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TRS 165/Spiritual, Not Religious

Fall, 2012

TRS 165, Section One: MF 12:40 to 2:10, Dante 217

Professor Paul Giurlanda (say “jer LAND uh” as in “Rudy Giuliani, Giuseppe Verdi, etc.”)

Office: Dante 326

Office Hours: MWF 9:10-10:10 and 2:15 to 3:15

T/R by appointment

Email:

Honor code:

You may be aware that, as a college, we have created an “honor code” system for dealing with violations of academic integrity. From my point of view, the big deal is that handling such violations is not in my hands, as professor, but is in the hands of a student-run “Honor board.” From your point of view, the big deal is that ONE infraction can cause you to fail the course, and have that failure highlighted forever in your transcript. This ain’t beanbag, boys and girls, as I’ve discovered from personal experience. For more information:

For the moment, you need to know that I will not tolerate any forms of academic dishonesty. If you’re not clear what “academic dishonesty” means, consult the website. There’s an old legal principle: “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” In a nutshell: if you write something, unless you tell me differently, I assume that it’s your production, not your best friend’s or roommate’s or that of a writer you’ve read. Learn the principles of citation and use them in any paper you write.

Free Writing Advising at CWAC: the Center for Writing Across the Curriculum

All students are invited to drop in or make appointments for one-on-one sessions with Writing Advisers. Students may request weekly or biweekly sessions with the same peer student Adviser.

CWAC is in Dante 202 and is open 5-8 p.m. Sunday and 2-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The phone number is 925.631.4684. The web site is

Through collaborative engagement, Advisers guide their peers toward expressing ideas clearly and revising their own papers, always weighing audience and purpose.

Writers should bring their assignments, texts, and notes.

Students with disabilities, please note:

Reasonable and appropriate accommodations, that take into account the context of the course and its essential elements, for individuals with qualifying disabilities, are extended through the office of Student Disability Services. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student Disability Services Coordinator at (925) 631-4164 to set up a confidential appointment to discuss accommodation guidelines and available services. Additional information regarding the services available may be found at the following address on the Saint May’s website:

Course Goals:

The term “spiritual, not religious” can be seen as a cop-out or as an honorable label for a person who is understandably alienated from traditional religion. The term may be relatively recent, but the concept, in my view, can be traced back quite far, as Catherine Albanese has done in her magisterial book, Metaphysical Religion in America. Albanese seeks out its origins among the esoteric traditions of Greece and Rome, kept alive in the Middle Ages, moves on to Italian Renaissance scholars like Pico de la Mirandola, but begins her story in earnest with Ralph Waldo Emerson, “the mind of America,” as Harold Bloom called him. Using Emerson as a starting point, then, in this course I’d like to show that rejection of external religious authority in favor of individual freedom, an emphasis on personal experience and a focus on the divine nature of each person—all these are not only as old as America, but more than that, may even be seen as the most powerful current in American religion.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. You will be different than you are now.
  2. You will be able to describe, in writing and orally, the basic elements of the thought of the following people:
  3. Ralph Waldo Emerson
  4. Henry David Thoreau
  5. Walt Whitman
  6. William James
  7. Jane Roberts
  8. You will be able to show why some writers, James in particular, have reservations and doubts about so-called Emersonian thought.
  9. You will be able to explain the difference between Christianity and Emersonian approaches to spirituality.

Course Requirements:

Tests on the readings 75

Midterm paper (three + pages) 50

Final Paper in lieu of final exam 100

(Seven pages)

Field Trip ReportP/F

Total 225 pts

Texts:

Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone

William James, Varieties of Religious Experience

Jane Roberts, The Seth Material (Manhasset, NY, 2001)

Photocopied Selections from Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau.

Attendance/Participation Policy

Since I exist in corporeal reality during this lifetime, and so do you, our inter-actions are easiest when we’re in physical proximity. Put in another way: if you ain’t here, I can’t teach you, and, just as important, you can’t contribute to the class. Or, as Woody Allen once put it, 80% of life is showing up.

In general, though, if you’re absent more than three times (for whatever reason), this will probably have a negative impact on your grade.

A NOTE ON CELL PHONES: These should be PUT AWAY and NOT VISIBLE to the rest of the class. There are very few exceptions to this rule!

TENTATIVE Class schedule for Fall, 2012

(“Tentative” for a lot of reasons, one of which is scheduling our guest speakers.)

On this date: You are responsible for: Comments

August 27 / Being on time
August 31 / Emerson, “The American Scholar”
September 3: NO CLASS! (LABOR DAY HOLIDAY)
September 7 / Emerson, “The Divinity School Address”
September 10 / Emerson, “Self Reliance”
September 14 / Thoreau, Walden (Chapter One)
September 17 / Test #1
September 21 / Whitman, Song of Myself. Part One
September 24 / Whitman, Part Two
September 28 / James, Lectures II and III
October 1 / James, Lecture IV and V
October 5 / James, Lecture VI and VII
October 8 / James, Lecture VIII
October 12 / James, Lecture XX
October 15 / Test #2 on James
October 19 / Roberts, Chapters One and Two
October 22 / Roberts, Three and Four
October 26 / Roberts, Five and Six
October 29 / Roberts, Seven and Eight
November 2 / Roberts, Nine and Ten
November 5 / Roberts 11 and 12
November 9 / Roberts 13 and 14
November 11 / Roberts 15 and 16
November 16 / Roberts 17 and 18
November 19 / Roberts 19 and 20
November 21-25: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
November 26 / Test on Roberts
November 30 / Brown, Chapters 1 and 2
December 3 / Brown, Chapters 3 and 4
December 7 / Brown, Chapters 5 and 6
December 12: FINAL EXAM, 2 to 4 / FINAL PAPER DUE!

Field Trips!

I’d like you to do some of your own exploration as a part of this course. Just as in a course in World Religions you are often expected to attend a worship service of a tradition not your own, so in this course it would be valuable to observe and interact with people who embody its spirit. After attendance at an event, all you need to do is to write up a short (one page) report on a) the who/what/where/why of the event, the basics, as it were, and b) your intelligent observations, perhaps connecting what you’ve observed with what we’ve studied in class.

Some possible places to go:

Nearby, in Walnut Creek, the Unity Center carries on the principles of “New Thought.” Their services are enjoyable, thoughtful and inspiring, whatever your beliefs, as I have discovered, since they are near my home.

(I have attended this church, and it’s a non-threatening and welcoming environment.)

My friend, Laurel Bleadon-Maffei, is a channeler who will do a guest shot in our class. Her “Angel Circles” (held on the first Thursday of the month in Benicia and the second Saturday of the month in Walnut Creek) are 1.5 hour sessions where one can ask questions of “Josephus,” the non-physical entity she channels. These sessions have a fee of $20 and pre-registration is required, only because of the demands of space.

Religious Science is a non-dogmatic offshoot of Christian Science. There are many Religious Science Churches in the Bay Area. The nearest is probably the Center for Spiritual Living in Concord. They meet at the Hilton Hotel:

I have NOT attended this church.

Reserve List

I have placed the following books on reserve for you to use in writing your papers. More to come… (Not that this list is not in MLA Style. Why?)

Catherine Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion (299.973 AL 13r)[1]

Susan Blackmore, Consciousness: An Introduction (153 B566)

William Buhlman, Adventures Out of the Body (133.95 B867)

William Buhlman, Secrets of the Soul (133.95 B867s)

Jon Klimo, Channeling (133.91 K683)

Joscelyn Godwin, The Golden Thread. (Personal Copy)

Robert Monroe, Journeys Out of the Body (133.95 M757)

Jane Roberts, Adventures in Consciousness (133.9 R542c)

______, Nature of Personal Reality (133.9 Se75)

______, Seth Speaks (133.9 Se75s)

[1] Also available on Electronic Reserve.