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Get to Know Us
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The Seidels
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Dr. Dietrich Seidel, a native of Austria, is specialist in marriage and family life. He has written extensively on family issues, has taught graduate level courses on Marriage and Family Enrichment. He holds a Ph.D. in theology from University of Toronto, specializing in the field of marriage and family research. He and his wife, Elisabeth, are actively engaged in family counseling. They have two children, Christopher who is pursuing a career in holistic Healing and Diesa who is a professional athlete.
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Dr. Dietrich Seidel Mrs. Elisabeth Seidel
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Dietrich Seidel
My Autobiography
In this account of my life, I will start with reflections on my origin. I was born in a small town south of Vienna, Austria in the middle of WW II. My Viennese mother and my German father divorced shortly after the end of the war, a painful event that reflected the confusion and hardships of the post war era. A few years later, my mother remarried, thus sharing child-rearing tasks for my one-year-older sister and I with a very conscientious and loving stepfather. Among my early childhood memories, I recall the sound of sirens warning the population of bombing raids on Vienna and huddling in shelters hoping for survival. In another event, I remember seeing a soldier pointing a gun at my mother, my sister and I in an open field in the middle of the night, and with the voice of a three year old I shouted "Please do not shoot". These experiences may have been the roots for my yearning to do something for the sake of bringing about world peace.
My sister and I received much loving care during our childhood. I experienced this love in our family as an ever-present healing power for all kinds of hardships we endured in post war Vienna. One memory stayed with me from my elementary school time when my best friend told me that he wanted to become a priest. I remember that in my heart I wanted to apply his future plan for my own life, as close friends often do. Based on my belief in God, I respected the commitment of his family to the Catholic faith but hesitated to share his plans for the future. On the one hand, it was clear to me, as an eight-year old, to dedicate my life to God in response to the gratitude I felt for being alive. On the other hand, all my hope and joy about life was rooted in the experience of a loving family and I knew already as a youngster that priests were not permitted to marry. From that time on, I repeatedly asked myself why Jesus could not marry and have his own family.
Within my Catholic upbringing, I experienced increasingly God's presence through the wonders of nature. My interests as a teenager then turned to science and later on I ended up studying electrical engineering first in a vocational school and then on the university level. During these formative years as a student, I soon realized that science has its limitations in answering the important questions in life. Even if I would be lucky and make a great scientific discovery, how could I be sure that it would be used for the benefit of humanity? I realized that we all as human beings need first to develop our character, in order to attain the goal of becoming loving and responsible persons. I also understood that we need God's guidance in order to accomplish this task.
During my mid-twenties, I was indeed guided towards opening my heart for a spiritual vocation. I vividly remember a conversation I had with a Catholic priest who served at the St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, showing him an invitation I received for learning about a new spiritual movement that was dedicated to bring unity to Christianity and to advance interfaith dialogue. “Find out for yourself”, he said, “if you find something good, take it, if it is not good leave it behind”. It was clear to me that I was personally responsible for my spiritual life and that prayer and self-examination was needed to advance in my spiritual quest. At that time, my studies focused on one question: How is God working today? It may be possible, with all the confusion and uncertainties of our time, that we are experiencing what the bible calls “the Last Days”, thus entering a new era in which God's original ideal becomes manifest. During my final year as a science student, I had a deep experience of God's calling to dedicate my life for advancing his providential will. Several years later, while working as a research assistant at the University of Technology in Vienna, I decided to move to the United States, pursuing missionary work and studies in theology.
At the end of a two year Seminary education, I met my wife Elisabeth in New York, and a few months after our marriage, we moved to Toronto where I continued my studies in theology. Both of our children, Christopher and Diesa, were born in Toronto and our time in Canada brings back good memories experiencing God's guidance while establishing our family and preparing for my teaching mission. Building my marriage with Elisabeth and raising our children became for me the path of discovering the heart of God. Soon I realized that beyond all my theological studies, it is through the experience of loving human relationships, and in particular family life, that God wants to be present among us. My son Christopher finished his studies in computer science at Vassar College and developed additional interests in spirituality and healing. Diesa, who is two years younger than her brother, studied psychology and graduated from Marist College. She had a distinct career in playing basketball and is now interested to become a physical education teacher.
During my graduate studies in Canada, I developed a keen interest in topics related to marriage and family, not just from a theological viewpoint but also in terms of practical skills of relationship building. Here were the roots for developing courses on marriage and family and my present activities of conducting relationship and marriage enrichment seminars together with my wife Elisabeth.
After finishing my graduate studies in theology, I moved with my family to Barrytown, NY, where I started a full time teaching position at the Unification Theological Seminary. While teaching subjects in theology, I developed also interest in philosophy and the emerging field of science and religion. Now, I also teach courses in philosophy at different places like Marist College (Poughkeepsie), Webster University (Vienna, Austria) and the Rhinebeck Continuing Education Program.
Presently, I live in Red Hook, NY and enjoy taking extended hiking trips with my wife Elisabeth. Together we developed our home business “Life Enrichment Enterprises”, that embraces activities ranging from interfaith ministry and the promotion of world peace to family counseling and language classes. I believe that we are on this planet to help each other to realize our unique original potential. We are called to use these original gifts not only on the individual and family levels, but also on the level of our common higher purpose to build a peaceful global society in which we would all experience the abundance of divine love.
May God bless you all,
Dietrich
Elisabeth Seidel
Autobiography
I was born in the French Alps right after World War II in 1945. War torn Europe gave rise to a great historical pain of French people against Germans, a sentiment which is still present among the older generation. One thing I remember from my childhood was my Dad's attitude towards the church. He forbade me to go to church while I was growing up saying that I will have to choose my own religion as an adult. Later I found out that he was not happy with the Catholic Church after he was once spanked by a Catholic priest. Of course, I started being very inquisitive and curious about my situation that I was not allowed to even enter the church in my small home town. I was envious of my friends who were learning about the Bible and religious teachings.
When I was about 20 years of age, I did have many questions about God and why there was evil in this world. Does God really exist and where can I find the loving God? I started travelling to Greece, England and Italy looking for truth.
I remember before graduating from a vocational school, I was telling my friends I will go and find something extraordinary. Indeed, God was leading me in his own way. When I saw the beauty of the Greek country side and the islands with their surrounding blue and green sea, the clear skies, the bright sun and all the happy people I met, I knew that God is alive, he simply must exist.
When I arrived in Italy, I was sharing an apartment with a Catholic sister who had left her order. She told me that she knew someone who could answer all my questions. Eventually, I met this group of people and I did study with them. One by one God gave me answers to all these questions I had stored up in my heart. I felt, there was a lot of spiritual guidance from angels and some of my good ancestors especially from my grandma Marie. This was for me a time of enormous spiritual growth and transformation. It was clear to me, that a lasting peaceful world can only be built on God's love and that my first step towards that goal consist of building a God loving family.
Soon I went to Paris and decided to work with all my heart, my love, my youth, my enthusiasm for God and a new world to come. This being the age of Aquarius is filled with expectation for the arrival of a new master who will come for all religions. Some may expect the return of Buddha or the return of Mohammed, while others expect Christ to return, or, like people in the East, are hoping for the arrival of the True Man. I worked hard with little tangible results but with increasing internal rewards. I tried to live for the sake of others finding it quite difficult. However, the loving God sustained me.
In 1977, I married Dietrich who is from German descent. We feel dedicated to allow our love to heal our nations from past resentments and hurts. Our two adult children recently graduated from college. Chris, our son, has been travelling around the world meeting new friends and is now back in the Hudson Valley. Diesa, our daughter, just came back from Europe where she has been playing professional basketball in France and Italy. She works hard and loves competition.
My husband and I are conducting seminars on marriage and family enrichment as well as promoting seminars for the unity of religions and world peace. Dietrich is teaching also theology and philosophy in colleges. We are involved in reaching out to people of different backgrounds, religions and denominations. We always feel that God's heart is too big to love only one particular faith. In this way, we want to contribute to world peace and God's coming kingdom on earth. I pray for everyone to be part of it. God bless you all.
Love,
Elisabeth M. Seidel
Copyright 2004 - Life Enrichment Enterprises