The Work

What actually happens in the room.

The work takes four shapes. A six-day retreat. A monthly Sunday circle. One-on-one sessions with Forest. And a slowly forming network of local circles. Each one is a way in. None of them are selling you anything.


The Framework

A map we've been walking.


Five movements. Fifteen years of curriculum work and Forest's own practice, distilled into something simple enough to hold.

It organizes the retreat and threads through the rest. Safety is the foundation from which everything else becomes possible. We lean on the experiential. We go light on the conceptual.

I

Awakening

The pull you're already feeling. Sacred dissatisfaction, naming itself.

II

Conditioning

The separate self, seen clearly. The box you've been living in, and who built it.

III

Reconnection

Coming back into relationship. Body, breath, each other, the living world, the sacred.

IV

Contribution

Turning what you've found outward. For the children of our children.

V

Communion

Life from the connected self. Primary satisfaction as a baseline, not a peak.

Retreats

Six days, group of ten, by application.


Where the full arc lives. A circle of humans in nature, grounded, relational, awake.

The 5 Movements shape the arc. Daily sitting practice. Somatic work. Relational work in pairs and small groups. Time in the forest and at the water. Meals shared. Silence when it serves. We walk people through the whole thing without rushing them.

Ten is the size that works. Small enough that nobody performs. Big enough that the field can actually form. Relational depth over performance, all the way through.

Safety is the foundation from which everything else becomes possible. Forest has been designing curriculum for fifteen years. This is what that time bought.

RetreatBy application

Autumn Retreat — Costa Rica

November 2026. Six days at a small retreat center on the Pacific coast, shared with us by an alum. Ten seats. Lodging, meals, facilitation, and post-retreat integration sessions included. Scholarship seats held every round.

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RetreatDates TBA

Spring Retreat — Location TBA

Spring 2027. Location still being finalized. Same shape: six days, ten people, full application. Tell us you're interested and we'll write you when dates land.

Tell us you're interested

We stay small because we aren't trying to scale. Honest work needs a container that can hold it, and ten is what ours can hold. For people interested in C.Lab work with psychedelics, that lives in a separate-but-related entity called The Church. Different container, same lineage. Start a conversation

Monthly Circle

First Sunday of the month.


Ninety minutes on Zoom. Free, usually. Open to anyone.

A short teaching. A practice. Small breakout groups so people can actually speak to each other. A closing, together, as one group.

The circle is where many people start. Come once. Come every month. Both are fine.

Next gathering90 min

Sunday, May 3, 2026 · 10am PT

Sitting with fear of the future without collapsing into it. Hosted by Forest. The Zoom link goes out the week before to anyone on the list.

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One-on-One

Working with Forest directly.

Sixty or ninety minutes. By video. By inquiry.


Integration after a retreat. Guidance through a hard passage. Practice work. Or just sitting with someone who's been on this ground a long time. Not therapy. Not coaching. Something older and simpler than either. If what the moment is actually asking for is therapy, Forest will tell you.

C.Lab Local

Small circles, forming.

Alumni are starting circles where they live. France. Quebec. Northern California. And counting. These are the long game. The work gets taken home and it becomes part of a life, instead of a week in Costa Rica you tell your friends about.

If you want to host one, or if one is forming near you, tell us where you are