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John of God Journey
John of God
John of God Journey
About the Casa
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About the Journey
I am certain that coming to Abadiânia and surrendering to the work at the Casa de Dom Inácio is an opportunity that no one on the planet today should miss. I recommend this experience for anyone who wants (and is physically and mentally) able to attend the sessions with João de Deus at the Casa de Dom Inácio because the lessons about life, love, tolerance, health, surrender and gratitude there are so many and so richly presented.

If you are not used to traveling in Brazil, are not used to staying in small rural accommodations, don't speak Portuguese, have difficulties in expanding on your experience and beliefs and have trouble keeping focused, you might consider hiring my services for your journey.

While at the Casa de Dom Inacio with John of God you must take this time and focus on the journey; focus on the reasons you came. Attending the Spiritual Healing sessions at the Casa de Dom Inácio as often as possible and surrendering to the instructions of the Entities is tantamount to the success of your journey. That is all there is to do, really. That is all you need to do.

Healing and change start at the moment you decide to make this journey to visit John of God; the moment you reach out to a new reality for answers and help. This decision to isolate yourself in the middle of all that is foreign to the comforts you so cherish, is a courageous and expanding act.

People often come to Abadiânia for health reasons only after having tried everything else. Some come out of desperation. But, there are many who come to help; who come to sit for hours and hours channeling energy for the Entities to use to help their fellow journeyers. By giving, of course, they too receive.

There are many reasons to make this journey.

If you have never lived in a community based on the belief that love is really all there is (that love is the answer), the Casa of Dom Inácio is a place you can plug into at any time in your life for as many times as you want for as long as you like; just like home - maybe the home you've always longed for. This is a home of love, compassion and gratitude; the elements of all true healing.

What happens, if you let it, is that you become a part of a family of courageous loving people from all over the world continually coming together to heal, to learn, to change, to love and to give thanks. The flux of returning souls among the new is amazing. I have never come to Abadiânia without running into dozens of faces I know from around the globe who I met on some previous visit.

The people who live in Abadiânia and work or the locals who regularly attend the sessions with the medium John of God (João de Deus) at the Casa are many. And, although they cannot remember everyone all the time, it is amazing how many of them do remember and greet those who return as family.

Crystal Chromo Therapy Baths
There are many activities the Entities encourage while you are on the journey. They recommend taking numerous crystal chromo therapy baths (as many as you wish). There is a bookstore at the casa where everyone can go to reserve time alone in one of the crystal bath rooms for twenty-minute periods at R$20.00 (about US$7.00). Ricardo, the attendant, places you gently onto a cot, dims the lights and plays soft music to help you relax. Then, before leaving you there, he switches on the sequencing colored lights which pierce through pure quartz crystals onto your body.

Of course, people have different beliefs about and reactions to these crystal baths, but I think the least you can expect is a deep healing relaxation. I suggest getting two back-to-back sessions for the perfect amount of heavenly recharging.

The Casa Waterfall
There's a waterfall on the Casa property which is protected by rules and regulations and permissions and importance. The entrance is through the Casa itself. One must ask permission to go from the Entity. Or, one must be asked by someone who has been given the task of taking people along. There is no charge.

You must never go alone. There are practical reasons for this. The path is irregular and steep. People who go alone could fall off the path and down into the woods and get hurt and no one would know. There are also poisonous snakes in the area making this kind of caution imperative.

Taxis
The waterfall is far from the Casa, but a wonderful walk if the sun is not too hot. There are, however, taxis to take you down and back for R$5.00. The drivers wait until you are finished and bring you back up. Tipping is not encouraged as foreign participation at the Casa has already inflated the price of the journey so much that access is becoming sometimes impossible for the poor for whom the Casa was established.

Men go with Men and Women with Women
The reason for this is that some people in the past have become confused about what is appropriate behavior in this holy place. This is no ordinary waterfall (none really ever are).

Since most of us come from areas without access (other than sensual television commercials) to these wonderfully exotic expressions of God's purest love, it is understandable that this first-time encounter with this holy place can be a rather traumatic experience leading one to fall back on stored information (like technicolor visions of rolling on the rocks with the one you love). But not at the Casa Waterfall. This waterfall is held and preserved as a sacred place for intimate, direct communication with Spirit.

One prays for permission before entering while others wait their turns in silence near-by.

A five minute limit is suggested for practical reasons and because of the extremely powerful energy this experience induces.

The chill of the water will make you gasp and open your heart. Love is all around you and so much unnecessary baggage is washed away instantly. There is only the moment.

Each person has his or her own experience in this holy place. A prayer of gratitude is appropriate upon leaving.

Important: If silence is important at the Casa, here it is extremely important. Always enter the area of the Casa Waterfall silently with extreme caution not to disturb the energies present there. If you are waiting your turn, honor the moment of your sister or brother who is experiencing this private conversation with his or her very own soul. Feel the peace that comes from giving this present of silence to those who journey with you.

This is not a "it's so hot today, let's go have a jump in the water" experience. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to communicate with Spirit in a place where the dedication and love of those who have come before you have made this truly a holy place.

Side Journeys
Although side Journeys in the middle of ones stay in Abadiânia or after are not encouraged, I have found it beneficial to take those on this journey on a "detoxifying" Journey before arriving in Abadiânia for the first time to some nearby natural setting where intimate contact with nature, Brazil, the Brazilian people and oneself is encouraged by the purposefully planned lack of activity and the equally purposefully planned time for quiet reflection in a typical Brazilian setting. However, this add-on is entirely optional, must be requested and is not included in the standard Journey.

Profit
Part of the profit I make on these Journeys is donated to the Casa and used either to support the Casa's soup kitchen or to assist people who could not otherwise afford to come to the sessions with John of God.

Know your guide before you go!

This Website is organized, written and maintained by Gary Walker, a spiritual journeys guide who prepares the journeys described herein. He has included some of his personal philosophy about life, healing and the benefits of spiritual pilgrimages for the future of mankind.

When you have time, read some of the content in this Website to get a better feel for who he is. If what you read resonates somewhere in your heart, then sign up for a spiritual retreat with Gary as your guide by clicking on one of the following Journey dates and asking for more information.

2005
John of God Journey Dates

Click on a date below for more information.

January 15 - January 28, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

February 5 - February 18, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

April 23 - May 6, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

June 4 - June 17, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (Open)

June 18 - July 04, 2006
Healing in Abadinia and Foz do Iguaçu (open)
US$2000

July 16 - July 29, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

August 20 - September 2, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

September 10 - September 23
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

October 1 - October 14, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

November 5 - November 18, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

December 3 - December 16, 2006
Healing in Abadiania (open)
US$1,400

Journeying with a friend makes all the difference in the world.

Be a Burning Bush
Gary Walker
Spiritual Healing Journeys
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Be a Burning Bush
by Gary Walker

Be a Burning Bush
Gary Walker
Spiritual Healing Journeys
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There is a accelerated evolutionary process occurring everywhere on the planet right now, which is resulting in a vast insistent spiritual awakening. A number of factors (including global atmospheric changes and a rampant increase in the number of social and environmental crises) are stimulating an increased concern for the well being of self and the environment. This awakening of inner spiritual consciousness and the simultaneous concern for planetary health is rapidly gaining momentum as a transforming force.

Instinctively all of us sense that living with courage, truth and beauty makes us feel fulfilled and happy. When we perceive that life is a school for honing our awareness and the expression of the joy that comes from that process, a desire to celebrate that joy we experience in growing begins to burn within. When we become at peace with frustrated expectation, we begin to experience the joy of sorrow and the richness of frustration and to discover the secret of human existence. It is at this point a desire to participate ever more fully in the dance of life leads us to search for a way of furthering this process. We start to shine; to emit a glow which mingles with the energy of all those around us. Everything in our environment begins to change.

We all shine who we are and our shining is reflected all around us. Our knowledge and understanding radiate and unconsciously spread to our families, friends, acquaintances and casual observers as a bi-product of our own condition.

In an age when the world seems lost in material concerns, sucked in to consumer conformity philosophies, it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish who we really are. This is wonderful because it is making us uncomfortable and ill.

As the planet's population reaches more increased levels of global discomfort, people who feel overwhelmingly disatisfied will start searching out new truth, positive direction and environmental solutions, thereby, illuminating the path to personal and planetary health.

Contact with rural populations, the poor, sparcely populated natural preserves, primitive ritual and sacred sites is indispensable healing activity for those who suffer from isolation, depression and illnesses. Spiritual journeys or retreats to proven high-energy locations or locations where intense spiritual-based activities are fervenrtly being practiced are extremely beneficial.

When you focus on your connection with Nature, spiritual goals and the Universe, your life fills with discovery and the flow of the life force in you body is strengthened. When the Universe outside yourself melds more and more with the Universe inside you, it transforms everything you were into something you love to love, you burn new transforming energy and powerful transforming light begins to emanate from your being.

This change in energy is perceived by the Universe as a change of vibration. No matter how subtle your change in vibration, the Universe begins to respond and your world changes. In the Universe, likes attract. The more light and love you vibrate, the more light and love you attract. This is the basic law of what Eastern religions and philosophers call Karma.

The greatest part of our personal power is accessed on this vibrational level. Everything we experience and feel in our personal consciousness is reflected and activated on these vibrational levels which surround our physical bodies. Our energy connection to the Universe on this vibrational level is direct and importantly connected to the root cause of all health concerns. We must re-encounter our memory of all this in order to tap back into and begin working with this knowledge towards personal and planetary transformation.

By re-integrating with Nature on spiritual retreats, purposefully designing our lives to be filled with research and adventure, visiting sacred places and experimenting sacred dances and excercises in order to discover their relevance in our lives today, we enter deeply into our being and begin to vibrate and liberate more of the same sacred light of the Universe of which we are a part. This glowing, this shining, this burning of the sacred light of love will light our way and the way of those around us who are still unaware.

Be all you can be. Shine as bright as you can. And, burn, burn, burn. You will love yourself more and better. The world will love you more and better. And, the Universe will heal. You have absolutely everything to gain.

Be a Burning Bush.

About Gary Walker
Research and Copy by WebFantastics

Be a Burning Bush
Gary Walker
Spiritual Healing Journeys
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Years ago Gary was told he would die within six months. It was the luckiest thing that ever happened to him. "I thank God everyday for the Harvard, Magna Cum Laude graduate MD that told me that. Because, all at once. I just started doing what made me the happiest." At that time, that meant traveling.

Gary quickly marched off to Guatemala with US$400 in his pocket and settled at Lago Atitlan where he had been told that one could live for a year on US$1000. Those were the days.

He soon discovered there were twelve villages around the lake and instinctively decided to live as far away from foreigners like himself as possible in order to avoid inflated prices and familiar thought patterns. After borrowing a canoe and rowing 5 days visiting the twelve villages around the lake, he set up house in a village called Santiago Atitlan where his new landlord, a native Guatemalan of Mayan decent, would charge him only $5 a month for rent (and then only for the first two months, as it turned out).

Gary already knew he wasn't going to die. ("At these rates I wouldn't have time to spend my US$400 before kicking off!") To make this long story short, Gary is still here on the planet and feeling great 30 years later.

"My luck was I saw the signs (having been clobbered on the head) and I changed." At least that's how he has looked at his healing all these years since. Gary's basic philosophy about healing has this experience at its core. When one gets ill, one needs to change something. Later, he learned the complement to this thought, which is: if one wants to change, one has to change.

"That's right, folks, you can't just know you have to change and wish you could. You really have to change."

We could tell you more about Gary's path and thoughts about health right now, but he prefers to trade stories 'round a campfire when you join him on one of his pilgrimage-like Spiritual Retreats looking for change. But, first you have to be reading the signs in your life, wanting to heal, wanting to change, searching for a place to go and needing a guide. That's Gary.

You have to make the journey. That's part of changing, part of healing. Gary feels his job is to facilitate the journey that will help you understand and face the changes you need to make in order to heal yourself and stay on this planet [till you're comfortable about leaving, that is (something we all have to do)].

What can Gary do for you?
Gary will meet you at the airport of your destination city, facilitate in the practical aspects of your journey and help maximize your experience.

Gary helps people who are not used to traveling in rural areas of foreign countries, who are not used to staying in small rustic accommodations, who don't speak the native language, who have difficulties in expanding their experience and beliefs and who have trouble staying focused. He does this with tons of patience, lots of smiles, occasional gentle nudges and bountiful compassion.

His main job, as Gary see it, is to remind people to focus on the reasons they are making a Spiritual Retreat. Of course, each visitor has his or her own reasons for making a spiritual journey, leaving their own comfortable homes and coming to the middle of nowhere where probably no one they know has ever been.

Gary's presence is a constant reminder to his fellow travelers that the journey is about change and about surrender; it is about wanting to stay on the planet bad enough to be willing to look at what was never before considered a serious option nor even a possible figment of reality.

The journey is about following the instructions of healers they encounter and listening to the messages of the Earth and the Heavens that surround them.

Gary can hold you when you let yourself be frightened / sad / angry / etc., teach you things you have forgotten about loving yourself and about loving others and help you re-enter "the garden" and find your place in the puzzle of things. Gary will take you to sacred places, walk you into the countryside, help you see when Spirit is talking to you and encouraging you to surrender and show you how you can make everywhere you are a sacred place.

His presence can help you feel more at home more quickly by translating what's going on around you and telling you what you're eating. Gary can try to keep you alert to the present and what you are being told by your experiences. He will help you change money, go to town, catch cabs and learn to participate in the nuturing flow of health-giving energy when the Universe offers you the chance.

Gary will help you see the love and opportunities that surround you every inch of your way. His guided Spiritual Retreats are pilgrimage-like journeys planned to help you appreciate silence, observation, listening and to help you interpret what has become cloudy in your consideration. Gary will teach you what he has learned from traveling and living abroad, from the people he sought out who have never wandered too far from their essences and who have never unlearned how to love.

There are secrets in this world that are hidden just on the other side of the way you perceive things. Yours for the changing. Yours for the risking. Yours for stepping out of the box.

When you step out of your box into an airplane that lands at the beginning of your path to surrender and need a helping hand, give Gary Walker a call.

Spiritual Healing Journeys
Research and Copy by WebFantastics

Be a Burning Bush
Gary Walker
Spiritual Healing Journeys
Top

There are times in our lives when all of us go through big important transitions. Sometimes, because of circumstance or emphasis on participating in the lives and processes of others, we resist these changes and fight facts. This resistance always, to some extent or the other, manifests in illness and discomfort.

We live in a system that doesn't allow time for us to observe, consider and respond intelligently to the changing Universe around us. The fact is, we are the only ones who can take time for ourselves. After all, we are the ones who are going through the changes. Everyone arrives at crucial crossroads in life on their own timetable. It really isn't up to our bosses or governments or doctors to tells us when this is or how to deal with it.

Life is personal. Truth is individual. Those of us lucky enough to know this, must take some kind of stand and seek time for taking care of business; taking care of Self.

Burning Bush Journeys has developed a concept of travel focusing on inner discovery and time alone in Nature with Nature. They like to journey with small groups to natural paradises and sacred places, of which there is no lack here on Earth. Burning Bush Journeys' first efforts have been to focus on the seriously ill or distressed and center activities around healing retreats to the great healer medium in central Brazil, John of God.

They are now broadening their horizons to include other Journeys focusing more on Nature and contact with other Spiritual practices and activities around the world.

Gary Walker will be helping to take a group into the Amazon in June 2005, not out of scientific curiosity but in order to encourage those on the journey to participate in the exquisite harmony of flora and fauna, of water, jungle and sky, and feel the resonance of all this "inside"; the birthright of every earthly being.

Spiritual retreats, pilgrimages and healing journeys are always about the journey inside; the perception of an infinite outer Universe and it's perfect reflection and resonance in our own personal, individual and equally infinite Universe of emotion, knowledge and experience within.

As "children of progress" we have lost much of what makes us human and we are self-destructing from this loss despite our fantastic medical cures and state-of-the-art health and medical technology. Burning Bush Journeys developed its Spiritual Retreats, Pilgrimages and Healing Journeys seeking to help others release faulty "ideals" from the dark propaganda of progress back into the richness of a loving rich experience that was always our legacy.

Give yourself the present of a thrilling visit to Planet Earth and Planet Self, in this lifetime. Take a Spiritual Retreat, Pilgrimage or Healing Journey with the guiding-light of Burning Bush Journeys.

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest...a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in it's beauty."
- Albert Einstein

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