The Beyond Bohm 2024 series is oriented toward sharing unique and unusual perspectives that complement and amplify the work of David Bohm. Now in our fourth year, we are continuing that tradition with an array of new faces and presenters that we are especially excited about.

Cheryl Brant will share with us various aspects of her work spanning four decades, culminating in current explorations of the nature of consciousness as an innate aspect of the living world.

What is it like to be a square living in a two-dimensional world? How would other inhabitants —such as lines, triangles, circles, or irregular shapes—cohabitate with one another in Flatland? What would they say if a sphere came down into their world? Could they glimpse a higher dimensional reality?

Published 140 years ago, this 96-page satirical novel is of contemporary relevance. Under the pseudonym “A Square”, the English schoolmaster and theologian E. A. Abbott narrates the daily adventures of such geometrical figures and provides valuable insights into human transcendence.

From subtle geometry to intricate sociology, Flatland helps us make the supernatural natural by conceiving it as high-dimensional. It is indeed a timely parable to deal with ontological shock of certain anomalous experiences in the age of science. Seeing a greater reality requires a greater vision. Our limited view of the world can be expanded via mathematical imagination.

David Bohm made very important contributions to a range of different areas in Physics. Amongst these, his work on quantum theory is possibly the most relevant to Pari discussions. In this talk I will attempt to outline Bohm’s ontological interpretation of quantum theory, which has since been developed by Basil Hiley amongst others. I will also discuss Bohm’s development of the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paper which lead to John Bell’s work and our current understanding of entanglement.

Alison Liebling is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Cambridge and the Director of the Institute of Criminology’s Prisons Research Centre. She has carried out research on life in prison for over 30 years. Her projects have included suicide and self-harm in prisons, close supervision centres for difficult prisoners, incentives and earned privileges, staff-prisoner relationships, the location and building of trust in high security prisons, the work of prison officers, and conceptualizing and measuring the moral quality of prison life, including comparisons between public and private sector prisons.

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.