Douglas Rushkoff
6 week course
January 12 - February 22
Course texts:
Readings provided online |
Corporatized
An Alternative To Corporatism & Beyond
Something has gone terribly wrong.
Unquestionably but seemingly inexplicably, we have come to live in a world where the market has insinuated itself into every area of our lives. From erection to conception, school admission to finding a spouse, there are products and professionals to fill in where family and community have failed us. Commercials entreat us to think and care for ourselves, but to do so by choosing a corporation through which to exercise all this autonomy.
Born in the Renaissance, necessitated by the Industrial Age, powered by workers, paid for by consumers and eventually sold back to us as shareholders, today's faceless fascism - what Mussolini called "corporatism" - is a closed system that conquers not through exclusion but total inclusion. Everything, even dissidence, is assimilated. And in the process, life itself is reduced in its complexity, unpredictability, and intrinsic value.
Instead of depending on a parental dictator or nationalist ideology, the system of control to which we have succumbed depends on a society cultivated to see the corporation as central to its welfare, value, and very identity.
This course will explore how we got here, and what to do about it. We will begin with the first chartered corporations, and explore how their mandate to extract resources from distant colonies still lives on in the unbalanced relationship between today's corporations and the communities they exploit. We will study how the invention of centralized currency, the division of the realms, and the notion of the "individual" all served to enhance the power of central authority by institutionalizing competition and artificial scarcity.
We will chronicle a project that began in earnest in the 1900's, as early American industrialists sought to maximize the efficiency, enthusiasm and compliance of their work force; under the guise of philanthropy, they funded public schools designed to keep men "malleable," and supported public servants who would keep them quiet.
Finally, we look at today's perpetuators of the corporatist society, as well as their utter ignorance of the underlying biases of the marketing, media, and technology they are using. The corporatists themselves have left the building; we are in the thrall of an operating system we are now mistaking for reality. For given circumstances.
Participants in these lively, no-holds-barred discussions will receive free preview versions of Rushkoff's book in progress, "Life Incorporated: How we traded meaning for markets, society for self-interest, and citizenship for customer service," to be published by Randomhouse in June 2009. They will also have exclusive access to new video/podcast lectures and live iChat/AV discussions. They will also witness and, if they choose, participate in the assembly of a documentary on the same subject. Each week, supplementary texts will be suggested or supplied.
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Lon Milo DuQuette
6 week course
February 2 - March 22
Required text:
The Key to Solomon's Key: Secrets of Magic and Masonry -- Lon Milo DuQuette
Recommended text:
Angels, Demons, & Gods of the New Millennium -- Lon Milo DuQuette |
Initiation
The Western Magical Tradition
This course is designed as a six week initiatory experience – Initiation into an informal, (yet I assure you, very real) magical order. Like in other schools of the Western Mystery Tradition, this order is comprised of three degrees, each with its own ritual of self-initiation, secret password, grip, signs of recognition, and jewel.
Sound silly? I confess up front that we will have fun. But the underlying magical power of such silliness has its roots in the Egyptian Book of the Dead – a secret of human consciousness that (properly understood and mastered) is said to be the key to overcoming death.
The course is ideal for both magical novices and adepts. We will undergo real initiations and work real magick. The three degrees are:
First Degree: The Lesser Mysteries
Second Degree: The Greater Mysteries
Third Degree: The Supreme Secret
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Erik Davis
6 week course
February 23 - April 5
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Gnosticism is one of the most potent, complex, and misunderstood elements of western esoteric spirituality. Rooted in the apocalyptic era of early Christianity, gnostic mysticism animates hermeticism, alchemy, and magick, and has profoundly influenced modern pop culture as well (Philip K. Dick, The Matrix, even Scientology). Because gnosticism is rooted in direct experience of the divine, it remains open to many different interpretations; scholars bicker about it constantly. This class proposes to study a few of the most accessible and transformative gnostic texts, both ancient and modern, and to bring their tricky wisdom to bear on the state of consciousness today. In addition to online discussion threads, the course will feature weekly podcasts from Erik Davis, a celebrated speaker, as well as a few group voice-over-IP chats. Modestly-sized texts will include ancient gnostic gospels as well as accessible scholarly interpretations and modern short stories.
Lectures and new thread topics will be posted once a week based on the weekly readings. Like all MLA courses, with the exception of the live chats, all the material for the course will be asynchronous -- students can download lectures and post to the discussion threads whenever they want.
Course texts:
Online texts provided with enrollment
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Antero Alli
8 week course
March 16 - May 10
Course text:
Angel Tech -- Antero Alli |
Angel Tech
The 8-Circuit Brain in Theory and Practice
Based in the law of octaves, the 8-Circuit Brain was revisioned as a system for intelligence increase by Timothy Leary ("Info-Psychology"), given socio-political context by Robert Anton Wilson ("Prometheus Rising") and expanded into practical applications for personal integration by Antero Alli ("Angel Tech"). This legacy informs a comprehensive study and practice of dynamic techniques capable of triggering actual results that can be measured, repeated and developed on your own. All eight circuits will be covered, as well as their specific internal supports and, the initiation into and out of Chapel Perilous. Once understood and redefined in your own terms, this eight circuit model can become an open-ended system for precision tracking and interpretation of signals within oneself, the world and beyond. If you are ready to test and nurture the existing conditions of your autonomy and integrity, while increasing your intelligence, this course may be for you.
Course Prospectus
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Ivan Stang
6 week course
April 6 - May 31
The Church of the SubGenius -- The First 30 Years
Course Overview Here |
Running Your Own Cult
A SubGenius Extravaganza
This course is really Volume Two of "The SubGenius Psychlopaedia of Slack -- The Bobliographon," a new SubGenius book from Thunder's Mouth Press. This material -- basically a behind-the scenes history of The Church of the SubGenius and an investigation into the nature of belief -- requires way too much multimedia to work as just a book. But it's perfect for an 8-week online course.
At the end of the course, students will have designed and developed their own religious cult to the point of marketability.
Rev. Ivan Stang is compiling the most telling true-life anecdotes, photos, video and audio clips that illustrate the Church of the SubGenius story since 1980. These "most telling" moments are also usually the funniest, although some are tragic indeed. They also prompt all manner of questions and observations about the nature of religion and philosophy.
Course materials:
The SubGenius Psychclopaedia of Slack -- The Bobliographon -- Ivan Stang
A motherload of SubGenius Multimedia --
(available exclusively through MLA course)
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Philip H. Farber
8 week course
April 20 - May 31
Course texts:
Online Texts provided with enrollment |
Words & World
NLP in Text, Online and Off
Our ancestors once had to hunt for words in libraries and bookstores. Today, vast torrents of words pour into our homes via modems and networks. The new familiarity with flowing, scrolling text gives many of us a new ease with words - and yet we rarely lift the lid on the word machine to learn what makes them effective, how we respond to language patterns, and what distinguishes fantastic and inspiring prose from ordinary efforts.
Words and the World will explore the structure of textual interaction to gain insight into how to get the most from our own words. In the process, we'll highlight how our minds use words to create beliefs, belief systems and the models that we sometimes mistake for "reality."
In the meatspace, offline that is, NLP is taught in seminar settings that emphasize face to face interaction. That's an awesome way to gain skills - to use offline. Increasingly, though, our business, pleasure, education, and enlightenment can be found in e-mail, on the web, on networking sites, blogs, IMs and online forums.
Come prepared to participate in the online equivalent of an NLP seminar. We will put our skills to practice with found text and with each other. Exercises will address linguistic use in chat, web pages, forum debate, academic writing, fiction and much more. Enroll now to develop powerful text skills, flexible enough to keep pace with the online info-flow. Newbies as well as experienced cybernauts, writers, and NLPers will have some linguistic thrills to hone their interactive skills.
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Eric Wagner
8 week course
May 18 - July 12
Course texts:
Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati
-- Robert Anton Wilson
I, Wabenzi
-- Rafi Zabor |
Chapel Perilous
On this quest we will seek for the Pentacle of Valor, the Cup of Sympathy, the Sword of Reason and the Wand of Intuition. We will use two powerful magickal texts, Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson and I, Wabenzi by Rafi Zabor. One could view both of these texts as spiritual autobiographies. One could also see them as stories of people dealing with tragedies and overcoming them, even triumphing over them. Both texts also provide maps of the changing paradigms of the 1960's and 1970's. I think that examining these texts together will help us find more useful maps for the 21st century, and even develop useful tools for when we feel "completely lost." I love both of these texts dearly, and I truly look forward to this adventure. The Chapel doors are cracked open...
from Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger:
"Chapel Perilous, like the mysterious entity called "I," cannot be located in the space-time continuum; it is weightless, odorless, tastless and undetectable by ordinary instruments. Indeed, like the Ego, it is even possible to deny that it is there. And yet, even more like the Ego, once you are inside it, there doesn't seem to be any way to ever get out again, until you suddenly discover that it has been brought into existence by thought and does not exist outside thought. Everything you fear is waiting with slavering jaws in Chapel Perilous, but if you are armed with the wand of intuition, the cup of sympathy, the sword of reason, and the pentacle of valor, you will find there (the legends say) the Medicine of Metals, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness."
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Robert Anton Wilson
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Quantum Psychology
Thoughts, values and behaviors are always colored by language and the prevailing view of the universe. With the advent of Quantum Mechanics, relativity, non-Euclidean geometries, non-Aristotelian logic and General Semantics, the scientific view of the world has changed dramatically from just a few decades ago. This course aims to change your way of perceiving yourself --- and the universe. Some might say it's materialistic, others could call it scientific, and still others insist it's mystical. It is all of these --- and none. A course for the 21st Century.
Course texts:
Quantum Psychology -- R.A. Wilson
Quantum Reality -- Nick Herbert
Info-Psychology -- Timothy Leary
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R.U. Sirius
(Ken Goffman)
Course texts:
Counterculture Through the Ages
Ken Goffman and Dan Joy
Nation of Rebels
Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter
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Counterculture Now
and In History
Throughout human history, there have been social, cultural, political, artistic, and spiritual movements characterized by non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, an antic spirit, and a philosophy of constant social and personal change. Working from his book, Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House (co-author Dan Joy; published November 2, 2004, Villard Books), Sirius will lead discussions that will examine the existential and historic lessons that can be gleaned from movements as varied as the Socratics, radical Zen, Sufism, the enlightenment, and dadaism. The second half of the course will focus on current possibilities for cultural and political (r)evolution and include readings from contemporary writers representing a variety of anti-authoritarian (and authoritarian) perspectives.
Course will include instructor-led forum discussions, additional readings, instructor-led teleconferencing lectures and discussions, and audio-lecture downloads.
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Robert Anton Wilson
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8 Dimensions of "Mind"
Join Robert Anton Wilson in an open-ended investigation of scientific and "mystical" models of human awareness, with special emphasis on Freud, Jung, Leary, Patanjali, Joyce and Gurdjieff.
Course texts:
Prometheus Rising -- Robert Anton Wilson
Supplimentary text:
Finnegans Wake -- James Joyce
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Alan Clements
Watch Alan Clements
on the "Fanny Keifer Show"
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Instinct For Freedom
Building on Alan Clements' book Instinct for Freedom and acclaimed show, Spiritually Incorrect--An Existential Anti-War Comedy, described as "Lenny Bruce meets Noam Chomsky" and "Michael Moore meets Krishnamurti," Alan Clements, a former Buddhist monk and war correspondent, and Jeannine Davies, a co-founder of the World Dharma vision, will lead a course entitled "World Dharma -- Following One's Instinct for Freedom -- Finding Liberation Through Living."
The course offers a unique approach to human/spiritual development that is common to all people--an engaged mysticism based in one precious human value: freedom, the liberation from fear, ignorance, and dogma, and the elevation of dignity, conscience, and beauty.
The course will include forum discussions, teleconferencing talks with questions and answers, and weekly audio-talks embedded online.
The course is open to everyone -- new and old students --from all traditions and backgrounds, including Buddhists, non-Buddhists, recovering Buddhists, activists, mystics, psychologists, artists, scientists, lovers, philosophers, performers, writers, poets, and rebels of any kind. All the instructors ask is that participants keep an open mind, a respect for self and others, and a love of learning.
Course text:
Instinct For Freedom -- Alan Clements
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Robert Anton Wilson
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Illuminatus!
A once in a life opportunity to take the Illuminatus trip with Hagbard himself.
Course text:
Illuminatus! -- Robert Anton Wilson |
Peter Carroll
Course texts:
Liber Null & Psychonaut --
Peter Carroll
Liber Kaos -- Peter Carroll |
Chaos Magick
Peter Carroll, the foremost modern pioneer of Chaos Magick, is taking a sabbatical from a self-imposed exile in the ivory tower of esoteric research to engage once again with those who would practise the strange art and science of magic.
The course is an experimental approach to the basic techniques and philosophical underpinings of modern magick. Expect the unexpected. The adventure begins in known territory, but with the hope of reaching the unknown.
Course includes instructor-led forum discussions, additional readings, practical and magical exercises, weekly study questions and instructor-led group online-chat sessions.
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Robert Anton Wilson
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Conspiracy, Coincidence and Code
Looking deeper than The DaVinci Code, RAW leads you on a tour of fringe politics, fringe science, occult mystery and schizophrenia. Not for the weak or easily frightened!
Course texts:
Cosmic Trigger III -- Robert Anton Wilson
Everything Is Under Control -- Robert Anton Wilson
Saharasia -- James deMeo
Supplimentary text:
Illuminatus! -- Robert Anton Wilson
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Luke Rhinehart
Course texts:
The Dice Man -- Luke Rhinehart
Whim -- Luke Rhinehart
The Book of the Die -- Luke Rhinehart |
Chance and the Laughing Buddha
Although The Dice Man and The Book of the Die dramatize using chance to vitalize a person's life, the actual center of both books, like the novel Whim, is a search for ways of liberation: paths that will free humans from the unhappy messes we usually make of our lives. The relevant symbol of all three books is not a six-sided die but rather a fat laughing Buddha. Although the books may at times seem to be quite humorously non-spiritual, certain paths in Zen Buddhism and Sufism led Luke to the ideas in his books, and in turn, dicing is intended to lead readers to such Eastern Ways. This course will focus on some of these paths and truths and on the ways in which traditional religious beliefs and moral laws can be a trap on the way to liberation.
To learn more about Luke Rhinehart and his work go to www.lukerhinehart.net |
Robert Anton Wilson
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Crowley 101
An inquiry into the ideas and theories of Aleister Crowley - RAW style. This course will not practice or discuss at length any rituals, spells, invocations etc. It is a exploration of the psychology and philosophy of Crowley's work with some modern perspective on what's behind all the Crowley hubbub.
Course includes instructor-led forum discussions, additional readings, weekly study questions and instructor-led group online-chat sessions.
Course texts:
The Book of Lies -- Aleister Crowley
Book of Thoth -- Aleister Crowley |
R.U. Sirius
(Ken Goffman)
Course texts:
Various Online Essays on Anarchism, Libertarianism, The Enlightenment, and Post-Modernism |
QUESTION AUTHORITY/
CHALLENGE AUTHORITY
In this course, we will explore challenges to authoritarianism and work towards the creation of the “Question Authority Coalition and Education Project.” We will read and discuss a variety of anti-authoritarian ur-texts that are available on the internet taken from various points in human history and try to tease out their lessons for our current times. We will evolve new statements for public dissemination. We will leave the class prepared to soundly thrash the Bible thumpers while defending their freedom to be stoopid.
Besides exploring classic and modern texts in anarchism, libertarianism, the enlightenment, and post-modernist styles of anti-authoritarianism, we will look deeply into memetics –how ideas, attitudes, and behaviors spread throughout human society. And we will engage in memetics by developing a Question Authority website and possibly other related projects. Participants will be invited to continue working on the website and other projects beyond the length of the class.
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Starhawk
Course texts:
The Twelve Swans --
Starhawk & Hilary Valentine
Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery --
Starhawk
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Inner Compass
Finding and Holding the Vision
In the ancient, pre-Christian Goddess traditions of Europe and the Middle East, the earth is sacred: a living being that all of us are part of. Witches, shamans, and Pagans draw on the balance of life for knowledge, renewal and healing.
But right now, at this crucial moment in time, that balance is threatened by global warming, social and environmental breakdown. Our society is faced with a huge challenge—the necessity for fundamental changes in our way of life. Each of us alive today is here for a purpose. We each have a unique role to play in bringing about that transformation—our own gifts, our own vision. And the earth needs us each to be our most creative, compassionate and powerful self.
But how do we find that vision, our purpose for being here, our true work? How do we step up to the challenge, and how can we hold a vision through times of adversity, and find the courage to overcome fears, blocks and challenges?
For some of us, it’s hard to see the vision clearly. Others may need support to take new steps and dare new paths. Some of us may already be on the road, but need help to sustain our energy and enthusiasm when obstacles loom and setbacks appear. The greatest gifts are often found after hard climbs on twisted paths.
Magic, “the art of changing consciousness at will,” offers us tools. In this six week online course, Starhawk will guide us through a process of discernment and reflection, to find and identify our big vision, and develop the grounded spiritual practice that can be our base as we dare to make it real.
Using readings, meditations, directed exercises, journaling and discussion, we’ll find the inner compass that can guide our choices, connect to the allies that can support us, find the courage to face challenges and overcome fears, and the strength to take our vision out into expression and action.
When we put our lives toward the service of the sacred, powerful allies and great powers of regeneration and renewal work through us.
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Peter Carroll
Course texts:
Liber Null & Psychonaut --
Peter Carroll
Liber Kaos -- Peter Carroll |
Chaos Magic in Business
Each week we will look at one of the core techniques of magic to see what it has to offer in business and then try it out practically. None of the conventional get rich quick books or any of the silly tomes of management consultancy gobbledegook will be recommended.
Outrageous luck and sheer pretence can sometimes create wealth, but not often. On this course we shall concentrate on the patient application of magical ideas and practice to find a niche in a marketplace, and to give us an edge there.
In business you need to talk, you need to make contacts, you need to know how and where to find things out, who to ask. Business these days has become intelligence driven and contact driven, but it still depends on imagination and inspiration to make it happen. We shall attempt to stimulate all of these things on this course.
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Robert Anton Wilson
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Non-Euclidean Politics:
Beyond Left and Right
Can you think beyond the stereotyped left/right, liberal/conservative categories of the national media? This course will examine many libertarian "excluded middles" including Social Credit, Silvio Gesell's Natural Economic Order, Buckminster Fuller's Synergy, and Native American anarchist traditions, in so far as these can be covered in a mere 8 weeks. Whether you agree or disagree with any of these ideas, we guarantee this course will open your mind to the vast possibilities excluded by corporate either/or logic.
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David Jay Brown
Course Texts:
Better Sex Through Chemistry
by John Morgenthaler & Dan Joy
The Science of Love
by Glenn D. Wilson & Chris McLaughlin |
The Science of
Sex & Drugs
In this six week course we will look at how various chemicals affect our sexuality. We will study how pleasure centers operate in the brain, how natural brain chemicals alter our consciousness during sex, and how drugs, herbs, nutritional supplements, hormones, and pheromones affect sexual desire, performance, and one’s psychological perception of the sexual experience.
• Week 1: The biology of sex. Overview of how the brain, nervous system and genitals respond to sexual signals.
• Week 2: Overcoming sexual problems, such as impotence and lack of vaginal lubrication.
• Week 3: Real aphrodisiacs--drugs, herbs, nutrients, hormones, and pheromones that genuinely increase sexual desire.
• Week 4: Enhancing sexual performance in healthy individuals.
• Week 5: Enhancing the pleasure of sexual sensations.
• Week 6: How combining sex and drugs can be a vehicle to higher consciousness.
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Robert Anton Wilson
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Ideogrammic Method
Follow RAW through the labyrinths of Joyce and Pound as we learn to perceive/conceive in non-Aristotelian categories and join the Global Village. If you've been eagerly anticipating Wilson's forthcoming Tale of the Tribe, this course holds the blueprints.
Course texts:
The Cantos -- Ezra Pound
ABC of Reading -- Ezra Pound
Supplimentary text:
Finnegans Wake -- Robert Anton Wilson |
David Jay Brown
Course Text:
Mavericks of Medicine
by David Jay Brown
Web sites:
www.mavericksofmedicine.com
www.sexanddrugs.info
www.mavericksofthemind.com |
Mavericks of Medicine
Exploring Unconventional Medical Research, Alternative Medicine, and Practical Life Extension
In this six week course we will examine the question “what’s wrong with modern medicine?” and study some of the most promising unconventional medical approaches of today with an eye towards where medicine may be evolving in the future. The course will provide an overview of different alternative therapies, the latest scientific research into how diet and exercise effect health, the role of inflammation in chronic disease, the evolution of pathogens, life extension research and anti-aging medicine, the mind-body connection, and the relationship between medicine and spirituality.
Week 1: What’s Wrong With Modern Medicine?
Week 2: Silent Inflammation, Diet, & Chronic Disease
Week 3: Herbal and Nutritional Supplements for Optimal Health
Week 4: Life Extension, Longevity Research, & Anti-Aging Medicine
Week 5: Maximizing the Placebo Effect & the Secrets of Mind-Body Medicine
Week 6: Medicine and Spirituality
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Douglas Rushkoff
Course texts:
Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say
-- Douglas Rushkoff
Media Virus
-- Douglas Rushkoff |
Technologies of Persuasion
From Propaganda to Paranoia
This seminar will explore persuasion in a wide range of media. Our task will be to evaluate humanity's ability to maintain agency in the face of the increasingly sophisticated influence techniques used against us.
Does the emergence of interactive media change the balance of power between the masses and their would-be controllers? Or does the Internet merely provide the illusion of independent thinking on yet another tightly controlled media landscape?
More importantly, what is the real relationship between people, media, technology, and power? How can we come to recognize the biases of the media that we use - especially before we have committed our society to their implementation?
We will first study the fundamentals of persuasion, influence, psychology and coercion, and then look at how they have been adapted for use in interactive contexts. I'm particularly interested in looking at the relative media capabilities of people and their would-be "controllers," and to determine whether the "masses" ever seize the true potential of the technologies being offered them.
We will study a broad range of applications, from simple marketing to political campaigns, activism, and satire - and we will discuss the ethics of using these techniques for different purposes. We will look at the propagandistic use of technology and futurism by both governments and corporations in their effort to "create" future scenarios favorable to their interests.
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R.U. Sirius
(Ken Goffman)
Course texts:
True Mutations by RU Sirius
The Intelligence Agents by Timothy Leary
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Timothy Leary
Personas, Medias & Messages
Take the Timothy Leary trip with R.U. Sirius. This course will have two components. One aspect of the course will deal with Timothy Leary’s personal and intellectual history. We will look at how he changed culture. We will look at the controversies around his life and person. And we will understand transhumanism and Leary’s role as one of the first transhumanists .
The other aspect of the course will incorporate exercises suggested by Leary himself in exploring his evolutionary circuits in his book, The Game Of Life.
Most of the course readings will be provided online, but serious students are encouraged to obtain and read the course texts and recommended books (if you can find them!).
Recommended Books:
The Game of Life: Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary: A Biography by Robert Greenfield
What Does Woman Want: Timothy Leary
I Have America Surrounded: A Biography of Timothy Leary by John Higg
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Starhawk
Course text:
The Earth Path: Grounding Our Spirit in the Rythums of Nature -- Starhawk
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Earth As Teacher
Earth As Healer
Whether we are looking to heal and transform our personal hurts or the huge wounds our society inflicts on the earth and other human beings, the earth herself is our greatest teacher and healer.
The ancient Goddess traditions had no sacred texts or dogmas: instead, their mystics learned to read the book of nature. Understanding how the earth’s cycles work, how change occurs in nature, and how mother earth designs co-evolving, interdependent systems can help us be better designers of the changes we want to see in our own life and the world.
This online course weaves together readings, rituals, meditations and directed excercises, stories and journaling to help us connect more deeply with the great transformative powers of nature.
We’ll explore each of the elements: air, fire, water and earth, in both mystical and practical ways, bringing ourselves more deeply into contact with their enlivening energies, and taking the practical steps that can bring our lifestyles back into balance with the earth. We’ll learn how to save energy, harvest water, bring soil alive, and create fertility in our gardens and our projects.
Our connection to earth is our deepest source of hope, renewal, and strength. Now, when climate change and ecological stress assault the earth’s life support systems, this course will help us find hope, renewed strength, and practical tools for healing.
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Patricia Monaghan
Course text:
The Goddess Path --
Patricia Monaghan
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The Goddess Path
Myths, Invocations & Rituals
Are you one of the increasing number of women and men who want to know more about the Goddess? Each of the eight weeks of the course focuses on a particular Goddess from Celtic, Greek, Native American, Asian and African traditions, providing a prayer and meditation appropriate to the particular goddess; a retelling of the goddess' essential myth and meaning; discussion of interpretations, symbolism, activities, major feasts, and principal means of honoring the goddess; and suggestions for modern honoring rituals. The course also examines some of the main ideas and ideals of the Goddess Movement and includes weekly personal meditations and activities.
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Erik Davis
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The Crazy Wisdom of Philip K. Dick
Once a purely cult figure, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) is now widely recognized as a pulp visionary of the highest order. This course will approach his work not as science fiction but as crazy wisdom. We’ll explore how his texts seem designed to illuminate our posthuman problems and our most ancient philosophical questions — and to then scramble those insights with a cheap ray gun. We will read two of Dick’s major novels, both chosen for their heavy gnostic themes. We will discuss drugs and archons and machines that break down, including, possibly, yourself. We will also explore the two greatest examples of the many PKD movies to date — further evidence that Dick’s spirit will only continue to permeate the culture at large.
Course texts:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch -- P.K. Dick
VALIS -- P.K. Dick
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Anne Hill
6 week course
June 16 - July 27
Course text: Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Tradition -- by Starhawk, Diane Baker, Anne Hill |
Circle Round
The Elements of Spiritual Parenting
Raising children in a spiritual tradition is easy if you belong to a mainstream religion, but out on the fringes of Earth-based and alternative spirituality you have to blaze your own trail. Using the first major book on Pagan parenting as our guide, we will explore the challenges and rewards of parenting while maintaining an authentic spiritual practice: What are the core values we want to pass on to our kids? How do we believe the universe works, and how do we explain that to children? How do we create meaningful ritual for and with our children? What do we need to know about rites of passage, supporting our kids in school, dealing with teen challenges, interfacing with family and community alike?
This class will be useful to anyone who has an eclectic spirituality and is looking for help clarifying their family vision or dealing with current issues with their children. Each week will include both practical and philosophical guidance on a variety of subjects, drawing on 22 years of childraising experience with both biological and adopted children.
Course Outline
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Jon Landaw
Course texts:
Introduction to Tantra -- compiled and edited by Jonathan Landaw
Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan Art in Practice -- by Jonathan Landaw and Andy Weber |
The Diamond Vehicle to Spiritual Awakening
Buddhist Tantra In Art and Practice
The fundamental insight of all mystical traditions is that the essential nature of all beings is pure and that the ultimate purpose of life is to contact this essential purity, experience its inexhaustible treasure of clarity and compassion, and then share this bounty with others. According to the various Tibetan traditions, the most profound and advanced of all the methods for contacting and fulfilling this fundamental purity are those of Buddhist tantra, as revealed in the Vajrayana, or Diamond Vehicle, teachings.
The beloved Buddhist master, Lama Yeshe (1935-84), who spent much of his life inspiring and instructing Westerners, felt that the central message of these profound tantric teachings was simple and extremely relevant to modern day secular life. In this course we shall not only delve into Lama Yeshe’s remarkably clear presentation of these transformative teachings, but will explore how the striking images of Tibetan Buddhist art serve as symbols of and pathways to the spiritual awakening that is our birthright.
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R.U. Sirius
(Ken Goffman)
Course texts:
Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art by Lewis Hyde
Pranks 2 by V. Vale
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Pranks, Pranksters,
Trickster & Tricks
Pranks and Pranksters, Tricksters & Tricks -- the brilliant ones open up a space in the world for magic(k), ambiguity, and novelty. They encourage us to Question Authority and better still, they cause us to Question Reality.
In this course, we will discuss the history of pranks and pranksterism in the contemporary world. We will examine mythical and world historic tricksters like Coyote, Bugs Bunny, Crowley, Puck, Heyoka, Papa Legba, Lucifer, and more. And we'll explore and discuss the role pranksters and tricksters play in cultures. I will also discuss some of my own pranks and tricks and legendary pranksters Mark Hosler of Negativland and Joey Skaggs will be dropping in on the course to answer questions.
Finally, we will plan pranks, make pranks, and maybe even leave the course with a dedicated prankster cabal. No fooling.
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Eric Wagner
6 week course
September 8 - October 19
Course Outline
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Open Secrets
Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising
In his writings, Bob Wilson pointed to Prometheus Rising over and over again as a practical handbook for self-directed change of the mind/body system. This class will emphasize doing as many of the exercises from this book as possible during a six week period as well as closely reading the text. Bob designed the exercises to weaken the existing imprints and to help the experimenter become a self-metaprogrammer, reimprinting the nervous system as each individual sees fit. In addition this class will explore alternatives to the eight circuit/system/dimension model. Please join Eric Wagner on this six week mission, to explore strange new worlds and new civilizations, both within and without ourselves, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Course text:
Prometheus Rising
-- Robert Anton Wilson
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Antero Alli
6 week course
September 22 - November 2
Requirements:
1) Astrologik -- Antero Alli
($20 via PayPal at www.verticalpool.com/publishing.html),
2) A copy of your astrology chart on jpg or tiff, and six hours a week
3) 45 minutes a day towards reading assignments and memorization of the basic astrological alphabet (to be supplied).
Course Outline |
Astrologik
Astrology Without Tears
We are made from the stuff of stars. When Aleister Crowley suggested that "every man and woman is a star" he could have been talking about our astrological Sun signs. Though the out-there Sun is a star, it also symbolizes a dynamic process of molting Self-realization within us. Though everybody has a Sun sign, not everybody lives as Self-realizing stars. This crash course in horoscope interpretation introduces the rudimentary building blocks of astrology -- planets, houses, aspects and signs -- towards an accurate, down-to-earth yet imaginative translation of your own map (horoscope) towards access the territory of realizing your fullest potential. Your Sun sign amounts to about 15% of your horoscope; the rest of the astrological symbols represent a multidimensional network of influences that constantly challenge and/or support this process of Self-realization, of becoming "as a Star."
I have known the study and practice of astrology as an adventure. After almost thirty years as a professional astrologer, I have also discovered that astrology doesn't require my belief to work. In fact, I don't believe in astrology; I use it because it works. You do not need to believe in astrology to do this course. You just have to be willing to learn a new language and find out for yourself whatever degree it works for you. When approached as a language -- and not a science or philosophy or belief system -- astrology can help us articulate the characteristics and tendencies of living forces in our daily lives.
The Moon, for example, effectively symbolizes the force of habit and emotion, as Mars symbolizes the force of will, excitement and action in our lives. Mercury acts as a good symbol for the intellect and its subtle yet potent forces of ideation and analysis. Looking to the astrological planets as symbols for living forces within us -- and not as heavenly bodies controlling our fates from above -- liberates our consciousness to engage these energies firsthand and to track their movements wherever we are and wherever we go. This crash course promises to be an intense, colorful overview of astrology and its mythological origins, while interspersed with creative techniques from my own magician's black bag of tricks of the trade learned while interpreting thousands of astrology charts. This is about as close to chaos magick that astrology gets.
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Philip H. Farber
8 week course
October 6 - November 30
Course Outline
Course text:
Meta-Magick: Achieving New States of Consciousness Through NLP, Neuroscience and Ritual
-- Philip H. Farber |
Meta-Magick
Where Magick Meets the Brain / Magick and NLP
Take a trip into your own mind to discover your innate magical abilities and your relationship to gods, goddesses, loas, orishas, fictional characters, corporations, schools of thought, social movements, and world-changing works of art.
Meta-Magick draws on diverse roots, including Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), martial arts, memetics, applied kinesiology, hypnosis, Afro-Caribbean spirituality, yoga, Taoism, neuro-scientific discoveries, and much more, in addition to Western esoteric traditions. Meta-Magick offers tools and systems to uncover, observe and replicate phenomena in ways that can be calibrated and tested. This results in a collection of diverse behaviors, techniques, and patterns that we can combine in creative ways, resulting in new rituals, works of art, entities, schools of thought, new paradigms and so on. "Meta" means "above" or "beyond," and "Meta-Magick" signifies magick that enables us to think about magick and produce magick. It is magick about magick.
With the techniques of Meta-Magick, we all become the creators of our own traditions, the originators of our own magick. With practice, these become just as rich as - or even richer than - the historical traditions.
Meta-Magick dovetails nicely with most existing schools of magick (and is great for newcomers, too), adding practical methods to calibrate experience, test results, and really and truly change your world.
Take advantage of this opportunity to work with Meta-Magick creator Philip H. Farber and explore the future of magick!
This new, live version of Meta-Magick: Where Magick Meets the Brain includes exercises adapted for the solo practitioner, suggestions for group online exploration, and much more.
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Lon Milo DuQuette
8 week course
October 20 - December 14
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Crowley Tarot
Understanding Aleister
Crowley's Thoth Tarot
For over 35 years the Thoth Tarot has been one of the best selling and most popular Tarot decks in the world. Designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Frieda Harris, it is considered by many to be the most important magical object d’art of the 20th century – it is also one of the most misunderstood. Crowley’s own “The Book of Thoth,” written in the last years of his life, is naturally the most authoritative work on the subject, and represents a synthesis of a lifetime of magical study and illumination. But, like many of Crowley’s works, it is hard to digest without a considerable background occult education.
Join author and Crowley expert, Lon Milo DuQuette, for an in-depth (and relatively painless) look at the classic and revolutionary structure of the Thoth Tarot; its artistic mysteries; and the secrets of sexual alchemy hidden within the stunning imagery of its 78 mini-masterpieces.
Course text:
Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot --
Lon Milo DuQuette
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