscience that’s informing our understanding of mindfulness and meditation — how these ancient practices change our biochemistry and very DNA.
- Mindfulness practices to help you:
- Release negative emotions and thought patterns
- Calm your nervous system
- Build resiliency to reduce stress and increase well-being
- Develop your capacity to respond effectively to the challenging circumstances you encounter in life
- Research-proven tools and resources to assist you, your peers, family and community.
Guest Faculty: Richard Miller, Ph.D., Founder and President of the non-profit educational Integrative Restoration Institute
The Integrative Restoration Institute (IRI) provides programs and trainings on how to live a contented life, free of conflict and fear, through our offering of teachings that help open your mind and body to its inherent ground of health, wholeness, and well-being. iRest Meditation, IRI’s special offering, is being utilized in VA hospitals, military bases, hospitals and clinics, hospice, homeless shelters, community programs, and schools worldwide.
Session 3:
The Heart’s Intuitive Intelligence:
A Path to Personal, Social & Global Coherence (January 27)
Guest Faculty: Deborah Rozman, Ph.D.
In this session, you will discover how to:
- Increase resilience by improving your ability to “bounce back” and cultivate the powerful inner energy reserve that can make life easier during times of dynamic change.
- Trust the heart by learning the research revealing your heart’s role in sending and receiving essential information for living a healthy, fulfilling life.
- Cultivate heart intelligence by enhancing and accessing the powerful intelligence of your heart to rise above problems, even in the midst of chaos and confusion.
- Engage the global heart by learning about research that suggests we are all connected by and live in the reflected energy of our hearts, with our emotions affecting the earth itself.
Guest Faculty: Deborah Rozman, Ph.D., business executive, serial entrepreneur, psychologist, author and educator. Since 1990, founding executive director of the non-profit Institute of HeartMath, executive vice president of HeartMath LLC.
HeartMath is the world’s most influential scientific organization focused on the powers of the heart. Deborah will share how you can harness your heart’s power for intuition, joy and less stressful living.
Pillar 2
Healing Personal & Collective Wounds
The sessions in Pillar 2 will focus on giving you the skills to transform personal wounds and collective trauma in order to create personal and social transformation and significant evolutionary change.
Session 4:
How Mindfulness Can Transform
Racial Bias (February 3)
Guest Faculty: Rhonda Magee, JD
In this session, you will discover:
- Research on how mindfulness practices can help you focus, give you greater control over your emotions, and increase your capacity to think clearly and act with purpose — specifically when working with racial or socioeconomic differences.
- Compassion practices which can serve as powerful aids in the work of decreasing bias.
- Mindfulness-based “ColorInsight” techniques that can increase your actual capacities — not only for acting in less biased ways — but also for making more authentic, positive and effective cross-race relationships in these re-segregated times.
Guest Faculty: Rhonda Magee, JD, is Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco. She is also Chair of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, a member of the Project for the Integration of Spirituality, Law and Politics, and a contributor to Mindful.org.
Session 5:
Radical Forgiveness (February 10)
Guest Faculty: Colin Tipping
In this session, you will discover:
- Radical Forgiveness technology — its theory and applications.
- Practical tools to forgive yourself and people who have caused you pain and harm.
- Techniques to shift your consciousness about what is happening in the world — to help you see the divine purpose in it and come to peace with it.
- Methods to raise planetary consciousness and hasten the emergence of world peace by using the Radical Forgiveness technology.
Guest Faculty: Colin Tipping, is Founder/Director of the Institute for Radical Forgiveness, Inc and author of Radical Forgiveness: A Revolutionary Five Stage Process for Finding Peace in Any Situation. He is the creator of what has come to be recognized as one of the most powerful leading-edge technologies for personal and spiritual growth today — Radical Forgiveness.
Session 6:
Compassion, Inner Peace & Common Humanity (February 17)
Guest Faculty: Thupten Jinpa
In this session, you’ll discover:
- How recognizing suffering in yourself and others is the first step in healing your inner and interpersonal wounds.
- The ways which the science of compassion illustrates we can nurture compassion for ourselves, loved ones, strangers — and even perceived enemies.
- Why embracing common humanity is essential in healing collective global wounds.
Guest Faculty: Thupten Jinpa, is Chairman of Mind and Life Institute, President of Institute of Tibetan Classics, and the Principal Translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama. He is the main author of CCT (Compassion Cultivation Training), an eight-week formal program developed at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), Stanford University. He is also author of Essential Mind Training and A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives.
Pillar 3
Communicating Peace
In the sessions and practices in Pillar 3, you’ll advance in the art of skilled communication for yourself, family, community and world. You’ll learn the latest in peacebuilding, conflict transformation, social discourse and dialogue.
Session 7:
Safe Conversations: From Conflict to Connection (February 24)
Guest Faculty: Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D.
Safe Conversations is for any type of family that could benefit from better communication with each other — husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, co-parents, partners, single parents and grandparents, coworkers, newlyweds, retirees, couples in crisis or best friends. No matter your situation, Safe Conversations teaches you how to interact with “Zero Negativity.”
In this session, you will discover:
- Communication tools to help you create healthier relationships.
- How to see other people’s differing views as a source of knowledge instead of as a source of conflict.
- An introduction to the Safe Conversation Process as a resource for creating healthy communities.
Guest Faculty: Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D. co-authored best-selling book Getting the Love You Want, co-initiated Imago Relationships International as a training institute for couples therapists, Relationships First as a collaborative mission to change the cultural value system, and Family Wellness Dallas/Safe Conversations as an experiment to raise the joy index of a whole city.
Session 8: Nonviolent Communication — An Interpersonal & International Approach to Peace (March 2)
Guest Faculty: Katherine Singer
In this session, you will discover:
- An authentic, compassionate connection with others using Nonviolent Communication techniques.
- How to identify and communicate your feelings and needs so that you can communicate more effectively even when triggered.
- Ways to use your inner dialogue and self-compassion as strategies to help you communicate peace internally and externally.
Guest Faculty: Katherine Singer, President of Board for the Center of Nonviolent Communication (CVNC); Founder of the Korean Center for Nonviolent Communication
Having experienced the Korean War at the age of 5, Katherine has felt a deep commitment towards bringing about a world that is peaceful both within and without by resolving conflicts in a peaceful manner. In 1970, she immigrated to the United States, and, in 1997, met Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of Nonviolent Communication. Later, she became a trainer, then served the CNVC as a board member, and now as an assessor.
Session 9: Bridging the Cultural
Divide (March 9)
Guest Faculty: Waidehi Gokhale
In this session, you will discover:
- The emerging field of Virtual Exchange.
- Common perceptions that Islamic and Western youth have about each other.
- Insights on how to become aware of your biases towards people of other cultures.
- Techniques to help shift your perspective of people of other cultures.
- Basic tools for facilitating dialogues and ways you and your community can participate in Virtual Exchange programs.
Guest Faculty: Waidehi Gokhale, Executive Director of Soliya
Soliya is a pioneer in Virtual Exchange, working with 100 universities in 28 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Europe and North America. Soliya’s programs are helping bridge Islamic and Western youth through facilitated online dialogues. Soliya’s programs have inspired new legislation in the United States to encourage more Virtual Exchange in universities and colleges across the country.
Pillar 4
Mastering Systems Change & Organizing for Peace
In the Pillar 4 sessions, you’ll hone your understanding for how to create systemic change. You’ll also discover models of community-building and collaboration so you can choose how you want to apply your training as a Peace Ambassador in the world.
Session 10:
Change the Story, Change
the Future (March 16)
Guest Faculty: David Korten, Ph.D.
While we are witnessing global environmental devastation, social and economic injustice, and violence, we are also experiencing an emergence of movements focused on creating a new system of institutions, policies, and initiatives guided by new stories of hope and possibility.
David Korten writes, “We are in the midst of a deep shift in human consciousness. The work of our time is to learn to live in alignment with the structures and processes of Living Earth. If we step back, we can discern the outlines of an emerging interracial, intercultural global-scale social movement – an inclusive intersectoral movement of movements – converging on a trajectory toward a Living Earth future.”
While the issues we face can seem overwhelming, David Korten invites us to help shift the prevailing cultural story by exploring the stories that live in our hearts, inform our politics and media choices, and guide the missions of the institutions/organizations we depend upon and care about.
In this session, you will discover:
- The realities of the economic and environmental challenges facing the planet and examine the underlying paradigms that have created these crises.
- Insights on the emerging movements that are raising up a new living Earth narrative and actively displacing the old, destructive economic system with community-based solutions.
Guest Faculty: David Korten, Ph.D. visionary, systems thinker, and author of Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for Living Earth, Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, When Corporations Rule the World, and The Great Turning.
Session 11:
The 21st Century Peace Ambassador as Evolutionary Leader & The Summer
of Peace (March 30)
Faculty: Philip Hellmich with special guests to be announced
As the course draws to a close, we will bring in several special guests who model the leadership characteristics of an evolved peace leader — qualities we’ve learned about throughout The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0. These special guests will share how they’ve applied their skills in their own peacebuilding organizations including: PeaceJam, Humanity’s Team, the International Cities of Peace, the International Day of Peace, The Peace Alliance, Gaiafield and the Summer of Peace.
Eleanor Roosevelt said: “It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”
In this session, you will:
- Anchor your understanding of the leadership skills needed to be an evolved peace leader
- Learn about several successful global peace initiatives and how you can get involved
- Become inspired to create your own peace project to apply your training immediately
Session 12:
Final Session — What is Your Peace
of the Puzzle? (April 6)
Faculty: Emily Hine and Philip Hellmich
This final class is an opportunity for you and your fellow Peace Ambassadors to share what you have learned and how you have been transformed during this training. You will also have the opportunity to share your personal peace projects and initiatives for creating peace in yourself, family, schools, community and our world.
In this session, you will:
- Activate your part in the larger global shift to a culture of peace.
- Determine what role you may play in The Summer of Peace.
- Share your intended project and seek support from your fellow Peace Ambassadors.
The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0
Bonus Collection
In addition to these transformative 12 course sessions, you’ll also receive these powerful bonus sessions with the world’s leading visionaries and teachers. These bonus sessions are being offered to complement what you’ll learn in the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level. This first group of bonus sessions are all audio trainings that can be streamed online or downloaded and experienced on the go.
LIVE Bonus!
Everyday Peace: Starting with Breakfast (January 19)
Dialogue with Philip and Ocean Robbins
In this illuminating live session, you will learn why access to healthy and safe food is one of the foremost social justice issues of our time and how what you eat impacts not only your health, it also impacts the survival of people and communities all over the globe. You’ll also discover ways you can promote peace in yourself and the world every day, starting with what you eat for breakfast.
Ocean Robbins is the co-founder and CEO of the Food Revolution Network, adjunct professor in Chapman University’s Peace Studies Department, and co-author with his father and colleague, John Robbins, of Voices of the Food Revolution: You Can Heal Your Body and Your World with Food!
Pillar 1: Mindfulness, Inner Peace & Resilience
Peace & Freedom from the Inside Out
Bonus Training with James O’Dea
James O’Dea invites us to take responsibility for cultivating inner peace while working in the world from a place of deep integrity. As James says, “The peacebuilder must develop an impressive skillfulness in offering solutions, avoiding the blame game, and playing a mediating role between perspectives that are locked inside self-limiting definitions.”
At the same time, the Peace Ambassador does not take him/herself too seriously. “A world without laughter would not be a safe or peaceful world,” James says. For instance, “The fundamentalists are not having fun!”
In this session, you will:
Take careful inventory of your inner moral maps, belief systems and psychological perspectives and examine how they influence your relationship with the outer and vice versa. Identify the obstacles that prevent you from releasing your own essential qualities, talents and capacities. Learn personal peace practices that help you tap into your deepest essence and create a solid foundation for authentic inner peace.
James O’Dea is a well-known figure in international social healing who has conducted healing and reconciliation dialogues for twenty years. His work as co-director of the Social Healing Project led him to Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, and Northern Ireland. He is on the extended faculty of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and is its past president, and was also the former Washington office director of Amnesty International for over ten years, testifying frequently before Congress. He was also the CEO of the Seva Foundation.
Spiritual Solutions
Audio Training with Deepak Chopra
In this audio session, Deepak Chopra shares insights from his recent book, Spiritual Solutions, bridging ancient spiritual wisdom and emerging scientific research with practical peacebuilding actions in daily life.
As a global leader and pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, Deepak Chopra transforms the way the world views physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellness. Known as a prolific author of over sixty-four books with eighteen New York Times best sellers in both the fiction and nonfiction categories, his books have been published in more than eighty-five languages. His New York Times bestsellers, Peace Is the Way received the Religion and Spirituality Quill Award in 2005, and The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life was awarded the 2005 Nautilus Grand Prize. Time Magazine heralds Deepak Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.
Pillar 2: Healing Personal & Collective Wounds
Non-Violence: A Path to Peace — Stories About Mahatma Gandhi
Bonus Training with Arun Gandhi
Who better than Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson to challenge you to “be the change you wish to see in the world.” In this session, Arun Gandhi will share intimate stories about how his grandfather taught him to examine his unconscious desires and to see their relationship to passive violence in the world.
In this session, you will:
Be inspired to step up your inner peace practice and tap into new levels of integrity and strength. Learn the meaning of Mahatma Gandhi’s saying, “I can no more preach nonviolence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. Nonviolence is the summit of bravery.”
Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. Growing up under the discriminatory apartheid laws of South Africa, he was beaten by “white” South Africans for being too black and “black” South Africans for being too white; so, Arun sought eye-for-an-eye justice. However, he learned from his parents and grandparents that justice does not mean revenge, it means transforming the opponent through love and suffering. He is the author of several books including A Patch of White, The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur and most recently Grandfather Gandhi.
Four Phases of Community Healing
Audio Dialogue with Chief Phil Lane, Jr.
In his consultations with Indigenous communities across Canada and the USA, it is clear that the community healing process seems to go through distinct stages or cycles. These four distinct stages identified are:
I. The Journey Begins
II. Gathering Momentum
III. Hitting the Wall
IV. From Healing to Transformation
Taken together, these stages form one type of “map” of the community healing process, useful for both for understanding the current dynamics of the community process and determining future actions and priorities.
Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr. is a member of the Hinhan Wicasa Oyate, Yankton Sioux Tribe and Chickasaw Nation. For more than 45 years Phil has been working with Indigenous Peoples from across the Americas, Southeast Asia, India, Hawaii and Africa. Phil served 16 years as an associate professor in Indigenous Education at the University of Lethbridge, where, in 1982, he co-founded — with elders from across North America — the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII). With the guidance of the Four Worlds Elders Council and Phil’s leadership and applied experience, FWII has become an internationally recognized leader in human, community and organizational development because of the institute’s unique focus on the importance of culture and spirituality in all dimensions of development.
Pillar 3: Communicating Peace
Getting to YES!
Bonus Training with Dr. William Ury
Dr. Ury is one of the most well-respected authors and practitioners of effective negotiations in the world.
In this session, you will:
- Gain detailed insights into the science of communicating effectively in contentious situations, helping you to identify and address personal and shared needs.
- Learn the art of negotiation you can apply to your life as well as to larger social issues.
William Ury is co-founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project. He is co-author of the global bestseller Getting to YES and author of The Power of a Positive No.
Over the last thirty years, Ury has mediated between quarreling corporate divisions, battling unions and management, and warring ethnic groups around the world. He has also served as a negotiation consultant to governments and dozens of multinational companies.
How to Be Peace
Bonus Training with Rita Marie Johnson
BePeace is being taught at the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. It’s received accolades from students from around the world for its universal appeal across multiple cultural contexts.
In this session, you will:
- Discover a method of connecting to yourself and others that accelerates your personal and professional growth. The BePeace Practice unites your empathy and insight, which brings you peace and keeps you moving forward. Empathy is attained through a conscious connection to feelings and needs, and insight is accessed through heart-brain coherence. The powerful partnership of empathy and insight extinguishes your triggers and takes advantage of your best intelligence.
- As peacebuilders, your inner dialogue is as important as your external dialogue. In this session, you also will learn radical self-compassion as a strategy that helps you communicate peace internally and externally.
- Learn tactics for communicating effectively and “walking the peace talk” with small or large-scale teams.
Pillar 4: Mastering Systems Change & Organizing for Peace
Creating an Alter-Globalization Movement
Audio Training with Dr. Vandana Shiva
Dr. Vandana Shiva will share insights from her efforts to create a movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources — especially native seed — and to promote organic farming and fair trade. Vandana also will talk about her work around gender issues.
Dr. Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental leader and recipient of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award). She has authored several bestselling books, most recently Earth Democracy. Activist and scientist, Shiva leads, with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin, the International Forum on Globalization. Before becoming an activist, Shiva was one of India’s leading physicists.
The Principles & Processes of Activating & Coordinating for Peace from Local to Global
Bonus Training with Dot Maver
Dot Maver is a pioneer in peace education and community organizing who is a master at inspiring cooperation on behalf of the common good.
In this session, you will:
- Discover the practical principles and processes you can apply in organizing your own peace work whether in your school and/or community.
- Learn about successes from the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding in Gainesville, Florida, including activities you can join and/or replicate in your own community.
Dorothy J. Maver, Ph.D. is an educator and peacebuilder whose keynote is inspiring cooperation on behalf of the common good. Dot is Project Director with Kosmos Associates, a Founding Trustee of the National Peace Academy USA, and is a founder and board member of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures of Peace, and the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding. Her work in education, politics and grassroots community organizing is focused on applied peacebuilding utilizing a shared responsibility and shared leadership model. From 2005 – 2007 Dot served as Executive Director of The Peace Alliance and Campaign for a US Department of Peace, and prior to that she was the National Campaign Manager for Kucinich for President 2004. In the world of fast-pitch softball Dr. Dot is known for her revolutionary fast-pitch hitting technique, The Maver Method: Secrets of Hitting Success; she is co-author of the book Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom; is a Fellow with the World Business Academy, and serves on the board of the Nicholas Roerich Museum in NYC. Dot also serves on the United Nations International Day of Peace NGO Education Peace Team and the International Cities of Peace Advisory Council.
What Graduates of The Peace Ambassador Training Are Saying
I am eternally grateful for the wisdom and knowledge I gained from going through The Peace Ambassador Training. The program is a consciousness expanding and spiritually enlightening experience. Whenever I had a question the next teacher/speaker would answer it. Being in the program was motivating, magical and fun. I recommend that you invest the time and energy, it will create a positive change in your life.
— Rev. Mutima Imani, Social Justice Minister, East Bay Church, Oakland, CA
The Peace Ambassador Program is a powerful and profound journey. This process can truly create a coherent and embodied approach to building Peace. Here you will discover a community in the truest sense of the word. This community’s focus is on the myriad ways for Peace to be realised in the world. The Peace Ambassador Program provides an excellent way forward.
— Chip McFarlane, Sydney, Australia
This has been an incredibly life-changing course. I am so glad that I took it. The lecturers have conveyed ideas to us in such a real, authentic and heart-warming way that their words and wisdom have really done their work on me. I have grown both intellectually and personally, and I return to my work with wonderful tools. Thank you.
— Wanda, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
I was extremely impressed with the credentials of the teachers that worked with us during the class. It was really incredible to have first hand access to these peacemaking luminaries and understand their current thinking and where their work is going.
— Donna Melcher, Corvallis, Oregon
The Peace Ambassador Training was one the most profound learning experiences I’ve had the privilege to be a part of. It was an honor to ‘sit in the room’ with so many people (presenters and participants alike) who are actively being peace. I was continually inspired and motivated by all the thoughtful and heartfelt work that is being done in the interest of peace and humbled by all the work that has yet to be done. I completed the course with confidence and clarity about ways I can contribute, for which I am grateful.
— Marcella Simon, Seattle, WA
This course was absolutely priceless. Not only did I experience deep inner transformation, but I was able to apply the skills I learned in each class to my everyday life immediately. I highly recommend anyone who seeks to be an agent of peace in this world to take this course and see for themselves the beautiful ripples it creates in their inner and outer life. I am 26 years old and I deeply encourage more young adults especially to invest in this course. You will learn more here than you will in a classroom. Come and be inspired. Set your heart on fire. The world needs you now!
— Allison, New Paltz, NY
This course has given me an increased positive belief in the future of our world. The speakers have touched my heart with their personal stories, knowledge, bravery, and compassion. Meeting like-minded people who shared their ideas, challenges, and knowledge made a wonderful community that I enjoyed immensely.
— Vanessa Errol, Australia
The training is perhaps the best Peacebuilding course available anywhere. It takes you through personal peace embodiment, community peace activation and global peace envisioning and action.There is not a more rounded and more grounded course available. I have grown in self and as a community member through my time spent with James and so many other wonderful peace ambassadors!! Thank you, thank you.
— Mark Trevis, Gibsons, BC, Canada
The Peace Ambassador training is the most transformational training I’ve ever taken. Not only did I learn great wisdom from amazing peacemakers, but it also changed the way I see the world and my role in it. I was anointed to step into my greatness.
— Eric Kasum, Yorba Linda, California, USA
Founder, The LIVE PEACE Institute and IMAGINE ~ Peace Conference 2011
I had put my legal practice on the back burner for years but the Peace Ambassador Program showed me a way to do my legal work in an evolutionary way, a legal practice that heals and makes whole. The Program gives more than just food for the mind and soul; it provides you with real and practical tools to bring out your work into the world.
— Paula A., Aberasturi, Makati, Philippines
The Ambassador Program is holistic and empowering! I had no idea there were so many other people looking for a blueprint with tools, processes, resources, and support to help us build new systems for a peaceful world, in however we can, within our individual and collective communities.
— PJ Hirabayashi, San Jose, CA, USA
The Shift Network’s Peace Ambassador Course is by far the most rewarding program I’ve ever participated in. The information presented is thought-provoking and brings a sense of inner-healing to enable you to make a difference in your outer-world. The amazing list of guest speakers includes some of the foremost experts in the field of peace activism and healing... You will also meet and interact with fellow students who share similar goals and values. I highly recommend this program. It’s made a major impact on my life.
— Michele Bongiovanni, Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA
For years, I looked for a comprehensive program in peacemaking – one that placed as much importance on the cultivation and sustaining of inner peace as it did on conflict resolution, peace building models and other components of creating a global culture of peace. When I saw the Peace Ambassador Program curriculum outline, my heart, mind and spirit all lit up!
— Lynda Terry, Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA
Listen to Peace Ambassador Training graduate Taira St. John share how the training helped her launch a Summer of Peace 2012 program to revitalize her economically-depressed county in California:
Join the Global Community
The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 not only offers some of the most advanced online teachings currently available, it also offers a thriving global community of support.
Join your fellow students and practitioners from across the world in the live interactive conference calls or in our online community to support and learn from each other while you create a new vision of peace and take inspired action.
This international community is also at the leading edge of a global movement of people who are committed to manifesting a better world for all beings. This emerging planetary movement is rooted in an open heart and stands for the principles of mutual support, cooperation, harmony and reverence for all of life.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Twelve 90-Minute
Class Sessions
Experience a rare opportunity to be mentored and learn with Philip Hellmich, Emily Hine and core faculty — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes interactive calls and exercises plus question and answer time. Course sessions are on Wednesdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
Special Bonus Recording Sessions with James O’Dea, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Arun Gandhi, Rita Marie Johnson, Chief Phil Lane, Jr., Dot Maver and Bill Ury.
Twelve PDF Transcripts of Class Sessions
In addition to the high quality MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format after each session is completed. This way you can review, print and highlight the most important insights and practices that you’ll learn.
Twelve 30-Minute Interactive Group Practice Sessions
Following each class session there will be a live 30-minute interactive practice session where you will be placed in an intimate group with several other participants on the conference call to interact, share and do additional practices to help further integrate the weekly lessons.
Interactive Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
After each lesson, you will then have the option to do related exercises, practice new tools and answer questions in order to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson.
Online Community
Our exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your learning after each class. Here, you can ask additional questions, interact with your fellow students and get access to additional resources to take your learning experience to an even deeper level.
The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0
Bonus Collection
- LIVE Bonus! Everyday Peace: Starting with Breakfast (January 19)
Dialogue with Philip and Ocean Robbins
- Pillar 1: Mindfulness, Inner Peace & Resilience
- Peace & Freedom from the Inside Out
Bonus Training with James O’Dea - Spiritual Solutions
Audio Training with Deepak Chopra
- Pillar 2: Healing Personal & Collective Wounds
- Non-Violence: A Path to Peace — Stories About Mahatma Gandhi
Bonus Training with Arun Gandhi - Four Phases of Community Healing
Audio Dialogue with Chief Phil Lane, Jr.
- Pillar 3: Communicating Peace
- Getting to YES!
Bonus Training with Dr. William Ury - How to Be Peace
Bonus Training with Rita Marie Johnson
- Pillar 4: Mastering Change Systems & Organizing for Peace
- Creating an Alter-Globalization Movement
Audio Training with Dr. Vandana Shiva - The Principles & Processes of Activating & Coordinating for Peace from Local to Global
Bonus Training with Dot Maver
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0
Course sessions are on Wednesdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
We at The Shift Network feel deeply honored that our esteemed faculty have chosen to partner with us on this exclusive, LIVE online training. As you may know, this is a rare opportunity to learn directly from inspired peace activists whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves — and our world.
Through this powerful online format, you’ll not only save time and money on workshop costs (plus travel, accommodations and meals — which would cost thousands of dollars), you’ll be able to benefit from Thomas’ incredible teachings and exercises from the comfort of your home — at your own pace!
If you are serious about transforming life as we know it on our planet, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in developing yourself and your leadership, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 is a new and refreshed program, building upon 8 previous trainings. We want more people to have the opportunity to transform themselves, their families and communities, so we changed it from 16 weeks to 12 weeks to make it more affordable while providing exceptional content with LIVE guest faculty.
Plus, for every person who registers at the full price, we will grant a full scholarship to one peacebuilder from a developing country and/or a young peacebuilder under 24 years of age.
12 weeks of The Peace Ambassador Training 2.0 is only $497.
If you prefer, you can pay $184 for 3 mos (Save 10% when you pay in full)
What More Students Say...
The Peace Ambassador program gave me the specific tools I needed to make a real shift in my inner growth and mediating skills. The caliber of speakers was phenomenal. I consider this to be one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself, and look forward to participating with this group on an ongoing basis.
— Suzanne McQueen, Ashland, Oregon, USA
This transformational course exponentially surpassed my expectations... I highly recommend this course as a cornucopia of information and blessings for anyone called to work promoting peace. It is life-changing and world-changing.
— Laurie Ellis Young
The course was heart-opening, mind-opening, a challenge to my complacency, and among many other riches, introduced me to the courageous everyday people doing extraordinary service for the planet. I am humbled and grateful to have been part of this groundbreaking program.
— Julie Heyman, Ojai, California, USA
I have been challenged, enlivened and altered by the journey we’ve made together as a group these past five + months. Clarification of vision, synthesis of intention and deep healing are some of the gifts that have arisen as a direct result of engaging in the Peace Ambassador Training programme.
— Claire Beynon, Dunedin, New Zealand
The Shift Network’s Peace Ambassador Program was a great offering to ’the Beloved Community’ and our Global Family. It’s my hope that millions of people eventually become graduates of this course of peace study.
— John R. Naugle, Founder and CEO, Atlanta: City of Peace, Inc., USA
This program has had a profound effect on me, deepening my understanding of what it takes to create peace and my commitment to spreading peace in my own small sphere of influence knowing it will ripple out into the world.
— Judi Kerrigan Ribbens, Bonduel, Wisconsin, USA
Not only were the speakers motivating and informative...The energy of the community was absolutely beautiful. There is so much to take in of the five pillars that I am still integrating the information and finding practical ways to integrate them into my work and daily life. Thank you James and Philip for this wonderful course.
— Sasha, Vancouver, B.C.
This course introduced many new and revolutionary tools to use to build peace as well as essential information to connect with peace building projects, organizations, leaders, and community organizers. And, the speakers were spectacular, each one a front-line activist, teacher and inspiring presence in the world. Each class left me in awe of the work being done already and the possibilities for how I can join this essential work. I recommend this course to everyone, because even those who do not consciously choose to work toward peace in the external world would greatly benefit from learning how to build peace within themselves and their relationships.
— Deborah Klaus, New Mexico, USA
Just when you thought you were already an Ambassador of Peace this course unfolds. I highly recommend this course. Essential skills for day to day interaction with each other. Each week I was blown away by the quality of language from the faculty as well as the sharing students. This is University Level teachings on Peace and I will add to my prayers that one day soon we will see this appear in Schools. My life is forever enhanced by all that has been spoken and all that was received in my heart. The story telling really anchored the teachings and gave me real time uses of non violent communication. These stories will stay with me and I commit to sharing some of these stories in my own groups. I am grateful for the way I see humanity with fresh eyes. Many thanks.
— Cathy, Toronto, Canada
I definitely can recommend the PAT as it is such a wonderful encouragement to be together on this journey, to stand hand in hand and heart to heart all over the world and to contribute to peace – every single one in different and so inspiring ways! I love to know that I am part of a global peace building community together with people who are willing to be the change in our world, with people who are courageous enough to take a stand for peace and who are willing to be peace. This is so inspiring and makes a huge difference – I feel so much stronger by knowing us as a community instead of every one of us struggling to contribute to peace alone. Wonderful, thank you so much!
— Katharina, Germany
About Philip Hellmich
Philip M. Hellmich is Director of Peace at The Shift Network and director of The Summer of Peace, an annual global celebration of peace launched in 2012. The Summer of Peace offers a free online telesummit featuring interviews with peacebuilders from around the world. The Summer of Peace is recognized for helping create a New Narrative of Peace: From Inner Peace to International Peacebuilding.
In 2012, Philip presented on the Summer of Peace at the first United Nations High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace. That forum was opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. In 2013, the United Nations published an article about the Summer of Peace in its UNITY magazine in China. Recordings from The Summer of Peace are being placed in a virtual World Peacebuilding Library with interviews of over 350 peacebuilders representing over 15 sectors of society, including science, spirituality, education, business, military, etc. Having conducted a vast majority of these interviews, Philip has a bird’s eye view of the larger peacebuilding trends emerging around the world.
Philip has dedicated most of his life to global and local peacebuilding initiatives, including 14 years with Search for Common Ground. He also served for four years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone where he lived and worked in small remote bush villages. A published writer, Philip is author of the best-selling book: God and Conflict: A Search for Peace in a Time of Crisis with a Foreword by Lama Surya Das. He serves as adviser to The Global Peace Initiative of Women. A long-time meditation practitioner, Philip enjoys studying and teaching about the parallels between inner and outer peace.
About Emily Hine
Emily Hine has 26 years of experience in fundraising, marketing, public speaking, volunteer management and social change. Over the course of her career, she has designed and implemented large-scale campaigns that have raised over $150 million for nonprofit organizations across the United States.
In her commitment to expanding peace and compassion in our world, among other roles, Emily worked in corporate philanthropy at Microsoft and as Chief of Peace for The Shift Network. Emily also served on the Executive Team for Seeds of Compassion, a global event with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu that brought 150,000 people together and contributed substantially to the worldwide compassion movement.
Emily is President of HineSight Consulting and an inspirational writer at Holy Sit, where she chronicles the story of how she took a nonviolent approach to healing stage II cancer without surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.
Emily is the Director of The Global Compassion Summit and a Certified Compassion Cultivation Training™ Teacher from the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, Stanford University (CCARE). She is trained in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and in Vipassana/Mindfulness meditation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a virtual course?
I have never participated before in an online course. The packaging, presentation, inclusion and Facebook postings created a wonderful, safe cocoon to participate. I haven’t seen a course so well put together ever — not in all the years of taking college classes — and I had my doubts about doing an online course. The wealth of organization and ease of learning materials and support made this fun as well.
– Claudia F., Medford
Please note that dialing MaestroConference from your phone is a regular toll call to California, and your telephone service provider will charge you according to your existing long-distance calling plan. You can also use Skype credit/subscription or Google Voice to dial in to MaestroConference, and you’ll need to use your virtual keypad to enter your PIN and to indicate that you want to ask a question. Other options include calling cards and discount long-distance carriers, and we also have a webcast which is free to use from anywhere in the world.
Q: Can I get benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
A: Absolutely! You can download the recordings and transcripts of all course sessions from our online media archive, so you never need to worry about missing live calls. You can also engage the full community and leaders on our private community website.
Q: Can you tell me about the Private Course Group?
A: We will have a private community group for all course participants on Facebook that will support you in making connections with others, sharing insights, engaging in discussions, completing homework assignments and exchanging information about events and other activities that can supplement your transformational journey. You’ll have the ability to share your experiences, projects, and growth throughout the Course.
Q: Are there scholarships available for this Training?
A:Yes, we are offering a number of 50% scholarship awards for this program to those deserving individuals who would like to join the program but are in need of financial assistance. If you would like to apply for a partial scholarship, please review our guidelines, which include a link to our online application form.
For peacebuilders in developing nations and young peacebuilders ages 24 and under, please click here for the application form which must be filled out to be considered for a full scholarship.
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee so that you can sample the course risk-free. The deadline to receive a full refund is January 27, 2016. To request a refund, please click on this refund request form and submit your request. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we'll send you an email confirming your refund. However, we'd love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there is something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com, and we'll be happy to help! (No refund requests accepted after the above date or with scholarship awards.)
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to a problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
