2002 - The Search for Unity (Silver Jubilee Conference)

An International Conference of the SCIENTIFIC and MEDICAL NETWORK

Mystics and Scientists 25

 

 

 

 

 

The Search for Unity

Mind and Heart in Science and Mysticism

King Alfred's College, Winchester, Hants, England
5th - 7th April 2002 The Search for Unity : Mind and Heart in Science and Mysticism Conference Chairmen
Prof Chris Clarke
Dr Peter Fenwick
David Lorimer 'Truth is the outcome of silent and unbroken meditation'
Sir Isaac Newton

Mystics and Scientists 25 marks the Silver Jubilee of a remarkable series of conferences initiated in 1978 by Wrekin Trust and the Scientific and Medical Network.The meetings are dedicated to forging a creative understanding of the complementary roles of science and mysticism.This year's theme takes us back to the essence of the series, namely different ways of knowing - the eye of reason and the eye of the heart - in the search for unity. We have created an exciting programme and are delighted to welcome our team of speakers who are all of international standing: physicist and mystic Professor Ravi Ravindra is making a special trip from California for his third appearance at the conference; Douglas and Catherine Harding are joining us for the first time.Then we have mystical philosopher and engineer Dr. Edi Bilimoria, molecular microbiologist Professor Marilyn Monk, mystic and psychoanalyst Anne Baring, neuroscientist Dr, Sean Spence, singer Caroline McCausland and poet Mary Sheepshanks. We very much look forward to your participation in this Silver Jubilee celebration.

Details of Conference Speakers

PROGRAMME

Friday 5th April
7.45 pm	Knowing and Being in Science and Mysticism	David Lorimer
8.30 pm	Introductory Panel exploring the theme, with audience participation
Saturday 6th April
9.15 am	The Unity of Love and Knowledge	Prof. Ravi Ravindra
11.15 am	Holistic Understanding and a Science of Qualities	Prof. Brian Goodwin
12.30 pm	Dialogue chaired by Prof Chris Clarke
2.45 pm	Optional Seminar Workshops
	Discovering our Inmost Resources	Douglas and Catherine Harding
	Sir Isaac Newton: England's Greatest Occultist and Scientist	Dr Edi Bilimoria
5.00 pm	Ways of Knowing and Being in Science	Prof. Marilyn Monk
7.45 pm	Seeing Through the Veil: Reuniting Three Dimensions of Reality	Anne Baring
9.00 pm	Reflections: A Celebration in Music and Poetry	Caroline McCausland and Mary Sheepshanks
Sunday 7th April
9.15 am	The Science of the First Person	Douglas and Catherine Harding
11.15 am	Brain Imaging and Subjective Knowing: Where We Are Now	Dr Dean Spence
12.30 am	Dialogue chaired by Dr Peter Fenwick
2.30 - 4.00 pm	Open Forum	The Lecturing Panel

Speakers:

Anne Baring MA (Oxon) was, until her recent retirement, a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology and the Association ofJungian Analysts, London. She lectures and teaches on alchemy and the archetypal dimension of the soul and is the author and co-author of. The One Work: A journey Towards the Self;The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image (with Jules Cashford); The Mystic Vision, and The Divine Feminine (with Andrew Harvey), and a book for children, The Birds Who Flew Beyond Time, illustrated by Thetis Blacker. She is currently adding new material to her website which is devoted to the exploration of the soul and the deeper issues emerging at this crucial time of choice for humanity. (www.annebaring.com).

Dr. Edi Bilimoria PhD, CEng, MFIMechE, MInstE, MInstPet, Cert.Astrol. is a Consultant Engineer for the airline, railways and oil and gas industries. He has been Project Manager and Head of Design for major projects such as the Channel Tunnel and offshore installations. Edi has a life-long devotion to classical music,Theosophy and the spiritual quest.This has included over ten years of intense exploration into the alchemical tradition, including Newton/s deeps forays into occult science, religion and mysticism. Edi is the author of Mirages in Western Science Resolved by Occult Science.

Professor Chris Clarke MA (Cantab) PhD took his PhD in Global Aspects of Relativity. Formerly Professor of Applied Mathematics and Dean of the Faculty of Mathematical Studies, University of Southampton, Deputy Editor of Classical and Quantum Gravity. He has served on the York Diocesan Synod of the Church of England. Currently Chair of Green Spirit and Chair of the Scientific and Medical Network. His books include: The Analysis of Space-Time Singularities, Reality Through the Looking Glass.

Professor Brian Goodwin, MSc, MA (Oxon), PhD, FRSA studied biology at McGill University and mathematics at Oxford before doing his PhD with Conrad Waddington in Edinburgh. He taught at the University of Sussex before moving to the Open University, where he was Professor of Biology for many years. He currently directs the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College where he a scholar in residence. He is author of How the Leopard Changed its Spots, which proposes an alternative to Neo-Darwinism based on the concept of organisms as self-organising, transforming wholes. He has had a long-standing interest in Goethean Science and a the development of a more participatory science. He is a Vice-President of the Scientific and Medical Network.

Douglas Harding, 93 years old, is a phenomenal practical spiritual teacher. In the 1930's and '40's he was asking the question Who am I? Having mapped out the layers of his being he realised he wasn't just one layer - his human identity - he was every layer. And at the heart of all these layers was boundless awareness. C.S. Lewis called Harding's book, The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth, 'a work of the highest genius'. Subsequently Harding developed awareness exercises which point directly to Who we really are - they are astonishing in their simplicity and effectiveness. Harding demonstrates that the vision ofWho you really are - Enlightenment - is wholly accessible and available at any time, whatever your mood or circumstance. He and his wife, Catherine, travel the world sharing this vision.You are warmly invited to spend time literally looking into Who you really are - enjoying your own Enlightenment! It is a seeing experience. Douglas will guide you through the awareness exercises. He is a unique and inspiring teacher with a wonderful message. It will be time well spent - discovering something marvelous about yourself! See his web site at www.headless.org

Caroline McCausland sings to her own accompaniment on the classical guitar, and was trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She also sings Elizabethan lute songs and her own compositions, some of which are settings of Mary Sheepshanks' poems. Caroline comes from Ireland and has performed at the Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall, as well as at Festivals throughout Britain and abroad. She has recently collaborated with Richard Baker in their acclaimed programme Where Youth and Pleasure Meet.

Professor Marilyn Monk, MSc, PhD is a Research Professor in the University College London Molecular Embryology Unit at the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She began her research on microbial genetics and slime moulds in 1959 and moved in the mid-1970s to the newly established MRC Mammalian Development Unit run by DameAnne McLaren FRS, where she spent the next 18 years.There she pioneered the procedures for preimplantation diagnosis of genetic disease, work that she has continued at the Institute of Child Health with the development of highly sensitive molecular procedures. She is also an Alexander Technique teacher and Psychosynthesis counsellor and is interested in bridging orthodox and complementary approaches to health and well-being. Her research is widely published in peer- reviewed scientific journals.

Prof. Ravi Ravindra BSc, MTech, MSc, MA, PhD obtained his B.Sc.(1959) in Geology & Geophysics, and Master of Technology (1961) in Exploration Geophysics from the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kharagpur. He then gained a Master of Science (1962) and Ph.D. (1965) in Physics from the University of Toronto; and a Master of Arts (1968) in Philosophy from Dalhousie University, Halifax. He held post-doctoral Fellowships in Physics (University of Toronto, 1965), History and Philosophy of Science (Princeton University 1968-69) and Religion (Columbia University 1973-74). Since 1979 he has been Professor of Comparative Religion and Adjunct Professor of Physics, Dalhousie University and since 1988 Professor of International Development Studies, Dalhousie. He has been Chair, Department of Comparative Religion, Dalhousie since 1983. Ravi was appointed to the 9-member International Board of Judges for the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, 1999-2001.Among his many books are Science and the Sacred, Heart Without Measure: GurdjieffWork with Modame jeonne de Saizmann, Yoga and the Teaching of Krishna, Krishnomurti:Two Birds on One Tree, The Yoga of the Christ in the Gospel According to St.john,Whispers from the Other Shore: Spiritua! Search East and West. Ravi first spoke at the conference in 1979.

Dr. Peter Fenwick, MB Camb, BChir, FRCPsych, DPM was educated at Trinity College Cambridge where he obtained an Honours Degree in Natural Science. His clinical medical training was carried out at St.Thomas' Hospital in London. After obtaining experience in neuro-surgery he specialised in psychiatry. Here-Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Consultant Neurophysiologist at Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, and Honorary Consultant in Neurophysiology to Broadmoor Special Hospital. He has published numerous scientific papers on brain function and also several papers on meditation and altered states of consciousness. He is aVice-President of the Scientific and Medical Network and also President of the U.K. branch of the International Association of Near-Death Studies reflecting his special interest in this field. He lectures widely in England, on the Continent and in the United States on brain disorders and has made many appearances on radio and television. He has written a series of books with his wife Elizabeth: The Truth in the Light, The Hidden Door, Post Life Memories. He is a Vice-President of the Scientific and Medical Network.

Dr. Sean Spence, MB, BS, BSc, DGM, MRCP, DRCOG, PPCert is currently Senior Clinical Lecturer in Adult Psychiatry and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the University of Sheffield. He was previously DeWitt -Wallace visiting research fellow at Cornell University, New York, USA (1999); and before that MR.C Clinical Training Fellow on the MR.C Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, London (1995 - 1998) while contemporaneously Honorary Lecturer in Psychiatry at Imperial College School of Medicine, London. He has won the Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Prize and Medal (1997) and Royal Society of Medicine Section of Psychiatry Essay Prize ( 1997). He studied Medicine at Guy's Hospital, London (1980-86), also acquired an intercalated BSc (Hons) in Psychology (1983) and won the Gillespie Prize in Psychological Medicine. He has published widely in peer-review journals and scholarly textbooks, referees for many psychiatric and neuroscience journals, is the book reviews editor of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and writes on media matters for the British Medical journal. His principal research interest is in the neuroimaging of volition in healthy subjects and those affected by neuropsychiatric disease. He is co-author (with Professor Ann Mortimer) of Managing Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia, published by Science Press, 2001. In 2001 the Second Spanish Psychopathology Symposium (in Cadiz) was devoted to his work on volition.

Mary Sheepshanks started writing poetry as a child and her first published poem appeared in the Sunday Times when she was only 17. Her poetry has been included in several anthologies and a variety of journals and poetry magazines; she has read her poetry at festivals in many parts of Britain and Ireland, and also on the radio. She has had three collections of poetry published and her novels have appeared in Britain and the USA to critical acclaim. Mary feels that poetry is about the communication of emotion and experience, both sad and humorous. She is interested in healing and the way in which mind and spirit can affect the body.

David Lorimer, MA, PGCE was Director of the Scientific and Medical Network from 1986-2000. He is now a consultant to the Network and continues to edit their Review. He is author of Survival? Rody, Mind and Death in the Light of Psychic Experience (1984) and Whole in One (1990). He is also editor of The Circle of Sacred Dance - Peter Deunov's Paneurythmy ( 1991 ), Prophet for our Times (1991) and Gems of Love (1994). More recently he has edited The Spirit of Science, Wider Horizons and iThinking Beyond the Brain. He is Chair of Wrekin Trust and the current President of the Swdeenborg Society. He was educated at Eton and the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge. After a spell in merchant banking he spent a number of years teaching modern languages and philosophy at Winchester College.