SHIVAN I LUCKI left her legal studies and a promising career in Washington, D.C. when she realized her quest for truth and justice would not be fulfilled in the classroom or courtroom. Her gypsy journey across the United States eventually led to California where she began a serious practice of yoga and meditation with Swami Kriyananda, who introduced her to the idea of intentional communities through his book, Cooperative Communities?How to Start Them and Why.

She was twenty-four years old, and with a small backpack, a sleeping bag, and a heart full of hope, she arrived on June 22, 1969, at the fledgling Ananda community. Recognition was instantaneous: This was the way of life she had long been seeking. She resolved to dedicate her life to Yogananda's ideal of ?World Brotherhood Colonies,? for ?plain living and high thinking.?

Her special passion has always been the self-healing techniques of Yogananda, taking as her unique mission to find and share these mostly out of print or never published teachings. One day she hoped to found an institute for healing based on Yogananda's methods.

Shivani has earned a worldwide reputation as one of the foremost teachers of meditation, specifically Kriya Yoga, an ancient method Yogananda re-introduced to the world in modern times. She helped establish two Ananda communities?one in California, and one near Assisi, Italy?and the Yogananda Academy of Europe. Fulfilling her dream, she founded the Life Therapy School for Self-Healing. Since 1985 she and her husband have lived in the Ananda Assisi community.