Umi was invited to San Francisco in 1999 where a Sangha was formed around him.  This is a community of people living around an Enlighten Master.  And it was here that Umi began to give Satsang.  Below is his experience at that time:

"There was no warning, yet I had spent thirty years searching for peace and contentment. That day when I was standing by the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, England with Mikaire, I had no indication that this was the moment; not only was my life about to change, but who I believed I was would be no more. In my search I had pursured every religion, pursued physical, material and sensual extremes. I had been famous, been rich, been poor and had found that none of these worked. I had reached the point of giving up. That day, standing with Mikaire by the Chalice Well, there was no thought of Enlightenment, simply joy of the moment.

Without warning, the transformation shook every fiber of my being. There was no more ground, there was only light. There were no more thoughts, simply the moment. All that had been important to me, all that I had built my life on, all opinions that I believed were important for surviving and being, all these turned to slush. The joke of lifetimes of struggling, wanting, longing, fearing, and desiring, exploded into an outpouring of laughter. For hours there was only laughter. And yet the old "I" was not laughing. The "I" was no more. When the laughter subsided, all that was left was bliss, deep contentment and oneness. Now there has only been this moment, this joy, this peace and an outpouring of love."