UCI:Forum fosters rare dialogue on faith

Since its inception just one year ago, UC Irvine’s Psychiatry & Spirituality Forum has attracted an unusual following of Buddhist monks, Catholic priests, rabbis, psychiatrists, physicians, social workers and scientists.

From skeptics to believers, all have found a common interest: the connection between mental health and spiritual convictions.

“The forum is an interesting way to connect with the community,” said Aaron Kheriaty, forum director and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior. “We started with about 20 people. Now we have 130 and our membership extends far beyond UCI. People are coming out of the woodwork. I hear them say all the time, ‘I’ve been interested in this for years.’”

Members meet once every other month to discuss scholarly work and attend lectures that “open the dialogue between science and religion.”

At a recent talk called “It’s Good to Be Good,” Stephen Post, Case Western Reserve University professor, discussed altruism’s effect on the immune system.

Members are interested in all traditions; this fall, the group hosts a talk by Buddhist monk B. Alan Wallace.

“It’s wonderful to see the respectful dialogue. This is what a university is all about — free expression and the debating of ideas about the highest things, the ultimate questions.”

Members aren’t all talk. They engage in research, teaching and community-outreach activities. For example, Kheriaty recently spoke on post-partum depression at a homeless shelter for teenage mothers.

The Orange County chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation Inc. will host its fourth annual Arnold O. Beckman Lecture Dinner at 6 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Beckman Center of the National Academies.

Harry Gray, head of the Beckman Institute at Caltech, will give the featured talk about solar energy.

At the event, the ARCS Foundation, which supports its scholars for two years, hopes to raise more than $180,000 to support 18 UCI doctoral candidates for the next school year.

Last year, it awarded 17 $10,000 scholarships to doctoral candidates in the School of Biological Sciences, the School of Physical Sciences, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and the School of Medicine.

Tickets are $200 each, $100 of which will go to the scholarship fund.

For more information, contact event chairwoman Mary Lou Shattuck at 714-960-9276 or ARCS President France Campbell at 949-646-3713.