Spiritual-Arts Academy

Joseph M Holzer - A Personal Biography 

As a  young person, for as long as I can remember, there was never any doubt that I had a purpose to fulfill in being here. However, knowing that purpose was a totally different matter. I had not a clear vision as to where I should place my efforts and was essentially clueless as to the route to engage in my destiny. And I was instilled with a drive that often could lead to impatience and disappointment. But I did know beyond any shadow of a doubt that I had a purpose and that I had a destiny to fulfill. Additionally, I was instilled with a natural curiosity to discover, a strong drive to understand, and a desire to have impact and to create a "better world". 

I now recognize that I also was "gifted" with certain issues and circumstances that would lead me to evolve into the person that I needed to become, and partake in a life that would be an important puzzle piece fitting together and extending many existences I once had. So the fates granted me with a near death experience at birth (not as rare as one may think), being born to a holocaust survivor, and living an early life without compatriots of my own age. But too I was granted early teachers, who before the age of 5 had already set in me a foundation to my development, and throughout my life have been blessed with having the teachers and guides that would enable me move along my path. This path I would term as the Way of the Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Healer, and Spiritual Explorer. And I recognize that is a journey that has been many lifetimes in the making.

My early ambitions included a desire to be involved in the space program and to explore the boundaries of the universe. By my college years, I had chosen to fulfill my quest in a pragmatic manner by majoring Nuclear Engineering (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - 1974 B.Eng. & 1979 M.Eng.) and exploring in the university and for myself the discipline of psychology. My work years as a Nuclear Engineer, as a supervisor and manager, and later as an entrepreneur, brought to me life experiences and filled in the time and space until I would arrive at an age and circumstance of an inner opening. In work I exhibited a highly intuitive capacity which enabled me to find creative paths to solve difficult technical problems; to write many winning proposals for grants by in my mind asking what the person judging the proposal needed to see to award me the grant and then receiving the information that I needed to know; and to know when those I supervised would benefit from a "mentor talk".  But at the same time I had a vulnerability to the aggressive, manipulative, and sometimes brutal energies of the workplace; and I was a classic "office healer" in which I unconsciously used my energies to heal both people and situations, often doing much more work than needed and sometimes exhausting myself in the process.

My path into the spiritual arts opened up to me almost by “accident” at age 35 through chance meetings and curious experiences. I attended a school of psychic development (Berkeley Psychic Institute 1986-1988) in which I learned to meditate, ground, run energy, engage in healing, and clairvoyantly read auras, chakras, past lives, relations, and more. I later studied the Reverend Joseph  Martinez, a Healer and Spiritual Teacher, (the Spiritual Healing Center of San Francisco 1988-1990), who opened the doors to many esoteric levels of healing and spiritual development. He guided his students into raising consciousness; opening up to the higher realms; working with powers, forces, energies, and guides including many forms of angels. A key moment occurred for me when in a workshop on High Magic (application of the Higher Metaphysical Laws) Joseph stated that: "It takes many lifetimes to become a High Magician". I was filled with a difficult to describe transcendental joy that emanated out from my soul and I knew beyond any question that this was my journey, and one that I had traveled upon for numerous lifetimes. Through direct experiences guided by Joseph and through personal explorations with my fellow journeyers and spiritual adventurers, I became more deeply aware of and conversant with the metaphysical, mystical, and healing realms. I further explored the metaphysical world in a modern day Mystery School in San Francisco (AMRON Metaphysical Center 1990-1991). Self-study in the writings and teachings of spiritual explorers, such as Sri Aurobindo, William Gray, Rudolf Steiner, Franz Bardon, Thomas Moore, Alice Bailey and others helped in furthering my understanding of and connection with the inner and higher worlds. But ultimately it was the Work itself with its connections to the Angelic and Higher Realms that became my primary source of my deeper understandings, insights, and capabilities. In the process, terms like spirit, soul, higher-self, universal consciousness were no longer ideas or concepts, but became realities of existence. And Life itself, with both its joyous moments and its times of adversity, that served as the ultimate Instructor, leading to growth, evolution, and wholeness, whether consciously ready for it, or not.

At the same time that I was pursuing the metaphysical studies, I commenced my training in Ki-Aikido. Ki-Aikido as developed by Koichi Tohei Sensei focused on inner development as well as the martial-arts training. The inner practice consisted of a zen-style meditation and a full body breathing called Ki-Breating. The martial-arts training included Ki-development training exercises meant to attune the practitioner to Ki and to develop center. Tohei Sensei focused upon four Ki principles in his development of Ki-Aikido, that being: keep one-point, extend Ki, weight underside, and relax completely. A basic tenet of the inner development was what he called mind-body unification, and which I would call spirit-body unification. Simply stated, it was about the body and spirit entering into a state of oneness. This was far different from a principle of viewing the body being a vessel in which the spirit (and soul) may enter, or a path of consciousness development in which the body was seen to be an impediment best to be separated from, tamed, or dissolved. And what is of interest to note is that there are certain principles High Magic such as the Law of Microcosm and Macrocosm, and the Law of Center that totally dovetail with the Ki-Aikido principles. So much of ones development depends not on what you do but rather on who you become, and spirit-body unification is a significant ingredient, especially when living a life in society. I owe a special debt in the understanding of these principles to the late Suzuki Sensei, Chief Instructor in Maui Hawaii. 

My work as a spiritual healer commenced organically while still a beginning student. First it was by exchanging healings and readings with fellow participants in the programs. Then I was invited by friends to work with and on them. This led to working with their friends and acquaintances. Before I was aware of it, I had a part time practice in addition to my more traditional work. And my traditional work itself unfolded into a teaching function by becoming a tutor of foreign students pursuing advanced degrees in business school (MBAs). The role required not only instruction, but also a form of mentoring and coaching.   

In the final month of 1991, I was guided to move from San Francisco to Amsterdam. This also marked the turn of my healing practice from an avocation into my vocation. By 1993, I was actively giving workshops and classes in what I term the Spiritual Arts. I returned to the San Francisco Bay area in 1995 and continued to work in both the US and in Europe (mostly in the Netherlands and Germany). In 2001, I returned to live in the Netherlands and continued my practice in both continents. In 2006 I commenced to developed the class offerings to fulfill what I envisioned as the requirements of a school. In 2008 I formalized the teachings as Spiritual-Arts, and in the end of 2009, the Spiritual-Arts Academy became consecrated in the higher realms and commenced its own evolution and journey into the more physical realms. Today, my main focus is as an instructor and mentor within the Spiritual-Arts Academy, as a Spiritual Teacher and as Spiritual Healer outside of the academy. My purpose may be simply stated as to use those gifts that I have received, to pass on the knowledge, information, wisdom, and expertise to others, and to act as a guide in the journeys that we are each pursuing individually and in consort with others.

I currently live most of the year in Amersfoort, the Netherlands and spend the month of November in the San Francisco bay area in California, USA and the month of February in Sao Paulo, Brazil. My primary work activities are in the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and the USA with invited visits to other locations where I provide classes, workshops, and individual healing sessions.