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Ralph Waldo Emerson proposed that we should have an experiential approach to spiritualty that he termed “an original relation with the universe.” Building on this idea, Dr. Heide will present an overview of early experiences that shaped his own spiritual outlook.  Raised in the Episcopal Church, Doc was strongly affected by the work of Krishnamurti, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Charles Tart, Emerson, Huston Smith, and others.  Despite a longstanding tradition of intellectual debate on these topics, Doc has found that his most compelling spiritual motivations are idiosyncratic and first-hand.

Frederick (aka Doc) Heide is Professor Emeritus at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University in San Francisco.  He has written about meditation, spirituality, and other topics in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Psychophysiology, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, and elsewhere.  In 2022 he published Tangled in Wonder, a songbook spanning almost four decades of original writing. Doc is best known locally as co-founder and performer with Northern Sky Theater, where he has written or co-written over 20 musicals including Belgians in Heaven and Packer Fans from Outer Space. This fall he will appear onstage at Northern Sky’s Gould Theater in When Pigs Fly, which he is currently writing with colleague Lee Becker.