Church of Divine Man
The Church of Divine Man grew out of the work of Lewis
Bostwick (19181995), a psychic and teacher in the San Francisco
Bay area who in 1973 founded two organizations, the
Berkeley Psychic Institute, a teaching center, and the Church
of Divine Man, a spiritual community embodying the beliefs
that Bostwick, who served as the churchs archbishop during his
last years, had come to hold. Bostwick saw the development of
psychic abilities and the emergence of a mystic consciousness
as primary over any doctrinal statements and had argued for
what he termed psychic freedom. He had little use for ideological
or philosophical perspectives that tended to divide people.
He stressed the abilities each person had for manifesting
psychic talents and noted Jesus words, What I can do, you can
do and greater than these shall you do.
The Berkeley Psychic Institute offers a wide range of courses
in psychic development and awareness for the general public
along with serving as the seminary for the training of ministers
for the Church of the Divine Man. Ministers become accomplished
teachers and practitioners of meditation, psychic healing,
and clairvoyance. Ministers take an intensive course in
clairvoyance. They also learn to do past-life readings, and reincarnation
is generally accepted by those associated with the
church.
The church grew through the mid-1970s and in 1976 a
branch in Seattle, Washington, opened under the leadership of
Bishops Menuard Slusher and Mary Ellen Flora. Additional
churches have been founded throughout California. In Anaheim,
the Church of the Rose, an affiliated congregation, operates
the Southern California Psychic Institute. More recently,
the Seattle branch has become independent of the Berkeley
branch but continues to operate under the same name with
branches in Washington and Oregon. It operates the Washington
Psychic Institute.
The Church of Divine Man is headquartered at 2018 Allison
Way, Berkeley, CA 94704. It publishes a tabloid newspaper, The
Psychic Reader, which in 1986 had superseded its earlier periodical,
This Is Your Psychic Life. Deja Vu Publishing is an independent
associated publishing concern.
Sources
Psychic Reader. Berkeley, Calif., n.d.
