Programme
All times are UK time (GMT)
Friday 8th
Saturday 9th
Sunday 10th
Dr Edi Bilimoria - Promoted into the Light: The Secret of Death Lies in the Heart of Life
Why are we so afraid of death? Is it just because mainstream science tells us that brain-death equals the extinction of consciousness? Why not instead turn to poetry, literature and music to understand that death is both transition and release from earthly bondage. This talk outlines the esoteric philosophy on the three principal transitional stages involved in the cycle of reincarnation: physical death, post-mortem existence, and rebirth. We illustrate our case by drawing upon great works of Art, primarily the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, the poems of Goethe, and the words and music of Schubert and Beethoven that provide a treasure mine of inspiration and solace on understanding the true place of death during life.
Edi Bilimoria, D.Phil. is an award-winning engineer and consultant to the petrochemical, transportation, and construction industries, but he has also been an ardent student of the Wisdom Tradition and the Arts for more than 50 years, giving courses and lecturing extensively in the UK and abroad.
Edi is also a pianist of concert standard having trained at the Trinity College of Music in London and subsequently with international concert pianists. He has produced a CD of music by Chopin and Liszt, and is also a choral singer, currently with the Godalming Choral Society and previously with the Brighton Festival Chorus, one of the UK’s leading symphony choruses.
Edi’s book The Snake and the Rope was awarded a prize by the Scientific and Medical Network in 2008, and his latest four-volume work, Unfolding Consciousness: Exploring the Living Universe and Intelligent Powers in Nature and Humans contrasts Science with the Perennial Philosophy on Consciousness and Man. In 2023, this work was awarded the SMN’s Grand Prize.
Dr Mary Neal – How Dying Taught me to Live a Joy-Filled Life
As related in my second book, 7 Lessons from Heaven, the biggest question I could ask myself was: How does knowing heaven is real change our lives on Earth? In this talk I will speak about my otherworld journey that includes encounters with angels, a journey to a “city of light”, and what it was like to meet Jesus face to face. I will also share how I was sent back with the absolute knowledge that the God we hope for – the one who knows us, loves each of us as though we are the only one, and wants us to experience joy in our daily life – is real and present. I will offer practical insights and inspiration for how each of us can experience this God every day and begin living without regret, worry, anxiety, or fear.
Dr. Mary C. Neal is a board-certified orthopaedic spine surgeon who drowned while kayaking on a South American river. She experienced life after death. She went to heaven and back, conversed with Jesus and experienced God’s encompassing love. She was returned to Earth with some specific instructions for work she still needed to do. Her life has been one filled with miracles and intervention of God. Her story gives reason to live by faith and is a story of hope.
Dr. Neal was born and raised in Michigan and graduated from the University of Kentucky before attending the UCLA medical school. She completed her orthopaedic surgery training at the University of Southern California after which she lived in Sweden, Switzerland, and Los Angeles while undergoing 1 1/2 years of specialty training in spinal surgery before becoming the Director of spine surgery at USC. Five years later, she left the University for private practice.
She currently lives and works in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she and her family enjoy everything the outdoor world offers, especially all forms of skiing, bicycling, boating, and hiking.
Prof Donald Hoffman interviewed by Prof Marjorie Woollacott
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.
Music by Kristin Hoffman
Kristin Hoffmann is a Juilliard trained singer, conscious musician, and producer. A strong advocate for peace and Earth/Ocean conservation, Kristin opens sonic-emotional heart spaces in which powerful new awareness, connection and healing can flourish. She works regularly with other thought leaders and change-makers to amplify important wisdom for our times through the powerful vehicle of music.
Kristin trained in opera with acclaimed teachers Lorraine Nubar and Zehava Gal and composition with Rob Mathes and Behzad Ranjbaran. After spending multiple years in her early career on major labels, Capitol Records and Interscope Records, Kristin concluded that in order to be in highest alignment with her life’s mission, she would need to think outside of the traditional music industry box and embark on a road less travelled. Fascinated with music’s regenerative and transformational capabilities, she went on to study with French sound healing pioneer, Fabian Maman, and in most recent years with legendary harmonic overtone singer, Timothy Hill (of the Harmonic Choir).
Kristin has performed throughout the world, from environmental concerts to peace symposiums. Her Song for the Ocean was performed at Sydney Opera House by a choir of 800 Australian children. She is currently an active member of The Evolutionary Leaders, and a musical ambassador for the organization UNITY EARTH.
Most recently, Kristin composed and produced the new anthem for The Holomovement, supporting radical collaboration in action, and welcomed a brand-new album into the world entitled, RainShine ~ Sonic Alchemy for Soul Awakening. She hosts an inspirational online event on the 3rd Sunday of each month at 6pm ET called SONIC SOUL FAMILY GATHERINGS, combining live music and deep dialogue around a theme. All are invited to join by becoming a “Core Member” on her website: https://kristinhoffmann.com
Prof Adrian Parker: What we have learned from Telepathic Experiences between Twins
Between 2010 and 2019, Adrian Parker was involved in various projects concerning telepathy and related experiences amongst twins. The inspiration and encouragement for this work derives the writings of the author and psychical researcher Guy Lyon Playfair. Most of the projects were carried out with the access to twins being provided by the Twin Research Unit at St Thomas Hospital London and with the financial support of the BIAL Foundation. Colleagues included Drs Göran Brusewitz, Christian Jensen, David Luke, and Annekatrin Puhle.
Twins are potential sources not only of telepathy but of rich and diverse psychic experiences, so when we examine these in the laboratory and in real life, we can potentially learn much about the true nature of psychic experiences. The results, while confirming that these experiences can be consistently replicated in the laboratory, are not without some reservations and preconditions. Taken as a whole, the evidence from this work gives support for a view of psychic experiences as part of a psychological and physiological connectedness between humans who are closely attached.
Prof. Adrian Parker is a clinical psychologist educated at the Tavistock Clinic and with a medical education from the University of Gothenburg where he is now professor emeritus. While the recipient of the Perrot Warrick Scholarship from Trinity College Cambridge, he became the first at Edinburgh University to gain a doctorate with a thesis on psychic phenomena and altered states of consciousness. This led him to being a co-founder (with Charles Honorton and William Braud) of the now standard laboratory technique for inducing dream-onset states known as the ganzfeld technique.
Having received state funding, he went on to develop the current “state of the art” version of the technique whereby remarkable correspondences between dream imagery and external events are recorded in real time. Adrian has a wide interest in altered states of consciousness, medical psychology and the mind-body relationship. He is author of the book States of Mind and co-author with Annekatrin Puhole of Shakespeare’s Ghost Live. He received in 2014 the Gothenburg Student Award in Pedagogics for teaching open-minded scepticism and in 2019 was an Axel Munthe scholar at San Michele, Capri. Adrian is currently the President of the Society for Psychical Research and is on the faculty of the Scandinavian International University, Örebro, as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Gary Lachman: Consciousness and the Western Esoteric Tradition
Discussions about consciousness usually involve neuroscience, philosophy of mind, quantum physics and perhaps the judicious use of mind-altering substances. But there is another approach that we might call the ‘secret history of consciousness studies.’ This is the forgotten, lost heritage of ‘rejected knowledge’ making up what’s known as the ‘western esoteric tradition’. My talk, based on my book The Secret Teachers of the Western World, will look at some points of contact between contemporary consciousness studies and some of the insights of our often dismissed but nevertheless central body of ‘inner knowledge.’
Gary Lachman is the author of several books about consciousness, culture, and the Western esoteric tradition, including Dreaming Ahead of Time, The Return of Holy Russia, Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, Lost Knowledge of the Imagination, Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson, and, most recently, Maurice Nicoll: Forgotten Teacher of the Fourth Way. He has written biographies of C G Jung, Madame Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, Emanuel Swedenborg, P D Ouspensky, and Aleister Crowley. He writes for several journals in the US, UK, and Europe, lectures around the world and his work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. In a former life he was a founding member of the pop group Blondie and in 2006 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Before moving to London in 1996 and becoming a full-time writer, Lachman studied philosophy, managed a metaphysical book shop, taught English literature, and was Science Writer for UCLA. He is an adjunct professor of Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He can be reached at https://www.gary-lachman.com/, www.facebook.com/GVLachman/ and twitter.com/GaryLachman
Dr Marina Weiler - What do Out-of-body Experiences Tell us about the Mind beyond the Brain?
Out-of-body experiences, or OBEs, are an intriguing phenomenon where individuals feel as though they are detached from their physical bodies. These experiences can have profound effects on a person’s beliefs and attitudes, ranging from a newfound belief in the separation of the mind from the brain to a heightened belief in life after death. Marina Weiler will be delivering a lecture discussing the various ways in which OBEs can be explored concerning the mind and brain connection. This lecture promises to shed light on the complexities of these experiences and their potential impact on our understanding of consciousness.
Marina Weiler is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), University of Virginia. She’s a trained neuroscientist with a background in neuroimaging, brain stimulation, and basic neuroscience. Marina’s contributions to the field have earned her prestigious awards from institutions such as Fundação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil), the Brazilian Academy of Neurology, the National Institutes of Health (NIH, U.S.), the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Research.
Dr Marieta Pehlivanova – Children’s Memories of Past Lives: impact in adulthood
The phenomenon of young children recounting memories of apparent past lives has fascinated researchers and the general public alike for decades. Some of these accounts raise the possibility that consciousness may persist beyond physical death. Formal investigations into these cases began at the University of Virginia (UVA) in the 1960s and continue to this day, with a special focus on American children. Although children typically stop talking about the past life around school age, these memories can have a profound effect on their psyche and behaviour while active in childhood. However, we know less about the long-term impact of childhood past-life memories on individuals’ lives. This short talk will outline some findings from the first follow-up study of American adults who were interviewed as children by UVA researchers regarding these memories.
Marieta Pehlivanova, PhD is a Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences within the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Marieta earned her PhD in Experimental and Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics from American University. Her research primarily focuses on near-death experiences and children who report past-life memories. She is interested in various aspects of these experiences, including factors contributing to their occurrence, their effects on individuals, cross-cultural comparisons, and the development of support resources for those who undergo such experiences within healthcare settings.
Dialogue between Federico Faggin and Prof Stuart Kauffman moderated by Dr Vasileios Basios
Federico Faggin is an Italian-American physicist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for designing the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. His company Cygnet Technologies, Inc. introduced a pioneering personal communication product for voice, data, and electronic mail in 1984. His companies also developed artificial neural network chips to perform pattern recognition, and advanced image sensors and digital cameras for mobile devices. Federico Faggin has received many prizes and awards, including the Marconi Prize and the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, from President Barack Obama. He is currently president of Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation, dedicated to the science of consciousness. He is an Honorary Member of the Scientific and Medical Network. His autobiography Silicon was published in 2021 and his latest book Irreducible in 2024.
Prof Stuart Kauffman MD, PhD, FRSC (Canada) is an American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher who studies the origin of life on Earth. Kauffman graduated from Dartmouth in 1960, was awarded the BA (Hons) by Oxford University (where he was a Marshall Scholar) in 1963, and completed a medical degree (MD) at the University of California, San Francisco in 1968. After completing his residency in Emergency Medicine, he moved into developmental genetics of the fruit fly, genetic regulatory networks, and origin of life, holding appointments first at the University of Chicago 1969-1973, National Cancer Institute 1973-1975, then at the University of Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1995, where he served as Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Kauffman held a MacArthur Fellowship, 1987–1992. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He also holds an Honorary Degree in Science from the University of Louvain; and was awarded a Gold Medal of the Accademia Lincea in Rome.
Recently, Kauffman and Andrea Roli have published “The World is Not a Theorem”, in Entropy (2021), and “A Third Transition in Science?”, J. Roy. Soc. Interface 4/14/2023, maintaining that the evolving biosphere is a propagating construction, not an entailed deduction, and that no mathematics based on set theory can be used to deduce the diachronic emergence of adaptations in evolution. The implication is that there can be no Final Theory that entails the becoming of the universe. Dr. Kauffman has published over 400 articles and 6 books: The Origins of Order (1993), At Home in the Universe (1995), Investigations (2000), Reinventing the Sacred (2008), Humanity in a Creative Universe (2016) and A World Beyond Physics (2019). He is an Honorary Member of the Scientific and Medical Network.
Alef Trust and Students Short Talks
Prof Les Lancaster is a Founding Director and Dean of the Alef Trust. He is Professor Emeritus of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, an Honorary Research Fellow in Religions and Theology, University of Manchester, UK, and Associated Distinguished Professor of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, US. He has previously served as Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, as President of the International Transpersonal Association, and as a Board member of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. Les’ research interests focus on the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness and the connections between this topic and mysticism, specifically focusing on Kabbalistic Psychology. His published works include The essence of kabbalah and Approaches to consciousness: The marriage of science and mysticism.
Dr Jessica Bockler is a theatre practitioner and transpersonal psychologist who works across academic and applied disciplines: from arts and health, to transpersonal and integral theory, to transformative learning, to social change. Jessica is a Founding Director of the Alef Trust and Programme Director for its Master’s pathway. She is Principal Research Lead for Alef Trust’s global Conscious Community initiative which aims to connect, support and resource change makers in their work. Jessica is also a member of the academic advisory board of the Inner Development Goals initiative, and she is a member of the UNDP’s Conscious Food Systems Alliance which advocates for consciousness-raising practices in systems transformation and sustainable development.
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.
Dr Marc Wittman - Altered States of Consciousness: Experiences out of Time and Self
First, I present a conceptual framework suggesting that body feelings underlie our sense of time. This is the long-sought solution to the mystery of subjective time: the sense of the bodily self is the functional anchor of conscious self-awareness – and of subjective time. Second, the entanglement of self-reflective consciousness and emotions with the experience of time is prominently disclosed in altered states of consciousness such as in experiences of flow, in meditative states, when relaxing in a floatation tank, under the influence of psychedelics, or in near-death experiences. In peak experiences of such states, people report the feeling of ‘selflessness’ and ‘timelessness’. At the extreme end of temporal phenomena, the usual concepts of time do not seem to play a role, such as in precognition or remote viewing, when individuals seem to sense the future. I will present a series of my experimental and brain studies (fMRI, EEG) ranging from ordinary to altered states of consciousness and anomalous phenomena.
Marc Wittmann, Ph.D., studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich, Germany. He received his Ph.D. (1997) and his Habilitation (2007) at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical School, University of Munich. Between 2004 and 2009 he was Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego. Since 2009 he has been employed at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany. His research in the field of Cognitive Neuroscience is focused on the perception of time in ordinary states of consciousness, such as related to cognition, emotion and bodily feelings, as well as in altered states of consciousness such as induced through meditation, Floatation-REST, and psychedelics. He is author of the books Felt Time (2016) and Altered States of Consciousness (2018), both published by MIT Press.
Shulamit Elson - MediSounds~ Beyond Words
Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. has been described – by Dean Ornish MD – as “a rare jewel: respected scientist, gifted therapist and unabashed mystic.”* Her vision for the past 50 years is bringing together science, psychology and spirituality in the service of healing and peace. Joan completed both doctoral and post-doctoral studies at the Harvard Medical School in cancer cell biology and behavioural medicine, returning later in her career as an Instructor in Medicine. After defecting from academic medicine in 1988, she founded Mind-Body Health Sciences, LLC. A licensed psychologist and spiritual mentor, Joan is the author or co-author of seventeen books on integrative medicine, psychology, spirituality and women’s studies. She lives in the sacred mountains of New Mexico with her husband Gordon Dveirin and their two standard poodles, Mitzi and Lola. You can find out more about her work at www.joanborysenko.com.
Dr Joan Borysenko interview with Marjorie Woollacott – My Scientific and Spiritual Path
Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. has been described – by Dean Ornish MD – as “a rare jewel: respected scientist, gifted therapist and unabashed mystic.”* Her vision for the past 50 years is bringing together science, psychology and spirituality in the service of healing and peace. Joan completed both doctoral and post-doctoral studies at the Harvard Medical School in cancer cell biology and behavioural medicine, returning later in her career as an Instructor in Medicine. After defecting from academic medicine in 1988, she founded Mind-Body Health Sciences, LLC. A licensed psychologist and spiritual mentor, Joan is the author or co-author of seventeen books on integrative medicine, psychology, spirituality and women’s studies. She lives in the sacred mountains of New Mexico with her husband Gordon Dveirin and their two standard poodles, Mitzi and Lola. You can find out more about her work at www.joanborysenko.com.
Gregory Shushan: Culture, Religion, and Near-Death Experience: A Historical Perspective
In this talk, award-winning author Gregory Shushan, PhD, will review his decades-long research into the historical, cultural, and religious dimensions of near-death experiences. Shushan reveals the symbiotic relationship between such experiences and beliefs about an afterlife, exploring and explaining both differences and similarities across cultures. In addition to being a neglected area in the history of religions, Shushan’s findings have profound implications for the possibility of an actual afterlife and what it could be like, and also present challenges to both materialist and metaphysical paradigms.
Gregory Shushan, PhD, is the author of Near-Death Experiences in Indigenous Religions (winner of the Parapsychological Association Book Award), The Next World: Extraordinary Experiences of the Afterlife, and Near-Death Experience in Ancient Civilizations (forthcoming from Inner Traditions), and editor of Mind Dust and White Crows: The Psychical Research of William James. Dr Shushan is Visiting Research Fellow at University of Winchester’s Centre for Death, Religion and Culture, Adjunct Professor in Thanatology at Marian University, Research Fellow of the Parapsychology Foundation, and candidate for a second PhD at Newman University, Birmingham, with a project on near-death experience in Classical antiquity. He is also the founder and commissioning editor of Afterworlds Press, an imprint of White Crow Books.
Websites and social media:
www.gregoryshushan.com
patreon.com/gregoryshushan
twitter.com/GregoryShushan
facebook.com/gregoryshushan
instagram.com/gregoryshushan
linkedin.com/in/gregory-shushan/