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Summer Schools in Session! Classes start Monday, June 3 you can still register: 1. To register:Sign In (returningmembers) or Create an Account(new to Osher) 2. Click Register(under the Summer 2025 block) 3. FIRST add a Membership to your cart 4. Search for a course and Add to Cart. Repeat to select additional courses 5. Click Check Out.Follow the prompts to complete registration and Pay > Summer 2025 > Search by Subject > American Wisdom Tradition

American Wisdom Tradition   

  • NEW! NEW! The Soul of the Indian: A Philosophical Visit to the Indian Encampment
  • Dates: 6/10/2025 - 6/10/2025
    Times: 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Colonial Williamsburg
    Room: Bassett Trace Nature Trail
    Instructor(s): Michael Lorence
    Fee: $0.00

    Charles Eastman, born in 1858 and later named Ohíye S'a, was of Santee Dakota, English, and French ancestry. He is considered the first Native American author to write American history from the Indigenous point of view. In his classic memoir, The Soul of the Indian (1911), Eastman brings to life the rich spirituality and morality of Native Americans as they existed before extended contact with Europeans. It is a rare firsthand expression of the foundations of American wisdom, which we will explore with Mr. Russell Reed (Atakapa of Louisiana), experimental archaeologist and past manager of American Indian sites at Colonial Williamsburg and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

  • THIS CLASS IS AT CAPACITY. If you would like to be added to the wait list, click the 'Add to Wait List' button below. 
 

  • NEW! NEW! A Walk in Woods: the Wisdom of Silence
  • Dates: 6/12/2025 - 6/12/2025
    Times: 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
    Days: Th
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Colonial Williamsburg
    Room: Bassett Trace Nature Trail
    Instructor(s): Diana Lorence
    Fee: $0.00

    During her seven years in the woods, Diana Lorence of Innermost House found herself practicing a feelingful form of what she later learned is called "forest bathing." Walking in silence amidst the surrounding beauty of the woods, bathed in that sweet air, the delicate passingness of nature altered her sense of time and place, until the boundaries between herself and the world softly relaxed, and gave way to a sense of oneness Diana calls "timeless time." Every morning in the woods is then the first morning, again and again forever. Please join Diana for a gentle guided walk in the beauty of our own Bassett Woods.

  • If you do not see the “Request Course or Add to Cart” button below, there are 3 possible reasons: 1) Registration may not be open yet OR , 2) You have not added a Membership to your cart (not applicable if you have already purchased membership) OR, 3) You are not logged in: Click to Sign-In
 

  • NEW! NEW! Consuming the Wisdom Tradition: The Gentle Art of Consumer Wisdom
  • Dates: 6/24/2025 - 6/24/2025
    Times: 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
    Days: Tu
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Boswel Hall
    Room: Room 20
    Instructor(s): Michael Lorence
    Fee: $0.00

    In this timely invitation to the American Wisdom Tradition, Michael Lorence is joined by special guest Dr. Michael Luchs, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Marketing at the W&M Mason School of Business, a leading expert in the research field of Consumer Wisdom. “I think of wisdom as the art and science of thriving," says Professor Luchs. "More than ever, I believe that wisdom is something we all can learn, and that how wisely we choose to use our resources can have a profound effect on our well-being – and on others as well.” Please join us for this philosophical and practical exploration of a subject of interest to us all today: What does it mean to be wise in a consumer stage of the American Wisdom Tradition?

  • If you do not see the “Request Course or Add to Cart” button below, there are 3 possible reasons: 1) Registration may not be open yet OR , 2) You have not added a Membership to your cart (not applicable if you have already purchased membership) OR, 3) You are not logged in: Click to Sign-In
 

  • Seven Years Alone in the Woods: A True Story
  • Dates: 6/26/2025 - 6/26/2025
    Times: 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
    Days: Th
    Sessions: 1
    Building: Campus Center
    Room: Room 159
    Instructor(s): Diana Lorence
    Fee: $0.00

    For seven years, Diana Lorence and her husband lived alone in an unelectrified, twelve-by-twelve-foot house they built themselves, hidden in the woods of Northern California, in a world lit only by fire. Without telephone or computer, without automobile or access to stores, Diana’s Innermost Life answered her deepest need for something we have all left behind. Please join us for this true story in words and pictures of what it is like to live for years of your life, literally out of this world.

  • If you do not see the “Request Course or Add to Cart” button below, there are 3 possible reasons: 1) Registration may not be open yet OR , 2) You have not added a Membership to your cart (not applicable if you have already purchased membership) OR, 3) You are not logged in: Click to Sign-In
 

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