I was born into a loving family in a New Age spiritual community called The Summit Lighthouse. The community lived on an enormous ranch in Montana, bordering Yellowstone National Park. The community had emerged out of the Theosophic and I Am movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s. It adhered to a vast belief system that unified the teachings of ancient masters from the world’s religions and spiritual traditions - Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, New Thought, and esoteric mysticism.

Growing up in this community was a tremendous blessing; the members were largely health conscious, we were immersed in pristine nature, great importance was placed on early child development, specifically through the Montessori education system, and I was exposed to and familiarized with deep spiritual wisdom and awareness from an early age.

The shadows contrasting the light manifested as ongoing friction between the community and the local towns, government, and media, who labeled the community as a "cult". Most members also observed strict obedience and relinquishing of personal agency, whether explicity enforced or self-imposed and for better or for worse, to a charismatic guru. This guru was in sole communication with The Ascended Masters - spiritually advanced, higher dimensional beings.

By the time my family moved away from the ranch when I was eleven years old, I had developed a paradoxical belief system with a foundation resting on the infinite potential, oneness, and divinity of life, but clouded by a deep distrust and fear of the world, beliefs, and people outside of the community.

The shock of leaving the communal setting I had always known, the change in our lifestyle and diet, combined with my philosophical misunderstandings and the fear-based beliefs I had developed, resulted in internal confusion that prevented me from connecting with my family and others. I withdrew into myself, leading to a numbing depression and anger towards the world that reached its furthest depths in my late teenage years.

Primary amongst the fears were the beliefs that no one outside my family could find out that I had grown up in a “cult” and that I could not safely share my perspective or understanding of the world with anyone. These fears and the tension they generated in my body led to intense social anxiety. I truly felt that it was unsafe and wrong to be and express myself around others. I was no longer living as the creative, adventurous, imaginative child who had grown up thriving and loving life, but instead was suffering in my self-generated Hell.

My shift out of this state began in college as out of necessity I gradually became socially comfortable and started to question why my thoughts were causing me such misery. My confidence and interest in life grew, but I still felt trapped by a deep fear of being myself and had tremendous difficulty feeling and expressing my emotions which resulted in challenges connecting with and understanding others close to me.

After graduating, I fixated on achieving external wealth as I thought it would bring me the happiness I’d so long kept from myself. In this chase, I neglected my mental and physical health, spiraling into illness. One night, after several months of stress-ridden work days and sleepless nights, my body and mind reached a breaking point.

While in bed with a fever, fully awake, my awareness separated from my physical body and floated slowly out and up towards the ceiling. I experienced my physical body below, exhausted and lifeless, and was deeply shocked at what it had become, at the damage I'd inflicted upon it. As my awareness approached the ceiling everything paused and a building electricity began buzzing intensely, before I was suddenly jolted back into my body.

From that moment on, it was clear that I needed to change how I was living. I quit my job the next day and set out on a path of exploration and reconnection. In the years since that night, I’ve traveled the world, learned from dozens of teachers and a network of amazing friends, regained my health and vitality holistically, built businesses, coached and mentored hundreds of people, held events and retreats around the world, and have deepened my relationship with my family and most importantly - Myself.

I have discovered that the aspects and results of the upbringing that I for so long viewed as limiting and negative, the things I had blamed on fate and others, were truly the greatest blessing I could have ever received. They set me on a winding, painful, and ultimately joyous journey out of confusion and to the ongoing realization of my true Self, the integration of past experiences and fears, and the continuous expansion, exploration, and deepening clarity of what it is to be me. Life has gifted me a unique perspective that allows easy connection with people from all backgrounds, positioning me to offer insight and guidance as they seek to reach clarity, reconnect with their own inner wisdom, and improve their life experience.

I am now daily practicing the embodiment of an understanding that I first was exposed to long ago on the ranch: All is consciousness. We are each a unique aspect of Life's awareness experiencing and creating itself within the vibrational reality of the eternal present moment. Everything that I have experienced, all of the suffering, all of the joy, all of the failure, all of the success, it was all created through the beliefs and perspectives that I held, whether consciously or unconsciously.

I invite you to consider that the same may be true for you. The clarity that I now often perceive and intentionally operate from in my own life - is a state of consciousness available to all.