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Becoming an IAM Mentor
An IAM mentor is able to customize the IAM
curriculum to the needs of an individual. The mentor is a
teacher who is also able to assess the level of heart development
of another along (A) the dimensions of the heart, (B) the steps of
realization and (C) the stages of character development, and who
then can recommend specific practices to further that development.
We call this process
Heart Rhythm Therapy.
Consequently, the requirements for certification as a mentor are
more stringent than those for a teacher.
To become an IAM Certified Mentor, the requirements are to:
- Be mentored by an IAM Mentor for at least one year.
- Complete the IAM courses at the Instructor Level.
- Complete the requirements for an IAM Professional Teacher
- Complete the three mentoring training courses, covering
(1) Assessment of the dimension of the heart corresponding to the pressing need,
(2) Assessment of the step of realization and the archetype of the soul, and
(3) Prescribing practices
- Take a 14-day individual retreat.
- Gain experience with one-on-one counseling of others.
- Attain the 8th step of realization, which is shown in one's intuitive skill in
receiving and following guidance.
- Demonstrate maturity of character such that all the qualities of the first two
levels of character development are shown in one's personality.
For example, it is necessary to show that
(a) one's relationship to one's parents is healed to the point of gratitude,
(b) one's archetype is known and clearly demonstrated, and
(c) one has an open and sincere relationship with one's own mentor.
- Receive Puran and Susanna's approval.
Mentoring, also called life-coaching, may be applied in any organization
or social structure. If it is your wish to mentor IAM students, then
additional requirements apply:
- In your first year as a mentor, you will be limited to three mentees.
- Every IAM mentor will receive monthly supervision from an IAM mentoring supervisor.
- You must attend the yearly Retreat for Mentors at least every other year.
- You must take an individual retreat at least every three years
with an IAM Retreat Guide.
The IAM program in Mentoring is something we are very proud of, as an
answer-in-progress to the concern of providing individual guidance on the path
of the heart.
The mentors, who provide this service, are trained in both diagnosis and
prescription: diagnosis of the state of the heart, the level of realization
and the archetype of the person's character, and prescription of a range
of meditation practices taken from the Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist,
Zorastrian, Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions and current
research.
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From Puran Bair --
When I was 27 I met my teacher, a man who would become my friend for
life. The initial attraction was very personal: I thought he knew more
about me than I did. What he saw in me was what I wanted to see in
myself. Over the three and a half decades I knew him, he not only showed
me what I had missed in myself, he taught me how to see into the hearts
of others.
I valued so much the opportunities I had to speak privately with him. We
would talk about the holistic path and how it works, and we would
discuss the challenges and difficulties of my life and how they related
to the path. From the insight and strength I received from these talks,
I gained immeasurably. He became my greatest supporter, the one who knew
me best, the one I could count on to help me figure out my mysteries,
and the one I trusted most.
Looking back on many, many conversations, I have come to understand
there were three categories of lessons and guidance he gave:
The first was help in accomplishing whatever I was engaged in. He was
genuinely concerned about my worldly problems, and he also knew they
were the catalysts for my growth. There were problems with my business,
with my relationships, and with my health. They became his own problems
and he spoke to me earnestly about them, but he always left the
decisions to me. By working with me on my pressing need, he was able to
help me with my heart's growth in practical ways.
Secondly, my teacher always seemed to know my path, where I was on that
path, and what was next. This gave him more hope than I had for myself,
for he could see long-term beyond my crises to the progress I was making
as a mystic. He happily celebrated the steps I went through in
"realization", the ability to understand myself and the world and the
interaction between the two. But he was not a passive observer -- he
urged me on by prescribing exercises I could do on my own. Some of these
were very difficult, but his support allowed me to do what I couldn't
have done alone.
Thirdly, he modeled a character that was more important to me in the end
than anything he ever told me. He was a great man, not small or petty, a
noble man, capable of putting the welfare of others ahead of his own. He
treated his personality as an art form and that inspired me to try to do
the same. He showed me the difference between the politeness that masks
one's feelings to pretend at greatness, and the character that expresses
one's heart to demonstrate its greatness. What came out of our
relationship, for me, was a more whole and grand version of myself than
I had known before.
When he asked Susanna and I to start a new school, I hoped we would be
able to offer the valuable mentoring relationship I had known and even
make mentoring the main thrust of our school, the central activity that
would pull all the teaching together in a way that best suits each
person. With the help of Susanna's background in counseling psychology,
it's clear that's what has happened in the last eight years.
In this beautiful path of the heart we don't work alone. We have the
advantage of looking for and finding all that we seek in a human form.
You develop the ability to see the unlimited potential in a human heart,
and then you become what you see. Your mentor is your mirror in this
process, showing you all that you can recognize and inspiring you to be
all that you can see.
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