The Summer Festival of Love is an event that you will experience on many different levels: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. During this week-long event, Dr Marc Gafni gives you the very best of his heart, mind and being when he passionately brings the Dharma. His teachings have their roots in cutting-edge scientific knowledge and developmental theories. The mind, soul and body work that you will do throughout the day will help you digest all the impressions. This personal story gives you an idea of the effect the Festival can have, helping you to discover and live your Unique Self, and create a better world. Hélène from Paris, France shares her experience…

I found my family here

“I have participated in the Summer Festival of Love three times now. A close friend had told me about it, and somehow, I knew I needed to be there. It was simply pulling me in, that’s how it is. I felt it in my gut that I was ready. My father had been teaching me about this all his life. So, I listened to my intuition and went, without any expectation. And it changed my life. The energy I felt during the Festival nourished me and made me feel like I was going back home. I found my family here. All my life I felt alone, I was different than other people in my way of viewing and sensing the world. And there was Marc, he was talking about precisely that, in a much bigger way. It was as if the Tiny Me met the Bigger Me, pushing my boundaries. It was giving me wings, to finally be recognized and to see that I am not the only one experiencing the world in this way.”

I discovered how to play the larger game

“When I went back to Paris after the first time, I was filled with a strong willpower to embody in real life what I had learned. I felt determined to do what I had been planning to do for such a long time. I kept the force that I experienced at the festival with me in my everyday life. That changed the interaction with other people tremendously. I really opened my heart, could love more, even people whom I thought to be my adversary. When Marc says: “Are you ready to play a larger game?”, that is the larger game. LARGER! Suddenly, everyone is involved in what you thought was your own, separate life, now you it is part of the bigger whole.”

It turned my weaknesses into the driving forces in my life

“Being at the Festival for the second time, the year after, Marc asked: “What do you want to do? Who do you want to be in this evolution?”. I knew that I had found my place, my responsibility in that evolution, to be an actress in my own life, playing the leading part. During the Festival, I was with my tribe, this supporting community, that turned my weaknesses into the driving forces in my life. It made me finally realize that I don’t have to be better, bigger, that I am perfect and unique just the way I am. I can start from where and who I am now. I can thrive in every situation, rather than feel that limitation.”

The Festival is like an incubator

“My life has purpose now. I thought: “Now I really got it, so I can live this life, I can do it on my own.”, and when I came home, I wrote a book. A book! Never had I thought of that before. Before, I was asleep, and the Festival woke me up. That opportunity simply did not come to me and never would I have thought it possible to write a book. After the Festival, I completely changed the way I filled my days, I opened my heart and eyes, and suddenly opportunities and synchronicity were coming, I was meeting people. Marc says that we give birth to the Dharma and he helps us to give birth, together with all the other participants, it’s like an incubator. It’s only after the second time I was there that I felt I was incarnating the Dharma into my life. It’s a process, you don’t become completely different after one week. You realize something, you know something, but you need to process it and work, like with a real job. I needed to go for the second time to be more empowered, to shift from a mental process to the heart process. The teachings are quite intellectual, but they’re not to be understood only mentally. It’s happening in my heart, deep in my bones, my structure, my being.”

Are you ready? It’s gonna shake you!

“It took me another three years to go back for the third time. I simply needed to be with my tribe again. No longer was it about wanting to change my life. I was going through a huge transition in my life and I needed this pumping feeling, to be held and comforted again, to find the strength to go through this transition and beyond. I needed this shot of love, so to speak. It created a completely new life, and in this new lifetime experience, I know to be living from my Unique Self, in the Dharma. That is great, in a way that everything is bigger now, larger, new, changing unexpectedly. You have to be ready for living your life like this and now I am ready. When you step in, you cannot go back. It’s really life changing. Can you handle that? Be careful! Are you sure you want to go? It’s gonna shake you!”

Is the Festival for you? It’s about YOU!!

“Perhaps this idea of a community may seem a bit oppressive to some people. But it’s not. Quite the opposite! It’s about discovering that you are free! For that you need to be ready, to embrace freedom. It may be scary to discover your Unique Self. You can trust that your experience is going to be tailored to what you need. It’s made especially for you, so nothing can go wrong and everything is possible. Do you need to do something for that? No! Just be yourself and be ready. During the first Festival, I was sitting next to a guy who hoped to find sex there. That scared me a bit initially. But it’s not about sex and all about sex at the same time. Sex is a life force, and again, it’s larger than this, everything is larger. For example, in this interview, we had sex. We were so intimate, you were making the words flow from my heart to yours, we were in total connection. That’s having sex. It’s what I call in French making love, faire l’amour. You touch me with your heart, you listen to me, we connect, that’s so….WOW! In the end YOU are making the Festival. It’s about YOU.”