I know of someone who did MA work at IBS on the Internet and Buddhism in America but that is the extent of my knowledge of anyone working there in that kind of area.

A friend of mine is attending the Chaplaincy Institute in the area. It’s an Interfaith “seminary”, but it is not accredited. They study the major religions in modules. And as you can probably guess from the name, they have a concentration in chaplaincy. They also do an immersion process in each theology for the time that they are studying it. The intensives are one week long, but they are at least one month apart?

Have you heard of ChI?

I don’t want to be a chaplain either. I’m thinking more along the lines of being somewhat of a Wayne Dyer, if I had to pin it to something. But I would also like to do smaller workshops with people. The reason I’m considering graduate school and seminary is that I want a comprehensive understanding of the world religions.

I also have a deep interest in exploring the effect of the Internet on faith communities, if any. As well as investigating how the growing number of people who don’t prescribe to any particular faith find spiritual community and nurture their spiritual lives.

Thanks again for lending your opinion. I didn’t mean to clutter your blog with these questions, but I couldn’t find another way to contact you.

In Spirit,
Nneka

I may or may not wind up going to GTU at some point. I’m just finishing my MA at another school, as I’ve posted about.

I’m not sure what an “experiential” PhD would look like when contrasted with an “academic” one.

The reason not to go to UC Berkeley is both specific people and the focus of programs. There is no program at Cal that covers the range of things that GTU covers in their program. That is probably why Cal is partnered with GTU, after all.

I’m also interested in Japanese esoteric Buddhism. Dr. Payne, who is the head of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, a member institution of GTU, did his dissertation on Shingon rituals. There are only a handful of people in the entire United States who have done work in that area and one is the head of a member school in a program about two miles from my house…

We’ll see if I go though. GTU is a very expensive school, at least to me. It isn’t like Stanford but it is still $20K a year for several years with little to no chance of real funding. I also have a fulltime job right now, which I would have to quit for a PhD program. It is hard to do that without any real funding.

My questions begin with whether or not GTU is truly an Interfaith institution or if it just adds the others on? From your blog, I can tell that you are Buddhist and will be studying Buddhist theology. Why get the Ph.D. from GTU and not from UC Berkeley? Is GTU less academic and more experiential?

Thanks for taking the time to lend your perspective. I really appreciate it.

In Spirit,
Nneka