In Our Right Minds

IN OUR RIGHT MINDS™

A Celebration of Women, the Sacred Feminine and the

Right Brain

Guiding Women to their Strength as Leaders -

Leading Men to Strength without Armor

In Our Right Minds has been igniting audiences at universities, conferences, executive women’s meetings, holistic learning centers and theaters nationwide. This passionate message guides women to their strength as leaders, and restores in men and women, the validity of right-brain, “feminine” strengths.

Described as a "Cape Canaveral lift-off," this dynamic, multi-media 1 hour 15 minute performance features history, myth, original songs, art, artifacts, characters and comedy. Dale Allen, a 15-year veteran of corporate and commercial communications, gives voice to a brilliant, long-forgotten intelligence that is within each of us – the intelligence of the right hemisphere of the brain, the “feminine gatherer-nurturer” side.

In Our Right Minds explores the Goddess archetype as a metaphor for our right-brain wisdom. Without an understanding of this archetype, women have been left with no clear model to guide them to their strength and wholeness, and men have been forced to suppress vast parts of their own intuitive, emotional and nurturing natures.

The piece uncovers the roots of our left-brain dominant culture, looking at the emergence of alphabetic literacy across the world and the correlating subjugation of women and all things “female.” Returning to a time before written history, In Our Right Minds retrieves ancient definitions of “woman." In these ancient cultures, female power was valued, as wells as creativity, nurturing, earth, and the eternal cycles of nature. The strengths of the right brain were integrated and these cultures were more balanced. As humanity is once again utilizing the strengths of the right hemisphere through the use of modern technologies that rely on right-brain skills, we are poised to create a more balanced society. In Our Right Minds explores this unprecedented time of transition with optimism, calling us into our role as designers of a new reality.

In Our Right Minds is enlightening, inspirational and fun. Ms. Allen takes us to "Someday Isle" where we forever postpone our dreams, and dances with Barbie dolls as she shakes off our culture's narrow standards for body image, beauty and age. She frees the Warrior Goddess within each of us, the compassionate leader ready to offer her gifts in the creation of a new paradigm.

Leadership for a new era will be based on the integration of the feminine, as expressed through both women and men. The restoration of the sacred feminine has profound implications for every sphere of leadership within families, communities, businesses, health, education, governments and the global economy. The United Nations’ World Conference on Women affirms that the advancement of women is central to every dimension of global development. A sustainable world cannot be built using the old, out-of-balance model; In Our Right Minds illuminates an alternative.

“The Mother has left a memory in us all.”

Join Dale Allen on an expedition deep into the foundations of our collective psyche and out to the edges of our paradigm. Shake up old assumptions and break ground for a new era. Discover the Goddess archetype and recognize how profoundly ancient wisdom can strengthen us as modern men and women.

"Dale Allen speaks to the heart and soul of all women regardless of their personal histories…she reminds us how connected we are to one another and to our ancestral mothers and teachers."

"In Our Right Minds laced with whit, humor, song and a wealth of knowledge about the divine feminine, captures the essence of empowerment and inspiration for all women. Dale Allen is a living Goddess!"

Barbara Scala, Co-Author, Sanity Savers, Tips for Women to Lead a Balanced Life

"Dale Allen, in her one-woman performance, is the first woman I have ever known who can define the essence of women in a thought provoking way that empowers women while embracing men. Her message and her beauty shine from within and from without."
Arlene Scanlan, Broadway Producer, On Golden Pond

“Dale Allen's "In Our Right Minds" is a wonderful romp through ancient and contemporary feminist terrain. I didn't know for sure whether I was going to laugh or cry at different moments, but at EVERY moment I appreciated her sensibility and wisdom, her humor, and her great use of body language and nuance. A must-see!”
Vicki Noble, Co-creator of Motherpeace cards, Author of Shakti Woman, The Double Goddess and other books

"Dale Allen's "In Our Right Minds" was one of the best presentations at the 5th International IFLAC Pave Peace Conference in LA. All the participants were delighted by her skillful performance covering the various roles of women throughout history and in our mad world today. The show is funny, true, intriguing, thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking."

"Dale’s extraordinary insight and enthusiasm about women is a breath of fresh air in the 21st century! Her multi-dimensional presentation takes the audience - both women and men alike - on one of the most inspiring and empowering journeys, simply because she speaks about what is true, but too often unheard, and rarely presented in such a unique, engaging format!"

Lisa Dresdner, PhD., Director, Fairfield County Women’s Center, Norwalk Community College

"Dale Allen is the Mother’s voice, body and spirit. She is as ancient and magical as the Goddess Herself. She is helping the Mother return by awakening the memory in everyone who comes in contact with her. I laughed deeply at some points. At other points there were tears of deep reunion within myself. Dale Allen is a bright light, a magical being, a messenger, a teacher, a storyteller, a joy – she was born to be seen and listened to!"

The restoration of the sacred feminine has profound implications for every sphere leadership. Dale Allen takes us on a sweeping exploration to the edges of our paradigm. By shaking up the beliefs that have provided the foundation of our psyches and culture, Dale Allen provides the creative spaciousness for leaders to design the blueprint for a new era.

“The male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of

necessity, extends to all mankind.”

“Blessed art thou, O Lord our God and King of the Universe, that thou didst not create me a woman.” Orthodox Jewish Prayer

“In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent.”

“If you care for a son, you don’t go easy on his studies, if you care for a daughter, you don’t go easy on her footbinding.” Chinese saying, Ts’ai-fei lu

“Men have authority over women because God has made one superior to the other.”

“I will greatly multiply thy sorrows and thy conceptions, in pain shalt thou bring forth children and thy desire shall be for thy husband and he shall have dominion over thee.”

It is common knowledge that the human brain is made up of two hemispheres, and that each hemisphere specializes in particular skills. Professor Roger Sperry, Nobel Prize-winning Psychobiologist, wrote, “… there appear to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented rather separately in the left and right hemispheres respectively, and … our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.”

The intelligence of the right brain is a part of all of us, and we are all using it more in every day life as we enter an era wherein right-brain skills are increasingly prized. Yet we live in a culture that is still left-brain dominant. The realm of the left hemisphere (the "masculine hunter/killer" side) is logical, linear, abstract, sequential, analytical, literal and functional. To read and write, we use the skills of the left hemisphere. The right realm (the "feminine gatherer/nurturer" side) includes intuition, creativity, metaphor, poetry, empathy, dreams, art and synthesis. This hemisphere comes into play as we contemplate images and the world around us. While the left hemisphere of the brain conceives of life as generally an “I am” experience, separate from all else, the right hemisphere of the brain experiences reality as frequencies, energies and patterns – a totality in which we are all connected. Through three million years of evolution, the two hemispheres developed to work in perfect balance, and yet our culture has favored left-brain skills and values.

In cultures that value strengths of the right brain, feminine power is celebrated. In a survey of 150 cultures today, anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday compared cultures structured around male dominance with those that embrace female power. She found a clear correlation between female power in society and the Goddess veneration found in these cultures. Where the divine has a feminine face, there is a correlation with the society’s honoring of nature, women’s role as officiators of sacred sacraments, connection to the land, and female power. In these right–brain integrated societies, there is egalitarianism, rather than women holding power over men. The worldview is holistic and oriented in the embodied rather than the abstract. These cultures value community, birthing, nurturing, empathy, intuitive intelligence, earth, nature, connection and interdependence. The orientation of time is not linear, but is cyclical and aligned with the eternal cycles of birth, growth, death and renewal. The divine is understood to be embodied in every person and in nature, not somewhere else, abstract and disembodied. Sensuality and sexuality are honored as sacred. These “feminine” values belong to women and men; they are a valued part of society when the feminine is not suppressed. They are not women’s tenets, they are societies’.

History takes us to our collective connection with Goddess veneration. In Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures and beyond, the driving force behind all things was considered female. Dr. Elinor Gadon, Cultural Historian writes about historic Goddess cultures: “… Goddess religion was earth-centered, not heaven-centered, of this world not otherworldly, body affirming not body-denying, holistic not dualistic. The Goddess was immanent, within every human being, not transcendent, and humanity was viewed as part of nature, death as part of life. Her worship was sensual, celebrating the erotic, embracing all that was alive.”

In our left-brain dominant culture, we define humanity according to left-brain characteristics, and we have

relegated right-brain “feminine” characteristics to secondary status. We call war human nature, and peace an impractical ideal. We sing praises of women’s traditional work of nurturing. Yet those who do the work of caring for children or the infirm and elderly are relegated to the lower economical, social and political rungs. Nurturing is denigrated as “non-work.” We cannot easily view sexuality and sensuality as holy expressions, for we have come to perceive sexuality through the lens of the left-brain with its themes of dominance, power and ownership. Our treatment of the natural world has made environmental issues like global warming an urgent concern. The United Nations has asked that the world come together for a common purpose: global investment in women and girls and the elimination of gender inequality. Our left-brain dominant culture encourages women to avoid positions of power and causes humanity to suppress half of its nature. Our world mirrors for us the critical need for humanity to move into balance.

To access our right-brain intelligence we need to shake up the fixed assumptions of our left-brain dominant perspective. It can be a challenge to get beyond the left-brain perspective we are so familiar with. We rarely question assumptions that that provide the foundations upon which we build our personal beliefs and in turn, our culture.

We have been educated, formally and informally, that history begins with the written word. The first written law code is the Mesopotamian Law Code of 2350 B.C.E. Alphabetic literacy became well established across the ancient world at around 1700 B.C.E. With alphabetic literacy came a new left-hemispheric function of the human brain (we rely on the left hemisphere to read). As alphabetic literacy took hold, humanity underwent a shift into left-brain dominance and “masculine, hunter-killer” themes. New “Sky God” creation myths were written at that time that replaced the prevailing earth-based, Goddess creation myths. Over the next thousand years, new creation myths were written in many cultures across the ancient world. Genesis was written later, in 600 B.C.E.

What we don’t realize is that new foundations were laid in place at that time with those written words - foundations that are still with us today. Our culture holds that the tenets of human existence are hierarchy, war, dominance, conquering. These tenets are left-brain oriented. Dr. Elinor Gadon outlines these foundational tenets as follows:

If history begins with the written word, then indeed all history is left-brain dominant, hierarchal, patriarchal history. But human history is three million years old; the history of homo sapiens sapiens began over 100,000 years ago - it did not begin with alphabetic literacy. The Beginning is not the Word and yet, we have virtually ignored our preliterate history - the history we learn in school tells the story of territories, battles and war. When we look at what we know of Neolithic and Paleolithic history we see a time when humanity understood the creative principle to be female. We find no evidence of organized war.

“Perhaps the most provocative discovery of recent archaeological research is that nowhere in Neolithic Goddess cultures is there any sign of warfare. There is no evidence of fortifications, of violent death, invasion or conquest. We can only conclude that there was some direct relation between Goddess religion and peaceful coexistence. Neolithic Goddess culture was woman-centered, peaceful, prosperous, and nonhierarchical.” Elinor Gadon

Vicki Noble writes: “Archaeologists ardently seek to find evidence of war in earlier societies, but there is actually no proof whatsoever of violence or war before the middle of the fifth millennium B.C.E. Although people built houses close together and lived in fairly high population density in the early urban centers, they apparently developed ways of resolving conflict and living in harmony with their environments that allowed them to share food and resources, irrigate fields, and participate in large ritual and artistic endeavors … Goddess scholars believe that content and form cannot be separated and that the reason for the lack of violence and conflict in early societies is the presence of the active worship of the Great Mother.”

So there is a correlation between peaceful coexistence, a Great Mother and right brain values in society. The Great Mother lives on, timelessly in our psyches. The archetype of the Great Mother is a part of all men and women. An archetype is an inward image in the human psyche that exerts a powerful influence on the nature of an individual personality, and in turn, on the larger culture. Poet David Whyte says “An archetypal image is much bigger than we are – it has informed human life since the beginning of time and transcends individual experience.”

“The effect of this (Great Goddess) archetype may be followed through the whole of history, for we can demonstrate its workings in the rites, myths, symbols of early man and also the dreams, fantasies and creative works of the … man of our day.” Erich Neumann

“Comparative religion … teaches us that there is in man (beyond the psychological need for a father symbol) an equally great, or possibly even greater need: that of the divine woman who appears in many different forms throughout the world, yet remains basically the same

Yet, the archetype of the Goddess has been suppressed in our psyches and our culture. While we have been acculturated to easily accept the masculine pronouns for God, we are challenged to accept the female pronouns. Even though we hold that God is beyond gender, the female pronouns seem awkward. Carol Christ, PhD, Religious Studies at Yale, writes: “Theologians frequently assert that God has no body, no gender, no race and no age. Most people state that God is neither male nor female. Yet most people become flustered, upset or even angry when it is suggested that the God they know as Lord and Father might also be God the Mother, or Goddess.”

I know that when I first experimented with making “Goddess” a part of my vocabulary, it felt strange, and I

wondered why I should bother. I really didn’t like the word “Goddess” - it felt uncomfortable and unnecessary. Yet, at the time of crossroads in my life, the term kept rising up from within me – it was a feminine voice I had never heard. I began to study the sacred feminine – the erudition of anthropologists, psychologists, feminist scholars, poets, archeologists and historians. And the more I persisted in my studies of the sacred feminine, the more it was revealed to me just how deeply imbedded the “masculine” hierarchy had been within my psyche. I eagerly saturated myself in the feminine experience of the divine. This was deeply transformative. I felt that a long lost part of me was being restored – that I was connecting to the deepest core of my being and finding there a power and strength there that was beyond anything I had experienced. It bubbled up within me and turned my perception of our cultural mores upside-down. The psychic cement blocks of my foundational beliefs had been pried up just enough to allow me to access the vast and fecund terrain beneath. A feminine voice, She Who Dwells Within every human psyche at our deepest collective level, broke free of Her suppression and confirmed in a brilliant instant, my gut level “knowing”: power hierarchies, war, environmental destruction, a world in which children suffer and grow to repeat the same patterns of pain –this is not the only reality for humans. A world of peaceful co-existence, harmony with the natural world, honoring of the human body and all life forms as sacred in the here and now – a world in which children are safe and can thrive in the expression of their own unique beauty and divinity – this is our birthright. Our history and contemporary matriarchal cultures show us pieces of what is possible.

Many people on the planet are opening up to higher levels of consciousness, but the journey will be flimsy and without foundation if we do not simultaneously go deep into our psychic core. “The Mother has left memory in us all.” She is the honoring of community, interdependence, birth, nurturing, empathy, intuitive intelligence, creativity, earth, nature, the eternal cycles of birth, growth, death and renewal, sensuality, sacred sexuality. For so long, our left-brain dominant theological journey has made heaven (the realm of God) an abstraction, earth a proving ground for the soul, and life a time to earn immortality. The Goddess is earth. Her heaven is here. Her children are born into Her divinity – they do not come from a divine realm, to a troubled earth, to one-day return to heaven. Heaven is here.

As we endeavor to move beyond mind into consciousness, we must first witness what is operating in the mind. Foundational beliefs that have been in place because of our left-brain dominance and male monotheistic culture can be tough for us to access, to see within ourselves. These foundational beliefs can become quite clear not by trying to look directly at them, but instead, by focusing on their complement. The very unfamiliarity and awkwardness of the term, “Goddess” indicates just how deeply male monotheism is operating, even though we may state that the divine is beyond gender. We can only say we’ve gone beyond gender when the term “Goddess” is as comfortable and natural as the term “God.” Ultimately we have gone beyond when we are that very thing that we have conceived of as the divine - when we are the image and likeness of the divine as it expresses uniquely through us.

The great teachers, whose wisdom provides the foundation of the world’s religions, have modeled for us what it means to be divinely embodied. All of the world’s faiths have at their core magnificent wisdom – it is misinterpretation that brings disharmony and division right up to this present day. If looking at some of our foundational beliefs helps us to come into that balance and regain our interconnectedness with each other and nature, then we need to do it. We are all using the right hemispheres of our brains more, and this bodes well for humankind. We are the co-creators of heaven on earth. Leadership for a new era will be based on the integration of the feminine, as expressed through both women and men. The restoration of the sacred feminine has profound implications for every sphere of leadership within families, communities, businesses, health, education, governments and the global economy. The United Nations’ World Conference on Women affirms that the advancement of women is central to every dimension of global development. A sustainable world cannot be built using the old, out-of-balance model. The feminine face of the divine has been missing for far too long. Thankfully, “the Mother has left a memory in us all.”

“Dale Allen envelopes us in an experience of remembering that moved me beyond the dualities of our language and thought, questioned the branded lives we are marketed, and resurrected voices often silenced. This celebration returns us to the wholeness of the divine image we were all created into.”

“In a left-brain dominant world, Dale leaves the audience with confidence and desire to think differently about their daily life. She inspires women and men to be leaders and have confidence in their abilities. She had the audience on the edge of their seats and she truly inspired me.”

“The range of material that Dale Allen examines is extraordinary and the implications of the messages of the ancient texts are profound. Her warmth, charisma and passion were so engaging, her energy so contagious; my students were very gratified by the experience. Thank you, Dale Allen for reaching them on levels that had not previously been considered nor realized important!”

“I was completely entranced with your performance at the Kauai Wellness Expo with Dr. Wayne Dyer. Your show is incredibly humorous and has such depth of emotion that I had tears in my eyes and laughed at the same time! I brought home your DVD and watched it again tonight. Our almost 18-year old daughter watched it with me. She LOVED it. I’m so glad it reached her and now she’ll watch it again and again, little by little soaking it in for deeper understanding. Through your DVD, you continue to touch and inspire! Thanks for your passion and willingness to share a message so profoundly important!”

”You were most definitely the highlight of the Kauai Wellness Expo! Thank you again and again for your superb work in acknowledging, honoring and bringing forth the sacred feminine. Your amazing energy, love and inspiration are still with me. Please come back to Kauai when you can. I feel lucky and privileged to have been in the right place at the right time to see your show!”

My daughter, Jen with "the beautiful smile" in the audience at the Kauai Wellness Expo, called me about her "life changing" experience because of you, Dale Allen. You have touched a beautiful soul...one of many, I know, but this one belongs to my daughter. Thank you from my heart and hers. Now I "see" you as she did, only I have your DVD. I have watched "In Our Right Minds," more than once and I have it loaned out at the moment. Your presentation is so empowering and from the heart. It is inspiring and down-right the most uplifting, motivational presentation I have been privileged to see and feel about the divine feminine!

"Dale, it was such a joy for me to meet you at the Kauai Wellness Expo. The entire rest of the day, I felt as though I was floating on the energy from you and your inspiring presentation. Thank you for bringing your gift to Kauai. You truly radiate love, joy and beauty."

“It was wonderful!!!! Dale Allen’s energy, her connection to the material and the audience, her range...it was all so inspiring! I was enthralled and I learned a lot! She covers a hell of a lot of material! I loved the songs, too!”

“Dear Dale, Your work is incredible! I am so impressed! You tickled the Goddess in me, as well as the history buff and the anthropologist. What a wonderful blend of the two hemispheres of the brain! I honor your scholarship as well as your vision in bringing it all together. Thank you so much! I'm still glowing days later!”

I knew going to Dale Allen’s performance at the Kauai Wellness Expo was going to be a powerful experience, but I didn't think it was going to be life changingly powerful!

“Much of Dale Allen’s performance restores the female and the feminine yet, at every step of the way, she kept us aware that these aspects are beyond gender, a part of both men and women.”

I will see Dale Allen's one-woman show again - this time bringing a few of my married male friends! Bravo, Ms. Allen!"

“Dale Allen’s creativity and knowledgeable shine. The program was very informative as it traces the history and role of women through the ages, as well as being very entertaining. I cried, I laughed. Dale is a very talented and engaging artist as she was able to weave media, music and dance into the performance. Her warmth and the seemingly effortless transformations made for a very charming and delightful evening.”

“In Our Right Minds” makes you want to question a lot of what you’ve learned in life thus far. It reminds you to be true to yourself, and not to take life so seriously!”

“The feedback on your performance was very positive - the history of women that you gave us, and how women have stood the test of time… also how men and women relate today and how this is going to change things for the future. Everyone loved the skits you did… especially ‘Someday Isle.’”

“Dale’s one-woman show hits home for every woman, mother and daughter out there. She takes history and all its truths to present day life, opening our eyes and urging us to act on our own behalf. Dale’s insight affirms the female in our culture, reminding us of our validity and divine right to be. We take away from her performance the responsibility to raise our sons and daughters with compassion, love and the knowledge that all beings are powerful and made in the image of the divine – be it woman or man.”

“Certainly, a very evocative performance. I enjoyed being awakened again to the power of women.

Thanks.”

“Thank you for sharing your creative spirit with us. Dale, I so enjoyed your creative presentation; the research, the reading and the songs all blended so beautifully together. What a lovely afternoon! “

“Thank you for the ‘In Our Right Minds’ seminar at Center for Healing and Recovery. It brought into my body the new balance of yin/yang, male/female peace.”

“Thank for serving such a profound experience! The ‘In Our Right Minds’ event was indeed, amazing. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to take part in it. Dale is truly extraordinary.”

Lisa Prevel

”The Saturday workshop was powerful. What an amazing blessing it was to be a part of it! Thank you for providing the opportunity to do such important inner work. I'll take your love and peace with me." Jenny.

“’In Our Right Minds’ continues to haunt me and pervade my work. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. Beautiful you are. Brave. Bold. Beautiful. Simply. Thank you. Thank you. A thousand thank yous.” Natasha Raymond, Owner, YogaSpace

“What a fabulous show/lecture/comedy – with everything all woven together so beautifully! Dale Allen has such an amazing stage presence, an incredibly articulate and clear speech voice, and body language that helps to convey each point. The material was incredible! I'm so impressed with the amount of research that has gone into this. Great slides, great music, great experience!”