WHAT IS LIFE? #10 The Unividualist and the Integralist – Tim Freke
I loved meeting Jeff. What an inspiring man! In the second half of our conversation, he gives an utterly beautiful articulation of the Integral vision. - Tim Freke
I See Dead People: Dreams and Visions of the Dying – Chris Kerr
Although medically ignored, these near-universal experiences often provide comfort and meaning as well as insight into the life led and the death anticipated.
Consciousness and Cosmos: Building an Ontological Frameworк
Three necessary conditions for the existence of consciousness are identified: a) a ground of reality, envisaged as a universal field of potentiality encompassing all possible manifestations, whether material or ‘mental’; b) a transitional zone, leading to; c) a manifest world with its fundamental divisions into material, ‘informational’, and quale-endowed aspects. We explore ideas about the nature of these necessary conditions, how they may relate to one another and whether our suggestions have empirical implications.
WHAT IS LIFE? – Tim Freke and Steve Taylor
In this episode of Tim Freke’s podcast “What is life?” Tim sits down with Steve Taylor, an adviser to the Galileo Commission, to contemplate the mystery of life. They touch on a variety of topics on their intellectual journey: how compassion and creativity manifest themselves in daily lives, the nature and dynamism of time, the problem of free will, how consciousness emerges and how it relates to evolutions, what kids can teach you about being present, death and much more… Their discussion is a step in the right direction to, as Tim puts it, ‘bring in a new narrative’ in our cultural and intellectual lives that can build on top of the materialistic worldview and overcome the potentially nihilistic implications of materialism.
SoS Theory as a Basis for an Account of Consciousness – Chris Nunn
Quantizing ‘tensed’ time leads to a proposal for a panprotopsychist theory (SoS theory) which avoids the ‘binding’ and ‘combination’ problems to which most theories of this type succumb when envisaged as providers of a basis for our form of conscious experience. For this reason, SoS theory is regarded as relatively plausible, while it has empirically testable implications for both a potential means of inducing general anaesthesia and for the probable manifestation of brief violations of objective energy conservation.
October 2019 Newsletter
October Newsletter
Mind, consciousness and time: an integrated overview – Chris Nunn
I suggest here that ‘mind’ can usefully be viewed as a process of integrating environmental dynamics with brain dynamics. It is probably expressed in brains in fractal patterns of ionic fluxes, especially calcium ion fluxes. Consciousness may be founded in a neutral monism at the basis of reality. As manifest in us however, it could prove to be a translation, mediated by implications of Heisenberg time/energy uncertainty, of spatio-temporal aspects of ‘mind’ into a tempero-spatial format. Differences between qualia might conceivably have a basis in knot theory. Potentially useful research directions are then briefly described.
Event – The Beshara Lecture 2019: Ecosystems as Love Processes
Two doctrines rule our times: Neo-Darwinism and Neoliberalism, which are deeply connected and together form one overwhelming ideology of inevitable competition and deadly strife. Biological life, however, is never about one winning, but rather an endless celebration of reciprocity.
Diversity and Inclusion: A Living Systems Approach – Katherine Long
Our understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion owes a huge debt to the countless individuals and communities all around the world who have struggled and campaigned and highlighted the profound injustices and disparities within our systems past and present. Yet the challenge remains to consider what else might be transformed through the creation of new paradigms which see diversity and inclusion, not as niche concerns, but as a core, shared set of values essential to our common survival and thrival.
Toward a postmaterialist psychology: Theory, research, and applications
In this article, we review two categories of empirical evidence that support a shift toward a postmaterialist psychology. We argue that the transmission hypothesis of the mind-brain relationship can account for all the evidence presented in this article. We also discuss the emerging postmaterialist paradigm and its potential implications for the evolution of psychology.
Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time? – Jay Fitzgerald
When a star scientist dies, outsiders often tackle mainstream questions in the field by leveraging new ideas that arise in other domains.
Evolution and the Self-Realising Universe – Tim Freke
Tim Freke shares his new understanding of reality at the 2019 Science and Spirituality Summit.
New Concepts of Matter, Life and Mind – Ervin Laszlo
In light of the current, revolutionary advances in the natural sciences and in the study of consciousness, the concepts of matter, life, and
Was Buddha Just a Nice Guy? – Dean Radin
Did Buddha's teachings survive and thrive because he was more attractive or charismatic than most, or because he was a great teacher and a tireless advocate of the poor? Asking such questions about revered religious icons is asking for trouble, so we may consider a more contemporary figure - the Dalai Lama. Does the Dalai Lama know something that science ignores publicly but is fascinated by privately? This presentation will offer answers to these questions based not on opinion, but on analysis of decades of experimental data collected in dozens of laboratories around the world, and regularly published in scientific journals.
Science is Ready for Consciousness: Federico Faggin
In this fascinating interview Federico Faggin, designer of the first commercial microprocessor and pioneer in the movement to base mathematical theory on consciousness, urges science to embrace consciousness to explain the weirdness of quantum physics, and use it as the instrument of scientific investigation. "There need no longer be a duality between mind and matter," he says. "With consciousness you can reach reality from the inside." He makes a startling suggestion - that matter is the ink with which consciousness writes its own self-knowing.
A (very) Brief History of Certainty – IIya Prigogine
The future is uncertain; this is true for the nature we describe and this is true on the level of our own existence. But this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity. Time becomes 'construction' and creativity a way to participate in this construction.
Time, Chaos and the Laws of Physics: A 1995 Dialogue – David Lorimer
One of the overall conclusions of a rich day was that we are not at the end of physics, but rather at the end of predictability and certainty, which means including novelty and creativity. And a science in which creativity and participation in the construction of the world are intrinsic is a science, which overcomes the widespread alienation associated with the traditional scientific outlook. In Prigogine's 'new rationality', probability will no longer be seen as ignorance or science as equivalent to certainty. Time is real and the future is open: we live not simply in an 'open society' but also in an open universe.
Evolution and the Transcendence of Mind – Theodore Roszak
Perhaps, then, with a bit of humility and a sense of humour, computer science can help us learn something about the mind's radically transcendent nature. After all, it is the human mind that invents artificial ones (as much for the fun as for the utility of it) and then has room left over to defy the logic or grow bored with their predictable correctness. That 'room' is the evolutionary margin of life still waiting to be explored. What computers can do represents so many routinised mental functions we can now delegate and slough off as we move forward to new ground. The machines are behind us, not ahead.
Life at the Edge of Science – Book Review
She begins with considerations on the role of anomalies in science, which she regards as crucial to promoting continuous scientific innovation and breakthroughs. Instead of a state of ‘balanced openness’ recommended by the author, the reactions of orthodox scientists to anomalies are frequently hostile and defensive. This in itself is less surprising when one considers the personal costs of stepping out of the mainstream and being branded as a heretic: loss of funding, difficulty in publishing, loss of reputation, obstacles to advancement, critical backlash and even loss of employment.
Gary Schwartz on the Science of the Afterlife
In this interview, Gary Schwartz, an adviser to the Galileo Commission, discusses the most recent evidence of the afterlife. He answers questions including: What are the most convincing arguments for the existence of the afterlife? What are the most gripping experiences he's had, inside or outside of the lab? What changes has he made after he's been convinced of the afterlife? Has he had any spiritual experiences himself?
Neuroscience, Responsibility and the Law – David Lorimer
A group of fifteen neuroscientists, philosophers and lawyers met under the auspices of the Network at Drynachan Lodge near Inverness in Scotland to discuss the issue of responsibility as understood by modern neuroscience on the one hand and our legal system on the other.
The Physics of Organisms and the Naturalistic Ethic of Organic Wholeness – Mae-Wan Ho
Participatory knowledge knows no bounds nor boundaries. There is no fragmentation into disciplines, no demarcation into secular versus sacred domains: it is at once sublime and practical. It is one, and integral to life. By living our life as parent, builder, gardener, labourer, artist, scientist, all, we participate in celebrating and creating reality.
The Issue Before Us: Reassessment of the Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science – Willis Harman
The scientific and medical communities have given a rather unfriendly reception to research in psi phenomena, dissociative states, altered states of consciousness, extraordinary healings, and other areas related to consciousness in some of its non-normal forms. This has been mainly because the meaning and significance people tended to attach to these experiences seemed to clash so directly with prevailing assumptions about the nature of scientific reality. But perhaps it is our "official" concept of reality that is wrong.
Language, Energy & Consciousness: Can “Energy Talk” Enlighten Us About the Mind? – Christian de Quincey
One of the thorniest issues in "energy" and "consciousness" work is the tendency to confuse the two. Consciousness does not equal energy, yet the two are inseparable. Consciousness is the "witness" which experiences the flow of energy, but it is not the flow of energy. We might say consciousness is the felt interiority of energy/matter-but it is not energy.
Treating Mood Disorders with Psychedelics – A Talk by Paul Grof
The Professional Affiliate to the Galileo Commission Paul Grof discusses how to treat mood disorders with psychedelics. In this talk, Paul Grof describes the features that differentiate treatment with psychedelics from other psychotropic substances. He further elaborates how to achieve better treatment outcomes, how new observations help to better understand the processes leading to positive treatment outcomes and how variably they manifest.