There is a Providence that brought us here and gave us to each other at this time. In and through us, a greater tapestry to creativity is being woven. . . . The great traditions tell us that community somehow already exists. When we come together in compassion and generosity, this hidden belonging begins to come alive between us. . . . Perhaps community is a constellation. Each one of us is a different light in the emerging collective brightness. A constellation of light has greater power of illumination than any single light would have on its own. Together we increase brightness.
—John O’Donohue
In May, 2016, Lissa Rankin, Rachel Naomi Remen, and Karen Drucker joined forces to participate in a social experiment. We wondered . . . what would happen if we gathered people together with the intention of creating a Soul Tribe focused on healing? For one night, 120 of us gathered together to explore this experiment. We sang together. We meditated. We told stories. Lissa’s 11-year-old daughter sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. One man performed an original song he wrote about soul tribes. We invited everyone in the tribe to contribute their wisdom. We laughed together. We cried together. We joined our hearts in a coherent field of pulsing vibration and performed a group energy healing. It was pure magic.
After a year and a half of gestation, now it’s time to deepen the experiment.
Join Lissa Rankin, MD and Luminary Guest Teachers as we discover together how to co-create our Soul Tribes, cure the epidemic of loneliness, heal the cultural wound of disconnection, practice authenticity and vulnerability, and come together to find our callings, restore health and happiness, deepen our spirituality, grow together, uplift one another and foster a sense of belonging in a sometimes bewildering world. Soul Tribe will begin as a month-by-month subscription service offering teleclasses, a private Facebook forum, breakout sessions to explore seed topics with fellow Soul Tribe members, and connection-building resources for supporting you personally, as well inspiring you to create your own live, in person Soul Tribes in your neck of the woods. Soul Tribe is intended to facilitate the gathering of the tribe of lightworkers who yearn to transparency and intimately commune together, heart to heart. In this Soul Tribe, our intention is that you will find yourself—and each other.
Your vibe attracts your tribe, so let’s uplift ourselves and one another! Our intention is to create a vibe that magnetizes those who are ready to create a space where unity consciousness is the guiding principle that binds the tribe together, where tribe members are spiritually and psychologically mature enough to give to and receive from the tribe in equal measure, and where love flows like a river between the hearts of everyone who participates.
“How we need another soul to cling to.” ―Sylvia Plath
A Soul Tribe is a group of heart-centered individuals who are walking the spiritual path together, at various stages in our journeys, coming together with the intention of marrying practice and purpose. Many communities gather together to engage in spiritual practice—through meditation, prayer, yoga, dance, singing, and praise. Other communities organize around an activist cause, like saving the rainforests or civil rights. Our intention as a Soul Tribe is to bring the two impulses together, since practice without purpose can lead to a kind of spiritual narcissism. (“It’s all about me and my meditation practice.”) On the other hand, purpose without practice can damage the very causes we’re passionate about devoting our energy too. (Think the “angry activist” who demonizes the very people whose help we need in order to effect lasting change.) When we stop polarizing Being (practice) and Doing (purpose), bringing the two together in nondual awareness and surrendering our separate minds to Divine mind, personal and global transformation becomes not only possible; it activates a kind of white magic that can make real life miracles accessible to anyone.
Our intention as a community is to commit to:
1) PRACTICE: We intend to grow, transform, learn, and restore a deep, meaningful, authentic, soul-based connection with Source and with other members of the Soul Tribe. We devote ourselves to the spiritual and transformational practices that allow us to show up fully as healthy, contributing Soul Tribe members.
2) PURPOSE: We intend to take the transformational, evolutionary impulse and channel it towards a mission beyond the Separate Self, taking the love and heart-opening that arises from our practices and alchemizing it into compassion in action.
Imagine meeting someone you’ve never known before in this life, and you feel a strange, instantaneous sensation—“I know you. We belong together.” Imagine being in a community of spiritual seekers where you feel safe to be truly yourself, even if you disagree with the dominant narratives of the tribe. Imagine a community where you feel free to play, laugh, sing, dance, meditate, pray, celebrate, engage in ritual, and share meals together. Imagine a safe haven where you can seek support when you’re in crisis, and you can offer support when your tribe members are experiencing life challenges, and your boundless, generous, service-oriented love is looking for a place to land.
Imagine a place where spiritual principles can be safely shared, explored, and challenged from a place of compassionate curiosity, where open, respectful, safe dialogue and free but kind expression is welcomed and valued by all, where those who are unable to tolerate diversity of beliefs and opinions are held accountable by the group, and where unity is encouraged and polarization is gently but firmly brought together in the open heart space. Imagine a community committed to helping each other grow, gently but fiercely illuminating blind spots and exploring shadows, where we acknowledge, accept and are gentle with each other's wounds, but we don’t coddle them in co-dependent ways.
Imagine a community with healthy boundaries and shared values but without rigid dogma, where you can feel safe to keep your heart open, and you’re not at risk of getting shamed for being different or questioning the spiritual leadership or the group’s teachings. Imagine a spiritual community where you are not asked to follow the compass of someone else who has caused you to believe that your spiritual compass is broken, where you retain your free will, your intuition, your right to speak up, and your sovereignty.
A Soul Tribe is not affiliated with any particular religious background. All religions are welcome. Those with no religious affiliation are welcome. Those who don’t believe in God but are seeking the Divine spark within are also welcome. Those for whom nature is your church are welcome. This is a strict “no judgment” community where dogma and rules will be thrown out the window. If you have a genuine desire to be more in alignment with Spirit, you are welcome here. This will not be your typical spiritual gathering. There will be four letter words. There will be tattoos. We may talk about sex and money and health and romance and astrology and past lives and angels and spirit guides and Jesus, so if you’re allergic to any of that, you’ve been forewarned. Nothing is off limits in the Soul Tribe except small-minded thinking or being critical of anyone else’s individual spiritual beliefs or practices.
A Soul Tribe is not a cult. In a cult, people relinquish their autonomy and give their power away to a charismatic leader who holds a particular view of reality, one which, if you question it, leaves you at risk of exile from your tribe. A cult depends upon dogma, fear, disempowerment, manipulation, and threat of rejection in order to keep the cult unified. If anyone questions the often sociopathic authority figures, they are shamed, belittled, and threatened with exile.
On the other hand, a healthy, spiritually mature Soul Tribe is more like a gimbal, the mechanism used on 16th-century sailing vessels to hold a candlestick level on shifting seas. When this candle flame is the only light you’ve got to steer your ship in the darkest of nights, and when a fallen candle could burn up your whole ship, you depend upon the steadiness of the gimbal that swings freely and keeps the candle upright, even when the ship is pitching in stormy waters. Centuries later, after the advent of safer electric lights, the gimbal was used to float a compass upright.
A Soul Tribe functions the same way, calling forth the light/compass gimbal in the hearts of every individual in the tribe, so that no one leader, not even the leaders, can tip over and burn the community so that no single outlier can lead the tribe astray from True North. Each one of us is necessary and must be trusted to hold the flame of a spiritual community upright when the ground seems to shift. This is where true safety lies, and this is what has gone off the rails in many spiritual communities, whether in the realm of conventional religion or spiritual cults.
Knowing that you have a Soul Tribe protects you and helps you protect your loved ones. If you’re in crisis and you feel lost and broken, you can count on your Soul Tribe to hold the vision of your wholeness until you remember again. Knowing that your Soul Tribe has got your back in a world that can feel hostile and scary is a blessing more wondrous than words. READ MORE
“Serving is different from helping.
Helping is not a relationship between equals.
A helper may see others as weaker than they are, needier than they are, and people often feel this inequality. The danger in helping is that we may inadvertently take away from people more than we could ever give them;we may diminish their self-esteem, their sense of worth,integrity or even wholeness.”
—Rachel Naome Remen
People used to gather in spiritual community at the church, the temple, the mosque, the sangha, or the sanctuary. Many still do, and they are getting their need for spiritual connection and soul community met from these conventional religious gatherings. But what if you consider yourself “spiritual but not religious?” What if you suffer from what Reba Riley calls “post-traumatic church syndrome?” What if conventional religion is only meeting part of your soul’s needs? What if you’re yearning to devote yourself to a Divine force of love, while retaining your authenticity, sovereignty, and freedom to express yourself? READ MORE
“We are each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing each other.” ― Luciano De Crescenzo
According to an AARP study, approximately 43 million adults over age 45 in the United States are estimated to be suffering from chronic loneliness. This kind of loneliness not only inhibits spiritual development; it causes disease. One meta-analysis involving 148 studies representing more than 300,000 participants found that greater social connection is associated with a 50% reduced risk of early death. Another meta-analysis involving 70 studies representing more than 3.4 million individuals found that social isolation increased the risk of premature death as much as obesity. Another study found that air pollution increased the risk of death by 6%, obesity by 23%, alcohol abuse by 37%, and loneliness by 45%. Loneliness is as dangerous for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes/day.
These numbers are not meant to scare you. They’re meant to change the conversation about what predisposes you to illness and what true wellness requires. A healthy lifestyle requires more than a nourishing diet, regular exercise, and toxin-free habits. We must also have healthy, nourishing, growth-filled, spiritually mature relationships in community as medicine for the soul.
“She was a collector of reflections looking for souls that could see deeply inside her soul.” ― Shannon L. Alder
Global change is afoot, and many of us feel the call to participate in what’s happening. How can we tell what we’re being called to do? For many of us, this requires a sincere shift in how we orient our lives—from ego-driven to soul-led. Many of us are surrendering our lives to Divine Will, asking to be shown our life purpose and committing to finding and fulfilling our calling. To learn to open to, receive, and discern spiritual guidance is a practice, and we need our tribe to help us learn to listen deeply to the quiet (and not-so-quiet) whisperings of the soul. Together, in community, we can help each other make decisions in a new way, one that is less analytical and more intuitive. Such spiritually guided decision making can feel uncomfortable when you’re the only one you know operating that way. Having a community of practice committed to living in alignment with Divine Will, even when it requires letting go of what your ego wants, helps facilitate this vital shift.
Finding your Soul Tribe can also help you find and fulfill your calling by putting you in touch with those in your “karass,” who are here to help you complete your spiritual mission. READ MORE
This workshop was pure magic. As Lissa and her team taught the group how to tune into their own inner guidance and tap into the magic all around us for support. We literally watched the physical world line up to join in on the fun in support of each of our journeys! Songs played spontaneously, windows banged at the mention of a certain presidential candidate, and it even culminated in an impromptu wedding! What can always be guaranteed with Lissa is a safe space, lots of heart, and an internal shift in oneself towards the deeper knowings we all have and hold and just need permission to let guide us in each and every moment.
Renewed sense of myself, ability and confidence to actually teach others about "true" healing (not what I have been doing in medicine for 21 years), a deeper connectedness to the One, a commitment to the world in carrying out this work and a commitment in myself to always listen to my inner pilot light. I am more HAPPY and JOYFUL, for sure!
I thought I knew what I needed and wanted to get from spending such valuable time with Lissa, what I got was nothing I was expecting. Instead, it was so much more. And, it was exactly what I needed to transform myself both personally and spiritually. I recently read a quote in a book that describes perfectly what it was like: “The role of spiritual guides isn’t to help people know anything. It’s to help them not know—to hold the space of not knowing so that the deeper wisdom of the heart space can make itself felt” (From the book Your Soul’s Compass, by Joan Borysenko and Gordon Dveirin). Lissa held the space of not knowing for me (which was a scary place for me to be!) so my heart wisdom could emerge and propel me forward on my journey. Lissa's guidance has been a huge blessing in my life and enabled me to transform my life in ways I never imagined possible.
Working with Lissa has been nothing short of transformative. I felt deeply heard and incredibly supported. Not only did she help me reflect on my personal and professional goals, but also catalyzed within me a connection to what is most meaningful in my life. I have found and strengthened, a place of profound peace within myself. I now “get,” in my very bones, that I am capable of living my life in alignment with my deepest truth. Words cannot begin the express my gratitude.
The Workshop literally changed my life. I was not anticipating the powerful, soulful journey that was to mark the beginning of a new life for me. The expert leadership and complete dedication to creating a dynamic and safe place for everyone attending created many personal revelations and heart openings for the whole group. Through deep soul searching, the love shared by the group and gentle skillful guidance by Lissa and her team, I experienced what it is like to hear and trust your intuition, face the fear of uncertainty with grace and excitement, and know the unconditional love that connects us all. By the end of the week, I was able to begin to recognize and anticipate the beautiful way the universe leaves clues in my daily life leading me to the manifestation of my higher calling and higher good.
The healing that I have experienced through this period of deep contemplation is what I will always remember. Gratitude for the support to be vulnerable, still, awakened, and transformed in my professional practice. The journey now continues . . .
Join Lissa Rankin, MD and other leaders in the fields of health and spirituality as we embark upon a mission to re-create Soul Tribe—outside the boundaries of conventional religious communities.
Soul Tribe will be an evolving journey which begins as a virtual, online community of practice and transforms into live, in person Soul Tribes across the globe as we co-create together.
These monthly calls will be based on a series of inquiries, and the Soul Tribe community will be invited to contribute their wisdom, both during the calls and on a private Facebook forum where topics can be discussed with live chat during the calls. Each month’s topic will be chosen near the time of the call based on the Soul Tribe’s emergent needs. A list of questions to ponder will be sent to you beforehand, so you can spend some time in contemplation around each month’s inquiries. Sample topics may include:
These monthly calls will be based on a series of inquiries, and the Soul Tribe community will be invited to contribute their wisdom, both during the calls and on a private Facebook forum where topics can be discussed with live chat during the calls. Each month’s topic will be chosen near the time of the call based on the Soul Tribe’s emergent needs. A list of questions to ponder will be sent to you beforehand, so you can spend some time in contemplation around each month’s inquiries. Sample topics may include:
A moderated forum will give you the opportunity to connect personally with other Soul Tribe members, as well as discuss topics of tribal conversation, as seeded by the teleclasses and the forum moderators. This safe space will allow you to deepen your relationships with each other, ask questions of one another, explore topics of inquiry, and make suggestions for future teleclass conversations and inquiry topics.
Each month, Soul Tribe members will be offered a monthly newsletter containing ideas for leading your own Soul Tribe at home, as well as content to deepen your individual journey as a member of the Soul Tribe.
Each newsletter will include:
Interested in Relationships on the Spiritual Path, Find Your Calling, Medicine For The Soul, The 40 Day Whole Health Challenge, Visionary Ignition Switch, or any of Lissa’s other online programs? Members get 20% off, even if you only sign up for one month.
Pay one month
at a time.
Pay up front and commit to 3 months (10% discount, $53/month, save $18)
Pay up front and commit to 6 months (20% discount, $47/month, save $71)
Pay up front and commit to one full year (30% discount, $41/month, save $213)
More questions: contact info@lissarankin.com and we'll get back to you within 24 hours!
*Note: Subscriptions auto-renew until canceled.
What kind of technology will I need in order to participate?
All you’ll need is a computer (or a smart phone or tablet) and access to call into a conference line in order to participate.
What if I’m interested in being part of a Soul Tribe but I don’t want to be a group leader?
No problem! Being part of an evolving Soul Tribe Group Leadership program is optional. While we hope some Soul Tribe members are interested in facilitating in-person gatherings, this is not a requirement for participation.
What if it’s midnight in my neck of the woods when these sessions take place?
Obviously, you can only participate in the interactive parts of the program if you’re participating live. But all sessions will be recorded so you can download the recordings onto your mobile device. If you happen to live in another time zone or if you just can’t make it live, you’ll still be able to soak up the juicy teachings and spiritual energy of the gathering anytime it’s convenient for you.
Some intuitive part of you will cry "Yes! Yes! Yes! These are my people!" Your mind might try to talk you out of it. "It's too expensive. I can't take the time away from my commitments. I don't deserve this." Go ahead and listen to what your mind says so you don't do something reckless. But remember that the mind makes a wonderful servant but a terrible master. Let your heart be your guide. This will be one of the core principles of Soul Tribe. Those of us who gather together will commit to ourselves and each other to let our souls guide the way, even when our minds think we're doing something impractical, irrational, or crazy. As you decide whether A Soul Tribe is right for you, experiment with all the ways you can let your intuition be your guide. Let someone muscle test you "A Soul Tribe is aligned for me right now" or "A Soul Tribe is not aligned for me right now." Try checking in with your body compass. Pick an oracle card. Surrender the decision to Divine Will and ask for a sign. Ask a tree for guidance. Seed your dreams before you go to sleep and ask your subconscious to help you. Intuitively pick a book off the shelf, open to a page, and choose a paragraph. See if it helps you know what is most right for you. Be open to synchronicity. This is the first step to preparing to participate in A Soul Tribe, so you might as well start the process with how you make your decision about whether or not to participate!
Regardless of whether or not this is right for you right now, our prayer is that the right Soul Tribe finds you soon, and that you prepare yourself to be ready for that kind of belonging. Know your worthiness. Trust your yearning to connect, grow, see with magical eyes, and be seen by the "Inner Pilot Lights" of others. Find your tribe, wherever you are, and know that no matter what, you are safe. You are loved. You belong.
With so much love and gratitude,
Lissa
My prayer is that every person on Earth awakens to his or her Inner Pilot Light and has the courage to find and fulfill his or her calling so that together, we can ignite our hearts and come together in unity consciousness. I hope that all spiritual seekers become spiritual finders, since there is no “there” there. There is only here. I’m passionate about helping people view adversity as an opportunity for awakening. I’m fired up about healing our broken health care system, one empowered patient and one conscious health care provider at a time. I doctor not just bodies, but souls. I’m on a grass roots mission to put the “care” back in health care, to reunite healing and spirituality, and to inspire sacred activists to participate in the transformation of consciousness that is revolutionizing the world with acts of love, compassion, and kindness. I am a love revolutionary, praying that we can end the story of separation, stop polarizing into “us” versus “them,” and bring our hearts together in service to Mother Earth and our beloved planet.
I believe that the key to living a long, vital life is an optimistic attitude, the willingness to love expansively and receive love in return from a wide circle of people close to you, engaging in work that lights you up, tapping into Source, allowing your creativity to flow boundlessly, being unapologetically Who You Really Are, avoiding toxic people, environments, jobs, and substances, moving your body in ways that make you smile, and drinking as much green juice as you can.I relish helping spiritually-attuned visionaries find their callings and realize their visions. I’m inspired by people brave enough to transmute adversity into spiritual growth, vulnerable enough to let their imperfections be witnessed, and courageous enough to keep their hearts open, even when those hearts are at risk of getting hurt. I’m moved by hiking in redwood forests, skiing in fresh powder, live music of all types, painting with beeswax, singing with my Soul Tribe, and dancing barefoot.
Copyright 2018 Lissa Rankin, Inc.