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A Contemplative Education in the Christian Tradition

CHRISTIAN
MYSTICISM

An Ancient Path of Spiritual
Transformation for the
Modern Seeker


Taught by Dr. Christopher R. Holder, DP, DMQ (China), DCEM

New Course Begins

Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. PST
EXPLORE THE PATH ↗

Beginning the journey

 

CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

Something deeper than simply believing.
✦

For nearly two thousand years, men and women within the Christian tradition have sought something deeper than simply believing in God. They sought to know God through direct experience, to encounter the Divine within the deepest dimensions of the human soul, and to understand how prayer, contemplation, purification, and spiritual discipline could fundamentally transform the person who undertook them. This interior path can be found throughout Christian history in the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the early monastics, contemplatives, saints, healers, and mystics who discovered that Christianity was not merely a system of beliefs to be accepted, but a spiritual path to be lived.

Christian Mysticism is the exploration of that deeper path. It asks us to move beyond simply reading about the experiences of the great mystics and begin investigating the spiritual realities they described for ourselves. What happens when prayer becomes more than spoken words? What happens when meditation and contemplation quiet the ordinary activity of the mind? What did the mystics mean when they spoke of purification, illumination, interior stillness, Divine Light, union with God, the transformation of the soul, and the direct experience of the presence of Christ? These questions form the foundation of the Christian Mysticism program taught by Dr. Christopher R. Holder.

Many people who arrive at this work already possess a sincere spiritual life. Some have spent decades within Christianity and recognize that there are dimensions of their faith they have never been taught to explore. Others have studied meditation, healing, consciousness, energetic medicine, Eastern spirituality, or other contemplative traditions and now feel themselves being drawn toward the mystical dimensions of Christianity. Still others simply possess an unmistakable interior sense that there must be something more. They are not necessarily searching for another religion or another collection of beliefs. They are searching for a way to experience what they have previously only been told to believe.

Beginning the journey

 

CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

Something deeper than simply believing.
✦

For nearly two thousand years, men and women within the Christian tradition have sought something deeper than simply believing in God. They sought to know God through direct experience, to encounter the Divine within the deepest dimensions of the human soul, and to understand how prayer, contemplation, purification, and spiritual discipline could fundamentally transform the person who undertook them. This interior path can be found throughout Christian history in the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the early monastics, contemplatives, saints, healers, and mystics who discovered that Christianity was not merely a system of beliefs to be accepted, but a spiritual path to be lived.

Christian Mysticism is the exploration of that deeper path. It asks us to move beyond simply reading about the experiences of the great mystics and begin investigating the spiritual realities they described for ourselves. What happens when prayer becomes more than spoken words? What happens when meditation and contemplation quiet the ordinary activity of the mind? What did the mystics mean when they spoke of purification, illumination, interior stillness, Divine Light, union with God, the transformation of the soul, and the direct experience of the presence of Christ? These questions form the foundation of the Christian Mysticism program taught by Dr. Christopher R. Holder.

Many people who arrive at this work already possess a sincere spiritual life. Some have spent decades within Christianity and recognize that there are dimensions of their faith they have never been taught to explore. Others have studied meditation, healing, consciousness, energetic medicine, Eastern spirituality, or other contemplative traditions and now feel themselves being drawn toward the mystical dimensions of Christianity. Still others simply possess an unmistakable interior sense that there must be something more. They are not necessarily searching for another religion or another collection of beliefs. They are searching for a way to experience what they have previously only been told to believe.

The Work - A Living Tradition

The ancient map, brought into practice.

The Christian mystical tradition provides an extraordinary map for this journey. The Desert Fathers and Mothers entered the wilderness seeking purification of the heart and freedom from the forces that kept human consciousness bound to distraction, fear, desire, and attachment. The Hesychasts cultivated profound interior stillness and the Prayer of the Heart. St. Teresa of Ávila described the interior journey of the soul toward God. St. John of the Cross examined the purification and surrender required as the soul moves through increasingly subtle stages of spiritual development. St. Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawrence, John Cassian, St. Athanasius, and countless others left behind accounts of lives transformed through sustained contact with the Divine. Their writings are not merely historical documents. They are records left by people who undertook the journey themselves.

This program brings those ancient contemplative teachings into conversation with a modern system of practical spiritual development. Students study the great texts of Christian mysticism, but they are not asked simply to memorize what the mystics experienced. They are taught practices that allow them to begin cultivating the interior conditions from which mystical experience can emerge. Prayer, meditation, contemplation, self-examination, spiritual purification, breath, visualization, awareness, sacred symbolism, dreamwork, healing practices, and disciplined periods of silence gradually become tools through which the student learns to turn attention away from the constant noise of ordinary consciousness and toward the deeper spiritual life within.

A distinctive element of this training is the incorporation of modern energetic practices designed to support and, where appropriate, accelerate this process of spiritual development. Traditional mystics often devoted years or even decades to prayer, fasting, solitude, contemplation, and disciplined interior work before developing the sensitivity necessary to recognize subtle changes in consciousness and spiritual perception. Modern energetic methods provide additional tools for working intentionally with the body, breath, attention, internal energy, and centers of spiritual awareness. These practices are not intended to replace prayer, grace, Christian contemplation, or the traditional mystical path. Rather, they are used alongside them as practical methods for preparing the individual, increasing sensitivity, quieting habitual mental activity, strengthening concentration, and helping students recognize experiences that might otherwise take much longer to perceive clearly.

This integration is important because mystical experience does not occur apart from the person who experiences it. The condition of the body, nervous system, attention, emotions, imagination, and interior awareness all influence our ability to become still enough to recognize subtle spiritual experience. Through carefully structured energetic exercises, breath practices, meditative techniques, visualization, prayer, and contemplative disciplines, students learn how to intentionally create an internal environment more receptive to spiritual awareness. The objective is not to manufacture mystical experiences or force spiritual phenomena to occur. It is to prepare the ground so that when genuine experiences arise, the student has developed the stillness, sensitivity, discernment, and stability necessary to recognize and integrate them.

Formation

 

EXPERIMENTAL DISCIPLINE

Practice begins the process of transformation.
✦

Explore The Curriculum ↗

For this reason, Christian Mysticism is taught as an experiential discipline rather than a purely academic subject. There is an enormous difference between understanding meditation and becoming meditative, between studying prayer and developing an interior life of prayer, and between reading descriptions of Divine presence and cultivating the capacity to become deeply receptive to it. Intellectual study gives us language and orientation, but practice begins the process of transformation. The classroom therefore becomes a laboratory in which the teachings of the mystics can be explored through personal experience.

As students progress, the curriculum moves from foundational practices into increasingly sophisticated areas of spiritual development. Students explore contemplative prayer, meditation, purification of the inner life, the nature and development of the soul, spiritual discernment, energetic awareness, sacred symbolism, dreamwork, healing, intuition, spiritual perception, and the relationship between consciousness and prayer. More advanced training examines the discernment of spiritual influences, methods of spiritual protection, healing and service, and the responsibilities that accompany increased spiritual sensitivity. These subjects are introduced progressively and carefully because the purpose of mystical development is not the pursuit of unusual experiences or spiritual power. The objective is greater clarity, wisdom, compassion, discernment, humility, and an increasingly intimate relationship with God.

The great Christian mystics remain central to this process. Throughout the training, students encounter the Bible alongside works such as The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, The Life of Saint Antony, The Conferences and Institutes of John Cassian, The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Ávila, The Dark Night of the Soul and The Ascent of Mount Carmel of St. John of the Cross, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, The Revelations of Divine Love of Julian of Norwich, The Practice of the Presence of God of Brother Lawrence, and other foundational works of Christian contemplative spirituality. We study these writings not simply to understand what their authors believed, but to identify the practices, transformations, struggles, and discoveries that shaped their mystical lives and determine how those insights can inform our own.

The modern curriculum has developed through decades of study and practice across Christian spirituality, contemplative traditions, energetic medicine, meditation, healing, and the internal arts. Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson’s work, including The Hidden Teachings of Christian Mysticism, contributed an important body of material to the early structure of the program and remains one influence among many within the larger curriculum. Over time, however, the training has continued to expand through Dr. Holder's own teaching and spiritual practice, the study of historical Christian mystical literature, Biblical exploration, contemplative Christianity, modern energetic methods, healing traditions, and years of working directly with students seeking to develop an authentic spiritual practice.

Formation

 

EXPERIMENTAL DISCIPLINE

Practice begins the process of transformation.
✦

Explore The Curriculum ↗

For this reason, Christian Mysticism is taught as an experiential discipline rather than a purely academic subject. There is an enormous difference between understanding meditation and becoming meditative, between studying prayer and developing an interior life of prayer, and between reading descriptions of Divine presence and cultivating the capacity to become deeply receptive to it. Intellectual study gives us language and orientation, but practice begins the process of transformation. The classroom therefore becomes a laboratory in which the teachings of the mystics can be explored through personal experience.

As students progress, the curriculum moves from foundational practices into increasingly sophisticated areas of spiritual development. Students explore contemplative prayer, meditation, purification of the inner life, the nature and development of the soul, spiritual discernment, energetic awareness, sacred symbolism, dreamwork, healing, intuition, spiritual perception, and the relationship between consciousness and prayer. More advanced training examines the discernment of spiritual influences, methods of spiritual protection, healing and service, and the responsibilities that accompany increased spiritual sensitivity. These subjects are introduced progressively and carefully because the purpose of mystical development is not the pursuit of unusual experiences or spiritual power. The objective is greater clarity, wisdom, compassion, discernment, humility, and an increasingly intimate relationship with God.

The great Christian mystics remain central to this process. Throughout the training, students encounter the Bible alongside works such as The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, The Life of Saint Antony, The Conferences and Institutes of John Cassian, The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Ávila, The Dark Night of the Soul and The Ascent of Mount Carmel of St. John of the Cross, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, The Revelations of Divine Love of Julian of Norwich, The Practice of the Presence of God of Brother Lawrence, and other foundational works of Christian contemplative spirituality. We study these writings not simply to understand what their authors believed, but to identify the practices, transformations, struggles, and discoveries that shaped their mystical lives and determine how those insights can inform our own.

The modern curriculum has developed through decades of study and practice across Christian spirituality, contemplative traditions, energetic medicine, meditation, healing, and the internal arts. Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson’s work, including The Hidden Teachings of Christian Mysticism, contributed an important body of material to the early structure of the program and remains one influence among many within the larger curriculum. Over time, however, the training has continued to expand through Dr. Holder's own teaching and spiritual practice, the study of historical Christian mystical literature, Biblical exploration, contemplative Christianity, modern energetic methods, healing traditions, and years of working directly with students seeking to develop an authentic spiritual practice.

The Invitation - A Structured Path

Let the spiritual life become something experienced.

The result is not simply a course about Christian Mysticism. It is a progressive school of spiritual development in which intellectual understanding and personal practice continually inform one another. Students begin by establishing the foundations of contemplative and energetic practice and gradually move into deeper levels of mystical training, discernment, healing, spiritual responsibility, and service. Some students come primarily to deepen their relationship with God and develop a meaningful contemplative practice. Others feel drawn toward healing, teaching, or spiritual ministry. A smaller number may eventually recognize a genuine calling toward the priestly path. There is no expectation that every person follow the same destination. What matters is that each student is given a structured environment in which that calling can be explored honestly and responsibly.

Christian Mysticism ultimately asks the student to undertake the same experiment that mystics have undertaken for centuries: to become still enough to listen, disciplined enough to practice, courageous enough to examine the self, and receptive enough to allow the spiritual life to become something experienced rather than merely discussed. The ancient teachings provide the map. Modern energetic practices provide additional tools for navigating the interior landscape. Prayer provides the relationship. Practice provides the discipline. Grace remains what it has always been: the mystery at the center of the journey.

For those who have sensed that Christianity contains depths they have never been shown, this program offers an opportunity to explore them. For those who have read the lives of the mystics and wondered what they actually experienced, it offers a way to begin investigating their world from within. And for those who have quietly carried the feeling that there must be more to the spiritual life than belief alone, Christian Mysticism offers a structured path through which that question can finally become a lived exploration.

Welcome to Christian Mysticism.

I have known Dr. Chris Holder for over 13 years now, and have found him to be extremely dependable in all he does and sets his heart towards. Over the past years, I have personally witnessed and admired the great compassion, forbearing patience, and strong dedication he shows as he successfully mentors his students towards triumphant goals. A serious yet good-hearted instructor, I have found “Big Chris” to be a wonderful friend and enthusiastic leader. It is therefore with great respect and admiration that I highly recommend and encourage his online course in Christian Mysticism.

Sifu Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson, Ph.D., DT.C.M., D.M.Q. (China)

Studying Christian Mysticism has provided me with a complete system to grow spiritually and strengthen my connection to God. It’s allowed me to transform old patterns, creating an environment that makes it easier to be in Divine service daily. In the years I’ve known Dr. Chris Holder, I’ve experienced him as a most kind, thoughtful, and compassionate person. He embodies being in service to the Divine through helping others. He presents esoteric material in a clear and comprehensible manner. His stellar coaching skills give him a unique ability to usher students on their journey of growth, change, and transformation. Dr. Holder delivers the fundamentals of Christian Mysticism in such a manner that beginners and experienced mystics alike can learn and elevate their spiritual practice through his guidance.

Rev. Brooks Wuerdemann, L.Ac. - Master of Oriental Medicine and Christian Mystic

✦ Registration opens September 14th

 

A three-year path of study and practice.

 

Christian Mysticism Course Begins


Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. PST

✦ Space is limited

Join The Waiting List ↗