"Who Am I?"
An inter-disciplinary exploration of self, soul, heart and spirit
"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates
Your sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it and your remedy is within you, but you do not sense it. You presume you are a small entity, but within you is enfolded the entire Universe. You are indeed the evident book, by whose alphabet the hidden becomes manifest. Therefore you have no need to look beyond yourself. What you seek is within you, if only you reflect.
Ali Ibn Abi Talib (kw)
Course Description
Self-awareness allows us to perceive both limits and possibilities. This course will be a practical and theoretical exploration of different approaches to understanding what it means to be called a human being and what we think of as the self in the sciences, psychology, philosophy, the arts, spirituality and religion. This involves defining such critical terms as self, soul, heart, and spirit.
We all think and act on the basis of assumptions about ourselves and about the world. These assumptions, or pre-conceptions, are based on a great variety of factors such as education, gender, social class, religion (or lack thereof), and family history. Much of the time these assumptions remain unexamined; that is, although they profoundly influence us we may not often stop to examine them, to test them, and reflect upon them. By asking fundamental questions such as “Why am I who I am?” “Why am I here?,” and “Why do I think, believe, and act as I do?,” you will be challenged to explore, recognize, understand, and describe unexamined assumptions about why you may think, believe, and act as you do. This kind of self-examination will also lead you to reflect upon and express how and why you know what you know, and how that knowledge influences your being and acting in, and perceptions of, your self and the world.
The multi-faceted and often indefinable nature of awareness and what we perceive to be our self will allow for an open-ended enquiry into the very nature of what these terms mean to each individual, and how both questions and possible answers have been dealt with in a variety of fields of knowledge, ranging from psychology, sociology, traditional religion, alternative medicine to contemporary neuroscience, to name but a few.
Intended Audience:
Anyone who has had enough life-experience to realise that the outer world and its vicissitudes are not going to provide the answers to who you are. Anyone who is looking for a framework to understand the relevance and relative importance of the myriad offers of psychological, religious, spiritual transformation and salvation.
About the teacher
Course Syllabus
Course Structure and Fees