YOUR INVITATION TO REFINER'S PLAYGROUND
October 15-16, 2026
Lake Lawn Resort, Delavan, WI 53115
262.728.7950
Ask for Refiners Playground rate
Cutoff date: September 15, 2026
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PRACTICING ETERNITY
THE STRANGE PROCESS OF DYING INTO LIFE
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“I must never lose sight of those other deaths which precede the
final, physical death, the deaths over which we have some
freedom; the death of self-will, self indulgence, self deception, all
of those devices which, instead of making us more fully alive,
make us less. A long dead philosopher said that if we practice
dying enough during our lives we will hardly notice the moment of
transition when the actual time comes.”
( From The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974 by Madeline L’Engle )
Virtually all spiritual traditions provide guidance on how to become more fully alive by allowing what diminishes life to die — self-will, illusion, grasping, defenses, perhaps even identities that once served us. The process goes by different names: Letting go, surrendering, trusting a higher power, or allowing the refining process of life to burn away the dross that our essential nature might be revealed. For some, even sleeping itself is seen as practice for letting go and trusting there will be an awakening in the morning. In Refiners we talk about the antidote to grasping onto favorable moments while resisting others is to more fully allow all moments to have their place with us. Allowing is seen as a powerful form of surrender, one which at times requires courage and patience and judgement-free acceptance of ourselves.
There is more to practicing eternity, however, than just letting go of what we believe we possess; there are moments of profound joy and wonder, awe and love where we may be momentarily overcome by the sheer beauty and grace of everyday existence on earth. Small children, animals, sunsets and sunrises, vast mountains and deserts and bodies of water can evoke similar feelings. It is as if somewhere in the deep canyons of our being we remember an echo of vastness even greater than what we find here. Our essential nature — our eternal essence — may somehow be connected with this vastness in ways impossible to describe. Who can really know these things?
We have moments where something is evoked in us, something which resonates deeply in our body and being even when our brain doesn’t quite know what to do with it. Some in the community share a deep interest in the un-manifest world around us. It is seen as the invisible mirror of the life we currently live. It calls to us in subtle ( and not so subtle ) ways, inviting us to enter with curiosity and wonder into a dimension closer to who and what we actually are. The invitation goes further — we are invited to source our earthly life from this beyond-earth perspective now. The boundary between life and death becomes wonderfully murky!
In the Fall 2026 gathering of the Refiners Playground we want to explore what we are learning or struggling to learn about playing at the invisible shore between manifest and un-manifest world. We expect this to be an amazing, intimate and powerful conversation between friends on the journey. We are eager to be with you.
UPCOMING DATES
January 21-22, 2027
April 22-23, 2027
July 22-23, 2027
October 21-22, 2027
WHAT IS THE REFINER'S PLAYGROUND?
We are an open community of spiritual explorers who meet on a quarterly basis to share our current learning, questions about and experiments on the nature of reality. In particular, we seek to know the True Self directly while examining all of the hilarious ways we try to be something other than this! Our two day retreats are typically attended by 18-20 people from around the country. The dialogue is rich, at times profound, always compassionate and frequently hilarious. Come as frequently as you like and stay for as long as you like.
WHAT HAPPENS IN A TYPICAL GATHERING?
We meet in groups that range from 18-20 people. We share our stories of what we understand through direct experience and/or are currently learning through our own active experiments on the nature of being. There are no long-winded speeches or dazzling intellectual discourses. We tend not to agree or disagree with each other and seldom give others advice. We have no front of the room instructors or teachers as we all serve this role. We find that when we share our experiences with one another, as co-explorers- we each become more clear and confident about taking our next steps.
WHAT WE CURRENTLY KNOW
People who most benefit from the "Playground" are those who have:
A life long yearning to know what is true about themselves and the universe.
Grown tired of the typical self-help menu with its implied assumption there is some "defect" in us that requires improvement.
Believed more licenses, degrees or certifications will leave them finally and forever feeling "enough".
Many years' experience feeling alone, judged, misunderstood and have simply grown tired of this. And even more tired at having contributed to or led the charge themselves!
If you have experience with any of the above, welcome to the club! You will likely enjoy the solid food of the "Playground". The hard truth is that no amount of suffering or achievement can satisfy the deeper longing tugging at our soul. Our secret desire is wholeness and only our essential nature knows how to weave the fragments we present it into a coherent whole. Our hard work and effort to fix ourselves usually make matters worse, or at least continues the entertainment.
There is another way.
WELCOME
You are welcomed to come for as many sessions as you like and can leave whenever you like. Regardless of how much experience you have with deeper work, you will likely find in the Refiner's Playground a quality of dialogue and loving presence unlike anything you have ever experienced before.
INVESTMENT
$695 per session (includes breakfast and lunch). $2,495 when you sign up for the next four events. A savings of $285!
Bring a family member, partner, significant other at no additional cost!
Your Trusted Guides
Jim and Dan bring a half-century of experience wading around the inner landscape of human experience in ways that result in greater light, buoyancy, presence and power. We each have our unique spiritual path. We come in not as experts or even as facilitators who speak from the front of the room but as guides who walk alongside. We're aware of the terrain but cannot predict what will happen. Hence, the focus on playful experimentation.
The Refiner's Playground is:
“Time to lay down the armaments we use to fix ourselves and to come home. There is an un-changing center within us that isn’t concerned with anything other than NOW. I often see and recognize the Essential that lurks beneath those moments we naturally resist. I speak directly to it and am learning how to move with it and allow it more play in myself and in us. I am here to usher in an intimate, liberating partnership with the Essential in each all of us! We ARE this!” - Dan Holden
The Refiner's Playground offers us:
“A unique opportunity to embrace the perfection each life experience offers in burning away the dross of our deluded self perceptions, allowing the true, infinite, essential beings that we are to find fuller creative expression now. I am here to playfully master the art of finding, mining and refining the very best in us, allowing it to creatively express itself in response to the perfect challenge or opportunity that presents itself in each moment.” - Jim Anderson