Experiencing Essence Retreat

New York City MAY 23-25 2025
5/23, 7-10 pm
5/24, 11am-10pm
5/25th 11am-6pm

The cost to participate is $350, but people often want to donate to support my work, so there’s a $450 option. If these prices are beyond your means and you want to attend, please write me.

Note:
In this retreat, we will be using various forms of breathwork. Breathwork is a powerful healing modality that uses the breath that is immensely useful and effective for releasing emotional and psychological wounds, opening the heart, strengthening personal boundaries, and deepening one’s capacity to feel present and alive.

While it is completely safe and natural, it can be emotionally and psychologically intense. It can bring up emotions, memories, and traumas for the sake of healing and release, but it requires that each breather and participant be able to feel psychologically safe within themselves. This means that if you are easily triggered by people making loud noises, crying, expressions of anger or if you have sensitive or fragile psychiatric and psychological issues or disorders or if you are not in good health, this retreat is not for you.

Location:
Center for Creative Studies
broadway between 25th and 26th street (NoMad area)
adjacent to madison square park in new york ny (more info when registered)

The first step in working with the Enneagram is understanding the typology itself. But real transformation begins when we move beyond descriptions into the deeper work of identification, presence, and Essence.

Essence is the seed of consciousness at the core of our being. When we make efforts to be present, it is Essence that either shows up—or remains obscured. While everyone's Essence is unique, it expresses itself through nine fundamental qualities that shape the distinct character of each Enneagram type: Power, Harmony, Integrity, Love, Value, Depth, Insight, Truth, and Freedom. True growth requires direct connection with these qualities. Where the ego goes wrong is that we try to find Essence through the Instinctual Drives, confusing Being and Function. We will explore what it means to “live in two worlds”.

This retreat offers an opportunity to cultivate an embodied experience of Essence with others. Through breathwork, meditation, group work, and other experiential practices, participants will move beyond theory and into direct experience.

What You’ll Learn:

• Gain a deeper understanding of what Essence is and what blocks us from experiencing it.
• Stop confusing instinctual satisfaction with Essence—an unconscious mistake that fuels personality fixation.
• Distinguish between the “functional” part of ourselves and the deeper “being” part.
• Use breathwork techniques to cultivate presence and deepen attention.

Talking about Essence isn’t enough—we must experience it directly. This retreat provides practical tools for reconnecting with the fundamental qualities of our true nature.

This is an intermediate level retreat focused on both theory and practice.