Omega Institute

Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, a non-profit retreat and learning centre, sits in the Hudson Valley of New York State. It was started in 1977 by the writer and educator Elizabeth Lesser and the physician Stephan Rechtschaffen, with the Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, whom Omega also counts as a founder, as its guiding light. The name comes from Teilhard de Chardin's idea of an Omega Point towards which all life is drawn. After a few years in borrowed and rented venues it settled in the early 1980s on a former Yiddish summer camp near Rhinebeck, now a wooded campus of around 250 acres with a lake, a hilltop meditation sanctuary, the Ram Dass Library and a dining hall serving mostly plant-based food.

From late spring to autumn the campus hosts weekend and week-long workshops and retreats on six themes: mind and spirit, body and health, creativity, family and relationships, work and leadership, and sustainable living. Guests can book an unstructured Rest & Rejuvenation stay. Omega Online offers live-streamed and on-demand classes, and a free Resource Library holds articles, videos and talks. Two centres run their own programmes: the Women's Leadership Center and the Center for Sustainable Living, whose building cleans the campus's wastewater through its Eco Machine. Membership, from US$120 a year, brings discounts and helps fund scholarships.