For over 10 years now, Rev. Marcus Capone has been the Director of the Institute. During this time, the Institute has become a healthy and supportive community of metaphysically oriented people.   The following is an interview with Marcus concerning his life and his work with ISD:

Where were you born and raised?
   I’m a native son, born in DC and raised in Bethesda Maryland.   My parents were both internists, and I have four brothers and one sister.  

What is the legacy you have received from your mother and father?
   From my mother I learned great religious devotion.   Her relationship to the Catholic church was a great comfort to her, especially in times of stress and trouble.   Despite my disagreements with the church, I could see the great strength she drew from her belief, from her own sense of unconditional surrender.   She was a person of great perseverance no matter what the circumstances.
   From my dad I learned the love of music.   My dad played the sax and piano and loved to sing.   He needed someone to accompany him so he recruited me to do the job.  So I began to teach myself piano from the song books he used.   People thought me odd in high school as the pieces I played on the piano were songs from musicals and the 20’s, 30’s & 40’s while everyone else was playing “Stairway to Heaven.”   Most of my siblings are musical as well, but they went the way of rock & roll.   My elder brother, Maurice is a bassist, my younger brother, Matt and my sister, Martha are guitarists.

You mentioned your disagreements with the church. How did that come about?
   Oddly enough, I was an altar boy for years from the time I was eight or nine years old.   I was very involved in the church.   As I grew older, I realized that less of the Church’s teachings made sense to me.  By seventh grade, I used to skip out of mass and go to the drugstore and read the self-help books, which I found much more useful than the sermon.

What about your educational background? Surely you didn’t start out to become the Director of ISD?
   No, I had a Jesuit education, just like Jim [Rev. Jim De Biasio, founder of ISD.]  Catholic grade school, Gonzaga High School, Georgetown University for a degree in Comparative Arts (they didn’t have a music degree) and then Catholic University for a Master’s degree in music composition.

Can you recall any early experiences with your abilities?
    In thinking back, there was one incident that happened when I was about 16 or 17.  I had gone to my high school to help set up for a dance.  There was nobody around at all. I was probably the first person in the building that night.  I turned around and there were two people standing there, a young woman and an older man. 
   I turned and said hello.  They spoke to me, and while I don’t recall the specifics of what they said, it was something about that I shouldn’t be concerned, that I had a mission in life.  I turned slightly so that they were out of my view, and when I turned back, they were gone.  For years I considered that to be a very strange event until I realized it was my spirit guides encouraging me.

With that impressive background, what did you intend to become?
   My friend Stephen Hayes and I were going to take Broadway by storm.   One of the musicals we wrote was produced at Georgetown when I was a sophomore.   It was called “Evening Final” and took place in a newsroom.   Looking back, it was quite awful, but a great adventure. In our years together, we wrote quite a number of songs and a number of musicals — one based on the movie “Kind Hearts and Coronets.”   Stephen is now in LA making a living as a writer for movies and TV.

How did you make a living after school?
   Mostly I worked as a professional pianist, playing in bars and restaurants, and accompanying local singers, most notably Beverly Cosham — a tremendous talent.  Also, I locally musical directed, accompanied or conducted a number of musicals.   I think I hold the record for musical directing “Godspell.”   I also did various and other sundry things, including teaching music in middle school.  I’m not sure how I survived that year.   After living through the first day of teaching, I remember saying to myself, “Holy Sh—, I’ve got to do this for the whole year?”  One of the jobs I did for quite a while was as an usher at the Kennedy Center which I loved — a great way to watch the shows and get paid for it!  I also worked as a handyman and spent time with the Washington Opera driving the singers to and from costume fittings.  I remember one singer getting quite incensed when I mentioned a particular point I was studying in metaphysics.   He said it wasn’t in the Bible.  I replied, “Well, who says the Bible is the authority on anything?”   From that I learned to keep my mouth shut — a very valuable lesson.

What about your background if anything predicted your current path in life?
   I would say one of the things that happens in a big family is that attention from parents can only go so far.   So for me that translated into a lot of independence in thinking and activities.
   In terms of my intuitive abilities, I can remember in school of sometimes knowing answers to questions before the teacher even asked them.  I had no idea it was unusual.  That ability served me well when I had to write term papers later on in life.   Often the night before it was due, I’d just go out and take a walk.   By the time I returned, all the basic information was there ready to be organized and written down.   So I never worried about ideas for papers in school. .

When and why did you come to ISD?
   About two months after it opened. I saw a brochure for the new Church in the waiting room of Rev. De Biasio whom I had come to for a reading.  I had my first reading in about 1981 or so.  At that time the reader — who read playing cards and was quite good — suggested I was very intuitive and would be doing ministerial work.   A few years later, I thought it was time for another reading and Rev. De Biasio was recommended by a friend.
   My reading with Jim in May of 1986 was a major turning point in my life.  I started attending services at ISD a short time later, and soon decided to enter the ministerial program.   As so many people have reported, coming to ISD felt like ‘coming home’ to me.
   One of the first impressions I had of the church was, “Wow, they really need help with the music!”   Thus began my illustrious career at the piano for ISD.   We also created a new hymnal leaving out the blood, gore and suffering — part of so many Christian hymns -- and adding uplifting secular songs.  Fifteen years later, we are ready to put out another revision — this time a little more gender neutral.
   ISD traveled around quite a bit in the early years.   We were in the Cambodian Embassy, the Omni Hotel on P Street, The Ethical Society, and two addresses on Wisconsin Avenue, to name a few, before we found and bought our current church building.  It’s amazing to me to think back over all those moves, and now how we are ready to do a major addition to this building.

What impressed you most about our church building when we first got it?
   All the crosses.   There were crosses everywhere. Because our Church honors the spirituality behind all religions -- not just one -- my self-appointed mission was to remove as many as I could.   One of the most difficult to get down was the one on the top of the steeple, and it took several years, but we finally managed to replace it with the angel weathervane.   We still haven’t tackled the ones that remain on the pews.

What kind of shape was the building in when we got it?
   It was in need of a great deal of work, and over the years just about every single inch of the building has been painted, carpeted, remodeled, rebuilt in some way — a lot of it done by volunteers.   The most impressive improvement, though, was the stained glass window.

Where did the window come from?
   We found it by pure chance — we weren’t looking for it — in a little shop outside of Ephrata, Pennsylvania.   The window was taken out of a turn-of-the-century Harrisburg church, and on a wing and a prayer we bought it and brought it home, not knowing if it would even fit (but it would be covering up two crosses in the process!).  We drew to ourselves a carpenter and a mason who installed the window as if it was original to the building.   Was it a surprise that it fit like hand and glove into the space?  Obviously, we were being helped along by more than just human hands.
In fact, the history of the Institute time and time again has demonstrated the guidance and help from Spirit.   At the time we purchased the building, we had estimates of over $50,000 for the renovations needed — for everything from electrical to plumbing to wallboard and lighting, and we did it all for under $15,000.  Now, that’s help!

How did you get started in psychic exploration?
   I was always fascinated by the process, so I started to read, particularly books by Edgar Cayce, Ruth Montgomery and at that time of course, Shirley McLaine.  I visited the Cayce Institute in Virginia Beach a few times and participated in a study group  . That led me to ISD, where I really began to blossom.
   Jim has been the central figure in my training. His spiritual insight resounds within me.  After just a few Services I knew deep in my soul the importance of ISD.   There was a moment in Service one Sunday when that realization became crystal clear — then and there, I vowed that I would do whatever I could to make the vision of ISD a reality.  I guess that is when my career with the Institute began.

Music seems to be a very important part of your work with the church.
    Yes, because I love music, and I love how it can deeply affect people — it can stir up, soothe, seduce, inspire, heal.  You name it, it can take you there.   The choir in particular inspires me.  These are not professional musicians, they are people who love music and are willing to give of their time and talent to contribute to the joy and pleasure all of us experience in the service.
    Because I never went through piano lessons, I never acquired the hang ups many would-be musicians experienced.   I played because I loved it and I played what I loved.   Practice therefore wasn’t a drudgery but a natural outflow of working to achieve a certain sound or result that I was after.  So I learned about music with music that I enjoyed. As a result, my choices for Special Music may not necessarily be the choices one would expect at a Church Service.   Although, I can think of no more joyful and soul-freeing music than ragtime — once the music of brothels and speakeasies.
    Some of my personal musical projects besides the Choir and the new hymnal revision are meditation and healing CDs as well as a Metaphysical Song Book with songs and hymns specifically for a metaphysical Service.  Now if there were only a few more hours in the day...

Do you think we are successful at being accepting and nonjudgmental?
   You can feel it when you walk in the door.  We exercise our human ability to be non-judgmental at ISD.  We put into practice all the spiritual principles of the church such as self-responsibility and unselfish service.  Whatever we are promoting, the objective is it becomes a philosophy, a life pattern for the individual that we commit to and practice.

What were some of the early challenges with the church?
    Procedures, structure, and organization.  A small church has to do all the same things as a big church but without the resources.   We had to be lean and efficient, well organized, and put in place repeatable mechanisms, i.e., we didn’t want to re-invent the wheel every time we did an event.   Rev. De Biasio and I spent most of our down time at the computer researching, developing, revising all the phases of Church operations keeping in mind that we are creating not just for the Church as it now is, but for the Church that is to be.  A lot of free time for a good number of years went towards developing computer programs for our membership, mailing list, donations, bookstore, pledges as well as scheduling of volunteers and getting us on the web.

You seem to have accomplished miracles in terms of computerizing the Institute and giving us a strong online presence. How did you learn about computers?
   I love doing crosswords and brain teasers.  Figuring out how to tell a machine to do what you want was just another puzzle to solve.  I guess I have a knack for it — it comes very easily … If only figuring out people were as easy!

What are the challenges now?
    Well, obviously the huge building addition project we are about to undertake is the biggest one.   Other than that I really want to see our congregation and membership grow.  Over the past few years the length of stay of our members has grown from just a year or two to five, 10 years and more.   That strong base of long-time committed members has been the single most significant factor in the strength of the church.
    With longer term members, a challenge comes as to how to keep things fresh and interesting — how to engender enthusiasm for continued service and their spiritual pathway.
    Then there is always the challenges which any Church faces: getting out the word about the Church; maintaining a constant flow of volunteers in positions which fit their abilities so that no one takes on too much and becomes burned out; raising the necessary funds to allow the Church to meet its financial needs, etc.
    This new building project is quite a leap of faith, both financially and in terms of what it will bring to the Institute.  We are putting our metaphysics to practice to make it all work and once again relying on the guidance and help from Spirit.  

What do you consider to be the fundamental philosophy of the Institute for Spiritual Development?
   I think if you asked most people, they would begin with psychic work, but I would argue with that.   I believe our primary role is to facilitate an individual’s connection with the Divine and to give them a platform from which they can express it in service.   What distinguishes us from other churches is that we aren’t interested in dictating dogma.   We aren’t interested in telling people what they must do or think.  The most we can do is share with them our experiences, our insight, our inspiration and our philosophy and listen to theirs.   As we grow in our spirituality, we recognize that the gifts of the spirit — intuitive and healing work — can begin to blossom, and nurturing these gifts is an important aspect of the church as well.
   The people that I believe we would appeal to most are surprisingly not the “New Agers” looking for the new flavor-of-the-month, but those experiencing a true soul urge and seriously looking for a spiritual home.  Perhaps because the dogma of traditional Christianity or any other religion becomes onerous and doesn’t fit them.   Those who are ready to take the responsibility for their own spiritual growth and not just to blindly follow, will be the ones who will find the Institute a true spiritual haven.  Metaphysics is the spirituality behind all religions.

What do you like most about ISD?
   The freedom it allows — the freedom to think, to grow, to be yourself … but then I am an Aquarian.
One of the things I find most appealing about the church is that Rev. De Biasio in founding the Church has given us a vision as to what spirituality is in this new changing age of enlightenment.  This spirituality is very different than the one with a hanging Jesus looking down on us each Sunday.  The principles are not new — they have peeked out from behind all religions since the beginning of time.  But what is new and refreshing is that we are loved and accepted for who and what we are, wherever we are in our growth — and we are challenged to grow even more in our understanding of our true and higher self. Isn’t that a wonderful gift to give?
   What is hanging on the wall ready to greet us each Sunday in not Jesus, but “Let only words of love be spoken here.”  This is a great sentiment, but becomes lost without someone to embody them.  As grand as the vision of the ISD may be — a vision remains a vision unless it is realized.  That is where we come in.
   As members, we are not only the strength of the Church, we are the Church — and we are an amazing force.  With that initial seed from Rev. De Biasio, we have been growing this amazing flowering tree.  We may not understand the full height and breadth of the tree yet, but we can see that the tree is bearing fruit.
   Every member, every congregant who comes here is both enjoying the fragrance and the gift of the Institute and at the same time adding their own blossom to the tree.  The question becomes, what am I adding?  I don’t know if the members understand how much their energy contributes to the Institute.  Together, we are nothing short of miraculous!

What is your favorite word?
   My favorite non-curse word is “Yes.”

What are your favorite Broadway shows?
   Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, Sound of Music.

What is your favorite book?
   Anything by Ogden Nash because he’s one of the most delightful poets I know.  Reading him always gets me back to whimsy and the joy of being a child.

Favorite food?
   Today, I’m thinking a steak at Clyde’s with blue cheese mixed with mashed potatoes.

Favorite Movie?
   There are many ...what comes to mind now is “Simon Birch.”

Favorite class to teach?
   Without a doubt, the Kybalion.   Why?  Because it is about universal laws, and it reminds me to get back to the basics.  I must have either taught it or been a part of teaching it or listened to the class at least 10 or 12 times, and every time I get a different perspective on it, and renew my commitment in applying the principles.

Any final thoughts?
   The consciousness level of the planet is clearly changing, and ISD is playing a significant role in assisting and understanding that change.   We offer a balanced and professional approach to metaphysics and spirituality — important especially for those unsure first steps to opening.  If we are doing our job right, we’ll help you keep your feet on the ground and your eyes lifted toward heaven.