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
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.
Recent News
October 2020 Newsletter
October 2020 Newsletter
The man who destroyed skepticism – Mitch Horowtiz
I sympathize with those who want to challenge credulity and generalized references to psychical phenomena — and all the more with researchers and investigators who expose frauds. I sympathize, too, with those who have lost a man, a friend, and a spouse. But to the intellectual community, and anyone concerned with critical inquiry in general, Randi's legacy should serve as a cautionary tale and a call to restore sound practices when discussing or writing about contentious topics in science or any field. These are things that a showman can deter but never erase.
MTE Podcast #11: The Science of Spirituality with David Lorimer
Science is full of metaphors of becoming and interconnectedness. If we could catch ourselves up as a culture with this view and make it primary, we would realise we’re all embedded in the same life, the same consciousness, and the same system.
What Does Spirituality Mean to Us? A Study of Spirituality in the US
The Fetzer Institute, a Galileo Commission partner, conducted a study to gain an insight into the spiritual lives of people across the U.S. In focus groups, interviews,
Knowledge Processes Neglected by Science – Anothny Judge
As a self-acclaimed exemplar of appropriate behaviour, is it useful to see authoritative science as engaged in game-playing to be fruitfully compared with the traditional fair-ground confidence trickery of "find the lady" -- in this case the "lady" being science itself. With highly principled religions and political ideologies, a form of definitional game-playing is used to ensure that outsiders are confused in their efforts to define science (and attribute irresponsibility and blame to it appropriately). Every detected inadequacy is held to be "not-science" -- science necessarily always wins that game, as with religions and political ideologies.
Can Science Be Practiced in a Dream World? – Philip Comella
It seems better to build a worldview upon the correct metaphysics and then carry out science, rather than to assume one must believe in an erroneous world model as the price for carrying out a logical, systematic, objective study of the world.
