Beyond Bohm 2025, Part 2 - Introduction to Bohm’s physics
2025-08-02 18:00 - 20:30 (Europe/Rome)
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.

Beyond Jung - A Jungian Perspective on Climate Change
2025-11-29 18:00 - 20:30
Beyond Jung – A Jungian Perspective on Climate Change

with Jeffrey T. Kiehl, PhD

Saturday November 29, 20259am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

Beyond Jung 2025, Session 3 of 6

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

“Nobody can afford to look around and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself. But since nobody seems to know what to do, it might be worthwhile for each of us to ask himself whether by any chance his or her unconscious may know something that will help us.” C.G. Jung (CW 18, par. 599)

Human caused climate change has placed life on the planet in a precarious state. It is imperative we address this situation as soon as possible for the longer we wait, the more we commit future generations to catastrophic disruption. Jungian psychology provides a unique means to understand the problem of climate change for it recognizes the importance of the unconscious in our lives. In this presentation, I explore how the dynamics of unconscious processes relate to climate change and how these processes provide pathways to addressing the problem. I consider current myths that lie at the root of our collective dissociation from Earth and how these myths relate to cultural complexes. The presentation concludes with a discussion of how to reconnect to the sacredness of Earth, which is essential to address the issue of climate change.

Jeffrey Kiehl, PhD, is a Diplomate Jungian Analyst and senior training analyst for the C.G. Jung Institute of Colorado and the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He originally trained in quantum physics before becoming a climate scientist. He has held faculty positions at a number of universities, most recently at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Pacifica Graduate Institute, where he taught courses on ecopsychology. He is the author of Facing Climate Change: An Integrated Path to the Future, which provides a Jungian perspective on climate change. His most recent articles include: A Tale of Two Cultures: Climate Change & American Complexes in Cultural Complexes and the Soul of America: Myth, Psyche and Politics; Mandala as Portal to Healing in ARAS Connections; Engaging the Green Man: Breaking Our Spell of Enchantment in Depth Psychology and Climate Change; and The Nature of Uncertainty/The Uncertainty of Nature in Our Uncertain World: Challenges and Opportunities in a Dark Time. Jeffrey lives in Boulder, CO.

Beyond Jung - Facing the Ecological Abyss: A Collective Search for Transformation
2025-11-30 18:00 - 20:30
Beyond Jung – Facing the Ecological Abyss: A Collective Search for Transformation

with Susanna Bucher, Dr. sc. nat. ETH

Sunday November 30, 20259am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

Beyond Jung 2025, Session 4 of 6

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

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “A Descent into the Maelström” (1841), three fishermen are trapped in a gigantic ocean whirlpool threatening to destroy them. This strikes me as an image of the abyss humankind is facing today, threatened by a multi-dimensional ecological crisis in a world dominated by a one-sidedly materialistic collective consciousness that has lost its spiritual foundation, as Carl Gustav Jung characterized it. Symbolically, Poe’s story tells us that psychic transformation of the collective can be achieved by letting go of the old and embracing the new and unknown. Building on Erich Neumann and Dorothee Sölle, I examine approaches toward a felt connection with something larger, infinite, all-encompassing, or with nature. This can provide impulses for a more mystical relationship with our inner and outer nature, rooted in the Self and oriented to the world.

Susanna Bucher, Dr. sc. nat. ETH is an environmental scientist holding a doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich. She also holds a diploma in analytical psychology, is teaching at the International School of Analytical Psychology (ISAPZURICH) and elsewhere, and has a private practice in Zürich. She wrote two articles on the ecological crisis from the perspective of Jungian psychology in the Journal of Analytical Psychology in November 2022. Her interests include ecology, nature, and mysticism.

Beyond Jung - Control, Creation, and the Future of Nature
2025-12-06 18:00 - 20:30
Beyond Jung – Control, Creation, and the Future of Nature

with Orsolya Lukács PhD

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

Beyond Jung 2025, Session 5 of 6

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

The phenomena of climate change and the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence reveal a defining feature of humanity: the aspiration to control, reshape, and surpass the natural world. At the heart of both lies a mode of creativity and god-like ambition that seeks mastery over nature and the power to create new, autonomous entities. Originating as a human-made being shaped from earth and animated through sacred knowledge, the image of the Golem serves as a powerful metaphor for this impulse. It is interpreted here as a symbolic expression of the desire not only to dominate the natural world, but also to transcend it through technological means.

This mode of human creativity, driven by the urge to control rather than to participate in the natural order, often overlooks the profound interdependence between human systems and ecological stability. Its consequences are increasingly evident in the accelerating disruption of the climate and in the development of autonomous technologies that affect our lives in far-reaching ways. This talk uses the Golem myth as a symbolic framework to examine the ethical and psychological tensions inherent in acts of creation, the limits of control, and the urgent need to reconsider humanity’s relationship with both the natural world and technological innovation.

Dr Orsolya Lukács is a Lecturer of Psychoanalytic Studies and the Director of Education for the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex. Her primary academic interests lie in the interdisciplinary nature of analytical psychology, particularly its intersections with physics, its applications to emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, and its relevance to critical societal issues like climate change. She is also deeply interested in the history of analytical psychology and the role of talking therapies in shaping and driving societal change and is drawn to explorations of time, the interplay between mind and matter, intuition, imagination, creativity, theories of consciousness, virtual realities, and the evolving concept of the Self. Her upcoming book, C. G. Jung and Albert Einstein: Analytical Psychology, Relativity and the Universe will be published by Routledge. She has also contributed a chapter, entitled ‘Jung, Ecopsychology and Climate Change’ to the forthcoming The Second Handbook of Jungian Psychology, edited by Renos Papadopoulos and Stephen Garratt, and to be published by Routledge.

Beyond Jung - Time and Climate Change
2025-12-07 18:00 - 20:30
Beyond Jung – Time and Climate Change

with Dale Mathers MD

Sunday December 7, 20259am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

Beyond Jung 2025, Session 6 of 6

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

In this presentation I will look at how hard it is to comprehend the problem of climate change due to our natural, human problem with perceiving time. We can’t know those three generations behind or in front – so we can’t take in the effect our actions have on future generations. This links to the fractal nature of time, and to how hard it is to submerge our own sense of self into the complex emergent system which is the collective unconscious.

Dr. Dale Mathers is a retired psychiatrist, humanistic psychotherapist, and analytical psychologist. He was a Training Analyst and Supervisor with AJA and RSAP. He has taught in the UK, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and China. He has authored and edited several books. The latest is ‘Dreams: the Basics’. (Routledge 2024). His approach involves exploring symbols of transformation, aiming to foster a deeper understanding and response to the challenges of Climate Change.

Experiencing Consciousness: Inner Knowing Through Art
2026-01-04 19:00 - 20:00
International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) and The Pari Center present:

Experiencing Consciousness: Inner Knowing Through Art

with Jeff Dunne

Sunday January 4, 202610:00AM PST | 1:00PM EST | 6:00PM GMT | 7:00PM CET

This event is restricted to 40 participants. There will be no recording.

The inaugural session of the Experiencing Consciousness event series is a roughly one-hour workshop led by ICRL’s president, Jeff Dunne. We will start with a brief, guided meditation and then transition into a series of artistic exercises that use simple drawings and short writings in response to individualized prompts that are randomly (or perhaps not-so-randomly!) generated. The activities are designed to bypass the intellect and allow each person to tap into their inner wisdom to answer perhaps what they thought they wanted to know, but undoubtedly what they needed to hear. At the end, participants will have the opportunity – if they wish – to share their insights with another participant one-on-one, and/or with the whole group.

No background in art is required for this workshop, only an interest in trying something different in a safe, welcoming online group setting.

Experiencing Consciousness

Register now to reserve your place!

As you will see in the registration form, there are three options for registering. The normal ticket price is $15 for the session. There is also a free option for students and others who cannot afford this registration fee, and this is possible thanks to the incredible generosity of Neal Grossman, who has provided a scholarship fund to ensure that money never stands in the way of people expanding their horizons. Lastly, if you are like Neal and are motivated to contribute a little more to help others, there is also a Supporting Angel ticket for $30 that will make another free ticket available for future participants!

Note: We use a service called Zeffy to handle registrations because it eliminates credit card fees. However, the system defaults to including a 17.5% donation to Zeffy at the same time. That fee is not required and can be easily eliminated or adjusted by simply selecting ‘Other’ in that section.

You will also have the option to include an additional donation on top of the ticket price. Despite what it says on the form (which, alas, cannot be changed), any additional donations are divided equally between the Pari Center and ICRL.

Experiencing Consciousness: Remote Viewing
2026-02-15 19:00 - 21:30
International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) and The Pari Center present:

Experiencing Consciousness: Remote Viewing

with David Harker

Sunday February 15, 202610:00AM PST | 1:00PM EST | 6:00PM GMT | 7:00PM CET

This event is restricted to 40 participants. There will be no recording.

In this session you will do remote viewing. You might have read about it, but as is the point of the Exploring Consciousness series, there’s no substitute for first-hand experience. If you’re curious to explore this natural ability that everyone has, this is a great opportunity to learn by doing in an informal group workshop.

The session is for beginners, including people who don’t think they are psychic! All you need is some plain paper, a pen and an open mind. Come along and give it a go — you might well be surprised to discover just what your mind is capable of.

David Harker is a remote viewer, trainer, mentor, mystic and magickian. He hosts The Psychic Guys podcast, is a founder of the Second House RV Group (who regularly predict the future), and moderates the largest online community of remote viewers. He’s particularly interested in the overlap between remote viewing and esoteric spiritual traditions and how remote viewing can serve as an adjunct to spiritual practice. He has a background in archaeology, software engineering and life sciences. David lives in North Yorkshire, UK. Learn more about David at Intuitive Ops.

No background or prior experience with remote viewing is required to participate, only an interest in trying your mind at a new way of perceiving the universe.

Experiencing Consciousness

Register now to reserve your place!

As you will see in the registration form, there are three options for registering. The normal ticket price is $15 for the session. There is also a free option for students and others who cannot afford this registration fee, and this is possible thanks to the incredible generosity of Neal Grossman, who has provided a scholarship fund to ensure that money never stands in the way of people expanding their horizons. Lastly, if you are like Neal and are motivated to contribute a little more to help others, there is also a Supporting Angel ticket for $30 that will make another free ticket available for future participants!

Note: We use a service called Zeffy to handle registrations because it eliminates credit card fees. However, the system defaults to including a 17.5% donation to Zeffy at the same time. That fee is not required and can be easily eliminated or adjusted by simply selecting ‘Other’ in that section.

You will also have the option to include an additional donation on top of the ticket price. Despite what it says on the form (which, alas, cannot be changed), any additional donations are divided equally between the Pari Center and ICRL.

Fringe Physics
2026-03-07 17:59 - 2026-03-22 21:00
March 7 – 22, 20266 two-hour sessions

10am PDT/1pm EDT/5pm GMT/6pm CET

With Jonathan Allday, Bernard Carr, Jeff Dunne, Gwyneth Moss, Dean Radin.Curated and Chaired by Jonathan Allday.

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

A webinar series discussing topics at the edge of conventional physics.

Physics has something to say about reality. It would not have survived as an approach to the world for so many centuries if that wasn’t the case. Yet we have to be careful. Physics has bought its success by narrowing its focus and developing a specific approach. We shouldn’t think of it as a ‘catch-all,’ capable of accounting for everything that we experience.

That’s a hard lesson for a physicist to learn.

It may even be an aspect of the ‘ontological shock’ that Jeff Kripal warns us about in the context of anomalous phenomena. It certainly seems that there’s a ‘trickster’ element in everything from UAPs, NDEs and other weird acronym-experiences. The phenomenon seems to be deliberately defying explanation.

Perhaps it’s time to push back.

Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how physics can be extended to accommodate (not ‘explain away’) stranger aspects of the world. It’s possible that physics it not equipped to do this, but also possible that an extended and revised physics might help people integrate their experiences.

In this series of talks, we’ll take on some of these topics.

Program of Event

Saturday March 7Mind and Multiverse: Part 1Jonathan Allday and Bernard Carr in conversation about the Multiverse

Sunday March 8Mind and Multiverse; Part 2Jonathan Allday and Bernard Carr in conversation about Mind

Saturday March 14 Experimental Tests of the Consciousness: Collapse HypothesisWith Dean Radin

Sunday March 15 The Emergent Physical Universe: The Psychology of Subatomic ParticlesWith Jeff Dunne

Sarturday March 21The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Physics of QiWith Gwyneth Moss

Sunday March 22Beyond the PaleWith Jonathan Allday

Fringe Physics - Mind and Multiverse (Session 1 and 2 of 6)
2026-03-07 18:00 - 2026-03-08 21:00
Mind and Multiverse

Fringe Physics, Session 1 and 2 of 6

With Jonathan Allday and Bernard Carr.

Saturday and Sunday March 7-8, 202610am PDT / 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

These events are LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

Up to around the 1970s, cosmology was not a subject that a well-brought up young physicist would get involved with. It was dangerously close to philosophy, and worse, theology. Now, cosmology is not only a respected branch of science, it’s one of the fastest growing. However, it’s also an area where some of the ideas involved (speculative to be sure) are the weirdest. The community accepts conversations about higher dimensions, parallel worlds, and a multiverse.

This topic is split into two parts:

Saturday March 7, 2026Mind and Multiverse – A conversation between Bernard Carr and Jonathan Allday

We will discuss the evidence for the Big Bang and various topics to do with the Multiverse.

Sunday March 8, 2026Mind and Multiverse – A conversation between Bernard Carr and Jonathan Allday

In this conversation we’ll venture into higher dimensions and where Bernard sees mind fitting in to an expanded physics.

Jonathan Allday is a retired teacher with 30+ years’ experience teaching physics working in a range of boarding and day schools in the UK. He was a head of department, head of faculty and an academic Deputy Head. His last post had the gloriously pompous title ‘Director of Digital Strategy,’ although this did not make the IT work any better for him.

After attending the Liverpool Blue Coat School, he took his first degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, then in 1989 a PhD in experimental particle physics at Liverpool University. During that time, he found one of David Peat’s books in the University Bookstore. Discovering that David was also a Liverpudlian fostered Jonathan’s ambition to write about physics.

Shortly after his PhD, Jonathan started work on his first book Quarks Leptons and the Big Bang, now published by Taylor & Francis and available in its third edition. It has been in print for over 25 years.

Since then, he has also written Apollo in Perspective, Quantum Reality (now in its second edition), Space-time, and Introduction to Entropy: The Way of the World, written with an old school friend, Professor Simon Hands. In addition, Jonathan is co-authoring a successful textbook (Advanced Physics) and a volume in the Oxford Encyclopaedia for Young Scientists. Most recently, Jonathan contributed to the updated edition of the Looking-Glass Universe by F. David Peat and John Briggs.

In various other projects, Jonathan has produced articles and teaching materials on the philosophy of science and the interface between science and religion. He has contributed to Physics Review magazine and has been an editor of Physics Education.

During COVID, Jonathan started researching what the Pari Center was up to and made his first trip to Italy for the ‘Enchanted Universe’ conference in 2022. Since then, he has adopted Pari as a spiritual home. His physical home is with his wife Carolyn in Worcestershire. They have three grown boys, one of whom actually did a degree in physics at Bristol University, (not a bad strike rate…) and is now a software engineer. The others read psychology and philosophy and fell to the dark side and became accountants. All of them can do sport, which Jonathan can’t but his wife could (very well).

In January 2026, Jonathan became Director of the Pari Center.

Bernard Carr is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. His professional area of research is cosmology and astrophysics and includes such topics as the early universe, dark matter, black holes and the anthropic principle. For his PhD he studied the first second of the Universe, working under the supervision of Stephen Hawking at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology. He was elected to a Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1975 and moved to Queen Mary College in 1985. He has also held Visiting Professorships at Kyoto University, Tokyo University, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics.

He is the author of nearly three hundred scientific papers and the books Universe or Multiverse? and Quantum Black Holes.

Beyond his professional field, he is interested in the role of consciousness in physics and in an expanded paradigm which accommodates mind. He also has a long-standing interest in the relationship between science and religion. He was President of the Society for Psychical Research in 2000-2004 and is currently President of the Scientific and Medical Network.

Fringe Physics - Experimental Tests of the Consciousness: Collapse Hypothesis (Session 3 of 6)
2026-03-14 18:00 - 20:30
Experimental Tests of the Consciousness: Collapse Hypothesis

Fringe Physics, Session 3 of 6

With Dean Radin.

Saturday, March 14, 202610am PDT / 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

These events are LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

The role of observation in quantum mechanics remains one of the most persistent and intriguing open questions in science. From the earliest formulations of quantum theory, it was clear that measurement plays a special role, yet precisely what that role entails is still debated. Among the more provocative responses to this puzzle is the proposal, associated with von Neumann and others, that conscious observation itself contributes to the collapse of the quantum wave function. While this idea has long occupied a marginal position within physics, it continues to attract interest at the intersection of quantum theory, philosophy of mind, and consciousness studies.

The title Fringe Physics is intended in a double sense. It reflects both the unconventional status of the consciousness-collapse hypothesis and the fact that many of the relevant experiments involve interference fringes in quantum-optical systems. In this talk, I review known experimental efforts that have explicitly or implicitly tested observer-dependent collapse, including optical double-slit studies. Although the range of experiments differ widely in methods and interpretations, they collectively form a small but coherent body of empirical work that has not been widely known outside specialized communities.

A central aim of the talk is to clarify distinctions that are often blurred in discussions of this topic. One is the difference between the strong claim that consciousness is necessary for wave-function collapse and the weaker claim that conscious observation may, under certain conditions, measurably influence quantum outcomes. Another is the distinction between establishing the existence of a small observer-dependent effect versus demonstrating practical or technological significance. The experimental literature bears only on these weaker claims, yet the evidence is frequently criticized as if it were advancing the strongest possible versions of the hypothesis.

I will also discuss a recent analysis by Chalmers and McQueen, who examined consciousness-based collapse models from the perspective of both philosophy of mind and quantum theory. They argue that while simple versions of the consciousness-collapse hypothesis are unlikely to be correct, more sophisticated formulations remain empirically open and, in principle, testable. Their work provides a useful framework for assessing whether such proposals should be regarded as legitimate scientific hypotheses rather than as purely metaphysical speculation.

The talk concludes with cautious, provisional conclusions. I do not claim that the consciousness-collapse hypothesis has been established, nor that it provides a superior solution to the measurement problem. Rather, I suggest that the existing experimental record, though limited, is sufficiently structured to justify continued, careful investigation. At minimum, these studies serve as informative probes of our assumptions about measurement, observation, and the relationship between consciousness and the physical world. Whether they ultimately point toward new physics or help refine existing theories, they occupy a scientifically legitimate, and still unresolved, fringe.

Dean Radin is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Associated Distinguished Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and cofounder and chairman of the neuroengineering company, Cognigenics. He earned a BS and MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 2022 he was awarded an Honorary DSc from the Swami Vivekananda University in Bangalore, India.Before joining the IONS research staff in 2001, Radin worked at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, and SRI International. He has given over 830 talks and interviews worldwide, is co-inventor on 12 patents, and is author or coauthor of 350+ scientific and popular articles, book chapters, and five books, all of which have been translated into foreign languages, 15 so far: The Conscious Universe(1997), Entangled Minds (2006), Supernormal (2013), Real Magic (2018), and The Science of Magic (2025).

Fringe Physics - The Emergent Physical Universe: The Psychology of Subatomic Particles (Session 4 of 6)
2026-03-15 18:00 - 20:30
The Emergent Physical Universe: The Psychology of Subatomic Particles

Fringe Physics, Session 4 of 6

With Jeff Dunne

Sunday, March 15, 202610am PDT / 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

These events are LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

The world according to classical physics was a gentle cage, for it allowed (perhaps even encouraged) us to revel in the idea of an objective universe, i.e. a universe having form and structure with no dependence on us as observers. Then came the fathers of modern physics and quantum mechanics, who royally screwed everything up. These inglorious bastards forced us to consider that consciousness itself might be playing a role in the structure of reality, a completely unheard-of concept except for the tens of thousands of years that people had held that belief prior to the rise and subsequent dominance of the western scientific worldview.

In this session we will explore the possibility that the external, so-called “objective” world has the form it has not as an absolute and neither by accident, but because that form is a construct of consciousness. We will contemplate the implications that arise from the idea that the laws of physics are not an external prison that dictates our lives, but rather a natural expression of humanity’s consensus agreement on how to express our experiences—to others and to ourselves. We will examine the as-above-so-below parallels between what we see in the universe and what we see in ourselves, and entertain the possibility that the laws of physics are really just an expression of our own psychology.

And we’ll have cake – but you have to bring your own because, you know, we’re meeting online.

Dr. Jeffrey Dunne is the President of the International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL), a charitable research organization established in the late 1990’s to build upon the foundation established by the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Laboratory. In this role, Dr. Dunne runs a variety of research and outreach activities focused on exploring the nature of consciousness, particularly as it relates to space, time, and language, as well as events for sharing such understanding with people from all backgrounds.

In addition to his role with ICRL, Jeff is a researcher and Chief Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University, working over the past thirty years in a variety of fields ranging from acoustics and cybersecurity to data science and artificial intelligence. He is also an award-winning author and playwright, with nearly two hundred plays performed over four continents. In his 2023 novel, Nexus, Jeff unites three decades of scientific experience with four decades of pursuits in philosophy and metaphysics to weave a story introducing the scientific principle of syntropy and its importance in finding balance at every scale – personal, societal, and global.

Dr. Dunne holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, as well as a M.S. and Ph.D. in Experimental Physics.

Fringe Physics - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Physics of Qi (Session 5 of 6)
2026-03-21 18:00 - 20:30
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Physics of Qi

Fringe Physics, Session 5 of 6

With Gwyneth Moss

Saturday, March 21, 202610am PDT / 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

These events are LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

A Hitchhiker’s Guide is written from observations, experiences and conversations and intended as helpful advice for fellow travellers. This journey begins with experiences that make no conventional sense and evolves into a quest that explores both modern physics, particularly the work of David Bohm, and the ancient metaphysics of the Dao de Jing, seeking to bridge the divide between two tribes that both use the word energy with completely different meaning.

Gwyneth Moss grew up steeped in materialist science: raised by research chemists she followed a Cambridge Physics degree with worldwide experience as an oil exploration seismologist, project manager in smart card cryptography and organisational consultant. At the age of forty she ran away from the corporate world and now has twenty five years of experience as a Meridian Energy Psychology therapist. She is recognised internationally as an innovator and an expert practitioner and trainer of EFT Tapping. She is the founder of The EFT Guild community of learning.

Gwyneth lives in Yorkshire and enjoys walking, talking, thinking and drinking.

Fringe Physics - Beyond the Pale (Session 6 of 6)
2026-03-22 18:00 - 20:30
Beyond the Pale

Fringe Physics, Session 6 of 6

With Jonathan Allday

Sunday, March 22, 202610am PDT / 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET

These events are LIVE. All participants will receive the RECORDING.

Stored in the cathedral of Turin is a strip of linen cloth. On one side of the material is the faint image of a crucified male. Contextually, it appears to be a rendering of Christ after being taken down from the cross. Carbon dating of a sample taken from the cloth places it as medieval in origin. Its documented provenance also fades away in that era. Yet, it’s remarkably difficult to explain how an image of that nature was formed. There is also good scientific reasons to be doubtful of the carbon date.

In this talk we’ll examine the image characteristics, identifying the key features that must be accounted for in any explanation of how it was formed. We will also take a look at the raw data from the carbon tests and discuss some of the curious anomalies that were revealed when the information was finally released.

Jonathan Allday is a retired teacher with 30+ years’ experience teaching physics working in a range of boarding and day schools in the UK. He was a head of department, head of faculty and an academic Deputy Head. His last post had the gloriously pompous title ‘Director of Digital Strategy,’ although this did not make the IT work any better for him.

After attending the Liverpool Blue Coat School, he took his first degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, then in 1989 a PhD in experimental particle physics at Liverpool University. During that time, he found one of David Peat’s books in the University Bookstore. Discovering that David was also a Liverpudlian fostered Jonathan’s ambition to write about physics.

Shortly after his PhD, Jonathan started work on his first book Quarks Leptons and the Big Bang, now published by Taylor & Francis and available in its third edition. It has been in print for over 25 years.

Since then, he has also written Apollo in Perspective, Quantum Reality (now in its second edition), Space-time, and Introduction to Entropy: The Way of the World, written with an old school friend, Professor Simon Hands. In addition, Jonathan is co-authoring a successful textbook (Advanced Physics) and a volume in the Oxford Encyclopaedia for Young Scientists. Most recently, Jonathan contributed to the updated edition of the Looking-Glass Universe by F. David Peat and John Briggs.

In various other projects, Jonathan has produced articles and teaching materials on the philosophy of science and the interface between science and religion. He has contributed to Physics Review magazine and has been an editor of Physics Education.

During COVID, Jonathan started researching what the Pari Center was up to and made his first trip to Italy for the ‘Enchanted Universe’ conference in 2022. Since then, he has adopted Pari as a spiritual home. His physical home is with his wife Carolyn in Worcestershire. They have three grown boys, one of whom actually did a degree in physics at Bristol University, (not a bad strike rate…) and is now a software engineer. The others read psychology and philosophy and fell to the dark side and became accountants. All of them can do sport, which Jonathan can’t but his wife could (very well).

In January 2026, Jonathan became Director of the Pari Center.

An Armchair Guide to Jung and God
2026-04-10 08:00 - 2026-04-29 17:00
The Armchair Guide to Jung and God

Presented by Mark Vernon

What did Carl Jung really think about God, religion, and the inner life?

In this thought-provoking 9-session course, Mark Vernon brings Jung’s most powerful ideas to life—exploring the unconscious, symbols, synchronicity, and spiritual experience in a way that’s accessible, challenging, and deeply relevant to modern seekers.

Course Format

The course includes 9 sessions:

6 one-hour recorded lectures

3 live group conversation and Q&A sessions

Beginning April 10, two recorded lectures will be released each week for you to view at your own pace. These talks provide the foundation for deeper reflection and discussion.

The weekly live group conversations are an opportunity to:

Reflect on the week’s two lectures

Ask questions

Explore your own responses and insights

Learn from the perspectives of others

Live Group Conversation Dates:

Wednesdays: April 15, 22, 2910am PDT/1pm EDT/6pm BST/7pm CEST

Carl Jung was born in 1875, just over 150 years ago. His impact upon psychology is immense, with notions such as extroversion and introversion, archetypes and synchronicities. But what lies at the heart of his psychology and how compatible is it with theistic convictions?

The course will examine the fundamentals of Jung’s depth psychology, paying particular attention to its significance for religious belief. Jung felt that psychoanalysis had emerged to fill a vacuum in the western world, with churches losing the ability to address the pressing issues of inner life.

Why is this important?

He endured a substantial crisis in the earlier part of his life, known now in his so-called Red Book, in which he describes encounters with various entities and the zeitgeist. He strove to bring the insights he gained to the wider world, in various phases of work, including personality types and alchemical concepts. He also engaged with other thinkers such as Nietzsche and Darwin and, of course, Freud.

In other words, Jung wanted to make a difference and, by any measure, he has. But his ideas about religion, and Christianity in particular, are contested. Towards the end of his life, he described not believing in God but knowing of God’s existence. He also disagreed with the classical conception of God held in traditions including the Christian. So what can be made of his work now?

Who Is This Series For?

This course will appeal to:

Students and practitioners of psychotherapy and depth psychology

Religious professionals interested in psychological flourishing and how Jung might inform their work.

Those considering psychotherapy or spiritual direction as a second career

People who enjoy reading about spirituality and have a spiritual practice

Anyone who enjoys reflecting on religious questions and the inner life

How will this presentation differ?

Assuming no prior knowledge, this course will return to basics, which is, in fact, the best way to make an assessment of Jung’s insights. There will be plenty of opportunity for QnA and discussion.

Lecture Titles

Lecture 1A Call From The UnconsciousAn outline of Jung’s life and how he came to see his vocation.

Lecture 2After The Split With FreudJung’s own analytical psychology in outline.

Lecture 3The Spiritual Problem of TodayHow Jung understood psychotherapy to be a response to a modern crisis.

Lecture 4The Failure of ReligionJung had a sharp critique of the failures of Christianity.

Lecture 5The Fabric of RealityPhenomena like synchronicities suggested a complete metaphysic to Jung.

Lecture 6Jung and GodAn exploration of Jung’s theology: its genius and constraints.

Dr Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist, teacher, podcaster and writer of journalistic articles as well as books. He has a PhD in ancient Greek philosophy, and degrees in theology and physics. His books include Carl Jung: How To Believe, A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling and the Evolution of Consciousness; Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey and most recently Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination.

He teaches with a variety of informal adult education projects, both online and in-person, covering the mystical traditions of theistic traditions and the interface between science and religion. He was recently Philosophy in Residence at Broughton Sanctuary and is a contributor to the BBC, particularly on programmes such as the Moral Maze and Thought for the Day. He has a regular column in the Idler magazine and is also a director of the Realisation Festival, a gathering that brings together ideas and music to resource the soul for our times. He used to be a priest in the Church of England and lives in south London. For more see www.markvernon.com

Experiencing Consciousness: Storytelling and Consciousness
2026-04-12 19:00 - 20:30
International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) and The Pari Center present:

Experiencing Consciousness: Storytelling and Consciousness

with Robin Rice

Sunday April 12, 202610:00AM PDT | 1:00PM EDT | 6:00PM BST | 7:00PM CEST

This event is restricted to 40 participants. There will be no recording.

How we tell our stories – to ourselves and others – shapes our lives and defines the boundaries of our world. To fully explore consciousness, we must examine the stories that hold us. Join Robin Rice, Master Storyteller and Alchemist, as she guides you through deconstructing three of your personal life stories to see what they hide and reveal. You’ll then practice a “cleaner” and more integrated storytelling process. You will also learn how consciousness itself can be invited to become a character in your narrative. Expect a lifting of old burdens and a revitalization of your stories going forward.

No background in storytelling or writing in general is required for this workshop, only an interest in trying something different in a safe, welcoming online group setting.

Robin Rice is an AGI Strategist, serving as a trusted partner to C-suite leaders navigating the ethical frontiers of emerging technologies. Bridging the gap between code and consciousness, she helps her clients align their efforts with the betterment of humanity. She is the author of 11 books and a Story Strategist behind multiple high-profile bestsellers. Her interest in conscious narrative is largely due to her 28 years of personal inquiry into the “hard problem” of consciousness—a journey sparked by a profound personal awakening at age 35. Her latest project, the audiobook Stories About Stories with Robin Rice, explores these intersections and is available for free on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Learn more at RobinRice.com.

Experiencing Consciousness: Storytelling and Consciousness on ICRL website

Spaces are limited – Register now to reserve your spot!

As you will see in the registration form, there are three options for registering. The normal ticket price is $15 for the session. There is also a free option for students and others who cannot afford this registration fee, and this is possible thanks to the incredible generosity of Neal Grossman, who has provided a scholarship fund to ensure that money never stands in the way of people expanding their horizons. Lastly, if you are like Neal and are motivated to contribute a little more to help others, there is also a Supporting Angel ticket for $30 that will make another free ticket available for future participants.

Note: Please do not sign up for the free slots if you are not a student or financially disadvantaged, as you are taking away an opportunity from someone who really needs it.

Note: We use a service called Zeffy to handle registrations because it eliminates credit card fees. However, the system defaults to including a 17.5% donation to Zeffy at the same time. That fee is not required and can be easily eliminated or adjusted by simply selecting ‘Other’ in that section.

You will also have the option to include an additional donation on top of the ticket price. Despite what it says on the form (which, alas, cannot be changed), any additional donations are divided equally between the Pari Center and ICRL.

Experiencing Consciousness: Metaphor and Consciousness
2026-05-03 19:00 - 20:30
International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) and The Pari Center present:

Experiencing Consciousness: Metaphor and Consciousness

with Jessica Ball

Sunday, May 3, 202610:00AM PDT | 1:00PM EDT | 6:00PM BST | 7:00PM CEST

There will be no recording.

Many people overlook the deeply metaphorical nature of our language, thought, and action. Metaphor can help us access deeper levels of consciousness, connecting to more universal and creative aspects of what it means to be human and revealing the interrelationships with each other and the world around us. This creative workshop will guide participants through a series of Clean Language* questions to facilitate an imaginative process that will allow each person to create (by drawing, annotating and speaking in response to the questions) a personal metaphor, grounded in their own physical, cultural and creative experience. The starting point will be to imagine a vessel, as an invitation to connect to individual and shared meaning and experience of what it means to be in participatory and reciprocal relationship with other humans and the more-than-human world.

*Clean Language is a method of questioning that removes all assumptions and biases from the questioner. Through a set of 12 simple questions, it draws on the power of metaphor to allow people to develop meaning and clarity that can support them to bring about personal or group change. Jessica Ball is an experienced facilitator with over a decade of expertise in Bohm Dialogue. The principles of a dialogue practice provide a grounding in all aspects of her facilitation work. As founder of Creating Meaning, she works with purpose-led organisations, supporting them to navigate complexity and change and strengthen the human skills that make transformation possible. Alongside her facilitation work she is researching a PhD in ecolinguistics and regenerative language. Enriched by her background in art and design, Jessica weaves theory and practice to create meaningful and creative dialogues and workshops that aim to transform how people communicate and relate to themselves, each other and the world around them.

As you will see in the registration form, there are two options for registering. However, thanks to the generosity of Neal Grossman, we are able to offer reduced (or even free) registrations to ensure that money never stands in the way of people expanding their horizons. If you are like Neal and are motivated to contribute a little more to help others, please selected the Supporting Angel ticket to make another free ticket available for future participants.

If you would like to receive a free or discounted registration, please just get in touch! eleanor@paricenter.com

Note: We use a service called Zeffy to handle registrations because it eliminates credit card fees. However, the system defaults to including a 17.5% donation to Zeffy at the same time. That fee is not required and can be easily eliminated or adjusted by simply selecting ‘Other’ in that section.

You will also have the option to include an additional donation on top of the ticket price. Despite what it says on the form (which, alas, cannot be changed), any additional donations are divided equally between the Pari Center and ICRL.
