Classes For 2012

Each week Dharma Healing International teaches a diverse course program with 32 hours of class time with counseling. The week begins on a Monday at 10:30am with a thorough Orientation. Three classes per day, morning, early afternoon and evening, are taught throughout the week to enhance the education of your fasting experience, as well as provide you with all of the necessary tools and information you need to lead the healthiest most spiritual life possible.

Orientation - Each person begins the fast with: a thorough introduction and summary of what the the fasting, cleansing and detoxification process entails; a picture of the daily schedule and tips for good hygiene, how we have developed the conditions we will be addressing during the fast, details concerning the cleansing process, how to work with any physical, mental and emotional reactions that may arise during the fast, a thorough lecture on the digestive system, introduction to the benefits of reflexology as one of your best tools in working with cleansing and a demonstration on how to do the self-administered colonic irrigation we call Kundalini Colonic.

Buddha-Dharma Principles – Our fasting course program is according to principles of Buddha-Dharma— not so much as a religion but as a psychology and philosophy, to help us come in touch with our mind and heart; help us see old karma, life styles, habits and attitudes that get in the way of our path toward enlightenment. Buddha-Dharma elegantly guides us toward a gentle process of elimination and letting go, that invisibly comes with little effort and much success. All programs emphasize the importance of Mindfulness, Meditation and Self-Enquiry for acquiring Insight and Wisdom.  

Digestive System Overview – Understanding as much as we can about our digestive system helps us work with our body. We take a general look at all of the digestive system organs and their function, an introduction to the lymph system, a discussion of pH, the immune system, disease states, the endocrine glands and fetal development, different diets and how they digest, enzymes as “Light”, a discussion on parasites, what causes them and the toxic problems they cause for our body organs, our psyche, our life and our world.

An Introduction to Self Administered Reflexology – As part of Orientation we discuss the art and practice of using reflexology and acupressure on various body organs. How to feel and relate to your body organs in your feet, hands, colon, ears, face, teeth and eyes. Through acupressure massage we are able to stimulate the circulation and metabolism, the lymph system, the energy or Qi, immune and healing responses of the different systems, glands and chakra centers throughout the body. Each faster is given specific massage techniques for the particular points and is encouraged to work on themselves often during the fast. Self-administered reflexology and acupressure is a wonderful way to generate sensitivity to one self. Being sensitive to your whole body and learning how and what to feel for is an excellent foundation for becoming a professional reflexologist and for getting the hands stronger. Our main masseuse, Pon, has been doing colon reflexology massage on our fasters for 14 years.

Individual Private Iridology Lesson – Each faster is given a personal Iridology reading with a private lesson in how to interpret their own Iridology chart. With the simple tools of a magnifying glass and a torch there is a great deal about a person’s health that can be revealed. Iris markings, textures, colors and shapes can show us personal family and medical history, genetic weaknesses and strengths, previous diet(s), habits, emotional, past life experiences  and mystical states. Nutritional and psycho/spiritual counseling is provided with recommendations for overcoming distracting thoughts, negative attitudes, bad habits and life styles that have gotten in the way of our path toward perfect health and connecting to our Higher Buddha or Christ nature.

Personal Psycho/Spiritual Counseling - For the many people who come to do the fasting program a majority go through various mental, emotional  and spiritual changes while doing the course.. Most ask for some counseling. Counseling is offered upon request according to Buddhist principles, which guide the individual to go within. Buddhist counseling in regards to fasting empowers the individual to look at and accept their present state, let go of attachments while focusing on the moment. Our wonderfully peaceful environment is supportive for this work. Our seaside tropical surroundings provide the opportunity for reflection, for individual meditation and for aspiring affirmations and visualizations that assist each faster to let go of a hindering past and unsure future reality which can block efforts put toward the evolution of our integral wholeness and attaining our highest divine potential.

Vipassana Meditation (Anapanasati or Mindfulness With Breathing) - Vipassana means insight and it is a type of meditation that requires complete presence, excellent focus and mindfulness to see clearly from the intuitive, empty side of the mind. Most attending fasters are here long enough to learn how to go about attaining Mindfulness, which is the complete awareness of being in the present. There are three main tools for attaining Mindfulness With Breathing, these are: the sitting position, the focus and the breath. One cannot have Vipassana without Mindfulness or Sati.  Short group Meditation classes are held either during the day with Yoga or in the evening and are not held every day. Individual Meditation is encouraged with private instruction if needed.

‘No-Frills” Meditation - Because many people who come here have never meditated or have found it rather difficult to meditate we offer a very simple and basic introduction which helps people to sit “without any frills”, pressures to perform, and accomplish anything. A nurturing, experienced teacher speaks in a caring manner providing peaceful words to encourage a meditative atmosphere and an opportunity to accept oneself without judgment or criticism. The first several steps of Vipassana are taught during this wonderful beginning Meditation class.

Yoga Nidra - Many people in the East and the West are attracted to Yoga practices, for they think they can find solutions to their problems be it physical, mental and many emotional or spiritual. Much importance is attached to relaxation techniques that might help fasters ease the tension caused due to a chronic stressful life style. Yoga Nidra is one such wonderful technique, not only for physical or mental relaxation but also for preparing the mind for spiritual discipline.

Chakra-Qi Gong - In this class students are introduced to the Universal and Human Energy Fields, combined with Chakras-energy centers. We learn to feel, experience, move and direct our own energy for the purpose of empowerment and self-healing. A lecture of the meaning of Qi-energy, how to work with your energy and a lecture of the Chakra system in relation to the specific endocrine glands is taught on request and schedule openings.The practice is similar to self administered Reiki. Breathing and Meditation are incorporated.

Hatha  and Kundalini Yoga with Pranayama Breathing for Cleansing - A simple Yoga practice is introduced for stretching, becoming aware of the body, improving concentration, breathing properly and becoming flexible. Asanas that are especially good for stimulating the cleansing process and colonic irrigation are emphasized along with special pranayama breathing techniques. One of the most wonderful times to start a Yoga practice is during a fast.

Held two or three times during a week. At various times during the year, a variety of teachers offer private classes on a fee-by-hour-basis.

Water Exercises - These exercises are a combination of Tai Chi, Yoga, Watsu, Aerobics and Meditation that especially stimulate the muscular, the nervous, the circulatory and lymph systems of the body. Water classes give the student the opportunity to experience the healing qualities of the sea in a fun and nurturing environment. Held occasionally if the sea is permissible.

Quick and Easy Yoga - Many people have very little time to devote one whole hour of Yoga in the morning or during the day. This new and convenient "quick" Yoga practice takes about 20 minutes and provides a complete and satisfying little workout. A series of standing up stretches, turns, twists, bends, lunges and jumps are given in a fun spirit of total-body-movement.

Enhanced Cleansing Through Dialogue - Communication is the universal solvent and the cleansing program is enhanced by our willingness to 'outflow' and let go of whatever we may be holding on to. In this two hour session we create a safe and mutually supportive environment permitting each other the freedom to express ourselves and also release our natural creativity.

Self-Healing with Vibrational-Sound and Tibetan Bowls - In this special class we learn how to tune into the self, simplify our practice and access our healing potential; while learning simple techniques to harmonize our centers, raise our vitality and strengthen our body from within.

Sound healing is explored with toning, chanting with mantras (sacred syllables, words and phrases), sound meditation with the Australian didjeridu orTibetan bowls. We use voice and vowel sounds to stimulate the body's energetic systems

Dharma Talk -. Every Friday night an introduction to the Buddha Dharma is given: a talk about the different philosophical, psycho/spiritual and religious meanings of this multi diverse historical word. A great group dialogue takes place as we interweave and broaden Dharma’s vast meanings into the purpose of our fast. 

Classes All About Foods, Spiritual Nutrition and Lifestyles

We give a 10 part series of classes all about the good and bad, the spiritual and deadly aspects concerning foods as well as lifestyles. The classes are a thorough foundation for what you and your family need to stay healthy, how to make wise and intelligent choices that protect and empower us all to be enlightened consumers of the New Age. Proper food combining for healing problems and maintaining perfect health; physical and spiritual nutrition, as well as how agri-business, and many of the major food industries use their advertising practices to exploit and take advantage of our lack of knowledge; how to buy foods, how to think about foods, strategize and plan kitchens, menus, daily lifestyles for staying healthy and cleaned out; as well as how to have a loving respectful relationship with our food. We also emphasize exercise enhancement, to prepare and live in healthy or unhealthy environments, and much more. The following classes taught:

Proper Food Combining – This first class on foods is one of the most important. Proper Food Combining is a practice for those who have any health conditions whatsoever. It is so beneficial that it can often cure various acute conditions and greatly help long term illnesses and stimulate weight loss. The science behind it is discussed, with a brief lecture on proteins and fats and an in depth look at carbohydrates, the glycemic index and metabolism. Examples of combining or not combining and eating certain foods together will be demonstrated while calling on chemistry, pH, utilizing oxygen properly, physiology, physical and spritual nutrition and various disease conditions for understanding the benefits of this simple practice.

All About Foods - In the three classes taught we go over, under and around all the different food groups: liquids (water included), fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans, nuts and seeds, dairy and animal foods to help you in your changing life to make intelligent, wise and caring decisions about what you want and do not want to eat and why; how to buy foods, how the industry works, how different foods digest; good and bad nutrition as well as the healing and spiritual qualities of foods. Details concerning vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, anti-oxidants, enzymes and photo-microns of “Light”; organic vs. the chemical food industry; raw vs. cooked; animal vs vegetarian diets and in general a tremendous amount of useful information is given.

The Art and Love of Eating and Being – In this sweet little class we discuss how to BE while through eating mindfully as a way of loving and nurturing ourselves and the planet. Some tips and helpful ideas are given on the various factors that support loving ourselves, our food and those who bring that food to your plate. This not only makes us feel loved it contributes to a good healthy diet and happy life. In this class we teach the importance of a daily ritual of meditation and exercise as devotion to the Divine and eating in a way that not only heals you but also heals the world we live in. Our lives should be founded on a lifestyle of Love as opposed to a lifestyle based on strict discipline or careless consumption conditioned by society.

Daily Cleansing from the Heart- Fasting is wonderful for the body the mind and spirit. But when we finish the fast it is so important to keep your body cleaned out every day. This class looks at a 24 hour day with discussion on what times of day are best and worst to eat  and how much to eat of certain foods. We look at sleep, rehydration, hormones, eating for exercise, snacks, supplements like Vitamin C. Eating for keeping your body cleaned out helps you not only feel great every day, you can lose and maintain your perfect weight. Learning how to organize our menus and our lives today helps us way into the future: promoting a long and healthy life, great sleep and provides you with vital energy as you get older and wiser.

Break the Fast Class - It is extremely essential that all fasters break their fast properly in order to feel the full benefits of the fast. Thus, we give great emphasis to this special time. During this important class we teach what substances to stay away from, and what are the best foods to break fast with for the first 10 days. A 10 day program, day by day of how to break fast is given, with detailed suggestions on how to feel the full benefits of the fast, physically, mentally and spiritually far into the future.

Enzymes - This class provides recent research in enzymes; what they are, the different types of enzymes, what enzymes do, what the ideal factors for us to utilize them are, what happens when we don't have enough of them, how to get them and information on inherent weakness, auto-immune diseases and the relationship of enzymes to phyto-micron “Light” energy.

How to Set Up a Heath Food Kitchen With Recipe Suggestions - Fasters are given the general 'ingredients' for overhauling the old and setting up the new and convenient, fun to work in, vegetarian health food kitchen. Wonderful creative recipes and how to create your own suggestions are provided, in a handout, along with lots of new flavor combinations, suggestions for sprouting, what equipment to throw away and purchase. Also, Healthy tips for travelers are given for those who will not be able to work in their own kitchen for a while. The contents of this class are spread out in several of the classes.

In The Kitchen, Raw Foods Class - When fasters leave us we want to see them with positive enthusiasm toward having a healthy diet while working in a healthy kitchen. One of the most important prerequisites for this is to get them into our interactive, open-air health food kitchen during their week of fasting. In this class we learn how to work with raw natural foods in a community farm-kitchen atmosphere. We demonstrate and prepare a selected menu of some of the following on Thursday afternoons:  bean or wheat sprouts, veggie kraut, pates, green sauces, smoothies, nut milks, nut cheeses and nut/seed candies, super salads, fresh juices, veggie burgers and seed/nut candies. This class is fun, “Lively” and extremely informative. Fasters are given the foods we make in the class when they leave.

Extra Courses and Therapies in 2011 Occasionally Offered Upon Request

Private and Group Yoga Sessions -These are additional yoga classes for fasters who would like more Yoga than what is offered in the core program. Prices are to be discussed with the teacher.

Holistic Weight Loss Program -The idea of losing weight is much more than physical. We believe that it encompasses the whole person, one's body, mind, spirit and emotions. Holistic Weight Loss is an all over change of life. This course program teaches each person to work with all the emotional and mental factors that relate to gaining and losing weight and keeping it off forever, planning a menu, preparing daily nutritious meals, integrating a healthy lifestyle, meditation, a personalized exercise ritual and much more. Please contact us for more information.

EFT - (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a process commonly known as 'tapping'. It combines the investigative process of common talk therapies, which reveal our blocks, with knowledge from the Chinese meridian system, which explains why the blocks occur on an energetic/subconscious level. By tapping specific points on the body’s energy meridians, we stimulate the system shaking loose stuck patterns of holding on. This deceptively simple, yet powerful technique often succeeds where traditional approaches fail. The application of EFT is almost limitless. From physical pain, to social anxiety, to limiting beliefs, to suppressed memories, EFT, when skillfully applied, can reveal and quickly remove blocks from our system and ultimately deliver us to greater freedom in our lives.

Reiki 1, 2 and 3 Attunements for Certification.

Beginning Iridology Classes - An Introduction to the Science of Iridology - This class teaches each faster about the basic principles of Iridology. Iridology is the science of looking at the reflex points in the Iris to determine one's general all over health condition, constitution and the organ status. Iridology can also reveal where there are inherent blockages, weaknesses, genetic predispositions and deteriorated heath conditions in relation to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual imbalances caused from one’s environment. It can reveal past life traumas and surgeries, drug use-including birth control pills, life styles, habits and addictions.

Teachers/Healers Training Course According to Buddha-Dharma Principles - This specially designed course for all teachers and health practitioners emphasizes a spiritually based student-centered, as opposed to a system centered, education. It includes major discussions on Buddha-Dharma principles that can be applied to designing and implementing curriculums and healing practices. The course includes periodic fasting, daily Dharma talks, discussions on education, spiritual democracy, global resonance, meditation, personal counseling and Yoga. For medical interns and physicians, teachers in training attending colleges and Universities. Contact for more information. A course will be planned for October of 2012.

Kundalini Colonic Yoga - Special Yoga poses, Kriyas including breathing, relaxation exercises, and massage techniques that assist with successful colonic irrigation.

Introduction to Astrology – In this very full introduction we introduce all of the necessary tools for reading one’s own natal chart. The four elements, triplicity, the three modes, signs, planets, houses, archetypes, nodes, MC and aspects are taught and demonstrated with each person’s chart being evaluated. After several hours students are able to read their own natal charts in a very basic manner.

Spiritual Astrology - An introduction to reading the spiritual aspects of the natal, transiting and progressed astrology charts. Spiritual Astrology looks for the points of Enlightenment on the natal charts, how to overcome physical and emotional, psychological weaknesses and blockages while learning how to work with signs and planetary configurations that are higher self desires. For students who pursue a 21 to 30 day course program. Please note: Hillary Hitt is studying to be certified in Astro-Psychology from Glenn Perry’s Association for Psychological Astrology www.aaperry.com.

In The Kitchen Raw Foods Classes and Sprouting – Learning to create a raw foods kitchen and  implement a raw foods diet into your life is so simple and fun. We love to share our beautiful, nutritious specialties with you in our open air kitchen amoung the coconut trees. Two day courses will be scheduled at various times throughout 2011. Do contact us for scheduling.

Special Massage Sessions

Abdominal Colon Reflexology Massage -This will give the elimination process a little push by helping remove stubborn blockages, mucoid plaque, old liver bile and relieve tension in the colon through the release of intestinal gas. A 30 minute colon massage is 200 Baht.

Traditional Thai Massage - Two thorough Thai massage treatments are given to each faster during their week of fasting to stimulate the cleansing process. Thai massage is offered by the hour any time of day. Additional massages cost 300 Baht per hour.

Natural Herbal Body Scrub - Treat yourself to a two hour natural herbal body scrub. Pon, our masseuse, uses natural herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables to scrub your body of old dead skin. You will feel completely renewed and your skin will glow like a baby! This marvelous treatment costs 1000 Baht.

Herbal “Living” Facials - Facials are such a wonderful experience, for both men and women. Pon uses only natural herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables to cleanse and rejuvenate your skin. Facials are 400 Baht per one hour session..

Craniosacral Therapy - is a soothing, noninvasive, hands-on therapy.The craniosacral system includes the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid, the system of membranes inside the cranium, all 22 cranial bones, the spine and the sacrum. There is a silent force, a field of chi, which blows through the craniosacral system, animates it, and infuses it with information and intelligence.It is possible to listen to this field. The ability to do this is called ‘the heart of listening.’ Such work can also help the client access and release their healing potential. (Adapted from the Milne Institute of Visionary CranialSacral Work)

Deep Tissue Massage is a penetrating manual technique that is applied directly on individual muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fibers. Deep Tissue Massage focuses on the deeper layers of tissue and releases chronic tension through direct slow deep pressure on contracted areas. It "unsticks" the fibers of fascia, muscle, connective tissue, and viscera, while releasing deeply-held emotional patterns, and toxins, while relaxing and soothing the muscle. It is both corrective and therapeutic. (From Institute of Complementary Therapies)