Anugraha Institute for Yoga and Interspiritual Studies
ANUGRAHA INSTITUTE FACULTY
Rev. Dr. Sw. Shraddhananda Saraswati, as its founder, serves as Provost and CEO of the Anugraga Institute for Yoga and Interspiritual Studies. She has published numerous articles and books, most recently Jesus Was a Shaktipat Guru (Sacred Feet, 2014) and A Short Book about Killing (Sacred Feet, 2016).
Swami Shraddhananda has a long history in academic teaching dating back to Allegheny College, a select plus liberal arts institution where she was tenured and promoted to full professor, followed by the Honors Program at the University of Kentucky and service as the first Dean of Graduate Studies at The New Seminary.
She has studied Yoga since 1988 as a disciple of the Siddha lineage as it manifests in Bhagawan Nityananda of Kanhangad and Ganeshpuri. In 2010, she received transmissions for the founding of Sacred Feet Yoga, an Interspiritual, right-handed intra-Tantric Yoga which she heads as disseminator of Shaktipat, the sacred energy known as the Holy Spirit in Christianity. She is also a lifelong Christian, and for eleven years, she meditated and studied with the Shambhala Buddhists. She attended Warrior Assembly and is a Registered Shambhala Buddhist Guide.
Sw. Shraddhananda currently serves as Preceptor and Lineage Holder of the Sannyasa prong of The Community of the Mystic Heart, an Interspiritual community anchored in the teachings of Bro. Wayne Teasdale. With the approval of the Mahamandaleshwar, she also offers Sannyas in the Saraswati Order of Monastics dating back to Shri Shankaracharya in 8th century India.
She holds a Ph.D. from Emory University. She has lectured on six continents.
Swami Shraddhananda
Dr. Kurt Johnson
Dr. Kurt Johnson has worked in professional science and comparative religion and culture for over 40 years. He serves on many international committees, particularly at the United Nations. A leader in the Interspiritual movement, he heads The Community of the Mystic Heart and has worked tirelessly on behalf of Bro. Wayne Teasdale's legacy. Author of the acclaimed The Coming Interspiritual Age (Namaste, 2012), Dr. Johnson is recognized internationally for his work in science and spirituality.
He has published over 200 scientific articles, is a regular presenter at The Science and Nonduality Conference, and his text entitled Fine Lines (Yale, 2016) was named a Top 20 book in the sciences for 2016. For 25 years, Dr. Johnson served on staff at the American Museum of Natural History, and for over a dozen years, he has taught classes at One Spirit Learning Alliance in New York City. He holds a Ph.D. in evolution, ecology, and comparative biology from the Graduate Center at City University. See David Sloan Wilson's "Evolution of the Coming Interspiritual Age: A Conversation with Kurt Johnson."
Dr. Charles Semowich is currently researching a book-length study on the history of the Interfaith movement to be published by the Sacred Feet Publishing Imprint. He holds an MFA from Catholic University and has exhibited his fine art across the northeastern United States.
Ordained by The New Seminary, he serves as Interfaith Minister for Capital Area Interfaith Church. He has performed carillonneur concerts at Riverside Church and at Yale University. He owns and operates Charles Semowich Fine Arts.
Dr. Semowich holds a Ph. D. from International College in Los Angeles.
Dr. Charles Semowich
ANUGRAHA INSTITUTE TEACHING FELLOWS
Swami Prakashananda
Acharya Sw. Prakashananda Saraswati aka Rev. Chris Deefholts is a disciple of the Siddha lineage and a member of the Saraswati Order of Monastics as well as The Community of the Mystic Heart Sannyasa. She serves as Presiding Bishop and Priest in the Mission Episcopate of the Holy Spirit, in the Liberal Catholic movement.
Sw. Prakashananda studied Vedanta with Sw. Anubhavananda for fifteen years. She also studied Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Gangchen for several years. She received Sannyas and was ordained as a Sacred Feet Yoga Acharya by Sw. Shraddhananda.
She lives in the United Kingdom where she has worked as a healer, a Hatha Yoga teacher, and a bookseller in Oxford. A graduate of the University College London, she was certified in Hatha Yoga with distinction by the Friends of Yoga--All India Board.
She has three grown children and five granddaughters with a grandson due in April 2017.
Acharya Sandra Chamatkara Simon was the first Acharya ordained in the Sacred Feet Yoga tradition as well as the first certified teacher of Sacred Feet Hatha Yoga. She has attended every Sacred Feet Yoga retreat since the initial one held at Slate Branch Ashram in 2011. She opened the first Sacred Feet Yoga Meditation Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2014, and she has taught with Sw. Shraddhananda in several retreats.
Acharya Chamatkara currently serves as Managing Editor of The Sacred Feet Publishing Imprint. She taught herself how to make a book for purposes of publishing
Sw. Shraddhananda's Jesus was A Shaktipat Guru.
After being named the first Chaitanya Fellow in Doctoral Studies at The New Seminary, Acharya Chamatkara elected to continue doctoral studies at the Anugraha Institute.
Acharya Chamatkara lives in Pittsburgh where she works as office manager for a company that matches attorneys with employers. She graduated from Allegheny College in 2000.
Acharya Sandra
Chamatkara Simon