Retreat center draws many to Nelson

People have come from around the world to seek peace at the Synchronicity Foundation's retreat center at Horseshoe Mountain.

The foundation is a nonprofit spiritual organization founded in 1983 by Charles Cannon, known as Master Charles. According to the foundation's Web site, Cannon's primary intention was to bring the ancient meditative spirituality from the East to the West after spending many years in India.

The foundation conducts retreats at its Nelson County headquarters, with 204 people attending last year, according to its Internal Revenue Service filings. The retreats cost up to $1,450.

The foundation's 2007 federal tax return lists income of $242,000 from such sales and total assets of $5.4 million. The form says Cannon and the six-member board of directors take no salary, although Cannon lives on the property in a $589,000 house known as the Parsonage.

The purpose of the retreats is to teach meditation and "conscious Living." The programs include a weeklong "mastery program," silent retreats, and one called "Time for a New God."

The programs involve what the foundation calls high-tech mediation, including "holistic massage" and brainand heart-wave monitoring.

Cannon, described on the group's Web site as an "authentic mystic," tells people on retreats that humankind is at a major turning point in consciousness that leads to communion with God. He and 12 monks live on the foundation's 450-acre grounds, spending their days meditating, planning spiritual retreats and taking orders for the group's business selling meditation tapes, CDs and books.

The group also includes a secular community with about 30 members who meditate at the Stillpoint Monastery, which is just outside Nellysford and near the Wintergreen resort.
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or .

Media General News Service and Washington Post reports contributed to this story.