"Enlightenment" is a loaded word.  For some people and in some traditions, enlightenment means a higher state of consciousness in which the individual is in continuous contact with the divine.  To call someone "enlightened" then implies that he or she is in some kind of steady state from which they see more deeply into the nature of reality than most people.  The Christian tradition might call these people "saints."  In India they might speak of a "god-realized" being.  With this designation also comes the idea that such people are morally superior to others and that their thoughts, words and actions are divinely inspired.  But in the context of the Enlightenment Intensive, "enlightenment" is used in a more limited way:  it refers to a direct, though temporary, apperception of the absolute, a direct knowing of "how it is."  Instead of talking about enlightenment as a steady state, we use the term "enlightenment experience" or "direct experience" to imply both that one does have direct contact with the Divine, Absolute, the Truth - whatever you want to call it, but that the contact is temporary.  In Zen these experiences are called "kensho" or "satori," while the Sufis and Christian mystics speak of "union."   

The primary purpose of an Enlightenment Intensive is to create the conditions under which a direct experience is possible.  So what then is a "direct experence?"  To begin with, it is not an “experience” in the ordinary sense of the word.  Normally we experience the world through or via our senses, but in a direct experience, there is no “via.” There is no longer an experiencer and that which is experienced, no longer a subject and an object or you and the world.  A way of saying this is that there is no longer any distance between you and what you are contemplating.  There is only One.   

Although it truly is impossible to describe what one becomes conscious of during and after a direct experience, people often feel compelled to try.  In fact, you can view much of the great spiritual writings as attempts to do just that.  One of the joys of intensives for me has been finding the "taste" of enlightenment in what others have written.  I've put together a short selection of writings that have spoken to me on this page:  The Taste of Enlightenment.

Many people think of enlightenment and enlightenment experiences as distant goals or only for the exceptional few. But the truth of the matter is that such experiences, though extraordinary, are, in fact, part of being human. They are the opening of our deepest capacities, of that which makes us who and what we are. And enlightenment intensives have proven over the years to be a powerful tool for cultivating those experiences.