Carlos de León
With Ph.D.’s in both Clinical Psychology and Holistic Medicine, Carlos de León has spent more than 40 years in related research, study and practitioner experience, particularly in the area of personal transformation.
Founder of the Mexican Association for Psychotherapy and Transpersonal Development, he pioneered the unique model known as Ontogony. The model is an integration of Western and Eastern psychology, multi-faith spiritual traditions and scientific teachings, for purposes of healing and transformation. Ontogony’s curriculum includes areas of religion, martial arts, chi kung, meditation, spiritual traditions, shamanism, paranormal phenomena, and alternative healing. Not only is a psychotherapeutic process enriched, a vision emerges whereby psychotherapy could become a universal tool for the realization and liberation of human consciousness.
In addition to his academic qualifications and years of experience as a psychotherapist, Carlos has personally studied with many prominent Hindu teachers. He holds the position of head of the Shaivist lineage, Anandanamah, Kashmir, India. He is a Swami in the Aghori tradition of Sriman Narayan, India. He is the lineage holder of the Kaula Yogini school of Maa Parvathi Nath Saraswaite. He is proficient in several martial arts, has studied ayurvedic medicine and authored eight published books.
Carlos has lectured and taught in Mexico, Spain, Canada, Greece, Israel and Guatemala, sharing has a vast knowledge of transpersonal psychotherapy, tantra and the many fields included on the “Ontogonic Path”.
Ontogony’s recent transition to include an online seminar format makes it possible to extend his voice even further afield. Several years ago, Carlos moved to Canada from his native Mexico and now shares a home in Vancouver, BC, with his wife, artist Samantha Salvat, and their two sons.
"Among the observations that inspired Ontogony was seeing how many ancient spiritual traditions within minor lineages were disappearing due to perceived “irrelevance”. Their wisdom, unadapted, was inaccessible to the modern mind. I saw adepts working to preserve and transmit knowledge of their tradition, but in ways poorly suited to today’s global cultures. Even among living traditions, there was little interest in making the model more inclusive or universal. As I studied, I felt a desire both to rescue some of what was disappearing and to create new models, new explanations, sometimes re-interpretations of traditional texts, that would be more available given today’s cultural realities. My efforts, alas, were not always met with approval, especially in some of the more orthodox circles. Spiritual wisdom is not universally considered ‘open source’ technology! At times, I even joke that Ontogony’s mission is ‘spiritual hacking’. We openly offer many ‘secret teachings’ without anyone’s having to belong to any particular tradition. We believe that all models and their explanations should be allowed, even required, to evolve, to transform, to become more inclusive and unified paradigms. If a model cannot be improved so as to be relevant and useful, it should be discarded. This is the basis of evolution. And this is certainly a time to evolve toward more universal models of our spirituality!” — Carlos de León, Ph.D. A few of his own words