The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment
The Morris Pratt Institute (MPI)
What is MPI?
The answer depends upon your point of view.
From one perspective, the Morris Pratt Institute is the credentialing organization for the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC). If you are interested in becoming a healer, the Morris Pratt Institute provides the coursework and the requirements for being commissioned. Likewise, if you want to be a medium, the Morris Pratt Institute provides the coursework and the requirements for being certified. For those who would like to become ministers or Spiritualist Teachers, MPI is essentially the seminary for NSAC Spiritualism.
From another perspective, those interested in learning about Spiritualism in depth can enroll in the Correspondence Course of Study on Modern Spiritualism. The school also presents a two week residential course in Pastoral Skills and Special Seminars on aspects of Spiritualism.
A recent email from a current MPI board member stresses that an important point to make about “both the correspondence course and the pastoral skills course is that anyone can take them. Anyone. You don't have to be a member of a Spiritualist church. There are students in several different countries.”
To enhance the study of Spiritualism, the MPI also has an extensive research library in Milwaukee, open to the public. If you are unable to visit the library, you can request a book catalog for the mail order book store, carrying books on Spiritualism and related topics. Many are reproductions of books that are now out of print.
To summarize, the educational objectives of the Morris Pratt Institute are twofold:
1) To provide the opportunity for each individual to advance or further their spiritual education and understanding.
2) To provide a comprehensive course, as preparation for those wishing to achieve certification in the Spiritual Ministry through various organizations.
Who runs The Morris Pratt Institute?
The Morris Pratt Institute MPI is run by a board of trustees, and includes several dozen individuals who meet annually to make decisions on the coursework, to vote to approve new MPI members, etc.
How did it begin?
MPI began as a school for studying Spiritualism. There was a need to educate, not only the ministry, workers and leaders of Spiritualism, but all Spiritualists on the science, philosophy, and religion of this world view. The Morris Pratt Institute, established in 1901, has been a part of that education for over 100 years.