In our cultural milieu, the traditional model of the
teacher-disciple relationship is, for many, a relic from the
past. Indeed, postmodernity has fought hard to wrench itself
free from the strictures of religion and religious authority. In
a time of unprecedented personal freedom, even those who are
drawn to a spiritual life can find it difficult to imagine being
beholden to anyone. So it is rare to find someone,
particularly from the contemporary West, whose life and work
express the conviction that in order to fully realize our human
potential, we must yield to another to guide us and enter into
the classic definition of discipleship.
That doubtless conviction comes from philosopher, spiritual
teacher, and author Dr. Dario Salas Sommer. Salas, who has
published eight books under the pseudonym John Baines, is a
strikingly passionate advocate for the teacher-student
relationship. He has rekindled a mystical teaching known as
Hermeticism, which first emerged in the temples of ancient
Greece and has been conveyed from one generation to the next by
living transmission from master to disciple. Practiced and
preserved over the millennia in the inner sanctums of secret
societies, Hermeticism has inspired many of the West's mystery
schools, including Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and Theosophy,
and Salas has revivified the essence of this teaching for a
postmodern age.
A legendary figure in his native South America, Salas is
becoming more widely known throughout the world. The director of
the Institute of Hermetic Philosophy, which he founded in 1961,
and which has centers on three continents, he is engaged with an
expanding international body of students located in North and
South America, Europe, and Russia. As the guiding inspiration to
his students and thousands of others worldwide, he upholds the
perennial goal of the spiritual life—“moral and
spiritual elevation”—and affirms the only means by
which, he believes, it can be attained: an authentic
relationship between student and teacher.