Damanhur: Cool? Cult? I can't decide yet.

If I recall correctly, PS, he said it rather baffled him when he realized he was having an experience the nature of which he couldn't explain. I think he described it as a feeling of exaltation that seemed otherworldly and very contradictory to his typically uber-rational mindset. Hence, he set out to work with meditation to see if he could determine what the nature of such experiences may be, I think...it's been several years since I read End of Faith and too many books in between.

I found myself liking Harris's manner of expression very much. His style isn't as drybones as Dawkins's. While I liked The God Delusion, I find Dawkins has only slightly more liveliness than a doctoral dissertation. I've been told I should read some of his books on evolution which are far more interestingly written; therein his heart lies, I'm guessing.

He reminds me rather too much of when I was considering doing a master's thesis and was encouraged to start looking through the abstracts for topic ideas early on in my grad school year. When I encountered one entitled, "Factors Affecting the Consistency of Frozen Potato Soup," that pretty well chilled me [pun intended] on trying to come up with an original topic on American literature. That one might well have been subtitled: "But Why the Hell Anyone But My Doctoral Committee Would Care, I've No Idea."

I don't think I could ever read any of those guys' atheist stuff, I have a lot to read these days! But you're right about early Dawkins, there was a magic to Selfish Gene or Extended Phenotype that certainly had to do with a man of vision being right where he needed to be, explaining some ultra-interesting stuff.

What Harris went through is unexpected, given what I've heard about him from elsewhere. No-one saw fit to mention that aspect of his viewpoint to me before, wonder why?

It's really not that dissimilar to me -- I was cheerfully agnostic, and in a way I still am; I don't exactly have any 'beliefs' which I take on faith, just experiences. The first book I read that interested me was a book that said, not "try believing this", but just, try doing this. (Meditation and energy work of various kinds.) And the results were so strong that I couldn't help but change what I believed. So I'm not a 'person of faith', any more than Harris is -- just a person of experience. However I have come to have great respect for religion of many kinds... well, whatever. Some people see it differently I guess.

When I encountered one entitled, "Factors Affecting the Consistency of Frozen Potato Soup," that pretty well chilled me [pun intended] on trying to come up with an original topic on American literature.

Holy crap, are you kidding me? That was a possible thesis title??

(I have no idea how higher ed works, I left school at 17.)

Well, in the food manufacturing industry, the consistency of frozen potato soup can be important. That is the sort of thing a handful of people actually get paid to worry about, so I'm not surprised to see it pop up in a thesis.

I'm more interested in factors affecting the flavor of fresh potato soup, myself.

P_Synthesis wrote:

When I encountered one entitled, "Factors Affecting the Consistency of Frozen Potato Soup," that pretty well chilled me [pun intended] on trying to come up with an original topic on American literature.

Holy crap, are you kidding me? That was a possible thesis title??

(I have no idea how higher ed works, I left school at 17.)

No, it was the title of a doctoral dissertation that was actually done.

When you considered doing a master's thesis at the college I attended, your first assignment was to begin paging through the series Dissertation Abstracts which summarizes dissertations approved for doctorate degrees bestowed in a given year in the U.S.

Oh, I'm sure that factors affecting the consistency of frozen potato soup were of great importance to people in the food production industry. I mentioned that topic because it seemed about as foreign to anything I might actually do as I could imagine. I honestly sat there laughing at how picayune a topic had to be to come up with something that someone else hadn't already done to exhaustion.

Then, when my grad research methods instructor showed me a shelf full of bound volumes of dissertations produced by friends and acquaintances of hers (she had a doctorate herself), I concluded that I would be hardpressed to come up with anything resembling an original topic or approach either one.

You could go through most of your presumed single year of grad school without ever even coming up with a thesis topic that would be approved, I learned to my dismay. One woman I talked to said if she'd had any idea it would be THAT arduous, she'd never have bothered. She had to take a year and a half beyond her year of classwork just to write her thesis because her topic wasn't approved until after her first year. Of course, needing a second year to write your thesis isn't at all unusual since your first year of graduate work is usually packed with arcane classwork leading up to producing a thesis.

It all appeared fruitless very soon indeed, so I abandoned getting an M.A. in English and years later went for a much more interesting and challenging M.A. in liberal arts via a Great Books program that didn't require a thesis. It was a damnably expensive private college but great fun overall.

Greetings! My name is yvette and I live at Damanhur. I just found this thread and would be happy to answer any questions you have about the community. Have you seen our blog? www dot damanhurinside dot com

I saw two questions in this thread that I can help shed some light on:
1. You can leave anytime, free of guilt or shame. Damanhur does not believe it is the only solution in the world, it is one option for those who wish to live in community. We are a member of GEN (the global ecovillage network), with the president of GEN-Europe being a Damanhurian, and actively encourage the efforts of ecocommunities like Findhorn and Tamera around the world.
2. You do not have to give away all your worldly possessions to live here. In the very beginning of the community, more than 30 years ago, in order to survive, people did put all they had into the community pot, but today that is no longer necessary. The economic process is transparent. If you come here to live or spend three months as a temporary citizen as part of the New Life program, you will learn all about how money flows in the community.

There are various levels of citizenship, ranging from those that live in the main community in Italy, to those that live in their own countries and come here a few times a year. You can also participate as a friend or as part of the Spiritual People. The goal is to inspire people to awaken the divinity within, which can be done in many different ways.

We also have a Facebook page called Damanhur Spiritual EcoCommunity where people can ask questions and talk about the community.

If you have any questions, I am here to serve.