DVD

Author, teacher, and lecturer Huston Smith is best known for his scholarship, being the father of world’s religions studies in America. But on December 27, 2009, Ken Dychtwald, psychologist, gerontologist, and visionary thinker on the subject of the age wave that is upon us, interviewed Smith with the objective of getting not his academic view, but rather his personal view, of the maturation process. Dychtwald brought out the warmth, depth, common sense, and wonderful humor of Huston Smith in the course of elucidating Smith’s perspective on life at 90 from the age of 90-plus. Huston Smith has been a pioneer and role model for the Boomer generation in the field of Religious Pluralism. He now has something to teach about the aging process.

The two men developed a wonderful rapport, Smith being elated to encounter in Dychtwald an interviewer with a sharp mind and novel approach. At one point, he turned to Dychtwald, arms spread wide, saying, “If you see an opening, hit me!” …much to Dychtwald’s delight.

Ken Dychtwald has for decades studied and interviewed many seniors, but found Smith unique. To quote Dychtwald about the interview: “One of the things that surprised me most … was his sense of humor, his playfulness. …Being in the presence of a deep-thinking philosopher and religious expert in his nineties who was boyish, who was teasing, who was in the sparring action of the interview, who was having fun, who was clever and wry and creative with his mind as any 12 or 15 or 25 year old I’ve met, was an incredible experience.”

Special Thanks to Rev. Heng Sure and The Institute for World Religions in Berkeley, California for providing the venue.

EXTRAS include

About Huston Smith: Film biography
About Ken Dychtwald
About Institute for World Religions & Berkeley Buddhist Monastery

"The Arc of Life DVD is a magnificent contribution to understanding of Huston Smith and his work." 

-Harry R. Moody, Ph.D., Director of Academic Affairs, AARP

"I loved this interview with Huston better than any I've heard or seen in ten or fifteen years.  I found Ken Dychtwald's questions so clever, in that they solicited from Huston aspects of his philosophy that I had never heard before!  I found myself thinking, 'why didn't I ever ask him that?'  Of course, the answer is that Ken is a more astute interviewer, and possessed of an incredible knowledge on the subject at hand."

-Dana Sawyer, author Aldous Huxley: A Biography and 
currently writing the authorized huston Smith biography

"When we worked together on his memoir Tales of Wonder, I marveled at the great 'book' Huston was composing on aging--not by writing but by living it. So successfully was he overcoming aging’s frailties and hardship that he hardly noticed he was doing it, much less that he should write about it. Now, in conversation with Ken Dychtwald, Huston lets us eavesdrop through the window and take heart and be undaunted by what is to come. The DVD is called The Arc of Life but it could easily bear the subtitle: How to Grow Old and Remain Forever Young."

Jeffery Paine, co-author with Huston Smith, Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine, author of Re-enchantment: 
Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West & Father India

"Huston Smith ends the arc of his life with kindness and wisdom that is both ordinary and extraordinary. His interview with Ken Dychtwald inspires this writer to approach the final chapters with less fear and more hope." 

Don Lattin, author of THE HARVARD PSYCHEDELIC CLUB -- How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America

"Rarely does one across so rich a feast as this! Huston Smith is in top form in this discussion with Ken Dychtwald. Huston Smith parries Dychtwald's thoughtful, searching questions with wisdom, erudition, humility and humor. This DVD deserves a wide audience and those who see it will be grateful for the opportunity."

Pravrajika Vrajaprana, Vedanta Society of Southern California, co-author Interpreting Ramakrishna

Get Huston Smith's The Roots of Fundamentalism with The Arc of Life for $5.00 more ($24.95 plus single item shipping). 

 is the parent company of