Rod and his wife Marta spent a couple of years in Costa Rica and enjoyed the Hispanic culture so much they sought out a spot in New Mexico for their retirement. In the early '60s Rod studied design at Southern Illinois University under the famous Buckminster Fuller, where emphasis was on cultivating openness to new ideas. An interest in psychology then led Rod to a graduate degree from Brown University. Although trained in mainstream laboratory psychology, his interests were more of an experiential nature including work with hypnosis and trance induction. As a university prof for 20 years, Rod taught courses such as "Alternate States of Consciousness" and "Perception" which no doubt drew upon his earlier design training, but also mainstream courses in statistics, experimental methods, and the history of psychology.
Rod says he's not an expert in music, but where he grew up in backwater Southern Illinois "Fast cars & Rock 'n Roll" were about all there was to do. Although he tried to learn electric guitar more than once, he finally left that arena to more accomplished musicians. About five years ago Marta and Rod began attending Vipassana meditation sessions, where they discovered that meditation was very much related to the trance work he had done back in the 1980s. Rod's WILL classes cover a diverse array of subjects: Meditation, Consciousness, Photography, Rock and Roll, and an upcoming "Hyper-reality" offering. So if you're looking for a new perspective, try a course from Rod Rees.