So many of us have experienced our lives touched and deeply enriched by Mark’s presence on the planet in many diverse ways. He passed on January 29, 2022 at 10:30 am and it was sudden. We do not have the room for all to write of course, but it is my prayer that many years from now, someone might read about him here, be inspired by his life of service as a great doctor and human being, and taken by the wonder that he was a committed initiate and minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, living in the time of two extraordinary Travelers, John-Roger and John Morton.
May our experiences and perceptions be a blessing.
Leigh Taylor-Young Morton
On Saturday morning, January 29, 2022, when I heard of Mark Holmes’ passing, I went into shock. What does it mean when someone of greatness of soul passes on, especially one who has been my God friend, and with whom I shared some sweet years of my life? The ‘sea level’ of my awareness was altering, and I was adjusting to it. As the days go on, I continue to process the preciousness of him, but I am also experiencing the deeper meaning of a tenderness for each one of us. His passing highlights for me how important it is to share the honoring of friends and beloveds with words and actions while we are still here.
For many early years as Mark was learning and expanding his medical knowledge and unique magic, I was his patient. Later we married and we both soon recognized that we respected and cared deeply for each other but we were more a spiritual brother and sister than married beloveds.
And so, dearest Mark, thank you for your wisdom, the healing ease and laughter, and the mutual and profound interest in health that we shared. Thank you for allowing me to be your guinea pig for your many medical experiments. I never minded being on the cold bathroom floor with what seemed like a hundred needles in my face, hooked up to some sophisticated German machine. You have gracefully remained my dear friend, as we moved on in our lives. You continued to care for my health and I took my Beloved John to you for healing support, and thus helped fulfill your dream to be a doctor to the Traveler.
And now you have moved into God’s heart. No matter where you traveled, you were always heading for Home. Good and great job, my courageous friend, my brother companion in loving God. I will see you around the bend with bells on, and in the meantime, you are in my heart.
Leigh
John-Roger with Mark Holmes, June 1977, at MSIA's Lake Arrowhead property.
Memories of Mark
In 1972 or thereabouts, my and Mark’s spiritual teacher John-Roger was doing seminars at a home in Whittier, California. We called it the Light Castle. MSIA (Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness), a church founded in 1971 by John-Roger (J-R), had a small office in a repurposed garage adjacent to the Light Castle. It was there that I had my first encounter with Mark. J-R was giving a seminar that night; I had been working at the office all day and was tired and had a nasty headache. Into the office came this beautiful young man, I don’t remember what brought him to the office, but as we talked, he asked me if I was tired, and then he said something like, “you know, I can take that headache away for you”. I was amazed (how did he know?) and skeptical to say the least, but he came around behind my desk and put his hands on my head, and my headache begun to dissolve. In a couple of minutes, it was gone. Well! He got my attention that evening, and as the years rolled on (50 of them it turns out) we became good buddies… I might say kindred souls.
Mark became an ordained minister in MSIA in the early 70’s and shortly after had plans to move to China; before he left, J-R gave him the authority to ordain others as part of his overseas ministry. He studied Chinese medicine for a number of years: acupuncture, herbal and homeopathic remedies, how to work with moving the flow of energy in the body, and balanced what was out of balance. And through MSIA & J-R, he studied the teachings of the spiritual heart & soul transcendence: attunement, compassion, loving, kindness, the eternal and spiritual nature of the Hu-man. He embraced meditation and the disciplines of spiritual exercises … and the quest for greater realization of his own soul & spirit, He was the best of students.
His ministry and his work in this world expanded. More and more, his ministry (doing God’s work in this world) and his individual work in this world became one. Mark’s work and his devotion to Spirit’s call seemed to be the passion of his life. It took him many places. He lived at various times in China, Indonesia, Panama, and probably other places I am not remembering. “Where’s Mark now?” became a frequent question that I sometimes asked others, and sometimes answered for others.
I loved Mark like a brother. Sometimes we wouldn’t see each other for years, and then pick up where we left off as if we’d never been apart. We shared our journeys, successes and failures, what we were learning, new projects… We’d talk for hours, laugh at it all. One time when I was feeling discouraged, he got out his prescription pad and wrote on it “LIBERATION” & handed it to me. I still have it !
Mark will be in my heart forever. I will miss finding him here and there in this physical world, around various unexpected corners, and having the delights of our shared spiritual journeys and our love of the Mystical Traveler.
“Where’s Mark now?” I know: living the delights of heavenly realms in the company of his dear and beloved John-Roger… home in God’s heart… and laughing.
Pauli Sanderson
Mark Holmes with Genie Ford.
I will not miss you my dear friend, for you are with me all ways.
My relationship with Mark remains simple and thoroughly complete. Our connection and our love for one another was not from our introduction, but instead from a long time before. He has always been one of my dearest friends.
When I heard Mark had passed away, I quietly checked within my heart, and there he was; ever present, today as always. And, I am so grateful to have recognized him this time, hugged him often, laughed with him, and studied the Traveler’s teachings here together, again.
Genie Ford
I met Mark when I was 7. I remember waiting outside of minister’s meetings, at the Light Castle, with his beautiful white shepherd Gingi. My oldest granddaughter turned 8 just a few days before he passed.
Mark asked me to work with him when I was in high school at the first Baraka, again during college at 2101, years later he reached out for me to come manage his Center for Regeneration in Beverly Hills, and then once again to set up his practice management in his home.
My son called him Dr Holmey the Clown. It’s funny … who would have called Mark “Holmey the Clown”?! He always laughed when he heard that, and his eyes would sparkle with such obvious heartfelt joy as he’d embrace my son, Jonathon.
I experienced Mark as a very private person, fiercely independent, with an exquisite ego, and profound love of the Traveler. He was a relentless student of all things that touched his heart; his spiritual teachings, his intuitive knowing and love of being a healer, and his connection with nature through his travels, his animals, and his oneness with the ocean.
I am blessed to have supported him as a healer, loved him as a friend, and to have cheered for him on many occasions as he surfed.
Staci Ford
Mark Holmes with Steve Beimel in Japan.
Dear Mark,
L.A. to Panama to Las Vegas to Florida. Back to Las Vegas and onward into the heart of God. I am adjusting now to the initial shock from hearing about your most recent “move,” but whenever I imagine the “homecoming party” being held in your honor on the other side, my heart fills with the sweetest joy. Congratulations for graduating and for having brought your stellar life to such an exquisite level of completion!
I am sorry that Corona prevented you from coming to Japan over the past two years. We had big plans to walk the 1300+ year-old, 1200 kilometer, 88 stop Tantric Buddhist pilgrimage route on the southern island of Shikoku, after you performed initiations and ordinations for our budding MSIA community here. We’d been preparing ourselves for the journey by reading the works by a 9th century Japanese Mystical Traveler. I’m still looking forward to doing the journey “together,” and I am working on improving my ability to communicate with you, J-R and Ronnie, inwardly.
You know, there are very few people I’ve spent more time with than you. Your dozen or so trips to Japan over the past 25 years amounts to about 200 full days that we have been together.
Thank you for countless moments of laughter (like the time we both dropped under the table at a restaurant in Malibu, laughing out-of-control.) All these years, I think that we’ve brought silliness to a new level. Your dedication to Spirit and the Traveler has always inspired me and I’ve loved “comparing notes” with you as a fellow “spiritual scientist.” Thank you for taking such good care of me for 47 years as my main doctor.
I am starting to look at dates for walking our 1200-kilometer pilgrimage in Shikoku, so get ready, Mark!
Love, Light and onward,
Steve Beimel
A dear friend, mentor and muse has left my life. Hearing of Mark Holmes’ passing left me in shock. I had expected him to live to 100 years and beyond – a wise Taoist sage still weaving his alchemical spells and dispensing his magic potions.
But just to be in Mark’s presence was the healing. A healing force on the planet, he will be missed by all those who knew him. We first met in London exactly 50 years ago. We worked together at Baraka Holistic Center in the eighties. And in the last 20 years or so, when we would get together for tea or a Japanese meal, a new PTS class would spontaneously emerge.
To lose someone who was a safe, sacred space that I could tell anything to. To lose someone who listened and saw who you were. This is a true loss. But, my goodness the enormity of what I gained from being with him leaves me full, and will last a lifetime.
God bless you, Mark. And thank you.
Paul Kaye
Mark Holmes in the early years of the Movement (photo provided by Greg Blanchard).
I won’t go into Mark’s service and his many remarkable achievements. Mark was really a cowboy at heart that didn’t want to be fenced in. The perfect woman for him would be to let him come and go as he pleases but then he would never want to leave. That was the key, don’t plan his life and then you can have it. Our deep friendship grew from this liberation and so we could say anything to each other or not and that was fine. From sharing our awareness to communicating like a couple of apes was a regular day. He was a master at many things which included skipping rocks on the ocean. We counted 19 skips to my 6 this last summer.
Mark was always working himself off the planet, and his choices would reflect that. When we were sobbing together after the tragic news from the doctor, one of the things he realized was he went through his life not fully connected and so we talked about the trappings of being detached. I asked him if he wanted to live and it was a resounding YES! Perhaps this was one of his last lessons, to be fully engaged in living here…that life IS precious and that God is at the end of even the most insignificant.
He was a Monk who liked to Monkey around with me…thank you dear God for this blessing in my life.
Greg Blanchard
Mark Holmes with Marc Darrow.
Mark Holmes was a magnificent Soul. He was, and is my rock. One of the best friends any of us could ever have. He glowed like sunshine with his long blonde hair and constant smile, and always brought out the best in me just by his presence.
In 1974, as a Doctor or Oriental medicine, he gave me my first acupuncture treatment with 40 thick painful needles. Years later, he realized he could heal without any needles, and that it was spirit that actually did the healing.
I later became his doctor. When he had physical issues, he would withdraw for months, and live the purest life he could, attempting to get to his deepest inner self. I watched miracles of healing surround him.
His big love was surfing, and we did that together in Malibu, at Topanga, Santa Monica, and Hawaii. He also loved to work out.
I never heard him say a negative word, nor a negative statement about anyone. We always laughed. Our conversations were about J-R and spirit, and how we could evolve. We observed each other, and learned from each other. He was introverted and shy, and I showed him how to pretend he was J-R when he was lecturing, and he taught me how to extract myself from karmas. We had endless Ah Ha moments together, and were always excited to be together and watch spirit appear.
He was ordained by J-R into the Aaronic Priesthood in order to do initiations and ordinations in other countries. Mark was a rolling stone. He loved traveling in Japan, and owned a house in Panama where he spent months at a time alone, meditating and writing books on the inner path. When he was away from LA, we would often email each other endless times a day about spirit.
Moments before his death, I texted him, “Hi Handsome, Time for SEs.” Little did I know!!!
I see Mark in Golden Light, smiling down on all of us.
I love you, Mark.
Marc Darrow
(left to right) Iliana Flohr, Mark Holmes, Letty Flohr, Mike Flohr.
Mark was my revered doctor who connected me to J-R. He worked tirelessly and helped our family restore our health on many occasions. Our relationship evolved and he became my teacher and I, his enthusiastic student. He was always about Spirit and was Spirit-led. At some point, he became my adorable brother and our wise and beloved family elder. He helped Mike and me raise Iliana as a spiritual being on many levels. He helped me infuse J-R’s teachings into everyday practices. He helped me teach Iliana how to call in the Light, send Light, and send Light ahead. He taught me how to teach her about the Three Selves, how to check inside, clear…and so much more!
Mark and Iliana have a very special connection. I have sweet memories of seeing them together in their beingness. Mark knew the inner workings of each one of us and he seamlessly guided us to be the family that we are today. Mark participated in every family/parenting decision for over ten years as a family member. He really got who I was, and I would like to think that I got who he was too. He had this amazing blend of the feminine and masculine, exquisitely intertwined and fluid. We also shared an Asian way of interacting – a deep respect that came out of loving. My Basics loved Mark as he was so much fun and overflowing with light. I could talk to Mark about anything – there were no off-limit topics – and Mark was always generous and passionate about sharing his learnings about Spirit. Thank you Mark, we 3 love you and cherish you. See you inside!
Letty Flohr
Iliana Flohr with Mark Holmes.
A mentor, a healer, and a continual supporter in love, Mark was a very important figure in my life. He supported our family, always sharing his wisdom. He helped in raising me since I was little. I am 16 now and am still learning from the lessons he taught me. I will miss him deeply but I also know that he is in a better place and will always be in my heart. I am very grateful for all that he gave to me. I wrote this poem for him, remembering the beautiful person he was.
To the Wise One, a poem dedicated to Mark Holmes from his Miz Ili
Dear Mark,
I am just here to say you always brightened my day.
You knew me more than I ever did. You cared
Beyond the tide of times long gone.You looked deep till there was a light in
Your eyes that saw far more than anyone
Ever could understand.The mysteries and divine that flashed before
Your eyes that saw through the glass,
The tint, the refracts, the beauty that was beyond.You told a story once of a boy who went
On a journey before it began. That youth you lived,
Laughing and telling of wisdom as old as the trees.The voice in my heart reminds me of you.
The radiance of your smile and the light in your eyes
Still brings me to the grace that you gave to the world.
In gratitude and with much love to your spirit,
Iliana Flohr
Mark Holmes with Heidi Banks.
I told a friend about losing Mark to which he said, ‘you were so fortunate to have known someone like him.’ I answered ‘yes’, but added, we were all so lucky as Mark was a servant of the lord from whose wisdom and caring we all benefitted from. I could discourse for hours on his love and dedication to all things spirit.
Over the years, Mark spent many weeks at a time as my housemate spending hours a day doing spiritual exercises and writing. Mark the Monk. But anytime I returned home from being outside I would hear this gentle call, Heide Honey, inviting me to be with him and share my day. This spoke to me as his love for connection on all levels.
We also spent time together in his home in Panama. On my first day there, he motioned me to his couch and said I have something special to share with you. He then produced his ‘gems’… J-R cassette tapes so old you had to wonder how on earth they still were playable especially since we listened to them on the oldest boom box still in existence. We listened for hours, devouring them like a gourmet meal.
But you also can’t talk about Mark without mentioning what else he truly valued and practiced, intimacy. To me, this was an outgrowth of his dedication to spirit. This intimacy took many forms especially with the women in his life. He spoiled us all, with his caring and wisdom, offering medical advice when needed, opening car doors, and even volunteering Airport pick-ups (who does that anymore?) I love you Mark. Always.
Heide Banks
I don’t know of anyone more dedicated to his spiritual practices and spiritual growth than Mark. For me he set an example for dedication to the inner journey. Mark has been a friend since 1977. I knew him first as a doctor. And what a multi-faceted, eclectic and talented healer/doctor/teacher he was. I valued his friendship, dinners discussing the large and the small, laughing, sharing. What a gentle soul with such a strong, unique presence —a nurturer, a giver. (Curiously, I keep hearing his laugh as I write this).
As Mark moved around the globe settling here and there over the years and then always moving on—I am imagining that now he has at last found the place that he was looking for—the dynamic resting place in Spirit. We are loving you, Mark. I know you are in good hands…a glorious and long awaited ascension into the pure Light of God.
Timothea Stewart
Alisha Das with Mark Holmes.
The first session after I was diagnosed with cancer, Mark meticulously placed acupuncture needles and became silent. In fact, everything hushed. Suddenly, something otherworldly spoke out from within him, “What would it take for you to fulfill your spiritual calling?” My body went into ecstatic kriyas even while negativity stepped in to try to stop the action.
I looked into the oceans of calm that were his eyes and knew I was in the presence of a rare healer. We joined my consciousness work with his ancient healing techniques, like we were linking arms into wings, and flew into miraculous remission in just 8 weeks.
Years before, Mark had been one of my first clients. Initially, I was intimidated. How could I assist this scion of J-R? Yet, he was humble — an improbable mix of ancient wisdom and childlike awe, like we see in illumined beings. He signed emails, ‘Love, Awe’. We worked for years.
He was a superb teacher, stepping down thousands of years of Chinese medicine so we could understand it, but he was even more the consummate student. He studied and wrote esoteric lore for hours a day, right until the end.
Before many classes I facilitated, we would ‘get an angel in’ (contact a high being) that I would then share with the class to their delight. Now, he will perhaps be one of the higher beings we bring in.
When I heard Mark died, grief was a fist doubling me over, yet when I connected to him in Spirit, I became beatifically joyous. I ‘heard’ from his soul that bodies are containers of Spirit and when we release them, we go into the ‘Halls of Rest’ to get used to such ecstatic freedom.
He encouraged us to cherish each unlabored (in the end, he could not breathe) breath for when we pass, we will see how much we grew by being here and how much it matters there.
With his trademark discipline, he instructed me to connect to his soul, not the personality I missed. That I would find him by his signature of love.
Alisha Das
Bless you in God’s Heart, Mark. We love you.
You can read more about Mark Holmes on his website drmarkholmes.com and download a free copy of Mark’s book Across the Golden Bridge.
Just a perfect assembly of stories and loving for Mark. Thank you. Inspiring me to write my own loving time with Mark. Definitely struck a chord in my heart to recognize that Mark really did see the God in each person. I’m in awe. I’m in gratitude to have been acquainted and to love and be loved by Mark. Thank you, John-Roger. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Mark.
I am most grateful to Mark Holmes and all the classes he facilitated during the years in IHOP. He bestowed on the class so much wisdom regarding healing ourselves. He was always kind and gentle with me. I am most grateful to have known him
Dear Mark Holmes, Your Soul, I was Introduced to you by Paul Kaye when you came to a number of IHOPS.
Of course, since we were never in-person together, I never knew you personally. So I don’t have anything to share like many other posts I read. I didn’t have that with you.
But BUT, in reading everybody else’s experiences I have, literally, been touched by you through their experiences.
Mark, May you know that you are living on because here I am and I have become close to you (for example, your fun – like when you and your friend get under the table in your secret place in a restaurant). Your love and your care for people and their well-being is still making its rounds (and it will continue making its rounds). In that way you are not gone and you will never be forgotten Gratefully, Paul Michael
I believe I first saw Mark at the Light Castle where many of us gathered listening to the pearls of wisdom pouring through our beloved J-R as we sat on the floor where we could find a space among a hundred people. It was wonderful. Those were my kindergarten days being in awe of that radiant and all-encompassing energy we all walk with, and that Mark embodied.
My very first real conscious and physical level of being around Mark was my very first Insight I in June of 1978.
Sitting next to him I experienced a calm, quiet, and more a peaceful silence of observing what was taking place. The next conscious awareness was working at the Baraka Center amongst many of our beloveds. From then on, I saw him more often at many sacred meetings or initiation. I have come to know the value of those sacred, silent, quiet moments with myself. Mark was truly an example of walking peace and the inner listening.
God Bless you beloved on your Soul Journey, loving you from the heart.
Ania Bella Sara
Mark was a wonderful friend. We spent hours laughing, to the point of tears and belly aches ( at least for me ) especially as he was regaling me with his stories of sailing in the earlier years of his life. Sailing the High Heavens now, my friend with the JR and the Heavenly Host. Ever love.
Reading the tributes for Mark Holmes was a familiar experience for me. After the shock of hearing of Mark’s death, I reflected on how much he meant to me. I wanted to be with fellow travelers who knew and loved Mark, to have what amounts to a “wake” to share this lovely man. I want to be at a memorial for him–if there is to be one–in order to honor him. Reading these tributes filled that empty place I had with him. I remember Mark being at those early J.R. seminars with his white German Shepherd. He cut quite a figure.
Keith (my husband), myself and Mark had the privilege of being present in India with J.R. in 1972, and at the founding of Baraka, the Holistic Center in Santa Monica where we worked with Mark for about 7 or 8 years. Keith was a Chiropractor, I worked in the administrative area, and all three of us had leadership roles. Two funny things happened during that era that amuse me still. One, I was Mark’s patient in the early times. Previously, I had known Mark as being a masseur using acupressure points, not knowing at that time that he had added acupuncture to his repertoire. I made an appointment with Mark and as I lay on the table and he started working on me, I thought, “Oh my God, I think he’s applying needles”! What a surprise! What a shock! How funny!
Another time I was working in the insurance department at Baraka and filled out forms for Mark’s patients. In one very tiny, tiny space we were to fill in the diagnosis in a few words. At the beginning we had diagnoses from Mark that spoke almost in Chinese mentioning “winds of spring, qi vital life energy, fluctuating tides, fire, metal, wood, etc.”. Often these diagnoses were 50 words or more without an identifying insurance code for billing. It made for humorous exchanges while we tried to work that one out!
With Mark’s passing, I am reminded of the memorial we had for my husband, Keith Moore, 4 ½ years ago. It was joyous when patients, friends and acquaintances shared special memories of Keith there and on Facebook. Keith was being acknowledged as the Beautiful Soul he was with his art of healing, compassion, humor, storytelling, warmth and commitment. Keith Moore and Mark Holmes were beautiful men to be honored and remembered. God bless you, Mark. If you run into Keith, please tell him hi! and that I love him.
Mark’s tremendous loving presence is everlasting. From the moment we met in 1978, attending his meditation workshops at the original Baraka in Santa Monica. Even as a young man he walked with the ancientness of a soul for all ages. He had this impish joy and expansive love which encircled all whom he served, had the privilege to know his beautiful heart.
I just found out yesterday that Mark had transitioned and I reacted with both sadness at his passing and Joy to know that he has been reunited with Beloved God and those whom he loved who had passed before him.
I was a patient of his for many years, traveling to the various offices and homes out of which he would be working when he was stateside. One day many years ago when I was seeing him at an office in Malibu, Mark had his white coat on and his back was turned to me as he fiddled with his acupuncture needles. He asked me, “How come every time you come see me you are exhausted but you don’t know that you are?”
I replied, “That’s because I’m out of body most of the time”.
He immediately swung around, gazed at me with his piercing blue eyes, firmly and evenly stated, “Just stay here long enough to complete your karma” and turned back to his needles.
———————-
Mark, I know you stayed here long enough to complete your karma. I believe you were the hawk who made his presence known on my evening walk tonight. And then when it became clear to you that I had recognized you, being ever so private, it was time for you to fly off.
You are treasured, loved and missed by me among scores of others whose lives you touched on this particular turn on the planet.
The other side of the veil is lucky to have you for however long it is meant to be.
With Deep Affection and Joy, both of which you were always exuding.
My dear Mark, I too thought you would have lived forever. Thank you for your support, your love and your kindness as my teacher. You are my incredible forever cheerleader.
You are truly missed and I am so grateful that you are flying with the angels in the heart of God.
I wrote to Mark a few months ago and never received a response. I thought, “I wonder if he transitioned?” I recently referred him to someone and was informed by that person that Mark was no longer with us. I was 32 when I met Mark. I went to see him because I was beyond exhausted. The moment I walked through the door, he looked at me and said, “You are too old to have acne, you have an infection somewhere.” I had struggled with acne since adolescence and thought it would always be with me. Mark found the infection during that first appointment, and the acne was cured within 10 days of treatment, as was the infection-related exhaustion. He was a kind and sweet man, with incredible diagnostic skills, who improved the life of everyone he met. Thank you, Mark.