[This 2018 post has been update with 2019 workshop feedback]
Three Empowering Consciousness Workshops have been facilitated in Western Australia. Most recently by Andrew Outhwaite in 2019, Andrew Nolan (from Sydney) in 2018, and previously Michelle Lee.
Twenty five people have participated. Around half of the participants have participated in other Cheng Hsin activities such as Increasing Consciousness Group, eCourse or other workshops and retreats. Others come to this freshly, accepted the invitation and dive in.
You can read about the invitation they accepted.
Below are some extracts from the feedback participants have generously provided afterwards.
What is the most significant insight or benefit that remains with you now?
So much of what I perceive about the world and my place in it are thought constructions and are distant from the actual experience. Contemplation and meditation can bring me to a better understand of what is real and shed a bit of dwelling on the past and fantasizing about the future.
Andrew (one of three Andrews participating)
True honesty and experiencing another [person] for who they truly are, for them self and not for me is powerful and freeing. As a result, it relieves so much of the inner conflict I’ve held for so long.
Courtney
I’ve experienced the power of this work and realized how much there is that I’m not presently conscious of. I feel motivated to continue seeking truth, as there seems to be nothing more powerful and important.
Ariel
The importance of honesty in consciousness work and self acceptance.
Niklas
Concept vs experience. How often I theorise, rather than inhabit my own experience.
Anonymous
Find what is True for myself right NOW.
Robert
The creator of my reality is within.
Anonymous
Practices that I can do at home to become more conscious of my bottom-lines, my sense of being, seeing things for itself, seeing people for themselves. The biggest benefit is having the tools to help differentiate between experiencing a concept and experiencing the truth, and being to use that awareness to help make me more conscious of when I’m acting on the situation or reacting to a concept.
Anonymous
An elevating of my mood plus a powerful reminder to stay aware of my reactions and to question the thoughts and beliefs that trigger them. Also that the questioning of positive reactions and their triggers can also add to my awareness of self and experience.
Kate
Having more control over my life and my actions. Having less of my thinking get in the way of the present moment.
Becoming even clearer on the consequences of self perspective and how that plays out and influences every moment of experience of my life. Being more aware of how I create these perspectives and reactions and how they’re not part of me, who I am . A shift in the experience and the created relationship to what is occurring now.
Bernie
What will you say to someone else who asks about your experience of the workshop?
Get an introduction to the Empowering Consciousness process and the power of diads for focusing on drilling down to the the essentials of your experience.
Andrew
It was the most surreal and out-of-body experience I have ever had. It provided me with insights that not only increased my consciousness but it also liberated me from the concepts that dictate my life. It has opened up a whole new way of living, perceiving and experiencing.
Anonymous
If I had been known any of this sooner, how different my life would have been? I am no longer dealing with the symtoms of being unhappy, now I have the tools to go after the root cause. Once I found that. WHOA! The way I interact [after the workshop] with myself, other people and the world around me has shifted so profoundly. I love deeper. But the better question is, what would a world be like if everyone was conscious of the fundimental truth of their experience be like?
Courtney
It was mind-blowing. I experienced states of consciousness that I never had before and felt extraordinarily open and free as a result. The results I experienced were far more real and instantaneous than any kind of ‘self-improvement’ I’ve done in the past.
Anonymous
It changed my experience of being in a profound way and enabled more freedom in my life.
Ariel
I found it challenging and intense, but illuminating, worthwhile.
Anonymous
The workshop revolves around basic principles of listening, honesty and experience. It’s about becoming more conscious of and experiencing what is true, rather than hypothesising what is probably true. It’s strips away concepts that may have previously dictated and manipulated my experience, and allows me to become more conscious of what is actually happening. The workshop is about thinking less to see more.
Anonymous
Completely life changing is an understatement. I experienced the workshop like a crescendo with the ‘rug’ continually getting pulled from under me only to find out it was an imaginary rug. I feel a greater clarity and excited that there are lots more to discover and this is only the beginning. After the workshop I walked out of the building loving life even more. Thanks Andrew for making this happen and every- one that attended!
Robert
The workshop is a great way to explore self, experience and increase your awareness for both long-term “seekers” and people new to self-exploration / consciousness work.
Kate
Intense, focused diving into nature of mind and self.
Anonymous
Fantastic, enlightening and honest
Joshua
Do you recommend any changes to how we described and promoted it?
I think the promotion was good and was in line with the benefits and activities. The event platforms were convenient and straightforward.
Anonymous
I think it was promoted well. The workshop exceeded my expectations and was more powerful than what I believed it would be based on the advertised benefits, though reading back on the event description I think the benefits were communicated well. It’s just that reading it is very different to experiencing it.
Ariel
I appreciated the email invite, thank you. I wasn’t expecting the workshop to be so intensely personal. Not sure that’s something that can be/needs to be communicated as part of promotion.
Anonymous
Put more emphasis on how profound doing this work is.
Niklas