• A MUSICAL ODDYSSEY
• YOGA
• ECOLOGICAL ISSUES
• CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
• COSMOLOGY
• SOUL CLASS
• ZEN MEDITATION

FOR A SAMPLING OF CLASSES OFFERED PREVIOUSLY CLICK HERE

Class Descriptions

If you have questions or would like more info about a specific course, please contact the instructor or contact person listed.

A MUSICAL ODYSSEY

Explore music from the Middle Ages to the present, referring to influential crosscurrents of art and literature along the way. Participants are encouraged to share their own favorite selections from the various historical periods. We will be mindful of Igor Stravinsky's admonition : "The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music. They should be taught to love it instead." Instructor: Pat Bennett.

YOGA

Please check back soon for more info - or contact David O'Donaghue.

ECOLOGICAL ISSUES

To be co-taught by David O'Donaghue and Michelle Barg. Please check back soon for more info - or contact David O'Donaghue.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Many contemporary societal problems have been with us for decades. Various groups argue, often adamantly and contentiously, for their solutions. Do these disagreements result from conflicts of interest? Do they arise because of different underlying assumptions? Are there even technical solutions available? Do political considerations make problems intractable?

A discussion group will select issues and explore them, addressing these and other questions. Competing views will be reviewed and discussed from relevant political, economic, legal, philosophical, historical, religious, cultural and other perspectives. These issues are complex which is why they persist. Better understanding of the issues is the objective. Conversion of viewpoints will be rare and is not the objective. The group will meet twice monthly at a time to accommodate its members. For more info please contact Larry McLean.

COSMOLOGY

Picking up on a theme from Ph.D. cosmologist, Brian Swimme's video series, Canticle of the Cosmos, we'll explore the history of the scientific study of the universe from Copernicus to Einstein to the present. (How can we see where we are going if we don't know from whence we've come?)

The group will be facilitated by Betsy Craig, an avid outdoors woman. With a BA in geology, she is vitally interested in all facets of natural history.

We welcome people who are interested in researching particular scientists and presenting them to the group-- a collective effort of shared inquiry. The only requirement is a highly developed sense of curiosity and wonder about the natural world.

Every other Monday 10-12 AM
Call Betsy Craig at 883-9266 for more info
THIS CLASS IS FULL AT THIS TIME

SOUL CLASS

For more info about this class, please contact David O'Donaghue.

ZEN MEDITATION

Every other Monday 5:30-6:30 PM
Call 883-8686 or email Werner Haker to enroll.

Classes Offered Previously at the Lyceum:

• ARCHETYPES AND CREATIVITY
• THE CRAFT OF WRITING
• INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
• POETRY
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF FOOD
• DOING ART ARCHETYPALLY
• ARCHETYPAL PSYCHOLOGY STUDY GROUP

ARCHETYPES AND CREATIVITY

This class will look at Jungian theories of the creative process through discussing the book Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction by the Jungian analyst Linda Leonard. Instructor: David O'Donaghue.

THE CRAFT OF WRITING

(For ages 20 to 80!) Whether you're a beginner or seasoned writer, this course will fuel your creative fire and hone your skills. Through lectures and eye-opening in-class exercises you'll learn to brighten your writing. You'll leave with new "gadgets" in your writer's toolbox, techniques that apply to fiction, poetry, memoir, magazine articles--even personal letters. Instructor: Susan Snowden.

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

The course is a general introduction to philosophical questions. It presupposes no prior familiarity with philosophy. We will take into account some historical texts in philosophy, but these will be to support the discussion of ideas, especially those are applicable to modern life.

Throughout the course you will be introduced to a variety of issues that have plagued Humankind throughout time and some of the different ways many Philosophers have thought about them. Throughout history Philosophy has made a distinctive contribution to our lives, how we perceive the world, how we respond to it and what many of us wish to believe to be ‘indubitable knowledge’. However, these perennial questions are still at the forefront of our existence.

The first section will consider traditional arguments in epistemology (the study of knowledge), and will focus primarily on the questions of how we can know anything, and what the extent of knowledge may be. The second section focuses on the issue of free will. In the third section, we will review a small number of ethical theories that each attempt to provide a standard of moral conduct--they try to tell us what actions are right or wrong, and why. Instructor: Colin Clayton.

POETRY

This class will concentrate on the work of one poet over the summer. Suggestions have been made that it be W.B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, or W.H. Auden. We will read the poems together and discuss their meaning. Instructor: David O'Donaghue.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF FOOD

Maybe you remember hearing in school that the "New World" was accidentally discovered on a spice-hunting trip. Not a quest for land, at least not at first. Not even a quest for gold. The society we live in today emerged because 15th-century Europeans grew so frustrated with their dull, dull diet that they sailed halfway around the world for a little coriander. On one of those trips Christopher Columbus went the wrong way and found America instead.

Following food is a surprisingly efficient way to access the history of the world. It also gives us a picture of history that includes women to a much greater degree than you usually find in more traditional narratives. The history of food relates intimately to broader cultural developments—and vice versa. Moreover, unlike other academic subjects, we witness the consequences of food history firsthand every night on our dinner plates. Instructor: Kim Bennett.

DOING ART ARCHETYPALLY

C.G. Jung described how certain themes and symbols have occurred cross-culturally in cultural myths and stories and individual dreams and creative work. He called these archetypes of the collective unconscious and he found that through accessing these forms, individuals were able to live more authentic and meaningful lives. In this learning activity we will explore our own access point to archetypal images and forms through actively doing art, rather than studying the archetypes themselves.

This group will consist of people doing various art activities together and exploring their creative connections with archetypal forms and energies. Each participant will bring his or her own materials to the studio at the Lyceum and work on projects both individually and collectively in a manner that allows for archetypal themes to be expressed. Together we will view the works created as contact points for our own archetypal relations. Instructor: David O'Donaghue.

ARCHETYPAL PSYCHOLOGY STUDY GROUP

This group will focus on a discussion of the ideas of the leading representative of Archetypal Psychology, James Hillman. We will begin our study with Hillman's book: Re-visioning Psychology. Archetypal psychology deals with the function of the imagination, dreams and myth in creating creative options for personal identity and meaning. A basic understanding of Jungian concepts is probably helpful for this study. Instructor: David O'Donaghue.

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