"Spirituality is something visceral that is meant to be shared and experienced," said Day of Tikkun founder Eric Greenberg in an interview with The Huffington Post.
Greenberg, a serial entrepreneur turned shaman and author, was one of Silicon Valley's biggest success stories, with a net worth of about $1 billion in the 1990s before the stock market crash.
"I had a very critical choice to make," said Greenberg. "To continue living in an indulgent, self-destructive dynamic or transform my life to become a force for self-healing and higher consciousness."
He chose the latter.
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For the past decade, Greenberg has used his talents as a businessman to enact change in the world by writing books, funding philanthropic programs and launching responsible projects like his environmentally minded food company and a wind farm that generates revenue for the Great Plains Native American Tribes. And now, he's taken his mission one step further.
On Saturday, Greenberg gathered teachers, shamans, musicians and spiritual guides for Day of Tikkun, a full day of of lectures, ceremonies and performances celebrating collective consciousness at the Nob Hill Masonic Center--all free of charge with a suggested donation.
"In today's world, wisdom is sold in sound bites and merchandise like cans of soup," he told HuffPost. "With Day of Tikkun, we wanted to create an entire experience."
Greenberg thus organized the day accordingly, starting with lectures, then leading into a prayer ceremony with Q'ero shamans and culminating in a performance by famed Sikh musician Snatam Kaur.
"For those who stayed through the entire event, it was a spiritual awakening," said Greenberg.
The gathering inside the Nob Hill Masonic Center resembled a lively Sunday at church--except without the religion.
"We must have had people of every religion under the sun in that room," said Greenburg. "But it's not about the religion, it's about the shared spiritual experience. I don't think people should be excluded from shared spiritual experiences because they don’t want to be part of a certain religion."
Speakers discussed intention, change and inner truth, asking audience members to follow a guiding principle: to be the change they wished to see in the world.
"I was blessed with great success, for which I am so grateful," said Greenberg. "But it was time to focus inward and make changes within myself. Becoming one with yourself and other people, and wanting to be a part of something greater--that's what this day was all about."
See photos from Day of Tikkun in our slideshow below:
