I first met Michael Benhayon over 10 years ago when I went with my mother and father to experience a workshop run by Universal Medicine, a company founded by Michael’s father, Serge Benhayon.

In the first few years of knowing Michael I didn’t really take an interest in developing a friendship with him. He was a few years older than I, but he also had a level of maturity and air of manhood about him that didn’t suit the types of friends I wanted to have around at the time.

I would however see him around events and in the local swimming pool, with his always big and warm smile. I observed a suave swagger in his walk, again something I thought was strange for a teenager to have, given that at the time myself and all my mates were into lowering our trousers and shoulders as low as they could go! Perhaps a tad exaggerated, but it does paint the contrasting picture of how Michael carried himself so well at a young age.

I continued attending Universal Medicine’s workshops and courses for a few years, including travelling to Vietnam for their annual retreat, where I had dinners with the whole Benhayon family, Michael included. Michael often made me laugh a lot, be that with his 6 or 7 egg omelette at the breakfast buffet through to his quite extraordinary and very playful moves on the dance floor (including the splits!). However, in spite of the undeniable fondness I had developed for Michael, I retained keeping him at arm’s length and not allowing our friendship to deepen.

From 2011 till 2015 I didn’t attend any events hosted by Serge or Universal Medicine, nor did I see or speak with Michael.

In fact it wasn’t till the beginning of 2017 that I got in contact with Michael. A year earlier I began to listen to Michael’s music and during a Swiss skiing holiday I played a live recording of one of Michael’s songs, Heaven’s Stairway on repeat, over and over. I hadn’t heard a song with such depth and quality such as that one in a long time, not to mention a deeply touching piano melody. On the journey home from the Swiss Alps something clicked. I said to myself, I think I know how to play piano but I just haven’t tried to play it yet. To my mother’s absolute surprise and on the basis that I’d ‘try it out’ I bought a relatively cheap keyboard. I emailed Michael to let him know about my new musical addition and that I wanted to learn his songs. From there the doors of communication opened, and so too did I open the door to a friendship with Michael – something I had not given permission to before.

One of the first things Michael said to me in regard to performing an instrument was:

“Remember it is not about getting it right – music is definitely not something to put your mind towards. The body must always freely express.”

Not long after that and after keeping Michael updated with how I was getting on and the new songs I’d been learning, I booked to have two Esoteric Chakra-puncture sessions with him in June 2017.

Those two sessions had the most profound effect on me, and the rediscovery of my direction in life.

Many things came up for me, and much was explored in our conversations, but a few gems in particular really led me to fall in love with this man and his qualities, exquisitely so.

As I was bleating on about one drama and another, he started talking to me about the gifts of my life, what I have been totally and utterly blessed with and to start by focussing on that. I remember saying something silly like “Ah, but why do I even deserve that in life?” As he prepared the needles he wisely said: “You could look at it like that, or you could look at it like a bird looking at a little bug saying, “Damn, why do I have wings? Like, I could just be crawling around down there but instead look what I can do!” Although the analogy made me giggle, there was a certain sadness in the giggle too. The teary part was because with that one sentence I realised how much I lacked appreciation for who I am and what I have been so graciously offered in this life.

These two sessions opened my eyes to the fact that Michael Benhayon was and is so much more than a sensational and inspirational musician, but a man who has a very unique and astute perspective of the world, holding sacred that which is and deserves to be, and unafraid to call out that which is not.

After the two sessions I began to feel that I wanted to build a much stronger and deeper connection with Michael. There were qualities I could sense in him that reminded me of home. Not home as in where I grew up, but my inner home –– the Soul’s home.

As I’ve grown to know Michael more and more, I can earnestly say he is not your average 20-something year old. He has a beautiful big family, including a wife and 3 children whom he dedicates much of his time to. He has an internationally acclaimed record label, GM Records and a custom designed music production company, Glorious Music Sounds which in 7 years has produced over 400 professional tracks. He is a highly regarded and sought after complementary health practitioner, with clients all over the world who find sessions with Michael not only beneficial but life-shaping in many ways.

Michael is also the founder and director of Teachers Are Gold, a worldwide run project whose purpose is to support teachers to look after themselves and rise above the total burn-out and extreme stress that so many experience. Michael has also written and developed various courses for colleges and organisations.

At the tender age of 27, Michael has taken life by the reins. He has stepped forward to work within family, community and society supporting everyone he works with equally to see that there is much that life has to offer, and that accessing it all is but a choice away.

What has been amazing to see and experience is that with all that Michael does and everything he has going on, not one of my messages has ever gone unanswered or even answered in haste. Every time we share an exchange I am given all the space in the world, as if I’m the only person in his life, but at the same time I get the sense that he knows what he communicates is for the All, and not just for me.

I particularly cherish his guidance and tips when I send him recordings of myself on piano. With utmost care, tenderness and responsibility as a friend and as a musician Michael would advise: “work on developing more flow in your body, in your movements, when you play – and by flow I mean coming from heart first and then let that radiate to your arms, fingers and whole body.” Gees, is there any more liberating way to be encouraged to play an instrument? Methinks not…

My abilities on the piano are extraordinary considering I have been playing for little over a year where the only song I learnt from a YouTube video was Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley, but apart from that with no tutor. I can play some things by ear; I can compose music and even put lyrics to it. A beautiful note of confirmation, encouragement and guidance from Michael more recently was:

“Your technique is more rich and has improved a lot, and there is more flow in your body too. The next part to work on, which naturally will come from deepening this in your livingness, is – to bring the delicateness of your fingers/touch on the piano to the rest of your body.”

I particularly love this pearl of wisdom because making the connection between playing the piano and how I am in the rest of my life is one that not many (if any) would advise, but I have found it to be crucial and ‘on the money’ in my development as a musician.

Sharing with me that the more I look after and am delicate with myself, so too will my piano playing become more delicate and richer as a result, gave me so much more to focus on than just what I do when I sit down at the piano.

I attribute a large portion of being able to make a focal point how I am with myself and with others on a daily basis to two things:

One: Michael’s music. If you haven’t heard it, do yourself a favour and visit his website and take the time to explore. Aside from the fact that the music is a phenomenal display of multi-instrumentalism, flow and precision, I love the fact that there is nothing imposing in Michael’s music and so one feels left to be him/herself whilst listening. I have grown up listening to various artists, genres and performers, and I very often found that the music would draw me into a specific emotion or invoke old memories/feelings. Listening to Michael’s music I can sit contently, and if anything, it actually supports me in connecting back to myself, how I’m feeling and what there is in life for me to look at. I have no doubt in my heart that this is due to the way Michael lives his life, and the way that then streams through into his music.

Two: The support Michael has offered me through his advice and feedback. Each and every time Michael would send me an email containing a pearl of wisdom, it would have the most profound effect on my playing. When he shared about playing from the heart not the mind, I found it easier and freer to move my fingers around and not worry about hitting the wrong key. When he shared about developing flow, suddenly I could play melodies that were much more fluid and I no longer had to plan my keystrokes but just allowed my fingers to drop where they naturally did. Then when he shared with me recently about delicateness, I have found that I can now create so many different sounds just by focussing on how my fingers interact with each key.

One of the things that inspires me, and in absolute honesty, makes me slightly uncomfortable as I know that I do not do this consistently, is that no matter what Michael achieves, he does not stop. He continues to explore what’s next, and to move onward in life according to what is needed. The remarkable milestones Michael Benhayon has achieved at this early time in his life are a testament to that.

To me, Michael Benhayon has remodelled what it means to be a young man in the world today.

Michael reflects so beautifully, tenderly and humbly that:

• No longer do we have to be lost, meandering through life trying to make sense of the insanity that prevails in society.
• No longer do we have to resort to alcohol, drugs, coffee, cigarettes, sleeping around, anything that will give us the next hit of a seeming but not true relief to ease the tension we are feeling.
• No longer do we have to go to University to prove we need to make something of ourselves and to be considered a successful man.
• No more do we need to cower to what other people think of us or expect us to be but to stay the most gentle, delicate, sweet and tender men we were always born to be.

By the way he lives, Michael Benhayon demonstrates that it can be effortless to move through life with the strongest sense of knowing who we are, and to know exactly what part we play in the world. He is a great example that we need nothing from the outside world to make up who we are, for everything already resides on the inside. Michael is a perfect role model who reflects the measure of what we call ‘success’ is not in our bank accounts, properties, cars, clothes or dividends, but rather in how much of our true selves we live and bring to the world.

“You hold so much love inside you, and when you live and express this in all that you do, it will take you and therefore all that you bring through to higher and higher levels.” ~ Michael Benhayon ~

By Michael Brown, 21-Year-old Student, Retail Manager and Amazing young man

Further Reading:
What is “Swag” and Who has Got it?
Michael Benhayon, Glorious Music – interview part 1
My relationship with music: it’s about connection not perfection