Center offer spiritual healing space

By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer

• Name of center: The Lifeforce Center

Lifeforce Center participants gather in the altar room to pray, meditate and connect with their own divinity. The room includes figures of deities representing several faiths. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

• Our numbers: About 20-25 participants gather every third Sunday of the month to take part in a healing service, talk and meditation, and about 65-70 participants attend the center's open house, which takes place every other month.

• Our spiritual leader: Susan Gregg, center director

• What we believe (our mission statement): The Lifeforce Center is a "sanctuary, a place of healing, a place to connect with God as you see God," said Gregg. "It is a place where you can feel safe enough to release your abrasive, fear-filled and guarded small self while you experiment, explore, play and learn about your gentle, loving and vulnerable spiritual self. It is a place where we can go and learn how to access our own divinity."

Gregg describes the Lifeforce Center as a "a spiritualist healing center." It has an altar room, healing room, meeting room, mirror room and office.

The center follows the Toltec tradition, a shamanic tradition from southern Mexico. The Toltec, who lived between A.D. 600 and 800, were scientists and artists who formed a society to explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of an older culture whose name is unknown, Gregg said. The Toltec considered science and spirit to be one and the same since all energy, whether material or ethereal, was considered to be derived from one source and influenced by the same universal laws.

The center's philosophy, Gregg said, is about helping people have a direct experience with that energy. This is done through talks or lectures that Gregg gives, and meditation. "Rather than me tell you what it is, (I'll) show you how you can connect for yourself," Gregg said.

• Our history: Gregg founded the center in 1990 on 'Ena Road in Waikiki. The center moved to Kaka'ako in April 1999. Various healers now work out of the center, including people who teach yoga and meditation, as well as an acupuncturist and a psychic card reader. Besides the center's monthly gathering and open house every other month, the center is open for the healers' services by appointment.

Gregg is known as a "Toltec Master" and "Nagual," or traditional Toltec guide and teacher. She studied with another Nagual and Toltec Master, Don Miguel Angel Ruiz of San Diego. Gregg also has written several books, including "The Toltec Way: A Guide to Personal Transformation" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spiritual Healing."

• What we're excited about: The center's next open house will be noon to 3 p.m. Aug. 12. The free event lets the center "give back to the community," Gregg said. She said that people with healing gifts will offer free chiropractic services, energy healing, color therapy, aromatherapy and psychic readings. Food also will be served. The next monthly gathering will be 6-9 p.m. Aug. 19 and will be about letting go of fear.

• What's special about us: Gregg said the center is a safe place for people to explore. "It's about you finding your path rather then adopting somebody else's path."

Gregg quotes a saying she found in a book on Hawaiian spirituality: there are "many paths to the top of the mountain, but when you get there, the view is the same."

"That's one of my basic philosophies," she said. "It's important that you find yours because if you follow mine, it may not lead you to where you need to go within yourself."

• Contact: Call 536-8287, e-mail sgregg@aloha.com, or visit susangregg.com

If you would like to recommend a church, temple or faith organization for a Where We Worship profile, e-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com, call 535-8174 or write: Where We Worship, Faith Page, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802.