The Seeker's Guide to The Secret Teachings of All Ages
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This course is no longer available, but the video lectures can be purchased on Vimeo on Demand.
A Twelve-Part Online Course with Mitch Horowitz
In twelve lectures, this video course introduces, surveys, and expands on the core subjects of Manly P. Hall’s landmark compendium of esoteric and symbolic philosophy, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. In each 45-60 minute course, historian and author Mitch Horowitz explores Hall’s historical analysis and philosophical ideas, and considers recent developments in the fields Hall studied and the insights he presaged. For both first-time students and longtime readers, the course provides new inroads into the Great Book.
Making Sense of Religion for Believers, Unbelievers, and the Curious
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This course is not currently open for registration. Follow PRS social media and/or sign up for our newsletter to be informed when it is running again!
(Six video lectures, weekly supplemental materials, and online discussion)
About the Course:
To "never talk politics or religion," as the old saying goes, is to ensure that we remain ignorant of both. The adage perhaps best refers to our inability to have edifying conversations about these subjects, and it is our lack of depth in understanding religion that creates some of the most disheartening aspects of our civic and personal lives. It is all the more telling that religion is the meaning that supposedly matters the most in our lives. No wonder we are frustrated with religion, especially others'.
The good news is that there are very good ways to make sense of religion that do not require you to abandon your belief or unbelief and may well enhance your curiosity about this subject. We will explore those ways in the next six weeks, and you will emerge with a much clearer understanding of religion's meaning and function in life and culture.
About the instructor:
Greg Salyer, PhD is the President of PRS. For twenty-five years he has been an administrator and scholar in higher education institutions, but his highest calling has always been that of teacher. Dr. Salyer received his doctorate in interdisciplinary studies (literature, philosophy, religious studies) from Emory University.
Walking the Path of Grief
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This course is not currently open for registration. Follow PRS social media and/or sign up for our newsletter to be informed when it is running again!
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on….
-Mary Oliver
Overview of the course:
Grief is our birthright. Each moment holds change. Although most of this change is the passing of the day, or the seasons shifting from warm to cold, there is also change that strikes us in a profound way. In those changes we are faced with a choice—how do we move forward?
This course will dive deep into the work of grief, looking at how it affects us, our community and our world. We will look at the ways it can manifest and the types of loss that can shift the earth under our feet. We explore how to bear witness to ourselves and others, learning ways to truly be of support. We will also look at how other cultures approach grief with the hope of learning how powerful, dynamic and transformative grief can be.
In addition we will look at core tools to help us work with grief, so that we may build a relationship with it. Grief is a powerful ally for resilience, but resilience comes from understanding ourselves and our process. The course is designed for the group to step into this process and find a way to share the story of what each in the group holds. This requires more than a surface exploration, where we simply think our way through it. Although we will look at the world of grief theory, we will constantly look at how to practically apply them in our daily lives.
Instructor Bio:
Carlyle Coash, MA, BCC has worked as a spiritual counselor in hospice and palliative care, creating rituals and life transitions, including specializing in pediatric palliative and end-of-life care, as well as working with trauma, grief, and major life changes with people of all ages. He contributed to the book Making Healthcare Whole and published a chapter in The Art of Contemplative Care. He is certified as a Mindfulness Meditation Instructor and is the first Tibetan Buddhist practitioner to be Board Certified through the Association of Professional Chaplains.
Gods and Monsters: Understanding our Hopes and Fears
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This course is not currently open for registration. Follow PRS social media and/or sign up for our newsletter to be informed when it is running again!
Overview of the course:
When we think about the most powerful beings in our symbolic worlds, we come immediately to gods and monsters. While each is charged differently (positively and negatively), a closer look reveals that they actually exist on the same continuum. Gods represent our best hopes, while monsters symbolize our greatest fears, and hopes and fears live in our imagination. In this course, we examine the psychological and cultural meanings of this cultural process. We will draw from the academic disciplines of anthropology, literature, mythology, philosophy, politics, psychology, and sociology as we examine gods and monsters in various cultural expressions.
Instructor Bio:
Greg Salyer, Ph.D. is the President of PRS. For twenty-five years he has been an administrator and scholar in higher education institutions, but his highest calling has always been that of teacher. Dr. Salyer received his doctorate in interdisciplinary studies (literature, philosophy, religious studies) from Emory University.
The Study of Consciousness
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This course is not currently open for registration. Follow PRS social media and/or sign up for our newsletter to be informed when it is running again!
Overview of the course:
This course is intended to introduce students to the study of the phenomenon of consciousness, with the goal of helping them to identify and discuss select philosophical, scientific, and religious as well as psychological perspectives surrounding consciousness itself. We will also look into how these perspectives relate to the idea of the transformation of consciousness.
We will begin with an examination of consciousness in the general sense, and we will focus on the “hard problem” or “mind-body problem" as it is revealed through philosophical and scientific discourse. We will introduce a discussion of life and the connection to consciousness, and we will continue with a broad overview of the human consciousness in an effort to distinguish a couple of its elemental features that differentiate the latter from other forms of consciousness. Participants will then be ready to address the question: Does the human consciousness transform or evolve? In doing so, we will also view the transformation of the human consciousness as response to crisis.
Materials:
It is recommended that students purchase the book The Ever Present Origin by Jean Gebser, as they will be asked to read sections of it during the course. All other materials (including original audio lectures created by the instructor for this course, supplementary articles, videos, podcast episodes, etc.) are included in the course.
Instructor bio:
Ersi Danou is the co-founder of the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, and a producer and director known for To onoma mou einai Anna, A Sea Apart, and Kingdom by the Sea. She holds an M.A. in Consciousness Studies from the University of Philosophical Research.
image credit: Christine Nguyen
The Philosophy of Music
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This course is not currently open for registration. Follow PRS social media and/or sign up for our newsletter to be informed when it is running again!
Overview of the course:
For millennia music has been attributed with the capability of expressing emotions and of sharing insight into the human condition. It was believed that, as a universal phenomenon, the human mind could interpret music and comprehend the inherent harmony of the universe. In the Middle Ages, music held an indispensable role not just found in monastic chant but in philosophy and theology as well. Can music, as Plato suggested, give us a glimpse into the cosmos and the world of ideals? What value can music possess that can benefit humanity?
These topics have been tackled by some of the greatest minds including Pythagoras, Aristotle, Boethius, and Schopenhauer. The student will confront these and other fascinating subjects by being introduced to different music philosophies such as Formalism, Expressionism, and Symbolism, and will benefit from the exposure to diverse music pieces that will assist in the perception of the music experience. Music will also be perceived from the point of view of religion, social philosophy, aesthetics, and postmodernism.
Materials:
All materials, including audio lectures created by the instructor, are provided in the course.
Instructor bio:
Juan Hernandez holds an M.M in Music Performance from CSULA. His areas of research include music aesthetics, music history, classical guitar, and vocal and instrumental performance of sacred music. He performs classical, Latin American, and popular modern music. He is a member of the Orange County Guitar Orchestra under the direction of David Grimes, and participated in the release of the album Toccata.
image credit: Wassily Kandinsky "Composition VIII" (1923)
The Seeker's Guide to The Initiates of the Flame with Mitch Horowitz
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This course is no longer available, but the video lectures can be purchased on Vimeo on Demand.
Video introduction to course from Mitch Horowitz
About the course:
In this four-part video course, we explore the background, meaning, and hands-on relevance of Manly P. Hall’s first book, The Initiates of the Flame, written in 1922. Presented by PEN Award-winning historian and widely known voice of esoteric ideas, Mitch Horowitz, this distance-learning opportunity explores the esoteric ideas in Hall’s classic text and updates them into practices and methods that are of special use to the individual seeker today. Includes supplemental readings and message-board dialogues with Mitch and other students.
About the instructor:
Mitch Horowitz is a writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library, lecturer-in-residence at PRS, and the PEN Award-winning author of books including Occult America; One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life; and The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality. Mitch has written on everything from the war on witches to the secret life of Ronald Reagan for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Salon, Time, Politico, and a wide range of zines and occult journals. The Washington Post says Mitch “treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.” He is making a feature film on the occult book The Kybalion, shot on location in Egypt. Mitch narrates many audio books, including Alcoholics Anonymous. He received the 2019 Walden Award for Interfaith/Intercultural Understanding. The Chinese government has censored his work.
The Basics of Esoteric Symbolism
10/23-11/20 (4 weeks)
(Four video lectures, weekly supplemental materials, and online discussion).
All course content will remain available to participants for three weeks after course ends.
About the course:
The surreal stories, diagrams, and images of the world’s various belief systems can often seem too wacky and intimidating to ever try to approach. Yet, they are incredibly easy to unpack once you know the basic language they all generally speak.
The Bible, Kabbalah, Tarot, Alchemy, Buddhism, Hinduism, and countless esoteric mystery schools (to name a few) all tell the same story with, phenomenally, the same symbols. What are they saying? What’s the deal with snakes, lions, and triangles being used the same way by dramatically different people separated by continents and millennia?
To find out, join us for this course exploring their simple narratives and symbols so you can become forever literate in this timeless language. The goal of this class is to give you the basic tools of symbolic interpretation so you can immerse yourself in esoteric art, movies, myths, and seemingly complex philosophical systems with ease and confidence.
About the instructor:
Stephen Reedy is a multifaceted multitasker. As a filmmaker, he learned the transformative value of verbal and nonverbal communication. As a fancy-pants marketing guy, he learned the ways of emotional manipulation on a global scale. As a comparative philosophy dork, he learned that, miraculously, people from all cultures through all time keep saying the same mysterious thing with the same surreal imagery. What are they trying to say? And how? Exploring this with energy, excitement and rational functionality is what he’s all about.
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The Art of Living Well: Ancient Wisdom for Our Times
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This course is not currently open for registration. Follow PRS social media and/or sign up for our newsletter to be informed when it is running again!
Six lectures (voiceover with slides) with supplemental materials and discussion forums. New materials are released every Friday for the duration of the course, and students can go at their own pace throughout the week.
About the Course:
Life is simple, but living is hard. In literature, philosophy, religion, the arts, and in life itself—the art of living is not hidden. Plenty of people who have lived have found a way—or parts of a way, or moments of meaning here and there—that we can use. There is no great mystery in finding out what to do; the mystery—and the difficulty—is in doing it. This series is about helping you on that path. If you don’t know how to live, the series will remind you how people around the world and throughout history have found their own ways to the art of living. If you don’t have the will to follow that path, this series is here to encourage you, to be your helper, maybe even to inspire you to live well. Join us for six lecture/discussions on The Art of Living.
About the Instructor:
Greg Salyer, Ph.D. is the President of the Philosophical Research Society. For twenty-five years, he has been an administrator and scholar in higher education institutions, but his highest calling has always been that of teacher. Trained in interdisciplinary studies, Dr. Salyer moves through the disciplines of literature, philosophy, and religious studies looking for and helping his students find practical and profound wisdom in the stories, texts, and ideas created all over the world and throughout history.
The Cultivation of the Creative Spirit Through Film
$5 off for the first 10 students to register!
8/14-9/25 (6 weeks)
Six video lectures with supplemental materials and discussion forums. New materials are released every Friday for the duration of the course, and students can go at their own pace throughout the week.
About the Course:
This is the "Anti-Film-School Film Course." Designed for filmmakers, film lovers, and creators in any artistic medium, this unique course will delve into the poetic nature of cinema. After all, some of the most important cinematic knowledge isn't taught in film school. Surprisingly, this isn’t because such wisdom is hidden away in dark, shadowy temples for only the filmmaking elite to unveil. It is, in fact, available in plain sight for all to behold! Yet most remain unaware of the existence of such profound artistic knowledge simply because they haven’t been taught how to shift their creative perspective. Consider this course the skeleton key to unlocking that glorious, cinematic wisdom. We will deconstruct the limited cinematic paradigm that has been constructed around us, allowing us to discover inspiration in a fresh, new perspective.
About the Instructor:
Courtney Sell is a prolific filmmaker and writer recognized for his critically acclaimed documentary and experimental films. His vast filmography has been screened around the world, featured in such publications as Newsweek and Filmmaker Magazine, archived at the New York Film-makers Coop and he is the first filmmaker ever to have his body of cinematic work archived at the historic Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles. He is the author of “Filming the Formless - stories of creative and spiritual growth from a once down-and-out filmmaker” regarding his “cinematic shift of consciousness” and a collection of his earliest documentaries was recently released on VOD. Sell’s work is deeply inspired by his interest in esoteric literature, high magick, astral projection, ancient philosophy and through his personal spiritual practices, Sell creates new material daily. Sell’s new book “Cultivating the Creative Spirit through Film” is due out this spring. He currently resides in Hollywood, California,
The Philosophical Research School
