It is our experience that the simple, perfect method of the vichara will snuff out all belief about what we are, and dry up the river of fearfulness and anxiety that flows from the belief that we are something limited, that we are these lives and nothing more. In the absence of that belief, life itself reveals itself to be the perfect realization of eternal being that we seek, and happiness abounds.

Our events and services are always free of charge. This is because we want to be able to speak about these matters with any human being who is willing to listen, including those who cannot or will not pay.

2008 Events and Activities

• In March, we began offering Five-Day Online Intensives every other month. We had five intensives in 2008, with a total of 67 people from all over the world attending.
  
  
• Since April, we offer an Open House every Wednesday afternoon, where John is available online to speak with anybody who shows up and wants to talk about anything. This year, we offered 28 Open House meetings, with a total of 230 people attending.
  
  
• We had 11 Public Meetings in Ojai, California attended by a total of 151 people, and 11 Public Meetings in Santa Monica, California attended by a total of 279 people.


• We had 22 Worldwide Online Meetings, attended by a total of at least 1,205.
  
  
• Our annual Five-Day Retreat began on November 7 and ended on November 11 in Ojai. It was attended by 43 people from all over the country and abroad, in a total of 11 meetings.
  
  
• John is available for Private Conversations in person, by phone or online. These meetings are always free of charge. In 2008, John had private conversations with 12 people in person, and with 17 people on the phone or online.
  
  
• Several dozens of people, all over the world, are in active correspondence with John, receiving guidance and advice by e-mail. John received approximately 640 emails and letters, from 181 different people living all over the world.
  
  
• Translations of texts by John Sherman in German, Dutch, Italian, French, Danish, Hebrew, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese are available on our website. In 2008, we added 32 new translations. There are now 67 translations of different texts in 9 different languages on our website. Several people showed up this year willing and able to create these translations.  We are very grateful for this opportunity to be heard by more and more people around the world.
  
  
• John's ebook, Meeting Ramana Maharshi, first published in 2004, was republished in 2008 in a revised version. The ebook is available as a free download on our website and has been downloaded more than 1,200 times since March 10, 2008.
  
  
• Our RiverGanga browser toolbar, which provides direct and immediate access to all the excerpts, complete transcriptions, audio and video media available on our website, through a simple browser interface. The free software can be downloaded from our website and customized according to personal preferences. It has been downloaded and installed by 190 users.
  
  
• John's blog, Truth Is All That Matters, receives an average of about 1,200 visitors each month.
  
  
• We added 24 new recordings of complete meetings with John Sherman to our podcast in 2008. There are now 57 recordings of complete recent meetings with John on our Podcast. These audio files have been streamed or downloaded over 369,998 times.
  
  
• 23 videos of different lengths (from 10 minutes to two hours) can be found all over the Internet on a number of websites, including YouTube, Viddler, Google Video, etc. Since October 2006, when we first posted the first videos on YouTube, our videos have been viewed or downloaded at least 343,454 times. All this content will be available on our new video blog in the next few weeks.
  
  
• We added 9 new complete Transcriptions of Meetings to our website in 2008. There are now 18 complete transcriptions of meetings available on our website. These transcriptions also are the work of a group of volunteers who have come forward and offered to help in this way to broaden the reach of this work.
  
  
• We have maintained an online forum, Conversations, where people can communicate with one another, and share their experiences with self-inquiry. We had to deactivate it this year, because it was hacked. We are working on a new format that will replace this one soon.
  
  
• We offer an online Bulletin Board where people can request and offer rides and accommodations to/from our events.
  
  
• We sent out 12 issues of RiverGanga News, our monthly e-mail newsletter, to 1,500 subscribers. We also sent out 166 weekly e-mail event reminders and other email notifications to all those on our mailing list.
  
  
• A French translation of John's ebook, Une rencontre avec Ramana Maharshi, is available as a free download on our website.
  
  
• Our website receives an average of about 10,000 visitors every month. Click here for a map displaying their location around the world.
  
  
• From June through December, until Time Warner Cable eliminated its public access channel in Santa Monica, videos of Meetings with John Sherman were broadcast on Public Access TV in Santa Monica, California.
  
  
• Since September 2008, all videos of Meetings with John Sherman that are available in YouTube are also available on TiVo.

Our work is financed entirely by gifts from those who have seen the value of this work in their own lives and are moved by generosity and compassion to help make it freely available to all.

Please consider helping us in this work by making a donation or a monthly pledge in any amount.

John & Carla Sherman
Updated on January 6, 2009.