About Us

Dean Portinga and the history of Spiritual-Insights

Dean was born and raised in Willmar, Minnesota.  He attended the University of Minnesota and South Dakota State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Agribusiness.  He then joined the family business, All State Agri-Foods, a totally integrated company for chickens, turkeys, eggs and feed. Dean’s dad was the father of the turkey industry in Minnesota.

During this time in Dean’s life, his first wife, Peggy, became seriously ill and was told by the medical professionals that there was no more they could do for her.  Following a recommendation of a friend, she turned to a Christian Science practitioner for help.  They were Methodist at the time and this was a whole new adventure for them.  However, after a few visits she was completely and permanently healed.

This life changing experience created many questions for Dean.  He wanted to know how prayer heals, and if this healing capability is a function of a certain religion or is it the result of some truth or principle that can be utilized by other religious faiths?  Or, does it have anything to do with religion?  Could it be related to some law of nature or essence of spirituality?   Then once it was understood could it be available to everyone?

These questions led Dean to a realization that agriculture was really not fulfilling his purpose in life.  He left the family business to pursue the answers to his questions.  This led him back to school at National Christian University, with a whole new focus.  Here he studied Comparative Religions.  He wanted to know how so many religions stemmed from a relatively few sacred writings.  He also wanted to know if there could be a common denominator that could be found in all sacred writings.

He discovered the works of Dr. George M. Lamsa, an authority on ancient Eastern manuscripts.  Lamsa spent his life researching and studying the original Aramaic version of the Bible.  Which today through all the archaeology findings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and all the manuscripts that are being discovered in various museums and archives we now have much of the original Aramaic writing of both the old and New Testament.  Dr. Lamsa discovered that there were over 12,000 mistakes made through the many translations into our King James Version of the Bible.

At National Christian University Dean earned a Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Religious Education, a Doctorate of Theology, and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. For his doctoral dissertation he researched and wrote papers on the chronological order of sacred writings and the chronological sequence of religions. He also was ordained a minister in Christian philosophy by Dr. Raymond Holliwell.  Rather than taking a church he decided to return to his private counseling practice in St. Louis Missouri.

In his practice he worked with individuals and corporations all around the world.  He helped them redefine their visions, goals and purpose, and used his new found knowledge to help them be more successful in all aspects of their individual and corporate lives. During this time his interest moved more and more toward the field of human potential and creativity.

The mid-seventies brought a different experience to Dean.  As his dad was aging, he returned back to the family poultry business and helped his brother merge their family business with a Chicago-based conglomerate called Cortera Corp.  He then served as an officer and sat of their board of directors.  This was an excellent opportunity for him to apply the principles he had been studying and helping others with in a real world business experience.

After a very successful experience in the business world, Dean resigned from the Cortara Corp to pursue a different path in consulting and public speaking.

At this point Dean and his first wife decided they were going in different directions on their spiritual journey and ended their marriage.

Shortly thereafter Dean met a very special woman who possessed an exceptional spiritual awareness.  This touched Dean deeply.  Her name was Bobbie Stevens, and at their first meeting at a spiritual retreat she said to him, “It’s obvious that you are in a transition now.  If you had a magic wand and knew you could create the ideal life for yourself what would you want?”  Dean stumbled.  He had already been on a spiritual path for over twenty years, yet a quick answer eluded him.

This meeting led to the most fantastic marriage either of them ever dreamed possible. It also led him to the next step in his career.

After pondering the question Bobbie had asked him about what he would create if he had a magic wand and knew he could create whatever he wanted, he told her that if he could create the ideal job for himself he would have a large amount of money at his disposal to do research in consciousness and how it affects all aspects of life, but he quickly told her that such a job did not exist.  She camly replied that it would once they created it.

In 1978, Dean became the director and vice-president of the Charlson Research Foundation in Excelsior, Minnesota.  Mr. Lynn Charlson, who was believed to be the father of fluid hydraulics, had recently sold his engineering company, and asked Dean if he would like to help him set up a foundation to do research in consciousness and how it affects all aspects of life.  For seven years Dean was the director of this non-profit Foundation.  He now believes Bobbie when she says we can create it.

During Dean’s time at the Foundation they spearheaded some hard core research in neuropeptides, structured water, the response of plants to a gardener’s thoughts, the power of intuitive healers, identifying energy as it relates to thoughts and much more.  They funded research in many universities around the world.   Mr. Charlson believed that metaphysics is just a step beyond physics and that it could be proven scientifically.  They explored new sources of energy resulting from Mr. Charlson’s intuition.  He was most interested in intuition and his greatest desire was to be able to teach graduate students how to combine their intellectual knowledge with intuitive guidance.  However, they were not happy with the results of this endeavor.

Dean’s wife Bobbie explained to them that intuition cannot be taught.  It has to be developed through the strengthening of the nervous system, and discovered within one’s self.

Consequently, in 1985, Dean left the Research Foundation and joined his wife, Dr. Bobbie Stevens in Executive Futures Inc., which is now Unlimited Futures LLC.

Spiritual-Insights came about at the request of participants of the Unlimited Futures Courses.  They knew of Dean’s background in theology and they started asking him to help them understand how the new discoveries they were making related to their religions.    That resulted in his creating a series of workshops which he held on a monthly basis to help them better understand how the discoveries they were making in the course related to their religions.  These monthly workshops grew in attendance as the course participants shared what they were learning with their family and friends.

In 1995 Dean and Bobbie started spending their winters in Florida and Bobbie was starting Unlimited Futures courses in the area.  At this time Dean was asked to create a workshop for the Naples Unity Church.  He put together a ten session weekly workshop that winter on the Ten Commandments.  One of the participants, George Wamsley, was a writer and enjoyed the course so much that he asked to work with Dean in making it into a book.  That is now an e book and can be purchased of this web site.

When Dean and Bobbie returned to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Dean created another workshop on the Ten Commandments and how they related to James Redfield’s Celestine Prophecy book and Bobbie’s Unlimited Futures.  He provided these workshops in five different places over that summer.  His audience again grew larger and larger, and people asked if they could get a recording of the sessions.  They recorded the sessions and they are now a part of Dean’s Spiritual-Insights Home Study Program.

For many years Dean has been interested in bridging the gap between science and religion and helping people to understand that it is all the same whether we approach it from a theological prospective or a scientific prospective.  In this pursuit he has created Spiritual-Insights, to help people sort out all the things they have been taught in the past, and look at it all from a different perspective.

If you are open to exploring other possibilities, welcome to Spiritual-Insights.