Birthday celebrant Pinky with Pi and Camille behind
I just spent the weekend in Bahay Kalipay (BK) in Puerto Princesa, Palawan to celebrate Pinky's birthday detoxing (diet consisted of all raw food and coconuts) and doing some inner dance.
BK-owner, Maia EarthVillage-founder and inner dance lead Pi Villaraza was busy preparing for the Maian Planet 2012 Festival, a gathering of inner dance practitioners from all over the world. He's expecting over 50 participants. I met the ladies from Hawaii - Petronella (who gave us a traditional Lomi massage), her sister, Amaya and raw food expert Elle; Americans Mary and Shannon; the Brits UFC fighter Tom, DJ Vicky; Singaporeans, French and Filipinos. There are more coming before the festival begins on March 21.
Maia Earth Village in Palawan
I asked him if he timed the event during the March 22 warning and he said that March 21 is the date of the spring equinox when the day is equal to night. The word is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). Also, the date falls on a new moon.
The festival's venue is in the Maia Earth Village, the first intentional community in the Philippines. It is now mushrooming with almost built structures - a yoga shala, a healing space, an indigo school and an inner dance center. The last time I was there, the main building (left) photo was under construction.
Quoting from his post, the festival's venue is "within Maia Conscious Community grounds, an eco-village that rests on the principles of inner dance process. Maia is not a geographical place on earth, it is rather an ongoing visioning of applying inner dance ascension principles to practical life." He said that the purpose of the gathering is for the practitioners to interact with othr cultures and "experience each other with heightened inner dance, inner languge, inner world and conscious community levels."
Pi welcoming the Singaporeans (who are not in the photo)
Pinky helping UFC fighter Tom
Camille, Ellie and Shannon (who's happy her tumor's gone after 10-days on raw food)
After this weekend's experience, it is quite uncanny that I chanced upon this video uploaded in November 2010 of Keisha Crowther, a Shaman referred to as the Little Grandmother who prophesied to expect a pole shift in 2012 (well, this year) and to prepare ourselves. She said that
"we literally have two years to change the way we are... That which you give your energy or emotion to becomes your reality.. In the next couple of years, many things are going to change... if you stay in your heart and are excited for what is coming then you will live in joy.. If we do not change and stay in the mind and ego, we will be removed. All we are asked to do is be love."
"I am not a guru or a healer; I am just a mirror to allow you to see things as they truly are” says Pi Villaraza when asked what he does.
I joined Pi’s detox, healing and energy training program in Bahay Kalipay in Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan last Labor Day weekend. He said that "Bahay Kalipay is our home. Because of the nature of our work in healing and detoxification, people naturally come to us to visit, heal, train and to center themselves. Thus, we decided to open up our home… to accommodate others while retaining as much of the basic simplicity we find as effective conditions for the work that we do." This includes hand pumping water that apparently most foreigners find charming.
I first met Pi when Rosanna Escudero invited me to do “Inner Dance” last March. He struck me as someone stripped off Ego –very simple in a t-shirt, jeans and sandals and extremely articulate while making all these “crackling” sounds.
Pi learned the ancient Filipino healing modality of the Babaylans after undergoing a vision quest that took him to the States in 2002 where he met powerful teachers and spirit guides that eventually led him back to the Philippines to do a walking pilgrimage around Mindanao like a hermit without money or contacts; and ended holing up for two-years on a deserted beach in Palawan subsisting on coconuts. He said “I felt a powerful urge to detach myself from all external sources of energy – family, money, friends and the many distractions of the world.”
He later coined it “inner dance” because of the dance-like movement generated from the internal energy. After a powerful session that night at Rosanna’s which was cathartic, my left side - the piriformis and ITB injury from the marathon- that has been bothering me for the last six months somehow felt better.
Pi describes inner dance as “Those who undergo the experience will soon find that it is not a dance, really, but more of an inner work that unifies mind, body, and spirit. It is a meditation that allows one to access powerful forces that simultaneously silences the mind.” Anna, who neither dances or practice yoga, was trance-like, gracefully twirling her hands and arms, moving with the music even doing back bends! She kept going for almost two hours. Short clip here:
The program consists of raw food live enzyme diet with a one day coconut flush, eco-tourism (visit to the Hot Springs or if the weather is good, sailing), organic gardening, handicraft (how to make a dream catcher), and healing and energy workshops which included daily Inner Dance, massage, Inner Yoga, Meditation, and self-processing spirituality. The workshops are experiential and interactive. He said “At the end of the stay, the goal is to have made a healing difference in specific physical, emotional and spiritual blockages the participant wants to focus his release work on. The secondary goal is to teach self-healing and simultaneously how to heal others.”
His organic garden set-up is in a way similar to Peter Caddy's, the founder of Findhorn Community in Scotland. There is a compost heap, potash (lime) and some guidance with the garden deva (through Daniw) who introduced mulch from the coconut husks to insulate the soil and protect the seedling. I planted my first organic tomato plant (left photo) in a terrain of mostly rock and coral and mixed with compost and all the essentials.
The experience was worthwhile and to me, downright full of integrity --from the simplicity of the place down to the simplicity of our food intake.
I learned a lot from just being simple. Inner dance is really a journey inward. The raw food diet, inner dance exercises, quieting of the mind are all tools to release mind/body/spirit from so-called blockages. With this release, I have more energy and am now more mindful and aware---ready to listen and see the signs that will help me toward a healthy, happy life…filled with peace from within.
Pi has helped others with medical conditions such as glaucoma, cysts, migraines, psoriasis, depression etc. Perhaps with this new found learning and practice, I can start by healing myself (treat simple aches and pains) and maybe in the future, advance to helping others mirror themselves.
Pi and Danui will be traveling to Singapore and will be in Manila on May 20 for a one-day workshop. To find out more about inner dance visit http://innerdance.multiply.com/
Also, to watch Pi in action, check out Epi Quizon's video "The Dancer Within":
