The Pari Center

Matter, Mind and Multiverse
2026-05-15 16:00 - 2026-05-18 15:00 (Europe/Rome) | Pari, Italy
Matter, Mind and Multiverse: Incorporating Mind into Physics

Pari, Italy – May 15-18, 2026

Speakers: Bernard Carr with Jonathan Allday

The event will start on Friday May 15 at 16:00 and end on Monday May 18 after lunch.

Price: 825.00 euros, which includes:

programmed activities and materials;

a 3-night stay in private accommodation;

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

water, wine, and coffee are provided with lunch and dinner.

Please read the Terms and Conditions.

Physics has built a hugely impressive picture of the world. We have a broad understanding of structure from the microverse within the atom to the universe of galaxies and clusters. The evolutionary history of the cosmos is also well mapped, right back to the earliest moments of the Big Bang.

There is, however, one conspicuous absence from this grand design—us. Much of the success of physics, and science in general, has come from deliberately excluding the subjective. The physicist’s universe is a rather arid lunar landscape devoid of the colour that comes with consciousness, mind and spirit.

Most physicists believe that this is fine. It’s not their job to deal with messy and unreliable emotions, qualia and subjective experience. Some go even further and say all our personal life is an illusion.

Meanwhile, a significant number of people have experiences that are mystical, anomalous, synchronistic and personally transformative. The plural of anecdote is data: these events are happening, and they contain important clues to the nature of reality.

It is time to seriously discuss how physics might be extended to accommodate consciousness, mind and spirit.

In this series of conversations and workshops with Professor Bernard Carr and Dr. Jonathan Allday, we will explore the bounds of current physics from M-theory in the microscopic domain to the multiverse in the macroscopic domain, probe the nature of space and time, push into the esoteric worlds of cosmology and black holes, and ask whether some final theory which amalgamates relativity and quantum mechanics can accommodate consciousness and associated anomalous phenomena. We speculate that physics will need to take a broader view of reality if it is ever going to complete its mission.

Professor Carr has been at the forefront of this movement for most of his career. With a well-respected research profile in cosmology, black holes and the anthropic principle, he is well-placed to speak with authority on the nature of current physics. Bernard has also had a long-standing interest in Buddhism, psychical research and spiritual experience. He’s been President of the Society for Psychical Research and is currently President of the Scientific and Medical Network.

Participating in an event at the Pari Center is more than joining a program, it is entering an experience unlike any other. This is no ordinary conference in a city hotel, nor a retreat hidden within a bustling resort. Instead, it is an invitation to step into an unspoilt medieval village in the Tuscan hills, where time slows and life unfolds at a rhythm that allows you to think, feel, and reconnect.

At the Pari Center, learning becomes a way of being. David Peat often described Pari as an alchemical vessel—a transformative space designed for reflection, renewal, and personal growth. It is a rare and welcoming environment for anyone seeking something deeper.

You will share traditional Tuscan meals and conversation with presenters and fellow participants, taste local wines, mingle with the village’s tiny community, and take in the beauty of the surrounding countryside. All of this unfolds within a gentle way of life, far removed from the hurry of work and the noise of city living.

The Pari Center gathers world-renowned thinkers, scholars, and innovators from diverse disciplines and traditions. Our mission is to explore the mysteries woven into everyday life: the subtle, essential questions that shape who we are and who we are becoming. Through rigorous inquiry, creative dialogue and participatory activities, we aim to illuminate the origins, nature, and possibilities of human experience.

We invite you to discover why so many visitors regard the Pari Center not only as a place of learning, but as a place of personal transformation.

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.

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.

Paths to Knowing Consciousness and Reality: From the Indigenous to the Academic
2026-05-20 17:00 - 2026-05-27 14:00 | 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 OF CONSCIOUSNESS SERIES

Paths to Knowing Consciousness and Reality: From the Indigenous to the Academic

May 20–27, 2026

Speakers: Jonathan Allday, Vicente Arraez, Vasileios Basios, Apela Colorado, Alvaro Doethiro Tukano, Ruro Caituiro Monge, Aimee Morgana (virtually), Robin Rice, Francisco Rivarola.Curated and Chaired by: Jeff Dunne

Location: Pari, Italy

Ticket Prices:

Private AccommodationPrice: 2175.00 euros

Shared Accommodation – Private Room with shared bathroomPrice: 1875.00 euros

which includes:

a 7-night stay;

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

water, wine, and coffee are provided with lunch and dinner;

programmed 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.

Event: The event starts with on Wedensday May 20 at 17:00 and ends after lunch on Wednesday May 27.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the Event

The exploration of consciousness, as a direct goal or as reflected in our desire to understand the natural universe, is central to every culture throughout history. In this event we consider how this quest has been pursued through both modern western intellectualism and the older indigenous paths of experiential knowing, and ultimately ask whether such approaches can be complementary.

Humanity’s recent evolution has seen an increase in anxiety of epidemic proportions, and a prevailing assessment is that it is strongly correlated with our growing sense of disconnection—disconnection with others, of course, but also disconnection from the world, and even from ourselves at the individual level. It is quite possible that the relatively recent resurgence of interest in understanding the nature of ourselves and our connection to the universe is in response to these pressures; whether at a conscious or subconscious level, we sense that this growing sense of isolation is at the core of our dis-ease manifesting at spiritual and emotional levels, and ultimately manifesting as literal disease in the physical.

We say resurgence because understanding the nature of self in relation to the world has been an enduring priority throughout most of human history, only diminished—particularly in western societies—over the last few hundred years. Modern science is now seeking these answers by exploring our prevailing models of reality (such as quantum mechanics) through the language of mathematics, but we must recognize that this intellectual path is only one approach, and quite nascent. For many thousands of years, indigenous cultures have been approaching these same questions, but along an experiential path, i.e. understanding our connection to the world (and each other) by focusing on the experience of those connections.

What is consciousness? What is reality? How are they connected? In this conference, we will not provide an answer to such questions; instead, we will provide many answers. But that is not our goal. These answers, offered from the diverse perspectives of a diverse set of presenters, are the candles with which we will examine the methods that produce such answers.

During the seven days of May 20-27th—as nature transitions from awakening into full function… as the Gemini Threshold encourages increase cognition and the urge to converse and explain… as Indigenous cultures offer first harvest blessings and elders speak the season into the people—we will come together to explore the potential for integrating intellectual articulation with experiential knowing. A group of eight speakers will share insights on topics such as:

The history of western science’s approach to understanding the universe, and where the scientific world stands today;

How the process of connecting with nature has been developed over thousands of years of living with nature, and where it stands today;

The evolution of ancient energetic traditions such as Qigong and Shamanism into modern practices;

Alternate experiences of reality—or even alternate realities—that can be experienced through dreaming and other ways of experiencing; and ultimately…

How we can leverage all of this into a set of coherent practices and worldviews.

But more than an opportunity to listen, this conference is an opportunity to engage. Participants will be more than individuals; they will be part of the conference community. Supported with tools, conversations, and a safe, welcoming environment, they will be challenged to make their own connections, find their own answers, and then (if they so choose) to contribute their insights as part of something bigger.

Please be part of the science, the magic, the experience.

Participating in an event at the Pari Center is more than joining a program, it is entering an experience unlike any other. This is no ordinary conference in a city hotel, nor a retreat hidden within a bustling resort. Instead, it is an invitation to step into an unspoilt medieval village in the Tuscan hills, where time slows and life unfolds at a rhythm that allows you to think, feel, and reconnect.

At the Pari Center, learning becomes a way of being. David Peat often described Pari as an alchemical vessel—a transformative space designed for reflection, renewal, and personal growth. It is a rare and welcoming environment for anyone seeking something deeper.

You will share traditional Tuscan meals and conversation with presenters and fellow participants, taste local wines, mingle with the village’s tiny community, and take in the beauty of the surrounding countryside. All of this unfolds within a gentle way of life, far removed from the hurry of work and the noise of city living.

The Pari Center gathers world-renowned thinkers, scholars, and innovators from diverse disciplines and traditions. Our mission is to explore the mysteries woven into everyday life: the subtle, essential questions that shape who we are and who we are becoming. Through rigorous inquiry, creative dialogue and participatory activities, we aim to illuminate the origins, nature, and possibilities of human experience.

We invite you to discover why so many visitors regard the Pari Center not only as a place of learning, but as a place of personal transformation.

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

Information

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)

Beyond Bohm 2026 - Part 1, Weekend 1: Into the Blue
2026-07-04 18:00 - 2026-07-05 20:00
Beyond Bohm 2026 – Part 1: Meaning / Cosmology / Poetics

Into the Blue

With Lee Nichol, Bruce Alderman & friends

Saturday and Sunday, July 4 and 5, 20269am PDT / 12pm EDT / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST

2 two-hour sessions

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

The recently-released Into the Blue: Chasing the Spirit of David Bohm is an account of fifty years of experimentation with David Bohm’s metaphysical perspectives. It is not a book of physics, nor is it a book of abstract philosophy. It is the distillation of practical, experiential engagements with core aspects of Bohm’s worldview: wholeness and fragmentation, the self-image, thought as a system, meaning, dialogue, soma-significance, and the implicate order.

Over the course of this weekend, we will inquire into these themes, and how anyone can pursue these questions in real-life ways. Of particular focus, we will outline new ways of understanding Bohm’s emphasis on somatic experience. Among these are rheosoma (the flowing body) and the open organism, an exploratory mode of recovering the innate depth of human being.

We will be joined by friends who have been participating in a group exploration of the weekend’s themes.

The themes of the first two weekends of Beyond Bohm 2026 will draw to a significant extent from Into the Blue: Chasing the Spirit of David Bohm, Lee Nichol’s recently released book relating his experiences of many of Bohm’s experiential proposals. That book is now available from all Amazon outlets in Europe, the UK, and the US. It is recommended, though not required, for a full appreciation of July 4, 5, 11, & 12. The Prologue and Chapter One of the book are available for free download, click here.

Lee Nichol is Director of Bohmian Studies at the Pari Center. He was a friend and colleague of David Bohm, and is editor of Bohm’s On Creativity, The Essential David Bohm, and On Dialogue. He has been on the faculty of Denver University in Denver, Colorado, and the Tibetan Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California.

Lee’s latest book is Into the Blue: Chasing the Spirit of David Bohm, his account of 50 years of experimentation with Bohm’s metaphysics. He is a founding member of the experimental Pari Center Holoflux group.

Bruce Alderman is the associate director of the Blue Sky Leaders Program at California Institute of Integral Studies, a faculty with the Consciousness, Psychology, and Transformation program at National University, and author of several forthcoming books, including Feeling Fully Alive, Giving Voice to Time and Space, and Unfolding the Senses. He has followed David Bohm’s work since reading Wholeness and the Implicate Order in the early 1980s.

Experiencing Consciousness: Connecting With Our Greater Guidance
2026-07-26 19:00 - 20:30
International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) and The Pari Center present:

Experiencing Consciousness: Connecting With Our Greater Guidance

with Tanya Sacramento

Sunday, July 26, 202610:00AM PDT | 1:00PM EDT | 6:00PM BST | 7:00PM CEST

There will be no recording.

An invitation to ignite, enliven and expand your connection to a Greater Guidance through a channelled Guided Journey…

We are all capable of connecting intuitively to a source of wisdom and knowing. It could be one’s Soul, Angels, Animals Spirits, Guides, Ancestors (to give a few examples) or something that is beyond a name or label – and none of these are mutually exclusive! Our beliefs and experiences are diverse. The term “Greater Guidance” serves as an umbrella for this ineffable, loving wisdom. How we sense, perceive and receives prompts, messages and signs is also different for each of one us. This changes over time, as we ourselves change and develop. There is no right or wrong way; the magic happens when we nurture our own way.

You will be led on a Guided Journey, to have an experience. It is not just what is spoken, but the energy being brought through, to create a conduit and container. Trance mediums, in an expanded state of consciousness, can channel words, art, healing – but the essence of it all is energy. Tanya will co-create an energetic space to facilitate your abilities to connect, receive and discover.

Often we have preconceptions about what should happen during a Guided Journey. Cast these aside and be open to exploring and expanding your personal way of communing with the Cosmos!

The aim is not to have a one-off experience, but to use this as a stepping stone to develop your relationship with this Greater Guidance, in your daily life.

Tanya Sacramento is a psychic medium with a passion for trance mediumship and working with expanded states of consciousness, including Holotropic Breathwork. She has trained and studied evidential and trance mediumship under a number of Arthur Findlay College tutors and internationally renowned mediums. Tanya works in a one-to-one or group setting, to support individuals in developing their intuition and connection to a Greater Guidance, and in so doing, foster their self-empowerment. She also offers readings that are a mix of modalities and seeks to involve her client in the process.

What to Bring

Participants will be writing and/or drawing during the session, so be sure to have paper and a writing implement or two on hand.

Signing Up

Spaces are limited – Register now to reserve your spot!

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 at 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 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 - Draw Your Answer: A Creative Session
2026-08-16 19:00 - 21:30
International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) and The Pari Center present:

Experiencing Consciousness – Draw Your Answer: A Creative Session

with Marina Kurikhina

Sunday, August 16, 202610:00AM PDT | 1:00PM EDT | 6:00PM BST | 7:00PM CEST

There will be no recording.

Have you ever been so caught up in a problem that you just can’t see a way out? When words fall short and logical thinking isn’t enough, there’s another kind of intelligence we can turn to one we reach through our hands, not our heads.

In this one-hour session, we’ll explore Draw Your Answer: a simple, powerful practice for gaining insight into whatever situation you’re grappling with. Drawing or painting a problem lets you take it out of your head and see it from a different perspective. By shifting from thinking to visualizing, fresh insights and new options can appear often ones you couldn’t have reasoned your way to.

This isn’t about artistic skill or making something beautiful. It’s about using art as a way to explore, reflect, and understand to engage with your emotions, intuition, and subconscious, all of which have real guidance to offer.

No experience needed. Just bring a dilemma you’d like to work on: something recent, something unresolved from the past, or even a current project you’d like more clarity on. It can be big or small. Bring some paper and whatever you like to draw with pens, pencils, pastels, crayons and an open mind.

Come and discover what your own inner wisdom already knows.

Marina Kurikhina is a creative intelligence practitioner and educator whose work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, and other national media. She previously served on the faculty at the Esalen Institute and currently mentors at Relational Awakening.

Marina developed the Creative Subconscious Method and has taught it to thousands of people worldwide. She now trains therapists, coaches, and facilitators to integrate the approach into their group work and client practice—particularly during transitions when conventional approaches fall short.

She offers talks on creative thinking, problem-solving, and resilience, along with experiential workshops and group sessions.

What to Bring

Participants will be writing and/or drawing during the session, so be sure to have paper and a writing implement or two on hand.

Signing Up

Spaces are limited – Register now to reserve your spot!

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!

Note: We use a service called Zeffy to handle registrations because it eliminates credit card fees. However, the system defaults to including a 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.

Creation and Life Itself
2026-09-02 18:00 - 2026-09-04 21:00 | Online
Science, Art and the Sacred Series

Creation and Life Itself

What does it mean to be human — and creative — in an age of AI?

At its deepest level, creativity is about far more than making art, music or poetry. Life itself is an act of creation.

Join us for three live online gatherings exploring creativity through philosophy, science, Indigenous knowledge, mysticism, poetry and the sacred — and asking what these different ways of knowing can tell us about what it means to be human today.

September 2, 3 & 4, 2026

9:00am PDT | 12:00pm EDT | 5:00pm BST | 6:00pm CESTThree 3-hour live sessions • 9 hours of presentations, conversation and Q&AAll registered participants receive recordings of the complete event.

Three days. Six remarkable voices. One fundamental question.

What does it mean to create — and to be part of a living, creative world?

Over three days we will encounter Plato and the creative imagination with Angie Hobbs; the extraordinary authority of medieval women mystics with Lauren Cole; Indigenous creation stories and living knowledge with Isabel Hawkins and Shelly Valdez; paradise, imagination and the spiritual life with Nicholas Colloff; and poetry’s response to ecological catastrophe with Peter Reason.

Together, these perspectives invite us to reconsider creativity not simply as something humans do, but as something fundamental to life itself.

Curated and Chaired by: John Pickering

Program

Wednesday September 2The Pregnant Philosopher with Angie Hobbs Medieval Women Mystics: Authority and Suppression with Lauren Cole

Thursday September 3YAKANAL Indigenous Cultural Exchange: A Catalyst for the Creative Process with Isabel Hawkins and Shelly Valdez

Friday September 4One Foot in Eden: Paradise Lost and Found with Nicholas ColloffWill there be singing? What can poetry say at a time of catastrophe? with Peter Reason

Join us live from wherever you are

Come for three days of ideas, conversation and reflection on creativity, life and what it means to be human.

There will be opportunities for questions and discussion throughout the event, and all registered participants will receive the recordings, so you can take part even if you cannot attend every session live.

Standard Ticket: €75Solidarity Ticket: €40 for those experiencing financial difficulty

About the Event

At its best, being ‘human’ means being creative. Here, ‘creative’ means more than just poetic language or beautiful images. It speaks to something primordial in nature, since life itself is creation. Our meeting will look at the complementary ways in which science, the humanities and spiritual traditions recognise this and how that might inform the lives we lead, singly or collectively.

All human cultures have Creation stories. They reflect our wonder at life itself and the enchanting diversity of Creation that it brings forth. To tell and re-tell the stories is part of being human.

Science is sometimes accused of disenchanting Creation; in fact, it has enhanced it, since the wonder remains. Scientists like David Attenborough express as much love for living things as poets or mystics have done down the ages and as people living in animistic cultures do now.

Animistic Creation stories are of a transformative relation between beings of all kinds that continually and reciprocally bring one another into existence. So, in that view, simply living and being human is to be creative, where ‘creative’ means more than just making poetic language or beautiful images.

Luckily, we live in a time when science, the humanities and the arts are becoming more open, in complementary ways, to recognising this. Our meeting will look at how that might inform the lives we lead, singly or collectively.

We will investigate what ‘being human’ and ‘being creative’ might have meant in the past, what it means in our time. We will look at creativity in science, in the arts and humanities and in spiritual traditions, paying particular attention to women’s voices, those heard and those not. We will, for example, hear from speakers on Hildegarde of Bingen and Julian of Norwich, as well mystical traditions from South American cultures.

Being human, all too human, is difficult. Being more than human, particularly so. Creativity in some sense extends, even transcends the human condition, and we will explore what philosophy and the humanities have to say about that.

Now is a particularly appropriate time to do it, as both creativity and what it is to be human are brought into question by the rise of the machine.

Speakers and sessions

Click on a title to expand

The Pregnant Philosopherwith Angie Hobbs+

Plato stimulates creative thought in a variety of ways, all aimed at stimulating our non-rational as well as our rational faculties. In order to explore fundamental ethical questions about how to live and what sort of person to be, he creates dialogues involving a vibrant cast of characters (never himself), and the conversations invite us to see the connections between belief, character and life. We are enabled to form a sense of the shape, structure and narrative of a life — both models to emulate and models to avoid. The dialogues often deploy vivid imagery — such as the Allegory of the Cave in the Republic — and in much of this imagery Plato plays with gender expectations, such as the pregnant philosopher (male as well as female) in the Symposium and philosophical statecraft as the art of weaving in the Statesman: these gendered images invite us to rethink questions of sex and gender and ask whether Plato is in fact saying that sex and gender will ultimately be transcended in the truly philosophic life. In several dialogues imaginary utopias also encourage us to envisage different ways of thinking, living and being. It is intriguing how often this agent-centred, dialogic approach, which embeds individuals in their social contexts, has appealed to women philosophers, particularly during the last 70 years, and this is a topic we shall also explore.

Angie Hobbs is Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy Emerita at the University of Sheffield. She gained a degree in Classics (First Class) and a PhD in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and her chief interests are in ancient philosophy and literature, and ethics and political theory from classical thought to the present, and she has published widely in these areas, including Plato and the Hero; Why Plato Matters Now was published by Bloomsbury in 2025. She contributes regularly to TV, radio, podcasts and other media around the world, including 27 appearances on In Our Time on Radio 4. She works in a number of policy sectors, including the U.K. Civil Service, National Health Service and Health Research Authority. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Athens Democracy Forum, the Symi Symposium, the Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and been the guest on Desert Island Discs and Private Passions. She was a judge of the Man Booker International Prize 2019 and was on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council 2018-9 for Values, Ethics and Innovation.

Medieval Women Mystics: Authority and Suppressionwith Lauren Cole+

The infamous Shakespearean line “get thee to a nunnery” conjures images of oppressed women forced into convents against their will and left to rot. But in medieval Europe, the convent could be a space of education, liberation, and authority for women, especially those who experienced mystical visions. Hildegard of Bingen derived such authority from her visions that Popes and Emperors wrote to her for advice. She even called the Holy Roman Emperor “a little boy or some madman” for his political decisions – and he apologised to her. In this session, we explore the lives of mystics such as Hildegard, Margery Kempe, Catherine of Siena, and Marguerite Porete. Through these examples, we examine how these extraordinary women could command authority over the most powerful men of the time, as well as the fiery consequences if they got it wrong.

Lauren Cole is a PhD History Candidate and Presidential Fellow at Northwestern University. Her research centres on medieval mystics, medicine, and manuscripts in Europe, with a particular focus on Hildegard von Bingen. Lauren is also a public historian, creating videos on medieval history for over 95’000 followers on her Instagram and TikTok accounts (@MedievalLauren). Lauren splits her time between London, Mainz, and Chicago. You can find more on her website: https://medievallauren.wordpress.com

YAKANAL Indigenous Cultural Exchange: A Catalyst for the Creative Processwith Isabel Hawkins and Shelly Valdez+

Our shared, two-part presentation will explore how the YAKANAL Indigenous cultural exchange program, based at Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, United States, acts as a living bridge between Indigenous Knowledge and contemporary creative practice.

Part I of our presentation will give context of YAKANAL’s work and impact, drawing from more than twenty years of knowledge exchange among Pueblo communities of present-day New Mexico and Maya, Zapotec, and Mixtec communities of Mesoamerica. Through images, stories, and a short video, we will share how Indigenous-led cultural exchanges can provide multigenerational participants with immersive opportunities to learn and create in relationship to place.

Part II of our presentation will focus on creation stories as frameworks for balance, reciprocity, and responsibility—principles that guide sustainable creative practice for all humans, regardless of background. Indigenous knowledge systems do not simply recount stories—they articulate a “Science of Place” expressed through food sovereignty, artistic practice, traditional medicine, architecture, cosmology, beekeeping, and social organization—all embedded in the lifeways of Indigenous communities today.

Isabel Hawkins, Senior Scientist (she/her/ella), grew up in Córdoba, Argentina, where the beauty of the night sky and a childhood visit to the Planetario charted the course of her career as an astronomer and science educator. Reaching for the stars, Isabel came to the United States as an American Field Service exchange student when she was sixteen. In 1981, she received a BS in physics from UC Riverside, where she was asked to join Phi Beta Kappa. Subsequently, she obtained an MS and a PhD in astrophysics from UCLA. Before joining the Exploratorium in 2009, she spent 20 years as an astrophysics researcher and science educator at the University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory. Isabel’s work at the Exploratorium is focused on NASA, NSF, and museum-funded efforts related to Latinx audience engagement, such as Solar Eclipse, GENIAL: Generating Engagement and New Initiatives for All Latinos, and Cambio, a professional development approach for building Latinx-focused cultural competence in museums. Through cultural astronomy, she fosters science pluralism by making visible The Cultural Roots of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), a research synthesis effort that has been funded by the NSF. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific bestowed on her the prestigious Klumpke-Roberts Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy, an honor that she shares with fellow awardees Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Julieta Fierro, and Tim Ferris, among others. Isabel is also a consultant for the Smithsonian Institution, a volunteer coordinator for the YAKANAL, Indigenous Youth Cultural Exchange program, and a 2018 to 2022 Fulbright US Global Scholar. Her interests include salsa and bachata dancing, yoga, drawing Maya classic period glyphs, and the study of native languages.

One Foot in Eden: Paradise Lost and Foundwith Nicholas Colloff+

The poet, Edwin Muir, enjoyed a paradisial childhood, which, though rudely interrupted, provided a sustaining sense of innocence and wonder through which he subsequently beheld the world and wove artistic practices that sought to widen and deepen consciousness into a ‘second, renewing innocence’ that was a paradise regained.

He employed artistic, spiritual practices that deepened attention, reverenced, and used dreams and other imaginal states, and cultivated good memory to develop works of great originality and of gently transforming power that he felt could take people on a pilgrimage to their originating light, where “that strange quarry you scarcely thought you sought” would reveal itself and you would find “Yourself, the gatherer gathered, the finder found.”

Though he worked within the ‘Western tradition’, he had an openness to the Spirit that bloweth where it will, and was sustained, nurtured, and challenged in a long, loving marriage to Willa Muir, herself a writer. In his practices and his work, he has much to inspire us about the potential for a creative, spiritual life.

Nicholas Colloff, when not posting art on Facebook or walking through the woods, is the Director of the Argidius Foundation, a Swiss family foundation that helps develop social and environmental enterprises, principally in Africa and Latin America. He studied theology, philosophy, and the psychology of religion at university, after which he helped found the Prison Phoenix Trust that teaches meditation and yoga to people in prison, and from this discovered a gift for starting things (and leaving them in better hands so that they flourished).

This has included a microfinance bank in the Balkans, a charity focused on community mental health in poor communities in the Global South, and a social investment fund. Through the auspices of Temenos and the friendship of the poet and Blake scholar, Kathleen Raine, he was privileged to meet and know Cecil Collins in the latter years of his life, and through Kathleen to know one of Edwin and Willa Muir’s closest friends.

Will there be singing? What can poetry say at a time of catastrophe?with Peter Reason+

In 1939, as fascism arose across Europe, the German poet Bertolt Brecht asked ‘Will there be singing in the dark times?’ and responded with a ‘Yes’: ‘there will be singing about the dark times’. Similarly, in response to the Palestinian tragedy of the Nakba, Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish asked what poetry can say at such a time.

As global warming proceeds even faster than forecast, as the oceans warm to record temperatures, as fires break out across the Northern Hemisphere, as more humans die of heat stress, as ecological breakdown and the Sixth Extinction of living beings gather pace, both warnings from scientists and Western political cultures appear powerless to budge us from our destructive path. What can poetry say? Theodor Adorno told us that ‘To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric’. Is this also true today?

Facts are said to be sacred; but we need more than facts. Guardian arts correspondent Charlotte Higgins tells us that poetry is ‘the only language for these times of violence and chaos’. Canadian poet Robert Bringhurst writes of poetry as ‘stepping in tune with being, bearing and echoing the music and heartbeat of being’.

This presentation of songs and poems will reflect on different ways in which poetry and song can respond to the present climate and ecological catastrophe.

As Director of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice at the University of Bath, England, Peter Reason was an international leader in the development of participative approaches to action research. In these forms of experiential inquiry all are co-researchers, contributing both to the thinking that forms the research and to the action that is its subject. He published widely, co-editing the Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice and co-founding the journal Action Research.

Since retiring from his academic position, Peter has focused on writing that links the tradition of nature writing with the ecological crisis of our times, drawing on scientific, ecological, philosophical and spiritual sources. He is currently engaged in a series of experiential and co-operative inquiries exploring living cosmos panpsychism in relation to Rivers. His books include Spindrift: A wilderness pilgrimage at sea; In Search of Grace: An ecological pilgrimage, and most recently (with artist Sarah Gillespie) On Presence: Essays | Drawings and On Sentience: Essays | Drawings. He is currently preparing Living in a Sentient World: An inquiry with his colleagues Freya Mathews, Andreas Weber, Stephan Harding, and Sandra Wooltorton.

Peter is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath.

Consciousness as a Fundamental Aspect of Reality
2026-10-16 16:00 - 2026-10-19 14:00 | Pari, Italy
Consciousness as a Fundamental Aspect of Reality

A weekend workshop with Federico Faggin and Donald Hoffman (via Zoom)

Pari, Italy – October 16-19, 2026

Speakers: Federico Faggin and Donald Hoffman with Jonathan Allday

The event will start on Friday October 16 at 16:00 and end on Monday October 19 after lunch.

Price: 825.00 euros, which includes:

programmed activities and materials;

a 3-night stay in private accommodation;

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

water, wine, and coffee are provided with lunch and dinner.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the event

Over the last twenty years, it has become more acceptable to discuss the hard problem of consciousness in more than simply materialistic terms. Philosophically, at least, while not yet completely mainstream, panpsychist, idealistic and dual-aspect approaches are now on the table.

In this immersive workshop in the beautiful medieval village of Pari, we will meet and engage with two thinkers who, in their own independent ways, have transcended their materialistic upbringing and early thought to come to the same conclusion: consciousness is not simply some ‘froth’ on the complex electrochemical workings of a material brain, it is a fundamental and irreducible aspect of reality.

During two full days and two half days, there will be presentations, conversations and discussions, all framed so the non-expert can grapple with the issues at stake. Topics will range from establishing that consciousness is fundamental towards starting to explore the consequences of adopting that approach and what it might mean for society and our view of what it is to be human.

All participants will stay in accommodation in and around Pari. Engagement will continue over meals taken together, and potentially long into the evening at the restaurant and bar which forms the nerve-centre and heart of the village. On one of the evenings, we will take a short walk into the nearby olive groves and sit and talk around a fire while watching the stars. Accommodation and all meals are included in the workshop fee.

Program

Friday October 16

4:00pm Introductions

4:30pm [Session 1] Presentation with Jonathan Allday An Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

Saturday October 17

10:00am [Session 2] Presentation (Jonathan Allday): An Introduction to Quantum Mechanics Pt 2

Q&A and group discussion

12:00pm [Session 3] Presentation: Federico Faggin

4:30pm [Session 4] Q&A and group discussion

5:30pm [Session 5] Presentation: Donald Hoffman

Conversation: Faggin, Hoffman and Allday

Q&A and Group discussion

9:30pm Showing: Play Copenhagen

Sunday October 18

10:00am [Session 6] Book Launch: Federico Faggin

4:30pm [Session 7] Dialogue: Federico Faggin and Jonathan Allday

Q&A and Group discussion

5:30pm [Session 8] Conversation: Faggin, Hoffman and Allday

9:30pm Fire and astronomy

Monday October 19

10:00am [Session 9] Wash-up discussions

1:00pm Lunch and departure

An event at the Pari Center is not akin to a conventional conference in a city hotel or a retreat in an overdeveloped resort. It is an invitation to experience a beautifully preserved medieval village in the Tuscan hills, where life unfolds at a naturally slower pace and where the time and space needed for clarity, creativity, and meaningful connection emerge with ease.

At the Pari Center, learning extends beyond the exchange of ideas—it becomes a lived experience. As David Peat described it: Pari is an ‘alchemical vessel’; a rare environment where reflection and renewal can give rise to genuine transformation. It is a place for those seeking more than the accumulation of knowledge, for it offers the opportunity to cultivate insight, broaden perspective, and inspire lasting change.

Your time here is shaped by shared experience: traditional Tuscan meals, conversation with leading presenters and fellow participants, local wines, and genuine connection with the village community. Set against the quiet beauty of the surrounding countryside, every element encourages you to step away from the demands of everyday life and into a more intentional way of being.

The Pari Center brings together internationally recognised thinkers, scholars, and innovators across disciplines. Its programmes explore the deeper questions of human experience—what shapes us, what connects us, and what is emerging within us and our world. Through rigorous inquiry, dialogue, and participatory engagement, each event is designed to expand understanding and open new possibilities.

If you are looking for more than a conventional learning environment, the Pari Center offers something rare: a setting where ideas become experience, and experience can become transformation.

Discover why so many participants return not just with new knowledge, but with a changed perspective.

Information

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)

Art of Hosting 2026
2026-10-23 12:00 - 2026-10-26 17:00 | Pari, Italia
Art of hosting / Arte Della leadership partecipativa per la trasformazione sociale

Pari (GR), dal 23 al 26 Ottobre 2026.

Un’esperienza immersiva per esplorare pratiche di leadership partecipativa, facilitazione e intelligenza collettiva.

Viviamo un tempo caratterizzato da crescente complessità e interdipendenza. Le sfide che affrontiamo richiedono nuovi modi di collaborare, ascoltare e agire insieme.

L’Art of Hosting offre pratiche e strumenti per creare conversazioni significative, facilitare processi partecipativi e generare cambiamento collaborativo.

Questo training è un invito a esplorare nuove possibilità insieme ad una comunità internazionale di praticanti.

Cliccate qui per info e registrazione

A chi si rivolge

Questa formazione è dedicata a persone che lavorano con gruppi, team e comunità e desiderano facilitare processi di cambiamento collaborativo.

Invitiamo:

facilitatrici e consulenti;

leader e manager;

educatori e formatrici;

imprenditrici sociali;

operatori del settore pubblico e del terzo settore;

comunità e reti collaborative;

artisti e anime creative

persone interessate al cambiamento sistemico e alla trasformazione sociale.

Cosa imparerai

Insieme esploreremo pratiche, prospettive e metodologie partecipative per coinvolgere gruppi eterogenei e lavorare con complessità, cambiamento e conflitto.

Imparerai a:

progettare iniziative collaborative;

facilitare conversazioni generative;

utilizzare i metodi dell’Art of Hosting;

lavorare con complessità e processi emergenti;

raccogliere apprendimenti e intuizioni attraverso l’harvesting;

trasformare idee e visioni in esperimenti concreti;

introdurre la leadership partecipativa nei tuoi contesti professionali e comunitari.

Il luogo

Pari Center · Toscana

Il training si svolgerà presso il Pari Center, un borgo medievale immerso nella natura nel cuore della Toscana.

Un contesto che favorisce apprendimento, connessione e momenti informali di incontro.

Il corso è residenziale e i partecipanti potranno soggiornare nelle strutture del borgo, raggiungibili a pochi minuti a piedi.

Pari è facilmente raggiungibile in macchina e con mezzi di trasporto pubblico.

Escaping the Cave
2026-11-26 17:00 - 2026-11-27 19:00 | Cambridge, United Kingdom
Escaping the Cave:Plato in Science, Art and Spirituality

26–27 November 2026

Location: Cambrige, UK

Keynote: Professor Angie Hobbs FRSAWith Dr. Jonathan Allday, Professor Paul Bishop, Mark Vernon

Conference Chair: Professor Alison Liebling

A free public lecture followed by an intimate one-day conference exploring the continuing relevance of Plato’s thought to science, philosophy, art, spirituality and contemporary life.

Jointly sponsored by the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge and the Pari Center.

Choose How You Would Like to Attend

Thursday, 26 November

17:00 Public Lecture with Professor Angie Hobbs — FREE

Flourishing, Character and Justice: Why Plato Matters Now

Attendance is free, but advance registration is required.

Please book a FREE ticket to reserve your place at the lecture.

Following the lecture, there will be:

18:30–19:15 Drinks Reception

19:30 Optional Group Dinner at a Local Restaurant

If you would like to join us for dinner, please indicate this when reserving your free ticket below so that we can include you in the restaurant booking.

Dinner and drinks on November 26 are not included. Each guest will order and pay for their own food and drinks directly at the restaurant.

[RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKET – NOVEMBER 26]

Friday, 27 November

Escaping the Cave — One-Day Conference

€330 per person

The conference is limited to 22 participants, creating an intimate setting for presentations, discussion and conversation with the speakers.

Your £280 ticket includes:

Full-day conference attendance on November 27

Arrival coffee

Mid-morning coffee

Lunch

Afternoon coffee

Evening arrival drinks at Trinity Hall

Dinner at Trinity Hall

All of the above is included in your £280 conference ticket.

Places are limited to 22 participants and advance booking is essential.

[BOOK YOUR CONFERENCE TICKET – £280]

Plato’s metaphor of the cave, an underground vault where back-lit humans observe life’s goings on as a play of shadows on a wall, has long held a fascination for thinkers. It suggests that the world we experience in our day-to-day business is not all that there is. Rather it arises from structures that are less substantial to our senses, but equally real, existing in a layer of reality beneath the commonplace. Philosophically, the mainstream has moved away from Neo-Platonism, but suggestions from quantum mechanics, mathematics and other aspects of science, along with the philosophy of mind and some modern thinking on aesthetics, ethics and morality, suggest that Plato’s ideas are worth revisiting.

This two-day event features a keynote presentation by Professor Angie Hobbs FRSA, with the title: ‘Flourishing, Character and Justice: Why Plato Matters Now’ on day one, followed by a single-day conference with other speakers as well as delegate discussions on the relevance of Plato’s thought to modern times. The second day will be limited to 22 attendees and will finish with dinner at a Cambridge college. Lunch will also be provided during the day.

Programme

26th November

17:00 Public Lecture and Keynote Presentation: Professor Angie Hobbs FRSA

To be held at: The Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Avenue room B3/4

Flourishing, Character and Justice: Why Plato Matters Now

What might it mean to live a flourishing life? And what is the relationship between flourishing and the virtues, especially justice? In this talk based on her recent book, Professor Angie Hobbs explores how Plato can help us with these urgent questions, and how he addresses the key issue of character formation, and why it never benefits us to return wrong for wrong. She shows how she has used his methodology, ideas and arguments in a variety of sectors to address contemporary issues in education, faith–secular debate, health care and the civil service, and invites the audience to discuss with her what further lessons can be applied. We are living in fast-moving and uncertain times and need ancient wisdom more than ever. Plato really does matter, right now!

Why Plato Matters Now (Bloomsbury 2025). angiehobbs.com

18:30 – 19:15 Drinks Reception

20:00 Dinner at local restaurant

By prior arrangement, attendees to pay for their own meals and drinks

27th NovemberConference Escaping the Cave

To be held at: The Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Avenue Boardroom

Dress code: (for dinner in Trinity Hall)

Ladies: smart casual — relaxed tailoring, smart separates or a day dress

Gentlemen: smart casual — blazer, flannels and an open-collared shirt; no tie required

09:30 Arrival and coffee

10:00 Welcome and introductions

10:30 Presentation 1 Dr Jonathan Allday: A Realistic Approach to Quantum Reality

The case for an objectively real layer of potential reality

Followed by discussion

11:30 Mid-morning coffee

11:50 Presentation 2Prof. Paul Bishop: Plato and Politics in the Classroom

Reflections on the experience of using the “Socratic method” to teach political thought.

Followed by discussion

13:00 Lunch

14:00 Presentation 3: Dr Mark Vernon: Perceiving The Eternal: Plato’s Ideas, Blake’s Vision

Followed by discussion

15:10 Afternoon Coffee

15:30 Pannel discussion with audience Q&A

17:00 Closing

19:00 for 19:30: Dinner Trinity Hall, with arrival drinks

Inscendence: A Participatory Enquiry into Awareness, Presence and Place
2027-05-31 17:00 - 2027-06-07 14:00 | Pari, Italy
Inscendence: A Participatory Enquiry into Awareness, Presence and Place

May 31 – June 7, 2027

Speakers: Jonathan Code and Alistair Duncan

Location: Pari, Italy

Ticket Prices:

Private AccommodationPrice: 1800.00 euros

Shared Accommodation – Private Room with shared bathroomPrice: 1650.00 euros

which includes:

a 7-night stay;

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

water, wine, and coffee are provided with lunch and dinner;

programmed 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.

Event: The event starts with dinner on Monday May 31 at 17:00 and ends after lunch on Monday June 7.

Download information, terms and conditions for this course.

About the Event

Why Inscendence?

In a time riven by fragmentation, dislocation and conflicting narratives, this programme invites a collaborative enquiry into ways of knowing and thinking that will delve deeply into the field where land, body and consciousness meet.

Inscendence proposes an opportunity for re-orientation by attending to participative awareness, heightened sensory perception and the wisdom of the body-mind.

In resonance with Pari, its landscape, history, and community, we will engage with many of the Center’s core themes seeking to open up a creative ground from which new forms of insight, relationship and action can emerge.

Inscendence—the impulse not to rise above the world but to climb into it, to seek its core.Thomas Berry, via Robert Macfarlane

Programme Themes and Practices

Over the course of a week in Pari, we will engage with:

Embodied and Perceptual Investigation:

Explorations into how breath-work, movement and posture can expand and transform perceptual awareness

Working with our experience of the traditional elements of nature: earth, water, fire, air and ether in a contemporary way

Heightening the sensitivity of our physical senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, as entry points into deeper experience

Understanding the body-mind as a phenomenological instrument

Fieldwork in the More-than-Human World:

Immersive sessions engaging with the plants, stones, weather and landforms of the Tuscany landscape

Exploration of a range of ways of knowing including Goethean observation and nature-connection practices

Attending to artefacts, stories and built structures as relational presences

Creative and Collaboratives Explorations:

Creative writing, journaling, and drawing as practices of attending to lived experience

Sitting in Council / dialogue will allow us to share insights and integrate personal experience into collective understanding.

Conversational ‘tutorial-style’ sessions will be used to explore the intersection between experience and theory

Daily Rhythms—each day will include four main elements:

Outdoor sessions exploring a range of practices and experiences

The seeding of ‘micro-practices’ that will provide the opportunity for moments in the day to become an opportunity for conscious awareness

Sitting in Council, ‘tutorial’ circles and creative sessions to collectively reflect on our unfolding experience and its implications

Personal reflection time supported by the quiet rhythms of the village

Theoretical Context:

With an emphasis on experiential forms of enquiry, Inscendence is nevertheless inspired by the insights and practices of a wide range of thinkers from both East and West. These perspectives provide lenses through which our lived experience can be shared and articulated.

Some of these sources of inspiration include:

The Implicate / Explicate / Holoflux (David Bohm)

The implications of brain hemisphere modes of attention (Iain McGilchrist)

The nature of participatory consciousness (Owen Barfield,)

The idea of Authentic Wholeness (Henri Bortoft, J.W. Goethe)

The unity of Mind and Matter from (Gregory Bateson)

The explorations of language, sensory perception and the new animism (David Abram, Robin Kimmerer)

Philosophical Taoism

Non-dual Shaiva Tantra

What May Emerge:

A refined capacity for attentional flexibility and resonance

A deeper sense of participation in the implicate wholeness of the cosmos

Insight into how perception constructs (and reconstructs) the world

A felt understanding of new grounds for coherent action and relationship

A more integrated experience of self within the context of a conscious whole.

Our aim is not to provide answers to the complex challenges of our time but to cultivate a new ground of exploration—a place from which thought, relationship and creativity may unfold with greater coherence and sensitivity.

Participating in an event at the Pari Center is more than joining a program, it is entering an experience unlike any other. This is no ordinary conference in a city hotel, nor a retreat hidden within a bustling resort. Instead, it is an invitation to step into an unspoilt medieval village in the Tuscan hills, where time slows and life unfolds at a rhythm that allows you to think, feel, and reconnect.

At the Pari Center, learning becomes a way of being. David Peat often described Pari as an alchemical vessel—a transformative space designed for reflection, renewal, and personal growth. It is a rare and welcoming environment for anyone seeking something deeper.

You will share traditional Tuscan meals and conversation with presenters and fellow participants, taste local wines, mingle with the village’s tiny community, and take in the beauty of the surrounding countryside. All of this unfolds within a gentle way of life, far removed from the hurry of work and the noise of city living.

The Pari Center gathers world-renowned thinkers, scholars, and innovators from diverse disciplines and traditions. Our mission is to explore the mysteries woven into everyday life: the subtle, essential questions that shape who we are and who we are becoming. Through rigorous inquiry, creative dialogue and participatory activities, we aim to illuminate the origins, nature, and possibilities of human experience.

We invite you to discover why so many visitors regard the Pari Center not only as a place of learning, but as a place of personal transformation.

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

Jonathan Code

During a childhood and youth spent in Southern Ontario, regular immersion in and on the freshwater lakes of Frontenac Park fostered in me a deep ecological and place-based awareness of the natural world. I am to this day never more at home than in a canoe on a lake at dawn, paddling out as the sun rises and the loons call forth the day.

My ecological interests grew and deepened through encounters with the work of Goethe, Schumacher, Vine Deloria Jr., and Steiner—whose contributions to education, medicine, human development, and agriculture (Biodynamic farming) continue to inform my teaching, research, and writing to this day.

I am particularly interested in the contribution that Goethe can make to ecological thinking (which I addressed in a study of Goethe’s method of exact imagination as applied to the Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)) and in how the Biodynamic preparations are not only stimulants for good composting processes but are also catalysts for a deepening of agricultural consciousness (which I address in Muck and Mind: Encountering Biodynamic Agriculture, 2014).

I am currently engaged in a study of traditional fire-craft and its affordances for educational philosophy and praxis. This study grows out of a deep concern for education in the twenty first century (see Crafting: Transforming Materials and the Maker, 2019)—a concern that what is too often left out in many of our educational endeavors is a sense for who a human being is…and what we can (potentially) become.

Alistair Duncan

After a first career as a systems programmer, architect and programme manager in technology for a couple of global corporations, fifteen years ago I jumped ship. Since then I have worked as an eco-psychologist, workshop facilitator/educator and therapist across a number of contexts particularly in universities, disadvantaged communities and with conservation organisations.

My passion is weaving together concrete practices from contemporary psychology, embodiment modalities and therapies as well as the spiritualities of east and west. Then, using them to make experiential and practical, the insights that arise from a range of fields across philosophy, science and spirituality.

To define my context with a few names. I would cite David Bohm, Owen Barfield, Martin Heidegger, Gregory Bateson, Henri Bortoff, Michael Washburn, David Abram and Kenneth White as my current key co-ordinates. And I am drawing practices from a wide palette, but the core is found in indigenous tracking methods, Non-dual Shaiva Tantrism, Taoism, and Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP).

I have a first degree in Biology and a Masters in Philosophy, and have trained in several coaching and therapeutic modalities.

Everything I do nowadays is based in nature. It’s my current conviction that exploring a deeper sensorial resonance and reciprocity between the human body-mind and the more-than-human cosmos is the starting point for a lived experience of wholeness and a connection into the deep consciousness of the cosmos. And that, from there, we may be able to discern a better way to live in these times.

Information

Terms and conditions (PDF)

Additional Information about the Pari Center (PDF)
