My Spiritual Healing Journey | James Masters
I’m James — an artist, a Licensed Unity Teacher, and someone who has spent most of my life asking the big questions. My path moved from conservative Christianity to New Thought, from trying to survive religious trauma to learning how to heal it, and from living mostly in my head to finding a life shaped by intuition and creativity.
I teach metaphysics, prayer, meditation, mysticism, and spiritual development. I paint watercolors that explore emotion, color, and the quiet places where something deeper starts to speak. I also support people through healing work using EFT/TFT and trauma awareness.
My intention is simple: help people reconnect with who they truly are and with the presence that’s been with them all along.
The Longer Story of Spiritual Healing
I’ve been interested in existential and spiritual questions for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a very structured, very serious religious environment — the kind where you learn theology before you learn how to relax. Even in that world, I was drawn to the edges of things: mysticism, consciousness, the nature of God, the idea that something deeper was trying to get our attention.
As I moved into adulthood, that pull intensified. I had a near-death experience after getting hit by a car in 1999, and it cracked something open in me. It didn’t give me a grand spiritual download, but it did leave me with questions I couldn’t ignore.
My twenties were a strange mix of sincere devotion, confusion, spiritual growth, and perceived harm. I found Christian mystics like Brother Lawrence, whose practice of the presence of God resonated with me deeply. Initiating a path of deep spiritual healing. At the same time, I entered environments that were spiritually damaging — including conversion therapy — because I was desperate to change parts of myself that weren’t meant to be changed.
That internal conflict took a toll. My body started breaking down under the weight of it all, eventually to the point where doctors discussed removing organs and preparing for dialysis. Around that time I found Louise Hay’s work. Her approach gave me a different way to understand my pain — not as punishment, but as unprocessed trauma and self-rejection. The introduction to this work expanded my spiritual healing to include self-love.
It wasn’t instant. It wasn’t glamorous. But little by little, I began to heal. It took three years, and it changed everything.
As my health returned, so did my capacity to explore spirituality outside the narrow framework I had grown up with. I moved into New Thought, metaphysics, energy work, intuitive development, and mysticism. My understanding of Spirit expanded far beyond doctrine and dogma. I stopped trying to contort myself into a version of me that someone else wanted. I started listening inwardly, and for the first time, it felt like truth.
Over the years, the path has unfolded in layers. I’ve taught metaphysics, intuition, mysticism, metaphysical and spiritual healing, embodied prayer, world religion, and more. I’ve served congregations, facilitated groups, supported LGBTQ+ communities, and guided people through spiritual healing and transformation — often while doing my own work right beside them.
Along the way, I’ve had several shared-death experiences. They didn’t turn me into a mystic overnight, but they did reinforce something I already suspected: consciousness doesn’t end, and love is a lot more durable than we think.
Today, my life has a quieter rhythm. I paint. I write. I teach. I support people through spiritual coaching, EFT/TFT, and metaphysical tools that help them find clarity and grounding. I work with Unity Arts Ministry, assisting with course content and creative projects, and I am the Program Coordinator for Folx with Faith. Supporting inclusive spiritual leadership, LGBTQ+ affinity groups, and expanding conversations around sexual and gender identities and spirituality. I also serve on the board of the Faith and Trauma Center.
I’m grateful for the complexity of who I am — queer, spiritually multilingual, shaped by both wounds and wonder — but I don’t lead with labels. I’d rather let people meet me through my art, my words, my teaching, and the way I hold space.
If something in my work brought you here — a painting, a class, an article, or a recommendation — welcome. I hope what you find here gives you a sense of connection, clarity, or encouragement. And if it helps you feel more like yourself, even for a moment, then the work is doing what it’s meant to do.