John A. Sanford

John A. "Jack" Sanford (26 July 1929 – 17 October 2005) was an American Jungian analyst and Episcopal priest.

Sanford was the son of Edgar L. Sanford, also an Episcopal priest, as was his own father and grandfather, the author of God's Healing Power, and of Agnes Sanford (1897–1982), the founder of the Inner Healing Movement.

Sanford was born in Moorestown, New Jersey. His parents were both leaders in the spiritual healing movement. In his early 20s, he decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, and two great-grandfathers, and entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to prepare to be an Episcopal priest. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy, graduating Phi Beta Kappa at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Later on, he obtained an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Kenyon, based on his work in the fields of religion and psychology. Sanford studied and mastered Greek mythology, Greek language, and American Indian history.

In 1955, he was ordained a priest at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Later he was deeply influenced by his mentor, Fritz Künkel, himself a disciple of Carl Jung the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical psychology, of whom Sanford was also a devoted student.

His first ordained ministry position was as assistant priest at St. Luke's Parish in Monrovia in 1955. He became rector at Trinity Church in Los Angeles in 1958.

Sanford and his wife, Adaline, whom he married in 1954, grew weary of the downtown Los Angeles environment and its declining air quality. When he was offered a position at St. Paul's Cathedral near Balboa Park in 1965 he welcomed the move to San Diego.

Sanford worked as a parish priest for 19 years. In 1974, he left parochial ministry for full-time work as a Jungian analyst and psychotherapist, lecturing and authoring a series of books, most of them regarding religion, psychology, Greek mythology, and American Indian history.

Since those years, Sanford enjoyed his private practice as a psychoanalyst focusing on psychology, religion and inner growth and he found some time every day for writing his books. He was a mentor for Journey into Wholeness from its beginning in 1977.

Sanford authored books on serious dream study and interpretation, combining both spirituality and science.

On the lighter side, Sanford also wrote novels, reflecting his interest in American Indian history, lore and legend. He also wrote a piece in an entirely different area: Running with your dogs, in which he reflected an extension of his passion for long-distance running. He ran consistently into his early 70s and completed the Mission Bay Marathon in the 1970s. He was also an avid hiker, backpacking in the Sierras for many years.

Sandford's children are Kathryn and John Stuart Sanford.

During 2002 and 2003, Sanford started showing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, which became worse with time, so the family decided to move him to a retirement house named Silverado Senior Living in Escondido, California, where he lived his final years and where he died on October 17, 2005, at the age of 76, from Alzheimer's complications.

Selective bibliography

• Between People: Communicating One-To-One
• Dreams: God's Forgotten Language
• Dreams and Healing
• Evil: The Shadow Side of Reality
• Fate, Love, and Ecstasy: Wisdom from the Lesser-Known Goddesses of the Greeks
• Healing and Wholeness
• Healing Body and Soul
• The Invisible Partners: How the Male and Female in Each of Us Affects Our Relationships
• King Saul, the Tragic Hero: A Study in Individuation
• The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of Jesus' Sayings
• The Man Who Lost His Shadow
• The Man Who Wrestled with God: Light from the Old Testament on the Psychology of Individuation
• Ministry Burnout
• Mystical Christianity: A Psychological Commentary on the Gospel of John
• The Song of the Meadowlark: The Story of an American Indian and the Nez Perce War
• Soul Journey: A Jungian Analyst Looks at Reincarnation
• The Strange Trial of Mr Hyde: A New Look at the Nature of Human Evil
• What Men are Like

External links

• [1] (online obituary with biographical notes)
• Profiles in Jungian-Christian Dialogue: Sanford video interview
• [2] Video interview with Sanford
• [3] Web page for Silverado Senior Living, where Sanford lived until his death.
• OPUS Archives and Research Center Website Archival collection of Sanford's published work housed at OPUS Archives and Research Center in Santa Barbara, California.