My name is Paul, I am 45 years old. I am a father and have been a postie for the last 11 years. I own my home in Northern NSW and currently I still like a beer, pizza, watching sport on TV, coffee etc. In the last 3 months I started dating an esoteric student who invited me to do the 2017 Universal Medicine Retreat in Lennox Head with her.
Prior to the retreat I was nervous, unsure what was ahead. I had been to a couple of Universal Medicine events and heard stories of people’s transformation – especially my girlfriend Rosie’s past to where she is at now – but wasn’t really sure what the retreat would be like.
On arrival I felt the love between the people that knew each other, big warm hugs going down everywhere I looked. I felt comfortable and I sat down and was open to learning more.
To be honest I struggled for the first two days . . . no caffeine, chocolate, dairy or gluten to keep me going. A bit of a challenge from my normal ways of living. Sitting in the seat my eyes kept closing on me. I definitely struggled but I loved what was presented: all related to why I was struggling in the first place!
I loved what Serge Benhayon shared, especially about the stars and the universe and energy. I became aware of how all of what I have been eating and drinking was suppressing me and making me check out from life and from being the true essence of who I really am.
On the third day I really didn’t want to get up. I needed that coffee hit. I just wanted to stay in bed and be comfortable but I didn’t give up. I started seeing chocolate on all the tables around me, even though there was no chocolate! My mind was playing tricks on me but during the day I managed a beach walk and sleep to recharge, and by the end of it I was feeling clearer and loved opening up more to what was on offer.
The Esoteric Yoga complemented the work so well. I could get back into my body; such a simple exercise but so powerful that anyone, any size can do it. I felt so connected and clear afterwards.
It was lovely to meet some new people, and be supported with the right foods to keep me on track for the week.
Serge Benhayon and Natalie Benhayon are truly inspirational people and I am glad I made the decision to do the Universal Medicine Retreat and I know that this is really just the beginning.
I realise this journey comes from within and feel grateful I have been given the proper tools to be the true divine person I was at birth.
By Paul
Further Reading:
Universal Medicine Retreat…. and Advance!
Before and After My Self Love Program – Forever Unfolding the Real Me
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
I understand this, it is surprising when we take some of our habitual ways of keeping us going away….”To be honest I struggled for the first two days . . . no caffeine, chocolate, dairy or gluten to keep me going. A bit of a challenge from my normal ways of living. ” I have felt like this, and first I felt exhausted and then I began to feel a new vitality I did not know I could feel.
A gorgeous sharing Paul, thank you, your openness to understand and experience at the retreat, that there is a different way to live is so simply expressed because when we get ourselves out of the way it is so simple connecting to the divine you.
This is so wonderful Paul ” I sat down and was open to learning more. ” Sounds a bit like what the Buddha did.
Wow it sounds amazing your experience at the retreat. I remember my first retreat/courses I attended, it felt like a hard slog at the time and quite often at that, so well done for giving yourself/the retreat five days to play out and reveal if there was anything that resonated with you. I feel it’s super important that you have made the decision to honour what feels right for you rather than something you hear or see, you are an inspiration, thanks Paul
What strikes me about your honest sharing Paul is how you felt and discerned what was true for you. Demonstrating that something can be presented and felt for truth or not and that it is not about adopting rules as a way of being because someone else does it.
What an honest and sweet account of your experience.
Finding our way back to our True Religious roots as is presented at the Universal Medicine Retreats is life changing. This is because these Retreats are sharing how we can simply reconnect so it is like we find our own way through our pile of chocolate!
What I love about what Paul has captured here is that there is never any perfection being a student of yourself and the ageless wisdom. You are constantly seeing the metaphorical ‘chocolate bars’ in your life, and being asked by your body to let go of them, so you can be clearer, more open, loving and true to who you are.
It is a powerful realization for a man to understand that true healing is from within and it’s got nothing to do with what we do in any way, shape or form. For it is our willingness to let go of the hardness and protection that allows us to embrace the beauty of the tenderness within once again.
Well said Fransisco
I agree totally
Hear hear, Francisco, well said and so true. Thanks to Paul, you and many other men that are willing to embrace and show their tenderness I am learning to trust men again.
True healing is from within, it is indeed beautiful to see a man embrace his tenderness, ‘it is our willingness to let go of the hardness and protection that allows us to embrace the beauty of the tenderness within once again.’
What you have shared with us all Paul is very revealing that you became aware that what you ate and drank actually was suppressing you and dulling your awareness of your body and life. And so you don’t get to feel who you really are in essence.
So it is possible to say that is how the majority of us live by the very food and drink we consume, completely unaware of ourselves and checked out on how life could be if we stopped consuming ‘junk food’ There has been enough research on this topic to know that a lot of the food we eat is detrimental to our bodies but we continue to consume it? I wonder why we do this in spite of all the evidence stacked up against such a way of life.
Paul I so appreciate your honesty thank you, what Serge Benhayon offers to the world is priceless, he knows all about the universe and how everything is a cycle within a cycle. And this makes sense as we can see here on Earth that we are constantly living in cycles, We go round and round the sun going nowhere. That’s a huge cycle in itself 24/7/365, so it makes sense to me there are even more cycles to be aware of. My question is why isn’t this information taught as part of our education? We are so missing out on the truth of life.
“The Esoteric Yoga complemented the work so well. I could get back into my body; such a simple exercise but so powerful that anyone, any size can do it. I felt so connected and clear afterwards.” The Esoteric Yoga sessions offered during the retreats are so powerful. We can gift this stillness to ourselves every day.
“On arrival I felt the love between the people that knew each other, big warm hugs going down everywhere I looked. I felt comfortable and I sat down and was open to learning more.” Beautiful Paul. Universal Medicine events feel very different to any other gathering of people I have ever been to.
“I felt so connected and clear afterwards.”…it’s quite amazing when you take a stop to something, even if for a few days, to see what the effects are in your body, to see how you feel. When we do this, we become our own scientists of our own body, experimenting, see what effects what. It is a pretty amazing process. We know ourselves better than anyone else around, but we need to spend time with ourselves to realise that.
It is a great gift to have a friend who knows us to the core and when we lose it, there they are with just the reminders and encouragement to support us to find ourself once again. Everything about Universal Medicine is based on deeply confirming and supporting us remembering and living at the deepest most glorious level of our essence. A most precious steady, inspiring and loyal friend indeed.
To be loved with no judgement is the greatest gift of all. The moment judgement enters the equation, love departs. Or more correctly put – we depart from love.
Beautifully said Liane, and I feel our world is currently smothered with judgement and starved of love, but I know this is already shifting thanks to Universal Medicine for showing the world how easy it is to return to love. They offer simple and practical tools for us all and continuously inspire more and more people each day with the absolute love and truth that they reflect unconditionally.
‘I realise this journey comes from within and feel grateful I have been given the proper tools to be the true divine person I was at birth.’ WOW! Amazing says it all really and I agree that is exactly what I feel with regards to Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and The Ageless Wisdom teaching. Every person on earth has the right to this and to know this. When I was younger if I knew now what I know then I know my life would have been sooo different and so much easier as you have found too.
Thank you, Paul. Your sharing makes me really appreciate how the Universal Medicine retreats are set up to support us from every angle – the food, the programme, the breaks, yoga etc. We start very early and the days are very full, but spacious. Those 24 hours I experience during the retreat feel completely different from my everyday life, but everything I experience there is to be taken back home to be lived. There’s so much on offer at the retreat and I wouldn’t want to miss that, but the truth is even without the retreat we are never without opportunities to evolve, it is in the way I live my every day that truly heals and evolves me to what is available and I am ready for next.
This is beautiful testament to the fact the what Universal Medicine offers are tools for what is ultimately our own self-initiated journey of exploring, discovering and realising who we truly are in essence, guided only by our connection to our bodies and truth within.
Absolutely Carola and this is why I love attending as many Universal Medicine courses, presentations, and workshops as possible because they are very powerful and very supportive for every aspect of life. The tools from Universal Medicine help guide us back to love, to reconnect us to our Soul/Essence and to live a purposeful and evolving life.
Thanks for sharing your experience here Paul. So much is on offer at the Universal Medicine retreats, which broadens our view and inspires our re-connection.
Hi Paul, thanks for sharing your blog is inspiring to read as there is so much that we have hidden from ourselves about who we truly are. We do know everything we have just chosen not to be aware and have dulled ourselves down to such an extent we have accepted a comfortable life even though actually it is not comfortable at all because our bodies know the truth and is always in the unrest until it reunites back to truth. That is why when we meet people like Serge Benhayon our bodies resonate to the truth that is lived in their bodies, even though the mind is protesting at times our bodies have a inbuilt sensor for truth because we come from absolute truth.
It is such a blessing to be given an opportunity to truly feel who we are in essence, even if we do not choose to be that we have had the opportunity to know.
Paul this is so refreshing to read. I love how you so unashamedly honest. There is much beauty in this alone.
Thanks Vicky, so glad I wrote this blog..
Just from all the heartfelt comments to also touch so many others.. I’m now at esoteric healing level two and loving the healing taking place..
I can feel the deep respect for your choices that you received in a space like that. It’s only from this respect, that we can feel what works and doesn’t work in our life by ourselves. No pressure to change anything, just an endless love that makes us aware of what supports us or not in the love that we already are. The rest is up to us, as always..
I agree Paul it is only the beginning… enjoy the journey for there is much to appreciate along the way.
“I realise this journey comes from within”. Bingo. That’s it. Such an important realisation and one that can change the world. It absolutely happens from within. It is our decisions.
Imagine if we were all given the opportunity to remember that and then live and parent from that space?! How amazing would our communities be?
What this reveal is the extent to which our bodies, our patterns of movements are a real hindrance to our capacity to connect to something that is true and yet, if we honor what we feel is true, true prevails since the body ends up surrendering to it.
I laughed as I read that you saw chocolate on all the tables – I have so been there! Thank you for sharing, I haven’t been to a retreat in a few years but have booked into next years off the back of your gentle reminder of the magic and simplicity that is on offer.
Ha ha Lucy! What we saw on the Table of the Constellations far outshone chocolate and all its relatives – it was closer to the famous Emerald Table on which was inscribed ‘As above, So below).
That is so lovely to hear Lucy, yes I actually walked up to buy some!
Part of my journey is learning to express more as I have chronic neck pain from a motorbike accident. Knowing how I have touched so many in some way is amazing for me..
Sure I went back into my way of living but through more awareness I have changed a lot in my life including my diet..
Thank you Paul for sharing so honestly your experience of the Retreat, opening up to the love you truly are, and feeling this in your body. Well done.
Thanks Jill, I have never really expressed before and was tearing up reading everyone’s replies..
This is a very brave and honest blog, thank you for taking the time to share it with us, look foward to meeting you one day.
Your welcome Sarah,
Thanks for your sharing, I really enjoy reading everyone’s comments.
Love how it’s all about bringing it back to who you truly are..
Excited to be doing level one healing soon..
Hopefully get to meet you soon..
Before and After any Universal medicine event is something to write home about – and well, the before and after a Retreat is something even more truly amazing. We are never the same again and the depth to which one can know truth is monumental.
I love how you say it is just the beginning, and the beautiful part is that there is no end.
I used to be desperate to get to the end of the learning so I could start living – what a rabbit hole that was! There is no end, this is life education, lifetimes after lifetimes and what a gift it is. To be able to peel back the layers to discover who we naturally are underneath all the behaviours and protections and then live that in our lives and with our families is one enormous gift from heaven.
I love that whether it is a retreat, healing course, presentation, audio or book I get a deeper of awareness of the Truth that is presented and so can bring this to life.
Any workshop that I attend that is presented by Serge Benhayon is extraordinary and changes everything about life in the most beautiful way Thank you Paul for the continuing reminder of how we can shape and reshape our world.
Quite an intense experience to go cold turkey, but wow what a opportunity to feel something so different to your normal. Of course it can be harder to make that change on an ongoing basis, but great to have the marker.
The Universal Medicine Retreats really are life changing the depth of wisdom and love that comes from them can be felt. We may try to resist or dismiss but when truth is spoken it is felt with every cell of our body
I applaud your honesty Paul when you say:
“To be honest I struggled for the first two days . . . no caffeine, chocolate, dairy or gluten to keep me going. A bit of a challenge from my normal ways of living. Sitting in the seat my eyes kept closing on me. I definitely struggled but I loved what was presented: all related to why I was struggling in the first place!”
For most of us we don’t want to be honest enough to admit that the food and drink we consume affects us so much. I have a friend who is a sports/life coach and has been for at least 25 + years and back when she was a top world class competing athlete she knew that pasta dulled her body even if it was wheat free etc. And she has been advising her clients for many years to not eat dairy or gluten because it has such an adverse effect on their bodies. We do know this fact however for most of us we choose to eat what we like because we can, and we think we can get away with it until we are faced with an illness or disease.
When we re-discover that the love we have been seeking for so long is within us, we do realise it is just the beginning of a stupendous journey back to our soul, and life does transform amazingly so right before our eyes.
Wow this is just awesome Paul , your first retreat and you nailed the life story of all humans ” I realise the journey comes from within ”
And also to be aware of what was presented ” and feel grateful I have been given the proper tools to be the true divine person I was at birth ”
It’s just lovely to hear a man , express like this thank you,
You just keep doing You Paul!
I think sometimes that we can get so familiar or used to using certain foods and drinks to keep us going that we forget how regenerating it can be to take ourselves for a walk, even just move a bit and stretch or to have a nap…
Yes Fiona, a walk that has a sense of purpose can be equally as regenerating as a 15 minute power nap that has the same purpose. The more focused I become, the more I am finding how restorative both these practices are.
Just having a bit of space – 5 minutes here and there can make such a difference. Could not agree more.
I have found lately, that even a five minute shut eye moment, can just stop the rush that I get caught up in, and change the course of my day. Each moment really cannot be underestimated.
Paul your blog is so beautifully honest and real, thank you for sharing this and I look forward to reading more from you.
I have days like that where I really don’t want to get up – sometimes I find it hard I think what’s the point – that’s when I know, sometimes it can take a while, these aren’t my thoughts.
I agree that, Esoteric Yoga really is simple and it so brings you back into your body. This has been my experience, the simple movements and the quality I feel when practicing it, is something that I have begun to bring into everyday life, feels very supportive.
On Day 3, you said you didn’t want to get up and you didn’t want to go. But you still did. Someone once said to me that even though I didn’t want to go to a particular event but did, it was my soul that packed me up and got me there. I love it when the soul does that
The truth is we are one and equal. There is no distinguishing of esoteric student and not. We are all people. We have everything the same within us. So there is no difference in us, except for our choices to be aware or not. There are tools which would support this awareness, but ultimately it is up to us to reclaim what is truth and when. We support each other by our livingness of this equality.
Well said, Adele.
This is great Paul, and I am still pondering on when are we ever going to be completely free of issues around food. The Livingness is forever expanding, as is the way of eating is constantly evolving, then feeling into the requirements of the body so it can be of service to humanity and this will never stop.
‘The Esoteric Yoga complemented the work so well. I could get back into my body; such a simple exercise but so powerful that anyone, any size can do it. I felt so connected and clear afterwards.’ Absolutely Paul – this yoga is so powerful. IT is amazing how such simplicity is so restorative and regenerative. Well worth spending a little time on, instead of ending up totally stressed out and ill, unable to cope with life.
I love the down to earthiness and realness in your blog, Paul.