Emahó the Wanderer
1947 – 2023
Birth and early years
Born in New Mexico during the immediate aftermath of World War II, on 12 August 1947, Emahó lived a typical yet uncommon childhood. He spent hours sitting quietly by himself, gently rocking his body. It comforted him. As a little boy he also remembers wandering within his body, tenderly swaying up and down his spinal cord. Emahó said, ‘The only way to describe this frequent travel as a little child is like going upstream in a white winding river. It was natural and effortless.’ Much later in life, he also revealed how he had conscious memory of being in his mother’s womb and wondering where he was.
Because of short-sightedness, Emahó lost out on study in school so he chose fun, play and laughter instead. He loved his friends, working at his father’s restaurant and getting into trouble as a teenager. He simply loved his life.
The Middle Years
Emahó worked his way up at the family restaurant, becoming the manager with dreams of opening and managing restaurants all his life. But life took a sudden turn at 21 when, one afternoon while driving, he had an other-worldly vision. This event changed his life. Subsequently, he endured Addison’s disease, diabetes, Grand mal seizures, and near blindness, illnesses rare for a young person. In the next few years, many such events, some conventional and others bizarre – of unknown dimensions – engulfed his nights and days. Emahó struggled yet persisted, living two worlds in one, surfing between the mundane, the waking state, and a conscious dream state.
In Montana, at 28, Emahó qualified as a pioneering practitioner of Biofeedback therapy treating patients from all over America, till more uncanny events and visions pushed him to move. It was 1984, in Santa Cruz, California, that he met Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, a Tibetan yogi of the Repkong Ngakpas lineage. For the next three years, Emahó was greatly influenced with the philosophical teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism, its ritual arts and yogic practices. Soon enough, he realised Dzogchen, something unheard of in such a short span of time.
All this while, for about seven years Emahó traversed unfamiliar territory in an aware dream state, learning and absorbing knowledge of a different magnitude. Although he lived his day just as a citizen, working and paying bills, every night while asleep he consciously travelled to a foreign world, engaging with energies of a subtle dimension. Emahó said, ‘Each night left a mark on me and I remembered everything on waking up in the morning.’
Simultaneously, he helped people from all walks of life and in May 1986, an archbishop officially ordained him as ‘Bishop’ in the American Apostolic Catholic Church.
Confronted with the unusual nature of his life, Emahó constantly looked for evidence and answers. Chance meetings with Swamis, Sikh teachers from India, and Tibetan master Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, touched him profoundly. Emahó travelled to countries in the southern hemisphere only to learn and discover more of himself. An Aboriginal Elder, Millie Boyd (custodian of the sacred Mount Wollumbin Caldera in Australia) showed Emahó, ‘what is beneath his feet.’ In the Himalayan Mountains, he collided with Grand master Lama Ra-do Rinpoche and in 1987, Emahó tracked down Ayah, an eminent mystic and healer in Malaysia. In India, he had visions and encountered a great ‘vastness of the heart.’
Emahó stayed simple and just walked on. He also confronted Jiddu Krishnamurti, sages and other mystics in the subtle worlds. Emahó said, ‘Each one of them injected me with gifts of another kind.’
They collectively reassured him, saying, ‘You are okay… keep walking,’ yet back in Santa Cruz, Emahó hit ‘a concrete basement within,’ unable to penetrate further, eventually surrendering to his state. But a flyer through the mailbox led him to the French Alps where he discovered a living legend – Lama Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. With his impish smile and penetrating gaze, the Vajrayana master shattered the walls that subtly withheld Emahó’s being.
This was the beginning of a new chapter in his life.
Emahó the traveller
Emahó famously repeated to his students, ‘No matter what comes your way, you keep walking.’ And for the next thirty years, he travelled back and forth, seven months a year, touring major European cities such as Paris, London, Zurich, Prague, Berlin and Glasgow, among others. He listened carefully and spoke from his heart, leading talks, discussions, and private one-to-one sessions. Most importantly, Emahó imparted unique offerings rarely heard of in this world. He conducted ceremonies at each seminar, starting with a ritual of the Mesa, bowing to the divine, working with the elements and blessing people with fire. Emahó explained the idea behind a mesa –
‘Setting up our mesa. To me this is a magnifying glass under the sun.
It is that simple.
But once you understand the mesa, it is everything that is personal to you.
It is your own personal things that makes your mesa.
The elements you are made of,
gifts given to you, or things that you have found.
And your heart … There is nothing more personal than your own heart.’
Emahó spent his life offering invocations to the ‘infinity that lies within each of us.’ Bowing to the present, he acknowledged the past. Dancing with it all, Emahó invoked the cosmic fires and blessed all those present. These ceremonies culminated in an incomparable coming together of the elements, space, sound, movements, and the frequencies of a twilight.
In his words …
‘Keep your mind quiet.
And let the ceremony dig, dig, dig,
deeper and deeper into your bones.
for once you understand a ceremony, you will know.
You were conceived in a ceremony,
your birth is a ceremony,
your whole life is a ceremony.
And even when you pass away, a most beautiful ceremony.
You cannot escape that.
Let your minds stay quiet.
You are the dancer,
whether you are asleep, angry, fighting, loving, walking alone, reading a book,
you are the ceremony.
You cannot get any holier than that,
so just let yourself discover.
Within his lifetime, Emahó travelled to India many times often noting that he felt most comfortable and ‘at home’ when he walked on Indian land or sat anywhere, watching people. A seeker at heart, he questioned everything and loved evidence. In 2017, Emahó met with a fellow seeker and a keen Professor of Sanskrit. They shared a deep understanding and spoke of the many mysteries of life. This encounter touched Emahó and he said, ‘This man revealed me to myself.’
Seminars and teachings
At the heart of his teachings, Emahó remained a wanderer, exploring the world within and around him. He urged people to investigate with the view of an astronaut within. In his last public speech on the 8th of October 2023, he said, ‘Your handprints are everywhere, for those of you who have travelled around the world on ships, planes or cars. Your handprints are everywhere. That’s what this human body is for, but what lies deep inside of you, deep down next to your physical heart, that’s the one. That is the one to get to know.’
The ‘Emahó Speaks’ seminars explored alternative directions and distinct possibilities within the conditioned framework of a busy citizen. Emahó literally showed participants and students the possibility of walking a different path outside of the many labyrinths of fear, insecurity and perpetual chaos. Through his words and ceremonies, he taught the common sense of walking the day with more respect, courage, and surrender, inspiring people to live as spirited human beings.
Emahó emanated a deep love and warmth for life wherever he stood. He had a unique way of honouring everyone he encountered. At his seminars, before a speech he gazed intently at each person present. In one of his last speeches on the 7th of October 2023, he said ‘The reason I go looking into your eyes, (something I’ve done for the last thirty years ) is because I want to know – ‘who in the world I am talking to.’ It is your eyes that are the only doors that take you down into the very nature of your soul.’
Most of Emaho’s speeches over decades were recorded and are now archived on this website. As environments changed, so did his teachings develop and progress in time. Emahó never stopped working. During the ‘covid years’ he connected with his students through zoom sessions every Sunday evening and when restrictions eased off, Emahó travelled again, conducting more ceremonies in Europe and North America. Yet he remained simple, often reminding people of the immense beauty in simplicity.
Stay simple, he said, ‘for it is your simplicity that makes you look up to the sky and wonder … just like a child. It is your simplicity that shows you what is below your feet and what is above your head. And it is your simplicity that shows you what it is to die alive.
Emahó exemplified this teaching by the unusual way of his passing on 11 October 2023. He led a sweat lodge in Santa Fe, for students and friends. At twilight, during the ceremony, Emahó chanted his way from the threshold of this realm to the next … literally.
He surfed swiftly, yet so quiet he was.
He died alive.
Emahó left his physical body on the evening of 11 October 2023 and was cremated in Santa Fe. According to his wishes, his wife travelled to India with his ashes. At sunrise, on 12th December 2023, Emahớs ashes were immersed in the sacred Ganges River at Assi Ghat, Varanasi.
Read the final event of Emaho’s passing– The Final moments.
Read the book – ‘The Winds of your heart’ to discover more about Emahó the wanderer.
Listen to Emahó speak.
Watch videos of Emahó at seminars.