Winter 2014 - Foundations in Integral Studies

This course is based on the Institute’s mission encompassing an interdisciplinary approach to the student’s choice of academic discipline. Topics include comparative religion and philosophy studies, psychology, biology, and an understanding of Western and Eastern paradigms. From this experience, the student develops a holistic study of human life. This includes mind, body, and spirit. This multidisciplinary emphasis intends to bridge different paradigms of thought advancing consciousness and fostering the pursuit of a global society. The course introduces students to this integral view of life and the interdisciplinary study that is the foundation of CIHS’

curriculum. (4 units) ** CIHS core all programs.

Winter 2014 - Karma, Reincarnation, and the Survival of Consciousness

Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism teach the theory of reincarnation based on karma on the premise that reincarnation aims to encourage spiritual growth. Karma refers to a cause-effect relationship: every action is a cause that produces an effect, and hence attachment to the physical dimension. There are references in the esoteric Christian traditions such as the Gnosticism and in the Gospel of Matthew. * Fulfills CIHS spiritual education requirement.

Winter 2014 - Diagnosis in Clinical Psychology

The course attempts to answer the question: why do some people have persistent problems in the realm of psychosocial adaptation to life? Issues concerning the origin, development, maintenance and persistence of maladaptive functioning will be approached from a psychosocial and psychodynamic perspective. Diagnostic categories and the DSM will be discussed, along with various traditional and complementary treatments. (4 units) ** Highly recommended by the Board of Psychology for licensure track students.

Winter 2014 - Neuropsychology:Neuroscience and Spirituality

Forms of neuropathology and of non-neurological illnesses that affect the brain can produce detrimental psychological changes in affect, thought, and behavior. Mistaking psychological consequences of somatic disease for psychopathology is a substantial problem in medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. The course examines somatic illnesses that may masquerade as psychopathology and familiarizes students with techniques for detecting neuropathology, and distinguishing between somatic and psychopathology. (4 units) * Recommended by the Board of Psychology for licensure track students.

Winter 2014 - Psychology of Mind-Body and Energy

Modern Western medicine was founded on the reductionist philosophies that treat a person as a quantifiable diagnosis. The consciousness movement that incorporates holism and systems theory has produced new ecological models of health and illness. The energy matrix of the body, the basis of healing in Eastern medicine for millennia, is explored, and its new applications in complementary medicine. The course explores holistic models of health and illness emphasizing energetic systems and their physical, immune, psycho-emotional, and spiritual effects on the whole person.

Winter 2014 - Life Force

The students will develop an understanding of the physical basis for the “aura,” the “chakras,” and the acupuncture system in terms of their behavior as physical fields. This new understanding will likely lead to many new ideas for future research and practical application, which can help test this model and will be of value to the students of this new science, healing practitioners as well as to professionals in conventional academic discipline. The overall goal of this course is to build a bridge between the traditional esoteric or clairvoyant understanding of energy healing and a new description based on scientific principles, using the latest discoveries from many fields of science. It now appears that such a comprehensive understanding of living systems is possible, and this course describes the various elements that make it up. This course is self-directed and facilitated by Dr. Claude Swanson. A minimum of four (4) students is required for the course to run.

Winter 2014 - Adv. Qualitative Research / Research Methods for Religious Studies copy 1

Advanced Qualitative Research Methods (PSY)
Qualitative research in psychology is selected as an investigative strategy when information sought is best obtained in the respondents own words and/or in a form of activities that must be observed in its natural setting in to provide a deeper and more valid reflection of the phenomena studied. Methods of subject selection, conditions, data collection and interpretation, will be examined and illustrated from diverse areas.

Research Methodology for Religious Studies
This course instructs the student in the multi-disciplinary methods for the academic study of world religions and aspects of spirituality.

Winter 2014 - Subtle Energy Systems II

This course is an exploration of the subtle world, subtle realms, subtle fields, and states of awareness. The course explores personal accounts of the subtle world, health and healing and the subtle world, soul development, involution and evolution, subtle world ethics, the subtle world of nature, and the deepening of awareness. (4 units) ** Core course for PhD Integral Health students.