Cultivate Connection and Presence

Join celebrated biologist and author Merlin Sheldrake and Kripalu senior faculty member and author Micah Mortali for a rare collaborative weekend exploring how scientific insight and contemplative practice illuminate our deep interconnection with the living world.

Drawing inspiration from Merlin’s groundbreaking work Entangled Life and Kripalu’s longstanding commitment to embodied wisdom, this program explores how we might expand our understanding of what it means to live in reciprocity with the great web of life. On one side, Merlin brings his remarkable ability to translate complex fungal behavior, evolutionary history, and networked intelligence into clear, expansive understanding. On the other, Micah offers practices rooted in human rewilding and mindfulness that help you feel these insights in your body and in real time.

In this retreat, you will:

• Explore how fungal networks shape ecosystems, perception, and possibility.
• Engage in guided practices that help you sense connection, presence, and relational awareness.
• Experience how scientific understanding and contemplative attention can reinforce and deepen one another.

You will leave with a richer understanding of the unseen networks that sustain life, practical tools for cultivating connection and presence, and a renewed sense of belonging within the more-than-human world. Walk away with a framework—the mycological spectrum—that helps integrate scientific insight with felt experience, and a deeper appreciation for your place in the living, evolving web around you.