Interview with Dr. Sue Morter

Aug 3, 2015

CLICK HERE TO WATCH AN INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO OF DR. SUE MORTER’S INTERVIEW

 

Dr. Sue Morter, founder and visionary of the Morter Institute, leads retreats and seminars teaching people to use quantum thoughts and energy medicine to achieve their full human potential, to live in creative genius and personal freedom. Carol Cumes interviewed Dr. Sue in the Chakra Gardens during her third visit to Willka T’ika with a group of her students, in June 2015.

 

Carol: Dr. Sue, tell us what has brought you back to Willka T’ika for a third visit.
Dr. Sue: What keeps bringing me back to Willka T’ika is the amazing abundance of light and energy, the vitality and the beauty here. I want the people I teach to understand the beauty of life and the beauty they’re made of. If I bring them to an environment where they can experience that, it anchors it inside them in a way nothing else does. You can talk about it, you can think about it, you can look at pictures and read books about it, but the experience of being in it–the gardens here, surrounded by these magnificent mountains and this joyous river constantly rushing the life force past us–allows people to get what I’m talking about when I say, “Life is a little more beautiful than you think it is, life is a little easier than you think it is.”

 

Carol: Would you say that’s your philosophy?
Dr. Sue: Yes, that’s really what I want people to understand. Most of our culture doesn’t support our knowing that life is beautiful and easy and that we are meant to not just survive but live in a state of abundance, in a state of grace. Because the culture we live in doesn’t bring that understanding to us, we have to anchor our attention and our intention in it for it to become true in our lives. Willka T’ika models that beauty and ease and abundance. Anytime I can place someone in an environment that models that for them, they kind of melt and accept it as a possibility for themselves. They go home changed because they’ve been surrounded by it.

 

Carol: You are incorporating the Andean philosophy of the three worlds into what you are teaching here. How did that happen?
Dr. Sue: When I come to Peru and hear about this simple yet majestic concept of the upper or heavenly world, the middle or human world, and the lower or inner world, I find that it makes perfect sense with what I’m trying to teach people. And that is: there’s a deep inner self that wants to come out and be alive in your life, and that can happen automatically and naturally because of grace–that is, the upper world is blessing you. So what I teach is kind of a modern-day version of this ancient Andean philosophy—which is why my heart lights up so much when I come here. Other parts of the world are steeped in spirituality, but it’s often complex or political or so sophisticated that people cannot grasp it easily. What I love about the Andean philosophy is its simplicity. It’s supposed to work for you, it’s supposed to be doable, it’s supposed to feel good. And it’s so heart-based, so love-oriented, and so integral to the Andean culture that when people come here and tap into that philosophy, they can easily drop down out of the complex world they think they have to live in and just feel the simplicity and beauty of nature and allow that to be what spirituality is all about.

 

Carol: I notice you are using Willka T’ika’s Chakra Gardens in your teaching. Tell us about that.
Dr. Sue: Right now, you and I are sitting here in the Crown Chakra Garden under this amazing lucuma tree that is 1000 years old and so filled with deep beauty and wisdom–you can’t not love that. This Crown Chakra Garden is like heaven on earth. I immediately wonder: “Well, how do we allow heaven to be on earth, no matter what we’re doing?” That takes me to the Heart Garden. The Heart Chakra Garden is the great integrator, blending the worlds. The upper, middle, and lower worlds come together in the heart space. It’s the catalyst for everything. Yet once I get to the Heart Chakra Garden, I want people to go to the Pachamama Garden, to the Root Chakra of it all, to ground their insight and have it be true and real. They sit down in that garden, and it’s as if they’re in the womb. They feel like they’re being held by the Mother. When that happens, it kind of all comes together. And then they go to the Throat Chakra Garden, and they start toning and feeling vibrations through the body, and it starts to feel real for them in another way: “I could change some of the words I use, I could change some of the actions I take, in order to be in alignment with the Crown Chakra and Heart Chakra gardens.” Then I might have them breathe in and out of their third eye area and realize “What I envision for my life comes true because I bring it together, I focus myself,” and then go to the sunken rock with a huge beautiful crystal embedded in it and touch their third eye to the crystal, and it’s almost like there’s no choice but to feel empowered and feel some new energy happening in the center of the brain. Afterwards they can walk the Spiral Garden, which is the Third Eye Chakra. And so it goes on from garden to garden.

 

Carol: What do you find is the most transformational experience at Willka T’ika?
Dr. Sue: I think it’s being in conversation with others, and especially experiencing the loving presence of your staff here, the family of people who are holding space for us. It’s transformational just to be around people who are so service-oriented and so amazingly in their hearts. It’s not even about their commitment or devotion. They’re just living in their hearts, and that is transformational for visitors to experience. That and also being in the Sacred Valley and visiting the ancient Inkan sites that are just an hour’s drive or a half a day’s drive away. It’s the whole experience. You can’t not go home changed. That’s why I keep coming back.

 

Carol: Is there any advice you would give to other teachers and leaders who are thinking of bringing a group to Willka T’ika?
Dr. Sue: I would say: Be ready to have your group open in their hearts and make sure that you know how to steward that. And if you don’t know how, then coming here itself is one way to learn how, because being here melts you. While you might have a lot of tremendous information to offer, the information itself transitions in the presence of this place—just as you were saying about my incorporating the Andean way into my teaching. It happened naturally because I’m surrounded by that energy. It weaves its way into whatever you’re teaching, if you allow it to. The space itself allows your work to become more universal, more global–and that’s really the idea here. As transformational leaders, we have to know that what we’re teaching is global, that it speaks to everyone and everything. If we are to find the language to bridge the worlds, this is the perfect environment, because being here drops us out of the familiar realms in which we work and do business and drops us into a sacred environment. As we bring our people here and we start into our conversations, we find ourselves speaking as the Andean people would interpret our work. Anytime we can land in a sacred environment that changes us while we are in it doing our transformational work, it creates a holographic effect and everyone benefits far beyond what is anticipated.

 

There is no way to capture in a brochure what can happen during a visit here. I am the greatest fan of Willka T’ika. I will bring groups of people here as often as I possibly can. The yoga room is a magnificent egg-shaped space with the figure of a condor overlooking everything we’re doing. The yoga itself is an amazing opportunity for people to embody whatever your teaching might be, even if it is simply teaching people how to be present with themselves. In a yoga class, when you’re inviting someone to be gentle with themselves or to push themselves to their limit and feel everything they can possibly experience, the environment here is so nurturing that it allows that to happen. People are telling me they’ve never experienced yoga like they’re experiencing it here and now. I know it’s the combination of the mountains and the sacred river, the amazing food you’re feeding us, the loving support you and your staff are providing, the beautiful rooms we’re sleeping in, and the gardens we’re walking through. It’s just heaven on earth.

 

Carol: Thank you so very much for being here. We welcome you back anytime.
Dr. Sue: I can’t thank you enough, Carol, because you are an inspiration to the world, to anyone who steps foot here and hears your story: that you fell in love with this place and decided to see what would unfold if you started playing with the space, feeling what it was representing to you and then building a beautiful garden space to represent that. When someone listens to their inner inspiration and allows it to guide them, following their gut feelings and heart movement to create a place like this, that person is traveling the path of transformation. You are a blessing. Thank you.