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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221105T175900
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221127T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20240317T155437Z
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SUMMARY:Recovering the Sacred
DESCRIPTION:Recovering the Sacred \n\n\n\nwith Anne Baring\, Bernard Carr\, Matthijs Cornelissen\, Alex Gomez-Marin\, Jeremy Lent\, David Lorimer\, Iain McGilchrist\, Peter Reason\, Mary-Jayne Rust \n\n\n\nCurated by John Pickering \n\n\n\nPari Center Online Series \n\n\n\nNovember 5 – 27\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n8-two-hour sessions every Saturday and Sunday \n\n\n\nAll sessions are live; recordings will be available for any sessions you are unable to attend. \n\n\n\nWe are living in a time of anxiety and uncertainty. As more environmental damage is done\, the means to repair it seems to be getting less. It is increasingly difficult to know what to trust in politics and the media. Spiritual traditions survive\, but the authority they once had has passed to science and so it might seem that the idea of ‘The Sacred’ has disappeared. \n\n\n\nBut as science reveals more and more about the place of the earth in the cosmos there is a growing awareness of how precious our living world is and of how inter-dependent we are with it. Perhaps this is not only a scientific discovery but also the re-appearance of the sacred in a form fit for our times. \n\n\n\nHow the living world came to be and how it persists is the business of the sciences.  How cultures appear and develop is the business of the humanities. Powerful though those styles of inquiry are\, they offer little comfort to those anxious about the destructive direction in which our globalised culture is going. What appears to be missing is some way of restoring our sense of spiritual interdependence with the living world. \n\n\n\nThis series of talks is an opportunity to hear from people concerned with these ideas and to participate in a dialogue on how they might help us to keep hope alive and decide what to do for the best in our challenging times. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nProgram of Event\n\n\n\nSaturday November 5Recovering the Soulwith Iain McGilchrist \n\n\n\nSunday November 6The Sacred and the Evolution of Consciousnesswith Matthijs Cornelissen \n\n\n\nSaturday November 12Finding our Way Home to Nature as Sacredwith Mary-Jayne Rust \n\n\n\nSunday November 13The Sacred as Immanent in a Sentient Worldwith Peter Reason \n\n\n\nSaturday November 19Towards a Transmaterialist Science of the Sacredwith Bernard Carr and Alex Gomez-Marin \n\n\n\nSunday November 20The Loss and Recovery of the Sacredwith Anne Baring \n\n\n\nSaturday November 26Recovering a Sense of the Sacred – an Evolutionary Imperativewith David Lorimer \n\n\n\nSunday November 27Weaving a Web of Meaning: How Recognizing Our Deep Interrelatedness Lays a Path to Sustainable Flourishingwith Jeremy Lent
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/recovering-the-sacred-2/
LOCATION:Online
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221105T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221105T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221002T145938Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T153020Z
UID:10000208-1667671200-1667678400@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:Recovering the Soul
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://youtu.be/l-PrCIprgIU?si=DghmvkkPB9wBuNAS\n\n\n\n\n\nRecovering the Soul \n\n\n\nwith Iain McGilchrist \n\n\n\nSaturday November 5\, 202210:00am PDT | 1:00pm EDT | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nThe topic of the sacred is immense\, as I confirmed to myself when I wrote a very long chapter on it in The Matter with Things. I have chosen to approach it here by directing our attention\, as it might seem at first\, to one side: on the soul. I will argue that the sacred exists not simply in this or that thing—an object\, a place\, or an act—but in the relationship between whatever it is beyond ourselves that we recognise as sacred and that part of our being that has been traditionally referred to as the soul; that this relationship is one of the reasons for evolved beings such as ourselves to have come into existence; that whatever else it may be\, the soul is a faculty\, like intellect or eyesight\, but much more than\, and more important than\, either; and that our sense of the sacred is both driven by\, and in turn drives\, the actively receptive attention paid by the soul. I suggest that the soul is in process\, and that it is one task of our lives to grow the soul—an important task\, because much depends on it: we can\, like attentive or neglectful gardeners\, nourish\, stunt the growth of\, or extinguish\, that soul. I suggest that therefore we need first to attend to our souls if we are to recover the sacred\, and I make a few exploratory forays into what we can (and cannot) say about the soul\, and how it might be integrated into a new cosmology. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDr Iain McGilchrist is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College\, Oxford\, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College\, Oxford\, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists\, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts\, and former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital\, London.  He has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital\, Baltimore and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch.  He has published original articles and research papers in a wide range of publications on topics in literature\, philosophy\, medicine and psychiatry.  He is the author of a number of books\, but is best-known for The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale 2009).  A book on neuroscience\, epistemology and ontology called The Matter with Things: Our Brains\, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World\, was published in November 2021.
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/recovering-the-soul/
LOCATION:Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://paricenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Recovering-the-soul-2-1-e1667479578211.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221106T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221106T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221002T151759Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T153410Z
UID:10000209-1667757600-1667764800@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:The Sacred and the Evolution of Consciousness
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://youtu.be/TklytlsHY44?si=gTv9vWN76JYmMdmA\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Sacred and the Evolution of Consciousness \n\n\n\nwith Matthijs Cornelissen \n\n\n\nSunday November 6\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nWe tend to think of the Sacred as something unchanging. There is some point to this: the Sacred is\, after all\, what connects us to eternity or even to something beyond space and time.  But could it be changing? To address this question\, since the modern West pays so little attention to the Sacred\, it makes sense to go back to other cultures who have developed deeper knowledge about it. \n\n\n\nMost major spiritual traditions\, in the West as well as in India\, make some kind of distinction between the Divine who is eternal and perfect\, and the world which is constrained by time and imperfect\, but what if our conception of this split is due to the limited nature of our human consciousness and our too limited mental understanding of reality? \n\n\n\nIn the first half of last century Sri Aurobindo developed the idea that evolution is the progressive embodiment of ever higher types of consciousness. He argued that we are on the brink of the next stage in evolution which will see the embodiment of a radically different type of consciousness. \n\n\n\nIn this talk Matthijs will indicate the direction in which Sri Aurobindo saw the world evolving\, and\, perhaps\, more relevant for us today\, what we can do during the transitional period. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMatthijs Cornelissen MD\, was born in the Netherlands and studied Medicine and Psychology in Amsterdam. He is deeply interested in the work of Sri Aurobindo\, and at 27\, he moved to India where he has lived ever since. In the Delhi Branch of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram he helped to set up the Institute for Integral Education\, Mirambika\, and at present he teaches the psychological aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s work at SAICE in Pondicherry. He assisted with the publication of Sri Aurobindo’s Complete Works\, and has written articles and book chapters on Sri Aurobindo’s contributions to Consciousness Studies and Psychology. He has also organised conferences\, given workshops and lectures\, and edited books on the same subject. He founded and maintains the websites of the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Consciousness Studies\, the Indian Psychology Institute and Infinity in a Drop.
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/the-sacred-and-the-evolution-of-consciousness/
LOCATION:Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://paricenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2-e1664975128524.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221108T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221108T210000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221101T123132Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240423T201345Z
UID:10000218-1667934000-1667941200@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:Reflections on Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5irBZhy15s\n\n\n\n\n\nReflections on Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things \n\n\n\nIain McGlichristwith Mary Attwood | Sharon Dirckx | Alex Gómez-Marín | Jürg Kesselring | David Lorimer | Martin Rossor | Jonathan Rowson | Jan Zwicky \n\n\n\nTuesday November 8\, 20221-3pm EST | 6-8pm GMT | 7–9pm CET  \n\n\n\nFREE EVENT \n\n\n\nAnniversary event\, hosted by The Pari Centerin conjunction with Channel McGilchrist\, Perspectiva\, The Scientific and Medical Network and The Arthur Conan Doyle Centre. \n\n\n\nTrouble Registering: just send us an email and we will send you the link! eleanor@paricenter.com \n\n\n\nTo mark the one year since the publication of The Matter with Things\, this free online event will reflect on its first year of being in the world. Dr. McGilchrist will be interviewed by the publisher of the book\, Perspectiva’s Jonathan Rowson\, followed by a discussion with experts for the sciences and humanities. The final part of the event will give you a chance to put a question to Dr. McGilchrist. \n\n\n\nYou can view the footage of The Matter with Things launch party in 2021 by Perspectiva Press in the following link:  https://youtu.be/ibI0mRLgMI8
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/reflections-on-iain-mcgilchrists-the-matter-with-things/
LOCATION:Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://paricenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Matter-with-Things2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221112T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221112T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221002T155121Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T153537Z
UID:10000210-1668276000-1668283200@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:Finding our Way Home to Nature as Sacred
DESCRIPTION:https://youtu.be/5OMEfeZO-bc?si=ZRl–LKxnhoF7BQ9\n\n\n\n\n\nFinding our Way Home to Nature as Sacred \n\n\n\nwith Mary-Jayne Rust \n\n\n\nSaturday November 12\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nThe Rainmaker Story tells of a Taoist elder who brought rain to a region of great drought in ancient China; it was one of C.G. Jung’s favourite stories about the capacity to bring about a state of natural balance. It is also one of many examples of an ancient worldview where the earth is seen as sacred and humans are part of that sacred matrix. Can we reinhabit this way of seeing in our modern world? In this talk I will bring stories\, experiences and examples of ways in which our relationship with the earth\, and with our own animal nature\, can be restored\, opening doors to imagination\, synchronicity and the numinous. Along the way there may be many difficult and painful encounters with the shadow of our dominant culture; when this is honoured our ecological crisis can then become an extraordinary portal of modern times. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMary-Jayne Rust is an ecopsychologist and Jungian analyst  Journeys to Ladakh (on the Tibetan plateau) in the early 1990’s alerted her to the seriousness of the ecological crisis and its cultural\, economic and spiritual roots. This led her into the field of ecopsychology which has been the focus of her teaching and writing ever since. Her numerous publications can be found on www.mjrust.net\, including Towards an Ecopsychotherapy\, Confer Books\, London 2019 and Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis\, eds M.J. Rust & Nick Totton. Karnac\, London 2011. She grew up beside the sea and is wild about swimming. Now she lives and works beside ancient woodland in north London where she has both an indoor and outdoor ecopsychotherapy practice.
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/finding-our-way-home-to-nature-as-sacred/
LOCATION:Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://paricenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Recovering-the-soul-2-2-e1668090090370.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221113T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221113T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221002T160456Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240324T223842Z
UID:10000211-1668362400-1668369600@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:The Sacred as Immanent in a Sentient World
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tz3JjQ2tgM\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Sacred as Immanent in a Sentient World \n\n\n\nwith Peter Reason \n\n\n\nSunday November 13\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nWhat does it mean to live on Earth as Gaia—that is to say\, as a living\, vital entity in which many kinds of beings create meaning and tell stories? If we invoke such a world of sentient presence\, calling to other-than-human beings as persons\, might we be graced with a response? And what does this mean for recovering the sacred? \n\n\n\nOver the past four years I have initiated and participated in a series of co-operative inquiries\, drawing on Freya Mathews’ articulation of ‘living cosmos panpsychism.’ In this talk I will give some accounts of our experiences from these inquiries\, narratives of occasions when the world has indeed ‘answered back’ to our invocation. From this I will say something about living cosmos panpsychism that has underpinned our work. \n\n\n\nI will continue to explore the ethical position inherent in this perspective—the ought which is ontological\, at the core of what is. This is the Law in the pattern in things that enables the living cosmos to renew and re-articulate itself in perpetuity. It provides an understanding of the sacred as immanent\, and offers a foundation for a more ontologically reverent\, cosmocentric way of inhabiting the world. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPeter Reason \n\n\n\nAs 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. \n\n\n\nSince 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. \n\n\n\nPeter is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath.
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/the-sacred-as-immanent-in-a-sentient-world/
LOCATION:Online
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221119T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221119T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221004T102032Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T153900Z
UID:10000212-1668880800-1668888000@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:Towards a Transmaterialist Science of the Sacred
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gIYNYys3DU\n\n\n\n\n\nTowards a Transmaterialist Science of the Sacred \n\n\n\nwith Bernard Carr and Alex Gomez-Marin \n\n\n\nSaturday November 19\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nScience is traditionally associated with the material world but in this conversation Bernard (President of the Scientific and Medical Network) and Alex (Director of the Pari Center) will discuss whether\, and to what extent\, it can be expanded to accommodate the worlds of mind and spirit. This is the remit of what is sometimes termed ‘postmaterialist’ science\, although ‘transmaterialist science’ is another possible designation\, this requiring a change in the nature of both science and scientists themselves. From this perspective\, the sacred can be found in all three worlds and not just the domain of spirit. While materialist science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of a divine element in the universe\, an expanded version may reinforce the link between science and spirituality\, thus healing a bifurcation that harms both our planet and our humanity. The conversation will include a brief presentation in which Bernard introduces his hyperdimensional theory\, this unifying the three worlds by invoking extra dimensions beyond ordinary space and time. This suggests that consciousness is fundamental and not necessarily restricted to brains\, with evolution operating on the level of mind and spirit as well as body. This is congruent with Alex’s research as a neuroscientist\, investigating the strong version of the extended mind hypothesis\, in which memory and perception are non-local and the brain has a permissive rather than a productive function. \n\n\n\nConsciousness is also associated with life\, which might itself be regarded as sacred. But there may be forms of life beyond our own planet and the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would surely have a huge impact on humanity—technologically\, culturally and spiritually. The future scientist will need to be a well-versed practitioner of the science of the sacred. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBernard 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nÀlex Gómez-Marín is a Spanish physicist turned neuroscientist. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics and a Masters in biophysics from the University of Barcelona. He was a research fellow at the EMBL-CRG Centre for Genomic Regulation and at the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Lisbon. His research spans from the origins of the arrow of time to the neurobiology of action-perception in flies\, worms\, mice\, humans and robots. Since 2016 he is the head of the Behavior of Organisms Laboratory at the Instituto de Neurociencias in Alicante\, where he is an Associate Professor of the Spanish Research Council. Combining high-resolution experiments\, computational and theoretical biology\, and continental philosophy\, his latest research concentrates on real-life cognition and consciousness.
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/towards-a-transmaterialist-science-of-the-sacred/
LOCATION:Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://paricenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Recovering-the-soul-2-e1666272209342.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221120T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221120T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221004T111745Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T154036Z
UID:10000213-1668967200-1668974400@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:The Loss and Recovery of the Sacred
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://youtu.be/e22uwZFa30o?si=ghyq7F8dDHl-nA3s\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Loss and Recovery of the Sacred \n\n\n\nwith Anne Baring \n\n\n\nSunday November 20\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nJesus said that men do not put new wine in old bottles\, lest the bottles break and the wine is lost. There is new wine pouring into our culture from different sources: new bottles are being created to hold it. This talk will explore aspects of the new wine and the new bottles. It will also explore when\, where and how we lost a vital aspect of the sacred\, together with visionary imagination and experience. In focussing so much on the rational mind\, we have lost touch with the heart and the soul. For increasing numbers\, religion has become meaningless. God has been pronounced dead—an outgrown superstition. But while the image of the sacred may die\, the Sacred cannot die. After an interval marked by cultural and social disintegration\, chaos and despair\, a new image may appear\, unheralded\, from the depths of the human psyche. We are living at such a time\, in the final stages of an old era and the birth of a new one. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnne Baring b. 1931. MA Oxon. PhD (Hons) in Wisdom Studies Ubiquity University 2018. Jungian Analyst\, author and co-author of 7 books including\, with Jules Cashford\, The Myth of the Goddess; Evolution of an Image; with Andrew Harvey\, The Mystic Vision and The Divine Feminine; with Dr Scilla Elworthy\, Soul Power: An Agenda for a Conscious Humanity. Also a book for children\, The Birds Who Flew Beyond Time. Her most recent book The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul (2013\, updated and reprinted 2020) was awarded the Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize for 2013. The ground of all her work is a deep interest in the spiritual\, mythological\, shamanic and artistic traditions of different cultures. Her websites are devoted to the affirmation of a new vision of reality and the issues facing us at this crucial time of choice. www.annebaring.com and www.anne-baring.com
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/the-loss-and-recovery-of-the-sacred/
LOCATION:Online
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://paricenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/7-e1664975569379.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221123T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221123T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221016T144725Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240423T200821Z
UID:10000217-1669226400-1669231800@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:The Future Scientist - A Conversation with Dr. Jordi Pigem
DESCRIPTION:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs1FuPevbtQ\n\n\n\n\n\nA Conversation between Dr. Jordi Pigem and Dr. Àlex Gómez-Marín \n\n\n\nWednesday November 239:00am PST  | 12:00pm EST  | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\nThe session is live and all registered participants will receive the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nYou are not a robot. And yet it is necessary to say the obvious. Under the spell of techno-capitalism\, machines are made in the image of people\, and people in the image of machines. At the same time\, the distinction between true and false is waning as virtual worlds are proclaimed by academic and technocratic celebrities as a sort of “reality+”. The artificial is the new natural. And the Orwellian\, the new normal. In this installment of The Future Scientist we will draw attention to the roots\, falsehoods\, and perils of “post-truth” in the context of the so-called fourth industrial revolution — to distract and confuse\, to discipline and punish\, such are the means of totalitarianism\, now overpowered by digital media. If not dark\, the mirror of science has become rather blurred. Who to trust\, and why? The post-pandemic challenges of global control and dehumanization apply not only to science\, but also to education\, health\, and the economy. Despite the accelerated proliferation of scientism (and precisely because of this)\, science still has a vital role to play. A post-materialist view of consciousness and of life may bring back the critical free thought we have missed\, and the joy we have lost. In the context of the covert philosophies and confounded ideologies that scientists profess\, and also in the context of actual science itself\, we will attempt a vital conversation in the minor key. \n\n\n\nThis event is free and open to everyone.  \n\n\n\nJoin the event at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84980605546 \n\n\n\nA monthly virtual encounter to understand where science is going and to reimage where we hope it might go. \n\n\n\nFollowing an hour-long lively and spontaneous dialogue between Alex and his guests\, the sessions will be open to questions from the audience. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJordi Pigem holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona. He devoted his doctoral work to the intercultural thought of the philosopher and theologian Raimon Panikkar\, being also the author of the edition and introduction of Raimon Panikkar\, Ecosophy: the wisdom of the Earth (2021). From 1998 to 2003 he was a professor of Philosophy of Science in the Masters in Holistic Science at the Schumacher College in England. He currently teaches several courses in Spanish universities. He is the author\, amongst other books\, of the following Spanish titles: Pandemic and post-truth: Life\, consciousness and the fourth industrial revolution (2021)\, Thus speaks the Earth (2021)\, Angels or robots: the human condition in the hyper-technological society (2018)\, and Vital intelligence: a postmaterialist vision of life and consciousness (2016). He was granted the Philosophical Award of the Institute of  Catalan Studies in 1999\, the Essay Award of Resurgenceand the Scientific and Medical Network in 2006\, and the prestigious Joan Maragall Award in 2016. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDr Àlex Gómez-Marín is a Spanish physicist turned neuroscientist. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics and a Masters in biophysics from the University of Barcelona. He was a research fellow at the EMBL-CRG Centre for Genomic Regulation and at the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Lisbon. His research spans from the origins of the arrow of time to the neurobiology of action-perception in flies\, worms\, mice\, humans and robots. Since 2016 he is the head of the Behavior of Organisms Laboratory at the Instituto de Neurociencias in Alicante\, where he is an Associate Professor of the Spanish Research Council. Combining high-resolution experiments\, computational and theoretical biology\, and continental philosophy\, his latest research concentrates on real-life cognition and consciousness. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Future Scientist Series\n\n\n\nScience as we know it is a relatively recent human invention. \n\n\n\nAfter the ‘scientific revolution’ of the seventeenth century\, science and philosophy remained entangled as ‘natural philosophy’ until they started to separate in the nineteenth century (the very word ‘scientist’ was coined in 1834). Subsequently\, science morphed from an activity carried out by wealthy people as a hobby (the ‘amateur\,’ in the etymological sense of the word) into a paid job within an institutionalized system (the ‘professional’). Paradoxically or not\, great ideas come more easily from people who are not paid to have them—it’s like forcing someone to be free\, or compelling creativity by an act of will. \n\n\n\nIn the last decades\, a series of technological and societal changes have further accelerated mutations of what it means to be a scientist; from the selection forces cast by neoliberalism on ‘scientific careers\,’ to the kind of ‘science in the age of selfies’ that social media promotes. Scientists too are prey to the perverse dynamics of nowadays ‘attention economy.’ To understand what scientists do and why they do it\, one must also understand the political and social contexts in which they live. \n\n\n\nIn addition\, the rise of ‘big science’—initially in physics (particle physics and astronomy)\, and subsequently in life and mind sciences (genomics\, and connectomics)—is reconfiguring the landscape typically inhabited by the romantic figure of the lone scientist receiving visions in dream-like states of consciousness and\, eventually\, advancing science in a stroke of genius. In turn\, the idea of the scientist bred in the current academe is that of a diligent caffeinated deluxe technician as a part within the larger mechanism of research group army; a person trained exquisitely (and almost exclusively) on a research aspect\, a specialist unable to keep track of what goes on beyond the narrow confines of his/her discipline. Young scientists are indeed trained to be good at following rules and procedures (explicit laboratory protocols\, but also implicit codes of conduct and metaphysical commitments) but discouraged to learn to see when and how to transcend them. \n\n\n\nIn turn\, the more recent promises of ‘big data’ and ‘artificial intelligence’ posit a near-future landscape where some of the core skills and tasks traditionally attributed to humans may be soon carried out by machines (or so the ‘scientific soteriologists’ claim). Algorithms are not just ingenious means to an end that require human intervention to imbue them with meaning\, but are swiftly becoming ends in themselves\, pretending they offer an automated unbiased interpretation of the data. \n\n\n\nA re-appraisal of the habits of the modern scientist entails an ethical dimension as well: why do we treat animals as objects (as means\, rather than ends in themselves)\, why do we study life in laboratories primarily by killing it\, and why do we study life in laboratories in the first place? These questions also reflect on ecological considerations regarding our place in nature (humans in relationship with other animals\, and other kingdoms of life) and our destruction of the planet. Francis Bacon’s prophetic vision of the Promethean scientist\, so vividly captured in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein\, has become both a cautionary tale and an inspiration. \n\n\n\nIn addition\, and despite the real ‘paradigm changes’ in physics at the beginning of the twentieth century\, other branches of science such as biology and neuroscience remain under the spell of philosophical promissory materialism. Research facts are sold in tandem with covert metaphysical commitments. The objective-subjective divide still puzzles both scientists and the layperson. The mind-body problem remains to be solved (or dissolved). \n\n\n\nIn sum\, the whole enterprise seems to be committed to suppressing broad thinkers\, promoting academics that look more like corporate managers\, PR mavericks and professional fund-raisers and less like scholars\, who are asked to inhibit their interest in philosophy\, and to cast suspicion on their fertile imagination. Dogma and habit are inhibiting free inquiry. \n\n\n\nIt is as if science as a whole is becoming less scientific. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn the face of this milieu of factors\, in this series of online events we seek to reflect on what ‘the future scientist’ may look like. This is an ambitious exercise indeed\, which goes beyond mere theoretical speculation. It is not unlikely that sooner than we think current science will be unrecognizable to most of us. The consequences for humanity writ large\, not just for scientists themselves\, are pressing. \n\n\n\nThe question at stake is whether by ‘future scientist’ we mean what scientists in the future are all likely to look like\, or what a future better scientist might look like. In our conversations we will engage more in prescribing than in predicting\, that is\, we might begin by describing where science is going (prediction) to then describe where we hope science might go (prescription). Attempting the art of ‘dia-logos\,’ we hope to express a creative voice that will enlighten the way of a new science in the twenty-first century. \n\n\n\nThe series will be direct conversations\, that is\, no formal presentation of the invited speaker but a kind of ‘thinking aloud’ in the mode of a dialogue between each guest and Àlex Gómez-Marín as the conversation host. The idea is to engage critically with various aspects of ‘the future scientist’ in a lively and spontaneous format for approximately 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by comments and questions from the audience. Each conversation will take place virtually\, on a Wednesday each month. \n\n\n\nThe invited speakers to The Future Scientist series are chosen not just as great interlocutors to discuss these issues\, but also as exemplars and hints of what ‘the future scientist’ may actually look like here and now.
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/the-future-scientist-a-conversation-with-dr-jordi-pigem/
LOCATION:Online
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221126T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221126T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221004T113611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T154219Z
UID:10000214-1669485600-1669492800@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:Recovering a Sense of the Sacred – an Evolutionary Imperative
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://youtu.be/hM2TknIlvNE?si=_A5jk7EnW27grTzg\n\n\n\n\n\nRecovering a Sense of the Sacred – an Evolutionary Imperative \n\n\n\nwith David Lorimer \n\n\n\nSaturday November 26\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nScientific materialism and modern consumerism have led to a widespread loss of a sense of the sacred where Nature is regarded as dead and a resource to exploit for monetary gain. Correspondingly\, the human being is understood in mechanistic terms\, and the vision of transhumanism and technocracy is a future ‘upgrade of the human operating system’ where we are\, in the memorably chilling phrase of Yuval Noah Harari\, simply hackable animals. The very nature of what it means to be human is now at stake\, and a recovery of a sense of the sacred with respect to both humans and Nature is now an evolutionary imperative. This entails resisting the transhumanist agenda of universal surveillance and control\, and forging a beneficial relationship both with Nature and emerging technologies with human flourishing at the centre; also recognising the centrality of our transcendent nature that gives us access to deeper structures of reality. In the words of King Charles III\, the watchword is Harmony. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDavid Lorimer\, MA\, PGCE\, FRSA is a writer\, lecturer\, poet\, editor and spiritual activist who is a Founder of Character Education Scotland\, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network (www.scientificandmedical.net) and former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society (www.swedenborgsociety.org.uk). He has also been editor of Paradigm Explorer since 1986 and completed his 100th issue in 2019. 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 every year since the late 1980s. \n\n\n\nOriginally 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 Survival? Death as Transition (1984\, 2017) Resonant Mind (originally Whole in One) (1990/2017)\, The Spirit of Science (1998)\, Thinking Beyond the Brain (2001)\, The Protein Crunch (with Jason Drew) and A New Renaissance (edited with Oliver Robinson). He has edited three books about the Bulgarian sage Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov): Prophet for our Times (1991\, 2015)\, The Circle of Sacred Dance\, and Gems of Love\, which is a translation of his prayers and formulas into English. His book on the ideas and work of the Prince of Wales – Radical Prince (2003) – has been translated into Dutch\, Spanish and French. His new book of essays\, A Quest for Wisdom was published in 2021. \n\n\n\nDavid is also Chair of the Galileo Commission (www.galileocommission.org) which seeks the expand the evidence base of science of consciousness beyond a materialistic world view. \n\n\n\nIn 2020 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award as a Visionary Leader by the Visioneers International Network and the 2021 Aboca Human Ecology Prize. He is a Creative Member of the Club of Budapest. His website is www.davidlorimer.co.uk
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/recovering-a-sense-of-the-sacred-an-evolutionary-imperative/
LOCATION:Online
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221127T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Rome:20221127T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T102532
CREATED:20221004T115642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250411T154422Z
UID:10000215-1669572000-1669579200@paricenter.com
SUMMARY:Weaving a Web of Meaning: How Recognizing Our Deep Interrelatedness Lays a Path to Sustainable Flourishing
DESCRIPTION:Watch the recording\n\n\n\n\n\nhttps://youtu.be/T_dUhQE6TlM?si=JlXotccW7_WMoCpj\n\n\n\n\n\nwith Jeremy Lent \n\n\n\nSunday November 27\, 20229:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET \n\n\n\n2-hour session \n\n\n\nThe session is live and you will be sent the RECORDING. \n\n\n\nOur dominant worldview tells us we’re split between mind and body\, separate from each other\, and at odds with the natural world. This worldview has passed its expiration date: it’s based on a series of flawed assumptions that have been superseded by modern scientific findings. In this talk\, based on themes from his recent book\, The Web of Meaning\, author Jeremy Lent will discuss how another worldview is possible—recognizing our deep interrelatedness with all of life. \n\n\n\nShowing how modern scientific knowledge echoes the ancient wisdom of earlier cultures\, the talk weaves together findings from modern systems thinking\, evolutionary biology\, and cognitive neuroscience with insights from Buddhism\, Taoism\, and Indigenous wisdom. \n\n\n\nTo see the Full Recovering the Sacred Program\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJeremy Lent\, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as ‘one of the greatest thinkers of our age\,’ is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis\, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His award-winning books\, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning\, and The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe\, trace the historical underpinnings and flaws of the dominant worldview\, and offer a foundation for an integrative worldview that could lead humanity to a flourishing future. He has written extensively about the vision of\, and pathways toward\, an ecological civilization and is founder of the Deep Transformation Network.
URL:https://paricenter.com/event/weaving-a-web-of-meaning-how-recognizing-our-deep-interrelatedness-lays-a-path-to-sustainable-flourishing/
LOCATION:Online
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