Virato has been involved in creating and leading self-help groups
and organizations in America and Europe for over three decades.

In 1979 he traveled to Pune, India, where he studied meditation, Eastern philosophy, and leading edge psycho-spiritual and psychotherapeutic methods. On January 10, 1980, while in India, he accepted initiation from the enlightened mystic, Osho. His name was changed from Joseph Banks to his new spiritual name, Virato, meaning eternity.

From 1982 Virato founded and served as Director of Premsagar Meditation Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was also the Executive Director of Philadelphia's New Frontier Center exploring human consciousness, science and spirituality.

In 1994 he moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where he managed an advanced holistic detoxification and meditation retreat, near Black Mountain, NC about 20 miles from Asheville..

Virato says, "Most of people's existence is unaware, energetically blocked or addicted, conditioned living.  People are little more then reactive lemmings heading toward the proverbial sea.  When you let go of your addictions and co-dependency, and connect to a spiritual dimension, while fulfilling your material bliss, you live a totally new life…one which incorporates joy and ecstasy"

Virato has traveled afar over  the past 25 years, presenting his powerful transformational lectures and self-help events to thousands. He has been going to Russia since 1992, where he is cherished by the Russian people. In November 2000, NTB, Russia's Public Broadcasting TV Network did a special on Virato and his extensive work in alcohol and substance abuse in their country. His methods have had the greatest effect in allowing people to drop their addictions. While Virato is a psychotherapist, he does not have a Ph.D. in psychology, nor does what he do fall into a paradigm that offers licensure. In Russia he has trained hundreds of psychologists in his methods, and brought countless people back to a fulfilling, conscious life.

Virato's methods are powerful and create movement and transformation in people. He cleans out minds, opens hearts and transforms lives. His media appearances are numerous, with countless articles on, and by him, in  publications internationally over the past three decades. Virato as appear on numerous TV shows, and heard on over 500 radio stations. He had his own radio program in New York City in the '60s, Philadelphia in the '80s and Asheville, NC. in the '90s

Recently returning from a series of lectures and programs he conducted in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, he now has a weekly radio broadcast called VIRATO LIVE! on Saturdays, 10 AM- 1 PM NY Time on WPEK, 880AM The Revolution, a Clear Channel Broadcasting Co station in Asheville, NC, and streamed world-wide.