By Philip Deslippe

In childhood Guru Dev Singh exhibited healing and psychic abilities that brought him to his first teachers, the Mexican Curanderos –the old men of the Toltecs. For many years he studied the forgotten secrets of the Mexican “Indios” and Curanderos. He became known as a man who could “make magic,” heal, and even drive out demons.

Then one day in Mexico City he saw a very charismatic, tall, imposing man dressed all in white and wearing a turban. The man was Yogi Bhajan, master of Kundalini Yoga. Guru Dev Singh asked if he could become Yogiji’s student. Yogiji told him that he did not accept students, that he created teachers, and gave Guru Dev Singh a task to perform: to live for a year without using his powers. When Guru Dev Singh successfully completed this task, he became a Sikh and started learning Yogic and Oriental healing; and that’s how it all began.

To the observer, the techniques of Sat Nam Rasayan® (SNR) may look simple, but it is only through a specific and detailed training of the practioner that the subtleties of this healing technique can be accessed. It takes years of study and practice to not only achieve the state that Yogi Bhajan described as shuniya, but to be able to stabilize and recognize it, not just “walk through it.”

In time a practitioner learns to use specific SNR® techniques to bring about many different and specific experiences in the client. Although Guru Dev established the School of Sat Nam Rasayan® in 1992, he had been practicing it with his clients since 1985.

In a typical Sat Nam Rasayan® session, a client lies down in front of a practitioner who, while comfortably seated, lightly touches the client and comes to a specific meditative state known as “the projective meditative mind.”

“The awareness of the Sat Nam Rasayan® practitioner becomes transcendent and in the vastness of their consciousness, healing will happen. The state is a pure meditative absorption between the practitioner and the client, in the Divine.”

Clients see a Sat Nam Rasayan® practitioner for a wide array of issues ranging from physical pain and discomfort, to depression and anxiety. Those who have a SNR® treatment typically describe an experience of calm, relaxation, and balance. Many find that SNR® and the practice of Kundalini Yoga wonderfully complement each other; that a yogic practice allows one to more easily hold a meditative space, and the practice of Sat Nam Rasayan® allows one to practice Kundalini Yoga kriyas with great awareness and depth.

Sat Nam Rasayan® can best be described as a “worldwide school without walls” where anyone in the world who is interested in the healing art can engage in an ongoing learning process of practice, classes, retreats, and ultimately, testing and certification. Most people have their first experience with SNR® as a client, either privately with a healer or in one of the many SNR® community clinics. From there many choose to learn the technique for themselves and begin to take classes with a local Student Instructor.

Thousands of people in Europe and the Americas who receive Sat Nam Rasayan® treatments are students of the healing art, or are practitioners themselves. Interest in SNR® is growing rapidly, most noticeably in Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, and the United States. While there are ongoing classes and Student Instructors of SNR® in numerous areas, there are several annual events that allow practitioners and students to come together with Guru Dev Singh and immerse themselves in the practice, as well as test for the various levels.

In areas where there is not a certified Student Instructor, there are often practice sessions and arrangements can be made to have a Traveling Student Instructor visit the area. Local classes allow the interested to get oriented with Sat Nam Rasayan® and learn the basics before taking classes with Guru Dev Singh in their area. He travels extensively throughout the world, teaching a Sat Nam Rasayan® course in every city he visits. Six-hour classes with Guru Dev Singh are called Intensives, and are not only a great opportunity to study directly with the preeminent teacher of Sat Nam Rasayan®, but they, along with two-day Immersions and four to five-day Retreats, count towards the certification process.

Guru Dev Singh teaches in New Mexico at Summer Solstice Sadhana and at Women’s Camp every year. For more information on Sat Nam Rasayan® or to register for SNR® events visit www.gurudevsnr.com. You can also stop by the SNR® booth at Summer Solstice Sadhana where you can get information on Sat Nam Rasayan® and upcoming events.

Philip Deslippe is an international photojournalist who began studying SNR® in Paris in 1997. He says, “Whenever I arrive in a new city I always locate where the SNR® classes are offered and continue to take classes in SNR® throughout the world.” His work can be viewed at www.philipdeslippe.com.

This article was previously published in Aquarian Times, August 2006.