Universal Consciousness Festival brings five days of wellness to Estes Park

The Universal Consciousness Festival began with a natural disaster.

In September 2013, historic flooding tore through the Estes Valley, and a mudslide struck the Dao House property south of Estes Park. For Samalita Adamae, executive and managing director of Dao House, the destruction also revealed something worth preserving: the way neighbors showed up for one another.

“You know, all of us were helping each other out, cooking for each other, and neighbors were coming over to do whatever needed to be done,” Adamae said. “During that time, everybody just came together to help each other out.”

That experience became part of the foundation for the Universal Consciousness Festival, which returns to Dao House Aug. 19-23 for five days of movement, meditation, sound work, Chinese medicine traditions, and other approaches to wellness.

“The Universal Consciousness Festival was designed as a memorial to the floods and the many things that have happened over 9/11,” Adamae said. “All of those torrential rains actually started on September 11th, and there’s so much negative connotation that is around that date, so we decided to start something that is in alignment with everybody.”

When the first festival took place in 2014, wellness became the unifying theme, which Adamae believed could bring people together regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs.

“Everybody wants to be healthy,” Adamae said. “So, we were looking at a way to bring people together underneath a guise that we can all come together, right? Still having that fundamental bringing people together for a common goal, and that’s wellness, our health, and our well-being.”

A smaller, fuller schedule

The festival has changed considerably since its first year. Early editions offered more presenters and overlapping workshops, but organizers repeatedly heard from attendees who disliked having to choose between sessions.

The solution was to shrink the number of concurrent offerings and build one packed schedule. After Wednesday’s opening afternoon and evening sessions, most days begin with a 6:30 a.m. morning practice and continue through 10 p.m., with meals and breaks built in.

“You can pick and choose what you want to do,” Adamae said. “Even if you just want to go for a hike and enjoy the mountains and nature, you can easily do that.”

This year’s three featured presenters are Wu Dang Chen, Kelly Harrington, and Billy Zanski.

Chen, who has been trained in Daoist traditions since childhood and belongs to the Long Men Pai and Zhang San Feng Pai lineages, will lead sessions on internal cultivation, Qigong, Tai Chi, meditation, and practices aimed at “nourishing your life.”

“Wu Dang Chen used to do a lot more teaching back in the day,” Adamae said. “He really doesn’t do a lot of teachings, so this is the one time where those who haven’t had a chance to be able to connect, or be instructed by him, can get the opportunity to meet him and work with him.”

Harrington, a practitioner and educator in Chinese medicine, Feng Shui, and face reading, will lead extended sessions examining what Chinese face-reading traditions associate with personality, health tendencies, emotions, relationships, and life transitions.

She does the face readings and is going to have four three-hour sessions,” Adamae said. “So, like Kelly says, a picture’s worth a thousand words, and so is your face. The lines have meaning, and your face cannot lie, right? So she will go into depth about that.”

Zanski, a percussionist who studied in Guinea, West Africa, will lead workshops exploring rhythm, instruments, voice, and sound meditation. His first workshop, “Introduction to Sound as Healing Modality,” runs from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursday.

“Billy will be focusing on different ways to look at sound and the music that you listen to,” Adamae said. “Everybody can relate to that because everybody loves music.”

Keeping the gathering personal

Although visitors come from all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, England, Italy, and Germany to attend the Universal Consciousness Festival, it is intentionally kept small. Adamae said attendance usually ranges from about 20 to 50 people per day, with roughly half returning participants and half newcomers.

That scale is important to Adamae because it allows presenters and participants to spend time together beyond the formal workshops.

“Usually when you go to events, it’s just such a big crowd that there is not that personal connection,” she said. “And that, I find, is how the transformations really can take place and happen for people.”

Adamae said what keeps her returning to the work each year is less any one workshop than the atmosphere created by the people who arrive.

“I can’t pinpoint just a memory, because each year is amazing and very different, especially with the speakers and their personas and what they bring to the table,” Adamae said. “Here, you don’t have to put on a show. You can just be you. This is a great place to be able just to be yourself, be accepted, meet other individuals, and learn a lot of really cool stuff.”