A Community Ritual Celebrating the Mystery of Life

Into the Wow

Ceremonies of Connection

All timings are approximate...

Welcome (5 minutes)
Candle Ritual (10 minutes)
Breathing (15 minutes)
Voice & Water Ceremony (20 minutes)
Music and Dance (75 minutes)
Grounding and Sharing (15 minutes)
Candle Ritual (10 minutes)

What Happens at an Into the Wow Ceremony

This explanation exists for anyone who considers attending an Into the Wow ceremony. It exists because long ago I met a Native American elder who advised me to be extremely cautious about participating in any ritual whose intention is not fully understood. That guidance stays with me.

So this explanation functions as a kind of health-and-safety offering. Its purpose is to ensure that people arrive in full awareness of what is being done. Nothing here is hidden. There is no attempt to “lay a trip” on anyone. The intention is that people arrive able to relax fully into the ceremony—without nagging doubt, without fear, without suspicion.

Some people naturally feel comfortable entering ritual spaces without explanation. Others do not. I believe it is healthier to consciously participate in ceremonies rather than simply go along with them without understanding what is happening.

One of the things I have learned about ritual is that it needs to be enacted rather than explained while it is unfolding. A ritual is weakened if its meaning is continually analysed in the moment. This explanation exists so that, when the ceremony begins, it can simply happen.

That happening relies on a group of people who are present and participating. Into the Wow is not designed for passive spectators. Ritual traditions from around the world undermine the capacity to remain a detached observer. While visitors may occasionally witness ceremonies, the deepest power of ritual arises when everyone is included, aware and engaged.

Many modern rituals feel barren, lifeless, manipulative, or even dangerous because they are enacted unconsciously or without genuine participation. This occurs across religious, spiritual and secular settings alike. Ritual loses its vitality when people withhold themselves from it.

Prayer has been described as an act of instilling goodness. Ritual, in this sense, becomes a way of enacting that prayer—bringing beauty into the world, celebrating life in both its joy and its sorrow, and accepting the full range of human experience. It is a way of engaging with the mystery of existence in an embodied way… a dance, a pattern, a prayer.

That is the intention of Into the Wow.

Fire: The Candle Ritual

The ceremony begins with a candle ritual that introduces light and the element of fire.

Before the candle is lit, there is a moment of quiet contemplation acknowledging pain, suffering, illness, loss, and the darker aspects of human existence. Without this acknowledgement, ritual becomes ungrounded and unreal.

Suffering is part of life. Everyone carries it personally, and the world carries it collectively. Recognising this anchors the ceremony in reality and expands concern beyond the self.

When the candle is lit, it symbolically invites light, goodness, beauty, and healing—not as a denial of darkness, but as a conscious response to it. The ceremony is dedicated to the good of all beings: those present and absent, those thriving and those suffering.

This opening establishes intention and creates a shared field of meaning before the body and breath are engaged.

Preparation: Breath, Body, and Voice

Experience shows that preparation matters. When the body is stiff, the dance is half-hearted. When the breath is shallow, relaxation remains out of reach. When the voice is unused, expression feels inhibited.

Into the Wow is structured to prepare the whole being—breath, body, voice, awareness—so that participation feels natural rather than forced.

Breathing Together

After the candle ritual, everyone lies on the floor and enters a guided breathing practice. Breathing together at the same rhythm immediately creates cohesion within the group.

For around 15 minutes, the group engages in an intense breathing exercise similar to the Wim Hof method. The breath becomes deep and rhythmic, followed by a full exhale and an extended hold of the out-breath.

This moment of suspended exhalation invites a rare quality of listening. It allows attention to turn inward—to the heartbeat, to bodily sensation—and outward, to the subtle sounds of the the world. Many people report that this is the first time they truly hear or feel their own heart.

Sustaining the out-breath for extended periods is also associated with physiological benefits, including immune activation and heightened vitality. The practice often induces a naturally altered, expanded state of awareness that brings people fully into the room and into themselves.

Movement, Shaking, and Trauma Release

After the breathing, the body is invited into movement.

Modern research and somatic psychology—particularly the work of Peter Levine and Gabor Maté, among others—shows how much relief the nervous system gains through physical movement, especially shaking, rhythmic motion, and spontaneous dance. These movements allow the body to discharge stored stress and trauma that cannot be resolved through cognition alone.

Shaking is a natural regulatory behaviour found across the animal kingdom. When allowed consciously and safely, it helps reset the nervous system and restore a sense of ease and presence.

The Church of Wow provides a space where these practices are welcomed, understood, and held safely.

Participants are guided to loosen the body through gentle shaking, tapping, rotating joints, bending, and simple gestures. The lymphatic system relies on movement to clear toxins, and this physical activation supports both physiological and emotional release.

This movement does not aim to become a yoga class. It serves as a transition—from stillness to expression, from inward listening to outward participation, from breath to voice. Vocalisation is also encouraged during this warm-up period, limbering up the larynx. Stevie Wonder's preparation revolved around laughter and loud jokes. Vocal exercises that mimic the sound of ghosts offer a powerful means of preparing the voice. This encourages a moment of silliness before diving into sound.

Voice and Water

Singing follows movement.

The ceremony includes a water ritual rooted in the understanding that water is alive, responsive, and structurally influenced by intention, sound, and frequency. Water carries memory. It sustains life. It is the medium from which we are born.

Participants bring water if desired and place it at the centre. Through shared singing, intention, and resonance, the water is infused with care and positivity. Magnetic vortices help to charge the water and structure its fourth phase (more detail about that here). Singing itself vibrates the body deeply, creating coherence within individuals and harmony within the group. Harmonising through sound strengthens our ability to connect with ourselves and each other. Participants are free to express themselves melodically with the music but encouraged to do so sensitively with the desire to honour a shared sense of harmony.

This vocalisation strengthens connection, confidence, and collective presence. It energises the throat chakra and the voice we use to create spells and speak our worlds into existence.

After the ritual, participants are invited to drink the water. Sharing vessels is encouraged for health reasons and as an act of communion, though personal boundaries are fully respected. Participation is always voluntary. The ideas of ‘viral’ contagion have been debunked in recent years and the benefits of exposing our energy fields to other influences like animals, people and the bacteria of all living things enhances the community of micro-organisms upon which we all depend. The greater the diversity, the better. We share information through the energy fields of our bodies and so physical touch, hugging and sharing objects actually affords greater protection to threats from the environment.

Dance and Awe

After breath, movement, and song, the group enters a period of music and dance, sometimes with live percussion, sometimes with recorded music, sometimes a mix.

Music is carefully chosen or played to heighten awareness and celebration while respecting the sensitivity of the space. Dance may be energetic or subtle. It may be shared or solitary.

Dance is understood as a sacred human expression. Across cultures and religions, images of the gods and goddesses are often depicted as dancing. Dance can allow a fully-embodied sense of awe to arise—the “wow” moment—where mystery, beauty, and aliveness overwhelm language.

Participation looks different for everyone. Some dance fully. Some shake, clap, sway, or sit quietly while feeling deeply moved. All of this is welcome.

Awe does not require performance.

Closing and Sharing

As the energy settles, the ceremony gently closes with the candle ritual once more.

There is space for brief sharing, offered with care and brevity. Speech is treated as sacred. Silence is respected. No commentary on others’ contributions is invited. Participants speak from the I, from the heart, to the flame, in the presence of the group and of what may be called the deepest or highest within us.

Intention

This explanation exists so that nothing needs explanation once the ceremony begins.

Into the Wow is enacted collectively, consciously, and voluntarily. Its purpose is not indulgence, but communion. Not escape, but engagement. Not spectacle, but participation.

The intention is that we leave uplifted, grounded, and connected—carrying something beautiful back into our lives and into the world.

If you feel moved, you are welcome to join.