HUM 101:   Rembrandt, Herald of our Age

What can you learn about yourself through Rembrandt?
Can you recall in your own development when you began to be more aware of yourself as separate from the world?
Have you experienced your own sense of yourself as the only one in the universe that can say "I am" to yourself?
What significance is there in these experiences?

Through studying Rembrandt's self portraits and other works (in particular The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, The Return of the Prodigal Son, The Polish Rider, The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by the Angel), we will consider the development of his skills and consciousness through his career. His paintings and biography will be discussed in the context of the evolution of your own thought processes.
(See also Study Questions and the Gospel of John.)

HUM 101:  $175 

HUM 102: Hesse and Jung: Gnosticism in Modern Form

What is the difference between knowing and believing?
How can we know anything?
What about knowing yourself?
What gives you faith or belief in yourself?
Do you experience resistance to taking the path that leads to yourself?

The student will study Demian, by Hermann Hesse, The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels and Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by Carl Jung to discover the nature of Gnosticism in both its ancient and modern forms and how it can relate to you.

HUM 102: $175

HUM 103: The Destiny of Abraham Lincoln

 Abraham Lincoln belongs to the very best that the United States has contributed to the furtherance of Humankind. What sort of man was required to heal the split in the national soul caused by the institutionalization of slavery in our Constitution? How can Lincoln's life be instructive in your own life? How does the crisis he faced relate to the world today? Lincoln was influenced by the life of Washington, the Bible and Shakespeare. What have been great influences on your life? Have you had experiences in your own life that you could describe as "predestined?" Do you know what Lincoln meant by his "Friend down inside' of himself?" The course has no pre-requisites except the ability to think and write in English. Anyone interested in history and wisdom will benefit a great deal from this course.

Required reading includes selections from Lincoln, by Carl Sandburg; Lincoln at Gettysburg, by Gary Wills, and Lincoln's Greatest Speech, the Second Inaugural, by Ronald C. White Jr.

HUM 103: $175

HUM 103A: Destiny of Abraham Lincoln - downloadable audio course

Audio Streaming of lecture/guide alone without any dialog, evaluation, or mentoring capability

HUM 103A: $10

Audio Streaming of lecture/guide with additional fee for evaluation and mentoring ability

HUM 103A: $175

HUM 104a: Sufi Tales as a Key to Learning

What is the importance of asking questions?
What is the difference between being clever and being wise?
How do the Parables in the Bible compare with Aesop's Fables with Sufi Tales?
Have you had any moments of higher levels of perception or awakened spiritual senses?
Have any of your opinions changed after reading a Sufi Tale or studying this lecture/guide?

One of the finest sources of entertainment that also is educational is the rich literature of the Sufi tradition. The Sufi training is the ancient "secret" path associated with Islam in much the same way as the Kabala is associated with Judaism. Every religion has its "hidden" or esoteric aspect available to those who desire to go more deeply into spiritual matters.

Students will read Tales of the Dervishes by Idries Shah

HUM 104b: The Spiritual Search Through Literature

How do you think with your heart?
What is success?
Can you experience real freedom?
What is the value in becoming more aware of the details of your own creative process?
Where does your inspiration come from?
What does the concept of salvation mean to you?

This course compares and contrasts the required reading, The Razor's Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham, The Last Barrier, by Reshad Feild, and your own thinking about spirit.

HUM 104: $175

HUM 105: Mozart and the Evolution of Western Music

 Can music give you more than merely arousing sensuality in yourself?
Can you relate melody, harmony and rhythm to your thinking, feeling and willing?
Can you appreciate the interweaving of minor and major in Mozart's music?
What different effect does the music have when the main key is minor rather than major?
What music now popular do you think will not last?

Required Reading:
Mozart, Marcia Davenport
Required Viewing:
Mozart's The Magic Flute (video)
Required Listening:
Mozart's String Quintet in G Minor (K516)
Mozart's Piano concerto in A Major (k.488)
Mozart's The Magic Flute

HUM 105: $175

HUM 106a & b: Shakespeare, Drama & Self Knowledge

Can you answer Hamlet's question, "What is man?"
Do you agree with Hamlet's "To be or not to be?" soliloquy?
Do you think it is necessary to go through some sort of process of blindness (like King Lear or Gloucester) to awaken to self-knowledge?
How many senses did you think you have before reading the lecture/guide on King Lear?
What is meant by a group sense?

Students will read and/or view King Lear, Hamlet and The Tempest and relate these plays to various levels of self-knowledge.

HUM 106: $175

HUM 107: Science and the Spiritual Quest

 What does the relationship between science and religion have to do with your personal life?
Are there any scientific theories that you regard as final, true and unchanging?
Are there different ways of experiencing time and space?
Is advanced science leading us towards spiritual science?
What does Eastern philosophy and Western science mean to you?

Students will read The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra and The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav. The course will center on relating Eastern philosophy to modern physics. There will be a critical analysis of this analogy.

HUM 107: $175

HUM 108: Job, Oedipus & Blake: Self-Knowledge, Ancient and Modern

 How do you explain evil and suffering in the world?
Do you believe that man's character is his fate?
Do you accept the theory that unconscious memories can determine one's actions and behavior?
Do you blame others or fate for your misfortunes?
How do you reconcile Divinity with natural disasters such as the Hurricane Katrina of 2005?

Students will read Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, the Book of Job, and Blake's Illustrations to the Book of Job.

More info...

(See also Bible Study Guide.)

HUM 108: $175

HUM 109: From Myths & Fairytales to Autobiography

 How do you think myths and fairy tales help us towards understanding ourselves?
What is their value for children and what is their value for adults?
Do you feel that you live up to your role as hero in your own biography?
What are your temptations and hindrances, etc.?
Can you die and still be alive?

Required Reading:
Mythology, Edith Hamilton
Fairy Tales, Grimm
Pathfinders, Gail Sheehy

 HUM 109: $175

Can you see the levels of maturity in yourself - both past development and future potential?
Can you understand the difference between change, reform and transformation?
Have you experienced anything in yourself that you could equate or describe as your "Daimon"?
Have you experienced any process that you could call "Initiation"?
Have you ever experienced doing something out of pure freedom and love?

HUM 110: $175

HUM 111: Dostoevski: Freedom & Self-Government

In what ways are you equal to others? In what ways are you not?
How do your political views relate to these differences and similarities?
What are the differing qualities of liberty, equality and fraternity?
To what extent, if any, can a dictatorship be benevolent?
What is freedom?

Required Reading:
The Liberty Bell Papers, Virginia Moore
The Grand Inquisitor, Dostoevski
Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis

HUM 111: $175

HUM 112: Economics and the Development of Responsible Individualism

Are you able to stand new and different thoughts?
Can you view economic issues without losing yourself in an either/or, right vs. left "mind set"? Can you transform this conflict creatively?
Does money really not die?
What has immortality to do with your own economic behavior?

Required Reading:
Small Is Beautiful, E. F. Schumacher
Money and Freedom, Hans F. Sennholz
Reincarnation and Immortality, Rudolf Steiner
Money and the Meaning of Life, Jacob Needleman

HUM 112: $175

Humanities 201-212         Humanities 301-312         Humanities 401-408