About Us
We are Emma and Barry McGuinness, based in Bath, UK.
We have been leading Enlightenment Intensives for over 30 years and are both utterly dedicated to this profound process and to serving all those who come on this journey of awakening with us.
Alongside running Intensives, we offer opportunities to:
Explore dyad practice — a simple and powerful method of self-inquiry that lies at the heart of the Enlightenment Intensive and supports ongoing spiritual discovery in everyday life.
Participate in long Intensives — including those lasting two weeks. We hold a particular love for the space these extended retreats create for deep experience and immersion in openness to truth.
Cultivate surrender in your practice — exploring surrender as a central aspect of spiritual practice, and as a powerful invitation to deeper contact with truth.
Train in this work — for those who feel called to serve others through the Enlightenment Intensive, we offer training and support to develop the capacity to lead and support others in this practice.
We have been lucky enough to work with some of the giants of this process.
We trained with Jake and Eva Chapman in 1992 and worked closely with them for the following decade.
In 1993, we had the rare opportunity to study for a year with Charles Berner, the originator of this process.
More recently, we’ve studied and worked with Lawrence Noyes, whose guidance has been central to how we train others in this work.
It is the privilege of our lives to accompany people in this work. We have the experience, knowledge, and skills to guide and assist you at every step—and we do so with care, respect, and deep appreciation for each person’s unique journey
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E M M A
I took my first Enlightenment Intensive as a teenager in 1989. It took my spiritual life out of the realm of ideas and into the reality of telling the truth to myself. It was like being given the keys to authentic contact with other people and the basis for genuine inner security.
And that was without having an enlightenment experience!
It wasn’t until my third Intensive that I experienced who I am. It’s impossible to really express it with words. I experienced my essential place in the universe and the purpose of my life. I had both come home and knew which direction to go in my life.
One of my first thoughts was, “My God, if I can experience this then anyone can!” I just wanted everyone to be able to experience this for themselves. I knew within half an hour that I wanted to train to run these groups.
I took the training that year with Jake and Eva Chapman (where I met Barry) and ran my first Intensive the following Spring, in 1993.
An enlightenment experience doesn’t solve your life or put you on a higher plane. For me, the simplest but most profound impact has been my increased ability to give and receive love and take delight in being human.
Since 2016, I’ve been leading long Enlightenment Intensives and feel deeply committed to keeping these extended retreats available. Having had the opportunity to participate in many of them in my twenties, I came to love the depth and immersion they offer— and the unique opportunity they provide to wade out into the waters of Truth.
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B A R R Y
I took my first Enlightenment Intensive in 1991. I knew nothing of enlightenment or spirituality at the time; I just liked the idea of finding some certainty within myself.
I had a fleeting direct experience of my real self, and I knew in that instant that who I am is meant to be. That was also my first ever taste of real joy.
After that I was all fired up for this whole "inner truth" thing.
In 1992 I went on a 2-week Intensive, then undertook the Enlightenment Intensive Masters Training course with Jake and Eva Chapman, and in 1993 I led my first Intensive. By then I had also met Emma and we formed the perfect team.
For me, there is something right and pure about the Enlightenment Intensive format: no dogma, no strings, just opening to the possibility of absolute knowing.
There is also a way in which enlightenment itself, however brief, is completely fulfilling. Discovering the answers to life's great questions is not so much about satisfying our curiosity as it is about taking our rightful place in life -- being who and what we really are.
I have read up on every religion and philosophy under the sun, but most of it I now see as mere speculation and interpretation by people who don't actually know. Nothing compares to the "real deal", the knowingness that suddenly awakens within.
Each of us has this hotline to absolute truth. It takes a radical shift of focus to find it, but amazingly we can stumble across it in as little as three days. This is what inspires me to offer Enlightenment Intensives to others.
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Barry McGuinness, B.Sc. M.Sc., is a member of the Association for Spiritual Integrity.
You can read Barry’s own account of his first Enlightenment Intensive here: