Jean Houston, Ph.D. (1937-2026), was a scholar, philosopher, and researcher in Human Capacities, one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She is regarded as one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. Dr. Houston is noted for her ability to combine a deep knowledge of history, culture, new science, spirituality, and human development into her teaching. She is known for her interdisciplinary perspective delivered in inspirational and humorous keynote addresses.
A prolific writer, Dr. Houston is the author of 26 books, including “Jump Time”, “ A Passion for the Possible”, “Search for the Beloved”, “Life Force”, “The Possible Human”, “Public Like a Frog”, “A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story”, and “Manual of the Peacemaker”.
As Advisor to UNICEF in human and cultural development, she had worked around the world helping to implement some of their extensive educational programs. In September of 1999, she traveled to Dharamsala, India, as a member of a group chosen to work with the Dalai Lama in a learning and advisory capacity.
Dr. Houston also served in an advisory capacity to President and Mrs. Clinton, as well as assisting Mrs. Clinton in her writing of her book, “It Takes A Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us”.
She worked with the United Nations Development Program, training leaders in human and cultural development as well as in Social Artistry, a community-leadership training program that she developed. For more than 45 years, together with other international agencies and companies, Dr. Houston worked in over 100 countries.
In 1965, along with her husband, Dr. Robert Masters, Dr. Houston created The Foundation for Mind Research. She was also the founder and principal teacher, since 1983, of the Mystery School, now called the Renaissance of Spirit, a school of human development, a program of cross-cultural, mythic, and spiritual studies, dedicated to teaching history, philosophy, the New Physics, psychology, anthropology, and the many dimensions of human potential.
In 2008, the Jean Houston Foundation was formed to teach Social Artistry in the United States and overseas. This training has been conducted in Albania, the Eastern Caribbean, Kenya, Zambia, Nepal, and the Philippines.
Dr. Houston is considered one of the most evocative and entertaining speakers on aligning the human spirit, potential, and action with the needs of the time. Her talks were legendary for their ability to inspire, inform, and activate her audience. Her lifetime passion was to encourage the inherent possibilities, visions, and capacities that lie within each person and/or group and translate them into positive action.
“Jean Houston’s mind should be considered a national treasure”, said Buckminster Fuller, a renowned American philosopher, thinker, visionary, inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet, and cosmologist. A life-long friend of Jean Houston, his observation is shared by the thousands of individuals, communities, organizations, and nations that have been and continue to be inspired by her words.
Her work has been the core of a great many teaching-learning communities throughout many parts of the world. In 1984, she created a national not-for-profit organization, The Possible Society, to encourage the creation of new ways for people to work together to help solve societal problems. Giving seminars to large groups of citizens in 17 cities throughout North America, she established ongoing teaching-learning communities devoted to the enrichment of their citizens and the betterment of their cities.
In 1985, Dr. Houston was awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Association of Teachers Educators. In 1993, she received the Gardner Murphy Humanitarian Award for her work in psychology and the INTA Humanitarian of the Year award. In 1994, she received the Lifetime Outstanding Creative Achievement Award from the Creative Education Foundation. The following year, she was given the Keeper of the Lore Award for her studies in myth and culture. In 1997, she was made a Fellow of the World Business Academy. In 1999, she received the Pathfinder award from the Association of Humanistic Psychology. She was given the Millennium award in 2000. In 2011, she was named Spiritual Hero of the Year by the Science of Mind magazine.
