Keeping her Feb. 27 presentation fully interactive, Dr. Van zant candidly shared her life experiences and challenges in rearing her son. “I sheltered my son,” she admitted, the lecturer said she thought she had to protect her son when in actuality, she was hindering his growth.

Dr. Vanzant pointed out that poisonous activity leads to poisons in the body. Things like dishonesty, not being engaged in purposeful activity and a broken mother-son relationship cause damage to male children. “Whether she (mother) is living or dead, you have to heal that relationship,” she told the audience. “Mother's voice is the first sound a baby hears while in the womb and his nature is troubled when we (mothers) express disappointment.”

The author and lecturer cautioned women to be very careful with their words, saying “the mouth and tongue is a tool and a weapon.”

Ms. Vanzant advocated that women be willing to turn their sons over to the men in their lives, either relatives or community organizations, once their sons reach age 13. Responding to an audience member's concerns over her son, Dr. Vanzant implored the mother to be willing to let her son be with his father. She told the mother to rejoice and celebrate at giving her son to his father because the son has reached a point in his development where he is becoming a man. “Now it's time for you to become his friend,” Dr. Van zant told the mother, then turning to the father she and asked if he'd be willing to take the son from his mother's house, and bring him into the father's home to be fostered into manhood.

To the cheers of the audience, both father and mother accepted the idea. Dr. Vanzant is the founder of Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development.

(For more information on Dr. Vanzant and her organization, please visit http://www.innervisionsworldwide.com/.)