Transcendent Leadership Cohort Experience

We cultivate relationships with ourselves and with each other in our exploration of transcendent leadership.

The MSS Program in Transcendent Leadership beautifully explores the relationship between the physical and spiritual through a series of courses designed to support us in our awareness of Spirit in our daily lives. These courses offer support for our demonstration of our highest expression of being the divine and seeing the divine. Students navigate this coursework in relationship with a cohort of co-learners dedicated to supporting each other in upliftment, learning, and growth.

The program classrooms in PTS Wisdom connects the cohort of learners/leaders throughout the semester, in between the live Gathering weekends. This continual connection beautifully opens the space for an integrative experience, for experiencing and practicing choosing living love, and for coming together as a dedicated cohort of initiates. The cohort experience and relationships serve to integrate and strengthen the learning that is inspired during the program courses and gatherings.

Transcendent leadership, like other spiritually and personally transformational journeys offered under the guidance and direction of the Traveler, is about recognizing that there is a master choice on this planet: That choice is how to be with our authentic loving self and witness our own and each others’ divinity in any interaction, communication, or situation. Together as a cohort we explore the integration of spirituality and knowledge in daily life, and support each other in practicing what we are learning. The TL cohort is designed to be responsive to the integral and authentic learning and growth of the individuals and the cohort as we intentionally walk the path to mastership.

The cohort process serves as a container for the Transcendent Leadership Program and each member’s emergent expansion into transcendent leadership consciousness—or leading a life of soul transcendence.

MSS transcendent leadership program components

• Live Gatherings: Our TL live gatherings, or class weekends, take place over a two-day weekend once each month (8 per year) and include time to connect directly with John Morton, many beautiful guest presenters, and the TL students and facilitators.

• The MSS TL Courses: Three courses are offered each 15-week semester through which we explore and practice integrating the Traveler’s teachings in our lives. See our full list of master’s courses below. Through the PTS Wisdom classrooms, these courses keep us connected in between our live Gathering weekends. Each course is co-facilitated by a team of co-facilitators.

• Cohort Relationship(s): The program uses a cohort-based experience to maximize mutually meaningful, loving, and supportive relationships among a small group of students and facilitators.

• Transcendent Leader Circle (TLC): Each student has ongoing support of a small and intimate self-chosen group of peers.

• Group SEs: Students and facilitators connect to do SEs in between the live gatherings to do SEs together—where two or more are gathered.

• Transcendent Leadership Presentation: Students present on a personally chosen topic once each semester at one of our live TL Gathering weekends.

Awareness, attunement, Alignment – Semester One

3 credit Hours

We begin with the awareness of who we are as multidimensional beings and go beyond to attunement to the divine presence and then to alignment of our lives and actions with the highest good and the highest expression of our self/soul. We explore spiritual awareness in relationship with others and discover ways that our social and individual experience of spirit may be similar or different, with the intention to appreciate one another in peace, unity, and harmony. Choosing to attune to spirit in a regular, supported way is a foundation for transcendent leadership. In the practice of active spiritual exercises, we develop increasing ability to direct attention inwardly, to distinguish and experience with clarity multiple levels of consciousness or divine presence, and to grow in such soul attributes as loving, gratitude, and service. John-Roger said, “If you look past the physical you’ll see the source of your deliverance.” He also stated that in PTS we don’t say, “Come, join our path.” We say, “Let’s work together to help you discover your path.” This course provides opportunity to consider our own paths and techniques of attunement with that which is and to build and expand our personal resources for awareness of, alignment with, and attunement to the divinity within and around us, enhancing our abilities as a transcendent leader.

Loving: The Master Key – Semester One

3 credit Hours

“What am I here for? Living love. This is the era of the living love. Unconditional loving. The manifestation of love at all times.” —John-Roger

Connecting with, and then leading from, unconditional loving is the process of transcendent leadership. Through imagery, poetry, storytelling, and scholarship, students have the opportunity to delve deeper into loving in action and share their experiences of deep unconditional love with their cohort members. Each week students are invited to enter and walk through a personal “portal” to explore that place within where living love is fully present. Hallmarks of transcendent leadership such as acceptance, humor, receptivity, reverence, compassion, and service are explored in this class through the metaphor of the portal. Students are invited to “step through” each of these portals in order to transcend to a deeper connection with loving. Students have the optional opportunity to engage in the design and implement a project around some area in their lives where they wish to express greater loving leadership.

Multidimensional Consciousness – Semester One

3 credit Hours

“You are becoming totally aware and completely capable of maintaining multidimensional awareness. You are already in Soul consciousness right now. You don’t need to do anything except recognize it. You’re there.” —John-Roger, Fulfilling Your Spiritual Promise

This class is conducted with the guidance of the inner transcendent leader and the Mystical Traveler Consciousness in service to our recognition that we already are in soul consciousness. We deepen our connection with ourselves and practice maintaining clarity with the intention of cultivating greater multidimensional awareness in all who we are and all that we do. We do this by observing and reflecting on our experiences as we explore a library of resources. As we become more aware of the various aspects within our consciousness, we expand our capacity to focus our energy and action as transcendent leaders in one accord with the will of God.

Creativity in Spirit: Keys to Co-Creation - Semester two

3 credit Hours

In this class, students further awaken and strengthen their connection with the transcendent leader within through cultivating a creative practice in service to the highest good. The course begins with an exploration of the origins of creativity, the word of God, and considers the way in which the formless gives rise to form. From this starting point, students explore how learning is an essential element of the creative process, and practice using the keys to co-creation. This includes the role of intention, as well as the relationships between curiosity, imagination, and creating, as an act of giving and receiving. In an atmosphere of loving support, students engage with their creative process and explore how they can “find their voice” and develop creative mastery in an ongoing way in their lives. There is an opportunity to share what is meaningful and celebrate the unique contribution each student offers as they grow in awareness of spirit’s creative process moving through them.

Light in Shadow: Adventures in Transcendent Leadership - Semester two

3 credit Hours

“We have to go into the dark part of ourselves and love that dark part. For loving it is the key to the Kingdom. And we have to stand up and acknowledge that it is part of us.” — John-Roger, Spiritual Warrior: The Art of Spiritual Living 

Light in Shadow is based on the following teachings of the Traveler: 

• Out of God comes all things

• God loves all of its creation 

• Use everything for your learning, growth, and upliftment

Based on these teachings, everything emanates from Light and love. Even the darkest dark is held by a greater Light. With loving awareness, shadow can serve as a valuable resource in our inner lives, perceptions, and participation in the world. Throughout the course, students are introduced to a variety of approaches to go into and love the dark parts and create tools to support healing and integration within themselves and with all of God’s creation. When walking a path in nature, we use shadow and light to navigate terrain, identify next steps, and gain clear passage to our destination. Similarly, in our daily lives we turn to the Traveler’s teachings as we navigate Light in Shadow as transcendent leaders living in service to the highest good.

Transcendent Learning - Semester Two

3 credit Hours

Use everything for your learning, growth, and upliftment. — John-Roger, DSS

In the beautiful way of the Traveler, with a single sentence John-Roger conveys a spiritual truth and offers a practical springboard to a lifelong adventure in joy, gratitude, service, and blessings. The course content and activities of Transcendent Learning are offered to support living this truth and leading our lives of soul transcendence.

Peter Senge (1990) defines learning organizations as those communities “where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.” Deep, meaningful transcendence in groups, communities, or organizations occurs when the sacred exchange between all participants is supported and nourished. That happens when individuals come to their daily environment continuously striving to improve their individual and collective capacity for learning, growth, upliftment, and expansion. Transcendent learning within a community produces leaders dedicated to making thoughtful, strategic learning a priority for all participants. Encouraging a learning environment within a community is one of the highest actions a leader can take. The necessity and importance of transcendent learning grows in times of change, crisis, and complexity. We live in such a time. In this course, students explore how they carry transcendent learning into their world to facilitate wisdom, perspective, presence, and mindfulness (or more precisely, heartfelt presence). Transcendent Learning supports students with experiencing and expressing the wisdom of the soul, the spiritual heart, personal integrity, and the peace that comes with authentically anchoring and cultivating a sacred space from which to learn and lead in any setting or context.

EXPRESSING TRANSCENDENT LEADERSHIP THROUGH MYTH and STORY - Semester three

3 credit Hours

Storytelling is a central part of human experience. Throughout time, transcendent leaders have used storytelling, myths, and parables to convey important teachings or to awaken greater awareness, upliftment, and growth. Stories and myths are not ends in themselves; they can serve as springboards to help us release our identification with our stories to the transcendent experience that emerges when moving beyond the story—from myth to mystical to transcendent.

Students have the opportunity to explore the mythic, archetypal impulses humans have to narrate our experiences, clear (or heal) personal and cultural stories based on illusion, and create new stories of transcendent leadership and soul transcendence. As we engage with masterful stories from John-Roger, parables from Christ, and other myths and narratives, students create stories and parables to convey their experience of the spiritual teachings that lead their lives.

spirit of Inquiry - Semester three

3 credit Hours

“If you would learn the secret of Soul Transcendence, look only for the good, for the Divine in people and things, and all the rest leave to God.” — John-Roger, DSS

In this course, students pursue their unique inquiries into the secret of soul transcendence. The course introduces the idea of using inquiry as a spiritual lens to explore personal experience. What does looking for the good and divine look like in our daily lives? How do we leave the rest to God, fully and completely? Learning to ask such beautiful questions and following their trail is a key component of the class and the transcendent leadership experience. Students have the opportunity to conduct a personal process of inquiry with the Traveler, as well as design a practical inquiry project that can be shared with others and/or be a springboard to the capstone in the final semester. Students gain practical experience with a wide range of methodologies and approaches to inquiry, all in the spirit of each student taking their next steps with living as John-Roger demonstrated—being a spiritual scientist and living the secret of soul transcendence.

laws of spirit/Spirit of the Law - Semester three

3 credit Hours

Transcendence comes from the Latin prefix trans-, meaning ‘beyond,’ and the word scandare, meaning ‘to climb.’ When you transcend, you go beyond ordinary limitations. With that in mind, awareness and analysis of both the laws of spirit and the laws, regulations, and policies used to govern individual and societal behaviors are vital for transcendent leadership.

In this course, we explore how we can more fully align with the laws of spirit—acceptance, cooperation, understanding, enthusiasm, empathy, and forgiveness—as we navigate the laws of humankind. We look beneath the systems of the law by which we are to abide and rules we may have unconsciously adopted to the spirit of the law. In addition, we explore the Christ plan of moving beyond the letter of the law into grace. Students have the opportunity to develop respect for and awareness of the levels on which we find ourselves and, by cultivating a deeper understanding of the limits that influence our reality, embrace the ability to transcend those limits.

In Communion with Spirit: Spirit in Community - Semester Four

3 credit Hours

In this class we explore the emerging theory of transcendent leadership as we unfold and live it in our own communities, organizations, and cultures. To begin, we review and reflect on existing theories of leadership that have been in play for centuries and consider the practicality and value of various approaches to leadership. As we embrace the essence of transcendent leadership, where “being leads doing,” we explore the ways that service, loving, collaboration, gratitude, reverence, and even the highest good are emerging in personal and organizational leadership. We consider how we hold them in our own self-leadership as souls receiving of the higher guidance of spirit.

Perhaps the time is now for leadership that engenders space within our organizations and communities for personal fulfillment and the fullness of being. Perhaps more evidence of the highest good is possible through happier community environments as well as and more positive outcomes. Transcendent leadership—leading a life of soul transcendence—is realized through this higher way of valuing human relationships: seeing the divine in all and leaving the rest to God. As we discover those principles and practices that guide us as spirit-led, transcendent leaders, we can live and apply them with grace in our own communities, in service to the highest good.

the upper room: Coming into one accord - SEMESTER four

3 credit Hours

In the Upper Room we engage in collaborative dialogue so that we may directly experience the elevation in consciousness that emerges as we connect in a collaborative leadership experience. Through active, heart-led listening and authentic curiosity we can expand our perspectives, deepen our understanding, and reveal the beauty and diversity of possibilities in approaches. As a cohort we can bring forward greater understanding and reveal new possibilities in how we engage as leaders with our selves, each other, and in larger community contexts. Shared understanding and reverence for diverse points of view supports dialogue and healthy collaboration, processes increasingly recognized as essential for success through shifts and change. It starts, according to David Chrislip and Carl Larson, in Collaborative Leadership, from the premise that “if you bring the appropriate people together in constructive ways with good information, they will create authentic visions and strategies for addressing the shared concerns of the organization or community,” which is essential for community and organizational expansion. As we practice gathering in the upper room with respect and loving, shared purpose and dedication, while holding the intention of receiving inspiration and spiritual assistance, we may experience one accord, a hallmark of transcendent leadership. This opens us, as servant leaders, to a knowing that the outcome of our work is in alignment with the highest good of all involved.

Transcendent Leader Capstone - Semester four

3 credit Hours

The capstone experience is an opportunity to deepen our connection to the transcendent leader within and increase our awareness of and attunement to Spirit. We express this as transcendent leadership in our lives, our communities, and the world at large.

When placed, a capstone completes the building of a structure. It also serves metaphorically as an image of completion, integration, and celebration. In the spirit of transcendent leadership, we know to use all things as stepping stones. Our greatest achievement of today can become the cornerstone of what we build tomorrow. 

With this intention, we each discover and demonstrate our transcendent leadership capstone, which emerges from within as Spirit comes through us into the world.