Spiritual Services

Please contact us to book your interfaith wedding or rite of passage for any upcoming significant events in your life. David Gellman will create customized weddings and other special ceremonies to mark your special occasion, drawing on your heritage, culture, history, and your unique combination of spiritual beliefs. Examples of celebratory “Rites of Passage” include:
A new chapter in your life
Moving to a new job, house, or relationship
Giving up an addiction
Accomplishing a goal or set of goals
Birth of a baby
A marriage
The coming of age of a child

David Gellman provides spiritual and emotional counseling and therapy to people of all ages, backgrounds, and faiths. Through a flexible use of counseling techniques and interfaith philosophies, he helps his clients to better understand and more fully accept challenging life situations and offers guidance to overcome with the greatest potential opportunity for personal growth.

As a result of the traumas and stresses we experience in our lives, a spiritual illness is created that can manifest into either physical or emotional “disease.” A piece of our “soul” may feel fragmented or broken off. Consider this to be a part of your vital force having gone missing.

The traumas we experience take a toll on us, but the effects of trauma vary from individual to individual. In our current society, we often use psychological methods to deal with most traumas and feelings of incompleteness. Whether it’s someone who has been in an accident, lost a loved one, been in an abusive relationship, faced memory gaps of a part of their lives or any one of a thousand other things, we often dissociate a part of ourselves, most often as a mechanism of protection. If you’ve ever felt incomplete, it’s because your intuitive self knows that a part of you is missing.

Soul recovery is about journeying into other forms of reality in order to bring back the broken pieces and reintegrate them into our selves. It’s a shamanistic tool, because generally what sets the shaman apart from other healers is the journeying that he/she does. Healing shamanistic journeys have been conducted in most cultures and in all parts of the world from Siberia to South America and from North America to Australia.

Soul recovery is a means of finding and reintegrating those dissociated pieces. There are many other forms of reality in which to find the missing pieces as well as various methods for their recovery. Although someone else finds your parts for you, it doesn’t mean that you have no responsibility. Once the pieces are found, it is up to the person who has suffered the trauma to keep the reintegration process going and ensure those parts stay integrated.

You may wonder how you know if you’ve suffered soul loss and what the steps are for a soul retrieval journey. Some of the signs that may point to soul loss are depression, the inability to ground oneself, feelings of detachment, chronic illness, addictions, inability to let go of certain things in your life, a sense of emptiness, etc.

When you have found a shamanistic facilitator you want to work with, he/she undertakes a journey, based on a specific ceremony, on your behalf to other worlds or dimensions where these pieces are. With the help of a guide, the shaman can bring back a certain number of the pieces. For the next month afterwards, it is up to you to communicate with these pieces, to listen to what they have to say and to help them reintegrate into who you are. After a few months, you may want the shaman to undertake a second journey to see if there are more pieces ready to come back. The more traumatized pieces often do not return on the first journey. It’s as if it’s understood that the reintegration of all the pieces takes time and can require a slow adjustment period, and so the pieces come back in an order from least traumatized to most traumatized.

The purpose of the journey is to find and help heal these fragmented pieces of your soul. The shaman will tell you about the journey, explaining the pieces, the circumstances and what was required. In some instances you will know exactly what he/she’s talking about, and in some instances you will have to think about what the events may represent. They may be clear as glass or they may be couched in allegory.

The recognition of where and how the fragmentation took place can accelerate the reintegration process. You may be in a much different place now from when the piece dissociated, and the integration can be smooth and effortless. Each piece and each person is different. During the reintegration time, you listen and converse with the returned pieces, and continue to accelerate your own healing. You open yourself up more to the various means of communicating which you have with your higher self and get greater insights into your true self and your soul.

Please check to see our list of upcoming events. All of our workshops and events are designed to foster spiritual and emotional well being and provide an oasis of relief from the stressors of the day.

Click here to see our up to date calendar of upcoming events.

Our workshops are intended to expand your spiritual and emotional wellbeing.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Love! We all want it, and seldom know how to open ourselves up to receive more love in our lives. This workshop will address what unconditional love is, and how we can create more of it in our own lives; by giving and receiving it. Join us for this evening to learn the alchemy of the heart.

GETTING RID OF BAGGAGE
THE 42 QUESTIONS OF LIFE

Examine how much karma you still carry and the steps you
can take to eliminate your baggage. All cultures have a day of
judgment for self-examination. You will assess yourself by the ancient
Egyptian 42 questions of life.
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SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE OF DEATH AND LOSS
DEATH IS A TRANSITION — IT IS AN ENDING AND A BEGINNING.
An evening dedicated to grieving and getting closure on not
just the loss of loved ones, but dreams and expectations of how
we expected life was going to turn out. Loss is not an ending,
it is a transition to newness and growth. The evening will be
concluded with a guided meditation to heal loss, and move on
to create new beginnings.

YOUR GOD WITHIN
Discovering your own spirituality and setting out a plan for
a sacred life. The evening will be concluded with a guided
meditation to connect to your own spiritual awareness.

EXPLORE AND EXPLODE YOUR FEARS
We will celebrate the festivals of light Christmas and Chanukah.
Winter Solstice and how to overcome your fears that can block the realization of your dreams and wishes. Join us for this event that will open the roads to achieve your new year’s resolutions.

THE SPIRITS THAT GUIDE US
Learn to connect to your angels, spirit guides, and totems. An
exercise will be facilitated to identify your animal totem. Tap
into the importance of gratitude. The evening will conclude
with a guided meditation to connect with your spirit guide. We
will honour the upcoming Chinese New Year and talk about the
different animal years.

FREEDOM FROM ADDICTION THROUGH MINDFULNESS
Open your mind to how to overcome addiction by being one
with yourself, and understanding the world around you. We will
examine the Buddhist concept of mindfulness, and conduct a
ritual to assist in overcoming addiction.

THE TREE OF LIFE
Learn to utilize this ancient tool to understand other spiritual
systems. It will help in overcoming problems in your life
today. We will explore how the Tree of Life symbol contains
numerology, astrology, tarot, the ancient Hebrew alphabet, the
10 commandments, and the chakras. Realize how the Tree of Life
is directly connected to all current and ancient religions. Explore
the roots of this symbol incorporated in most religions.

CROSSING THE RAINBOW BRIDGE
We all know the term chakra – but few know what it means. In
Sanskrit it means “wheel” or your inner energy world. Join us in
this workshop to discover the chakras. What they do, what they
are, and how you can find a chakra block and release it. We will
use colours, Bach remedies, California Essences, food, movement,
therapies, aromatherapy, stone, and breath work to clear blocks.
Workshop will be concluded with a guided meditation through
the chakras.

SPRING EQUINOX & CREATE THE YEAR YOU WANT
In many ancient religions the spring equinox was considered the
beginning of the year. We will look at these spiritual systems as
well as celebrate the Persian New Year. Jump start the new year
with a series of exercises and rituals to manifest the year that
you want, and learn about the twelve days of creation.

FESTIVAL OF FREEDOM DINNER
A special presentation honouring Passover and
Easter, in which you will understand what imprisons you, and
how to free yourself from it.

PERCHANCE TO DREAM
An evening dedicated to understanding your dreams and
learning that God speaks to us through them. Impact your
healing using your dreams. The evening will be concluded
with a guided meditation.

SPIRITUAL FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT : Defending Your Life Starring Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep
Yuppie Daniel Miller is killed in a car accident and goes to Judgment City, a waiting room for the afterlife. During the day, he must prove in a courtroom-style process that he successfully overcame his fears (a hard task, given the pitiful life we are shown); at night, he falls in love with Julia, the only other young person in town. Nights are a time of hedonistic pleasure, since you can (for instance) eat all you want without getting fat. Written by Jon Reeves (jreeves@imdb.com)
All of your life is on videotape — or perhaps laser disk — to make it easier on your prosecutor and defense attorney at Judgment City to randomly access a few episodes to show whether you made the most of the life you just completed. If you didn’t make the most of that life, you will be sent back to try again and again until you do get it right. And the court must be taking an advance peek at that life tape. Posh accommodations go to those who look like they will merit moving up to citizen of the universe — like Julia who falls for Daniel, whose quarters have no ambiance at all. Written by Dale O’Connor (daleoc@interaccess.com)
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD- BOOK ONE – by Neale Donald Walsch
What would GOD say if he had a conversation with you? You will be surprised by what the author shares with readers in this best-selling book, which may resonate and change the way you see GOD. Conversations with God -Book One relates Neale Donald Walsch’s own personal conversations with GOD. This book has opened the hearts and minds of millions to possibilities to live with more beauty, love and truth than they ever imagined possible.

SPIRITUAL FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT : The Ten Commandments Starring Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Anne Baxter
To escape the edict of Egypt’s Pharaoh, Rameses I, condemning all first-born Hebrew males, the infant Moses is set adrift on the Nile in a reed basket. Saved by the pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, he is adopted by her and brought up in the court of her brother, Pharaoh Seti. Moses gains Seti’s favor and the love of the throne princess Nefertiri, as well as the hatred of Seti’s son, Rameses. When his Hebrew heritage is revealed, Moses is cast out of Egypt, and makes his way across the desert where he marries, has a son and is commanded by God to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews from slavery. In Egypt Moses’s fiercest enemy proves to be not Rameses, but someone near to him who can ‘harden his heart’. Written by Ron Kerrigan (mvg@whidbey.com)

Moses leads the slaves from the tyranny of the Egyptian pharaoh and into the desert where he is later given the law of God. Once the pharaoh’s chief architect, Moses receives the attentions of the Queen until he rebels and is cast into exile. Written by Keith Loh (loh@sfu.ca)

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON
Do you ever wonder why things happen? Do you feel bad things happen to good people? As much as it sounds like a cliché, everything really does happen for a reason. Together we will delve into the inner workings of the universe with the hope that it will allow you to feel more peace and understanding. We will also discuss the differences between free will and destiny, as well as what choices we can make to change our futures.

SPIRITUAL FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT : Pay It Forward Starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment
Imagine you’re despairing over a major problem in your life, and someone comes along and solves it for you, relatively unconditionally. All you have to do is “pay it forward”, i.e., do a similarly big favour to three others. Would you do it?

That’s the premise behind Pay it Forward, an overly sentimental film with some provocative ideas. The concept originates when Eugene “be careful with that axe” Simonet (Kevin Spacey) challenges his Seventh grade class to come up with an assignment to change the world. Trevor (Haley Joel Osment) comes up with the pay-it-forward concept and first decides to help a homeless heroin addict get back on his feet, then help Eugene and his mother (Helen Hunt) get together (which really makes for two favours), and then help his friend who’s being pushed around by bullies in school. This “movement” spreads relatively unnoticed until a reporter in Los Angeles who loses his car is handed a brand new Jaguar and tracks down the source of this favour chain

With a stellar cast consisting of Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley “I see dead people” Osment, the movie works pretty well under Mimi Leder’s direction. The southern California/Nevada cinematography is done well. The dialogue is the weakest aspect of the film and is a bit hackneyed at times. More than the primary plot itself, the various underlying subtexts involving domestic abuse and alcoholism are interesting.

The concept of pay-it-forward is how most of human society works to the extent it does (some of it has even been institutionalised in the form of religion and government). The problem is that the notion is simply not idealistic enough. Performing three big favours just does not cut it. Not only does there need to be a significantly larger amount of favours done through the course of one’s life, but the more important thing is that people don’t do negative or harmful things to others to an equally large degree. Doing three big favours is pointless if you’ve done more harm than any favour can repay. A better (and much more idealistic) concept would be to live life without doing any harm to others (which also would not be adequate, but would be much more effective than a three-favour scheme).

What Pay it Forward really illustrates is that it is harmful to oneself and to others to be apathetic towards other people’s problems. However, to maximise the balance of doing good to others and not doing harm, one also has to choose their battles wisely. This doesn’t mean inaction, as much as realizing that certain solutions simply don’t work. For example, using violence as a solution never works since violence always begets violence (“what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”). On that note, Pay it Forward also throws in a message about school violence.

INSIGHT INTO ASTROLOGY
This talk provides the opportunity to enhance understanding of the ancient art of Astrology that can create a bridge from the deepest parts of ourselves, to the whole universe around us. Many faiths believe that our souls choose when we are born and to what parents. Whether or not you believe this, your heart and mind will be opened to fresh possibilities, and a new respect may be obtained for cosmic influences that are affecting your life. Come and be surprised by what you can discover!

We all hope that when we marry, it’s for life, but sometimes things don’t work out “happily ever after” and marriages end and we move on.

But do we ever really move on if all we do is obtain a divorce. We shared our life, our hopes and dreams and even our soul with our partner.

A physical divorce just isn’t enough.

Why not incorporate a ritual designed to sever the spiritual ties that we no longer want to bind.

While you may have broken free legally, you may still be spiritually connected to your former partner. Our customized divorce ritual is designed to give you a spiritual break to cleanse you and free you to move on.