Programme
All times are UK time (GMT)
Friday 7th
Saturday 8th
Sunday 9th
Dr Rupert Sheldrake - Different Ways in which Minds Extend beyond Brains
Minds extend beyond brains in several different ways, some of which are generally agreed upon while others are more controversial.
First, the world is all around us is shaped by minds, in architecture, agriculture, machinery and true language and culture in general. This is uncontroversial.
Second, our minds may extend beyond our brains in every act of visual perception. The images we see may be located outside us, just where they seem to be.
Third, our minds connect us to other people and non-human animals at a distance, especially to those with whom we are emotionally bonded. These connections can show up in telepathic communications.
Fourth, the minds of animals may be connected with their homes at a distance and somehow give them directional information about the location of their homes. This connection may play a major part in the sense of direction that enables homing pigeons to find their homes and migrator E animals to reach their destinations.
Fifth, our minds connect with other forms of consciousness in the spiritual realm, as in mystical experiences.
In all these ways, minds go far beyond the physical process is inside brains.
Short Talks
Detection of Randomness Changes Related to the Dying Process
Vicente Arraez MD (Spain)
Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Promises and Pitfalls
Sebastian Salicru (Spain)
How do Non-human Intelligences Communicate with Humans?
Prof Brannon Wheeler PhD (US)
Birdie Jaworski - Mapping the Multiverse: A Seven-Year Blind Study in TransDimensional Mapping and the Question of Timelines
What if you could explore the very structure of time – not by theorizing, but by experiencing it? In this presentation, Birdie Jaworski shares the results of a unique seven-year blind study using her original methodology, TransDimensional Mapping (TDM) – an evolution of remote viewing developed to access non-ordinary dimensions of consciousness, intent, and reality.
With ontological neutrality at its core, this long-form project set out to examine a fundamental question: Do alternate timelines exist? The protocol was designed to avoid presumption, allowing the data to speak for itself – free from bias or expectation.
Jaworski’s investigation focused on 63 pivotal decision points in her own life, each mapped and deconstructed without knowledge of their origin until after the fact. The findings challenge conventional ideas about time, causality, and identity, and offer new frameworks for understanding “timelines” as emergent structures of consciousness, rather than mere theoretical constructs.
This lecture not only unveils a radically original application of remote viewing, but also invites researchers, experiencers, and philosophers alike to reimagine the nature of time and the self.
Birdie Jaworski is a consciousness researcher, remote viewing specialist, and the developer of TransDimensional Mapping (TDM) – an advanced remote viewing methodology that blends cognitive science, symbolic narrative, and intuitive perception to explore non-ordinary dimensions of experience. With over three decades of work in the field of remote viewing, she has trained thousands in applied consciousness techniques and continues to push the boundaries of what is possible through disciplined non-local perception.
Jaworski holds a Master’s degree in Digital Forensics with a concentration in Writing and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence. Her research explores intersections between consciousness, time, and sentient systems. She is the founder of Mapping Mavericks, a development platform for applied remote viewing practitioners, and teaches internationally through collaborations with academic institutions and experiential research organizations.
Prof Donald Hoffman interviewed by Prof Marjorie Woollacott - Is Reality an Illusion?
Donald Hoffman received his PhD from MIT, and joined the faculty of the University of California, Irvine in 1983, where he is a Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Sciences. He is an author of over 100 scientific papers and three books, including Visual Intelligence, and his new book, The Case Against Reality. He received a Distinguished Scientific Award of the American Psychological Association for early career research, the Rustum Roy Award of the Chopra Foundation, and the Troland Research Award of the US National Academy of Sciences. His writing has appeared in Edge, New Scientist, LA Review of Books, and Scientific American and his work has been featured in Wired, Quanta, The Atlantic, and Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. He has a TED Talk titled “Do we see reality as it is?” and a podcast with Lex Fridman titled “Reality is an illusion.”
Marjorie Woollacott PhD is an Emeritus Professor of Human Physiology, and member of the Institute of Neuroscience, at the University of Oregon. She was chair of the Human Physiology Department for seven years. In addition to teaching courses on neuroscience and rehabilitation, she taught courses on complementary and alternative medicine and meditation. She is Research Director for the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and is President of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences (AAPS). She was also a research professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Umeå in Umea, Sweden, and in the National Center for Scientific Research in Marseille, France.
She has published more than 200 scientific articles and written or co-edited eight books. Her award-winning book, Infinite Awareness (2015) describes her research as a neuroscientist along with her self-revelations about the mind’s spiritual power. Between the scientific and spiritual worlds, she breaks open the definition of human consciousness to investigate the existence of a non-physical and infinitely powerful mind. She is Co-Chair of the Galileo Commission, co-editor of Spiritual Awakenings and an Honorary Member of the SMN.
Felicity Warner - Between Worlds: Exploring the transitional nature and expansion of consciousness, three Days Before and three days After Death from a Soul Midwife’s perspective
Soul Midwives are skilled practitioners who offer holistic, spiritual and compassionate support, to the dying. They also play a crucial role in supporting individuals to experience the expansion of consciousness, and significant transitions that occur during this profound period. Their work is both practical and spiritual, aimed at easing the journey as consciousness shifts between the realms of life and beyond.
Felicity Warner is the visionary founder of the international Soul Midwives’ movement, a pioneering force in holistic and spiritual palliative care. Driven by profound personal experiences with loss, Felicity has dedicated over two decades to transforming the end-of-life experience, advocating for dignity, love, and a peaceful passage for the dying.
As the Principal of The Soul Midwives’ School, she has trained hundreds of Soul Midwives globally, empowering individuals to offer gentle, compassionate, non-medical companionship to those at the end of life and their families. Her work emphasizes “Tender Loving Care” (TLC), focusing on deep listening, soothing therapies, and supporting the emotional and spiritual journey of the dying.
An award-winning author and respected lecturer, Felicity has penned acclaimed books such as “Gentle Dying,” “A Safe Journey Home,” “The Soul Midwives’ Handbook” (a widely used textbook), and “Sacred Oils.” Her innovative approach has garnered significant recognition, including being named “End of Life Care Champion” by the National Council for Palliative Care and Royal College of Nursing, and “End of Life Doula of the Year.”
Felicity’s unwavering dedication continues to shape a more empathetic and holistic approach to death and dying, both within communities and in collaboration with healthcare organizations like the NHS, Macmillan and Hospice UK
www.soulmidwives.co.uk
Phyllida Anam Aire - Transition: Waiting and Watching at the Crossroads in a Space of Non-judgment
I love to translate the English language into my own Irish indigenous sounds. It always seems to take me deeper into the earthiness of things, the experiential here and now in-bodiment of the divine. A bit like …God feeling her way throughout this older form of her female self!
So, to help me to in- body this word transition, I use the old Irish word, Trasdul, meaning crossways, field of vulnerability …the place of waiting “watching with the eye of a mother.” A space of not knowing yet, knowing. A space of non-judgment, a kind of …innocence…That breath space where the new has not yet appeared, and the Dark Night of the dear Earthmind/ego, gives way to self-compassion so that a gentler cradling pulses in the heart.
Death transitions to birth, birth hands life back to death again and again…It’s all Life, a magnificent spiral of coming and transitioning.
For every being that comes, I come in them.
For every being that leaves, I leave in them.
Nothing is ever lost.
All is gathered in at last
For every being that loves, I love in them.
(Song by on CD “Call yourself in “)
Phyllida, FiléDia (meaning divine poet in Irish) is an Irish grandmother, living in her Scottish community in Edinburgh. At 81, she is more in love with life than she was as an Irish nun in 60s! Her 26 years living in N.I. supported her to put into daily observance, what she had absorbed throughout her training with – and later working as a clinical therapist – at Elisabeth Kübler-Ross MD Centre in Virginia. Phyllida has known since childhood that death was not scary but that life was. Now she loves life and welcomes bodily death when it arrives!
Phyllida had learnt ancient Celtic death rituals from observing the old ones at deathbeds in Ireland from a young age. The sounds and movements of the Marbhú, meaning deathing, seemed just natural to her. Life it seemed lost nothing in its moving out of the body, as she could imagine the original homing place of soul to be beyond …at the crosswords, place of transition.
From her NDEs, Phyllida sensed that she had been impressed with knowledge, none of which she understood at the time, but would be transmitted to her later, as she needed to know. This will be the first time Phyllida chooses to share this grace in public.
Dr Susan Jamieson - Are We Galileo’s Lens? Some Practical Techniques
Galileo’s contributions emphasised the significance of lenses and their ability to manipulate light, revolutionising the telescope to reveal previously unseen wonders of the Universe. In this session, various techniques will be practised with each other, exploring the ‘unseen realm’. You’ll practise, being able to feel colours, fractions of the light,, intuiting feelings and ‘dis-ease’, as well as a direct experience of light.
Dr Jamieson is known for her ability to help others experience a feeling of ‘light’. She’ll share techniques of connecting in the ‘3-fold model’. The interaction between ‘human – beings’; and between humans and the natural world. This encompasses animals, plants, the Earth and its surrounding galaxies. The realm of the deceased is, however, more ephemeral, as evidenced by past centuries of mediumistic exploration. Science tells us that energy can’t be destroyed; it flows from one phase to another, such as electricity in a wire lighting up a bulb. Their light is never destroyed; the information contained is not lost, and importantly, it is accessible.
Dr Susan Jamieson is a medical doctor integrating mindfulness, energy, and conscious awareness in wellness. Using the ‘Be your Own Light’ concept, she teaches techniques of using quantum light fields and energy. She seamlessly weaves ancient Celtic wisdom and Eastern Philosophy techniques. This enables connection with your inner light and that of others, increasing joy, peace and well-being. This integration has led to her becoming doctor to Sir Elton John, Sir Mick Jagger, Greenday, Fergie and Black Eyed Peas, The Eagles, and more.
Larry Dossey, MD:
Dr Susan Jamieson’s insights into role of light in healing are both profound and rare in today’s medicalized, technological world. Her knowledge is based in solid science, much of which has been neglected in conventional medicine. She possesses the wisdom of healers throughout history — that mind and body are a whole, and that consciousness is a vital factor in health.”
NDE Session
In this special session marking 50 years since the publication of Life after Life by Dr Raymond Moody, three world-renowned speakers including Dr Moody himself will reflect on the impact of the NDE both as it relates to an extended view of reality, and also to the well-documented transformative effects. NDE research has transformed our view of death and dying, and the greater prevalence of the NDE is due to advances in resuscitation techniques. Of particular interest are cases of veridical OBEs in near-death situations where the experience described by the subjects can be corroborated by others who were physically at the scene. Anita Moorjani is known worldwide for communicating her extraordinary healing story referred to below, which has profound transformative implications for how we live our lives. Dr Sam Parnia is at the forefront of research into NDEs, which he calls real death experiences, and these show striking parallels with post-mortem reports of the dying process.
Raymond Moody MD, PhD is a bestselling author of twelve books, including Life after Life, Reunions, and Proof of Life After Life which have sold over 13 million copies worldwide. He has also authored numerous academic and professional articles on near-death experiences and the relationship of language to consciousness. Dr Moody is the leading authority on the ‘“near-death experience’”— a phrase he coined in the late seventies. Dr Moody’s research into the phenomenon of near-death experience goes back to the 1960s. The New York Times calls him “the father of the near-death experience.”
Dr Sam Parnia writes: As the director of critical care and resuscitation research for the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at NYU Langone, I am dedicated to advancing patient care through innovative research and clinical excellence. I believe in a proactive approach to healthcare, emphasizing the importance of early intervention and continuous patient engagement to optimize recovery and overall health.
My specialities include preventing, treating, and managing cardiac arrest, as well as post-resuscitation syndrome. With extensive experience in developing novel real-time non-invasive brain resuscitation monitoring and oxygen delivery methods, I strive to enhance the quality of care for patients who are critically ill. I have directed numerous international collaborative studies on cardiac arrest, and I am actively involved as a local principal investigator in several multisite COVID-19 studies.
Throughout my career, I have focused on fostering strong partnerships with patients and their families, ensuring a responsive and supportive healthcare experience. My journey into medicine was inspired by a profound interest in the complexities of human consciousness and the critical moments of life and death. At NYU Langone, I am committed to pushing the boundaries of medical science to improve patient care and outcomes. I am the author of nearly 70 peer-reviewed articles, and my most recent book is Lucid Dying.
Anita Moorjani is a woman with a remarkable story! The New York Times best-selling author of Dying to Be Me and her subsequent books, What If This is Heaven?; Love, a Story About Who You Truly Are; Sensitive is the New Strong; and Scaredy Caterpillar; has been where most people haven’t.
After a 4-year battle with cancer, Anita fell into a coma and was given days to live. As her doctors gathered to revive her, she had a near death experience (NDE) where she crossed over into the realm of spirit, and was given the choice to return to her physical form or to continue into this new realm. She chose the former, and when she regained consciousness, her cancer began to heal. To the amazement of her doctors, she was free of countless tumors and cancer indicators within weeks.
Her book Dying To Be Me has sold over two million copies worldwide, in over 45 languages. It has been named a Contemporary Classic and a Foreign Language Phenomena by her publishers.
Anita was a protége of the late great Dr Wayne Dyer, who brought her on to the world stage in 2011. She is a great speaker and has gone on to capture the hearts and attention of millions across the globe and has been a featured guest on The Dr Oz Show, Fox News, The Today Show, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, The Epoch Times, the National Geographic Channel, The Pearl Report in Hong Kong, Headstart with Karen Davila in the Philippines, and many others. Her TED talk has received well over 4 million views.
The UK’s prestigious publication The Watkins Journal list Anita among the top 100 of the world’s most spiritually influential living people for the 12th consecutive year. Anita has gone on to create two meditation journey CDs, both of which hit the Billboard charts, and has also received several awards in recognition for her spiritual contribution, including the prestigious New Thought Walden Award for the year 2021.
Anita has dedicated her life to empowering the minds and hearts of people with her story of courage and transformation, inspiring her audience to embody the highest version of themselves. She travels the world speaking her truth with grace and humour to sold-out audiences that want to learn of her journey and experiences of embracing change, the power of healing, and the quest to live a full and unlimited life.
Today, Anita lives in the United States with her husband Danny and continues to share her incredible story and lessons internationally. Prior to her cancer diagnosis, Anita lived and worked in Hong Kong with her husband. She was born in Singapore of Indian parents and grew up speaking English, Cantonese, and an Indian dialect simultaneously.
Prof Alexander Moreira-Almeida - Mind beyond the Brain: Proposal for a Pragmatic Interactionist Framework
The nature of consciousness remains unclear, and academic discussions usually ignore the scientific evidence about anomalous and spiritual experiences suggestive of the mind beyond the brain, mainly because of the lack of a scientific framework that makes sense of these experiences. This manuscript proposes the ‘Pragmatic interactionist’ scientific framework for the mind–brain relationship based on the evidence from scientific studies of spiritual or anomalous experiences, especially near-death, end-of-life, out-of-body, and mediumistic experiences and alleged memories of previous lives. Based on the epistemic principles of an enlarged empirical base and expanded naturalism, the framework’s main components are: interactionist mind–body relationship; the mind exists and functions beyond the brain and survives bodily death; and the brain is a tool and a filter for the mind manifestation. Research proposals to advance and test the framework are: in-depth ‘360 degrees’ studies of the ‘good specimen of the class’, studies on mind-over-brain phenomena, free-will beyond extreme social and biological factors, enhanced mentation with a dysfunctional brain, reports of veridical hallucination, extracerebral memory, and early sharp personality differences between monozygotic twins. The proposed framework is a working hypothesis to enlarge our observational and analytical capacities to foster theories to better understand the human mind.
Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhD is Professor of Psychiatry at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) School of Medicine and Founder and Director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health, Brazil. Recipient of the 2025 Oskar Pfister Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the top award in the field of psychiatry and spirituality. Founding chair of the section on spirituality of the Brazilian Psychiatric Association (2014-21). Former chair of the Sections on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) (2014-21) when coordinated the WPA Position Statement on Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatry. He obtained a medical degree at UFJF and trained in psychiatry and cognitive-behavioral therapy at the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he also obtained his PhD in Health Sciences. Formerly a postdoctoral fellow in religion and health at Duke University. Author of more than 200 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters that received more than 9,600 citations, h index 50 (Google Scholar). More than 600 presentations at academic meetings, including 160 abroad in 19 countries. More than 400 interviews to lay media. Coordination of TV NUPES, a YouTube channel on science, health and spirituality with more than 300 videos and 1,1 mi views in 100 countries. Editor of the book “Spirituality and Mental Health Across Cultures” (Oxford Univ Press, 2021) and coauthor of “Science of Life After Death” (Springer, 2022). His main research interests involve the exploration of the association between religiosity and health as well as empirical studies of spiritual experiences, especially their implication for the mind-brain problem, as well as the methodology, history and epistemology of this research field.
Alef Trust and Students Short Talks
Bethany Butzer PhD writes, teaches, and conducts research in the fields of positive psychology and transpersonal psychology, which emphasize the development of human strength and potential. She received her MA in clinical psychology and her PhD in social psychology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Bethany has worked in the corporate world and in academia, and she has also spent several years as an entrepreneur. From 2013 to 2015 she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School, where she studied the effects of yoga in school settings. Bethany lives in Prague, where she was a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New York in Prague from 2016 to 2022. She is currently a Lecturer for the Alef Trust MSc programme in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology and she is also the Assistant Director of the Alef Trust PhD programme in Applied Transpersonal Psychology. Bethany’s research focuses on yoga and mindfulness for youth, as well as transpersonal topics such as synchronicity, parapsychology, and ecopsychology.
Dr Tadas Stumbrys is a lecturer and a researcher in the fields of dreams, consciousness, mindfulness, and transpersonal psychology, with a particular interest on the phenomenon of lucid dreaming. He holds an MSc in Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology from Liverpool John Moores University (UK) and a PhD in Sports Science from Heidelberg University (Germany) where he conducted doctoral research on applications of lucid dreams in sports. Tadas contributed over two dozen articles to the field of lucid dream research. His work on lucid dreams has been published in such journals as Consciousness and Cognition, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, American Journal of Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of Sports Sciences and others.
Tadas lives in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he also works as Associate Professor at Vilnius University, Institute of Psychology. He served on the Board of Directors for the International Association for the Study of Dreams and is currently a Board Member of Lithuanian Association for Mindfulness-Based Psychology. He is the Editor of Alef Trust’s scholarly journal Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology and is on the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Dream Research. He is Assistant Director for Research at Alef Trust and a core faculty member, teaching on several modules, supervising research projects and serving as a personal tutor for students.
The Alef Trust is a global leader in transformative education in the areas of consciousness, transpersonal, integral, and spiritual psychology. We provide university-accredited Masters and PhD Programmes, as well as Professional Certifications, and Open Learning Courses, all of which promote holistic psychological frameworks and perspectives, nurturing the development of human consciousness and culture. The Alef Trust is a non-profit social enterprise and at the heart of our work is a commitment to building transformative learning communities, supporting people to grow as change makers in their lives and their work. We recognise that these unprecedented times call for a deeper presence, uniting spiritual practice, academic learning and multi-disciplinary research with a profound sense of service in the world. We believe that we need to re-envision our ways of being, so that humanity may find greater peace and may thrive in harmony with Earth and her diverse ecosystems.
Marina de Moses - Shaping the Invisible – Music & Principles of Harmony, Beauty and Order
What if the next giant leap in human evolution may come not only from new fields like artificial intelligence or genetic engineering but from appreciating our ancient brains and hearts as well?
Our musical knowledge is learned, the product of long experience; maybe not years spent over playing an instrument, but a lifetime spent absorbing music from our environment by default and/or by choice. Once you hear something, you cannot “unhear” it.
In the world of mass communication and ready availability of music through instantaneous “mechanical reproduction”, there is a need to make a distinction between listening and hearing. Much music is heard, not much is listened to.
Marina de Moses’ EuMuse work spans disciplines, continents, and millennia – it is an art and science – and it is underscored by the innate journey into researching the civilizations of sound.
In this presentation Marina de Moses weaves together essays, reflections, art, and musical compositions, challenging us to rethink music’s role – not as background entertainment we “hear” but as a force. This force, when knowledgeably and consciously chosen, can redefine personal and collective growth.
Her work is a call to rediscover the lost art of listening—not just to music, but to the pulse of humanity itself. Because a good life does not only need a library of ideas – it requires a boundless and ever-changing music file expanding our sonic horizon.
In almost every culture there has ever been, mothers have sung lullabies. The baby is showing us that we are all tonal creatures long before we are creatures of understanding. The Greeks captured this through the myth of Orpheus, who used music to rescue his wife Eurydice from Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the underworld. Cerberus, like a distressed human mind, was immune to logic and reasoning but not to resonance and beauty.
This EuMuse invitation is artfully balancing act of composing a mutual space for creation. No really creative transformation can possibly be effected by human beings, “unless they are in the creative state of mind that is generally sensitive to the differences that always exist between the observed fact and any preconceived ideas, however noble, beautiful, and magnificent they may seem to be.” David Bohm (1917-1992)
Marina de Moses, MA, founder of EuMuse, is a musicologist, social entrepreneur, philanthropist, pianist and writer – though not always in that order. By nature, she is a nomad, one who thrives on open spaces in visible reality and the intangible world. By occupation and calling, she is a bridge, one that connects the story to history (his-story and her-story) and geography to lore. Resonating with the description of knowmad and polymath, she is dedicated to transforming intangible qualities of curiosity, collaboration and creativity to tangible assets. She lives and breathes the science of how to free humanity to be the best selves through conscious application of music, and how to initiate the transformative impact of continually changing one’s music horizon towards beauty. Recognized for combining humanitarian vision with academic rigour and moral sensibility, Marina was elected member of the Business Council – Global Peace Initiative of 500 Business and Spiritual Women’s Initiative at the UN, Geneva. She is the author of Music and Future of the Human Heart: Shaping the Invisible – Principles of Harmony, Beauty & Order – Roots and Routes of the Art of Listening to Music. Fluent in multiple languages and four alphabets, she has studied, worked and lived in countries across Europe and Asia. She divides her time between Oregon and Florida.
Evelyn Elsaesser - Lessons from the Light: Common Features and Transformative Effects of NDEs, Deathbed Visions, and After-Death Communications
When we examine NDEs, ADCs and deathbed visions separately, many questions remain unanswered. However, when studied together by comparing their phenomenology and effects, striking similarities emerge that suggest a continuum between these different manifestations, which would be distinct expressions of the same reality. This is the topic that will be discussed in this talk.
To date, the question of the authenticity of death-related experiences has not been resolved on the scientific level, although the postmaterialist hypothesis offers a promising explanatory framework. Also, there are some constants in these phenomena that provide important clues. The first lead comes from the transformative and lasting effect they have on the lives of those who have experienced them. The second lead comes from the prevalence of these experiences. They occur every day on a large scale, around the world. Science cannot (yet) validate the authenticity of these phenomena, but they are clearly psychologically real to those who experience them and have tangible consequences, regardless of their ontological status.
Evelyn Elsaesser is an independent researcher and author in the field of death-related experiences, notably After-Death Communications (ADCs) and Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). She is the project leader of the long-term international research project “Investigation of the Phenomenology and Impact of Spontaneous After-Death Communications”, as well as a founding and current member of the Board of Swiss IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies). She lives in Switzerland.
Website of Evelyn Elsaesser: www.evelyn-elsaesser.com
Website of the ADC research project: www.adcrp.org
Dr Diane Hennacy Powell - Perception Beyond the Interface: Savants, Synesthesia, and the Fabric of Reality
Dr Diane Hennacy explores the extraordinary perceptual abilities of autistic savants—individuals who, despite profound challenges, display islands of genius that challenge conventional neuroscience. Drawing on case studies and emerging theories, this talk considers whether savants may access a deeper layer of reality, one that typical perception filters out. The discussion will touch on synesthesia, anomalous cognition, and the provocative question of whether our perceived world is a constructed interface within a larger informational system—raising implications for simulation theory and the nature of consciousness itself.
Diane Hennacy (Powell), MD, is an internationally recognized expert on autism and savant syndrome who trained in neuroscience at Ohio State University. She received her MD and psychiatric training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine before spending six months at the Institute of Psychiatry in London doing child psychiatry with Sir Michael Rutter in 1987. She was on faculty at Harvard Medical School, is serving for the third time on the Board of the Parapsychological Association, and has contributed chapters to AAPS’ Is Consciousness Primary? and the Oxford University Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality. Her 2008 book The ESP Enigma (Walker) received an award from the LA Festival of Books and has been translated into German, Portuguese, and Finnish. Her research for the past thirteen years has focused on autistic children who appear to have ESP and was featured in the popular podcast “The Telepathy Tapes.”