Bali/Thailand Testimonials
“The night I came home from Bali/Thailand, I woke in the middle of the night to a distant but persistent rhythmic drumming sound. Whether it was real or imagined or both, I’ll never know…and more importantly, I don’t want to know. I heard it. It felt like a distant call from the Outer Space DreamScape I had just returned from, telling me ‘The Dream Is Real.’ Have you ever gone so long without oxygen, you learned to live without breathing? Have you ever gone so long without food, you learned to walk without nourishment? Have you ever gone so long and so far away from home, you learned to forget what it Feels like to Be home? If you live amongst us in this CULTure, chances are you have and you do. Before I met Candace, I knew I had reached a stasis, a wall, a ceiling, some sort of maximum that would only have me traveling on a horizontal flat-line and not an upward trajectory. Had no idea that my Heart pumped blood, but not Being. Not Love. Had no idea that my Idea of Myself dictated my Life. Where was my Self? No one was home. On this journey, I woke up from my Idea of Myself. It was a joyful death of sorts, an expiration, a graduation, a sloughing off of a dead old skin that I had designed and worn for protection for far too long. And with death, comes new life. Rebirth. A heart that beats Being. Sometimes LOUD. The first gasping breaths of air. And the opportunity to learn to breathe, walk, talk, LIVE LIFE from Here.
How does this happen? How does a Being arise? How does a Heart awaken? How does a second birth come at thirty five? For that, there truly are no words. If words existed they wouldn’t be believable. Did it happen at an eight hundred year old temple? Or while watching the cremation of a high priestess? Or at breakfast, sipping poop coffee? Maybe running through rice patties in the rain? Was it the medicine man? Was it in a hug? Riding an elephant? Hiking a mountain? Was it in the face of a child? Miracles can’t be talked about, they can only be experienced by the Experiencer. Yellow brick roads can’t be mapped, they can only be followed In Joy!
A popular saying goes, ‘You can never go home again.’ I say Bullshit. You can All Ways go home. You ARE home, from Here.”
– Allen Liu
“To travel to a beautiful foreign country with Candace Silvers has nothing to do with what one would think when traveling to a beautiful place like Bali. It’s not a vacation, we are not tourists. Be it Bali, Thailand, Ojai, Los Angeles, Candace is interested in one thing, and that is transcending the walls and laws of the mind. So is Bali amazing? YES. Is it a completely different, life-altering experience on a Candace Silvers Retreat? YES. For the two weeks, we are all in a constant practice of looking at the self. At looking at where we hear “no” or “stop” or “can’t” and believe it. And every time I travel with Candace, my life changes and opens up and rooms and spaces are created where doors were shut before. Bali and Thailand were both such special experiences with such incredible people, and they were definitely two separate trips. In Thailand we got to spend the afternoon with one of the most incredible woman I have ever met. She opened up the first ever elephant hospital, and her journey to today is a remarkable story. On these trips, itineraries don’t guide us, nature, life, experience does. And guess what? It never fails us. This is not a vacation where you go and come back. These trips have become an integral part of who I am. Because of these experiences in India, Bali, Thailand with Candace, my life is different on a daily basis. It’s one thing to have a two-hour class once a week in Los Angeles; it’s an entirely different thing to be immersed in the possibility of life everyday for three weeks. And it’s a practice. But a darn worthy one.”
– Liz Iacuzzi
“How to put an experience like Bali into words is beyond my understanding…
For me Bali was love, opening, melting and being. To say how truly life altering my experience was and continues to be is beyond our vocabulary and beyond anything my mind can hold or understand. Whether I was standing in a rice field, in front of a medicine man, watching a high priestess rise in brilliant flames or standing in front of one another I was seeing myself back in a reflection that melted me and altered me forever.”
– Courtney Lindberg
“A rare look into the self. A once in a lifetime journey into the heart, your heart. Expect to meet yourself…”
– Lindsey McKeon
“Nothing has changed and everything has changed…I am deeper inside of me…deeper into joy…deeper into here…fuller in my stillness…richer in my experience….here.”
– Laura Villesenor
“My retreats with Candace are just that – a retreat – but from the mind – not from self. It’s actually an open invitation to meet the self, in ways you never have. We are immersed in nature and experiences, where only your mind can stop you from soaking it all in – and if you allow - in a moment, you are walking across an unbelievably beautiful rice field in the rain – and just when you “think” you can’t see anything MORE beautiful – you see a rainbow – right out of a lucky charms commercial – complete with leprechaun and pot O’ Gold ! And it’s close enough to hold in your hand and put in your pocket to In Joy whenever you want. And that’s when your being “gets” that you can have this all day long…..every day…..every life…….
Thank you Candace – in this life – and the ones I don’t even know about.”
– Millie Trachtenberg
“Being asked to write a testimonial for the experience in Bali is likened to writing a critique of the most amazing film one has ever seen. It’s just not worth the words on paper. It must be seen and experienced for ones self! I could explain how my life has changed and that I will never be the person I was before my flight left America, but again, it sounds so limited.
Words can never fully emulate the experience. One must live it and be it to understand it.
It was not Bali that shifted me. I shifted in Bali and for that I am grateful for stepping outside the confines of my mind if only for two weeks, a lifetime.”
– Darwin Serink
“Studying with Candace Silvers has changed my life in so many ways and putting the experience in words is virtually impossible. When I was invited to participate in the Bali trip I knew from the beginning it was an opportunity that I could not turn down. I discovered so many wonderful things about myself and shared the most incredible experiences with people that I will never forget. The positive effects I felt were abundant and have continued upon my return home. I look forward to continuing my journey with Candace at home and on future retreats. I am sincerely grateful to Candace for everything she has done for me along the way.”
– Jimmy Barnes
