About Special Ideas, Inc

Our passion is to help the Bahá'í Community to grow in both size and unity. That is why Special Ideas distributes the worlds largest, most diverse line of teaching, proclamation and community development materials. We also believe that to succeed in this process, we must learn to work with like-minded organizations. That is why we have a sister company www.interfaithresources.com that helps make the Bahá'í principles accessible to everyone.

Special Ideas Inc. is essential a family business, started in 1981 by Justice St Rain, expanded dramatically when he married Karen, and finally incorporated in 2001. Karen is the CEO and oversees the web site and database, plus just about every other detail of running the business. Justice writes books, develops new products, screens submissions, produces the paper catalogs, and answers random questions. It is not unusual for you to hear our two younger children in the background when one of our very valued employees answers the phone to take your order. Equally important are Baha'i themselves who support us with their loyalty and goodwill. Many of you also send us great product ideas and allow us a chance to distribution your best productions.

After moving Special Ideas all over the country, we settled in Southern Indiana on a farm site in the thriving downtown metropolis of Heltonville, IN, population 350. We are about 45 minutes from Bloomington, IN, home to Indiana University as well as the largest Bahá'í community in the area. It's about two hours to Indianapolis to the north and Louisville to the south. We operate Special Ideas from a 4000 square foot barn that we built ourselves. From here, we and our employees answer phones during office hours and lovingly pack every single order by hand.  Don't be surprised if you find a few "freebies" tossed in your order.  We always try to give you more than you expect.

In addition to searching the world for the most effective and inspiring products to make available to you, we also write, design and/or produce about half of the things we sell. That is one of the reasons we can keep our prices so low and our product diversity so wide. We are also happy to take suggestions or look at new product ideas you may have developed yourself. But please be patient. If they come in at a busy time it may take a long time to get back to you.

For many years, most of our sales have been generated by our paper catalog, but as times change, more and more of you are logging on right here to see what is new and place your orders. This web site undergoes radical changes almost constantly. We do appreciate it when you report difficulties, poor descriptions or any other problems.  This new site also allows you to add product reviews for your favorite items.  Please share your experiences with other customers. 

We also are now on Facebook.  If you "friend" us, you will hear of new products before anyone else, and learn about special deals for our FB friends.  

If you really like what you see here and would like to see more of it in person, we are available to provide bookstores at major conferences and summer schools. Justice is also available as a speaker on topics related to his many books and pamphlets. You are also welcome to visit us in southern Indiana if you come our way.  

Justice and Karen