A good friend of mine kept recommending that I check out his favorite yoga instructor, Sofia Diaz, when she next came to teach in Berkeley. I already had a daily Hatha Yoga practice and wasn’t planning to be in Berkeley anytime soon, but after six months of his insistence, I decided to go see what all the fuss was about. I was also a little curious, having participated in multiple David Deida Weekends, what this former partner of his would be like. After all, what kind of woman could be a match for David Deida?

I went to the website to read about the program and saw this:

Heart Hatha Yoga: The Fullest Spectrum of Yogic Embodiment
In the non-dual yogic traditions, one human heart is understood to have the light of 10,000 suns. This means that the spectrum of light that is our greatest intelligence, ie: The Heart, is multifarious, brilliant, multicolored, and both physically tangible and subtle. The practice of Hatha Yoga based on this is “the only way to fly” through gross physical obstructions and the splintered attention that causes our confusions. This week of classes and weekend intensive will unfold and celebrate the first three touchstones of nine levels of HaTha yogic understanding through very thorough instruction in awareness, breath, and the use of will within a very exacting asana practice. Forward folds will be the foundation and gentle inversions will be the exclamation point of finding Heart awareness through the strength of disorienting our sense of self through deep and delicious practice.

I had no idea what it meant we would be doing – I had never even heard of a forward fold – but it sounded alluring enough to seal the deal. I booked my travel and showed up not knowing what to expect. I thought maybe we would be doing yoga for 12 hours per day, so I was a little worried about my ability to keep up physically, but as it turned out, I was perfectly matched for the course, which was a great mix of intellectual and physical learning.

The program worked on a very subtle level. Sofia would bring up certain topics seemingly casually and they would click into place throughout the weekend.

One of the first things we explored when we arrived was the idea of attraction and how much of our energy is spent judging and questioning the things that we’re naturally attracted to in life. She encouraged us to notice where our attention and energy was at all times.

She then introduced the concept of yoga asanas as a devotional offering that is not just about opening physical body. This was a profound revelation for me, the idea that we are all living divine offerings, sacrificing pieces of our identity to free up energy and awareness for our Selves to shine through to reveal the good, the beautiful and the true. No transformation is possible without sacrifice, and it doesn’t necessarily mean giving up something we like; it’s about giving up something we’re attached to and identified with. I suddenly understood why religions often encourage sacrifice, fasting, lent.

Asanas were defined as “the seat from which you feel the universe.” They never get comfortable, and we are lying to ourselves if we tell ourselves we can’t do one. To motivate ourselves to get fully into an asana, we must first realize that it is an experience worth having. We had ample opportunities to experience the excruciating resistance we were consistently producing while holding the most seemingly simple asanas, such as forward folds.

The other takeaway was that we don’t have to clean up the messes in our lives and experiences to offer ourselves in love and devotion. This is a big one – as often I think that ‘having it all together’ is a prerequisite for my growth. Just by being herself, Sofia demonstrated the grace that is possible at all times. She is a remarkably inspiring woman, very real and down to earth and simultaneously magical.

Another highlight for me was the section on inversions. She had us write down some thoughts or poetry right after exiting the inverted postures and this is what flowed out of me:

No need to panic
Arms hurt but body feels good
Hanging upside down

Not just my body
Went upside down this time
My mind inverted

Currents everywhere
I could collapse into a pile of jelly
Why don’t I feel like this all the time?

There were too many valuable lessons to recount from the weekend – these are just a few of the surprising examples that I never expected to learn at a yoga class.  In fact, this wasn’t a yoga class, this was an understated, powerful transformational weekend program at a bargain price. I thought I knew a lot about Hatha Yoga going in, but it turns out I’d only scratched the surface with my existing practice. Learning it from Sofia Diaz was a special experience.

My understanding is that each of her weekend courses are completely different, but of equally high quality, so I recommend checking out any one of them out if you can. She also offers teleclasses on her website if you can’t make it to a live weekend.

Why include a review of a Permaculture course on this site? Permaculture is far more than environmentally sustainable building and growing – it redefines the way that you view problems and their solutions. You are actually reprogramming your brain in a way that incorporates a whole systems approach to challenges instead of just looking at single problems and disconnected ideas. At the core, this course reminds you that all aspects of your life are interlinked, and that your personal impact, of attitude and economy, is much larger than you know.

Granted, its hard for anyone to find $1,500 and 10 days to take off work, school, household chores, and/or family.  There are other courses that involve weekends, and even a few colleges and city colleges are offering a much cheaper alternative to taking a Permaculture Design Course.

But in my opinion, if you want the real-deal, find yourself an immersion course where you stay on the property with 10-30 other students, engage the 72 hours of classroom material in a back-to-back setting and spend 10 days drinking, eating and breathing Permaculture.

I had the great honor to take my first course at Quail Springs’ maiden journey, taught by world-famous permaculturalists Darren Doherty and Geoff Lawton, both of Australia origin.

A bit of emotional challenge came up when I was introduced to more problems than I knew the earth had: soil loss, the real story of generating petroleum-based fertilizer, mono-cropping, and the story of food (all of this before Food, Inc. was released).  But it was only a few hours before the solutions started pouring forth.

I wondered, “why isn’t this taught in school as mandatory curriculum?”  “Why isn’t this brought to world leaders as actual, scientific solutions to many of today’s problems?”  I still wonder.  But I realize the bigger work is making these ideas mainstream.

Permaculture is the design science of sustainability.  It involves integrated systems of power, food, water, and waste.  It has an amazing array of values, mantras, and slogans, all pointing towards being more than sustainable, to actual be regenerative: to leave the planet, the economy, the neighborhood better than we found it.

This is more than education about sustainability, it can inspire business development and an entirely new lifestyle.  It did for me; it introduced the how-to of composting, rainwater catchment and symbiotic gardening.  More over, it introduced me to a diverse new community ranging from architects to natural builders to lawyers to computer scientists.

For those familiar with Tom Brown, Jr. and his books on wilderness survival, the way of the scout, and apache philosophy / awareness, you’ve probably heard of his wilderness survival programs known as the Tracker School.  One of his first students, and probably one of the few who received a similar teaching style that Tom Brown, Jr. was put through by the legendary Apache scout, Stalking Wolf, is Jon Young.

Jon Young helped found a school in Deveraux, WA with another gentlemen by the name of Warren Moon called The Wilderness Awareness School.  From the second-hand reviews of The Tracker School run by Tom Brown, Jr. it sounds like all of the hardcore stuff you would expect from the world’s most renowned and skilled tracker.

Wilderness Awareness School adds the family and community component and offers a look into the “coyote mentoring” philosophy made famous by Tom Brown, Jr. and Jon Young.

My first taste of The Wilderness Awareness School came in March of 2003 with a course aptly named The Art of Mentoring.  I had recently been introduced to their sister school in Santa Barbara, Wilderness Youth Project, and the locals I looked up to spoke very highly of this program and the people who ran it.

At the core of this program is the examination of our personal connection to nature. Wilderness awareness exercises such as slow, cautious barefoot walking, learning to differentiate between focused and peripheral vision, and a sensory meditation to rediscover the sounds, smells, and sensations of the nature world form the foundation of these teachings.  Another core routine is to create a personal relationship with the natural world by establishing a sit spot: a consistent place to slow down the mind and observe the world around us.  Emphasis can be put on such questions as: What are the birds doing?; What direction is the wind blowing from?  What is making that noise?  Where does the water come from and go in this area?  Questions aside, it is offered to students as a time to stop the chatter of the analytical mind and simply observe nature as it is.

Specifically borrowing from the integration of several indigenous cultures, the program integrates what is known as “The Medicine Wheel,” or “The Four Directions” or “The Shield.”  All point to the cyclical nature of time, seasons, and human development.  The greatest reminder that this system brings to my life is that the learning process is never complete; it is a constant flux of inquiry, observation, transformation, and sharing.

Having grown up in the city of Las Vegas, and having a fairly minimal exposure to the wilderness – outside of a few family trips involving camping or the beach – I was at first intimidated by the vast overwhelm of potential information unfolding before me.  I had no idea the names of any of these trees; I couldn’t tell you the difference between an Oak, Sycamore or Poison Oak.  Certainly I knew a what a pine tree looked like, but I didn’t know that you could chew pine needles or make them into a tea for a great source of vitamin C.

The community of people coming together to share their experiences, challenges, fears and growth in such an authentic and vulnerable way paved the way for me to really allow myself to be humbled in my lack of knowledge, and inspired in my quest to see the world with fresh eyes.

Kudos to the staff of Wilderness Awareness School who allows participants to go through frustration, accomplishment, joy and timidity with absolute acceptance.  In fact, the behind the scenes magic they provide, sometimes referred to as “holding space” can sometimes look like nothing, and at other times be the most transformational therapy packed into 3 words or a simple question that you’ve ever seen.

The staff even provides a bit of guidance along the way – not enough to spoil the surprise, but just enough to keep us from getting too lost.  In fact, in these programs, getting lost can be one of the most educational and rewarding aspects for our personal growth, and – if we’re feeling open enough to share – our getting lost can be the learning point for an entire community to see their challenges from a fresh perspective.

Although this specific program has changed names, faces and locations in the last 8 years its essential approach and the core of the programs remain the same.

My first foray into Men’s Work started when I was 28. I had met some men in my community that were heads and shoulders above the majority of the population in characteristics such as appropriate self-confidence, integrity, awareness, and life purpose. They inspired me to become like them. When I asked a few of them, they responded with suggestions like Mentoring, Rites of Passage, and Initiation. All sounded good to me, so I asked where to sign up. Several of the men all talked about men’s group, men’s work, and encouraged me to check out an organization with whom all had done an initiation weekend: The Mankind Project.

I was encouraged not to take any of the dogma too seriously, but to examine what they were aiming at and find opportunity for personal reflection and growth. They knew me well enough to know that my rebel would find any authoritarian dogma and just shut my ears to the wisdom, no matter how transformational it might be. I am sworn to confidentiality about what actually happens in the weekend, but I can assure you there is no circle-jerk, animal sacrifice or blood-letting. That disclaimer aside, the work is nothing short of miraculous. What I witnessed in my fellow man that weekend brought me to tears, shouts of rage, utter awe, and beaming pride. If you question what it is to be a man, how to bond with men beyond sports, chasing women or getting drunk, your questions will be answered.

Let me clarify on one this one point: Mankind Project is not a New Age, Touchy-Feely, Crystals and Meditation Organization. Mankind Project is getting to the core of being a man: including but not limited to our judgements of our own anger, sex, lies, bullshit, purpose, and confusion. If you want to know what is holding you back from being the man you were born to be, you will get a chance to look into a mirror so unobscured by distortion, you will probably look away in denial. The great thing about this work and this organization is that the weekend is just a gateway. It is opening up the door, looking inside, and seeing some parts of yourself – your shadow – that maybe you didn’t even know existed. It’s about being given a chance to examine what the word “integrity” means and to see how much of a man of integrity you really are. It is the opportunity to do the work to transform yourself into the powerful, brave man you were destined to become. It is the opportunity for you to examine and destroy old stereotypes and myths of what being a man never was even though you forced yourself to live up to such impossible standards. Most of all, it is the opportunity to be loved, accepted, and seen, just as you are, by a group of men, without judgement.

After the initiation weekend, Mankind Project provides meetings on a weekly or monthly basis depending on your location. Here you get to continue to do the work, get reflection, and have a safe place to express your emotion, challenges and accomplishments. I have had the joy of recommending this weekend to several of my brothers in the community, and was floored to see their experiences seemingly more transformational than my own. There are several men in my life who I would love to see engage in this weekend, but have such a stigma around what these types of workshops are, they consider themselves above it or it having no use. It is to these types of men that I specifically make this appeal: If you are interested in living your purpose, knowing your dark side, and being the best man you can be in your relationships, your job, and your play, enroll in the Mankind Project’s Initiation: The Mankind Project Warrior Weekend.

What if the reason your life is the way it is doesn’t just have to do with what you’re saying and doing, but also depends on what the people you spend your time with are saying and doing? How would that change your relationship to who you choose to be around and how you support them in getting what they want in life?

The Wisdom Course starts off with this hypothesis and expands massively from there. The promise of the year-long exploration is Fun, Play and Ease, and it delivers. The structure of the course is typically 5 weekends (one around every 2 months or so) with weekly check-in calls and group meetings to keep the conversation alive between weekends.

So what would possess someone to pay nearly $3,000 for a personal development course from a company whose programs are usually between $500-$800? Why have thousands of people around the world registered for The Wisdom Course?

Like all Landmark Courses, “anything you want for yourself and your life” is available out of doing the course. But the Wisdom curriculum is unique. The Wisdom Course is the first of a series of three courses, and the final course provides an opportunity for people to make and support an “impossible promise” to the world, like creating World Peace by 2014. This greater purpose gives the Wisdom course a powerful context as the first major step in being empowered to make a huge difference and affect change on a global scale.

The tone of the course is light and playful and so the brilliance of the material can sneak up on you and go unnoticed until suddenly your life looks completely different, your social circle is radically altered, and you barely recognize what’s coming out of your mouth as your own because it is so wildly different from what you’ve been saying all these years.

This is a course where, over the course of a year, people fall in love with their dream partner, have a baby, quit their career to pursue a long lost dream, move to the city they’ve always wanted to inhabit, sell all of their belongings to go explore the world, start making music again despite being told they were talentless, and so on. It is not for the faint of heart or for anyone who is unwilling to make radical changes to their lives (not everyone does, but you just never know what you’ll get inspired to do…)

The tools that are introduced each weekend really work, and can be used for the rest of your life, which adds a huge amount of value to the course. Like many other educational institutions there is a vast alumni network for the Wisdom curriculum, and that is an amazing networking opportunity, in addition to providing plenty of people with whom to continue the “Wisdom conversation.”

The course is held in multiple cities simultaneously and is led by someone with decades of training. The only prerequisite is completion of The Landmark Forum.

Personally, I wound up quitting a very successful 10-year career, selling all of my belongings, moving to a new city, getting out of a relationship that wasn’t working, getting into one that was, and my favorite part: finding myself with the most amazing, inspiring circle of friends, new and old. Not bad for a year long course, right? Powerful stuff.

Shortly after completing Bhava Spandana Program, I saw that Isha was offering their Hata Yoga program in Los Angeles. This was the first time the program had been available in the US outside of the ashram in Tennessee, and I jumped at the opportunity to participate. I had never been very interested in yoga prior to this, other than the practice I learned in Inner Engineering, but my intuition told me to sign up immediately.

There are no prerequisites for this program, and anyone can sign up. I think that every one of the 60 participants had already completed an Isha program prior to this one, however I can attest to the fact that it’s not necessary in order to get the most out of the program. The program is designed to teach participants a daily Hata Yoga practice that can be done anywhere, on their own. This is my favorite aspect of the program, because now I can be anywhere – on vacation, on a business trip, whatever – and still do a perfectly balanced yoga practice on a daily basis. This enables me to maintain a commitment to do it each day, which would otherwise be close to impossible if I was relying on an external yoga class.

The program is very straightforward and was done over the course of 1.5 days, on a weekend. First, we were taught Surya Namaskar, Sun Salutations, in a very detailed and specific way that left them permanently etched into our minds and bodies. Then, we were taught a series of asanas,  yoga postures, in the same fashion. Finally, we were shown how to combine them to form a daily practice.

At first, I thought I would never be able to twist my body into these seemingly complex and impossible postures, at least not the way the man demonstrating them could do it. But after 2 weeks of 20-30 minutes of daily practice, I was able to get deeply into each pose. I haven’t stopped the practice since I started it over a year and a half ago, and have no intention of ever giving it up. As a side effect, my body has changed completely, slimming and toning in ways I could never accomplish with other forms of exercise. I have boundless energy in the morning, even when I feel too exhausted to walk from the bed to the shower to the yoga mat; once I get started, I feel magically energized and able to complete the practice. My flexibility has multiplied, and my meditation practice is infinitely more deep following the Hata Yoga.

It was such a gift to learn Hata Yoga so thoroughly and precisely. This way, I am able to realize all of its benefits without sustaining any injuries. And, as I’m sure many people have experienced,  it is easy to become injured doing yoga improperly. I cannot recommend this straightforward, inexpensive program enough to anyone with any interest in taking on a regular yoga practice. Keep an eye on the Isha website to see when it is next being offered in the US.

I took the PSI Basic Seminar in October of 2009. It is an introduction into the world of self-help and self-growth. It is called the Basic, because it’s just that – it is provides a basic introduction to the tools of self-exploration. The workshop begins Friday evening and goes until late into the night, and then Saturday and Sunday from very early until very late. I felt the hours were set up in a way to manipulate the participants to a place of such exhaustion as to break us down. That tactic may work for some people, but it does not work for me at all. The material the Basic covers is generic self-growth stuff, such as exploring how our parents have kept us from success in relationships, career, and wealth, and also exploring how we handle conflict, commitment, and competition.  These are all things which I had explored many times before, but the exercises and games that were used were very eye-opening and offered a renewed perspective. And it is always good to review and examine yourself and your issues. For a person brand new to the self-help/self-growth world, this seminar would be a fantastic place to start that journey.

I do not know about the training of the Leaders, but I do know that mine has been doing it for at least 20 years. I believe there are a few leaders, and I found mine to be effective in the sense that she was honest, and she cut to the chase. I had been told that these workshop weekends usually have around 50 participants, but my group was very small, around 20 people. I liked the smaller group because the teacher was able to have more personal interaction with each one of us.  In such a larger group, there would be less opportunity to have the personalized attention. It was a very well thought out and planned curriculum, with games, exercises, meditations, and so forth. I found it to be effective.

There were breaks, but few. Also, we were encouraged not to drink anything during, which I didn’t understand why, but I still had my water bottle and drank it, and nothing happened to me. Also, the time schedule was really rough, like I mentioned. This workshop is pretty much set up to encourage psychological breakdowns. One of their mottos is –“breakdown and breakthrough!” So, it can be very psychological uncomfortable. I found the best support to be fellow workshop participants, so I would encourage someone who takes this to find another participant who you feel comfortable with and really connect with them and use them for support.

My major red flag with PSI is its upselling and marketing practices. During the workshop, they basically locked us in a room for one hour and showed us a video of the next PSI course that was available, then they handed out order forms and had past students come in and talk to us about how amazing the next course is and how we have to sign up NOW. And did I mention, they locked us in the room with nothing else to do but sit there or sign up!?  With regards to its marketing in general, I heard about the PSI Basic for the first time through my ex boyfriend.  The organization does not market traditionally, they market only through its participants. In the Advanced Course, the participants have to get a certain amount of people to sign up or they “loose” (the advanced course is set up as a game). Honestly, I pretty much felt trapped into going to the Basic because my ex boyfriend was playing this game and he had to have a certain amount of people go.  In a nutshell, if I hadn’t agreed to have gone, he would have lost his game.  So, this is how the organization gets many of its Basic participants.

On the website it promises to “Attract and Achieve The Wealth, Peace of Mind, Relationships, Spiritual Connection and Health You Desire!” but for me, personally, nothing changed afterwards. Again, that could just be me though… perhaps part of the reason that I didn’t see any results after is that there is no real follow-up. The only options are enrolling in other weekend or week –long workshops, or an advanced course that lasts for a few months. I thought the price was very high for 1 weekend of review, but as I said previously, for someone who has not entered into the world of self-growth, I believe the price is worth it, as the Basic is a great introduction into this world.

After completing The Landmark Forum and loving it, then slogging through the Advanced Course yet finding it very valuable, it was a forgone conclusion that I would sign up for the final program in the Landmark Education Curriculum for Living, the Self Expression and Leadership Program.

This program is distinct from the first two for a number of reasons, which include these:

- It is not led by a Landmark Forum leader. It is led by a leader specifically trained for this program.

- It takes place over the course of a few months, and has a weekly evening class in addition to three full weekend days spread out throughout the program. There is also a weekly coaching session with an SELP graduate.

- The focus is not on “me and my problems.” It is about taking what one learns in the previous two courses and learning to apply it to a real life project designed to contribute to other people.

- There is a LOT of pressure to sign up for it during the Advanced Course. I felt like I would be letting other people down by not signing up.

I’ll start with the positives. I love what this program is all about. Everyone picks a project to work on, one that is an authentic expression of who they are committed to being in the world, and that generates something awesome for other people. Family, friends and community members are involved, extremely valuable skills for getting people to participate and lead projects are learned and practiced, and the project is not allowed to be anything that promotes Landmark. (Big points to Landmark for insisting on that.)

And now the negatives. I did not enjoy this program at all, as much as I love the idea of it. Why? First of all, I missed working with a brilliant, snappy, sharp-as-a-tack, practically psychic Landmark Forum Leader. And who wouldn’t? As much as I appreciated the great (unpaid) commitment our Self Expression and Leadership Program leader had made, I was rarely inspired by the experience, and some weeks he seemed equally uninspired. The training that these program leaders receive is vastly different from that of a Forum leader, and it shows, especially with the less experienced leaders. (I did a make up session with a very experienced SELP leader who was far more dynamic, but it still didn’t do it for me).

Second, the coaching. The coaches are volunteers who have completed the program themselves, who are willing to attend all of the sessions again, and that’s where the requirements to qualify for coaching end.  This means that your coach might be working through as much crap as you are, which could cause them to miss calls, be apathetic, give misdirected coaching, or worse, quit partway through the program. I’ve heard about this happening on numerous occasions. It happened to me, though my coach got sick, so I’ll give him a free pass, but it was certainly jarring. But there are some amazing coaches, and it is possible to speak up and either get a different coach, or work the situation out, which I did not really do. However, while the coach is hardly responsible for one’s success, it’s clearly a different experience to have a great coach as a guide, and I sorely missed having that support.

Third, the pacing of the curriculum was an issue for me. After the rapid-fire pace of the previous courses, it felt like the SELP was progressing at a snail’s pace, with one small nugget of albeit valuable information dribbling out every week. I found the full weekend days to be exhausting, not enlivening, and I was disappointed by how little I wound up hearing about other people’s projects, which is my favorite thing about the program. I started getting “community event” burnout, meaning that I got tired of participating in Introductions to the Landmark Forum every few weeks (on each weekend day). I’ll admit it, I was a grouch, and while it’s no one’s fault but my own that I chose to suffer through the program, I still didn’t like it.

Finally, I didn’t notice that special, unique-to-Landmark, magical energetic transformation of the community from the first day to the last, despite the fact that that it was declared to have occurred on the final day. In fact, a lot of people didn’t even finish the program, and far fewer of us were left at the end compared to how many started off. A couple of people finished their projects, which was cool, but overall I felt that the program’s incredible potential was never reached, and that a redesign could be in order. I know that some people had an incredible experience, but I would love to see a program that has even more people feel that way, and complete the program, so that they can go on contributing amazing things to their communities.

Of course, given the insanely low price tag of the program, there is very little to lose by registering and trying it out for yourself.  And, it’s clearly an important key part of the series, so it’s hard for me to recommend against doing it, and I certainly think you should go for it if it calls to you in any way. But know that there are other powerful programs at Landmark to do after the Advanced Course, like the Introduction Leaders Program and The Wisdom Course, or one of the many incredible seminars (though seminars can be hit and miss as well). Or, as this site will show you, it might even be worth considering other programs that aren’t part of Landmark (a taboo topic at Landmark). That said, I have yet to hear of any program that even resembles the SELP, and if you’ve got a project you want to get done in a short time frame, it could be just right for you.

I liked Inner Engineering well enough but always had the feeling that I was going to love the next program, BSP. I was ready to take this yoga business even further, and here was my chance. The promise of BSP is to get a taste of what’s “on the other side” so that one can know what’s truly possible from continuing on this Kriya yoga path. I’d seen many people speak about their experiences at BSP, which usually meant that they would enthusiastically try to put into words something that just can’t be articulated, and wind up telling me to just go and see for myself. Usually this wouldn’t be enough to get me to fly to McMinnville, Tennessee for 4 days to be out of contact with the world doing completely unspecified activities, but something inside me told me that I didn’t want to miss this.

BSP is a residential program, held at the ashram, and for now, taught by Sadhguru, along with one or more of the teachers. There are around 200 participants and 200 volunteers (possibly more than that – I wasn’t sure of exact numbers). The program usually starts late on a Thursday night and continues until Sunday evening. Prior to attending, there is a homework assignment that can take around 20 hours or more to complete, depending on how much effort one wishes to put into it. Most people agree that the more attention one puts on the homework, the more one gets out of the program. I certainly had that experience (and did at least 10 hours of the homework myself).

One of the very first things I noticed when I arrived was that the type of person who participates in a program like BSP tends to be pretty loving, open and awesome. I made many friends right off the bat, and some of them are among my very closest friends today. This is always a nice bonus when participating in a program like this. What’s also nice is that none of these people are zealots about Isha. Many of them continue to do their practices, volunteer here and there, and generally support the organization, but there is pretty much no pressure on anyone to participate in any of it unless they are interested in doing so. I’ve found that this is the case for everyone I’ve met through Isha, which says something to me about the organization, since that type of laid back, open vibe usually comes right from the source, the organization’s founder, in this case, Sadhguru. The only thing that caught me off guard was that there were a couple of people there who were so impacted by the energy in the space that they were constantly trembling, shouting random words, or twitching (but they were also totally happy to be there and welcoming of this). I had never seen anything like that before, except for a tiny bit in Inner Engineering, so it took me a minute to get acclimatized. I also noticed people doing practices I hadn’t seen before, which at that time, I didn’t even know existed (I now practice them myself).

Second, is the atmosphere at the ashram itself. All of its permanent residents and BSP volunteers seem very happy to be there. and living joyful lives. I don’t think I could live on an ashram, but they make it look like something worth considering. The volunteers toil tirelessly to ensure that everyone has an incredible experience, and it’s no skin off their back, either – there are consistently more volunteers applying to help out at BSP than there is room to house them at the ashram. This is because it winds up being a phenomenal experience for them, even though they are only participating in some of the program activities in between making sure that things like the kitchen, maintenance and organization are handled. I have never volunteered, but I’m sure I will sometime. (Isha is a completely volunteer run, non-profit organization)

Third, I never could have predicted what we would be doing at BSP, what the context of the program would be, or what I would learn from it, but there are a few particular things that impacted me so profoundly that I find myself referencing them and recalling them anytime I’m doing any self-inquiry or making decisions in my life. I am dying to share them all here (and with everyone, all the time), but the program relies on an element of newness and surprise that revealing too much would ruin. For this reason, participants can only ever take this program one time. I will reveal this though, there were two or three exercises that I was reminded of when I took Landmark’s Advanced Course. They weren’t exactly the same, but there were striking similarities. I doubt either organization is even aware of the other, but I wonder if they are both sourcing them from the same place. I found that in comparing the two, I thought those particular exercises were more effective at BSP. Some of the exercises were physically and psychologically challenging for me and seemed to be for others as well, so that is something worth noting.

Everyone’s experience of BSP is completely different. I experienced a wide range of emotions at BSP, from total exhaustion and a desire to go home immediately, to transcending that into complete peace and exuberant joy. By the end, I never wanted to leave. When it was time to go home, I bid farewell to my dear, new friends and started thinking about what was next for me in the world of yoga. All in all, it was an unusual, wonderful and worthwhile experience.

Early on in my exploration of self development and transformation work, I called a friend who had taken every program known to man, to ask him what he thought made the biggest difference for him. Without missing a beat, he said it was Avatar, because it was the most “clean” program he’d taken, meaning that he felt the curriculum was free of contradictions, incorrect assumptions and presumptions, and dogma, among other things. He felt that it had the most profound, lasting impact on his life, and had completed the entire curriculum. Having never seen marketing for Avatar, I asked him where I could take the course and he said that there was a 9-day course in Florida which offered Sections I-III. I wasn’t able to get that kind of time off of work at that point, so I asked if there were any alternatives. He said that he himself could lead me through the first section, ReSurfacing, for $295 and in 2 days. Because I knew and trusted him, I was up for this seemingly unusual arrangement.

The required course materials included a copy of the ReSurfacing workbook, Living Deliberately by Harry Palmer, and a cassette tape, which set me back only $25. I laughed when I saw the cassette, because this was 2009, not 1989, but decided to overlook this one bizarre fact and remain open to the course. I was required to read Living Deliberately prior to beginning the course, and I was surprisingly impressed by its contents and message. It is a massively dense metaphysical read, including the story of Harry Palmer and Avatar, and I had to pause at each paragraph to fully understand and contemplate what was being communicated. This did not strike me as a course for the poorly educated, or for anyone lacking a decent vocabulary.

I went to my friend and Avatar Master’s house for the first day, and we began going through the ReSurfacing checklist, reading passages from both books aloud and doing a variety of exercises. Immediately I was struck by the subject matter. Most of the first day was spent in what my friend referred to as “the aware-will gym.” Each exercise challenged my ability to focus and pay attention more than the next, and I had an epiphany about other programs. Most of them presume that we can direct our attention and focus at will, meaning that we can “think positively” and “think about what we want, not what we don’t want.” But truthfully, not all of us have that skill. I certainly didn’t. And so as uncomfortable, psychologically, as these exercises were for me, I was able to recognize how valuable they were, and how they fill a hole that other programs leave empty.

I was exhausted after that first day, but ready for the second. I returned a couple of weeks later, pleasantly surprised to discover that the exercises were less rigorous (for me) and dealt with issues that were very important to me, like examining limiting beliefs. The one area that kept tripping me up was that to really get the course, I felt that I had to subscribe to the belief that my beliefs create my experiences, and not vice versa. The problem is that my experience until then had been that my experiences create my beliefs, and I was trying not to “believe” anything these programs told me unless I had a direct experience of that thing. However, that originated from another program’s instruction to not believe anything I hadn’t experienced directly. My goodness, this was all starting to get recursive and complicated! So I decided to just “try on” what the program was offering for the purpose of getting the most out of it, a strategy I find most useful when doing this type of work.

In the end I was able to see the value of the program, and it resonated with me while I was doing it. I did not continue to do the exercises, and did not register for Section II or III. My friend invited me enthusiastically but did not pressure me to continue, which I appreciated. Because I did not keep up the work, I did not experience any noticeable long term effects. However, I was able to witness them in my friend, especially in the touching and inspiring interactions he would have with his son. When I commented on this, he attributed his work with Avatar to helping him become such an incredible father, something he had not always had access to. I am interested in continuing on to Section II and III when I am called to do so, because it seems like a program that does have life long lasting positive effects. I would recommend ReSurfacing to anyone who is already open to this type of program.