Gaia Sagrada Center
Spiritual Living Center, Campus, Workshops, Seminar, Conference

Wisdom of the Heart Church is now creating Gaia Sagrada Spiritual Living Center in Ecuador, South America. We expect to have the Iglesia and center ready by Summer 2012. We hope to register University of Metaphysical Sciences in Ecuador as well, as government applications are put in.

We have been working on establishing a Spanish version of all our spiritual courses in Ecuador because of the many requests we have received for our courses in Spanish. While there, we realized what a perfect place to open our church, campus and retreat center! We spent a year looking for affordable land that had a lot of privacy and a peaceful setting. We finally found the perfect place. It is on 50 acres in the Andes Mountains, 35 minutes northeast of the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, halfway to Paute and Gualaceo, in the middle between the three.

We at Wisdom of the Heart Church chose South America instead of the USA so we can make it affordable for people of all incomes and also because Ecuador is a magical and beautiful place. In the United States everything costs so much, including land, organic food, building materials, permits, the list goes on and on, not to mention the bureaucratic difficulty in the logistics of creating a center. Once built, it would be difficult for some people to afford the high prices a center has to charge in the USA. That is why we chose Ecuador! Everything is a quarter of the price of things in the USA.

A plane trip to Ecuador is fairly inexpensive. For instance, it costs the same to fly to Ecuador from New York City as it costs to fly from New York City to San Francisco in some cases. This is what makes Ecuador so available! Travel to Ecuador is easy, no paperwork, safe, and we will send someone to pick you up at the airport.

Ecuador is very middle class, with cell phones, internet and all the commodities of the USA. It is not the third world country people might think it is. This is great for us and it is great for you too! You won't have to pay as much in order to experience a retreat situation, spiritual community, or a campus you can live at and study at UMS. Here you will have the opportunity for right fellowship with others of like mind, a chance to explore deeply who you are, and your special part in universal consciousness.

Ecuador functions on the US dollar and you can enter Ecuador for 3 months on your passport alone. You can stay another 3 months with a visa that costs approximately $200, which you can get before you come to Ecuador or after you are here. This makes for a total of 6 months that you can stay in Ecuador. No shots or immunizations are required. Only a passport is required.

The beauty of this land is that it could be anywhere in the world. It has many pine trees and peaceful places to meditate. It looks more like California or the Colorado mountains in the USA than what you would expect Ecuador to look like. It is at an elevation of 8-9000 feet, so it does not have the tropical look that you would expect in Ecuador, even though it is nice and warm. It never goes below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and never above 80 degrees, and it never snows. It is very similar in climate to Arcata, California where the UMS office is. That’s why we feel so at home on this lush land. It’s just like home in California!

Wisdom of the Heart Church and University of Metaphysical Sciences are non-profit and we have never raised our prices since we opened 10 years ago, even though costs have doubled for most of the functions we perform. We have compassion for humanity and we didn't want to put this education out of reach of lower income people, even as the economy changed. Therefore, we have not amassed extra wealth for setting up a campus and retreat center, but we had enough for a down payment.

As finances permit, we will build housing so everyone's budget can be facilitated. We will not be able to provide work exchange positions right now, as labor in Ecuador is very inexpensive, but it will be affordable for all income levels when it is ready. In certain cases for certain skills, work exchange will be considered once the retreat center opens.

In preparation for this campus and retreat center, there is much work to do. The buildings need some modernization, and development must be done on the water systems and electrical systems. We are planning on building tent platforms, cabins, a meeting house, and housing for retreatants. We will also make this a spa experience with sauna, hot tubs, and massage rooms. (Massages in Ecuador cost between $12-15.)

Vegetarian Food

We hope to create a beautiful place for you to come and enjoy for a price you can afford. Your stay here would be a quarter of what it would cost to go to a retreat center in the USA, perhaps even less. The food is fresh and exotic in Ecuador. We will grow much of our own food on the land and in greenhouses. Meals are organic and vegetarian cuisine of the highest quality, vegan diets included. For the raw food lovers, there will be plenty to choose from, always. There will be special workshops for raw food un-cooking, raw food diets and detoxification, as well as fasting and going very deep into your consciousness.

Extra Curricular Study On UMS Campus

All spiritual classes offered at Gaia Sagrada Spiritual Living Center are Extra Curricular classes in the form of workshops, apprenticeships and internships. For students pursuing a degree, all distance learning materials would still be taken as they currently exist. The extra benefit is that here you can live and study with fellow students and you will have a chance to discuss and ask questions about what it is you are learning, as well as experience extra classes, exercises and activities that are not in the UMS curriculum. Support for your spiritual studies are provided and different themes are explored each week.

A day at Gaia Sagrada includes:

• Daily meditation sessions, silent and guided
• Yoga
• Prayer
• Certain periods of the day, silence and introspection
• Day trips, socializing and various activities
• Opportunities to participate with the Ecuadorian community around us
• Fun and laughter!

Facilities include:

• Sauna
• Hot tub
• Serenity Center store
• Camping
• Internet
• Massage
• Walking trails

At times, outside spiritual groups will come in with their own programs and offerings, as we will open this center to others who have their own groups they wish to bring. We cannot facilitate creating an audience for those groups or organizations. They will need to do their own advertising and marketing of what they have to offer and a minimum attendance of 20 people will be required. What we can do is provide facilities at a greatly discounted price than what it would cost to offer their retreats in the United States or other higher priced countries. Airfares to Ecuador are quite similar to airfares in most places in the USA, so it is not a stretch for the budget to visit Ecuador.

If you are a person Teaching English as a Foreing Language (TEFL) please come and work with the community. We are working on bringing English to the children of our neighbors.

The neighborhood is very friendly here. The nature is magical with fireflies in the evenings to enchant you. The stars are incredibly clear. There are wonderful walks you can take all over the property and gardens of flowers for you to enjoy. We will also facilitate journeys to various places in Ecuador, including hiking in Cajas National Park, jungle forays, beaches and other interesting journeys to the sights of Ecuador. No prices for any of these services have been decided at this time. This is only an announcement of what is to come. We are in the very beginning stages of development and planning.

If you are not a UMS student, you are welcome to come and participate too. This is open to all. You can come and have a personal retreat, participate with the different groups that will be here, enjoy all the daily activities, meditations and yoga workshops, or simply come for a weekend or weeklong event if you are not participating in the month long study programs. The month long study programs will cost between $950 to $2500 per month, which includes food, housing, and all activities open to the general community. The price varies depending on the type of housing you choose. Housing will include camping, shared rooms, or private rooms.

If you would like to know more about Cuenca, Ecuador, it is a very beautiful historic city. It is a population of approximately 500,000 people and it is the cultural, artistic and intellectual center of Ecuador. Every weekend there are festivities of all sorts in the historic district of Cuenca, and the people of Ecuador are very friendly, kind and welcoming to foreigners. Please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuenca,_Ecuador to find out more about Cuenca.

If you have ever wanted to see Ecuador, or travel in South America, make us one of your stops along the way. Gaia Sagrada Spiritual Center will be ready at some point in 2012 for visitors and students. We plan on having a very large December 2012 gathering here as well, setting intention, so mark it on your calendar as something you might want to experience.

We hope you come and participate in this wonderful endeavor and may your path be joyful and light filled every day! In the meantime, we are getting to work with the development of this center, and assisting this Ecuadorian community around us with needed employment and services.