Berkeley Psychic Institute

Last updated

The Berkeley Psychic Institute (BPI) is a school for spiritual development, founded in 1973 by Lewis S. Bostwick [1] [2] in Berkeley, California and is also the workshop of the seminary of the Church of the Divine Man. The institute has taught thousands of people to read auras and study channeling, [1] one of the most popular classes being The Clairvoyant Training Program. [3] The institute has contributed progressive ideas to the interfaith movement [4] and has also contributed to a growth in number of enlightenment schools and metaphysical institutions. [3] After Lewis' death in 1995, his wife, Vr. Rt. Rev Dr. Susan Hull Bostwick, assumed leadership of the institute and the church.

Berkeley, California City in California, United States

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2010 census recorded a population of 112,580.

Contents

There are four Berkeley Psychic Institutes in Northern California, [5] as well as several other groups throughout the world begun by former students. It has also spawned the Déjà Vu Publishing Company, responsible for the production of the Psychic Reader Magazine, [6] as well as special events, psychic entertainment and spiritual tours.

Northern California Place in California, United States

Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties its main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.

Notable members

The Enneagram of Personality, or simply the Enneagram, is a model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types. Although the origins and history of many of the ideas and theories associated with the Enneagram of Personality are a matter of dispute, contemporary Enneagram claims are principally derived from the teachings of Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo. Naranjo's theories were partly influenced by some earlier teachings of George Gurdjieff. As a typology the Enneagram defines nine personality types, which are represented by the points of a geometric figure called an enneagram, which indicate connections between the types. There are different schools of thought among Enneagram teachers, therefore their ideas are not always in agreement.

The Michael Teachings is a body of channeled New Age spiritual doctrine that originated in the early 1970s as a 'conversation' via a Ouija board between members of a spiritual study group in the San Francisco Bay Area and a channeled spiritual entity who became known as 'Michael'. The teachings received from the entity were first published in book form in 1979 as Messages from Michael, by novelist Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, the first in a series of four books by Yarbro chronicling the Bay Area sessions. Since that time, the teachings purportedly from the same entity have continued to accumulate and expand via a growing number of channels based in other locations.

Affiliations

Related Research Articles

Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation.

Spiritualism religious movement based on the belief that one can communicate with the spirits of the dead

Spiritualism is a religious movement based on the belief that the spirits of the dead exist and have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. The afterlife, or the "spirit world", is seen by spiritualists, not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to evolve. These two beliefs — that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans — lead spiritualists to a third belief, that spirits are capable of providing useful knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about the nature of God. Some spiritualists will speak of a concept which they refer to as "spirit guides"—specific spirits, often contacted, who are relied upon for spiritual guidance. Spiritism, a branch of spiritualism developed by Allan Kardec and today practiced mostly in Continental Europe and Latin America, especially in Brazil, emphasizes reincarnation.

Claudio Naranjo psychiatrist, author

Claudio Benjamín Naranjo Cohen is a Chilean-born psychiatrist of Arabic/Moorish, Spanish and Jewish descent who is considered a pioneer in integrating psychotherapy and the spiritual traditions. He is one of the three successors named by Fritz Perls, a principal developer of Enneagram of Personality theories and a founder of the Seekers After Truth Institute. He is also an elder statesman of the US and global human potential movement and the spiritual renaissance of the late 20th century. He is the author of various books.

Subtle body

A subtle body is one of a series of psycho-spiritual constituents of living beings, according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. According to such beliefs each subtle body corresponds to a subtle plane of existence, in a hierarchy or great chain of being that culminates in the physical form.

Alice Bailey esoteric, theosophist, writer

Alice Ann Bailey was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Manchester, England. She moved to the United States in 1907, where she spent most of her life as a writer and teacher.

Albert Benjamin Simpson Canadian theologian

Albert Benjamin Simpson, also known as A. B. Simpson, was a Canadian preacher, theologian, author, and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), an evangelical denomination with an emphasis on global evangelism.

Richard Rohr American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Richard Rohr is an American author, spiritual writer, and Franciscan friar based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970. He has been called "one of the most popular spirituality authors and speakers in the world."

Lucius Beebe American photographer and writer

Lucius Morris Beebe was an American author, gourmand, photographer, railroad historian, journalist, and syndicated columnist.

Rebecca Solnit Author and essayist from United States

Rebecca Solnit is an American writer. She has written on a variety of subjects, including the feminism, environment, politics, place, and art. Solnit is a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine, where bi-monthly she writes the magazine's "Easy Chair" essay.

Lee Carroll American channeler and author

Lee Carroll is an American channeller, speaker and author. Carroll has authored thirteen books on channellings from an entity he calls "Kryon", and has co-authored three books on what he terms indigo children, a new generation of children he says represents an evolution in human consciousness.

Walter Truett Anderson is an American political scientist, social psychologist, and author of numerous non-fiction books and articles in newspapers and magazines.

Spiritualism is a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at least two fundamental substances, matter and spirit. This very broad metaphysical distinction is further developed into many and various forms by the inclusion of details about what spiritual entities exist such as a soul, the afterlife, spirits of the dead, deities and mediums; as well as details about the nature of the relationship between spirit and matter. It may also refer to the philosophy, doctrine, or religion pertaining to a spiritual aspect of existence.

Francis Fabian Clive-Ross (1921–1981) was a publisher and author whose works focused on occultism, comparative religion, and the Traditionalist School. Clive-Ross was also a Trustee of the World of Islam Festival, as well as a justice of the peace.

Ernest Leland Norman was an American electrical engineer, and spiritual leader. A polymath, Norman dabbled in philosophy, poetry, scientific research and paranormal investigation. Ernest Norman also co-founded of the Unarius Science of Life and the Unarius Educational Foundation, which later became known as Unarius Academy of Science. Before starting the grassroots work for Unarius, Ernest Norman also worked for the Borderlands Sciences Research Association as a contributing editor for the Round Robin journal, and also worked as a minister for a Spiritualist church for 15 years. Ernest Norman wrote twenty books in his lifetime that covered theoretical physics, spirituality, philosophy, theology, extraterrestrial life, sociology, and poetry. Norman also authored articles further emphasizing the interdimensional hypothesis he was trying to teach, and answered letters from his students that have been archived at the Unarius Academy of Science. The first book he wrote, The Truth About Mars, gives an account where he met the Martian ambassador, a being named Nur El, and traveled to the underground cities of Mars in his astral body. Unariuns believe he was other major figures in Earth's history, and that he was overshadowed by an Archangel named Raphiel who resides on a celestial super planet with other Archangels. He is referred to as the Moderator, or as "Dr." Norman by his students out of respect. A genius child prodigy, Ernest Norman never sought a doctorate through academia as he was self-taught and did not have formal schooling for many of the subjects he seemingly mastered, as he claimed his knowledge was due to his clairvoyant connection to the Masters and Higher Minds of the White Brotherhood;

Spiritual church movement

The spiritual church movement is an informal name for a group of loosely allied and also independent Spiritualist churches and Spiritualist denominations that have in common that they have been historically based in the African American community.

Fenwicke Lindsay Holmes (1883-1973) was an American author, former Congregational minister, and Religious Science leader. The brother of Ernest Holmes, Fenwicke is widely recognized for being an important factor in the establishment of Religious Science and the founding of the United Centers for Spiritual Living. Fenwicke is recognized as an important figure in the development of the New Thought movement in Japan in particular Seicho-no-ie.

Phyllis Tickle American writer

Phyllis Natalie Tickle was an American author and lecturer whose work focuses on spirituality and religion issues. After serving as a teacher, professor, and academic dean, Tickle entered the publishing industry, serving as the founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, before then becoming a popular writer. She is well known as a leading voice in the emergence church movement. She is perhaps best known for The Divine Hours series of books, published by Doubleday Press, and her book The Great Emergence- How Christianity Is Changing and Why. Tickle was a member of the Episcopal Church, where she was licensed as both a lector and a lay eucharistic minister. She has been widely quoted by many media outlets, including Newsweek, Time, Life, The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, C-SPAN, PBS, The History Channel, the BBC and VOA. It has been said that "Over the past generation, no one has written more deeply and spoken more widely about the contours of American faith and spirituality than Phyllis Tickle." A biography of Tickle's life was published in February 2018. Phyllis Tickle: A Life, has been widely reviewed.

James Martin Peebles American physician

James Martin Peebles was an American physician, prolific author and organizer of many professional, medical, and religious associations.

References

  1. 1 2 Kenneth J. Garcia Rev. Lewis S. Bostwick SFGate.com , March 28, 1995
  2. ↑ You Are Psychic: The Art of Clairvoyant Reading & Healing, Debra Lynne Katz, 2004, Llewellyn Publications, p. 5, ISBN   0-7387-0592-6
  3. 1 2 Cadonna M. Peyton New Breed of School Cultivates the Seer Within Los Angeles Times January 09, 2000
  4. ↑ PONEDEL, David [ permanent dead link ] SFGate.com , September 21, 2010
  5. ↑ Employer Search Results: Berkeley Psychic Institute, California Employment Development Department LaborMarketInfo
  6. ↑ David Lazarus An Unpredictable Business / Professional psychics face same challenges as other entrepreneurs SFGate.com , March 25, 2000
  7. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions, James R. Lewis, Prometheus Books, 2002, p. 191, ISBN   1-57392-888-7
  8. ↑ Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources, Jon Klimo, 1998, North Atlantic Books, pp, 162-163, ISBN   1-55643-248-8
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.