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For Harry R. Moody's speaking schedule, see Speaking Events. Keynote Speech: KEYNOTE SPEECH This keynote address is an illustrated slide-lecture in three parts:
For more information see Sources and Readings. WORKSHOPS
TITLE: "The Five Stages of the Soul" 
TITLE: "Life Review: Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be."
TITLE: "The Search for Meaning in Later Life"
TITLE: "Dreams & Fairy Tales for the Second Half of Life"
TITLE: "Rumi: Journey through the Life Course"
TITLE: "Ethical Dilemmas in Work with Older People"
TITLE: "The Soul of Bioethics" • Did you ever know anyone (or had patient) who had the chronic condition you now have? • Based on what you know now, what future course is your condition likely to take? • Do you believe there is something you could have done (e.g., screening or preventive care) to avoid what has happened to you? • If your condition were to get much worse, are there circumstances you can think of where you wouldn't want life-sustaining medical treatment? Terminal illnesses include heart attack; pancreatic cancer; breast (or prostate) cancer; stroke; and terminal liver failure (along with ten other conditions). A sample of the questions for discussion would include the following: • What do you most fear about dying? • Who can you count on to help you as you face death? • Do you now have an Advanced Directive completed? How would you write one (or change one) in light of your current diagnosis? • In light of your terminal illness, when you ask the question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" what answer do you give now?
TITLE: "Looking Backward: Reminiscences of the 21st Century"
TITLE: "Fund-Raising in the Field of Aging" |
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Did you ever ask the question "Is this all there is to my life?"
This workshop offers an answer spelled out in 
Scripture, myths and fairy tales point to midlife as a time of transition: an opportunity for review our lives and gain deeper understanding of how we can grow in years to come. This workshop offers an experience of spiritual autobiography both personal and analytical. Workshop participants read passages from classic journals and autobiographies ranging from St. Augustine to Kierkegaard and Jung and then consider what contemporary lifespan development psychology can contribute to illuminate the "spiritual passages" that take place in the second half of life. Class sessions include slides of Rembrandt's self-portraits and segments from films such as "It's a Wonderful Life," "Wild Strawberries," "Ground Hog Day" and "Peggy Sue Got Married."
We begin with a 10 minute film clip of highlights from "It's a Wonderful Life," an archetypal story of midlife crisis. We move on other films, including Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" and "Star Wars," illustrating Joseph Campbell's "hero with a thousand faces." We then explore key concepts of lifespan developmental psychology, including analysis of dreamwork and challenges of individuation in later life. Breaking up into small groups, workshop participants apply these concepts to interpretation of two fairy tales, "The Lute Player" and "The Siren Wife," stories that illuminate gender issues in midlife.
In the last part of the workshop participants apply their ideas to professional practice in four areas: individual reminiscence and family narratives; bioethics and health care decision-making; griefwork and coping with loss; and mental health practice, especially therapeutic approaches to depression. Each of these four areas will be considered in breakout groups where participants develop clinical intervention plans responsive to a case study or actual challenges encountered in practice.
The poet Louise Bogan said: "At first we want life to be romantic. Later, to be bearable. Finally, to be understandable." This workshop builds on stories that convey key concepts of lifespan development psychology for later life. We begin with transpersonal dreams illustrating issues such as time consciousness, awareness of death, gender dynamics, the search for guidance, and spiritual growth in the second half of life. Later in the workshop participants break up into small groups to explore fairy tales that illuminate mid?life and late life development. Small groups report back to the larger workshop in order to synthesize insights and relate concepts to emerging theoretical issues in transpersonal gerontology.
Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207-1273) through translations by Coleman Barks is now America's best selling poet. This lecture/workshop offers a unique approach to lifespan development through art and poetry centering on the life of Rumi. Key elements are: (1) Images of the life course (from Dante and Pilgrim's Progress through Jung and Erikson); (2) Beginnings: Birth, Childhood and Youth; (3) Midlife, Lost and Found (crisis and spiritual search); (4) The Coming of Age (time consciousness and the way of the dervish); and (5) The End of Life (transcendent dreams, the Sufi approach to death). Images of Islamic art are balanced by music, Sufi chants, and recitation of Rumi's poetry in both Persian and English. The presentation draws on interpretive works by Andrew Harvey (The Way of Passion), Annemarie Schimmel (The Triumphal Sun), and H.R. Moody's "Stages of the Soul in Rumi."
This workshop provides an intensive overview of the major ethical issues in health and social services for older adults. Issues considered include: adult protective services; long?term care placement; autonomy and mental capacity; end?of?life decision?making; and cross-cultural ethnic differences. Participants consider the perspectives of law and philosophical ethics balanced by family dynamics, organizational interest, communication barriers, and inter?professional dialogue. The workshop makes use of videotaped ethics committees, role?playing, and detailed analysis of case studies to teach pragmatic methods of resolving ethical dilemmas in practice.
Struggling with health care decisions involves more than academic analysis: it demands our heart and soul. This workshop presents a unique blend of philosophical analysis with methods for putting results into practice. Biomedical ethics is usually approached in objective style: that is, analysis of rules and principles, burden or benefit, with rational justification of decisions. In this workshop we also explore the soul of bioethics through dreams, illness narratives, and first-person reflection as a basis for empathy in ethical deliberation.
At the outset of the workshop each participant receives (at random) an index card. On one side of the card is a chronic condition, on the other a terminal illness. Participants break up into small groups and work through simulations where they successively imagine themselves with these chronic and terminal conditions and then in group discussion reflect on ethical alternatives.
"Looking Backward" unfolds through a scripted interview format, with questions from an imaginary college student born in 2045. In response Moody recalls collective hopes and fears at the turn-of-the-century and details the impact of the aging of Baby Boomers (2010 to 2030). This retrospective glimpse of things to come is based on what historian Arnold Toynbee called the cycle of "challenge-and-response." Some elements of the future are readily predictable (demographic trends), while others, such as economic change or technology assessment, are presented through alternative scenarios.
The overall picture of aging in the 21st century is neither all positive nor all negative. For example, Moody tells the story of financial crisis in Medicare and Social Security after 2030 but also describes potential technological breakthroughs (genetic engineering, regenerative medicine, life extension). He chronicles a potential boom-and-bust economic upheaval, along with events, like global warming, that produce an environment both predictable and surprising. This imaginary reminiscence invites us to consider the shape of things to come in a not-so-distant future where people routinely live past 100.
Are you facing a situation where more effective fund-raising is indispensable for your organization? This hands-on workshop offers time-tested methods for raising money by building on strengths to find new funding sources close to home. The workshop is based on case studies and simulations used in the highly acclaimed "Gerontology in Hard Times" sessions sponsored by the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE). Workshop topics include: finding out why donors give; avoiding pitfalls of special events; building a more effective board; low- and no-cost public relations; corporate and private foundation grant opportunities; fee-for-service options; and strategic alliances with other organizations. By the end of the session each workshop participant will leave with a customized implementation plan designed to improve fund-raising prospects within six months to a year.