The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat
Gathering with Others
In the Beauty of Nature
To become our Selves
One thousand half loves must be forsaken
To take one whole heart
Home
~ Rumi
The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat invites you to
stop seeking and start finding
It is not yoga. Not meditation. Not therapy or trauma healing. Not ritual.
It is an initiation. An opportunity for skin to skin contact with the love at the heart of reality that will have its way with you.
If you let it, you might never be the same in the best possible way.
The Rapture of Being Alive is an apprenticeship to reality
The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat is a profound encounter with reality. Full stop.
We are all, whether we admit it or not, drowning in a sea of untruth, unconsciousness, bullsh*t, and downright self-deception.
Some of it is innocently programmed into us and sometimes we are the willful participants in our own self-delusion.
Regardless, we need a way out. Because to stay in the untruth is a half-life of half-love. It sucks.
We will literally never be able to fully receive the gift of our lives or experience sustained intimacy if we do not shift our consciousness.
The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat is a way out. Using a profound and simple lineage-based practice that has been refined over generations we gather to each apprentice ourselves to the truth.
Becoming fully human. Fully alive. Fully in love.
The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat is a doorway
To your Self.
In a lineage-based inquiry practice that has been refined over generations we gather to encounter reality for ourselves. The process is quite simple. Learning it requires humility rather than cleverness. And practicing it wakes us up. To beauty. To love. To life. To ourselves. To the Other.
The Rapture of Being Alive will take you as deep as you are willing to go. No false fluff and no false friends. We are here for reality and nothing else will do.
Guided by a single question we locate and discover the truth that resets us and restores us to the dignity of our own particular humanity.
The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat Format
For an evening, three full days, and a morning, we flow between three modes of personal inquiry with reality: By ourselves, with an Other in a dyad, and with the group. We are in silence except when we are practicing or getting support.
The practice is very simple but infinitely surprising and variable. You will be guided by a single question for the entire time. There will be silence. There will be speaking. There will be teaching. And beauty. So much beauty.
There is lots of speaking but no socializing. We offer our words in service of our own apprenticeship to the truth but we set aside conversation so we can listen to our own channel with reality. And we listen deeply for when someone else’s discovery gives us a key to unlock our own locked door.
Everything you need to know will be taught. There are no complex concepts or athletic movements required. All ages and experience levels will have the same opportunity to go deeper into Reality, Life and Love.
There is a lot of support. Ernest and his assistants are available around the clock to support your inquiry and process as you journey toward the truth that changes your life.
The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat: Is it for you?
You are a current or former student of the Path of Personhood with Ernest OR have been invited by someone who is. As an act of rebellion in an increasingly fragmented digital world we are coming together by word of mouth so we can share our experience and language with our friends and connections who also have touched what we have touched.
You passionately desire to experience who you are and are willing to be confronted as you see through who you think you are.
You are excited about a path where your OWN direct relationship to reality is the process and the destination. You aren’t looking for someone else’s answers.
You are called to a path that deeply impacts your experience of being alive. More beauty. More ease. More freedom. More intimacy.
You are called to live your inner/spiritual life in the real world – you aren’t looking for a bypass.
Come and see!
Important Questions
How do I know if this is a fit for me?
The best way is to reach out to Ernest and set up a time to chat – ernest@ernestmorrow.com
Is there any edgy, sexy, intimacy play involved?
Just in case anyone is in wrong neck of the woods! The truth is quite a spicy and rapturous event in its own right BUT there will be no touching. No removal of clothing. No awkward or contrived experiments in relating.
Is this just another retreat that will feel good for a few days and then fade away?
The best part of this way of waking up is that we are not using any altered consciousness to get there. No long meditation periods or plant medicine or intense ecstatic experiences. Everything is in ordinary reality. This means that everything you get stays with you as you go.
Will I connect with people?
The people who come are all committed to the same thing – reality. There is no greater a bond to share than someone else who wants love and life, truth and freedom as much as you do. Many people have become lifelong friends (and more!) through this shared experience. There is even an ongoing community that gathers weekly made up of past particpants.
The Rapture of Being Alive Retreat
Retreat Dates:
September 11th-15th, 2026
Location:
Won Dharma Retreat Center – Hudson, NY. Accessible from NYC via Amtrak or Albany airport.
Cost:
Tuition:
- $1250 USD – Established students receive 20% discount
- Partial Scholarships Available – Please contact Ernest to discuss
Room and Board Options:
- $600 total – Quad occupancy room, shared bath, all meals
- $745 total – Double occupancy room, shared bath, all meals
- $980 total – Single occupancy room, shared bath, all meals (limited number available)
How to register or for more information:
Please email Ernest directly and we will schedule a time to talk – ernest@ernestmorrow.com
The Rapture of Being Alive Experience…
I have finally “arrived home!” 63 years on the self quest journey and the map home is now clear. In this moment I am basking in the sea of calm, grounded in the awareness that my true nature is beyond the changing patterns of personality. Ernest, your artistry, your mastery of guiding, supporting, loving, holding each and every one of us has been beyond grace! And what blossomed among us in retreat was a communion of presence so deep, so alive, it became a teacher in itself, one I will cherish and carry with me on my journey of humanness. ~ Robin W.
To say the experience has been transformational would be an understatement. Being deliberately present and having the truth and the beauty revealed in an authentic container with so much love and patience and life…is the Rapture in and of itself. You have to experience it. ~ Ken W.
The Rapture of Being Alive with Ernest took me to a place inside of myself where a bigger truth exists and, with it, an expanded view of the beauty of my life. What surprised me and still does, is how the retreat unearthed something that lasts and has informed me of how to connect with myself in ways I never knew existed. The outside World no longer changes my experience of myself. There were areas of my life that I kept creating pain over and over again. Many of those patterns of self imposed suffering no longer have a hold on me. I have so much more availability to be me. The space and freedom are undeniable. ~ Laura F. Jacobs
The Rapture of Being Alive is freedom. I’m free and I’m loved and I’m held. Always. I learned a lot of these concepts in various forms of spirituality but they were just words. And now I know what they mean. Because I feel them and have had a direct experience of what it actually means to be loved and held and never alone. ~ Viji A.
The retreat with Ernest was the deepest and most transformative experience I’ve had against a backdrop of a long history of personal growth work and retreats. This experience put me in touch with the most tender edge of Love/ Life that I’ve ever experienced. I became a conduit for love to flow through me. This was facilitated by Ernest’s attuned guidance and the ability hold a safe and sacred space to go to this depth. I highly recommend for the seeker of truth, transformation and deep contact with Life. . ~ Ann Becks
I am on fire from just completing the Rapture of Being Alive…It’s a lot of work but it will change your life – a true awakening about who you are, what you are, what life is, what love is. ~ Chris R.
The Rapture of Being Alive is such an incredible arena to cut through all the layers and noise of suffering to direct contact with the living presence. I have done a similar style retreat with different teachers. Ernest’s additional teachings illuminated the fundamental simplicity and depth of being alive in a way that was accessible, honest, and transformative. This man is an initiator, and such a gift to learn from. Joining a retreat is truly a gift to yourself! ~ Manu Vitae
A powerful 4 days of being deeply in love with myself…deeply enthralled with being right here.~ Justin R.
~ Liz Ilgenfritz