Inner Realm Magazine Interview, Summer, 2005.

Living in a New Reality

I'm sitting in the airport in Shannon, Ireland as I write this waiting for my flight back to Newark. On paper, I've just spent a week at a Cellular Transformation workshop with Don Hanson in Ennis, a small town near Shannon. But in my being, I've just spent a week in Shamballa, in a reality where truth and love reign.

As if the workshop on Cellular Transformation weren't enough of a high, I had the added excitement of living in community with my Irish friends. Eight of us rented a house on a dairy farm up miles of long narrow hedge lined roads. On our way down in the morning, we slowly trailed behind a herd of cows going to be milked. It doesn't get any better! Every night the house expanded and contracted as other friends came and went. We cooked and ate together. We played and sang and laughed and cried together.

I know these friends to the core even though I may not know the details of their daily lives. I know their essence, their inner beauty, their uniqueness. Some I met at my first long workshop with Don Hanson in Hawaii last summer, some I met in the subsequent Ireland workshops I've attended. I don't easily use the word "friend". I tend to distinguish between friend, colleague, acquaintance, neighbor and so on. But I readily use the word friend for the people I just spent a week with everyday from 9:30 to 5:30 and some of them for 24 hours a day! What makes them a friend is what we have in common. We all share the deep desire to live in a reality guided by love and to that end we are willing to be vulnerable to each other, to really hear the other and to let go of our "stuff". When I do this I see only beauty radiating from the other. I am determined to embody this new structure, this new way of being, and to carry it, to BE it in my world. It isn't easy but I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't not do it!

The workshop is facilitated by Don Hanson (who is coming regularly to NJ). I was intrigued the first time I read about his work. It spoke of cellular transformation and metamorphosis--words that I had been using in expressing what I wanted in my own life. So, I knew I had to find out what it was all about. And what I've witnessed is a man moving out of his own way so Divine Spirit can work through him. That is only part of the equation - the other part is the willingness the participant brings. The process is one of co-creating our reality with Spirit through Don's guidance. We need to be willing to show up for our own life. No one can do that for us, not even Great Spirit, without our active participation.

I've witnessed sacred change this week because the people were willing to put themselves out there, to be vulnerable, to step into fear, to take responsibility for their truth. And the best part is that it is not a quick, easy come easy go fix. I know from my own personal experience that it is permanent. And the more willing you are, the faster it goes. In Don's words, "You can change your life in an instant."

In my year of working with Don I have seen people change from the beginning of the workshop to the end. I have seen people who have been weighted down for years by sexual abuse finally find peace in their hearts. You can see the peace come in as their faces clear, their bodies relax and they feel lighter. I have also seen people who are very uncomfortable with themselves and in their life. They may feel they are not enough, or they may be carrying a lot of negativity and feel life is hopeless. Within a few days they experience understandings that are felt in the heart, not just the head, and they become softer, more natural, more expressive, and obviously happier. It is because they start to relax into themselves and "know" on a deep level who they really are.

I call these examples miracles. Before my eyes in a few days I saw personalities and lives transformed. I am always in awe of the transformations that I witness. Most of us know the power of affirmations and intentions. Can you then imagine the power of 20/30 people bonded by desire and courage affirming their determination to live fully, to live in love, truth and fun and willing to do whatever it takes to get there? Now add a loving, funny guy who knows how to bring Divine Spirit into the room to perform the miraculous! This forms an energy field which takes each one of us with it into new possibilities.

For those of you who read The Celestine Prophecy you'll remember how the characters knew what the other was thinking. They were so connected to the invisible that they didn't need their minds anymore. That's the new reality - being so sensitive to your body and to energy that you know what's going on without using the mind. Mind is always tripping us up with fears, needs, doubts, expectations, and judgments which paralyze, manipulate, restrict, and control us. Why go through all that conflict if you can learn to use your body to feel what's going on and to guide you to what you need to know and do? It is total freedom! and you live in a reality guided by love and truth instead of one controlled by negativity and fear. That's the new Age, the Promised Land, Shamballa.

I will ask you Don's question - are you living life or are you living death? If you are ready to fully engage LIFE and to really live YOUR life, then please join us on Sept.16/17/18 and every two months after that for Don Hanson's workshops right here in Bergen County. He will be coming regularly to this area from his home in Arizona as long as there are people who are ready to takeoff and really LIVE!

Marina Maurino can be reached at 201-261-9129. She has a private practice in Paramus,NJ guiding and teaching others to transform their lives.