ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MAUREEN HEALY STAFF WRITER
Blacksburg's long winters and harsh snowstorms offered Detine Bowers more than just temporary relief from days filled with meetings, tension and bureaucratic pressure.
The time she spent snowed-in at her Blacksburg home helped her come to her senses, she says.
The result is Bowers' vision of creating a spiritual-psychological center to be called Harmony Center. Bowers describes the center as a retreat where people of all races and religions can find "unconditional love."
She plans to work at creating her retreat full time, which means giving up her tenure-track teaching job in Virginia Tech's Communications Studies Department. She will step down in May.
The center will be built on her grandfather's farm in Brunswick County.
From her office in Tech's Agnew Hall, Bowers talks about how it all started - with nightmares and a restless feeling that came after watching often-violent television news. The world around her seemed desensitized, she says. And she was exhausted.
Her vision began taking shape as early as last April.
"It came to me in the form of dreams and waking up in the middle of the night, feeling like I had to do something on a grander scale," Bowers said. "I started to come to a solution by meditating and praying."
Her solution, she says, is helping others find personal peace, the kind of peace that comes from having unconditional love "for ourselves and everybody else, whether you know the person or not."
Leaning back in a chair in the office she will leave in three months, Bowers looks like someone who has achieved inner peace.
Her mother, she says, was a spiritual rock who taught her about love and caring, lessons that were passed down by her grandfather.
The idea of Harmony has been in her family for quite some time; Bowers says it is her duty to put it into context for everyone.
Harmony's mission is to spread healing blessings to all, Bowers says. The blessings are meant to free people from the superficial boundaries that separate them and to bring the world into one accord, she said.
To spread the movement, Bowers is working with a small group of local people, including several ministers, who share her philosophy.
For now, the group works out of Bowers' home. The Board of Harmony Blessings, a newly created for-profit business, will sell ceremonial cloths, dolls, pottery and other items.
The money these items bring in, as well as grants and contributions, will be funding sources for the William A. Thomas Harmony Center.
In a speech commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. last month, Bowers announced that she would step down from her tenure-track position as an assistant professor.
"I think it clearly was an act of courage and conscience in keeping with the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.," said Bob Denton, head of the Communication Studies Department. "She is clearly a committed individual who wants to make a difference in the world."
Denton said that he supports her decision; after talking with her, it's easy to see her sense of purpose, he said.
"I have no doubt that she will make this a success," Denton said.
Elizabeth Fine, associate professor of communication studies, describes Bowers as dynamic and talented. "If anyone can do it, she can," Fine said.
Bowers said she does not see herself returning to teaching in the future.
"I've been set free and once you've been set free, there's no going back," she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB