Category: Lectures

Matter and Desire with Andreas Weber

Could it be that our planet is not suffering primarily from a financial crisis, or even an ecological one, but from a critical lack of love? Andreas Weber asks a radical and challenging question. In speaking of love and of eroticism, Weber is not referring to sentimental feelings, but to a new basis for ontology itself, based on a mix of cutting-edge biological findings and philosophical insights. A German biologist and eco-philosopher, Weber delves deep into the continuity and connections between our bodies and those of all living beings. In this talk he will discuss his new book Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology. Written in the tradition of John Muir and Rachel Carson, the book weaves personal narrative and lyrical descriptions with a discussion of ecology and psychology, offering a new—and necessary—way to move through nature to ultimately achieve a heightened sense of self-awareness. The book is part of Weber’s larger project of developing an eco-philosophy—or as Weber calls it, a “biopoetics”—for the Anthropocene.

Gross National Happiness Conference Panel One: How do you govern for Happiness?

How do you measure and govern for happiness? Harvard Divinity School hosted an international conference on April 13, 2019, inspired by the Gross National Happiness policies of the Kingdom of Bhutan. During this conference, academics, practitioners, politicians, corporate leaders and spiritual leaders sought answers to the question of universal happiness. This panel covered the Bhutanese statecraft on Economics and the Spirit of GNH. Panelists included Dasho Karma Tshiteem, Professor Sophus Reinert, Professor Wolfgang Drechsler, and Professor John Helliwell.

What’s eating the universe? – with Paul Davies

What are the unexplained riddles of the universe? Award-winning physicist Paul Davies talks you through the strange enigmas that have preoccupied cosmologists from ancient Greece to the present day.

Laying bare the audacious research that has led us to mind-bending solutions, Paul will tell you how we might begin to approach the greatest outstanding enigmas of all. Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist and best-selling science author. He has published about 30 books and hundreds of research papers and review articles across a range of scientific fields. He is also well-known as a media personality and science populariser in several countries. His research interests have focused mainly on quantum gravity, early universe cosmology, the theory of quantum black holes and the nature of time. He has also made important contributions to the field of astrobiology, and was an early advocate of the theory that life on Earth may have originated on Mars. For several years he has also been running a major cancer research project, and developed a new theory of cancer based on tracing its deep evolutionary origins. Among his many awards are the 1995 Templeton Prize, the Faraday Prize from The Royal Society, the Kelvin Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics, the Robinson Cosmology Prize and the Bicentenary Medal of Chile. He was made a member of the Order of Australia in the 2007 Queen’s birthday honours list and the asteroid 6870 Pauldavies is named after him.

This talk was filmed at the Royal Institution on 21 September 2021.

THE INCONCEIVABLE REALM A visual introduction to Mahayana Buddhist Cosmology, with MC Owens

Buddhist cosmology is typically divided into two traditions, an early, abhidharma system, which has many similarities to traditional Indian cosmology, and a later Mahayana system that, while in dialogue with both those systems, is a unique tradition unto itself, with a truly inconceivable cosmology.

On January 31, 2020, M.C. Owens gave a visual presentation for the SFDC called Escape from Samsara ( • Escape from Samsa… ), introducing the original Buddhist view of the cosmos and general understandings about Time & Space within the Buddhist tradition. The Inconceivable Realm expands upon these ideas and goes into depth exploring one of the primary concepts of Mahayana Buddhist cosmology, the Trisāhasra-mahāsāhasra-lokadhātu (‘Three Thousand, Great Thousand World-System’) – the billion-fold holographic multiverse

Cellular Immortality, a New Theory of Senescence and Rejuvenation

Rupert proposed a new hypothesis of cellular rejuvenation in an article in Nature in 1974, and in 2023 published a review article entitled ‘Cellular Senescence, Rejuvenation and Potential Immortality’ in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, summarising results of recent research, which support his hypothesis. In this talk he gives an overview of this hypothesis, which applies to cells of all kinds, including bacteria and yeasts as well as plants and animals, and he shows how it sheds new light on the nature of stem cells. In mammals, embryonic stem cells have a special property that enables them to divide indefinitely without senescing and Rupert suggests that cancerous transformations involve the hijacking of this embryonic stem cell system. He suggests ways in which this hypothesis could be tested, and shows how it could lead to new approaches in cancer therapy – by blocking the rejuvenative system that cancers have acquired. If this system were inhibited, then cancer cells might senesce like most other somatic cells and become less virulent.

This is one of six talks on potential breakthroughs in the sciences. The full series, together with course materials, including relevant chapters from Rupert’s books and scientific papers, are available for a reduced price of £35 (as of June 30, 2023).

Exploring Ball Lightning related to Cold Fusion, UFOs, Crop Circles, and Bigfoot | Simeon Hein

Research from John Hutchinson, Kenneth Shoulders, and more recently the Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project, building on the discoveries and ideas of inventor Nikola Tesla, have shown how large amounts of energy can be emitted from superconducting Exotic Vacuum Objects; tightly bound, coherent electron clusters whose behavior is described by fluid vortex dynamics. Such tightly compressed energy entities are regularly produced by Cold Fusion and LENR systems. These EVOs can create “strange radiation”, antigravity, and have been called micro Ball Lightning by scientists such as Takaaki Matsumoto and Russian researchers. This presentation suggests that electric anomalies like cars stalling and batteries draining as repeatedly experienced by witnesses around non-ordinary phenomena like UFOs, orbs, and related encounters are, in fact, related to this previously unrecognized type of coherent matter and its ability to tunnel through solid surfaces, transmute chemical elements, and create sudden, high-energy discharges when these energy wave clusters collapse.

The Beginnings of this Universe – How Our Virtual Reality and the System Evolved

Tom suspects that the Larger Consciousness System (LCS) was still in the process of growing up while our virtual reality was already being inhabited by us, the Individuated Units of Consciousness. This may explain why there is a such a stark contrast in the God of the Old Testament versus the New Testament. Old mythological tales may have some truth to them, as the rules and interference done by the LCS was much different in the past versus the present.

The Art and Science of Meditation

What is Meditation? How do I Meditate? What are the different types and schools of Meditation? I have difficulty sitting still for even 5 minutes – how can I Meditate? What does it do for me and how can it help in my life? What happens to my brain in Meditation? Will my mind transform through Meditation? How far can I go with Meditation? Is Meditation only for mystical or religious people or can anyone do it? Universal Quest founder, teacher and filmmaker Raja Choudhury, Dr. Karan Singh, Brahmachari Prasanna Swaroopa, Monish Verma and other Guests explore this complex subject at the india International Centre on 1st November 2015

Bob Roth and David Lynch ‘Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation’

Every day we face a growing epidemic of stress that is damaging to our physical and emotional health. While there is no one single cure, a simple practice dramatically changes how we respond to stress and life’s challenges: the Transcendental Meditation technique. Bob Roth, a world authority on Transcendental Meditation for forty-five years, joins us to present wisdom from his book Strength In Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation. He is joined onstage by Oscar-nominated filmmaker David Lynch, founder of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. Together they outline meditation’s scientifically proven benefits—improved focus, sleep, resilience, creativity, and memory to name a few—and demonstrate how this five-thousand-year-old technique can have a clear and direct impact on our very modern problems. They highlight the three distinct types of meditation—focused attention, open monitoring, and self-transcending—and showcase the evidence that the third, Transcendental Meditation, is the most effective and efficient way to reduce stress, access inner power, and build resilience. Join Roth and Lynch for a simple, practical, and straightforward guide to the healing and stress-reducing potential of Transcendental Meditation.

Bob Roth is one of the most experienced and sought-after meditation teachers in the world, with 45 years experience teaching Transcendental Meditation to billionaire CEOs, Hollywood celebrities, combat-scarred veterans, and inner-city youth. He currently serves as the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, and also directs the Center for Leadership Performance. Bob is the host of the SiriusXM radio show, Success Without Stress, and speaks frequently about the science of meditation to industry leaders at such gatherings as Google Zeitgeist, Aspen Ideas Festival, Wisdom2.0, and Summit.

Three-time Oscar-nominated director David Lynch is among the leading filmmakers of our era. From the early seventies to the present day, Lynch’s popular and critically acclaimed film projects, which include Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, INLAND EMPIRE, and Twin Peaks are internationally considered to have broken down the wall between art-house cinema and Hollywood moviemaking. He is founder and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace.