Barry Hughes

06/27/2024

Hello family and friends of Barry,
This is Judah Hughes writing, I am one of Barry's sons. I am looking for help planning Barry's memorial. Please take a minute to fill out this form https://forms.gle/jjWVkfynkfn3opoHA so I can gather some information about who would like to come to the memorial, possible venue ideas, and more.

If you could consider donating to Barry's end of life costs and the memorial (if you haven't done so already) that would be much appreciated. You can mail donations to me at 82 Mechanic St. , Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 or follow this link to a donation site
https://www.gofundme.com/f/contribute-to-barry-hughes-end-of-life-costs?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2DeIOLsgOJZq0DHsiZEUC0eiX8A_EBH4OCMORvkgCjP8Ut02fbxn10PXA_aem_GZk3GgIiJwi7ye7SYiEvxA

Thank you!

Barry Townsend Hughes, of Lake Forest, California died on June 15th, 2024 of cardiac arrest. He was 86 years old.
He was born in Needham, MA in 1937 to Evelyn Mader and Harold Hughes. Evelyn was a huge influence in his life, her no-nonsense approach to mothering combined with her Christian Science beliefs challenged, informed and spurred Barry on to a lifetime’s fascination with the worlds of spirit and health. Barry grew up in Maine and New Hampshire with his older brothers Jim and Ralph, ultimately attending Laconia High where he lettered in three sports, competed on the speech and debate teams, and made the final in the state oratory contest. After graduating he matriculated at Yale University in the fall. A serious car accident and challenges with the rigors of academic life caused him to relocate to the city of Boston. There he helped establish a vibrant group of like-minded people, interested in synergetics and all manner of metaphysical models of the universe and their implications for healing. This group, the “rhombics” crew, has stayed connected for over 60 years. He met his future wife Joan Wells. They were wed and had five children, Judah, Alex, Sammy, Lucas and Annie in Boston, Wi******er and Winchendon MA. Joan died in 1983 and the family moved to Cambridge, MA. In 1985 Barry married Joyce Singer and together they raised the children. After Annie graduated high school he expressed his long-standing dissatisfaction with the New England edition of winter, packed his belongings into a sedan and decamped to California where he lived for the rest of his life. He believed in the power of spirit and community in the healing process and spent many years training in various forms of group therapy, community building and body work. His skill, knowledge and passion for helping others landed him in a career of social work, where he helped thousands of people cope with domestic violence, anger and trauma. In 2020 he retired to northern California, however, he missed his work and came out of retirement in 2023. Helping people is what inspired him most, and will be an important part of his legacy.
He leaves behind his 4 children and 7 grandchildren, Owa, Toby, Liam, Finn, June, Eliana and Charlotte, along with his nieces and nephews, Jenny, Sarah, Peter, Glenn, Tom and John and their children and grandchildren.
Barry was a complicated man with many facets to his life. His early years in Maine and New Hampshire. His life in Boston, Winchendon and Cambridge, and his final 25 years in California were distinct chapters. As his children cope with his passing and move forward with the grieving process we invite people to share stories, dates, photographs and other bits about his life. Please feel free to share on his page. Additionally, we are looking for help paying for his end-of-life costs and hope to organize a memorial service on the East coast and, if we raise enough money, a West coast edition as well. If you’d like to contribute please follow this link to the Go Fund Me page.
https://www.gofundme.com/.../contribute-to-barry-hughes...

Donations can also be mailed to
Judah Hughes
82 Mechanic Street
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370

Thank you.

04/01/2024

Michail Moore and the Pope, praise Jesus . . .

Dear Francis, It has been over five years since we first met in Rome. I’ve cherished our conversation from that day — your loving comments about my work (and admonishing me that I “need to do more”); your agreement with me that the Church must end the treatment of women as second class citiz...

05/31/2023

this page is like an abandoned gravestone in a cemetery, except there are no bones . . .

05/17/2023

I just unearthed this post from a different, moribund FB site, an allegedly professsional place . . . I liked reading it, so here it is again.

06/21/2022

All of a sudden, starting last week, almost all of my Facebook feed is sappy bromides, like Al Franken's Stuart Smalley on SNL talking into his mirror. One after the other . . .

06/18/2022

my Facebook Messenger is totally messed up - no idea what happened or what to do about it.

11/14/2018

Subtracting from my story - after giving addition a good long run.

11/09/2018

Barry Hughes shared a memory.
Just now ·
other than I do not remember writing this 3 years ago . . . and it's hard to imagine going to a James Bond movie except that I went with a young friend as an token of young friendship.
3 Years Ago
See Your Memorieschevron-right

Barry Hughes
November 9, 2015 ·
Dispatch from the invisible world –

Went to the new James Bond movie yesterday.
Trying to relate to the not very deeply emotional Daniel Craig character. Then I remembered: “I’m projecting,” which encouraged me to skip the middle man and take a look at my own emotional remoteness.

Let’s see if I can talk my way through this.

I’m like Daniel Craig, playing a role, pretending to be this Barry character, deep in his eighth decade of making stuff up about himself, trying to measure up, be a man, make a difference, and despite what hell tries to forbid, enjoy life.

Since the real world according to my inner divine guidance committee is invisible, it pays not to think you see too much. And since this real invisible world - as I imagine it - is outcome-free, there’s true relaxation to be had. No cause/effect, no then/now, no good/bad, no perpetrator/victim, no actor/role.

How does that work?

Well, there’s the world that I think my personality-driven, body-equipped self occupies. But I, like Daniel Craig, pretend to be a character who’s not really me, not who I really am.

This is deep, coming from a long-time shallow person.
My dear friend Em posted psychological charts that showed how defense mechanisms can be bypassed. I couldn’t read the charts, but that boy was all over me, in the invisible world, from the inside out. He noticed, not for the first time, that there’s no need for defenses if there’s nobody there to attack. No armor, no weapons, no enemies. No other. Just one of us. All the brothers and sisters wrapped up in one. Indivisible, as we used to say at school, with our hands on our hearts.

No armor, no weapons, no enemies? Talk about giving up my whole world.

10/30/2018

From How Healing Works, by Wayne Jonas MD:

"What we think heals often doesn't, but almost anything can heal."

(A placebo, for instance. What's up with that?)

"In condition after condition, system after system, and person after person, I found three common factors that induced healing: (1) the rituals that helped a person have a meaningful experience, (2) the support of the whole person, and (3) the regular stimulation of a biological response. The specific treatments and agents used varied by person, culture, theory, and place, but the processes were the same. Whole systems science showed us that a person is an ecosystem - MORE LIKE A GARDEN TO BE CULTIVATED THAN A CAR TO BE FIXED . By taking advantage of this force, health and resilience emerge. Instead of manipulating our network nodes and attempting to produce specific effects (and side effects), we strengthen our network links AND STIMULATE OUR OWN HEALING CAPACITY IN NONSPECIFIC WAYS TO ACHIEVE A DEEPER AND MORE LASTING HEALING.

"Healing emerges when we support and strengthen the connections within us - body, behavior, social, and spirit - making us more whole. Using the science of the large and the whole, we now understand that both healing and wholeness involve the same processes and that inducing a meaning response enables both . . .

"We know that both before and after a diagnosis, and between states of health and disease, there are health-promoting conditions and actions that can prevent, slow, or reverse chronic disease, strengthen overall health, improve function and quality of life, and enhance overall resilience and well-being. We can reduce suffering, REGARDLESS OF A PERSON'S ILLNESS OR STAGE OF LIFE, provided our behaviors are meaningful, they support and nourish us, and we challenge ourselves to respond.

"This is how healing works."

10/12/2018

This page is currently time insensitive.
Not sure when it will rise again.
You can message me on FB or call or text at (949) 337- 0308
Barry