Reconnect Retreat — Johannes Weiss × Lopud 1483
Reconnect begins with something the body already knows. Long before anyone could measure it, people sensed that daylight, open water, warm stone and slow breath change how we feel. Physiology now explains why. Morning light sets the circadian clock and steadies the rhythms behind sleep, metabolism and repair. Contact with the earth and the sea is linked to lower inflammation and a calmer stress response. Slow breathing carries the nervous system into recovery, a shift you can read in heart rate variability. Time in nature lowers cortisol and blood pressure. None of it is abstract. It is simply the feeling of a body coming back to its natural rhythm.
Saint Francis of Assisi lived in the early thirteenth century and taught a rare closeness to nature. In his Canticle of the Creatures he called the sun his brother and the water his sister. The Franciscan monks who followed him built their lives around that reverence: simplicity, silence and daily contact with the natural world.
The monastery at Lopud 1483 was one of their homes, and it still places you among the same elements: light, warm stone, garden and sea. What the monks practised as devotion happens to describe what the body needs. Reconnect takes those elements and gives them a clinical purpose.
The Experience
With Johannes Weiss and his Longevity Center Vienna, every guest follows a protocol shaped entirely around them, addressing mitochondrial function, nervous system regulation, detoxification, recovery and mental clarity. Nothing is generic. Assessment comes first, and everything that follows is chosen from what the measurements reveal.
The place itself does part of the work. Consultations, meditation and movement unfold inside the monastery, through its gardens and out across the island. It is calm, private and unhurried, and that stillness is not merely a backdrop. It is part of how the body lets go and begins to change.
A day here moves gently. Breathwork in the first light, a swim from the sea wall, a long walk through pine and olive, and real rest. Each has a measurable effect on circadian timing, circulation and mood, and each is also, quite simply, a pleasure.
What We Offer
Five days inside a fifteenth-century monastery, where serious longevity diagnostics and evidence-based treatment meet a landscape made for recovery. The pace is unhurried, the setting private, and the attention entirely personal.
The Location
Lopud 1483 is a fifteenth-century fortified Franciscan monastery above the Adriatic, brought back from ruin over many years and held in private hands. Behind its stone ramparts lie quiet gardens, an important art collection and a private beach. Few people come and go, which leaves room for genuine rest and real discretion.
The island has no cars. Its paths wind through pine, olive groves and wild herbs, past small chapels scattered across the hills and down to the water. Walking here is easy to reach and easy to sustain, and it keeps you in steady contact with the natural world the programme relies on.
Your Host
Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza
Philanthropist & Art Patron
Philanthropist, art patron and advocate for the ocean and other bodies of water. She led the restoration of Lopud 1483 from a ruin to its present state and curated its interiors, its art collection and its ongoing longevity programme.
Practitioners
Johannes Weiss
Lead Practitioner & Longevity Expert
Therapist and international speaker specialising in mitochondrial medicine, orthomolecular therapy and applied psychoneuroimmunology, and founder of the Longevity Center Vienna.
Melchior Knellwolf
Somatic Practitioner & Meditation Teacher
From Switzerland. Works at the intersection of nervous system science, somatic practice and contemplative tradition. Part of the clinical team at Clinique La Prairie.
Longevity Medicine Programme
The programme centres on kinesiology diagnostics and individual consultations with Johannes Weiss. These produce a personalised protocol that may include neurofeedback, micronutrient analysis and daily Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, framed by the principles of mitochondrial medicine, orthomolecular therapy and psychoneuroimmunology.
Individual and small-group somatic and meditation sessions with Melchior Knellwolf run throughout the retreat.
Advanced Therapies
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
Delivers oxygen at increased atmospheric pressure to support cellular repair, reduce inflammation and improve mitochondrial function.
IV Drip Protocols
Personalised intravenous infusions: NAD+, glutathione, high-dose vitamin C, Myers cocktail. Each based on diagnostic results.
Neurofeedback
Real-time brain wave monitoring to support focus, sleep quality, stress resilience and cognitive performance.
Kinesiology Diagnostics
Muscle testing to identify functional imbalances, deficiencies and stressors.
Personalised Supplementation
Individually formulated orthomolecular supplement protocol.
Somatic & Meditation Practice
Led by Melchior Knellwolf. Grounded in polyvagal theory and applied neuroscience.
Longevity Nutrition
All meals follow an organic, anti-inflammatory and nutrient-rich approach, prepared by a private chef from local ingredients and herbs from the monastery garden.
A Week at the Retreat
Day 1 — Arrival and Assessment
Days 2–4 — Treatment and Integration
Day 5 — Integration and Departure
What Is Included
- ✓Daily lectures, personalised kinesiology diagnostics, individual treatment plans
- ✓Multiple sessions of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
- ✓Intravenous infusions (NAD+, glutathione, vitamin combinations)
- ✓Neurofeedback sessions
- ✓Personalised orthomolecular supplement protocol
- ✓Daily breathwork, somatic meditation and nervous system regulation
- ✓Multiple massage sessions (deep tissue, lymphatic drainage, sports massage)
- ✓Longevity cuisine by private chef
“Does every creature have a soul? Surely they do, for everything God has touched will have life forever, and all creatures He has held.”— Attributed to Francis of Assisi
Apply
Places are limited and offered by personal enquiry.
To apply, please write to office@johannesweiss.at
Apply Now