By the time he was ready to write LifeSpirals, Straughn had spent years immersing himself in the philosophers and researchers who have developed a rich but little-known tradition of spiral and stage theory.

“In a sense my interest in the subject goes back to childhood,” Straughn recalls. “I grew up in a family where nobody in my parents’ generation ever went to college, and only a few finished high school. And yet many of my older relatives possessed much innate wisdom, faced poverty, depression, and war with courage. They passed on to me an example of living with compassion and joy.

“As I went on to do my graduate work in philosophy and theology, I noticed about the same percentage of people with wisdom, courage, and joy among the world-class experts as I did back home with my relatives who had homesteaded in Oklahoma and scrabbled a living in the Ozark foothills.

“What accounts for wisdom?” I wondered. “And why do virtues like wisdom and courage seem to have so little to do with knowledge and learning?

“One spring semester, a lecturer on adult cognitive skills, Herbert Richardson, pointed the way. He introduced me to several disciplines where serious scholars were asking the same questions I wondered about as a child.”

Straughn’s skill at research began with a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1966, followed by post-graduate work from 1969 to1972 at the University of Tübingen , Germany, in the fields that study adult breakthroughs, including the history of ideas, philosophy and psychology, theology and spirituality.

Instead of taking an academic route, however, Straughn preferred to return to the world of mass communications, where he had taken his undergraduate degrees, and where he had worked his way through college as a reporter for the Kansas City Star, and as editor of the campus weekly at Abilene Christian University in Texas. Finding ways to practice his LifeSpiral theories, Straughn worked in Austin and Abilene, Texas, during the late 1960s for his denomination, the Church of Christ. He edited the church’s weekly newspaper, and produced its radio and TV ministry.

Marketing the Pope and Billy Graham

Next stop was Waco, Texas, where in the 1970s he established himself as a professional marketer of self-help and personal growth books at Word/Thomas Nelson, the world’s largest publisher of Protestant books. He eventually moved to New York City in the 1980s, and wrote marketing programs for Sterling (now part of Barnes & Noble), world’s largest publisher of self-help books. In the 1990s he moved to St. Louis and did marketing and research for Liguori/Triumph, the world’s largest publisher of Catholic books.

Along the way Straughn developed sales plans for books by Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimmy Carter, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, as well as the Guinness Book of Records and its spinoffs.

Toward the end of his New York stay, Straughn worked out of his home in Brightwaters, Long Island, as an independent contractor, adding Readers Digest, Writers Digest, and Parade Magazine to his client list, along with the Book Industry Study Group and the New York Public Library.

Transforming Lives, LifeSpiral Style

While continuing to expand his research and marketing skills, Straughn has polished his pastoral gifts in transformative communication as an ordained minister in an ecumenical denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He has preached over 1,000 sermons before a wide spectrum of hearers ranging from New York City and Long Island to Austin, Boston, and Oklahoma City, along with churches in Germany, England, Switzerland, and Austria. In 2007, he became a board-certified chaplain with the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy.

“I feel comfortable in diverse settings,” he says. “I use LifeSpiral theory to help me understand how various social groups view their lives. That’s why I’ve been successful in urban settings, suburbs and small cities, as well as the rural areas where my parents grew up in Indian Territory and the Ozark foothills.

Okies, Ozarkies, Gays, Lesbians

“I stay in touch with friends across the spectrum from gay and lesbian activists to farmers fighting to conserve their way of life. I speak with, to, and for a lot of people because my research helps explain where they’re coming from and where they’re most likely to go next.”

Straughn points to his work as pastor, teacher, and counselor as providing opportunities to develop what he calls his “playfully creative approach to the most important issues of life.” His unique approach to ministry involves taking people where they are, and nurturing and challenging them to move to their next stage.