John-Roger Hinkins

John-Roger Hinkins (born Roger Delano Hinkins) (September 24, 1934 – October 22, 2014) was an American author, public speaker, and founder of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA), as well as several other New Age, spiritual, and self-help organizations.

Biography

Early life and education Hinkins was born on September 24, 1934, and raised in the small mining town of Rains, Utah. He was brought up in the Mormon faith, As a youth, he attended the local LDS church's Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association and occasionally gave inspirational "three-minute talks." Hinkins described his childhood as "typical," distinguished only by an early belief that he could spot auras, colorful fields that some people believe surround the human body. While in college, he worked as a night orderly in the psychiatric hospital ward of a Salt Lake City hospital. He then moved to San Francisco to work as an insurance claims adjuster.

He received a Secondary Life Teaching Credential from the State of California, and performed post-graduate work at University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California and California State University, Los Angeles. He then began teaching English at Rosemead High School in a suburb of Los Angeles.

"Mystical Traveler Consciousness" Hinkins relates having had a near-death experience while undergoing surgery for a kidney stone in late 1963, after which he fell into a nine-day coma. After this experience, Hinkins says he became aware of another "spiritual personality" that had superseded or merged with his previous personality. He began to refer to himself as "John-Roger." According to Hinkins, he was chosen to "anchor" the consciousness on this planet, and was passed the "keys" to do so by the previous receptor of the consciousness, Sawan Singh, the Radhasoami Satsang Beas master who died in 1948, while he was on the "inner spiritual planes." According to Hinkins, he held the "keys" to the consciousness from December 1963 until December 1988, when they were passed to John Morton, the subsequent spiritual director of Hinkins's organization MSIA.

Hinkins maintained that humans are locked in an eternal cycle of reincarnation and karma, and can only escape by ascending from Earth's negative realms into "a totally positive state of being" called "soul consciousness." This, according to his teachings, is nearly impossible without the assistance of the Mystical Traveler Consciousness he believes he embodies. He has written that "Initiates of the Mystical Traveler Consciousness are those that I am specifically taking home to God." As of 2004 MSIA had participants in over 30 countries, with its largest following in the United States, Australia, Colombia, Brazil, and Nigeria respectively. The church was estimated in 1993 to have 4500 members.

Controversy has surrounded MSIA: it has been accused of being a cult by some former members and by the Cult Awareness and Information Centre, and claims have been made that Hinkins had unethical sexual relationships with members.

MSIA has also been accused of being an "offshoot" of the organization Lifespring, a private, for-profit, New Age/human potential training company founded in 1974. According to Nan Kathryn Fuchs, a long-time devoted member of MSIA and a minister who served on the Ministerial Board for a number of years, Hinkins' teachings changed substantially in tone when Russell Bishop introduced his version of Lifespring Training to a group of MSIA ministers and John-Roger adopted the method, calling it "Insight Training Seminars." Russell Bishop ran the new Insight Seminars.

Regarding this time, Nan Fuchs wrote, "As the money began to roll in, John-Roger became more inaccessible, and his aphorisms changed from 'Help yourself so you can help others' to 'Use everything to your advantage.' He certainly has."

Other organizations founded In addition to MSIA, Hinkins has founded several other non-profit organizations. In 1976, he founded Koh-e-nor University, later renamed the University of Santa Monica (USM), a private, now-unaccredited institution which for several years offered a master's degree in Spiritual Psychology. Prior to his death, Hinkins served as the chancellor of the University.

In 1977 Hinkins founded the Peace Theological Seminary & College of Philosophy (PTS). An educational non-profit organization, PTS offers undergraduate workshops, courses and retreats, and postgraduate programs centered on the teachings of MSIA. The school, an ecumenical and non-denominational, offered Masters and Doctorate degrees in Spiritual Science. Hinkins received his doctorate in Spiritual Science from this organization, and was its president.

In 1978 Hinkins created the Insight organization with friend and fellow MSIA Minister Russell Bishop. Insight Seminars is an international non-profit educational organization headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Hinkins served as Insight Seminars' chairman of the board.

In 1979, Hinkins founded the Heartfelt Foundation, a volunteer-driven, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to serving and assisting people in any form of need.

In 1982, Hinkins founded the Institute for Individual and World Peace (IIWP), a volunteer-driven 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to studying, identifying, and presenting the processes that lead to peace.

Author and filmmaker Hinkins is the author of over 55 books, including The Rest of Your Life (2007), Timeless Wisdoms (2008). He has given more than 6000 seminars over the last forty years, most of which have been recorded either in audio or video format by NOW Productions. Hinkins also produced his own national cable TV show, That Which Is.

In 1988, Hinkins partnered with actor Jsu Garcia to create 'Scott J-R Productions', a film production company committed to creating "spirit-filled" films. Their first full-length feature was My Little Havana, followed by Spiritual Warriors, based on Hinkins' book Spiritual Warrior: The Art of Spiritual Living.

Notable followers and associates Several well-known individuals and public figures have worked with, or, with varying levels of dedication, have been associated with Hinkins since the 1970s. The most prominent of these is Arianna Huffington. Other notable students of Hinkins are the Beach Boys' Carl Wilson; actress Sally Kirkland, an MSIA minister since 1975; actress Leigh Taylor-Young, also an MSIA minister since 1975; actor Jsu Garcia; and author and management consultant David Allen. Author Peter McWilliams was also an MSIA minister but later repudiated MSIA and made a series of personal allegations against Hinkins in his book Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You.

Accusations of cultism, criminal conduct and abuse In the 1980s and early 1990s, several former members of MSIA accused Hinkins of various crimes and abuses, including high-tech charlatanism, the sexual coercion of young male staffers, brainwashing and intimidation, and plagiarism. These allegations, as well as the revelation of the high-profile Arianna Huffington's association with the group, led to a series of investigations by publications such as People, Playboy, the Los Angeles Times and Vanity Fair. MSIA began to be referred to by some elements of the media as a cult.

Charlatanism Dissidents in the organization say Hinkins employed covert listening devices at MSIA's Santa Monica headquarters to support his claim of possessing extrasensory perception. One disenchanted member claimed "What people thought was J-R's clairvoyance was just his cunning and deceitful information gathering."

O'Shaughnessy's wife, Susan, recounted that former MSIA member Michael Hesse told her he had installed recording devices on the telephones at the Insight headquarters. "I realized that so much of what I thought was psychic power was good old electronics," she said.

According to Susan Whitmore, MSIA defectors hesitated to challenge Hinkins publicly even after leaving the movement "because we were made to be afraid." She claims that Hinkins would declare that people who questioned him had placed themselves "under the Kal (a devil-like spirit) power and its field of negativity, known as the Red Monk," and would essentially be warning that members who associated with defectors risked spiritual disaster.

Plagiarism Claims of plagiarism have also been levied against Hinkins, in connection with both MSIA's core teachings and as other publications. Many of these have centered on the reportedly close similarity between certain MSIA materials and doctrine and that of Paul Twitchell's Eckankar, known prior to 1985 as "The Ancient Science of Soul Travel." One of the main allegers, religion academic David C. Lane, has published evidence that Hinkins took without attribution key spiritual teachings from Twitchell, who, Lane further claims, took them in turn from Radha Soami Satsang Beas, a movement with which Lane was at the time actively involved.

Hinkins, himself, admits that he had some level of involvement with the group: around the time of his surgery and religious experience, he had been exploring a variety of different spiritual teachings, and these explorations included Eckankar. Religion scholar James R. Lewis, in his book on Hinkins and MSIA, quotes a conversation in which Hinkins acknowledges that he studied with Eckankar, had a private interview with Twitchell, and received information from the group stating that he was an initiate, but denies being formally initiated into the group.

In 1994, Peter McWilliams, a former high-level member of MSIA, published Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You, which charged that Hinkins had repeatedly abused his power as a guru. McWilliams claimed, among other things, that he was the sole author of the highly successful Life 101 and several subsequent books purportedly coauthored by Hinkins (as "John-Roger"), who was his spiritual adviser and church leader at the time. Hinkins countered with a libel lawsuit. Ultimately, McWilliams agreed to abandon the copyright to Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You to Hinkins to settle the suit.

Defense against cult charges James R. Lewis, an academic who researches new religious movements, conducted a study of Hinkins and the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Lewis stated that he did not consider MSIA a cult.

Later life and death Shortly after the publicized scandals that rocked MSIA during 1988 Hinkins announced that he had passed the "keys" to the Mystical Traveler Consciousness to protégé John Morton. He continued to participate in MSIA and PTS annual events until his death at the age of 80, on October 22, 2014, at his home in Los Angeles, California, from pneumonia.

List of works

Books

Divine Essence (Baraka) (1973) (1982) (2000) The Spiritual Promise (1973) Journey of a Soul (New Edition) (1975) (2000) (2001) The Sound Current (1975) Awakening Into Light (1976) Buddha Consciousness (1976) Consciousness of Wealth (1976) The Dynamics of the Lower Self (1976) Inner Worlds of Meditation (1976) Manual on Using the Light (1976) The Path to Mastership (1976) (1982) The Power Within You (1976) (1984) The Spiritual Family (1976) (1997) Dream Voyages (1977) (1992) Sex, Spirit & You (1977) (1985) (1987) (2000) Music is the Message (1980) The Way Out Book (1980) Blessings of Light (1981) The Signs of the Times (1981) Passage Into Spirit (1984) (2000) Relationships: Love, Marriage and Spirit (1986) (2000) Wealth & Higher Consciousness (1988) God Is Your Partner (New Edition) (1990) (2007) Walking with the Lord (1991) The Consciousness of a Soul (1993) The Christ Within, Disciples of Christ with the Cosmic Christ Calendar (1994) Forgiveness: The Key to the Kingdom (1994) The Tao of Spirit (1994) Psychic Protection (1997) Loving Each Day (1998) (2000) Spiritual Warrior: The Art of Spiritual Living (1998) Interviews with John-Roger and John Morton (1999) The Spiritual Family, Spanish Edition: La Familia Espiritual (1999) Answers to Life's Questions (2000) Loving Each Day for Moms and Dads (2001) Loving Each Day for Peacemakers (2002) Momentum: Letting Love Lead (with Dr. Paul Kaye) (2003) When Are You Coming Home? (with Pauli Sanderson) (2003) What's It Like Being You? (with Paul Kaye) (2004) Spiritual High (New Edition) (2005) Fulfilling The Spiritual Promise (2006) Living Love from the Spiritual Heart (2006) The Rest of Your Life: Finding Repose in the Beloved (with Paul Kaye) (2007) Spiritual Warrior: The Art of Spiritual Living (New Edition) (2008) Timeless Wisdoms: Volume 1 (2008) Serving and Giving (2009) Timeless Wisdoms: Volume 2 (2009)

The Cosmic Self Meditations for the Awakening Heart Q & A from the heart with John-Roger / Journal Spiritual Exercises: A Journal of Soul Transcendence Wisdoms of the Spiritual Heart We Give To Love

Audio The Anointed One, CD set (2006) Health from the Inside Out, CD set (2006) Inner Worlds of Meditation, CD (1998) Inner Worlds of Meditation (incl. Master Chohan), CD set (1997) Joyful Meditations, CD set (2005) Living In Grace, CD set (2005) Momentum, CD set (2005) Money, The Great Mirror of Consciousness, CD set Turning Points to Personal Liberation, CD set (2006)

Video Journey To The East, DVD set Moments of Peace, Video (1999) Spiritual Warriors Movie, DVD, UPC: 700261245539

Related organizations founded by John-Roger Peace Theological Seminary & College of Philosophy (PTS) Institute for Individual and World Peace (IIWP) Insight Seminars Heartfelt Foundation Mandeville Press