Released on: October 12, 2008, 8:08 pm

Press Release Author: WJ Carrel/Author Ambassador

Industry: Education

Press Release Summary: Psychologist and award-winning author Stephen Larsen talks
about "Why We Get Stuck in Our Religious Thinking" at the Engaging the World Forum
at Jay Gould Memorial Church, Roxbury, NY, Sunday, October 26, 2008

Press Release Body: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 12, 2008
Stone Mountain Center, New Paltz, NY
Media contact: Amie Brockway (858)586-1689 or
WJ Carrel (760)218-3838


Dr. Stephen Larsen, award-winning author and Psychology Professor Emeritus from SUNY
Ulster, New York, will be the Guest Speaker at The Engaging the World Forum on
Sunday, October 26, at 3:00 p.m., in the Carriage House at Jay Gould Memorial
Reformed Church, Main Street, Roxbury, New York. His topic is "Why Do We Get Stuck
in Our Religious Thinking?" He will focus on some of the ideas put forth in his
latest book The Fundamentalist Mind: How Polarized Thinking Imperils Us All.

"The human mind has an eternal tendency to simplify the exquisite complexity and
ambiguity of living experience to a few set and familiar formulas," writes Dr.
Larsen. "The
'fundamentalist tendency' of thinking is not restricted to Evangelical Christianity
or radical Islam. It is found equally in the halls of science, in materialism and
skepticism itself, and wherever people are fearful of the unknown."

In his presentation, Dr. Larsen will provide a glimpse into the psychology,
neurology and mythology of fundamentalism and its pervasive and destructive patterns
of thought. His investigations conclude that when human beings recognize these
patterns in themselves, they can free themselves for a new beginning. Larsen
asserts that people of good will everywhere can find themselves at home in nature,
and can recognize underlying similarities in the human psyche, even those found in
seemingly unfamiliar cultural forms.

When Dr. Larsen was on the faculty at Ulster, 1968-1996, he directed a program in
consciousness studies and biofeedback that gave students a hands-on opportunity to
train themselves plus research the health benefits of biofeedback. In 1990 he
opened Stone Mountain Counseling, PC, for psychotherapy, biofeedback and training
where he continues to serve as its director.

In addition to The Fundamentalist Mind, Dr. Larsen wrote The Shaman's Doorway, the
Mythic Imagination. With his wife Robin he co-authored, A Fire in the Mind: The
Life of Joseph Campbell. Larsen was a Joseph Campbell friend and protege. In 2006
The Healing Power of Neurofeedback: The Revolutionary LENS Method for Restoring
Optimal Brain Function was published.

The Forum is open to the public. Following the presentation there will be an
opportunity for sharing thoughts and ideas. For more information, please phone
Amie Brockway at (858) 586-1689 or Rev. Richard Dykstra at 607-326-7101. The e-mail
contact is gouldchurch at catskill.net.
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Web Site: http://www.stonemountaincenter.com

Contact Details: 330 River Road Extension
New Paltz, NY 12501
(848)658-8083
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