Julia

I was born and raised in USSR (now Belarus). The iron curtain started to dissolve exactly when I was entering my conscious years, so I am lucky to have experienced the absolutely different worlds of Soviet and Western realities in their fullness.

Being raised in the family of a scientist, I was conditioned towards a path of career and success. That’s how I ended up in the high end gymnasium in Minsk, and then went to earn a BA in Cybernetics. These studies were quite influential but at somepoint it was clear that I was wasting my time – I am a humanitarian by nature… I moved to Israel – to get a few more academic degrees – in English Literature, Cinematography and History of Arts.

Unusual for Soviet reality, I started working at the age of 15. I randomly got a job from a person I met on the street, and was an office secretary in a small company. I did much more than my duties – from standard computer and other office routine to dealing with clients and banks. That gave me a strong sense that I can do anything in this life.

In Israel, while studying in the university, I took numerous psychology and sociology classes. This brought me work with autistic adults, and later, in the Shelter for the Victims of Human Trafficking. For about three years I was doing there 2-3 twenty-hour-long shifts a week. This place organically made me a psychologist, a healer, and a sister to countless girls who were illegally brought from Eastern Europe to Israel, used and abused against their free will. After graduation I was lucky to get a prestigious corporate job in the biggest Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot – first as a graphic designer, and later as a photographer and visual editor. I worked there for over 7 years until taking a life changing invitation to quit the career and to move into the wild earth life style.

I clearly remember the first encounter with My Self. I was about 4-5 years old, left alone in the house. On the way from the bathroom to the living room that seemed like a journey, I suddenly felt that someone was looking at me from above. Nothing visible was there, but I knew there was something or someone. I tried to ask ‘them’ telepathically (of course, I didn’t know that word then) about their origin and intention, but suddenly I saw MySelf from above. And something else that I never could put into words happened. That was an absolutely shocking experience for a little girl!! And forever on – that moment was a turning point that revealed to me that this world is just one layer of many many other ones. That is when it became clear that the most interesting thing to do is to investigate inner worlds and to discover something that is beyond the material realm.

Baptised by Catholic grandma at about age 7, I discovered Christianity and the Baptist church, where I spent my Sundays for a few years. Born in an absolutely atheistic scientist family, that was an unacceptable thing to do, but I am grateful to my parents for never saying ‘no’ to my desire to investigate life. There I got re-assured about the existence of  other worlds, outside and inside of us.

As a teenager, I was lucky to hang out with ‘cool’ guys – artists, musicians, writers. That is how I discovered Nietzsche and Hesse, Blavatsky and Bailey. It was (and still is) like living in two worlds – one of everyday reality, and the other is of the observation of inner Self, thoughts, intentions, ideas, values and external deeds.

At the age of 23 I went to India to study in the ashram. As a striving disciple I practiced from 4am to 21pm. That is when I discovered the ancient wisdom of Vedas, India’s scriptures of knowledge on every possible field and a base for every other teaching. I got the most precious CD’s and books (internet was not that rich for information those days). For over 3 years I fully submitted myself to these teachings, partaken between the university and Vedic studies.

One day I met a neighbor. He was just as passionate in his spiritual studies as I was. He was a serious Kabbalah practitioner. We spent months in a spiritual debate (what a Mind journey, as I see it today!). At some point I felt that Kabbalah was a true reason of me moving to Israel. For three years I spent learning this sacred teaching. I was very close to putting on a long skirt and to go to synagogue every Sabbath. That was a time when I met The Master.

He was the one to take me on a journey beyond religions, teachings and ideas. This may sound as a spiritual cliché, but yes – within few years living and studying with him the ‘holistic vision’ and awareness, the state I was so yearning for, became became my Actuality. Through endless tasks, challenges and practices, I learned to feel, see and get into the core of any given moment. I went on a deep journey inside my own body, and, thus, gained the ability to feel and experience the world and other people as they are, and not as my mind was telling me to.