Presentation to provide ‘multi-sensory’ experience

A few years ago, Amanda Hayden spent five weeks in India.
“India definitely was the most life changing, the most powerful of all the places I’ve been. It’s one of those places that you’re never the same after you visit,” she said.
Hayden, an annually contracted professor in the Humanities Department, will be giving a presentation about India as part of the International Series at Sinclair Community College.
The presentation will focus on the sacred places in India that relate to different religions and their traditions, she said.
“Religiosity [religion and philosophy] is so interwoven with the culture and the landscape [of India],” she said.
Hayden will focus on many religions, which included Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and several others.
The presentation will feature a PowerPoint presentation with pictures from India and some of the sacred places she saw there. She may also show videos of different religious rituals that she took, if time permits.
“You can’t walk out your door without stumbling into it [religion].”
The videos she most likely will show will include some of these rituals that she witnessed walking in the villages. She will also be bringing with her different items from India.
“Some of the best rituals and ceremonies were literally ones I just came across walking around the streets,” she said.
“I like to make it as sensory as possible. I won’t have the cow dung and the trash burning on the streets,” she laughed.
However, she said that she will be bringing with her fabrics from India, including saris, dresses which the women wear, along with incense.
She also said that she will be bringing with her “Buddhist ritual items,” such as prayer flags, singing bowls and prayer wheels, items which are intended to assist with meditation.
Hayden explained that a prayer flag, which tends to be more a part of Tibetan Buddhist rituals, is a means of “spreading the dharma [teachings]… of the Buddha.” She said that a prayer wheel serves the same function.
She will be discussing Islam and pilgrimage sites that are sacred to that religion, such as Akbar’s Tomb and the Taj Mahal, she said.
Hayden will also be providing music, most likely by Ravi Shankar, a famous citar (Indian instrument) player.
Traditional foods from India will also be provided at the presentation, she said.
All of these different items, such as the fabrics, the music and the videos are intended to try to create an interactive experience.
“[I’m going to] try to make it kind of interactive and multi-sensory, much like India,” Hayden said.
Hayden said she is hoping that through the presentation people will be connected to “other ideas, other thoughts [and] other religions” and see what they have in common with those different religions through their own religious experiences and background.
“That’s my rule of focus… seeing what unites us and connects us rather than what’s different and divides us,” she said.
The free presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18 from 12 to 1 p.m. in Building 8 on the basement level at the stage area.