For 16 years, Rev. James De Biasio, founder and Spiritual Advisor to ISD, has been a strong presence, listening with patience, guiding with love, leading with his heart.  The following interview with Sue Landon is a gift for your enjoyment!

You were born in 1942 to a very large and close-knit extended family. Can you tell us something about how that influenced your life?
   I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and I had very loving parents.  I am the youngest son of an Irish mother and Italian father, so of course I was raised Catholic.   I also have one older brother, and grew up with lots of cousins and aunts and uncles around.  
   One of the defining elements of my youth was that my grandfather, my father’s father, who had four children, bought five row houses in Elizabeth, one for himself, and one for each of his children.  So I grew up in a really strong family environment.  I used to go from house to house at night to see what they were having for dinner and choose the one I liked best.   I was too little to reach the door latch, so I’d knock and yell until someone answered.  
   The five row houses shared a backyard, so my aunts and uncles and cousins were as much a part of my life as my own parents and brother were.   Holidays were huge with 30 or 40 people all gathering for the celebration.  
   I had a special connection with one of my cousins who was about the same age as me because not only were our father’s brothers, but our mothers were sisters.

Some people say that psychic ability is derived from terrible trauma in youth. Your background doesn’t fit that theory.
   No, I don’t believe that is true.  Everyone is naturally psychic and it’s just a matter of whether one chooses to expand it or not.  Perhaps there is some genetic connection, but it is a certitude for me that we are all gifted intuitively.  It is part of our nature, and to deny that is not to understand human nature.  With commitment and hard work, it can be developed.  There have been many overnight wonders in the psychic field who don’t have the background in the metaphysical philosophy.  One who has knowledge but does not know metaphysics is like an ass carrying books.

What was your educational background?
   Education was through the Catholic mill.  Grade school, high school, college, graduate school, and then I taught with the Jesuits for 11 years, biology and chemistry.

With such a strong Catholic upbringing, did you ever consider the priesthood?
   Thought about, yes.  Probably every young man raised in a Catholic environment considers it at some point, but I knew it was not for me.  I remember as a youngster sitting in church — I was probably about five years old at the time.  The priest was giving a sermon, and I kept saying to myself that this isn’t right, this isn’t true. The element of disbelief was always present.

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.

Why do you suppose it happened at that moment?
   Well, I suspect the energies were right.  The place where we were standing when it happened was at the end of a corridor that fanned out into a central area, and it formed a triangle.  My mind at the time was on my future and college.  It seemed to be appropriate.

How did you get started in psychic exploration?
   I was teaching in New York, and also had started a business on the side.  I invited a friend of mine to dinner, and it turned out his wife was a trance medium.  After dinner, they wanted to know if I would like to do a séance.  I had never done one before, but I said sure, why not?  At the séance, two things happened.  One, I immediately felt comfortable and at home as if I had been doing this all my life, and second, I started to go into a trance myself!  
   As a result of that, I became a member of their development group, and sat every Tuesday evening at 8:00, summer, winter, spring and fall, every Tuesday faithfully for eight years.  I felt blessed that I had that leisurely path to development and didn’t have to rush.

Who else did you study with?
    I had two important teachers.  One was Marjorie Staves, who was a British medium.   The second was Clifford Bias, who was an extraordinary man.  He was the founder and head of the Universal Spiritualist Association, and he had an incredibly dynamic church in NYC which happened to be a block from where I lived.  It was fabulous.  It was in the small theater of the Ansonia Hotel, a huge hotel on the west side of NY where all the opera stars lived like Caruso.  There were two Sunday services, and I went to both.

Is there anything in particular that happened while you participated with that group?
   Every year Clifford’s group held a seminar, and one particular year it happened to be in Elizabethtown College in Elizabeth, PA.  I got a call two nights before and Clifford said, “Jim, you are going to do the message service on Saturday—” a huge event — “and you are going to do blindfold billets.”  
   I had never done it before.  Clifford said yes, I could do it, but I said no, I couldn’t, and if I fell on my face, it would be on Clifford’s head.  Despite the fact that there were many mediums in the room, I was the only one asked to do blindfold billets.  Despite my fears, it went very well.  It was a seminal experience in my development because I found out I could do it.

What happened that led you to start giving homilies?
    I was at Camp Chesterfield in Chesterfield, Indiana.  I was a student, and was called upon to give the homily.  I had never given one before so I didn’t know what to talk about, didn’t know what to do.  I said, “Spirit, it’s up to you.”  Well, it turned out fine, and I’ve been talking ever since. 
   I’ve always felt comfortable with everything.  I’ve always felt protected, and believed I would only draw the best to myself, the highest energies.  I’ve had some encounters with negative entities from time to time, but it has never disturbed me.

At what point did you decide on psychic work as a profession?
   That’s a big change from teaching for the Jesuits.  I had sold my NY business and semi-retired at the advanced age of about 34 years old.  I started a development group in NJ, and one thing led to another.  People started asking for readings.  My mother was quite enthusiastic about it, but it took a bit for my father to come around.  The turning point came after I was ordained when my dad saw me do the memorial service for my uncle.  My uncle had requested that I do it before he died.  My father even helped start the church in Sparta, attended services from time to time, and came for healings.

When did you start the Sparta church?
   1976, and it was a battle.  Nobody had chartered a new church in New Jersey in 75 years, and nobody knew how to do it.  Between the IRS and the NJ Attorney General, it took us four years to finalize everything.

What has been the evolution of the church over the years?
    Initially the church was established as a Spiritualist Church.  In the course of time I realized that there was more than just the spirit communication. We were missing a whole lot.  We were missing the foundation of the philosophy, which was metaphysics.  Gradually it evolved from the spiritualist perspective of proving the existence of the spirit world and communication with the spirit world, to expanding on the philosophy, which is self-responsibility.  We don’t believe in vicarious atonement… that Jesus or Krishna came to save us from our perceived sins.  We have the individual responsibility to learn and to grow and to make right things that we offset.  
   The philosophy of the church or the tone of the church gradually moved from spiritualism to metaphysics.  The church in NJ still has a stronger spiritualist bent, but that has evolved also.

What do you consider to be the fundamental philosophy of the Institute for Spiritual Development?
    We provide an open forum for a variety of belief systems, and in that way, we assist one another in growing.  An important outcome of this approach is our commitment to being universally accepting and non-judgmental.

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.

How are we doing as a church?
    ISD is a very healthy church.  The strongest measure of that is our pledge program.  I have had much experience with pledge programs in the past, and I can tell you that the percentage of people who pledge plus the percentage of people who fulfill their pledges is extraordinarily high, way above the national norm.  The same is true for the percent of members who actively participate in the church.  Normal is between 5 and 10 percent.  At ISD, 40 to 50 percent of our membership is actively participating in the church.  We are doing something right.

What concerns you about the church?
   We need to project ourselves, and find more of those people that we are here to serve.  We’re not going to reach everybody, but there is a much broader audience for what ISD has to offer out there.  My plan is to write and publish, and that will start to bring the attention to ISD that will help it grow.  I am quite clear that we will have a period of spontaneous growth once the word gets out.  There will come a point when ISD just takes off.  
   ISD is an excellent organization.  The presentation of our product is excellent.  As mentalities and attitude mature in the overall population, ISD will simply ignite.  No doubt about that.  When ISD was first being established in D.C., we had a secretary who didn’t like the way things were set up.  Push came to shove, and eventually she told me, “Why don’t you bury this thing? It isn’t going anywhere.”  I look at the people who attend this church, and while every seat is not full, I’m glad we didn’t bury it.  Each and every face, every person, every situation, is precious to me.  

What do you see as the key elements of developing our psychic abilities?
    If you start with the Spiritualist perspective and make contacting spirits from the other world of the utmost importance, what does that do?  Now you know that Aunt Harriet is fine.  What questions does that answer?  Spirit communication doesn’t go far enough.  There has to be more than just knowing they are there and doing fine.  
   At a séance I went to once, the medium told one of the women present that she had contacted her husband.  The woman said “Keep him.”  The medium pushed, and it went back and forth for a long time.  I’ve seen that more than once, where the medium is more committed to what he or she sees or senses than to what is going on with the person in front of them. 
    That’s a long answer to your question.  The answer is that the key element to developing psychic ability is keeping your heart with the client.  The second key is a long-term commitment to development. 

What frustrates you about being a professional psychic and teacher?
The only real “frustration” is that no psychic is ever given the whole picture, never.  It isn’t really a frustration, though.  I am used to it and accept it. 
    I used to read for a woman who would come out twice a year to see me.  As she was leaving one day, I put a hand on her shoulder and said, “What are all of these little coffins in your aura?  She said, “Oh, I forgot. I meant to ask you that.  That is about my sister.  I think she’s getting ready to make her transition.”  Se we talked about it a bit and left it there and went on.  Well, a month later she was in a fatal auto accident.  She collided with a truck carrying coffins and she was killed.  It was inappropriate for her to know that her end was coming.  
   You see enough to give them so that they can take it and find the missing link for themselves.  If not, then the medium becomes the person who is dictating their life for them.  I suppose you could call that a frustration of being psychic, those clients who want you to dictate the actions of their lives for them. 

Is it karma that you established ISD?
   Yes. I have come to believe it is fixed karma for me.  Fixed karma means we come into this life given or having chosen certain major areas to address.  We are moved along that path of destiny.  I may not like the route at the moment, but it will take me where I need to be, that I know.  My vision is limited and my scope is personal.  I may react against where it’s going, but I always come back to that point of understanding what will be will be, and I don’t have much choice about it.
    I accept the responsibility that I have chosen this for myself, and I have no control over anybody else.  That’s the big thing.  No control over anybody else’s karma or destiny, so I don’t try to make the decisions for them, although I may try to facilitate their decisions. 

What is your favorite word?
   Enthusiasm, because it’s from the Greek, en theos, which means with or within God.  One of the most beautiful concepts, beautiful words in the language.  

Favorite book?
    Fiction, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mists of Avalon.  I also like poetry, so much of what I read is poetry collections.  My favorite spiritual book is The Lives and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East by Baird Spaulding.  If I were stuck on desert island, those would be the three I would take.

Favorite food?
   Pizza, and the quest is ongoing to find the perfect pizza restaurant.  Followed shortly by hot fudge sundae.  

Any final thoughts?
   Always.  Something I remember from college was one of the priests telling us to sow wild oats all week, and on Sunday pray for a crop failure.  
   Of course we all make mistakes, and maybe it’s a good idea once a week on Sunday to pray that our mistakes don’t hurt anyone.  But when they do, and when the mistakes of others hurt us, we must learn to forgive if the future is to hold any promise.  Forgive and move on.