Meditation Groups, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our home is at Meditation Mount, a sacred site on 32 acres of land at the east end of the Ojai Valley in Southern California. The facilities were completed and became operational in 1971. Since then the Mount has provided learning opportunities through classes, dialogues, weekend workshops, theme-specific retreats, online programs and materials, study groups and community forums.
Our Board of Directors
Michael Lindfield – President, has been involved in creative group meditation since the late 1960s through an affiliation with Sundial House in England (a sister group of Meditation Mount). He is a highly regarded business consultant and executive coach with over 35 years of international experience in helping individuals and organizations unleash the creativity of the human spirit to meet the needs of our times. Michael learned his craft from a broad range of experiences that include: a 14 year residency as Director of Education at the Findhorn Community in Scotland; small-scale organic farming in western Sweden; conducting seminars and presenting at conferences around the world and as a senior consultant with The Boeing Company from 1989-2005. Michael is author of ‘The Dance of Change: an Eco-Spiritual Approach to Transformation’(Penguin Books 1986) and numerous articles featured in psychology, education and business journals.
Rosa Maria (Rosy) Romero – Vice-President, is a businesswoman who has long been engaged in meditation and service work. Originally from Guadalajara, Rosy moved to Northwest Mexico in 1980 and it was there that an inner prompting led her to a study group in creative group meditation — Sintesis En Acuario (SEA) in Tijuana. The group meditated together daily for many years, and held weekly meetings to study the Ageless Wisdom teachings contained within the Alice A. Bailey books. Rosy began attending biannual conferences at Meditation Mount in the early ‘90s, and in 1996 began participating in the annual World Service Intergroup gatherings held in different parts of the world. Rosy is an Insurance Broker and has participated in many conventions in Latin America and Europe–with the Latin American Federation of Insurance Intermediaries and its European equivalent, BIPAR. In 2002, she also joined the worldwide service organization Rotary International, lending her diverse skills to the Rotary’s mission of building goodwill and peace in the world, alleviating human sufferings through combating hunger, improving health, providing education, job training, and more.
Brian Ziegler – Treasurer, has been a student of the Ageless Wisdom since 1970. He co-owns and operates nine retail hardware stores in the suburbs of Chicago. He first visited Meditation Mount while living in Ojai as a student at the Krotona Institute of Theosophy. Brian is a graduate of Illinois Institute of Technology. He currently serves on four other Boards: Sherman Hospital, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, First Community Bank of Elgin, and WR Meadows Manufacturing. In addition he was past president of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Photographyand recording live music concerts are two of his passions.
Tom Carney has been actively engaged in meditation and service-oriented work for over 42 years. For all of those years, he has been closely affiliated with Arcana Workshops a non-profit corporation dedicated to the pioneering of group work and the service of humanity. While at Arcana he designed and conducted weekly group workshops in both group and intergroup relations and scientific meditation training at all levels of experience. He has been the President of the Board of Arcana for 25 years. He has written articles and essays on many topics of an esoteric bridging nature most of which have appeared in a monthly esoteric journal Thoughtline published by Arcana Workshops. His work has been translated into many languages, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Danish, Polish and Russian. Tom is and has been affiliated with Meditation Groups Inc. for over 18 years. He has served the Mount as Treasurer, Vice President and President of the Board. Tom is also affiliated with and a founding member of The World Service Intergroup which is perhaps the largest intergroup of esoteric groups in the world. He serves as a member of this group’s Steering Committee.
Ellen Hall – Secretary Ellen’s experience is in non-profit management. She has been the Director of the Ojai Valley Museum and the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, and the Head of Oak Grove School of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America. Ellen was elected to the Ojai City Council in 1997 and served as the city’s Mayor in 1999. She has been successful at initiating and sustaining environmental and educational organizations, having been a founding member of the successful Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, the Besant Meadow Preservation Group, and several schools. Her passion and expertise is environmental education. Ellen served the City of Ojai again as the coordinator of the city’s Youth Commission. She has served on many boards including the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation. Ellen lives in Ojai, CA, and has two grown children.