Wednesday, November 16, 2005
CATHOLIC PRACTITIONERS OF PSYCHOSYNTHESIS - WHERE ARE THEY FOUND?
Yesterday I blogged one example of the use of this discipline in a Catholic setting in the Diocese of Albany. There are more.
1. At the Jesuit run Santa Clara University in the School of Education, the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries lists the thesis papers 1986-Present in their website. No. 65 on the list is "Latno, Michele. Psychosynthesis: A Way to Prayer, 1994".
2. The Archdiocese of Southwark on-going formation of priests offers a list of their Committee & Staff. On the list is Ms. Margaret Philpot who has "a diploma in counselling/psychotherapy having completed three years training at the Psychosynthesis and Education Trust." It is stated that she is "one of the two OGF Committee members responsible for Priestly Individual Support."
3. Bro. Wayne Teasdale gave the Keynote Address at The Many Faces of Spirit: Celebrating through the Arts & Dialogue event held July 19-20, 1996 at the Catholic Newman Center, Lexington, Kentucky. Two speakers at this event were practitioners of psychosynthesis. There is a lot more in this conference line-up to raise the eyebrows, too.
The Saturday Workshops at this event offered "Centering Prayer: Experiencing God's Presence", "The Power of the Dream: Psyche Speaks", "Earth Consciousness/Earth Journaling", "The Essence of Yoga", "Ideas and Music of G. I. Gurdjieff", "Human Transformation: An Islamic Perspective", "The Stephen Story: The Face of AIDS", "Awareness through Movement", "The Enneagram: Nine Faces of Spirit", and more topics that seem to be directed at some agenda other than interreligious dialogue that was the announced purpose of this event.
Mary Greene, one of the speakers whose topic was "A Psychological/Spiritual Map of the Human Consciousness", is listed as "psychologist and a director of the Kentucky Center of Psychosynthesis for twenty years."
Another speaker, John Parks, who spoke on "The Spirit as Expressed in Poetry", is listed as "a director of the Kentucky Center for Psychosynthesis for the past twenty-two years and is a member of the Gurdjieff Foundation of Kentucky."
Walter Bado, topic "The Voluminosity of Gothic", is "director of the Newman Center in Lexington. Consequently it must be assumed that this conference and its subject matter had the full knowledge and backing of the staff at the Newman Center.
Lance Brunner, topic "Giving Voice to Spirit: Chanting & Sonic Meditation", "is a co-director of the Lexington Shambhala Meditation Center." Would that be the Shambhala of Benjamin Creme/Meitreya?
Psychosynthesis is just one of the many strange aspects of this event held at a Catholic facility. Jesus Christ is nowhere mentioned in the workshop descriptions. This event took place nine years ago. I doubt that many Catholics who give their contributions to the Newman Center collections have any idea such things as this are what their money is being used for.
At the bottom of the website which lists the Saturday Workshops is a link to the Spiritual Growth Network, the sponsoring organization. It will take you to their weblog. Scroll down to the entry titled "Righteousness is a Horse Named Trojan." There you can read that "dissent is not only inevitable to the process of growth, but also necessary for wholeness, holiness and authentic community", and "The Pilgrim, on the other hand, believes that the church must be constantly and insistently challenged by the world....'Every heresy is the revenge of a forgotten truth.' The Pilgrim discovers truth outside traditional sacred texts...". You can discover that "Dissent [is] Intended by God" and that "The right to dissent is imbued, then, with holiness poured forth by God who introduced difference and diversity so that we might learn from and grow through one another." There is a lot more in this group to raise red flags than just psychosynthesis.
I couldn't help but notice that the website for "The Many Faces of Spirit" event used a rainbow bar to separate the sections, much like the Alice Bailey database uses a rainbow bar at the top and bottom of their entries.
4. Another example of psychosynthesis in the Catholic Church is The Open Door, Inc., "the active ministries of Msgr. Chester Michael." Msgr. Michael "has been a Roman Catholic priest for over 60 years. He was first exposed to the psychology of Carl Jung during graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame in 1956....He has used the techniques of psychosynthesis, specifically that of Initiated Symbol Projection, during his many years of pastoral counseling and spiritual direction for both individuals and groups." He is currently retired but "is still very active in giving retreats, workshops, spiritual direction and running the Spiritual Direction Institute."
