Expanding the Scope of Science
ORIGINS
David Lorimer introduces the Galileo Commission Report
REMIT
The Galileo Commission was founded in 2017 with a view to expanding the worldview of science beyond its limiting materialistic assumptions, which are seldom explicitly examined. A central and widely held assumption is that the brain generates consciousness and is therefore extinguished at death.
Following widespread consultation in 2018 with 90 advisers representing 30 universities worldwide, we have published the Galileo Commission Report, written by Prof Dr Harald Walach and entitled Beyond a Materialist Worldview – Towards an Expanded Science. The report has been widely endorsed as a groundbreaking document, so we encourage you to support our movement by joining the Galileo Commission either as a Professional Affiliate or a Friend. There is also a Summary Report and a Layman’s Report, and a brief summary of the argument is available in a number of languages. We encourage you to read and support Dr Athena Potari’s Call for a Renaissance of the Spirit in the Humanities and to read our edited book Spiritual Awakenings, which documents the transformative experiences of 57 scientists and academics.
A Call for a Renaissance of the Spirit in the Humanities
The “Call for a Renaissance of the Spirit in the Humanities”, written by Dr Athena D. Potari, is a pioneering project aiming to raise awareness regarding how the prevailing paradigm of materialism affects the ways in which knowledge is approached within the context of the Humanities. In line with the Galileo Report, which discusses the importance of liberating the positive sciences from the limitations of the paradigm of scientific materialism, this Call aims at making the case for the Humanities as well. The Call explores how recent developments in scientific studies on consciousness, and the ensuing understanding that consciousness is primary and unified, can inform our understanding of what it means to be “human” with correspondingly appropriate epistemologies, as well as how we approach key areas of human activity, including ethics, politics and the environment.What people say…
Featured book
Featured podcast
The Playful Universe – Marjorie Woollacott, David Lorimer and Gary Schwartz (Eds)
This volume consists of essays by scientists and academics describing their own experiences of synchronicity and how these experiences transformed both their worldview and the way they lived their lives. We truly believe that this is a fundamentally intelligent, benevolent, creative and playful universe in which we, as individual expressions of the one Universal Mind, co-create our reality.
Recent News
Is Consciousness Part of the Fabric of the Universe?
Physicists and philosophers recently met to debate a theory of consciousness called panpsychism
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Ervin Laszlo on the Dawn of an Era of Well-being Podcast
During this conversation, Father Laurence and podcast hosts Ervin Laszloand Chavalit Frederick Tsao, and moderator Nora Csiszar, delved into a variety of topics concerning the Catholic faith and the modern world; in particular vis-à-vis the sciences and relationships with other faith traditions—all of this with the ultimate goal of building a better world through collaboration rather than competition.
The illusion of East and West – Athena Potari
Athena Potari shares her insights on Hellenism, the ancient civilization of the Mediterranean, the cultural cradle of Western civilization, and the birthplace of Western science, politics, democracy, and philosophy. Her insights reveal that the Hellenistic tradition is also a spiritual tradition of awakening, divine devotion, purification, virtue, non-duality, and self-realization that are usually associated with the spiritual traditions of the East. She shows us that the East-West divide is our illusion.
Imaginal Inspirations with Thomas Verny
David Lorimer's guest today is Dr Thomas R. Verny, psychiatrist, academic, writer, poet, blogger (Psychology Today), contributing columnist (The Stratford Times) and podcaster (Pushing Boundaries with Dr. Thomas R Verny).
Methodological Exclusion of the Transcendent? – Alexander Moreira-Almeida & Ralph Hood
This paper discusses (a) what is MET as proposed by Flournoy and the reasons he provided to adopt it, (b) problems with MET, implications for research and theory in religion/spirituality and health, and why the transcendent should be included in psychological, medical and other academic research and theory on spiritual experiences (SE), and (c) some methodological guidelines perform it fruitfully.
