Our Gay Guide and Detailed Gay Travel Guide Information

Andrew was born in South India and educated at Oxford University in England. He has lived in London, Paris, New York, and San Francisco, and has continued to study a variety of religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Andrew has authored and edited over 30 books. Some of his well-known titles are: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, co- authored with Sogyal Rinpoche; Dialogues with a Modern Mystic; The Way of Passion: A celebration of Rumi; Hidden Journey; The Essential Gay Mystic; Son of Man; and Journey to Ladakh.

Bob Pileggi is an Interfaith minister, spiritual practice coach and counselor, facilitator, reiki and therapeutic touch practitioner, bodyworker and photographer. Bob has facilitated numerous workshops, rituals and retreats. He brings to his work 15 years of work and volunteer experience with LGBT, HIV/AIDS and women's civil rights organizing and public education at local and national organizations. Bob's passion is to seek within a compassionate, loving presence that he can offer to others in ceremony, ritual, workshop and counseling situations, and his photography. He hopes to inspire others to seek within their own truth, passion and joy. To learn more about Bob and his work, go to www.BobPileggi.info.
 

Bonita is a transpersonal psychotherapist whose graduate work focused on consciousness and shamanism. She has lived and worked in Peru, studied with native healers and led tours to South America for 10 years. Most recently, Bonita spent a second year in Peru studying and working in the Lake Titicaca area. When guiding journeys to Peru, Bonita provides an comprehensive overview of the Andean Cosmic Vision and leads groups in specific rituals and ceremonies to experience and honor the energies of the sacred sites visited.

Bryan is a facilitator, writer and speaker for a leading international seminar company, and co-creator of several self-development programs focusing on awareness, spiritual practice and heart-centered psychology. Spiritual enrichment, the study of personal philosophy, understanding relationships, world travel, and personal practice of "Meditative Awareness" have been the main focus of Bryan's life, and he strives to support people with his experience. He is an outdoor enthusiast, thrives on Nature, and loves adventure. Bryan resides in Sedona, Arizona.

Ratih was born into the royal caste at Puri Agung (the High Palace), where her grandfather had been the king of a province in Bali called Peliatan. Ratih began dancing with her great uncle's dance troupe when she was seven. This famous troupe brought the first group of Balinese musicians and dancers to Paris and Amsterdam in 1931. She has toured internationally and won many awards for dancing, including being voted the best dancer in Bali in 1984. After graduating from Udayana University with a degree in management, she was inspired to become certified as a Balinese guide. She lives in Denpasar with her husband and 3 children.

Cristina Mendoza is a traditional Amazonian curandera who is well-versed in the ethnobotany of the jungle and mountain regions of  her home in Northern Peru.  In addition to being supremely knowledgeable about her place of origin and about the rich traditions of her people's curing heritage, she  studies yoga and meditation and is well-read on a diverse range of  subjects. Cristina is approachable and humble while still carrying an immense aura of radiance and healing power. This combination of qualities  endears her to all who work or play with her. She is non-hierarchical, challenging us to break away from the tired model of "guru and follower", and yet she commands authority within a soft Yin model of pure sisterly and motherly love and compassion during healing ceremonies.  Sessions with Cristina have been described as "satsang with the vine" and dubbed "yinahuasca medicina." Her singing voice is sublime, velvety, and ultimately sustaining long past when the last icaro is sung. She currently is spearheading a  reforestation campaign, teaching children and adults from nearby communities as well as from several continents about the importance of sustaining native plants, trees, and ecosystems. Her library includes teachings of the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle, and numerous rigorous naturopathic texts, which she is currently absorbing as she is studying to become a natural therapies specialist.

David was the founder of Spirit Journeys. He started his first travel business in 1982 and redirected his focus towards transformation travel, retreats and personal growth workshops in 1992. This occurred through a desire to bridge his travel career and commitment to spiritual exploration. Since then, he has been organizing, facilitating and guiding journeys throughout various places in the United States, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia. He is interested in assisting others on their spiritual path in workshops and through travel to sacred places and providing them interaction with indigenous cultures. He currently lives in Asheville, NC with his partner, David Stewart. David Frechter can be contacted directly at davidfrechter@att.net.

Long time Spirit Journey's facilitator, David Moreno has lead men's workshops, retreats, and international travel trips worldwide – including for Body Electric. He is recognized internationally as a senior yoga instructor and has taught at international yoga conferences, and universities. Among David’s students are members of the fashion and entertainment industries, and world-class athletes, including the coach of the 2004/2008 Olympics U.S. Mens Swim Team.  His commentaries on yoga have been published in various yoga journals and his recently released yoga DVDs are featured on Amazon and as electronic books through iTunes and iBook.

David began practicing yoga in the late 70's studying the Iyengar, Ashtanga, Anusara, and Bihar styles of yoga, currently studying the primordial tantric roots of the yogic tradition. David is known for his keen sense of humor and timing, making classes both playful and informative. When not traveling, David teaches in the San Francisco bay area. To learn more about David and his work see: www.moryoga.com

David has greatly contributed to the growth and direction of Spirit Journeys since its inception in 1993. He has guided and co-facilitated numerous Spirit Journeys in Mexico, Greece, Peru, Nepal, Tibet and the United States. He also enjoys a successful career as a fine artist. David has devoted much of his adult life to the shamanic path, traveling to ancient lands and studying with the indigenous cultures including the Maya in Mexico and the Quechua in Peru. The thirst for "spiritual consciousness" and "oneness" are David's commitment in life. He currently lives in Asheville, NC with his partner, David Frechter.

Don Shewey is a writer and pleasure adtivist in New York City. He is a Body Electric School-trained masseur and sacred intimate as well as a certified gestalt therapist, and his private practice specializes in sex and intimacy coaching. His work as a teacher and community health activist revolves around healing through pleasure, adult sex education and grounded daily spiritual practice. For more information visit Don's webistie: www.bodyandsoulwork.com.

Emil was born in Luxor and graduated from the College of Antiquities at Cairo University. He is an encyclopedia of Egyptology, both archealogical and mystical. He has guided many spiritual and metaphysical groups in the past 20 years, including several Spirit Journeys pilgirmages to Egypt. Emil has had the honor of working with Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, John West, Marian Williamson, Carolyn Myss, Greg Braden, Kevin Ryerson, Mark Lehner, Kent Weeks and Zahi Hawass.
 

Howie Holben is the caretaker of Spirit Journeys. Since early childhood, he has been drawn to indigenous peoples and their spiritual teachings, traditions and practices. This attraction has taken him on many adventures, exploring the countless ways of "being in the world". His personal journey through addiction and recovery has spawned in him a genuine love of walking beside others as they explore their own spiritual path, helping them to live a more joyous and free life. He takes great pleasure in introducing people to practices, sacred ways and cultures to help them "step outside their box" so that they may be far more than who they think they are. Howie is a Reiki, Karuna Ki and Quantum Touch Master. He also is a trained Breathworker as well as a Life Coach. He currently lives in northern New Jersey with his husband, Chris Caramelli.

Hunter Flournoy, is a writer, teacher, pastor and healer in the Toltec tradition, the erotic wisdom tradition of Christianity, and the shamanic healing traditions of the Americas. He has devoted his life to learning from elders, healers, and teachers in the indigenous traditions of curranderismo, the Toltec tradition, the Mayan fire ceremony, and the Lakota inipi, and the mystical traditions of Buddhism, Judaism, Sufism, and Eastern Christianity. He is the co-founder of Amigos de Dios, a mystical Christian fellowship, and has led workshops and ceremonies in awareness, creativity, healing, passionate living and personal freedom for twenty years. He works as a life coach, shamanic healer, and licensed psychotherapist. To learn more about Hunter’s work, go to www.wayofwholeness.com and www.eroticbodyofchrist.com.

Jeffrey is a writer, psychotherapist, life coach and leadership development consultant whose work ranges from single individuals in private practice to major engagements with Fortune 500 corporations. Dr. Hull currently maintains a Jungian-oriented psychotherapy/coaching practice in New York City. Through the synthesis of his unique background in Jungian psychology, leadership, creativity and the arts, Jeff has developed a practice called Life-Shifting: an innovative, comprehensive approach to personal growth and healing that combines symbolic, somatic, and energy healing techniques with the action-orientation of coaching. To learn more about Jeff and his work, visit www.life-shifting.com.

Hosen is the beloved vice-abbess of the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. The Center was founded in 1973 by Kyozan Joshu Roshi, a Japanese Zen Master in the Rinzai lineage, with the fundamental purpose of providing teaching in Zen Buddhism to all who wish to learn and practice. Throughout our retreats held at the Center, Hosen provides a foundation for learning basic Zen practices including meditation and conveying Zen philosophy through profound questions and answer discussions. To learn more about the Bodhi Manda Zen Center, visit www.bmzc.org.

Kai Ehrhardt, MBT, was trained by the Middendorf Breath Institutes of San Francisco and Berlin and has studied extensively with the Body Electric School and various holistic teachers. He has been a therapist and teacher in the areas of breath, massage and sexual healing since 1996 and works in NYC and Berlin, Germany.  You can learn more about Kai at www.authenticeros.com.

Kevin Kortan is a Certified Yoga Therapist and Teacher, a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, Movement Therapist and Educator, Dance Teacher, and Tantric Educator. He is the originator of Evolutionary Yoga, Evolutionary Eros, and Evolutionary Touch, an integrative approach that unites Yoga, Tantra, Somatics, and Embodied Erotic Education. He studies Tantra with Rudolph Ballentine, and has studied extensively with the Body Electric School. In the tradition of Yoga, teaching one-on-one is a particular emphasis for Kevin. He has been offering mens classes and workshops for the last several years. Kevin is also a dancer and has worked with many of the leading names in contemporary performance and dance, including six years as a member of the world-renowned Trisha Brown Dance Company. For more information, please visit his sites: www.evolutionaryeros.com & www.evolutionaryyoga.com.

Lonnie Luke is an Artist, a Reiki Master, Shamanic Breathwork facilitator, ordained pastoral counselor, apprentice and teacher of the Eagle Knights lineage of the Toltec wisdoms; utilizing artistic and creative approaches toward the life we dream and see. Pulling from many indigenous paths of ancient wisdom, he has been working in the field of spirit discovery and healing for thirteen years. Practicing in the felid of ceremony and ritual, healing and over all Joe for hire. His primary focus is the gay man’s journey toward the recognition, utilization and the integration of our unique gifts creating wholeness within our world.

Mark Little has been leading or participating in group trips to Asia since 1984 when he spent a year traveling around the world. He has traveled extensively in Asia, including Japan, Tibet, China, Bali, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Mark is a sculptor and architectural designer. He designed the buildings/campus for the Upaya Zen Center. Part of Mark's love for Asia stems from his own spiritual explorations of indigenous peoples and shamanism. He has studied with Alicia L. Gates through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies created by Michael Harner. Currently, he is interested in understanding how animism/ shamanism has become part of the Theravada Buddhist tradition in Southeast Asian countries. Mark lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his life partner, David Gardner.

Martin is an anthropologist and founder of the awesome website "Places of Peace and Power". This web site features Martin's extensive research, photographs and writings about sacred sites. He has spent 20 years as a wandering pilgrim to study and artistically photograph 1000 sacred sites in 80 countries. This comprehensive and award winning site also features comprehensive bibliographies, a rich collection of maps showing global pilgrimage places, a stunning collection of relevant links, and details regarding Martin's slide show presentations around the world.  Martin's new book "Sacred Earth",  is the culmination of his 20 years of travel and features nearly 300 beautiful color photographs with concise descriptions. To learn more about Martin and his work, or to purchase "Sacred Earth", visit www.sacredsites.com.

Mary Anne Flanagan is a Certified  Life Coach, Shamanic Healer and Teacher, Workshop Facilitator and creator of Toning the OM™. After many years of teaching global energy medicine, she began infusing meditation and life coaching techniques into her practice. Mary Anne discovered her own passion for coaching through both personal and professional experiences of engaging in the process of asking questions and taking action. Mary Anne is certified as a Life and Executive Coach from New York University. She has a certification in Authenticity Coaching Circles from Authenticity Circles, LLC. Mary Anne is a member of the International Coach Federation and Institute of Coaching. For more information on Toning the OM™, visit www.toningtheom.com. 

Always a trail blazer, Ray Whetstone is the founder of the longest running naked yoga class in the country.  He has been featured in local, national and international press for his naked yoga class, in addition to his ordination as an openly gay Elder in the Presbyterian Church and numerous medical mission trips.  Ray brings a unique blend of all of these areas of his life to the yoga mat.  Having studied many different styles of yoga with a diverse array of teachers, Ray has a creative approach to yoga sequencing. He infuses his classes with meditation, visualization and healing, taking any yoga class beyond the simple challenge of asanas/postures.  Ray sees his role not as a yoga teacher but as yoga guide: empowering his students to find their inner voices, inner teachers, and ultimately healing.

Rob's passion involves interacting as a loving, powerful catalyst for change and as mentor for self empowerment in the gay and bi men's community. His "2 spirit" intuitive nature skillfully weaves the traditional arts of Bodywork, Breathwork, Movement Meditation, and Sacred Intimacy into an open-hearted leadership by example.  He is a Certified Massage Therapist (creating Bodyworkers of Boston in 1996), Touch Educator and Breathwork Facilitator. He leads workshop experiences at Easton Mountain and assist's with The Body Electric School, Authentic Eros,and The Power of Breath Institute while also leading a monthly men's group called Living Soulfully. His spiritual teachings include Buddhism, Shamanism, Integral Enlightenment, Sufism, and First Nations ceremonies of Sweat Lodge, Naraya and Pipe.

Ruben has worked with the healing techniques of the Andes for twenty years. He has extensively studied the mystical aspects of various sites, uncovering the true usage of many temples in the empire. Ruben is an external consultant to The National Institute of Culture in Cusco, Peru. His career as an archaeologist culminated with being named head of Archaeology at Machu Picchu, discovering 44 new sites surrounding this crystal city. Ruben is the founder of Kamaquen Healing Center nestled in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

Rudy is a medical doctor and psychiatrist who studied Tantra in India, led the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy for 12 years, and wrote the best-selling book Radical Healing. An acclaimed nutritionist and holistic physician, he brings to his express  work a breadth of knowledge, and his deeply-rooted but very accessible Tantric teachings are a rare bridge of East and West. A longtime faculty member with the Body Electric School, Rudy has taught dozens of Tantric gatherings and workshops for men and women over the past decade.

Sequoia's life and work are a "spirit journey"...a pilgrimage into the One Heart, Stillness, Presence, Big Mind. He views the body as the temple of the spirit, and erotic touch as the gateway to the heart and soul. He is blessed to have experienced profound teachings from a number of true masters: meditation and devotional chanting with Baba Muktananda, Yoga with Desikachar and Iyengar, erotic-spiritual integration with Joseph Kramer , Tantra with Rudy Ballentine, and the practice of Stillness with Eckhart Tolle.

He holds a Masters in East-West Phychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and has trained in Life Coaching at Erickson College in Vancouver, Canada, where he makes his home. He has been offering Mystical Massage and Personal Yoga Training since 1980 to assist others along life's "spirit journey" toward The One. Through Personal Transformational Coaching, he draws on all the skills he has learned, to support people in discovering and manifesting their deepest values and highest aspirations. To learn more, please visit www.GrowingHealthier.com. Since 1987, he has led Men In Touch workshops and retreats throughout North America, bringing men of diverse sexual orientations together in the spirit of nurturing and authentic contact. See www.MenInTouch.org.

Steve Thomson is a writer, teacher and metaphysician, who lives in the Arizona high desert. His work includes consultations and one-on-one mentoring. Steve also leads retreats and delivers workshops on spiritual practices. These include expansion of the psychic senses, spiritual magic, meditation, the Tarot, Numerology, the Kabbala, and exploration of eastern mystical traditions and practices. Thomson has been a student of The Rosicrucian Order AMORC and the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda for over 20 years.

Wolf is a Two Spirited, third gender, walks between worlds, student of Life. He had the privilege of apprenticing extensively with keepers of Traditional Ways of Life in the Amazon, Andes, Mexico, and across North America, as well as and extensive study of Shiatsu, an Oriental form of Medicine from the Japanese Master Ohashi. Combining these Medicine ways of the ancients, along with intuition and Spirit, and his own personal "touch", Wolf has developed for 18 years his practice of "Transformational Body Therapy". Through extensive years of laughing and crying with extraordinary Elder's and Peoples, he earned the Right and Blessing to facilitate Canupa (Pipe Ceremony), Inipi (Sweat Lodge), and Hambleyca (Vision Quest), as well as other Healing Rituals. He currently Lives to Guide others through these Ceremonies, as well as facilitating Retreats, Gatherings, offering Spiritual and Life Council, Healing Work, and hopefully a Simplistic and Refreshed Perspective with the Greatest Medicine of all, Joy and Laughter! Respect, Humility, Reverence, Freedom, Love, and Gratitude are some of the basic principles that drive him toward that Oneness with All that IS.