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We care about wellness—for each individual and for the planet.
From the Director, Victor Demko
The Center for Healing Arts is the child of my heart. Like all children, it is a complex entity with a heritage that is only partially traceable.
As one of the parents, though, I know that what I bring influences the new being. I’ve been given many experiences and blessings that have been gifts that allowed the Center for Healing Arts to emerge.
First, I have been given a wealth of radiant teachers, some of whom I’ll mention here.
- Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, with whom I studied for 12 years before his death in 2004
- Sufi teacher Khusrau R. Carell, whom has been my spiritual guide since 1992
- Pir Zia Inayat Khan, head of the Sufi Order International and of Suluk Academy, an esoteric school that I journey in as a member of the first inaugural class
- Dr. Neil Douglas Klotz, founding director of The International Center for the Dances of Universal Peace and author of Prayers of the Cosmos.
- His Holiness the Dali Lama, with whom I studied and meditated. I have received the Kalashakra Initiation from His Holiness and taken the Bodhisattva vows
- Terry Wedge, whom has offered me the lineage of Christian mysticism
- Aziza Scott, Head of the Sufi Order International Esoteric School
- Murshid Wali Ali Mayer, who has showed me the beauty of “eat, dance and pray together”
- Shahabuddin David Less, International Head of the Universal Worship and Spiritual Director of the Rising Tide International.
- Shahabuddin David Less, International Head of the Universal Worship and Spiritual Director of the Rising Tide International.
- Himayat Inayati Th.D. initiated me into the Sufi Healing Order in 1998.
- Swami Sundaranand, and his master Swami Topovanji Maharaj who inspire me with love of devotion to nature.
It has been my privilege to visit many holy sites of the planet, meditating and offering prayers at each. Some of these places are
- Mu’inuddin Chisti’s dharga (tomb) and chilla (cave) in Ajmer, India
- The Virgin Mary's last resident in Effuses
- Sri ved Nikatam Ashram in Rishikesh, India (my room had its own cave)
- Saint Paul's first church in the Central Anatolia Plain in Turkey
- Sarnath, India, where Buddha gave his first teachings
- Tomb of Jelaluddin Rumi in Konya, Turkey
- Mother Ganga, Gaumack, Gangotri & Varanassi.
And many other places sacred to Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions and spiritual paths.
Communing with these teachers and visiting these holy places has allowed me to understand more fully the importance of healing in our suffering world. My studies in mysticism and esoteric thought and experience were one stream that fed this river. My ability to make it happen might be considered another.
I was a wrestler when I was younger. I played soccer, captained the high school football team, rowed as crew for U.W.O.. As I grew older, I became an avid dinghy racer. I even had the—interesting—honor of carrying the Olympic torch in the Arctic Circle for Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympics. (It was 54 degrees F below zero!) All these physical activities instilled in me a respect for the miracle of the healthy human body and the spirit that gives it life, and the interdependence of that body and that spirit.
My degree from the University of Western Ontario was in economics, but I soon found myself at the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies. There I studied with famed directors Robert Wise and Ron Howard and with producer Sir David Puttnam. After Disney’s Executive Production Staff, I worked as a writer and feature film script consultant. These experiences taught me how to make good films; high-quality works that can speak to the mind and the heart.
Finally, for the last dozen years, I focused on the preservation of what the past has given us and the appreciation of the beauty that is our historical legacy. As a successful Canadian and international dealer in antiques and decorative arts, I became even more attuned to the value of tradition and beauty.
In 2005, I started a film about Swami Sundaranand and began to think seriously about the need to allow others to receive the wisdom of the great living teachers and healers. My vision was to pass on the gift of knowledge and attunement that allowed these healers to do their work—to pass it on to those who could not make a pilgrimage to a foreign country or who lacked the time to spend weeks in training with the teachers, or who simply did not have the financial resources to pursue learning in this way.
My interest in healing and health, in philosophies and spiritual paths, in preservation, in film, in outreach, all converged in The Center for the Healing Arts.
My pledge is to offer personalized, top-quality resources and support for your own wellness journey, whatever your path. Like me, you must feel the stresses of the present moment of time—and yet be aware of the never-before-possible opportunities that our technology offers us in disseminating spiritual and healing knowledge and practices. Like me, you must be yearning for a way to begin the healing of the planet through the healing of individuals. Like me, you must be looking for ways to connect, to expand, and to center.
That is why the Center for Healing Arts exists, and I invite you to become a part of our circle. |
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