Jean Houston is probably most widely known for urging First Lady Hillary Clinton to carrying on imaginary conversations with Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, in which Mrs. Clinton had to supply both sides of the conversation (discussed below). As this example shows, Dr. Houston is a spiritual director who has worked to develop ritual processes. A prolific author of books, she is one of the founders of the Human Potential Movement. Her PBS Special A Passion for the Possible has been widely viewed.
Biography
According to her published autobiography, A Mythic Life (1996), Jean Houston was born prematurely. Her mother Mary Todaro Houston had studied acting, and her father was a comedy writer. Her relatives included Sam Houston, Robert E. Lee, William and Mary Randolph of Virginia, and Thomas Jefferson.
When Jean was 13, she literally ran into an old man on Park Avenue in New York City on her way to school. After this mishap, they became friends, and she enjoyed listening to him on various occasions. At the time she learned to pronounce his name as "Mr. Thayer." At a much later time, she learned that she had been talking with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. (His complete surname is "Teilhard de Chardin"; the shortened form is "Teilhard" -- pronounced "tay-yar".)
She holds a B.A. from Barnard College, a Ph.D. in psychology from the Union Graduate School, and a Ph.D. in religion from the Graduate Theological Foundation.
She was deeply influenced by the work of Joseph Campbell, most notably by his Hero with a Thousand Faces. But perhaps her most significant mentor was Margaret Mead.
With her spouse Dr. Robert Masters, Dr. Houston founded the Foundation for Mind Research. She is also the founder and chief teacher of the Mystery School, a program for the cross-cultural study of spirituality and ritual processes. She has conducted the Mystery School on both the east and west coasts for more than two decades. In 1984, she started a national not-for-profit organization knownas The Possible Society to explore new ways for people to work to help solve societal problems. More recently, she has also founded the International Institute for Social Artistry. She is currently working with the United Nations Development Program in the new field of social artistry, training U.N. staff and leaders in certain developing countries. She has lectured in more than 100 countries and worked intensively in 40 cultures. She has received many awards for her work.
Contributions in perspective
As mentioned above, Dr. Houston urged Mrs. Clinton to carry on imaginary conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt. In a book excerpt that appeared in Newsweek, Bob Woodward of Watergate fame wrote a sensationalistic account about Dr. Houston and Mrs. Clinton's two-sided imaginary conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt. However, in a follow-up story about Dr. Houston in Newsweek, Kenneth L. Woodward (no relation), the long-time religion editor of Newsweek, pointed out that spiritual directors in the Roman Catholic tradition had recommended this kind of practice for many people on retreats. As he noted, instructions for carrying on such a two-sided colloquy with long-dead biblical personages such as Jesus can be found in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a famous spiritual director and the founder of the Society of Jesus religious order. As this example shows, Houston can be styled a spiritual director in the tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
As is well known, Ignatius did come under the scrutiny of the Inquisition; he was placed under house arrest, but they could not find anything wrong with what he was doing, so he was released. Perhaps the scrutiny of Dr. Houston in Newsweek by Bob Woodward and Kenneth L. Woodward can be likened to Ignatius's scrutiny by the Inquisition in his day.
Much of Houston's work in spirituality centers on creating fresh ritual processes, albeit ones deeply indebted to ancient ritual processes. She styles her work in this crucial area the Mystery School, because it is still something of a mystery as to how ritual processes enable people to engender their human potentials. Unfortunately, many Americans today can be styled ritually challenged. Apart from singing the national anthem together occasionally, most of our lives are not ritually rich. As a result, much work remains to be done to develop meaningful ritual processes for American culture today, so that we can perhaps engender the deeper resources of the human psyche in our efforts to actuate our human potential and thereby grow into more fully actuated persons. Houston has devoted her adult life to this work.
In this respect, she is answering the call of Walter J. Ong, S.J., in the culminating essay in Frontiers in American Catholicism (1957: 104-25). There he calls on his co-religionists to develop a new "mystique" toward life, as he styles it. Today instead of speaking of a mystique, we would speak of spirituality. In her work in the Mystery School, Houston has been using trial and error approaches to work toward developing fresh ritual processes that are meaningful for people today and perhaps also efficacious in helping them actuate their human potential for true greatness, as distinct from grandiosity. Robert L. Moore has also been active in exploring fresh ritual processes for people today; see his book The Archetype of Initiation: Sacred Space, Ritual Process, and Personal Transformation (2001). The classic study of ritual processes is by Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (1969). In Turner's terminology, ritual processes are truly efficacious when the participants have what he styles a liminal experience, not just a liminoid experience. Unfortunately, most church liturgies involve a liminoid experience for most people, which means that much work remains in the effort to develop liminal experiences in ritual processes for most people.
Publications
Many of Dr. Houston's books have been reprinted; only the original dates of publication are given here.
Books by Jean Houston
Life Force: The Psycho-Historical Recovery of the Self (1980); The Possible Human: A Course in Extending Your Physical, Mental, and Creative Abilities (1982; 2nd ed. 1997); The Search for the Beloved: Journeys in Mythology and Sacred Psychology (1987); Godseed: The Journey of Christ (1988); Erwachen (in German); The Hero and the Goddess: The "Odyssey" as Mystery and Initiation (1992); Public Like a Frog: Entering the Lives of Three Great Americans (1993); The Passion of Isis and Osiris: A Union of Two Souls (1998); A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story (1996); A Passion for the Possible: A Guide to Realizing Your True Potential (1997); Jump Time: Shaping Your Future in a World of Radical Change (2000); Mystical Dogs: Animals as Guides to Our Inner Life (2002).
Books with Robert Masters
The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (1966); Psychedelic Art (1968); Mind Games (1972); Listening to the Body: The Psychophysical Way to Health and Awareness (1978).
Book with Diana Vandenberg
A Feminine Myth of Creation (in Dutch, 1988).
Book with Margaret Rubin
Manual for the Peacemaker: An Iroquois Legend to Heal Self (1995).