Templers

Please help us, send your letters of recommendation and your experiences with our unique HEALING sound technology, lets make a difference together.

Dear Christie and Zdenka,

We are now living in a time when the holistic needs of our community are taking precedence amongst a greater number of us; our emotional health needs, our physical need for community alliances and our spiritual need to celebrate our Creator together. To create a true 'come-unity', one which is healthy, sustainable and founded upon the core principles of compassion, co-operation, creativity and responsible stewardship of the Earth, means we must uphold the integral value of the environments which house such fundamental human rights. We need to protect and preserve both the private and public spaces which promote the cultivation and expression of these vital elements.

The Sonic Temple is one such place. A place where sound innovation, spiritual harmony, friendly alliance and the celebration of diversity converge in a safe, drug-free, loving and aesthetically beautiful environment. A place where children can come with their own grandparents to have fun playing with musical sound. A place where prayer, reverence for life and for sanctity are the highly valued aspects of every-day life.

As a Musician, I've been blessed to know the privilege and the pleasure of sharing my music in the Sonic Temple with a small, appreciative audience. It is such a special and peaceful place to be for so many of us here in the Greater Mainland. The enduring connections, the professional networks, not to mention the feeling of wellness that the unique sound technology in the Sonic Temple creates for us, is an important extension of our Community. The Sonic Temple is truly a sanctuary like no other.

I understand the need for the ST to be sustained under the direction of bioregional building codes and guidelines. I know there are important liabilities and legalities to factor into it's construction and it's operation. However, what also needs to be recognized is the essential NEED we as a supportive community have to be able to co-create inspiring environments in which to share our friendship, to play music together, to celebrate creativity and to honour life in a safe and healthy community setting, right here, right now.

The Sonic Temple is like a Wellness Center. It supports and encourages healthy living and healthy relating as does any community center, church or spiritual organization. Those of us who choose to gather at the Sonic Temple do so because we honour it as the community resource it is. Under it's humanitarian roof you will always find people caring about each other, expressing their creativity in fun ways, demonstrating their compassion and sharing their knowledge in egalitarian, non-denominational ways.

Last year our American neighbours, Seattle Washington, made history when it signed the Charter for Compassion, committing to a 10-year campaign for a growing global network of 'Compassionate Cities'. If this is the preliminary wave of our Global Future, as I'm certain it is, the Sonic Temple is one such vital step toward cultivating similar grounds right here in Vancouver. At the ST, you will find the roots of a growing movement toward empathy. And this is one of the most important sustainable and renewable resources known to us. There are even places in the world, such as Bhutan, that put HAPPINESS in the heart of government policy. Power over is rarely an effective solution within a democracy. Power "with" IS, and we need to create win-win circumstances which factor in BOTH sides in order to be just, fair and truly sustainable.

In that vein, I propose that a fair-terms negotiation, both closed and open, be engaged toward a solution-based conclusion of the Sonic Temple Closure. Local zoning by-laws, policies and regulations need to be permeable to the growing and changing needs of it's community members. Please know, the Sonic Temple is loved and beloved by many because so few public environments offer such peace, artistry and empathy in a safe, drug-free, all-ages environment founded upon L~O~V~E.

I invite you both to empower your diplomacy and consider our perspective as well. We would like to keep the Sonic Temple open, and would like to work WITH you to understand how to best ensure this will be so.

Thank you for your listening,.

Sincerely,
Amaya O'Duir

I am resident of North Shore for the last 20years and l like to express my support for the Sonic Temple to be open as a friendly place of getting together to meditate with appropriate music which is not available in any other place in this town.

I am writing to you today to express my innermost desire to save the Sonic Temple.

The Sonic Temple has become a very important part of my life. It's where my community is gathering and we are supporting each other. The Sonic Temple is a place of love, support, kindness, health, peace, harmony and laughter, which all contribute to healing on every level. Josef Tyls does not tolerate any substances of any kind, such as drugs or alcohol in the Sonic Temple.

No one ever leaves the Sonic Temple without having experienced some release no matter on what level.

As soon as I enter the Sonic Temple, I am able to breathe better and stress melts off me.

I love experiencing how the sound in the Sonic Temple helps me release any pent up energy from my daily live. Feeling the sound in my body through the round device Josef has built in the middle of the room is incredible. For the first time in my life I had a chance to not only hear sound, but also feel sound. The oxygenated air and the other things Josef is researching allows me to exhale fully and to let go into serenity.

I truly hope that you will consider this letter in your decision. Be aware, that you would be taking away a major supporting place for many people in the Lower Mainland.

Thank you for reading my letter and please let me know what specifically I can do to help save the Sonic Temple.

Sincerely,

Valeska Gauthier

I am writing to you on behalf of the Sonic Temple as I recently discovered that it has been shut down.

I implore you to please reconsider this decision! This space is a bastion of (comm)unity, celebration, positivity, and knowledge. For all those seeking to open their hearts to the power of SOUND, VIBRATION and LOVE, to celebrate life in harmony and friendship, THIS is the place where we can do so!

I have been visiting the Sonic Temple for nearly 2 years! I have watched it grow and develop into the wondrous and expansive space that it currently is. I have not ONCE witnessed any cause for safety concerns. I consider myself blessed to have discovered such a sanctuary of Love and Sound.

If there is ANYTHING that can be done in order to re-open the Temple , please let us know. The power of community is strong and we are all united under the banner of One Love.

After being introduced to the Sonic Temple by friends in 2009 I have grown to admire the place and its values. --I have witnessed firsthand the profoundly positive impact it has had on people.
Josef maintains a healthy, peaceful, drug and alcohol free space to share conversation.
Specifically, it helped me recover from a serious accident I had in 2008.

There I have participated in exceptional guided meditations by friends and heard other friends sing for birthdays.

I would like to see the Sonic Temple remain open as it provides a family-like experience for many people and creates a wonderful support network for many people.

I hope you will consider the request to let it remain under the guidance of Josef Tyls,
Please feel free to write me if you have any questions or would like more information about me or my experience,

Thank you,

Karla Sutherland
Owner
C3 Rafting
www.c3rafting.com

I would like to express my support and concern for The Sonic Temple. I recently learned that The District of North Vancouver is threatening to shut down the facility, and I would encourage you to find some compromise that could maintain this excellent space to stay open.

As a resident of the Lower Mainland and a frequenter of various arts and culture events, I feel very lucky to have been able to attend events at The Sonic Temple. It is a unique and fascinating venue that brings together artists, thinkers, scientists, musicians, and more in a safe and drug/alcohol free space. The events bring exposure to alternative viewpoints that are not available elsewhere in the Lower Mainland.

Josef Tyls is an honest, open, and responsible individual who has taken it upon himself to showcase and introduce different conceptual worlds of thought and music. He provides an invaluable service to the community, and The Sonic Temple is a special place that should be preserved.

Dear Zdenka Novakovic + Christie Mills,

The intent of this letter is to express concern over the recent inspections that have taken place at The Sonic Temple operated by Josef Tyls at 2120 Front Street. Although I have only had the great pleasure of being in The Sonic Temple on a few occasions, I have very strong ties to the spiritual, artistic and wellness communities that Josef and The Sonic Temple help to support.

From its appearance, The Sonic Temple obviously presents itself as a unique space visually; but it is unique for more important reasons. It provides a vital point at which many different communities can gather safely, openly and compassionately unhindered by the judgment of today's societal norms. These communities are respectively devoted to: artistic creativity, performances and workshops; health and wellness through yoga, meditation and many other practices; as well as those dedicated to devotional and spiritual practices not facilitated through any other venues or organizations.

The community gatherings that take place at The Sonic Temple could not happen at typical places usually reserved for meetings, workshops and performances. Public cafes, community centers and typical performance venues do not and cannot provide adequate levels of personal safety, privacy nor a wholly communal sense of compassion and spirituality.

The sonic Temple supports people from working in these communities from right across the Greater Vancouver Regional District. But, as a life-long resident of the North Shore (both DNV and the City of NV) I am proud to have such an essential establishment like The Sonic Temple situated in my neighborhood and feel very strongly that it should be allowed to stay here.

I write this email in earnest hope that both of you as individuals and others there at the DNV tasked with ensuring regulatory compliance can understand that our bylaws are not perfectly inclusive and sometimes cannot account for unique places like The Sonic Temple. With this in mind I would cordially ask that the District of North Vancouver it's Honorable Mayor and Councilors and all of its representatives do their best to work with Josef Tyls in order to find a balance between regulatory compliance and the need for The Sonic Temple to stay open.

Have no doubts, real people with real life-long problems are suffering because of this closure. In the spirit of co-operation and community, please help us.

With respect and in confidence,
Simon