31/08/2026
Our four training days, we mapped the sacred biochemistry and prana of the breath, internally, as the yogis have always done, within the laboratory of mind and body.
Under the brilliant guidance of Dr Nikola, our pranayama practice became a bridge between physiology and the infinite, softening the boundaries of the ego and revealing the quiet radiance of Sat Chit Ananda, absolute being, consciousness and bliss.
Through yogic science, mantra and pranayama preparation with Celia Roberts, we shifted our nervous systems and entered a vast inner sacred landscape, one mapped for millennia by Eastern contemplative traditions and increasingly explored through the lens of Western science.
As health professionals, we stepped beyond the individual self into an interconnected field of compassion, forgiveness and inner luminosity. We explored the experience of latent energy, embodied awareness and profound inner potential.
We investigated non pharmacological pathways through breath, body and attention that may support profound shifts in consciousness, emotional processing and healing.
The work also invited us to consider a broader paradigm shift, moving beyond an illness model focused primarily on symptom reduction towards an approach that also recognises the therapeutic significance of emotional breakthrough, meaning, connection and mystical experience.
As clinicians and health professionals are increasingly called upon to accompany people through profound altered and non ordinary states of consciousness, an important question emerges:
What preparation and inner work do we ourselves need, and how might the internal state of the therapist influence the therapeutic encounter and patient outcomes?
An ancient teaching echoed throughout our modern practice, captured in the words traditionally attributed to Hanuman speaking to Ram:
“When I don’t know who I am, I serve you; when I know who I am, you and I are one.”
Perhaps this is where science and spirit ultimately meet, in the exploration of where the boundaries between observer and observed, self and other, body and consciousness begin to dissolve.
We return to our lives changed, ready to carry this collective resonance into our relationships, our clinical work and the wider interconnected world.
Celia Roberts Yoga and Meditation Retreats
