Tag: lectures

The Mathematics of Consciousness: Donald Hoffman

Donald Hoffman describes his mathematical theory that ties in with consciousness touching into neuroscience, computer science, perception, and how we construct reality. Donald David Hoffman (born December 29, 1955) is an American cognitive psychologist and popular science author. He is a professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science. Science and Nonduality is a community inspired by timeless wisdom, informed by cutting-edge science, and grounded in direct experience. We come together in an open-hearted exploration while celebrating our humanity.

Iain McGilchrist: The Coincidence of Opposites

Ralston College presents a lecture by Dr Iain McGilchrist followed by a discussion with Dr Stephen Blackwood and questions from the audience. In his lecture Dr McGilchrist deals with certain themes that are treated at greater length in his recent book The Matter With Things. He focuses especially upon the coincidence of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum), which he explores (providing an extraordinary range of illustrative examples) in such a way as to make manifest both its universality and its particular relevance to our present historical moment.

AI and the future of humanity | Yuval Noah Harari at the Frontiers Forum

In this keynote and Q&A, Yuval Noah Harari summarizes and speculates on ‘AI and the future of humanity’. There are a number of questions related to this discussion, including: “In what ways will AI affect how we shape culture? What threat is posed to humanity when AI masters human intimacy? Is AI the end of human history? Will ordinary individuals be able to produce powerful AI tools of their own? How do we regulate AI?”

Towards a Science of the Subjective | Robert Jahn

Although consciousness-correlated physical phenomena are widely and credibly documented, their appearance and behavior display substantial departures from conventional scientific criteria. Under even the most rigorous protocols, they are only irregularly replicable, and they appear to be insensitive to most basic physical coordinates, including distance and time. Rather, their strongest correlations are with various subjective parameters, such as intention, emotional resonance, uncertainty, attitude, and meaning, and information processing at an unconscious level appears to be involved. If science, by its most basic definition, is to pursue understanding and utilization of these extraordinary processes, it will need to expand its current paradigm to acknowledge and codify a proactive role for the mind in the establishment of physical events, and to accommodate the spectrum of empirically indicated subjective correlates. The challenges of quantitative measurement and theoretical conceptualization within such a ‘‘Science of the Subjective’’ are formidable, but its potential intellectual and cultural benefits could be immense, not least of all in improving the reach, the utility, the attitude, and the image of science itself.

The beautiful joke of non-duality (We are One but we are not the same) – Jeff Foster

Jeff Foster talks about the paradox of nonduality, of an oceanic presence appearing as seemingly ‘individual’ or ‘separate’ waves, and shares a little of his own past. Jeff’s website is http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com

“Healing, in the deepest sense, is not a destination or a future goal, but a present-moment welcoming of all the guests of Awareness. Sadness, anger, fear, joy, doubt, loneliness, heartache, these visitors do not want to be healed, they just want to be held; held in the loving arms of the present moment, held in your Heart… which IS the healing. Every thought, every sensation, every feeling, every scary thought, they all just long to be included, integrated, welcomed into the tender restful wholeness that you are…” – Jeff Foster

The Emergence of Conscious Evolution: Jude Currivan

Cosmologist Jude Currivan is an enthusiastic and inspirational advocate of the positive view of the transformations we are witnessing on planet Earth. As a scientist she can report with confidence that science can at last conclusively prove and reconcile scientific evidence with ancient wisdom and universal spiritual experience – resolving SAND’s ongoing quest by revealing the unified nature of reality. “Consciousness is not what we have it is what we are” – and this understanding has the power to heal our fragmented perspectives and radically change our collective behaviors, transforming the challenges of our global emergency into the emergence of our conscious evolution.

Lawrence Krauss & Frank Wilczek – Materiality of a Vacuum PHYSICS – Part 1

The Origins Project invites you to a fascinating and intriguing Lecture by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek discussing the Materiality of a Vacuum: Late Night Thoughts of a Physicist, followed by a conversation with Lawrence Krauss.

In modern physics we’ve discovered that it is very fruitful to regard empty space, or vacuum, as a sort of material, which can have exotic properties, like superconductivity. Conversely, materials can be viewed “from the inside” as the vacua of alternative worlds, which often have exotic, mind-expanding properties. These ideas suggest new possibilities for cosmology, and bring to life a profound question: What is a Universe?

Recorded Tuesday, January 31, 2017

The Remarkable Results of Microdosing: James Fadiman

In this entertaining talk from SAND18, James Fadiman, “America’s wisest and most respected authority on psychedelics and their use,” describes the citizen science of his recent investigations into the effects of microdosing, and shares some fascinating stories from the hundreds he has gathered in his ongoing research.