Day Retreat with Shamil Chandaria, PhD: Full path to awakening through the energy body

“liberation and human flourishing should be happening along your path, not just a prize at the end of 20 years”

We are thrilled to be hosting a day-long meditation retreat to access, embody and harness spiritual awakening for greater human flourishing.  

The focus is resting awareness in the body as a full path to awakening. 

At first, the body might seem like a solid physical object. But when resting awareness there, it can be experienced as a cloud of ever-changing sensations, dancing in awareness, as awareness. 

As such, this energy body becomes a full path to awakening, a refuge that develops calm abiding, insight and a medium by which habitual patterns are dissolved and reformulated. 

The day will include;

• Movements and breath to awaken energy sensitivity
• Guided meditations
• Practical Q&A
• Dyadic enquiry

The emphasis of this retreat will be practise, rather than an intellectual or scientific framework, which is offered in Shamil's course ‘Rewiring your Reality.’

Shamil is a meditation researcher and thought leader in consciousness studies at both Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London.

Drawing on the most recent scientific perspectives on how our minds construct experience, Shamil offers a clear framework that demystifies spiritual awakenings and a path towards greater human flourishing. His approach reveals how you can harness practices like meditation to systematically reshape your brain’s predictive processes, reduce suffering, and reconstruct a whole new experience of reality. 

Shamil offers an empowering synthesis of disciplines ranging from computational neuroscience and predictive processing to the nondual traditions of Buddhism, Vedanta and Kashmiri Shaivism. Shamil draws on 38 years of meditation and academic experience, having collaborated with some of the world's leading scientists in Bayesian brain theory, perception, artificial intelligence and psychedelic research. He is sought after by institutions such as the Future of Humanities Institute at Oxford and Google's DeepMind, so we are both excited and privileged to host his first public retreat in London based on this approach. 

You can sample Shamil's work in the recent paper ‘A Beautiful Loop,’ or in podcast conversations with Sam Harris and FitMind.

“weaves together the latest ideas emerging in computational neuroscience, active inference, predictive processing, and the free energy principle into a compelling narrative of how our minds construct reality and indeed our ‘selves'.”

Preparation

The focus in this day retreat will be on the body and the rich energetic sensations one can feel in and around it. 

In order to build the energy for the day, please wear clothes that allow for comfortable movement, and;

• avoid food the morning of the retreat (tea and coffee is ok.)
• avoid alcohol the evening before.
• keep conversation to a minimum before joining that day, to not dissipate your energy into social patterns
• when arriving, keep silence in the morning of the retreat, until lunch.

Wellbeing & Participation Guidance 

• This retreat is educational and contemplative; it is not therapy or medical care.
• Participation is voluntary. You may pause, skip any practice, or sit out.
• Body-centred practice can surface strong emotions, memories, dissociation, dizziness or anxiety. If this happens, please tell a facilitator; simple grounding options will be offered.
• Suitability: If you are experiencing psychosis, mania, severe dissociation, active self-harm, or have been psychiatrically hospitalised in the past 3 months, please do not attend this format. If you live with PTSD/complex trauma or eating disorders, or trauma that is exacerbated by placing your attention on the body, we recommend working first with a trauma-informed clinician and attend only if stable and well-resourced.
• If symptoms worsen during or after the retreat, stop the practices and contact your GP/mental-health team.
• Please let us know about relevant physical/mental-health conditions, current medications, pregnancy, or recent surgery so we can offer adaptations.
• Age 18+. Please arrive sober; alcohol or non-prescribed substances aren’t compatible with this work.
• By attending, you confirm you understand the above and take responsibility for your own wellbeing. No specific outcomes are guaranteed.

Shamil Chandaria

Dr Shamil Chandaria is a senior research fellow at the centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford. He is also a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, London University, where he focuses on philosophical issues in neuroscience and well-being;  a research fellow at Imperial College in the neuroscience of psychedelics; and a bye-fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.  

He has multi-disciplinary research interests spanning computational neuroscience, machine learning & artificial intelligence, and the philosophy and science of human well-being. He is currently working on computational theories of consciousness and meditation.  Shamil has been a meditator for 38 years and has contemplative training in early Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shivaism.

Constructing Self and World: A Conversation with Shamil Chandaria (Episode #320)

The Venue

The Meditatio Centre is a vibrant and welcoming place and a true oasis in the hub bub of a busy city. It is open to people from all walks of life, from any religious, spiritual or secular tradition. It has regular meditation sessions and teaching on the practice and hosts an annual programme of  events to explore the deeper dimensions of life. 

They host events that look at the contemplative aspects of  modern living: science, the arts, business, the environment, interfaith and the mystical core of Christianity. Workshops enliven the space –  yoga, movement, poetry, dance – local artists are also invited to exhibit their work.

REFUNDS: Please note that we do not arrange refunds or exchanges. We welcome swapping or reselling your tickets with people you know.