This week at Prana we finally replaced our decades-old threadbare spiral staircase carpet. We are looking forward to you seeing this “facelift” when you next visit the home of the Traveler.  Speaking of which, this year’s Easter workshop, “The Sound Current of God,” is taking place at Prana on April 4-5.  The tuition includes delicious lunches both days if you are participating in person.   You can register here.

Jeffrey, Sherie and David have been busily engaged in launching a beta version of a new website, whoami.love. The website is designed to support spiritual seekers before they decide to subscribe to Soul Awareness Discourses. “Who am I?” is one of the first questions people ask when their inner life begins to wake up. It is also a question that keeps unfolding over time, as we continue to discover who we are in Spirit.

At its core, whoami.love is a bridge. It offers a safe, loving, and supportive environment with no agenda, so people can “check out” the essence of the Teachings. Many seekers today are hungry for something real. They are surrounded by a flood of information, advice, and noise, yet still feel spiritually undernourished. Our aim is simple: to make something genuine available in a form people can receive, and to do so with warmth, clarity, and respect their truth and approach to their individual spiritual path.

The site has inspiring videos and written pieces drawn from MSIA materials, presented in a universal voice that newcomers can understand without needing prior context. We are also creating practical guides for personal exploration, so people can try techniques and start to have experiences that reflect the heart of what we do at MSIA. The intention is not to persuade or market MSIA. The intention is to support people on their own individual spiritual journey, which may or may not include MSIA.

Alongside the website, we have begun hosting in-person events that are relatable to today’s audiences while still offering a direct experience of the essence of the Teachings. These events are inclusive in tone and welcoming in design, while also being clear about who we are and the unique way we make the Teachings available in MSIA. We are starting locally in Los Angeles, with a crawl-walk-run approach, learning carefully and building something sustainable.

Our first whoami.love event took place on January 17 at the Prana West Classroom, which we are calling the Prana Light Center for these newcomer gatherings. We began with a meditation adapted from the The Never-ending Journey of Your Soul meditation originally presented at the Conference of the Sound Current of God. Rachel Hardway performed live sound during the meditation, emulating the sounds used on the original meditation creating a truly immersive and powerful experience.

After the meditation, Leilainia Marcus, a member of our community from El Paso, led a somatic movement experience. What stood out was how naturally she integrated keys from the teachings into the body, including a breathing practice where participants exhaled while expressing the HU sound and focusing their attention on the third eye center. It was simple, embodied, and effective, and it gave newcomers a way to participate without needing to know our language or our forms in advance.

We also shared a new four-booklet introductory set that as another strong entry point for spiritual seekers. The booklets are excerpted from Timeless Wisdoms by John-Roger, and they are organized around universal questions: Who am I? Why am I here? How can I know God? How can I live a spiritual life? The set also introduces John-Roger and includes links for further exploration. 

The group who attended on January 17 consisted almost entirely of people who had not previously heard much about MSIA. Like most free events, the RSVP list was larger than actual attendance, but those who came had a meaningful experience. Several asked when the next event would be. One participant expressed a desire to learn how to be a spiritual coach and asked for information about PTS and the MSS program. Those are early signs, but they are encouraging signs. They suggest the bridge is functioning.

This work is also being strengthened through collaboration. Paul Kaye has been championing new-people-focused events for a long time, and collaborating with him has been a privilege. He is now planning to distribute the new booklets at the events he facilitates at Prana. We also want to acknowledge Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens as a powerful and established entry point for newcomers. To be clear, whoami.love is not replacing anything. It is adding another bridge, another pathway of welcome, that can complement what has already been serving effectively for years.

We are approaching this with a consciousness of long-term stewardship. We talk often about crawl, walk, run because we are building something meant to last. The Presidency Collective Intelligence (PCI) – Sherie, David, Vincent, Paul, Mark, and Jeffrey – has also spoken about thinking in larger time horizons, and that changes decision-making. We use the term “thinking dynastically.”  When an organization acts as if it is here for the next thousand years, the way we think and makes decisions is just different. We are being thoughtful and we are learning quickly.

In the early stage of this initiative, we clarified a simple guiding principle: serve the need that is here today. Many successful initiatives in our history emerged because they met a real need in the world at that moment. We are seeing that same need now. There is tremendous spiritual thirst. Our responsibility is not to argue with it or chase it. Our responsibility is to make the precious treasures we have in the Teachings available, in a form people can receive, and to do it with love.

Right now, our focus is Los Angeles. As we learn what works, our intention is to expand and develop models that can travel. We are a global community, and many of the communities that are growing most strongly today are outside the United States. We want to honor that reality with careful growth rooted in real learning.

We will keep you updated as this develops. The early signs are promising. The deeper intention remains the same – to make the Teachings available to those who are looking for them, and to do so in a way that is welcoming, clear, and authentic. If you’d like to know more information or volunteer behind the scenes with what we are doing, please email Rachael Hardway at connect@whoami.love

In other news, Steve Beimel has retired from Esprit Travel & Tours, but is still very active in Japan where he lives with his wife Ritsuko. Steve has been conducting MSIA seminars in Japan for years and actively supports a small, dedicated group of Japanese ministers and initiates.

Steve founded JapanCraft21 eight years ago with the mission to “revitalize traditional Japanese master crafts (dentou kougei) by identifying the issues artisans face and implementing solutions for the 21st Century.”  You can find JapanCraft21 on Instagram.   

Steve would really appreciate sending Light to JapanCraft21.  You can support the initiative by following it on Instagram. If you would like to watch his monthly online webinars on Japanese culture, you can sign-up at info@japancraft21.com. There is no charge.

We think you will enjoy watching this Japan Broadcasting Corporation mini documentary,  Foreign Residents: Infusing New Life into Tradition which prominently features Steve and his work. 

Thank you to all of you for all that you give in so many ways. As J-R would constantly remind us, “It is the loving that makes all this work.” The times are calling us all to stay in the loving! 

God bless you,

Sherie, David, Vincent, Paul, Mark, and Jeffrey