Fall 1, September 11 - October 8, 2011.  No weekly meeting. 

     

A Cherry Hill Seminary Foundations Course by York Dobyns, Ph.D.

Has anyone ever told you that religious ritual - especially magickal ritual - is a foolish, superstitious, or simply useless activity? The class is intended to provide students with information that will help defend themselves and others against this widely held attitude.

While there will be some discussion of the purely psychological benefits of ritual, the main focus of the class will be on reviewing high-quality scientific research that addresses topics usually considered supernatural. Much of this research has results more favorable to a spiritual or magickal worldview than is generally acknowledged in popularizations or even the more prominent technical literature. 

The Foundations course "Why Magickal Thinking Doesn't Mean You're Crazy" is a whirlwind tour of the scientific evidence relevant to magickal practice.

Each week's assignments will include both readings composed by the instructor (in place of lectures), and study of off-site resources available on the Web. The ability to view streaming video will be needed for some of the off-site resources. In addition to reading and watching videos, students should expect to take one or two quizzes and write at least one short essay each week. 

Required Texts:

No required texts  
  
 

York Dobyns earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 1987, started research into the relationship between consciousness and the physical world later that year, and has been a practicing eclectic Wiccan since 1992.

He spent much of his career working at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program, until that laboratory's closing in early 2007. He has published extensively on topics such as remote perception (the ability to gain knowledge about a distant location without the use of the conventional senses) and the direct effect of human intention on physical systems.

Dobyns is recently married and divides his time between New Jersey and Kentucky.

 

REGISTER NOW

 

New to Cherry Hill Seminary?

Register as a new student

 

Order books now

 
Logo no wordsCherry Hill Seminary                                              Add me to your email list
P.O. Box 5405
Columbia, South Carolina 29250