Toward a Psychic Relgion

July 2002, Berkeley

I wrote this short paper for a sociology course.  I went into the course having no idea how to write a strictly  sociological paper, and as far as I know, I still don't know how to write one.  Even so, my grad student reader was kind enough to give me an A on this particular endeavor...

McGuire characterizes modern Official Religion by a process of institutional specialization.  By this model, an Official Religion is grounded in a “standardization of the worldview in a well defined doctrine” (McGuire 99), and includes specialized religious roles of leadership and a strong centralized regulating organization.  In short, a religion becomes official when an institution is established to oversee the maintenance of rituals and doctrines, and provides a structure of community organization whereby religious roles are assigned and carried out.  More specifically, an Official Religion operates via a coherent model which “typically includes a prescribed doctrine, a set of ethical standards, cultic expression, and institutional organization” (99).  The fundamental beliefs and practices, as well as conditions for membership and accepted behaviors, fall under the canopy of a firmly established organizing institution, which transcends the individual membership even as it caters to it.  This particular model of Official Religion seems well in accordance with what I understand to be the common view of religion, that is, decidedly institutional and potentially dogmatic.  It allows us to examine religion as a phenomenon rooted in social organization, and that seems as good a place as any to start.

  One clear advantage in defining Official Religion is that it allows us to take the next step and explore the more ambiguous Unofficial Religion.  The advent of “quest culture” in our pluralistic society begs for a cache basin of piecemeal religiosity for the spiritual individual to plunder -- this cache basin,  and it’s offspring, is perpetuated in the field of Unofficial Religion.  McGuire writes, “Whereas Official Religion is relatively organized and coherent, Nonofficial Religion includes an assortment of unorganized, inconsistent, heterogeneous, and changeable sets of beliefs and customs.” (113).  This conglomeration of religious materials includes popular religion, as well as the scattered beliefs and practices of the occult, magic, and any number of paranormal phenomena which might be incorporated into a spiritual practice or worldview.  The main characteristic of religiosity in this category seems to be the lack of an overarching organization or institution.  Whereas any esoteric text or magic ritual may exist as a potential means toward higher spirituality, it cannot be a religion by itself.  Rather, such a ritual or text would have to be incorporated into a religious institution and given a position in relation to that institution’s doctrines, rituals, organization, etc…, before bearing the title of Official Religion.  McGuire’s dichotomy offers a pair of ideal types, differentiating between religiosity that has been activated by an institution, and that which remains scattered and institutionally inactive.  As always, the potential problems with this system appear only when we begin to look at modes of religiosity which do not adhere tightly to either pole.

  I was quite surprised the first time I heard mention of psychic phenomena as being somehow connected to spirituality.  I had always thought the psychic paradigm belonged in the realm of the secular -- concerned as it is with pituitary glands, electromagnetic fields and whatnot.  The notion of placing psychic phenomena and its adherents in the realm of what has above been described as Official Religion seems ludicrous.  However, the more interaction I have with this particular social phenomenon, the more it appears that the religious and the psychic seem intent on moving into the future hand in hand.  The commercialization of the psychic hotlines and the proliferation of scam artists notwithstanding, the psychic movement as a collective phenomenon may be decidedly spiritual.  I would like to examine two groups of practicing psychics that I have come into contact with in the last year; the first falls clearly into the category of Official Religion, while the second remains somewhat harder to classify.

  The Spiritual Rights Foundation, Incorporated was founded in 1982 by Reverend Willium H. Duby (ordained minister of the Church of the Divine Man), right here in Berkeley.  The birth of this organization was the culmination of Rev, Duby’s long time dream, to establish  “a spiritual Kindergarten where people kindred in spirit could congregate to practice their spirituality in the exercise of their psychic abilities.”  Indeed, the foundation is a veritable hotbed of what one might expect from a collective of psychics:  Modestly priced psychic readings of varying theme (aura, relationships, prosperity, past lives -- you name it),  a slightly more expensive psychic hotline, a call in radio show, and a free healing clinic twice a week for anyone who cares to get their chakras cleared.  Looking beyond the initial commercial veneer, however, we find a group that falls clearly into the category of Official Religion -- in fact, the organization serves a secondary function as a decidedly Christian church.  SRF holds a congregational Christian service once a month, drawing on both traditional readings of the bible and their own uniquely devised “psychic gospel” -- a translation of scripture into psychic terminology and methodology.  The primary practitioners and readers carry the title Reverend, each and every one of them having become an ordained Christian-Psychic minister through years of study.  SRF offers to its members and the general population an Academy For Psychic Studies -- a seminary which offers courses in everything from traditional theology to chakra work, healing, trance, and the tell-tale “psychic reading“.  A financial venture perhaps (although SRF is non-profit) -- but also a religion and community to which its members are deeply committed.  For the members of the Spiritual Rights Foundation, there is no distinction between “psychic phenomena” and spirituality.  They consider their psychic talents to be a natural outgrowth of their religion.

  The Truine Light Center of Los Angeles, by contrast, is decidedly less congregational.  Founded in 1977 by JacQuaeline (not her birth name, I understand), TLC is an organization dedicated to increasing public awareness of intuition, ESP, and spirituality.  It also appears to be an organization dedicated to promoting JacQuaeline, who in addition to running the center, maintains a lucrative practice as a psychic and esoteric teacher.  In any case, financially oriented or no, JacQuaeline has amassed a huge body of esoteric knowledge as well as a substantial network of spiritual practitioners.  This does not, however, establish TLC as an Official Religion by any means.  Although the organization maintains a vast system of doctrines, ethical codes, and rituals, it does not cater to a unified body of spiritualists.  TLC functions primarily to educate the public in various psychic and esoteric practices, and any outcroppings of spiritual practice akin to religious worship are relegated to private gatherings amongst JacQuaeline and her friends.  In this sense they share much in common with modern Witchcraft, operating as a loose affiliation of individuals with similar beliefs and developed, shared rituals.  Last October I attended a free seminar by JacQuaeline and her colleague Zaneta, entitled, “How to Become an Evolutionary Force.”  Sticking around afterward to observe the subsequent group meditation, I was surprised to hear twenty-five out of approximately thirty people in attendance recite by rote what JacQuaeline called, “The Universal Prayer.”  An Official Religion in the making, perhaps, but also a group preferring a disorganized status -- willing to accept leaders such as JacQuaeline, but recognizing no need to consider them clergy.

  These two organizations have no official ties, and in fact have no awareness of each other at all except through conversation with me.  I imagine this is the case with a large number of psychic institutions, and for this reason the psychic movement as a whole falls clearly outside the realm of Official Religion.  There is no quintessential psychic text or ritual -- psychic phenomena seem to have a place in Official Religion only when adopted and incorporated into a larger religious institution.  It is worthy to note, however, that there remains an almost eerie similarity in the treatment of psychic materials by unaffiliated groups.  Both TLC and SRF make extensive use of the Chakra system in understanding human spirituality and physiology.  Despite the fact that each institution refined the system separately, there remains a startling consistency in the associations of specific chakras with spiritual and emotional functions, corresponding physiological glands, even corresponding colors.  Likewise, both the “Universal Prayer” mentioned above and the “reading prayer” employed by SRF make reference to “the God of our Hearts”, and both  understand the information gleaned by psychic readings to be a manifestation of  “cosmic will“.  Further delving shows that TLC and SRF also have markedly similar belief structures and practices regarding auras, energy systems, past lives, and healing.  The similarities, in this case, far outweigh the differences.  Equally astounding, in my eyes, is that upon visiting with unaffiliated psychic practitioners in Long Beach, Monterey, and Berkeley, I again found a strikingly similar aggregation of beliefs and practices.  It would seem as though the psychics of California, individuals and collectives alike, share a bit more than a propensity for prediction.

  I find this intriguing precisely because there is no seminal psychic text, nor any clear lineage that traces these groups or individuals back to a common point of origin.  The implication of these common threads, I posit, is that the Psychic Movement rests on a much firmer social foundation than appears at first glance.  In fact, the Unofficial seeds of psychic religiosity today may well be on their way toward becoming the Official Psychic Religion of tomorrow.

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