August 26-31, 2023
 
Join us on the Kitsap Peninsula near Seattle
 
Experience wonderful days of emotionally intelligent, poly-friendly, 
eco-sexy, open hearted, community connection!
 
We recommend you have attended a Network for New Culture week long event, or a Tantra Festival, or an ISTA Level one training previously.
 
*Enjoy the closeness and sweet support of community
*Join our community Forum sharing for emotional transparency
 
*Bliss out at the Connection Ceremonies and temple spaces
*Learn the skills of pleasure, including nurturing, respectful touch
 
*Time at the nearby river bank and lush forest,
*Savor the yummy organic meals!
 
Fill out the Application!
with

  • Reid Mihalko

  • Hema Latha

  • Amara Karuna 

  • Kim Keller

  • Victor Warring

  • and more!

Creating Connection

Join us in co-creating safe, nurturing, inspiring community, with a focus on how we can be deeply connected with each other, with nature and the world. 
 
We are dedicated to examining every aspect of our existing cultures and experimenting to find out how to create a world based on love and freedom, rather than fear and violence.
       The simple act of sharing loving touch is a deeply powerful practice that most of us would like to have more often, especially in these times.  The intention for this event is to create a warm, loving and safe space for exploring sensuality, communication and relationship skills in an experiential way. 
 
In order to create a safe bubble to touch in freely, we will ask for safety protocols to be followed beforehand, including testing and relative self seclusion.
 
We will have some open time blocks for participants to offer workshops and events.  If you have an idea for leading one, let us know on the application!
 
Come celebrate, be challenged, and enjoy yourself on the land as we share our talents, knowledge and hearts with each other!
This will be held on the Kitsap Peninsula.  The center is very private, tucked away in a lovely forest and is comfortable with sensual activities and nudity.  It offers great food, and a number of private and dorm style rooms, and lots of space for camping.
We will limit the retreat to 70 people including organizers/presenters. Because of the limited attendance, we will not be selling part time tickets.

Samples from the Program

We have many wonderful offerings to delight you, presented by our very skilled presenters including:

Date Your Species

(With Reid Mihalko)

Are you dating your species?  Learn about the Venn diagram of compatibility and find out if you are dating a dog or cat.  Reid will cover common mistakes made during dating.

 

Embodied Dance

(with Victor Warring and others)

Embodied dance is tuning into the internal movement of emotions, sensations and our collective energies.

Discover your own way to move in this delightful form that is both playful and loving.

Dance serves as the perfect metaphor to learn about ourselves as we tune into a partner. What your body learns transfers to other relationships.

Honor your desire for social, sensual, sexual and spiritual connection.

Feel your passion burning within and notice how others will gather to warm themselves at your flame.

All levels welcome, no previous dance experience necessary.

 

Latihan

(with Hema Latha)

Latihan hails from Indonesia and is a powerful meditation in movement exercise.  This is an experience in letting go as you deeply surrender to navigating the unknown.  Many participants leave feeling nurtured, connected and blissed out.

 

ZEGG Forum

(with various facilitators) 

ZEGG Forum is a group process developed at the German community ZEGG to provide a stage for whatever is happening inside the person: one's true motivations, deep feelings, ideas and emotions. The Forum helps facilitate transparency, sharing and clarifying unsolved situations of daily life, and it can be a catalyst for one's own personal growth.

 

Authentic Relating Games

(with various facilitators) 

Create new and authentic connections by getting to know people in fun and playful ways.  Authentic Relating Games creates a safe atmosphere for people to show up, exactly as they are, and connect from this place.  The games are aimed at keeping what is present in the moment very alive and exploring it together with child like curiosity.  Depending on the group, the games can be light and simple.  They can also get edgy pretty quickly.  You decide where you want the games to take you!  Enjoy the ride!

Heart Connection Ritual

A Neo Tantra Puja
This ritual is modeled after the neo-tantric practice of Puja.  Puja is the sanskrit word used to describe a ritual of honoring and connecting with Divine Essence, both in yourself and in others.  This Heart Connection Ritual will be an uplifting and transformative experience designed to heal, awaken, and open your bodies energy system, especially the heart!
With step-by-step facilitation, participants are given the opportunity learn and practice neo-tantric skills, and to connect through practices such as eye gazing, breathing exercises, verbal sharing and sacred self-touch.

 

Retreat Cost: 

We ask that people give an amount that is both generous and joyful. 
If you are unable to contribute at bottom of the sliding scale, please contact us – we may be able to work something out!  
Those of you who are able to pay at the higher end of the sliding scale enable us to hold this retreat in a spirit of generosity and inclusiveness. 
 
We will notify you by May 15th if you have a spot.  People registering after that will be notified as soon as possible.
Send your full payment within 2 weeks after getting the Welcome letter.  We are not taking deposits.
___Tenting/ RV ticket $695- $800 sliding scale, you bring your tent, bedding, towels
___Indoor dorm Ticket $875 - 1000 sliding scale
___Private room Ticket $995- 1200 sliding scale per person
Extra nights
You can choose to spend an extra night before the retreat and/or one or two extra nights after the retreat, at the cost of $72 per night for camping or $110 per night for indoors.
Pay with Check or credit card!  You will get details when you are notified you have a spot.
Extra nights
You can choose to spend an extra night before the retreat (but no nights after the retreat), at the cost of $65 per night for camping or $100 per night for indoors. Arrange this with the venue.  There will be more information on this in your welcome letter.
Registration Details

The Facilitators- More coming soon!

If you want to be on work trade or teach at the retreat, Apply here!

Amara Karuna

In 1989, she developed her own approach to peer counseling, called Holistic Peer Counseling integrating peer counseling with spiritual meditation practices, psychic healing, breath work and body centered techniques.

She began studying Tantra and Sacred Spot work, a method of sexual healing, on Maui in 2003, and has since studied 6 different methods of pelvic bodywork.  She has taught Sacred Pelvic Healing Work, and led Tantra Pujas since 2007.  
She is the author of the pictoral guide “Sacred Pelvic Healing Massage Practice Manual”, and offers Yoni and Lingam Massage DVDs to students for practicing at home.
Amara developed Heartbeat Nurturing Therapy, a method of healing the inner infant-self using cradling, hypnotic induction and suckling to address emotional issues stemming from lack of breast feeding & loving closeness as an infant.  She is the author of “Heartbeat Nurturing Therapy- Healing Our Hearts Together“.

See http://www.karuna-sacredloving.com for counseling, classes, workshops, writings, videos.

Hema Latha

Hema, the founder of Hema Yoga, is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and has been teaching yoga for over 6 years. Hema blends mindfulness, meditation and breath into a yoga experience that results in a greater awareness and connection to your body.

Hema is also a gifted energy healer, channeler and psychic. She uses Tantric techniques combined with her spiritual gifts to help individuals release traumas and negative blocks from their mind, body and spirit.

Kim Keller

Kim Keller is a Certified Tantra Educator and Intimacy Coach, as well as Co-Organizer of Oregon Tantra Festival. Kim lives in Ashland, OR, with her partner, Jimmy Nacey. She specializes in working with women, men and couples looking for more pleasure, joy and intimacy in their sexuality, and utilizing that juicy energy to inspire and enliven their everyday life.

As a on-one-one coach, group facilitator, keynote speaker and workshop presenter, Kim has over 30 years experience as a counselor and coach, and is driven by her strong commitment and passion in the support and service of others as they discover and reclaim their own deep sensual and sexual nature as a critical part of overall health, wellness and vitality.

Reid Mihalko

Reid Mihalko of ReidAboutSex.com and SexGeekSummerCamp.com helps adults and college students create more self-esteem, self-confidence and greater health in their relationships and sex lives using an inspiring mixture of humor, keen insight, and comprehensive sexual health information. He frequently speaks at colleges and universities, and regularly appears in the media sharing his views on consent, dating, and shame-free sexuality. Reid would also like you to know that he recently concluded a yearlong restorative justice-based accountability process so he could address harms that were brought to his attention during the #MeToo movement. You can find details on that process at TinyURL.com/reidaccountabilty

Victor Warring

 

Victor Warring, MA is a somatically trained individual, relationship and group facilitator, a somatic sexuality educator/coach and a pleasure whisperer. His work/play embodies re-wilding our animal bodies and inviting play, pleasure, connection, eros, community and social justice into all aspects of our lives.

Victor’s work and life are focused on the reclaiming of our innate, sovereign somatic intelligence buried within our domesticated lives; the intelligence of our wilder ancestors for which our animal bodies long. His work is gender orientation, sexual orientation, relationship orientation and libido spectrum inclusive and trauma informed.

Event Guidelines

* No Pets or children Please
* This is a substance free event, please leave alcohol and drugs at home
* We ask for respect for the neighbors driving to the site, and keep voices low when outside the buildings.
* Please keep the site clean, leave no trace, give space and respect the animals and the private homes on the land.
* All interactions with others are by mutual consent, based on respect and clear communication
*No public sexual activity, keep it private in the temples
* Refrain from wearing strong scents to help others who are chemically sensitive
*No violence or loud public arguments or disturbances of any kind tolerated
* Keep quiet, especially in the dorms and camping area after 10 pm so others can sleep.
*Failure to comply with these guidelines could result in you being asked to leave without a refund.

Other Retreats of Interest

Awakening the Inner Shaman June 11-15 2023

Is it time to really shift your energy to a new state of being? Are you ready awaken your own "inner Shaman" and to explore NOR (non-ordinary reality)? Through a beautiful variety of shamanic practices, we will activate the powerful spiritual force that is dwelling in your bodymind.  Portland, OR
Shamanic Lovers Couples Retreat June 18-24
SHAMANIC LOVERS is the Sacred Union, Dark-And-Light Play & Erotic Mystery School
You’ve Always hoped Existed, Ashland, OR

Liberation- Releasing the Past, Oct 12-17, with Stacy Lynn

Are you ready to really heal from your childhood experiences and unfold your life to new levels?  This is in a similar style to those offered by ISTA, but much more focused on nurturing. Big Island, Hawaii.

ISTA Level One

The powerful Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Experience, September 6-13, near Seattle, WA.
Amara will be organizing the International School of Temple Arts Level One again in September, with Frank Mondeose as Lead teacher.
See http://www.karuna-retreats.com/ista-seattle-l1/