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Omega’s History: A Pioneer in Holistic Studies and the Personal Growth Retreat
Since its inception, Omega has been a pioneer in the field of holistic studies and has been known as a place where people from all over world come for a personal growth retreat.
Omega’s roots go back to a Sufi community, called the Abode of the Message, in New Lebanon, New York, on the grounds of a former Shaker community. In 1977, the founder of the Abode, the late Eastern meditation master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, and two of its leading members—Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D., and Elizabeth Lesser—founded Omega Institute for Holistic Studies.
Their dream was to create an updated university that would address the fullness of the times and offer an opportunity for lifelong learning—a place where people could combine their interest in holistic studies and come for a personal growth retreat. Pir Vilayat wanted to call this bold experience Omega Institute. He took the name from the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, a 20th-century Christian mystic who spoke of the “omega point,” or the point of unity and integration toward which all life is evolving.
 Omega’s first programs were offered for four weeks in the summer of 1978 on the grounds of a nearby private day school in Hoosick, New York. By 1981, a larger venue was needed and Omega rented Bennington College in Vermont, where 2,000 people participated in a variety of programs offered that summer. Omega purchased its present site in Rhinebeck, New York, (the former Camp Boiberick) in 1982. That year, Omega’s programs attracted 3,000 people to a season that grew to eight weeks.
Today, Omega welcomes more than 20,000 guests to its programs each year, continuing its tradition of offering the nation’s finest programs in holistic studies and as a leader in offering people a place to take a personal growth retreat.
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