The Spiritual Retreats for Enlightenment
There is a place outside a small village 80 km north of Chennai on the Indian south-east coast where spiritual seekers from all over the world come for one purpose; to attain full spiritual awakening. The village is Varadyapalyam and is surrounded by different spiritual retreat centres that are a part of what is called The Golden City. The purpose of The Golden City is the complete enlightenment of mankind. Kiara Windrider just visited the spiritual retreat where the Experience Festival campus is located. Read about his experience here: About the Spiritual Reatreats

Twice a year there is a festival, The Experience Festival, at one of the spiritual retreat centres , once in February and once in August. The purpose with the festivals is to create an opportunity for both seasoned and new spiritual seekers to find the very best teachers at a place with truly strong energies. The idea is that anyone regardless of faith or background but with a mutual interest in the spiritual side of life can get together to explore teachings and spiritual practises from all corners of the world.

We believe that although different traditions use different words, metaphors and techniques, they describe the same reality. There are differences because they have described the same reality from different perspectives. But if we go a little bit deeper we can see that they have much, much more in common than separates them. The opportunity for all of us searching “the truth” is that this diversity of perspectives is a tremendous help in finding our own personal truth of life. This is what the festival is all about – to give each individual the opportunity to find his or her own personal truth.

During, and in connection with, the festival there is a number of different workshops, courses and processes for those who wish to go very deep in their spiritual growth and development. More about that further down this page.


What is happening at The Experience Festival?
During seven days you will be able to choose from up to 12 different workshops per day. There is 4 blocks of workshops per day. In each block there is 3 different workshops going on simultaneously. The topics varies from Enlightenment to Womens Spirituality to Spiritual Parenting to Tibetan Medicine to Flower Essences to Vaastu to Native American Dance to The Mayan Calendar to Neuro Linguistic Programming to Traditional native Indian sweat lodge to Meditation, stress and the Immune System to Medical Astrology – it is a truly abundant array of topics presented! In the mornings there is guided meditations and yoga, in the afternoon games like volleyball and cricket and in the evening rituals, music, performances and social gatherings at the campfire and campus bar (great juices and tee). If you love nature scenery you will definitely be on a tour to the nearby jungle. There are both half day and full day tours going on throughout the week.

To get an overview of the festival please see the list of Teacher & Topics and also check the preliminary festival schedule giving a good idea about how each day will going to look like.


Yes, but how is it really ?
It is of course impossible to describe the feeling of being at the festival with words. Pictures are much better. Please check out the Picture Gallery from the last festival.

You can also download video clips from the last festival with interviews of teachers and participants .


What can I expect from the festival and the spiritual retreat in Golden City?
The Golden Age Foundation is a spiritual institution, created with the one objective of Helping humanity to discover and experience the truths of the ancient principles and live in harmony with the Universe.

The purpose with the festival is as said before to offer a real diversity within spiritual topics from different traditions so each individual can find his or her own spiritual truth.

The purpose of the spiritual retreat itself is however nothing less than enlightenment . Some people may have a great desire for enlightenment while others may not even believe in its existence. Whatever your view, you wouldn't have come to this website if you didn't believe that life can be different. And that this difference might come from working with the inner side. Whether you want to reach enlightenment or some form of improvement, you have concluded that a life with conflicts, anxiety and fears is simply not good enough. At the spiritual retreat you have the opportunity to utilize the services of the monks of the Golden Age Foundation , regardless of your faith, race or background. Read more about the very deep spiritual cleansing called Samskara Shuddhi and the Enlightenment 5-day process . The later one will be offered on a continual basis for the first time for westerners in February 2004. Both of them are available for participants of The Experience Festival. Samskara Shuddhi (a 3-day process) is scheduled between 23rd and 29th of February and the 5-day Enlightenment Process 9-13 of March (the 5-day process 1-5 of march is unfortunately already full).

If you want some personal experiences, please read this article from Tom Matteo who participated in August 2003 or any of these from Kiara Windrider; Kiara Windrider 1 , Kiara Windrider 2 or Kiara Windrider 3 . Another great teacher is Carl Johan Calleman the world wide renowned expert on the Mayan Calendar , there are several articles written by Carl but read this one as a start: Mayan Calendar and humanity's path towards Enlightenment .

Also, take the opportunity to view the video interview with Grace Sears. She is the wife of Kiara (who was invited as a teacher to the festival in august 2003), the video clip is recorded 3 days after she attended the equivalence to the 5-day Enlightenment process that was offered at that time. You will be very touched! The video is here: Video Archive .

Anette Carlstrom also reached a tremendous state, view the interview with her here: Video Archive .

Kiara Windrider , Grace Seers and Anette Carlstrom are all contributing teachers at the coming festival. Click on the links to read more.


The purpose behind the website
Our ambition with the website, www.experiencefestival.com , is to create a resource for spiritual growth and knowledge. It is true that spirituality is not in the idea but in the experience , but on the other hand, it can be very exciting to read about other peoples experiences as well as indulging in all sorts of knowledge in the vast universe that can be called ”spirituality”.

You can get a detailed overview of the content on the website at the Site Map :

To make it easier to find relevant information we have categorized it into what we call “Resources”. Examples of resources are Enlightenment , Spiritual Parenting , Women's Spirituality , Spirituality and Health , Spiritual Practises , Spiritual Awakening , Sacred Geometry and Sacred Space , Spiritual Rituals Spiritual Ceremonies , Spiritual Art, Music and Dance , Spiritual Storytelling , Golden Age Foundation , Kalki and more are coming step by step. Here is an overview of all resources Overview of Resources

The resources reflect the content of the festival and partly the ongoing activities at the Spiritual Retreat between the festivals. The material is predominantly contributions from or articles about teachers and topics at the festival.

The Experience Foundation is headquartered in Sweden having a vast global network in more than 30 countries. Its purpose is to provide an opportunity for great teachers and fine representatives of spiritual traditions to share their wisdom on how to create a global transition.