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Humanities Lecture Series focuses on power of creativity


Keith Varnum
August 24, 2014

Creativity is linked to better job satisfaction, more positive emotions and greater overall well-being and happiness. For college students, it could mean finding a different academic approach, better grades and landing a dream job.

Keith Varnum, a self-help expert and Matrix Energetics coach, will commence the fall 2014 Humanities Lecture Series with his presentation of “Using Energy to Develop Compassion, Empathy, Forgiveness, Integrity and Kindness and Respect in Our Lives.” Hosted by ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences, the lecture starts at 6:30 p.m., Sept. 4, at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, room 128.

The lecture series, now in its seventh year, is open to the general public and is free.

The theme for this year’s series is titled “Creativity and the Humanities.”

“The Humanities Lecture Series provides us with opportunities to analyze, discuss and interpret current events. We look forward to public discussions that help us understand and appreciate various points of view on political, social and cultural issues,” says Duane Roen, director of ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences and dean of University College. “We are deeply honored that Keith Varnum is presenting the first lecture of the 2014-2015 season.”

The School of Letters and Sciences provides students across ASU with the knowledge and skills to comprehend and effectively engage the changing world of the 21st century at local, national and global levels. Theory, creativity and applied learning are integrated as students build entrepreneurial opportunities both inside the university and their communities.

In addition to his life coaching duties, Varnum is an adventure guide, international seminar leader, author, acupuncturist, filmmaker, gardener, radio talk show host, owner-chef of two gourmet natural foods restaurants and vice president of the country’s largest natural food company.

Varnum said he was a typical 1960s college student at the University of Michigan, which was a cauldron of social and political radicals at the time. It was there that Varnum made provocative and experimental films until he was halted by blindness. After two months of doctors’ exams, diagnoses and treatments, Varnum says he went “spiritual,” and eventually got his sight back.

“I was forced to look outside of the paradigm that I was taught, and forced to change my attitude,” Varnum said. “I changed what I read, what I listened to, what I ate, my entire way of living, and started thinking outside of the box. I spent the next few years exploring, experimenting and discovering the real reason things are the way they are.”

As a Matrix Energetics Practitioner, he will demonstrate to attendees how to use the power of active imagination and focused intent to produce instant, physical, verifiable effects in real time. He says it’s not a technique but a consciousness shift to transform anything in your life.

“I meet thousands of young people in college who have dreams, and I want them to open themselves up to the possibilities they can be themselves and express themselves and showcase their talents to the world,” Varnum said.

The lecture series will continue on Oct. 16 with Jonathan Davis’ presentation, “Telling Stories through Creative Technology.”

For more information on the fall 2014 Humanities Lecture Series, call Mirna Lattouf, series lecture organizer, at (602) 496-0638 or email at Mirna.Lattouf@asu.edu.