Awareness

Awareness is the ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, thoughts, emotions, or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being aware of something. In biological psychology, awareness is defined as a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event.

Concept

Awareness is a relative concept. An animal may be partially aware, may be subconsciously aware, or may be acutely unaware of an event. Awareness may be focused on an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception. Awareness provides the raw material from which animals develop qualia, or subjective ideas about their experience. Insects have awareness that you are trying to swat them or chase after them. But insects do not have consciousness in the usual sense, because they lack the brain capacity for thought and understanding.

Alan Watts

Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born American philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. Pursuing a career, he attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, where he received a master's degree in theology. Watts became an Episcopal priest in 1945, then left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies.

Watts gained a large following in the San Francisco Bay Area while working as a volunteer programmer at KPFA, a Pacifica Radio station in Berkeley. Watts wrote more than 25 books and articles on subjects important to Eastern and Western religion, introducing the then-burgeoning youth culture to The Way of Zen (1957), one of the first bestselling books on Buddhism. In Psychotherapy East and West (1961), Watts proposed that Buddhism could be thought of as a form of psychotherapy and not a religion. He considered "Nature, Man, and Woman" (1958) to be, "from a literary point of view - the best book I have ever written." He also explored human consciousness, in the essay "The New Alchemy" (1958), and in the book The Joyous Cosmology (1962).

Jean Claude

Jean Claude (1619 – 13 January 1687) was a French Protestant divine.

He was born at La Sauvetat-du-Dropt near Agen. After studying at Montauban, Jean Claude entered the ministry in 1645. For eight years he was professor of theology in the Protestant college of Nîmes; but in 1661, having successfully opposed a scheme for re-uniting Catholics and Protestants, he was forbidden to preach in Lower Languedoc. In 1662 he obtained a post at Montauban similar to that which he had lost, but four years later he was removed from there as well. Next he became pastor at Charenton near Paris, where he engaged in controversies with Pierre Nicole (Réponse aux deux traités intitulés la perpétuité de la foi, 1665), Antoine Arnauld (Réponse au livre de M. Arnauld, 1670), and J.B. Bossuet (Réponse au livre de M. l'évêque de Meaux, 1683).

On the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685 Jean Claude fled to the Netherlands where he received a pension from stadtholder William of Orange, who commissioned him to write an account of the persecuted Huguenots (Plaintes des protestants cruellement opprimés dans le royaume de France, 1686). The book was translated into English, but by order of James II of England, both the translation and the original were publicly burnt by the common hangman on the 5th of May 1686, as containing "expressions scandalous to His Majesty the king of France."

Front Porch Step

Front Porch Step is the solo acoustic project of Newark, Ohio musician Jake Mcelfresh.

History

Front Porch Step began in 2012. In 2013, Front Porch Step signed to Pure Noise Records and released his debut album Aware. In 2013, he supported Never Shout Never on four of their tour dates. In the summer of 2014, Front Porch Step played on the Vans Warped Tour. In the fall of 2014, Front Porch Step played on the Pure Noise Records Tour with State Champs, Handguns, and Forever Came Calling. In February and March 2015, Front Porch Step planned to go on his first headlining tour, with support from Have Mercy, Alcoa, Hotel Books, and Head North. Due to sexual harassment allegations, Mcelfresh has suspended his tour until further notice. Front Porch Step was going to partake in the 2015 Vans Warped Tour, which is held annually throughout the summer, but was removed from the tour due to the allegations brought up against him.

Sexual harassment controversies

Jake Mcelfresh has been accused by several young people of sexual harassment through mobile phones, including sending nude pictures of himself to underaged girls. This led to a petition demanding he be removed from the 2015 Warped Tour. His record label, Pure Noise Records, and Kevin Lyman, creator of the Warped Tour, have announced they are aware of the allegations.

Wayne Dyer

Wayne Walter Dyer (May 10, 1940 – August 29, 2015) was an American philosopher, self-help author, and a motivational speaker. His first book, Your Erroneous Zones (1976), is one of the best-selling books of all time, with an estimated 35 million copies sold to date.

Early life

Dyer was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Melvin Lyle Dyer and Hazel Irene Vollick, and spent much of his childhood (until age 10) in an orphanage on the east side of Detroit, after his father walked out on the family, leaving his mother to raise three small boys. After graduating from Denby High School, Dyer served in the United States Navy from 1958 to 1962. He received his Ed.D. degree in counseling from Wayne State University for a dissertation titled Group Counseling Leadership Training in Counselor Education, under the supervision of Mildred Peters.

Career