Seekers have climbed mountains, fasted, meditated and gone on pilgrimages hoping to find enlightenment. Now, if Christa Reynolds has her way, people will be able to get Enlighten in a box for $29.95.
Enlighten, the board game, helps players compare major religions while competing against each other. It is the brainchild of Reynolds, a 38-year-old Sausalito resident. Players answer questions about Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhism and New Religious Movements while circumnavigating the playing area. The winner is "enlightened."
Reynolds, originally from Evanston, Ill., has worked as a hotel concierge, a development consultant for health clubs, and ran her own hiking tour business.
She was raised a Catholic and received a Catholic education from elementary school to college, but found the faith limiting, especially when she found herself exposed to friends of many different creeds. Except for special occasions, she says, she hasn't attended church in 20 years.
In 1997, she went to India to study Buddhist and Hindu traditions, as well as yoga. While there, she spent 10 days in Dharmsala, where the Dalai Lama lives, where, she says, "I was the only blonde in a sea of Tibetans."
Returning home a year later, she began teaching yoga full time in Larkspur Landing, Belvedere and privately.
Around Christmastime 2002, Reynolds was spending the holiday alone, a "golf widow," and read Huston Smith's "The World's Religions," published in 1958. "It was fascinating how each religion seemed to have underlying similarities." Still, she says, "I felt lonely, knowing all this information by myself. I wondered about how to have a dialogue with others."
Not surprisingly, Reynolds says, her reactions were influenced by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"The world was getting smaller, and I kept seeing people make opinions about religions based on very little information. I thought that people needed to know the underlying principles and development of religions, not just what fundamentalists of all stripes have turned it into. I wanted to give people a broader context and make other religions more accessible, to reduce judgments. "
So Reynolds flung herself into various religious tracts. When she was ready to create her game, she decided that players should have to travel around the world. To that end, the game has the traditional square board through which players move by casting a die, but the board is divided into the six major religions and three historical categories -- prehistoric, Eastern and paganism. As players successfully answer questions, they enter the Enlighten Path, where they have to identify quotes from major religions and philosophical leaders.
Reynolds tried to develop factual questions that wouldn't be disputed.
To help her, she enlisted Charles Flores, a friend who was getting a master's degree at the California Institute of Integral Studies in East-West psychology.
She tested questions, ran them through three editors and had different groups, in Chicago and locally, test the game.
Relying on an inheritance from her father and money from an investor, Reynolds took about a year to create a prototype. She then enlisted groups to play the game, getting some volunteers from posts she put on craigslist. She estimates that as a result of the testing, she made 150 changes to the original.
One person who responded to the craigslist ad was Celeste Mirassou, 44, of Mill Valley.
"I saw this post asking for people to play this cool game that was about spiritual practices," she said. Mirassou, a financial planner who meditates daily and is a student of Zen Buddhism, thought it sounded like fun.
"I'm trying to get consistent with my spiritual practices," she says. "I didn't think I'd pick up as much as I did. I started to connect the dots between the different religions."
While she knew more about Buddhism, her opponent was more versed in Islam and Hinduism. "It created a nice dialogue," she says.
After the testing and modifications, Reynolds took Enlighten to the International Toy Fair in New York in February.
"I made tons of contacts and learned about games being used in educational arenas," she says.
One thing she realized was that the game might be better suited for bookstores and schools than traditional game shops, and she has pursued this market aggressively. Book Passage in Corte Madera now carries the game, as does the Open Secret bookstore and Book Beat in Fairfax. She's also talking to a couple of major book chains. And in June, she's going to Book Expo America in Chicago and the International New Age Trade Show in Denver.
Reynolds estimates she spent $80,000 to $100,000 developing her game, figuring in paying editors, designers, manufacturers, and an initial run of 5, 000 games. That amount of money is daunting, but Reynolds says she isn't worried: "I'll make money teaching yoga, I'll survive. But the game's message is bigger than money. My goal is to make this information interesting, fun and accessible."
Her more material goal is to sell 5,000 to 10,000 units this year.
Reynolds sums up: "If we're going to have a world at peace, people have to get to know about each other."
Playing the game
"Enlighten" retails for $29.95. To purchase the game, visit www. enlightengamesinc.com or call (415) 331-3599.
Sample questions
-- What does the god Vishnu represent? A) Divine love B) Creation C) Law and Order D) Destruction E) A&C. (Answer: C.)
-- The worship of Shiva was practiced through: A) Mantra and prayer B) A man's devotion to his wife C) Phallic representation D) Using one's sword to cut through limiting beliefs. (Answer: C)
-- Muslims pray in the direction of the Kaaba wherever they are to acknowledge the Kaaba as: A) Muhammad's tomb B) A sanctuary built by Abraham C) Allah D) The Holy Grail. (Answer: B)
-- "Rendering help to another is the function of all human beings." A) Jainism B) Shinto C) Confucius D) Zoroastrianism. (Answer: A)