Laura Berryhill holds an MA in Music History from the University of Oregon. The two of them have given hundreds of transformation healing music events throughout the western states and at their own performance venue in Mount Shasta for the past four years.

Music and Mythology: Stories of Transformation

Our talk features stories from three mythological traditions - Native American, Celtic and Tibetan Buddhist. Through these stories we examine three different types of transformation and some various stages that present in most transformative experiences.
We begin with a Native American story: Coyote goes to Mount Shasta on a Vision Quest. As with some of us, coyote starts his spiritual journey for dubious; reasons, but the experience of loosing oneself to that journey eventually sets coyote striaght and in the end he gets the spiritual goods.
Laura explores the journey of a Celtic mermaid who is betrayed, cast out from the world of humans and forced to find a deeper identity on her own. Her journey, and the Scottish Galic song that accompanies this story, clearly mirror the three stages of transformation: disruption, uncertainty and reimagination.
We conclude with a spiritual meditation practice from Tibet, which is done by Lamas before they give a Tara initiation, of dissolving he universe to a point of light and then recreating it as a three dimensional mandala of universal compassion.

We have given this first talk at more than 60 New Thought Centers and have presented the extended workshop at the Spiritual Living aretreat at Asilomar. Here is a testimonial from that retreat:

"I have known Anton and Laura for over 15 years. We first met when Anton was providing musical accompaniment for the services in the Chapel at the Asilomar Conference for United Church of Religious Science (now Centers for Spiritual Living). We have co-presented Meditations based on the wisdom contained in all of the World’s Religions. Anton’s and Laura’s deep study of the sacred music from around the world allows them to create an atmosphere of spiritual depth through song, chant and music. They use many different musical instruments to create authentic melodies from many diverse cultures, which give the listener the opportunity to move deeply into spiritual experience. It is common for them to recreate the sounds of ancient Tibet, Mongolia, Southeast Asia, the Celtic regions, Indigenous Peoples around the globe along with religious music from all of the world's religions.

I have also been a participant in many of their workshops which draw on spiritual wisdom, story telling, visual technology, as well as their music. Again they create an atmosphere for each person to gain new incites, heal old wounds, and expand spiritual experience. Because of their educational backgrounds and continued personal study they are always growing themselves which means there is always something new to learn from them. I have deep respect for them both as teachers, facilitators and spiritual beings, who freely share their wisdom."

Rev. Dr. Kristina Collins
Executive Director, Spiritual Living at Asilomar,
Senior Minister, Sanctuary for Spiritual Living, Covina, Ca.

Thank you for sharing with us your beautiful music and inspiring talk. We had 5 new people who had never been to Unity and were very impressed with the service, what a wonderful introduction to Unity. We are so blessed to consider you as part of our family. The service recording is on our website www.unityofthesierra.org.