Marc Gafni Testimonials
Sally Kempton, author of Meditation for the Love of It, about Marc Gafni in 2015
Marc Gafni is by all accounts larger than life in his gifts of brilliance, presence and being. He is also funny, sincere, and poignant. He is a profoundly good person in love with life, committed to transforming reality and giving gifts to everyone he meets. His goal, to participate himself and to invite all who he encounters to participate with him, in the evolution of love. His elegant mind and wildly open heart seeks to, as he puts it, “evolve the source code” of what it means to be a human being. His great call to us all is for the democratization of greatness.
Ken Wilber (Author of A Brief History of Everything) & Sally Kempton, Recommending Marc Gafni in 2012
Like most people who meet Marc Gafni for the first time, we were both initially struck by his charisma. He has a gift for creating community wherever he happens to be, and an open-hearted friendliness that dispenses with formality and takes down the walls between people. His words are often funny and audacious, usually brilliant, and nearly always spoken with a passion and compelling clarity that make you want to listen. He’s a powerful visionary and gifted teacher of a trans-lineage World Spirituality. But there are other gifted teachers in the world, and Marc’s uniqueness goes far beyond these gifts. Knowing him over the years, through a full and dramatic range of life circumstances, we gradually became aware of his deeper qualities–his unfailing kindness, the wisdom of his insight into the human heart, the radical nature of his love, and his unwavering commitment to a life of evolutionary service.
Barbara Marx Hubbard, Foundation for Conscious Evolution, 2015
Marc is a continuation of the lineage of Sri Aurobindo, Teilhard de Chardin and Buckminster Fuller. He holds that lineage in the impulse of his being and his thinking. He began as the Hebrew wisdom expression of this impulse but has now moved beyond to the place of Homo universalis, a universal human. …
I first met Marc during an interview several years ago. I did not know him or his work. However, as we began our conversation, point after point came forth until I realized he embodies evolution. It’s not just a good idea. It is who he is in person. It is who he calls us all to become. We are in potential, the evolutionary impulse becoming conscious as what Marc calls, Unique Selves in each of us. Even more we are what Marc calls Evolutionary Unique Selves, potentially fully accessing, expressing, incarnating the impulse of creation itself as our own vocations of destiny.
This meeting served as a deep affirmation of my own life quest for the meaning of our power that is good, and has been a blessing, since at 85, I seem to becoming newer every day! My meeting with him energized me. It enlivened me, reversing, in my experience, certain physical symptoms of decline. It renewed my experience of life with full vitality and renewed purpose. I know that Marc has had similar effect on scores and scores of people over the years. …
Anyone who has the opportunity to study him will receive great gifts. He is one of the best teachers alive today.
Michael Bernard Beckwith, Author of Spiritual Liberation ~ Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential
About Your Unique Self, 2012
With exceptional brilliance and an awakened heart, Dr. Marc Gafni speaks to all of us who are interested in the evolution of consciousness. His teachings on the Unique Self enlightenment are essential for the next stage in our evolution. They have emerged from his direct experience, and I highly recommend them.
I have known Marc Gafni well for many years, he is a person of great integrity and character.
At Agape International Spiritual Center after the Official Introduction of Marc as a Speaker, 2015
These words do not really give life to the energy and the spiritual vibration this man carries, Brother Marc, my friend and colleague.
I had the opportunity to co-facilitate the Success 3.0 Summit with him. It was quite powerful these four days.
Agape International Spiritual Center is a progressive community enacting gorgeously many of the core Integral Unique Self values of the Center for Integral Wisdom.
We are delighted that the founder and spiritual director of Agape, Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, has joined the Executive Board of the Center for Integral Wisdom.
We are also delighted that Dr. Marc Gafni, President of the Center for Integral Wisdom, is serving as Guest Speaker at the Agape International Spiritual Center.
Watch the recent talks by Dr. Marc Gafni at Agape International Spiritual Center>>>
Warren Farrell, PhD, author of Why Men Are the Way They Are and The Myth of Male Power, in 2012
About Your Unique Self
No one book has inspired me to cherish myself, respect others, and have hope for both this country and this world more fully than Your Unique Self. With insights as sharp as a knife and words that hone its blade, Rabbi Gafni hold before us the mirror of our unique selves and the molecular, spiritual, internal and external paths we might explore to enhance that uniqueness. An extraordinary future classic. Your Unique Self gives my unique self shivers.
About Marc Gafni as Teacher and Leader
This is to express my unequivocal support for Marc Gafni, D.Phil. as a teacher and visionary leader of the Center for Integral Wisdom. In my work with him as a friend, co-facilitator of content, and Board member of the Center, I find him to be one of the world’s truly extraordinary men. He blends integrity with skills of leadership, vision, creativity, and charisma. He harbors a renaissance intellect and comprehension of history, religion and spirituality—and harnesses that into the hearts and souls of those whose hearts are open and whose souls are wise enough to be deepened. Marc Gafni is one of the world’s change agents.
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens PhD, co-author of Integral Ecology, editor of Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, and co-founder of Meta Integral, 2012
As I wrote in my foreword to the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 6:1, Dr. Marc Gafni has played a foundational role in emergence and development of Integral Spirituality. Gafni is involved in an ongoing process of ecstatic teaching and scholarship. That his work is birthing new forms of evolutionary spirituality is evidenced in his emergent articulations of World Spirituality and Unique Self.
Unique Self, a term coined and a concept and realization developed by Marc over the last fifteen years, represents a truly world-centric, planet-centric and kosmocentric evolutionary mysticism. It changes the way we think about enlightenment by integrating the enlightenment traditions of the pre-modern east and modern west in a higher integral embrace.
In mystical hermeneutics, according to Kripal, the reading of mystical texts is engaged with such devotion and transcendental openness that the very act of reading becomes an injunction of mystical practice and revelation. Such is the nature of the work before you.
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens PhD about Your Unique Self, 2012
Your Unique Self represents a truly planetcentric mysticism that provides a powerful way of integrating the enlightenment traditions of the pre-modern East and the modern West. It has been easy for spiritual traditions to embrace profound states of Kosmoscentric consciousness, but they have often neglected to include the developmental capacities to take perspectives thereby falling short of an emancipatory worldcentric articulation. Marc Gafni’s teachings on Unique Self provide the first sophisticated and mature expression of this “unique” integral position. Your Unique Self ushers in an exciting new chapter in Integral Theory building on the most widely applied meta-framework on the planet and extending it into new contexts of embodied enlightenment.
John Gray, Author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, 2012
Dr. Marc Gafni’s teaching on the Unique Self radically evolves the way we understanding and realize enlightenment. He is a great teacher of both heart and mind . His penetrating depth, practicality, and heartfelt charisma will change your life.
Michael Murphy, Founder, Esalen Institute, Author of Golf in the Kingdom, , 2012
It is very rare that one comes across a teacher or a book that is ‘changing the game.’ My friend, Dr. Marc Gafni is such a teacher. He is a rare combination of brilliance, depth, and heart. Marc’s teaching on the Unique Self in an evolutionary context is ‘changing the game.’
Dave Logan Phd, New York Times #1 Best-selling co-author of Tribal Leadership Former Associate Dean, USC Marshall School of Business, about Your Unique Self, 2012
Your Unique Self is a great read. As is obvious from even flipping through its pages, Dr. Marc Gafni not only understands the material, but has lived it. The book is both thorough and fun, and will provoke deep thoughts. I meant to scan it on vacation and ended up reading it cover to cover in one sitting. It’s a book that is worth many readings. It will both fascinate you in its insights and annoy you that you haven’t read this book until now.”
Coleman Barks, author of Rumi: The Big Red Book, 2012
Marc, a fellow drinker at the holy taverns has written a fine, fine book. Kabbalists say a Day of Tikkun (evolution, soul-repair) is coming. There are great stories here from the Hasidic masters and from Marc’s own life, honoring the unique soulmaking that has brought you to this moment. This beautiful book will deepen that astonishing mystery and awaken you to the individual beauty of your path.
Kristen Ulmer, World-renowned Top Ranked Professional Extreme Skier and Sports Coach, 2012
I’ve never met anyone so talented at what he does and passionate for his work as Marc Gafni. He is simply spellbinding. He awakens people’s grasp the ungraspable better than any spiritual teacher I’ve ever known. He is a true artist. A creative genius. To not experience his transmission as a teacher in this lifetime, whether in person or through his writings, would be a tragedy.
I have known Marc for a decade. He is a truly great human being with enormous integrity.
Lori Galperin, Clinical Co-Director of Monterey Health Institute, 2015
It’s a pleasure to be writing this introduction about Marc Gafni and his work. Marc Gafni is one of those people who combines deep goodness, kindness, and ethical character together with rare insight and genius. Now to speak directly to the context within which Marc’s work is being received.
The malady that afflicts us as a species is both prevalent and insidious. Mutating to avoid detection, it masquerades as friend. It comes bearing gifts, seducing with offers to “help us be all we can.” Giving with one hand, it takes with the other. Inevitably, we are emptied out. Shame exists where once dwelled joy. Objectification replaces sacred seeing. Celebration becomes constriction, and embodiment, estrangement. The good news is: there has always been a cure to this anti-love, anti-life malignancy. It is the delivery system that has been inadequate. At last – a safe, precise and potent infusion – Unique Self! Not so much a book, as an antidote, Unique Self stands with spiritual teacher, scholar and master Marc Gafni’s Soulprints and Mystery of Love as a trilogy of love and evolutionary healing for humanity. Read and be restored.
Gafni makes these psychologists believe once again that psychology needs spirit. Particularly the notions of self presented in the emergent Buddhist psychotherapy conversation seem inadequate to integrate the core sense of individuality which is so essential to any western paradigm. Gafni’s integral unfolding of eastern and western enlightenment opens up the conversation in a whole new way. The treatment modules that are now emerging from the Unique Self work have the potential to become a significant approach to psychological healing and transformation.
Mariana Caplan, PhD, author of Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, about Your Unique Self, 2012
What I love about Your Unique Self is that among the nondual traditions, it stands alone in its conviction, demonstration, and celebration our uniqueness. It does not ask us to sacrifice our individuality in the service of the highest truth, but rather to become fully ourselves in order to be of greatest service in the world. Marc Gafni backs his vision with brilliance, passion, humor, personal integrity, and a life lived in dedication to articulating a world-changing dharma.
Barbara Alexander M.A., M.Div., Spiritual director, teacher, and coach, 2012
Marc’s development and articulation of the Unique Self teaching lays down the most original and important statement that we have of a genuine of an integral evolutionary enlightenment. Unique Self, with stunning clarity and power merges in higher integral embrace the best of pre modern modern and post modern gnosis. This exciting new chapter in Integral Theory is simply invaluable.
Sam Alexander, Presbyterian Minister, Theory in Action, 2012
In response to a culture wandering and aimless, Dr. Gafni has produced nothing less than a context of meaning that can draw us into the heart of Spirit’s next creative move.
Arjuna Ardagh, author of Awakening into Oneness and Leap Before Your Look, 2012
Dr. Marc Gafni is simply one of the great brilliant overflowing heart minds of the generation. I heard his teaching on Unique Self at the first Integral Spiritual Experience and it blew my mind and melted my heart. This book is amust read. For anyone who wants to fulfill their purpose on this earth, Marc is one of the great new voices in the Translucent Revolution.
I know Marc personally over many years and am delighted to call him a friend. He is one of those people who truly walks his talk.
Dr. Zachary Stein, Leading Expert in Metrics Research, Integral Scholar, Harvard University, and Academic Director of the Center for Integral Wisdom, about Radical Kabbalah, 2012
It appears that the rumors of God’s death have been greatly exaggerated! There may be no better way to understand the Divine in the coming decades than what is expressed in this book, where ancient traditions are cast in a new light and brought into a new Century. You will be compelled to respect the unparalleled rigor and depth of scholarship while at the same time swooning from the beauty of the ideas. A work like this comes along once in a generation.
Integral Psychologist and Associate Academic Director for CIW Elliott Ingersoll, Ph.D., 2015
Marc Gafni is the only teacher who has seen the true connection between psychology and spirituality. Not only that; he understands the assumptions that have created a psychology of poverty, of deficit and he has channeled a solution. The solution is a psychology of Unique Self that transcends and includes what the 19th and 20th century psychologies have suggested about the mind/brain of a human life. What he adds is the “human” in “human life.” His work radically shifts the focus of psychology away from pathology and deficit toward a psychology of what it means to live a full, meaning (ful) human life.
In a Dialogue with Marc Gafni 2014
I look at your book [Your Unique Self] as also a book about what I would call transcendent Psychology because you have really mapped what is going on: How do you find yourself on the Western path and lose yourself on the Eastern path? And then why hasn’t it gone further? Are people really that lazy or stupid? Or is there a piece missing? And I think you have found this missing piece, what you are calling the Unique Self.
I recommend your book [Your Unique Self] to anybody who’s listening, and if a student of mine is listening, they know I don’t say this lightly: I really think your book is the best bridge between psychology and spirituality.
Listen to these two dialogues between Elliott Ingersoll and Marc Gafni>>>
Daniel Schmachtenberger, Founder of the Emergence Project and Director for Research & Development and Senior Vice President for the Center for Integral Wisdom, from his talk at the 2015 CIW Board Meeting
One of the things I love the most about the Unique Self model is that it represents the end of comparison and competition because two things are fundamentally, irreducibly unique; there are no metrics to compete on. To be in competition, we must be focused on the same metrics, which means we have to reduce who we are to little parts of who we are.
But when we recognize our fundamental uniqueness, you know that no one else could ever be you. You know that each of us cannot contribute to the universe what the other can, and in parallel, that the other cannot contribute to the universe what we can. We see that indeed, every other human being needs us too, needs us to self-actualize fully for us to live and thrive in our interconnected universe. Instead of competition, the Unique Self model leads us to symbiosis, to embedding deep partnership, and to a workable system with nothing extracted, with nothing left out, where all of it matters.
One of the reasons that Marc and I have been in dialogue for a while is for me to see how do people really show up. And getting to see over the course of the year Marc really showing up aligned with what he talks about and the integrity of that being congruent was more than anything what made me want to do my work in partnership with the Center for Integral Wisdom.
Thomas G. Goddard, J.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Integral Healthcare Solutions, 2012
My first reaction, upon reading the Table of Contents for Unique Self was a realization that my entire core conversation – inner and outer – about God, Self, Life, and spiritual practice was about to change in profound ways. What I could not anticipate from those initial pages is the astonishing breadth and depth of this profound work of love. In a single work, Dr. Gafni has painted a portrait of the emerging face of consciousness, using as his paint the worlds of spiritual traditions, psychology, physics, and biology. He articulates, as nobody has done before, a sweeping notion of enlightenment that honors, simultaneously, the Great Unity and the Great Uniqueness that is the human experience. While the entire book is a treasure chest of deep wisdom, I feel confident in saying Dr. Gafni’s treatment of ‘Shadow’ will change the way humanity thinks about shadow integration from now on. I’ll no doubt be reading this book many times, as a textbook for living, loving, and being.
I know Marc well both as a teacher and a friend. He is one of the great exemplars of goodness and integrity married with passionate insight and brilliance for our generation.
Rabbi Gershon Winkler, Author, The Soul of the Matter: A Jewish-Kabbalistic Perspective on the Human Soul Before, During, and After Life, 2012
In this brilliant and spiritually expansive book, Marc Gafni has transcended previous interpretations of the mystical texts upon which Unique Self is based, through his intense study and interaction with this material, which led him to imbibe the material at the level of ruah ha-kodesh, the holy Spirit. It is Rabbi Gafni’s insights on this level–that let us understand this work as a detailed map of the process of liberation in the Hebrew mystical path.
A great and luminous work has come before my eyes, a vast and deep sea of illuminating wisdom embodied in clear and accessible writ. Rabbi Marc Gafni did step daringly into the void created by the dearth of enlivening and invigorating teachings of our tradition, and blessed us with this brilliant beyond measure and transformative work. This work is a true masterpiece of the sort our people have not witnessed for many centuries.
Rabbi Gafni introduces us her to the great lineage from which he drinks and which inspired him to bring the great teaching of Unique Self into the world of world spirituality. We see the lineage of Unique Self rooted grandly in the hidden teahings of Mordehcai Lainer which Mordechai Gafni, reveals, shares a broadens, deepens and evolves from the matrix of his own profound enlightened consciousness.
Jena la Flamme, author of the Secrets of Pleasurable Weight Loss, 2014
Addressing the most difficult and taboo questions that most of the world simply pushes under the rug, Marc Gafni’s wisdom school dives deeply into the heart of the human experience. From grief to desire, betrayal to passionate true love, Marc’s teachings leave no stone unturned, showing us how every experience can bring us back to greater unity with humanity and with life itself. The result is a community of wise, radiant, open-hearted people, who are primed to actively contribute their unique gifts to the world, making the planet a better place for all of us.
Dr. Leslie Hewitt, CEO and Founder, The WOW Talks, 2014
Marc’s message rocked the WOW stage. One woman came up to me right afterwards and said she began to WEEP uncontrollably and had to go to the bathroom to wipe her eyes and stop shaking. She said something Marc said got into her body so deep that it rocked her foundation. She has no idea what the words were, but felt an emotional shift that she had never experienced before. I smiled, held her shoulders, and looked deep into her eyes and said “I felt it too”. I am beyond wildly in AWE and deep gratitude for Marc showing up for WOW and raising the vibration for everyone to dive deeply into their souls.
Harv Bishop, Journalist and political science instructor at University of Colorado, 2015
I’ve admired Dr. Gafni’s work since reading Mystery of Love about 10 years ago and was fortunate to see him in dialogue with Ken Wilber three times in Denver at Integral Institute events in the mid 2000s. The Unique Self teachings are a very exciting evolution in spiritual thought.
Gabrielle Sundra, Director of Development CIW
Dear Marc,
Thank you for not only having a life devoted to making a difference for many, but for rallying so many in doing the same. The ripple effect of your existence is beautiful and celebrated deeply and wildly by me and many.
Ginger Kern, CIW Associate Publisher & Publications Marketer
Dear Marc,
You never cease to surprise and delight me with your phone calls! You showed me your Unique Self in yet another nuanced way today. I felt beautifully understood and expertly held and guided in our conversation in a way that I have not experienced with anyone else…and for that, I have deep gratitude for you. I love our heart to hearts and learning from you and from the Dharma through you. I appreciate you!! I feel comfortable in asking that you graciously continue to point out where you notice things I may not notice about myself yet. I trust your patience as I come to know my Self and own it, and what I am creating in the world.
Outrageous love to you
About Radical Kabbalah 2012
Prof. Richard Mann, Editor Transpersonal Series, Suny Press
This magisterial work by Dr. Marc Gafni, Radical Kabbalah, Unique Self and Non-Dual Humanism, makes a seminal contribution to a number of fields.
Particularly the fields of transpersonal psychology, theology and integral studies are here offered a crucial building block as they attempt to fashion a model of consciousness that is grounded in traditional wisdom but still open to the next creative synthesis that is now emerging.
I am reminded in reading Dr. Gafni’s work of the legitimate excitement that was generated by Elaine Pagels and others as they opened the parallel tradition of the Gnostic Gospels that had been expunged from the Church’s teachings.
I expect Gafni to gradually emerge as one of the significant intellectual figures of our time and to make a significant contribution to the evolution of consciousness.
Rabbi Gershon Winkler, Author, The Soul of the Matter: A Jewish-Kabbalistic Perspective on the Human Soul Before, During, and After Life
This work is a true masterpiece of the sort our people have not witnessed for many centuries, shaking us out of our stupor toward reclaiming life again, reclaiming our goddess heritage and teachings, and the bond with the ancient spark of eros of our so-called pagan ways of many of our aboriginal sisters and brothers, a bond we had begun to forge under Solomon and are destined to forge once again in the time to come. But Rabbi Gafni, in his is fine and original reading of Mordechai Lainer, purifies the spark of its pre-personal ethical taint. In a Lurianic act of exalted scholarship and love he raises the spark of paganim and sets it in new evolved ethical context so that the passion for the goddess expresses itself not in irresponsible abandon but in the infinitely sacred details of judicial procedure and fairness.
The erotic goddess is channeled into justice and small claims court becomes the arena of the goddesses revelation. This is in Gafni’s reading the major wonder of Izbica and it is also the major goal Gafni’s own life and work. It is Gafni’s particular sensitivity and evolving passion for the ethical that reveals these strains in Izbica.
Much of this sacred work will raise brows, even more of it will challenge the way in which we have grown accustomed to think. And all of it, I pray, will finally restore us to our primal mindset, our original way of perceiving and encountering the divine in both its immanent and transcendent dances, so that the thousand songs and dances of the Pharaoh’s daughter will no longer be for us the antithesis we had presumed it was, and instead become the sacred rite of divine connection it was intended to be.
For those who will approach this challenging and daring work with trepidation or with skepticism, or worse with criticism, be forewarned that Rabbi Gafni’s work is fully supported by an enormous legion of ancient and medieval classical text sources from the earlier writings of teachers who are revered by the most traditional amongst us. He is not attempting in this book to introduce anything new to our eyes, but rather to introduce our eyes to what has been there all along, veiled from our sight by our own blindness. His work is a gift, a blessing, and most importantly a rare opportunity for all of us to reclaim the authenticity of our true selves, and to breathe the breath of Life back into our souls.
I also want to add a personal word. I have known Marc Gafni closely for the last ten years. He is what we call in Judaism a true Mensch.
Clint Fuhs, Founder, Core Integral and Chairman, Integral Institute
Your Unique Self stands forth as a masterwork of our times. Its message is vibrant and accessible–an altogether stunning articulation of what it is to live as a spiritual being who’s irreducibly and inseparably a synthesis of transcendence and immanence, perspective and presence, fullness and freedom. Dr. Marc Gafni, from my perspective, is simply one of the few–if not the only teacher–who’s ceaselessly strived to ground his work deeply in the Integral Approach, while simultaneously innovating it in service of one of the most significant and robust spiritual visions I’ve ever encountered.
Marc is also personally someone who cares a great deal about people and models ethics and integrity in the world.
Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Author Seven Books, Founder Tree of Life Center
In this brilliant and spiritually expansive book, Rabbi Mordechai Gafni has transcended previous interpretations of Lainer’s work through his intense study and interaction with this material, which led him to imbibe the material at the level of ruah ha-kodesh, the holy Spirit. It is Rabbi Gafni’s insights on this level–meaning the level of divine inspiration rather than prophetic revelation, which ended at the fall of the First Temple–that let us understand this work as a detailed map of the process of liberation in the Jewish path.
Rabbi Gabriel congratulates Rabbi Gafni for his ability to draw out the essence of the mystical teachings of Lainer in a way that goes beyond academic interpretations. Rabbi Gabriel’s feeling is that Mordechai Lainer had the direct apperception of the truth of self-realization, and that his teachings initially developed through following of the Joseph archetypal path before he evolved/woke up into the Judah archetypal path of liberation. Rabbi Gafni’s holy understanding of this great teacher is absolutely vital and compelling for our times, and it can open us up to the Divine urge. These teachings bring us back to Avraham sitting in his tent in the heat–the spiritual passion–of the day. This inspired interpretation of Lainer by Rabbi Gafni reading of Lainer offered in this treatise is a pioneering work transmitting Judaism as it was originally intended–as an inspired path to full liberation.
More about Your Unique Self, 2012
A very special letter from a reader (2014)
Dear Dr. Gafni,
Never before have I been compelled to write to an author whose book I have enjoyed, but this time I must. Your Unique Self speaks to me as few other books have. I have been a spiritual seeker my entire life. Then, a friend told me about Your Unique Self. The old saying is true: “When the student is ready the teacher appears.,” The teaching simply clicked for me immediately. It answered questions that had plagued me for years and provided that structure that I so need to make sense of this experience we call Life. Thank you whole-heartedly for writing Your Unique Self. I am now reading it for the second time and expect to use it as a reference for a very long time.
Yours sincerely,
Winifred B.,
Prof. Richard Schwartz, Founder Internal Family Systems, Author, Internal Family Systems Therapy
I am usually stingy with superlatives because their meaning has been so diluted by overuse, but I cannot control myself regarding this book – it is truly brilliant. If offers an engaging and erudite corrective to tendency in the spiritual community to disdain personal uniqueness and worship transcendental oneness; the striving to rise and remain above the ego and the material world. Instead, Gafni says go ahead and transcend but then reclaim your uniqueness no the other side of transcendence and bring your unique enlightened consciousness back to this world with you, and use your unique gifts to change it for the better. It would be entirely accurate to say that Internal Family Systems and Unique Self are overlapping models which recognize each others insights while each excels in its own domain. The integration of these two models fosters a creative synthesis that is nothing short of revolutionary in its implications for healing and transformation.
Brother David Steindl-Rast, Christian Theologian, Author Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality, coauthored with Fritjof Capra and Thomas Matus
At this historic moment, our human mind is passing the border towards a new consciousness. Marc Gafni is far enough ahead of most of us to articulate insights he gained beyond that borderline. Yet, like all great teachers, the author becomes transparent. Here is an invitation and a great opportunity to listen– not to Marc Gafni, but to Your Unique Self. Thus this book becomes an indispensable travel guide into the realm of a vast new consciousness.
Andrew Cohen, Founder of EnlightenNext, author of Evolutionary Enlightenment
Marc Gafni’s brilliant intellect and spiritual passion make him a force to be reckoned with. His deep knowledge and advocacy of Abrahamic mysticism, coupled with his inspired vision of a World Spirituality, offer a unique and significant contribution to the evolution of our understanding of God, religion, and Spirit in the 21st century.
Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World and founder of the Dzogchen Meditation Centers
Marc Gafni’s overflowing heart and transmission of the Unique Self teaching profoundly moves me. Dr. Marc holds the lineage energy of the great Hasidic masters of Kabbalah, which he brings with him into the visionary initiative of Center for World Spirituality. There is little doubt in my mind that Your Unique Self will become one of the classic texts that forms the World Spirit vision that our world needs so deeply. This is a book and a teacher that we all very much need.
Gangaji, Author, Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life
Dr. Marc Gafni’s writing eloquently demonstrates the essentially mental–and futile–conclusion that there ever could be separation between “I” (oneself, me) and “Presence” (no-I, unity). Both “I” and “unity” are radiant refractions of the infinite mystery of beingness conscious of itself. I salute and support his expression and recognition of the uniqueness of each in all.
Steve McIntosh, author of Evolution’s Purpose and Integral Consciousness
Packed full of important spiritual truths, Your Unique Self integrates and honors a wide variety of religious paths while simultaneously taking on many of the errors and shortcomings of contemporary progressive spirituality. Dr. Marc Gafni’s writing is passionate, accessible, learned, and deeply committed to what he terms “trance-endence.” And I am especially grateful for Gafni’s emphasis on the importance of the personal aspect of spirit and his distinction between separateness and uniqueness. Your Unique Self is an excellent contribution to the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality.
Eli Jaxon-Bear
My dear brother and Rebbe, Marc Gafni has written a love letter from his heart to ours. I have experienced myself his heart transmission of the Hasidic Master, the Baal Shem Tov and know of its profound power and authenticity. Truly the best way to characterize Marc is as a Hasidic sage who has moved beyond the confines of one tradition, dancing among us, weaving the strands of a World Spirituality. Like the Hasidic Rebbes of old, Gafni merges ecstatic brilliance with an awakened heart and a deep caring for every individual being. He takes us back through the layers of illusion to enlightenment and then to the unique manifestation of that realization through each one of us. Unique Self is an invitation to live a truly authentic life as love in each of our unique forms. For many people, this book will be the portal to awakening.
Dr. Wyatt Woodsmall, author of The Future of Learning and People Pattern Power
Dr. Marc Gafni’s Your Unique Self presents a new “universal spirituality for the 21st century”. It is a true synthesis of the enlightenment teachings of both East and West. It appeals to both the head and the heart and is highly practical. It is a must read for all spiritual seekers.
Don Beck, Developmental Theorist, Author, Spiral Dynamics
Your Unique Self is picking up on this new emerging sense of self which emerges at the second tier of consciousness. It’s very powerful, this teaching of Unique Self because it has to escape a very heavy communal pressures of the “we” who suggests that after spiritual practice you realize that there is no essential individuality at all. Well that’s not true. Thank God, for this Unique Self teaching; that’s where creativity is. In your genius you’ve hit upon what the very unique properties are of this seventh station understanding of self. It’s just in the nick of time my friend. Thank you very much for it.
Sharon Gannon, founder of the Jivamukti Yoga Method
Marc’s Gafni’s spiritual democracy is the evolutionary unfolding of love and intelligence in our era. This book is dangerous because it contains ideas, if put into practice could bridge the long-time dichotomy between western and eastern spirituality and provide a revolutionary method to transcend your ego binding separateness while still retaining your specialness–is a radical willingness to be your unique self. Your Unique Self is dangerous for a second reason as well: Not only is this volume way brilliant, it breaks through your head and opens your heart. In the age of the ruling elites, be they spiritual or political is over–the future of our world depends on your enlightenment. For all of our sake, please read on……
Richard Barrett, Chairman and Founder of the Barrett Values Centre, Author of The New Leadership Paradigm and Love, Fear and the Destiny of Nations
Your Unique Self is a profound and powerful evolutionary teaching on how the realization of the Unique human soul transforms the core experience of one’s life. Unique Self is simply essential reading for everyone who wants to step into the fullness of their being.
Rand Stagen, Managing Director of Stagen
So often in our firm’s work, we see a pattern where high achieving CEOs struggle to reconcile the transcendence of their spiritual life with the practicalities of their organizational work. Dr. Gafni’s enlightened point of view offers leaders a highly accessible framework for expressing their Unique Selves through their organizations. This book is truly groundbreaking and should be in the hands of all aspiring conscious leaders.
John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga
I predict that history will note Your Unique Self as being a seminal work in helping to accelerate the evolution of the consciousness of the planet in the 21st century. In a truly momentous book of integrated philosophy by Marc Gafni, the Tantric view that we are in essence unique reflections of the Supreme Self is presented in an unprecedented way. For the masses to make an inspired personal choice to glorify the Universal as singularly diverse individuals will be the legacy of this great book.
Joanne Hunt, CEO, Integral Coaching Canada Inc.
The profound teachings in this book do not only bring together East and West in a way that both are honored, but also transmit a whole system for evolving our Unique Selves. It is rare to find a spiritual developmental evolutionary map that holds together from multiple vantage points, all the way up, all the way down. This is one of those works! In Your Unique Self you will find profound gems polished over a lifetime of study elegantly expressing the ineffable. I highly recommend it!
Todd Goldfarb, Founder, The Global Tipping Point Series
Marc Gafni’s concept of ‘Unique Self’ is extraordinary. His deep inquiry into how every person on this planet has at their fingertips the ability to have a unique ‘enlightenment’ experience is not only revolutionary, it is also highly practical. This book is a transmission from a loving and compassionate teacher whose intentions are nothing more than helping people live to their highest and fullest potential. Is it possible to attain enlightenment without having to sit in a cave for 30 years in deep meditation? Marc Gafni says YES, and that having an ‘enlightenment’ experience is not only possible for every single person on this Planet, it is also unique and personal for each one of us. This book will meet you wherever you might be in your life, and provides you with incredible transmissions of wisdom, understanding and compassion. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in becoming the best person they can be.
Words of Appreciation from the Summer Festival of Love 2015
Dr. Kristina Kincaid, Director of the Outrageous Love Project at the Center for Integral Wisdom and the Director of the Integral Evolutionary Tantra Institute in New York City
I had the profound honor and wild pleasure of participating with a most astounding team of Holy Rockstars standing audaciously together supporting Marc as the Living, Breathing, Alive, Aflame, Awakened, Dharma as he liberated Eros, in front of a crowd of over 250 people! WOW!
This is not a polite essay or an endorsement, but a mystical testimony.
The great mystics all through the ages had students who witnessed the transmission and recorded it for the ages. We think that the voice of the Goddess spoke only in ancient days. But revelation is still happening today and I was a privileged witness to it. So I feel honored to share the below with you.
In the unfolding days of the Festival of Love 2015, Marc not only landed but solidly grounded the deepest emergent vision of Unique Self and Unique WE, right before our eyes, directly into culture! Though this radical new paradigm, with the careful precision of the masterful Rabbi he is, he re-visioned, re-circumcised the old Ordinary Love Story and made way for a most Outrageous Love Story.
Claire Molinard, Founder of Unique Self Coaching and a beloved member of the CIW Board
Yes! Marc turned the dharma wheel last week as he landed new layers of depth, accuracy and intimacy to the Unique Self and Outrageous Love teachings in yet unprecedented ways. Again and again, he showed up as the living proof of what he teaches; what we saw was a Unique Gender/Self in full possession of his own unique Lines and Circles configuration — powerfully penetrating and receiving each other in mutual devotion to SHE.
And another testimonial by Claire:
Marc’s capacity to see each person’ s Unique Self is indeed empowering for anyone on the receiving side of the Outrageous Love he transmits – which is no other than the Outrageous love that lives uniquely in each of us, that he’ s reflecting back to us like a clear mirror. We are blessed to have him as our teacher! Like him, may we learn to see with God’s eyes and expand our hearts till they become clear mirrors for each others’ Unique Selves.
Chahat Corten, Director of the Mystery School of Love at Venwoude as well as a Founding Member and Holder of the Venwoude Community
I am so totally grateful and radically blessed to be part of this band of Outrageous Lovers around this most beautiful, alive and aflame Unique Expression of Totality that we know as Marc.
Kerstin Zohar Tuschik, Program Director, Managing Editor, and Scholar for the Center for Integral Wisdom
For me, these outrageous days have been a dream come true. THIS is what I have already wished for–all my life. I don’t know how often I have thought during these days: WOW, it is really happening. And we are IT.
In the meeting of Marc, the dharma, the Venwoude community, all of us, and the evolutionary purpose that brought us all together, IT was happening in us, as us, and through us–the Unique Self symphony in action committing outrageous acts of love together–what a pleasure. And YES, Marc was bringing down new dharma every day, the Goddess was dancing, and the container became more and more alive.
Student Testimonials
Mary Henderson, founder, Mysticpreneur, Author & Speaker, 2015
After a study session with Marc Gafni:
Best session today with Marc. Honestly, this is why one must seek out and engage a teacher. I feel like I can fly today and do anything. I feel so transformed. I am so blessed to be working with Marc. Yesterday, I realized how absolutely lucky I AM. I was so grateful and full of love. I really love this work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart…really I mean this. Even this morning when I woke up, I felt a sense of deep love for myself and everything in my life. I love how Marc just knows that there is more going on than meets the eye. He really helped me.
After watching a video message to the Student Circle:
Watching this video [for the student community] made me smile and feel an incredible amount of love from not just a teacher but a person who is truly doing God’s work here on earth. To say I feel honored is an understatement. Furthermore, it is so critical that we all have a teacher to lead us to our own path of greatness. It is truly an honor to be a part of Marc’s inner circle.
Mike Weiss, Founder, Client Engagement Academy, 2015
We are all lucky to be blessed by this amazing Tzadek who so magically holds us to and in the ancient dharma and explains lifetimes of lessons in minutes or hours!
John Thompson, co-founder, Circling Europe, about the Summer Festival of Love 2012
Marc Gafni’s dharma talks are the most powerful teachings I’ve witnessed. They reveal what’s really happening in the depths of our soul and provoke us to become more than we are. His passion and clarity help to create an immense container where people can open, learn and connect with love. The festival of love trod new ground for me; I’ve never witnessed such a loving atmosphere between people which will be etched into our beings forever.
Adael Bullock, CIW Board Member and Study Circle
Beloved Marc,
Hamtaka to every cell of the glorious gift that is you from every cell of my being. Your holy generosity penetrates the darkness, dancing with the Shekinah so that all may be awake and alive and aware. I join with the outrageous lovers here to honor, celebrate and send blessings to you for today and for a year of exquisite unfolding as you offer again and again all that you be, all that you transmit, and all that your heart yearns for. “You! You! You!,” the cosmos shouts beholding you and all the stars shine more brightly. May all hearts be blown open.
Abundant gratitude for you,
Love always, and in all ways
From the Shalom Mountain Wisdom School 2014:
Isabella J., participant, Shalom Mountain Wisdom School 2014
Our Sangha surrounds me as I’m moving through my day in the world. I hear the sound and feel the memory vibration of our chanting moving with me. Your teachings, Marc, are absorbed and have expanded my being.
With outrageous love, each one of you touched me deeply and cracked open my heart.
Wendy S., participant, Shalom Mountain Wisdom School 2014
What an incredible weekend we had. I am so grateful to have had this experience with you and still feel the power and energy of the dharma coursing through me. I have already begun my outrageous acts of love by reaching out to my family of origin with an open heart and recognize that the healing begins with me.
From Participants in a Google Hangout with Marc:
“Dear Marc, Your energy is truly intoxicating! Thanks for spreading clarity on all the truly powerful ways knowing and being yourself is the only path that creates a real impact. People often get lost on what “being yourself” really means and why it so important. Cheers! ”
“Marc can eloquently spin words, complex concepts and discipline space “Every Which Way But Loose”! Go #brotha.”
“I watched your live Hang Out and all I can say is that you are PROFOUND in your wisdom and a real gift to our world. You are a Mensch! Keep up your great work!!”
“WOW! This is profound. If you have not yet written a book, I HIGHLY encourage you to do so. The way you articulate your expression of the Divine within each of our “Unique Self” is so empowering. I genuinely feel millions of people will LOVE what you share! Thank you for being a gift to our world!”
“Marc Gafni deliciously makes the indescribable vivid with charm and verbal dexterity not recently experienced. Thanks for bringing us and others together. Boffo!”
Conscious Entrepreneurship
For the Conscious Entrepreneur Portal on our Center for Integral Wisdom Web-Plex
