Inner Light Foundation

Betty Bethards emerged as a popular psychic and teacher in Northern California in the 1960s. Her message centered upon the potential for each person to develop a conscious awareness of God. Within each individual lie intuitive faculties which may be awakened and utilized for bringing about a realization of universal brotherhood. From this understanding she founded the Inner Light Foundation in 1969. Starting small, it grew through the era of the New Age Movement into one of the largest associations of psychically oriented people on the American West Coast during the 1980s. Bethards authored several books and became a popular speaker at New Age events.

The foundation's program is built upon Bethards' belief that individuals have three basic tools that allow them to actualize their own inner potentials and utilize their own inner guidance and insight. Thus she teaches people to become aware of their dreams, adopt various visualization/meditation techniques, and use affirmation. These are brought together in a powerful meditation technique that Bethards developed, the use of which allows the practitioner to gain inner awareness and a mystical consciousness and acquire different spiritual (psychic) abilities.

The foundation is centered in Petaluma, California (a San Francisco suburb), after many years in Novato, but regularly sponsors activities in various locations in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. By the mid-1990s membership in the foundation had reached above 10,000, most concentrated in the American West. Copies of its periodical, Inner Light Foundation Illuminations, may be secured from its headquarters at Box 750265, Petaluma, CA 94975. The webpage may be found at http://www.innerlight.org/.

Sources:

Bethards, Betty. The Dream Book. Shaftesbury, UK: Element Boooks, 1997.

——. Relationships in the New Age of Aids. Novato, Calif.: Inner Light Foundation, 1988.

——. The Sacred Sword. Novato, Calif.: Inner Light Foundation, 1972.

——. Sex and Psychic Energy. Novato, Calif.: Inner Light Foundation, 1977.

——. There Is No Death. Novato, Calif.: Inner Light Foundation, 1975.

——, and Jaclyn Catalfo. The Way of the Mystic. Shaftesbury, UK: Element, 1995.