CURRENTLY ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE TEAM
Alan:
Alan met Igor at the Belgian Immersion in May 2015 and within minutes of their meeting discovered the meaning of a puzzling waking vision he had experienced over 30 years previously. He took that to be a sign that he was in the right place!
Trained in design, his career has been checkered, variously working in the fields of architecture, interiors, graphics, photography and web design, with sojourns crewing on the Mediterranean and beachcombing. He currently lives in Southern Spain and has three adult sons.
He has sat with many teachers over the years but it is only now with Igor that he feels he has found his place.
Alan currently assists with maintaining the website.
Bhumi Devi:
Bhumi Devi spent time alone in the woods at an early age, initiating the experience of self-awareness. In her 20’s, she moved from California to New Mexico to apprentice as a home-birth midwife. She worked as a postpartum home visitor and gave birth to three beautiful daughters, all born at home. She explored a variety of spiritual traditions, with a strong preference for earth- and feminine-based practices and a feeling of intimacy with the Christ spirit. Her life shifted with the clearing of the nervous system offered by vipassana meditation. Though not looking for a spiritual teacher, when she heard the essential truth in Igor Kufayev’s words, she was immediately moved to become his student. Since that day, and especially after a powerful experience of being led to her Divine Self by the guru principle in Igor during the autumn 2014 immersion, she has expanded more and more deeply into the bliss of life present in every moment and in every experience.
Bhumi gratefully helps the Flowing Wakefulness team by exploring publication opportunities and helping with transcriptions. She works full-time as a community college Instructor of Humanities, and lives with her husband—a fellow student of Igor, her youngest daughter, and three cats near the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz, California.
Gail:
In 2016 Gail started experiencing spontaneous kriyas, pranayamas and bandhas in meditation. She looked to the internet for answers and found Igor Kufayev. She devoured every Flowing Wakefulness video available and then set up a Skype session with Igor. She immediately felt a heart to heart connection since they shared the same teacher- HH Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Gail began TM at the age of 18 and then became a TM Teacher at the age of 20. Although she had not been teaching for some time, she knew these experiences were never discussed in teacher training. Igor Vamadeva has answered all her questions and ignited a burning fire within to continue on the path of Enlightenment. Gail serves this work and her teacher as part of the Flowing Wakefulness transcription team.
She spends her days outside of Sedona, Arizona tending to the garden, the fruit trees, and the kitchen. Living with her partner - Connie, two dogs, one cat and eight chickens.
Ganapati:
Ganapati-Kuba met Igor during a challenging phase of his life when he was desperately seeking guidance, as meditation in a Zen monastery triggered an awakening of energies in him which he did not understand. He found Igor via the internet in 2015, and after one session on Skype with him decided to attend an immersion with him. From the moment he met Igor, he recognized him as his Teacher, and since then his life has changed entirely.
Ganapati’s undergraduate studies were in television and radio journalism. After meeting Igor, he felt moved to offer selfless service to do video editing for Igor and the Flowing Wakefulness creative team. He now feels that Igor’s presence in his life “literally extracted his latent talents,” and as a result of his seva, the inspiration to pursue a career in filmmaking arose. He is now pursuing filmmaking studies at the Academy of Film and Television in Warsaw, Poland, as well as creating videos for an advertising and PR agency. Ganapati now offers his creative gifts in video editing and creating beautiful videos and slideshows, and also contributes to our FW YouTube Channel.
Helena:
Helena is an artist and devoted mother of a 16-year old daughter. Since an early age, Helena’s sensitivity to energetics brought about a restless longing to uncover the truth beneath apparent reality. This seeking brought her to travel the world, where she had many deep encounters with fascinating spiritual beings and communities. Helena always felt an inborn connection to the ancient and timeless wisdom of the Divine Feminine. However, it was only after years of severe challenges and loss -- which she understands today as her dark night of the Soul -- that her fascination turned into a vital question of survival.
When she met Igor at the Science and Nonduality Conference in Holland in 2012, his understanding of the awakening process and reverence to the Divine Feminine resonated strongly with her. This is what had been missing in other spiritual teachers she had previously encountered. Still, it took another three years, though building a friendship and artistic collaboration with Igor, before she actually attended her first immersion and experienced how deeply transforming this direct work with her teacher is. She feels this is not only true healing, but that this is the calling of lifetimes that are finally being answered.
With a background in scientific illustrations, painting, and art education, Helena offers her creativity to Flowing Wakefulness since 2014 by means of photography, graphic and web design and by helping to elaborate the visual expression and aesthetic standards envisioned by Igor.
Jae:
Jae first encountered Igor by chance in December 2018 when she listened to an online interview he had made about his extraordinary life. Hearing the truth in Igor’s story moved her deeply, and from that day onwards Jae was inspired to meditate daily, having had no prior meditation experience. She immersed herself in Igor's online discourses and found much clarity through his words, and deep resonance as a fellow artist.
Six months after hearing the interview, Jae met Igor in person for the first time at a week-long immersion in Germany and during her time there, went through a profound shift in consciousness. The experience was extremely powerful, quiet and reverent, in a groundbreaking sort of way, and it felt as though her whole life up to that point had been a preparation for such an encounter. It marked the beginning of a long-awaited, and yearned for return to a place that resembled her ‘true home’.
Through the grace and mastery of her teacher, Igor Kufayev Vamadeva, the heart is gently and lovingly tenderised in a thousand and one different ways, and life, resplendent in beauty and mystery begins to sweetly unfold. Jae currently resides in London, UK and is a professional musician and counsellor in training. She serves the ongoing work of Flowing Wakefulness on the PR team.
Karen:
Karen Miller is a mother and grandmother who, some 75 years ago, experienced the sudden shock of feeling herself to be a separate being. Since then her life has unfolded in alternating cycles of “ordinary” worldly living and intense seeking to know Truth and to live the Real. A former practicing five-year member of the Adi Da Samraj community, she left to resume a thirty-five-year stretch as the mother of an adolescent son, taking dance classes, and pursuing other interests. Miraculously, three years ago, Igor Kufayev~Vamadeva appeared in her very neighborhood. She recognized him immediately as her true and eternal Teacher and lives now as his devoted student. She is deeply grateful for the priceless gift of the opportunity to know the Real; to receive Love, to give Love and, at last, to be Love. Karen is a member of the Flowing Wakefulness writing team. She resides in Berkeley, California.
Lakshman:
Having recognized his Teacher through the interview video series from 'Buddha at the Gas Pump,' Lakshman has been continually blessed being able to witness and learn of the unspoken and bittersweet richness in the journey in finding one's Self, especially as a relative newcomer on the spiritual path.
Through the maintenance of his Teacher’s Facebook page as well as the involved creation of the newsletters, he gratefully serves in the ways that he can to further the work of the Heart so that it may be available to those who also wish to enter into the living Grace of the path.
Madeleine:
Since an early age, Madeleine has intuitively been drawn to observing her environment and learning about the interconnectedness of life. As a teenager her interests for different cultures and religions, paired with a yearning for depth, has caused her to long for transformation and for the surrender to the Divine. The longing for Self-realisation has brought her into Yoga and Meditation, which became intensified after the birth of her now 16 year old daughter Salwa and while facing various challenges and crises. Since 2005, her spiritual journey has brought her to the feet of Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known as "Amma", whose encounter stirred a devotional practice and birthed the love of service. In 2008, Madeleine was initiated into the Sufi Order founded by Hazrat Inayat Khan. These two paths of the Heart culminated in finding Igor's teaching through his interview conducted by Lilou Mace in 2015, which eventually led to the opportunity to sit with him two years later. Here she has experienced the most profound shifts in Consciousness in her 17 years of practicing meditation and felt that she has arrived at the Heart of what these paths represent.
Madeleine lives with her daughter in Freiburg, Germany and supports the Flowing Wakefulness team with her creative social media outpourings.
Olinda:
Olinda feels profoundly blessed to have encountered Igor a few blocks from her house. Having heard nothing of this Teacher (not even his name), nor having consciously heard anything about the Guru Principle, she immediately raised to an overpowering ecstatic state and was bathed with bliss and knowledge at that three hour-introductory meditation gathering on the 23rd of January, 2016. This gift of grace kept working through her for almost two years until a very dark period of doubt made her realize that the only ultimate purpose of life was to be encountered by going back to that beautiful being of pure light, whom she had felt so intimately and in such refined way as no one ever before. Having to wait the three longest months to finally be able to meet him again, Vamadeva started to reveal to her in a more conscient way as her Teacher, in an ongoing chain of love from heart to heart, across layers of realities and time. Guided in this internal way, and through Igor´s available online Teachings, she was able to come out of the darkness on her own two feet.
She has ever since been committed to the path under his guidance, learning the delicate art of purification and integration, and is happy to be gifted the opportunity to serve as part of the Flowing Wakefulness Team, where she mainly supports the PR Padma Rasa team and the Event Organization Team.
Olinda was born and raised in Mexico and lives currently in The Netherlands. She writes, acts and produces theatre in both countries, where she also enjoys family and friends. She is a thankful mother of two very talented boys and wife to a sincere and beautiful man. Her sweet cat Zahara Chula enchants her days and reminds her of surrendering to bliss.
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Pamela:
Upon first meeting Igor in Italy 2018, Pamela felt an unspoken knowing and deep recognition that she had found her true Spiritual Guide. In deep gratitude for her Teacher and the Teachings of the Heart, Pamela currently serves on the visual and film post-production teams for Flowing Wakefulness.
Formerly a research scientist in Cardiovascular Health and Electrophysiology, Pamela has worked as an artist since 2003 and splits her time between Minnesota, Colorado, and the Hawaiian Islands with her husband, two dogs, and cat.
Prema:
Prema has been fascinated with the questions of life and the search for truth for more than 25 years. A spontaneous Kundalini awakening in 2007 — without any idea of what was happening at that time — brought about an enormous discharge of creative energy, and the wish arose to create art based on sacred geometry; art which has a beneficial effect on people, filling rooms with uplifting energies.
In 2013, Prema watched her first video of Igor and was surprised at the profound physical effects of watching the video. Though she knew nothing of Shaktipat, or energetic transmission, at that time, she took this for a sign of guidance and contacted Igor immediately. Meeting him for the first time felt like coming home. She is more than grateful to have found her guide and teacher in Igor.
Prema serves as our artistic director, overlooks all visual expressions of the creative team and supports Flowing Wakefulness with visual composition, photography and video production.
Simona:
In 2017, Simona came across the teachings of Igor Vamadeva in a Soma Yoga newsletter. Watching his videos on YouTube, she felt strongly drawn to his teachings and two months later, attended her first weeklong immersion with Igor. His words resonated so strongly in the depths of her heart that she felt it was like 'coming home.' The encounter with her teacher was a luminous one and has ignited the real spiritual process in her life.
Simona feels very fortunate to be part of the Flowing Wakefulness team and gives her service to the film and post-production department, where she discovered her passion for clip editing.
Simona lives with her family, including a cat and a dog, near Basel in Switzerland, where she offers Pilates classes for many years. She has two awesome sons and a wonderful husband who supports her in every aspect of her life.
Stefan:
Stefan is a PhD of Physics and works as a project manager for research and development in the industrial environment. During his academic studies, he faced personal life challenges and reached a point of hopelessness, not knowing how to manage these difficulties. Thus, he took his first steps on the path of Yoga twelve years ago, trying different schools and Vipassana Meditation, but his heart was still unsatisfied by what he had come across. There was a deep longing that kept him searching.
However, upon meeting one of Igor’s facilitators in 2017, Stefan felt a deep resonance with the energy emanating from her accounts of the path with teacher Igor Kufayev. Immediately he felt drawn to participate in his first retreat in Belgium and recognized, with tremendous gratitude and humility, the answer to his calling. Touched by this path of the heart, and with the great feeling of homecoming, Stefan is now part of the Flowing Wakefulness team, where he offers technical support and his advanced computer skills.
Steven:
Steven began Transcendental Meditation in 1974 as a nineteen-year-old,
also he has been practicing the TM Siddhis Program for nearly forty-two years. He created and ran a number of businesses for thirty-five years during which time he’s raised two sons with his wife, Kay. He was a key elected figure in his local town government for a period of twelve years. He is also a writer, surfer, and sailor.
Steven had a meeting with Igor in 2016 where he approached him with a concern of being stuck in ‘a dry, non-attached witnessing state’ that had been going on for over a year which had led to a feeling of depression. Igor encouraged Steven to “come be with me,” to work with him. Some time later in 2017, Steven attended his first Immersion, during which time the bliss that had been lacking came bubbling up and the immovable Silence moved and started to flow.
At the end of that first week together with Igor, Steven offered to be of service to him. Igor accepted by giving Steven a few tasks to do. Steven has been a Team member since 2017, applying his knowledge of business and organizational matters to serve the needs of Flowing Wakefulness.
Sundari Ma:
Sundari Ma attended a high school specialized in music and fine arts in her hometown of Bamberg, and studied contemporary dance, new dance, and improvisation in Munich and Freiburg, Germany. She learned Ayurveda and Kerala Ayurvedic treatments in South India. She founded and directed Soma Yoga – a studio for Yoga, Ayurveda, and Meditation in Freiburg – for many years, and has been teaching Vedic and Tantric wisdom for almost two decades. She studied closely with Dr. David Frawley, and Tantric teacher Sally Kempton, among others. Sundari Ma has been on the spiritual quest all of her life. Since childhood, her life has always felt like a streaming river, following the powerful inner calling of the ocean, the longing to fully know and realize her true essence.
In Igor Kufayev, she has recognized her ultimate spiritual guide, her Guru and serves the work of her Teacher and his community, Flowing Wakefulness. Igor has trained and assigned Sundari Ma for the role of facilitating his work, because of her direct recognition of the subtlety and depth of his Teaching of the Heart. Aside from acting as facilitator, Sundari Ma supports our creative team, Shanta Rasa, and offers her communicative, organizational, and artistic gifts, as well as inspired writing. She currently lives in the beautiful city of Freiburg.
Dattatreya:
Dattatreya, or Geert Acke by birth name, is a social entrepreneur and transformational coach, active in the world of philanthropy and impact investing. He brings his entrepreneurial spirit into whatever is asked of him to perform within the Flowing Wakefulness Fellowship. He lives with his family in Belgium, Europe.
He currently coordinates our events, explores fundraising possibilities, and is working to co-develop the Flowing Wakefulness Fellowship in Europe.
In 2014, he recognised Igor Kufayev as the one to call his teacher, and he loves to be deeply involved in cutting-edge inquiry into the nature of Consciousness and realising the Self in service of humanity, and in honour of our collective Mother.
Our Flowing Wakefulness Team is being additionally supported by dedicated students who offer their service by transcribing Igor's words for publication, and who support us in our social media campaigns and technical infrastructure, and include Vera Starz and others.