I’m Elias,

I’m a spiritual practitioner.

I help people (including myself) deepen their own trust in Self. 

A trust that allows them to interpret and structure their own lives in nourishing ways — while never denying them the worldly things they want.

And, to deepen their connections to themselves and the world – two sides of the same coin.

I’m a trans man.

Which, at this point, feels embodied and creative and natural. But, it began as a masterclass in hearing myself through the fog of other people’s “should”s. Even when what I’m hearing seems contradictory, and is not what I wanted to hear. 

I love learning how my mind creates my world.

And discovering the world's objective rules and limits.

I love the feeling of teamwork. Of collaborating and understanding and expanding each other, in ways that make life clear and lush.

This can look like cleaning the house and feeding my roommate’s dog as much as it looks like building a practice group.

That’s my current idea of fun, though connection and enjoyment haven’t always felt accessible to me. 

I was a heroin-and-everything addict as a teen.

Until 19, when everything fell apart and I skidded into 12-step meetings. These were my introduction to spirituality. 

Since then, my life has been devoted to cross-disciplinary inquiry into who I am, and the process of expressing that through the shape of my life.

That has included 12 step meetings for many years and very rigorous practice with their tools. 

And years of therapy with a few great and compassionate therapists…

And nothing really helped — until I found nondual spirituality.

Everything started to shift when I met my first teacher Brian, a YouTube neo-tantra teacher. I spent 2.5 years devoted to the practices he taught me in his meditation and embodiment workshops.

One practice he taught me remains my favorite to this day. American master Lester Levenson called it "releasing". Its a type of self-inquiry meditation. I’ve practiced it almost daily, often for 4 hours, sometimes even 8 hours a day, since 2016.

2020 was the beginning of 2 and a 1/2 years of intensive 1:1 work with a (western born) Tantric Buddhist master.

— but, Buddhism wasn’t what she taught me. 

She was very firm about not being a teacher of anything at all.

Instead, when I sat with Jill, I could suddenly hear myself and my truth with a clarity that was surprising to me. 

Something similar has happened with each of the practitioners I’ve worked with.

For the most part, I don't practice their traditions. But I have been changed by their ways of being.

And that has changed the way I sit in my self.

My spiritual practice is exactly that — learning to sit deeper and deeper into my self.

I am always investigating what that means to me. And living my life in resonance with the truth of that (a process that’s always unfolding and never finished).

Every time I act in line with that intuitive resonance…

I open quickly and profoundly in ways that I craved — but never imagined.

I’m not a lineage holder in the traditions of all people on this list, but I am who I am because of these people, and I love and thank them for it.

Thank you to:

Jill Buchholz | Cheryl Wright | Brian Begin | Lester Levenson | Fabeku Fantumise | Hale Dwoskin | Sara Gotheridge | AJ Amyx & Jonathan Heston | David Bedrick | Lacy Phillips | Chögyam Trungpa | Adyashanti | Ron Smothermon | Dostoyevsky | Pema Chödron | Bill W. + Dr. Bob