Fourteen years ago, Joel Sutton lived in London, ran a fair trade company, had an allergy to things spiritual, and an itch to uplift the world. With his wife Claire, Sutton decided to bring some of the world’s best massage therapists, acupuncturists, relaxation meditation instructors, Chi Gung and Tai Chi instructors and other Chinese masters such as Aiping Wang and Lele Sun, aromatherapists, feng shui and I Ching experts – you name it - together at a remote retreat in New Zealand to create a holistic relaxation methodology that could be used in day spa energy clinics throughout the world.

Envisioning upscale but downtown sanctuaries that could – on demand - help relax modern people in their stress-filled lives, Sutton’s group set about designing a simple but effective system, stripped of any overt spiritual overtones, east or west. The system they developed known as Shen Chi (high energy), was designed to not only relax clients and clarify their minds, but enable them to gain energy as well.

“We wanted to create a system that was far more suitable for modern life, basically,” says Sutton, “And it was designed to move out from just healing – because basically we found when you receive more energy, all areas of your life start to improve – relationships, physical health, career. Basically Shen Chi helped people to tap into energy in a much more assessable way.”

The first spa to open was in London. A feng shui expert designed the center so all rooms are equipped to reflect a specific Chinese element of earth, fire, metal, and water. When people came, they received an element analysis to enable a practitioner with the same element balance to treat them.

With a write-up in the Wall Street Journal and a vote by Vogue magazine as the place to get the “best massage in the world,” (“We were really chuffed about that,” says Sutton) the London spa became the place for the health-conscious to go. Interestingly enough, it also started attracting high level executives from local businesses. “We had some companies you never would think would be interested in energy work and receiving more chi,” says Sutton. “Big companies like UBS Warburg, BBC, Barclay’s Bank, and Microsoft started sending their top people down to us when they started getting colds and when they were getting stressed. And so we started working with all these huge companies … which is really cool, because you always imagine these companies are going to be really conservative and really not interested. But we found they were really interested in finding as many as ways as they could to support their people to enjoy their work and have fun and be as healthy as possible and filled with energy.”

Additional day spas were opened in Hamburg and other eastern European countries. But it quickly became apparent that

the company would not be able to keep up with the demand. Quality staff people, all of whom had trained at the Takaro Resort for anywhere from four to 14 years, were in short supply.

So Sutton started thinking about a different approach. “We wondered basically, with the advances in technology, whether you could get the complete indulgence of a massage or the real rejuvenation and relaxation of a meditation session or the real cleansing and de-toxification of a yoga class … could you actually do that via modern methods of communication? Because that was the whole ethos of our organization: taking techniques that were developed over 5000 years and could you deliver the energy through the phone or through a computer? That was the question we wanted to investigate.”

In the year 2002, the answer became, “yes.” The first thing they tried was having a master from China lead an energy session over the phone for a class in London. “We spoke to people afterwards and they said they felt absolutely fantastic. Someone with a sore throat said it immediately disappeared. And we thought ‘Wow, this is working.’ Energy transmission doesn’t have to be hands on.”

The Peace Club’s 2,000 acre retreat, Takaro, near Te Anau, New Zealand. Click on image for a bigger view

Today, the spas are still very well attended, an enormous center is being built in Dubai and the Peace Club’s beautiful 2,000 acre retreat, Takaro, in the heart of the New Zealand bush, provides a haven of refuge and healing for hundreds of people during the year. But for Sutton, the real excitement now comes from thousands of people all over the world having daily access to Peace Club meditations, relaxation sessions, visualization sessions and more over the Internet and phone lines.

Designed to give subscribers everything from a 3 minute hit of relaxation/clarity/mental focus and confidence, to longer sessions like the “Commuting relaxation,” members often record sessions on their MP3 players to listen to before an important meeting at work or on the way home on the bus. “People are really taking these things around with them and using them wherever and whenever,” says Sutton. “They’re taking their meditations anywhere in life.”

Sue Fitzmaurice, director of Te Kaihau – The Windeaterscompany in New Zealand and now a business partner of The Peace Club, says Peace Club meditations have made a decisive difference in her life, helping her come off antidepressants following a case of severe post-natal depression.