“We are meant to be happy and free. We are meant to be fresh, intelligent,
spontaneous and joyful. But often we are not. So something went wrong in our life.
Fortunately this can be corrected through consciousness and understanding. If you
find the reason for your problems you are already healed. Therefore you can heal in
one week, sometimes in only one day – if you are dedicated, focused, hardworking –
and lucky.” Janu
Awakening to conscious living Series
Cape Town, South Africa, May 3-10, and Johannesburg 13 & 14 May 2015
About the work
Janu – alias Søren Ventegodt MD – holds a European master of
science in alternative, complementary and psychosocial medicine
(EU-MSc-CAM). He is researcher in quality of life, holistic medicine
and sexology, and the author of more than 20 books and 250
scientific papers on these subjects. During the last 20 years he has
given talks and courses for more than 100.000 people all over the
world. He has for many years been a highly controversial figure as he
always puts focus on subject difficult to define and measure, like
happiness love, sexuality, consciousness and personal growth. His
methods combine bodywork with talk therapy, and he often uses
techniques from the all Greek doctors, the Native American
shamans, and from Asian and premodern cultures. He is well read
and well-travelled, yet his approach is fresh and immediate and not
scholarly and difficult to understand. Together with Pavlina he is
running a retreat center in Sweden for poorly functioning and
mentally ill young people.
Kasra – alias Pavlína Kordová is Reiki master, psychotherapist and body therapist. Since 2004 she has
regularly attended courses on healing, quality of life, and personal development in the Czech Republic,
England and Sweden. She has been a regular visitor in the Osho center in Czech. She has since 2012 been
teaching subjects like holistic healing, sexual health and personal growth in Czech Republic, Norway and
Sweden. In 2014 she participated on sacred ritual in Amazonian Jungle in Perú. She is also doing sexological
bodywork for women with al kind of sexual problems and is appreciated by her clients as compassionate,
sweet and gifted therapist.
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CAPE TOWN WORKSHOPS
Tuesday: 5 MAY 2015 16-23.00
Price: R650
Holistic medicine and sexology: One session healing of rape and incest
traumas in a group setting
This one-day course has been tested in 2010 where it was successfully held at the Medi-Spa in
Kloof Street, Cape Town under the title “The horror of sexual violence and abuse and the gift of
therapy”.1
Welcome to this intensive healing seminar with 7 hours of mind-body medicine were we help
victims of rape, incest and other kinds of sexual abuse in South Africa. The high incident of rape,
incest and other kinds of sexual abuse has made it necessary to develop a fast, safe and efficient
cure that heals traumas after sexual violence and abuse. We are happy to be back in South Africa
with this offer to all women who has been victims of sexual abuse and violence.
The most important tool used this day is sharing; only by opening up and talking about what really
happened can the wounds on body and soul be healed. Another important tool is holistic
bodywork, where the difficult feelings of the traumas are processed and integrated.
In the beginning of the seminar a therapeutic goal for the day is defined. We were happy to see
most of the participants reach their goals in 2010: A female university student who had been
raped succeeded to let go of her fear and hatred of men. A victim of date-rape managed to break
free of her victim role and got out of a year-long depression. One woman around 20 years old and
victim of incest succeeded in getting rid of her disgust with sex.
Sexual violence and abuse is one of the greatest threats to female quality of life and sexual
functioning in our time, and sexual traumas often lead to mental illness. One in seven females
have been sexually abused in the western world and in less developed countries like South Africa
the rate might be as high as one in four.
Awakening to conscious living I
WEDNESDAY 6 MAY 2015 18 – 21:30
Price: R500
BE YOURSELF - Blossom with all your energy, power and talents
You are a human being, an animal, and a God; you are nothing and everything at the
same time. To truly understand our human nature is to dive into the endless mystery of
consciousness. This magical journey will show you that you are life itself, and you are
everything that comes with life: Love, joy, freedom, happiness, wisdom, unlimited power
and the deepest peace.
We are life. We are not alive. We are love. We do not love. We are happiness, happiness is not a
goal, but our true state. Relax, be your Self, and blossom with all your energy, power and talents.
It is not hard. It is not difficult. It is not far away. It’s only a matter of right understanding.
…
Only love can make you happy. But how can you love others if you don’t love yourself? If you hate
your body, are tormented by your mind, or believe that you are evil at the bottom of your heart,
how can you love yourself?
The truth is that our nature is love. We are born to be one with all.
Our human destiny is love. All we deepest down want and long for is love. Therefore it is possible
to come to love yourself, also if you have not known of such a love.
You can find love in yourself if you search for it. And when you love yourself you can love others
and the world as such. You will see that it is a truly magical world we live in – but a world where
consciousness rules and where negative thoughts have power to destroy the experience of joy and
create sufferings when we believe in them.
Negative believes comes from negative life events. We call events that change our beliefs about
the world for traumas. Few years ago it was believed that traumas were difficult to cure, but new
important research in therapy (i.e. by Leischenring and coworkers) have documented that most
traumas can be cured fast and effectively with psychodynamic and holistic therapy, which focuses
on the body-mind and includes work with difficult emotions, sexuality and spiritual aspects of your
being.
This day we meet to dig through the dark layers of your negative believes coming from difficult
and traumatic life events, in the intent to find quality of life, innocence, spontaneity, our true
feelings, and our self-love. If you work dedicated it can be done in one day.
Self-development and self-discovery is hard work but it can often be done fast if you give it your
dedicated efforts. When you succeed your whole life is changed for the better.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Thursday: 7 MAY 2015 Awakening to conscious living II
16-22 o’clock
Price: R650
The sacred one-to-one relationship
The secret of love and sexuality: How to worship your partner, master intimacy, and
reach sexual ecstasy
Our deepest nature is love. Only when we see ourselves as love, can we love unconditionally,
without demands and without expectation of getting something back. When we understand
ourselves as love, we can see that it is our nature to be a part of a whole, to be in relationship with
the world and all living beings in it. This understanding makes it possible to go beyond the ego and
experience not just a connection with the whole world and other people, but a true oneness with
our partner.
When we are one with the source, or call it life or love, we can be free and natural - pure and
innocent - and we can live the life we were created to live.
Harmony, happiness and love go together. Without love you cannot have the other. Use this
workshop to recognize yourself as a loving being whose nature it is to be at peace with yourself
and the universe - and be one with all.
Alone and in pairs we will examine the life energy and see where it comes from - and what is
blocking it, if we are not feeling fully alive. Be warned that the energy of life and the sexuality are
two sides of same coin. Are you sad and depressed? Or unmotivated and feeling blue and
hopeless? It is most likely that you also have big problems with body, gender, identity and
sexuality. In this supportive environment, we will look courageously into all the problems of life
and existence, to solve them and move on to where life is good and happy – to realize what we are
truly meant to be.
If we are lucky we get a deep feeling of awe; an experience of being allowed to look into
something very secret and sacred: The innermost core of our own and the other person’s life, to
be worshiped and appreciated.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Friday: Awakening to conscious living III
FRIDAY 8 MAY 2015 16 – 22 o’clock
Price: R650
The shamanistic journey – six hours of exploration into your inner life!
Experience a marvelous “one session healing”: a 6 hour shamanistic journey
deeply into your existence, to the roots of your body and mind. Understand the
cause of your physical illness, mental problems, sexual issues, and/or other
problems in private or professional life as you explore the core of consciousness
and root of the life force.
In all premodern cultures people have been traveling into the underworld of their own mind, to
explore the depths of existence and the marvels of life.
Often the time frame for such a journey has been only one day. The wise shaman has taken his
people to the edge of what we know, to explore the vast land of the unknowns. In the borderland
between the waken state and dreams, between mind and the mindless eternal life, the
conditioned, flawed and the eternal flawless infinite, people found the causes of all diseases,
unhappiness and sufferings… Therefore the shaman, or the medicine man, was celebrated as half
deities.
In the modern society we have lost the tradition of deep exploration into life, but this does not
mean that we cannot do it. It just takes a special intention, a specific effort, to go beyond the Ego,
the too well-known and mundane.
This day we will use the intensive therapeutic techniques, from bodywork and psychodynamic
psychotherapy and group work to time line therapy, philosophical intervention in our
interpretation of reality and, if necessary, also the tools from holotropic breath work (Dr. Stanislav
Grof’s methods) and tantra (non-nude, sexological work). Rituals from premodern cultures and
native American tribes (like the talking stick ritual) may also be used.
We expect you to come open to exploration, and with an existential subject you urgently need to
understand. It can be a physical or mental disease, a problem around body and sexuality, or a
problem with your private or professional life you really need to solve NOW!
We will work individually (meditation), in couples (supportive exploration) and in groups. Be
willing to share all, and to keep everything you come to know about the members of this group
strictly confidential.
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Saturday-Sunday: Awakening to conscious living IV
Sat. 10- 19 o’clock
Sun. 10 – 17 o’clock
Price:R1400
Know your purpose of life, master you destiny
This course had 45 participants in April 2014 and in is one of the most
popular courses at Maitrea in the Czech Republic! The purpose of this
course is to raise your consciousness to the level where you can
understand, influence and create your own destiny.
Just after conception, the Native Americans say, you choose your purpose of life, or your life
mission. Soon after that you forget all about who you truly are. Our life mission is our greatest
talent – what we can do better than anything else, and what we can do better than anybody else.
Using this talent is our greatest joy. Through this talent all other talents are mastered. When you
live your purpose of life, you will always be successful, because you will enjoy using yourself, and
you will give without expecting to get paid or getting anything back.
By knowing yourself and mastering your purpose of life you will be generous and playful, creative
and in close contact with everything within and outside you. Therefore it is said that the one who
knows himself so well that he even knows the essence of his own soul is eternally happy and loved
by the Gods. He is granted the privilege to create his own destiny by the grace of the Universe.
Saturday we will work hard on finding our life-purpose. Sunday we will explore what it mean for us
to know this deep secret about our life: a new, blessed destiny. And we will help each other heal
the early life traumas related to it.
The life mission is you greatest talent – your gift to the world. The one who knows it and rest in
this understanding comes from love and gives unconditionally. Knowing yourself is thus the
door you opening your heart.
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JOHANNESBURG WORKSHOPS
Wednesday 13 May 18:00 to 23.30
Price R500
BE YOURSELF - Blossom with all your energy, power and talents
You are a human being, an animal, and a God; you are nothing and everything at
the same time. To truly understand our human nature is to dive into the endless
mystery of consciousness. This magical journey will show you that you are life
itself, and you are everything that comes with life: Love, joy, freedom, happiness,
wisdom, unlimited power and the deepest peace.
We are life. We are not alive. We are love. We do not love. We are happiness,
happiness is not a goal, but our true state. Relax, be your Self, and blossom with all
your energy, power and talents. It is not hard. It is not difficult. It is not far away. It’s
only a matter of right understanding.
Only love can make you happy. But how can you love others if you don’t love
yourself? If you hate your body, are tormented by your mind, or believe that you are
evil at the bottom of your heart, how can you love yourself?
The truth is that our nature is love. We are born to be one with all.
Our human destiny is love. All we deepest down want and long for is love. Therefore
it is possible to come to love yourself, also if you have not known of such a love.
You can find love in yourself if you search for it. And when you love yourself you can
love others and the world as such. You will see that it is a truly magical world we live
in – but a world where consciousness rules and where negative thoughts have
power to destroy the experience of joy and create sufferings when we believe in
them.
Negative believes comes from negative life events. We call events that change our
beliefs about the world for traumas. Few years ago it was believed that traumas
were difficult to cure, but new important research in therapy (i.e. by Leischenring
and coworkers) have documented that most traumas can be cured fast and
effectively with psychodynamic and holistic therapy, which focuses on the body-
mind and includes work with difficult emotions, sexuality and spiritual aspects of
your being.
This day we meet to dig through the dark layers of your negative believes coming
from difficult and traumatic life events, in the intent to find quality of life,
innocence, spontaneity, our true feelings, and our self-love. If you work dedicated it
can be done in one day.
Self-development and self-discovery is hard work but it can often be done fast if you
give it your dedicated efforts. When you succeed your whole life is changed for the
better.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
14 MAY 2015 16-22:00
Sacred one-to-one relationship
Price: R650
The secret of love and sexuality: How to worship your partner, master intimacy,
and reach sexual ecstasy.
Our deepest nature is love. Only when we see ourselves as love, can we love
unconditionally, without demands and without expectation of getting something
back. When we understand ourselves as love, we can see that it is our nature to be a
part of a whole, to be in relationship with the world and all living beings in it. This
understanding makes it possible to go beyond the ego and experience not just a
connection with the whole world and other people, but a true oneness with our
partner.
When we are one with the source, or call it life or love, we can be free and natural pure and innocent - and we can live the life we were created to live.
Harmony, happiness and love go together. Without love you cannot have the other.
Use this workshop to recognize yourself as a loving being whose nature it is to be at
peace with yourself and the universe - and be one with all.
Alone and in pairs we will examine the life energy and see where it comes from and what is blocking it, if we are not feeling fully alive. Be warned that the energy of
life and the sexuality are two sides of same coin. Are you sad and depressed? Or
unmotivated and feeling blue and hopeless? It is most likely that you also have big
problems with body, gender, identity and sexuality. In this supportive environment,
we will look courageously into all the problems of life and existence, to solve them
and move on to where life is good and happy – to realize what we are truly meant to
be.
If we are lucky we get a deep feeling of awe; an experience of being allowed to look
into something very secret and sacred: The innermost core of our own and the other
person’s life, to be worshiped and appreciated.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
A bit of theory
Some people just have the gift of happiness. Other people are only happy some times. And
some do not know true happiness. As we are meant to be happy something obviously has
gone wrong for us.
What went wrong in our life is what we with a scientific term call conditioning, or negative
learning. Conditioning can be understood through the concept of traumas. Traumas can be
emotional, sexual, physical, psychological or spiritual – and everybody has them. Nobody
really survives his or her childhood without such traumas. Most often the traumas are
coming from a number of small events where the child’s feelings or sexuality was
condemned and oppressed. Sometimes there are more dramatic, like violent or sexual
traumas from childhood, youth and adult life. Sexual abuse happens for one in seven of
girls in the western world. Sexual, violent and psychological traumas can often limit a
person for lifetime, but it is not necessary to suffer eternally because of past events.
What is truly damaged is not our inner core, is not our life itself, but only our beliefsystem; even the most brutal abuse often leaves no scar on the body but only on the soul.
Therefore you can heal and get beyond even the most difficult upbringing; the most heartless treatment by parents, or the most destructive violent or sexual abuse, like rape, incest
etc.
To understand man it is necessary also to understand his shadow – the darkness that lives
in all of us. For as long as we fear meeting this darkness, often called “the shadow” in
psychological and therapeutic research, it will control us. But when we meet it and
investigate into it, we realize that the shadow is nothing but negative beliefs about the
world and our self, brought into experiential existence and even manifest into behavior by
our mind.
What we experience as a damaged life is not the truth about our life; when we are caught
in our mind we experience our own beliefs; we live in a world created by our own thinking.
This endarkend existence is brought to an end by consciousness in the process called
“awakening to the Self”, or Self-realization.
When we go beyond mind we will see that our life is stainless, eternally whole, and
perfect. Thus we can be present, happy and wise independently of the past.
NB: We will work with strong therapeutic and regressive techniques like holotropic breath
work and time-line therapy, and with group psychodynamic psychotherapy combined with
bodywork. Other methods that might be used include playful exercises, healing
interactions, sexual exploration, loving meetings, dance and meditation with and without
music, and sexological bodywork. Be prepared for intensive emotional release during the
course. Participation is on your own responsibility, and you must agree to stay to the end
of the workshop (you cannot leave early even if you feel bad). You can be emotionally out
of balance for some days after the course, so prepare for that. The course/workshop is
open for everybody but let us know if you are under psychiatric treatment.
References:
Ventegodt, S, Young A and Merrick J. Holistic medicine V: One session healing of rape and
incest traumas in a group setting Ref J Altern Med Res 2012;4(2): 213-217