Longing for Wholeness

Thanks to the generous funding from a European foundation, we now have the opportunity to offer three full scholarships, preferably to young minds, for this event. 
For more information:

Longing for Wholeness:
What do the Sciences, Arts and Religions Share?

August 27 – September 3, 2024

Speakers: Jonathan Allday, Jonathan Code, Chamkaur Ghag, Tim Ingold, Alison MacLeod, Andrea McLean, Shantena Augusto Sabbadini, Joan Walton

Curated and Chaired by: John Pickering

Location: Pari, Italy

Ticket Prices:

Private Accommodation
Price: 2175.00 euros

Shared Accommodation – Private Room with shared bathroom
Price: 1875.00 euros

which includes:

• a 7-night stay;
• breakfast, lunch and dinner at the local restaurant featuring locally sourced produce and traditional dishes;
• water, wine, and coffee are provided with lunch and dinner;
• programmed activities and materials;
• refreshments provided at mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffee breaks.

There is a limited amount of accommodation in Pari and you will be placed on a first-come, first-served basis. We will also be using accommodation just outside of the village—within 3 kilometres. If you are housed outside Pari, a shuttle to and from the village will be provided.

Event: The event starts on Tuesday August 27 at 19:00 with a welcome dinner and ends on Tuesday September 3 after lunch.

Download information, terms and conditions.

About the Event 

Science has helped us to live with less suffering, but has it helped us to understand life or accept death? It cannot do what spiritual traditions do. Ideally, it should remain open to other ways of knowing and this meeting will look at what common ground might exist between them. Speakers from the sciences, arts and the healing traditions will aim to create an open, participatory dialogue on how we might understand the world as a unified whole. 

Over the past four centuries or so we have come to know far more than we understand.  But although modern science has become the principal framework for human understanding, it cannot do what spiritual traditions formerly did.  Science has helped us to live with less suffering, but has it helped us to understand life or to accept death?

If science exclusively favours rational methodology over artistic expression or spiritual insight it can become restrictive, leading to Blake’s “Single Vision”.  But at its best science remains open to other traditions and other ways of knowing.  Many scientists are firmly religious while deeply religious people usually find little difficulty in engaging with scientific findings.

This meeting will look at what common ground exists between different ways of knowing.  Perhaps that lies in the feeling that we need to understand the world as a unified whole and that inquiry can be open, guided by imagination and by beauty.  Here, the arts play a unique role, leading the way to a deeper understanding of the place of human life, and death, within the cosmos.  

It will bring together speakers from the sciences, arts, faiths and the healing traditions to create an open dialogue and supportive experience in which all can participate.  We hope to touch on the relationship of science and religions, especially as they touch on the reality of death, the roles and status of women both now and in former times, ritual, music especially the voice and much more. 

This will be an informal meeting with presentations by experts followed by roundtable discussions.

Participating in an event at the Pari Center means not only meeting with scholars and experts but living for a week in a medieval village, mingling with the tiny local population, eating local dishes and drinking local wines, appreciating the beauty of the surrounding countryside, and participating in a very gentle way of life far from the frenzy of work and city living. David Peat compared Pari to an alchemical vessel—a place where transformation can come about—as well as an opportunity to pause for a moment and re-assess one’s life. It’s a unique opportunity open to everyone. 

We at the Pari Center seek to bring together world-renowned experts from a great range of disciplines, approaches, and sensibilities to meet together in person and deepen our insights on the workings and origin of human experience, while also exploring creative and rigorous frameworks to integrate such wonderful mysteries hidden in plain sight into a coherent evolutionary understanding. You are cordially invited to join us

Please contact Eleanor if you would like more information about this event at: eleanor@paricenter.com

Presentations