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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who are aware at birth?

2. With what does Dan struggle as they are walking along the cliff?

3. How does Dan feel about being naked when Mama Chia appears?

4. What does Dan's disembodied self do?

5. Who does Mama Chia invoke?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Mama Chia take Dan to stay for a few days and what is his initial response?

2. How does Mama Chia explain the Tower of Seven Floors?

3. How does the level at which Dan is in this section manifest in sexual energy?

4. Why do you think Dan dreads what lies ahead?

5. Explain the incident with the starfish and the possible meaning of it.

6. From whom does Dan ask permission to be there and what do you think this is symbolic of?

7. Describe Dan's experience of "rebirth."

8. Explain Mama Chia's thoughts about who she, Dan and Socrates are.

9. What vision does Dan have as he meditates by the waterfall?

10. What happens with Dan and the punks and do you think it will have significance later?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Once Dan has found Ruth Johnson, she gives him a note with some instructions. Discuss the following:

Do you think Dan is wise to blindly follow the note which has him do something that is quite foolhardy?

Given that Dan later learns that he lost part of the note and he was supposed to take food, water and sunscreen, do you think if he had had the complete set of instructions from the beginning he would have been justified in following the path he chooses?

There is a aphorism, "no pain, no gain." Does this saying apply in Dan's experience with the surfboard?

Essay Topic 2

As Mama Chia and Dan are hiking, Mama Chia declares that Dan is strong enough to carry her backpack and sets off. Dan laments, knowing that he is supposed to do something but does nothing. Discuss one of the following:

Analyze what you think Dan is supposed to do and why he seems paralyzed in inaction.

How does Dan finally overcome his inability to do what he is supposed to do?

Do you feel there is something important in your life that you are to do? Discuss your approach to fulfilling that sense of purpose.

Essay Topic 3

When Dan has a stopover in Hawaii, he decides to search for a woman about whom Socrates told him. Discuss the following:

How likely is it that Dan will find the woman for whom he is searching in a city of several hundred thousand (at that time)people? Do you think the fact that he finds her is miraculous or coincidental?

Dan might say his finding Ruth Johnson is not coincidental but rather serendipitous or perhaps meant to be. Discuss this idea.

What does it say about Dan or Dan's situation that he even attempts such a daunting task as finding a woman whose name, age, place of work or home is unknown in a city the size of Honolulu?

(see the answer keys)

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