Open Your Heart on the Big Island

• Life and Spirituality
• Music
• Yoga/Meditation

November 5, 2008 to
November 10, 2008

Open your heart on the Big Island with Ram Dass, Reverend Michael Beckwith, Rickie Byars-Beckwith, David Stringer and Mark Whitwell.

The program includes daily yoga with Mark Whitwell, evening kirtan with David Stringer, daily new thought-ancient wisdom conversation/prayer/song with Rev Michael Beckwith & Rickie Byars-Beckwith , and daily talks by Ram Dass. Participants will have opportunities for bodywork and healing therapies, exploring the black sand beaches, waterfalls, and nearby volcano, swimming and sunbathing at the pool or ocean, and exploring the natural beauty on the grounds of the secluded Kalani retreat center. Nightly fire circles will celebrate spirit through native ancestral traditions. Mind, body, and spirit will be nourished through meditation, healthy and delicious cuisine, and inspirational teachings.

Ram Dass is a spiritual teacher and author who shifted the consciousness of a generation through the 1971 publication of his book ‘BE HERE NOW’. He has continued to teach and inspire old and new audiences through his lectures, and has written numerous books on service and spiritual growth. He no longer travels and only participates in a limited number of events on Hawaii each year.

Rev Michael Beckwith is living testament to building spiritual community. In the 1970’s he began an inward journey into the teachings of East and West, and today teaches universal truth principles found in the New Thought-Ancient Wisdom tradition of spirituality. Gifted with a vision of a trans-denominational spiritual community, in 1986 he founded the Agape International Spiritual Center upon his faith in that original vision.

Rickie Byars-Beckwith is the Music and Arts Director for Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, California. She composes and performs moving, melodic music "to inspire deep feeling in the heart and to bring joy to the earth." She has produced six CDs that are favorites to thousands.

David Stringer's sound marries the transcendent mysticism of traditional Indian instruments with the exuberant, groove-oriented sensibility of American gospel, and he is regarded as one of the most gifted singers in the genre. He has been widely profiled as one of the most innovative artists of the new American kirtan movement in publications as diverse as Time, Billboard, Yoga Journal and In Style.