Akash Dharmaraj (RIP)

Born on the 20th of February 1946 and passed on into her eternal freedom on September 2018, Akash is the founder of Akhaldans and the inspiration to the work offered here by our team. Her unique legacy vibrates inside her students as her team continues to carry out her request to continue this work together, beyond form and teacher, and in her light and the light of her own teachers.

Akash started her professional practice in India in the 1970’s, where she Trained as a Clinical psychologist, Psychotherapist and Transactional Analyst. This method remained her chief intervention tool throughout her life.

A decade earlier, in 1966 she had had met her Sufi Teacher while she was living in Kashmir. The encounter with him had such an impact on her that she secretly took up a Sufi Journey with his guidance. The depth that journey entailed and the perceived contradiction between her experience in it and the cultural and societal norms of India at that time, encouraged her to keep this a secret from everyone, even from her own family, only to be shared by her many years later.

Both her Sufi Path and her Clinical methods remain very present in the transmission of her work and are highly integrated into the Akhaldans work offered today.

In her Early years she was busy supporting her family working as a nursery school teacher. Later, the school started a counseling center, and she spent a few years as a student counselor. Mostly intelligence testing, and career counseling.

Eventually, in the late 1990’s she started her own therapy practice in New Delhi, India. At this point, she began to feel restricted by the sterile atmosphere of clinical techniques, and wanted to make it richer, deeper, with a “meaning dimension”. She sought permission from her Sufi Teacher to integrate Sufi healing techniques and Sufi psychology into her work…  At that point Akash also started exploring Energy Healing techniques, such as Reiki, Pranic Healing, Crystals, Essential oils, Colors, Fragrances, Meditations and Visualizations. However, The most dramatic discovery for her were the Gurdjieff Sacred Dances which she described as “Life changing and enhancing in ways she could not have imagined…” This opened up a magical world of pure potentiality, full of all possibilities. She started with healing herself, and then began sharing the magic with her clients and developed healing strategies that include all these techniques into her work and transmission at Akhaldans 4th way school.

Akash passed on in September 2018 in India after spending a year recovering from a stroke. Even then, in her recovery process she stayed radiant and was always a teacher for us all, participating in her students’ retreats and overflowing with love and care. In the last 3 years of her life she felt the calling to spread her work and unique integrated transmission on a global scale and was offering retreats in Portugal, Ireland, Israel and India with great humility and love.

Akash’s words on this website before her passing were: “I am Dancing the dance of Life, peacefully making my humble contribution to the universe, and accepting its gifts with gratitude”. The work offered here through Akhaldans school would like to carry her transmission onward on her wings and offer this also to the ones who did not know her in this life.

Read more about Akash on her website and about The call of the Sufi she writes about.

Akash writes about Gurdjieff and the work she has created

"A few years ago, I wandered into the Osho Commune in Pune - something I had resisted for 25 years - and found myself drawn to these strange movements.  Impulsively, I signed up for a 6 week intensive training. What followed was the harrowing, quite terrifying, experience, at the age of 54, of stretching my unfit & unwilling body, to impossible limits Continue reading…

"We are not dancers. We are all searching for our truth, through the dances and movements."

CAROL SQUIRe

Carol is a Sufi Dervish, Fourth Way teacher, Transactional Analysis (TA) facilitator, Sound healer, Reiki master, Leader, Woman, Mother and a student just like all of us. She is also the co-founder of the international Akhaldans 4th way school begun with Akash Dharmaraj in India. Together, they have co-created a unique style of transmission of the Fourth Way work using the movements as a vehicle for Awakening and Transformation.

Akash described Carol as a loving, compassionate human who cares deeply about the Work and does this work of transmission only because she loves it. Before Akash’s passing, and after a stroke which left her unable to travel, she asked Carol to continue her work on a global scale. When Carol initially demurred, Akash came back with 'But you told me you would do anything I asked of you.' Carol accepted.

Carol has been leading groups all over the world for the past 35 years, integrating Sufi practices and Transactional Analysis into her work with high profile corporate leaders, non-profit organizations, personal groups and individuals, and whoever asks to learn. She has taught the Gurdjieff Sacred Dances in India (including in the Osho Commune in Pune), Israel, Portugal, Ethiopia, Israel and in North America where she is now based. From Whidbey Akhaldans, her center on a beautiful island in Puget Sound, WA she conducts on-going classes, workshops, weekend retreats and offers residential opportunities for those who wish a longer exposure to the Akhaldans way.

CAROL'S MESSAGE TO YOU

"My mission is to transform individuals, teams and organizations by taking them out of their automatic comfort zones so that they can begin to: 
Reinvent, Reintegrate, Reconnect, Simplify and Move toward Sense and Respond, the new paradigm in human consciousness and organization, and away from the prevailing paradigm of Predict and Control.

I resolve to never refer to myself as a trouble-shooter or problem solver. I do not want to spend my time and energy reinforcing trouble and problems.  

Instead, I see potential. I see strengths. I enhance, strengthen, invite and facilitate potential to grow - to become tangible strengths. I facilitate the process of turning potential into compassionate power. 

Why?

So that there is a constant output of value, spirit, and animation;
So that each individual fulfills more of their unique potential and purpose;
So that each part of the organism contributes to the good working of the whole; So that the organism fulfills more of its unique potential and purpose in the larger universal environment.

My vision is:

A world where awareness, intimacy and spontaneity are available to everyone, everywhere.
A world where everyone is connected to themselves, others and purpose in healthy ways.
A world where I operate from love and an open, playful heart."

JOURNEY TO INACCESSIBLE PLACES :: GURDJIEFF SACRED DANCE RETREAT
USA :: PORTUGAL :: India

© Photo credits: Gili Chen, LiveLoveRaw, Awakening & Transformation