Dr. Rediger’s thoughts concerning his appearance on the Oprah show:

From Left to Right- Susan Casey, Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, and Oprah Winfrey

“Just a few weeks ago, a colleague and I were discussing our wish to begin The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development. Little did we know that seven days later, Oprah’s team would contact me and say that they were developing plans for a show on spiritual healing. They had found footage connected with some research I had done in Brazil and a spiritual experience that I had had.

I'd never had anything like that happen in my life. Ever. I'd been to seminary, medical school, residency in psychiatry, and nothing had prepared me to understand. - Dr. Rediger

I’ve had great concern about having a private spiritual experience aired on national television. Yes, it changed my life, but I still don’t know the best way to understand it. And I don’t want anything to hurt the relationship that I have with my patients and colleagues. The first lesson of the spiritual life is that the phenomena are not important. What matters is what one does with an experience, or with one’s life – the fruit that it bears. That’s why The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development is about development. If mental health is defined as the capacity to work and love, then one’s capacity for working productively and sharing love should be increased as a result.

The upshot is that The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development is starting now, earlier than we had planned.”

The Higher Aspects of Being Human

“One of the guiding assumptions of The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development is that being human is more mysterious than we often allow ourselves to comprehend. People often take one of two approaches to this, both of which we want to avoid. In the first group, people have their eyes so fixed on the ground that they miss the mystery and beauty of the world that surrounds them. In the second, people can search the heavens so expectantly and eagerly that they run the risk of tripping over the obstacles in their path. At The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development we hope to see both the beauty and dignity of what is real behind appearances, but also live in the real world.

Another guiding assumption of The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development is that each individual brings something of unrepeatable dignity and goodness into the world, no matter who they are or where they come from. Much human suffering occurs because we don’t realize who we are, or recognize who that person is who bothers us so much.

Beyond that, we hope to provide a voice in medicine and psychiatry that seeks to understand and cultivate the higher aspects of being human.

Many of us benefit every day from the advances made in medicine and biological psychiatry. But these disciplines as they are currently conceived are only part of the story. They are rooted in an overly materialist understanding of the body and the brain. We will be limited in our capacity to help people until we can enlarge our vision and understanding of the true nature and needs of the human person.”

Founders of The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development

Jeffrey Rediger MD., MDiv is the Medical Director of McLean Hospital Southeast and an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. A fully licensed physician and board-certified psychiatrist, he also has a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and publishes in the fields of medicine, psychiatry and spirituality.

Mary White has been a Heart– Centered Meditation Teacher and Life Consultant for over 20 years. Influenced by meditation teachers both East and West, Meditation, Intuitive Sensing, Energy Balancing and Guided Energy Movement informs her work with both groups and individuals. She works with people to open the flow of heart-centered energies in group meditation and from an intuitive method of inquiry in individual consultations.

Mary is presenting Heart-Centered Meditation as the application arm for The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development. Most significant for Mary has been her experience of spiritual energy and the vast potential therein for personal growth, developing intuitive abilities and healing through the transfer and balancing of energies. Integrating our inner spiritual life with living in the world is the foundation of Mary’s life work.

For more information, please visit The Center for Psychological and Spiritual Development.

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