Can an Extended Science Bridge the Worlds of Matter, Mind, and Spirit? – Bernard Carr
Indeed, most physicists adopt a materialist and reductionist view in which consciousness is just an incidental by-product of the brain. However, many arguments from physics itself suggest that consciousness is a fundamental rather than incidental feature of the Universe, so it is natural to extend physics to accommodate it. This is especially true if one believes in certain anomalous interactions between consciousness and the physical world. However, this will require a radically different physical paradigm from the one that currently prevails.
Nonlocality and Exceptional Experiences: A Study of Genius, Religious Epiphany, and the Psychic – Stephan Schwartz
The paper surveys some of the most important relevant research from quantum biology, physics, psychology, medicine, anthropology, and parapsychology. It proposes that more attention should be paid to the autobiographies, correspondence, and journals of men and women to whom history unequivocally accords the designation of genius, saint, or psychic, offering examples from these sources. And it presents comparisons between ethnohistorical material and spiritual traditions, suggesting they arrive at a similar worldview. Finally, it proposes that meditation research, some examples of which are cited, be seen in the context of psychophysical self-regulation, and that it offers one powerful avenue for producing these exceptional experiences.
Imaginal Inspirations with Steve Taylor
David Lorimer's guest today is Steve Taylor PhD, the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality, and a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University. He is the current chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. His books include Waking From Sleep, The Fall, The Leap, Spiritual Science, The Clear Light (poetry) and his new book Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation. His books have been published in 20 languages and Eckhart Tolle has described his work as ‘an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.’
Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality: A Brief History of the “Sursem” Project – Edward F. Kelly
The rise of modern science, accompanied by its many technological triumphs, has led to widespread acceptance among intellectual elites of a worldview that conflicts sharply both with everyday human experience and with beliefs widely shared among the world’s institutional religions.
Is the Sun Conscious? – Rupert Sheldrake
The recent panpsychist turn in philosophy opens the possibility that self-organizing systems at all levels of complexity, including stars and galaxies, might have experience, awareness, or consciousness. The organismic or holistic philosophy of nature points in the same direction. Meanwhile, field theories of consciousness propose that some electromagnetic fields actually are conscious, and that these fields are by their very nature integrative. When applied to the sun, such field theories suggest a possible physical basis for the solar mind, both within the body of the sun itself and also throughout the solar system. If the sun is conscious, it may be concerned with the regulation of its own body and the entire solar system through its electromagnetic activity, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections. It may also communicate with other star systems within the galaxy.
Policing orthodoxy on Wikipedia: Skeptics in action? – Brian Martin
Wikipedia has been accused of being biased against challengers to scientific orthodoxy due to efforts by editors having affinities with the Skeptics movement. Examination of Wikipedia, including entries on fluoridation, the origin of AIDS and vaccination, reveals several characteristics typical of a Skeptics sensibility, including the definition of scepticism, lists of deviant ideas, derogatory labelling of heterodox viewpoints, and categories established without reference to reliable sources.
Imaginal Inspirations with Yvonne Kason
David Lorimer's guest today is Dr. Yvonne Kason MD, MEd, CCFP, FCFP, who is the President and Co-Founder of Spiritual Awakenings International, and is the Co-Leader and Co-Founder of Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group. She has had five Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), two in her childhood and three in her adult life, as well as multiple Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs). She is the Past-President of IANDS, the International Association for Near-Death Studies. Yvonne is a retired family physician and transpersonal MD-psychotherapist, previously on faculty at the University of Toronto, and an internationally renowned medical expert on NDEs and other STEs.
Interviews with Innocence featuring Raymond Moody
Meet the man who blazed the trail and those who have followed in his footsteps. When Raymond Moody MD, Ph.D. began his research into near-death experiences in 1968, he was a skeptic and an atheist. Now he is neither. This psychologist, physician and author is most widely known for his books about life after death and near-death experiences (NDE), a term that he coined in 1975 in his best-selling book Life After Life.
David Lorimer: Daring to look through Galileo’s telescope
Galileo’s example inspired the founders of the Galileo Commission to name it after him. This project of the Scientific and Medical Network, a worldwide professional community, aims to expand the scope of science by crossing the border to spirituality. At the core lies the notion that consciousness is nonphysical.
Study of Evidential After-Death Communications – Ken Vincent
An after-death communication (ADC) is a spontaneous experience of communication with a deceased friend or family member. This study examines 1667 cases on the After-Death Communication Research Foundation website (ADCRF.org). A total of 336 (20.1%) were found to be evidential. The three main categories of evidential ADCs and previous research are discussed.
Imaginal Inspirations with Rosy Daniel
Dr Rosy Daniel is a holistic doctor, health coach, workplace wellness consultant, broadcaster, speaker, teacher and author specialising in new paradigms for proactive health creation. She practices at her Bath clinic where she guides the regeneration of positive health for those with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, overweight, arthritis and stress-related illness. Her healthcare approach combines sensitive, compassionate warmth in her own style of highly personalised holistic medicine.
Interviews with Innocence featuring Marjorie Woollacott
Marjorie Woollacott, Ph.D., is an Emeritus Professor and prior chair of the Dept. of Human Physiology, and member of the Institute of Neuroscience, at the University of Oregon. She has published more than 200 scientific articles and written or co-edited eight books. Her latest book, Infinite Awareness (2015) (winner of eight awards, including the 2017 Parapsychological Association Book Award, Eric Hoffer Book Award and the Nautilus Book Award) pairs Woollacott’s research as a neuroscientist with her self-revelations about the mind’s spiritual power.
Dr Iain McGilchrist and Dr Jordan Peterson in conversation
On Thursday 13th May Dr Iain McGilchrist and Dr Jordan Peterson talked for almost 2 hours on Peterson's podcast. Below is the link in case you missed this, and some of the theme areas they explored which include the discussion of Dr Iain McGilchrist's new book The Matter with Things, which will be published this October.
When Scientific Orthodoxy Resembles Religious Dogma – Avi Loeb
Those who refuse to consider an unconventional idea in science are disturbingly similar to those who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope
Imaginal Inspirations with Federico Faggin
Federico Faggin has led what he calls four lives: as a physicist, engineer and inventor, entrepreneur, and author. He developed the MOS silicon gate technology at Fairchild (1968) and designed the world's first microprocessor at Intel (1971). Faggin also founded and led Zilog, Synaptics, and other high-tech companies. The Zilog Z80 microprocessor (1976), and the Z8 microcontroller (1978) are still in volume production in 2021. At Synaptics he pioneered the Touchpad (1994) and the Touchscreen (1999), - solutions that have revolutionized the way we interface with mobile devices.
Interviews with Innocence featuring Dr. Bruce Greyson
Dr. Greyson has published more than a hundred scholarly articles about near-death experiences in peer-reviewed medical journals. He has received research grants from government agencies, from pharmaceutical companies, and from private, nonprofit research foundations. He has served on grant review boards and program planning workshops at the National Institutes of Health. He has addressed more than a hundred national and international professional conferences, including a symposium on consciousness at the United Nations and a dialogue between Western scientists and Buddhist monks in India convened by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Science and Roger Penrose – Liver Webinar, August 3-6
Science and Roger Penrose - Liver Webinar, August 3-6
Implications of the Near-Death Experience with Barbara Harris Whitfield
In this video from 2016, she describes her own near death experience that took place more than forty years ago, including a feeling of being embraced by the divine and also including a detailed review of her life up until that moment. That was a transformative experience that set the pattern for the rest of her life. As a result she became associated with researchers Kenneth Ring and Bruce Greyson at the University of Connecticut. There she discovered the correlation between near-death experience and early life trauma. She likens her particular path to “the hero’s journey” as described by the mythologist, Joseph Campbell.
Imaginal Inspirations with Vasileios Basios
Dr. Vasilieios Basios is a senior researcher at the Physics of Complex Systems Department of the University of Brussels, where he conducts interdisciplinary research on self-organisation and emergence in complex matter as well as on aspects of the foundations of complex systems. We first met in the early 1990s in Greece where a number of pioneering meetings on a science of consciousness were arranged by his mentor and our mutual friend Emilios Bouratinos, author of the seminal work Science, Objectivity and Consciousness.
Beyond Bohm: Science, Order And Creativity – Pari Center – July and August sessions
During July and August the Pari Center is offering a unique opportunity to hear and dialogue with those involved in the many aspects of David Bohm’s work and to discuss the implications of his ideas for the future. All sessions include audience participation in the form of Q&A and discussion.
Part II: Complementing Reductionism – AliciaLandman-Reiner
Life sciences today approach nature through a reductionist lens. A broadened methodology, known as Goethean science, complements that one-sided perspective. Building on the elements of the qualitative and the wholeness of organisms, novel examples of non-reductionist work in plant growth, animal, and specifically human organization, are described.
Part I: Complementing Reductionism – AliciaLandman-Reiner
While integrative practices in health care have grown over the past half-century, life sciences still view nature almost entirely through a reductionist lens. Contemporary research is described that complements this reductionist, non-holistic perspective with the methods of Goethean science. A rigorous approach to qualitative science and to wholeness in nature is outlined.
Imaginal Inspirations with Bruce Greyson
Bruce Greyson is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was the immediate successor to the Carlsson Chair after the legendary Ian Stevenson, who founded the Department of Perceptual Studies in the University of Virginia in 1967. Ian is famous for his meticulous studies of children who remember previous lives but he also researched near-death experiences in India. Bruce was a co-founder and President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies and Editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies for many years and author of The Handbook of Near-Death Studies.
Can we Crack the Mind-Body Problem? Part II – Emmanuel Ransford
In this Part Two of what is now a four-part article, the main focus is on quantum entanglement – a strange feature of which we have only the wispiest grasp. It will be argued that nature flatly needs it, on grounds of consistency. The notion of holomatter will also be introduced. It will be shown that this “super-matter” sheds new light on the quantum world, one that makes it less… befuddling. When I felt it was necessary, I took the liberty to coin a few words. Their definitions are given in the Appendix 2A. Also, many footnotes are added to the text. Nearly all of them can be ignored with no adverse effect on the global comprehension.
Why a ‘genius’ scientist thinks our consciousness originates at the quantum level – Paul Patner
Do our minds have quantum structures that give rise to consciousness? Sir Roger Penrose, one of the world's most famous scientists, believes this and can explain how he thinks it works.