Out of Your Mind

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Out of Your Mind

Offered	2005
Campus(es)	East
Instructor(s)	Morrow
TA(s)	Gwen McCarter

Out of Your Mind

Note: This article refers mainly to the Duke East Term 1 2005 Out of Your Mind class.

Possibly the most amazing class ever held throughout the history of TiP, especially during Term 1 of 2005. The class centered mostly around discussion, which was really just a serious of tangents had after reading excerpts from different texts, including The Power of Now by Ekhart Tolle, Dialogue With Death by Eknath Easwaran, and We're All Doing Time by Bo Lozoff. Discussions ranged from quantum physics to the nature of God. Evening studies were very interesting, as we were given the oppurtunity to gaze upon Gwen's vast knowledge on Eastern and Islamic traditions.

The Class

Upon entering the class, we were asked to make "Subjective Cartographies" of our innser selves. I, being an immature idiot at the time, was the only one who decided not to present his. Anywho, people were moved to tears by these, as you not only got to know the person through their life experience, but through their emotional journeys as well. However, we did have to spend about half of a day trying to 'counsel' a student who seemed on the brink of suicide. Regardless, the presentations were amazing, and included a cave, a dark castle, a sunny garden, a checkered Earth, a sun and moon, a painting of a tree, and a very abstract conglomerate of non-related items, inevitably being the most moving of them all. We the proceeded to read Dialogue With Death, which, in my opinion, spoke in very general terms, but, nonetheless, I was immature anyway, so I wouldn't have liked it even if it was intellectually stimulating. This reading, along with discussions and supplemental readings, lasted for the duration of the first week. We then went to Carol Woods, a local "old folks'" home, and discussed with the residents about their life experiences. The second week was a bit of a blur for me, but in general, the pattern of reading the assigned literature for the first hour or two and discussing for almost the whole day continued. If I'm not mistaken, it was during the second week that we read "the Power of Now", the strangest of the three books. Upon reading it, we had to listen to a tape of the author speaking, in which he proceeded to make various annoying clicking and slurping noises with his tongue as he read. We then watched a movie of him speaking, in which what seemed like 20 minutes had passed by as he stood there looking upon the crowd-- we later found out that it was to show us how anticipation is 'in opposition' to 'the Now' (yes, Now was spelled with a capital N in the book). We soon went on to read in the China room without Scott or Gwen being present, and, since the book seemed to drag on, we took advantage of the Now and sat at the table that had six lamps on it. Unfortunately for one college student, she had to cope with us turning the lamps on and off succecively through the rows. I also exposed Jere to the dreaded J-Pop during this time. And then came the third week. Ah- the third week. We read the most ridiculous book of them all, called "We're all Doing Time" by Bo Lozoff. Bo Lozoff was a man who had started a 'Hindu' ashram (notice the quotation marks) in North Carolina, and offered to have murders and other convicts live in the ashram to show their repentance to society. He had six houses built, and, supposedly, he built the main, two-story house himself. The second story was a meditation room. We later had the privilege to come to this lot ourselves. The tenants (ex-convicts and soccer moms gone wrong) recollected the stories of Bo's heroism for us. One even told us of how he lived in seclusion in the nearby forest for 120 days by building a seclusion hut. This hut, might I add, was about 8 feet x 12 feet, had one mattress, and incense burner, and a copy of the Baghavad Gita. They also told us how they were vegetarians- except for one time during the year. At the ambiguosity of this comment, my fellow TiPsters began to feel nervous. After touring the premises, and said seclusion hut, we proceeded to the meditation room. They first started talking again about how awesome Bo was, and then continued by singing (and expecting us to follow suit) as follows:

Hare Krishna

Hare Rama

coughBO IS AMAZINGcough

They did this repeatedly for about 15 minutes. Upon further investigation, we found out that the recitation of these words assure's one place in the religion of the Hare Krishnas, more commonly known as the people who wear orange in airports and try to give you pamphlets about their religion; it's some offshoot of hippy-ish Hinduism.

Note that this place was called the "Human Kindness Foundation". Their website is here http://www.humankindness.org/ .

After this, a couple of days were still in limbo, and we were told to make projects that summed up the class. Mine was about how Krishna and Jesus could have been the same person, which was so wicked awesome that it doesn't even matter that I can't remember anyone else's. While doing these, we spent alot of time in the , where Christina would tell many a story about her interesting life and face, which, of course, we all envy her for. After presenting these projects, we had a "roast and toast", which is arguably one of the most emotion-written moments of my life. Tears flew left and right, and secret loves were revealed. It was at this point we realized just how amazing our class as a whole was.

The Students

[[1]]

Yes, I'm the one hovering ominously in the back. Note that those are our subjective cartographies strewn out in front of us.

[[2]]

What cool cats. Bottom Row (left to right): Scott, Nisha, Paul, Beau, Brendan, Robert, Alex, Diana, Caitlin. Top Row: Evan, Svusch, Christina, Elan, Brandon, Annika, Sarah, Jere, Paige, Brian, GWEN!, Mackenzie.