The School of Spiritual Psychology is a center of learning
and research designed to benefit society as a whole by fostering care for soul
and spirit in individual life in conjunction with the renewal of culture. This enterprise focuses on more than
technical training, intellectual comprehension, or individual inner development
of a private nature. The programs
and activities of the School serve the formation of capacities for consciously
experiencing qualities of soul and spirit in oneself, in the profession and
work one practices, in home life, community, and in the larger world. The School has been in operation since
1992 and serves people from all walks of life. In 2004, the School moved to a new Center in Benson, North
Carolina, near Raleigh. The School
operates a program in Sacred Service, a Master of Arts Degree program in
conjunction with Prescott College, a program in Spirit Healing, and a program titled
“Caritas—Caring for those who have Died. The School’s website is www.spiritualschool.org. The School also publishes a semi-annual
online journal, www.sophiajournal.org.
The concept of a center of learning and research indicates
that the School of Spiritual Psychology is a community of learners, that
faculty as well as students are participants in learning rather than just
givers and receivers of information.
Insight, newness, discovery and transformation characterize the action
of a center of learning and research.
The faculty is more than teachers who direct the student’s
progress in knowledge; they are themselves lifelong learners and researchers
into the realms of soul and spirit with an intense interest in the practical
application of working in the world with such an outlook.
The particular approach to questions of soul and spirit
taken by the School of Spiritual Psychology derives from the depth psychology
of C. G. Jung, archetypal psychology of
and the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner. However, it is phenomenological methodology that guides the
work of the School. Developing the
capacity to be present to experience and becoming capable of describing not
only experiential states, but also thinking descriptively rather than theoretically
or analytically forms the basis for all the work of the School.
Our culture has always taught us that the final, ultimate
loss is the loss that is experienced at death. Many believe and are comforted by the concept of a spiritual
world that is the unseen destination of the soul at death. We tend to hold to
the notion that there is no connection that continues with those who have died
other than our memories of them. The Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner that
inspires the work of this program indicates that no more significant
relationship can exist than with those who have died. Those who have died are
tremendously interested in what is happening in the world. Those who have died
are not in some far off heaven, but here, invisibly with us, for the spiritual
worlds are all around us. But generally, with no imagination of this, we have
no experience of what it means. In
this physical/spiritual world there is the perceptible and imperceptible. The long fall into material matter has
taken us farther and farther away from the subtler realms of spiritual activity
that are around us all of the time. We sense the presence of this subtle realm
when we stand at the threshold with someone we love, either entering the
physical world at birth, or entering the mystery of the spiritual world at
death.
The poet, Novalis, says; “When the spirit perishes, it
becomes human. When the human
perishes, it becomes spirit. Death
frees the spirit, birth frees the human.”
Religious mandates have historically forbidden any attempt to
converse with those on the “other side” of the threshold. In previous eras of different capacity
of soul development, this offered a kind of protection for the community. In the current age of the consciousness
soul, it has become possible to learn how to stay connected to our loved ones
who have crossed the threshold and now inhabit a spiritual realm outside of our
material essence.
This course of studies and training seeks to develop within
the soul, capacities through which we can be present to those who have crossed
the threshold, and how we can be helpful to them through conscious, receptive
spiritualized soul activity. This
is not a capacity we develop for our own comfort, but must be always for the sake
of the whole of the world.
To change the world in our time requires the conscious work
of changing the imagination of what the world is, what it is about. This is a deep effort of working
through awakened soul capacities into the will of consciousness itself. This course of studies is only for the
mature, spiritual seeker who is not looking for psychological resolution of
life issues, but is willing to suspend the personal for the sacred in every one
they know who has crossed the threshold.
The course will be divided into four long weekends, meeting
over 12 months. The work will
continue in ongoing sessions meeting once per year after the initial year.
Week One: Soul Purification: We will work meditatively with living in the heart as an
organ of perception. This is the
phenomenology of living through the heart as the spiritual organ of the body
that is the only place where imagination and ordinary consciousness come
together and remain present to a higher level of perception that is not ordered
by the hard edges of the world experienced in ordinary consciousness. It is not
the fantasy world of simple imagination, rather it is the capacity of
imagination to perceive the invisible, knowing it is real through the evidence
of the heart’s experience.
It makes possible the freeing of the psyche from fear of mortality, and
letting go of the ingrained concept of “dying”. We begin to work
with the stories and images of those close to us who have died, developing the
capacity to do so with depth of heart feeling, refraining from emotional sentiment.
Week Two:
Emptying
and Equanimity: We begin to meet
the nature of the spiritual world and become acquainted with its geography as
outlined by Rudolf Steiner. We hear stories of experiences people have had of
loved ones immediately after their deaths, and enter into an understanding of
why those first experiences are quite different than experiences later on. To do this inner work properly we must
release our psychological needs and issues, complexes and convolutions, and
enter in meditative silence, a space of equanimity. This is essential as the activity of our thoughts affect the
dead, and how they are able to be present to and with us. We learn to offer the attention of the
heart to those on the other side of the threshold, in peace and silence, and to
listen to the subtle nature of that silence that is the answer from them, to
us.
Week Three: The Practice
of Silence and Reading: The
practice of reading to the dead is explored in depth, and in relation to the
nature of thinking, feeling and will as it is perceived by those on the other
side of the threshold. We extend the notion and importance of reading to those
who have died to include, besides spiritual texts, ways of reading the world in
reverence and how to do so. We
work with the nature of reading, the meaning of words and the experience of
holding an other imaginatively, while keeping our attention on the meaning of
what is read, so they can “see” whereof we read. The fabric of silence and the depth of
the field of attention are the phenomenon we must enter to experience the
presence of the dead who seek our companionship.
Week Four: Living in the
Great Life Every Moment: How do we
stay present, and continue ordinary life tasks? What is the practice of staying
connected, without losing connection with the physical world, the living, and
our own destiny? And, how does
this heal the world? Also, we will
work with the nature of the loss of thousands of individuals at one time, in a
matter of moments. We will work
with the possibilities of being of help, what we do, and how we do this
safely. Hygiene of the soul will
be primary in the exercises, meditations and research.
We do not at any time work on the relationship with those
who have crossed the threshold on the level of personality. This work is not
about resolving old issues of a psychological nature. There is no intention toward allaying guilt, resolving
anger, assuaging conscience.
Nothing can be changed that was not changed before the person died. The intention of this course is to open
the heart as an organ of perception specifically for and toward the spiritual
world.
The faculty includes a distinguished staff of full-time,
adjunct, and visiting lecturers. Robert Sardello, Ph.D. and Cheryl Sanders,
M.S., co-directors of the School of Spiritual Psychology are the lead faculty.
Other faculty are brought in for individual sessions.
Robert Sardello, Ph.D. is co-founder of The School of Spiritual Psychology,
which began in 1992. He is author
of Facing the World with Soul, Love and the Soul (re-issued as Love
and the World), Freeing the Soul from Fear, and The Power of
Soul: Living the Twelve Virtues.
He is also co-founder and faculty member of The Dallas Institute of
Humanities and Culture, author of over 200 articles in scholarly journals and
cultural publications, and was on the faculty of The Chalice of Repose Project
in Missoula, Mt. Having developed
spiritual psychology from over 35 years of research in this discipline, as well
as holding positions in two renown Universities, he is now an independent
teacher and scholar teaching all over the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., as well
as in The Czech Republic, the Philippines and Australia. He is a consultant to many educational
and cultural institutions, as well as dissertation advisor at Pacifica Graduate
Institute, Union Institute, Greenwich University, and Prescott College.
Cheryl L. Sanders, Ph.D. is co-founder of The School of
Spiritual Psychology and specializes in the spiritual psychology of the senses,
and is currently completing a book in this area with an emphasis in healing of
the senses. Her work ranges from
the necessity for keeping the senses healthy in children to the development of
the spiritual senses in maturity.
She is a former addictions counselor and has worked extensively with
women and children as well as adolescence in addictions, education and
healing. She teaches with The
School all over the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and has also taught in Holland,
Australia and the Philippines. She
has published articles and introductions on the senses in books, journals and
magazines, as well as monographs of presentations made at the Sophia
Conferences given by The School between 1995 and 2000.
Tuition for the two years of the program is $2,500.00 An additional
$50.00 non-refundable application fee must be sent in with the application.
A non-refundable deposit of $500.00 is due upon acceptance into the
program. The remaining tuition of $2,000.00 is due before the opening of the
first week of the course, or a payment contract can be signed upon approval
to split payment in 2 or 4 segments. Payment of full tuition in advance comes
with a $100 discount. The School of Spiritual Psychology makes a commitment
to the people who enter into the program, part of which involves relying on
the tuition for the program in exchange for the preparation and teaching time
of the faculty. If refunds are
requested or non-payment occurs, the entire program is put in jeopardy.
If accepted, please consider this a commitment for the entire year
of your class.
Tuition does not include board and room fees, which are paid
separately and for each session. Room and board for each session is $375.00.
All rooms are doubles, in the very comfortable Center for Spiritual Psychology which is located on fourteen acres
with a pond and a swimming pool.
The Sacred Service Program is held at the Spiritual
Psychology Center located in Benson, North Carolina. Benson is an easy
forty-minute drive from Raleigh where there is a major international airport.
Benson is also located at the intersection of interstate hi-way 95 and
interstate hi-way 40, and thus easy driving distance from north-south and
east-west.
Caritas – Caring for Our Dead,
meets on the following dates:
April 18-22, 2007
Sept. 12-16, 2007
Dec. 5-9, 2007
The
sessions begin Wednesday evening and end Sunday at noon
A formal application is required and must include the
following:
Date
Name
Address
City,
State, Zip - Phone, Fax, Email
Birth
date, marital status, and children, grandchildren
1. What attracts you to the program in Caring for Our
Dead?
2. What do you hope to learn and achieve?
3. Describe one or more highlights of you inner
development during the past ten years.
.
4. What kind of growth/challenges do you think this
experience might hold for you?
5. What are you currently doing for a living?
6. Please list all degrees, from where, including majors.
7. If you have a vita or resume, please include.
Application Deadline: November 15, 2006
Send
Application to:
The
School of Spiritual Psychology
P.O.
Box 7
Benson,
North Carolina 27504