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Faculty Memories
At the core of Omega's success are our faculty members. These cultural pioneers have brought their unique gifts to our curriculum and to the tens of thousands of people who have attended our programs since we began offering them. Enjoy this slide show of some early photos of faculty, many of whom continue to teach at Omega.
This gathering of spiritual teachers was a highlight of Omega's first year of programs in 1978. The event took place at the Hoosac School, a private boarding school in upstate New York near Omega's home at the time, the Abode of the Message, in New Lebanon, New York. Pictured from left to right: Brother David Steindl-Rast, Swami Satchidananda, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Rabbi Zalman Schachter, Yeshe Dondon, and Yeshe Dondon's interpreter.
Omega cofounder Elizabeth Lesser planting a peace pole in Omega's garden in 1986. Elizabeth is now a workshop leader, board member, and senior adviser at Omega, and the author of two popular books, The Seeker's Guide (previously published as The New American Spirituality) and Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow. The pole still stands.
Omega cofounder Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D., (left) with Ram Dass, one of Omega's early teachers, in 1983. Now president of Omega's board of directors and a leader of Omega's popular Wellness Week programs, Stephan is the author of Timeshifting and coauthor (with Marc Cohen) of Vitality and Wellness.
Omega's visionary pioneer, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan in 1982, the first year Omega operated on its Rhinebeck, New York campus. Pir Vilayat was an internationally known meditation master, world religion scholar, lecturer, author, and head of the Sufi Order International. In 1975, he founded a spiritual community in upstate New York called the Abode of the Message, where Omega Institute had its beginnings. He died in 2004.
Reverend Father Thomas Berry in the mid-1980s. Born in 1914, he is one of the early advocates of what is now known as "deep ecology" or "ecospirituality," and an authority on the work of Teilhard de Chardin, from whose writings Omega took its name. Father Thomas led workshops on environmental awareness and sustainability.
Javad, a popular teacher at Omega throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Javad led workshops on the Sufi dervish spiritual tradition. One of its sacred practices involves a whirling dance, and followers of the tradition are thus called "whirling dervishes."
Titos Sampa (left) and Jena Marcovicci in 1982. Sampa taught African dance and drumming at Omega throughout the 1980s. Marcovicci continued to teach his very popular Dance of Tennis workshops at Omega unil his death in October 2007.
Doug Elliott in 1985. Doug taught nature awareness and folk wisdom workshops throughout the 1980s and 1990s, guiding people on walks throughout the Omega campus—including waist-deep forays into the Omega lake.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, pictured here in 1991, was an early pioneer in exploring the mind-body connection through meditation. His "full catastrophe" workshops have grown in popularity over the years, and have been instrumental in introducing the practice of meditation into the mainstream. He also leads mindfulness trainings for health-care professionals. His most recent book is titled Coming to Our Senses.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D., with her groundbreaking 1969 book, On Death and Dying, and through decades of teaching, led the way in helping people come to terms with terminal illness, suffering, and mortality. A prolific author, she also wrote about grief and grieving, AIDS, children and dying, and life after death. She was one of Omega's first teachers, and in 1990 she headlined a conference at Omega on AIDS. She died in 2004.
Floyd Patterson (left) and Maurice Haltom in 1988. They each taught their own workshops at Omega—Patterson on boxing and Haltom on tai chi—and in 1988 they led a workshop called The Tao of Boxing: Exploring the Ropes of Masculinity. In 1956, Floyd became boxing's youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history (at the time), at the age of 21. As a result, he was the first Olympic gold medalist to win a heavyweight title. Known as "the gentleman of boxing," he died in 2006. Haltom is a cofounder of Cayuga Heights Center for Wellness & Healing Arts in Ithaca, New York.
Andrew Weil, M.D., (left) and Wade Davis, Ph.D., in 1988 during their workshop, Alternate Realities: States of Consciousness & Healing Practices of Traditional Cultures. Weil went on to become a renowned advocate of integrative medicine, combining alternative and allopathic health practices. Featured on the October 17, 2005 cover of Time magazine, he is the author of many books, most recently Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being. A Harvard-trained ethnobiologist and outspoken conservationist, Davis is the author of several books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow.
Zuleikha, shown here in 1983, continues to teach dance and movement workshops at Omega. A longtime student and practitioner of natural movement and movement forms from Asia, she has been televised on the PBS Special, Dances From Wild Gardens, a production dedicated to her art and performance. She has collaborated with David Darling, Coleman Barks, Jai Uttal, and the late Baba Olatunji—all of them Omega faculty members throughout the years.
R. (Ronald) D. (David) Laing in 1988. A controversial figure in modern psychology—he was critical of traditional psychiatric treatment—Laing wrote extensively on mental illness. His first book, The Divided Self, was an attempt to explain schizophrenia by using existentialist philosophy. His workshops at Omega focused on healing mental illness and on intimate and sexual relationships. He died in 1989.
Vincent Harding was one of Martin Luther King's colleagues. In 1988, when this photograph was taken, he headlined a conference called The 1988 Peace Retreat. He is now a professor of religion and social transformation at Illiff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. He has written numerous books, including Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero.
Wavy Gravy, born Hugh Romney, stood on the stage of the original Woodstock concert in 1968 and announced, "What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000!" He taught—or clowned around—at Omega throughout the 1980s. Pictured here in 1982, he remains a social activist—and clown. He is also codirector (with his wife, Jahanara), of Camp Winnarainbow, a performing arts program for children in northern California.
Paul Winter and the Paul Winter Consort led music workshops and concerts at Omega in the early 1980s. A Grammy-winning recording artist, he is known for interweaving widely diverse instruments and elements with the voices of wolves, whales, eagles, and several dozen other species. He leads the annual musical, theatrical, and environmental spectacle of Paul Winter's Winter Solstice Celebrations at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is heard by tens of thousands of radio listeners via NPR's broadcast of the show.
Jean Houston, Ph.D., continues to lead workshops at Omega in personal and cultural transformation. She's pictured here in 1984, when she led a workshop called Shapeshifting the Social Order: Sacred Psychology & Cultural Transformation. Influenced by the work of Joseph Campbell and Margaret Mead, Houston is one of the early pioneers in the human potential movement. She is currently working with the United Nations Development Programme in the new field of social artistry, training U.N. staff and leaders in several developing countries. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is Jump Time: Shaping Your Future in a World of Radical Change.
Gabrielle Roth has taught experimental dance and movement workshops at Omega for more than 20 years. This photo from the early 1980s shows her in Omega's original Main Hall, which at the time was little more than a barn. It has since been significantly renovated and enlarged.
Herb Benson, M.D., was an associate professor of medicine at Harvard when he participated in a 1985 Omega conference called Achieving Longevity: Perfect Health in a Not-So-Perfect World. A cardiologist and pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, he is renowned for his 1975 book, The Relaxation Response. In the book, he shows that relaxation techniques, such as meditation, have immense physical benefits, from lowered blood pressure to a reduction in heart disease. He continues to work at Harvard and is now exploring the fields of spirituality and healing.
Husband and wife team Christina and Stanislav (Stan) Groff, M.D., Ph.D., are leaders in the field of consciousness and transformation. They are pictured here in the mid-1980s. A psychiatrist, Stan is credited for doing more than any other scientist to research altered states of consciousness. His book, The Cosmic Game: Explorations in the Frontiers of Human Consciousness, summarizes some of his findings. He is also the author of The Adventure of Self-Discovery, Realms of the Human Unconscious, and with Christina, The Stormy Search for the Self. Focusing on holotropic breathwork (holotropic is Greek for "moving toward wholeness"), Stan continues to lead workshops at Omega, most recently with the renowned Buddhist meditation teacher Jack Kornfield. Christina is also an author, most recently of The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spiritual Path.
Winona LaDuke (right) was the vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. She is pictured here in the early 1980s leading a workshop called The Sacred Circle, which explored Native American traditions that foster environmental sustainability. In 1989, LaDuke received the Reebok Human Rights Award, with which, in part, she began the White Earth Land Recovery Project. In 1994, she was nominated by Time magazine as one of the country's 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age, and was also awarded the Thomas Merton Award in 1996, the Ann Bancroft Award, the Global Green Award, as well as numerous other honors.
Ysaye Barnwell, Ph.D., a founding member of the internationally acclaimed a cappella quintet, Sweet Honey in the Rock, has been leading her immensely popular singing workshops at Omega for more than two decades. Pictured here in the early 1990s, Barnwell, with George Brandon, teaches Building a Vocal Community: Singing in the African-American Tradition, at Omega and throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. In the workshop, she explores African and African-American history, values, culture, and vocal traditions to work with singers and nonsingers alike.
Robert Thurman, Ph.D., is pictured here in 1984 with Tibetan Buddhist Yeshe Dondon. Thurman, who has become one of the nation's foremost authorities on and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, is cofounder and president of Tibet House in New York City and professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. Chosen by Time magazine in 1997 as one of its 25 most influential Americans, he is the author of several books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics, and culture.
Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash has taught at Omega for years, first with her former husband Rodney Crowell, and then on her own. Critics hailed her latest Grammy-nominated collection, Black Cadillac, as one of the best albums of 2006. In a short period, Cash lost her father Johnny Cash, her mother Vivian Liberto (Johnny Cash's first wife), and her stepmother June Carter Cash, and the album explores themes of loss and mortality. This photo of Cash was taken on the Rhinebeck campus in the early 1990s.
Gelek Rinpoche was one of the first Tibetan Buddhist teachers to come to Omega. Born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1939, Gelek Rinpoche was recognized as an incarnate lama at the age of four. Tutored by some of Tibet's greatest living masters, he gained renown for his powers of memory, intellectual judgment, and penetrating insight. He is among the last generation of lamas educated in Drepung monastery before the 1959 Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet. He is the founder of Jewel Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist and Cultural Learning Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is the author of two books, Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation and The Tara Box: Rituals for Protection and Healing from the Female Buddha. Pictured here in the early 1990s, he charms a student with his infectious laughter.
Ram Dass (right) speaks to Gelek Rinpoche in the Omega dining hall in the mid-1980s. Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert) earned a doctorate in psychology from Stanford University and went on to become one of the youngest tenured professors at Harvard University. In India, he became a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, a Hindu guru who renamed him Ram Dass, or "servant of God." He returned to the United States in 1971 and wrote Be Here Now, a book that sold more than 2 million copies. Unable to travel, he is leading a retreat this year via live teleconferencing.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Buddhist monk from Vietnam. He became immensely popular in the West during the late 1980s and early 1990s, attracting more than 1,000 people to his annual events at Omega. He has since opened his own retreat center in Vermont, the Green Mountain Dharma Center. A prolific author, he has published more than a dozen books, including Living Buddha, Living Christ; No Death, No Fear; Present Moment, Wonderful Moment; and Being Peace. This photo of him was taken on the Omega campus in 1989.
The legendary basketball player and coach, Phil Jackson, is shown taking a shot here in 1988. Jackson taught Beyond Basketball workshops at Omega for many years, even after he became an NBA coach. A Hudson Valley resident when he began leading his basketball workshop on our campus, Jackson later became the coach of the Chicago Bulls and then the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, a position he continues to hold today. Jackson handed the Beyond Basketball torch off to his colleague, Charley Rosen, who still leads the workshop.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., taught at Omega throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and at the 2005 Women and Power conference. Her popular workshops focused on myths and archetypes, particularly as they relate to women in contemporary society. A psychiatrist, a Jungian analyst, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, she is the author of many books including Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Woman's Lives; Gods in Everyman: Archetypes That Shape Men's Lives; and Urgent Message From Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World. She is pictured here in 1988.
Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., is the author of the best-selling book, The Tao of Physics. Originally published in 1975, the book offers an exploration of the interface of modern physics and ancient Eastern wisdom. Pictured here in the 1990s, he continues to be a popular speaker and workshop leader at Omega. He most recently taught Hidden Connections: Understanding Complexity & Life at Omega in 2006.
Alexander Lowen, M.D., pictured here in 1989, is one of the 20th century's leading figures in somatics (mind-body psychotherapy) and founder of the Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis. Bioenergetic analysis is a therapeutic approach that combines work with the body and the mind to help people resolve their emotional problems and realize more of their potential for pleasure and joy in living. Lowen is the author of 14 books, including The Betrayal of the Body, Pleasure, Depression and the Body, and The Voice of the Body.
Omega has a long tradition of featuring cross-cultural arts from around the world. Here, two members of a Senegalese ballet troupe in the mid 1980s, take a break. They brought their thrilling combination of classical ballet and African dance to the Omega stage.
Dennis Banks (left), a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist, and author, is an Anishinabe from northern Minnesota. In 1968, he cofounded the American Indian Movement (AIM) to protect the traditional ways and treaty rights of Native Americans. The principal negotiator and leader of the Wounded Knee occupation in 1973, Banks and 300 others were arrested and faced trial. He was acquitted of the Wounded Knee charges, but was convicted of riot and assault stemming from a confrontation at Custer. Refusing the prison term, Banks went underground, later receiving amnesty in California by then Governor Jerry Brown. For several years in the 1980s, Banks was part of Omega's Annual Gathering of Native American teachers. He is pictured here sharing a lighter moment with Buddhist faculty member.
The Nigerian-born musician Babatunde Olatunji wowed Omega during his first African drumming workshop at Omega in 1985, when this photo was taken. Until his death in 2003, he continued to teach his Drums of Passion workshop at Omega nearly every summer since his first visit. His 1997 album, Love Drum Talk, was nominated for the 1998 Grammy for Best World Music Album. Baba, as he was known, always attracted a crowd of eager students. His annual evening performance, which included an entourage of family and friends, and which he always prefaced with an impassioned speech for world peace and social justice, was one of the highlights at Omega every summer.
Omega Institute was the first place that ever sensed that I might have something to offer as a teacher. Their flexibility with my scheduling needs and constant encouragement of what I was attempting to do was in itself a teaching for me, and their enthusiasm about my proposed ideas for an Improvisation Workshop opened doors for me that has completely changed my life and my sense of what I am capable of. All of this is the essence of what Omega offers to the public.
—Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin is an Oscar-nominated screen actor, stage actor, author, and musician. He has taught acting improvisation workshops at Omega since 2000.
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Whenever I pull up at that Omega greeting place, I feel so much hope. Omega represents the hand-made, eccentric teaching possibilities that the best intelligences in the United States have always longed for.
—Robert Bly
Robert Bly is one of America's most celebrated poets and authors. He has led poetry workshops and men's gatherings, and participated in conferences at Omega since 1979.
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I have been going to Omega for the last 20 years every year. It was at Omega that I launched my speaking and workshop career. I will remain ever grateful to them. Omega offers the most extensive and comprehensive tools for personal and collective transformation. There is no other place comparable to it if you want to evolve.
—Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Deepak Chopra is a medical doctor and author who writes extensively on spirituality and mind-body medicine. He has taught a variety of workshops at Omega since 1989.
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Omega is at the forefront of the human potential movement. With its diverse and multi-dimensional curricula offered throughout the years, thoughtful and eager students of life have the good fortune partaking in its rich resources. I have enjoyed offering my work, reaching such
a diverse group of seminarians, of all ages, and from all walks of life. Omega continues to reinforce my faith in the needs for alternative lifelong education for everyone.
—Chungliang Al Huang
Chungliang Al Huang is a philosopher, cultural anthropologist, and renowned teacher of creative tai chi and contemporary Taoism. He has taught at Omega since 1985.
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The opportunity to try the "unusual" in our Beyond Basketball workshops at Omega gave me the confidence and courage to try similar tactics with professional basketball players. The Omegans who came religiously to the workshop over the years came with the desire to explore different ways of enjoying and thinking about the game of basketball. In the 20-plus years that the workshop has been taught, our "players" have gone from being "pretenders" to veterans, teaching the novices how to play hard in an atmosphere of friendly competition.
Perhaps the most enjoyable moments at Omega have been the discussions about ideas, about methods of teaching, and about spiritual insights with the other teachers at Omega during lunch and dinner conversations. The spiritual horizon expanded from 90 degrees to 360 degrees. And I will always remember the mad rush of the basketball players to go get pizzas on Sunday night after a few days of Omega's vegetarian food!
—Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson is considered by many to be one of the greatest NBA coaches of all times. He was coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, and of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999 to the present. He taught Beyond Basketball at Omega from 1985 to 1999. His colleague, Charlie Rosen, continues to offer the workshop at Omega.
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Throughout the years, Omega has been one of my favorite places to be invited to. Why? First, the grounds-spacious, beautiful, and immaculately manicured. Next, the accommodations-clean, comfortable, and accessible. Then, the meals-wholesome, nutritious, and tasty. Best of all, the people-the staff and the people it attracts. That's Omega to me.
—Huston Smith
Huston Smith is one of the most respected religious scholars and authors in the world. He has taught at Omega since 1985.
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The beauty, simplicity, and peace of Omega's campus have been both the background and the conduit of many life-transforming experiences in my groups. Without the distractions of everyday life-traffic, work, and other conscious and subconscious intrusions-people can reach a depth of focus and awareness not usually attainable at home. To work and experience in such a wonderful setting is one of the many blessings Omega has provided me.
—Brian Weiss
Brian Weiss is the author of several best-selling books based on his experience as a psychiatrist and healer. He is chairman emeritus of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. He has taught at Omega since 1995.
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I have always found Omega to be a warm and inviting place, and the audiences so encouraging of my work. I have been pushed further in my own understandings through conversations at Omega, and have been inspired to delve more deeply into my writing after being there.
One of the great aspects of Omega is its gorgeous setting. We are living in dangerous times. People who love the earth must be willing to fight for it. To do this, it is very important for both men and women to connect with the divine feminine, which is so alive in the beauty of Omega's campus.
—Marion Woodman
Marion Woodman is a renowned Jungian analyst and author whose groundbreaking insights into women, men, and society have made a significant contribution to our culture. She has taught at Omega since 1988.
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When I was on the board of directors at Omega, my major focus was to create two institutes at Omega: one is the Omega Institute for the guests who come to take workshops and retreats; the second is what I call the Karma Yoga Institute. Karma Yoga is work that is done for the love of God. When a staff is doing its work to serve God-whether that work is making beds, cleaning bathrooms, or actually running the organization—the quality of service becomes markedly different, and those doing the service have a transformational spiritual experience. Omega has made great strides in this direction. People who come to Omega feel loved and cared for. But we can do even better. My dream for Omega is that more and more focus be put on Karma Yoga, so that caring for guests becomes the grist for the staff's mill, creating the kind of service that truly changes lives.
—Ram Dass
Ram Dass is one of America's greatest living spiritual teachers, whose first of many books had a pivotal influence on a culture that has reverberated with the title words, "Be Here Now", ever since. Ram Dass' spirit has been a guiding light for three generations, carrying along millions on the journey, helping free them from their bonds as he has worked his way through his own. He has taught at Omega since 1979.
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