by Sebastian Penraeth

27 February 2023

Federico Faggin is co-inventor of the microprocessor, inventor of the touchpad, physicist, engineer and entrepreneur. Here he discusses his long relationship with spirituality, consciousness, quantum physics, mathematics... and calls for science to more broadly embrace consciousness as fundamental. Through the Faggin Foundation he directly supports the scientific study of consciousness at US universities and research institutes.

by Sebastian Penraeth

14 December 2022

Rupert Sheldrake’s scientific curiosity is drawn to areas of research where very little is known, but which have the potential for opening up whole new fields of enquiry. Questions that are neglected because they do not fit in with the prevailing orthodoxies are often the most fruitful, because they open hidden doorways into new realms of the sciences.

Taken together they can lead us into a more holistic, interconnected vision of nature. In this series of talks Rupert discusses six open questions that have occupied and preoccupied him for many years, and suggests how they could be answered by new experiments, most of which are inexpensive. Some could be student or citizen science projects, and all could help overcome the ‘innovation deficit’ within scientific institutions.

The rate of innovation has slowed down in recent decades, despite ever-increasing levels of funding. These talks point towards breakthoughs. After the series has ended, Rupert will be happy to discuss possible experiments with individuals or groups interested in doing or funding them. The first of these talks, on bird navigation and homing pigeons, was a keynote lecture at the Orkney International Science Festival in September, 2022. The others are completely new.

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by Leo Ruickbie

29 November 2022

The 2023 BICS Challenge

After a massive international response judged by a panel of outstanding experts, the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) essay contest established that there is evidence beyond reasonable doubt for the survival of consciousness after permanent physical death. Building on that success, the 2023 BICS Challenge will fund research into contact and communication with post-mortem or discarnate consciousness leading to the reception of higher order information of benefit to humankind with the allocation of a grand total of up to $1 million in grants.

Up to $50,000 will be awarded to 12 projects and up to $100,000 will be awarded to a further 4 projects, exclusively in the field of the survival of consciousness after death. (BICS reserves the right to determine the value of each project and the final amount awarded.)

Read more …

by Sebastian Penraeth

30 September 2022

A new book edited by Marjorie Woollacott and David Lorimer

The 57 essays in this volume are a wonderful and varied collection of personal insights into individual spiritual awakenings and the resulting transformation in the lives of scientists and academics. Scholars write about 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.

The authors in this volume have shown the courage to ‘come out’ with a spiritual understanding of life based on their own experiences despite the taboo against this in academia dominated by materialist philosophies of consciousness and reality.

They share the views of the great pioneering physicists such as Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Sir James Jeans, Arthur Eddington, Louis de Broglie, Erwin Schroedinger and David Bohm that consciousness is fundamental – even primary – in our universe.

by Sebastian Penraeth

29 August 2022

A fascinating review paper on studies of dream recall as we age, published in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep. Written by Anastasia Mangiaruga, Serena Scarpelli, Chiara Bartolacci, and Luigi De Gennaro of the Department of Psychology, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Rome, Italy.

Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams

Abstract

Brain and sleep maturation covary across different stages of life. At the same time, dream generation and dream recall are intrinsically dependent on the development of neural systems. The aim of this paper is to review the existing studies about dreaming in infancy, adulthood, and the elderly stage of life, assessing whether dream mentation may reflect changes of the underlying cerebral activity and cognitive processes.

It should be mentioned that some evidence from childhood investigations, albeit still weak and contrasting, revealed a certain correlation between cognitive skills and specific features of dream reports. In this respect, infantile amnesia, confabulatory reports, dream-reality discerning, and limitation in language production and emotional comprehension should be considered as important confounding factors. Differently, growing evidence in adults suggests that the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the encoding and retrieval of episodic memories may remain the same across different states of consciousness. More directly, some studies on adults point to shared neural mechanisms between waking cognition and corresponding dream features.

A general decline in the dream recall frequency is commonly reported in the elderly, and it is explained in terms of a diminished interest in dreaming and in its emotional salience. Although empirical evidence is not yet available, an alternative hypothesis associates this reduction to an age-related cognitive decline. The state of the art of the existing knowledge is partially due to the variety of methods used to investigate dream experience.

Very few studies in elderly and no investigations in childhood have been performed to understand whether dream recall is related to specific electrophysiological pattern at different ages. Most of all, the lack of longitudinal psychophysiological studies seems to be the main issue. As a main message, we suggest that future longitudinal studies should collect dream reports upon awakening from different sleep states and include neurobiological measures with cognitive performances.

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by Sebastian Penraeth

01 August 2022

The Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences has created a Graduate Student Research Award Competition to support those interested in researching consciousness and its applications to health care and other related topics.

The award is up to $1,000 per student, with $500 awarded to the University to be spent on the student’s research project at the onset, and an additional $500 awarded directly to the student if the project is published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Proposals for a graduate-level research project are due each calendar year by September 1 from Student members of AAPS. Results of the submission reviews will be available October 1, and the Award will start on November 15. The award is for a possible total of $1000, with $500 awarded to the University to be spent on the student’s research project at the onset and an additional $500 awarded directly to the student if the project is published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Learn more!

by Sebastian Penraeth

31 May 2022

With the aim of encouraging research into the healthy human being, both from the physical and spiritual point of view, BIAL Foundation now opens a new call of its Grants Programme for Scientific Research 2022/2023.

Supported fields: Psychophysiology and Parapsychology.

Addressees: Scientific researchers, either individually or in groups.

Duration/commencement: Maximum 3 years; commencement between 1st of January and 31st of October 2023.

Total amount: Up to €60.000 per approved application.

Applications: No later than 31st of August 2022.

The following projects will not be considered eligible: a) Projects from Clinical or Experimental Models of Human Disease and Therapy; b) Projects whose main scope is eating behaviour, sexual behaviour, physical exercise or fundamental neuroscience.

Learn more!

by Sebastian Penraeth

27 April 2022

by Sebastian Penraeth

01 April 2022

by Brian Josephson

22 March 2022

Brian Josephson

Biography Cambridge Homepage

Prof. Brian Josephson

Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge
Nobel Laureate in Physics

In a talk in his BBC Radio 4 series ‘Think with Pinker’, Steven Pinker asked ‘why do so many of us believe in so much quackery and flapdoodle?’, characterising extrasensory perception as ‘paranormal woowoo’. I can imagine such language slipping out in the course of casual conversation, but on the BBC, in a programme where the text must have been carefully thought out in advance?

Something must have led to this being said in such an uncritical manner, so I thought I’d email Pinker to find out what had led him to speak in this way in regard to the paranormal. In response he came up with two arguments. The first has, at first sight, a degree of plausibility, and is the following: if there really are people with the claimed paranormal abilities, they could use these to win consistently at betting, and we would learn about that. However (as described in a recent Guardian article) it seems this does not happen, because when such people start to win significant sums of money the bookies take note, responding to the threat that they pose by imposing limits on how much they are allowed to bet. As a result, we cannot safely infer that there are no people who can use their paranormal abilities to win large amounts at betting.

Read more …

by Sebastian Penraeth

01 March 2022

Essays Prizes awarded

The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies was founded in 2020 to raise awareness of—and encourage research into—the survival of consciousness after death. To that end, the institute ran an essay contest on this topic, throwing down a whopping $1.8M to the 29 winners.

Considering the historic dearth in funding for consciousness and parapsychology research, they certainly have our attention. We should all loudly applaud this rare offering, and look forward to whatever else BICS and founder Robert Bigelow have in store.

Winning first prize, with an award of $500,000, is the essay 'Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death', by Dr Jeffrey Mishlove of Thinking Allowed fame. Second prize went to NDE researcher, author, and manifesto signatory Dr Pim van Lommel for his essay 'The Continuity of Consciousness: A concept based on scientific research on near-death experiences during cardiac arrest', for which he received $300,000. And the third place prize of $150,000 went to historian Dr Leo Ruickbie for 'The Ghost in the Time Machine'. Ten others received $50,000 and a further fifeteen $20,000. Winners include noted scientists such as Julie Beischel PhD, Stephen E Braude PhD, Bernardo Kastrup PhD, Dr Peter Fenwick and his team, and many others.

All essays are free to read on the BICS website. If you're at all wondering what evidence there is for the survival of consciousness, a treasure trove awaits you.

"We hope these essays collectively provide a valuable resource for researchers and members of the public for presenting the evidence for survival of human consciousness after bodily death."

by Sebastian Penraeth

27 January 2022

Program Website

For researchers interested in exploring the science of subtle energy and biofield healing, the Biofield Research Fellowship Program is now seeking applications for a new grant/fellowship opportunity, which will provide six annual grants of up to $20,000 USD each, plus mentorship and community for emerging researchers across multiple disciplines.

Backed by a collaborative group of philanthropists and foundations called the Subtle Energy Collective (below), the Biofield Research Fellowship Program is funding rigorous examinations of biofield science with the goal of seeding a new generation of biofield researchers to advance the field and bolster its research base. In addition to grant funds, the Fellowship Program will provide Fellows with a collaborative community of emerging and established researchers and will pair each Fellow with a respected research mentor who has expertise relevant to their research. The findings derived from Fellows’ investigations will provide greater insight into biofield therapies and their applications for reducing suffering and promoting health and wellbeing.

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by Charles T Tart

21 December 2021

Dr Charles T Tart

Biography Books Website

Republished with permission from the blog of Charles Tart.

Back when I was a teenager, more than 60 years ago, I became interested in psychical research and parapsychology, including the question of whether we survive physical death in some real fashion. It makes a difference in what you want to do with your life if this physical life is it and then oblivion, versus some kind of continuing existence. Was there scientific evidence indicating we might survive? Useful evidence, even if not finally absolute one way or the other? Probabilities, even if not certainties?

I was not happy with scientism, the faith-based imitation of science already so popular then, a total materialism blindly believed to explain everything. Yes, materialism as a basis had worked very well in studying material matters, but the essence of science is that observation, data, facts, experimental results always have first priority over theory, over belief. So the materialists’ arrogant, cavalier dismissal of any possibility of survival, “It’s impossible,” while not bothering to look at what evidence we had, was an insult to the scientific enterprise.

I have been interested in and investigated many aspects of the mind over my life and career, rather than specializing in any small area. So survival research has been part-time, largely a scholarly activity of mine, keeping up with and interacting with the (sadly) very few researchers who have focused on survival evidence. Recently in discussing the evidence with these more active experts, the idea was raised that it would be helpful if we knew each other more personally. This would be useful not only for the inherent values of friendliness in general, but to see what our personal qualities were that could affect the way we observed and thought about data relevant to survival research. Why did we get interested in this tiny, socially disapproved of field? What sort of conclusions have we reached? How have these understanding affected our personal lives? Some colleagues were particularly interested in why I did not make an unequivocal statement, “We survive death” or “We don’t survive death.” Some of them had made up their minds, but I keep saying that the evidence that we have for survival is good, but it’s complicated, something paranormal is happening, but I’m not sure it means we survive death.

Read more …

by David Lorimer

20 December 2021

by David Lorimer

24 September 2021

by Sebastian Penraeth

21 September 2021

Following the paths of cutting-edge neurology, philosophy and physics, The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist reveals how each leads us to a similar vision of the world, one that is both profound and beautiful – and happens to be in line with the deepest traditions of human wisdom. Acclaimed for his previous book The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, this new 2-volume book is poised to become “one of the most important books ever published” according to Professor Charles Foster of Oxford University. Louis Sass, Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University calls it “a book of surpassing, even world-historical ambition.”

Coming out November 9th, 2021; those in the UK can order now. In the meantime, check out the author’s discussion with Jordan Peterson below.

by David Lorimer

22 November 2020

About Lisa J Miller Get the Book

THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF PSYCHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY

Edited by Lisa J Miller
Oxford, 2012, 634 pp., £52, p/b – ISBN 978-0-19-935734-5

This is a landmark volume, especially given the fact that it has been published by one of the world’s leading university presses. It forms part of the Oxford Library of Psychology, a series designed to review major sub-disciplines with breadth, comprehensiveness and exemplary scholarship; it also combines a searchable online facility. Significantly, though, only two of over 60 contributors from outside the United States.

In her introduction, Lisa Miller remarks that the handbook is at the cutting edge of an expanded psychology that directly addresses the broadened set of ontological assumptions and a view that spirituality is fundamental to the human constitution. In one sense, it continues the work of William James after a long diversion by taking the human mind as part and parcel of a living spiritual reality, which leads to an expansion of psychology ‘by a Copernican magnitude’ in the direction of postmaterialism, ‘a science beyond the limitations of exclusive ontological materialism and mechanism.’ This takes consciousness as fundamental and the fabric of reality.

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by David Lorimer

11 November 2020

The Flip More on Jeffrey Kripal

THE FLIP

Jeffrey J. Kripal
Bellevue Literary Press, 2019, 239 pp., $19.99, p/b – ISBN 978-1-942658-52-8

Jeffrey Kripal is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University and chairs the board of the Esalen Institute. He gave two brilliant and lucid talks at the science of consciousness meeting in Interlaken in June, and this superb book fully reflects these qualities. The flip of the title refers to epiphanies of mind that transform the outlook of the experiencer in the direction of holding consciousness rather than matter to be primary. This has immense implications for the future of knowledge, as the book explains in detail, beginning with experiences currently regarded as impossible within the scientific framework, then looking at flipped scientists and philosophers, the relationship between consciousness and cosmos, how symbols mediate meaning, and at the future politics of knowledge.

I was struck by Tom McLeish quoting Charles Darwin’s son writing about a special quality leading him to make discoveries: ‘it was the power of never letting exceptions pass unnoticed.’ In the consciousness field, for exceptions read anomalies. Nomos is order so an anomaly is something that does not fit into the currently accepted framework of assumptions. Far from never letting exceptions pass unnoticed, the scientific establishment goes out of its way to ignore and suppress findings inconsistent with its basic philosophy, exerting social and professional peer pressure in order to keep people in line.

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by Mitch Horowitz

06 November 2020

Originally published on Boing Boing, 26 October 2020

Several years ago I was preparing a talk on the life of occult journeyer Madame H.P. Blavatsky (1831–1891) for the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. Someone on Facebook asked sardonically: "Will James Randi be there?" My interlocutor was referencing the man known worldwide as a debunker of psychical and paranormal claims. (That my online critic was outspoken about his own religious beliefs posed no apparent irony for him.)

Last week marked the death at age 92 of James "The Amazing" Randi, a stage magician who became internationally famous as a skeptic — indeed Randi rebooted the term "skepticism" as a response to the boom in psychical claims and research in the post-Woodstock era. Today, thousands of journalists, bloggers and the occasional scientist call themselves skeptics in the mold set by Randi. Over the past decade, the investigator himself was heroized in documentaries, profiles, and, now, obituaries. A Guardian columnist eulogized him as the "prince of reason."

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by Sebastian Penraeth

01 October 2020

In this interview for KOSMOS magazine, Dr Pim van Lommel shares insights from his work on near-death experiences, the findings from his renowned 2001 Dutch study, and how these findings relate to consciousness and the brain. Finally, Pim reflects that after 30 years of investigation into near-death experiences, not only has his own perspective on life changed, but his views on science have evolved too.

The future of science is that we need to change the definition of science because nowadays there is no subjective experience included so the first person recount is just called an anecdote. The essence of who we are is what we feel and what we think, and we cannot prove or objectify or measure or reproduce or falsify the content of our consciousness.
- Dr Pim van Lommel