When I first announced that I was leading this retreat, the demand was so strong that all the available spaces filled within the first 24 hours.

Due to a cancellation, one space has just become available for November 16–20, at a private monastery in Berryville, Virginia.

Let me give you a little backstory on why I think this retreat is so important and how it came into being.

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The Backstory:

Just over a year ago, I experienced what was probably the most transformational five days of my entire life.

I committed to a five-day, personal, completely screen-free, fully silent retreat at a monastery in a remote part of America.

So many epiphanies and insights arose during those five days that I’ve continued integrating ever since.

I went into the retreat mentally and spiritually preparing myself for what I expected would be a very difficult experience.

I knew I would be completely cut off from my family, friends, music, podcasts, news, and all my usual daily routines and habits.

To my great surprise, instead of being difficult, it became one of the most blissful periods of my entire life.

After months of reflection and prayer, I’ve become convinced that this experience is one of the greatest gifts I could ever offer you.

When all the external stimulation is cut off, truth is revealed. A joy of BEing is discovered that is acausal and ever-present.

An immense, unconditioned love at the source of all creation is touched—free from distraction.

Deeper than any passing thoughts, feelings, or experiences.

Deeper than anything we can imagine.

Anything we could ever hope to gain or fear to lose.

There were times during the retreat, deep in that pristine stillness, that I never wanted to return to “the world” again.

And yet, as I continued to move through the inner process, I found myself inspired to serve humanity more than ever, aspiring to become a beacon of God’s eternal, healing love.

I also came away appreciating my family and friends more deeply than ever before.

It is my prayer that I may show others the way home as well.

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The retreat is November 16–20, at a remote and private monastery in Berryville, Virginia.

If something within you is saying “yes,” message me ASAP for the additional information…

Or pass this along to someone who you feel may benefit from the reset.

There are moments in every life where we have to risk losing it all in order to follow the divine spark of truth within us.

In 1965, Bob Dylan had become one of the biggest and most influential musicians in the world.

His career skyrocketed to fame and wealth as a folk singer with multiple top 20 hits. Just him, his acoustic guitar, and a harmonica.

His growing fan base was very passionate and devoted to him as a folk artist.

And yet, in 1965, Bob Dylan’s heart was calling him to something different that was about to shock the music world and infuriate his fanbase.

On July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan stepped onto the stage at the Newport Folk Festival to perform for the very first time a brand new song he had just written.

The song was called “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Defying the conventions of the folk genre, he played for the very first time with an electric guitar and a fully electric band.

He was booed off the stage and accosted with insults by the infuriated crowd.

You can hear it in the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/MtHwRcn8J2c

The outrage and resentment from fans about this artistic shift from acoustic folk to rock continued.

In 1966, Bob Dylan was playing a show in Manchester, England.

As he comes onto the stage with his now fully electric band to perform “Like a Rolling Stone,” someone in the audience shouts out, “Judas!” indicating he has betrayed his own fan base. The crowd laughs with approval.

Bob then turns to his band, and you can hear him shout to them, “Play it fucking loud!”

What happens next becomes one of the most iconic and unusual musical performances in rock history.

A defiant Dylan seems to go almost into a trance-like state. He looks almost possessed.

He’s not singing the lyrics; he’s almost shouting them with an otherworldly intensity.

The band behind him is overpowering. They sound loud, raw and angry.

It’s almost like a punk-rock rendition of the song as he stands in confrontation with his own fans.

I’m mesmerized every time I watch it.

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/oXUTsWy4XSo

And yet the question remains:

Why didn’t Dylan just give in and give his fans what they wanted to hear?

He seemed to know something.

He had a deep artistic vision and had the courage to follow it, facing the real risk of losing his fan base, his fame, his wealth, and adoration in the process.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine, whose very name was inspired in part by the power of the song itself, named “Like a Rolling Stone” the greatest rock song of all time.

What happens to you when the deepest truth within you calls you in a direction that you know will face resistance and threaten the identity, success, approval, and security you’ve already built?

It’s a difficult moment.

Do you have the courage to say yes, or do you cower away in fear and continue living a life that’s inauthentic?

Maybe it means leaving a long-term relationship, a secure, well-paying job, a hometown.

There are always people who will want you to be who you were in the past. And yet you must become who your soul is calling you to be in the future.

Yet, to live a truly great life, we must get quiet, listen to who we’re called to become, and have the courage to follow that truth wherever it leads us.

In Dylan’s case, it meant recording what many now consider the greatest rock song of all time.

What does it mean in your life?

— Brian Piergrossi

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Personal Coaching

My wife Annie & I picked up some applesauce from a local farmer at our community farmers’ market.

There was one ingredient on the label: Apples.

It was the best applesauce we ever tasted.

Sadly, it’s increasingly difficult to find applesauce that contains only apples.

This sparked a very deep conversation between us that began with this question:

Why do human beings always seem to have the need to add something more to things that are already perfect and therefore make them worse?

Applesauce is so perfectly amazing and sweet exactly as it is! It’s quite literally a gift from God that grows straight from the earth.

So why then, according to my research, do over 95% of applesauce companies add other ingredients besides apples?

Here’s just a partial list of all the extra ingredients added across the major applesauce companies:

• Sugar

• High-fructose corn syrup

• Corn syrup

• Juice concentrates

• Various purée concentrates

• Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

• Erythorbic acid

• Citric acid

• Salt

• “Natural flavors”

• Artificial flavors

• Artificial colors

• Stevia

• Sucralose

• Acesulfame potassium

• Erythritol

That’s not even a full list, but you get the idea.

And yet this problem goes way beyond applesauce. It runs so deep in the human condition, it corrupts everything it touches.

It ruins marriages, families, friendships, businesses, churches, governments, forests, rivers, oceans, hearts, minds, and bodies.

This world is so beautiful, amazing, wonderful, and it tastes so incredibly good exactly as it is!

Why do we consistently ruin it by trying to alter it?

What I discovered is that we’re trying to find a shortcut to replace these three things:

Patience

Care

Attention

Let me explain.

Everything has natural stages of growth and development before it reaches its fulfillment, whether it’s dating someone, starting a business, raising a child, training a horse, growing a flower, or growing an apple tree.

To have great applesauce, you must understand the developmental stages of an apple tree. You must provide patience, attention, and care as it moves through these stages to pick the apple only when it’s fully ripe, without waiting so long that it becomes rotten.

Universe means one verse, or one song. If you think of the universe as God’s musical creation, we must learn to dance in perfect timing with its rhythm to receive all its wondrous beauty.

This timing requires attention, care, and patience to notice the subtle evolutionary changes in development and move in harmony with life instead of trying to force the process to unfold according to our own egoic desires.

You can’t make a flower bloom by trying to tear its petals open.

To fully receive the wonder and beauty that life has to offer, we must be deeply present with the moment.

Patience, care, and attention are the three essential qualities of love.

Patience gives something the time it needs.

Attention allows us to notice what those needs are.

Care moves us to respond to those needs.

Love is the synergy of all three elements.

We are called to bring this patience, care, and attention to every aspect of our life: our health regimen, our spiritual practice, our personal relationships, our stewardship of the Earth.

This small farmer brought patience, care, and attention to his apple orchard, and that’s what made his applesauce so spectacular. God did the rest.

Want to have some applesauce?

The secret ingredient is always love, not sugar.

— Brian Piergrossi

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Men’s Mastermind

I took my two-year-old son to the playground yesterday morning and I saw a new friend from my church there with his daughter.

Brett has a master’s degree in Theology and he’s someone I enjoy having the opportunity to explore deep theological questions with whenever I see him.

However, yesterday was the deepest we’ve ever gone together.

We came upon many powerful insights like if you’re doing good deeds just to get to heaven then you’re still lost in the ego and living a self-centered life.

Lots of stuff like that!

However, the most interesting part of the whole conversation came at the very end.

I told him I feel like there’s a point we get to on the spiritual path where thinking, theology, and even excessive reading is counterproductive to deepening in communion with our Creator.

Brett said he agreed and has been lately seeking to unwind his mind from the many thoughts and ideas he acquired in Theology classes in order to be quietly open & available to God’s direct presence.

There’s a related story of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the great theologians in human history who wrote thousands of pages on the nature of God.

After a profound mystical experience with God in 1273, he shockingly stopped writing.

When urged to continue his renowned book Summa Theologiae by his secretary, he is reported to have replied:

“I can write no more. All that I have written seems like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me.”

This is not to say that theological study doesn’t have value.

It’s just that there’s a difference between spending your life reading a book about a forest and actually closing the book and actually walking into that forest.

As the great Indiana Jones once said: “If you wanna be a good archaeologist, you gotta get out of the library!”

The intention of my work for over twenty years has always been to be a clear mirror for people to enter into a living and direct relationship with the eternal presence of our Creator, not merely to read about it in a book.

For the Truth is so big, vast, infinite, and unknowable that the only way to truly know our Creator more intimately is to humbly allow our lives to be miraculously transformed in God’s presence.

To allow God’s heartbeat to be the blood that pulses through our veins.

That with each breath, every thought, word, and action, we become the hands for God’s love to express itself more fully in this world.

— Brian Piergrossi

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Ways to Plug in Deeper:

*Last call for joining my Men’s Mastermind group.

I’m very enthused about the dedicated group of guys already committed and the camaraderie they share.

It’s become an extraordinarily safe and vulnerable space for tremendous leaps in positive transformation.

If you’re interested in more info about joining, let me know by Thursday.

We begin this Thursday, Sept. 24th, 2026, @ 6 p.m. EST on Zoom

*Personal Coaching

Want personalized support?

Email to request more info on my personal coaching and guided meditation/ breathwork packages for individuals, couples, or groups.

This is the most pivotal time in human history.

I know every generation always thinks that. However, I do think in this case it might actually be true, and here’s why.

For the first time ever, what so much of humanity has long been striving toward technologically is coming to fruition.

The mission has largely been accomplished.

We now have instant access to choose what we want when we want it.

This has been the utopian goal of the technological progress we’ve been moving toward as long as I’ve been alive.

I call it: The Great Optionality.

We’re now living in a time in human history where the average person right now can:

• Get any question that’s ever existed answered instantly

• Watch any movie or TV show that’s ever been made

• Listen to any song that’s ever been recorded

• Talk to, or text, anyone who desires to communicate with you, anywhere, anytime

• Read any book or article that’s ever been published

• Watch any online video that’s ever been made

• Watch any live or recorded sporting event

• Play any video game that’s ever existed

• Watch any kind of pornography that’s ever existed

• Listen to any podcast that’s ever been recorded

• Have whatever food you want delivered directly to your home

• Have any physical object in the world delivered to your house within two days

And yet, while this is now all available to anyone with Wi-Fi or cell access, something surprising has happened.

As the era of great optionality has dawned upon us, it has actually not increased happiness, fulfillment, or well-being as promised.

In fact, study after study shows people are concurrently now:

• More depressed

• More anxious and worried

• More confused

• More lost

• More suicidal

• More mentally ill

• More divided

Than before.

That’s not even to mention the skyrocketing levels of:

• Obesity

• Disease

• And collapse in physical well-being

The era of instant access has not brought the utopian peace, joy, and contentment that was dreamed of.

But why?

Amazingly, I’ve noticed most of the most joyful moments in my life have not come from wanting to choose something different. They’ve come from being fully present with what is.

They’ve come through learning to love and embrace this simple moment.

I’ve also observed this truth in the coaching clients I’ve worked with and surrounding friends and family.

The core question in regard to well-being is not:

What else could we choose to be experiencing right now besides this?

It is:

How do we more fully receive the full wonder, appreciation, and gratitude for what’s already here and freely available to us?

Perhaps technological progress had to give us what we thought we wanted so we could then discover something deeper.

Well-being comes not through other options, but actually through an internal transformation in how we relate to what IS here and now.

What’s next?

Maybe The Great Optionality becomes a major stepping stone in the evolutionary journey of humanity. A lesson learned.

I’m not naive enough anymore to think all of humanity is about to suddenly awaken to unitive consciousness together.

I think much of humanity will continue heading down a very dark road of desolation and despair, searching for more and more options to escape themselves.

However, I do think people are going to be astonished by what’s about to happen. In fact, it’s already begun happening over the last few years. Have you noticed?

You’re seeing huge masses of people (often the ones you least expect) rediscovering the wisdom and truths in the structures of traditional religion, reconnecting to spiritual practices, and seeking to more deeply know our Creator and our divine purpose.

You’re seeing more people return to making human relationships a priority, embracing family values, and reconnecting to the land.

I think the very unnecessary and harmful, multi-hundred-year war between science and religion will begin to mend as they find their symbiosis together.

I think you’re going to see an integration of the best of science, psychology, and religion working in partnership toward learning what truly brings a human being joy, fulfillment, and well-being.

For what is true science but the observation and study of God’s laws of creation, reflected in every star, tree, and ocean?

What is true psychology but the observation and study of our minds that have been humbly made in God’s image?

And what is true religion but the genuine quest to know who we truly are, why we’re truly here, and how to truly live our lives in divine purpose and fulfillment while journeying in shared fellowship?

This is a movement I’m personally passionate about being at the forefront of.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with having more choices. The more choices we have, the more possibilities we have as to what we can create together.

Yet continually increasing the amount of options alone will most certainly never provide the happiness or fulfillment we seek.

Perhaps we’ve been given the clear opportunity now to discover what the great sages and saints have always known:

The greatest freedom, and deepest love, is not in having more options.

It’s in having no choice at all.

The only option a saint wants is to fully and joyfully surrender to God’s eternal surprises.

— Brian Piergrossi

BrianPiergrossi.com

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Where do you think we are right now culturally?

Where do you see society going from here?

How is your own life currently being challenged, or benefitting, from modern technology ?

Where do you see your own individual life going from here? What intentions are you committed to?

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*The 23rd season of my Men’s mastermind group begins Thursday, Sept. 24, 6pm est on Zoom.

*Email to request more info on my personal coaching and guided meditation packages.

Space for one new regular client currently available.

As I finished the last meeting of the 22nd season of my Men’s Mastermind, I was humbled and honored to hear the gratitude expressed from the group.

Over six years ago I felt a need that was not being met and founded this group. Like any brand new project, I wasn’t sure how it would go.

For over six years now, it’s been beyond inspiring to observe the way these guys care about each other and support each other in living accountable, each day, to their highest intentions as men.

There have been positive changes again this season:

• Guys moving to the town of their dreams

• Committing to the woman they love

• Hitting new financial records in business

• Deepening their spiritual practice

• Locking consistent healthy lifestyle habits into their week

• Forging resonant new friendships and deepening existing ones                                       

A 2021 study by the Survey Center on American Life found that only 27% of American men could name six or more close friends.

This is tragic.

Unfortunately, for most men today, this kind of support is increasingly difficult to find.

To live a life of meaning, purpose, and inspiration, it’s essential to have a consistent group of men to turn to in order to maintain exceptional focus, wisdom and accountability.

We begin the 23rd season on Thursday, Sept. 24th, 6pm EST on Zoom.

There are three new spots available.

Let me know if you’d like more info.

-Brian Piergrossi

brianpiergrossi.com

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I had personal sessions today with long-time clients in Italy, New York, Texas, North Carolina and Virginia.

I continue to be very moved by the transformation I’ve seen in them over the years.

In a world that’s increasingly mechanized for efficiency, scale and speed, I’m happy to say my work remains slow, authentic, personalized, and human.

A machine is programmed to move through the exact same process as fast as possible, producing the exact same result every time.

However, human beings are not machines. Far from it.

Human beings are amazingly and wonderfully unique, unpredictable and full of surprises.

Thus, real healing and transformation require someone who is deeply present, drawing from lived wisdom that fosters a natural  empathy.

While there are certainly moments of rapid breakthrough, I’ve seen, working with clients for over twenty years now, that genuine, sustainable, integrated transformation happens—not over a period of several minutes, but often over a period of several years.

The quick fix is usually just a quick and temporary avoidance.

As mega-corporations increasingly apply machine logic to human domains to scale and maximize profits, it’s clear to me that the most essential elements in the field of healing and transformation do not scale.

They are presence, authenticity, deep listening, vulnerability, trust, and genuine relationship with someone who’s been there before.

-Brian Piergrossi

————

If you’re interested in my coaching or breathwork sessions, I currently have space available for new clients.

Reach out and let’s schedule a time to talk.

We just returned from a few days in New York City — more on that soon.

Throughout the trip, and for about a month beforehand, I had been struggling with a difficult skin issue on my finger.

I had a pretty intense and infected rash on the tip of my middle finger. The slightest touch or friction against it would send intense pain.

I tried various lotions, creams, medicines, a trip to the dermatologist, AI advice, and nothing would heal it.

Finally, I tried something very different.

I did absolutely nothing.

Within a matter of days the area was completely healed.

The same is true with my bout with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in my early twenties.

No amount of doctors, medicines, or prescriptions helped.

It was not until I decided to do nothing except commit to living an optimally healthy lifestyle (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually) that slowly, but surely I was healed.

I know of a man who had a motorcycle accident. His right forearm was horrifically gashed open. Dripping with blood, and filled with pebbles, dirt and mud.

He decided to do an experiment. He would do nothing and see what happens. Within a couple of months his arm was completely healed, and as good as new.

This is not to say that medication has never been helpful for me, or others I know. At times it has, and I’m sure will be again.

However, I will make what may seem like a radical statement.

No medication can heal you.

Medication can be an aid in your healing, or it can mask the symptoms of an injury so that you no longer feel the pain. But it doesn’t actually do the healing.

So where then does healing come from?

Science will use a lot of big, fancy words but they cannot answer this most mystical question.

The reality is the entire universe is always and continuously in a state of creation, renewal, and healing.

Healing is coded in the Logos, the original blueprint of the universe.

Life continuously regenerates and heals itself provided we get out of the way.

Cut down the plants in a meadow and new ones begin growing back immediately.

Scrape your knee and the body instantly begins healing itself, without any effort on your part.

Yet, we are conditioned by our education and culture to overlook this self-evident truth.

The more you understand how healing actually works, the more you know how to create that healing space for others.

Whether I’m doing personal coaching, leading a breathwork or meditation session, guiding a retreat, working with a couple, facilitating the mastermind, I have one primary goal in mind:

Create the space where each person can feel safe, relaxed and fully present to be in an unconditional relationship with whatever arises.

When those conditions are met, holistic healing happens on its own — physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Present moment awareness is always the agent of transformation.

It’s often not easy, however.

Old, deep wounds, traumas from the past, fears and anxieties about the future can make it a very difficult process.

We live in a culture where we want everything instantaneously. However, true healing is usually a process. That process can take days, months, or even years, depending on the depth of the trauma.

A coach or mentor who can consistently model that state of relaxed presence while supporting you in returning to your original blueprint and living in alignment with your highest purpose can be a vital source of support in that process.

Here’s the most amazing truth.

Healing is never something we force, create, or get from external substances.

Our bodies, our hearts, and our minds were amazingly and intelligently designed to know how to heal and renew themselves.

We only need to be mindful to stop re-injuring ourselves in the same wounded locations to let the healing process commence.

—————

Please reach out if you’re interested in working with me.  We’ll schedule a time to talk and get to know each other.

-Brian Piergrossi

http://brianpiergrossi.com

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Now more than ever, it’s all about family!

My extended family and I came together on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ, this weekend.

My first time there in a couple decades.

A nostalgic place for me, as we’d go there every summer when I was a child.

I saw a lot of the very same rides I’d go on in my youth.

The bumper cars and Ferris wheels. The High Seas Log Flume and the giant Buccaneer pirate ship.

Instead of mindlessly scrolling their phones for hours alone in their rooms, it’s heartening to see the younger generation having communal, embodied experiences, facing their fears and going on scary rides together.

Because after all, life is an embodied adventure, which is sometimes scary!

But you never uncover the fruits of the adventure if you don’t say “Yes” to the ride.

— Brian Piergrossi

Next stop: New York City.

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brianpiergrossi.com

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I’m at a remote monastery last year for five days of phone-free silence.

All of us have committed to this silence.

I’m meditating by myself in the church.

I’m not sure how long I’ve been meditating. Time seems to have disappeared. I would guess it’s been for over two hours straight now.

I’m having one of the deepest and most profound spiritual experiences of my entire life.

I feel like I’m communing directly with God.

The ecstatic infinity of this inner stillness is exquisite, and it just keeps getting better!

I’ve been waiting my whole life for this. I never want to leave this state.

I’m beyond excited to discover what this meditation will bring me.

I hear footsteps and an indiscernible chatter.

Suddenly a hand taps me on the shoulder.

I hear a voice say, “Excuse me.”

In that moment, a surge of anger rushes through my body.

Like a fork in the road, two possibilities open.

Part of me wants to pick him up by his collar and slam him up against the wall, tell him this is a silent retreat and how dare he violate that rule and disturb me while I’m praying silently with my eyes closed in a church.

I open my eyes and there is a very old man looking at me.

“Are you the priest from California?” he says.

I look at him closely. He looks very feeble, disoriented, lost and confused.

My heart fills with compassion and love for him.

There have been times in my life when I’ve felt very feeble and confused myself.

I get it.

“I’m not,” I respond to him with kindness.

“I’m so sorry,” he says and quickly walks away apologetically.

The great irony is that this meditation did in fact give me the greatest revelation and exactly the lesson I needed.

It just wasn’t how or what I expected.

That simple moment was the most profound life-changing moment of the entire retreat.

So much of my life had been chasing spiritual highs as a self-centered pleasure pursuit.

While those who are religious can too often fall into dogmatic concepts without any direct experience, traveling the world chasing spiritual experiences is all too common in the modern “spiritual but not religious” scene.

Instead of becoming outwardly attached and identified with material things, we become inwardly attached and identified with accumulating spiritual experiences.

The choice was very clear to me in that moment.

I could selfishly choose the pleasure of my own spiritual experience and the anger of its disruption, or I could choose to treat this elderly stranger with compassion and kindness.

What would Jesus do?

What I’ve learned is that spiritual experiences, or spiritual revelations, are great when they come, and yet they are not what’s most important.

What’s more important is our relationship with others and how we treat them.

Our kindness and compassion to others is the mark of our wholiness. Not how many spiritual states we’ve had.

It’s clear God brought that old man out of nowhere to disturb me at the high point of my meditation for a reason.

And it’s for that disturbance that I am grateful.

— Brian Piergrossi

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All seven and we'll watch them fall

They stand in the way of love And we will smoke them all

With an intellect and a savoir faire

No one in the whole universe will ever compare

I am yours now

And you are mine

And together we'll love

Through all space and time ‘

Lyrics by Prince from the song ‘7’.

Peaking, not surprisingly, at no. 7 on the Billboard charts in 1992.

Seven appears as a number of spiritual completion and renewal across an astonishing variety of cultures, traditions, times and places.

In the yoga tradition, the human body contains seven primary chakras extending from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.

1. Root (survival, grounding)

2. Sacral (creativity, sexuality)

3. Solar plexus (will, power)

4. Heart (love, compassion)

5. Throat (communication, truth)

6. Third eye (intuition, insight)

7. Crown (union with the Absolute, enlightenment)

Dormant spiritual energy (Kundalini) is described as ascending through all seven chakras, culminating in complete union of the individual with the Divine at the crown of the head.

In the Gospel of Luke, Mary Magdalene is introduced as a woman from whom Jesus had cast out seven demons (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9).

Following her deliverance, she became one of Jesus’ most devoted followers, accompanying Him throughout His ministry, witnessing His crucifixion, and becoming the first person to encounter the risen Christ.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter comes to Jesus and asks:

“Lord, how often shall my brother or sister sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times”

Jesus said to him, “I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven.” — Matthew 18:21–22

In elements of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, there is the belief in seven levels of heaven, with the “seventh heaven” regarded as the highest heaven of all.

In The Interior Castle, St. Teresa of Ávila describes the soul as a castle containing seven mansions, each representing a deeper stage of spiritual growth.

1. First Mansion – Initial conversion and awakening to the spiritual life.

2. Second Mansion – Growth in prayer and perseverance.

3. Third Mansion – A disciplined, virtuous life, relying largely on one’s own efforts.

4. Fourth Mansion – The beginning of God’s deeper work in the soul.

5. Fifth Mansion – Spiritual transformation, symbolized by the silkworm becoming a butterfly.

6. Sixth Mansion – Intense purification, trials, and profound mystical experiences.

7. Seventh Mansion – Spiritual marriage, the soul’s deepest union with God.

In Genesis there are seven days of creation, and we have seven days of the week, culminating  in the ancient Jewish tradition of the Sabbath—a day of completion, renewal, and rest in God, on the seventh day.

In Christian theology we have:

• Seven virtues

• Seven deadly sins

• Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit

• Seven sacraments

• Seven times Jesus spoke from the Cross

• Seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer

No book of the Bible employs the symbolism of the number seven more than the Book of Revelation.

Revelation opens with messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor and introduces the seven spirits before God’s throne, the seven golden lampstands, and the seven stars held by Christ.

It’s when the seven seals are opened that God’s divine purpose becomes unveiled.

The number seven continues in the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of God’s judgment, each unfolding in sequence as part of the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan.

In the Buddhist tradition, the path to awakening is described in part through the Seven Factors of Awakening:

1. Mindfulness – Awareness of the present moment.

2. Investigation – Discernment through examining reality.

3. Energy – Diligence and sustained effort in practice.

4. Joy – Spiritual happiness arising from progress on the path.

5. Tranquility – Calmness of body and mind.

6. Concentration – Deep meditative focus.

7. Equanimity – Complete mental balance and serenity.

These qualities are cultivated progressively as the practitioner advances toward enlightenment.

After attaining enlightenment beneath the Bodhi Tree, the Buddha spent seven weeks in contemplation before beginning to teach the Dharma.

It’s not just the world’s spiritual traditions, however.

The number seven also appears in the structure of music.

In Western music, the diatonic scale consists of seven natural notes—A, B, C, D, E, F, and G—before the sequence repeats at the octave.

Likewise, in Indian classical music, the basic scale is composed of seven notes: Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni, after which the pattern repeats at a higher octave.

Across these musical traditions, seven marks the completion of a full musical scale before the cycle begins anew.

Across many modern cultures seven is considered the “lucky number.”

Slot machines famously use triple 7s as a jackpot symbol.

The Point

The point here is actually not about the number seven.

I actually don’t care very much about the number seven and I’ll probably never write about it again.

The point is that there is one eternal, living blueprint that comes before, and after any language, that individuals from a wide variety of different cultures, places, and times, have attempted to translate into languages, traditions, and conceptual frameworks.

This does not mean that every spiritual tradition is the same and of equal value.

We’ll explore the differences in style, value, and potency another time.

Some embody a greater fullness of the truth than others

What it does mean is that words lay out the map to the territory, but they are not the territory itself.

We can talk and write about how to know a beautiful forest for eons.

But at some point, if we really want to know that beautiful forest, we need to put down the book and go take a walk inside it.

I want to know God beyond words, ideology, stories, parables, dogma, and fleeting, superficial experiences.

I want to know God the way an unborn child knows its mother’s womb.

I want to know others who want to know God in the same way.

Together I want to hear God say to us:

‘I am yours now

And you are mine

And together we'll love

Through all space and time

So don’t cry

One day all seven will die ‘

—Brian Piergrossi

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Personal Coaching

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Have you had enough of your own mental wheels spinning, creating endless stories and the emotional roller coaster that comes with them?

Have you had enough of the algorithm running your life?

Do you have the courage to get away with me for five days and turn everything off?

For most of you, the answer will be no.

I’m too scared.

I’m too busy.

I’m too addicted to the mind-numbing churn of the Matrix.

But for a small percentage of you, the answer will be YES.

Are you one of them?

If so, keep reading.

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Just over a year ago, I experienced what was probably the most transformational five days of my entire life.

I committed to a five-day, personal, completely screen-free, fully silent retreat at a monastery in rural America.

So many epiphanies and insights arose during those five days that I’ve continued integrating ever since.

I went into the retreat mentally and spiritually preparing myself for what I expected would be a very difficult experience.

I knew I would be completely cut off from my family, friends, music, podcasts, news, and all my usual daily routines and habits.

To my great surprise, instead of being difficult, it became one of the most blissful periods of my entire life.

After months of reflection and prayer, I’ve become convinced that this experience is one of the greatest gifts I could ever offer you.

When all the external stimulation is cut off, truth is revealed. A joy of BEing is discovered that is acausal and ever-present.

An immense, unconditioned love at the source of all creation is touched—free from distraction.

Deeper than any passing thoughts, feelings, or experiences.

Deeper than anything we can imagine.

Anything we could ever hope to gain or fear to lose.

There were times during the retreat, deep in that pristine stillness, that I never wanted to return to “the world” again.

And yet, as I continued to move through the inner process, I found myself inspired to serve humanity more than ever, aspiring to become a beacon of God’s eternal, healing love.

I also came away appreciating my family and friends more deeply than ever before.

It is my prayer that I may show others the way home as well.

Five days.

No phone.

No news.

No social media.

No endless stream of information competing for your attention.

Just silence.

Just nature.

Just prayer.

If something within you is saying “yes” as you read these words, don’t ignore it.

Turn everything off. And discover the Presence that transcends time.

If you feel called to this retreat, I’d love to hear from you.

Investment: $500

Your investment includes:

• One private preparation call before the retreat.

• One group video call with all participants before the retreat.

• One guided meeting with me each day during the retreat for teaching, reflection, questions, and practical guidance.

• One group integration call following the retreat.

• Private online community before & after for all attendees

• Personal texting before and after the retreat should questions arise.

• Guidance informed by more than twenty years of leading over one hundred retreats in more than two dozen countries.

Scheduling a Conversation

This retreat will be limited to just five participants so that it remains deeply personal, intentional, and conducive to the spirit of silence.

If this retreat resonates with you, please message me here and we’ll schedule an immediate conversation, answer any additional questions you have, and determine if it’s the right fit.

About Brian Piergrossi

For over twenty years, Brian Piergrossi has worked with thousands around the world through private coaching, retreats, workshops, online courses, group programs, and authoring two books.

During that time he has led more than one hundred retreats in over two dozen countries.

Brian is happily married to his wife Annie and has two children. They live deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

We live in the loudest time in human history.

If you live in any urban or even suburban area, you’re most likely exposed to the continuous, yet spontaneously alternating, sounds of cars whizzing by, planes and helicopters flying above you, sirens wailing, horns honking, leaf blowers, jackhammers, trains, subways, motorcycles, garbage trucks, and so forth.

Our cities have been increasingly designed for efficiently hauling consumer items and less designed for the quality of life of the human beings who consume them.

Restaurants and cafes often blast terrible low-vibration pop music so loud you can barely hear the person across the table talk.

In the average person’s home, the TV is on all day long with mindless, degenerate movies, reality TV, and cable news.

In 2026, however, most people are not outside, they’re not in a bar or restaurant, and they’re not watching TV.

They’re staring at their phones with earbuds on.

Blankly staring at “reels” and “stories,” where the noise level and the fast-paced editing continue to increase as the average person’s attention span continues to decrease.

I feel confident in stating there’s more talking and less listening in the world right now than at any other time in human history.

Everyone has the ability to express their uninformed opinion on anything under the sun 24/7 on social media.

With the millions of podcasts, news programs, and YouTube videos on every topic imaginable, you’d think we’d have it all figured out by now.

And yet, people seem more confused than ever!

With all the talk about air pollution, water pollution, and food pollution, no one talks about the modern form of pollution that may be the most damaging to the human soul of all.

Noise pollution.

The human body and the mind were never designed for this level of consistent noise.

The overwhelmed nervous system subconsciously enters into a chronic state of fight or flight, so common most people no longer know it’s there.

The body, the mind, and heart forget how to relax, ground, and center.

They can no longer drop into the interior silence of divine intelligence and wisdom.

If you study the great spiritual mystics and saints from any time and any culture in human history, you discover something they all have in common.

They all sought places that were quiet.

Whether it be deserts, monasteries, or mountaintops, they all sought places where the nervous system could relax, the mind could quiet, the heart could open, and the soul could be illuminated.

More than ever, what we need is quiet.

………………..

While this is a massive problem that can seem overwhelming, I do have a transformational solution.

Stay tuned. In a few days, I’ll be unveiling my new 5-day Digital Detox & Silent Retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani Monastery.

Comment, or reply, to be sent the information directly.

Space will be limited to only 5 participants.

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Subscribe to my mailing list: http://brianpiergrossi.com

Join our free online community The Upper Room

There’s an immature version of love and a mature version of love.

The immature version of love is defined as that which I strongly prefer.

I love chocolate ice cream.
I hate vanilla ice cream.

I love classic rock music.
I hate jazz music.

I love the New York Yankees.
I hate the Boston Red Sox.

You get the idea, right?

This is my preference. I’m very attached to it. I’m identified with it. This means I love it.

There is, however, a mature version of love that we’re invited to step into.

In the Bible, it says, “God is love.” And “we are made in the image of God.”

This means then that we are also, in fact, made in the image of love.

We’ve been intelligently designed from the very beginning to grow into the fullness of love.

Love, in the fullness of its maturity, however, is not about preference.

It’s actually about something far deeper.

To love means to care.
To pay attention.
To be present.
To notice.
To respond with the utmost intelligence, aliveness, and creativity, regardless of the circumstances, challenges, or difficulties.

We are called to love whoever, and whatever, we come into contact with, moment by moment.

This does not mean that we like everyone, or like everything. It does not mean that we no longer have preferences, or use discernment.

What it does mean is that whoever and whatever we come into contact with, we give our utmost care, presence, and attention to.

Whether it’s our family, a pet, a plant, a tree, a community of friends, a garden, or our own physical, mental, emotional, spiritual development.

To become fully human is to become an embodied channel for divine love.

We come to live in the presence of God more deeply, not just by knowing love conceptually, but by committing to embodying it in the here and now.

- Brian Piergrossi

BrianPiergrossi.com

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Reach out to learn more about my personal coaching and schedule a time to chat.

Some friends have recently expressed surprise when I told them how excited I am to be celebrating the 250th anniversary of America this weekend.

One long-time friend asked: “Do you want to celebrate 250 years of a lie?”

I understand the cynicism and disappointment people feel in America not yet fully living up to its ideals.

I used to hate where I grew up in Pennsylvania. I hated everything about it. I hated the school. I hated the neighborhood. I hated my parents. I hated the weather. I hated the people. I left as soon as I could.

Then one day in my late twenties, a series of unexpected circumstances brought me back to my hometown.

I remember very clearly walking by myself through the neighborhood in a deeply contemplative state, and a powerful realization dawned upon me. A moment of profound transformation.

This is where I come from.

This is the place that shaped me.

These are my roots.

To hate this place is to hate myself.

And I don’t want to hate myself.

I want to learn to love myself, fully and completely.

🇺🇸

When I was 20 years old, I did a backpacking trip across Europe and met people from all over the world.

I remember quite vividly meeting a young man about my age from Uruguay, a place I didn’t know much about at the time.

“Do you like living in Uruguay?” I said.

I’ll never forget the look on his face. He seemed utterly shocked, almost confused by the question.

“Of course!!” he exclaimed. “That’s my home.”

🇺🇸

I’ve learned over the years to deeply love America in the same way I’ve learned to deeply love my body, my wife, my children, and the very life I’ve lived.

My body is not perfect.

My wife is not perfect.

My children are not perfect.

My life has certainly not been perfect.

And America is definitely not, and has never been, perfect!

And yet there’s something about accepting the imperfections of this world that makes me love it a hundred times more.

There’s a transcendent beauty that emerges in the practice of loving someone, or some place, amidst the imperfections.

It’s knowing that it’s your love, your care, your devoted participation in the relationship, that transforms both yourself and the one you love in the process.

To commit to love transforms both the loved and the lover at the same time.

As Walt Whitman once said:

“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

In the end, the reason I’ve come to love America so much is very simple.

It’s because I AM American.

I’ve been to every state in America except Alaska, done retreats & workshops, and met people all over this beautiful country for multiple decades. I know it very well.

This is the soil I was born out of.

I’m deeply grateful for the heartbeat of America and all it has brought into this world.

🇺🇸

I am grateful for baseball

And those short little jean shorts

Bob Dylan

& cowgirl boots

The banks of the Mississippi River in Memphis

Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy

Buddy Holly

Walt Whitman, who sang America into mystic, ecstatic exaltation

Chuck Berry

The deep stillness of the gigantic redwood forests in Northern California

Muddy Waters proclaiming he’s a man

Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire

Elvis shaking his hips

Autumn sunsets in the Appalachian Mountains

Bonnie and Clyde

Wild spring flowers in the stunning Rocky Mountains of Colorado

Levi Strauss inventing blue jeans in old San Francisco

Cold pizza for breakfast on the subway in Brooklyn, NY

Amish country in Pennsylvania

A million shimmering stars in the huge evening sky above West Texas

Jack Kerouac somewhere out there still on the road, awakening & restless

Edward Abbey looking out from the mountaintop

Aretha Franklin just wants some RESPECT

Marilyn Monroe

Muhammad Ali floating like a butterfly

James Brown

Flannel shirts

Miles Davis

Janis Joplin

Laying in the bright green morning grass in the hills of Virginia

John Coltrane

Sunday morning church & football amidst the cornfields of Nebraska

John Cougar Mellencamp

Tom Petty

The bright lights of 1970s Las Vegas on a steamy summer night

Hunter S. Thompson

The Santa Monica Pier

Thousands of saguaro cactuses in Southern Arizona

The silence of Joshua Tree National Park at midnight

Lead Belly

Andy Warhol

Pine trees in North Carolina

Quentin Tarantino

Bourbon Street in New Orleans on a humid Friday night

James Dean

Beautiful old live oak trees in Savannah, Georgia

Marlon Brando

Babe Ruth calls his shot

Henry David Thoreau meditating on Walden Pond in idyllic, rural Massachusetts

The magical, otherworldly landscapes of Southern Utah, Arizona & New Mexico

The Snake River in the early spring

The steel mills of Northern Ohio

Dr. Richard Alpert becoming Ram Dass

The Summer of Love

The LA palm trees in the morning twilight on Hollywood Blvd.

The old cowboys riding underneath the big sky of Wyoming

Louis Armstrong thinking to himself it’s a wonderful world

Barbecue ribs in Kansas City

Broadway

James Taylor

Quiet Hopi elders with deep wisdom in their eyes

Clint Eastwood

Tacos in San Antonio

Purple Rain

The Badlands of South Dakota

Country roads taking me home in West Virginia

Late-night church revivals in rural Alabama

I’m grateful for the truckers

And the artists

And the working class

And the middle class

And the leisure class

And the billionaires

And the homeless

And every ethnicity, shade, and color

And every religion

And every sexual orientation

And every political persuasion

From the beaches of the Florida Keys

To the cold winter forests of Maine

From the surfers still riding the waves in San Diego

To the lush rain forests of Washington State

God bless America!

Are we still the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The answer is up to you.

—Brian Piergrossi

BrianPiergrossi.com

There’s a very interesting interwoven parallel journey between my wife and my greatest spiritual teacher.

I had already known Annie for at least six months before it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks that she was the one.

Annie and I had known of our greatest spiritual teacher our entire lives before suddenly recognizing together that he was the ONE.

I was in a relationship with Annie for years, and yet there was an unconscious fear of entering into the commitment of marriage together.

It felt best to keep the options open and maintain some level of independence in case something went wrong.

I had resisted commitment in romantic relationships for much of my adult life, bouncing around whenever things got boring, mixing it up to keep things more exciting and titillating.

In a similar way, I was keeping my options open with other spiritual leaders and paths. Bouncing around to keep things exciting. The more exotic the spiritual path and teacher, the more I was enthralled.

Like a menu, I could pick and choose whatever I liked from each spiritual tradition that gave me pleasure and avoid anything that felt challenging, uncomfortable, or difficult.

This is very common in the New Age, “spiritual but not religious” scene. You take the stuff you like from each path, and you leave out anything that’s difficult to face.

I could sense moving into a more steadfast commitment on both levels would transform me in ways I could not imagine, the way a caterpillar cannot imagine how it is about to become a butterfly.

Yet it would require a much higher degree of discipline, focus, strength, and resiliency.

Most importantly, in both cases it would require becoming a more mature embodiment of love.

Amazingly, it was right after having the courage to commit my life to Christ that I was clearly guided to commit my life more deeply to Annie, asking her to marry me, moving to the country, and raising a child together.

And yet, that was just the beginning of the journey.

When we commit to deepening in intimacy with another, we often think the goal is to know them completely.

Gather all the data points and details. Observe their predictive patterns until we get to a point where we fully know them and the job is complete.

That is not how it actually works.

Here’s the most amazing thing:

To truly deepen in intimacy with another, one must engage in the mystical process of unknowing.

I love you.

I see you.

I don’t know you.

And I never will.

But I’m willing to discover you anew in each moment.

The more I commit to knowing Christ, the more I realize I cannot know him by just adding more data points and reading more Bible verses.

I only know him more by allowing myself to be re-formed into a new creation, physically, mentally, and spiritually, by his presence.

In a similar way, I find I can only know my wife more intimately, not by gathering more data, but by allowing myself to be continually transformed by her presence.

Intimacy is not the conquest of the mystery of the other. It is the willingness to move deeper and deeper inside that vast unknowability without any end or limit.

True love is not an information-gathering assignment.

True love is a transformative fire.

In my relationship with Christ, I’m becoming closer to my wife, and through my relationship with my wife, I’m becoming closer to Christ.

Through the relationship with both, I move more deeply into the fullness of who I truly am.

Commitment is the doorway to deeper revelation.

We begin to discover the infinite depths of what love is once we commit.

— Brian Piergrossi

BrianPiergrossi.com

After a severe, chronic illness, I first became very interested in yoga and meditation at twenty years old. I dedicated my life to transcending my own suffering and seeking spiritual enlightenment.

Spiritual sages like Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi, and J. Krishnamurti opened up incredible vistas inside me in my twenties.

This eventually led me to a deep immersion into the work of spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, and others in my thirties.

Books like the Tao Te Ching, The Way of Zen, The Power of Now, I Am That, Be Here Now, and The Way of Chuang Tzu were instrumental to me intuiting more clearly the nature of reality, who we really are, and why we’re here.

I also studied Tantric and Buddhist teachings, many developmental models of consciousness, and was greatly inspired by Sufi poets such as Rumi and Hafiz etc.

I worked with all the great nondual teachings, popular self-help, and law of attraction teachings, from every corner of the globe and eventually taught what I had realized to others.

This catalyzed a whole series of ecstatic spiritual experiences, gave me a great sense of inner peace and freedom, and dramatically transformed my consciousness, unlocking deeper patterns of wisdom.

Whatever I was experiencing in the moment felt like a fun, temporary illusion that could be laughed off like a momentary dream.

My consciousness became much more light, and present to the here and now. I became supremely skilled at knowing how to manifest situations and circumstances that gave me pleasure.

My presence became more magnetic and charismatic. I felt like I could manifest whatever I wanted and usually did.

I started dating the most beautiful women, visiting the most amazing exotic locations, all while being fully self-employed generating my income creating a business I absolutely loved. I was teaching and coaching others what I had learned. I led retreats and workshops all over the world, and had well over one-hundred thousand people following me across social media.

And yet something was missing.

Looking back, with a lot of introspection, I decoded three important patterns in this stage of my spiritual journey and the spiritual communities I was connected to.

Spiritual nihilism

Spiritual narcissism

Spiritual hedonism

From this worldview the purpose of life is to create your own reality. You can manifest whatever makes you feel good, and you can learn how to create more and more pleasurable experiences for yourself as you go.

I became outstanding at doing this yet I now felt called to something higher, truer, and deeper.

I was being called from:

From hedonism to service

From narcissism to sacrifice

From nihilism to eternal love

It wasn’t until my mid-forties that I was ready to meet my greatest teacher. (More on that another time.)

I had become free.

But I hadn’t yet become love.

I had become a spiritual being

But I hadn’t yet learned to become a fully human being.

The same presence that once laughed off the world as nothing but an illusion now began to learn how to weep, to sacrifice, to suffer, to sweat, to serve, and to truly love, for the good of the whole.

My inner prayers and intentions were no longer, “My will be done,” but, “Thy will be done… on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

I used to ask all my clients, students, and retreat attendees:

If anything is possible what do you want to create?

I now ask all my clients, students, and retreat attendees:

If anything is possible what are you called to create?

A subtle yet profound change in how one orients their inner attention and thus their life.

What are YOU called to create?

The more we follow the life God is calling us toward, the more we become an active participant in the eternal dance of love that forms all that is true, good, and beautiful.

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Get in touch

About Me

Work With Me

In my last article about my new online community The Upper Room I wrote:

‘The intention of this community is to support each member to come into deeper communion with the Creator, each other, and all of creation.’

We can put that intention in different words that are even more simple and concise:

The intention is to go to Heaven.

Anything that distracts us from that focus is essentially the definition of sin.  It causes disconnection and thus suffering to ourselves and others.

This brings forward a few of life’s most important questions which sadly are rarely discussed.

Where is heaven?

What is heaven?

And how do we get there?

These are not questions we can merely answer verbally, or just by repeating a belief someone taught us to say.

The answers come through a continuing transformation and healing, of the mind, body, heart, and soul.

The answers come by being willing to let go more and more fully and allow God to make us a new creation.

The answers come through committing to the process of metanoia.

What is metanoia?

—————-

Metanoia (Greek: μετάνοια) is one of the most important words in the New Testament.

Most English Bibles translate it as “repentance,” but that translation is somewhat limited because modern people often hear repentance as:

Feeling guilty

Being sorry

Apologizing for sins

The original Greek is richer.

Meta = beyond, after, change

Nous = mind, intellect, perception, way of seeing

So metanoia literally means something like:

A transformation of mind, perception, consciousness, and orientation.

Not merely “I did something bad.”

Rather:

I now see reality differently.

This is why when Christ begins preaching:

“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

The deeper sense is:

“Change the way you see. Awaken. Reorient your entire being because God’s Kingdom is present.”

Many modern scholars believe “undergo a radical change of heart and mind” is closer to the Greek than simply “repent.”

This is one reason the Desert Fathers, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, and other Christian mystics viewed the Christian life as a lifelong metanoia. It wasn’t a one-time emotional conversion. It was an ongoing transformation of perception until one sees all things through God.

For St. Maximus especially, sin is fundamentally a misperception of reality. We become attached to created things as if they were ultimate. Metanoia is the healing of vision so that everything is seen in its proper relation to God.

In that sense, metanoia is not merely moral.

It is:

intellectual

psychological

spiritual

existential

A complete reordering of the person.

————————

May this space, and the core purpose of my work, hold a healing energy, intelligent insight, and compassionate guidance, that supports you in moving more fully through the  process of metanoia

May God bless you.

————————

About Me

Work With Me

At the end of 2022, a small group of friends began unexpectedly having a series of mystical encounters and spiritual experiences with God and Christ around the same time in the Western North Carolina region.

They began gathering for walks in the forests inquiring into the truth of life’s deepest questions and attempting to make sense of what they were experiencing.

This led to weekly discussion, prayer, and worship music together in each other's homes, recorded online calls together, and to this online community. A friend affectionately named this group of friends: “The God Squad” and the name stuck.

—————

Intention:

The intention of this community is to support each member to come into deeper communion with the Creator, each other, and all of creation.

As in the beginning, this  community continues to be a place where people are free and safe to ask questions about what they’re experiencing, or curious about, to better understand their spiritual journey. There are no heretical questions or topics.

————-

Who Belongs Here

Members of this community are welcome from whatever spiritual or religious path they are currently walking.

Healthy disagreements are more than welcome. However we’re generally more interested in finding common threads that point to the one & only truth rather than being stuck in the points of contention and egoic debate.

——————

The Story Behind ‘The Upper Room’

In scripture, The Upper Room was the space for several events and gatherings that changed the course of humanity.

🍞 The Last Supper:

The final meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his crucifixion, where he instituted the Eucharist (Communion).

🚪 Post-Resurrection Appearances:

The room where the disciples hid behind locked doors out of fear, and where the resurrected Jesus appeared to them, prompting "Doubting Thomas" to believe.

🙏 The Gathering of the Early Church:

Following the Ascension, the eleven apostles, along with Mary and other followers, used this room as a home base for prayer and operational decisions (like choosing Matthias to replace Judas).

🔥Pentecost:

The place where the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples as "tongues of fire," marking the traditional launch of the Christian mission.

It was a place of communion, transformation, preparation, and spiritual awakening.

The phrase "upper room" is often used metaphorically to represent a place of deep prayer, intimacy with God, and spiritual preparation for shining our lights out into the world together.

——————--

The Upper Room: Invitation to Join the Online Community:

If this resonates with you you’re Invited to join the conversation HERE.

I see tremendous courage every day in the work that I do.

Not the courage of beating someone up in the ring or slaying someone on a battlefield.

Not the courage of performing in front of millions or risking it all in a business deal.

(Though I sometimes support clients in those areas as well.)

What I see people face is something that could perhaps be considered even scarier.

Every day, in personal sessions and group work, I see people having the courage to honestly and vulnerably look at the mistakes they’ve made in their life and communicate how they feel inspired to do better.

I see people facing their old self and committing toward a new self that is still unknown and often feels out of reach.

The only way to do this is to first acknowledge that we’ve made mistakes in the grand school of life.

It’s not a bad thing to make mistakes. In fact, I would argue it’s a good thing.

I don’t think I’ve ever met a person filled with genuine wisdom about the human experience who hasn’t made lots of mistakes in their life.

I’ve certainly made a lot of mistakes in my life and grown in wisdom each time because of it.

This is because the best, and perhaps the only way, to become truly great at something is by having the courage to make lots of mistakes and learn from them.

Michael Jordan has missed more shots than you have. That’s because he’s taken far more shots than you have. Each time he missed, he learned from the mistake and adjusted accordingly.

The path to deeper wisdom and genuine mastery is to make mistakes, acknowledge them by looking within, and continue learning from them. This requires courage.

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Reply to this email to learn more about the work I do with individuals, couples, and groups and how it may benefit you, or someone you love.

- Brian Piergrossi

Brianpiergrossi.com