Saturday, August 1, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. CT
This workshop explores the idea of spiritual evolution—the claim that biological evolution and the evolution of consciousness are connected, and that humanity may be in the process of becoming something beyond its current form.
The course traces how this idea emerged in the nineteenth century through the convergence of Darwinian evolution, German idealism, Spiritualism, and Theosophy, and how it challenged traditional boundaries between science and religion through the medium of esoteric literature.
Drawing specifically on the humanities, the workshop follows these ideas into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, where they reappear in modern esotericism, science fiction, neuroscience, and discussions of transhuman and posthuman futures. The workshop asks what it means to imagine gods, superhumans, or states of realization as biological and evolutionary processes rather than as traditional supernatural ones.
Main emphasis:
- The historical origins of spiritual evolution
- Core themes such as superhumanity and evolving consciousness
- Modern scientific, technological, and cultural expressions
- The idea of humanity as an unfinished evolutionary experiment
Member Rate: $35 • Standard Rate: $40
Registrants will receive on-demand access to recording(s) that can be viewed for four weeks following the conclusion of the program.
Jeffrey J. Kripal, Ph.D., holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Religion for eight years and helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He is presently serving as Associate Dean of the Faculty and Graduate Studies in the School of Humanities. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. His full body of work can be seen at jeffreyjkripal.com.
Program Format
This is a live, interactive online program that will also be recorded. Registrants will receive on-demand access to recording(s) that can be viewed for four weeks following the conclusion of the program.
Join online via a Zoom link that will be emailed during the week before the program.
Please download Zoom for free at zoom.us/download and test your connection at zoom.us/test. For further information, check out www.theosophical.org/FAQ or email webinars@theosophical.org.