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…
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Spiritual Awakenings – Marjorie Wollacott & David Lorimer (Eds)
Scholars share the experience of their own spiritual awakening and journey, including encountering challenges to their credibility in academia, if they shared these experiences. Their comments about transformation in values, beliefs, and approaches toward life are very moving, expressing a deep inner wisdom and connection, not only with humanity, but with the earth and cosmos.
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Imaginal Inspirations with Joan Walton
David’s guest today is Dr Joan Walton, a researcher in the School of Education, Psychology and Language at York St John University, UK. Joan has had an interest in consciousness studies from her early 20s, influenced initially by the work of Carl Jung, which led her to the work of other transpersonal psychologists, philosophers, scientists and writers about religions and spiritual traditions.
A third transition in science? – Stuard Kauffman (The Royal Society)
There can be no theory of everything that entails all that comes to exist. We face a third major transition in science beyond the Pythagorean dream that ‘all is number’ echoed by Newtonian physics. However, we begin to understand the emergent creativity of an evolving biosphere: emergence is not engineering.
Discover Hope for Humanity’s Future – Free Virtual Event, Saturday 22 July 2023
You’ll explore the noosphere on Saturday, July 22, and discover how science and mysticism converge in the evolution of human consciousness and our world — and deepen the meaning of our lives and the power we hold to consciously create the harmony, fulfillment, and happiness we seek.
Physicalist Materialism: The Dying Throes of an Inadequate Paradigm – Stephan A. Schwartz
These studies and experiments spread across many disciplines, using different protocols, are often dismissed by physicalists who find the very idea of nonlocal consciousness, to quote American psychologists and physicalists James Alcock and Arthur Reber, to be “impossible.” And yet this position, when the research is closely examined, is seen as a statement of ideology or belief, not a statement of science.
The Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Science Research Prize Winners
IONS is pleased to announce the inaugural winners of the Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize!
Nature: Decades-long bet on consciousness ends — and it’s philosopher 1, neuroscientist 0
A 25-year science wager has come to an end. In 1998, neuroscientist Christof Koch bet philosopher David Chalmers that the mechanism by which the brain’s neurons produce consciousness would be discovered by 2023. Both scientists agreed publicly on 23 June, at the annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) in New York City, that it is an ongoing quest — and declared Chalmers the winner.
