Annette Kaiser was born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1948. She is a spiritual teacher, founder and spiritual director of the retreat center Villa Unspunnen in Switzerland. Under her guidance, this place has become a gem of peace and light, that inspires many people in their spiritual work. She is a visionary of a Universal Spirituality and has written more than ten books. After completing her studies in economics and sociology at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), she worked for many years in the field of development cooperation. Her special fields were the women`s cause and intercultural dialog. During 17 years, she was a student of Irina Tweedie, an Anglo-Russian Sufi-teacher (author of Daughter of Fire: A Diary of a Spiritual Training with a Sufi Master). In the late 1980s, Annette Kaiser opened her Tai Ji DO-School, training teachers for over 30 years. Since 1998, she is authorized by Mrs. Tweedie to continue the Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiyya Sufilineage, guiding human beings on the path of love. In the year 2000, she developed the „DO-path“, which she continues to develop and which enhances a deep transformation of the heart as a way of living in a non-dual, cosomocentric understanding. In 2017 she started teaching the art of spiritual dreamwork.
She is particularly devoted to transconfessional and transcultural evolutionary spirituality, which implies an open aware state of being as the natural expression of an integral way of living in a very deep sense. This way leads to Universal Spirituality and Universal Cooperation as Not-Two. In both areas, Annette Kaiser initiates and participates in many ways (retreats, workshops, conferences, audio-conferences, etc.) with different groups, centers and human beings in Europe and worldwide. She sees the 21st Century as a call for humanity to recognize itself as inseparably One, co-creating a new culture in collective wisdom and love of One Heart.
In addition, she engages herself also on a very practical level, always in the spirit of what Universal Spirituality means for her – ONE World – ONE Humanity – ONE Consciousness – locally and globally: e.g. recently by initiating the Co-creating Europe movement, or supporting the project of “Lebensraum Belmont” next door. And for over 30 years she is president of the not-for-profit association “Open Hands” that supports projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Furthermore, projects like “The path of Love – A Meditation path” and the meditation “The Golden Thread – for ONE WORLD” have been inspired by her.
She is married, mother of two adult children and grandmother.
Website: goldenerwind.ch
Books:
The Path Has No Name: Life and Vision of a Sufi Teacher
Annette Kaiser: 99 Questions to a Spiritual Teacher
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Summary and transcript of this interview
Interview recorded October 19th, 2019.
YouTube Video Chapters:
00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
00:05:14 - Early Devotion and Interest in Spirituality
00:09:12 - The Quest for Understanding Reality
00:13:44 - The Journey of Finding Spiritual Guides
00:17:19 - The Miracle of Life
00:21:42 - The Life of Mrs. Tweedy
00:26:00 - Inviting Her to Switzerland
00:28:59 - Studying in Hochschule St. Gallen and the Movement of Gestalt Therapy
00:32:08 - Falling into Nothingness
00:36:08 - Awakening with Responsibility
00:40:11 - The Practice of Zikr and its Benefits
00:43:26 - The Possibility of Heaven on Earth
00:48:06 - The Awakening of Consciousness and the Calamity we Face
00:52:47 - The Transformation Process of the Butterfly
00:56:51 - Gems of Humanity in Iran
01:01:09 - The Immigrant Crisis and the Spiritual Perspective
01:06:16 - The State of Mind of All People
01:10:58 - The Miracle of the Body and Understanding Sexuality
01:16:28 - Unity of Soul, Body, and Spirit
01:20:53 - The Three Faces of God and the Shadow Part
01:25:03 - Embracing Different Perspectives
01:29:29 - The Journey of Spiritual Development
01:32:14 - Finding Divinity in the Ordinary
01:35:54 - Interview with Damian Eccles
01:39:26 - Exclusion from the Community
01:43:35 - The Importance of Self-Reflection in the Collective Field
01:47:38 - The Power of Spiritual Dream Work
01:52:24 - The Beauty of Switzerland and Engagements
01:55:41 - The State of Europe and its Challenges
02:00:34 - The Emergence of the New Culture
02:04:23 - Signing Up for Notifications