Certificated Adult Spiritual Education Classes

(certified by United Centers for Spiritual Living)

As we study our own being, we begin to deduce the nature of God.

— Ernest Holmes

Our classes give you what you need to expand your knowledge of spiritual principles and to gain practical spiritual tools for everyday use. In addition to learning about our philosophy and how to apply it, being in a class is one of the best ways to enter more deeply into our spiritual community. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet and get to know people from many different backgrounds.

Our teachers are experienced and love to share the power that these teachings have to change lives. Classes combine experiential exercises with explanation how to establish a spiritual practice. Many lifelong friendships have begun in our classrooms. Come and join us as we explore and experience the transformation spiritual practice can bring to every life!

Classes are typically 8 or 10 weeks in length and begin in January, May, and September. Registration begins 6 weeks prior to the first class.

Certificated Classes - All completed course work contributes to the required pre-requisites for entry to the Advanced Consciousness Studies Program and Professional Prayer Practitioner Studies.

Beyond Limits or Foundations: How to use the power of spiritual practice to change your life

In these classes we study core spiritual concepts and practice applying them to the conditions in our lives. We learn how to gain more clarity and less confusion about what to do and how to do it. The classes are experiential, with guided meditations and exercises to assist you in incorporating spiritual practice and understanding into your daily life. Either one of these two basic courses is required prior to any further course enrollment.

Spiritual Practices for Daily Living: Discovering and designing your spiritual practice

Building on the knowledge gained in Beyond Limits or Foundations, this class focuses on how to have an active daily connection with Spirit and how to find your own unique way of doing that through spiritual practices. You will explore receptive (meditation) and directive (prayer) ways of communing with Spirit to be able to choose the perfect spiritual practice for you in every moment and situation. Various forms of meditation are presented, and you will develop greater skill in verbal and written prayer, especially for others.

Self Mastery:  The emergence of the true self

Have you ever wrestled with the impulse to react when you want to respond compassionately and calmly? Do you wonder what causes you to react in ways that leave you feeling dissatisfied? Do you have questions about integrity and compassionate communication? Do you sometimes wonder how to be a spiritual person in a practical world? This class is an inward journey exploring feelings, ego, relationships, and the process of personal change. With direct, practical advice from Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements, the work of Byron Katie and others, you will discover new ways to deepen human love, trust, and forgiveness.

The Power of Your Word: The artistry of prayer

As you deepen in your spiritual practice, you will begin to realize how important prayer in living a spiritual life. In this class you learn specifically what contributes to clear, powerful, focused prayer. Not only will you learn how to write affirmations and prayers to address personal circumstances for yourself and for others, you will also be coached in identifying and describing personal limiting beliefs that interrupt your progress. You will be invited to experience what it means to “pray continuously” and to live a life based on prayer.

Roots: Experiencing the inspiration that led to our teachings

Learn how our teachings became a system that freely draws from many religions, philosophies, literature, and sciences. Directly experience the power of those teachers and the teachings that inspired Ernest Holmes, our Founder. This class guides us through the writings of three of the most important influences in Holmes’s development: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Troward, and Emma Curtis Hopkins.

Practical Mysticism: Living in the presence of the divine

This class provides an opportunity to get in touch with your own inner “mystic.” Inspired by the world’s great mystical traditions and teachers, you will gain a deeper experience and understanding of your own personal way of living a mystical life. By reframing what a mystic is and how to practice mysticism in every day situations, you will be invited to step into a new identity as a person who is committed to discovering Spirit in every action, person, and situation.

Visioning: Tuning in to Spirit’s activity in your life

Visioning is the practice of catching Spirit’s ideas as they unfold in your life. As you become more aware of Spirit working in your life, you readily turn to Spirit first before taking any action. Knowing how to ‘listen’ to Spirit’s ideas and how to differentiate between all the other messages that pass through our awareness becomes an important skill in living a spiritual life. Visioning is about the personal transformation that occurs when you let Spirit inform everything you do! In this class, you learn how to vision and experience the power of visioning with others.

5 Gifts of an Abundant Life

This class promises to change your consciousness, leading to the experience of a more abundant life. If you have struggled with ideas about lack and/or limitation in the world beyond your control, this class will help build a bridge from where you are to an experience of spiritual living in which you feel the infinite support of an abundant universe. The 5 gifts that lead to clarity and inspiration are: Gratitude, Intentions (both setting and manifesting), Forgiveness (of self and others), Tithing (practice of structured giving), and Surrender. You will savor the spiritual community that you build with your fellow travelers through specific spiritual practices that are designed to guide you in the process of mastering some spiritual principles.

The Heart-Mind-Body Connection

What is the relationship between our thoughts and our experience of well-being? What information from recent scientific studies exists about the mind-body connection? This class includes fairly new material on heart coherence and the ability of the heart field to reduce stress and facilitate the body’s healing response. Ernest Holmes wrote that healing is a revealing of Truth. This class includes exercises to increase our sensory awareness of our wholeness so that we can experience it as the Truth. Resting in this sensation, we have the opportunity to experience ourselves as divine, which in turn changes our biochemistry to support healing. We also explore the benefits of self-love, self-acceptance, self-forgiveness as well as the role surrender plays in our experience of “healing”.

The Essential Ernest Holmes: Feeling the heart behind the teaching

Ernest Holmes studied many teachings in developing our spiritual teaching. Along the way he adapted what he learned to suite his audience and his time. He left us with the charge to continue to adapt his teaching to the world we live in now. In order to adapt and grow, it is vital to understand the foundation. In this class, you will experience the real Ernest Holmes and discover the gifts he has left for you through his teaching. The text book for the class is The Essential Ernest Holmes, a brilliant compilation of Holmes’s key ideas on a broad range of topics including social awareness, non-dualism, mysticism, healing and prayer.

Meditation: It’s more than you think

This course is suitable for beginners or those wishing to deepen and expand their spiritual practice. The experiential nature of the class will move you through several modalities, including meditation with light, mantras, sound, movement, breathing and more. With an innovative and inspiring structure, informative reading materials and gentle guidance, this class promises to take you deeper into your practice every day, for good!

Financial Freedom

This class will assist you in the development of greater awareness of Spirit as the source of financial as well as personal freedom. You will explore your own current beliefs and attitudes about money to create a spiritual practice that will duplicate the nature of Spirit in your financial affairs. Learning these tools for personal freedom will give you the opportunity to apply them in all aspects of your life.

Advanced Consciousness Studies (ACS 1)

This 30-week course takes the student on a deep journey of self discovery, focusing on a keen understanding of our teaching and applying spiritual principles. Students continue their mastery of life through personal responsibility, the power of choice, and structured spiritual practices. Through reading, reflective writing, affirmative prayer and classroom exercises, students develop a moment by moment awareness of what it means to live a spiritual life. (A minimum of five completed classes and an interview are required prior to enrolling. Offered once per year beginning in September and ending in May)

Professional Practitioner Studies (ACS 2)

In this course, you will learn the necessary skills for working with clients and the application of spiritual principles in human conditions through expanded use of affirmative prayer. Students deepen their role of selfless service to our spiritual community and hone the consciousness of a healing presence. Successful completion of this 30 week course with written and oral exams culminates in licensing as a Professional Prayer Practitioner (RScP) with United Centers for Spiritual Living.

Education Ministry at the Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa
2075 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Director: Rev. Kim Kaiser, 707-546-4543, ext. 119, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Coordinator: Martha McCabe, RScP, 707-546-4543, ext. 118, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it