CannabisFitness
Hello Friends and Fellow Explorers...
Straight to the point, I'm looking for some help. Namely, I need a number of smart and brave explorers, or otherwise creative misfits and academic mavericks, to assist me in evaluating my textbook along with the courses it supports.
Are you one of these explorers, misfits, or mavericks? Let's see...
For starters, consider the following questions:
1. What are you doing with your life right now, and are you
satisfied with it?
2. What are your dreams, and are you putting at least some
energy into pursuing and fulfilling them?
3. What do you aim to do with your life, or the remainder thereof?
If these are the types of questions you often ask yourself, or at least
find them worthy of consideration, you may very well enjoy and benefit from the exploration offered in my textbook and its courses. More questions...
Like yin and yang, this exploration has two sides; that is, two complementary aspects that comprise the whole.
On one side there is the exploration of the individual—that is, the exploration of one’s own self, what we might see as the personal journey of each human being as a unique person-in-the-making.
On the other side there is the exploration of the whole—that is, exploration of the entire human population (an exceptional species-in-the-making), as well as exploration of the whole of creation, that is, the entire cosmos-in-the-making, with its myriad of interconnected-interdependent relationships big and small, from the largest galactic unit to the tiniest quantum bit and everything in between, including us humans, who, through our rapidly expanding consciousness and technological power to perceive, can now see all this.
So that’s the great extent and challenge of this two-sided exploration; it’s the heroic journey to explore one’s unique person-in-the-making in relation to the whole of creation and its ongoing evolution.
Individually and collectively we are indeed on a hero’s journey, a task made all the more challenging once we realize and admit that the fate of our planetary spaceship—including billions of our own kind, plus trillions mostly unlike us but fundamentally our kin no less--now hangs in the balance; and, at this point in life’s evolution, this balance mostly rests on us.
So here’s our answer to how shall we shall solve or otherwise work around this most difficult problem we face, a challenge that amounts to “tipping the balance” in favor of life, and a good life at that.
In this classroom we begin to tip the balance by working on ourselves (where better to start than where we have the most control?).
Thus (in initial response to the questions I posed earlier), we begin to do this by asking ourselves the following questions: What are my passions in life? What are my interests? What do I really enjoy doing? What do I love? What is my bliss? This is how we begin our two-sided exploration of self and world.
Which brings us to the Cannabis Fitness Challenge #4, an introductory 4-session survey course that gets this exploration going via implementation and testing of the ideas and methods put forth in my textbook Movies, Marijuana, and Mind: An Exploration of the Thirteenth Configuration (published in 2018).
As with the courses it supports, this textbook serves to assist in this two-sided hero’s journey. Or so it goes on paper. Thus, now it’s time to turn words into action or otherwise put theory into practice, which is to say, this “novel experiment” needs to be tested to see how it works.
That said, my immediate aim is to locate and attract a select group of folks who might be interested in participating in the Challenge #4 course, including a few who might help me plan and execute (that is, co-produce) this project. We’re also seeking a number of sponsors who see the importance of what we’re doing here and would support this ambitious task of saving our planet and us along with it. After all, isn’t this the ultimate promise of cannabis and the greater aspirations it inspires in us?
Would you like to help with this endeavor?
Do you basically understand and resonate with what I’m saying and proposing here? Are you interested in the subject matter expressed on the flyer? Do you have experience or expertise you are willing to share? Do you have a hungry head, an open mind that loves to learn?
Are you in a transitional period in your life, uncertain what to do next, ready to explore new territory and chance new possibilities? Are you bored, tired, or frustrated with the status quo and primed to risk something different? Do you have hopes, plans, and dreams of helping the Earth and humanity?
If you can answer Yes to any of above questions, you might very well be someone I would like to see involved in this endeavor, whether as a sponsor, a production team member, and/or a participant.
Ideally, I seek a diverse crew with many viewpoints, talents, and interests. As long as you are 21 years of age or older, my main requirement is that you are curious and motivated, come with an open mind (best to leave any group affiliations and agendas at the door), and be ready to learn and contribute to the process in accord with your interests and talents.
I would also stress that my classroom is a multidisciplinary endeavor, as much for artists as it is for academics. My classroom also supports doing good business as well as good research. Thus I encourage participation by anyone meeting the above requirements, whatever their age, areas of interest, range of experience and level of expertise, novice to expert, casual explorer to formal researcher.
Importantly, while this initial course mainly focuses on cannabis consumption, my classroom is geared to help anyone who is curious, perhaps especially those at the cusp; that is, folks in transition from one period of their life to the next, be it young adults uncertain about their future, wobbling middle-age career changers (like me), or recent retirees wondering what to do next.
Finally, keep in mind that the Cannabis Fitness Challenge #4 is but the first in a series of courses I plan to offer in the next few years. Most immediately (next year?), these courses include:
1. History of the Sixties on Film: A most extraordinary course for a most extraordinary decade (the subject of my master’s thesis)
2. Space Freaks and Science Fiction Geeks: Because the future is now, and it’s coming faster than ever. Besides, exploring outer space and visiting other worlds is so damn cool!
3. Foundations of Cannabis Fitness & Finding Your Bliss in Movie Class: An Exploration of Wise Cannabis Use, Addiction Management, and Higher Purpose. (a follow-up course to further test and apply my textbook)
4. Understanding Cosmogenesis: An exploration of the hopeful evolutionary vision of Jesuit priest-paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin as found in his seminal book The Phenomenon of Man
5. Cinema, Cannabis, and the Maturation of Human Consciousness: A Study of the Human Condition with Love, Imagination, and Reason (this is the main course upon which my textbook is built)
6. Cinema-Yoga International: Promoting Intercultural Understanding, Human-to-Human Connection, and Global Community through the Foreign Film
So you see, most of my ‘film & philosophy’ courses cover a multidisciplinary range of subjects and topics beyond cannabis. In any event, my classroom and courses always aim to provide a stimulating, challenging, and rewarding learning experience in a most friendly, casual, and enjoyable atmosphere.
Still Interested?
If so, please think about all that's been shared herein. Consider the various questions I've posed, jot down a few answers, and ponder a few possibilities. Take a quick inventory of yourself and your life, your situation and experience with cannabis and other stuff, your level of interest and expertise, your strengths and weaknesses, your questions and concerns, your degree of engagement and commitment, your readiness to do something new and different. Finally, I would like you to seriously consider this call for help, both how this endeavor might help you and how you might help it.
If after doing this you're still interested in somehow supporting this endeavor I would like to talk with you. But first, once rested and refreshed, please proceed to the second page of this introduction letter where I share more about me and my work, the Cannabis Fitness Challenge #4, and a bunch of other stuff, including some personal questions, comments, and concerns.
Thanks much for your interest and consideration!
Dean
A hero is someone who has given his or her life
to something bigger than oneself.
Joseph Campbell
November 13, 2019
