Annual Gay Spirit Visions conferences.

2015 Spring Retreat: With Connection & Communication

Luis Alvarez
Luis Alvarez

Hello dear brothers,

My name is Luis Alvarez and I am happy to introduce myself as convener for the 2015 Spring Retreat, co-created with Terry Allen. Having attended Gay Spirit Visions since the 2010 Fall Conference, I have come to love my times of connection at The Mountain. I started and fostered meaningful relationships with many of you throughout the past four years, and I am honored and humbled by the love and support you have shared with me. Now it is time for me to give back by holding sacred and safe space for us to connect and ask for what we need from ourselves, one another, and the community.

Terry Allen
Terry Allen

This Spring, we will engage in many different activities that will encourage us to grow spiritually through connectedness and communication. The purpose of communication is both to reach out to another and to express what the speaker is thinking, feeling, and needing. The conference will allow participants to expand their abilities in both reaching out and expressing their needs.

Please consider joining us in this adventure.

Touching The Body, Touching The Spirit: A Bodymind Meditation Retreat

“The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy! Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy … Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!” —Allan Ginsberg

We are beings of living energy in an ocean of infinite bliss.
We are beings of blood and bone, breathing spirit.

 

2015 Winter Meditation: Four Practices

 

Join us for a playful and profound bodymind meditation retreat, devoted to gently and safely nurturing our experience of spirit in the body. With awareness, compassion, and curiosity, we will explore the spirit in the body through bodymind meditations, including:

 

Touching The Spirit in Our Own Body

Touching The Spirit in Our Own Body

Standing in Spirit, Sitting in Spirit
Ecstatic Breathing Meditation

 

 

 

Touching Each Other’s Spirits

Touching Each Other’s Spirits

Discovering the I Am through Touch and the Surrendered Breath
Touching Each Other: Intimate Sacred Touch with Partners
Touching Each Other: Sexual Sacred Touch with Partners

 

 

 

Touching The Spirit in the World

Touching The Spirit in the World

Touching the World with Our Whole Being

 

 

 

Cultivating a Sacred Self-Touch Practice

Cultivating Sacred Self-Touch

Cultivating a Sacred Self-Touch Practice

 

 

 

 

This weekend is designed to cultivate a mindful atmosphere of awareness, compassion, respect, and curiosity. Meditations will be offered at all levels of intimacy. Participation is always optional, and we will support every person’s participation at a level that feels safe and sacred for them. We’ve also included unscheduled time for self-reflection, and for brothers to offer their own safe and sacred workshops and ceremonies.

Read about the Winter Meditation >>
Read about the Planning Retreat >>

Winter 2015: Touching the Body, Touching the Spirit

GSV 2015 Winter MeditationTouching the Body, Touching the Spirit:
A Bodymind Meditation Retreat

The Winter Meditation will convene January 16-18, 2015 at The Mountain, Highlands NC with convener Hunter Flournoy.

Registration for the GSV 2015 Winter Meditation is now open.

 

 

Read about the Winter Meditation >>
Read about the Planning Retreat >>
Register for the 2015 Winter Meditation >>

Fall 2014: Before You Arrive…

Gay Spirit VisionsBrother,

Gay Spirit Vision’s Fall Conference is just a few days away. Our conference theme is Community and I am very excited to be in the community of a group of men that I first encountered fourteen years ago. As this is our twenty-fifth anniversary, we will look back at what we have created and where we might be headed.

As you prepare to make the trek to The Mountain, I would love you to be thinking about what it is you bring to this community and what this community has given to you. We will gather together to contemplate who we are, what we come together for, and where we want to go next.

I hope you are all anticipating a meaningful, full, and delightful conference. I know I am.

I await your arrival with hugs, good will, and an open heart.

Love,

Scott Dillard
Convener, Fall Conference 2014

 

Preparing for the Conference

Please take a moment to read about our time together and what you might consider bringing with you in preparation for this weekend, especially if this is your first time with us.

This weekend’s conference will start with a social time on Thursday at 5:30 pm in The Commons next to the dining room and will end with lunch on Sunday starting at 1:00 pm. You may check in as early as 3:00 pm on Thursday afternoon.

 

What Will I Need?

Small Group Gift
Come with a small gift that has some personal meaning to exchange during your small group ritual. Some folks purchase something, others bring something from home or something found along the way.

Altar Object
Come with something to place on the altar; something that might represent your intentions for the retreat, some memory you hold dear, or a way to honor an ancestor.

Clothes for Movement
Come ready to move; bring clothing in which you will feel good doing so.

Talent Show
Come with sheet music or anything that might be necessary for your talent show performance.

Optional Items
Consider bringing any of the following optional items you may choose to share with our circle: personal writing journal, sketch pad, drums for drumming and other instruments, photos, sacred objects, floor pillows, night light, rain gear, layers and varieties of clothes, shoes for indoor/outdoor, for changing activities, water bottle and/or travel mug.

Silent Auction
Consider making a donation to the Silent Auction to benefit the GSV Scholarship Fund. Bring one item you wish to donate and complete an auction form when you register, or download and bring the completed form with you.

Alcohol & Non-Prescription Drugs
Please leave all alcohol and non-prescription drugs at home.