John first heard about meditation in 1972 during his sophomore year at Arizona State University when he decided to attend an introductory lecture on Transcendental Meditation (TM). Shortly thereafter, he took a seven day TM meditation course and about one year later found himself taking a five month long, teacher training course in La Antilla, Spain. Much of his time in this course was spent in meditation, sometimes as much as 12 hours per day.
Upon returning to the United States, he finished his studies and taught TM part–time. After graduation he began teaching TM full-time and spent the next six years teaching in cities across the nation. He also continued to regularly attend advanced TM teacher training courses in Europe and eventually began leading them at a TM facility located in Hemet, California.
While he was able to partially support himself financially through the TM course fee that was charged, the majority of this support came from his parents who eventually felt it was time for him to become financially independent. Consequently, John became a financial planner while continuing to teach TM part time.
In 1990 John heard that a great spiritual master and humanitarian named Mata Amritananda Mayi (also simply called Amma or Mother) would be touring the US that year. In order to deepen his own spiritual journey, he and his wife Jill decided to attend a meditation retreat with Amma at a camping facility in the hills of Santa Monica, California. During their first meeting, John experienced a profound connection with Amma that has continued to deepen and grow throughout their 26–year master/disciple relationship.
John later learned Amma’s integrated Amrita Mediation Technique (also called IAM Meditation) and eventually became a certified teacher of this unique mediation as well.
Today, both John and his wife Jill travel the world helping Amma with charitable and humanitarian efforts while continuing to work part time as a financial planner. John also continues to serve by teaching meditation at no charge to all those interested in learning. John comes to AMFM Treatment for both the PHP and IOP programs weekly to meet with patients of all backgrounds and ages and guides them through pre-mediation education classes, breathing exercises, and meditation.