About The Galileo Commission
The Galileo Commission is a project of the Scientific and Medical Network, led by David Lorimer, who chairs the Steering Committee.
David Lorimer MA, PGCE, FRSA
David Lorimer, MA, PGCE, FRSA is a visionary polymath, poet, spiritual activist, writer, lecturer and editor who is a Founder of Character
Harald Walach PhD
Professor Harald Walach is a researcher at the interface between medicine, psychology and consciousness studies. Currently he is affiliated as a professor with
Scientific and Medical Network
The Scientific and Medical Network is a worldwide professional community and membership organisation for open-minded, rigorous and evidence-based enquiry into themes bridging science,
Steering Committee
Athena Despoina Potari, DPhil
Dr Athena Despoina Potari is Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University and Lecturer at the University of Toulouse (1
Jessica Corneille, MSc
Following a sudden non-dual experience one morning in February 2016, Jessica Corneille decided to change the course of her life by quitting her career in
Joan Walton, PhD
My first degree is in Social Theory and Institutions (University of Bangor, North Wales), which allowed me to study a range of
Prof Marjorie Woollacott, PhD
Marjorie Hines Woollacott, PhD, has been a neuroscience professor at the University of Oregon for more than three decades and a meditator
Vasileios Basios, PhD
Dr. Vasileios Basios is a senior researcher at the Physics of Complex Systems Department of the University of Brussels, conducting interdisciplinary research on
Working Groups
We have a number of working groups, centered around specific interests, that you can join.
Asian Traditional & Indigenous Wisdom and Science – Rahul Goswami
Traditional medicinal, healing and curative sciences and arts stand, in many ways, at the threshold between material and non-material worlds. Their most experienced practitioners have developed ways of not only seeing, but of understanding and diagnosing currents and fluxes within and surrounding our gross bodies.
Completing the Spectrum – Nicholas Rosseinsky
This initiative adopts a tentative (non-dual) psychospiritual framework for Ground, Self, and Soul; for the arising of the illusion of separation; and for the emergence of our local Universe and material process, as a response to that arising. In this hypothetical context, humanity’s challenge is: how are we to relinquish participation in separation, individually and collectively?
Enrichment Through New Insights: Balancing Mind against Materialism – Joachim Reuter
Our task is to inform people about the new insights how quantum physics may be enriching our life with balancing mind against materialism. We want to help bringing about new life plans to reduce excessive striving for material goods and to overcome the mental poverty of people in highly developed countries.
Evolution of Consciousness for Organizational and Global Transformation – Carsten Ohrmann
This working group of the Galileo Commission Curators mainly investigates and promotes the implications a post-materialistic paradigm will have on our lives, our businesses, our society and the world.
Nonlocal Consciousness Correlates Analysis: the ‘oREGano’ project – Vasileios Basios & Wolfhardt Janu
Our working group, historically the first one to emerge, came about as an informal gathering of friends from the GC who had similar interests on studying traces of consciousness’ states manifesting in organizational dynamics. It is about the study of trace-signals of “organizational closure” which is now being detected due to an innovation on standard random event generators (REGs).
Advisers
A.K. Mukhopadhyay, Prof
Since 1985, Prof. A. K. Mukhopadhyay has been engaged in developing a science for consciousness with a Worldview, which accommodates simultaneously Science, Humanity
Alan Rayner, PhD
Dr Alan Rayner is a naturalist who uses art, poetry, fluid mathematics and careful science to enquire and communicate about the evolutionary diversity of our natural human neighbourhood. He was educated at King’s College, Cambridge and has been a Reader in Biology at the University of Bath.
Allan Wallace, PhD
Alan Wallace is a prominent voice in the emerging discussion between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists who question the materialist presumptions of
Andrew Fellows, PhD
Andrew Fellows, PhD, is a classical Jungian Analyst (www.andrewfellows.ch) with private practices in Bern and Zürich, Program Director and Training Analyst at ISAP Zurich, an independent researcher and author, and a deep ecologist.
Andrew Powell, FRCPsych
Dr Andrew Powell was formerly Consultant Psychotherapist and Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, St George’s Hospital and University of London; and Consultant Psychotherapist and
Anne Baring, PhD
Anne Baring has travelled widely in India and the Far East during the 1950's before training and practising as a Jungian analyst.
Professional Affiliates
*not an exhaustive list
Partners
Animas Valley Institute
Mythologies from around the world tell of spiritual seekers whose arduous journeys into the underworld bestow boons to bring back for the people. But the myths don’t tell us how contemporary people might undertake this journey. Animas Valley Institute, founded by Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., in 1980 in Durango, Colorado, offers a diverse set of experiential journeys into the mysteries of nature and psyche, including Soulcraft(TM) Intensives, contemporary vision fasts, and training programs in soul-initiation guiding and in nature-based human development facilitation.
Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona
The Center is a unique institution whose aim is to bring together the perspectives of philosophy, the cognitive sciences, neuroscience, the social sciences, medicine, and the physical sciences, the arts and humanities, to move toward an integrated understanding of human consciousness.
Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), University of Virginia
Founded in 1967 by Dr. Ian Stevenson, the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) is a highly productive university-based research group devoted to the investigation of phenomena that challenge mainstream scientific paradigms regarding the nature of the mind/brain relationship. Researchers at DOPS are particularly interested in studying phenomena related to consciousness functioning beyond the confines of the physical body, and phenomena that suggest continuation of consciousness after physical death.
Essentia Foundation
Do we really live in a fundamentally physical universe? Are we essentially material beings? Essentia Foundation is a new force in the cultural dialogue about the nature of reality. Find out more about us here.
Existential Consciousness Research Institute
The Institute for Existential Consciousness Research unites and connects scientists, researchers, thinkers, authors and pioneers from different disciplines. Questions around the research and development of consciousness are not only theoretical but focus concretely on the human being and being human in a constantly changing world. We are convinced that the social and ecological challenges of our time require new perspectives and solutions, which begin with a new way of creating consciousness for oneself and the world.
Institute for Global Transformation
The Institute for Global Transformation™ is a new type of organization engaged in building new forms for how, together, we can create a better world. We view all others in alignment with our vision and mission as allies helping to bring Light into an awaiting humanity. Ultimately, we want to help individuals reach their highest potential, find their life purpose, and create a life of joy, abundance, health, and inner peace. In doing this, we are also helping to create a better world for everyone.
International Network for the Study of Spirituality
The International Network for the Study of Spirituality (INSS) is a unique international network for people interested in bringing the study of spirituality to life through research, scholarship, education and practice. Formerly the British Association for the Study of Spirituality (BASS), INSS was founded in 2010 to facilitate the critical exploration of spirituality within the theory and practice of a wide range of academic and applied disciplines.
Science and Nonduality
Science And Nonduality (SAND) is a community inspired by timeless wisdom, informed by cutting-edge science, and grounded in direct experience. We come together to explore the big questions of life while celebrating the mystery of being. SAND is a place for an open-hearted, authentic connection with people who are drawn together to explore what it means to be a human being, standing at the intersection of spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, and the arts.
The Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred
This unique and ground-breaking project in transformative learning combines creative expression, personal reflection and critical edge in the study of esoteric wisdom and contemporary exploration of the sacred. Our academic programme is formally ending in 2021, and our new web platform provides an archive of our work and publications, whilst also moving forward with new courses, lectures, podcasts, community building and much more.
The Foundation for Mind-Being Research (FMBR)
The Foundation for Mind-Being Research (FMBR) was established in 1980 to assist in the creation of integrated models of human consciousness, models that encompass the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the human experience. The objective was to bring the then-new field of consciousness studies into wider recognition as a bona fide field of science, and to explore whether consciousness arises out of physical matter (i.e., the brain) or whether it is a state of matter unto itself.
The Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies
The Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies is dedicated to re-imagining the human species as a mutually enhancing member of the Earth community. Our program attracts intellectually engaged individuals who are in varying degrees dismayed by what they see happening in modern societies and who are striving to find meaningful ways to develop their gifts to serve the future of the world. The program supports those called to meet the earth community’s unprecedented evolutionary challenge by offering a rigorous and supportive learning community in which students find their voice and vision as leaders.
Ubiquity University
Ubiquity University is a global university designed for social impact. Ubiquity is a whole new kind of education for a whole new kind of world. Our founding purpose is to develop learning experiences grounded in the world’s wisdom traditions blended with the practical interpersonal and entrepreneurial skills you need to thrive in a world of increasing complexity and connectivity.
Universite Interdisciplinaire de Paris
L’Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris (UIP) a pour objectif de diffuser et confronter les savoirs, à partir de l’étude des paradigmes scientifiques contemporains – principalement dans les domaines de l’astrophysique, de la physique quantique, des théories de l’Evolution, des neurosciences et de philosophies de l’esprit.
Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN)
The Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN) was founded in 1989 as a result of meetings between indigenous women, elders and Western scientists. Today our membership includes tribal elders, scientists, conservationists, scholars and women’s organizations from cultures around the world. All share a common vision of rediscovering and applying ancient wisdom for today’s time. We coordinate a global network of indigenous Elders and are advocates for at risk indigenous practitioners and traditional knowledge.We conduct research, host international conferences and cultural exchanges and with academic partners offer advanced degree programs in Indigenous Mind.
Links
Manifesto for a Post-Materialist Science
Signatories of the manifest for post-materialist science believe that the sciences are being constricted by dogmatism, and in particular by a subservience to the philosophy of materialism, the doctrine that matter is the only reality and that the mind is nothing but the physical activity of the brain. They also believe that the sciences would be more scientific if they were free to investigate the natural world in a truly open way – without the constraints of materialism and the prejudice of dogma – while adhering to the scientific methods of data collecting, hypothesis testing and critical discussion. If you wish to show you support, you are invited to become a signatory and have your name added to the growing list.
Skeptical About Skeptics
Skeptical About Skeptics is dedicated to countering dogmatic, ill-informed attacks leveled by dogmatic skeptics on pioneering scientists and their research. Healthy skepticism is an important part of science, as in all walks of life, but some skeptics use it as a weapon to defend their dearly held ideology. Naturally, this inhibits free inquiry as certain ideas and lines of research are denigrated and the careers of scientists who pursue them anyway are threatened. They believe in a purely material world, a clock-work universe filled with machine-like creatures. They believe living minds are nothing more than brain chemistry, that consciousness is an illusion and automatically dismiss any evidence to the contrary.