About Us

Hello - we are Barry and Emma.

Here's a little bit about each of us.

Emma

Hi, I’m Emma. I'm a careers advisor working in schools and university.

I took my first Enlightenment Intensive as a teenager in 1989. It took my spiritual life out of the realm of ideas and into the reality of telling the truth to myself. It was like being given the keys to authentic contact with other people and the basis for genuine inner security. And that was without having an enlightenment experience!

It wasn’t until my third Intensive that I experienced who I am. It’s impossible to really express it with words. I experienced my essential place in the universe and the purpose of my life. I had both come home and knew which direction to go in my life.

One of my first thoughts was, “My God, if I can experience this then anyone can!” I just wanted everyone to be able to experience this for themselves. I knew within half an hour that I wanted to train to run these groups. I took the training that year with Jake and Eva Chapman (where I met Barry) and ran my first Intensive the following spring in 1993.

An enlightenment experience doesn’t solve your life or put you on a higher plane. For me the simplest but most profound impact has been my increased ability to give and receive love and take delight in being human. I went on to train as a counsellor and worked with drug users and people with mental health problems. The things I got from Intensives -- open-heartedness to my own human frailties and the deep knowing of our ultimate safety -- served me well in those roles as well as later work in conflict resolution and as a parent.

We took a 6-year break from running Intensives in 2001 when we had our first child. It’s been a real delight to be running them again, to be able introduce new people to the simple beauty of the EI process and the discovery of their deepest reality.

Barry

Hi, I'm Barry. I'm a psychologist by profession, now semi-retired to focus on writing. 

I took my first Enlightenment Intensive in 1991. I knew nothing of enlightenment or spirituality at the time; I just liked the idea of finding some certainty within myself. I had a fleeting direct experience of my real self, and I knew in that instant that who I am is meant to be, that my existence is integral to the fabric of reality. It was also my first ever taste of real joy. After that I was fired up for this whole "inner truth" thing.

In 1992 I went on a 2-week Intensive, then undertook the Enlightenment Intensive Masters Training course with Jake and Eva Chapman, and in 1993 I led my first Intensive. By then I had also met Emma and we formed the perfect team.

For me, there is something right and pure about the Enlightenment Intensive format: no dogma, no strings, just opening to the possibility of absolute knowing. There is also a way in which enlightenment itself, however brief, is completely fulfilling. Discovering the answers to life's great questions is not so much about satisfying our curiosity as it is about taking our rightful place in life -- being who and what we really are.

I have read up on every religion and philosophy under the sun, but most of it I now see as mere speculation and interpretation by people who don't actually know. Nothing compares to the "real deal", the knowingness that suddenly awakens within. Each of us has this hotline to absolute truth. It takes a radical shift of focus to find it, but amazingly we can stumble across it in as little as three days. This is what inspires me to offer Enlightenment Intensives to others.

"Emma and Barry are amazing. They always knew what to say with their professional advice. The warmth and compassion both showed was very touching and I will never forget this experience."

– Lesley (EI participant 2018)