Thursday, November 14
Time: 8 pm
Admission: $8
Presented by: Shannon Taggart , Liminal Analytics & Paranormal Vernacular
In the 1960’s, American parapsychologist Jose Silva was determined to demonstrate that psychic skills could be taught to willing adults-and children. Author Suzanne Clores (Memoirs of a Spiritual Outsider) tells of her experience in the Silva Mind Control summer camp as a nine-year-old in 1980, and how early exposure to the idea of self-improvement via super powers links to the rhetoric of American exceptionalism. This illustrated lecture highlights the trend of over-selling super-human health and happiness in American social subcultures, from the Human Potential Movement (1960-1980) to the current Personal Growth Movement (1995-present), and how the promise of a better version of oneself often obscures the real perspective shifts and insights that come from participating in self-study and contemplative disciplines that underly these social movements. Clores also will introduce her newest endeavor, The Extraordinary Project, a web-based repository of real life instances of exceptional human experience, as an antidote to the quest for super powers, and a route to conversation about inherent extraordinary capabilities.
Suzanne Clores is an author and speaker on the subject of spiritual quests and identity. Her work has appeared in Salon, The Huffington Post, and Chicago Public Radio among other venues. Her book, Memoirs of a Spiritual Outsider, charts a modern spiritual journey through esoteric spiritual traditions, from Wicca and Shamanism to Voudou and Western Sufism. She is the Founder of The Extraordinary Project, a living social history of the odd and improbable. She lives in Chicago.