Overview I'm currently taking a course in college called Understanding the Self: East and West. This course discusses the nature of consciousness as it is understood through religion and psychology in a cross cultural perspective. My professor has spent 25 years studying consciousness and meditating regularly so I'm interested to see what his perspectives are and how he is going to present this material in an academic setting. I'm super excited about this class this semester and I'm dedicating an entire journal online for it since I find the subject matter pretty applicable to this forum.  So far this is what I'm working with and what I'll discuss in this journal:  I have a couple essays where I have to write about my perception of myself.  The first is in the beginning of the semester and the last is at the end.   I have some reading for this class so I'm probably going to write my reflections here about them I'm also going to be noting down any key insights or reactions I have during lecture My professor also recommended we start a habit of meditating and even decided to give us class time towards the middle of the semester to do so  And I'm also supposed to be keeping a dream journal for talking about the subconscious mind in class discussions Lets see how this semester goes