![Branding-05](https://galileocommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Branding-05-600x268.png)
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
![](https://galileocommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Athena.png)
What people say…
Featured book
Featured podcast
Spiritual Awakenings – Marjorie Wollacott & David Lorimer (Eds)
![Spiritual Awakenings book](https://galileocommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Spiritual-Awakenings-book.jpg)
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.
Recent News
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.
Imaginal Inspirations with Marjorie Woollacott
Marjorie Woollacott, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of Human Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and includes both rehabilitation medicine and alternative forms of therapy such as tai chi and meditation. She is president of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences (AAPS) – one of the key partners of the Galileo Commission, the Research Director of the International Association of Near Death Studies (IANDS), and has written more than 200 peer-reviewed research articles—several of which were on spiritual awakening and meditation, which was the topic that motivated her to write her latest book, Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind.
WHAT IS LIFE? #37 Tim Freke and George Ellis
Professor George Ellis and I discuss whether some things are ‘evil as a matter of fact, the reality of ’downward causation’ and why determinism is wrong, whether numbers exist in an eternal Platonic realm, and what give meaning to life.
Interviews with Innocence featuring Pim Van Lommel
Pim van Lommel, M.D., born in 1943, graduated in 1971 at the University of Utrecht, and finished his specialization in cardiology in 1976. He worked from 1977-2003 as a cardiologist in Hospital Rijnstate, a 800 beds Teaching Hospital in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and is now doing full-time research on the mind-brain relation. He published several articles on cardiology, but since he started his research on near-death experiences (NDE) in survivors of cardiac arrest in 1986 he is the author of over 20 articles (most of them in Dutch), one book and many chapters about NDE...