International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 52 | Page 19

For example: the next Immersion. 
Living Life as an Offering with
Charles Eisenstein: February 5th9th in Ubud, Bali
He has written several books,
perhaps most famously, “Sacred
Economics”, which calls for
a drastic alteration of our
money economy.  He speaks
about returning the gift to our
“transactions” in this age of
transition, and envisions a world
that our hearts tells us is possible.
Why we started Pure Immersions?
So we sat there at 30 and said “ok,
now what?”
Sasha was in a fast-paced
corporate existence, managing the
5-star Montage Resort and Spa in
Laguna Beach, CA.  One of the
therapists with whom she worked
sensed a need, and recommended
a trip to Bali.  Sasha heeded the
advice and hopped on a plane.  
Meanwhile, Brad was in Northern
California, where he’d been for
the previous 6 years-- connecting
youth to the natural world.  He
spent his summers directing a
camp for kids in the Bay Area and
his school year in the Santa Cruz
Mountains working in residential
environmental education.
Sasha arrived in Bali in time
for the Bali Spirit Festival, and
immediately her life changed.  
“I saw these people, free and
smiling, and I cried.  I thought I
had it all, with a great job, life,
etc...but this, I couldn’t believe.  I
felt a great pull, a calling, and I
knew something shifted.”
She went back to her job, literally
right from the plane to a business

suit and a meeting with company
executives, and instantly knew
that this life-- for her-- was over.  6
months later she was back in Bali,
meeting Brad at a secluded beach
on Bali’s east coast.
Brad loved his work, but was
starting to feel a desire “to take it
farther.”  He was passionate about
creating connections between
people and nature, seeing that
disconnect as a critical flaw in our
story, yet it took his trip to Bali, to
feel the deeper “spiritual” need for
people to integrate more fully into
the natural world.
“I loved taking kids outside, but I
knew they went home to parents
who often couldn’t share in that
experience.  As my own spiritual,
I don’t know what you call it-epiphany/understanding-- began
to “take form” I started to see
just how complex, yet simple our
“issues” are as human beings,
because they’re all fundamentally
traceable to a disconnect from
nature, and each other.”
After meeting, their connection to
each other was immediate and
profound, and the decision to
make the move to Bali became a
mere formality.
“Pure Immersions, our work, is
really just an extension of us-our passions, curiosities, life
experiences.  It’s not us saying,
‘live like this, do this or that’, but
is about bringing people together
who are asking their own questions
and will have to find their own
answers.
For us, there is no other way.  We’re
just curious people interested in
what today may bring, who keep
asking questions for the answers
that may follow.”

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