Controversial Marshall retreat center to rebrand; former executive director steps away

Johnny Casey, Asheville Citizen Times
·5 min read
Plans for the School of Wholeness and Enlightenment included a second pond, an event center, meeting hall, lecture space and 75 stand-alone cabins.
Plans for the School of Wholeness and Enlightenment included a second pond, an event center, meeting hall, lecture space and 75 stand-alone cabins.

MARSHALL - The School of Wellness and Enlightenment, a Marshall retreat center that originally had plans for 73 cabins and a meeting hall to accommodate 150 visitors, and its Executive Director Deborah Mills were granted a special use permit by the Madison County Planning Board in March 2020, and the retreat center planned to open as early as this summer.

Now, more than four years later, Mills told The News-Record & Sentinel she is stepping away from the operation, as billionaire hedge fund investor Christopher Hohn and his partner Kylie Richardson, owners of LightEn, an educational foundation, have assumed control of the project, Mills said.

Emails sent to Richardson and to LightEn's media inquiries address went unanswered by press time.

According to previous reporting from The News-Record & Sentinel, the 291-acre tract was purchased for $4.6 million in April 2019.

The project first went before the county Planning Board in September 2019. The project, then called the Mountain Jewel Center for Wholeness and Enlightenment, secured the special use permit needed from the county’s Planning Board March 3, 2020, to operate on a 350-acre tract at the top of Upper Thomas Branch in the Brush Creek community.

It was proposed as an educational retreat center that included plans for lecture spaces, an event center, a dining hall, a spa and 75 stand-alone cabins.

Set for nearly 300 acres, the retreat center was to operate as the global headquarters of the School of Wholeness and Enlightenment, or SoWE. A nonprofit organization, SoWE aims to “serve as an educational bridge between the world as we have known it and the new paradigm awakening within the collective,” according to its website.

The center would host weekend and weeklong courses and personal retreats accommodating up to 100 students in 75 stand-alone, prefabricated cabins. The curriculum offered would address four areas of study, listed on the SoWE website as: business wisdom and science, healing and enlightenment, dynamic living and aging, and care for the earth.

“We want to educate and awaken the heart and soul of humanity,” Mills told the planning officials in the March 2020 meeting.

The 291-acre property where the School of Wholeness and Enlightenment planned to operate was purchased by an LLC in April for $4.59 million. The project is now rebranding as LightEn.
The 291-acre property where the School of Wholeness and Enlightenment planned to operate was purchased by an LLC in April for $4.59 million. The project is now rebranding as LightEn.

A self-described healer for 25 years living, Mills said she's lived in Asheville since 1998 and has “been holding the vision” of creating a school for SoWE in Western North Carolina since 2015, and settled on the Mulberry Gap Farm location after a visit.

“I was walking down from the top and I saw the school of healing and the school of business, and my heart burst open. I feel the land called me," Mills said in the March 2020 meeting.

But the decision to step away was due to the enormity of the project, Mills said.

"The Center is truly world class and turned out much bigger than any of us imagined, and the running of it will take more than we imagined. The funders have taken over the project to include it in their growing philanthropic global educational network," Mills said in an email to The News-Record & Sentinel.

The School of Wellness and Enlightenment, a retreat center proposed for Upper Thomas Branch, off U.S. 25-70 in Marshall, was issued permiting in March 2020. Now, the center will rebrand and Executive Director Deborah Mills has stepped down.
The School of Wellness and Enlightenment, a retreat center proposed for Upper Thomas Branch, off U.S. 25-70 in Marshall, was issued permiting in March 2020. Now, the center will rebrand and Executive Director Deborah Mills has stepped down.

Rebranding

According to Mills, the center will now be called the LightEn Center of Consciousness & Action, and will continue the SoWE mission and vision and expand upon it to help create a more enlightened world.

According to its website, LightEn is an educational foundation, and its work is focused on signposting pathways that have the potential to raise consciousness and help humanity embody the highest levels of love and wisdom we all hold at our core.

"Dedicated to raising consciousness and serving humanity, LightEn (which means Light Enterprises) has the means and connections to do it in a way far beyond the capacity that SoWE had with many of the classes being free, for both in person and online classes," Mills continued in the email.

Registered as a nonprofit with the Internal Revenue Service in December 2017, SoWE had the backing of Hohn.

Hohn, 57, is based in London, and ranks No. 249 on Forbes’ 2024 rich list. He has directed more than $2 billion to charity, according to the magazine, helping him earn a knighthood in 2014. Mills said she secured Hohn’s support for the Madison County retreat center project after meeting him through one of her students.

Criticism from residents

The project received a good deal of backlash from Marshall neighbors when it was approved by the county Planning Board in March 2020, including from a number of Upper Thomas Branch neighbors.

"You’re not welcome in this community,” Jimmie Ramsey, a neighbor bordering the property, said in his closing remarks.

“I see you pursue chaos and havoc. If this retreat center moves forward, it’ll be the worst thing to happen in Western North Carolina.”

More: Retreat center gets green light Retreat center gets green light in Madison County

More: Center back before planning board Retreat center project back before Madison County planning board

More: Center to cost 'tens of millions' Proposed retreat center costing 'tens of millions of dollars' to appear before Madison County planning board

According to Mills, construction is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

"I am honored to have birthed the vision and to have spent the last 5 years helping create such a beautiful retreat center in the pristine beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains," Mills said in the email.

"I will continue to focus on my original intention when first starting SoWE which is to help bring Energy Medicine into the medical world. I will take the rest of the year to complete a book I have been writing for many years but have not had the focused time to complete.

"I trust it will be an amazing place that will serve humanity and help change systems as we continue through the transition happening on Earth. As we learn to live from the Divine Spark at the very core of our hearts and souls, I trust we will one day know Peace on Earth."

For more information on LightEn, visit https://www.light-en.org/about-lighten.

Johnny Casey has covered Madison County for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel for nearly three years, including earning a first-place award in beat reporting in the 2023 North Carolina Press Association awards. He can be reached at 828-210-6071 or jcasey@citizentimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Marshall retreat center SoWE director steps away as project rebrands