Allan Today

Allan Ajaya, a.k.a. Swami Ajaya, explores how somatic psychotherapy, sensory awareness, non-dual meditation, and the use of psychedelics, can compliment one another. They enable us to transcend limiting assumptions about who we are. They lead us to uncover, accept, and embrace all aspects of ourselves. We shift from living through dualistic ways of experiencing, such as right/wrong and good/bad. Instead of residing in a world in which we only know conditional love, based on these dualities, we find ourselves at home, resting in unconditional love. This non-dual awareness is the source of all healing.

Allan is a speaker at international conferences and leads experiential workshops worldwide. During the past several years, he has also been a mentor to many health care professionals who are enrolled in year long training programs to become skilled psychedelic therapists.

Allan has a private practice as a psychotherapist, meditation guide, and teacher of Tantra in Madison Wisconsin. He also assists those seeking to integrate their psychedelic experiences. He offers video consultations for those who cannot meet with him personally.

Background

Allan received his PhD in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. He was then, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin Department of Psychiatry, where his supervisor was Dr. Carl Whitaker.

He then trained with well-known meditation and yoga teachers, notably, Chogyam Trungpa, Swami Satchidananda, and Swami Rama. He was himself, initiated as a Swami on the banks of the Ganges in Rishikesh India. For the next twenty years he periodically traveled to India to study, teach, and deepen his meditation. As one of the first yoga teachers in Madison, he founded the Yoga Meditation Society. He then established Shakti Bookshop on State Street in Madison. It was the first spiritual/new age bookstore in the Midwest, offering books from many spiritual traditions. Shakti was a beloved source of inspiration and wisdom for consciousness explorers for over forty years.

Allan has also trained with several well-known teachers of somatic therapy, including his friend, Ron Kurtz, who established Hakomi Therapy, Arnold Mindell, and David Grove. He has been guided by Jean Klein, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche in non-dual awakening.

As Swami Ajaya, he has written and edited several books, including, Living With The Himalayan Masters, Yoga and Psychotherapy, and Healing The Whole Person. He was profiled in the book, Psychedelic Wisdom.