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| Ashaman Gray 
I was raised in Auroville. http://www.auroville.org As a barefoot child in that international township in South India I grew up among a truly diverse population, including German farmers in loincloths and Tamil computer engineers. I enjoyed racing my pony - transport - to school in the morning with friends, to the Bay of Bengal on weekends for swims in the surf. We never used saddles, rarely bits; a rope around the neck was sufficient. Fall off, get back on. The teachings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were a given I never questioned or gave any special attention to until leaving Auroville for the west. They continue to form the basis of my spiritual path. After completing the International Baccalaureate at a boarding school in Kodaikanal, I departed for the US, and was to base myself in Bellingham, Washington for the next 13 years. A land of incredible light when the clouds part, snow capped mountain ranges, layered blue islands extending across the bay. So many shades of green, punctuated by brilliant exclamations when spring brings iris, poppy, tulip blooms, lilac scents. In '98 I completed a university degree there in Classical Guitar performance, and continue to pursue music as a passion.
Healing Dance remains the bodywork modality which speaks to me most deeply. The quality of spiralic movement we offer the entire body during a Healing Dance session (and Aikido) is the one found permeating life at the most basic levels. Spiral and wave movements have been found to "dynamize" and regenerate the life-energies of water, so often stagnant running through straight pipes. So it occurs with the waters coursing within our bodies.
Ultimately Healing Dance is a profound way to spend time with another human being. And teaching it is so much fun... Courses with WABA authorized instructors: _ _ 50 ...2008 02/29-03/05 Watsu 3 with Helene Schulz and Eberhard Petschel in Auroville India ...
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I had been practicising T'ai Chi assiduously for about 5 years when I came across Alexander's Watsu I course, offered at White Stone Retreat Center. It was an instant match. The background I had in body alignment and presence through T'ai Chi gave me insights into a way of being in the water. Almost simultaneously with my Watsu I training I transitioned from T'ai Chi to Aikido as a regular body practice. I've practiced yoga as well, but in Aikido (Harmony Energy Way) find a fascinating vehicle for reflecting and penetrating the quality of energetic and physical alignment I bring to relationship. This remains my passion. Over the next years I continued investigating and offering water work in the US, and during my trips back to Auroville at the Quiet pool. As well as training to teach infant aquatics I supplemented my water learning with studies in traditional bodywork: western therapeutic massage, Traditional Thai-Yoga massage, Ayurvedic massage, Reiki, continuing to study Aikido.
Amazonian ayahuasqueros and Aboriginal Australians acknowledge the spiral that Jeremy Narby writes about in "The Cosmic Serpent". Science explores it in DNA, aviators use the great circle arc to cross the shortest distance between two points. Reverend Koichi Barrish, a shinto priest, succinctly describes the Aikido equivalent: "Aiki movement, powerfully flowing spiralic technique centers and purifies us as we holographically entrain with the Golden Mean Spiral. This spiral is the basis for all life in our universe. The 5/7 ratio logarithmic spiral is as true for galactic discs as for the DNA helix , sub-atomic particle movement and all phenomena in between. This helical form is the same as in shimenawa, gohei, and shide (magical accesories in a Shinto shrine). When we physiologically create this archetypical form through Aiki movement we create the geometry of awareness and the geometry of Musubi. Ultimately we experience an inner correctness placing us consciously within a cosmic evolving harmony."
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