Want a deeper spiritual life? Want to deepen your connection with the Divine, with God, with nature, Oneness, energy, the Creator, yourself or universal spirit? However you refer to a higher power and even if you don’t believe in one, our spiritual groups can help. Want to feel more peace, connection, grounded-ness, love, and a sense of home in yourself? To feel more secure about life and about the world? Have deeper, more empathic relationships? John’s popular spiritual trainings help you develop the inner foundation to feel that way, then live from that place. We welcome spiritual practitioners of all beliefs and practices to join our community of seekers.
The spiritual path is often described in three stages. It is a path unique to you, and that unfolds within you as you explore yourself more deeply. The first stage is about finding a sense of peace and unity within you. This is sometimes an ecstatic experience of selflessness that teaches you what is possible in your mind. You can glimpse this experience within you, yet it takes more growth to live from that place. The second stage is about widening and deepening your abiding in that consciousness, stabilizing your spirituality in everyday life until it becomes more your norm. The third stage is about bringing a presence of peace, love and kindness into the world and where it’s needed.
John’s groups support you to deepen your spirituality according to your own culture, beliefs, and practices. He drawn on teachings and mechanics common to many world traditions to help you grow without asking you to adopt any particular beliefs.
John has been teaching spiritual growth for over 20 years. A mystical kid and often neglected, he played by himself and lived in his imagination, often using dreams to untangle universal problems and energy. He left home at a young age, seeking a truth about being human and about life he didn’t experience in modern society. After a spiritual awakening at the age of 18, he spent years traveling to remote areas and studying indigenous healing and spiritual traditions. He spent much time in nature, living alone, and exploring his relationship to animals and nature. He has studied in the high Andes of Peru, in the mountains of Oaxaca, and with a Cheyenne medicine man in Wyoming. He has studied Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, mystical Christianity, and was a comparative and Eastern religions scholar in college. He spent many years studying with and teaching with medical doctors using meditation in their practices, lived in an intentional spiritual community for 5 years, and worked at New York’s Omega Institute for two years. There were times he was homeless, living in the forest, and times he traveled nationwide teaching psychologists and medical doctors energy healing methods. He has owned and operated two separate spiritual healing practices.
In 1998, John met a Sufi master visiting the United States and began a focused period of study in that tradition. He has earned numerous teaching credentials in that tradition, becoming one of the youngest spiritual teachers in the U.S. to earn those distinctions. He has studied Islamic philosophy and comparative religion with Reza Aslan, sat with Ram Dass, and worked in a variety of temples, ashrams, and communities. John began teaching spiritual classes at age 21, and for over a decade has led both Sufi and non-denominational training groups for spiritual development.
Want to experience the oneness within, in a supportive environment that is accepting of your unique path, culture, views and beliefs? He draws on common elements from the world’s traditions to help tailor a spiritual growth program for you and for the groups he works with.
John has trained in many different traditions around the world, and was struck by the commonality of their approaches to personal growth. While paths can vary in culture, language and beliefs, there is a common core of practice and theory that applies to any individual seeking a deeper relationship with God, the Divine, the Creator, Oneness, energy, spirit, nature, or however you choose to understand the great transcendent power in our lives.
John has done research on and has written about the intersection of neuroscience, psychology and spiritual development work, and understands how spiritual training can be an effective way to develop greater personal depth, more intimate relationships and inner peace. His programs are tailored to combine the best elements of mindfulness work, self-compassion, meditation, heart-centered devotional work, the neuroscience of personal growth, and traditional/ancient concepts and practices to help his group members achieve real results efficiently.
John’s path in spirituality began at a young age. Always a mystic, his family wasn’t sure how to accommodate his different approach to meaning and to life. Raised Catholic, he often frustrated the clergy by asking deep questions that challenged conventional theology. Ate age 18, he met his first spiritual mentor and dedicated his life to personal and spiritual growth. This led to a year of living in nature meditating, voracious reading in a variety of traditions, and travel across the globe spending time with teachers of ancient and indigenous wisdom. He was initiated into an Inca tradition in the high mountains of Peru, studied Aztec healing, lived and trained with a Cheyenne medicine man, studied Hindu traditions, and practiced in the Dzogchen school of Tibetan Buddhism. He studied metaphysics, energy healing, mystical Christianity and Judaism, and lived in the forest with nomadic tribes outside of mainstream society. Eventually, John lived ‘off the grid’ for five years helping to build a spiritual retreat center while developing a national community of spiritual seekers. After studying many different traditions, John pursued an in-depth study of Sufism with one of the world’s great masters, eventually earning the credentials to teach the Sufi path at an advanced level. John’s appreciation of the Sufi way is due to its focus on opening the heart to deeper love and peace with oneself, others and with the experience of life.
John enjoys working with seekers of all beliefs and persuasions. His groups offer a way to deepen your experience of your internal spirituality while respecting your native belief system. His groups are accepting, supportive, and focus on practice and experience rather than spiritual debate or philosophy. For those specifically interested in the Sufi path, John offers an opportunity to focus your training through beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of study.
Currently, John offers year-long spiritual study groups that focus on practice and the experience of unity. John draws on his many years of study in various disciplines to help each member explore and deepen their own authentic spirituality. He teaches the core mechanics of spiritual growth that most world traditions share in common, and helps group members hone their practice to ensure effectiveness and results. Most groups are non-denominational and open to all beliefs and faiths or no faith. Inquire directly with our office for information on joining a group.