17th May 1997 England - Science, Heresy and the Challenge of Revolutionary Ideas SCIENCE, HERESY AND THE CHALLENGE OF REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS THE MAY DIALOGUE AN OPEN CONFERENCEof the SCIENTIFIC and MEDICAL NETWORK Professor Chris Clarke Professor Arthur Ellison Professor Brian Goodwin Dr. Peter Mansfield   SCIENCE, HERESY AND THE CHALLENGE OF REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS   In advocating what he called 'radical empiricism', William James commented that "in admitting a new body of experience, we instinctively seek to disturb as little as possible our pre-existing stock of ideas. We always try to name a new experience in some way which will assimilate it to what we already know. We hate anything absolutely new... so we take the nearest name, even though it may be inappropriate". The challenge of revolutionary new ideas in science and medicine can be deeply disturbing to entrenched orthodoxies, especially if they believe that it might entail rewriting the fundamentals of their discipline. The day will explore the possibility of an extended framework within which phenomena currently regarded as anomalous might be accommodated.   Science endeavours to maintain a balance between openness to new ideas and critical rigour in assessing them. In considering the validity of a new contribution it is important to distinguish between a priori dismissal based on pre-existing philosophical assumptions (prejudices by another word!) and genuine questioning arising from a careful consideration of evidence and hypothesis or explanation. What, for instance, is the difference between explaining and explaining away? Why is one explanation considered satisfactory and another unacceptable? What are the circumstances of a 'paradigm shift'? We will be looking at issues of this kind in physics, biology, parapsychology and medicine and look forward to your contribution to our dialogue. PROGRAMME 9.00 Onwards. Registration. 9.40 Introduction by Dr. Peter Fenwick. 10.00 Professor Brian Goodwin: Challenges to Darwinian Orthodoxy. 10.45 Coffee 11.15 Professor Chris Clarke: Superstition or Liberation: Heretical Ideas and the Physical Sciences. 12.00 Dialogue on physics and biology 12.45 Lunch 2.15 Dr. Peter Mansfield: Genes Run Cells, but Who Runs the Genes? Completing Biology with a Concept of Health. 3.00 Professor Arthur Ellison: The Unenunciated Paradigm: Science as Scientism. 3.45 Tea 4.15 Dialogue on medicine and parapsychology 5.00 Dialogue with all speakers and audience 5.30 Conclusions   SPEAKERS Dr. Peter Fenwick, M.B., B.Chir., B.A., D.P.M., F.R.C.Psych. is former consultant clinical neuropsychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital and remains consultant clinical neurophysiologist at the Radcliffe Infirmary. He is Chairman of the Scientific and Medical Network Council. Professor Brian Goodwin, M.Sc., M.A. (Oxon), Ph.D., F.R.S.A. is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University, and, as a Rhodes Scholar, mathematics at Oxford. His current focus is on the understanding of biological process in terms of the transformation of organised wholes and their natural states of order, using the sciences of complexity and theories of emergence. His most recent book is How the Leopard Changed Its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity. Professor Chris Clarke, M.A., Ph.D. is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Southampton. His main research area is gravitation theory and the nature of space-time, which he has more recently combined with research on magnetic measurements of the brain and on the nature of consciousness. He has a practical interest in religious experience and is author of the recently published Reality Through the Looking Glass. Dr. Peter Mansfield, M.A., M.B., B.Chir., F.P.Cert., Cert. G.A.M. was educated at Caius College, Cambridge and University College Hospital Medical School. He spent 25 years as an NHS GP, exploring health and discovering how to enhance it directly. He founded the Templegarth Trust for this purpose and developed Good Health Keeping as a true service for health, through which he now works exclusively. His books include The Good Health Handbook and Chemical Children. He is presenter of "The Health Experiment' for Anglia Television, and hopes one day to see a General Health Council subsume the GMC. Professor Emeritus Arthur Ellison, D.Sc.(Eng), C.Eng. is an electrical and mechanical engineer. He has long been interested in Theosophy and psychical research and for some years was Chairman of the Theosophical Research Centre and its Science Group. He has twice been President of the Society for Psychical Research and is now a Vice President. A member of the Network Council since its inception, he is also a Vice President. He has researched all areas of the paranormal and is at present busy on Consciousness, especially lucid dreaming and individuals claiming out-of-body experiences.