Michael Lightweaver
Born in a small town in Kentucky (USA), at an early age Michael realized that he felt and experienced things that others did not. This sensitivity often isolated him from his peers and brought him into conflict with family, friends, the church and society and he soon learned to keep his thoughts to himself and began to walk a solitary path with Nature as his closest companion. At the same time, because he was dancing to the beat of a different drummer, he escaped most of the ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ that were so much a part of his generation.
Michael has led a life of adventure, both inwardly and outwardly, and has walked upon many spiritual paths beginning with his childhood years in the Methodist Church. Growing up with the Vietnam War and the Civil Right movement, he soon found the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) to be much more in accord with his understanding of authentic spirituality.
In the early 80’s he rediscovered the heritage of his Native American and Celtic ancestors and found a context for his deep spiritual connection with nature and the Earth. Throughout his spiritual journey he has been deeply influenced by the eastern philosophy and the teachings of Buddhism and Taoism.
All of this eventually brought him to his present understanding which is very simple: To endeavor to live in a continual state of Love & Gratitude; for Divine Presence, for self, for others and for the Earth. This ongoing spiritual quest both includes and transcends all organized religions.
His professional life was always service oriented, starting with a two year stint with a migrant services program of the Michigan Council of Churches and later joing a migrant farm worker crew for a year, working in the fields of Michigan in the summer and South Texas in the winter. After completing his MA degree in Nashville, Tennessee, he worked for a few years as a community organizer in a housing project and later as the director of Neighborhood Housing Services, a private-public partnership for revitalizing marginalized neighborhoods.
In 1980 Michael founded the Human Potential Institute, a personal growth center and clinical hypnosis practice in Nashville, Tennessee. Soon thereafter he began organizing holistic events called “Festival’s Of Light” throughout the southeast USA.
In the late 80’s he created an international tour company called Creative Tours & Travel through which she led Sacred Earth Journey’s to ancient sacred sites around the world, including the pyramids of Egypt, Machu Pichu in Peru, Stonehenge in England, the pyramids of Mexico and Guatemala and many sacred sites in Ireland and Bali. But his greatest adventure of all has been the adventure within – where he has encountered multi-dimensional realities beyond his wildest dreams.
In 1987 Michael launched Network 2012, a project designed to connect the ‘family of light’ around the world – those who felt themselves to be here ‘on mission’ during this time of planetary transition and transformation. In this endeavor he organized a series of national and international “Light Summits” – networking events which brought lightworkers together to explore ways of cooperating during these transitional times.
In 2002 he founded the International Institute For Global Leadership (www.global-leadership.com), an internet based study program for personal and planetary empowerment. At the end of 2012 he turned IIGL over to colleagues and has since then devoted himself fulltime to Mountain Light Sanctuary (www.mountainlightsanctuary, the enchanted spiritual retreat center he now stewards in a remote mountain cove near Asheville, North Carolina (USA)
