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An Incubator for the Heart's Desire
where innovation and love combine to create a better world
bio - SPEAKER, CATALYST, ALLY
The Early Days
Michael was born into a tradition that his ancestors brought from the west of Ireland to the outskirts of Boston, which contains a reverence for family, a deep appreciation for the natural world, and the maverick injunction to be yourself no matter what the situation might be - which he pursued through interests in sports, politics, and the writings of several transcendental philosophers who lived in the same neck of the woods.
Looking for One's Creative Work
In 1987, a desperate desire to know the truth of his life led Michael to graduate school in public policy, where he worked on the staff of an international commission on peace and recovery in Central America, followed by writing about grassroots philanthropy and new ideas in conflict resolution, a long-shot presidential campaign and managing a small, fast-paced consulting group that specialized in climate change work.
A Deeper Alignment with the Heart
In 1996, a vague sense of neglecting a deeper force nudged Michael to leave his managerial career for the unknown, where a conversation with his heart exposed a desire to know the deepest potential of love - followed by a few strange coincidences, a giving over of self to the whole, and a wrenching ordeal that stripped away his defenses and revealed the heart's core as a gateway to the inside of all that we see around us.
Samadhi - New Frontiers in Leadership & Innovation
Michael's desire to express an exquisite ache of love for the world generated exciting new work as an advisor to several groundbreaking nonprofit ventures. Yet his exploration of a hidden creative niche led to an experimental leadership gathering where a form of deep listening drew him beyond the waking senses into a vast, eternal awareness, which then collapsed into a primordial void that radical mystics point us to.
The Galisteo Experiment
While holding this vision close to the vest, Michael was given a dare to live each day as if he had one year to live, so he drove an old pickup truck across country until the engine seized outside a temple, where he improvised by renting a cottage in a small, rustic village in New Mexico, put the finishing touches on a children's book about unity and diversity in youth sports around the world, and tended to a regular influx of dreams.
Dialogues on Awakening
In the midst of writing about an inner-directed path of awakening, a sage arrived in a dream to offer advice for working with people. In response, Michael spoke to a range of groups around the country before designing programs that combine inquiry and action in the canyons of southeastern Utah and the high desert of New Mexico, with a focus on turning the way of love into an actual, embodied reality. That is the Work.
Self Discovery With No End
Michael's thinking about group work was influenced by a pioneering business scholar who proposed that the vibrancy of any learning community is determined not by the particular form that is used, but a lively spirit of discovery that constantly delivers new insight into the participants’ experience of themselves and the world around us - which can be thrilling and unnerving at the same time, and has no apparent end.
A Celebration of Uniqueness
To address a tendency for spiritual dialogue to be restricted to the mental plane, or to dismiss the uniqueness of the soul's design, Michael employed a natural, empathic style to help discern entrenched habits of mind that restrict how we function in the world and to articulate what a deeper alignment with the Self would look or feel like in our lives - either through a dynamic process of inquiry or the inventive wisdom of our dreams.
Exploring What is Next
In the midst of a viral pandemic, street protests and forest fires that have become the new norm, Michael's online offerings include a morning roundtable to start the day, weekend programs to take a deeper dive, and private consultations to explore the dynamics of a life/work situation and how our creative engagement with the world might be changing in the weeks and months ahead. May we rise to the occasion.