The SSF is an interfaith fellowship providing spiritual
services, educational programs, and pastoral ministrations for persons –
from all or no religious backgrounds – who desire to understand human
experiences of psyche and spirit, and to dedicate themselves to personal
spiritual growth, understanding, and psychic development, in an
atmosphere of informed free thought and enquiry.
You are invited to join a remarkable association of intelligent and free people on the spiritual path, exploring contemporary mystical experiences, our cultural heritage, and the spiritual life.
New Paradigms for Science & Spirituality:
The Convergence of Science and
Spirituality in Consciousness Studies, Human Psychical Experiences, and
Life-Energies Research
The Quest for Meaning in Myths & Mysteries:
Symbols, Myths, and the Language of the
Unconscious Mind; Dreams, Visions, and Apparitions
Explorations of Human Potentials in Intuition:
Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience,
Clairsentience, and Precognition; and the various forms of Spiritual and
Psychic Healing and their effects
Evidences of Immortality” from Extraordinary Human Experiences and their
potentially Transformative effects in:
“Out-of-the-Body” and
“Near-Death-Experiences”; “Mediumship,” “Spirit-Communication,” and
various forms of “Post-Mortem Contacts-with-the-Dead”; “Maps of the
Afterlife” in great myths, the world’s religions and cultures, and in
psychic experiences
Research & Evaluation of Experiences suggestive of:
Reincarnation and “Past Lives” through
“Spontaneous Recall” cases or “Regression Therapy”
A Study of the Arcane Symbolism of Spirit and Space Worlds in:
Modern “Contactee” Literature and Ancient
Descriptions of “Heavenly Journeys”
Deciphering Ancient “Maps of Consciousness” in:
Comparative Meditation Systems and
Comparative Mysticism, East and West; The “Gaia Hypothesis”; Cults of
the “Divine-Mother,” and Feminine Spiritualities
Esoteric Wisdom Traditions in the World’s Religions and Cultures:
In the West — Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam; In the East — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Taoism;
Native Traditions, Shamanism, Yoga
Mystical and Psychical Experiences in the Bible and Christianity:
Mysticism and Psi in the lives of
Prophets and Saints; Invocation of Saints and Angels; Marian Apparitions
et al. Metaphysical Philosophies in: Classical Esoteric Traditions,
Eastern & Western, Ancient Systems of “Gnosis,” “Modern Spiritualism,”
“Theosophy,” and “New Thought Traditions” et al.
Spiritual & Psychic Sciences, and “New Psychologies”:
Contemporary Transpersonal &
Transcultural Explorations in the Human Psyche and Spirit
The SSF is the interfaith community
outreach and public services division of the Spiritualist Yoga
Fellowship, a non-denominational Christian Spiritualist religious
fellowship or church, incorporating the insights of Yoga and the Modern
Spiritualist Movement.
The SSF — which has no “faith
requirements” as a prerequisite for membership — has been active at the
forefront of the Encounter between the Eastern and Western religious
traditions and the Mystical Traditions in the World’s Religions and
cultures, east and west. This includes the secularization process in the
world today. SSF instructors may be persons from all or no religious
traditions who are competent in their subjects.
The SSF (SYF) is an interfaith member-unit of The International Council
of Community Churches, which is affiliated with the National Council of
Churches, USA, and the World Council of Churches, Geneva. The SSF
operates its spiritual educational-outreach programs in cooperation with
the International Institute of Integral Human Sciences (IIIHS), an NGO
affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information.
I. Message: SSF Interfaith Ministries
Participation
Since the beginning, the SSF has
attracted persons from many traditions. It has appealed to those who are
aware of the need to rediscover “sciences of the soul and spirit”
through which human beliefs in “reality of God, higher worlds, and a
purposeful universe” might be experienced and understood upon earth
across the man-made barriers that often accompany traditional creeds and
cults.
Christian priests, ministers, Jewish rabbis, Moslem Sufi shaykhs, Hindu
swamis, Sikhs, Buddhist monks and lamas, Jain monks, Native medicine-men
and women, Modern Spiritualist ministers, psychics, mediums, and
representatives of other faiths, old and new, have shared the platform
at various SSF meetings with scholars and scientists of many persuasions
over the past three decades.
Commitment
The common denominator that has united
all of those who have participated in the Fellowship’s services and
programs is a readiness to testify to the reality of the spiritual world
and of the subtle faculties of psychic perception and spiritual vision
through which it may be perceived and or experienced. Spiritual
guidance, and its availability to those of all traditions who sincerely
seek it, is central to the SSF experience.
Global Perspectives
The SSF is interfaith in perspective. In
sociological terms, it is neither a sect nor a cult, nor part of a
particular world religion. It has created no dogmas or creeds of its
own, and gives place to no single figure or sole religious authority in
matters of faith. It is interested in participation by persons from all
faiths and traditions. It is a spiritual association for the development
of the whole person.
Roots
The foundation of the SSF rests upon an
implicit understanding of many general principles of higher perceptions,
which have been shared by persons in the world’s great religious and
spiritual traditions throughout the ages. This includes affirmation of
the existence of a “foundational Reality” which all can potentially
share, and the preference for “an ethical way of life” in accordance
with perceived “natural and spiritual law.” Perennial claims to such
transcendental experiences often deal with perceptions of
“life-after-death,” and accepting the “reality and value of
communication between this and higher worlds of consciousness and
spirit.”
II. History
Foundation
The first meetings of the SSF were held
at the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal in the fall of 1977. The purpose
was to provide opportunity for interfaith services at which peoples of
all traditions could share in the universal gifts of the Spirit. The
Fellowship acknowledged the reality of the spiritual world, as well as
the existence of natural human psychic and spiritual faculties, and
their proper place “in the service
of
God and humanity.”
Dr. Marilyn Zwaig Rossner, renowned
professor of special education, children’s therapist, and gifted
sensitive, is the founder of the SSF. Her outstanding work with
children’s emotional problems and learning disabilities, as well as her
intuitive experiences, have received international recognition.
Growth: “Inner Peace for Outer Peace”
Because it has answered a real need since
1977, the Fellowship has developed, over the years, an associated
membership of over 10,000 persons throughout North America and other
continents and countries. Due to the dedicated work of leaders and
volunteers, Canadian chapters and affiliated or associated groups have
been established. The Fellowship has assisted many persons who are
seeking answers to the basic questions of the human psyche and spirit,
and who are sincere about the pursuit of personal growth and spiritual
development.
Emphasis: Transcending Present Limitations
The SSF encourages the pursuit of a
greater understanding of the human person, and of humanity’s inner
spiritual potential.
Through participation in the activities of the Fellowship, numbers of
persons have been helped to see and appreciate the deeper issues, the
transcendent elements and sacred mysteries, within the great traditions,
East & West. This leads to an increased awareness of the need for
cooperation in solving great issues which have presented challenges
everywhere in human communities.
III. Services
Personal Development Classes and Spiritual Educational Programs
The Headquarters of the Fellowship in
Montreal and many SSF Chapters and Study Groups have arranged lectures
and workshops on a broad spectrum of topics related to human spiritual
and psychic experiences. Classes in personal psychic and spiritual
development are offered regularly. In Montreal and in some Chapters and
Study Groups there has also been provision for regular interfaith
worship, meditation, as well as yoga and stress management instruction.
Annual conferences/retreats are also held.
An Interfaith Outreach Program
Since its inception, the SSF has provided
a ministry training program for persons desiring to prepare themselves
for an interfaith ministry in spiritual and psychical studies.
An “International College Program”
In 1984 the SYF-SSF inaugurated a
seminary program in a limited-residence plus external-studies format.
This program is intended for serious students — whether candidates for
the ministry or not — and leads to certificates with a specialization in
spiritual and psychical studies.
Volunteer Spiritual Workers
Officers, Spiritual workers, and other
functionaries of the SSF receive no salary. The Fellowship relies upon
volunteer services freely rendered by all in order to carry on its work.