Mystics and Scientists 35

The Mystery of Consciousness and Western Meditation Traditions

20 April 2012 - 22 April 2012

Venue: University of Winchester

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Chairs: Dr. Peter Fenwick, David Lorimer

Speakers: Fr. Laurence Freeman, Rabbi Nilton Bonder, Prof. Robert Frager, Dr. Anne L.C. Runehov, Dr Raymond Tallis

The Mystics and Scientists conferences have been held every year since 1978, and are dedicated to forging a creative understanding of the complementary roles of scientific and mystical approaches to reality.

This year we are exploring the mystery of consciousness with specific reference to the Abrahamic traditions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DETAILS OF SPEAKERS and PROGRAMME

FRIDAY 22th April

Opening Wine Reception followed by dinner and introductions

David Lorimer: Introduction: Scientific and Contemplative Ways of Knowing

David Lorimer  is Programme  Director of  the Scientific and Medical Network, President of Wrekin Trust and Vice-President of the Swedenborg Society. He is editor of Thinking Beyond the Brain, Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality and co-editor of A New Renaissance. He is author of Radical Prince, and co-author of The Protein Crunch: Civilisation on the Brink.

SATURDAY  23rd April

Fr. Laurence Freeman, OSB: Ways of Knowing and Unknowing
Consciousness takes many forms. Different ways of knowing complement each other in the way to full consciousness over a lifetime and through the history of a culture. Laurence Freeman will explore how the “way of unknowing” in the Christian tradition relates to the other forms of understanding that are all unified in the 'vision of God'.

Fr. Laurence Freeman studied English Literature at Oxford and is a Benedictine monk of the Olivetan Congregation and the Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation. Before entering monastic life he had experience with the United Nations, banking and journalism. In the monastery his spiritual teacher was John Main with whom he studied and whom he helped in the establishment of the first Christian Meditation Centre in London. He is involved both in the recovery of the Christian contemplative tradition and the development of inter-religious dialogue from the common ground of meditation. His latest book is First Sight: The Experience of Faith. www.wccm.org

Rabbi Nilton Bonder: The Mystics of Media
In a time when science was not capable of fostering imagination on the marvels of the universe, it was the role of religion to manifest human speculations on wonder and awe. We will look at Jewish ancient traditions and references to the possibilities of media and communication as a way of survival and mystical speculation. Was there a Windows 1751? Were priests and prophets able to devise the principle of a “net”? Of a CWW , a Cosmic Wide Web?  Why was the ancient fiction interested not on “Time Travel”, but “Space Travel”, or as they called it, “Jumping the Way”? From where could they have derived a concept of “virtual reality”? What are the connections between “virtual reality” and the Messianic ideas as well as the Resurrection of the Dead?

Rabbi Nilton Bonder studied Mechanical Engineering at PUC-Columbia University in Brazil and was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary, NYC. He is part of the board of the program Education for the Future of the UN and a Member of the Council for Dignity, Forgiveness, Justice and Reconciliation - Ara Pacis Initiative, in Rome. Born in Brazil, he is a best selling author of nineteen books in Latin America. He leads one of Brazil most influential Jewish congregations and is also active in the civil rights and ecological causes. His books have been translated in Europe, Asia and  the US .

His book Our Immoral Soul was turned into a play in 2006 and considered the best play with best actress in 2007. This play is  now being staged in Buenos Aires, Argentina and there are plans to take it to Australia in 2012. Rabbi Bonder has led workshops for major corporations such as IBM, MCI, ABN-Amro, Globo Network Television, Brazilian Oil Company and delivered lectures at Boston University, New York Central Library, American Academy of Psychoanalysis, Open Center, San Francisco and New York, Nationaal Vakbodsmuseum, Amsterdam, Leiden University, State of the World Forum, Brandeis University, Jewish Museum of Prague, and United Nations Peace Conference.

Prof. Robert Frager: Models of Consciousness in the Sufi Tradition

There is a wide variety of models of consciousness in Sufism. For centuries Sufi sages have described Sufism as a path that includes distinct stages of consciousness. These include models of the levels of the heart and models of the stages of different virtues on the Sufi path. Of particular interest is the model of the stages of the nafs, which might be translated as self or ego. There are generally considered to be seven stages of the nafs, ranging from the completely self-centered, narcissistic nafs to the pure nafs, the stage of the development of a sense of unity and loss of ego. This model of inner transformation has important implications for both psychotherapy and spiritual guidance.

Professor Robert Frager is the Founder of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, where is he a Professor of Psychology and the founding Director of the Masters degree programme in Spiritual Guidance. He received his doctorate in Social Psychology from Harvard University where he worked with Erik Erikson and Stanley Milgram. For over 25 years he has been a Sufi teacher in the Turkish Halveti-Jerrahi Order. Frager is also an Aikido instructor and was a personal student of the founder of Aikido. He is the author of Personality and Personal Growth; The Wisdom of Islam; Heart, Self, and Soul: The Sufi Psychology of Growth, Balance, and Harmony; and Sufi Talks (in press). He is the editor of Essential Sufism; Love is the Wine: Teachings of a Sufi Master in America; and Sharing Sacred Stories: Current Approaches to Spiritual Direction and Guidance.

SUNDAY  22nd  April

Anne Runehov: Do Neuroscientific Explanations of Religious Experiences lead to Naturalism?
We are currently living in the age of neuroscience. There has been an explosion of interest in the psychological and the spiritual on the part of neuroscientists over the last twenty years. Perhaps the most dominating endeavour has been to find the neurological underpinnings of religious experiences. Broadly, these endeavours result in two contradicting conclusions of how to understand religious experiences. On the one side we find explanations of religious experiences in terms of the neuroactivity that generates these experiences (for example, Persinger). On the other side we find explanations in terms of having found important neuro-correlations of a set of specific religious experiences (for example, Newberg). My aim is to present contradictive neurological understandings of religious experiences in order to show how those versions of naturalism can be and are used and argue that the comprehensive ontological naturalistic version is insufficient to understand the complexity of being a human being.

Dr. Anne L.C. Runehov currently works as a guest senior researcher at the department of Systematic Theology at the Copenhagen University. She is editor in chief for the forthcoming 4-volume Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions and of the Copenhagen University Discussions in Science and Religion. She is also editor for the European Journal of Science and Theology. She is the author of Sacred or Neural? The Potential of Neuroscience to Explain Religious Experiences (2007), which is based on the doctoral thesis for which she received the 2006 ESSSAT research prize. Furthermore, she is the director of the Copenhagen Network for Science and Religion, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Her main research interests have been Neuroscience, Cognitive Science and Quantum Mechanics studied from a perspective of Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology and Philosophy of Science.
  
Dr Raymond Tallis: Why Neuroscience Will Never Explain Consciousness
The belief that consciousness is identical with activity in certain parts of the brain, so that ‘you are your brain’  is now widely accepted. It is, however, mistaken. While the brain is a necessary condition of every aspect of consciousness, from the slightest tingle of sensation to the most exquisitely constructed sense of self, neural activity is not sufficient by itself to explain consciousness. This is evident from the fact that there is no fundamental difference between that small minority of neural activity correlated with consciousness  and that which is not associated with consciousness.
Acknowledging that the failure to arrive a neural account of consciousness is not a temporary problem which will be resolved by further research will open the way to a necessary fundamental re-think that will help us towards an understanding the difference between brains and people.

Dr. Raymond Tallis, FRCP, DLitt, FMedSci
Between 1987 and 2006 Raymond Tallis was Professor  of Geriatric Medicine at the University of  Manchester and  a  consultant  physician in Health Care of  the  Elderly  in Salford. He also advised the government on health care of older people and in particular on the development of stroke services. Most of his 200 research publications are in the field of neurology of old age (epilepsy and stroke) and neurological rehabilitation.  He has published original articles in Nature Medicine, Lancet and other leading journals. In 2002 he was awarded the Dhole Eddlestone Prize; in 2006 the Founders Medal of the British Geriatrics Society; and in  2007, the Lord Cohen Gold Medal for Research into Ageing.

He has also published fiction (a novel and short stories), three volumes of poetry, and 20  books on the philosophy of mind, philosophical anthropology, literary theory, the nature of art,  and cultural criticism.  These offer a critique of current predominant intellectual trends and an alternative understanding of human consciousness, the nature of language and of what it is to be a human being.  He writes regularly for The Times  and has a column in Philosophy Now. His latest book is Aping Mankind. Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity.

Accommodation 

On site - in single rooms. Please indicate if you require special accommodation considerations due to a physical disability.

Off site – we have reserved 20 en suite rooms at the Winchester Hotel, with a bed and breakfast rate of £153 per room for two nights. These rooms will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis and must be booked and paid for directly by delegates (i.e. not through the SMN office) in addition to the non-residential conference fee. Address: the Winchester Hotel, Worthy Lane, Winchester SO23 7AB, telephone 01962 709988/ fax 01962 840862. You will need to quote the booking reference SMN1504. The rooms will only be held until the end of January.

Conference Fees

Members

Residential £250       (early bird - £230)
Non-residential £215   (early bird - £195)

Non-Members

Residential £265       (early bird - £245)
Non-residential £230 (early bird - £210) 

Fees include accommodation (for residential delegates), lecture programme, and all meals, except breakfast for non-residents. They are payable in full on booking. Vegetarian meals provided. A small number of bursaries are available – please contact the office to discuss.

Concessions available – please enquire: info@scimednet