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The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) | Directed by Lotte Reiniger
Viewing facilitated by Cybele Brandow

The oldest surviving feature-length animated film in the history of cinema, this captivating work by pioneering animator Lotte Reiniger tells the tale of Prince Achmed’s magical adventures. Taken from the stories of the the Arabian Nights, the film follows Prince Achmed as he rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on a heroic journey, which includes befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons, and falling in love with a princess. The entire film is animated using the silhouette technique, which employs movable cardboard and metal cutouts posed in front of illuminated sheets of glass.

Please note! Saturday’s lecture “Are You Only Your Brain?” has been moved to the Pilgrim House Chapel (9 Cleaveland St) next door. You may park in our building’s lot and walk over or park behind their building. 

Dana Sawyer Fall Lecture Series
Friday, September 20, 2019; 7 to 9 pm
& Saturday, September 21, 2019; 10 am to 12 pm

“The Esalen Institute and the Future of Human Spirituality”
Friday, September 20, 7 pm
Sold Out!
The Esalen Institute, located in Big Sur, CA, was founded in 1962 as a center for consciousness studies, the development of latent human potentialities, and the exploration of an open-minded spirituality. Esalen is remembered for championing the work of Aldous Huxley, Abraham Maslow, Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, Ida Rolf, Fritz Perls, Ram Dass, Stanislav Grof and others, but what is its direction today? Dana Sawyer, a retired professor involved with the curriculum at Esalen, will share notes from the current discussion and share a short video about the Institute.

“Are You Only Your Brain?”
Saturday, September 21, 10 am
Members $20, Non-Members $25
Despite today’s definite turn in psychology toward the assumption that all aspects of our minds are created by our physical brains, Transpersonal psychologists argue that we have metaphysical and transpersonal aspects of who we are. In this talk, Dana Sawyer describes new models of the human psyche supplied by Stanislav Grof and other Transpersonalists, while also giving evidence in support from such disciplines as quantum physics and comparative mysticism.

Dana Sawyer is professor emeritus of Philosophy and Religion at the Maine College of Art and a member of the Advisory Board of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. He has written biographies of Aldous Huxley and Huston Smith as well as articles for such magazines as Tricycle, Yoga Journal, and Parabola. Currently, he is writing a handbook of the Perennial Philosophy and helping the Esalen Institute determine its future curriculum.