Confessions of an Omega Junkie

This story was first published in 2003.

Come spring, I get antsy. No, it's not the warmer weather I'm dying to experience. It's the arrival of the

Omega Institute's

amazing summer program catalog. Recently shipped in all its glory to 430,000 mailboxes, this year's 120-page booklet contains descriptions of 300 three-to-five-day "wellness" seminars offered from April through October at Omega's lush, organically fertilized campus in Rhinebeck, New York. Set on 80 acres of the Hudson River Valley, Omega is a spiritual summer camp for grown-ups who want to eat whole foods, breathe deeply, try a new kind of massage or bodywork, and rub shoulders (tap yoga mats?) with marvelous artists, therapists, counselors, and spiritual teachers from Tibet and India as well as the wilds of New York, San Francisco or L.A.

At Omega, you can choose dormitory, campground or private cabin setting, get up at dawn for yoga or meditation, try Tai Chi by the lake, drink miso for breakfast (in itself a revelation) and eat millet bread to your heart's content.

When Omega launched in 1977, the idea of "mindful" living was still alien to most people. But the world has changed. The world is STILL changing: PBS uses spiritual trainers on air to stimulate donations, corporations are requesting health insurance that covers alternative approaches, and many more people are at least saying they'd like to meditate if only they could find the time. Omega's founders would never claim they caused any of this, but for more than twenty years they have been feeding a mighty river, offering respite and enlightened education to one stressed-out person at a time.

Omega's 2003 summer season promises to be especially intense. Among the offerings: Author Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda, designer Eileen Fisher and Eve Ensler of "Vagina Monologues" fame teach a three-day conference called "Women and Power: Bringing Balance to the World." Lama Surya Das teaches "Letting Go of Who You Used to Be." Actor Alan Arkin teaches theatric improvisation. Later in the season, Ram Dass, Buddhist author Sharon Saltzberg, and Krishna Das lead "Surrendering to the Moment: A Gathering of Hearts."

You get the idea.

Sadly, Eckhart Tolle's "Power of Now" meditation retreat is already wait listed.

Continued on page 2: »