About Dennis Lewis
Natural Breathing, Gurdjieff, Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, Chi Kung
Dennis Lewis was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied philosophy at
the University of Wisconsin and received a degree in philosophy/religion from San
Francisco State University in 1967. He has worked as an art gallery director,
computer programmer/analyst, book editor, and public relations executive. He formed his
own PR agency, called Hi-Tech Public Relations, with a partner in 1981. They sold the
agency to a large English firm in 1988, and Lewis left the agency two years later. The
agency had grown to 45 people.
- The Search for What Is Real
Lewis has been on the path of self-knowledge and
self-transformation his entire adult life. In 1964, he began studying himself from the
perspective of the ideas and methods of the great spiritual pathfinder G. I. Gurdjieff. In
1966, realizing he needed more than books to help him, he went in search of a Gurdjieff
group and soon made contact with the Gurdjieff Foundation of California. After several
years of study in groups under the direction of Lord John Pentland, who was president of
the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York and directed the foundation in San Francisco, Lewis
was given the responsibility by Lord Pentland of helping to lead two groups in San
Francisco. Lord Pentland also gave him permission to start his own Gurdjieff group in
Phoenix, Arizona, a group which he continued for about six years. Lewis left the Gurdjieff
Foundation in 1982.
Starting in the late 1980s, Lewis studied intensively for three
years with the remarkable Advaita Vedanta master Jean Klein, whose work included an
esoteric form of yoga and pranayama. During this period, Lewis also studied the ideas and
methods of Moshe Feldenkrais, and studied briefly with Ilse Middendorf, the world-renown
breathing therapist.
- The Beginning of His Healing Work & Taoist
Studies
In 1990, around the time that Lewis left his agency, he found
himself with an abdominal pain that no one, including medical doctors, could diagnose.
Searching for a "cure" for this problem, he met a practitioner of a Taoist form
of healing called Chi Nei Tsang, which involves breathwork and internal organ
"chi" massage. The problem went away within several weeks. Lewis decided to
learn Chi Nei Tsang, and quickly became a practitioner, certified by Taoist Master Mantak
Chia. Lewis started his own Chi Nei Tsang practice and also worked in a well-known
acupuncture clinic in San Francisco (Shen’s Healing Center).
In 1991, Lewis started taking classes in Taoist meditation and
chi kung from Mantak Chia and other instructors at Chia’s Healing Tao Center. After
two years, Lewis himself became a Healing Tao instructor and began giving classes in
breathwork, meditation, chi kung, and energy work in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Starting in late 1994, Lewis studied for two years with Dr. Wang
Shan Long, a chi kung master from China, who gave him permission to teach Liangong in 18
Exercises, a series of postures and movements oriented toward fitness and health.
Since early 1997, Lewis has been studying with Taoist master
Bruce Kumar Frantzis, who has certified him to teach Level 1 of "The Opening the
Energy Gates Chi Gung Program" and, most recently, "Wu Style Tai Chi Short
Form."
- The Work of Self-Knowledge &
Self-Transformation
Based on his many years of experience in the Gurdjieff Work,
Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, and chi kung, Lewis believes that the work of self-knowledge and
self-transformation is a work that requires the participation of our whole
being—body, emotions, mind, and consciousness. He believes that the foundation of
this work must include a deep awareness of the body, that extraordinary alchemical factory
that produces the energies we need not just for living and well-being, but also for
spiritual growth. His emphasis today, therefore, is on "self-sensing," the
exploration through inner awareness of the miraculous energies of life itself, and how
these energies are conditioned by our habits of mind, feeling, posture, breath, and
movement. Lewis believes that without a serious work of self-sensing, a work which must
include a deep exploration of our breath, a great deal of our so-called spiritual work
resides mainly in our thought and imagination, with little impact on our lives.
Lewis’s writing has appeared in numerous publications,
including Yoga Journal, Gnosis, Parabola, Somatics, Library
Journal, Manas, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is editor, with
Jacob Needleman, of two books: Sacred Tradition & Present Need (Viking) and On
the Way to Self Knowledge (Knopf). His book The Tao of Natural Breathing: For
Health, Well-Being and Inner Growth was published in September, 1996, by Mountain Wind
Publishing and is being distributed to the trade by Associated Publishers Group. The book
has already received wide international interest. The German, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
and Dutch editions of the book have already been published, and translations are currently
underway by foreign publishers for editions in six other languages as well: including
Italian, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, Croation, and Hindi.
Since the publication of The Tao of Natural Breathing,
Lewis has been speaking and leading workshops throughout the United States. He has also
been appearing on radio and television. A recent talk— "Awakening to the Miracle
of Ordinary Life"—was reprinted in the Fall issue of The Empty Vessel.
Lewis is the publisher and editor of Inner Alchemy: Exploring the Art & Science of
Self-Transformation, a quarterly, eight-page journal/newsletter. His new two-cassette
audio program, entitled Breathing as a Metaphor for Living, was released by
Sounds True in September 1998.
Lewis is a Fellow of The
American Institute of Stress, and is listed in Who's Who in America.
You can contact Dennis Lewis through email.
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