About this event
Revelation is an annual, spiritual conference hosted by the Agape International Spiritual Center of Los Angeles. Students and followers of the New Thought-Ancient Wisdom tradition of spirituality come together from all over the world for the shared experience, wisdom and revelations that occur during the 4-day event. This year it was held in Washington, D.C., and next year it will be in Los Angeles, California.

Michael Beckwith
Dr. Rev. Michael Beckwith, founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center, and featured in the movie The Secret, is a master of building spiritual community and teaching New Thought-Ancient Wisdom principles in such a way that everyone feels like they’ve “come home”. He’s developed the philosophy and teachings for the University of Transformational Studies and Leadership at Agape. Students that come out of this program become “transformative agents” that uplift the planet. Michael teaches workshops, retreats and seminars all around the world and the Revelation conference demonstrates his abilities as a leader, community-builder, uplifter and transformer.

Components
This year’s theme was "The Rhythm of a Descended Master". It was about how we need to come fully into the experience of being in a human body before attempting to ascend back into Spirit. The goal is to be anchored in matter (the physical) and Spirit while having harmony on all levels of our being. The conference included featured spiritual luminaries, inspirational music, uplifting fellowship, group meditations, a wonderful children’s program, dancing, a Well Being Center, the Prayer Without Ceasing Prayer Room, daily yoga, the Agape Quiet Mind Bookstore & Marketplace and the Village Dinner Celebration & Heaven on Earth Spiritual Theatre.

Featured Spiritual Luminaries
Michael Beckwith started the conference with his message, "The Rhythm of a Descended Master". James Arthur Ray lit up the 1000 member audience with his message of "The Ground for an Inner Renaissance". Dr. Sue Morter spoke on "Balancing Our Walk as a Descended Master". Rev. Dr. Barbara King transformed many lives with, "The Science of Living by Divine Design". And Iyanla Vanzant engaged and entertained everyone with her illustrative story on "You Are a Place of Divine Fulfillment". After their moving, inspiring talks, the speakers made themselves available to attendees throughout the conference for meeting, greeting, signing books, taking pictures and asking questions. It was lovely to meet them in person.

Inspirational Music
Rickie Byars-Beckwith was truly amazing, as she always is, and through her Music Ministry brought a whole new dimension of vibration, upliftment and resonance to the spiritual message of "The Rhythm of a Descended Master". The Agape International Choir and the Agape House Band are only part of Agape’s Music and Arts Ministry. Featured soloists at the event included Niki Haris, Esther Nicholson, Ron Robinson, Jason Powell, Miriam Greene, Tony Novell, Charles Holt, Shay Jordan, Eugene Gant, and Ramon Pratt. The choir, house band and soloists traveled to Washington, D.C. for the conference. I was grateful. Their presence and music raised the vibration of the event and helped transform and open the audience to the messages presented. The Agape International Choir brought down the house with many appearances and songs that uplifted, set and shifted the vibration and moved us all. It proved how "moving" music can be. The Common Ground Community Choir brought some East Coast lovin’ and support with, "Walkin’ Stick" by Stephen Wise, "Love is the Answer" and "Fill This World with Love". They rocked the house. The Common Ground Choir has had the pleasure of performing with Esther Nicholson at a Common Ground Sacred Space Gathering. All the music got people on their feet moving, swaying, dancing and being uplifted. It was an essential component to the transformative quality of the entire conference.

Children’s Program
For families with children six years and older, the conference offered a children’s program called, "The Master’s Quest". In addition to pool parties, music, art and play for all, the older children were part of a beautification project at a local school where they planted shrubbery and painted an inspiring mural on the wall. There was a tour of Washington, D.C. and tree planting at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Gardens. Just reading about the gardens touches my heart. At the Sunday service one of the older children shared what the children’s program meant to him and the revelations he had during his four days. It was moving to see how touched and changed he was by the whole experience. Next year we’ll bring our children.

Well Being Center
Dr. Paul Bodhise of The Bodhise Holistic Healing Group in Philadelphia was in charge of the Well Being Center. He brought Divine light in his service to Agape and the community as conference attendees received different types of healing modalities including body work and energy work. You need to sign up ahead of time and there is a fee. The services offered vary from year to year depending on those volunteering their time and talents to do the body and energy work. Note for next year: Appointments for energy and body work can be made early in the conference, so get down to the Well Being Center when they first start making appointments and make yours for the service you want on the day and time you want it.

Mentors on the Couch
Interspersed throughout the conference was a talk-show style "couch time" with the mentors: Michael, Rickie and the speakers. This was a great way of bringing these inspirational speakers’ wisdom and insight to some very specific questions and problems that attendees had. It was enjoyable seeing the mentors share their wealth of knowledge, training, experience and wisdom to help people with questions. Those of us listening also got something from the answers given, whether we had similar issues or not. It was also neat to see the mentors in a conversational mode. It made them more accessible.

Village Dinner Celebration & Heaven on Earth Spiritual Theatre
This was an amazing dinner and celebration with a special spiritual show that brought another dimension to the theme of "The Rhythm of a Descended Master". Ether, Earth, Water, Wind and Fire were expressed through movement and music and included the "Dance of Release". Tickets were extra for this but it was well worth it. The food was amazing with the option of a vegan dish, the show was multidimensional and uplifting and the dancing afterwards was so much fun. The show included speakers like Suzanne Whang who comically explained how humor can be used as a tool along our spiritual path. I don’t remember everything but it was quite a show with the Agape House Band, lead by Ben Dowling, who worked tirelessly to make an amazing event throughout all four days.

Sunday service
Sunday’s theme was "Living in the Revelation". Service began with meditation followed by music and movement. Michael brought it home and summed up the conference with his message, "Descention without Disintegration: An Integrative Process".

This is what I gleaned from the service: make this new way of being (what I learned at the conference) a way of life by asking myself, "How can I be more myself?" and "How can I be free?" Change what’s not working in my life and let go of things I don’t want anymore. Do a daily forgiveness scan to get rid of any resentment I might be holding. Everyday, focus on these areas: 1) exercise, 2) nutrition, 3) hydration, 4) detoxification, 5) meditation, 6) rest and 7) play. Take time everyday to be still and find my center. I’ll know I’m successful when I feel at home in my body temple. Remember, the vibration of prayer and the vibration of play are the same.

The Agape Quiet Mind Bookstore & Marketplace (& CDs)
A lot of books from the Agape bookstore were available at the conference. As an amazing benefit of technology, audio CDs of each session were available as well. If you wanted to listen to the whole conference or any part of it again, you could buy the CDs before you left. Immediate gratification and helpful for keeping the vibration and momentum of the conference going for you once you got home. The audience expressed an interest in having DVDs of the conference, so hopefully they’ll be available soon.

Prayer Without Ceasing Prayer Room
In this quiet sanctuary, Agape practitioners reverently prayed with anyone who felt so inclined to visit and benefit from their prayers. During one of the conference sessions Michael recommended a visit to the prayer room to lock in the teachings of the conference. Martin and I both went and each had a lovely, healing experience. We went back again the next day and had a prayer session together. It was very affirming and loving and we were high for the whole conference and very much in love. It was beautiful all the way around and served to heighten the whole experience of the conference for us. I highly recommend having a prayer session in this way. (Prayer is also available at any time through Agape. There is a 24-hour Prayer Hotline at 1-310-348-1270 or you can email your prayer request.)

Vendors
During breaks between sessions it was nice to browse the interesting items offered for sale by the vendors. They weren’t just any vendors either. Many offered hard-to-find wares that were of interest to attendees. Also, since the items are interesting they’re always good conversation starters which allow people to share their experience of events like this. For example, One woman had a beautiful dress which I asked if she had purchased from the vendors. She said she had gotten it at a different event which I asked her to tell me about. So, I learned about another holistic event by admiring her dress and she got to share her experience of that event with me! Win-Win-Win

There were creative, hand-made, natural clothing and accessories, as well as music CDs by the performers, shawls to transform women’s outfits into Goddess wear, creative jewelry made from gems that have healing properties, beautiful silk creations by the makers of the silks used on the Revelations stage (see the decorative silk hanging behind the aerial gymnast in the picture above) and much more. It was nice to have the vendors there since many people like having specialty clothes and accessories from these events. I found an amazing amethyst necklace that I wore for the Village Dinner Celebration & Heaven on Earth Spiritual Theatre. It topped off my outfit spectacularly. (See it in the picture of me with Michael and Rickie near the bottom of this post.)

Dawn of a New Day reader attended
There I was waiting in the lobby Thursday evening, opening night, after being uplifted by chanting with Rickie and listening to Michael’s message, "The Rhythm of a Descended Master", when I hear a voice asking, "Is that Dawn?" I can’t remember what she said verbatim, but Elyse recognized me from being on my website and getting my newsletter. She said she had been inspired by my views on New Year’s Resolutions, had waited until Spring to start hers, as I suggested, and was successful! We became fast friends. It was lovely to meet someone who already knew me and this website and share the experience with her. It was such a thrill! (Last week we both wound up four seats apart at the Abraham Workshop in Philadelphia. A friend of mine had arrived early to save seats for those coming from the Law of Attraction Study Group I facilitate and positioned us one row behind and two seats down from Elyse. Talk about Law of Attraction!)

My experience
This was the most uplifting and transformational four days of my life. I went through many different feelings, healings, realizations, revelations and activations as the vibrations, speakers and activities took me where I needed to go for my own evolution and transformation. Truly, I will never be the same. It was an amazing experience for me when I met Michael. I completely resonate with him, his teachings and the Agape movement. After experiencing this conference, I want to be part of the organization and vision of Agape.

Suggestions for the organizers
I really wanted to get some of the audio CD recordings of the sessions but The Agape Quiet Mind Bookstore was too crowded the last day. You might consider putting an order form in each of the bags given out at the start of the conference, or in the booklet, so people could order them more easily. This could be approached in a couple different ways. One way would be that the order form was made with a different section for each day. People would be able to hand in the order form at the end of each day and pick up the CDs the next day or at the end of the conference. People who wanted the whole conference on CD could turn in their order any time and pick it up at the end of the event or have it mailed to them. It could be as simple or complex as you want it to be. I loved the notebooks with the little zipping plastic bag for business cards collected, money to carry or treasures found. The Revelation bags were sturdy and fun and allowed us to recognize each other at other hotels and restaurants. More fellowship!

Notes for attending next year’s event
1) Register for the conference as early as you can, either online, via phone or mail. This year there was a significant early bird registration discount so check their website to stay posted or sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when registration starts.

2) Buy your tickets for the dinner when you register for the conference. Separate tickets for the dinner are required and you can save yourself time by having that taken care of before you arrive. Pick up your tickets at the registration check-in when you arrive and then you’re set.

3) Make your hotel reservations early. It really makes it more relaxing to stay at the hotel where the conference is happening, especially when you’re talking about LA where there’s a lot of traffic. It also makes it easier to join the early morning yoga. Quick stops up to your room for a rest or costume change are easy as well. Making the hotel reservations early ensures that you’ll have a room there.

4) Come well rested. The days start early and end late so make sure you come into the conference already feeling at your best.

5) Arrive early at the conference so you can settle into your hotel room before registration check-in starts. Go down to registration check-in as soon as it opens to avoid the rush and have a relaxing time. There was a Welcome Reception which we missed because we arrived at our hotel late and got stuck in tremendous traffic on the way from our hotel to the hotel where the conference was.

6) Sign up for body work early in the event. This way you can get the body or energy work you want, at just the day and time you want it, and by the person you want it from (if you have a preference).

7) Bring comfortable, toned-down Goddess clothing (women). I also brought my Goddess outfit (this is where I got mine) for the Sunday service. The conference specs said it was "business casual". I brought what’s "business casual" for me, which is actually toned-down Goddess anyway (what you see me wearing in all these pictures). I was in good company, felt beautiful and was comfortable. Comfortable shoes are optional since you won’t be walking much but you will be standing and dancing at your seat a lot (note: not ON your seat). For more examples of regular Goddess clothing check out what the choir wears.

8) If you have a special diet or like to eat whole foods like I do, call ahead to the Westin LA hotel to find out if they have food you can eat. If they don’t, make sure you find an alternate food supply.

9) Bring snacks. Snacks at hotels are typically more expensive and of unknown quality so bringing your own will cut down on how much you have to spend and control the quality of the snacks you eat.

10) Bring your own bottled water since hotel tap water is usually not drinkable. If you’re flying in you can stop at an office supply store or grocery store for bottled water.

11) Look online and scope out health food stores that are near the hotel and make a stop to load yourself up with snacks so you don’t have to carry them on the plane. (They x-ray everything at the airport now and I don’t want my food x-rayed.)

12) Stay an extra day if you can before heading back to your regular life. It might help to more firmly anchor the vibrations of the conference for you. (Realize, though, that the hotel won’t have the same vibration after most of the attendees go home.)

13) Bring a pen or two so you can take notes and write down your insights, revelations and the phone numbers of those you want to keep in touch with after the event. When we registered and got our name tags we also got a cool Revelation bag with a note pad for taking notes, but no pen. Pens are such a person thing, you know.

14) Bring your business cards. Print and affix mailing labels to the back of your business cards that say, "We met at Revelation 2008. We talked about" and then leave the rest of the space free to write down what you talked about so they remember you and your conversation. (Vistaprint.com offers free business cards.)

15) Keep your name tag. At the end of the conference we were offered the option of signing up for next year’s conference at a discount. We didn’t do it before we left though. When I got home I got an email offering me the same option at the same price. They wanted the number off my badge as part of that registration. So think about whether you want to sign up at the conference or once you get home. As of this writing I don’t know what the regular price will be but I assume that registering at the conference (or through the email at home afterwards) is the best price you’ll get.

Next year’s event
Each year the conference alternates between the west coast and east coast. Next year, Revelation 2008 with be held at the Westin LA from April 17-20th. There is a fee for the conference, which might be discounted for early registration.

Volunteer
Volunteering is another option which also gives you a different perspective of the event, special perks and a special price. The volunteers had a special luncheon after the Sunday service and we all know the benefits of self-less service.

Readers
I hope to see many Dawn of a New Day readers there next year. We’ll have to hang out together and do lunch.

Conclusions
This was a lot for me to remember of a transformational event, but I did my best for you. I hope you got the sense of what it was like to be there, both intellectually and vibrationally. Try to tap into the vibration of this review and my experience as I wove it into my writings for you. I really loved this event and am signing up for next year’s Revelation in Los Angeles.

Request prayer through the Agape Prayer Ministry

Be part of Agape now through the AgapeLive Online Community

Visit the Agape website and stay posted for the next Revelations