Frequently Asked Questions

An Explanation of World Education in the New Age with a Spiritual Purpose

As Compiled by H. John Zitko, WU President and Founder

For additional information check out the old World University Website.

What is the World University?

This is the usual leading question, and one which cannot be answered satisfactorily except in some depth. A true university is actually a civilization in miniature, because it embraces the world’s experience through every facet of its operation. A World University, like a civilization, also has its history, its economy, its philosophy, and a host of aspects such as its administration, its curriculum, its academic practices, its faculty, its business office, its campus development, and its long-range objectives, which are calculated to take it into an entirely New Age of human achievement. There is no simple answer to a definition of a World University, whose services reach out into many nations and cultures, and anyone who has a simple answer is not fully considering the vast ramifications of man’s total knowledge as exemplified by the terms "world" and "university".

What, then, does the term "World University" connote in the minds of those who are most intimately identified with the movement?

The WU is a symbol of the New Education, which has for its object the release of relevant knowledge in the interests of world reconstruction within a spiritual or moral framework. The larger part of the WU, as advocated by unnumbered educators and philosophers over the past several centuries, is properly called a "movement". That part of the total movement which has achieved corporate or legal existence, particularly in the United States, can properly be called the "institution". One of the first such institutions, if not the first, to achieve such reality with this name, is the World University with its International Secretariat at Benson, Arizona. While other institutions elsewhere use this same title, directly or indirectly, reference is here made to the educational corporation, licensed in the State of Arizona as the World University, with such rights and privileges as are specified by law.

When was the World University founded, and by whom?

The WU was inspired by an original address by Dr. H. John Zitko, presented before a distinguished gathering in Los Angeles, California on the winter solstice, December 21, 1946. Although unaware that other efforts were being put forth elsewhere toward this same general end, Dr. Zitko assembled an outstanding group of educators and professional people, thirteen in number, who comprised an international planning committee for exploring the possibilities of creating a true World University with a world philosophy and a worldwide outreach. Dr. Zitko, after some 50 years in directing the new corporation known internationally as the World University Roundtable, is today one of the few remaining living members of this original group.

What can you tell us about the movement as a whole?

A history of the movement, according to Michael Zweig who authored a book on the subject entitled "The Idea of a World University", can be traced back to Comenius, a Moravian educator of the 16th Century. Interest in international education grew slowly until a more determined effort was put forth at the close of World War One by Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, Belgian and French educators, who established an International University in Brussels. However, this succumbed to the Depression of the Mid-Thirties. Following World War Two, the movement gained new impetus with the formation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Who were some of the more prominent people involved with this concept in its earlier history, and what was their contribution to its progress?

Among those who advanced the idea of a World University were British philosopher, Bertrand Russell; Germany’s Albert Einstein; France’s Henri Laugier; and America’s Dwight D. Eisenhower. Others in the USA like Robert Maynard Hutchins, Harold Taylor, A.B Trowbridge, Kenneth Boulding, Karl Ewerts, and William Heard Kilpatrick, all gave additional publicity to the idea through their writings, lectures, and organizational activities. None of them founded, or helped to found, any institution by that name, nor has any World University, as we have here promulgated, grown out of their efforts. Yet, these and many others, some say as many as 1000 educators and laymen, have promoted the effort in one form or another.

Have any spiritual leaders, in addition to the philosophers, scientists, and statesmen already mentioned, proposed the formation of a World University?

This group may be even more numerous than the others. A few of these are C.W. Leadbeater, representing Theosophy; Max Heindel, the Rosicrucians; Alice Bailey, the Arcane School; Manly Palmer Hall, the Philosophical Research Society; Edgar Cayce, the Association for Research and Enlightenment; Krishnamurti, Aurobindo, and Sivananda, to name but a few. It is probable that almost all spiritual leaders of some stature, both in the traditional churches as well as in the metaphysical and esoteric schools, have considered the possibility of a World University expressing universal truth in a universal context, as it has come down through the ages.

Have any of these spiritual scientists ever established a World University as a universal learning institution within the larger movement you have been describing?

The only institution known to exist in corporate form since 1947 with the name "World University" as part of its original legal title, is that school founded by Dr. Zitko and his associates in California 50 years ago. All other institutions, using this and similar names, to our knowledge, have been established much later in the course of this history.

How then would you describe the World University, whose headquarters are presently at the Desert Sanctuary Regional Campus at Benson, Arizona?

The WU corporation, which was licensed by the State of Arizona in December 1967, is an educational body, offering a nontraditional education with morality as the supreme test of scholarship. It is essentially an alternative school organized on a student-mentor relationship and dedicated to preparing the aspiring world server to become a competent international scholar with a degree of incorruptibility in body, mind, and soul.

Although the WU has evolved out of a somewhat traditional background, as you have already indicated, it also appears to have a very broad ecumenical basis for its existence. Can you tell us what that is?

The WU is indeed an evolution over at least four centuries of recorded history. but there is also a legendary history, as with Masonry for example, which goes back many millenniums to such Sacred Schools as the Coptic of Egypt, the Hermetic of Greece, the Essene of Palestine, the Rosicrucian of Europe, and the Theo-Christic of America. Still other Sacred Centers of Learning, often called Mystery Schools because of their profound teachings, reflect an ancient and timeless wisdom taught by such advanced souls as the Magi of Persia, the Brahmins of India, the Lamas of Tibet, and the Sages of such legendary prehistoric civilizations as Lemuria and Atlantis.

Are you saying that the World University has a foundation in other than the accepted knowledge which identifies our existing institutions of higher education?

The World University would hardly be a university, if it ignored or repudiated the vast body of knowledge which constitutes the foundation upon which all modern learning rests. Nor would such a university, as is here described, be world-embracing, if it refused to assimilate the combined and extant knowledge which is the heritage of all the nations and races which ever existed. The World University, as conceived by this institution, symbolizes the sum total of all that can be termed truth, even though the extent and the interpretation of that truth is always under constant research, and can never be known in its entirety.

How does the World University reconcile its differences with other international universities, which adhere largely to the concept of an academic institution seeking to train international civil servants and to promote world citizenship responsibilities?

A World University can be no less than the sum of its parts. The New Education, if it is to prepare students for a New Age of global awareness and global unity, must necessarily adhere to two fundamental concepts: the idea of the world and the idea of the soul. Synthesizing and classifying knowledge, teaching the principles of world civilization, improving the methods of communication between peoples, and coordinating programs on an international scale, are all indeed important and vital. But this can be done by almost any institution of international education, and often is. What is desperately needed is a new approach to the whole problem of human existence. The questions, who am I, what am I doing here, and what is my future, are all pertinent to man’s very survival in an era of almost universal disaster. The sciences of man must become as essential to human progress as the sciences of nature.

What do you mean by the "sciences of man?"

The sciences of man are those studies which emphasize human identity -- the nature, constitution, evolution, and destiny of the individual person. It embraces, but is not limited to such subjects as metaphysics, psycho-cybernetics, bio-energetics, astrology, telepathy, telekinesis, trance phenomena, precognition, and all states of altered consciousness, as well as the entire field of esotericism, including the teachings of initiation, uni-chotometrics, astral projection, and interplanetary communication. The curriculum of the university of the 21st Century will be as far removed from the present as the curriculum of this 20th century is removed from that of the Middle Ages. The world is on the verge of a knowledge explosion in these areas of study so vast that it will completely restructure education beyond anything imagined by most educators today.

Does that mean that most of our current knowledge, as we understand it today, will be obsolete in the near future?

Much of our present subject matter is already obsolete, and much of it is irrelevant to modern needs. It is said that the task of education is not to teach the subject matter of the arts and sciences, as much as it is to raise the level of awareness and response to all ideas and events, as well as people and objects. Perception is therefore more important than knowledge per se, and understanding is more important than fact. We are educated, but not always cultured; skilled, but not always constructive. What is needed is some comprehension of a Plan that foresees the trend of human evolution, and the manner in which humanity can cooperate with it for the lasting benefit of all.

Is there such a Plan, and what is its general outline?

It is reasonable to assume that if man does have a purpose to serve, a goal to achieve, and a destiny to fulfill, he has also from time to time been given a means of procedure for doing so. Most religions point to a way shower, who embodies all the characteristics of the perfect human being; and all religions have something to say about the ultimate state of human civilization on the planet. Unfortunately, the route by which man and his culture become perfected in the Divine Mold has been obscured by creed and dogma over the ages; and even today little is known at the level of higher education about the Master, as the ultimate human being, and the Kingdom of God as the ultimate world order. This knowledge is the bridge between man’s present learning and that advanced wisdom, which will enable him to transmute this earth, now a vale of tears, into a sacred planet, reflecting the glory of God and the radiance of a Race into whose heart the virtue of Divine Love has entered.

Can we conclude that the World University is religious in nature because it reflects a concept of God no matter how universal and nonsectarian?

The World University is not religious in the sense that it has a creed or a theology. It has neither. But it is spiritual in the highest moral connotation that can be placed upon that term. Its spirituality rests upon the scientific thesis that all is one, and the One is the All -- the unified polar theory. Some may call the One, or the All, Universal Intelligence, Divine Mind, First Cause, Causeless Cause, Ultimate Reality, Absolute Truth, or by some other name. The Scriptural definition of God is All-in-All, in short, Sum Totality. Since the World University must rest upon some foundation that meets both scientific and religious criteria, we believe that the unity and indivisibility of the universe, including all life therein, are the only valid premises from which to build a true and humane world order.

Granted that the World University must be broad enough to include all truth, if it is to be truly universal in its scope and operation, can it ever be broad enough to embrace that to which it is opposed?

It is correct to assume that certain aspects of human life and society are to be considered incompatible with World University objectives. There is much that is destructive in modern civilization, and the World University cannot conscientiously give power by recognition of an error. Quite obviously, being a world learning institution, the World University cannot condone war, preparations for war, or the propaganda that encourages war. True education is the very antithesis of any reliance upon violence in the resolution of human conflict. The World University cannot be expected to take sides against any nation, race, or culture, when its very universality is the best symbol of the ultimate synthesis of human society on the Earth.

Since there are many good people in the world, who often hesitate to support a broad nonsectarian and non-nationalistic effort as the World University, what do you consider the main difficulty in persuading the general public to cooperate? Or is there any difficulty, as you see it?

Cooperation is always a matter of agreement. People invariably seek verification for what they already believe. Thus, the World University, which functions on a level above both church and state, attracts only those who have largely repudiated the divisiveness of nationalism and sectarianism. People with strong national bias and an unreasonable addiction to dogmatic religious doctrine, will probably find the World University too broad for their total acceptance. Yet, both the University and the Roundtable today include within their membership and faculty distinguished international scholars who serve the established church as priests and ministers, who as educators hold advanced degrees from accredited universities around the world, and who as public servants come to us as judges, lawyers, doctors, and government officials. What do they all hold in common? A concern for world peace and the brotherhood of man. In the World University they find a friendly and comfortable place to search for answers in helping to build a better order of life on our planet.

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