Enlightenment Intensives

Two-day to Two-week Intensive Residential Retreats
with the aim of experiencing Absolute Truth

‘I had the most amazing experience of my life. There came a timeless moment at which I just knew who I was. It was as  if I had always known it, but had simply forgotten. It was so obvious, yet so marvellous!’ (B.M.)
 

Next Intensives:

3-Day Intensive - Spring 2012

Friday 4 May (evening) to Monday 7 May (early evening) 2012

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7-Day Intensive - Summer 2012

Friday 27 July (evening) to Friday 3 August 2012

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14-Day Intensive - Summer 2013

Friday 26 July to Friday 9 August 2013

Venue: North London (Residential)

Maximum No. of Participants: 14

Facilitator/Master: Ellen Dacre

Enlightenment Intensives - Details

This process is known in the Osho world as Awareness Intensives,
and specifically the 3-day as ‘Who is in?’  and the 7-day as ‘Satori’

Enlightenment Intensives are  residential group retreats ranging from two-days to two weeks. Their purpose is to help the highest possible number of people have a  genuine spiritual awakening within a short space of time.

The Enlightenment Intensive process of opening up to the Truth is an amazing journey. What unfolds for each participant will be unique to them and is likely to include moments where they find contemplating quite gruelling but equally moments of rare beauty and joy.
 

Unique Format
Enlightenment Intensives have a unique format which blends long-standing elements of Eastern meditation practices with contemporary personal growth techniques, resulting in a dynamic new style of  spiritual retreat. The phenomenal success of the Enlightenment  Intensive format has enabled tens of thousands of people worldwide with no prior spiritual experience to have direct experiences of the Absolute Truth within a matter of days.

The Enlightenment Intensive format requires participants to work  on a specific question throughout the retreat. This draws on the wisdom of Zen Buddhism, which uses a focusing tool, or "koan" to speed up the  process of seeking Truth, Those who are taking an Enlightenment  Intensive for the first time work on "Who am I?" All other participants can choose from the questions "Who am I?", "What am I?", "What is  Life?" or "What is Another?" Using one of these questions as a focus  for the whole three days, participants are taught a simple yet powerful  contemplation technique designed to increase their chances of having a  breakthrough shift of consciousness.

Dyad Communication Exercises
Enlightenment Intensives make use of partnered communication  exercises called "dyads". Dyads introduce open communication and contact with others into the traditionally silent process of deep inner  contemplation. Dyads are 40 minute structured exercises between  participants working in pairs and are a recent personal growth technique also used as the model for co-counselling. During a dyad exercise, one  person contemplates their question and then communicates to their  partner what has arisen for them whilst the other person silently  listens. The roles swap round every five minutes until the exercise  ends, giving each person equal time in the two roles. Dyad  communication exercises are a key innovation which has speeded up the  contemplation process enormously and contributed to the high percentage  of people having enlightenment experiences on Intensives.
 

Is Enlightenment Guaranteed?
On average one third of the group will have an enlightenment  experience on the retreat, but there may be more experiences than this  and sometimes there are none at all. The rate of enlightenment experiences on Intensives is unusually high compared to that achieved by other spiritual methods, which may  require years of effort before enlightenment occurs. Nevertheless there will be participants who put in a lot of work and effort only to come  away without achieving their goal. This is a genuine issue which those who take Enlightenment Intensives have to face. A person should go on an Enlightenment Intensive because they sincerely want the Truth; they  must put all their energy and commitment into doing the contemplation  technique and into their intention to have a direct experience of the Truth. Yet they must also accept from the outset that there is no  guarantee of success.
 

This is actually how it is. In some sense there is no way to make this easier. A person's full intention, effort and commitment are  required to engage in the pursuit of enlightenment whether they attain  their goal or not. But nothing can ever be done to guarantee  enlightenment. It arises from an individual's personal surrender to the Truth and the reasons why some people reach enlightenment and others do not, is ultimately mysterious.
 

Is there an Absolute Truth?
Enlightenment Intensives can make spirituality real for people,  providing an opportunity for them to get that the Truth actually is and  that seeking and experiencing Truth for oneself is a serious endeavour.  Having even the most fleeting enlightenment experience will resolve  completely for a participant the issue of whether there is an Absolute  Truth or not.

For more details see the Enlightenment Intensive website: www.enlightenment-intensives.org.uk from where the above extracts were taken.
 

This workshop is for you if...
...you have a sincere wish to have your own inner experience of Absolute Truth.
 

Accommodation and Food
The cost of the retreat includes accommodation and vegetarian food. Accommodation is in single-sex dormitory style rooms with shared bathroom facilities.

Venue
The venue is in North London and is easily accessible by public transport. Details will be given to those who book.

School of Awareness’ Involvement
Please note that these Enlightenment Intensive events are organised and facilitated externally to School of Awareness by ‘London Enlightenment Intensives’. School of Awareness acts only as an authorised agent for advertising and booking on behalf of ‘London Enlightenment Intensives’, and is not responsible for the events themselves or anything resulting from them.

On a personal level, Ankur (founder of School of Awareness), has completed this process many times and highly recommends it to those seeking their absolute truth.

 

Enlightenment Intensive - Facilitators/Masters

These Enlightenment Intentives are Organised and Facilitated/Mastered by ‘London Enlightenment Intensives’.
Facilitators/Masters include (see ‘Summary’ tab for individual facilitating a particular event):

 Ellen Dacre             

Ellen Dacre started participating in Enlightenment Intensives in 1994 and has taken numerous three day Intensives and several 2 Week Intensives. She completed the Enlightenment Intensive Masters Training in 1999  and has been running Enlightenment Intensives and personal  growth workshops since 2003. For the last 10 years she has also been a serious practitioner of Surrender Meditation. She currently works for a leading charity in the criminal justice field, running Visitors' Centres and visitor support services across the North London prisons.

  Jennie McShannon

Jennie McShannon is Chief Executive of  an national umbrella charity for the Irish community in Britain. She also trains as a freelance consultant in Systems Thinking in local and  national government leadership programmes. Jennie took her first  Enlightenment Intensive 15 years ago and since then has taken a 2 Week  Intensive and many 3 Day Intensives. Having trained in 1999, Jennie has been involved in running Enlightenment Intensives since 2003, and together with Ellen, has also developed and run an extensive range of personal growth workshops across London.
 

Enlightenment Intensive - Participant Accounts

"It was the first time that I felt capable of telling the truth..."

I didn't have a direct experience on my first Intensive but what I  got out of it, through doing the technique, had a huge effect on my  life. It was the first time that I felt capable of telling the truth, both to another person and to myself. This was and still is a very  liberating thing for me to do. I was afraid of what I would find out about myself if I let thoughts come into my head without some sort of filter. I also thought other people would find out something unspeakably awful about me and that was too much to bear. During the intensive lots of thoughts came up that I had to communicate that were really  difficult but it was OK because they were true. I had thought them. They were and are me. I have taken this simple fact into the rest of my life and in trying to accept all of me, the good and the bad, I feel more at home in the world.(R.L.)

 "I cried for most of the second day just with relief..."

At my first two Enlightenment Intensives I didn't have a direct  experience. I got rid of so much baggage, though, by managing to express thoughts and feelings and fears, that I had never before felt able to  express, in an atmosphere of complete and unconditional acceptance. I  cried for most of the first day just with relief at being in a 'safe'  environment for what felt like the first time in my life. I cried for  most of the second day with relief at realising that many of my fears  were skewed perceptions of reality, and in effect, groundless. They had  developed as a result of my feeling unable to 'check them out' in my  normal life for fear of criticism. (S.C.)

"The person I thought I was was blown away and I was left..."

The first direct experience of the Truth that I had came totally by  surprise. I had been vaguely and increasingly unhappy about who I was, I felt like I was becoming more and more fearful and didn't know how to  get out of it. I realised that I couldn't give my friends and family a  straight answer to any question because I was only concerned with  keeping up the facade of who I thought I was. I had to be right about  everything. I identified myself as an Atheist, sceptical science type  and everyone else was deluded, especially people who believed in an  absolute reality.

A close friend confronted me one night with "I've known you for five  years, but I don't know who you are". This totally freaked me out and  there seemed two options; palm him off with my same old shit or own up  to the fact that he was right and that I was hiding from him and  everyone else. I went for the latter and the next night I had a direct  experience of who I was. On the train on the way home I suddenly got  that I was really alive, that I did exist. Then when I got back to my  digs my body had unstoppable waves of energy going through it as I sat  down and everything in the room was bathed in a golden light. I was  drawn to look in the mirror and saw myself totally free from any  judgements and realised for the first time in my life that I was OK. In  fact at that moment I loved myself unconditionally.

After this I realised that who I thought I was before was a  construction of ideas that kept me in an ever more restrictive prison.  The person I thought I was was blown away and I was left. The energy  waves and light were impossible to explain, as was my certainty about  now knowing who I was (and still am). The stream of realisations from  this event was life changing. I could now look people in the eye when I  talked to them, I could give my friends and family straight answers and  it was alright to be wrong about things. It was not a magic answer to  all my problems, but I can now see them from a perspective that gives me a choice to do something about them (R.L.)

For more Personal Accounts see www.enlightenment-intensives.org.uk

Enlightenment Intensive - Pricing and Payment

Note: Prices includes vegetarian food and single sex dormitory-style accommodation.
 

3-Day Intensive - May Day Weekend 2012
 

Friday 4 May (7pm) to Monday 7 May (6.30pm) 2012
Monday 7 May is a Public Holiday
 

BOOKING NOW

To open this event to as many people as possible Your Investment is 'Income Based' - i.e. you decide how much to pay after reference to the following table : )

High Income                    £400
Medium Income                £350
Low Income                     £300
Full Time Student or          £250
Receiving Social Security
(NUS/Benefit No. required)
 

Making Your Payment
For secure payment by Paypal via Credit or Debit card please select the amount of your investment from the drop down box and click ‘Pay Now’. If you wish to pay via other means (Bank transfer, Cash etc) please Contact Ankur at SofA.
If paying £250 please add your NUS or Social Security reference in the relevant box (you may be asked for evidence of entitlement).

Choose Income Level

High Income £400.00 GBP Medium Income £350.00 GBP Low Income £300.00 GBP Student / Benefits £250.00 GBP

Mobile Number

NUS/Benefit No. if paying £250

Cancellation Policy
If the participant cancels at any time up to the day of the Intensive, we refund the full amount less £100 (for a 3-day intensive). Participants can also transfer a deposit from an Intensive they have booked onto, but cannot attend, to a future Intensive.

Seven-Day Intensive - Summer 2012
 

Friday 27 July (evening) to Friday 3 August 2012
 

BOOKING NOW

Note: You MUST have completed at least one 2-day or 3-day EI before participating in a 7-day or longer EI

 

The cost of this event is £550 for all participants.

Making Your Payment
For secure payment by Paypal via Credit or Debit card please enter your Mobile Number and click ‘Pay Now’. If you wish to pay via other means (Bank transfer, Cash etc) please Contact Ankur at SofA.

Mobile Number

Cancellation Policy
If the participant cancels at any time up to the day of the Intensive, we refund the full amount less £180 (for a 7-day intensive). Participants can also transfer a deposit from an Intensive they have booked onto, but cannot attend, to a future Intensive.