Holistic Options for People Everywhere (HOPE) is a 501(c)(3) organization that was founded in May of 2007 in Lubbock, Texas, to provide a safe place for people having spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) and/or pursuing the topic of spirituality who did not feel comfortable or welcomed in traditional conservative spiritual/religious communities in the area. At the time, my co-founder and I had heard about, witnessed, and experienced how someone openly displaying non-traditional

more »

... l inquiry and/or practice was often ridiculed and ostracized by family members and co-workers. We were aware of several groups of people who were studying non-traditional spiritual texts and who had experienced many different kinds of STEs; it was our observation that, in order to prevent public scrutiny and anticipated negative judgment, most of these people conducted closed groups. To the extent that a given person was aware of the various groups and shared the interests of those groups, that person may have Elizabeth J. Sabet is co-founder and Executive