How About a Concierge for Your Spiritual Life?

The latest amenity in high-end developments takes wellness to a new level, helping residents get in touch with their inner selves.

Candace Jackson
New York Times
July 13, 2021

Jardine apartments in Los Angeles have all the trappings of luxury living in 2021: touch-less elevators, a rooftop gym and a pool with private cabanas. And then there’s a more unusual amenity: a “spiritual concierge” who can set residents up with everything from full moon intention ceremonies to sound baths.

Looking to woo buyers and renters who are open to the, well, woo-woo, several new developments around the country are offering meditation, healers, shaman and spiritual concierge programs — taking wellness offerings several steps beyond on-site yoga and Pilates. In an age of self-care and mental health awareness, developers are hoping the offerings will appeal to those who have embraced spirituality as part of a wellness lifestyle. But will they scare away buyers and renters on a more traditional journey?

At Gardenhouse at 8600 Wilshire in Beverly Hills, there will be monthly spiritual experiences on-site tied to lunar cycles. A cacao ceremony — that’s a shaman-lead “healing” that involves blessing and then drinking a traditional bitter chocolate, intention setting and dancing or movement — is on the menu. There is also a “full moon intention ceremony,” where participants verbalize and write down things they would like to let go of in journals (crystals, visualization and sage burning can also be involved). The events will take place in the building’s atrium, an architectural open-air space with black Venetian plaster walls and a huge fountain with a reflecting pool.

“It really aligns with the goal of bringing wellness into the homes of our buyers,” said Mike DiSilva, the Los Angeles-based development manager for the project. The 18-unit condominium also has what they claim is the largest living wall in America; condo prices start at $2.95 million.

Eran Polack, the developer of Maverick, in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, was skeptical when his marketing and sales team first came to him with the idea of hiring a spiritual concierge. “My first reaction as a New Yorker was, ‘that sounds like a very California thing,’” he said.

John Gomes, the building’s listing agent, talked him into it. Mr. Gomes first tried hypnotherapy after his husband died, a little less than a year ago, and was hooked. “But I will say, it’s a bit of a secret society,” he said. Figuring out how to find honest practitioners and learning about the various treatments was overwhelming. “So we thought, ‘Wow, what if we could provide this as an amenity to the benefit of our clients and provide them a one-stop shop, so you don’t have to go out there and figure it out yourself?’” These concierges won’t have fixed desks in building lobbies, but will be available via email or phone to consult with residents upon request.

Mr. Polack said he thought spiritual offerings could appeal to millennial buyers who want both amenities and “content,” including on-site and virtual events. “I’m not a spiritual person, I have to be honest with you,” he said. “I’m a real estate developer trying to build a building and a program people will enjoy.” Unlike allotting valuable square footage for yoga decks and saunas, the spiritual concierge program is available at no or little cost to developers. Residents generally will pay for services themselves.

Other developers are bringing their own spiritual practices to their customers. In Columbus, Ohio, Gravity, a sprawling new development on a site with 10 acres so far, includes a Transcendental Meditation center. (Transcendental Meditation involves a silent, repeated mantra.) Brett Kaufman, the developer, has been practicing 20 years, he said.

He described the development as a “conscious community,” that takes a holistic approach to a wellness lifestyle. “The physical health thing is important — we have gyms, we have trainers and yoga studios and running clubs,” he said. “But we believe we need to treat the mental health and spiritual side of things with the same level of importance.”

Mr. Kaufman said plans also called for a location for mental health professionals, therapists and life coaches called Innerspace, a convenient on-site amenity for residents that will also be open to the general public. (Gravity has retail space, offices and will have more than 1,000 residential units when completed, including rental apartments and co-living spaces.)

Some developers and real estate agents say that in the wake of the Covid crisis and a year spent in near isolation, wellness messaging is more appealing than ever. “There’s a national conversation happening around mental health,” said Justin Alvaji, Jardine’s senior community manager. “We wanted our tenants to feel like the building was a sanctuary and wanted to go the extra mile.”

Aree Khodai, a spiritual concierge, said she would work as connector and coach for residents participating in the new program. It’s something she has been doing informally for friends and acquaintances for years, introducing them to various shaman and vetted spiritual practitioners she knows personally through her work as a yoga teacher and healer.

“We’re tapping into something that’s already happening,” she said. In her past work, she has connected clients with everything from movement classes to edgier experiences like mushroom micro-dosing, which she described as “a journey,” with “an intention behind it and a sense of lessons and insights.” (Gardenhouse and several others are partnering with a third-party provider that Ms. Khodai works with to provide the spiritual concierge services.)

On a recent afternoon, she walked through Jardine’s $20,000-a-month penthouse, which was staged but still unrented. She thought it could be a potential space for a healing ceremony. “It’s almost like blessing the space,” she said. The building, which is on the Netflix campus in Hollywood, opened in May, with rents averaging around $4,900 per month.

Mr. Alvaji, of Jardine, admits that sound baths and full moon ceremonies aren’t for everyone. “If this isn’t your cup of tea, no problem,” he said. “Just come join us next week by the pool.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/realestate/spiritual-concierge-condos.html

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati flees US to escape molestation charge

Indian ExpressSeptember 26, 2012

Houston : An 83-year-old wheel-chair bound Indian spiritual guru, a fugitive after being convicted of groping two young girls, may have sneaked clandestinely into India, a US court has been told.US Marshals, still looking for him, suspect that Prakashanand Saraswati, known to his devotees as Swamiji, may have fled America in connivance with his close associates.

Just days after a Hays County jury in Texas convicted him in March 2011 on 20 counts of indecency for molesting two teenagers, the self-styled guru has been missing.

A judge sentenced him in absentia to 14 years in prison on each count and the guru also forfeited USD 1.2 million in bond and promissory notes.

Newly filed court documents reveal that Prakashanand, who moves around in wheelchair apparently crossed over into Mexico two days after his conviction while being at large on bail and may have used a network of devotees to make his way to India.

Eighteen months later, federal officials are still unraveling the mystery of how he got out of the country and who helped him.

Deputy US Marshal Robert Marcum, who is leading the investigation to track the guru down, called his flight with the help of his religious adherents in Texas, Pennsylvania, California and Florida as "the most sophisticated scheme I've seen as far as fugitive investigations go. They were very smart about what they did."

Marcum added it is likely some of the guru's devotees will be charged with harboring a fugitive, aiding and abetting escape or making false statements to a government agent.

The information, as well as detailed accounts of how guru's followers moved him around the country while evading law enforcement, is part of the documents filed recently in court.
One of the girls, who was kissed and groped by the guru, said his escape to India effectively ends the case against him. "I feel the door is closed on it," she said.
"There's nothing more to be done." She added: "I'm sure we'd all sleep better if he were locked up. But he's in his own little prison."

Karen Jonson, who this year published "Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus," a book about her life at the ashram, said: "While a measure of justice was served by his conviction, it would still be the right thing for Prakashanand to have to endure the result of his crimes against children, to serve his punishment as determined by the courts of this country."
Still, she added, "as long as he is alive, there will always be hope for his capture and return to Texas."

According to US Customs and Border Protection records, the suspicions that fugitive Swami may have used the Mexico route was strengthened by the fact that his Radha Madhav Dham ashram employees frequently crossed the Texas-Mexico border throughout 2011.

When contacted by marshals investigators, most either declined to be interviewed in detail, or "stated that they did not believe guru was guilty of the convicted offenses, and they hoped he would evade capture and never go to prison."

One of the devotees named in the affidavit, Jenifer Deutsch, also called Vrinda Devi, has been a spokeswoman for Radha Madhav Dham.