Who we are

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A “Center for Spiritual Living” is a community that provides  spiritual tools to transform our personal lives and help make the world a  better place. At Centers for Spiritual Living, we teach powerful  principles for personal and global transformation, honoring all mindful  paths to God. We help people experience a personal relationship with the  creator; promote a community of tolerance, understanding, and respect;  provide classes, programs, prayer, and meditation; and advocate a safe  spiritual community of like-minded people interested in living a  spiritual life. Our center teaches the philosophy of the Science of  Mind. 

Science of Mind (also referred to as Religious Science) is the core teaching of the West Hawaii Center for Spiritual Living. 

“The  Science of Mind is not a special revelation of any individual; it is,  rather, the culmination of all revelations. We take the good wherever we  find it, making it our own in so far as we understand it. The  realization that Good is Universal, and that as much good as any  individual is able to incorporate in [their own] life is [theirs] to  use, is what constitutes the Science of Mind and Spirit.” – SOM Text p.  35 

We teach that all of existence is One existence. Our “higher  power” is actually the sum total of all creation itself. All  intelligence, all nature and all experience as the one experience of all  Life. Oneness or Wholeness is where everything begins and ends. 

As  such, this means we are part of It and It is all that we are. We have  been imbued with the very same creative potential and power that has  created the entire Universe and everything in it. With this knowing, we  consciously seek to cultivate greater faith in ourselves, humanity and  the cosmos themselves and to act from the greatest principle that binds  them all, Love. 

“…we have nothing new. We simply have a new  approach to an old truth, a more intelligent, a more systematic way of  consciously arriving at faith.” – Ernest Holmes.

 Science of Mind (also referred to as Religious Science) is the core  teaching of the Center for Spiritual Living. Science of Mind is a  philosophy that integrates spiritual truths with science and physics.  Simply put, Science of Mind teaches the unity of all life. Intentions  and ideas flow through a field of consciousness, which affects and  creates the world around us. This idea is common to most major religions  and is supported by the teachings of psychology and quantum physics. In  Science of Mind, we believe that the secret to living a successful life  is to consciously choose positive and productive thoughts. Put another  way, “As you think, so you become.” It is the intention of the Center  for Spiritual Living to use Science of Mind principles as a force for  good in our world by transforming personal lives. 

 We do not consider the Science of Mind to be the same thing as the  classical and modern Sciences themselves. We believe that Science is the  deliberate and conscious exploration of our experiences and the world  around us. While we do not claim the empirical evidence that the Science  community has discovered, and never seek to ignore or discredit it, we  do believe there are things beyond the empirical world that Science may  or may not ever discover. 

Our science is the deliberate and  conscious exploration of our spirituality and our relationship to the  Universe itself. We use the practical application of our own thought,  our own spiritual practices and our intangible connection to all of  existence in an effort to elicit the results that we desire. In this  way, we are practicing a scientific approach to spirituality, or “… a  more intelligent, a more systematic way of consciously arriving at  faith.” – Ernest Holmes 

* Science of Mind is not Scientology or  Christian Science and is fundamentally different from these teachings in  just about every way.

 We believe that the idea of “God” refers to the cumulative creative  presence of the entire universe and all of its creation as one thing.  While we do not believe in a separate entity or personality called “God”  like most traditional religions, we do believe that there is a “Highest  Power” and that this power is present within every single person,  place, and thing. 

Many people in our faith use God to describe  what Ernest Holmes called “The Thing Itself” but many also choose to use  alternative words to describe like Spirit, The Universe, The One, The  Divine The Almighty, and many more. All of these can be viewed as a  personal way of trying to describe what many people would call “God”. 

By  any name, we believe that this “Thing” is ineffable and we invite  everyone to use the terms and descriptions that speak directly to them  while honoring those used by others.

 Absolutely! While we believe that we have the power to heal any and  all discord and disease in our own lives and bodies, we embrace the idea  that ALL revelation is God’s revelation, including all of Science  including Medical Sciences. 

Ernest Holmes said we should “Take  the pill” while cultivating an understanding of our own wellness to such  a degree that the pill is no longer required. We work WITH the world  around us and seek to expand our ability to discover, through whatever  means available, the ability to heal ourselves. 

 Yes and no. The Science of Mind philosophy draws from the Christian  tradition the belief that the teachings of Jesus are accessible to all  people. Ernest Holmes, the founder of Centers for Spiritual Living, grew  up in the Christian tradition. Additionally, he was a prolific reader  who studied all of the world’s religions and synthesized the truths  running through them all, free of any particular dogma. Honoring all  paths to God, he developed his philosophy with the intention that all  churches, especially Christian ones, would embrace the philosophy and  incorporate those teachings into their own. 

 No, the Science of Mind is NOT considered a “New Age” philosophy. 

The  Science of Mind is a New Thought philosophy that incorporates spiritual  tools of affirmative prayer, healing, and creative visualization to  transform lives and make the world more peaceful, harmonious, and  prosperous. 

New Thought is founded in the idea that there is no  intermediary between us and God. Each of us has direct and uninhibited  access to all the Good of the Universe. There is no Item, Location or  Personality is necessary to experience the full authority of our  principles. 

New Age is the practice of belief in the powers and  properties of Items, Locations, and Personalities. Some believe that  this places New Age ideas in opposition to our teaching but, upon deeper  study and understanding we come to understand that those who choose to  use New Age techniques and practices are no different than those who  have chosen a specific form of prayer, a specific eastern meditation  technique or any other approach to exploring their own individual  approach to Spiritual Living. 

The Science of Mind is a New  Thought philosophy that incorporates spiritual tools of affirmative  prayer, healing, and creative visualization to transform lives and make  The New Thought tradition dates to the 1880s and has its roots in the  Transcendentalist Movement of the 1830s. New Thought has a long and  respected history and includes luminaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson,  Walt Whitman, Phineas Quimby, and Emma Curtis Hopkins. Centers for  Spiritual Living does not consider its teachings to be New Age. 

People  of all spiritual paths — Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, New  Age, and others — are all welcome in our communities

 The Science of Mind honors all forms of prayer. 

In addition,  we teach a unique and specific form of prayer called Affirmative Prayer.  This powerful, affirmative method of prayer was developed by Ernest Holmes  and involves a five-step process that harnesses the creative process of  consciousness. This type of powerful prayer allows new levels of  health, wealth, love, and wholeness to become a reality in our lives  when we engage it with our full faith. 

 Meditation is viewed as one of the most important Spiritual Practices  we can endeavor to experience in our lives. While some people have been  taught that meditation is a specific “type” of spiritual practice, we  believe that meditation is actually a state of being and can be  practiced in an infinite number of ways. 

No matter how you get it  done, meditation is the act of becoming completely consciously aware of  their divinity and connection to the Oneness of all Life; unencumbered  by the past and uninhibited by the future. We urge all practitioners of  Science of Mind to practice and cultivate a regular commitment to  meditation in their lives. 

 No. We believe in the eternality, the immortality, and the continuity  of the individual soul, however, we make no claim to know exactly what  happens after death. What we affirm is that these concepts, Heaven and  Hell, are the archetype of the kind of lives we can create. When we pass  away, we affirm only that the adventure of our soul continues on a  never-ending path of spiritual evolution.

 No. We teach that all of creation is divine and whole. This means  that all humans are born, have a life and eventually pass on to the next  experience in perfect Oneness with the Divine. There is never any way  that any human can separate themselves from their divinity. Human  acts are all temporary and the only idea of Sin is to act and live in a  way that would reflect a separation from this Divine Truth. 

We  believe every human, as a living expression of God itself, has nothing  to forgive and limitless potential to discover and share with the world.