Hi everyone.

During the last several years I have been casually trying to find my place in the Spiritual Healing (Reiki?) community. On several occasions I have started to teach Reiki like so many others are doing, and then was met with obstacles that essentially forced me to stop traveling in that direction. Having been involved in Reiki since 1993, I've seen this happen to many wonderful healers who have simply disappeared from the community.

Rather than give up and move on to something else, I decided to do what I did when I went homeless in 2002: Give the Higher Energies permission to guide me, to help me change into who I needed to become.

What I originally experienced as obstacles deterring me from the path of Reiki teacher turned out to be guides helping me find the path that was write for me... and right it was.

All of my experiences, the good and the bad, served to help guide me to the path of creative writing. During the last few years I have been taking college classes in literature and creative writing, and now I'm ready offer my contributions to the spiritual healing community in the way I am meant to.

On July 5th, I am releasing my first online writing with Reiki course, a course designed to help you write your memoir. (Reiki is being defined as Universal Life-Force Healing Energies).

Writing your memoir has many benefits.

I think that the most commonly perceived benefit may be to create a legacy about yourself that can be shared with family and friends, a legacy that your great-great-great grandkids may one day read.

Writing about yourself is also the easiest way for someone who eventually wants to write a book (about anything) to be introduced to the art and craft of creative writing, because it gives you the opportunity to learn how to write and improve one's writing skills while writing about one's self.

Another reason writing your memoir may be important is that with the emergence of instant digital publishing, "everyone" is writing a book about Reiki or some other healing art... and while that's not a bad thing, most of those books simply repeat what's on many popular websites.

This is the first online Reiki writing workshop that I am offering, and I'm making this post to ask for volunteer students to complete the course and along the way, advise me about the kinks in the content management system (what works, what doesn't work, what's really a mess and what's really good--that sort fo stuff. Basically I'm just seeking honest feedback about the experience...)

As a volunteer student, you are eligible to complete the entire course at no charge, the only exception is that there are two required books that must be purchased separately.

The books will change each time the course is offered, but this course requires:
- Naked, Drunk, and Writing by Adair Lara.
- Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir, by Shalom Auslander.
Both books are available on Amazon for about $10 each in print and Kindle version. Foreskin's Lament is also available as an audio book.

The workshop has a private discussion area where the reading assignments from the books may be discussed with other classmates. The forums are not open to the public.

Weekly memoir writing assignments are provided and required to be turned in at the end of each week. I review your writing exercise, provide constructive feedback, and as memoirs are generally considered to be personal, everything is considered strictly personal and confidential and will not be shared with anyone without your express written permission. This is also not a one-way street... I'll be sharing much of my own life along the way.

If you are going to volunteer, I will ask that you complete the course as a regular student but also provide me constructive and honest feedback about the course along the way. The average U.S. online writing seminar costs approximately $425. I'm offering this workshop at $300, and if you volunteer, the course fee is waived.

The course opens to the public for enrollment on June 1st, and formally begins on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011. Volunteers have access to the lesson material beginning Monday, May 23rd and continue with everyone until the class ends in September.

The official course is 12-weeks in duration. There are no exams, but as the objective of this course is to help you get writing, there are weekly reading and writing assignments.

If you would like to volunteer or have additional questions, please send me an e-mail request using memoir@reikisangha.org. I must manually enter your name and e-mail address into the system. I can accept up to 6 additional volunteer students. The deadline to make the request is the end of day on Friday, May 27th.

The online training environment is here:
http://reikisangha.org/workshops

Thanks & Love & Light,

Buck

Hi All,

I just want to give my recommendation for Buck. I have know Buck for well over 10 years, we have never met in person, but he has become a true friend online. I have also been a part of his transformation in just knowing him. Buck has been a real inspiration to me at times.

If you feel inclined to take his course I would recommend it !

All Love

Patrick

Hello everyone.

I'd like to begin thanking Patrick for the personal endorsement. Thank you, I'm honored.

At this point I would also like to let everyone know that not only are all of the volunteer slots i originally made available are filled up, but there are a total of 20 students enrolled in the course.

Thank you for being a part of this experience.

Love & Light,

Buck