Fundación Gaia

Fundación Gaia is a Costa Rican non-profit organization devoted to the undertaking of the “Proyecto Planeta Tierra” or Planet Earth Project.  This project is lead by Javier Francisco Ortiz and Ansu Patricia Coto and composed of founding partners, a board of directors, sponsors, volunteers and Holistic instructors.

What is the Planet Earth Project?

The Planet Earth Project consists of the creation and promotion of an alternative to the old health model, a system of yoga that allows the integration of the Soul into daily life, a sexual formation program that allows full enjoyment of sexuality and a pregnancy formation program that permits a comfortable delivery.  In this manner, this project aims to encourage the world to view Costa Rica as a country ideal for investment of resources in projects to protect the environment and decrease global warming.

What has the Planet Earth Project accomplished?

In the medical field…

·      Establishment of Balance Integral or Holistic Health as an alternative to the health-illness model

·      Certified training of Holistic Instructors

·      Creation of Holistic Centers to offer its services to the community

·      Creation of Gaia Holistic Institute an institution recognized by the government for certified training in alternative therapies

·      Certified training of physical therapists

·      Promotion of this model through mass media through a  Holistic Promotion Project

·      Development of Holistic Delivery program where advice is given to mothers looking to have a comfortable pregnancy, delivery, and post partum period.

·      Creation of Holistic Spa Body worker offering professional training in workplaces

·      Establishment of Friendly Work Environment Project offering holistic alternatives to companies and institutions to help promote friendly business administration styles, create people-focused work environments and encourage holistic balance in participants

Accomplishments in Yoga

·      Creation of Gaia Holistic Center

·      Opening of Yoga Lamat and Yoga Mandir yoga schools

·      Creation of Yogamasthai yoga school

·      Certified training of yoga instructors

·      Founding of Yoga for the Soul to promote integration of the Soul into daily life

·      Development of Operation Merlin to bring Yoga for the Soul to other parts of the world

Accomplishments in the Field of Sexuality

·      Television show Sinceramente broke the taboo of the subject of sexuality in Costa Rican society

·      Television show Conversando con Javier Ortiz brought inegral sexual education to every corner of the country

·      Publishing of the book The 100 Questions and the Gender Rainbow, accepted by the National Education Coucil as an integral sexual education textbook

·      Sexuality Counselling to instruct people on how to have a more satisfying, conscious and creative sex life

Art and Environmental Education Fields

·      Production of play, Alerta Verde – Green Alert

·      Creation of children’s chorus, Arka de Noé – Noah’s Ark

·      Recording of children’s musical production, Alerta Verde – Green Alert

·      Creation of environmental youth rock group Kábala

·      Creation of community, CiRko Vivo

·      Creation and development of project, Animación Integral

·      Creation of Soy el Planeta Azul,  offering environmental education and planetary consciousness to children.

What acknowledgements has Gaia received?

·      Fundación Gaia was declared of Public Utility for the Government’s Interests on May 6, 1991. The Planet Earth Project was declared of Public and National Interest on June 13, 1991.

Javier Francisco Ortiz Bio

Javier Francisco Ortiz was born in Costa Rica on March 23, 1953. After high school he initiated studies in civil engineering at the University of Costa Rica and began his career in music as a singer/songwriter.

Nevertheless, a mystical experience in 1971 changed his life radically and led him to abandon music and engineering to investigate the relationship between sexuality and spirituality.

In 1979 he finished degrees in Sociology, Philosophy, Psychology and Anthropology. Not having found what he was looking for, he moved to the United States determined to fulfill the intention of his search.

After intense studies, he finished a doctorate program in Sexology at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Human Sexuality, a doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology and Holistic Health Sciences at Columbia Pacific University and a program in Tibetan Yoga and Tantric Psychology (Kum Nye) at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley.  He also completed, certification programs in applied kinesiology, massage, hypnotherapy, acupressure and Ashtanga yoga (a program recognized by the Yoga Alliance of Mount Madonna Center).

Finally, having found what he was searching for within a centuries-old tradition, he returned to Costa Rica in 1982.

There he created a successful program called Project Planet Earth, whose purpose is the protection of Earth’s ecosystems, the creation of Comprehensive Balance or a holistic health model that considers the environmental dimensions of the human experience, as well as a yoga system to integrate the soul into our daily lives, a sexual formation program that allows full enjoyment of sexuality and a pregnancy program enabling a comfortable delivery.

To develop the project, with the help of his wife, Ansu Patricia Coto and his children, Marianela and Edgar Ortiz,  he created the Gaia Foundation, the Center for Comprehensive Balance and the Gaia Holistic Institute, which gave continuity to his mission through country-wide education campaigns, and the training of yoga instructors and alternative therapists, turning Costa Rica into a global pioneer in those areas.

Nowadays Francisco devotes himself to the promotion of Yoga for the Soul, giving lectures and workshops on Planetary Ascension, the production of music and meditation CDs, and the development of Proyecto Día Uno (Day One Project).  The Day One Project aims to generate new planetary consciousness as well as encouraging the world to view Costa Rica as a country ideal for investment in projects to protect the environment and decrease global warming.

As part of this project, Francisco made a trek to India in September 2009.  To everyone’s great surprise, he and his group were welcomed with great interest by the authorities and press. His Yoga for the Soul session at the Taj Mahal was the subject of three newspapers articles as well as a television report.  Also, an international report was made by Reuters news agency.  Despite the fact that there are numerous sites offering this service, the Costa Rican group was the first to do yoga at the Taj Mahal.