The Open Center is Radiating Light in a Cold, Dark Season

"Manhattanhenge," Photo by Steve Kelley

This season sees us breaking new ground and developing core themes in our programs. In March we will offer a symposium and two seminars on the life and work of the redoubtable Peter Dale Scott, one of the most perceptive and courageous researchers alive today when it comes to understanding the “deep politics” of the United States in the last half century. We will be joined for these events by a stunning array of speakers including James Galbraith, Richard Falk, Daniel Ellsberg and James Schamus. We expect this series of events to be one of the most remarkable programs we have ever offered.

As always we maintain a strong focus on the beautiful, mystical dimensions of the three Abrahamic faiths. We are honored to host the renowned scholar of kabbalah, Moshe Idel, who will offer fresh insights on the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism and one of the most beloved spiritual teachers of the Jewish tradition. Kyriacos Markides will enlighten us on the forgotten path of eastern mystical Christianity as it has been maintained in the monasteries of Mount Athos and elsewhere in the Greek cultural sphere.  Sharifa Norton and Muinuddin Smith will speak on the influential Sufi teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan , who came to the United States in the 1920′s bearing the gift of heart-centered, mystical Islam.

In the realm of indigenous culture, we are offering in-depth work from the Mexican Indian traditions in curanderismo.  Elena Avila, who is both a psychiatric nurse and a curandera, will show how the wisdom and healing power of this shamanic stream has a great deal to give to the development of contemporary integrative medicine. And Don Oscar Miro Quesada will take us into the heart of native Peruvian healing culture with its centuries of insight into the nature of health and well-being.

We enter our 26th year at the Open Center filled with creative vitality. After all this time it still feels that we are only beginning to express the full richness that holistic and ecological understanding has to give. Wherever this worldview finds authentic expression, a life enhancing effect can be seen. So we invite you to join us in our new home on 30th Street. May you enjoy the many opportunities for learning, growth and insight that we take pleasure in offering.

“Manhattanhenge” is a term coined in 2002 by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of the American Museum of Natural History. This starburst phenomenon occurs around the time of the solstices each year when the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s street grid. The term is derived from Stonehenge in England, where the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices.