Jyoti SaeUn
AJIJC, MEXICO — Intrepid traveler, beloved healer and radiant being Jyoti SaeUn died July 20 in Ajijic, Mexico, tenderly attended on her final journey by daughter Lisa Haney and the devoted staff at Casa Zoe.
Born on Sept. 4, 1937, in Missoula, the first child of Connie and Joe Niemeyer, she promptly set about revising the name on her birth certificate – Constance Joan – to Jodie. That name stayed with her well beyond her tenure at Hawthorne Grade School, Missoula County High School, and the University of Montana, where she earned a degree in nutrition and institutional management and was a beloved member of the Delta Gamma Sorority.
She married attorney Tom Haney in 1958, and the young couple had two children, Mark (born in 1959) and Lisa (1961).
After Tom’s stint in the military, the family moved to San Francisco and then settled in Santa Barbara, California. Jodie’s marriage ended in 1975 and she remained in that idyllic town for nearly a decade, working and pursuing a graduate degree in counseling psychology.
In 1984, she traveled to Japan to practice Zen Buddhism, and continued on to India “searching for my true name, and my true nature.” In Nepal, where the name Jodie was unknown and hard to pronounce, she became Jyoti, a Sanskrit word meaning “light.”
While traveling across Asia, and then to England, Scotland and Austria, she studied meditation and alternative healing methods. Her pursuits led her back to the Bay Area, where she earned her certification in Bioenergy Balancing, and directed the Berkeley branch of the Bioenergy Balancing Center from 1993-’96.
Jyoti returned to Montana in 1996, and continued to cultivate her work, offering sessions at the Medicine Tree in St. Ignatius and establishing her own practice – the Center for Living in Balance – from 1997-2007 in Polson and Big Arm.
Zen master Genki Takabayashi, a mentor, teacher and dear friend, bestowed her last name, SaeUn, after a healing session. Meaning Clear Cloud in Japanese, her new last name also described her technique: The SaeUn Method, or Clearing Clouds.
“The name really guided me,” she said. “The process of clearing clouds from the energy field around a person became the core method that I practice.”
For the next decade, she offered sessions and weekend intensives across the U.S. and in Canada. She also created a lyrical moving meditation called the Meridian Dance that she shared with hundreds of people over the years.
The Bay Area beckoned in 2008, and she remained there until 2015 when she returned to Montana. She lived in Polson until December, when she embarked on her final earthly adventure, moving to Ajijic, Mexico.
In recent years, her many friends and family members returned the love she had so lavishly given, helping her find safe and loving homes, escorting her on quixotic outings, and feeding her soul with music and poetry. She was elegant, kind and loving through her last breath.
Jyoti was preceded in death by her parents, Connie and Joe Niemeyer. She is survived by her son, Mark (San Diego), daughter Lisa and son-in-law Mark Friedman (Oakland), and granddaughter Kaia Haney (Washington, D.C.); siblings Billie Lee and Kristi Niemeyer (Polson), Jan and wife Chris (Ronan), and Joe and wife Debbie (Cannon Beach, Oregon); aunts Theodora Lambson (St. Ignatius) and Thelma Niemeyer (Hot Springs); myriad nieces, nephews and cousins; and devoted friends, clients and colleagues.
Family and close friends will gather in September to celebrate Jyoti’s life. A virtual send-off is slated for Sunday, Sept. 26; email lhaneyoso@gmail.com for details. Remembrances may be sent to Lisa Haney, 329 49th St., Oakland CA 94609.
