We cordially welcome you to the first

ZEGG Experience Week 2013

June 15 – 22, 2013

Be invited to one week of ZEGG community experience in English!

We will have the afternoons for community building, for sharing in the ZEGG Forum, and we have time to get to know ZEGG. We will practice different methods of creative communication with an emphasis on the ZEGG-Forum process. This process helps on the inner level to feel ourselves deeper and to learn to let the others see what is inside us and receive their feedback. In short: we raise inner awareness and create transparency. We have an extra focus on deepening our consciousness in love and relationship issues. We work process oriented and follow the issues that arise during the group process.

From Monday till Saturday we will work for four hours in the morning in different work areas like our organic garden, the kitchen, maintenance and more.

With Ina Meyer-Stoll and Achim Ecker, long term ZEGG members and networkers.

Tuition: 200.- Euro
Organic food and Lodging: 91.- Euro

To register please click here

We look forward to co-creating an inspiring week together,
See you soon,
Ina and Achim

Rachel Davey

The Haven has participated in many Centers Gatherings over the years, sending different members of staff. I attended my first Gathering in 2011 at Findhorn, and it didn’t take long for me to be hooked! It was very clear to me, as Executive Director of The Haven, that this was a very important meeting for me to attend every year. When possible, I take another member of Haven staff with me.

I love the model that underpins the Gathering, and its long standing history. This is a group that has met every year for many years. Sometimes it’s a big group, other years smaller. Sometimes it has met in Europe; other times in North America. Some centers have been coming consistently for many years. Others come when they can. What unites all of the meetings is the desire for all of our centers to be strengthened by what we can share. Rather than adopting the more traditional competitive position, all of the centers at the Gathering share the belief that if one of us is stronger, we are all stronger. Not only that, but by sharing our best practices, our challenges and our triumphs, that ultimately the world will be a better place.

This may sound somewhat exaggerated, but it has been my consistent experience over the past two years. At each of the Gatherings I have attended, I have learned something I wouldn’t have found in a book. I have also been able to pass on some of the things I have learned, sometimes the hard way! There is no other way of receiving the many benefits that come from visiting a sister center, and all the things, big and small, that unite us and make us different. I share my learning with the greater Haven community by blogging about the Gathering and then on my return I host a meeting where I present my experiences with a slideshow of the photos I have taken. The Haven staff are always the most eager to find out how other places manage the challenges that we all face.

Friends enjoy conversation during the 2013 Gathering at Esalen, California

So you can probably tell I’m a fan! So much so that The Haven is more than happy to host the 2014 Gathering. If you haven’t been before, I invite you to join us on a journey of discovery and companionship. The exact date will be announced soon, and in the meantime I can tell you that it will be in April 2014.

I would be happy to talk with anyone who is considering coming to the Gathering. Feel free to contact me by email any time: rachel@haven.ca

Rachel Davey

Executive Director

I can’t tell you how much spending the week with some of the most experienced, patient, and loving people in my up and coming field meant to me.  I came back with a vibe that has been contagious! Many great things have happened, and what you have shown me it is no doubt infectious.  You are all doing such great work, worthy of a legacy to leave behind.  You have shown me the way, and I can’t tell you all how much I appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart.  I realized there is so much to learn, not just about myself, but bringing something…….different. We are all filling the gap, so to speak, for the type of learning experience we feel will give fuel to present and future generations that create a better place for all.  I’m in total admiration, believe me!

I feel compelled to participate in any way you all feel I can contribute, so please let me known if you have any thoughts. I will absolutely put in as much time as I can to see that retreat centers around the world can connect and benefit as I have from being around such an inspiring group!

Peace, Love, and Freedom!

Cheers! (From North Idaho!)
Steve Holt
Eureka Institute – Executive Director
www.eureka-institute.org

Timeline

1930 Michael Murphy was born in Salinas, CA and Dick Price was born in Chicago, IL.

1952 Murphy and Price graduated from Stanford University where each independently experienced transcendent moments and extraordinary spiritual experiences.

1956-1957 Murphy resided at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India and formulated an integral practice that engage mind, body, emotion, and spirit.

1956-1957 Price was involuntarily signed into Institute of Living and began to formulate his later focus on alternative therapies.

1960 Price and Murphy met at the Cultural Integration Fellowship in San Francisco.

1961 Price and Murphy moved to Murphy family property at Big Sur Hot Springs.

1962 Esalen Institute incorporated as a non-profit educational foundation that offered weekend seminars with Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, and Ansel Adams and other artistic and intellectual luminaries.

1962 Charlotte Selver initiated the Esalen sensory awareness program that became the foundation for Esalen Massage.

1964 Ida Rolf developed structural integration bodywork at Esalen.

1963-1969 Fritz Perls gave Gestalt workshops at Esalen and lived at the Institute.

1962-1964 Abraham Maslow refined humanistic psychology in lectures and workshops at Esalen, but never lived there.

1965-1972 Will Schutz developed encounter groups and drew national attention to Esalen.

1965 George Leonard, former editor of Look joined Esalen leadership and became a major force at the Institute.

1964-1973 Esalen became the international hub of the Human Potential Movement.

1967-1976 Murphy established a small Esalen workshop center in San Francisco and moved to the Bay Area..

1969 The movie, Bob&Carol&Ted&Alice, a spoof on Esalen, became a movie box office hit.

1975-1985 Price led Esalen in Big Sur and focused on community, bodywork, and Gestalt Awareness practice.

1985 Price died while hiking, and Murphy recruited new leadership at Big Sur.

1998 El Nino destroyed hotsprings enclosures and a number of other areas, requiring costly rebuilding.

1998 Murphy established the semi-autonomous Center for Theory and Research related to an earlier, more informal sub-group.

1998 Key bodyworkers established the semi-autonomous Esalen Massage and Bodywork Association.

2003 A major leadership transition occurred as Gordon Wheeler became both CEO and President of the Esalen Board of Trustees.

2004 Esalen moved into the mainstream of the personal growth industry. Major figures from the Esalen community and Gestalt Awareness Practice withdrew and moved to other venues.

2013 Esalen host the annual Holistic Centers Gathering with 28 participants representing 20 different centers from Europe and North America.

Information courtesy of http://www.has.vcu.edu/wrs/profiles/Esalen.htm
Click on this link to read the full article.

The curriculum for this multi-disciplinary Master’s Degree program emphasizes perennial wisdom, the best of modern thought, academic excellence, and the importance of integration and reflection.

Develop the skills, wisdom and confidence to engage and provide leadership within:

• Urban and Rural Neighbourhoods
• Global Organizations
• Voluntary Associations
• Educational and Business Systems
• Intentional Communities
• Communities Impacted by CatastropheClick here to download the PDF of the Masters Degree Program in Community Studies

These three complementary practice centers offer daily meditation, regular monastic retreats and practice periods, classes, lectures, and workshops.

The mission of Zen Center is to make accessible and embody the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha. Zen Center is a practice place for a diverse population of students, visitors, lay people, priests, and monks guided by teachers who follow in Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s style of warm hand and heart to warm hand and heart. All are welcome.

For more information, please visit our website at www.sfzc.org

Discussions were held on programming, staffing, marketing and decision making, as well as a range of other topics, all in the spirit of friendship, collaboration and reciprocal learning.

The list of centers represented is included here and more news of the Gathering will be posted soon…

Breitenbush Hot Springs
Divination Foundation
Esalen Institute
Eureka Institute
Findhorn Foundation
Global Ecovillage Network
Greenshire Arts Consortium
Harbin Hot Springs
The Haven
Hawaii Island Retreat
The Institute at El Capitan Canyon
Kalani
Kalikalos
Le Monastère des Augustines
Mount Madonna Center
New York Open Center
Rancho La Puerta
Retreat Institute/Shambhala Mountain Center
San Francisco Zen Center
Saratoga Springs Retreat Center

The Haven has been active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus for a few years now; we have our own blog and Vimeo and YouTube channels. There are always new social media opportunities on offer, and it can sometimes be somewhat overwhelming to manage it all!

Through 2012 I took on two new projects which I hoped would build on our current marketing efforts and offer new ways of reaching people. In early 2013 we launched The Haven app and on March 18 2013, The Haven was the venue and a sponsor for TEDxGabriolaIsland; I was the chief organizer for the event.

The idea for the app came about by chance. While on holiday on the beautiful west coast of Vancouver Island, I downloaded the Tofino App onto my iPad. I was impressed with the design, and the possibilities that an app can offer, and contacted the app developers, Apps with Integrity – I fell in love with their name first! Initially I was thinking it would be good to have the app offer a mobile enabled version of our web site. It was the developers who suggested that it might be worth considering what kind of interactive ‘games’ the app could offer. After overcoming my initial reaction to the word ‘games’ I began to understand the possibilities that this technology offers.

The Haven app has learning resources only available on the app. There is our 5-5-5 communication exercise, complete with instructions, timer and random topic generator. Also available is timed and guided Haven-style breathing coaching with background music or waves. The Haven app also includes:

• Links to upcoming programs
• The new Come Alive video
• The latest news from The Haven
• Information about who we are, what we do and where we are

It’s a great tool for integrating learning from Haven programs. It’s also a handy introduction to The Haven for anyone who has not been to a program before. We will be adding extra in-app functionality every year. Best of all, it did not cost a lot, and, since it offers resources unique to the app, we are charging to download the app, so it is generating revenue.

The app is available for Apple and Android devices and can be downloaded on iTunes here and on Google Play here.

The opportunity to host the TEDx event also came about by accident rather than design. I have always been an avid TED video watcher online, and I wanted to find out how to propose speakers for TED events. While doing some research, I came across the possibility of organizing a TEDx event. I assumed it would be either expensive or in some other way impossible to host a TEDx event on a small island with a population of 4000. I discovered that it was free and relatively easy to apply for a license, and that, as long as I did not want to use the event to ‘sell’ the people and products that The Haven offers, I could put the event on.

The videos from TEDxGabriolaIsland will be online soon. Click here to view the photos on Flickr.

I am now in the process of wrapping up the event, and will likely apply for another license for next year. The partnership with TEDx offers widespread access to media and markets which might otherwise not be interested. The TEDx name also enabled us to attract some really interesting speakers to The Haven to speak to our chosen theme: Empathy. In the process of finding sponsors for the event, I made connections and relationships that will last beyond the day itself. It was also a really awesome community event, with the majority of the audience from Gabriola. And there’s always the possibility of one of the videos going viral!

Be warned, putting on a TEDx event involves a lot of work and I was very fortunate to have a great team of volunteers, including talented and experienced sound, light, camera and visuals crew willing to work for love, not money! I said I would decide on whether to reapply for another license when I had finished the first event; and though at times I had my doubts,  I am planning to do just that.

I hope to see many of you at Esalen and look forward to sharing other ways of spreading the word! If anyone would like more information about the app or TEDx event, please feel free to contact me directly rachel@haven.ca

Rachel Davey
Executive Director
The Haven