Home2023-05-29T13:59:12+00:00

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 in the spirit of William James and through its report and activities, the Galileo Commission questions the validity of this assumption and invites scientists and academics to ‘look through the telescope’ and to explore critically and with an open mind the extensive evidence base documenting transformative human experiences of oneness and interconnectedness – for instance near death – the implications of which call for an expanded and more humane world view.

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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