MYTH AND RELIGION WAS ONE OF THE ORIGINAL ESSENTIAL LECTURE ALBUMS COMPILED IN 1972. It WAS INITIALLY TITLED THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION; WHILE REMASTERING THE TALKS IN THE MID-NINETIES THE ALBUM WAS RENAMED MYTH AND RELIGION IN A NOD TO ALAN’S PRODUCTIVE DIALOGUES WITH JOSEPH CAMPBELL. Campbell SAW MYTHOLOGY AS A WINDOW INTO ALL RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES AND A WAY OF FINDING A WELL-ROUNDED VIEW OF HUMANITIES’ DEEPLY HELD BELIEFS.
Education for Non-Entity
Alan presents his argument that the United States—often referred to as the ultimate materialist society—is anything but: it lacks a sincere appreciation for the material world and inadvertently destroys it in an attempt to “live the good life,” chasing after ever greener pastures just beyond the horizon of time.
Future of Communications (Part 1)
00:00 This is part of a series of seminars on the future, and last weekend we were discussing the very nature of time. And I want to give a sort of summary of what we were...
Future of Communications (Part 2)
00:00 When we communicate, what are we really communicating about? What is the content of communication? Because, you see, McLuhan has come up with a very strange idea: that...
Game Theory of Ethics
Is playing the game of life worth the effort required? Alan turns the question upside-down and investigatates the alternative, allowing us to appreciate every being’s gamble with fate taken upon birth.
Image of Man
00:06 I want to start by giving (what may be to many of you) a new definition of the word “myth.” As normally used, the word “myth” means an idle tale, a fable, a falsehood, or an idea...
Individual and the World
This seminar covers a variety of topics, from the illusion of our separation from the environment and the futility of trying to be genuine, all the way to the discipline required to handle mystical experiences in order to bring something back from them to share with the rest of the world. The presentation ends with his endorsement of insanity, saying a healthy amount of craziness in old age is necessary to prepare for a joyous death.
Intellectual Yoga
“A Journey to Unthinking”—an introduction to the Eastern traditions of yoga. Alan describes the entrance into the unspeakable reality, first from the East by practices of dhyana yoga and zazen, and then from the West through the intellectual perspectives of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Spencer Brown. East and West all arrive at the same mysterious that which is unspeakable. Delivered at the First Unitarian Church.
Intelligent Mindlessness
Alan discusses ways in which Western civilization confuses symbols with reality and introduces meditation and its associated gadgets as tools to get in touch with reality. Then he encourages his audience to cast off their reliance on symbols by guiding them through various mantra in a half-hour demonstration of this intelligent mindlessness.
Jesus, His Religion
00:00 Some years ago I had just given a talk on television in Canada, when one of the announcers came up to me and said, “You know, if one can believe that this universe is in [the]...
Journey to India
00:00 Now then, we have to get on to Buddhism. And in order to introduce Buddhism, it’s necessary to remember the whole background of the world view of India. In other words, what...
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