The REAL (religious) Origins of Social Emotional Learning

The Way of Council, a form of syncretic dialogue which was systematized at The Ojai Foundation found its way into schools, businesses, government, prisons, end-of-life care, and trauma centers worldwide, as they “trained the trainers.” (picture from https://www.circleways.org/our-story)

Did you know that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) “circle time” practices used in schools across the nation are actually based upon a specialized form of dialogue drawn from Theosophical, Buddhist and Native American Church practices called the Way of Council?

Neither did I.

For years, I thought the original Fetzer Institute meeting in 1994 that was said to have launched the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the entire field of SEL was the beginning of its story.

I recently learned that’s not where SEL began at all.

That 1994 meeting was actually part of a series of meetings convened by the Working Group on Contemplative Mind in Society formed in 1993 to figure out how to get spiritual practices from Eastern esoteric religions (which promote a very collectivist, “whole”-istic worldview) into every nook and cranny of American life by disguising it in secular language and citing its scientific health benefits. I’ll show you in this article how there is a direct link to the creation of what would become CASEL's Social Emotional Learning from the occult religion Theosophy as well as Mahayana Buddhism.

The Working Group

This document describes the genesis of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind), a non-profit organization formed in 1997. It says at the bottom of page 28:

"In 1993, a group of 16 people, including Michael Lerner, Brian Stock, Joan Halifax, Charles Halpern, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, came together to begin a conversation about how to document and nurture this growing field [of contemplative practice]. The Working Group on Contemplative Mind in Society, supported by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, met several times over the next few years. In 1997, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society was formed as a nonprofit organization. Its mission was to integrate contemplative awareness into contemporary life in order to help create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society. The Center’s first efforts focused on Philanthropy, Environmental work, Higher Education, Law, Youth, and Business."

Let’s unpack just a few of these people that were mentioned as being involved in this working group and what they were a part of:

Joan Halifax: research assistant to mythologist Joseph Campbell and student of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. In 1979, she took over The Ojai Foundation (TOF), where the Way of Council form of dialogue that Social Emotional Learning is based upon was conceptualized (more on this later in the piece). The Ojai Foundation (formerly the Human Dimensions Institute-West, a non-profit exploring the interface between science and spirituality), was on a plot of land purchased by Theosophist Annie Besant in 1927. According to this video (below) from The Ojai Foundation’s YouTube channel, the “intention [of buying the land] was to help the development of a new race type which she [Besant] foresaw at that time developing here in America…We [the Happy Valley Foundation] are providing space for these various groups to use the various portions of the land on a long-term agreement basis; groups which have objectives and purposes and plans which are consistent with Dr. Besant’s ideals and those that we have too, which are the same.” This “new race” – the sixth root race Annie Besant spoke of – was a higher-evolved race she thought was destined to emerge that had a more advanced stage of consciousness, intelligence, virtue and spiritual awareness. She saw the need to support the evolution of this “Coming Race” and believed in the cosmic mission of the Theosophical Society to help bring it along. This was ultimately the purpose of the land from which some of the ideas about Social Emotional Learning practices and the people that came up with them – like Rachael (nee Shelley) Kessler who was an author in the seminal SEL book and another member of this 16-person working group – originated from.

Michael Lerner: co-founder of the Commonweal Institute in 1976, which was originally branded as a retreat center for at-risk youth, their parents and people who work with them. Later, Lerner started hosting meetings there focused on environmental/planetary health with heavy hitters in the global sustainability world, as well as those who were trying to advance the mind-body-spirit health movement. Kessler, in a footnote for her article she wrote for the Winter 1997 edition of Holistic Education Review revealed that “The term ‘emotional literacy’ arose first at a meeting I attended hosted by Eileen Growald [Rockefeller] and Michael Lerner, Director of the Commonweal Institute. Commonweal played an important role in the early efforts to identify and assemble the key stakeholders in this new field [of social emotional learning].” Daniel Goleman also admits in his acknowledgements of his book Emotional Intelligence that he first heard the phrase ‘emotional literacy’ from Eileen, and it was this conversation that spurred him on to research for and write the book that gave wings to the Social and Emotional Learning movement, which was starting to flounder. At that time, Eileen was founder and president of the Institute for the Advancement of Health which she formed in 1981 to help establish the mind and body connection in health and disease.

Jon Kabat-Zinn: also a student of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. An original fellow at the Fetzer Institute, he went on to create the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in 1979. He also helped facilitate the dialogues between scientists and the Dalai Lama at Mind & Life Dialogue (later Institute), which we’ll also discuss in a minute.

As I uncovered more of the 16 people involved in this group that weren’t mentioned in the document, it became clear to me that the Fetzer Institute meeting that started social and emotional learning in 1994 was just one of those "several times over the next few years" mentioned in the above document that this Working Group on Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind) met. It didn't form out of thin air, either. This article covering the eventual sun setting of CMind relays what spurred on the Working Group and their meetings in the first place...

"Officially founded in 1997 by Mirabai Bush, Charles Halpern, and Robert Lehman [who chaired Fetzer Institute's board for 17 years and served as its president from 1989-2000], CMind has roots that stretch back to 1991. In that year, two retreats brought together people who would become instrumental in the development of CMind and a purposeful introduction of the teachings of dharma and mindfulness to foundational elements of American society, including law, business, and higher education. On the west coast, in Malibu, CA, "A Retreat for Environmentalists" was led by Thich Nhat Hanh and sponsored by the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the Ojai Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. The east coast retreat, held in Sharon, MA, was called "Compassionate Awareness and Social Action," and it was led by Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg, having been sponsored by the SEVA Foundation, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the Insight Meditation Society. The interest and interpersonal connections generated by these retreats led to the formation of a working group, led by Bush, to explore the possibilities for an organization that would respond to the clear social desire for meditative and contemplative practices. Several years of deliberate, thoughtful discussion and discernment enabled the development of CMind as an organization that would have a significant effect on American society."

The Working Group mentioned in the above excerpt is the same as the one mentioned in the first, and these two retreats and what came out of them represented two differing camps of Buddhism – the Eastern/Tibetan one and the Chinese/Traditional one – agreeing to work together for the purpose of spreading the Buddhist philosophies of dharma (doctrine/truth of the Buddha) and mindfulness into the West.

Mind & Life Dialogues

Many of the participants at both retreats had already been in (dialectical) discussion with those in the science and spirituality community through the Mind & Life Dialogues with the Dalai Lama (which began in 1987 and eventually went on to form the Mind & Life Institute in 1991) According to P. Adam Engle, co-founder of the Mind & Life Institute, these dialogues were originally meant to mimic the dialogue sessions held between the quantum physicist David Bohm, and J. Krishnamurti (Theosophist Annie Besant’s “World Teacher”) that began in the 1960s about their intersection of beliefs around the concept of life as an indivisible whole, encompassing both nature and human consciousness. Their talks suggested the existence of a deeper, hidden and inaccessible (implicate order) regime of (mystical) reality where everything is fundamentally interconnected as part of a unified system.

If true, this would legitimize the cosmological monistic teachings of Eastern religions that “all is one” through the quantum theory of “non-locality”: that all particles (life) in the universe are interdependent and affect each other even when we’re not in proximity to those other particles. These ideas have been used by some to argue for a departure away from American individualism toward a more collectivist global government. It is also the concept behind the thrust of the World Health Organization’s One Health agenda; that because we are enmeshed with all other particles in the universe, we are not only on the same level of importance as the planet, the biosphere, and all life within it, but humans have a responsibility to protect those things even if it means sacrificing our own health and well-being.

It was Joan Halifax who suggested to P. Adam Engle that he meet with the scientist Francisco Varela, and that they work together on the ‘Dialogues’ project. At that meeting with Varela, Engle decided to shift the focus of the Mind & Life Dialogue meetings from continuing the discussion about quantum science and spirituality to instead marry theories about neuroscience and spirituality, as Varela had already been in discussion with the Dalai Lama about his interest in doing so. Specifically, the Mind & Life Dialogues were meant to stimulate scientific research studies and published papers on the physical health benefits of contemplative practices (e.g. meditation, breathing exercises, etc.) utilized by Eastern religions like Buddhism, with the aim of advocating for their broader promotion of use in wider society. In reality, this was the expansion of an even larger scheme created nearly a decade earlier to infuse Buddhist principles into Western schools using secular language by the Tibetan Buddhist Lama Yeshe and his establishment of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Teachings (FPMT) in 1975.

As P. Adam Engle recounts in the interview above, his idea for the Dialogues actually grew out of his participation in the first meetings of the Universal Education Association (UEA), which was an offshoot of the FPMT following their 1982 International Universal Education Conference in Pomaia, Italy.

The Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Principles (FPMT)

In a 1982 video conversation (below) with Connie Miller, who helped create and run the Universal Education Association, Lama Yeshe explained what he meant by “universal education”:

“We need new education for the world. [The] present education produce[s] world conflict and dissatisfaction for the new generation…There is a lot of knowledge and wisdom, but [the] presentation is…too narrow…too dogmatic way to present [to] a student of the world…so that they conflict, reflect[ing] whatever is dualistic in nature… I feel we should eliminate conflict situation [of presenting Buddhism as “universal education” in schools] by using words, by using common knowledge… For example, we can take entire lamrim or something tantra without using any terminology of Buddhist…so it doesn’t have a category [of religion]…. I told you – Buddhism - we have this quality called universal education…but I warned you…change clothes, cut the terminology…Buddhism words…Don’t using like “Nirvana”…stop using Sanskrit religious words. Just use simple scientific language which does not have any religious connotation, [so] it does not have any such “belong such [religious] category”…Because human beings project already [in] such [a] way narrow connotation, label already…narrow label—these you have to take out to have new image [of what is a] nation…new worldview… When we say “when we make new education,” that does not mean we give up old education totally. We use old education but we take out in this old education the words which make dumb and closed [minded]. Those are things we take out…put in new head…and add more flavor…deeper understanding of human nature. Universal Education does not mean we get rid of mathematic (educating with Western way)…Western education has value but need some kind of you know, flavor…more totality, more divination. [With] Each subject has totality, matter and wisdom content.”

The above discussion makes it clear that the intent of the FPMT was to secretly (by not using sanskrit language or wearing Buddhist robes) take the tenets of Mahayana Buddhism and install them as a global ethic in schools. But are the concepts behind Buddhism and other religions like Judaism and Christianity the same?

It is plain that they are NOT. Even if one does not subscribe to a religion like Judaism or Christianity, at the very least Buddhism’s collectivist nature conflicts with the individualistic principles that underpin the governing structure of Western cultures.

Lama Yeshe talks about the problem of Western education being too dualistic in nature, and how “universal education” (based on Buddhist philosophy) can create a new worldview in students. What he’s referring to here is the idea of whether or not there is a separation between the physical (mind, matter) and metaphysical (spirit, consciousness) realms; it's the worldview of whether there are two separate levels of reality (dualism) – one we can directly perceive and another that is beyond our physical senses – or if those realities are one and the same (non-dualism).

Christianity is often considered dualistic because it holds the belief that humans are composed of two distinct entities: a physical body and an immaterial soul, creating a separation between the realities of the material world and the spiritual world. Christians believe, for instance, that when their physical bodies die, their soul goes to be with their God in the spiritual realm.

Eastern religions, like Hinduism and Buddhism are non-dualistic because they believe in an ultimate reality that is one and indivisible; essentially “everything is one,” and there is no distinction between the self (physical) and the divine (metaphysical).

That’s why, in both Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism the practitioner can literally attain enlightenment (and achieve a God-like state) by breaking away from what Buddhists call samsara – the cycle of rebirth (reincarnation) and suffering (by learning lessons through each reincarnation until one reaches nirvana). Mahayana - what Lama Yeshe wanted to teach to Western students - is actually the second level of Buddhist practice. The first is Hinayana, which focuses on the individual on their quest for enlightenment, but Mahayana is different because it brings in the concept of compassion. In Mahayana, instead of attaining enlightenment individually, the focus is on trying to develop bodhicitta – the ability to attain enlightenment and also, to use this to benefit all other living beings trapped in samsara. In Mahayana Buddhism, dialogue is actually considered a spiritual practice that helps people confront and transform their destructive (samsara) impulses – or attachments to things in this life – so that with an awakened mind (Bodhi – “awakened”, Citta – “mind” or “consciousness”), they can see themselves as one with everything.

The question then becomes that if our public education system is teaching the worldview behind Eastern religions – that “all is one” - and if students are being told through social emotional learning to develop compassion and a sense of responsibility (because of their interconnectedness) toward their fellow man, the environment and the problems of social justice…is this “secularized” form of Buddhism that is not being disclosed as such considered religious conversion and/or proselytization? If yes, this could be in violation of the first amendment because it would qualify as a state-sanctioned religion.

One could argue that even if a student is not religious, this secret teaching of Eastern thought as “the accepted truth” could be seen as an attempt to subvert the West’s cultural mores of individuality by planting the seeds of a worldview sympathetic to socialism and/or communism in America’s youth so that they grow up to advocate against America’s system of governance.

The simplest way to get to the bottom of this would be to assign intent.

Was it the intent of those putting social and emotional learning in schools to get students to achieve an enlightened, global consciousness for religious purposes like becoming an evolved species?

Let’s reflect again on the Working Group and examine who was involved to get the answer.

The Ojai Foundation “Systematized” Syncretic Dialogue

Buddhism wasn’t the only religion trying to become the established “universal ethic.” In fact, two women mentioned earlier that were members of the Working Group on Contemplative Mind in Society, Joan Halifax and Rachael (previously Shelley) Kessler – who was an author in the seminal 1997 SEL book Promoting Social Emotional Learning – both hailed from The Ojai Foundation (TOF). Halifax and Kessler were part of a cohort at TOF who had systematized a particular methodology of dialogue that borrowed from the Native American Church and other religions like Buddhism and Quakerism called the Ways of Council. As mentioned earlier, they were doing this on land purchased by Theosophist Annie Besant to “help the development of a new race type.”

(It’s important to note that Theosophy borrows heavily from Buddhist teachings to create its philosophy. Traditional Buddhism believes there is no permanent self or soul – that human beings are an impermanent aggregate of forces that can come together and dissolve - while Tibetan Buddhism claims you can “construct a soul” during an incarnation through participating in Buddhist practices, like meditation and breathing, dialogue, etc. to develop it. Theosophists believe that humans are born with souls (that can reincarnate), but the soul can be developed toward enlightenment in some races and not in others. Theosophy ultimately can be characterized as a Westernized perspective on aspects of Buddhism, with an emphasis on there being a universal spiritual unity across all religions.)

The Ways of Council website, describes the history of the land that Annie Besant purchased for this specific purpose:

“Situated on 40 acres of land, stewarded since 1927 by the Happy Valley Foundation (in service to a vision of theosophist Annie Besant of a new peaceful world culture), Joan [Halifax] renamed the non-profit [Human Dimensions-West] organization, The Ojai Foundation…Inspired by work in the civil rights movement, trained by Quakers in non-violence and simple heartfelt expression, and empowered by teachings with spiritual elders, Joan drew teachers and students into forms known variously as circles of trust, talking-stick circles, and council…

…Over a decade of working with and weaving many traditions, the Foundation evolved into a sanctuary for “council”…Council encourages participants to communicate in ways that lead to a heightened sense of shared purpose…Even more important seems to be tracking the call to listening to each other and places wherein all voices and gifts are valued…These are harder and fewer to find throughout history, especially regarding women, gay or trans gender, youth and children. How a people does so reveals the values and style of their culture. Such cultural identities need to be honored.”

“Over the years Jack [Zimmerman], together with Paul Cummins, Rachael Kessler, Joe Provisor, Tom Nolan, Maureen Murdock, Ruthann Saphier, Lana Brody and many others, focused on bringing council into public and private schools and successfully introduced programs throughout Southern California and beyond.”

So, a whole decade before the formation of the Working Group on Contemplative Mind in Society or the launch of the field of social emotional learning, the Way of Council and its practices was taught to trained facilitators at The Ojai Foundation like those who were just mentioned who could then lead groups in the practice and host workshops to train others how to do it. While their trained council facilitators spun out into various other sectors (more on that in another article) through their Center for Council Trainings, their main focus at that time was getting their Ways of Council into K-12 education through their Council In Schools program.

The Mysteries Program

From the acknowledgements of Zimmerman’s and Coyle’s the Introduction to Council book (page 19):

“At the experimental Heartlight School, where Council was a daily practice for students from 1980 through 1984, many contributions to its development were made through Jaquelyn McCandless’ experienced skills in group dynamics and the irresistible enthusiasm of Ruthann Saphier. Jaquelyn continues to be a family and dyadic Councilmate of Jack Zimmerman’s during these many years of partnership. Ruthann was also instrumental in launching the Mysteries Program at the Crossroads School in 1983 and in the period that followed. Shelley Kessler has expanded and directed the Mysteries Program at Crossroads since 1985; together with the school’s able Human Development Staff, she has prepared a manual for teachers and schools interested in implementing their own Mysteries Program.”

This type of dialogue systematized at the Ojai Foundation and taught to children in schools through the councils of the Mysteries Program and now “circle time” practices of social emotional learning is meant to be syncretic; its purpose is to – as the council history also says – “find common ground and open to a ‘bigger story.’” That story is often a “shared” story, where individual values and beliefs are shifted in order to be merged with the group’s. The video below details a group of graduating seniors from Crossroads who went through the Mysteries Program and their experience of being brought to The Ojai Foundation for a 5-day “rite of passage.” It’s worth a watch to understand the dynamics of how councils are run in and out of school, how they are clearly based off religious practices, and how this retreat left these students trauma-bonded.

Kessler writes in the Winter 1990 edition of Holistic Education Review (page 18): “I have defined spiritual needs in adolescents as including connection, meaning,
mystery, and wholeness. The Mysteries Program is designed to address
each of these needs. First, the very atmosphere of the class — the emphasis on stillness, ritual, ceremony, and non-cognitive modalities — gives students a sense of “retreat” from ordinary experience into the realm of the open heart, deep connection, non-ordinary experience, and renewal. Guided imagery and other exercises that foster a shift into an alpha state provide opportunities for deep connection to oneself and for the mystery of altered states of consciousness. Council builds a deep connection to others in the group and an awareness of the larger human capacity to connect deeply to people fundamentally different from ourselves.”

As participants of a council session share meditative or breathing practices at the beginning of a discussion, this “alpha state” Kessler says students shift into is actually a state of suggestibility.

From Medium.com: “In an alpha state, your brain makes new neural connections more easily. This expansive, uninhibited mental state is ideal for creative thinking, problem solving, and tapping into your intuition. Alpha waves also increase awareness and connectedness, allowing you to strengthen your bond with yourself, others, and the universe.” Doesn’t this sound exactly like the state of “oneness” that Mahayana Buddhism wants to cultivate in students?

Coupled with a feeling of belonging to the group as stories of “lived experiences” are shared and trauma bonds are formed as painful topics are discussed, plus natural group dynamics where dissenting from the consensus of the group makes you an “outsider,” encourages participants in council to think critically about their religious values and adopt new ways of thinking they might not have otherwise. About what, you ask?

Kessler goes on in the Holistic Education Review article to describe the types of topics discussed in her Mysteries Program: “Areas covered include: defining sexuality, anatomy and physiology of sexual response, birth control, pregnancy and abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, intimacy, decision making, infatuation and love, beginning and ending relationships, gender, homosexuality, heterosexuality and masturbation, and rape prevention…They learn more about friendships, parents, conflict resolution, sexuality, drugs, the fate of the Earth — all the pressing concerns that they need some place to talk about…fostering divergent thinking…our program does this is by presenting a variety of viewpoints and introducing students to new ideas, new experiences, and new approaches to life…Divergent thinking is also fostered in Mysteries by the encouragement to express and resolve conflict. A community can really tolerate diversity, let alone encourage it, only if it has the tools to handle the inevitable conflict that comes from divergent thinking.”

Fostering divergent thinking in this sense is about questioning the way one thinks about something and creating an open-mindedness toward multiple ways of thinking about that thing. This by itself wouldn’t be so bad if the “tool” they were using to “handle the inevitable conflict that comes from divergent thinking” wasn’t a process of group dialogue that by design is trying to manipulate the participant and the group into coming to a single synthesized perspective, which means a previous held value or belief about something will be required to shift.

Responsibility

Not only that, but that shifting of perspectives will require that one dons compassion (there’s that word again)– or what social emotional learning calls empathy with action, or a sense of responsibility – towards your fellow group members, the environment, and any other social “ills” that are brought up as a part of council: climate change, LGBTQIA+ rights, systemic and institutionalized racism, etc.

Kessler continues, “By fostering a sense of deep connection to others and to the Earth in all its manifestations, human development encourages a sense of responsibility to oneself, to others, and to the planet. We are teaching responsibility not as a burden, but as a sense of connection and empowerment by (a) fostering the compassion that makes humans want to alleviate the suffering of others, (b) instilling the conviction that change is possible, and (c) offering the tools to make those changes. Skills for effecting change include the social, political, and moral understanding that come through community service and ethics and sensitivity to oneself and others; leadership and cooperative problem-solving skills; and techniques for enhancing intuition, imagination, and creativity that come through Mysteries.”

Sounds a bit like CASEL’s Social Emotional Learning, no?

Well, that’s because it is.

Rachael’s framework for implementing the Way of Council in schools, which was her Mysteries Program (later PassageWays, a program of her husband Mark Gerzon’s Mediators Foundation through her Institute for Social and Emotional Learning, and later called PassageWorks) was being used by multiple schools in California. She was also teaching her Mysteries Course to educators that wanted to implement it at Michael Lerner’s Commonweal facility as well as the Buddhist Naropa Institute (as Shelley), so she was already very much a part of the movement to tie together mind-body-spirit health within education. When Kessler wanted to expand her Mysteries Program to even more schools, she found a willing helper in Eileen Growald Rockefeller and Daniel Goleman, also future members of what would become the Working Group on Contemplative Mind in Society.

Kessler writes in the Winter 1997 edition of Holistic Education: “I could not imagine a better incubator than Crossroads for growing and refining this embryonic curriculum, but soon I felt the urgency of bringing these tools to a community wider than our small private school…I was greatly assisted in my search by Eileen Growald and leadership at the Fetzer Institute, visionary funders who had been key players in “growing the field” of mind-body health…Fetzer became a partner, as did a journalist named Daniel Goleman, who, in 1990, was at the beginning of the journey which led to the publication of his best-selling book Emotional Intelligence (1995) five years later…Participating in the series of gatherings which led to the formation in 1994 of the Collaborative for the Advancement of Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) was a thrilling experience for me.”

A year ago, as part of their 30th year anniversary, CASEL put out the above video. For an organization celebrating its roots, I found it interesting that while they do mention the location of that famous 1994 meeting that supposedly launched their organization (Kalamazoo, Michigan) on their history page, they don’t mention that is where the Fetzer Institute is or their name at all, and they’ve pretty much erased all references to the Fetzer Institute being integral to their formation. Are they trying to create some distance because researchers like myself and others like Jennifer McWilliams and James Lindsay have been revealing the very real occult mystical influences behind John E. Fetzer and his Institute that leaves us all questioning WTF is SEL?

The Fetzer Institute

It’s crystal clear from the many times their name has been brought up throughout the course of this article that the Fetzer Institute was a MAJOR player in the formation of the Working Group that founded CMind, CASEL and the entire field of social emotional learning. This is concerning when you discover the stated intent of John Fetzer and the Trustees he put into place from his “Monday night group” to ensure the Institute would continue to carry out his wishes in regards to how they spent the Foundation’s money even after he was gone.

Link to original thread with video clip on X

In this 2013 Interview with Tom Beaver (above), a trustee of the Fetzer Institute and part of his “Monday night group” that recited Theosophist Alice Bailey’s Great Invocation at every meeting, Beaver explains that:

“John was doing whatever he thought Spirit was telling him to do. Whether it was in his own meditation…whether it was coming through Jim Gordon’s channelings [of the Masters of Inner Light and the White Brotherhood]. To me, his vision was a simply a very standard typical New Age vision of being one of the persons who gives himself over to Spirit to use him and to use his resources in any way they saw fit…The information was to come from the other side, from the spiritual world, from spiritual sources. His people…his group… their mission was to tap into that; to be receptive to that as a group. The whole Theosophical thing with Alice Bailey was – it took a group. It took a group focusing on the Second Coming of Maitreya, or their version of the Second Coming of Christ [which is really the next Buddha], to invoke that. That was Alice Bailey’s idea. I don’t think he particularly cared if it was mind-body-spirit health or if it was channeling scientific instruments and equipment from the other side; from the astral plane to this plane. He had a whole variety of interests in that regard, but his interest specifically was to be open and receptive and get a group of people as his team [the Institute’s Board and Trustees] to be open and be receptive to doing whatever Spirit told them to do.”

Archived Fetzer documents (below) reveal that Fetzer had told his Trustees that the true intention of the Fetzer Institute was to “help usher in the Age of the Archangel Michael, which would lead to the resurrection of Christ Consciousness [the realization that you could become enlightened to your God-state, like Christ]…Fetzer felt that the organization could implement a pathway to show the reality of the actual existence of the so-called ‘other side’ or spiritual world and that ‘said world’ is not merely a creation of man’s imagination. This realization, through many means including the merging of science and spirituality would be the catalyst for an awakening of the soul of man of the oneness of the human race.”

Excerpt from the paper in the John Fetzer Archive detailing John Fetzer’s expressed intentions for the Fetzer Institute.

For a while, the Archangel Michael was even used for the actual symbol of the Institute:

This document from the Fetzer Institute archives explains the history behind the logo

John Fetzer and his Foundation were known for supporting scientific research and projects that helped along his mission of merging science and spirituality, but the following funds can be specifically tied to the creation and advancement of social and emotional learning:

This document shows they paid $40,000 in both 1987 and 1988 to Eileen Rockefeller Growald’s Institute for the Advancement of Health.

They funded the 5-part television series with Bill Moyers called Healing and the Mind. This series that won an Emmy in 1991, introducing the world to the Fetzer Institute and the idea of Mind-Body Healing; that your state of mind could have a physical effect on your body. It led to the creation of the NIH Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, stimulating research in the field of these connections.

In 1991, they gave $49,250 to Goleman’s Mind and Life Research Network. In interviews from their longer Retrospective video on the Fetzer Institute archive, they flat out admit that not only was Daniel Goleman a fellow at the Fetzer Institute but they basically paid for him to go on sabbatical and to write the book Emotional Intelligence to stimulate a bunch of research on the topic, and then funded the NIH research that followed to the tune of millions of dollars.

In the 1997 book that was co-written by Rachael Kessler, Promoting Social and Emotional Learning, it’s noted that Fetzer financially supported CASEL’s conference calls and meetings, they hosted the conference where CASEL met with members of ASCD to discuss the book, and they funded the Rutgers-based Consortium on Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace that Dan Goleman chaired.

They also admit in the Retrospective video (timestamp 14:44) that it was them, in partnership with the Nathan Cummings Foundation that helped established the Center for Contemplative Mind and Society (CMind).

In John Fetzer’s biography, it is noted that in 1973, he corresponded with Jeanne Pontius Rindge who created the Human Dimensions Institute (whose later Western counterpart, Human Dimensions – West on Annie Besant’s land would eventually be turned into The Ojai Foundation). Fetzer sent Rindge a copy of his essay “America’s Agony,” whose remarks on “new age education” she approved of and asked to reproduce in her Human Dimensions magazine.

Is Social Emotional Learning and The Way of Council it uses to implement it the “new age education” that Fetzer – as he listened to Spirit – was told to use his resources to support? Were the meditative practices put into SEL a way of getting enough people to experience spiritual evolution to higher states of consciousness to catalyze a global transformation as his biographer mentions in this talk? Is SEL a vehicle to get students to adopt cosmological monism, or this “all is one” Buddhist/Theosophist worldview?

Listen to my interview with Harrison Smith of American Journal to understand how Cosmological Monism is really the worldview behind CASEL’s Transformative Social Emotional Learning and the Woke Left critical theories we are seeing rise up in our culture.

These are all fair questions to ask, considering the underpinnings of all these things seem to be coming from the same mystical soup.

It boils down to this…

Was Social Emotional Learning put into schools to benefit children or is it being used as a vehicle for religious conversion? It’s time to figure this out if we’re going to get ahead of the Fetzer Institute’s current new venture - The Collaborative for Spirituality in Education:

Now that you know where Social Emotional Learning REALLY came from and where it’s going, you decide.

Lisa Logan is the host of the YouTube channel Parents of Patriots and author of the Substack Education Manifesto. As a wife, mother and patriot, she has made it her mission to expose the sinister agenda behind Social Emotional Learning programs to save our children and the future of our country.