About Us

CENTERS FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING

Centers for Spiritual Living is an organization of nearly 400 spiritual communities around the globe that provide spiritual tools to transform personal lives and help make the world a better place. At Centers for Spiritual Living, our spiritual communities teach powerful principles for personal growth and global transformation, honoring all paths to God.

Dr. Ernest Holmes founded the spiritual movement that started Centers for Spiritual Living. Born in 1887 on a small Maine farm, Dr. Holmes spent his teenage years outdoors, asking himself “What is God? Who am I? Why am I here?” This questioning led to his 1926 book, The Science of Mind, which outlined the foundational viewpoints of modern New Thought.

What is Science of Mind

What We Teach

We teach Oneness and Unity, that this thing we have come to call “God” is the Source of all life and creation. This Divine Reality is a Transcendent Mystery beyond our human understanding. It is also the Presence of Love within us and all beings. We do not believe that God is a personality or Deity removed from creation, but that creation is held within the One Infinite Reality.

We teach that all people are equal within this Presence, recognizing that Universal Love is unconditional and nonjudgmental.

We understand that creation comes into being by Universal Love moving through Universal Laws. These laws are similar to natural laws and can be discovered and used by each of us. We teach that Science and Spirituality meet in the fulcrum of quantum physics and mysticism, neuroscience and spiritual psychology, astrophysics and conscious awareness.

We teach the Universal Law of Cause and Effect – that we experience the consequences of our thoughts, words and actions, not as a reward or punishment, but as a natural result of our intentions and deeds.

We teach that our thoughts and beliefs actively impact and create our experience and that by changing our consciousness (mind/heart/body) we truly do change our lives.

We teach the power of affirmative prayer (spiritual mind treatment), not as a petition or supplication, but as an inner alignment with the Universal Power and Presence. Our Spiritual Mind Treatment (affirmative prayer) uses Universal Law to demonstrate the Truth that we have come to know and believe. We expect our lives to grow toward fuller expression and richer experience. We believe that prayer for ourselves, and others, manifests in physical and other types of healing.

We teach that every individual is an expression of the Universal Life and is already immortal. We believe that we live on after death, ever growing and expanding into greater awareness and understanding.

We seek to experience and express a Global Heart to balance the Global Brain of our technology and science. We envision and actively work toward a world that works for everyone, free of war, violence and separation, where forgiveness and sharing of resources is the norm, and where there is a renewed appreciation of art, nature and beauty.

We understand Jesus of Nazareth as the great example, as opposed to the great exception, knowing that his ministry was to teach that our nature, as humans, is Divine. We realize this Divinity as we accept that all of us are sons and daughters of God, the Living Spirit. We experience this Divinity as we embody that the “Kingdom of Heaven is within.”

We teach that there is no one true religion and that each spiritual path leads to Divine Reality and shares a golden thread of Truth. We believe that every faith adds something unique and important to the spiritual evolution of consciousness.

What We Believe

SOM Teaching Symbol

This is our teaching symbol, designed by our founder, Ernest Holmes (1887-1960). It symbolizes the creative process of both Universal and individual Life based on the profound idea that we are “made in the image and likeness “ of the ONE. Its literal definition is “The descent of Spirit, through Law, into form.”

The Circle represents Infinite Spirit or the ONE. This circle contains three sections representing three aspects of the Divine Reality, or a “trinity” of Life.

The top section represents Spirit, the Absolute Nature of the Divine, the impulsion of Love and the Desire to Create. It can also be understood as the Creator, or First Cause. This is the seed of thought, belief or intention.

Within that Infinity is Spiritual Law. Law is accessed by each of us, first by our conscious awareness. Then, we empower some of our thoughts with feeling. Thoughts surrounded by feeling become beliefs—and our beliefs create our experience of conditions, forms, effects. The center section represents this Law of Cause and Effect (Soul), meaning the orderly process through which the Will of God (the impulsion of Love) becomes manifested or created. This is the soil into which the seed is planted.

The lower section is Body, meaning the physical, created universe which is understood to be the actual manifestation (incarnation) of Spirit in Form. This is the growing plant which is the result of the seed being planted.

The “V” symbolizes the creative process itself, reminding us that any impulsion or cause, be it a thought, intention or belief, moves through Law and becomes part of the physical. For every form, experience or effect there is a cause whether consciously planted or not.

By developing a new belief in the goodness and givingness of life, each of us can manifest a new way of being in the world: greater happiness, harmony, prosperity, anything we can imagine. Consciously using the Law of Mind toward these ends, we contribute something positive into the collective belief system of all humankind, setting an intention of a higher good for all.

About Us

CENTERS FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING

Sign Up for Newsletter

Contact

Search

Follow Us On Facebook