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

This session begins with recollections by David Schrum of his times with David Peat and David Bohm and with anecdotes from and reflections on these. Occasions with Bohm bring into focus his exploration of the mind and his insight into human consciousness in its individual and societal dimensions. David Peat collaborated with Bohm to develop and enhance presentation of this work in their writing together of Science, Order and Creativity. After Bohm’s death, Peat continued to bring attention to Bohm’s physics, philosophy, and exploration of mind, writing his biography Infinite Potential; initiating and cowriting the film of the same name; and establishing the Pari Center with Maureen Doolan, where the philosopher-scientist’s work was a focus.

In Bohm’s teaching we find an invitation to journey—individually by reflection and collectively in dialogue—through our surface mind and into hidden territories in which new orders of understanding open out. We propose, in our time together, to step beyond the conceptual and intellectual and to enter such a voyage of exploration. A key part of David Bohm’s lifework is reflected in the large body of recorded dialogues with J. Krishnamurti in which they sought to bring listeners into such a journey of self-discovery. Krishnamurti was a world-renowned spiritual teacher who spoke to large audiences on these matters throughout his life.

As we examine these issues, we will enter the challenge of awakening to the new order of cognition to which we are called by Bohm and Krishnamurti. Our focus will be the swiftly moving, dynamic, subtle dimensions of mind, to find out what it means to touch into these and from there move more deeply.