the tour began here – in sunny woodstock - at the home of friends sharon gannon and david life.
here’s deva with david and his sister, the lovely julie



we spent some quality time relaxing by the lake in their beautiful garden..watching deer (and even a black bear - no pix!) come and go...



and then headed to omega for the 2009 ecstatic chant weekend  – here’s shyamdas sharing kirtan (from left to right: david nichtern, steve gorn, vishal vaid, arjun, john mcdowell)



one of the highlights of the festival was jai uttal teaming up with gaura vani and the mayapuris, a group of young ISKCON devotees from NYC
here’s jai looking very happy, with manose and assorted band members and friends...



“First of all, it’s been quite a journey for me on the path of peace. I started with His Holiness Sri Swami Satchidananda, the founder of Integral Yoga in 1966 at the Intregal Yoga Institute in New York City. Then later studied world religions including practicing Buddhism & Shamanism for many many years. After experiencing the ecstatic chant weekend with both you and Snatam Kaur…I really felt that my spiritual development went into a full circle back to where I began 40 years ago with Swami G. What you don’t know was that a month ago before arriving at the Omega weekend I practiced and listened to your chants on your website (the samples).

I missed the 1969 Woodstock event because I was in the killing fields of Vietnam as an infantry soldier serving my tour of duty. Omega Ecstatic 4 day chant weekend was the Woodstock I never had, but it was far more than that….it was a sacred, healing and mystical experience for me. The sacred music brought me into deeper levels of peace and love….the loving people & your presence was totally divine….like being on heaven on earth……with tears of joy and happiness that finally made me feel totally alive and vibrant. I never knew that the power of music (sound) could do that even though I’ve chanted in Buddhist monasteries, and temples around the world.

What a sacred and divine experience – in fact one week later still reverberating from your chants….I visited you in Philadelphia for your very next concert. I was the person dressed in black that gave Deva that small gift in front of the stage – the green jade Tibetan prayer beads. The other mystical experience after the chant weekend was with my friend. We were walking in the woods near a lake, which we have done over 50 times in the past two years together, but this time it was different – as within minutes on the path….two dear almost walked right up to me and stood in front of me without being afraid or trembling ….I smiled and extended my right hand to them in a gesture of peace and sent them my loving new energy. My friend Andy was amazed and said how my energy really shifted because of the workshop. What a blessing…it was a miracle indeed from the divine! I feel the great oneness of everything and now feel totally connected…

That’s certainly not the only good news….I was so inspired by the event that for two days I wrote a proposal for the Oprah Winfrey television show recommending both you and Snatam Kaur be on their show, I also gave them my research on sacred sounds (chanting & musical instruments) actually healing and changing the cellular level of peoples bodies (curing illnesses & diseases). Finally what you don’t know is the research that I just completed and also gave them…….

The Key… “Seventy years later, the psychiatrist {a Soviet psychiatrist from Novosibirsk} was told that the mystical gate of Hurqalya has a passage entered through a time wheel, and that listening to the music of the circles {like repetitive Buddhist or devotional chants} incites a mystical experience.”*5 “The Shaykhis believed, that between the physical world and the spiritual world, there exists an intermediary world called Hurqalya or the world of archetypal (patterns of psychic functioning represented by) images.” *6
The Solfeggio scale, chants and frequencies were believed to enable spiritual blessings and transformation when played and sung in harmony. This is accomplished in a modern approach that still renders a unique timeless ancient feel. Binaural beat Theta brainwave entrainment technology is in this music.( 528 Hz is dominant in this sequence)

And now we know the way to open the gate into the portal of a higher plane of consciousness - by repetitive Buddhist or devotional chanting!
Love, light and the gift of oneness to all on planet Earth…I bow to the divine in you and everyone and everything…
Namaste”



catching up on the inbox etc..