As an assistant professor at UC Santa Cruz I taught the most popular course on campus, “The Psychology of Eastern Religions.” We had to use a dining hall as there were no classrooms big enough to fit over 200 students. My guests included Zen masters, Yoga gurus, and a mystical poet among others.

 

In 1975 I decided to start my own university, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now known as Sofia University). The school grew out of my vision of holistic, experiential education plus my belief that traditional Western education has failed to educate or inspire students.

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I have been a teacher in other ways as well. For over 50 years I have taught Aikido, a Japanese spiritual martial art that promotes peace. In 1985 I was formally initiated as a Sufi teacher and I have served as a spiritual guide for my local Sufi community ever since.

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My teaching has grown from small seminars to classes of several hundred to a university that has graduated thousands of M.A. and Ph.D. students. It has been a great pleasure and privilege to have been able to touch so many lives.

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Now I want to serve a larger audience. I have co-founded PageMill Press with Roy M. Carlisle, who is the best editor I have known in my long writing career. (That includes 10 books and seven editions of a popular personality textbook.) We envision PMP as a publisher of inspiring books that include sophisticated and practical approaches to spirituality. In addition we seek to promote a profound understanding of psychology and the interconnections between spirituality and psychology. 

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The world needs the wisdom and insights of spiritual psychology, and we wish to bring these gifts to as many people as possible.

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PMP also plans to publish books that address important social issues, including the terrible tragedies of violence and genocide, the bitter roles of colonialism and slavery and their modern-day manifestations, and the full scope of human experience ranging from healing the most painful trauma to the heights of spiritual experience. 

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I am already tremendously proud of our wonderful authors and their work. PMP is currently preparing books on: 

• transformation through music during the holocaust

• becoming a Catholic woman priest 

• a new look at Jung and dreamwork

• individuation in Japan and America

• an odyssey from being Hugh Hefner’s partner to a substance abuse counselor 

• Sufi therapy 

• and a spiritual journey through cystic fibrosis and a double lung transplant.