{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Katabasis and Return: A Conversation With Mari Otsu About Her Time at Ralston College","description":"Mari Otsu joins Stephen Blackwood for a deeply personal conversation about her journey through the wounds of materialism, ideology, and spiritual forgetting, and her return to the soul through the beauty of the humanities. Reflecting on her years at NYU and the Grand Central Atelier, Mari speaks of a longing that nothing in the modern, politicized worldview could satisfy, and how she found healing in therapy, classical painting, and, most profoundly, the living philosophical community of Ralston College. Engaging with the works of Plotinus, Boethius, and Dante, she discovered a path of purification and ascent that restored her sense of meaning and inspired her to share these treasures with others. This conversation explores the roots of today\u2019s meaning crisis and the redemptive power of beauty, thought, and imagination to heal the soul. Subscribe to receive the latest Ralston College updates at www.ralston.ac\/sign-up. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode:  Plotinus\u2019 Enneads Boethius\u2019 Consolation of Philosophy Augustine\u2019s Confessions Plato Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy Monique Wittig\u2019s The Straight Mind  Chapters  00:00 - Introduction 01:29 - Conversation Begins 02:18 - About Mari 6:00 - \u0392rief Review of Mari\u2019s time at Ralston 8:00 - Mari\u2019s Descent into Anguish and Fragmentation 15:20 - The Ideological Component: NYU 23:30 - Leaving Blame Behind 27:20 - Fear as a Symptom of a Spiritual Pathology 29:00 - The Role of Therapy and Right Relationship 34:00 - The Power of Art 44:16 - Moving from Beauty to Contemplation 46:51 - Beginning at Ralston 1:00:00 - Plotinus Moving Beyond Beauty 1:08:00 - Wrapping It All Up 01:11:01 - Exit Music and Fade  &amp;nbsp; ","author_name":"The Ralston College Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/www.ralston.ac\/conversations","html":"<iframe title=\"Libsyn Player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/37921720\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/assets.libsyn.com\/secure\/item\/37921720"}