TheCultural Transformation Tools(CTT) are powerful diagnostic instruments that help leaders measure and manage their cultures. The Cultural Transformation Toolsare accessible to anyone who has become CTT certified.

Learn more about the Cultural Transformation Tools.

Learn more about our CTT Training Offerings.

Find a CTT Certified Consultant in your area.

CTT Training is offered in a variety of languages, locations, and dates. Pleaseclick here to find out when the next CTTtraining is in your area or in a virtual format.We encourage you to find out more by making contact withthe instructor of the course you are thinking about attending.

We offer a CTT Part 1 - Foundation Course,a CTT Part 2 - Building a Values-Driven OrganisationCourse, a CTT Combined 1&2 Course, and a CTT Practitioner Course in either face-to-faceor virtual formats.Learn more about ourCTT training courses.

Once you have found the course dates that best fityour schedule, please click on the title of the course where you will findmorecourse information.Please then click theblue "Register Now" button, which will take you to our registration form. Once you have submitted the registration form, the instructorwill contact you within 1-2 business days.

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Cultural Transformation Tools Training | Barrett Values Centre

This retreat is being cancelled but will be rescheduled. We will post the new dates as soon as they are confirmed.

Interspirituality is the deep sharing of prayer and belief across spiritual traditions. When Wayne Teasdale presented the term at the 1993 Parliament of World Religions, the phrase had immediate resonance and added spiritual depth to interreligious dialogue.

In a time when many institutional religious structures are declining, what would it take to have the soul of religion be embedded again in its original meaningful context, namely, to bind together what has been and is now trying to be lived? It suggests a reflection back to our origins, to what has brought the human family to this point in time and holds the seed to the evolution of the spiritual life of all humans.

Just what is interspirituality and what hope does it hold for the human race at this critical time? What can older generations say to younger generations about the religious life they have known all their life? These and many more reflections and group discussion will be the goal of our time together.

Friday, March 9, to Saturday, March 10, 2017The retreat begins at 6:30pm on Friday and concludes at 3:30pm on Saturday.Cost of $175 includes $50 non-refundable deposit, overnight accommodations, and meals.

Frederick R. Gustafson, Jr. is an author, psycho-therapist, and ordained Lutheran minister with a doctorate in ministry. He has lectured on mens spirituality, psychology, dreams, and the relationship between Western and Native American spiritualities. Fred has studied Jungian psychology in Switzerland and has long been active in the ceremonial life and culture of the Lakota Brule Sioux inSouth Dakota.

The rest is here:
Interspirituality: Evolutionary Hope for the Human Family ...

Become a pioneer in the field of Yoga Therapy at Inner Vision Yoga.Next start date February 8th, 2019! Please see details belowBecome a Yoga Therapist with the Master Healing Emphasis Yoga (HEY) Therapy Training Program

The Healing Emphasis Yoga Therapy Master Training Programs covers the healing and therapeutic aspects of yoga that starts with self-concept and identity as the source of all change, perception and transformation.

Testimonials

Curriculum

Apply Now

Healing Emphasis Yoga Therapy is a member school with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT Member School). For more information please visit here.

This HEY program is an outstanding opportunity to deepen your practice, both personally and with your clients not just with yoga, but with all forms of therapy work S.S.

Study directly with Master Teachers in a groundbreaking new field! 300, 600 and 800 hour programs now available.

February 8-10, 2019 HEY 4: The Mask: working with personality archetypes and healing in Yoga Therapy

Friday 6:30-9 p.m. Chakra/ Energetic Therapy

Saturday 12:30-4:30 p.m. Structural Dissociation

Sunday 12:30- 4:30 p.m. Structural Integration, The Handshake

If you want to learn and grow exponentially, both as a person and a yogi, this is the program to sign up for. The teachers are top-notch, definitely some of the best I have ever trained with. E.B.

I truly learned that I do matter, that I am enough. I found a new voice and new confidence for teaching. D.M.

Experience the journey of a lifetime. Gather the evolutionary skills, knowledge and experience necessary to directly support your personal and professional life

The HEY Program is the most powerful and transformational training program I have ever experienced. The training you receive is top notch, and fully prepares you to be a practicing yoga therapist. That said, it is a very personal journey as well that will transform and heal you from the inside out on every level physical, mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual. I feel so incredibly blessed to have received this training. Most importably, my clients feel safe and that they are in capable hands with projects that are so sensitive and deeply personal. THANK YOU! -D.R.

The Healing Emphasis Yoga Therapy program is a member of the For more student testimonials, please click the button below

Testimonials

The Healing Emphasis Yoga Therapy Program is a life-transforming experience unlike any other yoga therapy program in the country. With an emphasis on thoughts and feelingssupported bytargeted trainings in asana, pranayama, mudra and alternative somatic techniques, this program gives you the tools to work on multiple levels addressing self-concept with the unified consciousness that rests at the source of all experience.

For more information on the Healing Emphasis Yoga curriculum and course offerings, please click here.

Curriculum

This transforming master-level program consists of multiple tracks of advanced studies which may be added to your existing certification. The Healing Emphasis Yoga Therapy Master Training Program is ideal for those interested in yoga therapy as well as spiritual psychology, energetic anatomy, anatomy and physiology, kinesiology and applied yoga philosophy.

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Donna DiNunzioDonna DiNunzioMartens(500-hour Master RYT with over 800 hours of training, co-director HEY Therapy Program, Certified Yoga Therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)). Donnaspecializes in private and group therapeutic yoga including Yoga Nidra, Trauma and Stress Release and Rehabilitative Yoga to support physical therapy and recovery from dis-ease and injury. Her love of asana and the experience of the profound healing and energetic effects of yoga ground her teaching and her life. She co-founded the HEY program with Jeff Martens andhas studied with Paulie Zink, Sarah Powers, Paul Grilley, Mukunda Stiles, Rama Vernon, and Tias Little.

Jeff MartensJeff Martens (co-owner Inner Vision Yoga Studio, Director of 200, 500 hour Yoga Teacher Training, co-director of HEY Therapy Program and IAYT-certified yoga therapist) Jeff has been teaching yoga and healing since 1993. He integrates an extensive knowledge of anatomy and psychology along with story and spiritual teaching in his classes and healing sessions. Favorite teachers include Paramahansa Yogananda, Louise Hay, Neville Goddard, past chronic illness and the teachings of the Great Masters. Please click here for more info.

Heath Reed

Heath is a certified Yoga Teacher, advanced therapist and trainer in the areas ofThai Yoga Massage,Cranial Sacral Therapy,Fusion Massage, andother forms of massage and bodywork. Heath has over a decadeteaching experienceservingon the faculty of theUtah College of Massage Therapy, the Arizona School of Massage Therapy, and in massage therapy workshops and seminars that provide continuing education credit hours (CEUs) throughout the country.Additionally, he has worked in medical, resort, spa and private practice settings. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, he completed training at Shevaga Komarpaj Thai Massage School and studied advanced with world-renowned teacher Pichet, as well as with Thai Yoga Massage Instructor, Kam Thye Chow in Montreal, Quebec. He has studied Craniosacral Therapy in-depth in an anatomically driven format, balanced by a blend of Eastern and Western esoteric traditions. Heath is approved by theNational Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB)as a continuing education Approved Providers. They have taught Cranial Sacral to hundreds of students at the Arizona School of Massage Therapy, and have taught Thai Massage locally, nationally, and at prestigious spas throughout the country. With his wife Nicole, Heath developed Fusion Massage and Four-Handed Massage, which they have written about, taught extensively. Additionally, Heath is proficient in Reiki, Core Shamanism, Touch for Health, Kinergetics, Ashiatsu, Raindrop Therapy, Reflexology, Lymphatic Massage, Trigger Point and Neuromuscular Therapy.

Jonas Nordstrom

Jonas Nordstrom, Ph.D., M.Sc. teacher and researcher at Arizona State University, international trainer in the field of stress reduction and trauma recovery, yoga teacher, and olympic weightlifter. He has lived and worked in war-torn countries like Afghanistan, Kosovo, Israel and Egypt. With an interdisciplinary background in natural science and transpersonal psychology/esoteric studies, his doctorate thesis examines the intuition from the perspectives of quantum physics, neurophysiology, psychology and ancient wisdoms teachings.

As part of his diverse background he has also spent five years in the Swedish Special Forces, shortly worked as a Yoga teacher in Rishikesh, India, and has extensive training in therapeutic modalities such as clinical hypnosis, neurofeedback, and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE).

David Berceli

David Berceli, Ph.D. is an international expert in the areas of trauma intervention and conflict resolution. He is also the energetic and creative founder and CEO of Trauma Recovery Services (1998). For the past 22 years he has lived and worked in nine countries providing trauma relief workshops and designing recovery programs for international organizations around the world. Dave has lived and worked extensively in Israel/Palestine, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Yemen, Egypt, and Lebanon. Fluent in English and Arabic, David brings a keen understanding of the intertwining dynamics of religion and ethnic customs and has developed specific processes to enable people to manage personal trauma as well as bring healing and reconciliation between diverse groups. He is the creator of a revolutionary and unique set of Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) that help release the deep chronic tension created in the body during a traumatic experience. David continues to be involved in trauma recovery programs not solely for the sake of reducing the suffering caused by trauma but because he has recognized globally that trauma possesses unique possibilities of transformation in the individual if they pursue their recovery process to its ultimate end.

Please note that Healing Emphasis Yoga, Healing Emphasis Yoga Therapy and HEY Therapy are all trademarked trade names.

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HEY: Healing Emphasis Yoga Therapy Training Program ...

The Seven LevelsModel describes the evolutionary development of human consciousness.

The Seven Levels Model was developed in 19961997. There are two aspects to the modelthe Seven Levels of Consciousness Model and the Seven Stages of Psychological Development Model. Weoperate at levels of consciousness and wegrow in stages (of psychological development).

The Seven Levels of Consciousness Model applies to all individuals and human group structuresorganisations, communities, nations. The Seven Levels of Psychological Development Model applies to all individuals.

The following diagram shows the correspondence between the Seven Levels of Consciousness and theSeven Stages of Psychological Development.

Under normal circumstances, the level of consciousness we operate from is the same as the stage of psychological development we have reached. However, no matter what stage of psychological development we are at, when we are faced with what we consider to be a potentially negative change in our circumstances or a situation that we believe could threaten our internal stability or external equilibriumanything that brings up fearwe may temporarily shift to one of the three lower levels of consciousness.

Alternatively, if we have a peak experiencean experience of euphoria, harmony or connectedness of a mystical or spiritual nature we may temporarily jump to a higher level of consciousness.

When the threat or peak experience has passed, we will normally return to the level of consciousness that corresponds to the stage of psychological development we were at before the experience occurred. In rare situations, a peak experience may have a lasting impact, causing us to shift to a higher stage of psychological development and operate from a higher level of consciousness.

Similarly, a negative experience, if it is traumatic enough, and particularly if it occurs in our childhood and teenage years, can impede our future psychological development by causing us to be anchored, through frequent triggering of the traumatic memory, into in one of the three lower levels of consciousness.

I created the Seven Levels Model to provide a clearunderstanding of human motivations. The model is based on Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs. It was apparent to me that Maslows research and thinking was ahead of his time. Abraham Maslow died in 1970 at age 62, well before the consciousness movement had taken root. I saw that, with some minor changes, his hierarchy of needs could be transposed into a framework of consciousness. In 1996, I set about making these changes.-Richard Barrett

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The Barrett Model | Barrett Values Centre

Someone the other day asked me how to explain the difference between Reiki healing, Spiritual healing, and Christian prayer, and whether there was actually a difference between any of these things. So this is what I came up with.

Christian prayer of course depends on a belief in the Christian God, and involves and individual making a request to that deity to intercede in some way in the life of another person, whether that be to eliminate a disease or symptoms or make some improvement in the life of the intended recipient. There will be no thought of an energy providing the mechanism behind such changes, and the person offering up the prayer is essentially powerless in the situation, unable to influence the outcome beyond asking or pleading with the deity to intercede.

So there are important differences when compared to Reiki.

The practice of Reiki does not depend on a belief in any diety or pantheon and does not require any sort of religious or spiritual beliefs, so it should be acceptable to people of any, or no, religion. And because there are no Gods in Reiki, there is no-one there to ask for help in a particular situation. Thats not to say that some Reiki practitioners dont bring their personal spiritual or religious beliefs into their practice, though, so it wouldnt be unheard of for a Christian, say, to practise Reiki, or practise their Reiki healing, in the name of Jesus Christ, and some Reiki practitioners might call on the Ascended Masters or Spirit Guides when treating or attuning someone, but that is their personal choice and is not something that is an essential, or necessary, part of the system.

The Reiki practice that comes closest to Christian prayer would be distant healing, I suppose, where one sits quietly, perhaps clasping ones hands together, enters a gentle meditative state, and allows the energy to flow to the recipient. We are neutral in the process, of course, not pushing for a particular end result, just allowing the energy to do what it does, and we tend to have in mind that the healing is for the highest good of the recipient.

But Reiki practiitoners do not necessarily frame that highest good in terms of a deity that decides what is right for the recipient: we are merely framing the energy transmission in such a way that we are not pushing the recipient to receive a particular result, or even receive or benefit from the energy: we are offering it up for the recipient to receive or not receive, as is appropriate. And as to who or what determines what is appropriate for the individual that is left vague.

So the ways in which Reiki is not the same as Christian prayer boil down to our not requesting a particular end result (we stay neutral and offer up the energy when practising distant healing, certainly) and in not requiring the existence or intervention of some deity in the process.

To the casual onlooker, Reiki healing would appear to be much the same as Spiritual Healing, where energy is channelled from a higher source, through your hands, into the recipient. But there are some major differences, and that is what I want to describe here. Spiritual Healing and Reiki are not the same. In the end I see all forms of energy healing as working with the same sort of stuff, so the differences are in how you connect to the energy and what you do with it when youre connected. I am in no way an expert on spiritual healing in all its forms, but from my point of view the differences between spiritual healing and Reiki are as follows:

Spiritual healing grew up through Victorian Spiritualist Churches, with their table-thumping sances, and has thus had a sort of Christian origin which has continued to a greater or a lesser degree. Reiki is Japanese and has more in common with Tai Chi, QiGong, Shiatsu and Acupuncture, Mystical Buddhism, Shintoism etc. Having said that, the NFSH (National Federation of Spiritual Healers) in the UK is non-denominational, but I see the *origins* of spiritual healing as being connected to Christianity, and spiritual healing is offered at some churches.

Spiritual healers learn through practice to connect to and draw down the energy. Reiki practitioners go through a connection ritual that gives them a strong and consistent connection to the source right from day one, which I imagine seems to be a nonsense for spiritual healers, who have to work hard and long to do this.

Though some spiritual healers would see themselves as attuning to the energy just before they treat someone, the word attunement has a special meaning within Reiki, and does not refer to an individuals preparation to give a treatment. Attunement within Reiki is a special connection ritual that is carried out on a Reiki student when they attend a Reiki course.

Once attuned on a Reiki course, the Reiki student is able to channel chi strongly from day 1. It seems to give a strong consistent connection to the source, according to spiritual healers to whom I have taught Reiki. Students can then carry out daily energy exercises (similar to QiGong exercises) to help make them a stronger channel for the energy.

Spiritual healers believe that they can be vulnerable to astral plane entities when they open themselves to the energy, so they take steps to protect themselves by visualising bubbles of light around them, and close themselves down closing down their chakras at the end of a treatment session. I have heard of some spiritual healers having someone on hand to stand guard as they treat. Reiki people do not have such beliefs, they do not generally take those steps, and the energy seems to be inherently protective.

If you believe that you need to protect yourself then your underlying belief is that you are vulnerable, and that becomes your reality. It you believe that you are safe then you are too!

Protection is also seen as needed to prevent a practitioner from picking up problems from the person they are working on. I have met people particularly hands-on therapists (reflexology, aromatherapy etc.) who have experienced this problem. Reiki however seems to prevent this from happening. I have taught many therapists who found that attunement to Reiki both prevented them from picking up things from their clients, but also stopped them from feeling drained at the end of a session. Reiki seems to have the protection built in, without having to do anything to achieve this.

Thats not to say that some Reiki people arent taught to protect themselves, and visualise protective bubbles etc., but this is usually something that is passed on by Reiki teachers who started out in spiritual healing. They have brought their spiritual healing beliefs with them, and applied those rules to the practice of Reiki.

Spiritual healers tend to treat people seated in a chair, and work in the aura. Reiki people tend to treat people who are lying down on a treatment couch and tend to use a hands-on rather than a hands-off approach.

There seems to be more of an emphasis on self-treating within Reiki, an essential part of the system. I dont get the impression that this is the same with all spiritual healing.

In the way that Reiki is taught and practiced in the West, symbols are an integral part of the system, used both in the connection rituals (attunements), and used when treating others. The symbols give the Reiki practitioner more conscious control of the energy they are working with, though ideally the symbols should be used intuitively rather than being imposed in a calculated academic fashion. Spiritual healing does not use symbols.

Now the above are generalisations, and I am sure that there are many, many spiritual healers out there who will disagree with what I have just said, but as I understand it, those are the main differences between spiritual healing and Reiki.

If so, you are going to love this book

Liberate Your Reiki!

Whether you are at Level 1, 2 or Reiki Master Teacher Level (regardless of the Reiki flavour you are trained in), this book is very much for you! Within hours of starting to read this book, it has rejuvenated and enriched my own practices with a wealth of information and useful examples too.

The more you read the more youll have those wonderful aha moments. I know I am already benefiting personally from the knowledge Ive gained, but so will all my family, friends and clients too. Thank you Taggart for creating this incredible, uniting, enlightening book.

Heidi Gaffney-Evans

In this Reiki book you will find 80+ articles about Reiki, written by Reiki Master Teacher Taggart King. You will discover how to set your Reiki free, free from the constraints, dogma, rules and regulations of Western-style Reiki courses. Get back to Reikis original Japanese method and embrace simplicity, flexibility, creativity and intuition.

This book is suitable for people at all Reiki levels: beginners, those who are developing their Reiki, and Reiki Masters/Master Teachers. You will find advice about self-treatment meditations, energy exercises to build your ability as a channel, you will discover how to work with your intuition and embrace the power of intent.

Explore different distant healing methods and discover the beauty of Reikis original Japanese form. Learn how to use creativity and visualisation to enhance your self-treatments and treatment of others, and ditch all the silly rules and regulations that stifle the practice of Western Reiki in many lineages.

Finally, read Taggart Kings 10 Rules of Reiki, the essential principles for a powerful and fulfilling Reiki practice.

This professionally-printed Reiki manual has 370 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 370 pages.

Price: 13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only 10.99

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Reiki, Spiritual Healing & Christian Prayer | Reiki Evolution

Receive profound insights, practices and teachings for connecting more deeply to the natural world and harnessing the power of plants for your health, wellbeing and spiritual transformation.

Have you long suspected there is much more to understand about plants, spirituality and your connection to the natural world?

Have you been fascinated about systems of natural medicine like Ayurveda, Chinese wisdom and working with herbs?

Are you curious about how essential oils and herbs affect your moods and shift your consciousness?

Questions like these lead us toward a profound new understanding of medicinal plants, one that links our biology, our ecology, the growth of our consciousness and our felt sense of connection with all of life.

Scientific evidence now shows that plants are sentient beings that are connected in profound, complex and mysterious ways to the health of our bodies and minds.

We generally think of plants as sources of food, and sometimes we recognize their healing powers when they help us cure an illness, but we may not be aware of many crucial functions they perform continually inside us.

Becoming aware of these activities through simple methods of mindfulness and contemplative study opens our eyes to our deep biological unity and intimate interconnectedness with life.

Through the photosynthetic actions of plants we are directly connected to the sun: we can learn to feel this unity in the metabolic warmth of the body.

We breathe together with plants: every breath can become an opportunity to feel our kinship with other living beings that nourish us.

Plants, therefore, offer essential keys to spiritual evolution, if we know how to commune with them to discover the expressions of their life-giving intelligence.

Weve been trained to relate to the plant kingdom in a mechanistic way, cutting us off from the benefits of a real relationship with the natural world, which affects our relationship with people as well.

Becoming sensitized to our deeper biological interconnectedness is a kind of spirituality that deconstructs our false notions and identities. Feeling yourself connected to the sunlight moves you into realizing everyone is, quite literally, made out of sunlight.

As we create a different kind of relationship with plants, the path opens to a kind of spiritual awakening that is grounded, earthy and sustainable, one where we become intimately interconnected with the intelligence of nature in a very tangible way.

The links between medicinal plants and our spiritual evolution has been deeply studied in ancient systems of natural healing such as botanical medicine, Ayurveda and Chinese medicine.

When you connect with the deep sentience, wisdom and healing power within the plant kingdom, your eyes are opened to new realms of knowledge, and you come home to your body and life in a different way.

As you begin to experience your biological unity with the plant kingdom, you embark on an exciting voyage in consciousness that can open you up to a new understanding of medicinal herbs, aromatherapy, meditation and spirituality. This manifests in many ways, from the kind of herb gardens you grow to how you use essential oils in your practice.

For instance, when we smell an essential oil such as lavender, we can begin to perceive that it conveys elements of the earth, and moonlight and sunlight directly into our consciousness. So lavender is relaxing but what were looking at is why because its conveying something from the outer environment into our internal environment.

By understanding plants in a more multi-dimensional way, we open up a deeper cosmological view and a more dynamic relationship with the life force around us. We cultivate more prana or chi. We harmonize our bodily systems. We heal old traumas.

You can envision this new relationship with the plant kingdom by thinking of it in terms of growing new and deeper roots for embodied living. This strengthened root system in your consciousness allows you to weather metaphorical storms, droughts and other life challenges.

This increase in groundedness applies not just at the personal level but the collective one. If were trying to grow a healthy new culture, we need to deepen our roots by connecting to the biological realities that allow us to grow in a way that is sustainable.

Put simply, by reconnecting with plants, we re-establish a relationship with the ground of being.

Our planet is in ecological crisis at least partially because we have grown to see ourselves as separate and above nature in a way that leads us to be destructive, wasteful and neglectful, not to mention unhealthy and unhappy.

There is perhaps no better guide for the journey into a new paradigm of relating to the plant kingdom than Floracopeia founder David Crow L.Ac., who unifies wisdom from many streams of healing practices into a coherent understanding.

For more than 30 years hes pioneered a path thats about harnessing the power of plants to infuse more intelligence in your body, mind and soul giving you a more organic wisdom and sustainable connection with life.

David will show you how to relate more deeply with medicinal plants for rejuvenation, awakening and health.

Hell draw from strands as diverse as Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and essential oils to shift the foundation of how you relate to plants from seeing them as mechanistic objects to wise, sentient allies.

Youll receive a profound understanding for working with medicinal plants, food plants, flowers, aromatic ceremonial plants and essential oils as a doorway into understanding spiritual realities about the interconnectedness of life.

In every class, youll gain important practical information about medicinal plants that can be applied for several health imbalances. However, the primary focus of this course is to develop a greater sensitivity to learning how to receive the many benefits of herbal medicine and understand the deep and ancient intelligence that plants have carried long before humans appeared.

Recognizing this intelligence, the power it has to heal us individually and collectively and our biological inseparability from it, is the beginning of reverence for plants which really is the beginning of a sacred relationship with nature. This program offers a gateway to ecological spirituality the antidote for the destruction and suffering we are causing ourselves and all life on Earth.

During this 7-module program, youll:

This program is appropriate for professionals in any discipline who work with herbs, plants, oils or energy, as well as any person who is intrigued by the healing and personal evolutionary benefits of botanical medicine.

This course will draw from Davids more than 30 years of studying the healing powers of plants in various cultures with many gifted teachers, from the shamanic traditions of the Amazon to the alchemical mysteries of the Himalayas and the ancient wisdom of Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. It is a unique offering of knowledge, information and insights that we are sure you will find deeply enriching as well as practical.

In this 7-module transformational intensive, David will guide you through the fundamental skills and competencies to become attuned and aligned to your deeper biological interconnectedness with the plant kingdom. Youll develop a broader spiritual lens that will support a deconstruction of false notions about your relationship with plants, and youll learn how to work with energy, consciousness and healing in new ways.

Each contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the last, so that youll develop a complete, holistic understanding of the practices, tools and principles of evolutionary healing with plants as you connect to the greater biological realities of creating a sustainable culture that supports all.

An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join The Medicinal Plants and Spiritual Evolution Virtual Training

We, at The Shift Network, feel deeply honored that David Crow has chosen to partner with us on this exclusive online training. As you may know, this is a rare opportunity to learn directly from one of the worlds foremost experts and leading speakers in the field of botanical medicine and grassroots healthcare whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.

Through this powerful online format, youll not only save time and money on workshop costs (plus travel, accommodations and meals which would cost thousands of dollars). But youll be able to benefit from Davids incredible teachings and exercises from the comfort of your home at your own pace!

If you are serious about understanding the deeper internal dimensions that are inside the plants and all around us to heal and transform, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.

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David Crow Medicinal plants and Spiritual Evolution ...

by Nicolya Christi: The following is excerpted fromContemporary Spirituality for an Evolving World: A Handbook for Spiritual Evolution

There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.Carl Gustav Jung

The 1960s saw an unprecedented reactive kick against the Western establishment. The sixties proved to be a decade steeped in rebellion, revolution, experimentation, reaction, liberation, and reevaluation. Even though the foundation stones of mainstream society and established religion withstood the powerful undercurrents of revolutionary change, substantial cracks appeared marking a moment in human history, which revealed how the manipulation and control of the masses, by the few, had entered the earliest stages of breakdown.

At first, evidence of this was subtle. However, fifty years on, those underground rumblings have resurfaced into a world now ready for a new conscious infrastructure within society, politics, media, religion, and spirituality.

Psychological Evolution

In the late nineteenth century came the timely arrival of Freuds work, with a message that his twentieth-century protg, student, and successor Jung evolved and profoundly refined. However, the emerging psychological mind dates back to Plato (ca. 424348 BCE), Pliny the Elder (2379 CE), and Paracelsus (14931541 CE). Moving forward once again to the twentieth century, further evolutionary contributions to psychological development have hailed from those such as Roberto Assagioli, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and more.

Many years ago, I sat with an accomplished psychotherapist and supervisor who was well versed in the ways of the First Nations Peoples. I always recall him saying to me that the psychological is the second gateway, the first being the physical. I have no idea what the other levels of such a model might be composed of as we never discussed it further and yet, this statement really struck a chord within me, ringing true at a more deeply felt level of knowing. What I do know is that psychological exploration is an initiatory gateway to self-actualization. We could say that it stands as a gateway to the Self.

By the mid-1900s Roberto Assagiolo, an Italian psychiatrist, had developed a spiritual psychology known as psychosynthesis, which began to be internationally recognized in the 1950s and 60s. The focus of this psychotherapy is the means by which the psyche can and does synthesize all parts of the personality to work together to reach the highest human potentials. Assagioli drew upon both Eastern and Western philosophies in developing the core concepts of psychosynthesis, and his work has been continued and further developed by others in the field since his death in 1974.

My own personal introduction to this psychotherapy has had a profound impact upon my life.

When I first encountered the psychological arena, I had been looking to engage in some psychological self-exploration and had been searching for a psychology with a soul. I was seeking a psychology that was not going to label me or put me in a box and was not going to offer me textbook answers to the questions I was asking about myself. I was looking for a psychology that held a holistic approach and viewed a human being through the lens of body, feelings, mind, heart, soul, and spirit. I spent several weeks of searching and finally discovered the transpersonal psychotherapy known as psychosynthesis. So, aged twenty-nine, I arranged an appointment with a psychosynthesis psychotherapist and began a revelatory and transformational journey of my Self.

By the end of the first session I was hooked. It was one specific insight that resulted in never viewing life again without using the lens of psychological awareness. I had been asked a question by the therapist, How do you feel about that? in relation to something I had shared with her about my earliest experience of trauma. My response was to spiritualize and rationalize, which was something I had done for years about this core trauma. She asked me again, How do you feel about that? Confused, I continued to recite my well-rehearsed script, which at the time I believed to be my actual true feelings.

Recognizing how out of touch I was with the authentic-feeling level of my experience of this core trauma and myself, she invited me to close my eyes and imagine myself at the age I was when the trauma occurred. She encouraged me to share with her how the infant in me was feeling. This was a light bulb moment! Suddenly and unexpectedly I connected with a level of feeling and realization that I had no idea existed. It was an evolutionary leap in the journey of my Self.

Several months later, experiencing a noticeable personal transformation taking place within me, I signed up for the psychosynthesis psychotherapy training. The first year covered what was termed the Fundamentals of Psychosynthesis. One year later at the end of this process of self-exploration, I found myself wishing that everyone could be given the opportunity to make the one-year journey of the Self. It was truly incredible. The discoveries, the realizations, and the breakdown in order to breakthrough that occurred during this one year alone contained all the possibilities necessary to catalyze a personal shift of consciousness and support peace in the world.

At the close of that year I felt profoundly changed. I was experiencing my life force as being stronger than ever; my skin was warm and full of color, my eyes were shining, and my heart was opening with a sense of wonder because of who I was discovering myself to be. What inspired me even more was the promise of who I could become if I continued on this journey of psychological awakening and healing. I had stumbled upon my Self and there was no turning back.

I embarked upon a further two years of intense training and continued in weekly therapy throughout the three years I was studying psychosynthesis. By year four I decided to leave the psychosynthesis training, having a strong sense that whatever I had needed from it had been completed. However, three intense years of continual training, group work, client work, ongoing supervision, and therapy had set the groundwork for what was to come.

After leaving the training, I still felt there was something core that I had yet to heal and integrate in my psychological healing journey up to that point and so I found myself searching for what I knew I needed in order to become healed and more whole in my Self. My search did not take long, and just weeks after leaving my former training course, I found myself with a leaflet in my hand, intrigued by a title that had really grabbed my attention. The course advertised was titled, The Mustering of the Warrior Angels. This was not a terminology particularly representative of the psychological, yet gnosis told me to follow it through and contact the organizers.

I called the number on the leaflet and a very, very gentle yet strong voice answered. I made inquiries and the woman who answered listened with great patience and sensitivity before responding to my many questions. At the end of the call I had to raise the inevitable subject of the cost of the nine-month course, which I realized I would not be able to afford. This humble woman responded with deep understanding and a willingness to support and enable me to attend the course. I informed her that I would consider it and would get back in touch with her. The course was due to commence within one week.

During that week I battled with myself in terms of my worthiness to merit the kind offer and unconditional support of this woman who was facilitating the course. Her approach was unlike any I had ever encountered in my life. And so, I wrestled with myself, reeling at the new experience of really feeling seen, heard, valued, acknowledged, and validated for the first time. Even though the part of me that represented my then unhealed and unintegrated ego resisted the willingness of this woman to meet my need to attend this course, I was able to find my yes and accept the hand that was reaching out to me. That nine-month course transformed my life.

For the first time I experienced what it felt like to be unconditionally loved and at all times be held in unconditional positive regard, deep love, empathy, understanding, and compassion. For the first time, I experienced the kind of love an integrated, psychologically healthy and spiritually balanced mother would bestow upon her child. For the first time, I experienced what it felt like for someone to continually find ways of saying yes to me, when my experience of cultural conditioning and family history repeatedly said no.

Throughout those nine months, in the presence of this woman, I was exposed to a way of being that prioritized the needs of all concerned. This was done in groundbreaking and unconventional ways that entirely respected the morals, values, and ethics of each individual present.

When I look back over the past fifteen years and contemplate the single most profound and transformational experience I have had the blessing and grace to undergo in this lifetime, my thoughts always turn to that woman and that nine-month course I had the courage to say yes to. I am blessed to say that when the course finished, the ongoing unconditional love and support of the woman who facilitated my deepest healing continued. This was a woman whose humble wisdom ways and truly authentic spiritual example proved to be the most powerful healing force and influence in my own self-actualization process. This was a woman who eventually became my mentor, and ultimately one of my dearest, closest, and most cherished friends. Her name is Wendy Webber.

Conscious Evolution

In essence, conscious evolution represents our capacity to evolve consciously and not merely by chance. Humanity is consciously evolving at an exponential rate and it is doing so through the wide-scale spread of expression, connection, love, compassion, innovation, co-creation, and recognition that has been made possible by advances in technology that have initiated a viral awakening of personal and collective consciousness. It was the great futurist and pioneer of free energy, Nikola Tesla, who first introduced the idea of a global brain when he said, When wireless is fully applied the Earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts. It was indeed Tesla who first introduced the concept of what Jose Arguelles later termed thenoosphere.

Humanity has evolved a highly sophisticated and vastly upgraded global nervous system and brain known across the world as the Internet. This online phenomenon has given birth to a social media gone viral that has connected people, communities, countries, nations, and the world. Extraordinary advances in technology have enabled the covert and secret governmental agendas regarding interplanetary, off-planet, and extradimensional experiments and research to be made possible. These include the reality of other life-forms within the cosmos, wormholes, time travel, and extraterrestrial contact and communication.

This new global nervous system and brain, also known as the noosphere, has given people choice, a collective voice, and the capacity for empowerment. This is a fact that global agenda authorities have recognized and are now seeking to control, as humanity campaigns for human, animal, and planetary rights, including the replacing of existing power resources, such as oil, electricity, and gas, with free energy. This becomes possible with online freedom technology.

The consciousness model of human beings is changing from one of dysfunctional instant gratification to that of a more healthy and functional model of instant manifestation. This proves how we can indeed become manifesters and co-creators. It is new technology that has made this potential a reality. It is critical that we campaign and seek to eliminate the government agendas to control the new global nervous system and brain, and protect the rights of the individual and the collective.

Conscious evolution is an aspect of human evolution that has been slowly but surely emerging in this past decade. Those who run the major self-development training institutions and organizations are now studying conscious evolution in order to introduce it as a new training module into their curriculums, training programs, and educational teaching models.

The woman most renowned as the matriarch of conscious evolution is futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard who, at eighty-two years of age, has dedicated her entire adult life to the conscious evolution of humanity and the world. American systems theorist, architect, engineer, author, designer, inventor, and futurist Buckminster Fuller said of her: There is no doubt in my mind that Barbara Marx Hubbardwho helped introduce the concept of futurism to societyis the best informed human now alive regarding futurism and the foresights it has produced. And her good friend and biographer Neale Donald Walsch refers to her asThe Mother of Invention.

Barbara Marx Hubbard defines conscious evolution as the following:

Conscious evolution is the evolution of evolution, from unconscious to conscious choice. While consciousness has been evolving for billions of years, conscious evolution is new. It is part of the trajectory of human evolution, the canvas of choice before us now as we recognize that we have come to possess the powers that we used to attribute to the gods.

We are poised in this critical moment, facing decisions that must be made consciously if we are to avoid destroying the world as we know it, if we are instead to co-create a future of immeasurable possibilities. Our conscious evolution is an invitation to ourselves, to open to that positive future, to see ourselves as one planet, and to learn to use our powers wisely and ethically for the enhancement of all life on Earth.

Conscious evolution can also be seen as an awakening of a memory that resides in the synthesis of human knowing, from spiritual to social to scientific. Indeed, all of our efforts to discover the inherent design of life itself can be seen as the process of one intelligence, striving to know itself through our many eyes, and to set the stage for a future of immense co-creativity.

This awakening has gained momentum as three new understandings (the 3 Cs) have arisen:

Cosmogenesis:This is the recent discovery that the universe has been and is now evolving. As Brian Swimme puts it, time is experienced as an evolutionary sequence of irreversible transformations, rather than as ever-renewing cycles.

Our New Crises:We are faced with a complex set of crises, most especially environmental. We are participating in a global system that is far from equilibrium, conditions that are known to favor a macroshift. This kind of dramatic repatterning can be a sudden shift toward devolution and chaos, or it can be an evolution toward a higher more complex order. At this moment in evolution the outcome depends on our choices, and time is running out. We must change, or suffer dire consequences. Our crises are acting as evolutionary drivers pressuring us to innovate and transform.

Our New Capacities:The advent of radical evolutionary technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, quantum computing, space exploration, etc., offer us the possibility of profound change in the physical world. At the same time that we are facing the possible destruction of our life support systems, we can also see that the tools are there to transform ourselves, our bodies, and our world. We can and are actually moving beyond the creature human condition toward a new species, a universal humanity, capable of coevolving with nature.*

*Barbara Marx Hubbards official website, accessed March 18, 2013,www.barbaramarxhubbard.com/site/node/10.Spiritual Evolution

For millennia humans have been engaged in varying forms of spiritual practice, be they sacrificial or reverential. Many have immersed themselves, for better or worse, in the aspirational or dogmatic interpretations of world religions, spiritual ideals, and philosophies. Throughout history, religion has been grossly distorted beyond all recognition. Humanity has been exposed to a version of worship and religion that has had the pure heart ripped out of it. However, a true religion is seeking to emerge now, a religion in which the heart remains intact.

For many thousands of years, from the worship of Sun Gods, Mystery religions, Paganism, and more (with Hinduism being the oldest of the existing major religions), humans have been guided (controlled) by external moralistic, authoritative, retributive, punishing, distorted, judgmental, accusative, warring, and misrepresentative unearthly Gods. Sacred texts have been delivered with misinterpretation and distortion in contradictory sermons paraded as rules and regulations to a vulnerable global congregation.

Mainstream religion and spiritual practice dates back to the Vedas, which predate Hinduism in India. For the Abrahamic religions, Judaism is the mother religion, established around 1500 BCE. Christianity was established in the first century CE and Islam around the eighth century CE. Billions of people have perished throughout human history as a result of ancient worship, which caused wars and entailed human sacrifice. Untold millions of men, women, children, and animals have lost their lives in the name of religion in the past four to five thousand years.

The most peaceful spiritual practices in modern history appear to be Buddhism and Hinduism, yet even these have ancient roots in battles and war. However, over time, they do seem to have evolved a more authentic expression of their fundamental spiritual teachings based upon love. It is also interesting to note that both encourage and practice vegetarianism, as regard for all life is a fundamental value and ethic.

As the psychological and conscious evolution of the individual and collective begins to establish a firm foothold as a reality, we find ourselves in the midst of a global evolution. Our relationship with our own spirituality is subject to radical questioning as we sense the rumblings of change beneath the surface of the spiritual and religious ground we have stood upon for thousands of years.

As psychologically and consciously evolving individuals, we are seeking and needing a more authentic expression of spirituality that speaks to who we are now in the twenty-first century. As the many layers that hide the heart of the true Self are peeled away through psychological processing and conscious awakening, so too are we now seeking to align with an authentic spiritual and religious practice for the new consciousness and the new world paradigm that is also emerging.

The time is upon us to strip away the many layers that have hidden the heart of religionlayers that were put in place in order to control and manipulate our ancestors who had not attained the degree of conscious evolution that is possible and can become a reality for the twenty-first-century awakened human being. Twenty-first-century humanity seeks a spiritual path that reflects our present time and one in which the heart of religion is laid bare. Our conscious evolution calls for a new spiritual practicea contemporary spirituality for an evolving worlda religious practice, an authentic teaching of what has lain at the heart of all religion. Just as all rivers lead to the ocean, what takes us to the heart of all religion is love.

Conscious evolution began with spirituality. Yet, owing to the adoption of the widespread distortion and misrepresentation of original religious and spiritual teachings over millennia, the conscious evolution of the human being became buried, along with the pure, peace loving, and peace seeking heart of true religion and spiritual practice.

Following the explosion onto the human evolutionary scene of the psychological Self, some forty or more years ago, we find we have now arrived at the gateway of individual and collective conscious evolution. As the psychologically integrated self establishes within the personal, cultural, and collective fabric of human reality, so too rises the star of conscious evolution, lighting the way ahead for our ongoing evolutionary development. Psychological evolution is followed by conscious evolution and then spiritual evolution, or more accurately, a spiritual reevolution, which reflects the consciousness of the twenty-first-century human being and a new world paradigm.

Standing upon the bridge of conscious evolution, we remain at the same time connected to both the psychological and spiritual. By simultaneously remaining connected to all three, an unprecedented evolutionary leap becomes possible within the human being. Never before, in the history of humankind, have we stood upon such a threshold that, for the first time, allows us to experience and manifest the greater potential we each hold as consciously evolving human beings. Our full capacity for the expression of this has remained dormant. We use just 8 percent of the human brain. In the words of Roberto Assagioli, just imagine What we may be. This is the promise of the times we are living in.

The gateways of psychological, conscious, and spiritual evolution are wide open and invite each and every one of us to align with a consciousness and a new world that reflects a twenty-first-century personal and collective shift from an old to a new paradigm. To do so will initiate and activate the vastly unrealized human template we are each born with and, until this century, have barely touched upon.

These three gateways present us with a new human experience and a world that, until this time, has been just a fantasy or a dream. The glimpse we have seen of a utopian world in which all are equal, all are abundant, all are peaceful, and all are well is now within our grasp. We have only to step through these psychological, conscious, and spiritual gateways to realize and manifest a utopian world as a reality.

The Three Foundational Levels of Human Evolution: Psychological, Conscious, and Spiritual

The time is upon us now to align and harmonize these three foundational levels of our intrinsic evolutionary naturea process I often refer to as realigning the personality with the Soul, and not the other way around, which is primarily the case in the unintegrated individual.

The most profound and transformational journey any of us will ever experience is the conscious evolutionary journey of the Self. The journey of true awakening is catalyzed when we turn our attention to our psychological level, which enables us to evolve in a more conscious way. This in turn profoundly influences and accelerates our conscious and spiritual evolution.

Self-awareness and self-realization lead to self-actualization. When we embody and live the Truth of who we really are, this enables global evolution and the attainment of the utopian ideal of a world at peace to become a tangible reality.

When enough of us are psychologically, consciously, and spiritually awakened, we can and will coevolve and co-manifest a new golden age and a thousand years of peace. This has been prophesied by ancient indigenous wisdom keepers for millennia, a fact that rare astronomical alignments and momentous Earth changes indicated would unfold post-2012.

The rise of conscious evolution as an intrinsic developmental reality for the twenty-first-century human being marks the arrival of the new human. This human being is not randomly shaped by circumstances of chance and current themes within society, but one who is conscious and fully engaged in their own evolutionary process as well as working toward the evolution of humanity.

The individual and collective psyche is now ready for a personal and global progressive evolutionary awakening. The twenty-first-century new human seeks a contemporary spirituality that reflects an evolving world. The psychological aspect of human evolution first entered the public domain in the late nineteenth century with Freud and then exploded onto the scene in the 1970s, at which point we entered into the era of psychological evolution. Now as we move further into the twenty-first century, we find we have arrived at a bridge that invites us into a new era of human evolutiona new epoch of conscious evolution. The twenty-first century will catalyze an exponential shift in this in both the individual and the collective and so materialize an aligned spirituality, a twenty-first-century global-spiritual evolutiona contemporary spirituality for an evolving world.

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Psychological, Conscious, and Spiritual Evolution | Awaken

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Clergy are some of the main and important formal leaders within certain religions. The roles and functions of clergy vary in different religious traditions but these usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the terms used for individual clergy are clergyman, clergywoman and churchman. Less common terms are churchwoman, clergyperson and cleric.

In Christianity the specific names and roles of clergy vary by denomination and there is a wide range of formal and informal clergy positions, including deacons, elders, priests, bishops, preachers, pastors, ministers and the Pope. In Islam, a religious leader is often known formally or informally as an imam, qadi, mufti, mullah or ayatollah. In Jewish tradition, a religious leader is often a rabbi (teacher) or hazzan (cantor).

The word "Cleric" comes from the ecclesiastical Latin Clericus, for those belonging to the priestly class. In turn, the source of the Latin word is from the Ecclesiastical Greek Clericus, meaning appertaining to an inheritance, in reference to the fact that the Levitical priests of the Old Testament had no inheritance except the Lord.[1] "Clergy" is from two Old French words, clergi and clergie, which refer to those with learning and derive from Medieval Latin clericatus, from Late Latin clericus (the same word from which "cleric" is derived).[2] "Clerk", which used to mean one ordained to the ministry, also derives from clericus. In the Middle Ages, reading and writing were almost exclusively the domain of the priestly class, and this is the reason for the close relationship of these words.[3] Within Christianity, especially in Eastern Christianity and formerly in Western Roman Catholicism, the term cleric refers to any individual who has been ordained, including deacons, priests, and bishops.[4] In Latin Roman Catholicism, the tonsure was a prerequisite for receiving any of the minor orders or major orders before the tonsure, minor orders, and the subdiaconate were abolished following the Second Vatican Council.[5] Now, the clerical state is tied to reception of the diaconate.[6] Minor Orders are still given in the Eastern Catholic Churches, and those who receive those orders are 'minor clerics.'[7]

The use of the word "Cleric" is also appropriate for Eastern Orthodox minor clergy who are tonsured in order not to trivialize orders such as those of Reader in the Eastern Church, or for those who are tonsured yet have no minor or major orders. It is in this sense that the word entered the Arabic language, most commonly in Lebanon from the French, as kleriki (or, alternatively, cleriki) meaning "seminarian." This is all in keeping with Eastern Orthodox concepts of clergy, which still include those who have not yet received, or do not plan to receive, the diaconate.

A priesthood is a body of priests, shamans, or oracles who have special religious authority or function. The term priest is derived from the Greek presbyter (, presbteros, elder or senior), but is often used in the sense of sacerdos in particular, i.e., for clergy performing ritual within the sphere of the sacred or numinous communicating with the gods on behalf of the community.

Buddhist clergy are often collectively referred to as the Sangha, and consist of various orders of male and female monks (originally called bhikshus and bhikshunis respectively). This diversity of monastic orders and styles was originally one community founded by Gautama Buddha during the 5th century BC living under a common set of rules (called the Vinaya). According to scriptural records, these celibate monks and nuns in the time of the Buddha lived an austere life of meditation, living as wandering beggars for nine months out of the year and remaining in retreat during the rainy season (although such a unified condition of Pre-sectarian Buddhism is questioned by some scholars). However, as Buddhism spread geographically over time - encountering different cultures, responding to new social, political, and physical environments - this single form of Buddhist monasticism diversified. The interaction between Buddhism and Tibetan Bon led to a uniquely Tibetan Buddhism, within which various sects, based upon certain teacher-student lineages arose. Similarly, the interaction between Indian Buddhist monks (particularly of the Southern Madhyamika School) and Chinese Confucian and Taoist monks from c200-c900AD produced the distinctive Ch'an Buddhism. Ch'an, like the Tibetan style, further diversified into various sects based upon the transmission style of certain teachers (one of the most well known being the 'rapid enlightenment' style of Linji Yixuan), as well as in response to particular political developments such as the An Lushan Rebellion and the Buddhist persecutions of Emperor Wuzong. In these ways, manual labour was introduced to a practice where monks originally survived on alms; layers of garments were added where originally a single thin robe sufficed; etc. This adaptation of form and roles of Buddhist monastic practice continued after the transmission to Japan. For example, monks took on administrative functions for the Emperor in particular secular communities (registering births, marriages, deaths), thereby creating Buddhist 'priests'. Again, in response to various historic attempts to suppress Buddhism (most recently during the Meiji Era), the practice of celibacy was relaxed and Japanese monks allowed to marry. This form was then transmitted to Korea, during later Japanese occupation,[8] where celibate and non-celibate monks today exist in the same sects. (Similar patterns can also be observed in Tibet during various historic periods multiple forms of monasticism have co-existed such as "ngagpa" lamas, and times at which celibacy was relaxed). As these varied styles of Buddhist monasticism are transmitted to Western cultures, still more new forms are being created.

In general, the Mahayana schools of Buddhism tend to be more culturally adaptive and innovative with forms, while Theravada schools (the form generally practised in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Sri Lanka) tend to take a much more conservative view of monastic life, and continue to observe precepts that forbid monks from touching women or working in certain secular roles. This broad difference in approach led to a major schism among Buddhist monastics in about the 4th century BCE, creating the Early Buddhist Schools.

While female monastic (bhikkhuni) lineages existed in most Buddhist countries at one time, the Theravada lineages of Southeast Asia died out during the 14th-15th Century AD. As there is some debate about whether the bhikkhuni lineage (in the more expansive Vinaya forms) was transmitted to Tibet, the status and future of female Buddhist clergy in this tradition is sometimes disputed by strict adherents to the Theravadan style. Some Mahayana sects, notably in the United States (such as San Francisco Zen Center) are working to reconstruct the female branches of what they consider a common, interwoven lineage.[9]

The diversity of Buddhist traditions makes it difficult to generalize about Buddhist clergy. In the United States, Pure Land priests of the Japanese diaspora serve a role very similar to Protestant ministers of the Christian tradition. Meanwhile, reclusive Theravada forest monks in Thailand live a life devoted to meditation and the practice of austerities in small communities in rural Thailand- a very different life from even their city-dwelling counterparts, who may be involved primarily in teaching, the study of scripture, and the administration of the nationally organized (and government sponsored) Sangha. In the Zen traditions of China, Korea and Japan, manual labor is an important part of religious discipline; meanwhile, in the Theravada tradition, prohibitions against monks working as laborers and farmers continue to be generally observed.

Currently in North America, there are both celibate and non-celibate clergy in a variety of Buddhist traditions from around the world. In some cases they are forest dwelling monks of the Theravada tradition and in other cases they are married clergy of a Japanese Zen lineage and may work a secular job in addition to their role in the Buddhist community. There is also a growing realization that traditional training in ritual and meditation as well as philosophy may not be sufficient to meet the needs and expectations of American lay people. Some communities have begun exploring the need for training in counseling skills as well. Along these lines, at least two fully accredited Master of Divinity programs are currently available: one at Naropa University in Boulder, CO and one at the University of the West in Rosemead, CA.

In general, Christian clergy are ordained; that is, they are set apart for specific ministry in religious rites. Others who have definite roles in worship but who are not ordained (e.g. laypeople acting as acolytes) are generally not considered clergy, even though they may require some sort of official approval to exercise these ministries.

Types of clerics are distinguished from offices, even when the latter are commonly or exclusively occupied by clerics. A Roman Catholic cardinal, for instance, is almost without exception a cleric, but a cardinal is not a type of cleric. An archbishop is not a distinct type of cleric, but is simply a bishop who occupies a particular position with special authority. Conversely, a youth minister at a parish may or may not be a cleric. Different churches have different systems of clergy, though churches with similar polity have similar systems.

In Anglicanism, clergy consist of the orders of deacons, priests (presbyters) and bishops in ascending order of seniority. Canon, archdeacon, archbishop and the like are specific positions within these orders. Bishops are typically overseers, presiding over a diocese composed of many parishes, with an archbishop presiding over a province, which is a group of dioceses. A parish (generally a single church) is looked after by one or more priests, although one priest may be responsible for several parishes. New clergy are ordained deacons. Those seeking to become priests are usually ordained priest after a year. Since the 1960s some Anglican churches have reinstituted the diaconate as a permanent, rather than transitional, order of ministry focused on ministry that bridges the church and the world, especially ministry to those on the margins of society.

For the forms of address for Anglican clergy, see Forms of address in the United Kingdom.

For a short period of history before the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops began within Anglicanism they could be "deaconesses". Although they were usually considered having a ministry distinct from deacons they often had similar ministerial responsibilities.

In Anglican churches all clergy are permitted to marry. In most national churches women may become deacons or priests, but while fifteen out of 38 national churches allow for the consecration of women as bishops, only five have ordained any. Celebration of the Eucharist is reserved for priests and bishops.

National Anglican churches are presided over by one or more primates or metropolitans (archbishops or presiding bishops). The senior archbishop of the Anglican Communion is the Archbishop of Canterbury, who acts as leader of the Church of England and 'first among equals' of the primates of all Anglican churches.

Being a deacon, priest or bishop is considered a function of the person and not a job. When priests retire they are still priests even if they no longer have any active ministry. However, they only hold the basic rank after retirement. Thus a retired archbishop can only be considered a bishop (though it is possible to refer to 'Bishop John Smith, the former Archbishop of York'), a canon or archdeacon is a priest on retirement and does not hold any additional honorifics.

Ordained clergy in the Roman Catholic Church are either deacons, priests, or bishops belonging to the diaconate, the presbyterate, or the episcopate, respectively. Among bishops, some are metropolitans, archbishops, or patriarchs. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the supreme and universal hierarch of the Church, and his authorization is now required for the ordination of all Catholic bishops. With rare exceptions, cardinals are bishops, although it was not always so; formerly, some cardinals were people who had received clerical tonsure, but not Holy Orders. Secular clergy are ministers, such as deacons and priests, who do not belong to a religious institute and live in the world at large, rather than a religious institute (saeculum). The Holy See supports the activity of its clergy by the Congregation for the Clergy ([1]), a dicastery of Roman curia.

Canon Law indicates (canon 207) that "[b]y divine institution, there are among the Christian faithful in the Church sacred ministers who in law are also called clerics; the other members of the Christian faithful are called lay persons".[10] This distinction of a separate ministry was formed in the early times of Christianity; one early source reflecting this distinction, with the three ranks or orders of bishop, priest and deacon, is the writings of Saint Ignatius of Antioch.

Holy Orders is one of the Seven Sacraments, enumerated at the Council of Trent, that the Magisterium considers to be of divine institution. In the Roman Catholic Church, only men are permitted to be clerics, although in antiquity women were ordained to the diaconate[dubious discuss].

In the Latin Church before 1972, tonsure admitted someone to the clerical state, after which he could receive the four minor orders (ostiary, lectorate, order of exorcists, order of acolytes) and then the major orders of subdiaconate, diaconate, presbyterate, and finally the episcopate, which according to Roman Catholic doctrine is "the fullness of Holy Orders". Since 1972 the minor orders and the subdiaconate have been replaced by lay ministries and clerical tonsure no longer takes place, except in some Traditionalist Catholic groups, and the clerical state is acquired, even in those groups, by Holy Orders.[11] In the Latin Church the initial level of the three ranks of Holy Orders is that of the diaconate. In addition to these three orders of clerics, some Eastern Catholic, or "Uniate", Churches have what are called "minor clerics".[12]

Members of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life are clerics only if they have received Holy Orders. Thus, unordained monks, friars, nuns, and religious brothers and sisters are not part of the clergy.

The Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches prescribe that every cleric must be enrolled or "incardinated" in a diocese or its equivalent (an apostolic vicariate, territorial abbey, personal prelature, etc.) or in a religious institute, society of apostolic life or secular institute.[13][14] The need for this requirement arose because of the trouble caused from the earliest years of the Church by unattached or vagrant clergy subject to no ecclesiastical authority and often causing scandal wherever they went.[15]

Current canon law prescribes that to be ordained a priest, an education is required of two years of philosophy and four of theology, including study of dogmatic and moral theology, the Holy Scriptures, and canon law have to be studied within a seminary or an ecclesiastical faculty at a university.[16][17]

Roman Catholicism mandates clerical celibacy for all clergy in the predominant Latin Rite, with the exception of deacons who do not intend to become priests. Exceptions are sometimes admitted for ordination to transitional diaconate and priesthood on a case-by-case basis for married clergymen of other churches or communities who become Catholics, but ordination of married men to the episcopacy is excluded (see personal ordinariate). Clerical marriage is not allowed and therefore, if those for whom in some particular Church celibacy is optional (such as permanent deacons in the Latin Church) wish to marry, they must do so before ordination. Eastern Catholic Churches either follow the same rules as the Latin Church or require celibacy only for bishops.

In the High Middle Ages, clergy in Western Europe had four privileges:[citation needed]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has no dedicated clergy, and is governed instead by a system of lay priesthood leaders. Locally, unpaid and part-time priesthood holders lead the church; the worldwide church is supervised by full-time general authorities, some of whom receive modest living allowances.[18][19] No formal theological training is required for any position. All leaders in the church are called by revelation and the laying on of hands by one who holds authority. Jesus Christ stands at the head of the church and leads the church through revelation given to the President of the Church, the First Presidency, and Twelve Apostles, all of whom are recognized as prophets, seers, and revelators and have lifetime tenure. Below these men in the hierarchy are quorums of seventy, which are assigned geographically over the areas of the church. Locally, the church is divided into stakes; each stake has a president, who is assisted by two counselors and a high council. The stake is made up of several individual congregations, which are called "wards" or "branches." Wards are led by a bishop and his counselors and branches by a president and his counselors. Local leaders serve in their positions until released by their supervising authorities.[20]

Generally, all worthy males age 12 and above receive the priesthood. Youth age 12 to 18 are ordained to the Aaronic priesthood as deacons, teachers, or priests, which authorizes them to perform certain ordinances and sacraments. Adult males are ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood, as elders, seventies, high priests, or patriarchs in that priesthood, which is concerned with spiritual leadership of the church. Although the term "clergy" is not typically used in the LDS Church, it would most appropriately apply to local bishops and stake presidents. Merely holding an office in the priesthood does not imply authority over other church members or agency to act on behalf of the entire church.

The Orthodox Church has three ranks of holy orders: bishop, priest, and deacon. These are the same offices identified in the New Testament and found in the Early Church, as testified by the writings of the Holy Fathers. Each of these ranks is ordained through the Sacred Mystery (sacrament) of the laying on of hands (called cheirotonia) by bishops. Priests and deacons are ordained by their own diocesan bishop, while bishops are consecrated through the laying on of hands of at least three other bishops.

Within each of these three ranks there are found a number of titles. Bishops may have the title of archbishop, metropolitan, and patriarch, all of which are considered honorifics. Among the Orthodox, all bishops are considered equal, though an individual may have a place of higher or lower honor, and each has his place within the order of precedence. Priests (also called presbyters) may (or may not) have the title of archpriest, protopresbyter (also called "protopriest", or "protopope"), hieromonk (a monk who has been ordained to the priesthood) archimandrite (a senior hieromonk) and hegumen (abbot). Deacons may have the title of hierodeacon (a monk who has been ordained to the deaconate), archdeacon or protodeacon.

The lower clergy are not ordained through cheirotonia (laying on of hands) but through a blessing known as cheirothesia (setting-aside). These clerical ranks are subdeacon, reader and altar server (also known as taper-bearer). Some churches have a separate service for the blessing of a cantor.

Ordination of a bishop, priest, deacon or subdeacon must be conferred during the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist)though in some churches it is permitted to ordain up through deacon during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Giftsand no more than a single individual can be ordained to the same rank in any one service. Numerous members of the lower clergy may be ordained at the same service, and their blessing usually takes place during the Little Hours prior to Liturgy, or may take place as a separate service. The blessing of readers and taper-bearers is usually combined into a single service. Subdeacons are ordained during the Little Hours, but the ceremonies surrounding his blessing continue through the Divine Liturgy, specifically during the Great Entrance.

Bishops are usually drawn from the ranks of the archimandrites, and are required to be celibate; however, a non-monastic priest may be ordained to the episcopate if he no longer lives with his wife (following Canon XII of the Quinisext Council of Trullo)[21] In contemporary usage such a non-monastic priest is usually tonsured to the monastic state, and then elevated to archimandrite, at some point prior to his consecration to the episcopacy. Although not a formal or canonical prerequisite, at present bishops are often required to have earned a university degree, typically but not necessarily in theology.

Usual titles are Your Holiness for a patriarch (with Your All-Holiness reserved for the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople), Your Beatitude for an archbishop/metropolitan overseeing an autocephalous Church, Your Eminence for an archbishop/metropolitan generally, Master or Your Grace for a bishop and Father for priests, deacons and monks,[22] although there are variations between the various Orthodox Churches. For instance, in Churches associated with the Greek tradition, while the Ecumenical Patriarch is addressed as "Your All-Holiness," all other Patriarchs (and archbishops/metropolitans who oversee autocephalous Churches) are addressed as "Your Beatitude."[23]

Orthodox priests, deacons, and subdeacons must be either married or celibate (preferably monastic) prior to ordination, but may not marry after ordination. Remarriage of clergy following divorce or widowhood is forbidden. Married clergy are considered as best-suited to staff parishes, as a priest with a family is thought better qualified to counsel his flock.[24] It has been common practice in the Russian tradition for unmarried, non-monastic clergy to occupy academic posts.

Clergy in Protestantism fill a wide variety of roles and functions. In many denominations, such as Methodism, Presbyterianism, and Lutheranism, the roles of clergy are similar to Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, in that they hold an ordained pastoral or priestly office, administer the sacraments, proclaim the word, lead a local church or parish, and so forth. The Baptist tradition only recognizes two ordained positions in the church as being the elders (pastors) and deacons as outlined in the third chapter of I Timothy[1Tim 3] in the Bible. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ordains two types of presbyters or elders, teaching (pastor) and ruling (leaders of the congregation which form a council with the pastors). Teaching elders are seminary trained and ordained as a presbyter and set aside on behalf of the whole denomination to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Ordinarily, teaching elders are installed by a presbytery as pastor of a congregation. Ruling elders, after receiving training, may be commissioned by a presbytery to serve as a pastor of a congregation, as well as preach and administer sacraments.[25]

The process of being designated as a member of the Protestant clergy, as well as that of being assigned to a particular office, varies with the denomination or faith group. Some Protestant denominations, such as Methodism, Presbyterianism, and Lutheranism, are hierarchical in nature; and ordination and assignment to individual pastorates or other ministries are made by the parent denominations. In other traditions, such as the Baptist and other Congregational groups, local churches are free to hire (and often ordain) their own clergy, although the parent denominations typically maintain lists of suitable candidates seeking appointment to local church ministries and encourage local churches to consider these individuals when filling available positions.

Some Protestant denominations require that candidates for ordination be "licensed" to the ministry for a period of time (typically one to three years) prior to being ordained. This period typically is spent performing the duties of ministry under the guidance, supervision, and evaluation of a more senior, ordained minister. In some denominations, however, licensure is a permanent, rather than a transitional state for ministers assigned to certain specialized ministries, such as music ministry or youth ministry.

Many Protestant denominations reject the idea that the clergy are a separate category of people, but rather stress the priesthood of all believers. Based on this theological approach, most Protestants do not have a sacrament of ordination like the pre-Reformation churches. Protestant ordination, therefore, can be viewed more as a public statement by the ordaining body that an individual possesses the theological knowledge, moral fitness, and practical skills required for service in that faith group's ministry. Some Lutheran churches form an exception to this rule, as the Lutheran Book of Concord allows ordination to be received as a sacrament.

Some Protestant denominations dislike the word clergy and do not use it of their own leaders. Often they refer to their leaders as pastors or ministers, titles that, if used, sometimes apply to the person only as long as he or she holds a particular office.

Islam, like Judaism, has no clergy in the sacerdotal sense; there is no institution resembling the Christian priesthood. Islamic religious leaders do not "serve as intermediaries between mankind and God",[26] have "process of ordination",[27] nor "sacramental functions".[26] They have been said to resemble more rabbis, serving as "exemplars, teachers, judges, and community leaders," providing religious rules to the pious on "even the most minor and private" matters.[26]

The title mullah (a Persian variation of the Arabic maula, "master"), commonly translated "cleric" in the West and thought to be analogous to "priest" or "rabbi", is a title of address for any educated or respected figure, not even necessarily (though frequently) religious. The title sheikh ("elder") is used similarly.

Most of the religious titles associated with Islam are scholastic or academic in nature: they recognize the holder's exemplary knowledge of the theory and practice of ad-dn (religion), and do not confer any particular spiritual or sacerdotal authority. The most general such title is `alim (pl. `ulamah), or "scholar". This word describes someone engaged in advanced study of the traditional Islamic sciences (`ulum) at an Islamic university or madrasah jami`ah. A scholar's opinions may be valuable to others because of his/her knowledge in religious matters; but such opinions should not generally be considered binding, infallible, or absolute, as the individual Muslim is directly responsible to God for his or her own religious beliefs and practice.

The nearest analogue among Sunni Muslims to the parish priest or pastor, or to the "pulpit rabbi" of a synagogue, is called the imam khatib. This compound title is merely a common combination of two elementary offices: leader (imam) of the congregational prayer, which in most mosques is performed at the times of all daily prayers; and preacher (khatib) of the sermon or khutba of the obligatory congregational prayer at midday every Friday. Although either duty can be performed by anyone who is regarded as qualified by the congregation, at most well-established mosques imam khatib is a permanent part-time or full-time position. He may be elected by the local community, or appointed by an outside authority e.g., the national government, or the waqf which sustains the mosque. There is no ordination as such; the only requirement for appointment as an imam khatib is recognition as someone of sufficient learning and virtue to perform both duties on a regular basis, and to instruct the congregation in the basics of Islam.

The title hafiz (lit. "preserver") is awarded to one who has memorized the entire Qur'an, often by attending a special course for the purpose; the imam khatib of a mosque is frequently (though not always) a hafiz.

There are several specialist offices pertaining to the study and administration of Islamic law or shari`ah. A scholar with a specialty in fiqh or jurisprudence is known as a faqih. A qadi is a judge in an Islamic court. A mufti is a scholar who has completed an advanced course of study which qualifies him to issue judicial opinions or fatawah.

In modern Shi`ah Islam, scholars play a more prominent role in the daily lives of Muslims than in Sunni Islam; and there is a hierarchy of higher titles of scholastic authority, such as Ayatollah. Since around the mid-19th century, a more complex title has been used in Twelver Shi`ism, namely marja at-taqlid. Marja (pl. maraji) means "source", and taqlid refers to religious emulation or imitation. Lay Shi`ah must identify a specific marja whom they emulate, according to his legal opinions (fatawah) or other writings. On several occasions, the Marjaiyyat (community of all maraji) has been limited to a single individual, in which case his rulings have been applicable to all those living in the Twelver Shi'ah world. Of broader importance has been the role of the mujtahid, a cleric of superior knowledge who has the authority to perform ijtihad (independent judgment). Mujtahids are few in number, but it is from their ranks that the maraji at-taqlid are drawn.

The spiritual guidance function known in many Christian denominations as "pastoral care" is fulfilled for many Muslims by a murshid ("guide"), a master of the spiritual sciences and disciplines known as tasawuf or Sufism. Sufi guides are commonly styled Shaikh in both speaking and writing; in North Africa they are sometimes called marabouts. They are traditionally appointed by their predecessors, in an unbroken teaching lineage reaching back to Muhammad. (The lineal succession of guides bears a superficial similarity to Christian ordination and apostolic succession, or to Buddhist dharma transmission; but a Sufi guide is regarded primarily as a specialized teacher and Islam denies the existence of an earthly hierarchy among believers.)

Muslims who wish to learn Sufism dedicate themselves to a murshid's guidance by taking an oath called a bai'ah. The aspirant is then known as a murid ("disciple" or "follower"). A murid who takes on special disciplines under the guide's instruction, ranging from an intensive spiritual retreat to voluntary poverty and homelessness, is sometimes known as a dervish.

During the Islamic Golden Age, it was common for scholars to attain recognized mastery of both the "exterior sciences" (`ulum az-zahir) of the madrasahs as well as the "interior sciences" (`ulum al-batin) of Sufism. Al-Ghazali and Rumi are two notable examples.

The highest office an Ahmadi can hold is that of Khalifatu l-Masih. Such a person may appoint amirs who manage regional areas.[28] The consultative body for Ahmadiyya is called the Majlis-i-Shura, which ranks second in importance to the Khalifatu l-Masih.[29] However, the Ahmadiyya community is declared as non-Muslims by many mainstream Muslims and they reject the messianic claims of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

Rabbinic Judaism does not have clergy as such, although according to the Torah there is a tribe of priests known as the Kohanim who were leaders of the religion up to the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD when most Sadducees were wiped out; each member of the tribe, a Kohen had priestly duties, many of which centered around the sacrificial duties, atonement and blessings of the Israelite nation. Today, Jewish Kohanim know their status by family tradition, and still offer the priestly blessing during certain services in the synagogue and perform the Pidyon haben (redemption of the first-born son) ceremony.

Since the time of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the religious leaders of Judaism have often been rabbis, who are technically scholars in Jewish law empowered to act as judges in a rabbinical court. All types of Judaism except Orthodox Judaism allow women as well as men to be ordained as rabbis and cantors.[30][31] The leadership of a Jewish congregation is, in fact, in the hands of the laity: the president of a synagogue is its actual leader and any adult male Jew (or adult Jew in non-traditional congregations) can lead prayer services. The rabbi is not an occupation found in the Torah; the first time this word is mentioned is in the Mishnah. The modern form of the rabbi developed in the Talmudic era. Rabbis are given authority to make interpretations of Jewish law and custom. Traditionally, a man obtains one of three levels of Semicha (rabbinic ordination) after the completion of an arduous learning program in Torah, Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Mishnah and Talmud, Midrash, Jewish ethics and lore, the codes of Jewish law and responsa, theology and philosophy.

Since the early medieval era an additional communal role, the Hazzan (cantor) has existed as well. Cantors have sometimes been the only functionaries of a synagogue, empowered to undertake religio-civil functions like witnessing marriages. Cantors do provide leadership of actual services, primarily because of their training and expertise in the music and prayer rituals pertaining to them, rather than because of any spiritual or "sacramental" distinction between them and the laity. Cantors as much as rabbis have been recognized by civil authorities in the United States as clergy for legal purposes, mostly for awarding education degrees and their ability to perform weddings, and certify births and deaths.

Additionally, Jewish authorities license mohels, people specially trained by experts in Jewish law and usually also by medical professionals to perform the ritual of circumcision.[33] Traditional Orthodox Judaism does not license women as mohels, but other types of Judaism do. They are appropriately called mohelot (pl. of mohelet, f. of mohel)[2]. As the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California states, "...there is no halachic prescription against female mohels, [but] none exist in the Orthodox world, where the preference is that the task be undertaken by a Jewish man.".[33]

In many places, mohels are also licensed by civil authorities, as circumcision is technically a surgical procedure. Kohanim, who must avoid contact with dead human body parts (such as the removed foreskin) for ritual purity, cannot act as mohels,[citation needed] but some mohels are also either rabbis or cantors.

Another licensed cleric in Judaism is the shochet, who are trained and licensed by religious authorities for kosher slaughter according to ritual law. A Kohen may be a shochet. Most shochetim are ordained rabbis.[34]

Then there is the mashgiach. A mashgiach is someone who supervises the kashrut status of a kosher establishment. The mashgiach must know the Torah laws of kashrut, and how they apply in the environment he is supervising. Obviously, this can vary. In many instances, the mashgiach is a rabbi. This helps, since rabbinical students learn the laws of kosher as part of their syllabus. However, not every mashgiach is a rabbi, and not every rabbi is qualified to be a mashgiach.

In contemporary Orthodox Judaism, women are forbidden from becoming rabbis or cantors in the Orthodox world primarily because this would affect many aspects of communal observances and practices .[citation needed] Most Orthodox rabbinical seminaries or yeshivas also require dedication of many years to education, but few require a formal degree from a civil education institutions that often define Christian clergy. Training is often focused on Jewish law, and some Orthodox Yeshivas forbid secular education.

In Hasidic Judaism, generally understood as a branch of Orthodox Judaism, there are dynastic spiritual leaders known as Rebbes, often translated in English as "Grand Rabbi". The office of Rebbe is generally a hereditary one, may also be passed from Rebbe to student, or recognized by a congregation conferring a sort of coronation to their new Rebbe. Although one does not need to be an ordained Rabbi to be a Rebbe, most Rebbes today are ordained Rabbis. Since one does not need to be an ordained rabbi to be a Rebbe, at some points in history there were female Rebbes as well, particularly the Maiden of Ludmir.

In Conservative Judaism, both men and women are ordained as rabbis and cantors. Conservative Judaism differs with Orthodoxy in that it sees Jewish Law as binding but also as subject to many interpretations, including more liberal interpretations. Academic requirements for becoming a rabbi are rigorous. First earn a bachelor's degree before entering rabbinical school. Studies are mandated in pastoral care and psychology, the historical development of Judaism and most importantly the academic study of Bible, Talmud and rabbinic literature, philosophy and theology, liturgy, Jewish history, and Hebrew literature of all periods.

Reconstructionist Judaism and Reform Judaism do not maintain the traditional requirements for study as rooted in Jewish Law and traditionalist text. Both men and women may be rabbis or cantors. The rabbinical seminaries of these movements hold that one must first earn a bachelor's degree before entering the rabbinate. In addition studies are mandated in pastoral care and psychology, the historical development of Judaism; and academic biblical criticism. Emphasis is placed not on Jewish law, but rather on sociology, modern Jewish philosophy, Theology and Pastoral Care.

Sikh clergy consists of five Jathedars, one each from five takhts or sacred seats. The Jathedars are appointed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), an elected body of the Sikhs sometimes called the "Parliament of Sikhs." The highest seat of the Sikh religion is called Akal Takht and the Jathedar of Akal Takht makes all the important decisions after consultations with the Jathedars of the other four takhts and the SGPC.

Historically traditional (or pagan) religions typically combine religious authority and political power. What this means is that the sacred king or queen is therefore seen to combine both kingship and priesthood within his or her person, even though he or she is often aided by an actual high priest or priestess (see, for example, the Maya priesthood). When the functions of political ruler and religious leader are combined in this way, deification could be seen to be the next logical stage of his or her social advancement within his or her native environment, as is found in the case of the Egyptian Pharaohs. The Vedic priesthood of India is an early instance of a structured body of clergy organized as a separate and hereditary caste, one that occupied the highest social rung of its nation. A modern example of this phenomenon the priestly monarchs of the Yoruba holy city of Ile-Ife in Nigeria, whose reigning Onis have performed ritual ceremonies for centuries for the sustenance of the entire planet and its people.

In recent years, studies have suggested that American clergy in certain Protestant, Evangelical and Jewish traditions are more at risk than the general population of obesity, hypertension and depression. Their life expectancies have fallen in recent years and in the last decade their use of antidepressants has risen.[citation needed] Several religious bodies in the United States (Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and Lutheran) have implemented measures to address the issue, through wellness campaigns, for example - but also by simply ensuring that clergy take more time off. It is unclear whether similar symptoms affect American Muslim clerics, although an anecdotal comment by one American imam suggested that leaders of mosques may also share these problems.[35]

One exception to the findings of these studies is the case of American Catholic priests, who are required by canon law to take a spiritual retreat each year, and four weeks of vacation. Sociological studies at the University of Chicago have confirmed this exception; the studies also took the results of several earlier studies into consideration and included Roman Catholic priests nationwide.[36] It remains unclear whether American clergy in other religious traditions experience the same symptoms, or whether clergy outside the United States are similarly affected.

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