Ruth Davis

Ruth Davis: Spiritual Therapist

Ruth Davis is a spiritual teacher and therapist whose journey began with a profound spiritual awakening at age six during her first ballet class. In that moment, her heart connected with the divine, filling her with a radiant joy and a boundless love for all existence. This early experience set the course for a lifelong devotional practice, viewing dance as a path to God.

Ruth provides private sessions and guidance to realize the Spiritual Heart, for those seeking a deeper path into their essence, the energetic core of their being, where we are all one with the Absolute.

She teaches the Path of Heartfulness which is; “Realization of the spiritual heart” (the core experience),  “Embracing our Humanness” (nurturing the inner child), “Three steps of Heartfulness Meditation” (letting go, infinite awareness, absorption in divine self)”, and “Silence” (noticing vastness and stillness).

The Path of Movement and Meditation

Her extensive dance training, which includes Modern, Jazz, African, Russian folk, and Interpretive styles, has always been devotional. It incorporates the energetic studies of Qi Gong and inner Yoga, focusing on the movement of consciousness beyond the physical body to a higher state of awareness.

In 1968, at the age of 16, Ruth embraced Surat Shabd Yoga from the Punjab region of India as her core spiritual path. Following her initiation, she embarked on travels to holy sites across India, including the Punjab region, Rishikesh, Hardwar, Varanasi, and Tiruvannamalai. She remains a dedicated student of Vedic, Tantric wisdom, and Mystic Catholicism, with a particular connection to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, the silent saint.

Professional Background and Retreat Leadership

Ruth studied dance, music and philosophy at Mills College in Oakland, CA.  She holds professional certifications in Qi Gong, Clinical Hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming, and Ayurvedic education.

She is also a mother of two daughters and a grandmother of two. Following the death of her first husband in 1993, she began leading spiritual retreats worldwide with her current partner, Bruce Davis, PhD.

In 2000, Ruth and Bruce founded the Assisi Retreat Center, a Temple to the World Religions located in the ancient Italian city of Assisi, and opened Silent Stay Assisi in 2002.

The MahaVidyas and Sacred Movement

While living and teaching in Assisi in 2005, Ruth began an intensive study of the MahaVidyas (Wisdom Mothers of Yoga Tantra)—a practice she continues to this day. This deep immersion led to three core contributions:

• Spiritual Therapy: The ability to guide students to connect with their spiritual heart, inner wisdom, and core of being, where all answers are accessible.

• Warrior of Stillness practices Meditative movement in the style of Qi Gong, that integrate spiritual lessons and energetic practices:

               Sacred Movement Ritual: 9 inner and outer movements expressing the teachings of the Wisdom

Mothers (30 min)

               Standing as the Universe:  Practice of stillness and merging with the universe (7 min)

• Published Works:

           Two influential books:

              Sacred Movement Ritual, Yoga Philosophy in Movement

             Journeying up the Mountain with the Tantric Goddesses, an Initiation into the 10 Cosmic

Powers.

Silent Stay Meditation & Retreat Center: The Enduring Peace

In 2010, Ruth and Bruce established the Silent Stay Meditation & Retreat Center in Vacaville, California, bringing the retreat experience from Assisi to the United States. In 2020, the center was tragically destroyed in a wildfire. Ruth views this event as an experience of profound spiritual surrender—likening it to releasing an intricate, lifelong sand mandala to the inevitable flow of the ocean waves. While Silent Stay Vacaville was swept away, the core principle remained: the unshakeable peace found in the silence, which can never be taken or destroyed.

Ruth and her husband Bruce Davis currently live and work in Montecito, California, and continue to lead silent retreats at the Pacifica Graduate Institute.