Happy Belated Heyoka Halloween + Feliz Dios De Los Muertos + Our Chill November Schedule + Winter Break

This post’s title says it all: after stepping up to the plate and ripping three home runs Shohei Ohtani style (Boo Dodgers!), all by way of Ceremony, our Fall NSMR, and a Free Fall Yoga Day, we closed out our outstanding October by donning one of thirteen home-grown Higher Haven pumpkins and celebrating 11 successful years and just over 4,000 nights spent on our farm, our first all hallowed evening here being October 31st, 2014. Then, in a contrarian twist, we did not spend Halloween night at home this year, but rather jetted off to the great state of Arizona (state motto: “God Enriches”) , a red rock land strong in the Spirit of the following day’s Dios De Los Muertos, “Day of The Dead”, to celebrate and honor the Ancestors.

In a twist of good fate, in the occidental town of Tucson, Arizona, I later crossed paths with a mad scientist, the meditation teacher formerly known as Shinzen Young. Taking him up on his invitation to his laboratory at the University of Arizona, I lost the pumpkin head, and instead sported some of Shinzen’s high tech mindfulness gadgetry. As to my Teacher’s supposed retirement, it’s looking like more of a jump to warp speed, and we’re grateful to be along for the ride, on retreat with him this month. We’re also happy this pic proves our theorem — put forth in the previous post and actually inspired by Shinzen — that your spiritual teacher best have a cool T-shirt collection. And we’re a bit amazed to have serendipitously spent time with the Mighty Shin back on the hardpan of the Sonoran desert, where we first found salvation catching rattlesnakes, cultivating inner stillness, and doing Ceremony twenty years ago.

We’ll soon be taking an informed look back at our Rocktober, revisit our Fall Noble Silence Meditation Retreat Weekend as well as free fall yoga day, wind down our 2025 retreat season, take our Winter time away, and begin the begin again in the Spring 2026. Of course there’s still a chance to come out for our final, December Way of the Contrary Ceremonial Retreat Weekend, our Holiday Silent Night, Holy Night Friday December 12th, and, for established students, private lessons or personal visits, with more 2026 offerings up for registraion soon.

October Ready

October Ready refers to one of my favorite T-shirts, and as I’m fond of saying: don’t trust a spiritual guide without a cool T-shirt collection. Jokes aside, my ‘24 Detroit Tigers L’orange and navy blue rag cites last year’s historic turnaround, the Tigs making an improbable run to the playoffs after being ten games out of the wild-card race with a 0.2% chance in early August. The Blessed Boys finished with a 31–13 record down the stretch, clinching their first playoff berth since 2014 and winning season since 2016. The run included a Wild Card Series sweep of the Houston Astros followed by a five-game loss to the former Cleveland Indians in the Division Series. Like Wednesday’s game three win in Detroit in the American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners, we were fortunate to attend and report on the third game in the battle against the Guardians, the best game at Comerica Park in a decade. And as to renowned turnarounds, 2025’s late-season contrarian collapse was equally labeled one of the most shocking in Major League Baseball, when the Tigers lost a 15.5 game lead in the AL Central, while the Guardians surged, making for one of the most blown leads in MLB history, and our recent wins all that much sweeter.

Knowing well our 1935, 1945, and 1968 Championship Wins, and having attended game three of the ‘84 World Series at Tiger Stadium (W - Tigers 5 Padres 2), I kid that 2025 is 1984 all over again: oppressive, authoritarian government control, mass surveillance, manipulation of truth, and suppression of individual freedoms. George Orwell's dystopian novel, the country’s funked up political situation and our final, historic, 15-inning dogfight considered, some things in this zany world simply transcend MLB as well as DJT, one being THH’s Omnipotent October schedule, kicked off with our Ceremonial overnight under the Harvest Full Moon.

October’s Ceremony was a watershed, a more familiar, family gathering, and likewise November’s Ceremonial Weekend is closed to public attendance. That leaves openings to join next weekend’s Fall Noble Silence Meditation Retreat Weekend, couple our final, signature Meditation + Mindfulness 101 class with an overnight weekend stay, and/or roll it all into our first, fabulous, FREE day of yoga practice with Kellie L. on Sunday afternoon, October 26th. Or join us for a potential Winter Lodge under December’s Cold Moon to close out the 2025 season, with 2026 offerings open for registration soon. Recalling the Mighty Mindy from the previous post, a synchronous series of events had her here for October’s Ceremony, and so we’ll close with Mindy Part 2: The Awakening., and hope to see you soon ~ Toksha

"Around the same time each Fall, I feel the welcome and familiar call to return to The Higher Haven. I’ve been attending ceremonies and retreats since my early twenties. These pilgrimages have become an integral part of my personal growth and spiritual development. When I first arrived all those years ago, I was a young person so utterly disconnected from my internal reservoir of spirit. With Paul as my Teacher, I learned foundational practices of self-inquiry and interconnectedness that I brought into my everyday life in a serious and intentional way. Coming to practice in a consistent way over the past seven years has served to transmute painful life experiences into a profound reverence for life and a level of mental clarity that I only dreamed of achieving not too long ago. I’ve come to place where my practice is so solid, I’m now in a place of healing ancestral wounds carried down through my lineage. Ceremony serves that process incredibly well. The Higher Haven has been an anchor in my life, a place that I return to again and again and always leave feeling lighter than when I arrived. It is imbued with a very special sort of energy.  

As I was telling Paul and my new friend Kellie during my October ceremony visit this past weekend, I always felt a profound sense of relief upon my arrival up the gravel drive. I didn’t feel that old feeling hit this time; later, I realized it was simply because I was already abiding there. There are some things in life that are truly invaluable, and the ability to reside in an inner state of contentment is one of them. I give eternal thanks to the Higher Haven for helping me get there." One Heart! One Mind! One Voice! One Chanupa! Matakuye O’yasin!!!

Harvest Time

In the previous post we talked of the emerald green Cucumber Fields just to the north (wazia) of us, the stretch of fertile farmland between our land and John and Mary Alice Quinn’s corner homestead. As summer closes out in our rural community, the season for reaping and gathering the ripened arrives. Like the crucial time for farmers representing the culmination of their labor, it’s also a time that our students — many who have planted seeds of growth for months and even years — determine the yield of their efforts. We kidded about our calendar looking a little thin, and while we had a super standout group for September’s Ceremony, ample room in October, a Fall NSMR quickly filling, and new, upcoming 2026 retreat offerings, beyond our more public programs, lie in-between opportunities for our popular private visits. Receiving many requests from many people seeking retreat and respite from our modern world’s mounting difficulties, we do our level best to explain that we are not a hotel or a B & B, we’re a sanctified place of healing and a very special form of spiritual purification, ergo, we don’t offer private stays to non-tribal members, otherwise known as people with whom we don’t already share a relationship.

While we are not a sovereign nation with a unique political and cultural identity, we do have a 20-acre territory, and most assuredly share a common interest in our community’s well-being. And now claiming tribal membership aka joining our growing community is as easy as attending a Ceremony, a retreat, or a Saturday afternoon class, the next Meditation + Mindfulness 101 coming up Saturday, September 13th. In a short span of three hours, we’ll cover the whole sweep of what Meditation is truly about, and in that time pass on our toolkit for cultivating a sense of peace a little less reliant on our world’s worsening, external conditions. This way, when you visit solo, we know that you know precisely how to apply and benefit from our industrial strength mindfulness practices. Here’s Mindy to better explain:

"It was an honor and privilege to enjoy a private stay at The Higher Haven. As a longtime student of Paul's, I have carefully cultivated regular practices and rituals that support me in my daily life. This past weekend’s visit served to profoundly deepen my practice. Abiding in nature and the retreat house soothed and nourished me. I connected deeply with the energy of the river running through the property. Paul encouraged me to spend time and pray at the Altar outside the Lodge, within which I have had many meaningful encounters with Spirit over the years. It's difficult to put the overall experience into words, because the level of peace I often experience is beyond language. I am very grateful that The Higher Haven exists. It is a second home to me, and continues to be an instrumental part of my spiritual development. If you ever find yourself in the fortuitous position to schedule a private stay, I can assure you that it is an opportunity you would not want to miss." - MR