Praxis Press Articles...

Praxis has been featured in a variety of press articles, including appearing on the cover of Showcase Magazine...

"Ours is an energy-based meditation
where personal transformation
and growth are the key aspects..."

by Glenna Turnbull
Showcase Contributor

“Most people don’t know what meditation is,” remarks Duncan Harte, co-founder of Praxis Spiritual Centre in the Mission.

Meditation? Isn’t that about folding your legs up like pretzels and saying “ommmm” while your spirit floats out of your body, I ask? Duncan and partner Darcy Drobena laugh, “No, that’s not what we do here.”

At Praxis, the lotus position on the floor is traded for chairs and nobody goes floating through the room. Instead, students at the centre learn all about their internal and external energy systems, such as chakras and auras, and how to get their energy flowing more freely. And while it might be relaxing, it encompasses a whole lot more.

Sitting inside the classroom with soft music playing, Duncan explains, “Ours is an energy-based meditation where personal transformation and growth are the key aspects…It’s all about becoming aware of your own energy or any blocks or foreign energies that are in your system, then releasing those blocks or foreign energies so your own spiritual energy flows through your chakras and channels. When your energy is flowing and balanced in your system, that creates health and wellbeing,” says Duncan in his soft-spoken voice.

The two opened Praxis three years ago but have been teaching meditation here in the Okanagan for the past seven years. Duncan, who had trained as a professional dancer, first got interested in the practice after a back injury knocked him flat while training in Japan. “It seemed the more alternative I got with my approach to healing it, the more success I got,” recalls Duncan.

After being bedridden for 10 days, he started feeling what he describes now as waves of energy moving over him, unaware what it was. “That’s what started our spiritual quest. We went on a pilgrimage through South East Asia…it was a rich experience but we didn’t find what we were looking for until we got back to Vancouver and found a centre where they used all energy-based meditation, so we studied there then went on to California to do further studies before we finally landed here.”

After seven years of training, the two began teaching. Since then, they’ve had a vast array of clients. From artists to engineers, people looking for an alternative way to good health have been seeking them out every since.

How do you know if your energy systems are blocked? “It’s not an all or nothing deal,” explains Duncan, “there can be blocks at times but it’s not like once you fix it you’re good to go…We approach it from the perspective that we feel everyone has healing to do—all human beings have the need to grow spiritually.”

So how do they find these blocks? Do they use doucers or other devices to swing over chakras to detect blockage? “We don’t work with any physical tools, we work with energy levels.  The core of what we do is teach specific spiritual tools,” says Duncan.

“We start with level one, an eight week course where you learn specific spiritual tools at each class and work with them experientially. You’re walked through it and everyone will have a unique experience.”

These tools include methods of centering, grounding, learning about your aura, chakra system, creating what you want and processing emotions.

The centre also offers other services including aura healing, healing massage and aura readings. Aura readings? Will they tell me if there’s a tall handsome man in my future? They both laugh, “No, we tell people at the beginning, this is not a fortune telling reading, we don’t read the future, the readings are looking at your energy systems—your chakras, channels and aura—what’s your energy, what’s foreign energy, where they may be blocked, where it looks like you’re wanting to grow or the steps you want to take for your own personal growth. We highly prize free will so nobody is ever told ‘you will do this or that,’ you can create whatever you want for yourself.”

Darcy offers me an aura healing so I can see for myself what it is. As he waves his arms around me, I wonder what he’s doing, but then when he crouches down and puts a hand on the floor below the seat of my chair, I’m amazed at this tingling feeling which can only be described as energy, that he is seemingly pulling down. “I’m grounding you right now,” he explains.

The steps that follow amaze me. As he moves his hands from toe to knee, knee to hip, and up through the rest of the chakras, never touching my body, I realize that just because you cannot see something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The tingling sensation that travels through me during the treatment reminds me of this. The session ends with him “tucking me back in” inside my aura.
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