Intention of the programme: to experience body and mind as a single system and "me" as a property of that whole system, rather than only as a property of mind.

in the beginning was a unique and dynamic set of physical and emotional experiences. That was you. But because your parents didn’t sense or interact with you as an alive and dynamic set of experiences, you didn’t feel seen or known by them. You didn’t feel felt. 

In other words, your environment wasn’t interested in you as you were, and so in order to survive you had to disregard what wasn’t wanted and replace it with what was wanted.  And what was wanted was not something experientially alive, dynamic and unnameable, but rather what could fit into a story—your parents’ story.  In other words, you accommodated in order to survive.  You objectified yourself and then gave your power to that object as yourself.  That is, you replaced yourself with a concept called “me”, which you empowered by regarding it as reality—as your self. 

Empowering a concept as yourself is to make of it an idol, which you worship by feeding it your power.  But this idol, because it wasn’t really alive, could never be satisfied.  It is a hungry and unsatisfied god, which demands that life be sacrificed to it over and over again.  It can never experience satisfaction, only temporary relief. 

This ultimately leads to a pain and despair that we attempt to alleviate with one kind of drug or another.  For some the drug of choice is alcohol or heroin.  For others, it is sex or gambling or work or food or power.  It can even be meditation or philanthropy.  But in all cases, it leads to an addiction that attempts to medicate the pain and compensate for the loss of aliveness by seeking intense sensations that mimic the experience of being alive.  And this, in turn, leads to an “as-if” way of being, that is, living “as-if” you were really alive.

The memory of all this is stored in your body as well as your mind.  In this course we will work in parallel with both the body and the mind to gain access to those memories with the intention of you overthrowing the idol and reconnecting to life. 

Course details
Fee: £450 (deposit: £100)
A wholefood lunch and dinner will be provided on all three days

2009 dates
Dates to be announced