Probably one of the best reasons I’ve ever seen to go back to school: Coventry University in the UK is going to be offering a two years Masters program in parapsychology starting this fall. Director of the program, Tony Lawrence, said that it will explore the middle ground between science and religion.

Dr Lawrence said: “We’ve got to look at what people are experiencing.

“No one has bothered to look, so people’s view of the world has been divided into two components: the secular and humanist, and the religious.

“We’ve got to look at the middle ground, otherwise all you have is Richard Dawkins (professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University) or the Pope.

“Both have probably not quite got their finger on the real pulse. People out there are having interesting experiences and no one is really following them up.

Well, hell now - I wouldn’t say no one! Really though, this course sounds like just about the best thing - ever:

The course also looks at people’s interest in the spiritual and paranormal, as seen on TV, in films and in books.

It promises “an honest, open systematic examination of the evidence for these exceptional human experiences”.

Student will use yoga and meditation “to extend or enhance their personal development”. […]

“It is not going to be a course that will tell students what they should believe and it is not a course that will expect the student to practise any particular religion either.”

It’s almost like they took Pop Occulture and made it into a degree program. How awesome is this? I should try to email this guy and strike up a friendship with him. Maybe we could get him and his students to become regular contributors here. Heck, if it didn’t mean having to go through another four years of undergrad, I’d seriously consider applying for his program. Oh well…