Weekend Retreat - Lucid Dreaming, Cacao Ceremony, Gong Meditation and more!

Gathering of Minds - Weekend Retreat

Gathering of Minds is pleased to announce the first in a series of weekend-retreats on July 4th at Gilwell park.

The retreat invites you to give yourself permission to take care of your deepest needs—to stop doing, and start being. To walk in silence so you can begin again to hear the song of your own heart. To enhance awareness in waking state and heal trauma in dream. To stop taking control, and lose all control. To walk with nature and partake of her healing gifts. To connect with your divine self, and reconnect with your body. To open your heart, and quiet your mind. The journey to rejuvenation starts here.

Gathering of Minds has teamed up with 10 facilitators; each of them top of their game across personal development, health & wellbeing, and spiritual growth, to bring you an incredible weekend of activities which will leave you feeling reborn, and equip you with practices that will enhance your daily lives. The programme has been designed to be 100% experiential, from the fully immersive sound baths, to the lucid dreaming practices which we coach you through during the night, for a truly out of body experience.

We intend to build a close community of like-minded people over the weekend (spaces are limited to 30), and ask that all attendees prepare well in the run up to the event so that they get the very most out of it. We’ll be creating an environment internally and externally for realisations, shifts in consciousness, chakra realignment, personal development and growth – so the more we prepare in advance, the more profound our experience will be. Preparation guidelines will be sent to all those who purchase a ticket.

THE LINEUP INCLUDES:

Guided Meditation with Mohan

Fully immersive Sound Bath with Cheryl

Kundalini Yoga with Guru Ben (And Gong Shower/Meditation)

Self - Healing Workshop with Natali Nyree

Lucid Dreaming 'through the night' workshop with Nick Barrett

Cacao Healing Ceremony plus Gong Shower with Jay and Dene

Food and Nutrition workshop with UK's Top Nutritional Coach, Graham Jevon

Life Coaching and Motivational exercises with Gurdeep Hundal

Much more in the pipeline!

The event begins on Friday July 4th at 5pm and closes on Sunday at 6pm. Shared accommodation and all food is provided, - just bring an open heart (or prepare to have it opened)!

Lucid Dreaming Workshop

From 2-6 pm, we will go through the incredible world of dreaming and be part of an interactive, fun presentation in learning how to control your dreams, also known as ‘Lucid Dreaming’. Co-ordinated by Author Nick Barrett, he will take you on a step-by-step initiation for conscious dreaming, from learning the science of dreams to the mystic wonder of the unseen realms and how we can unlock the power within our inner realities. We will be setting our daytime intention to be lucid, so that in the evening we go to bed with the strong desire to be lucid in our dreams.

Intention is very powerful when done with great passion!

Following on from this, during the early hours of the morning and after a short sleep, we will get up together at 4:00am and gather in the hall. Where we will enter the dream ceremony for conscious activation within our sleep. Bringing your own earplugs if you are sensitive to sound and a sleep mask if you need total darkness is advised if you feel the need to do so. A small dream-ritual to re-affirm our dream intention will be provided for each of us to seal the power within and attract an even greater chance in becoming Lucid in our dreams. Dream Supplements are also available for the dreamer.

In the morning we will dream-share in a circle our extra-ordinary experiences!

What will you gain out of this?

· Advanced Lucid Dreaming Training, Inc. SGLD Techniques

· Be given the tools towards tackling nightmares

· Be able to revisit the meaning of re-occurring dreams

· Learn how to communicate to dream characters consciously

· Understanding the nature of your subconscious within dreams

· Be guided into meditative states to unlock your greatest potential

· Feel freer and be unlocked from the grasp of the MATRIX!

PRE-PREP GUIDELINES: Please begin writing and recording your dreams down in a journal daily from now- this will add to your lucid experience during your stay at the Retreat.

Reduce, or better still refrain completely from the watching Television/Movies at least 3 days prior to the retreat. Meditate instead and begin quieting the mind ;-)

*** All instructions and dream prep will be explained throughout the day ***

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Cacao Ceremony - The Spritual Chocolate

Working with the Elements for change and creativity

We will gather at 6pm to participate in a very special Cacao ceremony, facilitated and led by Jay and Dene, two Shamanic practitioners firmly rooted in the Celtic traditions but with very strong 'medicine' connections to the plants of the Amazon and jungles of South and Central America.

After lunch and no later before Nick's lucid dreaming session (health reasons excepted) we will ideally stop all food intake so that by the time ceremony commences we are fully 'open' to the power of consuming strong freshly cooked cacao. And it is strong!

This variety of Cacao is known as Criollo and it's about as raw as it gets; taken straight from the trees in Guatemala, the pods are opened and the beans crushed by hand until they can be formed into cacao blocks by the locals, ready for sending out to us.

What is Cacao?

Cacao is often called a 'love' medicine, mainly due to its numerous alkaloids that have a definite feelgood effect on the body and mind. Raw Cacao is one of the most chemically complex of superfoods containing over 300 compounds! It's high in antioxidants, rich in minerals, is a natural source of potassium, sulphur, copper and zinc.

Natural mood boosting chemicals include PEA (an adrenal related chemical that can be created in the brain when we are in love), serotonin, tyramine, tryptophan, anandamide (the 'bliss' neurotransmitter) and oxytocin (the 'cuddle' hormone). Little wonder with all this going on, the ancient Mayans called it the Food of the Gods and reserved drinking of it for royalty and priests! Well you wont have to prove your ancient lineage to participate in the drinking of our very special Cacao brew!

What will happen during the ceremony?

To ensure you get the best out of the ceremony and the Cacao, there will be a Chakra opening session using some simple Kundalini yoga postures. This will not only get the Cacao into the bloodstream faster but will also charge up the aura and spirit body in preparation for the Shamanic meditation that takes part later in ceremony.

This meditation will be based on experiencing the 'Elements' of life on earth - Air, Fire, Water, Earth and the binding element in all, or consciousness that is Ether or Spirit. Through introduction to the qualities and energies of the Elements, you will have a more personal understanding of how to use them for problem solving, meeting challenges with courage, gaining personal control, stripping away at unwanted habits and limiting beliefs. All culminating in allowing yourself to be in the flow of life, in the certainty that you are always connected to Spirit and have within you all that you need to lead a more fulfilled and rewarding life for you and your kind.

Cacao and Sound healing with Gongs and instruments..
The last part of the ceremony will include a sound healing session with an amazing 'Gong' shower followed along by drumming, rattle and other percussion sounds which will merge into the close, which involves the release of all that no longer serves us, by the expression of a Shamanic dance of the Elements.

The Cacao remains active in the system for up to 6 hours and the effects can be experienced for several days on, so your night time dream state - already enhanced by the lucid dream workshop - may take off into hyperspace! And the sharing on the Sunday will be one not to miss!

CEREMONIAL AND GENERAL WEEKEND GUIDELINES:
In harmony with the lucid dreaming experience, you should make sure that while at the retreat weekend you spend as little, if not any, time with your phone or other 'worldly distractions. Respect the weekend as an opportunity to open up to your true yet subtle self. Immerse yourself in to the weekend, knowing you are in the practice of, and enjoying with other like minded people, ancient techniques and traditions that have been handed down to support and encourage this dawning of a new way of being for those of us willing to begin the process of change within ourselves.
In truth, love and peace...namaste

Guru Ben presents: Remove your blocks and become your Super Self with Kundalini Yoga

Our Super Self is the unlimited, fearless and creative aspect of ourselves, the part that always knows what do when, to do it and how to do it best, our inner voice that tries to guide us to the highest path and most of the time we ignore it.

Why?

Because our connection is blocked. Society, friends, family all tell us to disregard that voice and listen to their voice and so we do until we have trained ourselves to ignore it so well, that we now do it automatically.

This suppression becomes blockages, in the mental, spiritual and even physical aspects of ourselves, leading to us existing far below our full potential.

Acknowledging these blocks is the first step to resolving them, next is to clear them using determination, stability and focus to re-install our connection to our Super Self and experience a glimmer of Enlightenment through the silence and stillness within.

This amazing workshop will bring you into the perfect space to open your heart to the Cacao Ceremony and your mind for the Lucid Dreaming.

We will utilise the sacred art of Kundalini Yoga which is the most spirituality intense of all yoga’s fusing breathing exercises (pranayama), postures (asana) with dynamic movement and mantra.

This fusion will enable us to go beyond our blocks and reach an State of Pure Being, where we will experience the connection to our Super Self. Guru Ben will then discuss the Super Self, the Shadow Self, the Ego and how Kundalini Yoga can be used to bring balance and unity to all three.

Life Coaching with Gurdeep Hundall

Gurdeep is a journalist specialising in health, wellbeing, nutrition and lifestyle. Having been on a journey of self discovery over the past seven years, she has healed her inner critic and now coaches other to recognise their true potential in life. Gurdeep firmly believes in the power of self-healing, with the use of intention and affirmation.