The Future World - A conversation with Jeffrey Mishlove
2025-04-11 18:00 - 19:30 (Europe/Rome)
Watch the recording

https://youtu.be/gtFdA6vh_QI?si=zUaCZ96DVKx71ZQ0

Donate to the Pari Center

We could not exist without the generosity of our supporters, sponsors and friends. Donate even a small amount, to help support us financially and enable us to continue our work.

By clicking on the Donate button, you will be taken to the payment screen.

A Conversation between Jeffrey Mishlove and Àlex Gómez-Marín

Friday April 119:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

This event is LIVE and FREE. All registered participants will receive the RECORDING.

Host and producer of the New Thinking Allowed channel on YouTube, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is also author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. He is the recipient of a doctorate in “Parapsychology” from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Grand Prize winner of the Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding postmortem survival of human consciousness. He currently serves as Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science.

SURVIVAL: Re-Appraising the Evidence for Life After Death
2025-04-13 20:30 - 23:30
Watch the recording

https://youtu.be/UrzcZfp-mV8?si=xAijmeVaHLNJDoWb

Donate to the Pari Center

We could not exist without the generosity of our supporters, sponsors and friends. Donate even a small amount, to help support us financially and enable us to continue our work.

By clicking on the Donate button, you will be taken to the payment screen.

SURVIVAL: Re-Appraising the Evidence for Life After Death

Sunday April 13, 2025

11:30am PDT, 2:30pm EDT, 7:30pm BST, 8:30pm CEST (and ending about four hours later)

With: Alejandro Agudo, Eben Alexander, John Ballard, Stafford Betty, Bernard Carr, Jeff Dunne, Bruce Greyson, Stanley Krippner, Jeffrey Long, David Lorimer, Janice Miner Holden, Jeffrey Mishlove, Alexander Moreira-Almeida, Leo Ruickbie, Gary Schwartz, Steve Taylor, Stephan Schwartz, Pim Van Lommel, Helane Wahbeh, Marjorie Woollacott

In memoriam: Peter Fenwick (1935-2024), Charles Tart (1937-2025), and Allan Leslie Combs (1942-2025)

This event is LIVE and FREE. All registered participants will receive the recording.

A Rigorous Open-Minded Exploration

Understanding whether consciousness continues after death is one of the most profound scientific and philosophical questions of our time. A rigorous, evidence-based, but also open-minded, exploratory, approach to this mystery has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of human identity, the nature of consciousness, and the boundaries of life itself. What, if anything, survives bodily death? In what form, and for how long? These are questions that demand a trans-disciplinary investigation, not just for their scientific implications but for their profound impact on culture, ethics, and human experience. SURVIVAL: Re-Appraising the Evidence for Life After Death brings together world-renowned experts to explore the latest research, theories, and firsthand accounts that challenge conventional assumptions. This online event is an essential opportunity to engage with cutting-edge insights into what might lie beyond the final frontier.

A Bold New Conference Format

We are pioneering a dynamic, high-impact online conference format via Zoom that maximizes efficiency and engagement. These live-recorded events feature a series of fast-paced, 15-minute “science nuggets”—concise, content-rich presentations from leading researchers, with or without slides, without lengthy introductions or Q&A. This streamlined approach keeps the momentum strong, allowing us to cover in a few hours what a traditional in-person conference might take a week to accomplish. The result? A free, to-the-point, and comprehensive snapshot of the latest advancements in our field, offering a pluralistic advanced testament to where we stand—and where we’re headed.

Martin Buber’s I and Thou
2025-04-14 18:00 - 19:30
Watch the recording

https://youtu.be/WDObxvA5xvg?si=pw8AIiDYK3ecVgdf

Donate to the Pari Center

We could not exist without the generosity of our supporters, sponsors and friends. Donate even a small amount, to help support us financially and enable us to continue our work.

By clicking on the Donate button, you will be taken to the payment screen.

Martin Buber’s I and Thou

Host: Nicholas Colloff

Monday, April 14, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

This event is LIVE and FREE. All registered participants will receive the RECORDING.

An informal monthly get-together to discuss books of significance for the Pari Center community.

Martin Buber wrote, ‘There is something that can only be found in one place. It is a great treasure, which may e called the fulfilment of existence. The place where this treasure can be found is the place on which one stands.’ HIs first attempt to lay out a pathway to this fulfilment was in his seminal book, I and Thou, written in six weeks under an intense sense of inspiration, and which he would spend the next forty years developing into the practice of living dialogue, revealing that ‘all real living is meeting.’ But what does it mean to be truly present in the world, engaged in relationships of wholeness and meaning? How does this relate to the equal imperative to know about the world and to use it to achieve our specific purposes? And what might either have to do with God or ultimate reality?

For those familiar with the work of Ian McGilchrist, we could frame this as how might my Master and my Emissary achieve a more harmonious relationship in the light of a deeper unity waiting to address me, now, just where I am, standing in a world that waits to greet me? I have now been reading Buber for forty years—and whether it is mastering my impatience in the queue at the Sainsbury checkout, answering a colleague’s question openly and honestly, making a decision with hoped for love and justice or thinking about the nature of God, I found that Buber is part of the weft on which my thinking and acting has been woven. I hope to share something of his life, the book’s meanings and why they might matter deeply.

NICHOLAS COLLOFF, when not posting art on Facebook or walking through the woods, is the Director of the Argidius Foundation, a Swiss family foundation that helps develop social and environmental enterprises, principally in Africa and Latin America. He studied theology, philosophy and the psychology of religion at university, after which he helped found the Prison Phoenix Trust that teaches meditation and yoga to people in prison, and from this discovered a gift for starting things (and leaving them in better hands so they flourished). This has included a microfinance bank in the Balkans, a charity focused on community mental health in poor communities in the Global South and a social investment fund. In between launches, he is also to be found in contemplative communities recovering!

Unbreaking the World
2025-05-09 16:00 - 2025-05-12 17:00
Unbreaking the WorldAwakening from the Meaning Crisis and the Return of the Sacred

Pari, Italy, May 9-12, 2025

Speaker: John Vervaeke

Curated and chaired by Àlex Gómez-Marín

The event will start on Friday May 9 at 16:00 and end on Monday May 12 after lunch.

Price: 725.00 euros, which includes:

a 3-night stay in private accommodation;

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;

Dr John Vervaeke’s Advent of the Sacred develops the sense of convergence and transformation as a response to the Meaning Crisis that the world is experiencing.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the Event

Unbreaking the World invites us to pause and think about the cluster of crises we are globally facing. John argues that these problems aren’t just about the media, politics, or even the economy… the roots of this malaise are problems that are deeply historical, cultural, and cognitive. It’s what he calls the Meaning Crisis. Yet the word ‘crisis,’ etymologically means ‘decision.’

During this weekend we will trace the history of what led to the contemporary malaise which leaves us cut off from our past, disconnected from ourselves in the present, and incapable of reimagining a viable future. We will examine the anxiety, alienation and absurdity of our age, and seek a deep transformation of our modes of knowing and being.

This transformation is not only urgent but indeed possible. John will be our guide tapping into a rich well of resources—from Socrates to Jung, from cognitive psychology to neuroscience, from mystical experiences to artificial intelligence. He will offer a coherent and clear approach that integrates scientific and philosophical threads with spiritual practice to ensure the development of the transformative wisdom necessary to cultivate a meaningful life.

Participating in an event at the Pari Center means 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.

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

Schedule

In addition to his lectures, John will offer meditation, contemplation, tai chi and dialogical practices.

Part I: Introduction

Session 1 (Friday afternoon): The Current Meta-Crisis and Trust in a Post-Truth World

Part II: Awakening From the Meaning Crisis

Session 2 (Saturday morning): Part I: Origins

Session 3 (Saturday afternoon): Part II: Structure and Function of Meaning

Part III: The Advent of the Sacred

Session 4 (Sunday morning): Unbreaking the Spell of Modernity

Session 5 (Sunday afternoon): Mentoring the Machines: Wisdom in the Age of AI

Part IV: The Philosophical Silk Road

Session 6 (Monday morning): A Pilgrimage to Lost Ways of Knowing

John Vervaeke, an award-winning professor of psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology at the University of Toronto, brings a wealth of academic expertise to his courses.

With a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto, Dr Vervaeke served as the former Director of Cognitive Science and holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology.

He has won and been nominated for several teaching awards and has published articles on relevance realization, general intelligence, mindfulness, flow, metaphor, and wisdom.

With expertise in both Eastern and Western philosophy, Dr Vervaeke guides learners through a transformative journey, integrating ancient wisdom with modern scientific insights.

Dr Vervaeke’s courses are a captivating blend of theoretical knowledge and practical wisdom, and his dynamic teaching style engages students in exploring the depths of the mind and its implications for personal growth and societal change, illuminating the path to a deeper understanding of oneself and the world.

Information

Additional information on this program (PDF)

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)

Book-a-month Club - Choosing my Goethe
2025-05-19 18:00 - 20:30
Watch the recording

https://youtu.be/oVDq82fttYQ?si=9I_EpGOZPsGufMe7

Donate to the Pari Center

We could not exist without the generosity of our supporters, sponsors and friends. Donate even a small amount, to help support us financially and enable us to continue our work.

By clicking on the Donate button, you will be taken to the payment screen.

Choosing my Goethe:R. Safranski’s Goethe: Life as a Work of Art (2017) and A. N. Wilson’s Goethe: A Faustian Life (2024)

Host: Alison Liebling

Monday, May 19, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

This event is LIVE and FREE. All registered participants will receive the RECORDING.

An informal monthly get-together to discuss books of significance for the Pari Center community.

When I came across the term ‘delicate empiricism,’ several years ago, I felt I had found a concept that helped describe my approach to social science research in prisons—something I was writing a chapter about. I fell in love with this intriguing genius: prolific author, attentive scientist, and ‘lover of what is alive.’ Encounters in Pari fueled the flames. As a result of my new love, I emerged from Topping and Company’s independent bookshop in Bath in October 2024 more fully alive than when I had entered, with these two great biographies under my arm. I wasn’t aware that I was looking (except, perhaps, for Faust, Part 1), or that they existed, but something drew me to the right shelf. The bookshop itself, I discovered later, sees itself as a ‘world-opening,’ face-to-face, carefully curated book sanctuary. I spent a delightful time with my bookshop companion in Beckford Bottle Shop wine bar that evening feeling exuberant, expectant, and somehow sure of my ground. Once home, I found my opportunity and read them avidly.

In this informal get together for book lovers, I reflect on the meaning of my encounters with Goethe and his two recent biographers. Drawing on my own work, as well as these two books, I explore two main Goethe-inspired ideas: the role of the human observer, and the concept of the life force.

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. She has evaluated shared reading programmes in Psychologically-Informed Planned Environments for prisoners with personality disorders, and is currently exploring the differences between survivable and unsurvivable prisons. Her books include Prisons and their Moral Performance: A Study of Values, Quality and Prison Life (2004), The Effects of Imprisonment (2005, with Shadd Maruna), Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: An International Exploration (2013, with Justice Tankebe); and The Prison Officer (2001, 2nd edition 2010). She has just completed a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, carrying out the project, ‘Moral rules, social science and forms of order in prison’. She is finishing a book arising from that project, tentatively called Aristotle’s Prison: A Search for Humanity and Justice. She argues that what keeps people alive in prison is feeling part of a moral universe. She was made a member of the British Academy in 2018. She is involved in an advisory capacity in projects on penal reform and evaluating prison quality in countries including Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany and Switzerland.

The Future World - A conversation with Rebecca Tarnas
2025-05-21 18:00 - 19:30
Watch the recording

https://youtu.be/AtvFLF0PP9I?si=ojluXWTExbPJNUtD

Donate to the Pari Center

We could not exist without the generosity of our supporters, sponsors and friends. Donate even a small amount, to help support us financially and enable us to continue our work.

By clicking on the Donate button, you will be taken to the payment screen.

A Conversation between Rebecca Tarnas and Àlex Gómez-Marín

Wednesday, May 219:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

This event is LIVE and FREE. All registered participants will receive the RECORDING.

Rebecca Tarnas, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her doctoral dissertation was titled The Back of Beyond: The Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien, and her research interests include depth psychology, archetypal studies, literature, philosophy, and the ecological imagination. Becca is an editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology and author of the book Journey to the Imaginal Realm: A Reader’s Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. She is currently researching and writing a biography of Stanislav Grof, a co-founder of transpersonal psychology.

Radical Visions
2025-05-23 19:00 - 2025-05-30 17:00 | Pari, Italy
Radical Visions

Celebrating the Lives and Work of the Two Davids, David Bohm and David Peat.In memory of Basil J. Hiley (1935-2025)

Pari, ItalyMay 23-30, 2025

A special event celebrating 25 years at the Pari Center

For the Pari Center’s 25th anniversary we are holding a week-long celebration dedicated to examining the legacy of the two Davids—David Bohm and David Peat. We have gathered a group of presenters from physics, philosophy, the Indigenous world, dialogue, synchronicity, Gentle Action, and the sacred, who will discuss the life’s work of the two men and how their influence has extended well beyond the confines of physics.

The presenters—former colleagues, friends, and scholars—will illuminate the wide-ranging work and interests of the two physicists during their talks, workshops and roundtable discussions, and will share their personal stories and anecdotes.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Basil Hiley, who was to be a presenter at this event. Radical Visions will now be dedicated to his memory.

Speakers

Jonathan Allday, Harald Atmanspacher, John Briggs, Andrew Fellows, Isabel Hawkins, Paul Howard, Melissa Nelson, Paavo Pylkkänen, Shantena Augusto Sabbadini, Godelieve Spaas

Virtually: Àlex Gómez-Marín, Sakej Henderson, Leroy Little Bear, Lee Nichol, David Schrum

Chaired by: Melissa Nelson

See a list of presentations for this event

Ticket Prices

Private AccommodationPrice: 2175.00 euros

Shared Accommodation – Private Room with shared bathroomPrice: 1875.00 euros

Prices include:

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 lectures, activities and materials.

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.

The event starts on Friday May 23 at 19:00 with a welcome dinner and ends on Friday May 30 after lunch.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the Event

For the Pari Center’s 25th anniversary we are holding a week-long celebration dedicated to examining the legacy of the two Davids—David Bohm and David Peat. We have gathered a group of presenters from physics, philosophy, the Indigenous world, dialogue, synchronicity, Gentle Action, and the sacred, who will discuss the life’s work of the two men and how their influence has extended well beyond the confines of physics.

The presenters—former colleagues, friends, and scholars—will illuminate the wide-ranging work and interests of the two physicists during their talks, workshops and roundtable discussions, and will share their personal stories and anecdotes.

Who This Event Is For:This event is open to everyone but especially those who have an interest in:

Wholeness and the Implicate OrderThought and ConsciousnessIndigenous KnowledgeSynchronicity—the Jung/Pauli connection Gentle Action and ethical valuesCreativity and metaphorBohm’s rheosomaThe Lives of the Two Davids

Included are two special evenings with the outdoor screening of Infinite Potential: The Life and Ideas of David Bohm and Quantum Convergence with filmmaker Paul Howard.

David Bohm was the maverick physicist who proposed an alternative approach to the conventional version of quantum theory, as well as suggesting that a new Implicate Order lay behind what could be thought of as our surface perception of reality. But Bohm’s ideas extended well beyond theoretical physics and included reflections on the nature of creativity and the order of society and the individual. The presenters we have gathered will also look at the personal life of David Bohm, his relationship with J. Robert Oppenheimer, his encounter with the House Un-American Activities and his subsequent exile to Brazil; his friendship with Krishnamurti which led to a series of discussions between the two men and is considered one of the most important encounters of his life; the dialogue process he proposed which he felt could bring about a transformation in the individual and society; and his crucial meeting with the indigenous people of North America at the end of his life.

F. David Peat was a researcher in theoretical physics when he opted to take a life-changing sabbatical year with David Bohm at Birkbeck College, University of London. From that time on he was profoundly influenced by the work of David Bohm, their relationship deepened, and the Peat and Bohm families became friends. This led to Bohm and Peat’s Science, Order and Creativity and Peat eventually writing the biography of Bohm Infinite Potential. Peat also wrote more than 20 books and numerous essays on a wide range of topics. In 2000 he founded the Pari Center as a congenial location where people can meet to think, learn and explore while advancing the integration of knowledge, the arts, science, ethical values, community and spirituality within the ambience of a medieval village.

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.

Presentations

Click to see a list of the presentations for this event
David Bohm’s Physicswith Jonathan Allday

The Role of the Unknowable and The Universe as a Work of Artwith John Briggs

Joined up thinking… and why it matterswith Andrew Fellows

Bohm’s Gift of Somawith Lee Nichol

25 years with the Davidswith Shantena Augusto Sabbadini

Times with David Peat and David Bohm; and Bohm’s Journey into Subtle Mindwith David Schrum

Small Things Making Big Differenceswith Godelieve Spaas

Many Faces of Synchronicitywith Harald Atmanspacher

David Bohm

David Bohm and his wife, Sarah

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 fields of physics to include philosophy, psychology, language, religion, art, dialogue, thought and education. Underlying his innovative approach to these many different disciplines was the fundamental idea that beyond the visible, tangible world there lies a deeper, implicate order of undivided wholeness.

As a physicist Bohm’s radical theories challenged the orthodox Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory and in its place made the alternative proposal of Hidden Variables, as well as his later developments of the Quantum Potential. He was also an explorer of mind and consciousness, language, perception, creativity and dialogue. He had close relationships with the Indian teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti and, later in life, the Dalai Lama, who called him his ‘science guru.’ In the 1960s, he exchanged four thousand pages of correspondence with the American abstract artist Charles Biederman that discussed the nature of the creative process and questions of order, perception and consciousness. In the final year of his life, he was invited to join a circle of Native American elders and Western scientists. This meeting was of great significance for Bohm. As he listened to the First Nations’ participants describing their strongly verb-based Algonkian family of languages, he recognized that here was a society that practiced what he had envisioned for his ‘rheomode’—a hypothetical verb-based language. He was also struck by their process-based worldview of constant flux and change whose metaphysics strongly mirrored his own.

Finding Cartesian duality limited, he believed that the same principles which underlie the behaviour of matter also operate in the realms of consciousness, society and culture. In 1980 he published his seminal work Wholeness and the Implicate Order in which he suggested that all the phenomena that appear in the world—whether fundamental particles or thoughts in the mind—emerge out of a deeper order of reality, their character varying according to the context. At its deepest level, he maintained, reality is an ‘unbroken whole,’ and he made this the basis of his work in every sphere. In later life he felt that transformation in society could be brought about by dialogue and today Bohmian dialogues are held throughout the world.

F. David Peat

F. DAVID PEAT was a theoretical physicist, writer, and teacher who founded the Pari Center in 2000. He wrote more than 20 books on such diverse topics as quantum physics, synchronicity, superstrings, artificial intelligence, film and reality, creativity, chaos theory, indigenous knowledge, and his original concepts of Gentle Action and Creative Suspension, a new form of intelligent, compassionate and mild action that flows from the entire field of meaning in which a particular individual, society or organization is a part. His books have been translated into 24 languages and his numerous essays and articles are freely available in the online library on the Pari Center website.

He was a researcher at the National Research Council of Canada when he spent a sabbatical year, 1971-72 with David Bohm at Birkbeck College, University of London. Thereafter his research focused on the foundations of quantum theory and a non-unitary approach to the quantum measurement problem. Bohm and Peat became friends and colleagues and eventually co-authored the book Science, Order and Creativity and were working on a second book, The Order Between and Beyond, at the time of Bohm’s death.

Peat continued to promote the work of David Bohm in seminars and courses at the Pari Center and in his writings. In 1997 he published the biography Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm and subsequently worked hard to obtain funding for a film based on the biography. In 2020 with the generous sponsorship of the Fetzer Foundation the film, Infinite Potential: The Life and Work of David Bohm, was brought to fruition by Paul Howard and Imagine Films of Dublin. Peat did not live to see its release, but he is acknowledged as the co-writer of the script and the film is dedicated to him.

While living in Canada, Peat organized discussion circles between Western scientists and Native American Elders to which David Bohm was invited. While living in London he spent much of his time talking to artists and psychologists and organized a conference between artists and scientists which was instrumental in his founding of the Pari Center. The Center, housed in a medieval village in Tuscany, fosters an interdisciplinary approach linking science, arts, ethics, community and the sacred.

Peat was adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, Fellow of the International Futures Forum, Distinguished Fellow at the University of South Africa, and a corresponding Member of the European Academy of Arts, Science and the Humanities. David Peat died in Pari in 2017 and is buried in the village cemetery.

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

Information

Additional information on this program (PDF)

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)

Consciousness 2.0
2025-06-03 19:00 - 2025-06-10 17:00 | Pari, Italy
Science of Consciousness Series

Consciousness 2.0

Seeing the theoretical forest for the empirical trees

Pari, ItalyJune 3-10, 2025

We are living a profound moment of transformation that is happening within the field of consciousness studies, drawing an intriguing parallel to the revolutions that occurred in physics a century ago.

Speakers

Jessica Bockler, Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Robert Lawrence-Kuhn (virtually), Lucia Melloni, Kehlan Morgan, Liad Mudrik, Koncha Pinos

Chaired and curated by: Àlex Gómez-Marín

See a list of presentations for this event.

Ticket Prices

Private AccommodationPrice: 2175.00 euros

Shared Accommodation – Private Room with shared bathroomPrice: 1875.00 euros

Prices include:

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 lectures, activities and materials.

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.

The event starts on Tuesday June 3 at 19:00 and ends after lunch on Tuesday June 10.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the Event

Modern Physics, a Century Ago

In the early 20th century, modern physics underwent a revolutionary transformation with the advent of quantum mechanics and relativity. The established, classical Newtonian worldview, which had dominated for centuries, began to unravel in the face of new experimental evidence. This was a time of great upheaval—scientists like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and others pushed the boundaries of human understanding, introducing concepts that defied common sense (challenging the very ideas of space, time, causality, locality and objective reality) and our everyday experience of reality.

Such revolutions were not just a series of empirical discoveries; they entailed a meta-theoretical shift that opened the door to new kinds of experience and understanding. In the process, physicists had to embrace a new way of thinking—one that was less about absolute certainties and more about probabilities, perspectives, and the complex nature of reality itself. These developments are often referred to as the ‘foundations of modern physics,’ and they marked the dawn of an entirely new era in science.

Consciousness Studies: the Next Revolution?

Today, consciousness studies seems to be undergoing a similar upheaval, though the field is in some ways even more complex because it deals directly with subjective experience. We are grappling not just with theories of the physical world, but with the nature of awareness itself, the qualities that make us experience the world, perceive it, and reflect on it.

In many ways, consciousness studies has been constrained by our inability to bridge the gap between subjective experience (the ‘what it is like’ aspect of consciousness) and objective scientific analysis. Theories of consciousness range from materialist metaphors, models, and metaphysics, which claim that consciousness arises solely from brain activity, to more radical proposals like panpsychism, which suggests that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe itself. Within this spectrum, there are competing schools of thought, such as cognitive science, quantum consciousness theories, integrated information theory (IIT), and various forms of phenomenology and philosophy of mind.

Like physics in the early 20th century, we find ourselves in a moment where the old paradigms are increasingly inadequate to explain the full scope of consciousness. Traditional, reductionist models of mind and brain are being challenged by new, more complex theories that attempt to account for the mystery of subjective experience—something that is elusive to scientific observation and analysis. And just as physicists had to grapple with the unsettling nature of quantum mechanics and relativity, those of us in consciousness studies must contend with the disorienting, mysterious quality of conscious experience itself.

The Challenge: Empirical Trees and Theoretical Forests

Despite the progress being made, a crucial issue remains: many of us within the field of consciousness studies remain attached to particular theories, often to the point of dogma, which can limit our capacity to integrate the vast range of data available to us. Some scientists and philosophers stubbornly cling to reductive models, insisting that consciousness will eventually be fully explained by neuroscience. Others, meanwhile, explore more speculative or metaphysical theories, sometimes neglecting the empirical rigor that has characterized the most successful scientific endeavors. As much as pluralism is welcome (even necessary), the divide between these camps can lead to confusion, fragmentation, and a lack of consensus, leaving us stuck in a kind of theoretical paralysis.

This is where the ‘reckoning’ comes in—the realization that we must move beyond entrenched positions and truly confront the complexity of consciousness. It is not enough to insist on a particular theory or model; we need to develop a truly interdisciplinary approach that draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, phenomenology, physics, and even the arts. It is time to seek integration and synthesis, embracing diversity while avoiding division.

A Science of Experience for the 21st Century

What would such integration look like? First, it means acknowledging that consciousness is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that cannot be fully captured by any single theory or discipline. Like the revolution in physics a century ago, we need a new language—a more inclusive, flexible framework that can accommodate the diversity of human experience and the complexities of the systems that give rise to it.

In practical terms, this could involve greater collaboration between neuroscientists and philosophers of mind, or the incorporation of phenomenological insights into experimental design. New methodologies—such as neurophenomenology—are already emerging, which attempt to correlate subjective experience with objective neural data, creating a bridge between ‘what it’s like’ and the brain processes that underlie it. But this will require the humility to accept that the very nature of experience may defy the kind of reductionist models that have so often dominated science. We must also be open to the possibility that the field of consciousness studies, like physics, may require new tools, new conceptual frameworks, or even a new understanding of reality itself to truly understand the nature of experience.

This means cultivating an openness to mystery—something we may have lost sight of in the quest for certainty. Unlike the hard, measurable phenomena of physics, consciousness resists being neatly packaged or fully explained by any one theory. However, that does not mean we should shy away from the challenge; rather, it invites us to deepen our inquiry and embrace the richness of experience.

The Road Ahead

The ‘reckoning’ that is needed in consciousness studies is one of intellectual humility, bold exploration, and interdisciplinary collaboration. It is about transcending the boundaries that currently divide us—amongst the different ‘isms,’ between objective and subjective, between science and spirit—and creating a field that acknowledges the complexity of human consciousness while embracing rigorous, empirical methods.

If we can do that, we may be poised to uncover insights about the nature of experience that are as transformative for the 21st century as the breakthroughs in physics were for the 20th century. The key will be to approach consciousness not merely as a set of theories or data points but as a profound mystery that we can experience, reflect upon, and, in time, understand in new ways.

Consciousness for Real

Finally, to move beyond ‘mere’ theoretical models and into the realm of ‘consciousness for real,’ we must make the study of consciousness not just an intellectual pursuit but a lived experience that anyone can access, explore, and understand. This means creating bridges between abstract theories and the concrete, everyday experiences that shape our lives. The technologies and methodologies emerging in neuroscience, psychology, and even virtual reality offer exciting new ways to immerse ourselves in the study of consciousness. But these must be grounded in real, subjective experiences—whether through meditative practices, altered states of awareness, or simply cultivating our attention and perception while walking in the forest—that allow individuals to directly engage with the mysteries of their own minds.

The field of consciousness must find ways to make its insights accessible to the public, so that consciousness is not something relegated to academic debate or laboratory experiments, but a tangible and transformative aspect of our collective human experience. This ‘consciousness for real’ approach has the potential to democratize the study of mind, allowing all of us to participate in the unfolding revolution, fostering a deeper understanding of what it means to be conscious, and ultimately helping us harness the profound potential of awareness in our everyday lives.

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.

Presentations

Click to see a list of the presentations for this event
The Science of Beauty: How Art Generates, Expands and Alters Consciousness. Neuroaestheticwith Koncha Pinos

Information

Additional information on this program (PDF)

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)

Gentle Action 2025
2025-06-12 19:00 - 2025-06-19 17:00 | Pari, Italy
Gentle Action 2025

A Gathering of Shared Experience

Pari, ItalyJune 12-19, 2025

25 years at the Pari Center

Ticket Prices

950.00 euros, which includes:

a 7-night stay in private accommodation;

breakfast, lunch and dinner at the local restaurant featuring locally sourced produce and traditional dishes;

water, wine, and coffee served with lunch and dinner;

programmed activities and materials.

The event starts on Thursday June 12 at 19:00 with a welcome dinner and ends on Thursday June 19 after lunch.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the event

A weeklong interaction through dialogue at the Pari Center based on F. David Peat’s concept of Gentle Action.

Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing, there is a field and I will meet you there. Rumi

On Gentle Action

Undoubtedly, we are faced by problems of great complexity. The environment, society and even life on earth, is under threat and, as a result, the human race is struggling with feelings of anger, frustration and helplessness. Something, we urge, must be done; some action must be taken. Tomorrow, we sense, will be too late. Yet it is these very feelings and reactions that have become part of the problem. The urge to change and control, to analyze, priorize, plan and act are all aspects of the same pattern that, in the first place, drove us to the edge of this crisis. What is needed is a radical change in human consciousness, in organizations and governments, if we are to survive into the second half of the 21st century. This I have called Gentle Action. F. David Peat

On Dialogue

In our modern culture men and women are able to interact with one another in many ways: they can sing, dance or play together with little difficulty but their ability to talk together about subjects that matter deeply to them seems invariably to lead to dispute, division and often to violence. This condition points to a deep and pervasive defect in the process of human thought. Because the nature of Dialogue is exploratory, its meaning and its methods continue to unfold. No firm rules can be laid down for conducting a Dialogue because its essence is learning—not as the result of consuming a body of information or doctrine imparted by an authority, nor as a means of examining or criticizing a particular theory or programme, but rather as part of an unfolding process of creative participation between peers. David Bohm

Embracing the present and choosing to act more gently, allows insights and interconnections to emerge and bubble up in a natural manner. Such moments are often accompanied by experiences of openness, trust, joy, and a childlike sense of wonder. In the beautiful and peaceful setting of a medieval village, participants in our Gentle Action gathering will have ample opportunities to connect with nature, their fellow dialoguers, and—perhaps most importantly—themselves. Experience the power of dialogue, creative suspension, and active listening in an open and supportive atmosphere.

During out Gentle Action Gathering, participants are encouraged to explore the village and its surroundings. We will meet in the newly renovated palazzo for our dialogues which will include sessions with the whole group as well as participating in smaller groups. A variety of activities will be offered which might include taking part in a yoga class, exploring the wisdom of Tarot or I Ching, creating a mandala, walking in the countryside, visiting the local hot springs—or just relaxing with an espresso in Pari’s piazza.

Join us for a week of living in Pari—the alchemical vessel where transformations take place. Practice living in the moment for the moment, while acting and speaking in more gentle ways.

Our Story

Several years ago, a small group of us were sitting outside the bar in Pari, Italy when the idea came up to bring a group of very open-minded people together for a gathering without any agenda, topic, intention, or specific purpose.

After leaving Pari, we continued to meet monthly through an online Zoom dialogue, where our small group of three individuals gradually grew in a most organic manner. More than a year of online meetings led to our first Gentle Action Gathering back at Pari in September of 2022.

Our original group of Jena, Manfred, and Tom, who hail from New York, Germany, and Ireland has gradually grown into a thriving community. Members of our online community have traveled from throughout the world to meet one another in person. Similarly, new participants who meet during our in-person Gentle Action Gatherings, frequently wish to stay in touch through our online dialogues.

Over the course of time we have come to discover that we have much to share with one another. Somewhat paradoxically, many of us believe that this is due to—rather than despite—our differing backgrounds. Throughout our interactions, we have also found that we have much in common. Perhaps most importantly, we all share a genuine interest in one another’s perspectives on the world, reminiscent of Rumi’s quote:

Out beyond the ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. I will meet you there.

This June we have chosen to meet once again in Pari, Italy. The medieval village of Pari, nestled in the Tuscan landscape, provides the perfect backdrop for new insights and explorations. During our Gentle Action Gatherings, participants are largely free to roam around as they please. They can meet in the newly renovated palazzo, take part in a yoga class, explore the area’s hot springs, or just sit down to have an espresso at the charming and peaceful square. Many find that leaving their daily routine behind and setting aside the expectations of the outer world allows them to reconnect with their innermost nature.

Taking the time to communicate and interact in the moment, for the moment, provides a unique opportunity to engage with the world in a much more playful manner—deepening the participants’ relationships with themselves, others, and the world around them.

Many participants notice that an almost childlike curiosity tends to emerge, unforced and unbidden, ‘beyond the ideas of right and wrong’ allowing them to experience the innate beauty of the present moment.

More than anything, our gatherings have given us a deep sense of connection and friendships that endure beyond the limits of time and space.

This June we get to come home again. It would be wonderful if you could join us.

Jena, Lisa, Manfred, Michael, Todd, and Tom

PARTICIPANTS SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES

ManfredBased on the ideas of David Bohm’s Dialogue, we had dialogues that included all the participants and in groups of four to five people. People sat in a circle with a talking stone in the middle. A person talks only when she or he has taken the talking stone. All others listen deeply without interruption. This gives the speaker the freedom to talk as long as they want, but at the same time to take the responsibility to stop when it is appropriate for the group. I’ve participated in this kind of dialogue for more than twenty years, but in this Gathering there was from the beginning an attitude which I had never experienced before. The level of sensitivity was so high that most of the time a talking stone was not necessary.

TimThe depth of integrated experience, wisdom and special talents of our lovely group became increasingly clear. There were moments of true Alchemy which were enduring, fruitful and uplifting. Love, generosity of spirit, deep listening, laughter, and pain became manifest. Five words coalesced for me: PRESENCE, OPEN-NESS, COMMUNION, INTENTION, ACCEPTANCE. Eternal thanks to you all.

TomOur get together of many people and nationalities in Pari was a joy. There are many positives to our Western ways, but deep human alienation is a price we often pay. I think in Pari we paid homage to Martin Buber’s great insight: I and Thou. In harmony with you…beyond our egos…we get glimpses of deeper truths.

ArturIt is always very difficult to describe a rich experience that impacts many different dimensions of Being. First of all because any kind of description will always be unfair, incomplete, and inaccurate… With that in mind, the experience was extremely rich in connections with incredible people who were available to open up, exchange and think together without the obligation to agree or have to appear intelligent, smart or sophisticated to the Other. Being present and simply letting your Presence happen in the way the Soul chose was what touched me the most.

Ciara Some thoughts, but no words can really convey what it meant to me. There was something about the implicit nature to the information about the Gathering, an invitation, a Gentle one at that. It created a hope in me that this might be a gathering that would allow the time and space needed for truth (in all its complex beauty) to emerge. It was that and more. I am both changed and restored by the deep relationships that formed over the week. Relationships with each other, with place, with reality and with a way of being I thought had got lost in the noise of modern life. Eternally grateful, Ciara

Daniela When I go to events, I often feel overstimulated and, in the end, flooded with information—often welcome or sought out deliberately—but when I go home, I carry with me too much data to handle. Such a relief to find a place, where something new can emerge merely by people sharing time together and being in dialogue. In the Gentle Gathering I have found a co-creative place of exploration where genuinely new ideas can come into the world just because they want to and there are people who are present with them.

JenaI don’t think I’ve ever seen a group coalesce so quickly into respectful dialogue; I’ve never seen a dialogue group begin with so few rules and definitions on what dialogue is. That may not exactly be a paradox but feels a bit like a Zen koan to me at the moment.

AngelicaI felt connected and present. I could be who I am, not trying to fit in, and yet felt that I was very welcome and appreciated. That gave me an inner space to go deeper into myself and understand more about me, without being taught or lectured to. The experience of love among participants was spectacular and that gave me confidence about a worldview I carry with me, which is: we are all loving humans who can express that love, be that love, be conscious and connect with consciousness, given the circumstances for that.

AlistairMy first response is that of gratitude. Firstly, to the six of you who have carried the flame and brought it to this point so others could share your dream. Thank you for drawing us in. It felt like sacred ground. And gratitude to all of you who were there. I gained so much from so many. In the dialogues, over meals, late at night after one more bottle of wine. Long conversations, snatches of insight, pithy one liners and stories, overheard conversations, moments of gracious input into my life, observing your ways of being, I absorbed so much. Thank you!

Information

Additional information on this program (PDF)

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)

The Future World – A conversation with Sergi Torres
2025-06-25 18:00 - 19:30
Event registration

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A Conversation between Sergi Torres and Àlex Gómez-Marín

Wednesday June 259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

This event is LIVE and FREE. All registered participants will receive the RECORDING.

Born in Barcelona in 1975, Sergi Torres is a contemporary mystic. His focus is self-knowledge, starting from the Mystery from which our conscious human experience arises. His approach takes the form of a constant invitation to self-inquiry: “Know yourself.” He is the author of several books (A Bridge to Reality, Jump into the Void, Will You Join Me?, The IntroHeroes, The Biology of the Present (with David del Rosario), Aurum, and Humanitas (with Xavier Ginesta), all centered around this call to self-inquiry.

Beyond Bohm 2025
2025-07-12 17:59 - 2025-07-27 22:30
Beyond Bohm 2025: Wholeness and Fragmentation

With Aja Bulla Zamastil , Richard Burg, Maria Hvidbak, Chris Marks, Melissa K. Nelson, Lee Nichol, Hester Reeve.Curated and Chaired by Lee Nichol.

July 12-27, 20259am PDT / 12pm EDT / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST

6 two-hour sessions every Saturday and Sunday.

The sessions are LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

If one were to select one concept to describe the arc of David Bohm’s lifework, it would surely be wholeness. Having said that, the road splits off into many forks. Questions regarding wholeness apply in so many domains – in physics, in the social world, in the artistic domain, in the world of nature, in one’s daily life. The list could go on at great length.

In Beyond Bohm 2025, we will extend feelers to the world of nature, and into certain aspects of human creativity. We will be looking to see if we can have a concrete, rather than conceptual sense of wholeness. In the first instance – the natural world – we will explore in some detail the phenomenological engagement with nature taken by Scot author Nan Shepherd. In the second instance – the domain of human creativity – we will take up the manner in which architect- philosopher Christopher Alexander approached wholeness, as a concrete living process.

The flip side of the “wholeness coin” is, of course, fragmentation. Indeed, much of Bohm’s life was taken up with the interplay of wholeness and fragmentation. His work in physics, in philosophy, in dialogue, in aesthetics, in the nature of thought – in all these areas the wholeness/fragmentation nexus was central. In service to that, our final weekend will examine the still-evolving interplay of digital media and human consciousness, and the manner in which these media are currently amplifying certain factors that Bohm felt to be at the root of human fragmentation.

Needless to say, engaging this wholeness/fragmentation nexus is the work of lifetime, for any of us. From a “Bohmian” perspective, there is literally no end to the inquiry, for wholeness, being a living thing, is never finished. It is ever-evolving, recursive, generative. Always on the move, always in flux.

In Beyond Bohm 2025, then, we will not be attempting to come to finished conclusions or final answers. Rather, we will be aiming for a “flavor,” a “taste” of both wholeness and of fragmentation. To this end, our format will be notably different from in the past. In our first and third weekends, the entire second day will be given over to audience participation, in order to get the fullest possible feeling for the pulse of the Pari community. The second weekend will offer specific activities that can be done between the first day and the second day. We hope you will join us as we expand the Beyond Bohm format and aim to open new participatory terrain.

Program of Event

THE LIVING MOUNTAINWith Hester Reeve, Maria Hvidbak, Chris Marks and Lee NicholJuly 12 and 13, 2025

THE QUALITY WITHOUT A NAMEWith Aja Bulla Zamastil and Lee NicholJuly 19 and 20, 2025

BOHM’S HARD PROBLEM & DEVICE CULTUREWith Hester Reeve, Richard Burg, Melissa K. Nelson, Aja Bulla Zamastil and Lee NicholJuly 26 and 27, 2025

Sessions

1 of 3: The Living Mountain

Saturday and Sunday, July 12 and 13, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

2 two-hour sessions.

Around 1937 Scot author Nan Shepherd placed a finished manuscript in a drawer, where it sat for 40 years. Finally published in 1977 – four years before Shepherd’s death – The Living Mountain now has a cult following, and is considered a masterpiece that defies categorization. Though topically an account of Shepherd’s decades-long roamings in the Cairngorm massif of northern Scotland, the heart of The Living Mountain carries the reader deep within Shepherd’s experience, revealing ways of being that are at once place-specific and universal. She opens the reader to the forces and patterns of creation, and the manner in which these forces interpenetrate human consciousness and imagination.

In this two-day session, we will explore Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, as well as her slim volume of poetry, In the Cairngorms. The first day will consist of brief selected readings, with close examination and commentary on Shepherd’s intimate and evocative “way” of being with the mountain. We will also hear first-person accounts from people who, inspired by The Living Mountain, ventured forth and found their own “way” into the Cairngorms.

And yet… Much of the potency in Shepherd’s writing is that it is in no way limited to the Cairngorms. Once one has been infected with the spirit of engagement brought forth by Shepherd, that quality can be brought to bear anywhere – in a park, at the sea, in one’s own back yard. To that end, our second day will consist of contributions from audience-participants – a mutual sharing of experiences in which the depths of the human meet the depths of the natural world. This may take multiple forms – first-hand description of one’s own experiences in the natural world; reading to our Zoom group short passages from other writers or further readings of Shepherd; photographs of potent or numinous locations; any other means of conveying to the group the mystery, beauty, and even terror that can be encountered in the domain of nature. Our aim on this second day is to give full voice to the Pari community regarding the deep human need for conscious connection with stone and sun, wind and tree, bird and brook, sea and stars. Please join us!

2 of 3: The Quality without a Name

Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

2 two-hour sessions.

With the publication in 1977 of A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander initiated a revolution in how to think about built and inhabited spaces. His emphasis on “the quality without a name” – a mysterious but graspable quality that touches the human soul – was radical and provocative. This weekend we will explore various approaches to that quality – the relation of space and form; the Chinese “heaven-earth-human” principle; Japanese flower arranging (ikebana); the aesthetics of landscape architecture; and traditional architectural forms. We will also give detailed attention to Alexander’s magnum opus on wholeness, The Nature of Order, and his remarkable work delineating the spiritual geometry and color of early Turkish carpets, A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art.

Some Pari patrons may know that Alexander was an early friend of the Pari Center. He visited there around 2000 or 2001, sharing insights with David Peat and Maureen Doolan regarding the architecture and renovations of the village itself. There was also a multi-day meeting between Alexander and David Bohm in 1986, in which the two discussed their various perspectives on wholeness.

This weekend will provide the option for those attending to experiment directly with certain basic approaches to the “quality without a name.” This will include activities that can be done between the first day and second day, which can then be shared with the group on the second day. As in our first weekend, we are aiming to broaden the manner in which the Pari community can engage with the Beyond Bohm programs.

3 of 3: Bohm’s Hard Problem and Device Culture

Saturday and Sunday, July 26 and 27, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

2 two-hour sessions.

While our first two weekends will focus on two views of wholeness – in the natural world and in the human-made world – our final weekend will take up Bohm’s “hard problem”: that is, changing the reflexive, thought-centered nature of our everyday consciousness. Bohm pointed to the necessity of apprehending and altering our age-old engagement with what he called “thought as a system” – the tacit, culture-wide commitment to a pervasively fragmented worldview, inclusive of ourselves and our own individual consciousness.

This potential transformation is difficult under the best of circumstances – thus, a “hard problem” – and has been a perennial challenge for humanity. When Bohm began putting forward his proposals in the late 1970s and early 80s, the accelerating nature of communication media was formative in his assessment of how the subtle fragmentation of thought as a system operates. Now, in 2025, our enmeshment in this system is far more pervasive and tenacious, due in large part to our immersion in interactive digital devices.

In his original proposals, Bohm put great emphasis on the manner in which thought and feeling reflexively and repetitively sustain one another, leaving precious little opportunity for careful examination and understanding of the implications of this mechanical patterning. It is startlingly ironic then, that today we live in a digital environment that is specifically designed to amplify and exaggerate the very reflexes Bohm had hoped we could free ourselves from. In the first day of this weekend, our panel will give sustained attention to the manner in which thought as a system has become much harder to apprehend and counteract than it was when Bohm formulated his original concerns.

Our second day will open more broadly, dedicating the entire session to participant engagement with our panel. We will continue our examination of how social media – whose purveyors are Facebook-Meta, Instagram, X, TikTok, and Snapchat – intentionally create addictive behavior, ranging from existential anxiety in the formative psyches of adolescents, to the dopamine-fueled rage that has infected societies across the globe.

Questions and themes will include, but not be limited to: Are our life choices arising from intelligence and free will, or are they being more and more determined by corporate algorithms? Is technology inherently neutral – as many claim – the only question then being whether we use it for good or ill? Why does biological research have legal and ethical guardrails, whereas socio-technological research and application do not? Is the deepening fascination with the self-image and its attendant narcissism now an intractable feature of contemporary culture? What are the implications of young children spending an average of 7 hours per day in front of screens, while spending an average of less than 10 minutes per day in outdoor activities? Perhaps most importantly, what can we actually do in the face of these challenges? Do we want to do anything at all, or are we satisfied with the status quo?

Please join us to participate in this timely and important conversation.

Beyond Bohm 2025: The Living Mountain
2025-07-12 18:00 - 2025-07-13 20:00
Beyond Bohm 2025 (1 of 3): The Living Mountain

Saturday and Sunday, July 12 and 13, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

2 two-hour sessions.

The session is LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

Around 1937 Scot author Nan Shepherd placed a finished manuscript in a drawer, where it sat for 40 years. Finally published in 1977 – four years before Shepherd’s death – The Living Mountain now has a cult following, and is considered a masterpiece that defies categorization. Though topically an account of Shepherd’s decades-long roamings in the Cairngorm massif of northern Scotland, the heart of The Living Mountain carries the reader deep within Shepherd’s experience, revealing ways of being that are at once place-specific and universal. She opens the reader to the forces and patterns of creation, and the manner in which these forces interpenetrate human consciousness and imagination.

In this two-day session, we will explore Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, as well as her slim volume of poetry, In the Cairngorms. The first day will consist of brief selected readings, with close examination and commentary on Shepherd’s intimate and evocative “way” of being with the mountain. We will also hear first-person accounts from people who, inspired by The Living Mountain, ventured forth and found their own “way” into the Cairngorms.

And yet… Much of the potency in Shepherd’s writing is that it is in no way limited to the Cairngorms. Once one has been infected with the spirit of engagement brought forth by Shepherd, that quality can be brought to bear anywhere – in a park, at the sea, in one’s own back yard. To that end, our second day will consist of contributions from audience-participants – a mutual sharing of experiences in which the depths of the human meet the depths of the natural world. This may take multiple forms – first-hand description of one’s own experiences in the natural world; reading to our Zoom group short passages from other writers or further readings of Shepherd; photographs of potent or numinous locations; any other means of conveying to the group the mystery, beauty, and even terror that can be encountered in the domain of nature. Our aim on this second day is to give full voice to the Pari community regarding the deep human need for conscious connection with stone and sun, wind and tree, bird and brook, sea and stars. Please join us!

Possible reading (helpful, not required):

https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/03/19/the-living-mountain-nan-shepherd/ (short journal article on Shepherd)

The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd (basis for this weekend’s sessions)

In the Cairngorms, Nan Shepherd (basis for this weekend’s sessions)

The Hidden Fires, Merryn Glover (excellent commentary on Shepherd)

Story About Feeling, Bill Niedje (complementary perspective from Aboriginal elder)

Hester Reeve is a Reader in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University UK. Her practice encompasseslive art, drawing, sculpture, poetry, philosophy and ‘dialogue’ (as set out by David Bohm): Art is not viewed straightforwardly as a tool of communication or form of personal expression, but more as a complex kingdom that is continually attempting to establish itself through human thought and action.

Hester’s work has been shown internationally, including at former Randolph Street Gallery Chicago, LIVE Biennale Vancouver, BONE Performance Festival Switzerland, Tate Britain, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Halle G Vienna and, most recently, Nirox Sculpture Park, South Africa. She is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing) and a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Maria Hvidbak’s formal educational background encompasses a mix of architecture, business psychology, philosophical inter-viewing and existential-phenomenological psychotherapy. While not settling with any professional title or given field of study, Maria is engaged with questions pertaining to “communication,” as understood according to its etymological root sense of “moving together.” Increasingly inspired by what is commonly recognized as an attitude of the artist, seeking into subtleties of philosophy and sports as well as experimenting with creative expressions…all become modes of exploring what can possibly be “moved together” with.

Maria is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing) and a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Chris Marks was one of the founding trustees of Prison Dialogue, and involved for its 25 year experiment. This dialogue process in the criminal justice system (CJS) attempted to get the CJS to talk to itself and thereby humanize the overall system. The work was applied primarily in the UK, but also had outreach in the US. He has spent many years – and continues proudly working with – a number of “woke” funding organizations: human rights; economic justice; peace and conflict resolution. Chris lives in Edinburgh, loves tai chi and real tennis. He is a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Lee Nichol is Director of Bohmian Studies at the Pari Center. As a freelance writer and editor his latest works are Entering Bohm’s Holoflux and Holoflux: Codex (both from Pari Publishing). He was a long-time friend and collaborator of David Bohm, and is editor of Bohm’s On Dialogue, The Essential David Bohm, and On Creativity.

Lee has been on the faculty of the Tibetan Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California, and Denver University in Denver, Colorado. He sits on the Advisory Committee of the Pari Center, the Advisory Council of the Indigenous Education Institute, and is a member of the Founding Circle of the Native American Academy. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife Eva Casey.

Beyond Bohm 2025: The Quality without a Name
2025-07-19 18:00 - 2025-07-20 20:00
Beyond Bohm 2025 (2 of 3): The Quality without a Name

Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

2 two-hour sessions.

The session is LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

With the publication in 1977 of A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander initiated a revolution in how to think about built and inhabited spaces. His emphasis on “the quality without a name” – a mysterious but graspable quality that touches the human soul – was radical and provocative. This weekend we will explore various approaches to that quality – the relation of space and form; the Chinese “heaven-earth-human” principle; Japanese flower arranging (ikebana); the aesthetics of landscape architecture; and traditional architectural forms. We will also give detailed attention to Alexander’s magnum opus on wholeness, The Nature of Order, and his remarkable work delineating the spiritual geometry and color of early Turkish carpets, A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art.

Some Pari patrons may know that Alexander was an early friend of the Pari Center. He visited there around 2000 or 2001, sharing insights with David Peat and Maureen Doolan regarding the architecture and renovations of the village itself. There was also a multi-day meeting between Alexander and David Bohm in 1986, in which the two discussed their various perspectives on wholeness.

This weekend will provide the option for those attending to experiment directly with certain basic approaches to the “quality without a name.” This will include activities that can be done between the first day and second day, which can then be shared with the group on the second day. As in our first weekend, we are aiming to broaden the manner in which the Pari community can engage with the Beyond Bohm programs.

Possible reading (helpful, not required):

The Luminous Ground (vol. 4 of The Nature of Order), Christopher Alexander (this is the culmination of Alexander’s lifework, unafraid to address the metaphysical, religious, and mystical import of his oeuvre)

https://archive.org/details/natureoforderess0000alex

A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, Christopher Alexander (groundbreaking assessment of the underlying nature of early Turkish carpets, lavishly illustrated)

https://archive.org/details/AForeshadowingOf21stCenturyArt/page/n55/mode/2up

A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander (detailed applications of Alexander’s early work)

The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander (provides the underlying theory behind Alexander’s work, emphasizing “the quality without a name”)

(Each of these books is best appreciated in physical paper, but as some of them are quite expensive, links to high-quality digital versions are provided).

Aja Bulla Zamastil is an architectural and landscape architectural designer, public artist, and educator. As a Lecturer in the Landscape Architecture and Urbanism graduate program at the University of Southern California, she leads design studios that address adapting our constructed world to shifting natural and socio-cultural forces. As the Creative Director at Watershed Progressive, she is responsible for managing and designing landscape projects and educational programs throughout California. These projects explore how we can transform monolithic systems into resilient ecological cycles that re-enchant everyday experience and promote alternative cultural practices.

Aja is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing 2022), and is a founding member of the Pari Holoflux experiments. As part of her undergraduate work at UC Berkeley, Aja studied under senior students of Christopher Alexander, particularly regarding The Nature of Order.

Lee Nichol is Director of Bohmian Studies at the Pari Center. As a freelance writer and editor his latest works are Entering Bohm’s Holoflux and Holoflux: Codex (both from Pari Publishing). He was a long-time friend and collaborator of David Bohm, and is editor of Bohm’s On Dialogue, The Essential David Bohm, and On Creativity.

Lee has been on the faculty of the Tibetan Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California, and Denver University in Denver, Colorado. He sits on the Advisory Committee of the Pari Center, the Advisory Council of the Indigenous Education Institute, and is a member of the Founding Circle of the Native American Academy. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife Eva Casey.

Beyond Bohm 2025: Bohm's Hard Problem and Device Culture
2025-07-26 18:00 - 2025-07-27 20:00
Beyond Bohm 2025 (3 of 3): Bohm’s Hard Problem and Device Culture

Saturday and Sunday, July 26 and 27, 20259:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

2 two-hour sessions.

The session is LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

While our first two weekends will focus on two views of wholeness – in the natural world and in the human-made world – our final weekend will take up Bohm’s “hard problem”: that is, changing the reflexive, thought-centered nature of our everyday consciousness. Bohm pointed to the necessity of apprehending and altering our age-old engagement with what he called “thought as a system” – the tacit, culture-wide commitment to a pervasively fragmented worldview, inclusive of ourselves and our own individual consciousness.

This potential transformation is difficult under the best of circumstances – thus, a “hard problem” – and has been a perennial challenge for humanity. When Bohm began putting forward his proposals in the late 1970s and early 80s, the accelerating nature of communication media was formative in his assessment of how the subtle fragmentation of thought as a system operates. Now, in 2025, our enmeshment in this system is far more pervasive and tenacious, due in large part to our immersion in interactive digital devices.

In his original proposals, Bohm put great emphasis on the manner in which thought and feeling reflexively and repetitively sustain one another, leaving precious little opportunity for careful examination and understanding of the implications of this mechanical patterning. It is startlingly ironic then, that today we live in a digital environment that is specifically designed to amplify and exaggerate the very reflexes Bohm had hoped we could free ourselves from. In the first day of this weekend, our panel will give sustained attention to the manner in which thought as a system has become much harder to apprehend and counteract than it was when Bohm formulated his original concerns.

Our second day will open more broadly, dedicating the entire session to participant engagement with our panel. We will continue our examination of how social media – whose purveyors are Facebook-Meta, Instagram, X, TikTok, and Snapchat – intentionally create addictive behavior, ranging from existential anxiety in the formative psyches of adolescents, to the dopamine-fueled rage that has infected societies across the globe.

Questions and themes will include, but not be limited to: Are our life choices arising from intelligence and free will, or are they being more and more determined by corporate algorithms? Is technology inherently neutral – as many claim – the only question then being whether we use it for good or ill? Why does biological research have legal and ethical guardrails, whereas socio-technological research and application do not? Is the deepening fascination with the self-image and its attendant narcissism now an intractable feature of contemporary culture? What are the implications of young children spending an average of 7 hours per day in front of screens, while spending an average of less than 10 minutes per day in outdoor activities? Perhaps most importantly, what can we actually do in the face of these challenges? Do we want to do anything at all, or are we satisfied with the status quo?

Please join us to participate in this timely and important conversation.

Possible reading (helpful, not required):

The Endgame of Edgelord Eschatology

https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/youth-mental-health/social-media/index.html(provides multiple links to the 2023 US Surgeon General’s report on social media)

Alone Together, Sherry Turkle (one of the most comprehensive books currently available on what is really happening in our psychological relationship to digital platforms and artifacts…Turkle is a peerless researcher who has been surveying this terrain for decades)

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts, Jaron Lanier (from the Silicon Valley insider who coined the term “virtual reality,” and developed the first viable VR headset in the 1980s… here he offers a searing indictment of social media and its pernicious underlying intentions)

Superbloom, Nicholas Carr (clear-eyed assessment of the history, digital architecture, and implications of immersive social media… superb research references)

Thought as a System, David Bohm (primary reference for understanding Bohm’s view of thought, feeling, and society)

The Social Dilemma (Netflix film)

“Knowledge as Endarkenment” (PDF transcript), David Bohm (incisive early formulation of Thought as a System)

Hester Reeve is a Reader in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University UK. Her practice encompasseslive art, drawing, sculpture, poetry, philosophy and ‘dialogue’ (as set out by David Bohm): Art is not viewed straightforwardly as a tool of communication or form of personal expression, but more as a complex kingdom that is continually attempting to establish itself through human thought and action.

Hester’s work has been shown internationally, including at former Randolph Street Gallery Chicago, LIVE Biennale Vancouver, BONE Performance Festival Switzerland, Tate Britain, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Halle G Vienna and, most recently, Nirox Sculpture Park, South Africa. She is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing) and a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Richard Burg – In 2003 I retired from consulting, my fourth career (IT, potter, Continuing Medical Education research). My company Simple Idea worked with corporate leaders to integrate human values and productivity in a constantly changing environment – engaging with teams and individuals to build relationships within the organization that nurture the humanity in everyone, even as they work together to achieve audacious goals.

In 1990 a friend sent me a transcript of a talk given by David Bohm at MIT. In my organization development practice – focused on changing corporate cultures – group work was a built-in aspect of the process. Bohm’s dialogue experiment was thus enticing, and I discovered a Bohmian dialogue group in the San Francisco Bay Area, which I attended weekly for the next eight years. Stemming from that group, Lee Nichol and I designed a nine-hour, multi-day introduction to Bohm’s experiment at the first National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation in Washington DC. I have since engaged in dialogue in many different contexts – most recently, like many, in online dialogues, before and during the covid pandemic.

Richard is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing) and a founding member of the Pari Holoflux group.

Melissa K. Nelson is an ecologist and Indigenous scholar-activist. She earned her Ph.D. in ecology at the University of California, Davis. Formerly a professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University, she now teaches at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability, Global Futures Laboratory. From 1993 to 2021, she served as the founding executive director and CEO of the Cultural Conservancy. She now serves as their president emerita. Melissa is the Bundle Holder for the Native American Academy. She is a contributor and co-editor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability, published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. She is also a contributor and the editor of Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future (2008). She is Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

Aja Bulla Zamastil is an architectural and landscape architectural designer, public artist, and educator. As a Lecturer in the Landscape Architecture and Urbanism graduate program at the University of Southern California, she leads design studios that address adapting our constructed world to shifting natural and socio-cultural forces. As the Creative Director at Watershed Progressive, she is responsible for managing and designing landscape projects and educational programs throughout California. These projects explore how we can transform monolithic systems into resilient ecological cycles that re-enchant everyday experience and promote alternative cultural practices.

Aja is a contributor to Holoflux: Codex (Pari Publishing), and is a founding member of the Pari Holoflux experiments. As part of her undergraduate work at UC Berkeley, Aja studied under senior students of Christopher Alexander, particularly regarding The Nature of Order.

Lee Nichol is Director of Bohmian Studies at the Pari Center. As a freelance writer and editor his latest works are Entering Bohm’s Holoflux and Holoflux: Codex (both from Pari Publishing). He was a long-time friend and collaborator of David Bohm, and is editor of Bohm’s On Dialogue, The Essential David Bohm, and On Creativity.

Lee has been on the faculty of the Tibetan Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California, and Denver University in Denver, Colorado. He sits on the Advisory Committee of the Pari Center, the Advisory Council of the Indigenous Education Institute, and is a member of the Founding Circle of the Native American Academy. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife Eva Casey.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2
2025-08-02 17:59 - 2025-08-24 20:30
August 2 – 24, 20258 two-hour sessions

9:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST

All sessions are live, and include Q & A, and all participants will receive the RECORDING.Each session: Full Price €15, Member’s Discount €13.50Series tickets available.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2

Following an illuminating introduction to Bohm’s revolutionary physics, we embark on an exploration of potentiality and its intricate relationship with actuality, drawing upon the insights of both Bohm and Charles Burton Martin; we will delve deeply into the terrain of panpsychism, examining consciousness not as a mere biological phenomenon confined to humans and animals, but as a fundamental architectural principle woven into the very fabric of physical reality; we investigate whether Bohmian quantum theory might inspire new forms of psycho-physical laws; we will examine the conception of ‘strict monism’ and its relation to Bohm’s ideas of undivided wholeness; we will illuminate Bohm’s distinctive philosophy of science as manifested in his causal interpretation of quantum theory; we will consider the implications of quantum materials on humanity’s evolutionary trajectory, examining how these emerging technologies may fundamentally reshape our civilizational future; and we provide an introduction to a new worldview: the Dynamic Universe—a proposal that provides a new way of understanding relativistic phenomena.

Every session will have openings for question / answer and discussion with presenters.

Program of Event

Saturday August 2Introduction to Bohm’s PhysicsJonathan AlldaySunday August 3Potentialities in Nature and the Nature of Potentialities: David Bohm’s 1951Quantum Theory and C. B. Martin’s Dispositionalist MetaphysicsAlex Carruth

Saturday August 9The Impact of (Quantum) Materials on the Development of Humanity and of Shaping our FutureSaskia FischerSunday August 10On PanpsychismSanttu Heikkinen

Saturday August 16The Dynamic Universe: A New Holistic World ViewTuomo Suntola

Sunday August 17 Consciousness, Reduction and Quantum Psycho-Physical Laws Paavo Pylkkänen

Saturday August 23Bohm’s Philosophy of Science in his Causal Interpretation of Quantum MechanicsMarja-Liisa Kakkuri-Knuuttila

Sunday August 24 Not Even One William Seager

General information

All sessions will last for approximately 2 hours, and will be held over zoom.us. The session structure may vary from speaker to speaker, but in general participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of the presenter and in some cases there will be breakaway discussion groups.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - Introduction to Bohm’s physics
2025-08-02 18:00 - 20:30
Introduction to Bohm’s physics

with Jonathan Allday

Saturday August 29:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

David Bohm’s work in physics spanned a range of areas and interests, but he always came back to the foundations of quantum theory.

While his 1952 hidden variables papers were not really about hidden variables (it’s in quotes in the paper tiles), they did start a direction of travel that he periodically revisited. The quantum potential offered a new way of illustrating the profound differences between classical and quantum physics as well as a means of exploring Bohm’s vision of underlying wholeness.

The 1952 papers also profoundly influenced John Bell, who took up Bohm’s reworking of one of Einstein’s thought experiments to explore the nature of entanglement experimentally. That line led to the 2022 Nobel Prize. Without going into too much technical detail, I will explain the underlying physics of the 1952 papers, Bell’s theorem and its relationship to locality and entanglement, and will work up to the advances Basil Hiley was making right up to his death.

We might even mention the Aharonov-Bohm effect and how weird that is…

Jonathan Allday was born in Liverpool in 1960. He did his first degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge in 1982 and then returned to Liverpool to complete a PhD in elementary particle physics. As part of this, he was fortunate to spend some time working at the European particle physics centre, CERN, in Geneva.

Also, during that time he was co-opted onto a working party looking at the teaching of particle physics in schools and universities. The upshot was a new syllabus in particle physics and cosmology to be added to UK A-level (16-18) physics qualifications. The first questions were set in 1992.

On the back of the work on this syllabus, Jonathan wrote his first book Quarks, Leptons and the Big Bang, which was published in 1998 and is about to enter its fourth edition. Jonathan has also collaborated on a couple of textbooks and written his own books on Quantum Theory, General Relativity and the Apollo moon missions.

Professionally, Jonathan worked as a physics teacher for 30 years in a variety of independent day and boarding schools in the UK. He was a head of physics, a head of science and latterly an academic deputy head. He retired in 2020 and now runs a consulting company providing training and educational advice for schools.

Jonathan is married to Carolyn, and they have three sons all of whom are far better at sport than he was. Carolyn was a GB swimmer, which explains how come the boys can do sport. Jonathan and Carolyn live in a hamlet not far from Worcester in the UK. When not writing or consulting, Jonathan enjoys watching cricket, James Bond movies and Formula 1 races.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - Potentialities in Nature and the Nature of Potentialities
2025-08-03 18:00 - 20:30
Potentialities in Nature and the Nature of Potentialities: David Bohm’s 1951 Quantum Theory and C. B. Martin’s Dispositionalist Metaphysics

with Alex Carruth (and Paavo Pylkkänen)

Sunday August 39:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

This talk explores the nature of potentiality and its relation to actuality through the views of David Bohm and Charles Burton Martin.

Bohm suggested in his 1951 textbook Quantum theory that quantum properties ought to be understood as potentialities that are actualized when they interact with a suitable, classically describable system (such as a measuring apparatus, but in principle any classically describable system, for instance a crystal at the bottom of the sea). Central to Bohm’s view is a conception of potentialities as having three key features: they are incompletely defined; opposing and probabilistic. Furthermore, the view implies that quantum theory presupposes the level of classical physics, which raises questions about the completeness of quantum theory.

Interestingly, the dispositionalist metaphysics proposed by philosopher Charlie Martin has in some ways similar views about both the nature of potentialities and how they relate to manifest being, opening up the possibility that the situation in quantum mechanics may be an example of a more general metaphysical principle.

First, Martin’s unorthodox view of dispositions as massively multi-track and as coming to manifest through reciprocal, mutual partnerings seems to accommodate the three key features Bohm identifies in a way which neither orthodox views of dispositions nor non-dispositionalist views of properties can.

Furthermore, Martin rejects the notion of pure potentiality on the grounds that to move from potency to act, some determinate, manifest being is required (cf. Bohm’s classically describable system). A world of pure potentiality would be a world of ‘promissory notes’ which are never made good on. He also rejects the notion of pure manifest or actualised being, on the grounds that being that is ‘in pure act’, that is, being that always manifests everything of which it is capable, would actually amount to non-being (at least in the case of concrete, material phenomena; perhaps abstract beings such as numbers might be in pure act). In Bohmian terms this is like the question whether the explicate order could exist without the implicate order.

Alex Carruth is a metaphysician, philosopher of science and philosopher of mind. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Durham in 2013. Amongst other things, he works on the nature of properties; emergence and reduction; causation; consciousness; mental causation, and perception. He is currently a senior researcher at the University of Turku in the Research Council of Finland project Temporality in Predictive Processing and is the PI of the Kone Foundation project Navigating Complexity: Between Emergence and Reduction at the University of Helsinki.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - The impact of (quantum) materials on the development of humanity and the shaping our future
2025-08-09 18:00 - 20:30
The impact of (quantum) materials on the development of humanity and the shaping our future

with Saskia F. Fischer

Saturday August 99:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

At the start of the presentation three general premises will be offered: 1. All is process, 2. We are part of nature and 3. Three world experiments are currently underway. During this talk we may explore how these premises relate to the making and usage of materials in the development of humanity.

Electronic materials with a quest of high energy consumption are currently the basis for worldwide scientific, technological and cultural developments. Mathematical principles of symmetry, geometry and topology underlie the functionalities of the materials. At the nanoscale, materials design is governed by what I call the inverse Bauhaus-principle: “Function follows form”. Examples of topical research are given.

Finally, in view of global challenges (third premise) I will ask: How can we develop science further? A key component will be to promote a universal interdisciplinary dialogue.

Saskia F. Fischer is a German experimental physicist and professor at the Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin since 2010. She is leading the Novel Materials group and received the Helmholtz Prize for high-precision ‘Nanometrology’ with her team and partners in 2020. Saskia Fischer is known for her research work on novel electronic materials investigating how mathematical principles of symmetry, geometry and topology influence flow of charge, heat and spin. She frames the influence of geometry in material design at the nanoscale as the inverse Bauhaus principle: “Function follows form”. This allows to adapt material parameters such as thermal and thermo/-electrical conductivities for future applications in quantum, nano and power electronics. Beyond her specific discipline, her interests span from foundations of quantum physics to a development of universal interdisciplinary science in order to prepare for current and future global challenges.

https://www.physik.hu-berlin.de/en/gnm-en/neue-materialien

Selected publications of various research topics:

In-plane gate induced transition asymmetry of spin-resolved Landau levels in InAs-based quantum wells, O. Chiatti, J. Boy, C. Heyn, W. Hansen, S. F. Fischer, APL Mater. 12, 051107 (2024). DOI: 10.1063/5.0203097

Nanometrology: Absolute Seebeck coefficient of individual silver nanowires, M. Kockert, D. Kojda, R. Mitdank, A. Mogilatenko, Z. Wang, J. Ruhhammer, M. Kroener, P. Woias, and S. F. Fischer, Scientific Reports 9, 20265 (2019). DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-56602-9

2D layered transport properties from topological insulator Bi2Se3 single crystals and micro flakes, O. Chiatti, C. Riha, D. Lawrenz, M. Busch, S. Dusari, J. Sánchez-Barriga, A. Mogilatenko, L. V. Yashina, S. Valencia, A. A. Ünal, O. Rader, and S. F. FischerSci. Rep. 6, 27483 (2016). DOI:10.1038/srep27483

Energy spectroscopy of controlled coupled quantum-wire states, S. F. Fischer, G. Apetrii, U. Kunze, D. Schuh, and G. Abstreiter, Nature Physics 2, 91-96 (2006). DOI: 10.1038/nphys205

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - On Panpsychism
2025-08-10 18:00 - 20:30
On Panpsychism

with Santtu Heikkinen

Sunday August 109:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

Panpsychism has emerged as a compelling perspective in contemporary philosophy of mind, asserting that consciousness is not confined to humans and animals but is a fundamental feature of the physical world. The primary motivations for panpsychism include the continuity argument, which seeks to address the apparent gap between mindless matter and conscious experience, the argument from intrinsic natures, which posits that consciousness is an intrinsic property of all entities, and the conceivability argument, which explores the possibility that consciousness could be a universal property in a way that is both metaphysically coherent and scientifically plausible.

As the theory evolves, various strains of panpsychism have emerged, notably smallist panpsychism, which proposes that even the most fundamental entities possess rudimentary forms of consciousness, and cosmopsychism, which suggests that the universe itself might be the locus of consciousness. These variants offer differing solutions to the central issue in panpsychism: the combination problem, which questions how simple, fundamental consciousnesses combine to form the complex and integrated experiences found in higher beings. We will also explore how different formulations of panpsychism include references to different interpretations of quantum mechanics.

In response to panpsychism’s challenges, alternatives such as idealism and neutral monism offer distinct metaphysical frameworks. Idealism suggests that the universe is fundamentally mental, and that consciousness is the primary constituent of reality, whereas neutral monism seeks a middle ground, proposing that both mind and matter are aspects of a single, more fundamental substance. Both offer solutions to the problems that panpsychism struggles with, although they come with their own set of philosophical challenges.

This talk explores these key aspects of panpsychism, providing a critical overview of its motivations, varieties, and the philosophical debates surrounding it, while also examining the ways in which alternative theories attempt to address the same core issues.

Santtu Heikkinen is a junior researcher in philosophy at the University of Helsinki. His academic work has focused around alternatives to materialist metaphysics, such as panpsychism and idealism. He has written a concise book on panpsychism and its core problems, entitled “Panpsychism and the Combination Problem”.

In addition to his academic work, Santtu has a decade of contemplative practice and has taught especially Buddhist practices and theory since 2020.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 -The Dynamic Universe: a New Holistic World View
2025-08-16 18:00 - 20:30
The Dynamic Universe: a New Holistic World View

with Tuomo Suntola

Saturday August 169:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

The Dynamic Universe (DU) offers an approach to understanding and predicting the natural world by describing three-dimensional space as the ‘surface’ of a 4-dimensional ball (which latter is called 3-sphere). This model provides a dynamic solution to the cosmological development of space and demonstrates that the relativity of observations stems from the overall energy balance in the system. Unlike the kinematics/metrics-based solutions of the theory of relativity, the dynamics-based approach of DU allows the use of time and distance as universal coordinate quantities, essential for human comprehension.

DU’s foundation lies in the conservation law of energy within 3-sphere-space, where the sum of the energies of motion and gravitation is zero. Analogous to a spherical pendulum, mass in space gains its rest energy as the energy of motion against the release of gravitational energy during the contraction phase and returns this energy during the ongoing expansion phase. This presentation elucidates how the Dynamic Universe model simplifies current theoretical structures, aims to align with quantum mechanics, and provides a path toward a coherent and comprehensible scientific worldview without compromising the accuracy of predictions.

Tuomo Suntola, PhD in Electron Physics (1971), has had a far-reaching academic and industrial career, ranging from pioneering theoretical work to successful industrial applications. He is the father of the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology, an enabling technology for the production of nanoscale semiconductor devices. Alongside his industrial research, he sought a holistic view of the physical reality — which crystalized in the mid-1990s into the Dynamic Universe approach. This allows the universe to be studied as a dynamic energy system, with the energies of gravitation and motion in balance.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - Consciousness, Reduction and Quantum Psycho-Physical Laws
2025-08-17 18:00 - 20:30
Consciousness, Reduction and Quantum Psycho-Physical Laws

with Paavo Pylkkänen

Sunday August 179:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

David Chalmers (1996) proposed that because it does not seem likely that consciousness (understood as phenomenal properties) can be reduced to physical properties, it is better to assume that phenomenal properties are fundamental and connected to fundamental physical properties by fundamental psycho-physical laws. While this proposal is interesting there is the problem that it leaves phenomenal properties causally inefficacious, making the view a form of epiphenomenalism. In this talk an alternative approach is explored. This approach borrows from Chalmers the idea that information at least sometimes has both phenomenal and physical properties. It tries to avoid epiphenomenalism by making use of Bohm and Hiley’s ontological or ‘pilot wave’ interpretation of quantum theory where information is fundamental and causally efficacious and can be extended to include mental and conscious states.

Paavo Pylkkänen, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy and Director of the Bachelor’s Program in Philosophy at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is also Associate Professor of Theoretical Philosophy (currently on leave) at the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy, University of Skövde, Sweden, where he initiated a Consciousness Studies Programme. His main research areas are philosophy of mind, philosophy of physics and their intersection. In his book Mind, Matter and the Implicate Order (Springer) he proposed that new notions emerging from quantum physics (especially Bohm and Hiley’s interpretation) provide new ways of approaching key problems in philosophy of mind, such as mental causation and time consciousness. In 2018-2020 working as the Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Arts he had the main responsibility for developing the new profiling area Mind and Matter for the University of Helsinki https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/mind-and-matter.

Paavo Pylkkänen has been a visiting researcher in Stanford University, Oxford University, London University, Charles University Prague and Gothenburg University and was a member of the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in the Philosophy of Social Sciences (TINT). https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/paavo-pylkkänen/publications/

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - Bohm’s philosophy of science in his Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
2025-08-23 18:00 - 20:30
Bohm’s philosophy of science in his Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

with Marja-Liisa Kakkuri-Knuuttila

Saturday August 239:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

The talk investigates David Bohm’s philosophy of science as a form of fallibilist realism that underpins his causal interpretation of quantum mechanics. Bohm’s central aim is to establish the superiority of his interpretation over the standard Copenhagen framework, particularly in contrast to that of Niels Bohr. Whereas Bohr asserts that knowledge of quantum phenomena is restricted to the statistical outcomes of measurement, Bohm’s approach is distinctly realist in orientation. Responding to the challenges posed by Einstein and other physicists, Bohm relies on extra-empirical criteria such as determinism, objectivity and intelligibility.

The talk develops what will be termed the methodology of intuitive intelligibility (‘II’), consisting of four stages: (1) reformulation of the standard quantum equations, (2) physical interpretation of the mathematical symbols, (3) drawing analogies with classical laws, and (4) drawing analogies with common experience. It is argued that Bohm applies the (II) methodology consistently, with the notable exception of the ontological status of the wave function and quantum potential. In attempting to explain causal relations from a 3N-dimensional configuration space (where N is the number of particles) to familiar three-dimensional space through an appeal to ‘information’, Bohm arguably commits a category mistake. A proposed resolution—drawing on Bohm’s own holistic analogies—is supported by the recent multi-field interpretation (Romano 2021).

The term fallibilist realism aptly characterizes Bohm’s stance in the philosophy of science: he repeatedly emphasizes that the causal interpretation is not intended as a final theory. Nevertheless, holism constitutes a substantive ontological commitment that he is unwilling to abandon.

Marja-Liisa Kakkuri-Kuuttila has been professor of Philosophy of Management at the Aalto University Business School. She has taught courses in Philosophy of the Social Sciences and other philosophy courses for business students. She has worked on the dialogue method and philosophy of science in Aristotle and contemporary notions of dialogue. This interest has inspired her recently to investigate methodology and ontology in David Bohm’s and Basil Hiley’s causal interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - Not Even One
2025-08-24 18:00 - 20:30
Not Even One

with William Seager

Sunday August 249:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CEST 2-hour session.

The session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING.

There is a long tradition in thought and mysticism which holds that the world is, somehow, ONE. Here I survey the large variety of monisms to try to understand what the monistic claim really is. Following tradition and thinkers up to and including David Bohm, one supreme form of monism keeps reappearing, which I call ‘strict monism’. Strict monism makes the highly paradoxical claim that all differentiation, diversity, categorization and conceptualization is fundamentally misrepresentingreality. Despite the intuitive implausibility of this position, a number of arguments point in its direction, although – as befits the nature of strict monism – arguments themselves are part of the misrepresentation.

William Seager is Professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He has been working on the the philosophy of mind and especially the problem of consciousness for about 45 years, but still hasn’t gotten very far. Two recent books of his are Theories of Consciousness (2nd ed. 2016) and The Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism (2020).

The Future World – A conversation with David Lorimer
2025-09-02 18:00 - 19:30
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A Conversation between David Lorimer and Àlex Gómez-Marín

Tuesday September 29:00am PDT, 12:00pm EDT, 5:00pm BST, 6:00pm CEST

This event is LIVE and FREE. All registered participants will receive the RECORDING.

David Lorimer, MA, PGCE, FRSA is a visionary polymath, spiritual activist and poet, who is Founder of Character Education Scotland, Global Ambassador of the Scientific and Medical Network (www.scientificandmedical.net) and former President of Wrekin Trust and the

Swedenborg Society. He has also been editor of Paradigm Explorer since 1986. He was the instigator of the Beyond the Brain conference series in 1995(www.beyondthebrain.org) and has co-ordinated the Mystics and Scientists conferences (www.mysticsandscientists.org) every year since the late 1980s.

David is also Chair of the Galileo Commission (www.galileocommission.org) which seeks the widen science beyond a materialistic world view. He hosts a podcast Imaginal Inspirations with key thinkers in consciousness studies. He is a Creative Member of the Club of Budapest, a Member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle.

Originally a merchant banker then a teacher of philosophy and modern languages at Winchester College, he is the author and editor of over a dozen books, including Radical Prince on the ideas and work of the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III). His most recent publications are his essays, A Quest for Wisdom (2021), his collection of poems Better Light a Candle (2022), Spiritual Awakenings (2022, edited with Marjorie Woollacott), The Great Upshift (2023, edited with Ervin Laszlo), and The Playful Universe (2024, edited with Marjorie Woollacott and Gary Schwartz).

David is the originator of the Inspiring Purpose Values Poster Programmes, which has reached over 350,000 young people all over the world, and has edited fifteen magazines and five books in this connection. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Jubilee Centre in the University of Birmingham from 2015-2018 and in 2022 he was appointed an Ambassador of Character Education. See www.inspiringpurpose.org.uk

Bringing Meaning Back to Life
2025-09-02 19:00 - 2025-09-09 17:00 | Pari, Italy
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:

Scholarship Programme

Science, Arts, and the Sacred Series

Bringing Meaning Back to Life

Pari, ItalySeptember 2-9, 2025

25 years at the Pari Center

Science has largely displaced religious accounts of our existence. But it can make both life and death seem virtually meaningless. Religion does not, suggesting there is a necessary opposition between them. We will move beyond that to look at how spiritual traditions, the sciences and the arts provide complementary ways of celebrating life and accepting death as parts of living authentically.

Speakers

Bernard Carr, Ya’Acov Darling-Khan, Jeff Dunne, Suzanne Gieser, Parul Jani, Shoaib Malik, Therese Schroeder-Sheker (virtually), Nick Spencer.List of the presentations.

Chaired and curated by: John Pickering

Ticket Prices

Private AccommodationPrice: 2175.00 euros

Shared Accommodation – Private Room with shared bathroomPrice: 1875.00 euros

Prices include:

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 lectures, activities and materials.

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.

The event starts on Tuesday September 2 at 19:00 and ends after lunch on Tuesday September 9.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the Event

If the time it took for life to evolve on earth were a day, human beings wouldn’t appear until fifty seconds before midnight. Evolutionarily speaking we’re instantaneous.

But in that instant science has achieved a deep understanding of the world and the technology it has made possible has greatly enhanced our lives. So much so that in last few centuries science has replaced religion as the framework for our existence.

But that understanding comes with costs. One is the ecological damage that is the darker side-effect of technology. Another, less apparent but just as damaging, is that with the loss of a religious framework, life, and therefore death as well, may have come to seem virtually meaningless.

C.G. Jung said: ‘Man cannot stand a meaningless life.’ Iain McGilchrist seems to agree: ‘Death is not the opposite of life but its fulfilment. The opposite of life is the machine.’ Like David Bohm and David Peat, McGilchrist rejects the idea that science requires us to conceive of the cosmos, and ourselves, as nothing but mechanisms.

But science is in any case changing, as it always has. Classical mechanistic materialism has been left behind, but quite what is to replace it is unclear. Religion is perhaps less apt to change, but Whitehead said ‘Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.’

We are moving on from the idea that there’s a necessary opposition between science and religion. This year’s meeting in Pari will be part of that move. It will look at how spiritual traditions, the sciences and the arts offer ways to celebrate life and accept death as complementary parts of living authentically.

It will bring together speakers from the sciences, arts, faiths and healing traditions to create an open dialogue and supportive experience in which all can participate. We’ll explore the leading edge of quantum physics, examine the relationship of science to Christianity, Islam and Vedanta. We’ll also hear speakers on how Shamanism, music and ritual have and continue to have a role in facing the end of our lives.

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

Click to see a list of the presentations for this event
The Soul of the Cosmos and the Hierarchy of Life and Deathwith Bernard Carr

Benevolent Death: A Teacher for the Livingwith Ya’Acov Darling-Khan

Syntropy: A Scientific Expression of Purpose in Life and Beyond Deathwith Jeffrey Dunne

Healing the Split: How Can Science and Spirituality Join Forces?with Suzanne Gieser

Beyond: Beyond the Limits of the Mindwith Parul Jani

Daring to Believe and Question: Theological Anthropology in an Age of Sciencewith Shoaib Ahmed Malik

Science, Religion and Human Identitywith Nick Spencer

Dying and Becoming as Meaning and Metamorphosiswith Therese Schroeder-Sheker

Information

Additional information on this program (PDF)

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)

Mind, Matter and Meaning: A Jubileum
2025-10-02 16:00 - 2025-10-06 17:00
Mind, Matter and Meaning: A Jubileum

October 2-6, 2025Pari, Italy

Event Schedule

Thursday, October 2

16:00-16:30 Welcome/Introductions

16:30-19:00 Symposium 1

16:30 Oliver Sharpe: “Portfolism – Reasoning well given the logical limits of rationality”

17:30 Berkan Eskikaya: “Before it’s gone: Fragility as a Precondition for Consciousness, Meaning, and Value”

18:30 General discussion: Reason and Living well

Friday, October 3

09:30-13:00 Symposium 2

09:30 Paavo Pylkkänen: “Bohm’s pilot wave theory and its philosophical implications”

10:30 General discussion: Science and philosophy

11:00 coffee

11:30 Uziel Awret: “Consciousness and the AdS/CFT Duality”

12:30 General discussion: Physics and consciousness

15:00-18:00 Symposium 3

15:00 Vinod Goel: “Biological Constraints on the Rational Mind”

16:00 coffee

16:30 Ron Chrisley: “Creativity as Non-Conceptual Conceptual Change”

17:30 General discussion: Beyond the Rational/Conceptual Mind

Saturday, October 4

09:30-13:00 Symposium 4

09:30 John Polito: “How to perceive BS with AI (It’s not what you’re thinking, it’s what your hearing)”

10:30 Avery Wang: TBA

11:30 coffee

12:00 Barney Pell: TBA

Sunday, October 5

09:30-13:00 Symposium 5

09:30 Yair Pinto: “Conscious comprehension enables non-algorithmic capabilities.”

10:30 Mark Kennedy: TBA

11:30 coffee

12:00 Ron Chrisley: “Adventures in Self-Reference 1: Epistemic Blindspots”

15:00-18:00 Symposium 6

15:00 Ewan Paton: “Must Judges Be Human?”

16:00 coffee

16:30 Brian Keeley: “The weird epistemology of conspiracy theories.”

17:30 General discussion: Reckoning & Judgement

Monday, October 6

09:30-13:00 Symposium 7

09:30 Ron Chrisley: “Adventures in Self-Reference 2: The Situatedness of Computation and Inference”

10:30 TBA (possibly Vinod Goel?)

11:30 coffee

12:00 General discussion: Moving Forward

12:30 Closing

Participants

Uziel Awret

Presentation:

“Consciousness and the AdS/CFT Duality”

In my talk I will try and convince you that were the neural correlates of consciousness shown to be massively entangled then consciousness might be an exotic phase of matter that is constituted similarly to space. Physicists like Juan Maldacena believe that in the not so far future we will be able to use quantum computers to generate AdS spaces with a couple of thousands of properly entangled qubits. These spaces, which are a solution of Einstein’s gravitational equation, are more classical in nature and possess many philosophically relevant properties.

I will begin the talk with methodological issues relevant to any theory of consciousness that appeals to novel physical mechanisms and proceed to motivate my argument. Next I will say a few words on massively entangled systems that harbor interspersed local measuring devices and the new Frontier of quantum complexity. While the physical scenario that I will be entertaining may have little to do with reality (after all it assumes large scale entanglement in the warm brain and embraces a radical interpretation of the holographic duality) it is worth considering because of the many philosophical advantages that it provides, if time permits, I will list more than twenty such philosophical advantages.

Ron Chrisley

Presentations:

I will give some or all of the following talks:

“Creativity as Non-Conceptual Conceptual Change”

Much of our mental life is non-conceptual (roughly, composed of meanings not capturable in words). This poses a challenge for our sciences and technologies of the mind, but also promises several opportunities. The challenge is how to talk and theorize about these otherwise ineffable non-conceptual contents. The opportunities derive from the role that non-conceptuality plays in our mental lives: grounding perception, action on the one hand, and providing the medium for radical learning and creativity on the other. How can the proper recognition and understanding of the role of the non-conceptual inform the design of better AI systems?

(This talk of mine from almost 20 years ago introduces some of the key ideas: https://e-asterisk.blogspot.com/2007/08/interactive-empiricism-philosopher-in_06.html )

“Adventures in Self-Reference 1: Epistemic Blindspots”

“It’s raining, but George doesn’t know it” is an example of an epistemic blindspot for George: it can be true, it can be known (e.g. by Ron), but it is logically impossible for George to know it. Each knower has an unbounded number epistemic blindspots. I show:

(Following Sorensen) how conditional epistemic blindspots can be used to resolve paradoxes (e.g., the paradox of the surprise examination);

How epistemic blindspots can be used to defeat a famous argument against physicalism, Jackson’s Knowledge Argument;

That physical knowledge can be logically private and ineffable knowledge;

That the mere possibility of epistemic blindspots implies that for any knowledge-based system (natural or artificial) to track the truth it must not only check for logical consistency (as is well known), but must also check for what I call epistemic consistency.

(This talk of mine from almost 20 years ago introduces some of the key ideas: https://e-asterisk.blogspot.com/2006/07/epistemic-blindspot-sets-resolution-of.html)

“Adventures in Self-Reference 2: The Situatedness of Computation and Inference”

Computation and inference are both situated in the sense that they occur in a particular context; specifically, there is a particular system carrying out the computation, and a particular subject engaging in the inference at a particular time. The upshot of this is that general accounts of what is and what is not computable, or what inferences are or are not valid, must, contrary to orthodoxy, pay attention to these contextual details. I demonstrate this by showing:

One cannot capture inferential validity purely syntactically: the argument “P; P->Q; Therefore Q” is not, despite conventional wisdom, always valid; to capture validity requires reference to situational aspects, not just syntactic form.

The non-computability of the (non-)Halting Problem by a system is itself dependent on the identity (classification) of that system. One result of this is that the diagonal argument against AI fails.

(This talk of mine from last year introduces some of the key ideas concerning the second point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSBpUOG7UH8)

Berkan Eskikaya

Presentation:

“Before it’s gone: Fragility as a Precondition for Consciousness, Meaning, and Value”

This talk is a speculative exploration of how fragility and vulnerability are not only essential features of living systems, but also serve as a lens through which we can shape our understanding of consciousness, meaning, and value. Edge cases such as mind–body conditions and ephemeral art are used to probe and stress these ideas — for instance, do they point to ways fragility can be turned into appreciation or resilience? The aim is to invite dialogue on how fragility, as a unifying principle, may connect across domains relevant to consciousness, AI, and creativity.

Vinod Goel

Presentation:

“Biological Constraints on the Rational Mind (Discussed in Context of “Us and Them” Phenomenon)”

We are widely considered to be the rational animal. This entails that our volitional behavior is a function of our beliefs, desires, and a principle of coherence which guides our pursuit of the latter in the context of the former. Where human behavior seems less than rational one can appeal to irrationality in the form of various “heuristic” responses.

At least two important assumptions underly the model of rationality: (1) Beliefs (and cognitive desires founded on false suppositions) are considered to be malleable/corrigible allowing for unlimited learning and enormous flexibility in behavior at any tme. (2) The model is self-contained and insulated from lower-level biological systems (for e.g beliefs and desires presumably cannot mingle with low blood sugar level). I want to suggest that both of these assumptions are flawed. They ignore basic biological constraints. In the case of the first assumption, while neural development does allow for local belief revision at any time, revision of large-scale worldviews are rare/impossible after certain neural maturation windows have closed. In the case of the second, if we are to accept the theory of evolution and the past 100 years of neurobiology research we must acknowledge that our system of rationality is built on top of and modulated by evolutionarily older systems such as the autonomic system, reinforcement learning systems, and instincts. There is no Libertarian CEO in charge. The control structure is based on hedonic principles. This leads to a notion of arational (rather than irrational) behavior. Accepting these constraints leads to a model of mind tethered to and constrained by various biological systems and processes and gives us a larger repertoire of tools for explaining teenage daughters, MAGA, Brixet, Ukraine and Gaza. I will discuss these ideas in the context of the “us and them” phenomenon.

Suggested reading:

Both assumptions are discussed in the this manuscript entitled “Us And Them: Insights From Evolution, Neurodevelopment, And The Tethered Mind” which is currently in review. (My apologies for the length of the ms but the reviewers keep asking for more details…. but over half of it is bibliography.)

I have also made a one hour YouTube video for my students about the tethered mind that discusses the problem with the second assumption and my proposed solution. Here is the link:https://youtu.be/zb2Z7P7CCKg

Brian Keeley

Presentation:

“The weird epistemology of conspiracy theories.”

In the late ‘90s, when it looked like nobody wanted to hire a philosopher who studied the neuroscience of electric fish, I wrote a random paper on the philosophy of conspiracy theories (CTs), because almost no one else had. That got published in the Journal of Philosophy, which got me a job. Then 9/11 happened and lots of people became interested in CTs to the point that there’s now a thriving cottage industry in the academic study of this social and epistemic phenomenon. Since this is not a crowd of conspiracy theory theorists, I’ll introduce the topic and explain what topics are currently driving me and others who study the current landscape. Please come prepared to discuss and defend the conspiracy theory you most want to believe.

Suggested reading:

The opening chapter of political scientist, Joe Uscinski’s Conspiracy Theories: A Primer, 2nd edition, 2023, available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17CchevMUC4bBi_OR6zowfeJH5Efk3GwY/view?usp=share_link

Mark Kennedy

TBA

Ewan Paton

Presentation:

“Must Judges Be Human?”

Suggested reading:

“Algorithms and adjudication” – William Lucy (2024) Jurisprudence, 15:3, p251-281

Full article: Algorithms and adjudication

Barney Pell

TBA

Yair Pinto

Presentation:

“Conscious comprehension enables non-algorithmic capabilities.”

In this talk I present an argument against the computational theory of mind. In short, the argument states that human comprehension plus volition enables capabilities that exceed the capabilities of finite algorithmic systems. I will shortly outline how the current argument is similar to the Lucas-Penrose argument. Moreover, an empirical research line is deduced from this argument. The first tasks within this research line have recently been finalized. Performance on these tasks of humans, and of various large language models (Grok, Claude 4, o3, etc.), will be discussed.

Suggested reading: TBA

John Polito

Presentation:

“How to perceive BS with AI. (It’s not what you’re thinking, it’s what your hearing)”

Suggested reading:

Here are a couple quick blurbs that might get everyone closer to the topic than my presentation title (which will be explained!).

https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.FTR1.12042007.6

https://medium.com/@joydesdevises/auditory-perception-understanding-and-applying-its-principles-09c3b2be58b8

Paavo Pylkkänen

Presentation:

“Bohm’s pilot wave theory and its philosophical implications”

Bohm’s pilot wave theory has been one long-term focus of my interaction with Ron, and he has provided valuable criticisms of it over the years. Assuming that many of the other participants are not familiar with the theory, I will first present it. I will then move on to discuss its philosophical implications, hoping to engage in a debate with Ron and others. For philosophers the Bohm theory offers the possibility of a new kind of ‘physicalism’ where information is assumed to be fundamental, leading to the notion that ‘meaning is a key factor of being’. If this is correct, it will be valuable to give more attention to the role that meaning plays both in nature and in our lives individually and socially. I will explain what meaning meant for Bohm and look forward to a lively discussion.

Suggested reading:

Bohm, D. (1990) A new theory of the relationship of mind and matter, Philosophical Psychology, 3:2-3, 271-286, DOI: 10.1080/09515089008573004. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T7_BBDPLIQBOT-VPMU7Qlt7uhRV8KH5Z/view?usp=share_link

Oliver Sharpe

Presentation:

“Portfolism – Reasoning well given the logical limits of rationality”

In the 20th century our rational, calculative tools showed us their own limits, from Russel’s paradoxes of set theory; through Gödel’s incompleteness theorems; to the unresolved tensions between quantum mechanics and general relativity. With Wittgenstein, Derrida and others the limits of language also became clear. For some these conclusions painted a hopeless state of affairs from which the very notion of reasoned progress became an impossibility. Others simply ignored or forgot these limits.

In my talk I’ll explain the route through this tension that I’ve been exploring for the last decade, a framework of ideas I call “portfolism”. It provides a way to understand what we count as good reasoning, while also holding on to the benefits of our rational tools without ignoring the implications of their own limits.

Avery Wang

TBA

An Armchair Guide to Quantum Mechanics
2025-10-28 18:00 - 2025-11-18 20:00
An Armchair Guide to Quantum Mechanics

Presented by Jonathan Allday

A semi-serious approach to one of the most important fundamental theories in physics

10 sessions from October 28 – November 18

7 one-hour lectures and 3 sessions of group conversation and Q&A

9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

All sessions are live and all participants will receive the RECORDING.

What is quantum mechanics?

More than 100 years ago, the founding fathers were faced with a series of experimental results that confounded their understanding regarding the nature of reality. Einstein never forgave Nature for doing this to him. Heisenberg had to run away to an island to figure it out. Pauli ended up going to Jung for analysis.

Gradually, they came to a new understanding—Quantum Mechanics—but in the process, they had to throw away virtually all of the old physical picture of particles colliding and interacting like tiny billiard balls. Instead, we now have shifting probability waves existing in an implicate layer of reality and manifesting in explicate results. Our very language and concepts struggle to cope with expressing in words what is clear mathematically. Bohr had to invent a new form of double-think, complementarity, to try and ride the paradox: Nature expressing herself in both wave and particle forms, within the same experiment.

Why is it important?

Quantum mechanics, and the theories built from its foundations, is our fundamental theory of matter and forces. It underpins everything we understand about the nature of our universe. In the earliest moments of creation, fractions of a second into the Big Bang, quantum theory governed the structure and evolution of our young cosmos. Delicate measurements of the universal ‘heat map’ spread across the sky, reveal aspects of this quantum driven period.

Along with the awe-inspiring beauty and depth of the physics involved, quantum theory also has profound implications for our technology: from computer chips, MRI scans, communications and quantum computers.

Fundamentally, quantum mechanics is the most radical recasting of the nature of reality that we have ever experienced. The world is far stranger, and more supple, than we are led to believe.

Why should people have a basic understanding of QM?

It seems clear that the rigidly materialistic paradigm is crumbling, and we don’t yet know what is going to replace it.

We’re at a delicate time. On the one hand some of our political masters seek to undermine the expertise and results of the scientific community, replacing Truth with Story. On the other, enthusiastic and well-meaning groups working to assemble new paradigm thinking are promoting quantum ideas as a universal panacea for mind, body, spirit and anomalous experience.

Wider groups are trying to ride the turbulent waves and look for some understanding they can hold to. In order to steer between rigid scientism on one side and some of the flakier philosophies on the other, it helps to know a little of what quantum theory is really saying about the world

Who are our audience?

High school students

Retirees looking for new areas of interest or wanting to brush up on the latest thinking and developments

People who enjoy reading popular science books and periodicals

People who experienced poor teaching in their science classes at school and would like to start over in their physics education

People who just enjoy learning

How do these presentations differ from other online QM series?

It’s a no-math introduction—sigh of relief!

In addition to the weekly talk with Q&A there will be a weekly ‘conversation bar’ where participants can discuss the ideas of the week with each other and the course presenter, if available.

There will be no keeping away from philosophical issues—the nature of reality is in question here!

JONATHAN ALLDAY took his first degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, then gained a PhD in particle physics in 1989 at Liverpool University. For a period, he worked at the particle physics research centre, CERN, but not as a cleaner.

For 30 years Jonathan taught physics to high-school students in a range of schools across the UK. In addition, he ran summer schools for the Open University, helped devise new physics curricula and a new course in the history and philosophy of science for 16–18-year-olds. For a period, he was co-editor of Physics Education magazine and has contributed more articles to Physics Review than anyone else in its 35-volume history.

He is an author of science textbooks, has contributed to an encyclopaedia for young scientists, and has written on aspects of the history and philosophy of science.

Sessions

Session 1: Not even wrong…

Tuesday 28th October

The fall of classical physics and the rise of the quantum world.

Amplitudes/wave functions, and the probable outcomes of experiments.

Conversation and Q&A

Thursday 30th October

Session 2: Come on everybody, let’s do the twist…

Saturday 1st November

The mysterious quantum property known as ‘spin’. Particles have it, photons have it, but do we really understand what it is?

Session 3: Spooky action at a distance

Tuesday 4th November

When the left hand implicately knows what the right hand is doing. Einstein’s problem with quantum theory. The work of John Bell and the radical undermining of reductionism.

Conversation and Q&A

Thursday 6th November

Session 4: The Measurement Problem

Saturday 8th November

Is quantum theory a 32 regular or a 36 long? Or more seriously…

Why does anything happen in the quantum world? The astonishing fact is that quantum theory relies on a mysterious process that is not fully understood and is not present in the standard mathematics.

Session 5: Interpretations

Tuesday 11th November

More than 100 years later, we still can’t agree what it means. Some people feel that quantum theory can only be understood in the context of many partially overlapping worlds. Others think that there is an unbridgeable and unknowable divide between the classical and quantum worlds. Most just ‘shut up and calculate.’ We, however, are made of sterner stuff so we ask the question: ‘What does quantum theory tell us about the nature of reality?’

Conversation and Q&A

Thursday 13th November

Session 6: Bohm and Hiley

Saturday 15th November

In which our heroes seek to replace the traditional approach to quantum theory with something more satisfying, from an ontological perspective.

Session 7: Quantum Snake Oil

Tuesday 18th November

Would you buy a used quantum computer from this man? What are quantum computers? Why are they attracting so much funding and have they been over-promised?

Beyond Jung: Jung & Ecology
2025-11-22 17:59 - 2025-12-07 20:30
With Gillian M Brown, Susanna Bucher, Andrew Fellows, Jeffrey T. Kiehl, Orsolya Lukács, Dale Mathers.Curated and chaired by Andrew Fellows.

November 22 – December 7, 2025

6 two-hour sessions

9:00am PST, 12:00pm BST, 5:00pm GMT, 6:00pm CET

All sessions are live, and include Q & A, and all participants will receive the RECORDING.

Beyond Jung: Jung & Ecology

Six Jungian analysts and academics at the cutting edge of this exciting and crucial area of research and practice share their diverse modes of professional engagement.

This is the second set of talks in a new ‘Beyond Jung’ series hosted by the Pari Center, honouring the seminal work and inspiration of the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung. Our title, ‘Jung and Ecology’, refers to the contribution of Jung’s prescient insights, and of his Analytical Psychology in general, to the emerging discipline of ecopsychology. This can be summed up in his famous and alarming assertion that “The world hangs by a thin thread… and that thread is the psyche of man.”

Ecopsychology is a broad church, gaining momentum over recent decades as our awareness of the ecological crisis and our alienation from nature increase. It embraces a range of approaches, from using psychology to address environmental issues to integrating the natural world into psychotherapeutic practice. Our six expert presenters will share their individual approaches across this spectrum, five of them as practising Jungian analysts. Their professional backgrounds, which include ecology, education, climate science and renewable energy, inform and enrich their diverse perspectives.

We look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be a highly topical and engaging series of presentations.

Program of Event

Saturday November 22, 2025Gaia, Psyche and Deep Ecologywith Andrew Fellows PhDSunday November 23, 2025Encountering the Eco-symbolic: A Jungian approach to the discovery of meaningfulness in the other-than-human worldwith Gillian M Brown PhD

Saturday November 29, 2025A Jungian Perspective on Climate Changewith Jeffrey T. Kiehl, PhDSunday November 30, 2025Facing the Ecological Abyss: A Collective Search for Transformationwith Susanna Bucher, Dr. sc. nat. ETH

Saturday December 6, 2025Control, Creation, and the Future of Naturewith Orsolya Lukács PhD

Sunday December 7, 2025 Time and Climate Change with Dale Mathers MD

Beyond Jung - Gaia, Psyche and Deep Ecology
2025-11-22 18:00 - 20:30
Beyond Jung –Gaia, Psyche and Deep Ecology

with Andrew Fellows PhD

Saturday November 22, 20259am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

Beyond Jung 2025, Session 1 of 6

This event is LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

Synergies between Jungian psychology, systems dynamics, Gaia theory, dual-aspect monism and deep ecology can prepare and guide us to counter the existential threat of the Anthropocene. Moreover, Jung’s Stages of Life “cradle-to-grave” developmental theory can be scaled up to show that our entire civilisation is in mid-life crisis, and responding to it with a toxic mix of inertia, nostalgia and hubris. Instead, the essential transition from development to individuation at this point in our personal psychology translates into an urgently needed metanoia away from our collective ecocidal behaviour. The consilience that I establish lays the foundations of a radically different worldview—a fundamental shift from anthropocentric inflation to biocentric holism—with which to address global heating, the sixth mass extinction, and other unprecedented challenges of our time.

Andrew Fellows is a Training Analyst and former Program Director at ISAP Zurich, independent researcher and author, and deep ecologist. He holds a Doctorate in Applied Physics (Dunelm), and has been a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (UK). He enjoyed two decades of international engagement with renewable—especially wind—energy, sustainable development and environmental policy before moving to train as a Jungian Analyst in Zürich in 2001. His passion draws on his expertise from these two very different careers, extending Jungian Psychology to address global social and environmental problems. His first book, Gaia, Psyche and Deep Ecology: Navigating Climate Change in the Anthropocene (Routledge, 2019) was joint winner of the Scientific & Medical Network 2019 Book Prize. He has lectured around this topic to audiences in Europe (including the Pari Center), Asia and the United States. Andrew lives over three thousand feet above sea level in rural Switzerland.

Beyond Jung - Encountering the Eco-symbolic: A Jungian approach to the discovery of meaningfulness in the other-than-human world
2025-11-23 18:00 - 20:30
Beyond Jung – Encountering the Eco-symbolic: A Jungian approach to the discovery of meaningfulness in the other-than-human world

with Gillian M Brown PhD

Sunday November 23, 20259am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

Beyond Jung 2025, Session 2 of 6

This event is LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

As those working in outdoor settings will testify, profound experiences can emerge from the dynamic interaction between an individual and the phenomena of the natural environment. These moments of meaning, where psyche experiences itself reflected in the other-than-human world, can hold profound personal significance, might lead to important therapeutic insight and may even inspire a sense of interconnectedness with the containing ecosystem. To explore how Jung’s concept of the symbol can help us understand such encounters, I follow his thinking from the symbolically constellated and ‘undifferentiated’ worldview of his ‘primitive’ man to the ‘transpsychic reality’ underlying the psyche, as revealed by his researches into synchronicity. With reference to my own experience of working therapeutically in outdoor settings and my recent research into the symbol-like content found in immersive engagement with the natural environment, I consider how a Jungian approach can offer us an effective framework for the ‘eco-symbolic’ and might, ultimately, guide us to discover a more ecosystemically integrated sense of self.

Gillian M Brown is a psychotherapist and nature-based counsellor and educator with a longstanding interest in the field of ecopsychology. She has a PhD from the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex where she researched the application of the Jungian concept of the symbol to meaningful encounters with other-than-human phenomena. Her paper ‘The tree that called my name: on the significance of encountering the constellated symbol in the natural, other-than-human, world’ was published in the Journal of Analytical Psychology’s special edition on our environmental and climate crisis and she is the author of ‘In Nature’s embrace: Emotional emplacement and the search for an ‘eco-symbolic’’, a chapter based on her conference presentation for the C. G. Jung Institute in Switzerland, in Routledge’s 2025 ‘Jungian and interdisciplinary interfaces between emotions individual and collective trauma’. An emeritus member and former Chair of the Cambridge Jungian Circle, Gillian remains active in the organisation and is a co-facilitator of the circle’s ‘Eco-Jung’ discussion group.
