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History of the Center

We have been most fortunate in having the experience of many diverse and great teachers. After completing graduate school we were able to pursue our deeply held interest in contemporary phenomenology at the University of Louvain Belgium. Here the works of Edmund Husserl, Merleau Ponty, Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur, Jacques Lacan, Gabriel Marcel and others were opened to us in depth and detail. After leaving Belgium we again returned to the States and were introduced to a phenomenological form of psychoanalytic thinking consisting mainly of Donald Winnicott and Paul Ferdern. The psychologist Austin Deslaurier was the most influential during this period. The importance of transitional space and the intermediate area of experiencing as foundational for the experience of a basic sense of self became apparent to us.

In 1974 we then began to study with Erv and Miriam Polster at The Gestalt Training Center of San Diego. Under their teaching and modeling we began utilizing the intensity of the awareness field in psychotherapy. After completing our studies with these wonderful teachers, we began The Gestalt Psychotherapy Center of Washington D.C. and began teaching postgraduate seminars to the professional therapist. The Gestalt Psychotherapy Center continues to offer postgraduate studies and seminars for continuing education for the professional psychotherapist interested in phenomenological approaches to psychotherapy.

In 1974 we also met the remarkable Shavite Hindu teacher Swami Muktananda. He was a master of the field of awareness and the subtle energy of the awareness state. Through him we experientially learned a great deal about the nature of awareness and the energetic dimension the he call shakti. He also urged us to read about a 12^th century yogi named Basava who formed a spiritual center named the Meeting of the Rivers wherein people from different spiritual traditions and caste would meet and study and honor divinity as consciousness itself. It is under Basava’s inspiration over these many years that the Washington Center for Consciousness Studies has emerged.

After Muktananda’s death we had the good fortune of studying with his successor Swami Chidvilasananda. Through Swami Chidvilasananda’s skill and kindness we came to understand the relational power of the field in groups. The nature of the field is intensified and amplified by group practice. As one enters the field, one learns directly and experiences more efficiently the qualities of the primordial field of awareness. Rupert Sheldrake’s work clearly describes the nature of morphogenic fields and the learning of skills and gains in awareness states through group practice.

Throughout the 70’s until the present, we have studied clinical hypnosis which has deepened our understanding of difference between disassociative states of mind and creative, absorbed states of experiencing. This knowledge has been most useful in discriminating between disassociative states of meditation and those methods that create and support the embodiment of consciousness. Ernest Rossi’s work has been most influential in this regard as well as our membership in The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

In the 80’s we continued our study of subtle energy states but began to focus on the western energetic traditions. We were specifically fortunate to meet Mietek and Margaret Wirkus in 1985. Mietek is a leading expert in Bio-energy field work. More research has been focused on healing states through him than any other person in the United States. We studied intensively with the Wirkuses and we began to understand different western ways of invoking the energetic dimension of the field of awareness for healing purposes. We have been most fortunate to continue to study and be inspired by Mietek and Margaret Wirkus throughout these many years.

Because of interest in the subtle energy dimension of the field of awareness we began to pursue the study of Chinese Qigong in the 1990’s. We have had the good fortune of meeting and working with a number of great Qi Gong masters. We initially studied Qi Gong with Dr. Dean Deng, a Chinese physician and healer who currently lives in Chicago. Dr. Deng graciously taught us about the transmission of qigong states. We have also studied continuously with Mr. Shuren Ma who is a gifted master of the Empty Force Qigong tradition. Mr. Ma comes from a family of qigong masters. Every Wednesday morning Mr. Ma has a seminar in the center. Dr. Yi Ping Hu is a Chinese physician and master acupuncturist in the Washington DC area who has also introduced us to the powerful Zong Qi Gong tradition.

In 1998 we had the great fortune of a visit to our center by one of China’s foremost Qi Gong Masters, Dr. Yan Xin. Over the past several years we have been able to attend his Qi emitting lectures both in the United States and in China. The Center has co-sponsored three lectures for Dr. Yan Xin. He is a most remarkable healer who completely exemplifies the Qi Gong philosophy that Virtue is the source of Qi.

In the 1990's we began to enter to the praxis of Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhism because of the centrality of the base of the awareness field in this most ancient system. We have been most fortunate to study with many great Dzogchen masters both from the Nyingmapa tradition and the Bon Tradition. Lama Thupten Kalsang so kindly introduced us to Dzogchen meditation and lead three meditation retreats at the Center. We were able to participate in the visit by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche when he gave the Complete Cycle of Namcho Revelations of Terton Migyur Dorge. We studied and have been able to attend the many wonderful retreats with Namkai Norbu Rinpoche who is so generous in presenting the Dzogchen teachings and many numerous empowerments. He introduced us to the trekcho practice. The great master Lama Wangdor Rinpoche has come to the Center on four occasions and presented Dzogchen teachings and pointing out instructions of Garab Dorje as well as Green Tara practice and empowerments. Lama Wangdor has taught us most wonderfully the Trekcho Practice both directly and completely.

We received pointing out instructions in the Bon tradition through Lopon Tenzin Namdak. We were able to study in retreats with Lama Tenzin Wangyal for a number of years. He introduced us to both the Akrid and Zang Zung traditions of the Bon. His Holiness the head of the Bon tradition Lama Lungtok Tenpa Nyima presented a three day Dzogchen retreat at the Center. Lama Chongtrul Rinpoche also visited the Center and presented Dzogchen Ruschen practices from the Bon tradition.

We have had a long interest in the Dzogchen Lineage as articulated by the great Tibetan mystic His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche. We have been able to study with his lineage students Kunsang Dechen Lingpa, Khenchen Serob and Khenpo Isewang Dongyal. Kenchen Palden Serob and Khenpo Isewang Dongyal taught the sadhana of Orgyen Menla and the Extracting the Quintessence of Accomplishment. From the wonderful and great terton Lama Kunsang Dechen Lingpa we have received many empowerments including the entire Nyingtig Yabshi and the Lama Yangtig. Through him we received the Dakini empowerments of Yeshe Tsogyal, Kurukulle, Troma Nagmo as well as the White Tara. He introduced us to and gave empowerments for both Togel and Chod practice. The Center has helped support the translation of the Yeshe Tsogyal text. In September 2005 Kunsang Dechen Lingpa visited the Center and gave pointing out instructions and teaching on Dzogchen Meditation.

Through Lama Younge Khachab Rinpoche in retreats we have received the empowerment of Khandro Nyingtig as well as the Vima Nyingtik. Lama Younge Rinpoche has also given the great Dakini Empowerments and practice of Dorje Yudronma , the Lady of the Vajra Turquoise Lamp as well the Healing Dakini Parnashavari. He has also given us the empowerment and practice of the Eight Vidyadharas a practice that condenses eight main Heruka practices of the Mahayoga tradition of the Nyingma lineage. The Center is supporting a translation of the Vimalmitra Text. Lama Younge Khachab's dynamic teachings have brought us more deeply into Dzogchen understanding and practice. In August 2006 we participated in the visit of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in which he gave the following empowerment: The Life Essence of Immortality: The Quintessence of Deathlessness as well as Guru Rinpoche and Amitabha-Buddha of Limitless Light. In September of 2006 the Dzogchen master and Lineage head of Kunsang Dechen's lineage Dungse Rigdzin Dorge gave a three day retreat at the Center. He gave the empowerments of the Kurukulle and Troma Nagmo as well as the Dzogchen teachings of Kunsang Dechen Lingpa. In September 2007 Rigdzin Dorge returned to WCCS and presented the Dzogchen Dakini teachings and the Empowerment and Practice of Yeshe Tsogyal. He also presented the Healing Chod Practice as well taught a fantastic five day course on the Flight of the Garuda by Lama Shabkar.

In November 2006 and May of 2007 the great Lama Norhla came and taught us the Mahamudra practice. On November we also received the Mahakala Empowerment and Sadhana. We are so grateful to know him and the personal support he gives to us and the Center. In November 2007 we were able to receive the Dudjom Tersar Wangchen, the complete empowerments of Dudjom Rinpoche from the Lama's Khenpo Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Dongyal Rinpoche.

The Dzogchen teachings and classical text so completely clarify the nature of the field of consciousness in useable language. To read these great texts is to experience the field itself. Mysteriously the texts invoke the experience of the naturalistic field.

We have also been initiated in to the Sufi tradition by a Sufi master from Bangladesh. His name is a secret but he was extremely kind to us and conveyed the Sufi understanding that the field is the Beloved and is the source of devotion. This understanding has become our own.

We have also had the good fortune of meeting with Ammachi, the great Hindu yogi. Her devotion to the Divine Mother opens for us the experiential understanding of the archetypical dimension of the field of consciousness as maternal. She is a person who not only embodies the field of consciousness but carries within her the archetypal quality of the maternal dimension. We feel her embrace even as we write.

In the Spring of 2002 the great Brazilian healer Juan de Deus visited our center for a great and unique two day retreat. We had previously visited his healing Center in Abadiania and he came to Washington to introduce the Christian Healing Tradition of Brazil.

Another recent influence is the work of Eric Pearl and Reconnection Healing Tradition. We have found that the transmission that takes place through his work is most useful in invoking the light dimension of the awareness field. The luminous dimension of awareness is the most subtle and therefore the most powerful dimension of the awareness field. Reconnective healing directly accesses the dimension of light and greatly accelerates the healing experience of the field of awareness. In March 2004 and April of 2005 Eric Pearl made presentations at the Center and also the Center sponsored Reconnection Training for a large number of participants on each of the two years.

Throughout these many years a person who has been a guide and mentor is the great Vedic Astrologer and cosmologist Chakrapani Ullal. Chakrapani himself was a student of the great Indian saint Bhagawan Nityananda and a close friend to Swami Muktananda. Throughout these many years Chakrapani has lectured at the Center about the nature of human consciousness and its intimate relationship to energetic cosmology. Through his influence we have come to understand that the human mind and personality reflects fields within fields of both generational influence and energetic cosmology. The entire human being and consciousness are a relational product of energies converging out of which human subjectivity and freedom can be gained.

Besides having the blessing of great teachers and mentors, we have been blessed by great colleagues and students. Through the phenomenological method of the articulation of subtle experience of the field within the field, everyone’s understanding of the exquisite nature of their own awareness has grown over many years. Throughout the years in both the meditation seminars and in the psychotherapy training programs, we have met great people who have easy access to the immediate intrinsic field of their own awareness. They come from many traditions and have their own teachers and paths. Here at The Washington Center we meet together and hold the field, enter the field and have learned to work within the field of consciousness itself. These students and colleagues, practicing within their own traditions, (these traditions themselves are fields of knowledge and information) come into the center creating a morphogenic field of upliftment and light. Because there is a group of well trained people, we can offer ongoing live meditation programs via the internet in which the qualities of the field can be experienced directly and immediately in one’s own home. As Erv Polster, one of our earliest teachers, would so often say, “two awarenesses are better than one.”

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