Our Story

London Insight Meditation, originally known as London Retreats, was the result of a conversation on a train from Gaia House to London in 1995 between Steve Small and Sallie Rose.

Busy lives meant it was not always easy to travel to Gaia House, and they saw a need for access to insight meditation teachings in London. They called Christina Feldman who suggested Yanai Postelnik as a teacher. Others who taught our early events included Sharda Rogell, Christopher Titmuss, Martine and Stephen Batchelor and Christina Feldman. All of them offered immense support in those early days.

Steve left and Sallie ran London Retreats with Barry Letts, and with the help of Clare Brunt, for many years. Barry went on to do an enormous amount of work single-handedly until Roger Kayes took over.

In 2005, Roger moved on and leadership passed to Chris Cullen. Since then London Insight’s programme of events has grown and diversified under the directorship of Paul Cons, Chris Cullen (again), Anthea West with James Blake, then James Blake, then Alex Irving assisted by Amanda Root, then Shruti Mehrotra, then Catherine Thompson, then Lucy West, and most recently Joanna-May St. Ana.

From 2010 until early 2021, Louise Kennedy supported the organisation both as a volunteer and as a paid part-time freelance Events Manager. From 2021 until present, Matt Herbertson has taken on the role as a part-time Manager.

A milestone was reached in December 2011, when London Insight Meditation became a registered charity.