BA and MA in Health Arts and Sciences Programs
When I was a child growing up in the 1970s, everyone knew what the future would look like: flying cars, space colonies, weather control, and the conquest of all disease, certainly by the year 2000. Today, that future is quite obviously running a little behind schedule, and we question whether it will happen at all. The technologies of domination and control upon which we placed such high hopes are failing us, as a multiplicity of crises -- in the economy, the educational system, medicine, soil, water, air, energy, climate and ecology -- converge upon us. I have spent most of my adult life studying the origin, progression, purpose, and resolution of the defining crises of our time. After a period of despair, I came to realize that they are a birth crisis, propelling humanity into a new world. We are participating in a collective metamorphosis, both of civilization and of the individual. I call it The More Beautiful World our Hearts Tell us is Possible. My work is dedicated to the birthing of that world. Part of the shift that is underway is a transition from control-based technologies, which seek to dominate nature, to technologies that seek to align with nature's harmonies and extend them into new realms. Most of the medical technologies we call "holistic" are of this latter sort. Instead of seeking to dictate hormone levels, cut out body parts we deem unnecessary, kill bacteria, and otherwise prevail over a nature deemed unfriendly, the new technologies restore balance, tap into the healing potential of the body and nature, and see illness as a transformational process that can touch all levels of a human being. Underlying this shift is a deeper transformation in the human sense of self. If we are discrete, separate beings in a world that is other, then more for me is less for you, and nature is indeed fundamentally unfriendly. The ideology of separate, competing selves has long dominated economics, biology, and many other fields. But the New Physics and the New Biology are changing this, reflecting a parallel change on a personal level as we realize our connectedness to other people, to nature, and indeed to all the universe. My interest in the transformation of science, civilization, and human consciousness is intimately tied to my interest in holistic health. Illness is a lack of health, a lack of wholeness. But what is this self, that is to be made whole? If, as today, the self is culturally defined to be less than the true self, then sickness is built into the culture, and the ways in which we are sick are the somatization of deep cultural beliefs and ways of being. Today is an exciting time, because thanks to the converging crises, our very identity, our sense of self, is in flux. Accordingly, diseases that are incurable from the control paradigm are often readily healed through holistic therapies. As a healer, I see myself as an agent of other people's self-healing; as a teacher I see myself as an agent of other people's self-education. If I can be a channel for something you need, you will feel drawn to work with me. I will catalyze many "Aha!" moments in which you will see the deep context of your studies, and of your developmental path. You will discover exhilarating connections among personal, intellectual, and social phenomena that you always suspected were linked. I will challenge you in ways that will help you to discover new gifts and to clarify your purpose as a thinker, teacher, and healer. I am an intellectual generalist with knowledge of many fields. In science, my areas of strength are physics, genetics & evolution, ecology, mathematics, and "anomalies". Much of my recent research has been in economics and money, specifically gift economies and local currencies. In health fields, my expertise is in diet and nutrition, and the mind-body-society connection. I also have studied yoga, herbalism, TCM, and numerous other modalities, though not at a professional level. A bit of biographical information: I live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with my three children. In my twenties I lived in Taiwan, a place still dear to my heart. I used to teach in Penn State's Department of Science, Technology, and Society In addition to speaking and writing, I do occasional part-time work for an ecological builder, which help keeps me moored to physical reality. I am mostly self-educated. Educational Background: BA in Mathematics and Philosophy, Yale University.
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Charles Eisenstein, BA