Body and Beyond 3

Scientific and Spiritual Perspectives on the Subtle Body

24 August 2012 - 26 August 2012

Venue: Latimer Place, Chesham, Buckinghamshire

Following our highly successful 2010 conference on Mind as Healer, Mind as Destroyer, we are turning our attention this year to the nature and interpretation of the subtle body. Conventional science recognises only the physical body, but there are many indications from our own experiences and from spiritual traditions of the existence of one or more subtle bodies interpenetrating the physical. Our speakers will address various aspects of this vital topic. Professor Carlos Alvarado is an expert in the history of psychical research and will explore the concept of the ‘double’ in apparitions and OBEs, while Professor David Hufford will discuss the concept of the subtle body in NDEs, after-death contacts and sleep paralysis. Professor Geoffrey Samuel will compare Eastern and Western views on the subtle body, while Dr. Edi Bilimoria will describe Theosophical models and their implications for our sense of self. Sandie Gustus will focus on experiential aspects of the subtle body and describe a new model of consciousness and reality which is able to accommodate them rather than explain them away.

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CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Friday

Opening wine reception, followed by dinner, welcome from the President, Dr.Peter Fenwick and introductions by SMN Chair Prof. Bernard Carr and Programme Director David Lorimer.

Saturday

Carlos S. Alvarado, PhD: The Double: Concepts of Subtle Bodies in the Spiritualist and Psychical Research Literatures

This presentation will summarise aspects of the spiritualist and psychical research literatures containing discussions of what has been referred to as the ‘double’. This term has been used to designate a hypothetical semi-physical replica of the human body said to interpenetrate the physical body and to be capable of separating from it, sometimes carrying consciousness. The concept is not very precise and has included different types of ideas about various subtle bodies. Such principles have been invoked to account for out-of-body experiences, various types of apparitions of the living, clairvoyant visions of death, mediumistic materialisations and auras. The presentation will include summaries of theoretical ideas, research, and case analyses used in the past to support the existence of a double. The materials to be reviewed were published between the late nineteenth-century and the 1950s and include all the leading researchers of the era.

 

David J. Hufford, PhD: The Subtle Body in Near-Death Experiences, After-Death Contacts and Sleep Paralysis

Near-death experiences, after-death contacts and sleep paralysis with a spiritual presence, although long classified as rare pathological events, are now known to be common and normal. These compellingly real spiritual experiences of ordinary people include the perception of non-material bodies. They are therefore an important source for subtle body philosophy within spiritual traditions. These experiences have substantial similarities but also some dramatic differences that suggest the possibility of interaction with different planes. Their robust cross-cultural similarities make them ideal candidates for scientific study.

 

Sandie Gustus: The Consciential Paradigm – Multidimensionality and the OBE

The conventional scientific paradigm, based on matter and energy, fails to answer many questions about the nature of consciousness. Sandie Gustus will introduce the consciential paradigm, a new scientific paradigm proposed by the Brazilian physician Waldo Vieira, which recognises our reality as multidimensional. Within this framework, the OBE is a tool that allows individual consciousness to be both the researcher and the object of study. Gustus will also talk about the characteristics of the subtle body, and how psychism can enhance ordinary, everyday life and how the International Academy of Consciousness (IAC) is currently furthering Dr. Vieira’s research.

 

Sunday

Geoffrey Samuel, PhD: Subtle Body Concepts in Asian and Western Thought: An Exploration

‘Subtle body’ concepts of various kinds occupy an intermediate space between mind and matter, with aspects both of materiality and consciousness. They are found in the sophisticated spiritual traditions of Indian and China and are also frequently encountered in preliterate traditions of small-scale societies studied by anthropologists around the world. Most often, they form part of a technology for approaching and working with the body-mind complex, accounting for aspects of its functioning that elude a simple reduction to mind and body. In contemporary New Age thought, they are familiar in such forms as chakras, auras or acupuncture meridians, and are often utilised in healing techniques. This presentation explores some of these concepts and asks how far we can make sense of them in scientific terms.

 

Edi Bilimoria, DPhil: ‘Man Know Thyself’: Do Subtle Bodies Provide a Clue?

The perennial philosophy – variously named the ancient wisdom, theosophia, the esoteric sciences, or prisca sapientia (sacred wisdom), the last being the term favoured by Newton – affirms that human consciousness, unitary in essence, expresses through a series of hierarchically organised ‘bodies’ or ‘sheaths’ ranging from the subtle to the gross physical, that correspond to the various states of consciousness in which we can live, think, remember and have our being. This talk will first present the metaphysical rationale for a prisca sapientia. Next we shall draw together some common threads of this universal teaching from sources both East (Vedanta, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism), and West (Greek mysteries, Kabbalah and Alchemy); and then show how facets of this wisdom are being complemented by modern scientific researches that provide a robust case for non-physical bodies. Finally we discuss the philosophical and practical import of insights into subtle bodies that have some bearing on our everyday living.

 

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SPEAKERS

Carlos S. Alvarado has and MA in history (Duke University), an MSc in parapsychology (John F. Kennedy University) and a PhD in psychology (University of Edinburgh). His work has centered on survey research (OBEs and other psychic experiences) and on studies of the history of psychical research. Alvarado is currently Scholar in Residence and Faculty at Atlantic University, Assistant Professor of Research at the University of Virginia, and an Adjunct Faculty Member of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Near-Death Studies and the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Scientific Exploration. Alvarado is the recipient of the 2010 Parapsychological Association’s Outstanding Career Award. He is one of the editors of Research in Parapsychology 1993 and the author of booklets introducing parapsychology to the general public (Getting Started in Parapsychology, 2002). His scientific and scholarly work has been published in psychology, psychiatry and parapsychology journals.

David Hufford retired in 2007 from his position as University Professor and Chair of Humanities, and Professor of Neural & Behavioral Science, and Family & Community Medicine at Penn State College of Medicine. He is now University Professor Emeritus at Penn State, Senior Fellow in the Brain, Mind and Healing Division of the Samueli Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Hufford has served regularly on National Institutes of Health scientific review panels. He is the author of The Terror That Comes in the Night and has published and lectured widely on spiritual experience and on spirituality and health.

Sandie Gustus has been a volunteer and instructor at the IAC since 2003. This is a global scientific research and educational organisation dedicated to the study of consciousness, and is associated with Dr Waldo Vieira. Sandie is the author of Less Incomplete: A Guide to Experiencing the Human Condition beyond the Physical Body (2011) which presents the key themes of Conscientiology and Projectiology for a general, non-academic audience.

Geoffrey Samuel is a Professor at Cardiff University, Wales, UK, where he directs the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR) Research Group. His academic career has been in social anthropology and religious studies, and his books include Mind, Body and Culture (1990), Civilised Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies (1993), Tantric Revisionings (2005) and The Origins of Yoga and Tantra (2008). He is currently working on material on Tibetan yogic health practices and Tibetan medicine, and on a research project on young Bangladeshis, Islam, marriage and the family.

di Bilimoria has been an ardent student of the perennial philosophy for some forty years, and has given courses and lectured extensively in the UK, and internationally in California, The Netherlands, India and Australia. He has organised and chaired several major conferences. His written work has been published extensively in the fields of science and the esoteric philosophy; and his book The Snake and the Rope was awarded the Network book prize in 2008. For the past two years he worked as Education Coordinator for The Theosophical Society in Australia developing study courses and study papers, researching, lecturing and organising international conferences; as well as supervising libraries and developing the website. Professionally, Edi works as a Consultant Engineer to the oil and gas, petrochemical and transport industries. He is also a great lover of classical music, a choral singer and a lifelong, active and dedicated pianist.

 

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