About my Doctorate in Spiritual Science

I am in my fourth year of the Doctorate of Spiritual Science program from Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy.

Here’s a brief excerpt from my thesis that has been submitted for my completion and graduation. It will give you a flavor for what this program is about … from my perspective anyway.

“The process of writing this Practical Treatise, and of doing this research both with others and firstly with myself has helped me to both know and to experience what devoting my life to service, to Spirit is. Perhaps like making the decision to have a child, making the decision to live my life in devotion to Spirit and God has been a similarly magical, breathtaking and continually unfolding, unraveling, organic and expanding process. And while I had no idea what I was getting myself into, just as most Mothers are perhaps unaware as to exactly how their lives will change and transform with their decision to have a child, I similarly made the decision to live my devoted to service without really knowing much about what this is or what that process involves.

For me service is best described as ‘loving God’. And as I say those words, as I connect inwardly with what that means for me, tears come, and a rush of energy, of movement, begins at my head and sweetly and subtly moves around my body for a second or two. The experience is perhaps what I would imagine putting my fingers into an electrical plug might be if it were purely a positive and uplifting experience: electric, moving, and somewhat indescribable.

There are no words that sufficiently describe ‘Loving God’. “Loving” and “God” may actually be the two most indescribable words on this planet; and to me, in so many ways, they are in fact the same word. And most pertinently for this paper, they are an experience. For while I can do my best, for example, to describe my first experience of being aligned with Spirit at Lake Arrowhead in 2004 as my first real taste of a joy and love so transcendental and beautiful, greater than anything I had previously experienced, had I read those exact words years earlier, I would not have been able to know or understand this experience from simply reading about it. Reading about it may have inspired me to go and do it, but it was only in the ‘doing it’ that gave me the experience that is now my own knowledge or understanding of what it is for me.

I’m now gently crying. Sweet subtle tears of joy slide down my cheek and my stomach gently pulses as I move into this experience of being in the process of ‘serving the Spirit’. It is this experience of joy and love, and of an incredible inner knowing that everything is just perfect just as it is right now, that is why I made the decision to live my life in devotion to Spirit, to working for the Spirit; it is that I want to live my life in this state of joy, love and knowing.

It is with this Practical Treatise and the past four years’ research that I have taken some of my best guesses for how I can most effectively get myself into this state, this consciousness, this experience of ‘serving the Spirit and of aligning with the Spirit’ by observing and being aware of what I do that brings me more joy, love, and this sense of knowing that everything is perfect and OK just as it is.

The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness & The Mystical Traveler
My decision to devote my life to service includes my devotion to share the teachings and the experience of working with the Mystical Traveler, Dr. John-Roger and the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA).
I began studying with MSIA when I was eighteen years old and the consequent experiences and awareness that followed led me to further study on a one month visit to California in 2004 where I experienced for the first time what I can best describe as ‘real love’ and ‘real joy’.

I returned to California one year later for a further three months in 2005, after which I relocated to Los Angeles to work full time with Dr. John-Roger and MSIA.

MSIA while legally a church, is better described as a Modern Day Mystery School. It is a non-profit organization offering personal study whose primary focus is to teach Soul Transcendence, which is becoming aware of yourself as a Soul and as one with God, not as a theory but as a living reality. MSIA as an organization was founded officially in 1963 by John-Roger (www.msia.org, September 29, 2010).

John-Roger has described in many seminars and various books that one of the keys of Soul Transcendence is to see or perceive life and what’s going on positively:
“If you would learn the secret of Soul Transcendence, look only for the good, for the Divine in people and things, and all the rest leave to God.”
(John-Roger, www.lovingeachday, July 30, 2010)

This is the essence of the greatest discovery and learning I have found within my research and in my life over the last five years. It is the choosing to look only for the good, or the choosing to see, perceive and experience only the good, the positive in all things that has brought me the ‘real joy’ and ‘real love’ I have been wanting.
John-Roger is a spiritual teacher, a NY Times #1 bestselling author, an internationally recognized and critically acclaimed public speaker, a Mystical Traveler, my boss and my friend.

It was through my study with John-Roger and MSIA that led me to my experiences of ‘real joy’ and ‘real love’, which inspired me towards moving towards a life devoted to serving the Spirit.

In his book with Pauli Sanderson, John-Roger talks about the value of increasing your altitude so that you can see your life and the choices you are making more clearly: so that you can see them from a higher spiritual perspective and see them as good, as for you, as from God. (John-Roger with Sanderson, When Are You Coming Home? 2004, p121-122) While those words always sounded good to me, it was not until I really started to accumulate experience and to begin to create new reference points for myself of being in ‘negative situations’, the challenging recurring patterns of my life and playing around with various methods to find ways that worked that would help me to actually see the so called ‘negative situation’ as positive, as good, as part of God.

It is in this process of looking for the good, of choosing to see life as good and positive that I also began to learn what ‘real love’ was, and consequently began to learn what ‘Loving God’ was for me.

Peace Theological Seminary & College of Philosophy’s Doctorate of Spiritual Science
I have been studying with Peace Theological Seminary & College of Philosophy (PTS) for six years now, and am writing this final paper in order to graduate with my Doctorate of Spiritual Science (DSS).
PTS is a non-profit, non-denominational, educational seminary granting Masters and Doctorate degrees in Spiritual Science, and a wide range of undergraduate courses, classes and other types of study.
It was in a two week retreat at Lake Arrowhead that I attended through PTS that gave me the first series of life-transforming experiences I have later come to term as ‘real love’ and ‘real joy’, and have now come to understand them as a result of serving and being in alignment with Spirit.”

And from MSIA’s website regarding the PTS DSS Program

Prerequisites: MSS graduate, MSIA Initiate and MSIA Minister in good standing, active subscription to MSIA Soul Awareness discourses and Soul Awareness Tapes, commitment to tithe 10% to MSIA throughout the DSS Program, up to and including Graduation, and official acceptance by PTS administration.

Through the Doctor of Spiritual Science Program (DSS), students move to new levels of expansiveness and awareness. The DSS provides a supportive format for expanding spiritual awareness and for the consistent and disciplined practice of the Traveler’s Teachings. Experience has shown that this program requires a daily, conscious, continual focus.

The DSS Program is a three-year program, with students meeting one weekend a month for nine months each year. The students are given support materials and assignments to work with and do between the weekend classes that are designed to integrate the tools and keys they learn during the class weekends.

YEAR ONE — THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL HUMAN – PART I

The first year is devoted to intensive course work with the focus of the students being primarily on themselves and the discovery of their Individual Study, part of the final paper required for graduation in the DSS.

“There are two key ways to know if you’re really following in God consciousness or not: How you’re not following is shown by the limitations and restrictions and constrictions that you put out. You often can feel them in your body. And they usually lead to physical illness, emotional sickness and mental disturbance. The way that you know you are in God’s work is by how much you are expanding and by how much more you are effectively ‘doing it’. You see, God created us and He didn’t use any junk to do it. Sometimes you want to take who you are as a creative being and make junk, thinking that’s going to be acceptable. At the level we are working in this PTS doctoral program, I want to be clear with you that it’s not. The thing we’re on the planet to learn is discipline towards God’s direction. That discipline is not a punishment. It’s joy. And it’s a real thankful thing to have.”
- John-Roger, DSS

YEAR TWO — THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL HUMAN – PART II

During Year Two, students focus on expanding their awareness of themselves as divine beings. They refine their attention, intentions, purposes and goals, and explore deeper levels of commitment to their spiritual awakening. The Individual Study area in which each student engages is a vehicle for the discovery and exploration of their spiritual nature.

“What’s the main reason for the DSS class? It could be answered two ways: the negative way is, what stops you from seeing God? The other way is, what helps you get to God? If you find out what’s stopping you,

that doesn’t mean you cracked it, but you are getting to God, that means you’re already on course-correction, and you are just on a timeline of fulfillment. And each person may have a slightly different variation.”
- John-Roger, DSS

YEAR THREE — THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL HUMAN – PART III

The third year is a year of practical application. Students continue to attend monthly classes, during which they confer with their peers and advisors in developing and applying their Individual Study as a repeatable and usable methodology.

Graduation Requirement: Successful completion of years one, two and three, and all the program requirements, including the completion and approval of the Practical Treatise, qualify the student to receive a PTS Doctor of Spiritual Science Degree.

The Practical Treatise is a unique and original study, coming out of the students’ behavior, documenting the student’s research, discoveries and conclusions. The Practical Treatise can be regarded as a “how to” manual that other people can read and practice in order to achieve predictable, measurable, repeatable results.

“What it comes down to, always and forever, is the commitment to yourself. And that starts when, ten billion times a day, ten billion percent, you commit to the upliftment and the unfoldment that is your spiritual
-John-Roger, DSS