UNDERGRADUATE ONLINE STUDENTS

Special courses

STC 108 Exploring Consciousness (4–5 credits)

This course is your entryway into MIU and Consciousness-Based education. We’ll dive into an ancient yet radically new framework for understanding the universe and our place in it.

With this framework in mind, we look at some of life’s big questions: How can we develop our fullest potential as human beings? How do art and stories help us understand that potential? How can our own growth help create a more just and peaceful society? What do the world’s great wisdom traditions have in common? How can we improve education and healthcare? The new framework we explore in this course infuses all your classes at MIU.

In this course, you’ll learn the Transcendental Meditation technique to awaken the full potential of consciousness in your life.

On-site and online.
Comments from students:

• “I truly had a significant experience every single day in class.”
• “I’m eternally grateful for this experience.”
• “This course has not only primed me well for the rest of my time at MIU, but the information I gained will be extremely relevant for the rest of my life.”
• “For a first impression of the school, this course truly has me looking to spend the rest of my academic career here at MIU.”
• “It was easily digestible, deeply engaging (edge of my seat in pure focus many days), and incredibly enjoyable.”
• “One of the best organized, most well-presented classes I have ever attended.”

NOTE – As an exception, students can take the following courses before or along with the STC108 course: AG 200-300, BIO 265 & 266, FA 200-300, LIT 100-300 (if one has taken WTG 191 & 192), PH 218, 219, & 263, WTG 191 & 192, WTG 200-300 (if one has taken WTG 191 & 192). As an exception, students can take the STC108 course following course: MATH 166.

WTG 191 Writing for Career and Community I: Consciousness in and Beyond the Classroom (4 credits)

In this course, you’ll gain the skills essential for academic and professional success by exploring the practical aspects of writing, creative expression, and communication. You’ll learn how rhetoric intersects with everyday communication by reading and analyzing creative and professional texts. You’ll practice giving and receiving supportive feedback through workshops and instructor notes while improving your abilities through drafts and revision. In addition, you’ll craft compelling resumes, engage in social media and information literacy, and hone your persuasive speech-writing skills.

On-site and online.

WTG 192 Writing for Career and Community II: Consciousness in and Beyond the Classroom (4 credits)

Building on the methods learned in WTG 191, this course takes a deeper dive into writing as a discovery process. Through step-by-step assignments, your instructor will guide you to the course’s main objective, a research paper on a topic related to your field of study. You’ll explore how to find, evaluate, and use valid sources to build and support a stance.

You’ll also practice giving and receiving supportive feedback through workshops and instructor notes while improving your abilities through drafts and revision. You’ll strengthen your information literacy skills by identifying biases and fallacies and establishing credibility through proper citation, formatting, and well-communicated conclusions. Explore your creative and analytical talents and gain the expertise and robust tools you need for the next phase of your career, whether in work or further study.

Prerequisites: WTG191 or transfer credit or passing writing placement test scores.
On-site and online.

PHYS 310 Foundations of Physics and Consciousness

MIU president Dr. John Hagelin is a world-renowned quantum physicist, and in this course, he will personally share with you the latest groundbreaking advances in our understanding of the universe — and how those discoveries relate to your own life and the depths of your own consciousness.

He will take you from the surface boundaries of our universe — the classical level of “billiard-ball” physics — to the molecular and atomic and subatomic descriptions of nature, the worlds within worlds that exist on deeper levels of creation, and ultimately to the unified field, the one, ultimate universal field of intelligence and energy that gives rise to all things.

He will show you how this unified field is identical with your own consciousness, as you experience it at the depth of your TM practice.

And then he will take you on a tour of the vast expanses of the universe revealed by astronomy and cosmology — the structure of black holes, the life cycle of stars, dark matter and energy — to reveal that we are all made of stardust and inextricably linked to everything in creation.

Finally, he will show you how your own TM practice gives you access to the ocean of existence that is simultaneously the unified field and your own pure consciousness — setting the stage for the growth of higher states of consciousness and the transformation of society.

You’ll come away from this course with a profound appreciation for the world around you and profound insight into the ultimate truth that the world is within you — that consciousness is all that there is.
Comments from students:

• “Dr. Hagelin’s lectures were truly enlightening.”
• “This course was amazing and truly will never end.”
• “I loved everything about this course. It is possibly the most enlightening course I have ever taken, and I feel that I have a deeply articulated understanding of how the universe works and where I am in it.”
• “This course was really great. Mind-blowing in many ways. It expanded my knowledge of our universe and opened up new ways of thinking about how everything is so interrelated.
• “By far the most amazing MIU course I’ve ever taken. I had never taken Physics before, so it was all new and profoundly fascinating.”
• “Q&As with Dr. Hagelin were amazing!! He’s so interesting and funny, I could listen to him speak all day. He has an amazing talent of holding my attention and teaching me the most awesome information.”

PH 101 Physiology Is Consciousness: You Create Your Reality (4 credits)

The human brain has 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections among them, creating the most complex and sophisticated structure in the known universe. Your brain is the interface between you and your world, and your brain changes with every experience you have — your decisions today create the brain circuits you have tomorrow.

How does your brain change from birth to adulthood? How can you resolve adverse childhood experiences? How do the microbes in your gut influence your brain? Why do we sleep and dream? How do TM brain patterns differ from EEG during other meditation practices? What effect do psychedelics and cannabis have on the brain? What happens in near-death experiences? How do our inner experiences and brain patterns change as we grow in higher states of consciousness? These are the main topics we explore together.

You’ll finish this course knowing that you create your reality and how you can enrich and improve it.

The course instructor, Dr. Fred Travis, director of MIU’s Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition, is the world’s leading expert on brain functioning in higher states of consciousness and one of our most engaging classroom teachers.

Materials fee: $10. Prerequisite: STC 108.
On-site.

FOR 431 Higher States of Consciousness: The Awakening of Total Knowledge in Human Awareness

This course is about you — and the limitless potential that you embody.
Higher States is foundational to education at MIU, because the knowledge of higher states underlies all the classes you’ll take here. There’s so much more to life than your ordinary waking, dreaming, and sleeping experiences. With your TM practice you’re now diving into Transcendental Consciousness, the fourth state, the unbounded ocean of your own consciousness. But what happens when you keep having this experience—and your mind and body are transformed by it?

In this course you’ll dive into higher states and how they unfold, as described by Maharishi and experienced by countless TM practitioners and by people across history and cultures. You’ll explore the growth of your own inner silence, the transformation of your perception of the world to enjoy subtler realms, and the recognition that your own limitless Self and the entire universe are ultimately one and the same — the infinite totality of consciousness.

You’ll get to ask any and all questions about this natural growth in the context of your own unfolding experiences — and to examine the research and historical reports that support the existence of these universal states of life and their practical effects. You’ll also have a chance to deepen and strengthen your own experience of transcendence on a midcourse retreat.

And you’ll gain a profound understanding of higher states that will support your own lifelong growth of consciousness, long after you graduate. Higher states of consciousness are your birthright, and this course offers a deeply fulfilling opportunity to explore the infinite range of your own existence. Don’t miss it!
Comments from students:

• “Wow! Mind blown in a very good way. Now I’m just trying to incorporate the wealth of knowledge in daily life. Outstanding!”
• “I learned so much about higher states and that it is my birthright as a human being to live these states of consciousness. It was so nice to have these highly abstract ideas fleshed out with concrete and detailed descriptions.”
• “Learning specifically about higher states and how to get there was super enlightening. The course completely covered each level of consciousness in detail, making it easy to understand and realize what I am currently experiencing.”
• “I really recommend it for everyone.”
• “Fantastic! A chance to really dive in and grasp where we are hopefully going in our journey to higher states of consciousness.”
• “This was the most experiential course I have ever taken. This is a must for all TM meditators. It will transform your own practice and acts as nourishment for all activities throughout your day.”
• “Amazing awakening.”

**MATH 130 Essential Math for Your Life: Developing Skill in Action (formerly “Quantitative Reasoning”)

How do I tell the difference between good debt and bad debt? How can I minimize the effects of inflation and tax? How do I use the stock market wisely? How can I make my savings work for me? How do I distinguish between good and bad numerical and graphical information in the media, and make wise decisions about it? How can I use spreadsheets to organize my life — to create a budget, plan a vacation or event, track my health and fitness goals?

In this course, you’ll learn these things and more. If you think, “I don’t need math,” please think again — these skills can really help you. And if you think, “I’m not good at math,” this course is designed with you in mind. This isn’t just math — it’s your toolkit for navigating the numbers that shape our lives.
Comments from students:

• “Thank you for everything you have taught me. I feel a lot more empowered when it comes to money.”
• “I learned a lot in this course and genuinely enjoyed the challenge.”
• “Thank you for helping to unlock my inner mathematician — even my new interest in stock investments!”
• “This class has opened my eyes and attuned me to where I can see math within my own life.”
• “What I have gained from this course is the ability to use excel spreadsheets, when before I was intimidated by it.”
• “Grateful for this class!”

New CCTS course:

MVS 243 Thinking with Depth, Creativity, Empathy: An Exploration of Human Knowing (4 credits)

How do we know what we know? Where do thoughts come from? Is there a way to get beyond the internet’s diverging echo chambers? Simplistic answers won’t do. A genuine commitment to curiosity and clarity, articulated through precise and thoughtful questions, provides a fertile environment where deeper ways of knowing can blossom.

In this course study thinkers of various cultures and identify unspoken assumptions, analyze the strength of argument, listen with fierce compassion to those who hold alternative perspectives, evaluate sources of evidence, detect bias, reason by analogy, and dare to question established thinking practices — including our own). What really matters to you?
Prerequisite: STC 108.