Get out of your Head and Into your Heart

Non-residential dance weekend with Philip O'Donohoe

By dancing and singing learn how to let go of the incessant mental chatter and to cultivate the strength and ease of an open heart so that one can greet life and all of the people one meets with a welcoming heart.

Several spiritual paths use music and dance as the primary method of spiritual evolution and self realisation. Perhaps all that is necessary to begin this journey is the intention and the permission to allow oneself to listen more closely to therhythm of the Divine Dance and to feel more fully its spiritual power and beauty. You can simply let the energy of the dances flow through your being and connect you to the deep wellspring of spiritual experience. To paraphrase the biblical phrase. In joy we live and move and have our being. Spiritual Dance shows us how.

Essentially this form of Spiritual Dance is an instrument for the transmission of blessing – to you and through you – giving you a sense of ease and inner peace. Mystics speak of universal peace, of cosmic consciousness, the peace which is beyond understanding. This kind of spiritual experience however is not the preserve of a few. Samuel Lewis the originator of this form of dancing offered them as a means for all people to experience such states in a relatively accessible way.

In their outer form they are simple circle dances. The integration of these movements which accompany the chanting of a divine name or a sacred phrase can attract a very high and noble form of magnetism from the space and at the same time can impregnate the immediate and not so immediate atmosphere with these magnetic qualities. As we sing and move with others in a circle there is anuplifting feeling and we can experience for ourselves such states as joy, peace, connectedness and unity. Watching people do these dances is like watching someone read a book.  One cannot know what is going on inside the hearts and minds of the dancers, the depth of their experience. They are based on experience and to get it, so to speak one has to dance oneself.

What is in it for me you might ask? Those who have experienced the Spiritual Dance know how wonderful they feel when they sing and dance and move together in the circle. There is clearly fullness and openness of heart in ways that are simply not so easily accessible in othergroup practices or social gatherings; the harmony is tangible; the peace can be deeply felt; most of all perhaps there is the strength of connectedness and the feeling of being part of something greater than oneself; the limited self is transcended.

Philip is a master of spiritual dance and has trained in various forms of meditation over the last 30 years.  He is a leading international exponent of the Dance of Universal Peace and has devoted the last twenty years to spreading the dances around the world. He is a senior mentor for the Dances and trains others to lead. He has studied Sufism since 1989 and is a teacher of this form of Middle Eastern mysticism.  Philip also trained in yoga and the use of sound in healing and spiritual development. A significant focus of his work is using dance as a spiritual tool to increase people’s capacity for living life heartfully and successfully.

To book
The price is £85. A £20 deposit secures your place. Cheques (payable to P O’Donohoe) to
Dominic Ashmole, 2 Crosshouses, Kirkton Manor. Peebles EH45 9JH.

Further information
Timings are 10am – 9pm Saturday; 10am – 4pm Sunday.
Evening meal on Saturday is included – please bring food to share for lunch.
Contact dominic.ashmole@gmail.com 01721 740309 or 07789 476299.

About the venue
Traquair Village Hall is a beautiful venue with wonderful views of the surrounding countryside of the Tweed valley. Nearby Innerleithen has a riverside campsite and there are many local B&Bs. The Southern Upland Way walking route passes through the village and the extraordinary Traquair House is within walking distance. There are also major mountain biking centres at Peebles and Innerleithen and many other local attractions and activities.