Pi Villaraza discoverd the gift of InnerDance many years ago and has been sharing it with the world ever since.
After a seven-year spiritual journey across Pi Villaraza chanced upon a powerful life-altering healing vibration while living alone on a deserted beach island in Palawan in the Philippine Islands for two years. He calls it InnerDance and has since taught many people how to heal themselves and others through this healing energy
InnerDance by Pi Villaraza – An Ancient Trance Healing Technique Rediscovered
This interview originally appeared in Cosmic Lighthouse Metaphysics Magazine in Singapore. And re-published by holisticasia.com (Hong Kong) as it appeared on March 28, 2009.
In less than twenty words, how would you describe InnerDance?
In total silence, it’s that river that flows from the cosmos and into your heart. It was dancing from the higher self, and I was simply watching it move to the flow of the universe.
How did this ancient healing modality first come to you?
I felt a powerful urge to detach myself from all external sources of energy – family, money, friends and the many distractions of the world. During an intense vision quest, I found myself almost alone on an empty beach island where I found a million and one ways to return to the natural self. In this state, there was nothing else to happen but to heal.In that most spontaneous moment in my life, letting go of all processes, simply leaving things alone… a build-up of energy welled up inside me, and after a long time fasting and living only on coconuts, that energy just burst forth in an ecstatic movement of my body. It was dancing from the higher self, and I was simply watching it move to the flow of the universe.
What do you feel was the purpose of your pilgrimage and time as a hermit?
Something is missing in this world… something very essential is lost upon us. We have been looking for it in material things, educational attainment and power-driven relationships. And whenever we think we are on the brink of catching up with it, we find that we are just attempting to grasp incense smoke that effortlessly slips through our fingers. I believed in this strongly and wanted to give my life to try to find it.At the height of my vision quest, that first and most innermost dance was the one moment when I did not have a doubt that absolute completeness was real, and that it can be attained. For a moment, nothing was missing in the world.
How has this discovery changed you?
I used to be the shyest kid who would let no one touch me. Today, I give healing sessions to strangers who are looking for the same thing I was looking for. I am still that small shy boy… in that, nothing has changed. But there is in my mind often an old man who has learned that maturity comes at the point when you have learned from your experiences and decide to act upon it. I would like to think that my greatest personal transformation is my ability to act on what I believe in instead of how I used to live in the past… to act out because I was afraid of so many things.
What are the chief benefits of Inner Dance and how is it different from other dances?
In Inner Dance, a person begins by accessing an inner source that when it builds up, creates tremendous energetic movement within the physical and emotional body. From the perspective of Kundalini, this build-up starts from the lower three chakras, which open as the upper three also start descending, with both movements meeting at the heart chakra.The basic difference of the Inner Dance from dance in general is the source of the movement. Dance is usually something coordinated by the brain which tells the body to move. The Inner Dance is an automatic and spontaneous movement of the self that actually catches the ego and the conscious mind by surprise. If the person is not in awe of their body suddenly moving with a careful ecstatic grace that they have not felt before, then they have not yet accessed the InnerDance and will know that they have more inner work and detaching to do in the outer reality.The most common occurrence that exactly differentiates InnerDance with other movements are crackling sounds and sensations a person finds once they access the Inner altered state of the divine flow. Carlos Castaneda reports of this specific manifestation as described and fully demonstrated to him by Don Juan in the Magic Passes. And I have encountered healers from the ancient lineage of babaylan in Mindanao who told me of these same crackling noises in their bodies. They sound like electricity and are nothing but pure alchemy of the darkness and weight within being released and turned into light.
What advice would you give to someone who has similarly been gifted with a healing ability and wishes to share it with others?
The greatest healing wisdom comes from within. The source of energy is infinite, it is free and it lasts for all eternity. We are all the source. To become this source of life, first detach oneself from illusory sources of energy – that which we think we need and want but does not last. If the process has nothing to do with purgation, letting go and simplification, it is not a healing process. The healing process is simply letting go. It is not something that can be taught or thought of. There are no techniques, shortcuts or worldly teachings to accepting one’s inevitable role as healer of the brothers and sisters of mankind. Plainly, a healer is one who becomes the source of energy that helps others remember that they too are the source.
People have come to us with almost impossible to cure ailments except through a medical operation, medicine or psychiatric treatment and have reported instant healing effects right after even a 10-minute session. Complicated ailments such as glaucoma (partial blindness), cysts, deafness, sprains, migraines, back problems, insomnia, nervous disorders, depression, arthritis and so on. It came to the point that we are already working with doctors in the Philippines who would allow us to work on their patients in medical centers.
Would you say that in essence InnerDance is not so different from Qi Gong?
InnerDance is something that just happens from a zero point perspective. The process begins in a state of absolutely no expectations, something that begins from the part of us that CONCEIVES – the archetype of the mother. Qi Gong is different in the sense that you try to elevate the state of consciousness through the will, which is the part of us that CREATES – our father within.
Are there any other healing modalities that Inner Dance is particularly complementary with?
Yes. Reiki practitioners, pranic healers and martial artists say that the intuitive energy is particularly complementary with modalities which require a person to memorize or follow very particular step-by-step approaches. They later realize that all modalities, spiritual or otherwise, are merely there to help one gain confidence that a mere LOVING INTENT is enough to heal ourselves and the entire planet.
Can InnerDance be done without music but instead to the song of nature?
Yes, definitely. InnerDance is the moment when the mind and body finds awe in suddenly moving to the rhythms of the soul. The sound of the soul is silence. At workshops though, we use music since most people try to listen but cannot hear that easily.
In your sessions and workshops, you would give light nudges to guide your students’ movements. Why is that necessary?
The guide that acts as a healer first finds the person’s resonance, understanding that many people find it very difficult to attune to the movement of the higher self. The healer first releases ego, allowing him or her to attune to the person’s energy. The healer then unites both energies together, which creates enough momentum to release a person’s blockages until the person himself has found the energy flowing within them. The release of blockages takes the form of crying, seeing colors and images, heavy breathing, perspiration, screaming, laughing, uttering words and in most cases, a powerful involuntary movement. This is followed by an altered state of awareness similar to what people feel in deep meditation, alpha state or high adrenaline. Inner Dance is the moment when the mind and body finds awe in suddenly moving to the rhythms of the soul.
In what way is InnerDance also trance?
Are you concerned that some may be turned away by the word ‘trance’ for it has the connotation of ‘being possessed’ although on the contrary InnerDance actually helps one to be dis-possessed from the conditioning and inhibitions that have thus far imprisoned our true beingness.
This is a very good question. Thank you for asking this since most people don’t really see this. The best articulation I’ve read on what you just stated was written by Charles Tart, a psychiatrist who also bases a lot of his ideas on the Asiatic mystic G.I. Gurdjieff. Tart states that when we think we are awake and going about our daily lives, we are in fact always in a state of hypnotic trance called Consensus Reality Orientation. We are like machines that are programmed to do the same things over and over again, from morning till night. People’s lives, though often satisfying and enjoyable, are also trapped with trauma, negative energy or fear. The InnerDance trance-like state is a break away from Consensus Reality Orientation, what the Buddhists call Maya or what the kids today would call The Matrix. It is a de-programming from our selves that are filled with human norms and repressed thoughts and actions, and when left to its natural state of beingness, the body and mind really does flow to the motions of the universe.
One would imagine that InnerDance is particularly suited for couples (in their bedroom) for it can help to cultivate the mood and enhance the healing powers of sexual energy?
Truly, our sacral chakra is one of the most wounded in almost all cultures I’ve dealt with and if we do not look with loving care at healing it and finding creative ways to express the energy that builds up there, people will remain neurotic and psychotic, as Freud might say. In the altered state of consciousness, our true selves come out. We are returning to where we came from. InnerDance is a very sensual energy. In workshops, what I like most about this sensuality is that it is anchored on a person’s sudden ability to find self-intimacy. People are so filled with guilt, shame and judgement that they find it so hard to express their love for their God-given physical and emotional self. Sex is a tool, a wonderful state of experiencing union and if we found better ways of becoming aware of how it can lead to our personal and interpersonal evolution, then certainly, the InnerDance can be seen as a powerful path for couples.
Why should anyone go to an Inner Dance session?
One good way of answering this is to ask oneself why they SHOULD NOT. They should not go if they feel they are not yet ready to let go of need, attachment and ego and that they are happy with the way things are. But if they believe that we the world can stand a lot of improving and that this improvement can start with themselves, then by all means come and attend. Within our DNA and cells are recorded all of our experiences, not just of this life but also our entire past and future. Hidden from us and there to be found is the Birth Vision – the answer to the question, “what am I doing on Earth to begin with?” The Inner Dance is an access or attunement to the Birth Vision. Beneath our programmed way of thinking, talking and doing is an energy stream. If we just find a way to let go of our fears and swim in that river of life, we will be free to experience the grandest You and Me possible in this life. It is a difficult process though – this letting go business, not everyone is ready for it. It requires determination, wisdom, courage and above all, the willingness to change. Are you ready for that?
What do you hope to achieve with Inner Dance and what is your vision for it?
Inner Dance is a gentle mirror that allows us to see things as they truly are. In the altered state of consciousness our true selves come out. We are returning to where we came from – infinity, free and forever. The world is ending… not in the apocalyptic sense. A part of us is dying – the part that we are tired of – as we are now seeking for the part of us that is childlike again. Children are always moving. They aren’t afraid and so they are filled with vitality. If we ourselves let go of the fears, we will love. And those who love have bodies full of light. They are always dancing.
About the Interviewee
Pi Villaraza was a corporate man who owned businesses in advertising and events management, was a business consultant to major corporations and was the general
manager of the travel giant STA Travel in Philippines. In 2002, he left everything to undergo a five-year vision quest around the world that took him to chance meetings with powerful spirit guides that told him that he must undergo a walking pilgrimage around Mindanao and a two-year stay in a deserted Palawan beach as a hermit, without money and contact with his past relations. It was in this beach that he found his ability to heal himself and those around him. He has since been busy creating several healing spaces in the Philippines for people from all walks of life. Politicians, fisherfolks, businessmen, travelers, farmers, families, religious officers and medical practitioners attend his workshops to reconnect with this ancient and powerful internal alchemy.