How did you find the Diamond Approach?
I found Hameed Ali (the founder of the Diamond Approach) before there was a Diamond Approach. When I met Hameed, I was looking for a body oriented therapist, I was not looking for a spiritual teacher. In the mid-1970’s I was looking for a Reichian Therapist and I was referred to Hameed as one of two possible choices. I unexpectedly saw Hameed at a social gathering and I was so struck by the kindness of his eyes, and given my early childhood history with being in a body cast, I thought his use of a crutch would give him an extra in-touchness with my history. I chose Hameed. I was young, it took me a few years to appreciate the magnitude of Hameed’s evolving perspective, what the unfolding and developing inquiry was revealing.
When you first started, what was your greatest challenge?
Facing and coming to terms with how truly conditioned and based in the past my experience of myself and reality was.
What has kept you engaged with the Diamond Approach teachings?
Where to begin? At the most basic level, I have never been bored. And there was the sheer unexpectedness of how my emotional work unfolded directly into spiritual realization … I am blessed to have been a seedling of the Diamond Approach and to bear witness to the fruits of Reality.
What aspect of the teaching is most alive in you right now?
Riding the edge of the truly mysterious unfoldment of reality through the living consciousness of the body/soul, and living the miracle of individual consciousness of total being. To be fully engaged in the endlessness of the unfoldment of reality in all of its facets.
What has been the most surprising discovery for you?
How truly endless are the discoveries of what ‘our’ consciousness is... a delightful, endless search for the ‘god particle of the soul.
What advice/encouragement would you offer to someone ‘on the fence’ about attending an Intro event?
There is the wonder of discovery of what is really going on here, within and without. The teaching actually works to expand one's experience of self, other, reality. No matter how temporarily dark, reality always seems to move to increased freedom and lightness of the goodness and richness of being.
If you could have one wish for humankind, what would it be?
To have the space, resources and freedom to explore, know and be true to one's soul. To gain the capacities to metabolize life’s experience to mature into our basic goodness in full recognition of the richness of our human gifts. To live fully our place in the evolution of reality as a co-cooperative authentic humanity.
Jessica Britt has been a student of Hameed Ali’s since 1977 and a teacher since 1985. She is a training director, leading on-going groups in Europe, Canada and the US. In the 80’s she was on the Gestalt staff of Esalen Institute creating an integration of Reichian and Gestalt work. While at Esalen, she was a student within the Native American Traditions leading wilderness journeys. In addition, she studied Continuum Movement with Emily Conrad. A nurse in the 70’s, she specialized in the field of childhood sexual & physical abuse. Jessica continues to practice from a view that includes the whole of the miracle of conscious life.