About the Guild

The deep desire of the Guild for Psychological Studies is to enable the discovery of one's own unique value system and inner authority. Our times are filled with the urgency of making mature choices, and demand that the center of consciousness, the ego, recognize its awesome responsibility. Guild seminars use material from the world's wisdom-keepers such as Jesus, Jung, Hildegard of Bingen, Lao Tsu and Rilke, as well as from the fields of mythology, depth psychology, religion, and the arts.

Discussions include the finding of new meaning in ourselves and others, and provide practical means to overcome that which distorts our perspective, deadens relationship, and cuts us off from the sources of new life. Then we can begin to understand, accept and come to terms with the destructive and creative parts in ourselves which lie beyond the boundaries of consciousness, but nonetheless have enormously dynamic potential and significance.

The desired outcome of this process by individuals for their own singular total meaning has been called self-actualization, wholeness, individuation, and the integration of the personality. The quality inherent in such development has been felt as wondrous, indeed sacred, by people of all ages and all cultures, by religious leaders, poets, philosophers, and in our time by scientists. They have used such expressions as the Inner Light, the Divine Spark, the Kingdom of God within, the Self, the Higher Power, the Unified Field Theory, and the Force.

In discussion sessions, the seminar leader asks questions intended to evoke responses on the part of all — questions designed to illumine the meaning the text offers to us. Since there is no single "right" answer to such questions, individuals are encouraged to think for themselves, to consult their own resources, and to contribute their own particular response to the material, as free of preconceptions as possible. They are also encouraged to listen with genuine openness to contributions of others.

Academic knowledge of psychology and religion is not a prerequisite for the seminars, and mere intellectual understanding of texts and concepts is not the goal. There is no need and no attempt to reach any group agreement. Seminar work is augmented by art, movement, music, ritual and silence. The Guild for Psychological Studies, founded by Elizabeth Boyden Howes, Sheila Moon and Luella Sibbald, has been offering seminars for over 50 years.

Any day, each day, every day, may hold within it one or many of the questions that constitute the prods of life.

Elizabeth Boyden Howes