It seems to me that at bottom each person is asking, "Who am I really? How can I get in touch with this real self, underlying all my surface behavior? How can I become myself?"
Carl Rogers
Facilitating Self-Transcendence...
Jeff Tidrick, SEP, Creator of Adversity 2 Awakening and The Magic Mirror Technique®.
Ever since childhood, Jeff sensed there must be something more to life than meets the eye. A longing to see things from a broader perspective was one of the motivating factors that led him to become a pilot as a teenager in 1982.
In 2004, while working as an airline captain, a personal crisis resulted in a desire to learn about healing, personal growth and the deeper mysteries of life. This inner journey took Jeff to personal growth workshops, healing centers and retreats all over the world.
From 2008 to 2010 Jeff lived in New Delhi, India, where he worked as an instructor captain for a subsidiary of Air India. While living in India, Jeff explored meditation retreats and facilitator trainings. During retreats known as "awareness intensives", he had life-altering experiences of breaking through to a non-ordinary state of consciousness. In 2019 he created and facilitated his first immersive residential multi-day trauma-informed meditation retreat called Trauma 2 Satori, which took place at Sierra Hot Springs in California.
Jeff currently works at a well-known inpatient addiction treatment center in Arizona. He is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), and a master's degree student in clinical mental health counseling.
Maneesha McClure, SEP, Dance Therapist, Creator or Dance Alchemy.
Dance Alchemy is a body based therapy with a life-affirming attitude of celebration and love. Maneesha uses dance to facilitate alchemy in our own bodies—to transform negative emotions into self-love and acceptance—to understand and connect deeply with one’s true nature, and as a way to enter deep meditation.
Maneesha studied dance and dance therapy in the USA, and has been working as a dance therapist and teacher since 1986. She was trained in therapies such as childhood and relationship resolution work, using a varitey of tools such as inquiry work, emotional release, hypnosis and past life regression. She also is trained in metaphysical energy work, metaphysical reading, therapeutic bodywork, and Somatic Experiencing. She led various groups including the Dance Meditation Training in Pune India, in the Center for Transformation and The Mystery School from 1987 until 1995, and after that continued in various centers in Europe and the USA.
Maneesha currently offers online and in-person workshops and trainings in Europe and North America. She lives in Sedona, Arizona where she also gives classes and individual sessions.
This retreat is the ideal place for you to spend 5 days if you:
- Are ready to heal trauma and dispell shame
- Have a sincere desire for self-realization—to directly experience your authentic being
- Want to deepen your connections through authentic communication and active listening
- Are ready to unleash your natural expressivity and creativity by going beyond beliefs, into a state of not knowing
- Want to learn how to practice mindfulness and meditation, or to magnify your existing meditation practice
- Crave time to yourself for reflection and deep self-inquiry with no to-do lists or responsibilities where everything is meticulously planned for you
- Would like to learn The Magic Mirror Technique®—a powerful 20 minute morning contemplation practice to regulate your nervous system and open creativity
- Are ready for a full-on immersion into deep connection and profound transformation
Meditation Retreat
Arriving in Paradise...
Looking over the Pacific to the east, you inhale deeply, and notice your body starting to relax. Your shoulders drop on the exhale. The tension in your chest loosens. The tightness in your shoulders melts. Finally, you can let go of distractions. The natural rhythms of this ancient, mystical land have called you here. You have arrived at the perfect place to discover the treasure of who you really are.
The First Night—Meeting Each Other...
Our first delicious dinner as a group will be on Tuesday evening. Imagine the buzz of anticipation as you get to know new people, realizing that your life is about to change forever. The retreat officially begins just after dinner. On the first night we will get to know each other, set our intentions for our journey, and come to agreements to create a safe space for inner-exploration. There will be a time to make last-minute communications with the outside world, and then put away mobile phones, computers, and even watches and clocks. We will be entering a dimension of no-mind and no-time, something we rarely experience in day-to-day life. This gives your analytical mind a much-needed rest, allowing you to begin to tune-in to the actual experience of Now, and the subtleties of mindful inner experience.
The First Full Day—Moving through History...
Wednesday: This day begins before dawn with a wake-up bell. Today is an experiential journey with music and movement through millions of years of life on earth. We'll track back through time and re-experience the evolution and development of our human nervous systems. Experience the survival strategies of freeze, fight and flight, and social engagement in the order they evolved. This will be a playful, active, experiential journey of facing, feeling, and releasing traumas that have accumulated in our bodies since the beginning of time.
The Second, Third, and Fourth Full Days—A Deep Dive into Presence...
Thursday through Saturday: By Thursday morning we'll be building on the energy of the previous day, and begin to using it for a deeper inner-search. Who are you really, beyond trauma, self-concept and your personal history? Today the structure becomes tighter. You'll enter into silence and isolation, still together as a group, but no longer engaging in conversations or relating in the usual way. Little by little, you'll come out of psychological time and into true presence—an actual experience of the power of Now.
Dyad meditations (meditating eyes-open, face-to-face with partners) act as mirrors, reflecting and expanding consciousness. Active meditations and time spent in nature support the core dyad process, helping to experience awareness beyond the conditioned mind. As the process goes deeper, you begin to "get the knack" of noticing your own thoughts—standing ever-ready on the watch, not allowing a single sensation, thought, emotion or impulse go unnoticed.
During the nights, we'll re-invigorate ourselves by going into nature, walking or jogging in the dark, enveloped and energized by the stars, trees, the ocean, and the aliveness of this magical volcanic island. As your senses begin to open, you come closer to the truth of your Being—your timeless and inviolable Self.
DISCOVERING THE TREASURE: A direct experience of your true Being is also known as satori, or a "glimpse of enlightenment". Such an experience cannot be forced, chased, or coerced. However, the conditions can be created where it becomes more likely—through a build-up of energy, expanded states of consciousness, and deep presence. The probability of making direct contact with the transcendent and inviolable Self is made greater by first clearing the opaque outer layer of the conceptual self through trauma healing, and becoming aware of how the mind generates our perceived reality.
Then, the aim becomes very pointed—the goal is presence, very deep presence. The closer you come to true presence, time begins to slow. When absolute presence is reached, there is no more time or timeline. No line of thinking. No argument for or against. Not even a complete sentence. Just, THIS!!!. All stories, including your own life story, simply unravel. It's like being in a cinema and watching the film slow and then stop on a single frame. With no more timeline, who is the hero, and who is the villain?
Experiences of self-transcendence are unpredictable. They are like a wild animal that may pay us a visit, but their appearance can't be guaranteed. However, when it does come, it can be profoundly life-altering. When your story unravels, all that's left is who you actually are. The experience is different for every individual, and words are inadequate to describe it.
As a life experience, it is profoundly blissful. On a practical level, you find out for yourself—not as an idea or a concept, or something you're reading about here—but as your own discovery—that you are always whole, integral, and connected. Now you know that you are a part of life. You are life. You belong here. With this, all pretenses fall away and you can finally see clearly. Over or under-esteeming yourself stops. Shame simply evaporates. You are chosen. You are It.
Once you look into a mirror and catch a glimpse of the deeper beauty that shines through, like a light, you recognize—what animates you animates everything, and the whole world becomes beautiful.
For more on the benefits and power of dyad meditations, click here: The Ultimate Connection—Dyad Communication as a Tool for Self-Realization.
The Last Day—Celebrating & Taking the Treasure Home with You...
Saturday night will be a longer sleep, so that you can be refreshed for re-entry into the outer world with your new-found treasure by Sunday afternoon.
Sunday morning we'll come out of silence and isolation, and enter into soft, mindful conversations about how to bring the treasure you've discovered home with you. You'll learn a powerful take-home practice called The Magic Mirror Technique® to help you maintain and build upon what you have discovered.
And finally, we will celebrate! Maneesha will guide us through music and dance in anchoring in what we've discovered through acceptance, understanding, and connecting deeply with our true nature. The retreat ends Sunday at noon.
Testimonials From the Last Retreat...
THE EXPERIENCE WAS TOO INCREDIBLE FOR WORDS...
"The experience was too incredible for words. True presence, total presence, is a feeling or moment of being that seems impossible to describe. I'm incredibly grateful for the retreat, and the healing it sparked within me. I learned, and continue to keep learning, more and more about myself and who I am as a human Being..." —2019 Retreat Participant
I FELT SAFE AND HELD IN THAT VULNERABLE SPACE...
“I surprisingly really enjoyed being in silence and isolation. I truly valued my energy and keeping it safe, as well as my mind and thoughts. I loved the various types of meditations, especially the active meditation that ended in a sitting or laying meditation. I absolutely loved the dyads and all of the questions we asked each other. My conscious mind is unable to remember all of the questions we asked/answered, but I know I felt safe and held in that vulnerable space.” —2019 Retreat Participant
THE DISCOVERY OF A DIFFERENT DIMENSION OF MYSELF...
"I really went from the darkness and pain of my own story to the discovery of a different dimension of myself; trauma to satori. Practicing meditation seems to me now more than a desire, but a need if I want to pursue the ongoing path of awareness, centering, and healing for myself and others." —2019 Retreat Participant
A SOLID CONTAINER FULL OF ACCEPTANCE AND COMPASSION FOR ALL..
“Everything Jeff chose was well thought out, excellent, and supportive of our transformation. His integrity and obvious dedication were stellar and flawless. He held a solid container full of acceptance and compassion for all.” -2019 Retreat Participant
I really went from the darkness and pain of my own story to the discovery of a different dimension of myself.
Retreat Participant