Retreat Vibes

France & Spain 2025

Photos by Ronja Polzin

About

The retreats are for teachers, leaders, and artists who are exploring how to embody a new way of being and bring a paradigm shift into the world. It’s an opportunity to be in the depths of experience together, to play with modalities — meditation, awakening, shadow work, creativity, mysticism, relational practices, wholeheartedness, and expression — and to explore collaborations where new things can emerge.

These retreats are currently being run by invite only for a network of peers and friends rather than for the public. They are not for profit and run with the primary purpose of supporting people’s growth. You can find out more about how they are funded here.

Here are some things that people have said about the retreats.

“These last few years, I’ve been working with a lot of the sense of how can I be in the world, but not of the world, like straddling the deep, non-dual space while actively engaging in the unfoldment and bringing my creative energy to what wants to emerge through me”

“It feels like it showed me a deeper cut of what a more enlightened society would look like, where there is a significantly higher baseline threshold of personal development, of accountability, of honesty, of integrity, of sincerity, of realness, of wholeness.”

“I felt really invited to share my gifts and my voice here and a sense of freedom to do that with a relaxed nervous system, in a really beautiful way.”

“The energetic sense of what has happened for me in this container is landing deeply in my belly and my heart, without armour. And, I think I see that as a theme for others as well — people coming into themselves in a way that is both soft and strong. And that happening on this very deep, subtle layer”

“I’m really with how much heart is in this group and the possibilities when heart meets mastery. Walking the path with heart and building all this capacity, and then what that enables. Because you could also do a lot of practice and stay very much in the head, be disconnected and lack that purity of intent. There’s something really beautiful about everyone here just walking this path with so much heart and coming together. The world needs more of this.”

“When I reflect on the retreat, I get the image of putting tendrils into the earth, like a network of roots, and feeling grounded by that, nourished by it, in some intangible way. There’s a sense of having received community connection, energetic mirroring, seeing and being seen. There’s something very primal as well. It feels rich, grounding, and enlivening.”

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Content created about the retreat experience:

Seeing & Being Seen Portraits

from a practice on retreat

Music & Awakening

Nathan Vanderpool, Rosa Lewis and Ronja Polzin are experimenting with creating music for awakening and have explored this on the retreats.

Nathan and Rosa recorded a dharma soundscape for connecting to deeper cosmic flows through the body, and Ronja created music videos for Pappelbaum and Domino while on retreat.

“Through the practice it’s become apparent that the imaginal is the space that exists before creativity, and I’m tapping into this whenever I’m creating something”

“Being connected to the imaginal, you can experience insights through another person’s body”

“The imaginal feels like the portal to the mystical, and places where human consciousness can’t reach”

“In different practices we attuned to the flow of experience from different places, like the personal or the transpersonal. This had the power to change the quality of experience, and what was possible to emerge in the relational space”

“I’ve realised that story and meaning can be engaged with as a way of giving form to all the richness and intelligence that is here in the present moment as opposed to something that takes you out of the present moment”

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“I started to understand that there are so many different ways of experiencing the universe—ways that feel more truthful, immediate, loving, and caring. That realization shook me in a good way.”

“Even though I’ve done a lot of retreats and meditation before, this one really opened me up to magic and an enchanted world. I had, in a way, forgotten a bit about waking up. And this reminded me that there are ways to live more truthfully and be more connected to the world.”

“In the end, it’s mostly beyond words—a feeling like the night sky, or a swelling energy that could burst into creativity and strength. Something continuously moving, merging, flowing. Finding my way and expression of it.”

“I feel a lot of respect and gratitude for everyone here. A lot of the ways that you show up and embody things that I wanted to be possible, or knew were possible. But it’s just so good to see it.”

“I woke up this morning with a feeling of having completed my intention of opening up to new realities. This also resonates with my theme of showing up as I am. I feel grateful and excited. Every session, I felt like I was stepping into the portal of someone else and seeing something. Appreciating something. Taking something with me.”

“All of us are in integrity, really trying to understand what’s real, really trying to make sense of experience, really trying to let go of our bullshit, see our shadows, integrate, and become more whole.”

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