Dosh and Om: How wealth and spirituality can work together

Zimmerman was plodding along in his well-paid job with JP Morgan on Wall Street when he strolled into a book store. He picked up a copy of Diet for a New America by John Robbins, which changed his life. "It sent me on a journey of learning about significant global issues, which became my book, What Can I Do to Make a Difference?"

Of course spiritual gurus don't send unsolicited manuscripts: the universe meets them halfway. "I met an agent at a cocktail party and she took me to the publisher the next day," he says. Once in the light, Zimmerman started wrestling with his conscience: should he don sandals and give away all his wealth — as modern gurus are meant to — or be spiritual and rich? He chose the latter. "It's not an either or," he says. "We can be spiritual beings and open-hearted and we can have prosperity."

As the current spiritual movement takes hold, the mindless pursuit of wealth doesn't cut it any more. We need to feel good about greed. "People either feel they shouldn't care about money at all or they care too much," says Zimmerman. "My message is you can have it all."

I heard about Zimmerman a while back and came to the Alchemy Centre in Camden expecting to be met by a bearded man in flowing robes. Instead I was greeted by a thin and elegant man in a pair of jeans with cowboys boots and spectacles. He looked more Manhattan than mantra. Even more normal was his partner Simon Andriesz, who changed from white yoga kit to a double-breasted suit with shiny cufflinks when I was there. As far as preaching the gospel of mixing dosh with Om, these two men are good advertisements.
Zimmerman's idea for a course on spiritual money-making came about by accident. After 20 years of self-induced study (which led him to meet both the Dalai Lama and Deepak Chopra), he was already teaching a course called Journey of the Self, when the money issues kept rearing their ugly heads. Many of his students are anxious City types. "People have big questions," says Zimmerman.

"They're scared, anxious, uncertain about their futures. They're asking: why am I here, what am I supposed to be doing? What is the point of my life? Why did I fail? I decided to put my teachings to use."

The 30 students (the class size was supposed to be 15) meet once a week for more than an hour. The first part of the course is the exploration of attitudes towards money. "There are several archetypes," says Zimmerman. "The type that is stuck, out of control and in crisis. Then there's the type — perhaps the artist — who feels money is ugly and he shouldn't have to be bothered about it. Then there is the person who has wealth but can't enjoy it or feels split between two worlds."

Self-awareness is the first step. "Only by going back and seeing where our attitudes come from can we begin to heal," he says.

Some students have lost their jobs and are terrified about the future. "I would first examine the fear," he says. "We don't try and fix people, but we try and let them sit with it. Often we find that there is more to the crisis than just redundancy."

The next step is shifting mental attitudes. "We do an exercise where I set an alarm to eight-minute intervals," he says. "When I stop, I ask people what they're thinking. It's usually negative." Zimmerman uses mindfulness exercises to teach students to distance themselves from their thoughts. "They are just thoughts and they can shift. Once we are able to see that we can affect change, change begins," he says. Students are asked to keep journals and commit a certain amount of their day towards an activity that lifts them. "I don't ask people to stop something, rather to add something new," he says. Daily reflection is also key. "Before we start the day we need to decide how we want it to go."
His message — make money by not attaching too much importance to it — sounds almost contradictory. For every student seeking to make more money is one who has never made any. "They feel guilty attaching a monetary value to what they do. We would look at what makes them feel unworthy and then reframe it."

Speak your mind and the universe will respond with abundance is the big message. "I make my students declare what they want. Once we declare and commit we find things begin to happen," he says. "When you decide what you want and go about it positively, it attracts others to you. There is no way of testing my theory apart from trying it."

Zimmerman has been through divorce and several career upheavals, not to mention a transatlantic move, to get to where he is now. As far as gurus go, he is a novelty, and "at £7 a session it's the cheapest therapy in town" says one of his students. A guru without ego: now that makes for a nice change.

The next Spiritual Wealth six-week course and a weekend workshop start shortly (www.alchemythecentre.co.uk)