39th – 40th Elders & Youth Gathering & Peacekeeper Celebration Panel

Join us to hear about our Elders & Youth Gatherings as well as our upcoming Peacekeeper Training this fall!

Learn more about our Elders Gathering here: https://sunray.org/eldersgathering/ and Peacekeeper training here: https://sunray.org/events/peacekeeper/
This panel will share their experiences past and present with Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo’s Sunray Meditation Society and Peace Village’s Annual Native American Elders Gathering: its’ significance as a fulfillment of prophesy, how it is impacted their lives, and how and why for the first time in 39 years, now it has become Sunray’s Annual Elders and Youth Gathering. They will invite viewers to come to Sunray’s 40th Elders and Youth Gathering held at the end of July next summer. They will also share how Venerable’s Peacekeeper Teachings, offered fall and spring, in person and online at the Peace Village in Lincoln Vermont, have deepened their learning and action in life and work in meaningful ways––and how these Peacekeeper Teachings, based on Ani Yun Wiwa Cherokee and Tibetan Buddhist Peacekeeping Practices are particularly relevant with the New Earth rising.

Dr. Janet Kahn became a student of Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo in 1987. The meeting was not by chance. Janet was looking for a Native American teacher to help her understand how to live on this planet without harming it. In the decades since their meeting, Venerable Dhyani has been Janet’s principal spiritual teacher and Sunray has been her spiritual home.  Janet currently serves as President of the Sunray Meditation Society and Peace Village Council of Trustees. In 1995, Janet founded the non-profit Peace Village Projects, Inc. and received a grant to explore the application of the Cherokee tradition of Peace Villages to the reality that both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital. Janet co-founded also co-foudned Mission Reconnect, an evidence-based program of mind and body therapies for Veterans and their partners to support physical, mental and relationship health post-deployment (www.missionreconect.com). Dr. Kahn is researcher, clinician and policy advocate in the field of integrative healthcare. In 2011, President Obama appointed her to the federal Advisory Board on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health, where she served for the duration of his administration. Dr. Kahn currently has appointments in the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Science.

Dr. Olivia Cheever serves on The Sunray Council of Trustees and Peace Village Land Trust in Lincoln, VT, and on the Fundraising and Archives Committees. She has been a Sunray Meditation Society practitioner since 1978 when she met its founder, the Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo: the 27th Lineage Holder of the Ani Yun Wiwa Cherokee Ywahoo Lineage, and Tibetan Buddhist Khandro. Olivia was introduced to Venerable’s life-changing Peacekeeper Teachings and many Indigenous Wisdomkeepers over the years. These experiences have continued to inform and inspire Olivia’s actions in life, including working at the United Nations. As a member of Sunray’s Teaching Gadugi society, and as an educator, psychologist, integrative holistic therapist and somatic leadership coach, she has helped people embody more fully what they wish to bring peacefully into the world in academic, business, and diverse community environments. After recently retiring from her academic positions teaching somatic learning, she is grateful now to be a peacebuilding activist at this crucial time of the New Earth rising— serving as Chair and Co-Chair of Sunray Events and Elders and Youth Gathering Committees from 2020-2023. She and her husband divide their time between Massachusetts and Vermont.

Reverend Eileen Khoo serves on the Sunray Council of Trustees and Peace Village Land Trust as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee, and on the board of  Sunray Meditation Society of Canada (Est. 2007).  Ordained as a Sunray Minister, she is also a member of the Dance Gadugi Society. While serving as Dance Mistress from 1990-1992, Eileen was responsible for teaching the dances to Sunray Dance Gadugi Society members at the Peace Village in Lincoln, Vermont, USA. With her extensive experience in finance, systems, and working with non profit organizations, she has greatly served Sunray UN NGO with multiple committees: Website, Communications, Archives, Fundraising—and especially with forming a Tech Committee with others to expand Sunray’s online global reach during the pandemic. As Chair of Sunray’s 40th Annual Native American Elders and Youth Gathering in July 2024, she welcomes all who wish for information on the event to sign up for updates at http://www.sunray.org/eldersgathering , or email eldersgathering@sunray.org

Reverend Sandra Sheridan is a physical therapist specializing in manual therapy and therapeutic exercise. A long time student of Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, she is the NGO representative of Sunray Meditation Society at the United Nations and has been for the past 25 years. Her focus has been on Indigenous Peoples rights and utilizing the Sunray Peacekeeping Principles within the UN system and internationally in support of Indigenous Peoples. Ordained as a Sunray Minister, Sandra also serves on the Sunray Peacekeeper Teachings Faculty.

Brian Russo is a teacher, musician, and Evolutionary Leader committed to personal and planetary transformation through the Sunray Peacekeeper Teachings of the Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo. With inspiration from her and these teachings, he created Rainbow Circle, a whole systems education platform for co-creating a regenerative Earth. Most recently, Brian contributed a chapter on holistic design to the Holomovement book. The Holomovement is a social movement founded in love with a collective mission to support a global shift in consciousness that bridges science and spirituality. At Sunray’s 39th Elders and Youth Gathering in 2023, Brian played crystal bowls and shared his overtone singing to support everyone’s well-being and attunement to individual and collective harmony.

Watch it live on UNITY EARTH TV –  https://unity.earth/tv/