I attended a 3 day "weekend intensive" in Washington DC with Byron Katie a couple of weeks back and wanted to share my experiences.
There were approximately 300 people or so who attended and it was held in a hotel near the airport. The event was hosted by Katie and it was more or less an introduction to "The Work" (her method of self-enquiry) and with lots of practice.
I loved the experience and benefited greatly from being around someone as clear as Katie. I was very careful to self-pace the sitting practices before and during, just to make sure I didn't go "over" and had no troubles in that department. In environments such as these, with people who do a lot of spiritual practice and in the presence of someone who emanates a boat load of energy, I find it important to self-pace as the energy levels are so high.
Katie lead us through a variety of exercises designed to help us identify thoughts and issues which required "the work". I found that in that environment it was very easy to find stressful thoughts, which is not always the case.
The benefits of spending the better part of 3 days doing the work were really apparent once I left the event and went home. My thinking process was slowed down tremendously giving me the opportunity to be aware of what seemed like every single thought which came into my consciousness. It was like a constant meeting of awareness and thought with the question “is it true” arising every step of the way.
For four days afterwards there was a deep physical and mental letting go with a wonderful level of relaxation and peace. I keep seeing every thought that causes stress and have the opportunity to bring myself back to ease by simply asking myself why I would choose to believe such a thing.
Directly interacting with Katie comes from the audience as people work through tricky thoughts with her. I had little opportunity to speak to her directly other than to thank her for all that she has given. She is a remarkable human being and I was fortunate to be around someone so self-realized. I hope to do it again.
This sounds terrific and very encouraging. Thank you for sharing this, Anthem. I am so looking forward to see her in Dublin this summer! I will take your words on self-pacing with me and seriously schedule time for it!
Byron Katie Retreat
Posted - Jun 07 2007 : 10:07:48 PM
Thank you for sharing this, Anthem. I am so looking forward to see her in Dublin this summer! 
I will take your words on self-pacing with me and seriously schedule time for it!