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Youngstown woman teaches consciousness studies
By BRUCE WALTON
YOUNGSTOWN
Many things in the world can’t be explained through mainstream science, and for many people, that’s how it should be.
But for others, those things can be explained through scientific methods, but require an open mind to fully understand what is happening.
Whether you believe in things such as visions of the future, the afterlife, reincarnation or spirituality, Youngstown resident Clare Puskarczyk, 67, wants to show as many people who are willing to listen about a nontraditional science: the study of consciousness.
On Wednesday and Friday evenings, Puskarczyk hosts DVD showings of documentaries that dive into the controversial topics of the metaphysical, many from the Science and Consciousness Conferences in Albuquerque, N.M.
Through these teachings, she hopes to heal the Youngstown area with both knowledge and understanding through nonconventional means of medicine and science.
“This is positive information,” she said. “It’s about how we are and what amazing beings we are and what things we can do or are capable of.”
A Campbell native, Puskarczyk moved to the West Coast in the 1960s to see what more life had to offer. She’s earned a master’s degree in consciousness studies and just recently received a doctorate in philosophy from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Puskarczyk moved back to Ohio in 2012 to take care of her parents and decided to help teach the lessons she learned in her years of study and experience.
Small groups have gathered at her North Side apartment. Warren resident Elizabeth Halloway, 66, wanted to learn more about consciousness studies to perhaps answer things that happened in her life that traditional science couldn’t explain.
Halloway was in a car crash in the late 1960s and had a near-death experience she’s never forgetten. Halloway said she floated above her body until she looked for a light on a growing horizon and asked it if it was her time.
“There was – I wouldn’t call it a voice, – in my head. It was more like a knowing, but it was decidedly a response, and the response was, ‘Not yet,’” Halloway said.
The next thing she remembered was waking up in the hospital recovering from her accident.
Halloway said she loved the notion from Puskarczyk’s DVD showings and lessons about how every living thing shares a collective consciousness.
In addition to the DVD showings, Puskarczyk said she also has worked with Dionne Dowdy, executive director of United Returning Citizens, to help people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder by developing a program combining art therapy and energy medicine.
“What’s so wonderful [about teaching consciousness studies] is that, whatever I’m doing is affecting the whole,” she said.
Though Puskarczyk said she knows many skeptics may reject her life’s work, she, as well as her growing number of pupils, believes more in this life can be understood and improved through consciousness studies.
To contact her about her DVD showings, email her at cpuskarczy@aol.com.