Messages from a Spirit Photographer

She’s the first “Spirit Photographer” I’ve ever met.

Karen Leffler embraces art and spirit – which makes her the most fitting person for ArtSpirit7 to write about.

Karen Leffler, Spirit Photographer
Karen Leffler, spirit photographer

“As my life is a prayer, photography is my passion.” says Leffler. As you can see from her website, she specializes in sacred photography and architecture.

A few months ago Leffler gave a presentation at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She spoke about her experience as the official photographer for Casa de Dom Inacio in Abadiania, Brazil and of John God events around the globe.

Her photographs catch the presence of other-ness, something unexpected and unseen by the naked eye that appears in her photographs. It is hard to describe in words.

Leffler showed photographs of the life of João Teixeira de Faria, internationally known as John of God or João de Deus. He is “arguably the most powerful unconscious medium alive today and possibly the best-known healer of the past 2000 years.” (from johnofgod.com)

The prevalent thread in Leffler’s presentation is what we focus on is what we manifest. Whatever imagery we allow our eyes to gaze upon is like a prayer to the Universe of what we want. So guard the door to your precious eyes and select carefully.

Of course at Casa de Dom Inacio they are very careful about what is on their walls.

Before her talk was over she suggested a few websites to visit:

Gregg Braden talking about our hearts as our biggest electromagnetic field;

-the work of Dr. William Kent Larkin and the Applied Neuroscience Institute (watch the video about the up spiral and the emotional gym if you can); and

Mellen-Thomas Benedict who shares his inspirational message. Benedict “died” for an hour and a half and returned to his body.

You can read more about Leffler and her experiences in a book she produced with Heather Cumming titled John of God: The Brazilian Healer Who’s Touched the Lives of Millions and published by Simon and Schuster.

How does the art on your walls make you feel?

Celebrating Cameraless Art

Have you experimented with creating art on your scanner? Wikipedia calls it scanography. I call them scanograms or Gow-o-grams.

It’s fun and an opportunity to play with the elements of composition. In celebration of Valentine’s energy all year long I created the scanogram below. Spread the love. Add to or play with the Light!

Heart Song
"Heart Song," scanogram by Mary Gow

You can see some other examples in this series:
Gow-o-gram No. 2
4 Quotes to Jumpstart Your Dreams
5 People to Have on Your Personal Board of Directors

The 2011 TED Prize Winner – JR

What is the TED prize? From the “about TED”, the TED prize is “designed to leverage the TED Community’s exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000.

For 2011, the winner was JR for his “One Wish to Change the World.” Over the life of the prize, wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.”

Window at the Dakota

Window the Dakota
Window at the Dakota

Here’s a photo I took of detail of a window at The Dakota, which is a historic housing cooperative built in 1884, located at 72nd and Central Park West in New York. John Lennon had lived here from 1973 until his death in 1980.