Current and Upcoming Programs

~Streaming live on Youtube unless otherwise noted~

Dimensions of Light

Forum: Saturday, October 18th, 2025

2-4 pm (PDT)

In-person at Concord Hall, 1407 Chapala Street, and Live on YouTube

Come explore the depths of the Mariana Trench, the interior of the atom, ride gravity waves, Einstein Rings, and Black Holes. Enjoy light in the Gardens of Giverny and Shelley’s poetry; honor Divali, and learn from the illumination of mystics.

 

~ Click HERE for a printer-friendly flyer ~

Presenters: Russ & Gerry Lewin

Monday Night Salon Series: Openness is the New Mindfulness

How Cultivating Openness
Can Foster Flourishing


Monday October 27, 2025
7:00 – 8:30 pm (PST)

Presenter: Jonathan Schooler
Concord Hall, 1407 Chapala Street,
Santa Barbara, CA
Live and Live-streaming*
Free and Open to All

This lecture/discussion explores how cultivating the personality trait of openness could foster individual and community flourishing. Dr. Jonathan Schooler presents evidence that openness to experience—linked to creativity, intellectual humility, reduced prejudice, and concern for humanity’s future—can be systematically enhanced through targeted interventions. The presentation reveals how simple daily practices—asking meaningful questions, breaking routines, and engaging with art—cultivate the open-mindedness essential for reducing authoritarianism, enhancing cross-cultural understanding, and building thriving societies.

 

 

Jonathan Schooler, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara, Director of UCSB’s Center for Mindfulness and Human Potential, and Acting Director of the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind. His research intersects philosophy and psychology, including the relationship between mindfulness and mind-wandering and theories of consciousness.

 

Sikhism: the Path of Love and Service

Saturday, November 8, 2:00 – 4:00 PM (PST)! In-person at Concord Hall, 1407 Chapala Street, and Live on YouTube

Sikhism is a spiritual, religous, and philosophical path that originated in the Punjab region of India at the end of the fifteenth century CE. 

~ Click HERE for a printer-friendly flyer ~

Dr. Veena Howard, Ph.D., is the Chair of the philosophy department at Fresno State University, where she is a professor of Asian Religious Traditions, holds the Endowed Chair in Jain and Hindu Dharma and serves as the director of the M.K. Gandhi Center: Inner Peace and Sarvodaya. Among several other works written or edited by her, in 2017 IB Tauris published: Dharma, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh Traditions of India.

Ongoing Study Circle

Tuesdays in the Seminar Room of Concord House, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM (PDT)  

October 2 is the birth anniversary of M.K. Gandhi, so the focus for October 14 ; Oct. 28  will be on THE GANDHIAN BRIDGE, by Raghavan Iyer. No one has read more of Gandhi’s writings or probed as deep as Dr. Iyer. The Gandhian Bridge began in India as an inaugural Gandhi Memorial lecture to mark the fortieth anniversary of the martyrdom of M.K. Gandhi: “Mahatma Gandhi came amongst us to show the secret joy arising from the purity of svadharma in bridging our ideals and limitations, both in individual and social life. It is, therefore, fitting that we should seriously consider together the quintessential Gandhian message of non-violent socialism, global trusteeship and radical self-regeneration.”

 

If you would like to join the Study Circle via Zoom, please contact donna@worldculture.org for a link.CLICK HERE for the October Study Circle Schedule

Past Programs

Annual Themes

Anniversaries and Observances:

Publications

IWC Videos and Music

Speaker
Biographies

Articles and Papers

Community Participation