Back at Burwell - March 2025 mindfulness retreat

Spring is such a positive time – after many months of darkness the light returns and everywhere is bursting with new life and blossom

It’s five years since our last retreat at Burwell House and the mass hysteria of 2020, when three weeks to flatten a curve, became two years to crush the human spirit.

The Now Project continued under cover and we held some illegal mindfulness retreats in the woods, we met online and did our best to hold a vibe and spread peace and love. It was fun being a partisan bringing a spark of light to the darkest wave of unconsciousness to consume humanity in my lifetime. In truth, we had a great time, met some amazing people and enjoyed some rebellious mischief but it did nearly kill The Now Project

We weren’t able to work openly for nearly 2 years and we had to start again. Steve and I breathed some life back into the project and despite threats to lock us down again at Christmas 2021 we took the plunge and held a 4-day retreat in Glastonbury. 

That led to 3 fantastic years at the Redfield Centre . What a lovely bunch of people they are, we did about 40 retreats there the Project grew from the ashes. But it’s spring now and The Now Project is bursting into blossom. 

It seems like a Karmic coincidence that last weekend we came back to Burwell almost on the 5th anniversary of the retreat we were unable to in 2020. We are back stronger and better and the long winter has only helped to awaken millions, never in history have more people been ready to make this shift and our doors are open to welcome friends past and new 

It would be lovely if you could join us – we’ve still got a few spaces left for our Mindfulness for Awakening retreat and new and improved mindfulness and meditation retreats in May June and July.

The Now project is better than ever, and we’ve attracted the most incredible people to the team. when you meet Chris, James and Connie, you’ll know what I mean. – we are blessed

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Next Class:
Tuesday 29th September – Mindfulness and the collective consciousness

Upcoming Classes:
Tuesday 13th October – Mindfulness and the power of conscious intention

Tuesday 27th October – Heal within and heal without – mindfulness for transformation

It’s really quite a challenge sometimes to be mindful in such an unmindful world. Recently several people have told me that get great benefit from the masterclasses and they find the support of the community and mindful attention that they find at these groups is invaluable to them. I suspect that one or two are also getting quite hooked on the emotional clearing meditation, but that’s not a bad problem to have because it’s really helps, and can be a real life saver when you are struggling with your emotions.

It is our intention is to do a masterclass every two weeks up until Christmas either on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening at the Hale clinic. We’ve booked 3 dates so and we’ll publish further dates soon. We are just awaiting confirmation of room availability.

In order to save on administration and Teresa’s valuable time, there is no need to book for the masterclass. Just turn up and pay on the door.

Cost £15 per class

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Now that alone is fascinating, but these brave souls also don’t really understand why they’re here either, sure they’ll tell you that it’s for stress or anxiety or some problem they think they have, but what normally happens is that by the second day once their mind has had a break from all that stuff it begins to quieten down – they start to see the bigger picture and that perhaps it isn’t the current story going on in their heads that’s the problem. That is the beauty of retreats, it gives us the space to see what’s really happening in our lives and our own mind; that coupled with the trust we build together over the weekend allows people to have some amazing realisations that can be the catalyst for real change.

Now this is the thing about retreats that some people may misunderstand, it’s not about retreating from the world it’s about fully engaging in the world. It’s now good if you have some realisations on the weekend but fall apart as soon as you get home, this is about lasting change. Of course it’s easy when you’re in that environment, just being held in that space is healing, but to have had that experience for 3 days or more you can’t really ever go back. Sure you’ll get lost again and that’s perfectly normal but something deep inside you has been awoken, you couldn’t stay in that intense embrace if you weren’t ready. The funny thing is the people who are struggling the most Friday night are generally the ones who, when Sunday comes around, don’t want to leave.

More than once I’ve had them come up to me and ask if we can make it a week long retreat! I believe we are in a crucial part of earths history because if we don’t wake up and take our power back I don’t think the human race can survive for long the way it’s going. I for one, and all of us here at The Now Project, have been seeing real change in the people we have met in the last few years; especially the young people who are waking up to themselves – they are going to be the change that this world needs. So these kinds of vehicles for transformation are extremely important and every year we hold our retreats the energy just keeps getting stronger and the people more aware and mindful, even though some of them don’t even know what mindfulness is about! So please if you are thinking about a retreat or similar just go with it, you won’t be disappointed to have invested the time in yourself it may even change your life, it did mine. Paul V

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All I will say is that when we came out of the meditation on Sunday morning I could not believe what I saw. 30 faces looking back at me and not a thought between them. Fully awake fully alive, but silent inside, holding an intense state of mindfulness and at least half of them thought that they were complete beginners only the day before.

I don’t know what’s happening,  but it seems that all our hard work is bearing fruit.  These weekends are transforming people’s lives,  take a look at the Facebook comments, and we can’t begin to describe how enriching that is for us.

We’ve got only 2 more retreats this summer and they are booking up fast. If you haven’t already booked your place go for it, you’ll never look back

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It’s easy to use words like family without much care for the meaning, but it really does feel like family to me. I could call them friends but that’s not enough to adequately explain what is going on, because there’s something more here, a common connection a shared understanding an a real sense of belonging. Mindfulness gives you a glimpse of who you are beyond the “little me” and you begin to discover connected nature of reality, and your role in the manifesting of it. A sense of belonging to something more than yourself as an individual, being part of something important and valuable.

Like any family we have our differences and there are ups and downs but we are supported by the love of the family and we genuinely care for and help each other. Love and compassion are a natural by-product of mindfulness, so it’s not something you have to work hard at, it’s simply a natural expression of the practice.

The unconditioned warmth of a mindful family, that doesn’t judge, label or make you different is a rare experience and in this environment real healing and growth happens. It’s a safe place to open up, a safe place to be open to new ideas and experiences and to possibilities beyond understanding, and also a safe place to look within, and explore the vast universe within that we are generally too busy or too distracted to acknowledge.

It’s scary to look at first, the shadow will make you want to run and hide again, but with great delight I witnessed each of our new guests find the courage, and with the support of the family, take the light of mindful awareness into the shadow and realise there is nothing to fear other than their own glory. Isn’t that right Tania, Gary, Sean, Christine, David, Andy Leslie and all you other brave adventurers. How you all shine.

About half of our guests have been involved in our work before, they’ve been on retreat or one of our classes so they know what to expect, and they still come back! It’s always lovely to see familiar faces, and talking to you all quickly revealed how you’ve grown in mindfulness. My ego doesn’t like it (so that must be good), because your mindfulness is deepening far quicker than mine did and I’m seeing people make the kind of progress in a few months that it tool me years to achieve. And it’s not as though you’ve had an easy time of it either. Some of our guest have faced real challenges and potentially devastating life events and it struck me how with each life challenge you faced, you’ve become more centered and aware. There’s no going back now. The tougher it gets the more mindful you become.

Mindfulness is becoming how you live and through your practice you are creating a new environment around you. Every mindful interaction changes your experience of the world and the world’s experience of you. Through your mindful compassion, acceptance and non judging you bring peace and healing into the world. No darkness can exist in the light of your awareness and your very being is a catalyst for change. A new world is coming onto existence through you.and so the family grows.

We still have spaces for our next retreat in couple of weeks, dust off your sleeping bag and come and join us. The family is growing.

adrian

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There are many things that stand out for me about the weekend. Marcus’ terrific Qi Gong class, Paul’s crazy yogas in the big bell tent and that mind blowing emotional clearing session on Sunday; but what really stood out for me were those simple, beautiful moments of mindful interaction that happened throughout the weekend. The quiet chats, the dawning awareness and the epiphany moments when the penny drops and suddenly someone sees through their mental confusion. There was a sense of real warmth and acceptance and although lots of guest came on their own, they couldn’t feel alone for long. When you share that space of mindfulness together something magic happens.

One of the most touching moments was when a couple ladies who were laughing and joking together, said to me, that although they had never met before this weekend, they felt like they had known each other forever. As unlikely as it sounds, it is really quite common and I know of many firm and genuine friendships are made on these weekend retreats.

One of the most touching moments was when a couple ladies who were laughing and looking together, said to me, that although they had never met before this weekend it felt like they had known each other forever. As unlikely as it sounds, it is really quite common and I know of many firm and genuine friendships are made on these weekend retreats.

Maybe it’s because there are no egos on our Mindfulness Retreats. From the outset we help our guests to enter a state of mindfulness and we work hard to keep them there, deepening their experience as the programme unfolds during the course of the weekend.

When you greet a person mindfully, it is with pure acceptance. There are no beliefs to make you right and the other wrong, no competition to be “more than”, no inner dialogue to tell you that you “are less than”. There is no judgement to create separateness. When you great someone mindfully and you are free of your mental narrative, you discover that there is no separation between any of us, you have reach through to the person beyond all that mind made stupidity and you connect directly with your common humanity.

Being greeted mindfully is a rare treat, you are being welcomed with absolute acceptance and an unconditional warm embrace of your humanity. A mindful person has cultivated compassion, a deep connection to the others and so highly developed is their empathy that they experience the suffering of others as their own. A mindful person would never consciously hurt another as they would experience the suffering created as their own and with mindful attention to every interaction they conduct themselves with tolerance, acceptance, with love and a sincere regard for the well-being of others. To be greeted mindfully can shift your experience in an instant, conflicts dissolve, perceptions crumble and it is common for our guest to let go and simply be themselves, held safely in a mindful connection.

That’s what The Now Project is really about, to help you live mindfully, to connect with others and bring love, compassion, and healing to the world around us.

The retreats are getting booked up fast, so if you want to be part of this and join us this summer you need to book soon. We still have places on our next retreat on 10 -12^th July. See you there

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Many years before I started practising meditation and before mobile phones and caller ID, I would often sense who was ringing me before I answered the phone. Sometimes someone who I hadn’t seen in years would come to mind and then suddenly just turn up in my life. Mothers tell me that they can sense when their children are in trouble or distress and twins have been shown to frequently to exhibit spooky telepathic connections. As my meditation practice has devolved these things have become more and more common and I am becoming quite comfortable in exploring a greater connected mind. It no longer seems strange to me, I’ve come to kind of expect these things and I’m beginning to discover the profound intelligence that exists in the interconnectivity of the greater mind.

Synchronicity has ceased to be just random coincidence and I’m starting to listen to it, understand the language, I am seeing the connections and I’m flowing with a greater mind. The wonderful thing about the connected mind is that it’s not just me, its collective and collaborative and higher forces are at work. And if we can be silent inside and listen to the space within, we’ll discover a wonderful plan unfolding and by learning the language we can fall into alignment and become a living expression of that plan. Its’ great comfort to discover that we are not alone.

Many of the people who come on our retreats know that they have been guided, they describe strange coincidences and a sense of being called to meditation and mindfulness. They often tell me that when they came across the website, it spoke to them, that they felt something, an irrational impulse, a connection and an inner knowing. Yes many of our guests have been before, some of them several times, and lots of others arrive on the recommendation of friends but nearly all our guest now come because they are co creating with the flow. They sense without knowing why, that there is something here that they need to be part of

We start our retreats with a little introduction, we go round the room and our guest say their name and what they are hoping to get from the weekend. We still have lots of people saying that they are on retreat to help with stress, manage depression or to deal with emotional and physical pain but when probed further they reveal something else, an inner calling and a heartfelt desire to discover meaning and purpose and to engage more fully with the miracle of existence. It’s why they all come even if the don’t realise that from the outset, they come on retreat to discover themselves and realise that they are part of everything an expression of the greater mind.

When I do the teaching, I get out of the way. Its’ not my teaching, I simply express a teaching which comes from far beyond little old me. I have certain stories or expressions that I often repeat, but in truth I can talk for a couple of hours without even know what I’ve said. The talks come from the space and personally I have very little to do with them. The teaching happens through me, it is not me, it is channelled from the greater mind. We’ve been videoing the talks to put on the website at a later date and watching them back is the first time I even know what I’ve said.

I have tried to exert some control and had intended to tone everything down. I’m conscious that many of our guests are completely new to this and I don’t want to alienate them with too much wild exploration of the formless and the true nature of reality. But the flow wont allow this and watching the talks on video I’m shocked at the profound nature of the teaching coming from my mouth. I’m even more shocked at the reaction of our guests. They just seem to accept it, and look at me like it’s obvious. It’s been ages since someone has stormed out in disgust or been so offended by my message that they shout out their objections. Not one guest has challenged my madness all summer. I tell them that the past and the future do not exist and that they have been living in a dream, that they have been lost in a false consciousness, a world of illusion. I explain that they are in truth perfect expressions of consciousness with the power to create through the field of the greater mind and fulfil their destiny by bringing a new world into existence. No protest, nothing, just rows of nodding smiling faces and a look to say. Yes you’ve turned my perception of the world upside down but “I knew this all along”. Which of they do, of course; they are connecting the greater mind too, and that’s where the teaching came from in the first place.

Thank you everyone who came to our last retreat of the summer. We had another magnificent weekend and you were a joy to work with. It is an absolute privilege to share awareness with you and as I said in my talk at the close of the retreat, I don’t think I’ve ever met a braver bunch of people. Even the most rational material minds were so ready to let go. We had a psychiatrist from the USA a psychologist and a number of left brain rationalists as guests, but the rationality collapsed in the face of the evidence in the moment and one by one they let go of everything they thought they knew and jumped feet first into a courageous exploration of consciousness. To let go and trust the flow takes incredible courage. It requires you to suspend your belief and enter a universe were none of the old rules and certainties exist but if you can If you can be still enough inside and embrace the void you’ll find the greater mind and discover that it is filled with infinite possibility. What an incredible group of people you are. And what a finale for the summer.

I’ve had a fantastic time this summer, I’ve been doing the work I love; well actually I just channelled it, so in truth I did nothing at all, other than having great weekends away with my mates and the most amazing guests. (But don’t tell my wife, she thinks I’ve been working hard). According to the many emails and generous comments, it would appear that our guests had a great time too, and I know many of you are now awakening fast. Now you’ve opened the door and explored what is inside there really is no going back. Yes you’ll likely fall asleep again many times but the momentum of awakening is now with you and you’ll not sleep for long.

We expect to be back at Retreat Farm next summer for the 2015 round of summer of love retreats but in the mean time keep an eye on the website. We are putting together a series of one day winter intensives starting on November and the website will be going through a transformation. The greater mind is at work and we are all working hard to fulfil it’s ambition, stay involved with the project we’d love you to join us in actioning the great minds plan.

Be still

adrian

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There is no greater privilege than working as a butterfly farmer. It was an incredible weekend and I loved every second of it. The weather was fantastic and the team were amazing, Brad, Paul, Jason, Barry, Sophie and Paulette were on top form and are pretty amazing butterfly farmers too. But what made the weekend so successful was you, our amazing guests, who by the end of the weekend had broken free and filled the sky with your colourful wings.

Sophie has put up the pictures from the weekend on our flckr pages and Teresa tells me that we still have a few spaces left for our retreat next week. So all you caterpillars out there struggling to live in your own skin come down to Butterfly farm, we’d love to see you

And so we suspended our judging minds for the weekend and learned how to to delight in the wind and rain and even found the learning contained in the inconvenience. As I explained to our guests, “if you listen to the rain on the roof, it will teach you more about Mindfulness than I can.” Because mindfulness is simply listening to the rain. It’s letting things be with out judgement.

It didn’t rain all weekend. Saturday was mostly glorious sunshine and Sunday afternoon defied the forecast to give us a summer sun and a warm wind to dry the tents off, and that was okay too. The weather was fantastic, it rained and it shone and the wind blew, the weather became our teacher, we used the conditions to teach us surrender and how to appreciate what emerges in the moment without discrimination. Rain or shine it’s all fine if you are mindful.

It was nice to see so many new faces, and to my delight nearly all of our new guests threw themselves into it. And that takes courage, or desperation, but either will do. Like the weather a good storm is all part of it. I love a good storm, don’t you?

anyway this weekend it really wasn’t an issue, many of our new guest were already dropping into thoughtless awareness on the Friday evening. The rain stopped and the moon shone as we sat round the camp fire, we’d only had the introduction talk but our guests were waking up as they sat there lighting up one by one like the moon through the breaking in the cloud.

Mindfulness techniques and principles can bring you to awareness, but when you are in awareness they are no longer necessary, and if we are not careful they can in fact become an obstacle. This weekend I hadn’t even had the chance to do any teaching and our new guests were already getting it. Just goes to show how unimportant my teaching really is. It also shows how ready our guest are, it takes nothing to wake them up, because the are already waking.

It’s always lovely to see people who we’ve met before on our journey into awareness and this weekend there were some guests who we last saw two years ago when our little project was very much in its infancy. I couldn’t believe how much they’ve grown in awareness in just two years, they’ve all had their ups and downs, but they’ve all reached a place of acceptance and alignment with what is and evolved beyond measure.

I observed Jackie, with great admiration, mindfully handle a crisis which nearly prevented her from coming on retreat, but she rode the storm, which is the true test of the practice and she discovered the learning contained within. And it would appear that she isn’t the only one who can ride a storm, I overheard someone who two years ago had a life threatening cocaine addiction explain that they only drink herbal tea now because coffee makes them too wired, they’ve cracked it (excuse the pun). They went on to say that they neither judged their addiction as good or bad, they weren’t proud of the suffering they created, but all their pain had brought them to awareness and they could see now that it was all part of it.

It’s easy to see the progress that our guest are making, there is such a dramatic change each time I see them. But it wasn’t until they pointed out how much The Now Project has changed over two years, did I realise that we have made a complete transformation too. Two years ago we were entertaining groups of 12 – 15 people and we only had the tepees and the use of the Holistic centre but thanks to Richards fantastic support for the retreat facilities have been completely transformed in two years.

But what stands out for our returning guests most of all is how each of teach of the team have grown and developed into wonderful expressions of the teaching. I am blessed with the finest bunch of mindful teachers and helpers you could imagine. I know how much work they do on themselves and some of the challenges they’ve faced but they meet each new challenge with non judging acceptance and everything is just falling into place.

Jason has blossomed, he’s used dark depression as his vehicle and has grown into a fantastic teacher, gentle confident and funny he has taken his teaching and turned it into simple fun. I watched amazed as he helped raw beginners into awareness simply by becoming conscious of their body. He made them feel the grass, taste the sun, find their balance and catch a ball without a thought to distract them. He’s taken the mindfulness practice ,“The way of the body”, and turned this powerful portal into awareness into a game. The work of a true master.

Barry too has worked through some turbulent times and but has used it for growth and is cultivating an unshakable stillness. His presence is enough to calm and reassure anyone who need support in riding the storm. Paulette works harder than anyone and she hasn’t had it easy, but her non judgement of what is just mikes her smile even brighter.

Paul is coming into his own. Directed by awareness he’s been succeeding with things he was afraid to try, he is flowing with the universe and wonderful new expressions of the teaching are emerging. The Sufi dancing and Kundalini yoga are powerful portals to awareness, Paul makes them such a lot of fun and our guest love it.

Sophie is growing by the minute, her mindful drawing workshops are an art in themselves, drawing people into awareness through drawing is simply genius. And to witness her grow and flourish with each new challenge, and to meet difficulty with peaceful acceptance is the greatest testimony to her strength and the power of this work.

Bradley’s ridden a few storms in his time and he knows how it’s done. He’s been teaching mindfulness and pain management for a couple of years now.  He’s master of art of surrender and uses his physical pain as vehicel for transformation.  I can get into a lot of trouble for claiming healing, only mainstream doctors and pharmaceutical companies can claim that. But last year I started getting emails form people Brad had worked with at our retreats. They claimed that he had helped relieve chronic and “incurable conditions, and reported improbable if not impossible improvements in their conditions. This year the pattern has continued and I’ve seen with my own eyes someone unable to get out bed with the pain dancing around like there is nothing wrong with them only a few minutes later. I’ve seen someone who had to drag themselves about with sticks, walking upright like they haven’t done in years, I’ve seen someone with chronic neck pain recover completely in half an hour. I’ve no idea what is happening but it’s happening anyway.

Perhaps hardest of all is to see the change in myself. We’ve been videoing my talks and at some point we’ll put them on the website to help remind you and bring you into awareness. The editing process, requires me to watch these talks a few times. Which is helpful for me because I never know what I’ve said. The teaching comes through me and watching it back has been a real surprise, it’s happening through me and there is a new understanding coming through, way beyond what I’ve taught before.

There’s a video of us all in the teaching barn and I’m talking about the painbody and exploring how we might integrate that shadow part of ourselves. How we can ride the storm of our emotions and act more consciously in the world without reaction and without spreading more disturbance into the world. Then bang on cue the weather colludes with a clap of thunder to add atmospheric effect, the storm breaks and we all emerged from the barn into bright sunlight.

That’s when the realisation hit me, it’s all coming together because everything is in tune. No one is resisting the weather now, everyone is flowing with what is, the guests, the team, the project, they are all flowing. It is a play of light and dark, rain and shine, this moment whatever it presents is the play of life. You can resist that, but it’s just like resisting the rain, it’s painful and pointless, you’ll block the flow and create suffering. Or you can surrender to now, you can ride the storms without judgement and then you align yourself with what is and the universal intelligence that creates it, you become active part of the play of life and that’s how transformation happens.

Rain or shine it’s all fine

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