Psychological Experience

This seminar examines eight interrelated psychological questions, one each week: 1) What is happening when we feel an emotion rather than think a thought or have an intuition? 2) To what extent is our behavior determined by choice rather than our situation? 3) What is the nature of suffering and how does it relate to our beliefs about what is real? 4) What is the nature of hypnosis, trance and spell states? 5) What creates hate? 6) How do our actions and emotions transform time and personal relations? 7) How could we create a sort of psychological mathematics–theorems that would help us understand the consequences of different emotional choices? 8) How could we become more loving?

Required Readings:

A packet of eight articles can be purchased at cost at the MSC office.

Joseph de Rivera, who holds a PhD in psychology from Stanford University, is intrigued by all sorts of psychological experiences. He has served in the Navy and taught at Dartmouth, NYU, and Clark University.