M&M Philosophy Current Meeting Schedule and Past Meeting Topics
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June 2009
Tuesday, June 2: Talk to me. A series of exercises to focus attention and address other people in decidedly unusual ways.
Tuesday, June 9: Going Within. Ways and means and methods to employ in a search for one’s personal subjective truth.
Tuesday, June 16: Philosopher Spotlight. Meister Eckhart O.P. (c. 1260–c. 1328). A German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in Thuringia.
Tuesday, June 23: Audio Lecture. (April 28, 1977) Richard Rose -- Zen and Common Sense -- Kent State.
Tuesday, June 30: Crying. What is its purpose? What is going on? Physiologically? Psychologically? Emotionally?
May 2009
Tuesday, May 5: Rorschach Ink Blot Test. We’ll take the test that psychologists use to examine the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of their patients.
Tuesday, May 12: DMT: The Spirit Molecule, by Rick Strassman, M.D. A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. A book review.
Tuesday, May 19: Effortless Meditation. Guest practitioner Heidi Munn, of Pittsburgh, leads us in practicing this unique liberating form of meditation.
Tuesday, May 26: Living Luminaries. (2007). The Spiritual Cinema Circle. Volume 7. Recommended by M&M meeting attendee. DVD viewing.
April 2009
Tuesday, April 7: Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience. Veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan recount their war experiences in this Oscar-nominated documentary, which collects the writings of soldiers and their families to give a deeply personal view of American troops' involvement in these conflicts. DVD viewing.
Tuesday, April 14: Siddhartha. (1922). An allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse dealing with the spiritual journey of an Indian boy called Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha. This 9th novel of Hesse’s was published in 1922, after he had spent some time in India in the 1910s. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s. The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). The two words together mean "one who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". Book review.
Tuesday, April 21: Backing into Wisdom. Report on the activities, talks, discussions and exercises from the April 18-19 weekend metaphysical conference of the TAT Foundation.
Tuesday, April 28: The Bucket List. (2007). Written by Justin Zackham, directed by Rob Reiner, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Two terminally ill men on a road trip with a wish list of things to do before they "kick the bucket." DVD viewing.
March 2009
Tuesday, March 3: Into the Wild. DVD film viewing. Sean Penn directs this film based on author Jon Krakauer's true story of a young man who gives up everything to lead a solitary life in the wild, trekking across harsh and beautiful Alaska.
Tuesday, March 10: Point-In-Time Survey. A questionnaire designed to take a snapshot of you in a 24-hour period, illuminating the tracks that you leave in your life.
Tuesday, March 17: What makes me unique? We’ll take part in some activities that help us pinpoint our strengths and weaknesses.
Tuesday, March 24: Dream Interpretation. We’ll discuss what various experts say our dreams mean and embark on a week-long
study of our own sleeping mental messages.
Tuesday, March 31: Dreams, revisited / Message in a Bottle. Reporting on our week of dream observation, we’ll share our interpretation efforts. Also, we’ll put philosophic messages in bottles to ‘someone out there’ and release them into the Ohio River.
February 2009
Tuesday, Feb. 3: Chakra Balancing. Self hypnosis DVD. You won’t believe your eyes!
Tuesday, Feb. 10: Practice of Yoga—again! Long time practitioner will lead us in some breathing and centering yoga (last month, this scheduled yoga was cancelled due to a winter storm). Bring comfortable clothes
Tuesday, Feb. 17: One act plays. Local playwright, actor and Paradox Book Store proprietor will do a reading with fellow actors of his original works.
Tuesday, Feb. 24: The Devil’s in the Details: A look at the simple steps we do, don’t do, or half-way do to find clarity. Reporting on activities & discussions at a two-day winter retreat held at The Linsly Outdoor Center (LOC) in Raccoon Creek State Park, 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, PA.
January 2009
Tuesday, Jan. 6: The Flowering of Human Consciousness (Part 1). Eckhart Tolle lecture. DVD viewing.
Tuesday, Jan. 13: Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll. What do transcendentalists really want, and why? What are they trying to transcend? What do they want to transcend to?
Tuesday, Jan. 20: Writing our own obituaries. We'll write what we hope to be remembered for and as having been. Discussion follows.
Tuesday, Jan. 27: Practice of Yoga. Long time practitioner will lead us in an evening of experiencing this ancient art. Bring comfortable clothes.
December 2008
Tuesday, Dec. 2: Talking Stick: Themes will be decided upon by meeting attendees and each will, in turn, talk and take as much uninterrupted time as they want.
Tuesday, Dec. 9: Cold Fusion. Powerpoint presenation by Dan Henline. Implications of this possible energy source for our society.
Tuesday, Dec. 16: Exiting Nirvana. Book review of an autistic woman's journey out of stability into our world.
Tuesday, Dec 23: Your Natal Chart; influences at the time of your birth. Give your birthdate, time & place and Keith Peluchette will have your natal chart waiting for this meeting.
Tuesday, Dec 30: Our year in Review. Last meeting of the year. What did we learn or gain?
November 2008
Tuesday, Nov. 4: Koans. What is your view on your thinking and its causes? Are you out of control?
Should life goal attainment have priority over concerns for physical or mental health? What is wisdom?
Who or what are you? We'll spend an evening focusing on everyday koans like these.
Tuesday, Nov. 11: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Film viewing. In 1995, author and Elle magazine
editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that put him in a coma; he awakened mute and completely paralyzed.
Mathieu Amalric stars in this adaptation of Bauby's autobiography, which he dictated by blinking.
Tuesday, Nov. 18: Open mic night. Bring original poetry, essays, sing songs, play music, dance, challenge us.
Let 'er rip. Each person gets their moment in the spotlight and we'll all enjoy each other's offerings.
Tuesday, Nov. 25: Talking Stick: Themes will be decided upon by meeting attendees and each will, in turn,
take as much uninterrupted time as they want.
October 2008
Tuesday, Oct. 7: The Razor's Edge. We'll watch this 1984 film remake based on W. Somerset Maugham's classic novel. Larry Darrell (Bill Murray) returns from the battlefields of World War I a changed man, and then dedicates his life to finding its meaning.
Tuesday, Oct. 14: Friendship. What do the following - best friends, casual acquaintances, work colleagues, childhood, middle age and old age friendships - have in common?
Tuesday, Oct. 21: Fasting. Have you ever gone one whole day without eating anything? How about two days? Or three? We'll discuss this age old practice and maybe even try it ourselves.
Tuesday, Oct. 28: Schizophrenia: A mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Diagnosis is based on the patient's self-reported experiences and observed behavior. No laboratory test for schizophrenia currently exists. Onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood. Guest lecturer.
September 2008
Tuesday, Sept. 2: Truth, Lies and Ultimate Reality. Audio recording of a 1992 Univ. of Pittsburgh lecture given by local philosopher, Richard Rose.
Tuesday, Sept. 9: Dragons of Eden; Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, by Carl Sagan. A book review. Very interesting information on our two-hemisphere brains.
Tuesday, Sept. 16: Blind Man's Bluff. Go through what unsighted people live with daily as we walk blindfolded into downtown Wheeling for a unique challenge; afterwards sitting alongside the river to discuss our experiences.
Tuesday, Sept. 23: Racism and current presidential politics. What is change? What are we? Where have we been? Where are we going? Concerning race, what are we Americans?
Tuesday, Sept. 30: Mass Extinction. If human civilization ends tomorrow through natural catastrophe, human caused annihilation or meteor strike, what will have been lost?
August 2008
Tuesday, Aug. 5: Razor's Edge. Lecture recorded circa 1994 at the University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with speaker Bart Marshall, Green Beret Vietnam
veteran and philosopher.
Tuesday, Aug. 12: Life Changing War Experiences: We invite veterans of any war
to share their perspective on what they have lived through.
Tuesday, Aug. 19: Atheism. A stand against something or for something?
Discussing and discovering the ins and outs of this alternative human position on metaphysics.
Tuesday, Aug. 26: Practical Mysticism; A Little Book for Normal People,
published in 1914 by author and British Christian philosopher Evelyn Underhill. A book review.
April 2008
Tuesday, April 1: Yodeling Dick Brooks. Local legend performer/songwriter sits in for the regularly scheduled guest musician, Guy Shelley.
Tuesday, April 8: Modern Mystics Revisited: Making a dynamic search for the ultimate meaning of your life your career. Journeys and adventures on the road toward absolute wisdom.
Tuesday, April 15: Iraq War Veterans. What have they become in the wartime paradigm that they lived through? We hope to spend an evening with local veterans of the current conflict in the Middle East.
Tuesday, April 22: The Sex Connection: A study of Desire, Seduction and Compulsion, by Alan Fitzpatrick. Book Review.
Tuesday, April 29: Show & Tell. Share something from your life! A pet, a vehicle, a photo, a story'anything at all.
March 2008
Tuesday, March 4: Synchronicity. C. G. Jung. 'The concept of synchronicity indicates a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of chance is involved.'
Tuesday, March 11: On Becoming a Modern Mystic: Can you make a dynamic search for the ultimate meaning of your life your career? The journey and adventures on the road toward absolute wisdom.
Tuesday, March 18: Guest Musician. We invite a local musician to share their unique sounds'introducing to us the music that accompanies their life.
Tuesday, March 25: Guest Musician, Too! An accomplished guitarist and instructor plays and shares his passion for sound waves. Listening, discussing, contemplating.
February 2008
Tuesday, February 5: Philosopher Spotlight: Ayn Rand (1905'82). Author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Tuesday, February 12: We, the Body: How we change'our outlooks on life, mortality and fate'as we age.
Tuesday, February 19: Guest MC. Come along on a ride with another philosopher who takes us where their fascination lies.
Tuesday, February 26: Synchronicity. C. G. Jung. 'The concept of synchronicity indicates a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of chance is involved.'
January 2008
Tuesday, January 8: ESP Experiment Results. Join us as we reveal the results of our holiday ESP take-home experiment.
Tuesday, January 15: The Albigen System: Examining a local philosopher's system for finding wisdom. 'The purpose is to find the Truth' meaning self-definition, and the true relation of man to his fellow man, and a true understanding of life's events.'
Tuesday, January 22: Into Great Silence. (2005) ' Footsteps on wooden floors, the shuffle of cloth robes, birdcalls, and wind. This film has been described as a mirror: you bring to it what you are. In that sense, the quiet and solitude are quite confrontational, asking, what is your life's purpose, can you live with your thoughts, and, what is left when you have given all for God? A documentary about life in a Carthusian monastery.
Tuesday, January 29: What is your philosophy? We talk. Join us.
December 2007
Tuesday, December 4: What Are You Becoming? There's a gap as wide as life and death between understanding what we are and becoming it. Report on the 2007 TAT Fall Philosophic Workshop.
Tuesday, December 11: Yoga Field Trip: Join us as we visit yoga instructor Kyyaa Miller at the Howard Long Wellness Center for an evening of yoga. We meet at the library auditorium. Bring comfortable clothing.
Tuesday, December 18: Notes from the Underground. We examine and discuss three one-page treatises on 'The Most Important Subject in Life' written by a lawyer, a doctor and a bi-lingual engineer.
Tuesday, December 25: ESP Homework Assignment. Take part in an experiment in Extra Sensory Perception to bookend our year's activities.
November 2007
Tuesday, November 6: Confrontation. Do you know what you're talking about? Focusing questions on each other's assumptions.
Tuesday, November 13: My Life With Yoga: Do you know what yoga is? Guest practitioner and teacher, Kyyaa Miller, shares & shows what you may not know.
Tuesday, November 20: Do you see what I see? An evening of conversation with a local artist who views all things from another point of view.
Tuesday, November 27: Professional Thinkers Cometh. Two guest speakers, 'professional thinkers' and full time philosophers living in Pittsburgh visit our group to compare notes from north of the border.
October 2007
Tuesday, October 2: Open Rant. Come one, come all. Fifteen minutes of open air time for each volunteer speaker. Participants get to say what's on their mind, uninterrupted for ¼ hour. After which, they will be questioned by group listeners.
Tuesday, October 9: Share & Tell: Bring up to three things'Bring an object, a story, a poem, a pet, you name it. Share something that has profound meaning in your life.
Tuesday, October 16: Descending Out of Madness. An evening's conversation with James J. Burns, III, of Pittsburgh, author of At Home With the Inner Self.
Tuesday, October 23: Professional Thinker Cometh. Surprise guest speaker, 'professional thinker' and full time philosopher visits our group to compare notes from north of the border.
Tuesday, October 30: The Fountain. "Death is the road to awe."
Writer/director Darren Aronofsky says the film is not meant to provide answers, but to raise the big questions: "trying to find out the reason of why we're here and what is life and what is love. And what happens when you die. Starring Hugh Jackman.
September 2007
Tuesday, September 4: What are you becoming? Report on a weekend philosophic fall workshop attended by M&M Philosophy group members. The TAT Foundation, an area organization formed around a quest to discover life's deepest philosophical questions, organizes this Aug. 31'Sept. 2 event. We'll report what we discovered that weekend.
Tuesday, September 11: The Final Vision: Spending an evening examining the booklet of this intriguing title from A Course in Miracles, Chapter 31.
Tuesday, September 18: We Windmills. Do trees create wind by waving their branches? (Borrowed Question) What are you doing (causing) and what is being done to you? Do you decide, or do, anything? Are you always prompted by outside circumstances? What can you do? Open discussion. Bring your mind to this night's conversation.
Tuesday, September 25: Philosophy on foot. We're taking it to the streets! Weather permitting, we're going to walk down to the river and spend some time talking about the water that's passed under our bridges. Bring your own inspired items (photos, memorabilia, favorite poem, story, adventure, food, etc.).
August 2007
Tuesday, August 7: Film viewing: The Last Holiday. Queen Latifah plays Georgia Byrd, a reserved, church-going New Orleans department-store worker, in a remake of this 1950. When diagnosed with a terminal illness, Georgia throws caution to the wind, quits her job and heads to Europe to accomplish everything she'd been putting off.
Tuesday, August 14: Philosopher spotlight: William James (1842 '1910). An influential pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who wrote books on the psychology of religious experience and mysticism and the philosophy of pragmatism. 'Religion...is a man's total reaction upon life.' 'W. James
Tuesday, August 21: Meditation: Methods & Exercises for Centering at Any Time. Guest presenter, Dorothy Jones, Ph.D., Transpersonal Psychologist: 'This evening will focus on tools and practices, both formal and very casual, that create the calm, centered, meditative state that produces greater peace and wisdom in our selves as well as a more harmonious life with all around us.'
Tuesday, August 28: Who are you? Self-realization has been called the discovery of our real identity. Can you become who you really are (supposed to be)?
July 2007
Tuesday, July 3: Social Mores Exposed. An in-your-face experience of our unspoken rules being confronted or broken. Film viewing: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Tuesday, July 10: Book Review: Silence, Simplicity, and Solitude; A Guide for Spiritual Retreat, by David A. Cooper.
Tuesday, July 17: A Course in Miracles: Forgiving Ourselves and Others. True forgiveness benefits ourselves. Dorothy Jones, Ph.D., Transpersonal Psychologist, will lead a presentation on a powerful alternative to the eye-for-an-eye paradigm'uncovering the healing power of forgiveness.
Tuesday, July 24: Reincarnation. An evening of discussion about life, cosmology and after death possibilities with Helen van Nattter, author of A Communion with Angles.
Tuesday, July 31: Freedom. Are we free? What does this word imply in our culture? What does it imply in other cultures? A multicultural exploration of this 'fundamental'
June 2007
Tuesday, June 5: Spotlight: Peace Pilgrim. For 28 years, a silver haired woman calling herself only "Peace Pilgrim" walked more than 25,000 miles. She vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." Her message was both simple and profound.
Tuesday, June 12: The Final Vision. Examining Chapter 31 from A Course in Miracles.
Tuesday, June 19: River Walk. Open-air philosophy with friends and a walking meditation exercise.
Tuesday, June 26: Writing Ourselves. A self-inquiry writing exercise with discussion.
May 2007
Tuesday, May 1: Jean-Paul Sartre. Spotlighting the existentialist philosopher & author of Being and Nothingness.
Tuesday, May 8: Murder Suicide. Examining rampages, suicide bombing, etc.
Tuesday, May 15: My Dinner with André. Film viewing & conversation.
Tuesday, May 22: Every day Evolution: All around us in daily life. Guest presenter shares fascination with this widely discussed theory.
Tuesday, May 29: Just Talk. We'll meet in the library auditorium and just' talk!
April 2007
Tuesday, April 3: Epistemology. Examining the limits, nature and validity of knowledge.
Tuesday, April 10: Jacob's Ladder. Film viewing with discussion.