German students are offered a path to happiness in four semesters
Shelves with esoteric literature in bookstores are overflowing, monasteries are being reorganized into meditation resorts. It seems that residents of Germany are in search of inner guidance without identifying themselves with any faith, scientists conclude. According to a study by the University of Bielefeld, half of the respondents are interested precisely in spirituality, not religion.
Against this backdrop, a unique study program ‘Spirituality and Cross-Cultural Exchange’ was launched at the University of Freiburg (Universit?t Freiburg) in 2011. Most of the students, whose curriculum includes yoga, meditation and prayers among other things, are well over 30.
‘The word “spirituality” has become fashionable,’ agrees the program director, holder of two doctorate degrees Bernhard Uhde. ‘That is precisely why we must make this concept an integral part of university education and a subject of academic debate. After all, the market is the market, but one cannot do without an academic foundation.’
Religious scholars, theologians, quantum physics experts and brain researchers are involved in creating this foundation together with students. According to the dean, they draw on the personal experience of program participants – religious and spiritual – and interpret it based on humanities, natural science and neurological research.
Christian Butscher has plenty of experience to interpret. The 45-year-old bank employee had been practicing meditation for six years before enrolling in the program. It all started with a deep life crisis that led him… to a monastery. But not to take monastic vows, just for the weekend. ‘I don't know what happened to me there, but life became easier,’ he shared with journalists from the S?ddeutsche Zeitung.
What is spirituality and how to translate this concept from the theoretical to the practical – these are the key questions of the course, whose authors categorically distance themselves from the word ‘esotericism’. ‘Personal freedom’, ‘Friendship with God’, ‘Criteria for spiritual orientation’, ‘Self-denial in the context of Eastern teachings’, ‘Does religion make you healthy’, ‘Solidarity and justice’ – these and other seminars are attended by students over two years, in person and online.
Then each of them must apply the knowledge gained in practice by taking a meditation course. There is a choice of various techniques, from Zen Buddhist to Christian contemplative prayer. The goal is to determine what happens in the brain during meditation. And how these processes affect the lifestyle of an individual and society as a whole. Those who can answer these existential questions within the course are awarded a ‘Diploma of Advanced Studies’ (DAS) – a diploma of advanced studies. True, becoming spiritually advanced is not a cheap pleasure. For four semesters you will have to shell out four thousand euros. But the participants will be spiritually enriched and internally liberated, hopes the program director.
The complete opposite of this rhetoric is heard at a university where seminars on feng shui and ‘dowsing’ are included in the curriculum. Future landscape architects roam the picturesque Bavarian countryside with so-called divining rods under the guidance of Stefan Br?nnle, a lecturer at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf). He believes in ‘dowsing’ as a method of searching for underground resources – springs, minerals, treasures or simply deeply buried cables on construction sites.
For this, according to folk tradition, an L-shaped rod or wire and a ‘special intuition’ are required, which the teacher tries to develop in students during practical classes. Science is skeptical of the ancient art of dowsing, as its effect has not yet been proven. Most modern architects, builders and archaeologists prefer to use traditional physical methods to search for objects of interest.
To supplement their arsenal with esoteric methods, students of the university are offered an elective course in ‘geomancy’ – ‘divination by the earth’. It also includes the Far Eastern practice of feng shui, with the help of which future garden and park builders learn to search for flows of energy ‘qi’. According to Taoism, it indicates favorable places for construction and helps to ‘correctly’ lay out plots.
To accusations of heresy, the head of the university's geomancy course responds simply: there is demand for it. ‘When our graduates receive orders for alternative methods, they will be able to fulfill them because they studied this subject,’ he explained in an interview with Spiegel Online.
Such arguments drive critics of esotericism into a rage. ‘This is the complete opposite of science,’ ‘you can't teach students to profit from any nonsense,’ ‘esotericism has no place at the university’ – such opinions are heard in public opinion polls, internet forums, and scathing articles.
But it is no secret that the main task of modern university education is to teach a person to think critically. The creator of the course ‘Spirituality and Cross-Cultural Exchange’, Bernhard Uhde, in turn, hopes that his brainchild will prompt students to correct their, perhaps, still insufficiently critical view of esotericism.