RVML Ashland Events

FREE ADMISSION – 1757 Ashland St., Ashland, OR. One mile west of I-5 Exit 14.

“Finding attentional sovereignty in an age of digital distraction.” This is the tale of our time. As implied by the name of the presentation, we currently have an immature relationship to technology that is guided by naivete, selfishness, and addiction. Whether it’s weapons of mass destruction or distraction, they are expressions of our collective lack of wisdom.

Technology is an inextricable part of humanity, and we must learn to have a healthier relationship with it. We are being tested to see if we deserve continuance in the Universe. We can only save the world and pass one down worth living in if we cultivate the love and wisdom needed to be responsible stewards of our godlike technology.
Come and learn about what technology is and what its optimal role in human civilization could look like. We need as many people as possible to have these conversations.

• What are the origins of technology/ why do we have tech, and all the other species don’t?
• How technology affects society in complex and unseen ways
• The rise of the internet, the iPhone, and social media
• The intricacies of how our phones damage our mental and physical health
• What conditions make us susceptible to addiction, vs what conditions make us more sovereign?
• What role should technology play in a healthy and harmonious civilization?
• Some tips for how to find technological balance

“We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” – E.O. Wilson.

Beni Oren is a writer, speaker, and facilitator. His facilitation skills range from meditation to qigong to intentional communication practices. He is a systems theorist and social philosopher concerned with designing a regenerative civilization. He is a culture architect interested in seeing a world where we collectively and harmoniously reach our highest potential.

He grew up on the beautiful beaches of Southern California. His journey began with a transformative meditation retreat at 19 years old, which opened his eyes to the great mystery and inherent beauty within all of life. Since then, he has lived his life seeking to understand global suffering and how we can create the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

FREE ADMISSION – 1757 Ashland St., Ashland, OR. One mile west of I-5 Exit 14.

We tell our stories in order to live. We change our stories in order to heal.

Whatever the medium, the creative process can take you to places your usual habits of mind rarely go. Places containing riches- buried memories from childhood, ancestral and past life traumas, guidance from angels, elementals, and other divine messengers- which make up your unique soul signature. In this presentation, Victoria Costello, an Emmy Award-winning, six times-published author of memoir and fiction and a popular teacher for WritingWorkshops.com, demonstrates how anyone can access these untapped resources to excavate the bones of a new, healing story.

Victoria introduces her own groundbreaking, trauma-informed approach to the hybrid genre of life writing called autofiction, mixing memoir and fiction to tell a deeper truth with the intention of uncovering and mending a psychic wound. As she demonstrates in excerpts from her own writing and that of her students, it is in this tension between what actually happened to you and what might have happened that a new, healing story can be found. One offering a valuable lesson for your soul path.

To develop her approach, Victoria has drawn insights from narrative medicine and various family therapy modalities. She has fused these with ancient beliefs and practices adopted from her study of Goddess-centered and indigenous peoples, including American Indians and Druids. This storytelling method has proven to be both therapeutic and creatively productive, as demonstrated by the writing output and personal growth achieved by dozens of writers who Victoria has taught and mentored. Writers who began their stories by asking a simple yet powerful question… what if?

• What if I had had a different response to the violence that blew up my childhood?
• What if I asked the soul of my unborn child to tell our family story?
• What if I recreated the devastating impact of the Armenian genocide on multiple generations of my family?

In the words of one of her students: “I have an MFA, and I’ve workshopped with many authors over the years, some quite famous. I feel that Victoria’s workshop helped me the most because of her gift of balancing a writer’s personal trauma with the craft of writing.” -Hannah, PA.

From this presentation, you will gain a basic understanding of how Victoria’s unique approach to life writing can repair the psychic wounds that can and often do haunt us all of our lives. In the process, you’ll acquire some solid writing tips to propel your own healing stories onto the page and beyond.

Victoria Costello began her career in journalism and documentary filmmaking, earning an Emmy Award as writer for her Disney Channel TV special, THIS ISLAND EARTH followed by WOLF NATION, a portrait of the Northern Arapaho Wolf Clan on the eve of the restoration of the Gray Wolf to Yellowstone National Park.

She earned an MFA in Writing from Mills College, and worked as a science blog editor for a S.F. research publisher before becoming a full time author and writing teacher. Her debut novel of autofiction, ORCHID CHILD, published by Liminal Books in 2023, won first place in General and Cross Genre Fiction in that year’s Best Book Awards and received a Silver Medal in Visionary Fiction from the IPPY awards. She has taught life writing for the OLLI/SOU program and teaches writers of all levels with Zoom classes in memoir and autofiction at WritingWorkshops.com. She has made her home in Ashland for the past three years.

FREE ADMISSION – 1757 Ashland St., Ashland, OR. One mile west of I-5 Exit 14.

RVML’s “Approaching AI” Hands-On Workshop with Ian Ingram is a welcoming space for anyone interested in exploring the world of artificial intelligence in a fun and safe way. Limited to 20 participants.

PRE-REGISTRATION and WI-FI DEVICE REQUIRED (Laptop, Tablet or Phone)

FREE ADMISSION – 1757 Ashland St., Ashland, OR. One mile west of I-5 Exit 14.

TV Mysteries, Movie Mysteries, and Mysteries in Books, and how they are presented, created, and how they are presented with foreshadowing to keep the viewer/reader guessing. Mystery fans will learn how to solve a mystery before it is presented.

All who attend the presentation will receive a Free Novel from Kit's latest series. For those wishing to write a mystery, The Fiction Writer's Skill Set will be available, also for free. Two Mystery Challenges, taken from his podcast, will be presented to illustrate the intricacies of foreshadowing a mystery.

Kit Crumb has been writing and publishing for over 25 years, producing over 60 books of mystery and suspense as novels, novellas, and short stories. He is the host of the Podcast Kit's Myths and Mysteries, with listeners in all 50 states and 39 Countries. Kit lives high in Oregon's Southern Cascades, where he writes full-time.