A Second Conversion

by Huston Smith

I determined that the book [Pain, Sex and Time] had so radically changed my point of view, that I wouldn’t read anything else written by him [Gerald Heard] until after I received my degree, but once my PhD was in hand, I would read everything. In 1947, while living in Denver and about to move to St. Louis, I decided to try to meet Gerald before moving further east. I got the address of Trabuco College from his publisher and set out hitchhiking to Southern California. Through that meeting, Gerald introduced me to Aldous Huxley, who in turn suggested that I contact Swami Satprakashananda with the Vedanta Society when I got to St. Louis.

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“radically changed my point of view…”

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Huston Smith was the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University. For 15 years he was Professor of Philosophy at M.I.T. and for a decade before that he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently he had served as Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Holder of twelve honorary degrees, Smith's 14 books include The World's Religions, which has sold over two million copies, and Why Religion Matters, which won the Wilbur Award for the best book on religion published in 2001. In 1996 Bill Moyers devoted a five-part PBS Special, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith, to his life and work. His film documentaries on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won international awards, and The Journal of Ethnomusicology lauded his discovery of Tibetan multiphonic chanting as "…an important landmark in the study of music." For more on Huston Smith, visit The Huston Smith website.