Terry Cole-Whittaker (born December 3, 1939, in Los Angeles), or Dr. Terry, is a New Thought author and United Church of Religious Science minister,[1] and the founder of Terry Cole-Whittaker Ministries and Adventures in Enlightenment.
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Terry Cole-Whittaker (born December 3, 1939, in Los Angeles), or Dr. Terry, is a New Thought author and United Church of Religious Science minister,[1] and the founder of Terry Cole-Whittaker Ministries and Adventures in Enlightenment.
She became familiar with what she calls the "principles of prosperity" through the actions of a teacher in high school. She would later go on to enter the Mrs. America Pageant, becoming Mrs. California and winning third place in the national competition. She later joined the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and became an opera singer. She went on to start a company, Success Plus, in which she became an inspirational speaker.[citation needed]
She went on to earn a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1973, was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Religious Science in 1975 and became the pastor of a fifty-member congregation of that church in La Jolla in 1977. The church drew as high as 5,000 people for Easter Sunday, and eventually expanded to include a grammar school, a ministry school, and five teaching centers. She also began a television program in 1979, which, at time,[when?] was syndicated to fifteen television stations in the country. Stressing that “You can have it all — now!"[2]
In 1982, Cole-Whittaker left the United Church of Religious Science and founded Terry Cole-Whittaker Ministries.[3] She drew over 4,000 people to her weekly services and providing them with newsletters and instructional videos.[2] Her celebrity parishioners included Gavin MacLeod, Linda Gray, Lily Tomlin, and Eydie Gormé.[4] Despite raising $6 million in 1984, her ministry raked in a debt of around $400,000 in 1985,[3] prompting her to cease production of the television show and leave her congregation during Easter.[5][6] By October, she had created a new foundation, Adventures in Enlightenment, which organized tours to meet with her one-on-one in exotic locations, e.g., Machu Picchu, the Himalayas.[5]
The Foundation later purchased land in Washington to build a retreat center, start an organic farm, and start an ashram and library in India to teach Westerners traditional Indian religion.[citation needed]
