by Cate Montana

Most people go to Bali for the ultimate vacation getaway. And that is exactly what retired conference promoter Marcia Jaffe was doing in the spring of 2003 - enjoying a well earned vacation.

This was in the early days after the 2002 terrorist bombings had deflated the country’s tourism appeal for a lot of Westerners, and many of the hotels and restaurants she frequented were virtually empty. But as she traveled, Jaffe became more and more enchanted. And it wasn’t just the exquisite countryside, the beautiful beaches, the temples and the great Indonesian food that captivated her. The country’s haunting beauty and mystical atmosphere seeped into her soul; the people touched her heart.

Bali Ricefield

From cabbies to restaurant owners to vendors on the street, the people of Bali smiled and graciously welcomed her. And everywhere she went she heard the same thing – not laments and complaints about a plummeting economy - but rather a sincere and humble questioning about the karma that had created the situation.

“Here in Bali, they were willing to really take on the dark forces and look at their responsibility,” muses Jaffe. “And what they came up with was … we need to reclaim our culture. We need to come back to who we are as a people. We’re not just a tourist destination, a place where people can buy up our land and our furniture, and basically become just a tourist trap for the rest of the world. We need to reclaim our culture, our rituals, our ceremonies. We need to teach our children to stop thinking that the West is the answer. And that's what they're doing.”

Stunned and impressed by the modern lived expression of spiritual traditions, Jaffe found herself contemplating Bali, not as a tourist destination, but as a healing example for the rest of the world. Surely this jewel of a nation which was focused on reclaiming its heritage and maintaining its ecology for generations to come had much to offer.

Thus Quest for Global Healing was born.

“What got clear to me was … I can help bring people back to Bali,” says Jaffe. “[But] I would do it only with Bali, and not in Bali. The concept was always I would like to bring people to Bali to learn the way I'm learning, in deep reverence and honor that there is still a place like Bali in the universe that we can go to.”

Upon returning to the US, Jaffe quickly teamed with Wilford Welch and Carole Angermier to create the first Quest for Global Healing Conference. Within months they had gotten such world leaders as Desmond Tutu involved as speakers. In less than a year they had more than 425 people from 21 countries attending the first conference which was held in December of 2004.

Today Jaffe, who is co-director of Quest for Global Healing along with Welch, is immersed in organizing the second conference which will be held May 3-8, 2006.

Over 30 international speakers are scheduled, including three Nobel Peace Laureates, Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams and Betty Williams (not related), Walter Cronkite, Prince Tjokorda Gde Raka Sukawati of the Ubud Palace in Bali, His Excellency Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, pending president of Indonesia, James  O'Dea, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and former President of Amnesty International, and Fatima Gailani, Director of Red Crescent Afghanistan, a national humanitarian organization. Other presenters include authors, health professionals, journalists and business advisors.

Desmond Tutu	Walter Cronkite
Fatima Gailani	Prince Sukawati

Jaffe makes it clear that the second Quest for Global Healing Conference will be upping the ante on practical involvement, personal and social transformation and definitive focused change. The whole conference is organized to help people move from vision, to action in planning, to resourcing. One whole day will be focused on the role of money. Another whole section is devoted to a group of senior business leaders who will talk about the role of business, finance and transformation in a sustainable culture.

Unlike many conferences which are based in a rigid structure of lecture environment counterbalanced with tourist activities, the second Quest for Global Healing Conference is focused on greater interaction with the facilitators and the nurturing atmosphere of Bali. “It seems clear that a piece is missing around a lot of gatherings and conferences these days,” says Jaffe. “There's the people that know, the knowers, and then the knowees. And the knowees come and take their little notes and then they go home and get sucked back into their lives, and then that's the end of that. A little something happens, but nothing very profound. … We want to create an environment that is going to have a huge ripple effect in the world.”

Part of that ripple effect will derive from incorporating a strong youth element in the conference.