The Pathwork traces our lineage to Eva Pierrakos, who was born in Austria in 1915. She was the daughter of Jakob Wassermann, a well-known Austrian novelist. By her own account, Eva had little or no interest in spiritual pursuits.
She came to America in 1939, at the age of 24. In the fall of 1951, she had an experience of a spiritual presence, which was followed in 1952 with automatic writing, a strong impulse or compulsion to write. A period of testing followed, in which she developed the ability to channel a spirit of great wisdom and love, which we know as the Pathwork Guide.
On March 11, 1957, Eva delivered the first Pathwork Lecture, “The Sea of Life,” in New York, to a group of friends. You can read it here.
As time went on, the circle around Eva grew, and the Guide’s Lectures began to reveal a wider awareness of the nature of spiritual reality. From the beginning, the focus was on self-knowledge and self-facing, not on the occult or the supernatural.
The Pathwork community was growing so large that, in 1972, the first meeting outside of New York City took place, in Roscoe, New York at a conference center. The following year, the decision was made to purchase a property, a catskill resort formerly known as the Woodlands, in Phoenicia, New York. This became the Phoenicia Pathwork Center.
The Phoenicia Pathwork Center was sold in 1998 and is now the Menla Center, a retreat and conference center run by TIbet House. The Pathwork now has centers in many parts of the United States and abroad, especially in Brazil and Mexico.