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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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.
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Pauli’s Dream – Jung, Modern Physics and Alchemy – Steven Rosen
C. G. Jung devoted much of his life to exploring the dark borderland between psyche and matter. While engaged in that inquiry, he corresponded with physicist Wolfgang Pauli and was drawn to the phenomena of quantum mechanics. Just what is it about modern physics that invites intimate contact with the psyche? In examining this question, we see the broader need for setting physics and psychology on a new philosophical foundation consonant with the integrative worldview of alchemy studied by Jung.
Interview with Dr Peter Fenwick – Consciousness and Dying
Author of several books including 'The Art Of Dying,' 'The Truth In The Light' and 'The Hidden Door' neuro-psychiatrist and Galileo Commission adviser Dr Peter Fenwick talks about his research into End of Life Experiences and deathbed phenomena and what these mean in the greater picture of who we really are.
Inner Experience – Direct Access to Reality – Harald Walach
I propose such a complementarist dual aspect model of consciousness and brain, or mind and matter. This then also entails a different epistemology. For if consciousness is coprimary with matter, then we can also use a deeper exploration of consciousness as happens in contemplative practice to reach an understanding of the deep structure of the world, for instance in mathematical or theoretical intuition, and perhaps also in other areas such as in ethics. This would entail a kind of contemplative science that would also complement our current experiential mode that is exclusively directed to the outside aspect of our world. Such an epistemology might help us with various issues, such as good theoretical and other intuitions.
Interview with Dr Rupert Sheldrake
In this view for the Galileo Commission, our adviser Ruper Sheldrake shares his views on materialism and how to move beyond it. He discusses the limitations of a dominant materialistic worldview in light of what we know about consciousness, epigenetics, among other empirical observations
Nonlocal consciousness as fundamental – Stephan Schwartz
This change is coming, and I think we should start thinking about this: What will science be like when consciousness becomes a regularly considered aspect in the design of experimental protocols, and how will it affect emerging technologies?
