Events

David Bohm has been described as one of the most significant and original thinkers of the twentieth century whose interests and influence extend well beyond the field of physics to include philosophy, psychology, language, religion, art, creativity, thought, and education. Underlying his innovative approach to these many different issues was the fundamental idea that beyond the visible, tangible world there lies a deeper, implicate order of undivided wholeness.

We will discuss psychedelics at the intersection of science and philosophy, and also address the historical route that led to their prohibition (together with the decline of religious traditions in the West, the rise of the New Age disconnected from analytical thought, and the dominance of British idealism and current physicalism). Sacred plants are not mere recreational drugs, but mind-expanders towards other “modes of sentience”; a candidate remedy for the malaises of our civilization. The so-called ‘altered’ states of consciousness provide a fertile ground of inquiry whereby not only the mind can be recast as a different “object” of study but also afford a transformation of the very mind of the subject that studies it.