Relating & Spiritual Consciousness: Communication, Love and Relating Dyads

Charles Berner (1927 - 2007), who was later known as, Yogeshwar Muni, created the Enlightenment Intensive. Charles grew up in Southern California, fifty miles from the city of Los Angeles. His parents raised him in a tradition of science rather than religion and religious dogma. His education and early employment was in the field of science and technology but as a teenager he discovered he also had an interest in philosophy, religious traditions and metaphysics. As a young man his curiosity and interest in life got him wondering what his purpose in life was. In this quest to understand himself he talked to many spiritual teachers, visited a variety of Southern California churches and experimented with several spiritual growth traditions. In the late 1950's he began to attend and study with a newly developing church called The Church of Scientology. By the early 1960's he was a leader, a respected teacher and even became the president of the Church of Scientology in California. But by 1965 he resigned his affiliation with the organization because he was committed to individual freedom and personal responsibility and this conflicted with the autocratic policies of L Ron Hubbard, the founder and leader of Scientology. In the 1960's he formed the Institute of Ability where he continued to teach and develop new communication methods and self reflective techniques for improving one's life. He also used similar personal growth techniques as Scientology but without the autocratic policies of emotional, social and psychological control. In 1973, while traveling on a spiritual tour of India with two dozen of his students he met Swami Kripalvananda. The Swami initiated Berner into the yogic practice of Sahaja or Natural Yoga. Berner, was given the name of Yogeshwar Muni by Swami Kripalu. The name means The Lord of Yoga. When he returned to the United States he began to teach Sahaja Yoga calling it Surrender Yoga or Natural Meditation. In addition to teaching Surrender Yoga he continued his personal daily surrender meditation practice for up to 8 hours a day for the rest of his life. In 1982, he moved to Australia to begin a life of solitude and simplicity where he continued to meditate, write, reflect and teach a small group of students who were dedicated to a path of surrender yoga.