There is a prejudice in modern society that we need to get over. It’s the prejudice in favor of things that are concrete, tangible and three-dimensional. We feel that a rock is real because it is solid and heavy, and our senses can easily locate it in time and space. So what are we to make of a reality where seeing isn’t believing? Snails have very slow nervous systems. It takes them several seconds to record each new visual impression. What this means is that if someone walks by very quickly and drops a penny in front of a snail, the person will be invisible and the penny will seem to appear form nowhere. In reverse, if a snail is picked up and moved very quickly, it will believe it has teleported from one place to the other.

Our senses play the same trick with reality at large. Our brains are too slow to register that every concrete object is winking in and out of existence at the quantum level thousands of times per second; therefore, we see solid objects where none in fact exist.

At Wellington College, one of Britain's top public schools, headmaster Anthony Seldon is piloting an initiative that may eventually see lessons in happiness added to the curriculum in both the state and independent sectors. What an unhappy prospect.

Dr Seldon's endeavour is well-intentioned. He is right that young people should learn that happiness does not lie in celebrity, wealth or conspicuous consumption, not least because popular culture - from makeover television programmes to the cult of cool - tells them that it does.

The problem is that Wellington is opting to teach happiness through positive psychology which, in my view, can amount to little more than self-help with a veneer of academic respectability.

The problem is so vast and the urgency so great that advice which suggests you turn off the tap while brushing your teeth or switch off lights and standbys when they are not needed or go vegetarian for one day a week seems, well, ridiculous. Global warming is probably the greatest threat our species has ever faced. The sheer scale of the processes under way in the atmosphere and the oceans makes it hard not to view anything an individual does to reduce emissions as being too little too late. Not true. The astonishing fact is that each of us can have an immediate impact on the production of greenhouse gases, and if enough of us act together in these minor ways, the cumulative effect will be dramatic. That's because so much of the way we live our lives is wasteful and, to put it bluntly, thoughtless. It takes nothing to switch off a lamp, unplug the phone charger, take a shorter shower, cook without pre- heating the oven, skip the pre-wash part of the dishwasher cycle, or, often, walk or bike instead of drive. And they all save money, which is one of the rather striking things about reducing your carbon footprint—the standard way of measuring the CO2 emissions each person is responsible for.

New Albany, PA
Come to the IAM Center located in the beautiful Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. The Center is located on a ninety-acre circle of land. For two decades, the work of the IAM Counseling and Retreat Center has helped people in their quest for a better quality of life.

Haines Falls, NY
In a time when demands are increasingly placed on our lives, Peace Village offers a variety of workshops and weekend retreats for people from all backgrounds to explore, reflect, and nurture the self. Our retreats offer relevant ways for people to explore and understand their own spirituality.

Idyllwild,CA
Cradled in the majestic whispering pines of the San Jacinto Mountains above Palm Springs, California just 2.5 hours from Los Angeles, 90 minutes from San Diego, Alhatti is a unique guest retreat and conference center

Idyllwild,CA
Cradled in the majestic whispering pines of the San Jacinto Mountains above Palm Springs, California just 2.5 hours from Los Angeles, 90 minutes from San Diego, Alhatti is a unique guest retreat and conference center

Satchidananda Ashram- Yogaville
Buckingham, VA

June 30 - July 2, 2006

Satchidananda Ashram- Yogaville
Buckingham, VA

August 2006