BIOGRAPHY Abbot General John Rossner, O.Tr., Ph.D., D.Sc., D.Litt.

BIOGRAPHY
Abbot General John Rossner, O.Tr., Ph.D., D.Sc., D.Litt.
Founder-President, IIIHS (a UN DPI/NGO); Professor Emeritus of Religion, Concordia
University in Montreal, where he has taught [since 1962] and done research in World
Religions and Cultures, the Interface Between Science & Spirituality in Cultures East &
West; Anglican/Episcopal priest; conference conceptualizer; Author of In Search of the
Primordial Tradition and the Cosmic Christ (1989) & The Priest and the Medium:
Heaven is Closer than You Think (1999).
“Dr. John Rossner is a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford (1952), and holds
subsequent degrees in Classics and Ancient History, Theology, Psychology and Religion
and the History and Philosophy of Religion.
Since 1972 he has been a pioneer in the applications of the findings of consciousness
studies and psychical research to the scientific study of human religious experience. He
was the first scholar in Canada to introduce such subjects into an academic curriculum for
both graduate and undergraduate studies in the history and philosophy of religion.
For several periods during the past ten years he has traveled extensively throughout India
and Nepal, visiting ashrams and carrying on spiritual dialogues with Hindu, Jain and
Buddhist monks and religious teachers.
In 1976, with the help of his wife and colleague, Rev. Dr. Marilyn Zwaig Rossner, and a
number of prominent scholars and scientists, he founded The International Institute of
Integral Human Sciences. Today the IIIHS is established as the nucleus of a network of
outstanding professional persons involved in mind-body research directed toward
providing new paradigms for the reconciliation of science and spirituality.”
The Llewellyn New Times
P.O. Box 64383-685
St. Paul, MN 55164-0383, U.S.A.
Fr. Rossner introduces, in the Brochure of The Thirty-First Annual SSF-IIIHS
International Conference & College Program's 2006 Theme of Global Encounters &
Transformation in Spirit, Space & Time the following:

“Contemporary issues of life, death, healing, and transformation — both personal
and planetary — are raised every day, in every continent and nation, by wars, human
cruelty and strife, and natural disasters. One of the foremost problems we have created —
and fostered for the past four centuries in the secularized world — is the radical gulf
assumed to exist between our 'inner' subjective and 'outer' objective lives, attitudes,
perceptions, consciousness and values. However, developments in today’s new quantum
sciences of consciousness and healing would suggest to some of us that the one, affects
the other rather dramatically. The recent convergence of more spiritually cognizant
models of the universe and of reality emerging from today’s new physical and social
sciences, bears a striking resemblance to ancient perceptions of a multi-dimensional
human with a multi-dimensional mind in a multi-dimensional universe.” JLR
Website: www.iiihs.org
The International Institute of Integral Human Sciences is a non-governmental
organization affiliated with the United Nations DPI, promoting educational programs for
the 21st century. We work in many nations towards the convergence of new sciences
with spirituality and universal human values, creating inter-religious and inter-cultural
understanding for world peace. For over a quarter century the IIIHS has developed at one
time or another and had a professional & general membership of persons in more than 26
countries & territories….
Inter-Religious & Inter-Cultural Understanding for World Peace
You are invited to join an exciting worldwide family involved in the exploration of:

• New sciences of consciousness & healing
• New paradigms for the convergence of science, spirituality, and more humane
values in the global village
• New insights into the human psyche & spirit, and its hidden potentials for
intuition, creativity & healing, individual & planetary.
In 1975 that family started its professional membership with a global network of over 300
Fellows. Most were distinguished scientists & spiritual leaders from many faiths and
many lands, including a number of prominent medical doctors, psychiatrists,
psychologists, natural & social scientists, scholars in the humanities & arts, clergy and
educators who were pioneers, at the forefront of discoveries in the new sciences of
consciousness and healing. The organizer of the network and IIIHS Founder-President
was Dr. John Rossner, an Anglican priest and a professor of comparative religion &
culture at Concordia University in Montreal.
The Integration of New Sciences of Consciousness & Healing into Planetary
Educational Systems for the 21st Century
The ultimate objective is to provide a worldwide forum for the encouragement of studies
which will help to reintegrate the inner ‘subjective’ spiritual and outer ‘objective’
material life of human beings, by restoring integral-human spiritual & psychic sciences to
their proper place alongside of the natural, physical and social sciences.
A Global Family, East & West with a Noble Objective
Today the IIIHS family has professional & general members or associates in many
nations, East & West, and an affiliated network of Spiritual Science Fellowship chapters
and other cooperating groups in North America. It serves over 10,000 general members
and students from all walks of life, with the objective of inter-religious & inter-cultural
understanding for world peace.
Rev. Dr. Marilyn at Mother Teresa’s convent in Calcutta
The Quest for Universal Human Values in the World’s Religions & Cultures
Our great family, through its interfaith studies division, The International Council of
World Religions & Cultures, now includes representatives of all races and persuasions:

Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Yogis, Spiritualists, New
Religionists, Atheists, Agnostics, and Free-Thinkers of every stripe… persons from every
part of the political, socioeconomic and educational spectrum, and from many
nationalities and races.
An International College Program, Conferences, and World-Tours
Some are enrolled in courses of the affiliated International College Program started by
the Spiritual Science Fellowship in 1985. Others take SSF-IIIHS continuing education
programs, personal spiritual and psychic development classes, workshops and courses, at
the Montreal headquarters or through regional and local chapters. Many attend the
annual SSF-IIIHS International Conferences on ‘The New Sciences of Consciousness
& Healing’ held each year in Montreal during the month of May. Some participate in
educational and cultural tours to foreign lands where they meet with those of similar
spiritual, scientific, and cultural interests, and attend seminars arranged by the IIIHS’s
overseas chapters.
The Common Bond: Universal Human Experiences of Psyche, Spirit, &
Transformation
What do we all have in common? What possibly could unite such a diversified multicultural
family? We are united by a common quest to explore and make sense out of
universal experiences of the human psyche, spirit, and personal transformation.
These are, in various forms, present in all traditions. They transect all human divisions,
giving hope for the possibility of grounding universal human values in common forms of
inner experience that are being overlooked today by dominant trends in the natural and
social sciences, and in many institutionalized forms of religion.
Transcultural Studies in Human Spiritual Experience and the Potentials of Intuition
& Creativity
We recognize that it has been the great religious and spiritual traditions of the world
— not modern science and effective technologies alone — which have inspired and
held up the hope of such a magnificent vision for human fulfillment throughout the
ages.
Yet recent research in the potentials of human consciousness, in intuition, creativity,
mind-body interactions with the personal and planetary environment, in lifeenergies,
healing, and the immortality principle, bridges all sectarian and cultural
barriers. It also holds great hope for the possible transformation of social values
toward a more authentic and humane order in the global village, in the years ahead.
The World’s Scientific & Religious Communities Urgently Need to be Brought
Together to Focus on the Upliftment of the Quality of Human Consciousness &
Universal Values

It is not only ‘organized science that has to be informed and ‘won over’ to this vision.
‘Organized religion’ is the other half of the cultural equation required to further the
expansion and elevation of human consciousness in today’s Global Village. For this
reason the IIIHS has always worked for a global exchange between pioneering scientists
and insightful religionists researching the new sciences of consciousness and healing.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama at IIIHS headquarters in Montreal
A Global East-West Exchange
The IIIHS has hosted, or brought delegates to meet, some of the world’s most prominent
scientists, scholars, and religious leaders, East & West, at its international conferences
and other educational programs, over the past decade and a half, in several continents and
nations… from Nobel Prize winning scientists to Nobel Peace Prize winners, including
His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
Seminars, Lectures & Programs Everywhere
Over the past quarter century, in addition to annual and biannual IIIHS international
conferences in Canada, the USA, India, and Greece, the IIIHS has helped to arrange, and
either co-sponsored or sent lecturers to conferences and seminars in Britain, France,
Spain, Germany, Austria, Greece, Egypt, Canada, the USA, the Bahamas, Brazil,
Uruguay, Malaysia, Singapore, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia, India, Nepal, and South Africa.
Perestroika, East & West, 1989-1990
For years, the IIIHS has been involved in teaching health professionals new therapies
for children, involving yoga, intuition and creativity, and has provided such programs
in the USSR & Eastern Europe, having established chapters or affiliated scientific and/or
academic groups in several nations there.
An Invitation to You: Join Us!

These are just some of the programs and projects of The International Institute of Integral
Human Sciences. You are invited to join the IIIHS and share in our International College
Program, take courses through our regional or local SSF-IIIHS chapters, attend our
International Conferences and enjoy our periodic world educational tours. Become part
of this exciting, worldwide family!
IIIHS Branches Chapters & Affiliated Groups
The International Institute of Integral Human Sciences has branches — chapters and/or
affiliated or cooperating groups — in a number of cities across North America and the
World. Each is independently constituted under local officers or representatives.
Addresses of IIIHS local contact persons or local officers will be supplied upon request.
For information about the IIIHS or affiliated groups in your area, please contact us. If
you are interested in forming a group in a place where there is none at present, please let
us know.
Corporate Divisions of the IIIHS
General Membership Division:
SSF-IIIHS National and Regional Chapters
Professional Membership Division:
The Int’l College of Human Sciences
Division for Research & Educational Programs:
The Int’l Academy for Research & Advanced Studies
Divisions for Scientific Studies in World Religions & Cultures:
The Int’l Council of World Religions & Cultures
The Order of the Transfiguration
The Int’l Council of World Religions and Cultures and The Order of The Transfiguration
of the IIIHS are interfaith member-units of the International Council of Community
Churches which is affiliated with the National Council of Churches, USA, and The
World Council of Churches.
© 2000 by The International Institute of Integral Human Sciences Montreal, Quebec,
Canada
For further information please write, call, or email: S.S.F. - I.I.I.H.S.
Headquarters
Email Addresses: Information: Townhouse
info@iiihs.org Registration: Centre:
registration@iiihs.org JohnRossner: 1974 de
jrossner@iiihs.org
Maisoneuve
West Montreal,
MarilynRossner:mrossner@iiihs.orgQuebec
H3H 1K5
Mailing Telephone
Address: Number:
S.S.F., (514) 937-8359
P.O. Box 1445 Fax:
Station H (514) 937-5380
Montreal, (Office hours 1–
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Webmaster: sgander@iiihs.org
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The International Institute of Integral Human Sciences (IIIHS): a non-governmental
organization affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, for
promotion of global inter-religious and inter-cultural understanding, and for the
convergence of science, spirituality, and universal human values.
The Spiritual Science Fellowship of Canada (SSF): an inter-faith member unit of the
International Council of Community Churches, affiliated with the World Council of
Churches, Geneva.

"My real confession: I am not a'Heretic' at all! It is just that it is rather unfashionable
today in both academic and ecclesiastical circles for those with professional status in
universities and mainline churches to admit that our own lives have been personally
guided, shaped and influenced by the Spirit of God through extraordinary personal
mystical experiences of the psyche and Spirit, even if these are thoroughly sane,
positive and transformative experiences." (93)
In Search of the Primordial Tradition and the Cosmic Christ
"There is an essential distinction which must be made between 'optimistic' and
'pessimistic' forms of pre-Christian esotericism. The 'optomistic' gnosis views the whole
world as good, as a Divine and living world because it is animated by the Divine
effluvia, and capable of being activated by man as a co-Creator with God and as a
priest of Nature. In this world, man's function is not to 'escape the world' but to awaken
and activate persons, places and things in Nature to become 'Temple of the Divine
Spirit'. Man himself develops gnosis in order to 'become or re-become a god', in order to
'know God' in the existential sense. Like the 'magician' or 'theurgist' in the iconography of
the Egyptian tarot card, man is to 'bring down' the divine power and light in order to
impregnate and fill the objects of the physical world with their appropriate form of
divinity." ( 110-112)