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Facilitated by Jeff Pinnette
One Sunday per Month:
Starting October 28, 2018
10 to 12 pm

FREE for members; No pre-registration is necessary

Required Text: Psychology of the Future by Stanislav Grof

This is an accessible and comprehensive overview of the work of Stanislav Grof, one the of the founders of transpersonal psychology. It serves as a summation of Grof ‘s enormous contributions to the fields of psychiatry and psychology, especially his central concept of holotropic experience, where holotropic signifies “moving toward wholeness.” Grof maintains that the current basic assumptions and concepts of psychology and psychiatry require a radical revision based on the intensive and systematic research of holotropic experience. He suggests radical inner transformation of humanity and a rise to a higher level of consciousness might be humankind’s only real hope for the future.

Stanislav Grof heads the Grof Transpersonal Training Program. He was formerly Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute.

For more information and detailed syllabus, see:

Psychology of the Future 2018-19 Discussion Group Syllabus

Bio: Jeff Pinnette is a long-time member of the Center who served on the Board for six years including two as Board co-chair and four as Program Committee chair.

Members $80, Non-Members $90
Four Sundays: October 28, November 4, 11, & 18
Maximum participants: 15

Answer to Job, first published in 1952, is Jung’s most extensive writing on a biblical text. One of his best known works, the small volume is considered by many to be his most important and  controversial work. Jung said both that this was the one text in which he would not have changed a word and that he had lived in a private hell after its writing. The work contains an array of challenging ideas, including: experiences of the Self, the meaning of suffering, the relationship between human consciousness and God, wisdom – the feminine side of God, and God’s continuing incarnation. How Yahweh undergoes transformation and becomes the “God of Love” is a major theme throughout the volume.

In this class, we will explore Answer to Job through a close reading and discussion of selected passages. We will look both at what Jung is doing in this text and what its relevance is to us today. Also, we will consider William Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job, published in 1825, more than a century before Jung’s volume. Blake’s twenty-two engravings provide insight into the archetypal impact of the biblical story of Job.

Bio: Teresa Arendell, Ph.D. is a practicing Jungian analyst. A college professor in sociology for many years, she has held multiple postdoctoral fellowships. She has taught and offered lectures and seminars and served on committees at the Maine Jung Center, the C.G. Jung Institute – Boston, and various Jungian associations. She enjoys teaching and living in Maine.

Leviathan (2014) | Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
Viewing facilitated by Teresa Arendell

“If the individuation process is made conscious, consciousness must confront the unconscious, and a balance between the opposites must be found.”

~~ C. G. Jung, Answer To Job, par. 755

Leviathan, produced by Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev and released in 2014, has received numerous international and national awards, including Best Screenplay at 2015 Cannes Film Festival, Best Film at the London Film Festival, a Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Film (the first Russian movie to win since 1969). The film also was nominated for the Oscar Best Foreign Language award. Set in a remote northwestern Russian coastal town, a now-depleted and depressed fishing community littered with carcasses of sea leviathans – whales and rotting and rusted ships, the story focuses on a working class man attempting to support his family and maintain his ancestral home. A corrupt town authority, wanting the property for himself, uses every available form of power against its owner. Described as a modern story of Job (from the biblical Book of Job), the film highlights the major challenges that face today’s Russia, and arguably much of the modern world: religion, politics, economics, guns and violence, and alcohol. The social and psychological drama is expressly situated in the expansive natural world of symbolic images and affects. Textures, vistas, landscapes, lighting, and natural forces surround and contain the search for meaning that pervades the tragedy.

Note: This screening, while provided as a supplement to our  “Jung’s Answer to Job” course, is free and open to members and non-members alike.

FREE; Donations Accepted!

Viewing facilitated by Thankful Butler

The movie focuses on an ancient tribe in Columbia, the Kogi, who have great concern for the health of the earth. They want to give the rest of humanity a message regarding the need to change our relationship to the earth and how we must take care of this planet. This is the second time that the Kogi have allowed their secluded culture to be filmed; the first was in 1992. They had a warning message then and have an urgent message NOW. While that is the background of the film, it is beautifully filmed and the Kogi people are wise and caring and, although illiterate, have come to their awareness of the plight of the planet by watching how natural systems are changed by ‘progress’. The task of laying the sacred “gold thread” over a large section of land is especially beautiful and demonstrates their understanding and commitment to bringing their message to the industrialized world.