As part of Global Spirit’s third season, we plan to produce a special collection of programs on human virtues. Human virtues are almost timeless, harking back to the roots of the world’s major religions. Today, these values have been abandoned to a dangerous level. The growth of “me-first” state of mind, one that dictates the relentless pursuit of material goods at the expense of what really matters in life is an example of when virtue is lacking.

Through compelling portraits of diverse individuals, people who are truly walking their talk, audiences will see how human virtues are learned skills, and how different cultures, religions, and individuals can show us a great deal about cultivating those skills. We’ll explore how each of our world religions contains a method for cultivating those virtues, and how institutionalized religions have at times undermined and negated them.

Each half-hour program will feature portraits of two or three individuals from different cultures or religious traditions who show us how to be aware of and open to our deepest human qualities and potential. We are therefore actively seeking financial sponsorship to confirm our program guests and to produce a unique 6-part series of half-hour Global Spirit programs on the human virtues, including forgiveness, altruism, generosity, mercy and compassion, empathy, and love.

Beyond a simple “how to” guide to human moral and spiritual maturation, these programs will inform and inspire audiences by taking us deeper into the understanding of what the virtue means within that tradition and how it is cultivated and more fully expressed.

We are asking for your support to create and provide conversation guides for all of Global Spirit’s programs, and thereby make all 22 programs available to universities, colleges, institutions, individuals and groups throughout the US and beyond. The cost of each conversation guide would be approximately $4,000. We have thus far produced three guides. (The Power of Community, Inside Sacred Texts, The Pilgrimage Experience.)

These Conversation guides would be offered for free to all Global Spirit viewers, through the Global Spirit website and would significantly increase the potential for audience engagement as well as the pedagogical value of the series and make it available to colleges and universities throughout the US and beyond. We plan to work with an educational distributor and also do some direct, targeted departmental mailings to reach and inspire both students and teachers.

We have recently tested our Conversation Guide in on undergraduate Comparative Religion classes. We discovered that the conversation guide format of 4-5 short videos, followed up by 3-5 discussion questions actually works extremely well in the classroom. In fact, 75% of the students we surveyed said that using the Conversation Guides, in conjunction with the accompanying short videos was more engaging and produced a more interesting class discussion than showing the full-length program in the classroom, followed by a 30 or 45-minute class discussion.

We have numerous programs and renowned teachers representing different academic fields and perspectives. We, therefore, believe the Global Spirit series will become a useful addition to instruction at community colleges and four-year universities in particular departments such as Religious Studies & Comparative Religion, Philosophy, Psychology, Women’s Studies, Ethnic / Native Studies, Anthropology / Sociology / Cultural Studies.