Alexander John Shaia, PhD
Travel the 4-Path Journey that underlies all great spiritual traditions, through the lens of Christianity’s 4 gospels — and awaken to a deeper reality that liberates you from fear and cultivates trust for a richer, happier, more purposeful life.
This 4-Path Journey was also at the very heart of early Christianity — yet its revelations and profound connections have been hiding in plain sight for centuries... in the four Christian gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
More than just the biblical story of Jesus, these are texts of the mystical Christ, who’s eternally with us in the here and now. When these four gospels are restored to their ancient reading sequence — different from their conventional sequence in the Bible — they tell an entirely new story.
The four gospels become a practical manual for personal, communal, and cultural transformation.
They provide a clear map for living with more authenticity, equanimity, and harmony in a radically diverse and divided world — and experiencing what renowned author and thought leader Alexander John Shaia, PhD calls a trust that’s beyond hope. It’s a way of being that can help you better navigate life’s difficulties — and welcome its joys.
To get to that sweet spot beyond hope, we first must learn to trust — our journey, our life circumstances, ourselves — so that we will come to see the light in the darkness, even in our most difficult moments.
Join us for an illuminating course with Alexander John where you’ll travel the universal 4-Path Journey — and reclaim the four Christian gospels, where Jesus the Mystical Christ becomes the avatar who leads you on this mystical path…
You’ll receive uncommon wisdom all along your journey — including from the profoundly inclusive teachings hidden in Christianity’s gospels, many of which have been lost for 1400 years — that illuminate a vital life map that can lead us to inner freedom, safety, respect, and a profound connection with God.
In each module, you’ll move sequentially through the steps found in each of the four paths. While each person walks their own unique path, spiritual maturity demands that we observe and follow all the steps in their correct sequence.
Your 4-Path Journey will be powered by the practice of interior freedom — safety, respect, and a welcome of the other. In each session, Alexander John will guide you to invite a deepening into each of these elements.
A great reward awaits you — to know your progress on the journey, exactly where you are, even in the midst of life’s difficulties, and to trust that all is well.
Alexander John is an intrepid scholar whose inspiring perspective on the mystical feminine in Christianity’s gospels is very human and loving.
He leads an intimate band of seekers each year on a 60-day intentional rite of passage, walking the pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. His lifelong practice of prayer, woven with his extensive knowledge of anthropology, psychology, spirituality, and ritual work, makes him a unique thought leader well worth knowing…
Alexander John will guide you to discover the four gospels as a mystical guide to the 4-Path Journey so you can live with a trust that’s beyond hope in the face of change, loss, fear, overwhelm, and discontent. A trust that’s available and applicable to everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, orientation, spiritual tradition, or no tradition.
In this profoundly eye-opening 7-module course, you’ll:
- Travel the beauty and power of the 4-Path Journey underlying all great spiritual traditions — as it awakens you to a deeper reality that liberates you from fear and cultivates trust
- Learn the essential steps in a complete process of transformation, including steps that are often missing or omitted in spiritualities and psychologies
- Visualize the journey’s core practices: inner freedom, safety, respect, and a welcome of the other
- Explore the 4 Christian gospels as universal wisdom texts for everyone, regardless of gender, orientation, ethnicity, or spiritual tradition
- Recall a past experience of an inner earthquake or tsunami — your sensations, thoughts, and emotions
- Create a 6-Pointed Star — an image of authentic harmonious union — formed by an interweaving of opposites
- Participate in a meditation to hear the hum of the mystical Christ — a hum sounding in every particle of the cosmos
- Set the table for an interspiritual meeting where the world’s traditions share their wisdom about how to walk the 4 paths of transformation
- Use active imagination to experience the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, a meeting between new and old consciousness
- Practice non-attached curiosity
- Learn how the mystical text known as Mark provided a direct experience of Spirit for the Jewish Christians in Rome
- Meditate with Mary’s Song and know that in the midst of strain and difficulty, all is well
— Bestselling Author Mirabai Starr: “Alexander John Is Grounded in the Heart Space That Is Unfailingly Kind, Compassionate, and Open to Mystery”
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-part transformational intensive, Alexander John will guide you through how to follow a vital life map to overcome challenges and be inspired anew by the Christian gospels.
This course will feature step-by-step teachings and experiential practices with Alexander John. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to explore the 4-Path Journey that underlies all great spiritual traditions, through the lens of Christianity's four gospels — while you awaken to a deeper reality that liberates fear and cultivates trust for a richer, happier life.
Module 1: Preparing Your Heart & Mind for the 4-Path Journey
Your seven modules with Alexander John begin with a map — a handy graphic of the four paths of the universal journey of transformation.
You’ll learn how this journey’s structure is found throughout spiritual traditions, myths, and psychology worldwide.
Alexander John will explain how you’ll become more awake on the journey you’re likely already walking — and you’ll explore how mindfulness can anchor you in a trust beyond hope.
He’ll guide you to reclaim the four Christian gospels as wise mystical accounts. This way of experiencing them has lain hidden for 1400 years. Now, once again, Jesus the Christ becomes your avatar across the 4-Path Journey.
In this opening module, you’ll:
- Discover how to read the map detailing the 4-Path Journey of transformation
- Learn the essential steps in a complete process of transformation, including steps that are often missing or omitted in spiritualities and psychologies
- Visualize the journey’s core practices: inner freedom, safety, respect, and a welcome of the other
- Appreciate the truths of the 4-Path Journey found in sacred traditions, myths, and psychologies
- Regain the 4 gospels as universal wisdom texts for everyone, regardless of gender, orientation, ethnicity, or spiritual tradition
- Meet your personal guide for the 4-Path Journey
Module 2: Facing Change — The First Path
The First Path is like the hours of dusk, sunset, and nightfall, or the days of autumn, harvest, falling leaves, and a waning Sun.
We begin to travel down this path in our lives in various ways. One of the most beautiful is the experience of falling in love.
Yet the more common experience is that of sudden loss in which we know our lives will be remembered as pre- and post-this-moment, like an inner earthquake or tsunami.
The First Path asks us to surrender to what is , while our ego-minds resist an unwelcome journey. We’re at a threshold. Who or what are our resources? Will we cross this threshold of our own volition, or be thrown?
The text for this path is the gospel traditionally called Matthew. In a mystical reading, this gospel poses the question, “How do we face change?”
Observing its counsel, Alexander John will share how to hold your heart steady, still your mind, and cross a threshold into the unknown.
In this module, you’ll:
- Visualize your inner place of freedom, safety, respect, and welcoming of the other (you’ll do this in each module)
- Recall a past experience of an inner earthquake or tsunami — your sensations, thoughts, and emotions
- Meet a heroine or hero who faced a decision to step beyond the expectations of their family or tribe, and learn from their journey
- Befriend the sting of reversal and betrayal
- Travel to a place of the holy dark, a womb place from which you begin, and begin again
Module 3: Moving Through Great Trials & Obstacles — The Second Path
The Second Path is like the deepening dark of nighttime, and the dead of winter, when bare trees shiver and frost covers the ground.
Personally, we experience this path as a swirling sea, where we are tossed to and fro in huge swells....
Yet the storm rages on. How long can we last? Will we survive?
Uncertainty is our great ally on the Second Path. We’re strained by the tension of opposites — and we learn from the great wisdom of making no choice at all.
Endurance is essential, along with trust that an almost unimaginable new reality is on its way.
The text we traditionally call Mark was the prayer and practice of the Jewish Christians in Rome. They were living under house arrest, condemned to execution by the Emperor Nero...
Their questions were, “How can we move through great trials and sufferings?” and “How can we walk through the valley of death with the aroma and the promise of resurrection?”
In this session, you’ll:
- Learn how the mystical text known as Mark provided a direct experience of Spirit for the Jewish Christians in Rome — a reality greater than themselves that sustained them through turbulent times
- Recall a past experience of swirling chaos, raging storm, and inner exhaustion — to glean a new perspective
- Increase your skills in embracing uncertainty and holding the tension of opposites
- Create or draw an 8,000-year-old symbol of the tension of opposites (an equidistant cross) and explore what each arm represents in our lives
Module 4: Receiving Gifts, Vision & Joy — The Third Path, Part 1
This path is like an experience of first light, dawn, and the early hours of day, as well as springtime, when the Earth buds in a profusion of delight.
In this module, Alexander John will explain how, in our lives, the Third Path arrives by surprise as the endless storm-tossed gray disappears at a moment’s notice. Suddenly, we find ourselves inhabiting a Paradise garden. The intensity of color is almost more than our eyes can bear.
As the path arrives in front of us, we open to truly receive the gifts and visions — and allow ourselves (mind, emotion, and body) to be filled with an expansive, ecstatic energy.
This energy gives us a sense of union with everyone, even with the cosmos. We often name this as joy . And we ask,“ How did we arrive here?” and “What is the meaning of such ecstasy?”
The mystical text called John answers the question, “How do we receive joy ?” The book is a blueprint for creating an authentic union, and is as wise as any ever composed.
In this module, you’ll:
- Recall a sudden change in your life, from swirling chaos to a Paradise garden
- Awaken to the truth that each of us is made unique, yet also made of an incorruptible and eternal substance
- Create a 6-Pointed Star — an image of authentic harmonious union, formed by an interweaving of opposites
- Participate in a meditation to hear the hum of the mystical Christ — a hum sounding in every particle of the cosmos
Module 5: Navigating Danger to Actualize Your Vision — The Third Path, Part 2
After receiving the vision and gifts, we’re met with critical inner and outer obstacles. A series of hidden dangers confront us, and are at hand...
In this module (featuring one of the most pivotal teachings on the universal journey of transformation ), Alexander John will explain how, for our vision to mature, we must walk wisely and heed warnings and safeguards. If we don’t, our ego-mind will place gold guilds on yesterday’s consciousness and trick us into believing that we have transformed.
Tragically, many spiritual traditions and psychologies don’t provide counsel on these dangers, or on how to navigate them in the moment. As a result, many journeys of transformation stop here — leaving us in a regressed place that’s spiritually and psychologically harmful to our growth, or to something else.
When the Christians of Ephesus weren’t able to actualize their vision of an all-inclusive community, many became bitter, falling into despair and cynicism. The mystical gospel called John met this crisis by laying out a blueprint and exercises to re-enliven the vision — along with practices to actualize it.
In this module, you’ll:
- Explore how John continues to be one of the world’s greatest wisdom texts, far ahead of its time, even today — yet modern translations are full of spiritually harmful errors that Alexander John will explain and correct
- Recall Third Path dangers you’ve experienced in yourself, your journey, and your spiritual traditions
- Observe the beneficial results of heeding Third Path safeguards
- Use active imagination to experience the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, which personifies a conference between new and old consciousness
Module 6: Evolving Through Service — The Fourth Path
The Fourth Path is like the lengthy hours of daylight, and summer warmth, when the sun is high, and crops mature. In our lives, this path is like a winding road, stretching beyond the horizon. We labor for tomorrow, while the destination remains here and now.
In this module, Alexander John will share how equanimity and rest are keys to the exhausting work of the Fourth Path as we labor without attachment to results. The keys are containing our zeal, knowing the 4-Path Journey, engaging in trial and error, and nurturing oneself with play, friendship, nutrition, exercise, and rest.
Late in the first century, Christians faced an enormous threat. They’d been named an enemy of the Roman Empire, and were at risk of being executed.
What was their offense? Christians were raising the status of women, treating slaves with dignity, welcoming all to sit together regardless of tribe or rank, and asking those with means to support those with little or no means. All of these actions were an affront to the empire and its ambitions.
Facing almost certain execution, Christians asked how they should respond to such brutal oppression, and how to create a more loving world for their children’s children. The mystical text called Luke answered their question (and ours): “How do we mature in service?”
In this module, you’ll:
- Recall a previous Fourth Path experience with its benefits and challenges
- Practice non-attached curiosity
- In your imagination, rejoin Spirit (Angels) with Matter (Shepherds) — the spiritual with the sensuous
- Drink from the Cup of Justice, Gratitude, and Compassion
- Meditate with Mary’s Song and know that in the midst of strain and difficulty, all is well
Module 7: A New Paradigm for Spiritual & Psychological Traditions — Essential & Continuing Practices
In this final module, Alexander John will review the essential elements of the universal journey — seeing its truths in various spiritual and psychological traditions including Buddhism, Shamanism, and more.
He’ll guide you to imagine a time when traditions across eras, cultures, spiritualities, and genders can come together to share what each knows of the Four Paths.
This is our heritage. This is our future.
You’ll conclude your time in this course with the essential and continuing practices of the journey to help anchor your life in a trust beyond hope that grounds you in courage.
In this module, you’ll:
- Review your travels to an inner place of freedom, safety, respect, and welcome of the other
- Set the table for an interspiritual meeting where the world’s traditions share their wisdom about how to walk the 4 paths of transformation
- Summarize the 8 essential and continuing practices of the journey
- Imagine your next steps — how can you share the 4 paths with others ?
Explore possibilities to bring the practices you’ve learned into your own spiritual tradition, refine the essential practices, and more
The 4-Path Journey Bonus Collection
In addition to Alexander John’s transformative 7-module virtual course, you’ll receive these special bonuses to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Top 5 Sessions From the Mystics Summit
Selected Sessions From the 2021 Summit
At a time when it’s easy to lose hope and feel dismayed by the world’s crises, you can gather strength and invoke personal liberation by understanding the experiences of the mystics who not only survived imprisonment, poverty, and other disasters… they often emerged even more rooted and in love with the Divine. Join host Mirabai Starr and speakers Alexander John Shaia, Matthew Fox, Father Greg Boyle, James Finley, and Richard Rohr as they lead you through the lives and times of ancient mystics, their “ordinary heroism,” and the lessons you can apply in these tumultuous times.
Plus... you’ll receive these bonuses too!
Gateway to Oneness: Foot Washing as Communion
Video Teaching From Alexander John Shaia
Explore an intriguing hour-long teaching from a 9-part Easter retreat series. In this video, Alexander John explains how Easter was originally about a present-moment, here-and-now deepening of relationships. He reflects on the sensual washing of feet as a rite of communion during marriage ceremonies in the ancient Middle East. The rite was also used by early Christians to evoke an intimate experience of the Christ within, and a proclamation that all the cosmos is one.
Plus... you’ll receive these bonuses too!
Preparing for the Journey of Heart & Mind: Inner Basics of the Journey
Short Film From Alexander John Shaia
This beautiful film walks you through the inner basics of the 4-Path Mystical Journey of Transformation. Alexander John describes how, as a college student in the 1970s, his life fell apart, then began again through the teachings of Joseph Campbell. This 30-minute film, produced by The Work of the People, is the first in a series of six that cover the 4-Path Journey.
The Story of Quadratos
PDF Excerpt From the Book Radical Transformation by Alexander John Shaia
Explore the fascinating story of Alexander John’s discovery of Quadratos, the term he coined for the 4-Path Journey. He describes his revolutionary experience of the Christian gospels as an exemplar of the mystical, non-dualistic path of transformation. This excerpt contains the foreword, preface, and opening chapter of his 2020 book, Radical Transformation.
What People Are Saying About Alexander John Shaia, PhD…
— Emily and Jeandre Gericke: “Alexander John Shaia Really IS the Village Elder”
— Mary Solberg: “Alexander John Shaia Inspires Me to Look Back on the Days of My Life With Compassion”
— Annie Sempill: “My Heart Was Captivated by the Beauty Shared by Alexander John Shaia”
— Bronwyn Thoroughgood: “Alexander John Shaia’s Work Will Transform the Whole World”
“Suddenly everything came together: the change, the pain, the love, the service.”
Taking part in a Heart and Mind Community was the highlight and climax of over four decades of ministry. Suddenly everything came together: the change, the pain, the love, the service. Four Paths, One Journey.
— Churches of Christ pastor, Perth, Australia
“... [the gospels] have become a wisdom text leading me on a journey of growth and transformation.”
Until Alexander John Shaia, I read the gospels as a rule book for good living. Now, however, they have become a wisdom text leading me on a journey of growth and transformation.
— Christine Mendoza
“The Weekly Reflection has become a precious, slow, contemplative prayer time — deepening me, enriching me, connecting me, expanding my heart and mind.”
The Weekly Reflection has become a precious, slow, contemplative prayer time — deepening me, enriching me, connecting me, expanding my heart and mind. So grateful.
— Marylin, Australia
“Alexander John Shaia has helped me walk the path, listen deeply, and find soul companions.”
— Julie Z.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Sessions With Alexander John Shaia
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from Alexander John Shaia, founder and director of Quadratos: Four Paths, One Journey — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a video option and guides you to explore the 4-Path Journey that underlies all great spiritual traditions, through the lens of Christianity's four gospels — and awaken to a deeper reality that liberates fear and cultivates trust for a richer, happier life.
Seven Transcripts of Class Sessions
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription after each session is completed. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each lesson.
The 4-Path Journey Bonus Collection
- Top 5 Sessions From the Mystics Summit
Selected Sessions From the 2021 Summit
- Gateway to Oneness: Foot Washing as Communion
Video Teaching From Alexander John Shaia
- Preparing for the Journey of Heart & Mind: Inner Basics of the Journey
Short Film From Alexander John Shaia - The Story of Quadratos
PDF Excerpt From the Book Radical Transformation by Alexander John Shaia
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Walk the Mystical 4-Path Journey of Transformation Online Training
We feel honored that Alexander John Shaia has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive online training. This is a unique opportunity to learn from the founder of Quadratos, whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about exploring the 4-Path Journey that underlies all great spiritual traditions and awakening to a deeper reality for a richer, happier, more purposeful life, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in evolving yourself, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! If you don’t absolutely LOVE Walk the Mystical 4-Path Journey of Transformation — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 2 weeks from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Alexander John Shaia, PhD…
“Let him teach you and you won’t see your life the same way again.”
Alexander John is one of our village elders. Let him teach you and you won’t see your life the same way again.
— Rob Bell, New York Times bestselling author
“Through the lens of Alexander John’s brilliant insight and vast heart, I have come to view the gospels as a radiant map for the transformation of the human soul…”
Alexander John Shaia has radically transformed this Jewish/ Hindu/ Buddhist/ Sufi’s understanding of the Christian wisdom teachings! Through the lens of Alexander John’s brilliant insight and vast heart, I have come to view the gospels as a radiant map for the transformation of the human soul, equally accessible to people of any path — and to those with no religious affiliation but a burning yearning to awaken and be of use in this beautiful, broken world.
— Mirabai Starr, speaker and bestselling author
“He skillfully weaves together many strands from interrelated disciplines, including history, tradition, liturgy, scriptural exegesis, and analytical psychology.”
Alexander John Shaia has uncovered an archetypal pattern embedded in the four gospels which embraces all we know to date about human development and the psychological processes involved in spiritual transformation — what C.G. Jung called individuation. He skillfully weaves together many strands from interrelated disciplines, including history, tradition, liturgy, scriptural exegesis, and analytical psychology. His resulting synthesis, Quadratos, and the way it embraces the psycho-spiritual interface, will resonate with seekers young and old, longing to embrace the message of Jesus the Christ in a way which addresses the realities of living in the 21st century.
— Joy Ryan-Bloore, Jungian analyst, Christchurch, New Zealand
“I am grateful every day for Alexander John Shaia.”
I am grateful every day for Alexander John Shaia. Without this roadmap I would be unable to navigate these chaotic days with such equanimity.
— Julie Garvey, spiritual director, St. Helena, California
About Alexander John Shaia, PhD
Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Alexander John Shaia was part of a large extended family that had emigrated from Lebanon a generation previously. He grew up immersed in the ancient traditions of Middle Eastern Christianity (Maronite Catholicism) and was expected to become a priest, a family tradition since the year 1300. He was led otherwise.
Alexander John received a degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame and was also privileged to learn from Joseph Campbell. Next came a brief time in seminary followed by a master’s in Counseling Education, a master’s in Religious Education, a graduate certificate in Pastoral Psychotherapy, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
His extensive psychological training across many modalities finally led him to Switzerland where he studied with Dora Maria Kalff, a Jungian analyst and founder of Sandplay Psychotherapy. Alexander John became the first U.S. man, and openly gay man, admitted to the International Society for Sandplay Therapy — and continues to serve as a senior Certified Teaching Member of the organization.
Returning to the United States, he undertook years of private practice, teaching and leading retreats across world spiritual traditions, and further study. Integrating his lifelong practice of prayer with many cross-disciplines — anthropology, psychology, spirituality, and ritual work — has shaped him into a unique thought leader, prolific author, and widely sought-after consultant, trainer, and inspiring speaker.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee for a full two weeks so that you can try out the course risk free. The deadline to receive a refund is two weeks from your date of purchase. To request a refund, please click here to submit your Refund Application Form. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we will send you an email confirmation when your refund has been completed. However, we’d love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there’s something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com, and we’ll be happy to help!
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