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Sacred Ground

A free online practice of meeting in presence, together.

Enter and join us on Zoom.

Two people in silhouette face each other across a glowing vesica piscis, one in blue light, one in gold.

Out beyond belief and unbelief, there is a field. We meet there.after Rumi

You probably already know this space

The simple feeling of joy as your own face softens in someone's company, because nothing at all is required of you but to be together.

Several times a week, over Zoom, we drop beneath our separate lives. We don't come to make something happen between us so much as to let what is already quietly here be revealed — origin meeting origin, our deepest nature shown more fully than any of us can see alone. From a rich, unhurried silence, words begin to come — simply, from what is alive between us — and with them the surprise of being met, and of meeting, more truly than we expected.

Not to present our personalities, or to process our feelings, but to open to what lies beyond both: the soft, innocent, playful, joyful energy of life itself as it flows through us — and to find that this is what we are.

No experience needed. Everyone is welcome.

Elena Michaelson shares her experience
“That's who we are, that's what we are. That's the best news I've had my whole life.”

Elena Michaelson, on what she found here

Next Session
Tuesdays, Thursdays
and Saturdays

2:00 PM Tuesdays  ·  11:00 AM Thursdays & Saturdays  (New York time)

Your own local time appears here.

On Zoom · All are welcome

Join us

Please arrive a few minutes early as we start on time, and ensure that you are able to be present and undisturbed in a quiet space with your camera on for the entire hour.

Return to this page for following events — or sign up to get:

  • The full calendar of upcoming sessions
  • Other sessions offered on Sacred Ground
  • An email reminder before each session
Sign up — it's free
How it works

Simple to join, easy to be in

1

Gather

We arrive together in two minutes of silence, eyes open, then begin as a whole group with a single living question.

2

Breakouts

We move into twos and threes to meet each other more closely.

3

Return

We come back to the whole to share what was revealed, and close together.

Fourteen people meeting together on Zoom, each in their own home, most of them smiling.
A group at a recent session.

The inquiry is always essentially the same: "What is being revealed because we are together? What is emerging in the space between us?"
Then relax and let yourself be met.

If you already practice

Many who come already know how to track their own experience — sensations in the body, the movement of emotion and thought, the subtler senses.

Those skills are deeply welcome here. We simply turn them in a new direction: not only “what is happening in me?” but “what is being revealed in the space between us?”

Many practices bring us into presence. Here, we turn that presence toward each other.

What we love is the moment the space between us becomes so full and rich that we can’t help but share it. We so want you to taste that.

Beyond the screen

A few words for the field

New to this experience? You're in exactly the right place. These are the few words that come up most — held lightly, pointing at something felt rather than defined.

OriginThe ever-present source we each come from — not a beginning behind us, but a depth always here. In meeting, origin meets origin.
We-SpaceThe shared awareness that becomes tangible when people turn their presence toward each other. Here that connectedness becomes something felt: not created, but revealed.
MutualityAn equal, heart-to-heart way of relating where everyone's essence is honored — presence, turned toward each other.
PresenceThe aware, living stillness we are beneath our stories, released from past and future and wholly here — the same in each of us, and in our midst when we meet.
"When you meet with people, wherever it may be, give them your fullest attention. You are no longer there primarily as a person, but as a field of alert Presence. The field of awareness that arises between you becomes the primary purpose for the interaction."
Eckhart Tolle · A New Earth

Questions & answers

More than okay — newcomers are especially welcome, and often bring the freshest presence. There's nothing to prepare and nothing to get right. Come as you are, and the host will help you settle in.
Yes — everyone speaks. This isn't a talk with an audience; the practice only happens when each of us offers something. But nothing profound is required and nothing needs preparing. A few plain words about what you're actually noticing — a sensation, a hesitation, even "I've gone blank" — carry far more here than anything polished. Not knowing what to say is one of the best places to speak from.
This is an eyes-open practice. Closing your eyes can take you beautifully deep into yourself, and that is a different practice. Here we meet one another, and even through a screen it is the open gaze that lets the field between us come alive. You may even find that focusing on just one of your partner’s eyes takes you deeper still. If you need to close them for a breath to settle, do — and then come back to what is present in this moment in the space between.
We begin together as a group in two minutes of silence, to arrive as fully as possible, and short silences are always welcome along the way. Then we speak: words are how presence becomes meeting. Explore the space between us — what is alive in it? — and let a few words come from there. If silent meditation is what you are looking for, it is a beautiful practice, just a different one from ours.
Sessions are held several times per week over Zoom. You're welcome to attend as often or as rarely as you wish. Each one stands on its own, and the experience deepens as you return. Sessions run about an hour.
Yes. Sacred Ground is an experiment in sharing a profound experience of interconnection as widely as possible. There's no charge to join or to attend, and you're warmly encouraged to invite others who might like to come.
A quiet space, a little time, and a device with a camera. Sessions are fully interactive, using video in both the whole group and small breakouts, so your experience will be richer from a laptop or desktop than a phone. That's it.
Who is behind this

About Dr Stephen M. Marcus
and Sacred Ground

Stephen M. Marcus

I started Sacred Ground in 2009, using phone bridges with early video software and a backend I wrote myself.

It paused for some years and restarted in 2018. We have met at least weekly since then, with people joining from many time zones. About two years ago I focused it on this one practice.

I am an experimental psychologist, with a doctorate from Cambridge on speech recognition, and spent years at Bell Labs.

drstephenmmarcus.com Writing on Substack

The portal is each other.

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NOTE: www.sacredground.us is not associated with the Episcopal Church's course “Sacred Ground — A Film-Based Dialogue Series on Race & Faith”. To find that, click here instead.