The Alchemist's Kitchen

The Alchemist’s Kitchen is part of Evolver, a hub for the global transformational community. Evolver presents online learning through the Evolver Learning Lab, publishes the online magazine Reality Sandwich, and offers social commerce on Evolver.net. A growing movement of conscious living is underway and The Alchemist's Kitchen supports holistic health practices while caring for the world we live in. Through their events and articles, they educate on what it means to create a lifestyle that is environmentally and ethically responsible. 

Next month I'll be leading Meditation, Hypnosis, and Past Life Regression at TAK and we're going to do something new. We're going to put these three practices together in action using a simple metaphor. Meditation is like a glass of water - simple, refreshing and easily accessible. Hypnosis is like a swimming pool - we submerge and explore varying depths. Past life regression is like an ocean - seemingly infinite in scale and filled with mystery and uncanny revelations. Though mechanically meditation, hypnosis, and past life regression can appear the same, each of the three experiences are vastly different. But where and what are these differences? 

• The Alchemist's Kitchen
• 21 East 1st Street, New York, N.Y.
• Tuesday, July 18th, 8-9:30
• $20, $25 at the door 

Regression Reimagined: Transforming the Brain Through Metaphor and Memory

This July 15th and 16th I'll be leading a training called Regression Reimagined which will integrate the techniques I originally learned from my father and his fellow pioneers decades ago with the modern protocols of my friends and teachers, Melissa Tiers and John Overdurf. Teaching and leading groups in regression is some of the most fun I have at work (and I love my job!) so I'm super-excited for this one. 

As with any modality, it is both art and science and there is a spectrum of approaches that can be taken. Together, we will zoom far enough out to see the exploration of these metaphors as creative play, advanced therapy, and everything in between. And we will zoom close enough in to  appreciate with compassion and respect this amazing tools ability to create shifts, relieve trauma, dissolve phobias, heal relationships, and transform lives. 

This training is intended for students and practitioners with at least a beginner's knowledge. That said, if you're interested shoot me a message. We may be able to arrange for a primer to get up to speed. Space is limited and going quickly, reserve your spot now! "Early bird" pricing for a little while longer. Details in the link right here. 

Japan & Thailand

For the next three and a half weeks I'll be traveling in Japan and Thailand. From May 2 - May 25th I'll be on the road, in a plane, on a boat, potentially on the back of an elephant, (under only the most humane circumstances, otherwise I'll decline) on a motorbike, in the back of a tuk tuk, smiling over a bowl of delicious ramen, or generally gawping at the beauty and madness on the other side of the world. It will be my first time meaningfully exploring Asia. Almost a decade ago, I was staying on the Asian side of Istanbul, "The Gateway to the East" they call it. That time I didn't make it past the threshold. This time I'm going deep. 

There will be temples, monasteries, restaurants, hotels, cities, forests, jungles, rivers, parks, anime, cherry blossoms, manga, beaches, islands... I'm ready for an adventure. And prepared for a culture shock that may take a few days (weeks? years?) to subside. Many of the therapies and techniques I'm trained in are based in Eastern philosophies put through Western filters. I'm beyond excited to see that second layer finally removed. 

Leaving NY has got me thinking about NY. Whenever I travel there's a part of my mind meditating on home. And this particular trip already feels different. My girlfriend and partner, Sarah, recently completed her grad program (She was valedictorian!) and she's now launching her practice as an Acupuncturist. Her business is called Sanctuary and at this early stage, it's set up for success. There is a lot to celebrate. Yet leaving can feel like abandoning multiple projects midstream, even though everything is prepared and leaving is essential. Such is the mindset of concrete, steel and glass. It's like the illusion that holding on tighter will draw something closer, or make it more dear. One more day of the (true) joy of work, and then... holiday. 

New Website

I understand when someone has an averse reaction to technology and usually applaud those friends and acquaintances who have chosen to simply live without smart phones and social media. It can feel like going against nature - moving against the trends of one's time. Often when I'm feeling introverted, looking at social media can feel pushy and invasive to me. Other times, I love it and ride the wave of pleasure and fun posting pictures of my dog or some random adventure. It's all a nice distraction, from a certain point of view. 

Another point of view as a small-business owner would be that to not engage with the tools available to me would be somewhere on a spectrum of silly to stupid. It would be cannibalistic to my own potential for growth, if it was done without purpose...

I've had websites up for my practice since i began in 2011. I haven't always updated them regularly. This one is new however. Its purpose is new too. This is a foundation. The previous ones were intended to present a picture and now those old photos feel like they are all collected here. I feel like I've cleaned my home or organized my cabinets. Things in rows and right angles. The kerning that occurs internally.

Last Weekend at The Woom Center

At Past-Life Mediations through Voice and Sound on Saturday, people shared their stories and listened to each other generously. The variety and creativity of the metaphors was consistently fascinating. It's the best when people share. Inevitably it helps someone out who's having a similar experience and can learn something new. And then to add to the fun, you'll have pockets of the room or clusters of people who all have similar experiences in similar places. For instance, four people near the corner who all had experiences on ships at sea, or the right side of the room were all in the desert. The suggestion appears to be we're not unlike antennae picking up each others' signals. 

Stories from the Outside In

At Doug O'Brien and Nick Kemp's recent workshop, Stories from the Outside In, I was able to reduce the prologue of my book to a two-minute story. I didn't know what to expect, really. Nick charmed me with his acerbic wit and love of Nick Cave. And Doug's openness and knowledge... The two are a marvelous teaching pair and can tear up a ukulele/keyboard jam like nobody's business too. 

They weave hypnosis, linguistics, and storytelling 101 into a marvelous and inspiring training. One of the goals of the weekend is to create a "two-minute story." As mentioned, mine is basically the prologue of my book which will inevitably be longer when it's released. The title is "3 Deep Breaths: Stories of Meditation, Hypnosis, and Past Life Regression" and it begins with my father. 

Jeffrey was a motherless bastard. He did not know where or to whom he belonged. He didn't have the modeling of good parents, proper etiquette, or the schoolyard resilience of other boys. He was branded as a nerd early on in a time and place where that was still an insult, and generally looked down upon. Jeffrey served as an altar boy attending to the priests and masses while remaining unchosen for years by the parents-to-be that were passing through. "I guess God wants you because no one else does." Said one of the nuns. He didn't hear cruelty though. Instead he heard a calling and felt this meant he was supposed to be a priest. 

Jeffrey had witnessed God's authority and knew intimately the benevolence and the brutality, the compassion and the cruelty, the righteousness and the wrath. That was why in 1958 when he found himself at the age of 19, stationed in San Antonio, TX, being taught direct suggestion hypnosis by the US Military in their experiments with psychological warfare - he had an advantage. Years of watching congregations genuflect, worship, and seek redemption from the human surrogates for God that were the priests and nuns had taught him how to offer the security of the divine. The scientific experiments of the cold war allowed Jeffrey to channel these holy men and women he grew up with into a clinical process. 

As an orphan and a bastard, he was ineligible for priesthood. Yet in the laboratories of the base he found use for his intelligence and more social acceptance than he'd ever known in his life. Everyone was from somewhere else. In Jeffrey's voice there was something special, something the others didn't have. He didn't know it yet, but he would learn. Language was the first form of magic, that's why we call it spelling. Through his invocations, incantations, and direct suggestions he was discovering himself as confident, perhaps even a leader. In the empty space where his family would have been, there was a path forming, but would this holy man find a church?