Continuum Movement® is a dynamic inquiry into what it is to be a human being, providing a method to consciously explore our self as an unfolding biological and planetary process. Water, and the fact that the body composition is mostly of water, is considered of great importance. All fluids of the body - the circulating blood, the tides of cerebrospinal fluid, the pump of the lymph system, the net of membranes or the swirl of viscera and brain - function as ONE stream of intelligence. Continuum’s movements are designed to enhance the undulating spirals and circularity of this fluid system. A full range of non-patterned movement, from dynamic full-bodied expression to subtle micro-movements, stimulates neurological growth and vibrancy. Learn to use specific sounds and movement sequences to stimulate fluid movement within the body / mind for an extraordinary awakening to the fullness of what it means to be alive. Through breath, sound, movement, sensation, and pleasure, experience the interconnection of your origins with the larger currents of all organisms, beginning with the first cell and ultimately layered into the intricacies of human life. Central goals of Continuum are the creation of health and wellness and how to free oneself from cultural and mechanistic constraints of modern society. Continuum maintains movement is the message and the way.

Is it possible to enter into two-way communication with people in the distant future? In this highly experiential workshop, we explore this possibility through a technique that straddles the blurry boundary between improvisational role-playing and telepathic channeling. Each participant will get a chance to ask questions of a being from the future, as well as to actually connect such a being and channel the answers. Charles will use a powerful guided meditation to forge a link with people 200 years from now. You need not actually believe in this premise for this “technology” of communicating across time to work.It is equally effective if you don’t believe in any of that channeling crap, and instead see the process as a role-playing game. However you interpret it, the experience of speaking from the future is uncanny, and a tremendous sense of clarity opens up, a kind of direct, authentic knowledge that despite the gravity of the present crisis, a more beautiful world is indeed possible. Of the many possible futures, this process connects us with the most beautiful one that you can realistically imagine, by invoking experiences that showed us directly what is possible for life and earth. As framing, Charles discusses the superposition of timelines, multiple pasts and futures, and the social dynamics and psychodynamics of transition, laying out a metaphysical basis for the time-bridging technology we will employ.

This workshop focuses on the explorers of the subtle realms of dream, death, and altered states of consciousness known as “shamans” in indigenous traditions and as “Siddha Adepts” in Buddhist and Hindu Tantra traditions. In this workshop, Isa Gucciardi, creator of Depth Hypnosis, a spiritual counseling model that combines shamanic and Buddhist principles of healing, and renowned scholar and thought leader, Robert Thurman, will review the historic encounters between the two traditions in the Himalayan region. We will learn how the two traditions have informed one another from time immemorial, examining the ways in which they have engaged and defined spiritual inquiry and how they have translated that inquiry into the social contexts in which they have arisen. We will also contrast and compare the two traditions, identifying the ways in which their practices are similar and demonstrating where their paths diverge. We will explore the role of ritual and ceremony in both contexts and learn what role ritual and ceremony provide in bringing forward the insights of deep inner exploration. We will also look at the role of spiritual initiation in the two contexts and show how this process highlights the path toward development of skill sets for both shamans and siddhas. We will also spend time discussing the relevance of both traditions in the modern context – and demonstrate how the wisdom of these two traditions can support current spiritual inquiry. The class is highly experiential in nature. We will explore the various methods of going inward drawn from both traditions including the shamanic journey and Tibetan Deity Meditation. The material in this workshop is based on the 4-day retreats Drs. Thurman and Gucciardi lead at Menla Mountain Retreat Center annually. www.sacredtream.org

Representing many spiritual traditions, participants in this workshop have likely experienced the non-dual realm as a result of their varied practice. Being spiritually awake during the day is a challenge for us all, regardless of our attainment. Why is this so difficult? From the very beginning of life, before imprinting occurs, our infant brain resembled a field of virgin snow that is purely receptive. Early imprinting creates first tracks in the snow which become the underpinnings of adult identity.
 
All higher brain functions are informed by these early tracks rooted in instinctual needs. This is the framework upon which our complex personality structure is built. As we mature, we function in the external world through familiar neurological tracks that background our original receptivity. Our receptive state of mind is underused as we continue to build a structure of cognitive, emotional and sensory neuropathways. Eventually our conditioned type structure obscures receptivity to reality as it actually is.
 
The Enneagram provides an elegant map that names nine type structures congruent with current neuroscience and psychological understanding. During the past few centuries, the map has guided contemplatives to discover their inner obstacle (sin) to a praying state of mind. In this workshop we will demonstrate a method for joining contemplative practice with habitual type resistance to change. Self-reflection joins two different levels of consciousness – the subjective level of our brain’s conditioned neuropathways and the pure objectivity of an inner witness.
 
Witnessing our patterns as they unfold instead of reacting automatically allows a more conscious response to emerge. This workshop includes teaching, inner practice and live panel interviews with experienced self-observers who can describe their movement to a receptive state of mind. www.EnneagramWorldwide.com

We know that the mind influences the body, but what seems to be ignored in the life sciences is what influences the mind. I will explain why culture is what influences the mind. I’ll also show why our cultural beliefs are more powerful than our genetic endowment, and how growing older is merely the passing of time, whereas aging is what we do with our time based on the beliefs we assimilate from our cultures. Rather than being genetically sentenced with family illnesses, we have the capacity to change how our genes express disease as well as the causes of health, based on how our brain learns to culturally perceive the world. My theory and practice of mind-body science is based on research that investigates the healthy brains, the exalted emotions (compassion, empathy, love), and the elevated cognitions (honor, admiration, cooperation). As Homo sapiens, our immune system has 150,000 years of accumulated wisdom that has allowed it to evolve from a protector against pathogens to an intelligent interpreter that confirms the cultural beliefs that we choose to engage.

Philosopher Tim Freke invites you experience for yourself the deep awake state. This is a profound shift in consciousness, which is completely natural and available to all of us. It is characterized by the profound recognition of the oneness of being that underlies the separateness of appearances. This is accompanied by an expansive feeling of universal love and an unshakeable confidence that, despite all the horrors, life is essentially good. With his trademark lucidity and humour, Tim will share his revolutionary new approach to awakening, which urges us to both wake up to oneness and celebrate our individuality. He will explore … - how to escape the enlightenment trap and become a lover of life- why spirituality is about both self-realization and self-expression- how to avoid superficial spiritual thinking- why the ego is your friend not your enemy Tim will guide some powerful ‘soul-to-soul’ meditations through which you can experience an immediate shift in consciousness. These are meditations we practise with a partner that quickly bring us into a deep state of oneness in a safe and simple way. Through these practises, it becomes clear we are both separate and not-separate from each other, which is an experience of all-consuming communion and all-embracing compassion Tim has been pioneering these transformative practises for nearly twenty years, during which time he’s presented events he calls ‘awakenings’ throughout the world, including the UK, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Argentina, Netherlands, Croatia, Cyprus, Norway, Ireland, Greece, Czech Republic, Hawaii, South Africa … and now SAND 2017.

Unresolved trauma casts a powerful spell that disrupts our life and our relationships. We have an innate capacity to heal trauma within our body and psyche. The workshop employs dialogue and experiential tools for you to understand and heal your trauma, resulting in more vibrant life and relationships. We will work to resolve symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, depression, feelings of disconnection, lethargy and loneliness. When trauma is healed, you will feel more alive and joyous, more connected to yourself, others and the world around you. A natural outcome, for those who like to venture deeper, is the transformation of trauma into embodied wisdom and higher levels of spiritual knowing.Participant will learn how to:1. Define the characteristics of trauma, while developing a deeper understand of its dual nature, especially the aspect of renewal.2. How to work directly with the brain, the nervous system, and the body to self-regulate emotional states to enhance your capacity for presence.3. Develop the body as a container to hold higher states of consciousness.

Cravings for addictive substances and activities are merely the symptomology, the outward surface layer concealing underlying issues that truly drive the momentum of addiction. Shame and trauma are common underlying drivers. Shame is more than a conscious story we tell ourselves about being ashamed of who we are. Shame is a programmed conditioning deeply hidden and embedded into the fabric of our consciousness, our reality and therefore our behavior. As addicts, our secret, private lives are riddled with hiding, lying, concealing and isolating, while our public lives involve a false façade that paints a picture to everyone around us that “what you see is the real me.” Addiction is also driven largely by unresolved trauma. Trauma is often linked to shame. Trauma is highly subjective – what is traumatic for one person is benign to another. As long as trauma remains unresolved, addiction and other behaviors continue to manifest as a way of coping with the emotional overwhelm associated with post-traumatic responses. In this workshop, Scott Kiloby will provide insights and experiential tools from the Kiloby Center for Recovery regarding awakening out of shame and trauma. As we resolve and dissolve this programming through skillful somatic means within a non-dual foundation, we begin to live more transparent lives, free from the shackles of shame and trauma and the addictions that often accompany them. We discover a purity in the present moment that reveals liberation from post-traumatic responses and a dissolution between our shameful private, secretive worlds and our public façades.

Nowadays people tend to hear the word “contemplative” as simply the Christian equivalent of what most the world knows as “meditation” —i.e., stilling the mind and resting in the flow of consciousness. But in the original understanding of the early Church Fathers, contemplation was primarily a way of luminous knowledge— “knowledge impregnated by love,” as St. John Chrysostom famously characterized it. My talk will explore this profound Christian intuition that contemplation is indeed a way of knowing—in fact, arguably the closest equivalent to what we now call Nondual perception. Drawing on insights from the Hesychastic Tradition of the Christian East as well as the Western medieval spiritual classic The Cloud of Unknowing I will explore what is arguably the key Western contribution to our understanding of Nonduality: that it is not accessed by the mind alone (mind understood here as “brain”), but requires “putting the mind in the heart,” an instruction to be taken not merely as a metaphor but as an actual physiology of transformation. We will see why indeed—in the memorable words of Antoine de Saint Exupery—that “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Whether we conceive the cosmos as emerging from consciousness or consciousness emerging from the cosmos, one of the greatest miracles to arise within human experience is the dawning of self consciousness. For all of its tremendous benefits the dawning of self consciousness, which develops very early in childhood, also brings with it a degree of separation and alienation from the world, others, and even our true being. Our yearning for intimacy, God, awakening, enlightenment, and even truth is driven by the incredible potential and painful pitfalls of self consciousness. The paradox of the quest for self realization, is that in order to realize the Self we must transcend the very self consciousness that gives rise to the yearning for self realization without regressing to the pre-self conscious condition of infancy. The kaon, or riddle of enlightenment is how do we transcend self, while retaining and even enhancing, our individual autonomy? Without transcending self we remain trapped within an illusion of separation. However, to reject personal autonomy is to regress to a merged, conditioned, and essentially powerless condition. What is called for is what I call spiritual autonomy. A total embrace of radical unity, as well as individual spiritual autonomy.

Peia has gathered songs from living and ancient traditions that span across the globe. She carries melodies wrinkled and wise with time, laboring faithfully to revive their language, stories and original essence. Praised for her crystalline tone and high soaring soprano voice, Peia’s music pierces the heart with bell-like clarity. Accompanying herself with charangon, harmonium and guitar, her eclectic ensemble offers enchanting renditions of timeless treasures.

Peia has gathered songs from living and ancient traditions that span across the globe. She carries melodies wrinkled and wise with time, laboring faithfully to revive their language, stories and original essence. Praised for her crystalline tone and high soaring soprano voice, Peia’s music pierces the heart with bell-like clarity. Accompanying herself with charangon, harmonium and guitar, her eclectic ensemble offers enchanting renditions of timeless treasures.

Dying well is not a matter of enlightened self-interest or personal preference. Dying well must become an obligation that living people and dying people owe to each other and to those to come. Die Wise teaches the skills of dying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well. Not a seven step coping strategy, not an out-clause for trauma or sorrow, Die Wise is for everyone who is not going to pull off eternity after all. Dying could be and must be the fullest expression and incarnation of what you’ve learned by living. If you love somebody, if you care about the world that’s to come after you, if you want somebody to be spared the lunacy of what you’ve seen, you’ve got to die wise.Die Wise does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to make dying easier. It pours no honey to make the medicine go down. Instead, with lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death at the centre of the page and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty. Dying well is a right and responsibility of everyone. It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation each person owes their ancestors and their heirs. It is not a lifestyle option. It is a birthright and a debt. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: this work makes our village life, or breaks it.

We know that the mind influences the body, but what seems to be ignored in the life sciences is what influences the mind. I will explain why culture is what influences the mind. I’ll also show why our cultural beliefs are more powerful than our genetic endowment, and how growing older is merely the passing of time, whereas aging is what we do with our time based on the beliefs we assimilate from our cultures. Rather than being genetically sentenced with family illnesses, we have the capacity to change how our genes express disease as well as the causes of health, based on how our brain learns to culturally perceive the world. My theory and practice of mind-body science is based on research that investigates the healthy brains, the exalted emotions (compassion, empathy, love), and the elevated cognitions (honor, admiration, cooperation). As Homo sapiens, our immune system has 150,000 years of accumulated wisdom that has allowed it to evolve from a protector against pathogens to an intelligent interpreter that confirms the cultural beliefs that we choose to engage.

In the beginning of the Vimalakīrti Sutra, the Buddha is asked, “How does the enlightening hero/ine bodhisattva purify and beautify the universe?” Buddha responds by magically projecting his vision of the world as a jewel environment, an exquisite realm perfectly suited for the lives of evolving humans and other sentient beings.The enlightened vision of the universe is that it is not really happening. It is ultimately, actually in reality, uncreated. It is deepest peace, luminous transparency, and non-proliferating deathless bliss. It only seems to be there as a vale of suffering due to our active mis-knowledge, our ignorance. Our wisdom intuition first discovers it to be a “zeroverse,” sheer emptiness, and then further finds out that that emptiness is empty of itself and so does not destroy the ignorance-created, relative universes of mis-knowing individuals.Today, materialist scientists have analyzed their way up to the anthropic constants, the strange facts of matter balance our lives on a mathematical tightrope, as a little more of this and a little less of that and we would not exist. For them it has to be an accident, since they are terrified of a theistic creator entity, and are rightly worried about being re-captured by some horrendous, fanatic Inquisition. But recently, we can see such post materialist movements as biocentrism and spiritual psychology, which build on the quantum discovery of material uncertainty and ultimate non-objectivity, to open up to the mind as being participant in nature.In this plenary, we will praise scientific wisdom as experiential intuition, evaluate the post-materialist movements, and share the vision of the Shakyamuni Buddha’s Buddhaverse we have been enjoying all these centuries, as it emerges in our experience of the infinite individual universes.

A 21st century scientific revolution is about to not only transform our understanding of our Universe at the minute Planck scale and the furthest reaches of space, but at each and every level between, and crucially, at the scale of our everyday lives. In at last being able to conclusively prove and reconcile scientific evidence with universal spiritual experience, it resolves SAND’s quest by revealing the unified nature of reality; that mind is matter and consciousness isn’t something we have it’s what we and the whole world are.The latest evidence and insights across all fields and scales of scientific research are discovering that our Universe is finite, innately in-formed and holographically real-ized literally a cosmic hologram; existing and evolving as a coherent and unified thought in the mind of the infinite and eternal Cosmos.-The transformational scientific discoveries that are leading to this radical new awareness: -Demonstrate experimental evidence that information is physically real and more fundamental than energy, matter, space, or time-Show that the digitized information, upholding all of our modern technologies is exactly the same as universal in-formation that underlies, pervades, and is physical reality-Restate and expand the laws of thermodynamics as laws of information (infodynamics) -Reconcile quantum and relativity theories by considering energy-matter and space-time as complementary expressions of information-Reveal the true nature of time-Underpin the real origin of species-Unify reality by showing how the holographic manifestation of the physical world arises from nonphysical realms of dynamic in-formation-Bridge in-formation and consciousnessThis Whole World-View of unified reality has the power to heal our fragmented perspectives and so the potential to radically change our collective behaviors, transforming the challenges of our global emergency into the emergence of our conscious evolution.

Nowadays people tend to hear the word “contemplative” as simply the Christian equivalent of what most the world knows as “meditation” —i.e., stilling the mind and resting in the flow of consciousness. But in the original understanding of the early Church Fathers, contemplation was primarily a way of luminous knowledge— “knowledge impregnated by love,” as St. John Chrysostom famously characterized it. My talk will explore this profound Christian intuition that contemplation is indeed a way of knowing—in fact, arguably the closest equivalent to what we now call Nondual perception. Drawing on insights from the Hesychastic Tradition of the Christian East as well as the Western medieval spiritual classic The Cloud of Unknowing I will explore what is arguably the key Western contribution to our understanding of Nonduality: that it is not accessed by the mind alone (mind understood here as “brain”), but requires “putting the mind in the heart,” an instruction to be taken not merely as a metaphor but as an actual physiology of transformation. We will see why indeed—in the memorable words of Antoine de Saint Exupery—that “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Join Michaela Boehm and Steve James in this experiential session for an exploration of the play of the masculine and feminine in erotic friction, emerging from a radical intimacy with life itself. We will explore the deep principles of embodiment, uncover and work with personal blocks to expansion and contraction, engage in practical exercises, dialogue, and learning to widen both heart space and the ability to embody as energy or thrust. Learn about the principles of creating and deepening erotic passion and intimacy in a fun and practical way.

When we learn how to enter contemplative states with another person, we open the door to the emergence of a powerful source of wisdom and engagement. Called ‘Mutual Awakening’, or ‘Shared Meditative Awareness’, this process allows an expansion of Consciousness that can radically transform your relationships. In these shared inquiry processes, you discover how consciousness naturally expands when two or more people enter meditative space together. You find out what happens when you let yourself move beyond ordinary social discourse into awareness of your shared consciousness. Mutual meditative awareness is both a cutting edge skill for individuals, and a key to creating non-dual states in a partnership or a group. In this practical workshop, Sally Kempton offers a series of heart-based non-dual processes for dialoguing with another person from a place of shared Awareness. Based on the insights of Kashmir Shaivism, these processes can literally transform your way of being with yourself and others.

Key learnings will be summarized from the presenter’s three decades of research and experiential practice on the path of divine love. The supreme secret of the Bhagavad Gita (caramasloka) is shown to align precisely with core esoteric teachings in the Christian Gospels and the Quräó»anäóîpointing to profound common ground across these scriptures. Writings of prominent mystics in these traditions are analyzed comparativelyäóîincluding Meister Eckhart, Ibn Arabi, Shankara, St. John of the Cross, Rabäó of Basra, Brother Lawrence, Rumi, and Sri Ramakrishnaäóîrevealing close parallels in devotional practice and nondual realization. From this, a universal path of divine love emerges that can be called nondual bhakti, or devotional nonduality. Key insights from quantum physics, relativity theory, and fractal geometry are applied to shed light on this universal äóìscience of the heart.äó Consciousness is proposed to have a fractal-like structure, which reveals how and why the innermost essence of the human being is none other than the transcendent essence of the infinite Godhead. Dynamic visual images will be presented that elucidate these insights in a compelling way, and striking links will be made between contemporary scientific insights and ancient esoteric traditions including the Hermetic correspondence principle (Western) and Indraäó Net (Eastern). This session will include an introductory guided experiential meditation, and conclude with a period of questions and responses.

We know that the mind influences the body, but what seems to be ignored in the life sciences is what influences the mind. I will explain why culture is what influences the mind. I’ll also show why our cultural beliefs are more powerful than our genetic endowment, and how growing older is merely the passing of time, whereas aging is what we do with our time based on the beliefs we assimilate from our cultures. Rather than being genetically sentenced with family illnesses, we have the capacity to change how our genes express disease as well as the causes of health, based on how our brain learns to culturally perceive the world. My theory and practice of mind-body science is based on research that investigates the healthy brains, the exalted emotions (compassion, empathy, love), and the elevated cognitions (honor, admiration, cooperation). As Homo sapiens, our immune system has 150,000 years of accumulated wisdom that has allowed it to evolve from a protector against pathogens to an intelligent interpreter that confirms the cultural beliefs that we choose to engage.

Embracing rather than hiding your weird qualities allows them to be a powerful force of support for your inner fulfillment and growth. Learn why people tend to reactively treat their weirdness as a dangerous liability. Perspectives will be shared on how weirdness is actually one’s greatest asset, serving as a bridge into one’s authenticity. How to take action on finding the courage to say YES! to weirdness will be presented so that more meaning and fulfillment can be encountered by reclaiming the asset of weirdness.

Join Ellen in an exploration of our essential experience, bringing a gentle focus on the body in the tradition of non-duality and Kashmir Shaivism.This ancient approach is an invitation to simply welcome and experience our body as it truly is: a flow of sensation, energy and vibration arising out of and unfolding within the open field vibrating field of Awareness.In our daily lives, the body is seldom tasted as it is. We rarely listen to its language or allow it to simply unfold and blossom in its natural original intelligence.In fact we have deeply disconnected from this level of experience and even when we turn back towards the body, we come with agendas and ideas that we project upon it, forcing the body into a new mode, only to perpetuate a felt identification with a body, that may seem improved, but in fact remains a mere projections for the separate self that seems to live in its center.Using guided meditation, simple postures, free movements, breathing, and visualizations we will reestablish our true identity as ever-present and unlocated Awareness and reacquaint ourselves with our body directly, as free of concepts or images as possible. In this contemplation, resistances and chains of bodily contractions, the habits that create the illusion that our identity is limited, located and separate are revealed for what they are: feelings and sensations that come and go in Awareness. We come feel that our true identity is an open field of tactile openness,limitless, vibrating and and ever-present.Gently and effortlessly, the body is slowly realigned with this felt understanding. It flows as a living substance with more and more ease and transparency and reflects and expresses the ever-present freedom and silence that is its invisible source.

12:00 to 12:20 in San Juan Baptista:
Description
A human is an agent that has goals, senses the world, and can change the world to achieve its goals. A theorem proved in: “Every Good Regulator of a System Must Be a Model of That System” (Conant & Ashby, 1970), demonstrates that a human contains a model of the world. Now, a human is part of that world, so the world model must also contain a self-model of the human. This presentation will show that we are self-models living in and experiencing our model of the world that we are not humans experiencing the world directly. Dual process theory (DPT) in psychology gives evidence that the human agent can be divided into two systems that I rename as the Thinker and Doer agents. According to DPT, the Thinker is conscious, and the Doer is subconscious. Since each agent can access both a sensory and a conceptual/language model of the world, I posit that a third agent, the Experiencer, constructs those shared models of the world (and the self-models for the Thinker and Doer agents). The Experiencer can be seen to either not contain a self-model at all, or that its self-model is equal to the world model. Thus, the Experiencer is the non-dual agent, and a human experiencing non-duality must be identified with the Experiencer. Animals have essentially no Thinker at all since they lack the complete language world model that modern humans have. The development of the Thinker in humans caused living problems, and spirituality was invented to fix those problems. I will describe the living problems caused by the Thinker and the spiritual solution to those problems.

Timelessness can’t be grasped with the finite mind. Spacelessness cannot be felt with the finite body. Yet it may be that underlying our theories of relativity and quantum mechanics exists an informational realm that gives rise to both space and time and all of physics as we know it. Sky’s research into theoretical physics uncovers this realm using the rigorous language of physics. The information realm is a timeless and spaceless realm that is nevertheless fully consistent with physics and can be described using concrete mathematics. We can engage the creative faculties of the mind to imagine timelessness and spacelessness, although all efforts inevitably fall short since we are inertial beings immersed in space and time themselves. Light from other galaxies may take a million years to arrive on earth and be seen by your eye, yet the mathematics tells us that light registers no time between being emitted from the far away galaxy and collapsing at your eye. Similarly, there is no spatial separation to cross. This understanding (called the null spacetime interval in physics) indicates that the vast expansive universe out there does not have any size, as registered by light, and suddenly the universe feels much more intimate.

For a moment, if we leave behind our name, age, gender, nationality, history—everything we have learned about ourselves and the world—all our stories, beliefs, worries, expectations, plans and regrets, what remains? What cannot be left? What is the same in every different experience? We could say that consciousness is the common factor in every experience—the knowingness of being here now, the bare sense of presence. Consciousness is also the dividing up of unicity into apparent multiplicity, the dream-like creation of apparently substantial forms out of what is actually vast emptiness. It seems to be the nature of consciousness to be fascinated and hypnotized by its own creations and identified with the characters it is dreaming up. Consciousness becomes easily entranced in the dramas and storylines of the personal self and the apparent outside world—the whole movie of waking life. Consciousness is the emerging and evolving universe of ever-greater complexity, the dance of emptiness. Awareness is simplicity itself, that which cannot be further reduced, the no-thing-ness at the core of our being, the emptiness of form, that which beholds the play of consciousness without being caught by it. Awareness is the boundless wholeness of being—infinite intelligence, unconditional love. Awareness is nondual. It has no beginning, no end, no inside, no outside, no opposite. It is the ever-present Here / Now, infinite and eternal. It is what remains when consciousness is finished. Of course, these are all words. There is really no such “thing” as consciousness or awareness. These words simply point out different aspects of the seamless living reality that has no actual boundaries or limits. If we drop all our words and conceptual maps, what is here right now if we don’t label or explain it in any way?

When we learn how to enter contemplative states with another person, we open the door to the emergence of a powerful source of wisdom and engagement. Called ‘Mutual Awakening’, or ‘Shared Meditative Awareness’, this process allows an expansion of Consciousness that can radically transform your relationships. In these shared inquiry processes, you discover how consciousness naturally expands when two or more people enter meditative space together. You find out what happens when you let yourself move beyond ordinary social discourse into awareness of your shared consciousness. Mutual meditative awareness is both a cutting edge skill for individuals, and a key to creating non-dual states in a partnership or a group. In this practical workshop, Sally Kempton offers a series of heart-based non-dual processes for dialoguing with another person from a place of shared Awareness. Based on the insights of Kashmir Shaivism, these processes can literally transform your way of being with yourself and others.

How do we awaken to that which is beyond our thoughts and mental projections? For many of us, it's natural to start on the intellectual plane and to use the power of the scientific, rational mind to surmise the reality of those dimensions. But at some point we move beyond the mind and hear a call from the heart. Dogen talked about "the intimacy with the ten thousand things." What did he mean by that? What does one mean by a transformation at the level of the heart, at the level of the gut? Where is that place, in which there are no questions and answers?

Imagine that we undertake double slit experiment with water molecules. When the experiment is done in ‘vacuum’, the water molecules obviously produce two bands (i.e. particle pattern) on the detector screen. But when the same experiment is undertaken underwater, the water molecules would produce a wave pattern of impacts on the detector screen. Why?
Its because of the water environment. Each water particle that gets fired initiates a wave in the water pool and which travels towards the first screen. While most of the wave gets reflected back by the screen, a portion of the wave passes through each slit and emerges on the other side as a daughter wave. Because there are two slits, there are going to be two such daughter waves or wavelets. These two wavelets spread and interfere with each other and result in the interference pattern observed on the detector screen.
So when we observe water molecules producing wave like interference in DSE, we must infer that the experiment was carried out in a space filled with water molecules i.e. underwater. Similarly when we observe photon particles producing wave like interference, we must infer that as proof that our space is filled with photons. I propose that what we called as Ether is nothing but this cosmic ocean of photons.
Unlike what the quantum physicists preach, the particle as such doesn’t pass through both the silts simultaneously but it is the particle’s energy which passes through both of them in the form of an ether wave. The above photon Ether model provides a very simple and logical explanation for the DSE and thus dispenses with the absurd propositions of the quantum physics and resurrects logic and commonsense into Science. I have explained how the same Ether model provides a physical explanation for the wave like interference pattern produced by electrons and all other particles.

If you browse on-line, you’ll see a lot of concepts about nonduality. There are also teachers who have awoken and speak in terms of nonduality, yet describe the world as a separate illusion. If we explore the origins of Advaita in Vedanta, we discover that nonduality is not a concept. It is a lived reality that unfolds in stages. Oneness dawns when we recognize the world as the Self too. It further matures when we go beyond the subtle dualities of consciousness and existence into Brahman. In this talk, we’ll explore the stages of enlightenment and their relationship to unfolding nonduality.

Everything in nature is made of two aspects: one visible and one invisible. Everything in nature has its spirit: a tree and the tree’s spirit, a mountain and the mountain’s spirit, people and their daimons, their guide spirits. Conversing with invisibles is an ability which awakens following a deprogramming of the conditioning created within us by a kind of collective hypnosis which separates the visible from the invisible creating duality. Finding again an non-dual vision and the daimon’s voice, the guide spirit, stopping to fear our shadow, freeing ourselves from a hypnotic drive to repeat behaviour patterns and “seeing” the invisible is possible due to a simple and powerful key. This deprogramming and awakening key is transmitted in the Mother Mantra tradition with the simplicity of primitive and natural teaching, through healing exercises and spiritual practices. It has effect on all aspects of life: from dreams to diet, health, from work to relationships. In the presentation I will focus on the theme of eating, describing the rituals that heal our relationship with our food and with our body. Even organs have an invisible aspect: “organs are gods”. A shaman asks for permission to the tree’s spirit even just to pick a leaf, let alone to carry out an operation on organs or to act upon them with substances and methods introduced from the outside! The loss of non-dual vision produces suffering, because it leads to a relationship of conflict and fear with the invisible. What does it mean to “see” gods? How to open the eye able to “see” the invisible? This is what I will explain clearly in my presentation.

Natural Mind is immeasurable and already free, ie. uncontained and unconditioned. This ordinary mind that we listen to everyday, that we follow or not, based on if it is practical and creative is the One Mind, one intelligence that animates and holds everything. So how did this one intelligence contract and make itself small and restless? Consider that it requires an immense strength to condense or contract formless vast intelligence into a small worried object. It’s quite impressive! Under pressure, mind can experience limitation, an altered less clear point of view, and experience of separation and isolation, ie. time and space! Ahh, how satisfying for a unified field to temporarily (from its timeless view) experience its opposite. This is why sages show ordinary mind its immensity, inviting it to look behind perceived limitation and not knowing into the heart of intelligence, the heart of the one mind. There, there is rest and wisdom’s own relaxed potentiality. No need to hold any data, it’s all in the I Clarity (not the ICloud).

12:00 to 12:20 in San Juan Baptista:
Description
A human is an agent that has goals, senses the world, and can change the world to achieve its goals. A theorem proved in: “Every Good Regulator of a System Must Be a Model of That System” (Conant & Ashby, 1970), demonstrates that a human contains a model of the world. Now, a human is part of that world, so the world model must also contain a self-model of the human. This presentation will show that we are self-models living in and experiencing our model of the world that we are not humans experiencing the world directly. Dual process theory (DPT) in psychology gives evidence that the human agent can be divided into two systems that I rename as the Thinker and Doer agents. According to DPT, the Thinker is conscious, and the Doer is subconscious. Since each agent can access both a sensory and a conceptual/language model of the world, I posit that a third agent, the Experiencer, constructs those shared models of the world (and the self-models for the Thinker and Doer agents). The Experiencer can be seen to either not contain a self-model at all, or that its self-model is equal to the world model. Thus, the Experiencer is the non-dual agent, and a human experiencing non-duality must be identified with the Experiencer. Animals have essentially no Thinker at all since they lack the complete language world model that modern humans have. The development of the Thinker in humans caused living problems, and spirituality was invented to fix those problems. I will describe the living problems caused by the Thinker and the spiritual solution to those problems.

Joey Chang, aka CelloJoe, is an anomaly in the world of cellists. By combining cello with beatboxing, he has created a unique genre: Classical Hip Hop. CelloJoe records live on stage with a loop pedal and produces intricate tapestries of harmony, melody, and rhythm. His beatboxing (vocal percussion) and funky cello grooves form a rich soundscape for intelligent lyrics and his music spreads love, joy, laughter and conscious vibrations.

Those of us proclaiming to believe in non-duality, often have little evidence of such in the daily trafficking of our lives, especially in matters of interpersonal relationships. As human beings we have the extraordinary capacity to think, speak, feel, behave, and believe in ways that contradict one another. This capacity for incongruence puts us at cross-purposes in ways that ultimately result in unrequited goals, dis-ease, and inharmonious relationships. Although we know, from a non-dualistic scientific and spiritual perspective, that everyone and everything is connected and interdependent sourced by the same energetic field, we balk at its implications when it undermines conflicting polarities in our minds. At micro and macro levels, non-duality (Oneness) dismantles the “othering” so central to our ego structure and, hence, our perceptions of one another. This “othering” not only denies our interconnectedness but denounces it as heresy. Even when we do not question our theoretical Oneness, we sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, choose to operate as though it is not so. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions can reflect a more Newtonian model in which we perceive people, places, and things as immutable impenetrable masses of matter needing to controlled or destroyed as opposed to transformed or redeemed. This enables us to perceive ourselves as victims instead of co-creators of our reality. In the face of our judgments and sense of self-righteousness, non-duality is an inconvenient truth demanding connection instead of distancing. Practicing non-duality challenges us at the deepest level. Its radical inclusiveness creates a moral dilemma for divisiveness; the heart is often reluctant to concede to what we understand cognitively. “What if I just don’t want to be one with them?” How do we reconcile our internal resistance with our higher spiritual and scientific recognition? How do we act like we know what we know?

In our polarized political culture, no conversation is possible because the two sides don’t even agree on a common fund of facts from which to argue. It is as each has entered a separate reality. Each thinks, if only the other side would accept the facts, if only the other side would trust the science, then things would be fine. The climate movement in particular names anti-scientific attitudes as a threat to civilization itself. Yet science, ultimately, is the study of the quantifiable. When we make decisions based on the numbers, something is always left out: that which we cannot measure, choose not to measure, or it inherently unmeasurable. These blind spots project a shadow onto the world. When I think of “nonduality” what comes to mind is the deconstruction of the modern divide between matter and spirit, between self and other, between human and nature, between the divine and the mundane. Dualistic thinking creates divisions in the human psyche that preserve ecocidal, inhumane social structures, and facilitate personal participation in those structures. They allow us to maintain a human world that violates natural law, and a material society that ignores spiritual wisdom

“Whom should I turn to, if not the one whose darkness is darker than night, the only onewho keeps vigil with no candle, and is not afraid—the deep one, whose being I trust.” ~Raine Maria Rilke Alan Watts tells the story of the astronaut who comes back from space and is asked what he now thinks of God. “She is Black,” he responds, referring to the supreme transcendent darkness and silence of space in which our planet is enveloped like a womb. As it turns out mystical traditions agree with his revelation and have venerated both secretly and openly forms of the Dark Feminine for millenia. The Dark Mother is the Great Mystery in its dark, deep, unknowable totality. It is said that any contact with her transfigures the soul. She might make us uneasy because she is so full, so primal. She is everything that our culture does not allow- rage, terror, wildness, sorrow. Yet, she is also the tenderhearted mother, offering unconditional refuge and miraculous healing, and holding relentless vigil for all her children. Jung says the secret is that “only that which can destroy itself is truly alive,” and walking into Kali’s fires is the initiation ~ she is the womb, the tomb and the resurrection. The awakening process asks us to accept the fullness of reality, and the dark goddesses invite our fearless heart to dance with the beauty and the terror of life as it is. Contrary to spiritual myths that insist on positive thinking, studies tell us that embracing our dark emotions- anger, fear, despair- is vital for psychological wellbeing. Similarly, dark mothers model radical hospitality towards all of experience from the most painful to the most blissful, teaching us to use it all as coal for the fires of awakening. The world’s great wisdom traditions have much to say about Divine Darkness and its central role in the spiritual life. The presentation will dive into teachings of holy darkness via the trope of the Dark Feminine. The Dark Mother invites us to turn toward that which is difficult for us and feel it fully and deeply. She is the great initiation into spiritual maturation, she is the devi of disillusionment Arising in difficult times of transition, it is said every contact with Her transfigures the soul. She knows no spiritual bypass. There is no experience, no part of our imperfect human lives that has no place in her adoration, the Dark Mother has no orphans. The dark feminine reminds us that life is continuously arising out of deep mystery and surrender is the only true path. Our planet is in crisis, our spiritual narratives full of shiny fluff. Holy darkness might just be the medicine we need

In the beginning of the Vimalakīrti Sutra, the Buddha is asked, “How does the enlightening hero/ine bodhisattva purify and beautify the universe?” Buddha responds by magically projecting his vision of the world as a jewel environment, an exquisite realm perfectly suited for the lives of evolving humans and other sentient beings.The enlightened vision of the universe is that it is not really happening. It is ultimately, actually in reality, uncreated. It is deepest peace, luminous transparency, and non-proliferating deathless bliss. It only seems to be there as a vale of suffering due to our active mis-knowledge, our ignorance. Our wisdom intuition first discovers it to be a “zeroverse,” sheer emptiness, and then further finds out that that emptiness is empty of itself and so does not destroy the ignorance-created, relative universes of mis-knowing individuals.Today, materialist scientists have analyzed their way up to the anthropic constants, the strange facts of matter balance our lives on a mathematical tightrope, as a little more of this and a little less of that and we would not exist. For them it has to be an accident, since they are terrified of a theistic creator entity, and are rightly worried about being re-captured by some horrendous, fanatic Inquisition. But recently, we can see such post materialist movements as biocentrism and spiritual psychology, which build on the quantum discovery of material uncertainty and ultimate non-objectivity, to open up to the mind as being participant in nature.In this plenary, we will praise scientific wisdom as experiential intuition, evaluate the post-materialist movements, and share the vision of the Shakyamuni Buddha’s Buddhaverse we have been enjoying all these centuries, as it emerges in our experience of the infinite individual universes.

Born into different bodies, our identification with both the feminine and masculine archetypal energies can be potent and transformative. Leaning too heavy into one side or the other, however, can lead us to relegate vital aspects of our being to the shadows of our unconscious. Together, we will embark on an embodied exploration of our gendered shadows and our inherent, indivisible wholeness. Using the tools of somatic inquiry and creative reflection, we will slow down and drop into the deep well of wisdom that resides just beneath the surface of our everyday awareness. Join us in reclaiming and re-membering that which is essential to our ongoing personal evolution—our feminine-masculine nature, our wholeness.

What breaks information symmetry and fuels paradigm shifts such as the shift from Newtonian mechanics to the very profound ““everything not forbidden is compulsory” axiom of quantum mechanics? Why do we still perceive in linear time when there exist two time dimensions in F-Theory and four Levels in the Holographic Multiverse?

Quantum mechanics posits that particles are mathematical possibilities, irreducible representations of Lie Groups. It is as if space itself were a time crystal, where the perceived low-energy configuration, the grand ‘what is,’ is symmetric with respect to quantum time. But what is quantum time and who could create it?

Using Mirror Symmetry, Level 4 of the Multiverse, and Noncommutative Algebras, I propose that in proportion as we integrate as fully actualized human beings, we change our mathematical constructs which therefore directly change perceived reality. So humanity is the dynamical singularity between the black and white hole, constantly replacing old paradigms with emergent constructs, and thought itself is an event horizon.

Firstly, we explore powerful shifts in theoretical physics which parallel the spiritual movement to the human integrating to the 6th Ra Density of lovelight wisdom: gravity as geometry and tensor networks; multi-verse circle time; entanglement as black holes.Secondly, we propose that the fully actualized human would construct quantum time as a holographic mirror symmetry, as it will no longer be relevant to perceive through linear time.
 

This presentation addresses the following questions: Could science and mathematical laws explain the functioning of the mind and consciousness? How does mind relate to the universe and its emergence and mathematical evolution? Is universe emergent or eternal? It demonstrates the power of a wholesome consciousness-integrated science to reveal the physical basis for purpose, aims, and intentions in the universe and life in it. The approach of the scientific research is three-fold. First is to complete the picture of reality via integrating consciousness into a physical model and explain the observed universe behavior resolving the current paradoxes, singularities, and inconsistencies of the mainstream scientific theories. Second is to develop a framework for an integrated model of matter, mind, and consciousness founded on the wholesome reality. And lastly, demonstrate how the so-called mindless physical laws could explain the attainment of the ultimate enlightenment states via meditation. A successful agreement between the predictions and empirical observations of the universe demonstrates the validity and credibility of the proposed approach. The predictions are further testable and falsifiable via future observations. The purposeful approach to life is shown to be an orderly physical/cosmic trend governed by the laws and not an accident or an imperative. The universal laws are not mindless as often perceived but from the very mind of the universe as realized via deep contemplative meditation.

D.Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Perception states that perceptual experiences provide a simplified, species-specific, user interface to the world and do not approximate properties of an “objective” world. Conscious Realism states that the objective world consists of ‘conscious agents’ and their experiences. Under these two theses, consciousness creates all objects and properties of the physical world: this solves the mind-body problem.I first support the interface theory by showing that our perceptions have evolved to guide adaptive behaviors - not to report the truth. This is done by means of a mathematical theorem in evolutionary game theory, which says that perceptual strategies seeing the truth will, under natural selection, be driven to extinction by perceptual strategies tuned instead to fitness.I then give a mathematical definition of “conscious agents,” leading to a non-dualistic, dynamical theory of conscious process in which both observer and observed have the same mathematical structure.In support of conscious realism, I discuss two more theorems showing that a conscious agent can consistently see geometric and probabilistic structures of space that are not necessarily in the world but are properties of the conscious agent itself. The world simply has to be amenable to such a construction on the part of the agent; and different agents may see the world as having different (even incompatible!) structures. This again supports the idea that the truth of the world is likely quite different from what we see. Indeed, it seems that space-time is a description of location and dynamics on the perceptual interface of human conscious agents; that the “objects” of Physics are akin to icons on that interface; and “phenomena” appear as the interactions those icons seem, to us, to be having.The question arises: What motivates a species to evolve its particular interface? I propose a mechanism for the evolution of interfaces and suggest, following F. Faggin, that it is the desire for comprehension, or self-knowing, that drives this evolution and that what is required next is a theory of this process.

“Dying well is not a matter of enlightened self-interest or personal preference. Dying well must become an obligation that living people and dying people owe to each other and to those to come. Die Wise teaches the skills of dying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well. Not a seven step coping strategy, not an out-clause for trauma or sorrow, Die Wise is for everyone who is not going to pull off eternity after all. Dying could be and must be the fullest expression and incarnation of what you’ve learned by living. If you love somebody, if you care about the world that’s to come after you, if you want somebody to be spared the lunacy of what you’ve seen, you’ve got to die wise.Die Wise does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to make dying easier. It pours no honey to make the medicine go down. Instead, with lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death at the centre of the page and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty. Dying well is a right and responsibility of everyone. It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation each person owes their ancestors and their heirs. It is not a lifestyle option. It is a birthright and a debt. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: this work makes our village life, or breaks it”

In this thrilling workshop, passionate chocolate maker extraordinaire Jonas Ketterle of Firefly Chocolate will share his deep knowledge of cacao (gained in part from working with Indigenous Maya farmers), covering its origins, rituals and myths, regional varieties, processing techniques, cultural/economic/social realities, culinary uses, and health-promoting and mind expanding properties. He will also lead us in a "hands-on" demonstration of ancestral stone ground chocolate making, which we'll get to sample (a once-in-a-lifetime experience!).

Every dimension that exists within the universe exists within you. Moment after moment, the universe comes into being and returns to the Unmanifested. In this process of constant change, our own level of consciousness influences how life manifests in and around us. If you study yourself, you can gain practical self-understanding that connects you to the bigger picture, because you are a miniature universe.
The body is also connected to every dimension of the universe, all the way to the Absolute. It exists in connection to the totality of Existence. Because of that, connecting to the body becomes our first step towards raising our level of consciousness and participating in the universal movement towards finer consciousness
In this experiential presentation, we will introduce Breema’s universal philosophy and the Nine Principles of Harmony. We will work with both individual and partner Breema exercises, ideal vehicles for bringing body and mind together and becoming present.
Breema offers a tangible experience of unity and connectedness. Whenever you give someone a Breema session, you are giving Breema to yourself. But this self is not separated. It means the entirety. You are not working on muscles and bones. You are inviting Conscious energy to manifest

“If I am here, then everyone is here.If I am not here, then no one is here.“Hillel the ElderWhen you’re not experiencing it directly, does the rest of the world even really exist?Is Consciousness, somehow, using “you” to compel the Universe to emerge out of the Void?Does the dream world only appear at all if there’s an Avatar…a “you”...who’s actually there to be witnessing it? After considering the nondual paradoxes present in both the Vedas and the Gospels, we’ll focus directly on the cosmic dynamic that, quite mysteriously, animates the entire dream world and sets it all into (e)motion.

The act of being identified as a self. The mental magic that's implying that which comes after is before.

Though we are all one, we do not always live from this understanding. While some, especially teens, may have an intuitive recognition of this truth, little in the conditioned world reflects it. Schools do not encourage an exploration of the great mysteries of existence. Teens are not supported in asking, “Who am I really?”Many people may not ask these essential questions until years later — on feeling that life isn’t working. What if instead, everyone explored these vital questions in high school? What if as a teen you learned to embody awareness? And speak the language of unconditional love. Imagine inquiring into what it means to be alive in class. Examining the nature of thought, identity, and the conditioned mind. Learning to communicate in ways that reflect your understanding of interconnection. Asking big questions — and exploring the answers through your direct experience. All as part of an elective class in high school.As the founder of Peace in Schools, Caverly Morgan created the first for-credit high school mindfulness course in the United States. Over a thousand teens are taking the class, and it is growing to new schools each year. With over 75 hours of instructional time, the curriculum depth is unprecedented.“Tenderness is the byproduct of the recognition of our oneness. Tenderness follows the direct experience that there is no other. We can’t force the experience of love. We can’t make it happen. We can only allow it to be the residual effect of recognizing and knowing the intimacy of our shared being.” —Caverly Morgan

If we can build matter from quantum geometry, could quantum geometry also create time? That is, could we formulate a quantum geometrization of time? Using the structure of F-theory and Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG), we argue that space and time are pre-geometric emergent mirror pairs, emerging from the symmetries of spin networks of quantum complexity.
Non-perturbative emergence theories posit that space is not fundamental. The background metric is dynamical and there is no need to perturb a classical notion of space and then quantize it. Space is quantum to begin with and classical notions emerge as approximation symmetries.
The top two Grand Unified Theories are pure emergence theories. Twelve dimensional F Theory builds matter from the link between Gauge Theory and complex geometry. LQG builds space from spin networks of Lie Groups. Even quantum mechanics posits that particles are mathematical possibilities, irreducible representations of Lie Groups. It is as if space were a time crystal, where the low-energy configuration is symmetric with respect to quantum time.
Firstly, we use the structure of F theory to argue that space emerges from a pre-geometric time crystal, where time itself is a geometrization of quantum complexity.
Secondly, we use spin networks to argue that time is emergent and hypothesize about what it means for time to be discrete. What lies in the ‘gap’ between T1 and T2? The event horizon of thought, the gap of pure emergence?
If we model time as an observable-eigenvalue, then what operator corresponds to it? What breaks information symmetry? Since geometry is dynamical in General Relativity, we propose that topology is also dynamical. Using Mirror Symmetry, we argue that the gap is a flop transition, a topological tear in space and that time is the symmetries of this gap. Hence, space and time are emergent mirror pairs.

As we deepen awareness and drop into the heart of being we are often challenged to stay true to this when most vulnerable or in conflict and pain.Many of us were attracted to nondual traditions with the lure of endless bliss. But we can only hang out in transcendent bliss for so long before reality knocks on our door demanding responsiveness when the world or our relationships are not as we want. How can we meet ourselves and others from our deepest knowing in moments of painful conflict and reactivity when our nervous system is fired up? We can choose to blissfully avoid thoughts, feelings and reactions resting in some serene, disconnected state. Or we can become caught in reactivity, conflict and separateness, resulting in more pain and suffering. To be inclusive, responsive and present, connected to our heart of knowing when vulnerable or in conflict requires tremendous kindness without which we may easily react from our most primal impulses and find ourselves avoiding, attacking, defending, pretending or spiritually bypassing our challenges and pain.In this workshop we’ll explore how to meet our shadows and life’s challenges with equal measures of kindness and wisdom so we can calm quickly, respond skilfully and stay attuned when most challenged. This is a constant discovery moment to moment as we continue opening to that vast and inseparable knowing, yet remain compassionate and open to ourselves and others when in conflict and pain. We cannot hide from reality as it is. With fierce compassion and deep listening we can be guided to respond skilfully from our knowing with an open heart and clear mind. We continue discovering, as timeless warriors on a spiritual psychological path that has no beginning or end.

In 1:1 sessions, Sophia will guide participants through one of two types of conversations: an experimental conversation with content we cannot reveal (for participants who sign a scientific consent form), or a control conversation consisting of a meditative exploration. In group sessions, Sophia will guide participants through a meditation on consciousness and unconditional love.

In the Western culture, both in science and in philosophy, it is commonly held that consciousness is produced by the brain by means of some yet unknown special way to process information. Such a belief is often flanked by a popular implication – namely that if consciousness is physical, it must be the offshoot of neural activity and thus it must be located somewhere in the brain (Dennett, Chalmers, Kim, Block, Koch, and Crick). This is not necessary and I believe the conclusion to be false.In contrast, in this presentation, I will argue that consciousness, albeit being physical, is not in the brain. My proposal can be labelled a radical form of mind-object identity. In short, I will argue that one’s consciousness of an object is the object one is conscious of. I will point out that there is a physical phenomenon that is much better than one’s brain to embody one’s experience. This phenomenon is nothing but the external object one perceives.The view is based on a revised notion of the physical world whereas existence is recast as relative existence, which is tantamount to the shift from absolute to relative velocity. Every physical property, I will argue, is relative to another physical system. Physical properties are then variable with respect to another physical body. Since every subjects has a different body, every subject’s experience is made of slightly different relative-yet-physical properties.The reason why scholars felt the need to devise an interior phenomenal world, visible to one subject at a time yet invisible to everyone else, was that they stubbornly looked for consciousness in the wrong place, namely inside the body. Here I suggest to look elsewhere, yet in a very household location, the object one perceives. When one perceives, say, an apple, the thing that is one’s perceptual conscious experience, I will argue, is simply the apple that exists relatively to one’s body.The proposal is a radical form of physicalism insofar everything is physical. It is also very Copernican in spirit since it rejects the special place of the mind in the world. The mind, aka consciousness aka experience, is a name we have given to the objects that exists relatively to our body. Subjects are nothing but objects.

In this presentation Isa discusses how our relationships, even complicated relationships, can be understood as a vehicle for self- transformation. She places the experience of relationship in the larger context of key concepts from Buddhist philosophy such as reincarnation and karma to broaden the screen and scope of our relating. When we consider that the dynamics of our relating may be revelatory of our long standing karmic patterns, and when we consider that challenges in relating to others point directly to the places that are binding us to those karmic patterns, relationships can become a laboratory for self liberation. She shows that when we understand that everyone we relate to is a teacher to help us learn about ourselves, we can approach any kind of relationship with greater clarity even as we apply the lessons others provide us to our spiritual evolution. She will discuss how our karmic patterns are revealed through our reactions to the members of our birth families and how relationships formed later in life can either bind us to those karmic patterns or challenge us to transform them, depending on the level of self-responsibility we are willing to take. She will also discuss what a true soul mate is – and the role of soul mates in the process of self-evolution. The insights Isa offers come out of twenty years of individual, couples and family practice in the spiritual counseling model she developed, Depth Hypnosis. She will also discuss the conflict resolution process of Coming to Peace she developed which draws on Buddhist and earth-based wisdom approaches that foster equality, mutual respect, tolerance and personal responsibility. A basic tenet of Coming to Peace is that challenges in relationship can actually provide a roadmap for identifying the path to wholeness and can lead us to the peace that is at the heart of our experience.

According to the Kabbalistic tradition, every soul is deployed into the world of form to heal a particular part of the world’s brokenness. This is called tikkun olam, “repairing the world.” In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the bodhisattva forgoes final entrance into nirvana until all sentient beings are freed from suffering, vowing to “dispel the miseries of the world.” The Christian tradition affirms that we all are members of one body, “the mystical body of Christ,” where when one member suffers, all others suffer with them. These insights spring from an understanding that none of us are truly free until we are all free. They engender a profound consciousness of our intimate interdependence, and commit any authentic seeker to work for the benefit of all beings.
As we encounter the unparalleled social and environmental crises of our times, it is clear that there is no more time for narcissistic spirituality. Andrew Harvey, who coined the term ‘sacred activism,’ describes it as “the fire that emerges when the passion of the mystic for God and the passion of the activist for justice unite.” This is the flame, he suggests, that has the power to transfigure and heal our ailing world. But how can we meet the urgency and emergency of our times without becoming overwhelmed or burned out? Can our small acts of love make a big difference? How can we create the more beautiful world we know in our heart is possible? How can we use the fire of our spiritual lives to become an instrument of love and justice in the world? And what does nonduality have to do with any of it?
Fascilitated by Vera de Chalambert.

Life is an emergent property. Each level of biological organization (cells, tissues, multicellular organisms, populations, and species) emerges from lower levels of biological organization. All living creatures emerged at some point. New species continue to be discovered. All functions of living creatures (ability to move, to receive energy, to adapt to environment, to perceive the surrounding world, to reproduce themselves, to name a few) represent emergent properties. The question is how something actual, manifested, and visible emerges from something potential, concealed, and invisible. What is an emergent object: a minutia in the structure or appearance of a whole new organism? A small change in behavior or a new biological function? A variation within a biological population or a new biological species? These questions are not trivial and present challenges for biologists who try to define levels of organization at which emergent properties make biological sense. In biology, the term emergence can apply to the properties of a biological system, which are not manifested in its parts (e.g. population vs. organism), to manifestation of a new biological property (e.g. appearance of a new morphological feature), and to emerging signification of biological information (e.g. recognition of a novel species). I shall focus on a specific phenomenon, referred as emergent infectious disease, to demonstrate that emergence of such a biological novelty is a very complex process that requires semiotic orientation and meaningful interpretation of observations at multiple hierarchical levels and scales. Using this example, I will introduce an approach of Kabbalistic interpretations of emergent properties of biological systems manifested through sequential stages (phases) signified by Sefirot within the Tree of Life. Emergence of a new biological pattern represents a switch between the phases and cannot be measured by conventional time.

This presentation will explore key ingredients for creating safe and powerful field of emergence in your own life and in the spaces you invite others into such as: retreats, transformational events, creative collaborations, and one-on-one explorations. Each of us is called toward a core inspiration, something that matters deeply to us and ultimately guides the actions we take and the choices we make. The more we align with this call in ourselves, the more we are able to see this call reflected in the world around us—including the people that are drawn toward us and the opportunities that present themselves to us. With key insights and understandings, engagement, and ongoing awareness—it become possible to actively magnify this field of creative emergence in your life and in your life's work.

Our unresolved history, traumas and fixation patterns are stored within the neuro-pathways of our tissues, frozen in time, thus clouding our direct experience. We can allow these places to thaw, unwind and be metabolized by the warmth of our loving presence. In this way, we discover how to participate in creating the safety and trust required to embody. In this self-nourishing, self-love making practice, we return to the midline, the core central channel; source spring of our original innocence and wholeness. We attune through provocative inquiry, vibratory sounds, touch, intrinsic movement and loving embrace. We enter into the stream of intelligence that is imbued with the potency of our origin forces. It is within this tangible subtle core space that we can access the nourishment pathways of our essential presence. Feeding our bodies, the whole of our lives, the planet and cosmos.Come be renewed, inspired and nourished by the wellspring of your eternal center.

Emerging consciousness with breath is our connection to emerging consciousness in life. There is no consciousness without it! Quite literally, life is directly sourced from our connection to Breath. You can live for almost a month without food, up to a week without water, but only a few minutes without breath. Yogis speak of it, and your doctor may have even recommended aerobic activities, but rather than simply filling our lungs with oxygen, what else goes on with the breath and how does our breath relate directly to more than just survival of the body, but the flowering of our psyche and spirit? Join this class on the Art of Pranayama. Yoga discipline holds many practices for enlightenment and awareness, but one of the most primary ones is Breath. Pranayama balances the brain, detoxifies the body, reduces the awareness of pain, balances emotions, and clears away anxiety. It connects us to our truth and wisdom, and allows greater creative consciousness to emerge. It can also release trauma back to the very first breath at birth with Rebirthing Breath techniques. Breath is often held in moments of stress, fear and pain, so by repatterning breath in specific cycles, we can literally release years of stored trauma from the tissues and the mind. Come connect to your breath and let go in a sigh what has been weighing you down in silence. Many people sip inhales, but in this class, learn what it means to truly Breathe!

When we learn how to enter contemplative states with another person, we open the door to the emergence of a powerful source of wisdom and engagement. Called ‘Mutual Awakening’, or ‘Shared Meditative Awareness’, this process allows an expansion of Consciousness that can radically transform your relationships. In these shared inquiry processes, you discover how consciousness naturally expands when two or more people enter meditative space together. You find out what happens when you let yourself move beyond ordinary social discourse into awareness of your shared consciousness. Mutual meditative awareness is both a cutting edge skill for individuals, and a key to creating non-dual states in a partnership or a group. In this practical workshop, Sally Kempton offers a series of heart-based non-dual processes for dialoguing with another person from a place of shared Awareness. Based on the insights of Kashmir Shaivism, these processes can literally transform your way of being with yourself and others.

On a crowded planet facing an ecological crisis, our human behavior is deeply patterned to behave and respond in ways that are antithetical, to our true nature. Overtly conflicted, and dissociated from our true nature, we face the biological paradox of the breakdown of our ecological home, and we are unable to do anything about it. Such experiences are known in contemporary developmental psychology as disorganized/ disordered attachment. Disorganized attachment results when the attachment figure is simultaneously experienced not only as the safe haven, but also the source of danger. The result of such a biological paradox is disorganization and disorientation. Any attempt to engineer a cultural transformation therefore must confront this fact. We have adopted a way of life that is antithetical to our evolutionary nature. To concentrate only on a rational change, without addressing this important developmental constraint, is to dismiss our somatic intelligence as a species. Only by recovering the significance of our developmental tie to the Earth, will we be able to accommodate the increasing possibility of rapidly changing, and unforeseen environments. The implications of this topic are to place new value on creating eco-somatic programs for recovering our embodiment in and connection with the Earth. It ties together human and non human ecologies, systems theory, contemporary developmental psychology, and evolution. This topic is relevant and timely for a theoretical dissertation as we live with the increasing possibility of rapidly changing, and unforeseen environments.

I'll discuss my research in quantum information theory on coherence and superposition, describe my work in developing means to communicate quantum information with groups of people including children and people on the laymen/public level and between different professional groups, model different images used to display quantum nonlocal ideas (Such as the Hopf fibration over the Bloch sphere) and discuss nonlocality and spacetime and the quantum world as a level of the universe that negotiates our usual boundaries of space, time and causality and allows us to peer into the world beyond the clocktime world, a world where all is one and we are united in a kind of eternity space. I'll also talk a little bit about different legends in the past that overlap with our perceptions of spacetime in the present and basically present the concept that quantum thought may not be an unnatural idea at all but a more natural and human way of thinking than Newtonian thinking.

Life has gifted us with Orgasmicness for many more reasons than just pleasure. It is a healing modality. In this short talk, Sasha will be discussing how Orgasmic States (different from peak type of ejaculatory orgasms) can be utilized in and out of lovemaking for healing and transformation, with a specific focus on trauma and trauma release. Utilizing our orgasmic potential and orgasmic response we are able to generate potent healing energy that has the capacity to melt accumulated tension in the body, clear psychic toxicity, and release trauma, which in return rebalances the nervous system, the physical body, and our connection to Spirit. These powerful states can be generated in a sexual interaction, as well as through other “modalities”. Let me show you how.

Divine Love is an ever-present invitation in the universe, beckoning us into greater intimacy, connection and love with all of life, formless and form. Living and embodying divine love is a courageous act, calling us to surrender protective habits and barriers, and live freely in love with all of life. Simultaneously, it invites us to find new boundaries in relationship that naturally come from standing in truth, integrity, and alignment. These new, lighter boundaries replace the old, dense protective boundaries created by wounded hearts. Divine love offers us infinite possibility of openness, love and connection while inviting us into a new discovery of the universe within and all around us. In this presentation, Sonya Amrita will invite you to into a guided experience of Divine Love within you and all around you, and offer wisdom and inquiries about building relationships and community based on infinite love, truth, alignment and integrity.

Monistic systems have preached a nondual worldview for centuries, without impact in daily life. The reason? A lack of personal urgency. Unless the individual is nondual, nothing is. When the individual is nondual, everything is.I will argue for this view by examining the roots of experience, because until we understand what an experience is, there is no foundation for nondual systems. The main points are as follows:· Fundamental reality is the potential for having experiences (of any kind).· This potential has no dimension in time and space. It exists purely in consciousness.· All experiences arise as a modification of consciousness (potential becomes actual).· In daily life, every experience is reducible to knowing, feeling, sensing, perceiving and thinking. Experiences never escape the field of consciousness. · Being all-embracing, consciousness is both the subject and object. Dividing reality into two realms — “in here” and “out there”—is a human construct.· Freed of artificial constructs, body, mind, and universe exist in a continuum.· The only subject is nonlocal awareness. The only object is nonlocal awareness. · Anything given a name, from gluons to galaxies, supports the illusion of separation. In themselves, concepts imply duality; therefore, nondual reality must be inconceivable.· Identity, as a separate “I,” is also a concept, with all the flaws of any concept that divides reality into parts.· To shift identity from duality to nonduality is the only way for nonduality to be real. As long as it is a non-experience (concept) the very term “nonduality” upholds the illusion of separation.· Identity returns to wholeness by participating in life directly, no longer distorted by language, concept, history, memory, and ego.· Because experience by its nature arises from the field of consciousness, re-connecting daily life back to its source comes naturally. Nonduality is simply the here and now.· To be aware is to be real. Nothing else is required.· In full awareness, there is the continuous flow of experience. Body, mind, and universe do not need to be named, because in the deeper reality they don’t exist.

A discussion biocentrism, which re-examines everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. Our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries. Concepts such as time, space, and even causality are increasingly being demonstrated as meaningless. All of science is based on information passing through our consciousness but science hasn’t the foggiest idea what consciousness is. Science describes life as an random occurrence in a dead universe but has no real understanding of how life began or why the universe appears to be exquisitely designed for the emergence of life. Biocentrism challenges us to fully accept the implications of the latest scientific findings in fields ranging from cosmology to quantum entanglement and consciousness. By listening to what the science is telling us, it becomes increasingly clear that life and consciousness are fundamental to any true understanding of the universe. This forces a fundamental rethinking of everything we thought we knew about life, death, and our place in the universe. I will also briefly discuss a new paper I published in Annalen der Physik (528, 663, 2016), which published Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity. My coauthor and I explain how the arrow of time is directly related to the nature of the observer (that is, us). In his papers on relativity, Einstein showed that time was relative to the observer. Our new paper takes Einstein’s idea one step further, arguing that the observer creates it.

The innate value of the human, human experience as it is, and life itself seems to be lost to the conception of nonduality being presented by some teachers in the West. Existence conceived and discussed only in terms of “absolute and relative”, “unconditioned and conditioned”, “emptiness and form”, etc.  becomes sterile, although true.  The preciousness of the human person becomes only a conditioned, illusory form. The beauty of the manifold creation becomes an evanescent illusion. Nevertheless Reality seems to delight in revealing and knowing itself through innumerable created treasures.  Affirming that, in this presentation we will explore how integrating the preciousness of the human being, the innate value of human experience as it is, and reverence for life can be the West’s contribution to the further evolution of the nondual  vista.

Thrilling audiences by blending the improvisation of jazz, the cultural depth of world music, and the soulfulness of devotional kirtan, BOLO's infectious rhythm gets people moving. BOLO is comprised of three musical innovators: Eliyahu Sills, Surya Prakasha and Evan Fraser. Featuring African sourced grooves with sacred folk songs from around the world, BOLO speaks to the heart in a musical language that unites us all.

Crazy…or wise? The traditional wisdom of indigenous cultures often contradicts modern views about a mental health crisis. Is it a ‘calling’ to grow or just a ‘broken brain’? The documentary CRAZYWISE explores what can be learned from people around the world who have turned their psychological crisis into a positive transformative experience. (Running time, 82 minutes)

Art of Live is a short documentary about the life of a man who eschews all convention in order to live a life of beauty, fully aligned with the integrity of the heart. Michael was considered a mathematical genius as he made his way through the California Institute of Technology, graduating at nineteen. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics at UCLA and began teaching at MIT and UC Berkeley, generating a reputation as a brilliant radical. But success, ambition and even society could never capture his heart. Instead Michael fell for freedom… (Running time, 37 minutes). Q&A with directors to follow.

We now know of thousands of planets around stars other than our sun, but none of them are like our own solar system. Instead, the most common type of planet is several times more massive than Earth, often orbiting rather close to its home star. Some planets are in the habitable zone around their stars in which water would be mostly in liquid form, but most of these planets are probably not hospitable to advanced forms of life. Our living Earth is rare and fragile. We are learning more about the formation and evolution of the universe from current telescopes and new ones that will soon be finished. We used to think that galaxies are mostly disks and spheroids like nearby large galaxies, that galaxies grew in size as they grew in mass, and that galaxies are rather smooth except for spiral arms – but images of forming galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope show that all of these statements are false. Instead, forming galaxies start pickle-shaped, they often become more compact as they gain mass, and they often contain giant clumps of stars. The modern theory of the universe is based on two invisible things – cold dark matter and dark energy. Predictions from this theory are in amazing agreement with observations, from the heat radiation of the Big Bang to the properties of galaxies and their distribution in space. We still don’t know what dark matter and dark energy are, or why they are so abundant compared to ordinary atomic matter – but there are major efforts underway by astronomers around the world to answer these questions with the help of amazing new instruments. The talk will conclude by summarizing many ways that humans are central or special in our modern understanding of the universe.

We need a new method of thinking, which helps us conceive the complexity of reality, instead of reducing reality to what the ordinary mind can control. An authentically new method of thinking must provide us with hologrammatic images, in which a part is in the whole and the whole is in a part. This new thinking cannot come from the current mind. One cannot go beyond the mind with the mind itself. One needs instruments that are beyond the mind. These instruments do not need to be invented, they’ve always existed, they’ve existed since the dawn of mankind. The Mother Mantra tradition carries these instruments and teaches practices that operate in widened states of consciousness, non-ordinary states where our weaknesses can be observed beyond common judgement - which is always based on subconscious programming - and can be understood as possibilities and powers, with love for what we are, without fear of being ourselves. If there is no fear, there is peace. Only in a true state of peace can subconscious programming be overcome and our true Self shines. The healing practices and spiritual exercises of the Mother Mantra tradition lead exactly to this, beyond our mind, working through widened states of consciousness.

A radically new understanding of our universe is emerging from scientific cosmology today. Is there room in this new universe story for God? Yes – if we don’t insist that God be what ancient scriptures describe but instead let the nature of scientific reality open our minds.

Science is on the verge of a revolution of Copernican proportions with the first testable, end-to-end model for life's origins, called the "hot spring hypothesis". Laboratory and field testing of the hypothesis may lead to the re-synthesis of the "progenote", the chemical boot-up phase of life predicted by evolutionary biologist Carl Woese. The progenote will teach us about the fundamental nature of emergence in the universe and the illuminate the building blocks of the living world and consciousness. The progenote will also shift our historical-philosophical center from an origin through strict competition between individuals to a communal, symbiotic start arising through group cooperation. When we ultimately witness the progenote growing in the laboratory we will come face to face with the probable reality of our deepest ancestry over four billion years ago. This moment will contain the unique psychological power to re-orient our civilization toward a sustainable, expansive, and long term future.

Science, like philosophy and religious practice, is a human endeavor. It is not infallible. Each of the many attempts to demarcate, from first principles, scientific beliefs from those less reliable remains, at best, controversial. What science offers is not gold-standard beliefs, but a potent method for winnowing beliefs, which derives its power from the way it engages with human nature. We are a species that argues. Experiments show, and evolutionary theory explains, that we reason best when we argue for an idea we already believe, or against the idea of another that we already disbelieve. The scientific method exploits this. Each scientist argues for her idea, and against contradictory ideas of other scientists. In this argumentative context, our reason is at its sharpest: each idea garners the best support of reason and evidence its proponents can muster, and each endures the best impalement by reason and evidence its detractors can counter. Add to this sharpening of reason the demand that ideas be precise—mathematically precise, when possible—and the phoenix of science arises from foibles of human nature. Science is not a theory of reality, but a method of inquiry which orchestrates the better angels of our nature to promote reason, precision, productive dialog, and an appeal to evidence; it curbs our proclivity for the vague, deceptive, dogmatic, and imperious. Inquiry into any question that captures the human imagination—including meaning, purpose, values, beauty and spirituality—deserves no less than the full benefit of this orchestration. Why deny ourselves our best chance to better understand, and perhaps grow?

In Rupert’s meetings we explore the perennial non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Mahayana and Dzogchen Buddhism, Kashmir Shaivism, Mystical Christianity, Sufism and, Zen etc., as well as the Western philosophical tradition of Parmenides, Plotinus and many others, and which is also the direct, ever-present reality of our own intimate experience. This is a contemporary, highly experiential approach involving silent meditation, guided meditation and dialogue, and requires no affiliation to any particular religious or spiritual tradition. All that is required necessary is an interest in the essential nature of experience and in the longing for love, peace and happiness around which most of our lives revolve.

Sasha Cobra will be doing a LIVE demonstration of Regenerating Energy Work, a style of energy work that utilizes Orgasmic States for healing and transformation. Regenerating Energy Work provides an opportunity for men and women to reconnect with their intrinsic nature by experiencing the natural flow of their sexual energy throughout their bodies, free of any agendas and expectations.This Energy Work is designed to raise the capacity for experiencing increased Bliss and to assist in the eliminating of any general or sexual traumas stored in the body, as well as opening energy channels and pathways that have been obstructed since childhood.It facilitates women in reconnecting with their positive pole (the heart), while assisting the men in reconnecting with their positive pole (the genitals), thus realigning both to their natural polarity. (All participants are fully clothed)www.sashacobra.com/bodywork

The evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould claimed that “… science and religion occupy two separate realms of human experience. Demanding that they be combined detracts from the glory of each.” Richard Dawkins disagreed, arguing that “… it is completely unrealistic to claim, as Gould and many others do, that religion keeps itself away from science’s turf, restricting itself to morals and values. A universe with a supernatural presence would be a fundamentally and qualitatively different kind of universe from one without. The difference is, inescapably, a scientific difference. Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims.” In this dialog, Deepak and Don discuss the relationship between science and spirituality. Is it true, as Rumi claimed, that “Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation,” so that matters of the spirit are forever beyond the ken of science? Or is this barrier an illusion, engendered by misconceptions—that science requires a physicalist ontology anathema to spirituality, and that the spiritual realm is impervious to the methods of science? Can we hope to forge a new synergy of science and spirituality which addresses the big questions: Who are we? Why are we?

We are experiencing a true explosion in popularity of mindfulness meditation and other contemplative practices, which are entering our schools, hospitals and workplaces. An intense practice of some forms of meditation may induce a sense of merging with the universe and oneness and/or non-existence and void. Some individuals refer to these as mystical experiences and consider them blissful and insightful events, while others view them as potentially dangerous psychotic states which should be avoided. In the present paper, we will address two questions: the first will explore whether we can differentiate between profound meditative/mystical states and psychotic states. The second will address the issue of encouraging meditation in people with psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. The question of mysticism and madness is not new and has been addressed already by William James (1902) who distinguished between a higher classic mystical experience and a lower “diabolical mysticism” associated with insanity. More recently, Newberg and Lee (2005) have argued that “normal” people typically report that their mystical experiences are more real than baseline reality, while this is not the case for psychotic states. Others, however, have argue for the common psychological processes involved in both mystical and psychotic states. While the debate continues, another question has been raised - is it prudent to use contemplative practices in people with psychotic disorders? Overall, earlier studies have been cautious and often critical about the use of meditation in schizophrenia and related conditions. There are reports of individuals with a history of schizophrenia who experienced acute psychotic episodes while engaging in meditation. Others described cases where psychotic episodes were induced in individuals with no prior history of mental health problems. Recent reports are more encouraging and will be discussed during the second part of the presentation.

The quest for computer-based systems capable of emulating the living world (Artificial Life and Artificial Reality) has been stymied by the limited capacities of the “Von Neumann bottleneck”. A testable, observable chemical model for the origin of life will give humanity its first glimpse into a system capable of open ended evolutionary emergence. Such a system may be fabricated later in this century in silicon or a combination of silicon, chemical and quantum computing techniques. Dr. Damer will consider the horizon and likely applications for this first “true AI “within the scope of the history of computing and the societal and philosophical implications should it arise.

Trauma and spirituality are woven together in inextricable ways. Both involve a crisis of meaning at some level of our being. Each call to something beyond our ordinary day to day reality, both involve knowing suffering with multifaceted intimacy. These two dimensions also share a simple uncomplicated bond; they are an intrinsic part of our life. Although trauma has a reputation of deep suffering, trauma is dual natured, as is spirituality. Both are part of the emergent process of coming into Being.
In this presentation, we will explore the light and dark side of the universal force that is comprised of both trauma and spirituality. Healing trauma is compromise of the synthesis of forces of the body, the heart, and mind, which can bring about a metamorphosis in the structure of our personal consciousness. Such metamorphosis is crucial in the essential unity of all existence. This also brings about a reduction of the identity from the personal “I”. In this light, we will see how an embodied approach to healing trauma can transform the dark side of trauma into spiritual expansion, goodness and a greater capacity for presence.

Continuum Movement® is a dynamic inquiry into what it is to be a human being, providing a method to consciously explore our self as an unfolding biological and planetary process. Water, and the fact that the body composition is mostly of water, is considered of great importance. All fluids of the body - the circulating blood, the tides of cerebrospinal fluid, the pump of the lymph system, the net of membranes or the swirl of viscera and brain - function as ONE stream of intelligence. Continuum’s movements are designed to enhance the undulating spirals and circularity of this fluid system. A full range of non-patterned movement, from dynamic full-bodied expression to subtle micro-movements, stimulates neurological growth and vibrancy. Learn to use specific sounds and movement sequences to stimulate fluid movement within the body / mind for an extraordinary awakening to the fullness of what it means to be alive.
Through breath, sound, movement, sensation, and pleasure, experience the interconnection of your origins with the larger currents of all organisms, beginning with the first cell and ultimately layered into the intricacies of human life.
 
Central goals of Continuum are the creation of health and wellness and how to free oneself from cultural and mechanistic constraints of modern society. Continuum maintains movement is the message and the way.

In order to understand who we really are and how to truly live, we must go beyond limited models of self and reality, and the useful but incomplete approaches employed to address our psychological, spiritual, and emotional challenges. To experience a truly fulfilling existence requires us to go beyond that which holds us captive and rediscover and integrate our true nature of pure awareness in our lives.
A full integration of our relative, conditioned sense of self, and our fundamental nature of unconditioned awareness is not only possible but necessary in order to experience an existence based on true fulfillment, joy, love, peace, and wisdom.
Contemplative and nondual wisdom based psychotherapy is an essential answer to the pressing demands for true contentment, and relief from the oppressive strain of our current times. Today, in psychology and psychotherapy we are answering the call for a deeper resolution to our existential crisis by integrating the timeless wisdom of pure awareness with contemporary therapeutic modalities.
We’ll explore ways in which the integration of a constructed and unconstructed self can and does take place. We’ll dance together in the powerful paradox of a self and a non-self to reveal the potential of living with and beyond both, and the emergence of an existence lived in true fulfillment and harmony.

The Truth that is our essence may be called many names, but it is ultimately nameless. It is empty of definition, empty of self, and yet apparently loves to BE, creating out of its Single essence infinite expressions of Being moment to moment. What is awake is empty, yet its light fills the universe. It moves through the mind as wisdom, insight, and the knowing of experience. It moves through the heart as love, compassion, happiness, and joy. In the true Heart, awareness and love are inseparable. We may have awakened to Spirit, or empty Awareness, but Realization is incomplete if it lacks love and compassion. Love emerges as the action of our true nature in ourselves and in our divided world. It flows naturally from the Heart of Awareness.
In this presentation, through dialogue and experiential invitations, we will explore the Heart of Awareness, where the knowing and experiencing of non-separation reveals itself as Love. Ego is not the agent of this love. Are we willing to be emptied of our false identifications so that Love can truly flower? Can we follow our longing for love back to its Source? An undivided Love is kissing us from inside our own heart, if we are open. Such Love holds both joy and suffering, and knows that in the sacred dance of life, either can bring us Home.

Moving from two radically different perspectives, Deepak Chopra and Riccardo Manzotti share a common goal: a ground breaking paradigm shift to overcome the current limitations of the prevailing western ontological framework. As of Galileo and Newton, physical reality has been conceived as a collection of separate individual unities connected by external relations. In such a picture, the conscious mind does not fit in and, without it, neither do we. To overcome these shortcomings – both conceptual and existential – the two invited speakers will outline their different approaches that, though apparently antithetical end up being surprisingly similar. While Chopra’s bottom line might be “I am the universe”, Manzotti’s is “the universe is I”. While Chopra’s assumes “Mind first”, Manzotti’s starting point is “object first”. Given these apparently opposing premises, it is all the more remarkable that they converge on many key points: they believe we are on the verge of a conceptual revolution, they both believe that the new view of the world will encompass both mind and nature, they both believe that mind and nature fit seamlessly together. Significantly, they both try to find confirmation for their intuition in the most recent findings of modern science.Chopra conceives the whole universe as a cosmic conscious mind whose creative power unfolds in the familiar qualia we experience everyday. In Chopra’s view, of course, consciousness come first, although it is not the traditional individual Cartesian mind prisoner of its own limits but a drop in the sea of universal consciousness “silent, immovable, eternal”. In contrast, Manzotti conceives the individual mind as yet another object in a universe of physical entities. Such objects, though, are not isolated entities but relative spread objects brought into existence by their causal intercourse with the rest of reality. In Manzotti’s view, each conscious mind is nothing but the physical world that is brought into existence by the causal commerce our bodies allows. In some respects, the two scholars are unfolding a “relational view of nature” (Manzotti) or a “participatory view of the universe” (Chopra). While Manzotti tries to get to the subject by revising our notion of nature, Chopra tries to explain nature by expanding our notion of the mind.It will be tantalizing to see whether these two diverse-yet-curiously-sympathetic authors – one trying to reduce the conscious mind to an object, albeit relational, and another trying to explain nature in terms of a universal consciousness, albeit impersonal – can establish a common language or, while sharing their rejection of the current prevailing conceptual western orthodoxy, will remain as incompatible as relativity and quantum mechanics.

R.D. Laing said, “The mystic and the schizophrenic find themselves in the same ocean, but whereas the mystic swims, the schizophrenic drowns.” Can mental health crises called psychosis be transformational? Often what gets labeled as schizophrenia or bipolar during a mental health crisis, can also be the revealing of trauma and grappling with deep spiritual understandings. The presenter will share a personal story of what happens when a person’s spiritual journey is reduced to symptoms of a “mental illness”. She will share what is most helpful to exiting the mental health system: alternatives to conventional treatment, building community and making meaning of the experiences that are categorized as symptoms. She will impart a vision of an emerging interconnected society that supports altered states of consciousness, in order to create broader acceptance for individuals that operate and experience the world beyond the mundane.Learning Objectives:-participants will learn about the personal impacts of being diagnosed with a psychiatric label that challenges one’s spiritual framework-participants will learn about effective alternatives to conventional mental health treatment-participants will gain a better understanding of supporting altered states commonly labeled as “psychosis”

The intense imagery of the Mahavidyas, the divine feminine in her paradoxical appearances serves the single purpose of waking us up to the reality that encompasses all dualities in it. The sadhana of these great goddesses shows us that the Divine Shiva-Shakti make up all of creation. Nothing escapes the Divine, no matter how depraved or terrible. This sadhana enables us to welcome all our dark shadows into our loving embrace. When we learn to hold our shadows in our awareness, they become transformed into blinding light. This is the alchemy of tantra, where acceptance of the impurities these parts that keep us from realizing our true nature become transformed from elusive shadows to blinding light.

Can we build machines that teach us how to love unconditionally? I have been working over the past year on this question with a team of computer scientists and robotics engineers. In this brief talk, I’ll discuss our pilot tests, show interesting videos of human-robot meditative interactions, and discuss future possibilities.

Whether it leaves you seething inside or it explodes into your relationships, anger is a powerful emotion. But many of us are uncomfortable with anger, especially if we think we are spiritually advanced enough to have moved beyond it. How do we react to feeling angry? We fight it, justify it, deny it, or stuff it. We are frustrated when anger overcomes us and we feel so out of control. We feel guilty if we believe it’s an unwholesome emotion we shouldn’t experience. Anger is one of the ways the timeless, formless breath of life breathes itself into form. In this presentation, we will bring anger out of the shadows of shame and meet it with the endless embrace of love and understanding. Anger is a normal expression of the human experience. And seen through the eyes of awakened awareness, it’s a doorway to embodying our essential aliveness beyond time and space. We focus on the experience of anger that underlies the actions it brings about. Anger consists of a narrative in the mind and strong physical sensations in the body. We all explore how anger contributes to the pain of separation and learn ways to be with the elements of anger that are practical and enlivening. Unexamined anger feeds the illusion of the separate, limited self. When we turn toward anger with curiosity, it’s no longer the raging beast driving us, but becomes a powerful ally for awakening and authentic living.

In this talk and conversation, we will explore some of the following questions: In our contemporary, egalitarian Western society, is there a legitimate role for nondual teachers to play? If so, what qualifies someone to assume this role and what are the responsibilities that go with it? What can students reasonably look for in a teacher and what should they be alert to question or avoid? How important are trust and discernment? How relevant is spiritual lineage and so-called transmission?Clearly nondual awakenings can and do happen without the guidance of an outer teacher. Yet most people, myself included, have greatly benefited from spending time with teachers whose presence, support, and teachings have been tremendous catalysts for the unfolding of a deeper understanding. Inner knowing or awake awareness is the true teacher. An authentic nondual teacher will be deeply in touch with this inner knowing and have the capacity to efficiently point others to discover it within themselves. In this sense, outer teachers are servants to and conduits for the inner teacher within each of us. A spiritual teacher’s role is transitional, helping students to find their own inner authority and autonomy. A mature teacher will be able to play this intimate and impersonal role without identifying with or being attached to it. Once the purpose of this role is fulfilled, it falls away leaving mutual gratitude and friendship.

Deepak will discuss with Jennifer about her research in quantum information theory; coherence and superposition; her work in developing means to communicate quantum information with groups of people including children and people on the laymen/public level and between different professional groups, model different images used to display quantum nonlocal ideas (Such as the Hopf fibration over the Bloch sphere); and discuss nonlocality and spacetime and the quantum world as a level of the universe that negotiates our usual boundaries of spacetime and causality and allows us to peer into the world beyond the clock time world, a world where all is one and we are united in a kind of eternity space.

This presentation tries to merge some of the concepts of the Human Anatomy from Dr. John Martin Littlejohn (1865-1947) who first introduced Osteopathy in Europe, with the concepts of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) founder of Artoposophic Medicine.They both live around the same time frame where Science, Religion and Society changed radically into the times that we now have. It was definitively a very inspiring time, mainly for science and medicine and it is very interesting to see the similitudes that they both put together when is comes to the understanding of the human anatomy.The both conceive the body made up by two triangles, a superior one starting from the head all the way down to the 4th Dorsal vertebra and Heart region. And a second inferior triangle which starts from the same region down to the bottom of the spinal column.Their understanding and division made by this two triangles separate the body into a fiscal/material part versus a mind/spiritual one. Pointing strong focus on how the heart is the key organ which communicates both halfs and how through the heart can the human elevate from the material into the spiritual consciousness and develop. Their contribution to reach an elevated awareness though the somatic experience that the heart provides is crucial in their texts.The presentation will cover fine details on the design of this two triangles, the body parts that they go through as well as the different functions and consequences on the rest of the human systems.

Have you noticed that nothing much is happening in the field of psychology - except for new techniques? Traditional psychotherapy addresses problems on the surface. The deepest terror within us is the separation from unity consciousness, which is expressed on the surface as neurotic fears, feelings of alienation, and a lack of meaning. Fixing the personality fragmentations is a band aid at best - the futile search for joy and inner peace continues. What can we learn from the healing experiences through an energetic transmission and the therapeutic work with psychedelics? Profound mental, emotional and physical healing is based on shifts in consciousness. When we remember who we are - eternal consciousness expressed in our individual body - we experience lasting contentment and joyful living.I will share my clinical observations gathered during controlled, psychedelic therapy sessions and discuss the surprising parallels to the testimonials from a recent consciousness study in remote healing (Self-Compassion Intention Study, Gabriele Hilberg, Ph.D. and Prof. Bill Tiller, 2014).

Using a loop pedal to layer live recording, Nicco Tyson creates rich soundscapes with polyrhythmic acoustic guitar, soulful harmonica melodies, soothing vocals and enlivening percussion. His core inspiration is drawn from West African string traditions. He has lived, studied and danced along the Niger River in Mali. Musical traditions from the American South, Brazil, Spain and Cuba also provide strong shaping influences on Nicco’s sound.

Francis doesn't deliver a pre-planned presentation. He speaks instead in the spirit of the moment, answering questions from the audience from the innocence and spontaneity of not-knowing.

We understand life through the stories we tell. Contemporary society is experiencing a ‘soul crisis’, because we have fallen under the spell of a particularly bleak story. The great religious myths that gave life meaning in the past have crumbled under sceptical scrutiny, so we’ve put our faith in science, which proclaims that we are living meaningless lives, in a universe that has evolved by chance, waiting for the finality of death.In this presentation, based on his groundbreaking book Soul Story, philosopher Tim Freke offers an alternative to this pessimistic worldview. He will explore a new philosophy he calls ‘Emergent Spirituality’, which reconciles modern scientific knowledge and perennial spiritual wisdom, by suggesting that everything is emerging into existence through the evolutionary process, including those qualities of life considered ‘spiritual’. The evolution of the universe first saw the emergence of the material world, then the diversity of organic life, and finally the emergence of the imagination. Mainstream science asserts that this world of images, which we call the psyche or ‘soul’, is no more than a side-effect of the brain, but Tim will argue that it is actually a non-physical dimension of reality, which has evolved from the material and biological levels of reality.Tim suggests that the evolution of the imagination is accompanied by the emergence of utterly new aspects of reality, such as meaning, volition, magic and immortality. None of these phenomena exist on the physical and biological levels of reality, but they come into existence through the evolutionary process with the emergence of the soul-dimension.Tim claims that the philosophy of ‘Emergent Spirituality’ can heal our modern ‘soul crisis’, because it offers a life-enhancing understanding of the deep purpose of existence, which is both rational and inspirational, giving us a beautiful vision of the nature of reality and reasserting the significance of the soul.

Does mind make the world? Dr. Neil Theise explores the nature of consciousness and its relationship to us and to the cosmos. Applying principles of complexity theory, the universe will be shown to be a self organizing system, its nature the sum of its emergent properties. From this, he will lead us to an integrative framework encompassing contemporary science, Western philosophy, and diverse metaphysical systems. This framework posits Fundamental Awareness to be the substratum from which the world emanates, providing a set of concepts to potentiate cross-talk between these varied world-views.

Francis doesn't deliver a pre-planned presentation. He speaks instead in the spirit of the moment, answering questions from the audience from the innocence and spontaneity of not-knowing.

In this workshop, through meditation, dance, movement, and the exploration of space, David will guide you past the perception of the body (and yourself) as a fixed object and into the direct experience of it as the flowing gateway to the free and present awareness that you are. This work is ultimately devoted to translating this freedom into living fluidly in the present moment and in daily life - amidst the many real challenges we face. David’s 30-year expertise is in supporting conscious living through awakened awareness. Using physical exploration he guides you past the illusions of the mind and body into unbound love and wisdom sourced in awakened awareness. The goal of this work is to, with deep compassion, recognize our humanness as the garment of the divine mystery. In this way the body becomes a doorway for realizing our deepest nature that gives us strength and grace amidst life’s often-great trials and triumphs. Since a child, the deep mystery of the body and the vastness of space have been David’s portals of self-exploration and realization personally, as a performer, as a teacher, and across continents worldwide. Come explore the body universe unbound.

“Both mystics and scientists have returned from their escapades deep underneath the surface of things sharing baffling tales of a world made of waves and vibration. From the holy books we learn that when it comes down to it, everything we call solid is a continuum, and that the red dotted line said to separate form and the formless is a lie.
The myth of Gaia and Uranus offers a map of how we came to build our identity upon this imagined split, and of how we ~ through integration rather than transcendence ~ can realign ourselves with the wholeness we are made of.
The realization of union of earth and spirit wakes us up from the nightmarish realm of fragmentation. Bringing home the exiled parts of ourselves unclenches the root-cramp, the origin of suffering: the experience of being separate from our source.
Through the descent of consciousness into the body, through incarnation—in-carne, in-flesh embodiment of Spirit, Uranus and Gaia are in sacred union within us. We awaken our capacity to embrace in the luminous intelligence of the heart all of ourselves and the world.”

The kabbalistic cosmology myth of Isaac Luria, (16th century) describes creation as an ongoing process comprised of three stages: Tzimtzum (withdrawal), shevirah (shattering), tikkun (healing). The first stage, Tzimtzum, refers to a process of divine withdrawal . Before there could be a world the Infinite Boundless Oneness known as Ein Sof (literally, without end), created a vacated space within which finite forms might come into being. Into this void or vacated space a single ray of light is emanated. Simultaneously, a set of vessels are fashioned to receive the light. But as the light enters the vessels they shatter. The broken pieces scatter, becoming the raw materials of creation which are reassembled through a process of reintegration and healing, or tikkun.This myth of cosmic catastrophe, known as shevirat hakeilim the shattering of the vessels—is a metaphor for all creative processes. In order for new life to emerge, original unities must be shattered. For new ideas and new wisdom to emerge we must enter the void, the place of not knowing. This process is reflected in the birth process; we see it in the way seeds decompose and lose their original form before giving birth to new life. Growth by means of decomposition is a paradigm for all creative endeavors: the known must be surrendered for an as yet unknown truth to manifest. This pattern reflects the way the consciousness evolves: emergent truths shatter old paradigms, making room for new ideas. The three stages of kabbalistic cosmology provide a paradigm for all growth, healing and transformation. It is a cycle that goes on throughout creation at all times and is part of the very molecular structure of the cosmos. In this age of rapid change and socio-political instability, the wisdom teachings of Kabbalah offer us a roadmap for transformation.

Does mind make the world? Dr. Neil Theise explores the nature of consciousness and its relationship to us and to the cosmos. Applying principles of complexity theory, the universe will be shown to be a self organizing system, its nature the sum of its emergent properties.
From this, he will lead us to an integrative framework encompassing contemporary science, Western philosophy, and diverse metaphysical systems. This framework posits Fundamental Awareness to be the substratum from which the world emanates, providing a set of concepts to potentiate cross-talk between these varied world-views.

Many well-known spiritual teachers and gurus have been accused, credibly, of sexual, financial, and behavioral abuse. This, although their own spiritual attainment has arguably appeared significant, and their teachings beneficial. As a result, some people have concluded that higher consciousness and ethical behavior are not correlated, that we are governed by our genetics and conditioning, or by “nature”, and that we have no free will and thus no control over or responsibility for our actions. That logic has been used as an alibi by some spiritual teachers caught misbehaving.
Others have become cynical about the motives of all gurus and teachers, and some have even lost faith in spirituality altogether.
Yet, every spiritual tradition includes codes of ethics that apply to both teachers and students. Ethical behavior has been regarded not only as a reflection of spiritual development, but as a prerequisite to it.
To some extent, ethical values vary from culture to culture. But perhaps the contemporary spiritual community can agree upon some universal values. Can we agree that it’s not all right to misrepresent ourselves? If we claim or imply that we have realized our true nature, and are offering to help others do the same, is it consistent for us to behave deceitfully, perversely, selfishly, or cruelly?
Is it possible to be an enlightened scoundrel? Are purity and saintliness characteristic of higher levels of spiritual development, or unrelated to them? These are important questions. Because we need spiritual teachers and teachings in this critical time in humanity’s maturation, we need to understand what genuine spiritual attainment should look like, irrespective of personality differences. If such understanding were more commonplace, most abusive teachers and cults would never have gotten off the ground.

In this thrilling workshop, passionate chocolate maker extraordinaire Jonas Ketterle of Firefly Chocolate will share his deep knowledge of cacao (gained in part from working with Indigenous Maya farmers), covering its origins, rituals and myths, regional varieties, processing techniques, cultural/economic/social realities, culinary uses, and health-promoting and mind expanding properties. He will also lead us in a “hands-on” demonstration of ancestral stone ground chocolate making, which we’ll get to sample (a once-in-a-lifetime experience!).

Beyond creation myths and scientific research, there lies a source of wisdom that each of us possesses and cannot be refuted by another: the wisdom of our bodies. We have such immense powers of perception, profound abilities to feel and the ultimate power to create new life, all within these bodies we inhabit. So where to begin an attempt to connect to that potential?
Taking an experiential, somatic approach to understanding our creative force, the erotic pulse that animates our every move, is how!
Let’s liberate our concepts of eroticism and ecstasy from purely sexual containers and explore the vast reservoir of inspiration, enjoyment and potency that resides within us. Learn how to tap into and channel this power in all facets of your life – at work and at play, in relationship to self and to others, at rest and in motion.
We’ll engage in a series of interactive, engaging practices that will bring you more present with your own body and the wisdom it possesses so that you can choose to tap in whenever you wish. Working alternately as individuals, dyads and a group, together we will:
- Explore the erotic power of vulnerability and what happens when we speak our shadows into light.
- Feel the unparalleled potency of primal play and how letting our inner animals out can spark creative impulse.
- Build intimacy in profoundly simply ways and give the gift of true presence to ourselves and those around us.
You’ll come away reinvigorated, turned on and with clear stepping-stones along a path to embodying ecstasy everyday.

The modern expression of nonduality is powerful in its ability to cut through the darkness and bring forth an absolute clarity. 
Yet, all teachings have their shortcomings and a shadow. It is within the context of nonduality’s greatest qualities which lies its shadow. Because nonduality is often taught in a way which does not include the heart as our center, the teachings tend to be dry and lacking compassion and relational wisdom.  They tend to ignore our humanity and our relationships and the experience of being human. 
But a true nonduality is absolutely inclusive, integrated and is practical both in the experience of time and the timeless eternal.  
The heart is a quality of the embodied Divine feminine. It is a courageous quality willing to be with anything that our complicated lives bring us. It has the strength to sit with suffering, with anxiety, depression, fear, and even death.  If our path lacks heart, we will feel dissociated, dry and lacking radiance, creativity and beauty.  Love does not let us ignore our lives; it does not let us ignore our partners, our children and our purpose here in this world. It embraces suffering and sees it as a force of evolution—an expression of greater Divinity giving birth to itself. 

Too often the role and purpose of suffering have been overlooked in most spiritual traditions. But suffering is not a force we can simply transcend or ignore, for suffering is a component of evolution and evolution is the nature of God. While the Buddha and many other great teachers taught there was a way to live free from unnecessary suffering, we cannot live without suffering. To deny suffering is to deny the dynamic quality of Divinity known as the force of evolution. Upon realizing this truth that we will never fully escape suffering, we may ask ourselves, what then is the role of suffering?
Through the years there have been courageous individuals who have deeply investigated the experience of suffering and discovered within the pains and the wounds of the psyche there are precious seeds of Divinity. When we look deeply, we find seeds stored in every aspect of our humanity—even the very aspects of self which most spiritual traditions work to transcend or eradicate from our humanity. Within the very heart-wrenching experience of pain is a transformational doorway—a gate into a greater aspect of Divinity. Through the experience of anger, is the gate of Divine power, through the experience of sadness is the gate of compassion, forgiveness and unconditional love, through the experience heartbreak and insecurity is the gate of indestructibility and deathlessness. Everything in this realm is not only here to wake us up, but as a stepping stone into greater and greater ever expanding aspects of our Divinity. When we embrace this teaching, we are able to live fearlessly in the world, for we know that every aspect of our humanity, has both a seed of truth within it and a is a gate to a greater aspect of our True Nature.

Traditional spiritual teachings have all emphasized the cultivation of an inner state of stillness that awakens us to the truth of our being-nature. And they say this is achieved by turning away from worldly activity. While the recognition of our essential nature as this beingness is indeed the foundation of awakening, what was relevant thousands of years ago is not so relevant today. An exponential increase of pace and pressure in today’s world brings a radically new perspective to enlightenment that asks us to reframe our understanding of what it means to be an awakened human being. What’s important now is that awakening is no longer about abandoning or transcending physical reality in order to live a spiritual life; rather, it’s about the fulfillment of our divine destiny by living the truth of our inner radiance while in earthly bodies.What’s emerging today is a whole new relationship to life that gives birth to an authentic human being. What does it mean to live a fully human yet fully awakened life? How do we embrace the imperfections of our human experience without losing our anchor in the perfection of our essential nature? How do we live the truth of our awakening in the midst of the messiness of intimate relationship? How do we live selflessly in the modern world? Is it possible to find peace in our hearts and on earth? These questions, and more, are at the cutting edge of spiritual inquiry.Amoda Maa brings these once-taboo topics out into the open and invites you to embrace an embodied expression of enlightenment by living life in the infinite openness of “yes”.

Every now and then, someone says that "they're not a scientist, but an intuitive." Science, however, is based on intuition. All scientific theories come from intuition. Experimental designs and data analysis methods come from intuition. Often the results don't make sense until you see them from a new perspective. Where did that come from? Intuition. Without intuition, science would not exist. But scientists also celebrate the counter-intuitive. Earth is round? Counterintuitive. Solid objects are mostly empty space? Counterintuitive. Evolution, quantum entanglement, human-induced climate change? All counterintuitive. This dynamic of intuition challenging intuition is driven by science's one prescriptive rule: no certainty. I'll talk about the neuroscience of this dynamic and what it feels like to be caught up in it. I'll also touch on its history and how it distinguishes science as a cultural practice.

Researchers have been exploring the common ground between the sciences and Buddhist perspectives of reality and have found that they are compatible and complementary, sharing many observations and conclusions about human experience, cognition and the mind. This type of work has been performed for neurobiology, physics and psychology but never for the scientific study of language.This presentation will discuss several fundamental concepts of empirical language study as they are reflected as correlates in Buddhist thought. Some of them are:Interdependent arising (emptiness doctrine): Any phenomenon can be deconstructed in terms of its parts, but the components of any object of study are simultaneously and crucially part of a whole phenomenon. Linguistics also deconstructs language into parts: phonemes, morphemes, phrases, etc. A language isn’t any single component examined but the entire grammar of its parts: syntax, phonology, morphology, etc., embedded in a human mind. Even the species-specific characteristic of natural grammar creation must be synchronized with at least one external speech community as a child.Everything constructed changes: Every phenomenon has a relationship with the causes and conditions that gave rise to it and like all constructed phenomena all living grammars of the mind change over time. Subjective objectivity: Wallace (2000) had argued that individual subjective experiences of meditative states can be collected to show an objective shared experience in terms of a species-specific brain/mind that had been considered unfalsifiable before the recent accessibility of brain scan technology. If researchers collect from speakers a critical mass of idiolects that confirm one another, then we as linguists conclude that the abstraction of dialect/language is objectively confirmed as a grammar of the mind. CONCLUSION: Can human language ever describe ultimate reality beyond the conventional reality of sensory and thought.

The eastern traditions of awakening have long been deeply entwined within the Guru tradition. But as these teachings find their way into modern western culture, is having a Guru essential or even appropriate? In this Information Age, where an incredible wealth of teachings, youtube, and awakening material is now available, are there new ways that we can navigate our own opening and are there new pitfalls? In this presentation, we will look at these models and at the unique way the ancient awakening teachings are finding a modern expression in western culture. We will talk about ways to navigate this new terrain and offer some perspective and predictions on where this current awakening revolution is heading.

“Both mystics and scientists have returned from their escapades deep underneath the surface of things sharing baffling tales of a world made of waves and vibration. From the holy books we learn that when it comes down to it, everything we call solid is a continuum, and that the red dotted line said to separate form and the formless is a lie.
The myth of Gaia and Uranus offers a map of how we came to build our identity upon this imagined split, and of how we ~ through integration rather than transcendence ~ can realign ourselves with the wholeness we are made of.
The realization of union of earth and spirit wakes us up from the nightmarish realm of fragmentation. Bringing home the exiled parts of ourselves unclenches the root-cramp, the origin of suffering: the experience of being separate from our source.
Through the descent of consciousness into the body, through incarnation—in-carne, in-flesh embodiment of Spirit, Uranus and Gaia are in sacred union within us. We awaken our capacity to embrace in the luminous intelligence of the heart all of ourselves and the world.”

This panel will discuss the meaning and role of emergence in biology and the complementary role played by boundary conditions, context, and other top-down constraints or influences on living systems

This panel will discuss the meaning and role of emergence in biology and the complementary role played by boundary conditions, context, and other top-down constraints or influences on living systems.
Fascilitated by Chris Fields.
 

The importance of self discovery in a time of terror is fundamental to be approached from an integrated viewpoint since our essential identity leads to a fundamental perception of a sacred unified field which allows for a solution to current misinformation to the dualistic codes of allegiance which have lead to conflicted views of identification and struggle of false belonging leading to war unholiness and a way of life which needs to change.The absence of true identity leads to the possibility of false identification so the value of one’s own life falls into oblivion and unknowingness, leading to a militancy of lost individuals who are at the effect of brainwashing and coercive persuasion currently in the hands of agents of terror. Thus the need for these people to be affected by inner work so that the transcendent self masters one life with responsibility.Recovery of the Sacred Lessons in Soul Awareness is a personal and universal story woven in the sacred mystery from medicine to healing and from shamanic healing to the healer within. The perennial wisdom of the great spiritual traditions will be woven in a luminous way taking root in the heart. The spiritual hunger of all times will be touched and descriptions of the nurturance to fill the void in life will be presented through meditation mental imagery and description of journey to the inner and outer sacred towards the quest of understanding.

We are in the midst of a trinity of awakenings; many are realizing their true nature as infinite and eternal being and the oneness of all phenomena. Scientific evidence confirms this and the primacy of consciousness, we might say objectively confirming the subjective experience of enlightenment. At once we are collectively awakening to the darkness and unconsciousness that has for so long stunted human flourishing. Let's explore how this trinity and our many crises are but the perfect recipe for an evolutionary leap for humanity emerging from a new consciousness embodied in you and I, here and now. Discover what serving this emergence can look like, integrating spiritual seeker and social activist, being and doing, as New Earth Ninjas, playing powerfully in the pure democracy of consciousness!

A Gong Bath is a dynamic meditative concert, which acoustically guides each participant via harmonic overtones into realms of spiritual well-being, emotional balance, cellular healing and spiritual awareness. Using an unique 38” Gong, toned to radiation frequency of the Earth, a multitude of octaves are created designed to entice the brain into Alpha/Beta wave-scapes of creativity, relaxation and enrichment.

A 21st century scientific revolution is about to not only transform our understanding of our Universe at the minute Planck scale and the furthest reaches of space, but at each and every level between, and crucially, at the scale of our everyday lives. In at last being able to conclusively prove and reconcile scientific evidence with universal spiritual experience, it resolves SAND’s quest by revealing the unified nature of reality; that mind is matter and consciousness isn’t something we have it’s what we and the whole world are.The latest evidence and insights across all fields and scales of scientific research are discovering that our Universe is finite, innately in-formed and holographically real-ized literally a cosmic hologram; existing and evolving as a coherent and unified thought in the mind of the infinite and eternal Cosmos.-The transformational scientific discoveries that are leading to this radical new awareness: -Demonstrate experimental evidence that information is physically real and more fundamental than energy, matter, space, or time-Show that the digitized information, upholding all of our modern technologies is exactly the same as universal in-formation that underlies, pervades, and is physical reality-Restate and expand the laws of thermodynamics as laws of information (infodynamics) -Reconcile quantum and relativity theories by considering energy-matter and space-time as complementary expressions of information-Reveal the true nature of time-Underpin the real origin of species-Unify reality by showing how the holographic manifestation of the physical world arises from nonphysical realms of dynamic in-formation-Bridge in-formation and consciousnessThis Whole World-View of unified reality has the power to heal our fragmented perspectives and so the potential to radically change our collective behaviors, transforming the challenges of our global emergency into the emergence of our conscious evolution.

Are you resident? In other words, are you fully here? Are you available to the shattering beauty of your belonging all of life? Are you open to radical intimacy with all that is, and to being changed and shaped by that communion? Life is a fabric of intimacies, a web of connectivities, a vibrant invitation to belonging. Immersed in this Field, the experience of non-duality emerges as a startling luminosity, or enlifenment, that beckons with a reciprocal dialogue between self and all things.
I have spent my life talking to life, being curious about the quality of non-dual consciousness that happens in deep communion with creation. In this dialogue, life has begun speaking, saying, “I am the ladder on which love climbs. I am the intimacy to which you belong. Come… reweave your wholeness. My logic is the stuff that generates consciousness. It has created you, and you are life. I am the origin and the destination.”
Residence describes an emergent paradigm of embodiment that arises through the choice to be fully here. Residence is what happens when you are fully in relationship, fully available to deep communion with life’s logic and the body’s logic. Residence is a way of being where you are able feel your way into harmonic, right relationship with all that is.
This experiential workshop is a invitation to taste the experience of residence through guided meditation, somatic movement and dialogue. We will work with the four arenas of intimacy: self, other, community and place. These provide an essential map for healing personal and collective trauma and for evolving consciousness and our world. Please come as a fellow consciousness researcher to share in learning, play and feedback.

The future of non duality lies in recognition of its place in the greater scheme of things (and non things!).The first and necessary step in this discussion is the full recognition of the role of non duality as the dualistic counterpart to duality. Duality cannot exist without non duality. Also, as soon as non duality emerges into existence, the inevitable potentiality of the dual emerges also. There is an interdependency between duality and non duality. To dismiss one for the other creates a blind spot and obscures the dualistic relationship between duality and non duality. Just as one can feel strongly attached to a dualistic perception, so can one be blinded by the preference for a non dual perspective or experience.The future of non duality will see it placed within a wider context - tracing the birth of the non dual to its point of emergence. Prior to its existence, where mind cannot go, we can align our awareness to pick up and assign language to what is known by the finer aspects of consciousness itself. Thus, the greatest preparation to knowing and understanding this wider context is internal silence coupled with an absence of both non dual and dual perspectives.Only when non duality is fully understood can we begin to recognize the territory between awakening and liberation.

The old way of spiritual teaching, where “teacher knows best”, is no longer working. As old school teachers sit on stage as the ones with “no ego”, students of the new generation are realizing that this is not the teacher they want. In the old way, teachers would tell stories of their trials and tribulations when they were students, but rarely would a teacher vulnerably share their present day experiences of love, heartbreak, death or their internet addiction.
Millennials want a teacher with faults, vulnerabilities, and with their own stories of fallibilities that they can relate to on a human level. Modern teachers who are on the pulse of their students’ needs allow the wisdom in the room to dictate the conversation. This means that the teacher talks less so students can share their deep wisdom and reflections. There is a freshness in the way young people today are coming together to share ideas. There is a hunger for discussion. There is a hunger for community. There is a hunger to be seen and heard.
When people used to the old way of spiritual teaching hear about the amount of interaction in younger circles, they inevitably say: “Yes, but is it just the ego talking?” And that is where we who lead these circles are able to happily report: No. The sharings and reflections of the new generation are grounded in truth, vulnerability, light, wisdom, depth, self-reflection, and often hint at answers from beyond the mind.
What is needed now are teachers that can be both in their bliss and honest about their folly. There is no longer room for “higher” and “lower”, there is simply the Sangha. And yet, in the very end: May there always be deep reverence for those who came before us to shine their light on the path forward.

Each discipline’s perspective has its own connotation for “emergence”. For example, “emergence” may be “order out of chaos” or may refer “to the existence or formation of collective behaviors what parts of a system do together that they would not do alone” or “a phenomenon whereby larger entities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities such that the larger entities exhibit properties the smaller/simpler entities do not exhibit”. In short, out of what into what.Out of what did the phenomenon of the universe, and the collective behaviors of God, love, and sex emerge? Into what is God, love, and sex emerging? Tenderness, perhaps? The Heart Sutra, a concise summation of Quantum Theory and Buddhism, recommends that “Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form”. It is commonly held that the Universe emerged (done deal) or emerges (continuing process) out of nothing. “Nothing” itself holds various connotations: that out of which a void emerges to chaos (which implies “things” in random disarray), to that space of existent/nonexistent energy packets. And such we find ourselves amid the emerging universe today: the human condition comprised of complex behaviors of worry, depression, anxiety and/or presence, peace, and joy.What comprises “form” or “emptiness”? The composition of either comprises the composition of God, love, and sex and/or presence, peace, and joy: the foundation of the Human Condition. From what perspective does resolution to the Human Condition emerge? From what perspective does perspective itself emerge? The name of this perspective? Join us a stimulating exposition and discussion of a perspective “far beyond form and emptiness”. Laugh and be Merry, Quiet and be Still. See you! Peace.

Today thousands of people are in the transformative process of awakening energy and consciousness, activated through spiritual or energy practices, devotion, substances, dreams, transmission, trauma, NDE or injury, and even spontaneously, Unfortunately,many of them “wake up” without anyone in their lives who understand what has happened to them. They are challenged to deal with profound shifts in their awareness of the nature of Self and the inevitable physiological, emotional and psychic changes that arise. This workshop will describe the kinds of phenomena that can arise, the shift in orientation, the tools most helpful in working through the challenges of transformation, and encourage the valuing of both formlessness and form in the new awakened consciousness. We will do a simple practice to align our energy, and explore ways to find our unique and authentic expression and service in a changing world. This program will be helpful both for people finding challenges as their identity shifts and energies activate, and for therapists or spiritual teachers who want to support them in this process. Non-dual teachings may bring us to a place of acceptance of what is—but this is not an invitation to passivity, but rather to seeing clearly what is life-affirming within the dream and finding our authentic response.

If we have realized the non-dual nature of reality, if we have begun to perceive the interdependent nature of the self, the nonlocal reality of mind, what do we do now? How is this going to be embodied? What is the moral imperative, if all is One? Is this a purposeful universe and what is the purpose? Are states of compassion, aspiration, unconditional love, and ecstatic joy mere epi-phenomena of our own electro-chemical organisms or emergent properties within the Field?Previous generations have asked such questions. Certain exemplary human beings have not only reached a profound realization of this Oneness, they tried to create certain conditions of life in order to optimize and sustain this realization. Some have left behind models of community and conscious relationship.Many things in today’s world threaten our humanness. Sacred space and conscious community provides a means to rise above the false matrix that distracts us, reduces our intelligence, and numbs our hearts.What can we learn, for instance, from the practices, manners, and organization of traditional Sufi lodges, particularly in the tradition of Rumi. The Mevlevi centers that existed throughout the Ottoman world from the 14th to the 20th centuries provided a comprehensive education of the human being. An extraordinary degree of consciousness and creativity flourished in these centers of spiritual and aesthetic attainment. When one stepped over the threshold into a Mevlevi Lodge, one entered into sacred space and time, and environment in which spiritual courtesy in language and behavior reflected certain spiritual truths and aided in their realization.Where and how can we create such sacred spaces today?

All that is or could ever be known is experience, and all experience is known in the form of mind. Therefore, in order to know the nature or ultimate reality of anything that is known or experienced, it is first necessary to know the nature of mind. That is, the first imperative of any mind that wishes to know the nature of reality must be to investigate and know the reality of itself. Whether the mind perceives a world outside of itself, as is believed under the prevailing materialist paradigm, or whether the mind projects the world within itself, as is understood in the ‘Consciousness only’ approach that is shared by nearly all the great religious and spiritual traditions, everything that is known or experienced is known or experienced through the medium of mind. Thus, Everything that the mind knows or experiences is thus a reflection of its own limitations, just as everything will appear orange to one wearing a pair of orange- tinted glasses. Having become accustomed to the orange glasses, orange will become the new norm and, as a result, such a person will imagine that the orange colour that he sees is an inherent property of the world and not simply a projection of the limitations of the medium through which he perceives. In the same way, the world that we perceive is an objectification or reification of the limitations of our mind. Therefore, the mind’s knowledge of the world is only as good as its knowledge of itself. Thus, the highest knowledge a mind can attain is the knowledge of its own nature. In fact, unless and until the mind knows its own essential nature, it cannot be sure that anything that it knows or experiences is absolutely true rather than simply a reflection of its own limitations. Thus For this reason,[TB1] the ultimate question that mind can ask is, ‘What is the nature of mind?’ or ‘Who am I?’, and the ultimate knowledge it can attain is the answer to that question. In other words, the science of consciousness is the ultimate science.

A Science and Spirit performance journey from cosmogenesis to conscious ascension, featuringDr. Bruce Damer and DJ DISSOLV.

Through the practice of Wisdom Healing Qigong, we awaken out of our sense of separation and aloneness. Connecting to all life and beyond.  Emptying of old programming, and at the same time, full of unlimited possibilities.  Opening to life just as it.  Experiencing inner peace.  Our essence revealed.  Pure Love.  
In this session, we will have the opportunity to experience this goodness together as I guide us through moving meditations.  The standing practices can be modified or done sitting or lying down, while still following the visualizations.  
Beginners and experienced practitioners most welcome.  Your infinite potential is waiting activation! 

Behind all our endeavors lies the desire to be happy—to feel content, relaxed, and at ease. No one wants to be in pain or to suffer unnecessarily. This is our true bottom line. Why then, given the many benefits and comforts of contemporary culture, are we so seldom at peace?
Throughout history, there have been those who’ve discovered a timeless truth about human consciousness: The mind in its natural unperturbed state is already at ease. We don’t need to do anything, or go anywhere to find the inner peace and joy we seek. The beauty of this approach is that nothing needs to be changed or eliminated. It is simply relaxing back into our natural state of effortless being.
Join Peter Russell for an exploration of the nature of human consciousness and the essence of spiritual awakening, how our thoughts can veil the peace within, the distinction between ego and the true self, and how to free meditation from effort and trying.

It seems only natural to recognize the patterns of our mind and to hear the self-reports of people who see the world differently. Yet that simple turn of attention that self-reflection requires marks a new level of human development.
The first turn lets us witness our personality structure. We can recognize thoughts as we are thinking and tell them to someone else. We can notice emotions as they arise and describe them to others. We can learn to relax somatic contractions that govern the flow of our life force. Self-reflection is the bedrock of human development. Self-reflection reveals our Enneagram Type.
In the language of science self-reflection joins two different levels of consciousness. The subjective level of our brain’s conditioned neuropathways and the pure consciousness of an Inner Witness.
In the vocabulary of practice we relax attention to the patterns passing through our mind - thought, emotion, sensation – objects of attention that are structured according to type. But the pure consciousness that notes those patterns as they arise makes prayer and meditation possible.
From the viewpoint of awakening we can learn to observe our own type structure. We can witness cognitive “neuromarkers” such as Type One-Judgement and Type Six-Doubt as they appear and before they fully engage. We can relax emotional passions that drive outer behavior and learn to release somatic contractions that signal type distress. These capacities of mind initiate next levels of development. For who but ourselves can observe and relax our own reactive patterns instead of acting them out?

Ayelet Waldman will discuss A REALLY GOOD DAY, an expertly researched, and hilariously honest account of the author’s firsthand experience taking microdoses of LSD, the effect it had on her, and the ethical problems it presented.
What drove Ayelet Waldman to resort to using LSD? It was perimenopause (and years of accompanying treatments with psychiatrists and psychologists, SSRIs and meditation, to little or no avail). When her mood storms became intolerable, she did what many of us do: she fell down an internet rabbit hole, eventually receiving a vial in her mailbox from “Lewis Carroll.” Within a month, Ayelet joined the ranks of scientists and civilians successfully using LSD in therapeutic microdoses.
To be clear: Ayelet did not drop a tab of acid; rather, she took a “microdose” (ten micrograms under her tongue) a few times each week for one month. In A REALLY GOOD DAY, she tracks her experience, recounting bursts of productivity, nights of insomnia, and moments of peace. But this isn’t just a book about drug use, or a cri de coeur for decriminalization. Ayelet’s marriage, her role as a mother of teens, her years as a lawyer, journalist, and author—all are subject to her reflection during the month of self-treatment. She writes, “I have felt different and I have been different. Over the past month I have had many days at the end of which I looked back and thought, That was a really good day.”

Most people spend most of their days immersed in self-talk, thinking all the mind comes up with is very important. Could we safely say that the normal state of being is possessed by thought? How can we free ourselves?The biggest miracle of the universe is that it is filled with Consciousness. When we deeply know that, all of our little selves will melt into Consciousness.Before that happens the mind tends to run after gratification of desires that truly can only bring suffering.Where do you want to put your attention to the divine or to the misery of life?Anandamayi Ma says: “The guru dwells within. Unless you discover the inner guru, nothing can be achieved. Emergence of light takes away all karma. God is cleansing and purifying you to take you fully in Her arms.”Are you ready to be fully baked by Her?Please come and join this exploration

f we have realized the non-dual nature of reality, if we have begun to perceive the interdependent nature of the self, the nonlocal reality of mind, what do we do now? How is this going to be embodied? What is the moral imperative, if all is One? Is this a purposeful universe and what is the purpose? Are states of compassion, aspiration, unconditional love, and ecstatic joy mere epi-phenomena of our own electro-chemical organisms or emergent properties within the Field?Previous generations have asked such questions. Certain exemplary human beings have not only reached a profound realization of this Oneness, they tried to create certain conditions of life in order to optimize and sustain this realization. Some have left behind models of community and conscious relationship.Many things in today’s world threaten our humanness. Sacred space and conscious community provides a means to rise above the false matrix that distracts us, reduces our intelligence, and numbs our hearts.What can we learn, for instance, from the practices, manners, and organization of traditional Sufi lodges, particularly in the tradition of Rumi. The Mevlevi centers that existed throughout the Ottoman world from the 14th to the 20th centuries provided a comprehensive education of the human being. An extraordinary degree of consciousness and creativity flourished in these centers of spiritual and aesthetic attainment. When one stepped over the threshold into a Mevlevi Lodge, one entered into sacred space and time, and environment in which spiritual courtesy in language and behavior reflected certain spiritual truths and aided in their realization.Where and how can we create such sacred spaces today?

Authentic Movement is an internationally recognized inner-directed, eyes-closed, movement practice done within the presence of a kind and respectful witness. Through mindful self-listening, participants in this experiential workshop will be invited to follow movement impulses and explore sensations, emotions, images and embodied resources. Clear and respectful guidelines will be offered to support each individual's expression and autonomy. Within the safety and support of the circle, participants can explore and expand their innate capacities to move and be moved, see and be seen, and to articulate and integrate their experience.

There are inner realms that ordinary words, no matter how wise, cannot touch. Then we turn to poetry. In the darkest moment of her life, when even the most profound psychological and spiritual teachings could not reach her, Kim Rosen was saved by a poem. “Those words cut through my despair and numbness,” she writes, “to an innocent, awake, true me I didn’t think I’d ever get back to.“Mystics, poets and shamans have always known that the rhythms and sounds of spoken words can unlock habitual patterns of thought and open us to vast realms of consciousness still undreamed of, as D. H. Lawrence writes. Research has shown that this is because, like a shaman’s chant or drum, spoken poetry can entrain our physiology, affecting brainwaves, breath and heartbeat. Thus a poem can literally constellate the biochemical circumstances for revelation in individuals and communities.Within that potent resonance, any wall we build within or around ourselves instantly disappears. It is holy without being denominational, political without being sectarian, intimate without being bound by gender, age, or culture. A spark of awakeness is transmitted, like a pure laser beam, through the speaker, bringing anyone willing to be touched into alignment. For that moment, the fragmentation between inner and outer, individual and humanity, self and Self is healed. The grit of the human life and the grace of pure being, the guest and the guest house, the broken pieces and what has always been seamless all are one voice.This talk will be a direct experience of poetry’s power to wake you up, shake you up and summon you into a deeper, more intimate experience of living through an interweaving of mystical poems (some spoken to music), lecture, and stories of the unifying power of spoken poems in Kim’s own life, in war-torn Baghdad and at a Safe House for rescued Maasai girls in Kenya.

Our world is in the midst of a great ecological and social crisis where the future of 95% of Earth’s current inhabitants hangs from the frailest of threads. It is in times like this that we can access depths of our profound care and energy for helping turn the tides towards healing and survival. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the name for this profound care is bodhicitta, and it is one of the most valued of all human qualities. Pemo Chodron refers to it as the soft spot in our hearts, the broken and unbroken heart. It is our intention to respond to suffering with great love and energy for action.
In these times, it is also easy to access feelings of despair, overwhelm, and anxiety as we witness great powers abusing our most sensitive communities. In our Western culture, our inner pain can be pathologized and interpreted as a sign of weakness, so we hide our doubts and despairs for fear of appearing morbid or weak. But this despair may be one of the promises of our time, for it is a sign that the we still care deeply about what happens to each other and our planet. This care acts as a binding force of life that will humble us to partner with it as we move forward in more socially conscious and sustainable ways.
These feelings are not just from human-to-earth, but also from earth-to-earth herself. Just as you cannot extradite yourself from being in relationship within local ecosystem, there is nothing you can do to sever the reality that you are Earth caring about what happens to herself. What if bodhicitta is a more-than-human, fundamental, creative, self-organizing intelligence for the repair and continuation of life on our planet and beyond?

Joining contemplative method with habitual type resistance to change will be demonstrated through inner practice and Enneagram panel interviews. It seems only natural to recognize the patterns of our mind and to hear the self-reports of people who see the world differently. Yet that simple turn of attention that self-reflection requires marks a new level of human development.The first turn lets us witness our personality structure. We can recognize thoughts as we are thinking and tell them to someone else. We can notice emotions as they arise and describe them to others. We can learn to relax somatic contractions that govern the flow of our life force. Self-reflection is the bedrock of human development. Self-reflection reveals our Enneagram Type. In the language of science self-reflection joins two different levels of consciousness. The subjective level of our brain’s conditioned neuropathways and the pure consciousness of an Inner Witness.In the vocabulary of practice we relax attention to the patterns passing through our mind - thought, emotion, sensation – objects of attention that are structured according to type. But the pure consciousness that notes those patterns as they arise makes prayer and meditation possible.

The inner and outer universes are eventually discovered to indivisibly contain each other. As the external macrocosm is discovered internally, the inner living room expands and includes all beings, realms, deities, gods and galaxies. As the internal microcosm is discovered externally, the inner minutia is seen in full display externally. All this inner and outer magnificent wondrousness arises inseparably from each other and inseparably as Absolute Nothing.In real practical terms we will explore the literal truth of this through energetic anatomy and stages of awakening. We will deeply explore the revolutionary and dramatic impact this realization has on personal relationships and normal daily life functioning. We will address the nature of living the paradoxical seamlessness of simultaneous boundaries and oneness in relation to awakening, integration, healthy relationships and multidimensional anatomical function. Also, we will look at ways to support sustaining nondual awareness amidst the potential egoic temptation to identify with a bigger and better divine cosmic Self.Kristin shares from her direct experience not from any particular spiritual tradition. The nature of the lecture is aimed to support participant’s direct experience of the topics discussed. If time allows there will be a guided meditation healing to support the embodied integration of all that was shared.

We understand life through the stories we tell. Contemporary society is experiencing a ‘soul crisis’, because we have fallen under the spell of a particularly bleak story. The great religious myths that gave life meaning in the past have crumbled under sceptical scrutiny, so we’ve put our faith in science, which proclaims that we are living meaningless lives, in a universe that has evolved by chance, waiting for the finality of death.In this presentation, based on his groundbreaking book Soul Story, philosopher Tim Freke offers an alternative to this pessimistic worldview. He will explore a new philosophy he calls ‘Emergent Spirituality’, which reconciles modern scientific knowledge and perennial spiritual wisdom, by suggesting that everything is emerging into existence through the evolutionary process, including those qualities of life considered ‘spiritual’.  The evolution of the universe first saw the emergence of the material world, then the diversity of organic life, and finally the emergence of the imagination. Mainstream science asserts that this world of images, which we call the psyche or ‘soul’, is no more than a side-effect of the brain, but Tim will argue that it is actually a non-physical dimension of reality, which has evolved from the material and biological levels of reality.Tim suggests that the evolution of the imagination is accompanied by the emergence of utterly new aspects of reality, such as meaning, volition, magic and immortality. None of these phenomena exist on the physical and biological levels of reality, but they come into existence through the evolutionary process with the emergence of the soul-dimension.

The study of consciousness is contested scientific and philosophical territory despite decades of investigation. As George Miller wrote in the 1960s, “Consciousness is a word worn smooth by a million tongues.” Despite many formal and informal studies, little has changed until recently. Most studies have traditionally centred on investigations attempting to locate the locus of the mind and its functionality. Traditional approaches within cognitive science are characterised by a view of the mind where perceptual processes in the brain create detailed inner representations of the external environment (Menary, 2006: 3). However, recent new approaches have postulated that mental processes or states are not exclusively in the head (Rowlands, 2010: 12).
 
This paper will attempt to document this precise moment in history in the study of human consciousness with particular emphasis on how mixed-reality technologies are challenging old paradigms and definitions of what some are calling the The Fourth Industrial Revolution. This theme will be explored along with excerpts taken from a documentary film I am making about the subject. Also, as Ravensbourne University attempts to position itself at the vanguard of integrating such technological developments into its curriculum, the moment to document this journey and its contribution to how studies of consciousness and creative education may be impacted by such technology seems pertinent.

Behind all our endeavors lies the desire to be happy—to feel content, relaxed, and at ease. No one wants to be in pain or to suffer unnecessarily. This is our true bottom line. Why then, given the many benefits and comforts of contemporary culture, are we so seldom at peace?Throughout history, there have been those who’ve discovered a timeless truth about human consciousness: The mind in its natural unperturbed state is already at ease. We don’t need to do anything, or go anywhere to find the inner peace and joy we seek. The beauty of this approach is that nothing needs to be changed or eliminated. It is simply relaxing back into our natural state of effortless being.Join Peter Russell for an exploration of the nature of human consciousness and the essence of spiritual awakening, how our thoughts can veil the peace within, the distinction between ego and the true self, and how to free meditation from effort and trying.

The ideas of “artificial intelligence” are widely discussed these days, with a mix of excitement and fear. In this dialogue, a computer scientist and a mathematician will address some of the fallacies, challenges, and opportunities of these ideas and ask: What is the true nature of intelligence? Where does it come from? Where does it lead us? While science gives us important pointers in this regard, the road to answering these questions goes through introspection and self-realization

The ideas of "artificial intelligence" are widely discussed these days, with a mix of excitement and fear. In this dialogue, a computer scientist and a mathematician will address some of the fallacies, challenges, and opportunities of these ideas and ask: What is the true nature of intelligence? Where does it come from? Where does it lead us? While science gives us important pointers in this regard, the road to answering these questions goes through introspection and self-realization

This presentation will be based on a series of essays Mr. Gantz has authored dealing with foundational questions. The Hole at the Center of Creation, probes the epistemological limits of mathematical and physical knowledge. Given the unavoidably self-referential features of the universe, paradox is inevitable and essential. The void in our knowledge can only be crossed by reaching for a transcendent metaphysical explanation, one that provides a key to the whole that encompasses creation.Tip of the Spear, explores the evolutionary trajectory of the universe and the sequential emergence of complex systems across the physical, biological and institutional scales. These emergent processes demonstrate the salience of cooperative behaviors leading to evolutionary advantage in their respective fitness landscapes. The essay concludes that science is the engine of human progress, but that the tip of the spear, our primary intention, must be the human empathic values of trust, humility, mutual respect and shared commitment: in a word, love.The How and The Why of Emergence and Intention tackles the questions of emergence, causation and intention. Do you believe that what exists is an expression of randomness within mathematical forms? Or do you believe in a cosmic intentionality that provides generative guidance for the emergence and evolution of our uniquely specified universe? From an empirical standpoint, these questions are undecidable. Yet how we choose to answer them is fundamental to how we think about the world. I argue for flowing cosmic intentionality as a rational, evidence-based and comprehensive hypothesis for explaining why the world is the way it is. The universe is meant to be lived in, to be explored, and to be loved. In return, the universe rewards us with life, with complexity, and with the capacity for knowledge, self-exploration and wisdom. It loves us back.

What emerges from 100,000 years of humans telling stories and making art? Where might it emerge from? What might it point to? Is the cosmos itself on some kind of epic hero’s journey?The emergence of language and the capacity for storytelling can be considered fundamental to our becoming human. Our brain seeks significant patterns and connections — “the story” — in everything we see, hear or sense. Storytelling favors survival by activating a powerful inner world of association and meaning, enabling us to more successfully navigate the world, empathize with others, and develop complex abstract ideas. Similarly, the visual arts express and reflect back to ourselves our connection to nature and relationship to the cosmos in symbolic and aesthetic form. Thinkers since the time of Plato and Aristotle have described traits common to these forms of expression as archetypes: characters, images and scenarios that recur over time, whether in myths, legends, cave paintings or movies. What does this creative expression reveal about the deeper nature of consciousness and the cosmos? How does it intersect with quantum theory and philosophy? This talk will offer some interpretations, as well as explore broader aspects of storytelling and art throughout human history as it relates to consciousness.

Those of us proclaiming to believe in non-duality, often have little evidence of such in the daily trafficking of our lives, especially in matters of interpersonal relationships. As human beings we have the extraordinary capacity to think, speak, feel, behave, and believe in ways that contradict one another. This capacity for incongruence puts us at cross-purposes in ways that ultimately result in unrequited goals, dis-ease, and inharmonious relationships. Although we know, from a non-dualistic scientific and spiritual perspective, that everyone and everything is connected and interdependent sourced by the same energetic field, we balk at its implications when it undermines conflicting polarities in our minds. At micro and macro levels, non-duality (Oneness) dismantles the “othering” so central to our ego structure and, hence, our perceptions of one another. This “othering” not only denies our interconnectedness but denounces it as heresy. Even when we do not question our theoretical Oneness, we sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, choose to operate as though it is not so. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions can reflect a more Newtonian model in which we perceive people, places, and things as immutable impenetrable masses of matter needing to controlled or destroyed as opposed to transformed or redeemed. This enables us to perceive ourselves as victims instead of co-creators of our reality. In the face of our judgments and sense of self-righteousness, non-duality is an inconvenient truth demanding connection instead of distancing. Practicing non-duality challenges us at the deepest level. Its radical inclusiveness creates a moral dilemma for divisiveness; the heart is often reluctant to concede to what we understand cognitively. “What if I just don’t want to be one with them?” How do we reconcile our internal resistance with our higher spiritual and scientific recognition? How do we act like we know what we know?

What happens when you lose all your Nondual insights and realizations? What happens when the big shifts and experiences are over? There can be a gradual awakening from your awakening where your true creativity and potential as an individual human expression begins to arise and truly flourish. This is where life is fulfilling again but without a story. No longer shackled to spirituality we begin to meet the world with a refreshing enthusiasm and inspiration. In this presentation Scott Kiloby will share about the unfolding he has seen in his own life as he moved from teacher to helping those with addictions and trauma. Awakening from your awakening is a place few dare to go for it leaves you without specialness entirely and brings you fully back to the world without your defenses and ego-based patterns. Yet this is the place we all long to be, where awakening opens the door to redefining every aspect of our very human experience

Ayelet Waldman will discuss A REALLY GOOD DAY, an expertly researched, and hilariously honest account of the author’s firsthand experience taking microdoses of LSD, the effect it had on her, and the ethical problems it presented.What drove Ayelet Waldman to resort to using LSD? It was perimenopause (and years of accompanying treatments with psychiatrists and psychologists, SSRIs and meditation, to little or no avail). When her mood storms became intolerable, she did what many of us do: she fell down an internet rabbit hole, eventually receiving a vial in her mailbox from “Lewis Carroll.” Within a month, Ayelet joined the ranks of scientists and civilians successfully using LSD in therapeutic microdoses.To be clear: Ayelet did not drop a tab of acid; rather, she took a “microdose” (ten micrograms under her tongue) a few times each week for one month. In A REALLY GOOD DAY, she tracks her experience, recounting bursts of productivity, nights of insomnia, and moments of peace. But this isn’t just a book about drug use, or a cri de coeur for decriminalization. Ayelet’s marriage, her role as a mother of teens, her years as a lawyer, journalist, and author—all are subject to her reflection during the month of self-treatment. She writes, “I have felt different and I have been different. Over the past month I have had many days at the end of which I looked back and thought, That was a really good day.”

Nonduality is often spoken of as a state beyond the dual, beyond the fallacy of the subject-object distinction and the experienced separation, of a “me” here, and of my wished for “objects” out there. Some spiritual traditions speak of a formless self that does not distinguish self and world, and describe practices encouraging such experiencing. There are psychoanalytic thinkers who describe similar states of experience also, and outline this other self, which is invariably talked of as the unconscious self.Psychoanalytic thinkers describing this unconscious self, range from Freud and his followers, to Jung, and others, with the idea of the unconscious being one and the same as emotions suggested; the greater depths of this unconscious being more highly charged in affective terms, that is, containing or sustaining more intense emotional states. The idea of the unrepressed unconscious, an unconscious that does not know consciousness, unlike the usual repressed unconscious we speak of, is central in these explorations.This unconscious, as it is related to self, time, bounds, divisibility, and indivisibility, has aspects in common with descriptions of cosmogony in early greek philosophy, theology in early christianity, but also ontogeny in buddhist traditions. To some extent these philosophies, these texts as they are available to us now, go further, and outline a self that, despite contrasting descriptions, is both of form and of formlessness.Perhaps more interestingly, though, there is a variance in the oneness of nonduality they all describe. For some, there is a unity that is simple and undifferentiated, yet for others, there is a unity which is rather a multiplicity, a pluripotential quasi-actuality, a prior existence which is richer rather than poorer in its expanse, to the bi-polarities of consciousness. On the origin or meaning of this fracture, however, we are met only with silence.

Albert Einstein is one of the role models of a creative person. And yet Albert Einstein’s creative process is not widely understood. It has remained a mystery because scholars have attempted to understand Einstein’s creative process within a framework of skeptical reasoning that does include insights from neuroscience or Eastern traditions.However, astonishing insights about Einstein’s creative process open up if we broaden our view of Einstein’s life to include concepts from life coaching, yoga, neuroscience, and meditation.Using insights from neuroscience and archival research, Einstein’s creative process will be discussed using the framework of yoga and non-dual philosophy.At a philosophical level, Einstein’s personal philosophy of life was based very strongly on a non-dual understanding of life.At the level of daily practice, Einstein used music in a way that many people use yoga or meditation to calm the mind and increase creativity. The parallels between Einstein’s musical practices and Nada yoga (the yoga of sound and music) will be discussed in view of research from neuroscience on the effects of music on the brain.

The emergence and evolution of life is based on physics but is beyond physics. Evolution is a historical process arising from the non-ergodicity of the universe above the level of atoms. Most complex things will never exist. Human hearts exist. Prebiotic chemistry saw the evolution of many organic molecules in complex reaction networks, and the formation of low energy structures such as membranes. Theory and experiments suggest that from this, the spontaneous emergence of self reproducing molecular systems could arise and evolve. Such “collectively autocatalytic systems” cyclically link non-equilibrium processes whose constrained release of energy constitutes “work” to construct the same constraints on those non-equilibrium processes. Cells yoke a set of non-equilibrium processes and constraints on the energy released as work to build their own constraints and reproduce.Such systems are living, and can propagate their organization with heritable variations, so can be subject to natural selection. In this evolution, these proto-organisms emerge unpresentabley and afford novel niches enabling, not causing, further types of proto-organisms to emerge. With this, unpresentable new functions arise. The ever-changing phase space of evolution includes these functionalities. Since we cannot prestate these ever new functionalities, we can write no laws of motion for this evolution, which is therefore entailed by no laws at all, and thus not reducible to physics. Beyond entailing law, the evolving biosphere literally constructs itself and is the most complex system we know in the universe.

An animal’s complex body anatomy develops from a single cell - the fertilized egg – during embryogenesis. Molecular biologists have revealed many components required for the emergence of complex pattern under the control of the genome. Yet, the relationship between the genes and the resulting biological pattern is not clear, despite the crucial importance of this question for evolution and biomedicine. Embryogenesis is regulative: embryos can be split or combined, and yet a normal organism results. Moreover, some animals can regenerate limbs, eyes, hearts, and other body parts as adults. Living systems can perform remarkable examples of remodeling and regeneration to acquire and maintain their correct target morphology. Thus, biological organisms are not just hardwired patterns resulting from the genome via emergence; they are pattern-homeostatic systems in which individual cell behaviors are orchestrated toward large-scale anatomical goal states. Our lab identified a new set of mechanisms by which this happens: electrical conversations that all cells (not just neurons) have with each other during pattern regulation. In learning to listen in on, and speak, this bioelectrical language of patterning, we have begun to uncover how bodies store pattern memories in subtle electrical pre-patterns. By rewriting the stable dynamics of somatic bioelectrical networks, we have shown the ability to induce whole organ formation, trigger regeneration, reprogram tumors, and repair birth defects – to radically change the body plan without editing the genome. In this talk, I will introduce bioelectricity as the software that controls anatomy, running on DNA-specified hardware of ion channels and electrical synapses. We are beginning to reprogram bioelectric circuits for new applications in regenerative medicine and synthetic bioengineering. Consistent with the evolution of brains from ancient, non-neural cells, we are finding that many of the concepts of cognitive neuroscience apply to the decision-making and computation performed by tissues during pattern regulation. The major challenge before us is to quantitatively understand how non-neural cell networks support a kind of primitive cognition used in the control of growth and form.

At the center of your brain, at the same location of your third eye, your brow center, there is a cavity filled with fluid. This fluid-filled cavity is called the third ventricle. It is bordered by the pituitary gland in front and the pineal gland in back, and has been referred to as the ‘Crystal Palace’ and the ‘Cave of Brahma.’ The fluid within the cavity is called the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). As an embryo developing awareness, you are bathed in this primordial fluid in your mother’s womb. Now, in you, it bathes your entire central nervous system, inside and outside your brain, traveling all the way down around your spinal cord to your sacrum as well as within a central hollow canal inside your spinal cord. The CSF is home to many neurotransmitters and signaling molecules providing an elaborate range of biological functions. Interestingly, the CSF contains the ‘spirit molecule’ DMT that is released by the pineal gland. Furthermore, the cells contacting the CSF can receive information related to light, vibrations, movement, and molecules. The CSF utilizes volume transmission and its information can be quickly dispersed and simultaneously target key brain regulatory centers due to its fluid nature. Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “fluids come together and the ‘I Am’ appears.” The CSF may therefore serve as a vehicle for immediate signaling to major control centers of the brain and may be significant in regulating consciousness, the flow of spirit, the sense of ‘I Am’. Let us connect with our CSF, visit the ‘Cave of Brahma’, and explore our internal ocean.

There is a perennial debate in spiritual traditions regarding whether realization is direct (sudden) or progressive (gradual). But is this a false distinction? Realization is often sudden, no matter how many years of practice may have led up to it, and even after realization, most people find that refinement, clarification, and the working out of personal shortcomings continue indefinitely.
Who wouldn’t prefer direct realization to years of purification and practice? But how many examples of purely direct realization can we find? Can a path be both direct and progressive? Is it possible to have a taste of our true nature from the outset, and then spend a lifetime embodying it? Also, is there one watershed breakthrough which can be universally agreed upon as final “Realization”, or are there many degrees and stages of realization, each of them important stepping stones in a never-ending journey?
Proponents of the direct path sometimes argue that if we regard spiritual development as progressive, we will forever be anticipating, never arriving. But some spiritual seekers consider themselves “finished” when they are just getting started. Not appreciating the distinction between understanding and experience, they mistake intellectual understanding with enlightenment. Understanding statements like “You are already enlightened” doesn’t make it so.
Fascilitated by Rick Archer

Laura Inserra is a multi-instrumentalist , sound therapist , composer , teacher from Sicily. Thanks to her musical and spiritual studies with teachers from ancient and modern schools of wisdom, she has developed a unique form of sound healing practice called 'Harmonizing Therapy '. Using sacred sounds, rhythms, and melodies, she creates Inner Landscapes Sound Journey to facilitate and nurture personal transformation and self awareness. She applies this methodology in one-on-one sessions, as well as in group settings, workshops, and company retreats. This approach is part of the development of her work around the transmutational and evolutive power of 'vibration' and of what she calls ‘ancient technology’

The complexity sciences have complemented, enhanced, and repaired our overly mechanistic worldview with the paradigm of emergent organicism. Although missing from the mechanistic story, we find the biology of emotion center stage in this new world view. To discover the vital biological function of emotion is to realize each living system’s creative role in an ecologically interdependent biosphere, within a deterministic yet participatory self-organizing universe. Coupling feelings that in-form the mind with behaviors that move the body, emotional processes deliver the animation and guidance identified by the old vitalists as “spirit” in all living creatures. Emotion empowers legitimate – yet compatibly constrained - free will, it’s very physical constraints offering innate guidance for using that freedom optimally, complete with protective safeguards until that guidance is mindfully tapped.This brief introductory overview will sketch a path from the dualistic conjugate variables of physics – the dynamic dance of Yin/Yang opposites in the creative process, to show how the binary (pleasurable and painful) nature of emotional qualia provides feedback signals that embody simple rules, those that yield the dynamically complex behavior, and “edge-of-chaos” criticality characteristic of self-organizing systems. We will discover how good and bad feelings work together, serving the functional master of “self-regulation”, mediating and uniting many multi-dimensional facets of the self - body (cells, organs, organ systems), mind (habits, memories, motives) any genetic or quantum (not-yet-self) potentials we might legitimately consider as “soul”. We will find not one but three levels of information encoded within emotional feelings (everyday feelings such as joy, sadness, trust, mistrust, anger, gratitude, envy, admiration, etc.), now delivering a host of biological information that science has long over-looked, an essential foundation for of all human values. We will transcend the naturalistic fallacy, recovering Hume’s original wisdom: “Reason is and ought to be, the slave of the passions”.

Integrating insights from cutting-edge quantum mechanics research, non-dual teachings and Daoist-Zen philosophy, this experiential, highly practical talk/workshop is designed to give attendees a lasting experience of Flow Consciousness.Flow Consciousness is an advanced stage of non-dual awareness in which participants are able to transcend ordinary waking consciousness/states of being and operate fully from the superconscious in which felt-sense, heart, mind and intuition are fully integrated and easily accessible as practical tools for navigating through and improving one’s life.Living in Flow Consciousness is defined by experiencing continually heightened levels of synchronicity and fortuitousness where life appears to conspire in your favor and rapid expansion, growth and success begin to happen effortlessly.

The emergence and evolution of life is based on physics but is beyond physics. Evolution is a historical process arising from the non-ergodicity of the universe above the level of atoms. Most complex things will never exist. Human hearts exist. Prebiotic chemistry saw the evolution of many organic molecules in complex reaction networks, and the formation of low energy structures such as membranes. Theory and experiments suggest that from this, the spontaneous emergence of self reproducing molecular systems could arise and evolve. Such “collectively autocatalytic systems” cyclically link non-equilibrium processes whose constrained release of energy constitutes “work” to construct the same constraints on those non-equilibrium processes. Cells yoke a set of non-equilibrium processes and constraints on the energy released as work to build their own constraints and reproduce.Such systems are living, and can propagate their organization with heritable variations, so can be subject to natural selection. In this evolution, these proto-organisms emerge unpresentabley and afford novel niches enabling, not causing, further types of proto-organisms to emerge. With this, unpresentable new functions arise. The ever-changing phase space of evolution includes these functionalities. Since we cannot prestate these ever new functionalities, we can write no laws of motion for this evolution, which is therefore entailed by no laws at all, and thus not reducible to physics. Beyond entailing law, the evolving biosphere literally constructs itself and is the most complex system we know in the universe.

Most people spend most of their days immersed in self-talk, thinking all the mind comes up with is very important. Could we safely say that the normal state of being is possessed by thought? How can we free ourselves?The biggest miracle of the universe is that it is filled with Consciousness. When we deeply know that, all of our little selves will melt into Consciousness.Before that happens the mind tends to run after gratification of desires that truly can only bring suffering.Where do you want to put your attention to the divine or to the misery of life?Anandamayi Ma says: “The guru dwells within. Unless you discover the inner guru, nothing can be achieved. Emergence of light takes away all karma. God is cleansing and purifying you to take you fully in Her arms.”Are you ready to be fully baked by Her?Please come and join this exploration

What is that, in each moment in time, makes us step into something or not? How can we find out how our body could unfold and what it would manifest if it was not constrained by cultural norms, prejudice and education?  Join me for a short exploration of what can emerge when we allow our bodies to be gifting the world like an apple tree.  
Ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offering There’s a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.
 ~ Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

“Traditionally deemed as a sacrament for religious purposes there is an uprising of psychedelic use to meet people’s desire for consciousness transformation. Simultaneously the trend has been to relegate money, sex, and power as taboo topics in mainstream society. Unsustainable economic systems, a dishonouring of our sexual development, and leaking personal power to spiritual leaders/healers disables our progression of awakening. It is essential to discuss these complex issues and create innovative practices to integrate the light and shadow while maximizing the benefits of psychedelic exploration. This presentation will focus on how seekers can transform taboos into allies. The strategies offered will focus on three areas:MONEY: how psychedelics can harmonize your perception of worthiness (inner economics) with material resources (outer economics).SEX: how psychedelics can transform sexual wounds and revitalize one’s creative voice & vision in the world.POWER: how psychedelics can assist with aligned power to maximize one’s authentic leadership in the world.

An animal’s complex body anatomy develops from a single cell - the fertilized egg – during embryogenesis. Molecular biologists have revealed many components required for the emergence of complex pattern under the control of the genome. Yet, the relationship between the genes and the resulting biological pattern is not clear, despite the crucial importance of this question for evolution and biomedicine. Embryogenesis is regulative: embryos can be split or combined, and yet a normal organism results. Moreover, some animals can regenerate limbs, eyes, hearts, and other body parts as adults. Living systems can perform remarkable examples of remodeling and regeneration to acquire and maintain their correct target morphology. Thus, biological organisms are not just hardwired patterns resulting from the genome via emergence; they are pattern-homeostatic systems in which individual cell behaviors are orchestrated toward large-scale anatomical goal states. Our lab identified a new set of mechanisms by which this happens: electrical conversations that all cells (not just neurons) have with each other during pattern regulation. In learning to listen in on, and speak, this bioelectrical language of patterning, we have begun to uncover how bodies store pattern memories in subtle electrical pre-patterns. By rewriting the stable dynamics of somatic bioelectrical networks, we have shown the ability to induce whole organ formation, trigger regeneration, reprogram tumors, and repair birth defects – to radically change the body plan without editing the genome. In this talk, I will introduce bioelectricity as the software that controls anatomy, running on DNA-specified hardware of ion channels and electrical synapses. We are beginning to reprogram bioelectric circuits for new applications in regenerative medicine and synthetic bioengineering. Consistent with the evolution of brains from ancient, non-neural cells, we are finding that many of the concepts of cognitive neuroscience apply to the decision-making and computation performed by tissues during pattern regulation. The major challenge before us is to quantitatively understand how non-neural cell networks support a kind of primitive cognition used in the control of growth and form.

The Global Coherence Initiative is exploring the interactions between humanity and the earth’s magnetic fields. The magnetic field produced by the heart can be detected by the nervous systems of other people. New research will be presented showing how people are far more interconnected with each other and the earth’s magnetic field environment than previously imagined.

This presentation is based on research into creative process. Findings indicate that there are infinite numbers of creative process, and therefore infinite ways that insight happens. Creative process vary from one individual to another and also within each individual. Furthermore, there is an alchemical quality to flow creative process that is unaccounted for in neuroscience. This alchemical quality is apparent when chaos theory is applied to analyze the emergent nature of creativity.

Many spiritual traditions profess that the use any drug is incompatible with spiritual practice yet many well known contemporary Western spiritual teachers have acknowledged the value of psychedelics in providing a taste of a refined spiritual experience that motivated them later to fully engage in spiritual practice and eventually to become spiritual teachers. Most of these teachers do not discuss whether or not they have continued their use of psychedelics but many in fact have continued to rely on psychedelics at different points in their spiritual journeys. Other individuals who have tried to follow a traditional non-psychedelic spiritual path have found such paths unsuitable for a variety of reasons such as having to use uniform practice approaches not well attuned to their individual natures. For this and other reasons psychedelics are often relied upon as the primary spiritual practice with less reliance upon the use of traditional spiritual practices. This talk will describe different ways of better utilizing the spontaneous openings & profound direct experiences that psychedelics can provide with the guidelines for preparation, protection, stabilization, & integration that the spiritual traditions can provide. For some people developing a spiritual practice that combines psychedelics and meditation practices can provide a path much richer than either path alone. Challenges and questions about such an integrated approach will also be discussed.

This wonderful panel of teachers will discuss the myriad expressions and mystery of Kundalini energy. What it really is, and can mean, when it awakens in us. We will explore its emergence as it occurs through grace, and the possible hazards of the efforts to awaken this powerful energy before we are ready. Looking at both the initial ecstasy and possible subsequent upheaval, the panel will share knowledge, direct experience, and stories of the expression of Kundalini’s Divine presence in
individuals lives. We will also explore the connection of Kundalini to trauma, looking at ways in which you can integrate this energy, or how in the healing of trauma, Kundalini can awaken, and how to safely navigate this path.
Fascilitated by Julie Brown Yau.

Science is an inherently human project. It is the story we tell ourselves about reality in order to make sense of our subjective experience. Humanity has committed itself to the scientific project because of the incredible apparent success of canonical science to make remarkably accurate predictions about the outcomes of experiments in a way unparalleled by other proposed models of the world.
But questions about the scientific project arise at the intersection of nondual experience and the philosophy of science which call for us to more deeply consider the relationship between epistemology, science, and awakening.
What happens to the project of science in the context of awakening, in which we learn to question our stories and narratives? What kind of space is shaped for science in the landscape of our deep awareness, when meaning-making, which is precisely what science is in the business of doing, is released to give way to presence and raw experience? How do we recontextualize the scientific project within frameworks of enlightenment? And how do current dialogues in the philosophy of science, physics, and time transform this discussion?
In addressing these questions, this talk will provide a brief overview of several contemporary philosophical attitudes toward science, discuss how nondual experience influences belief and knowledge, and present recent, original research into the impact of nonduality on the philosophical foundations of our approach to the scientific project.

A growing community of seekers engaged in spiritual practice through meditation, yoga and many other techniques of mind-body exploration, are returning to psychedelics. These molecules are valuable tools to explore brain function and the mystery of consciousness. The visionary tryptamines N,N-DMT, the Spirit Molecule and its cousin, 5-MeO-DMT, the God Molecule are efficacious probes to explore the spiritual brain and the phenomenology of the spiritual experience. Ubiquitous in Nature, both these molecules are endogenous in our brain and peripheral tissues. Despite extensive research, their physiological roles remain poorly understood and controversial. It has been proposed that DMT is an ancestral neuromodulator in early human evolution, which gave way to structurally close serotonin, as a multifunction signaling molecule in the CNS. Exogenous DMT input to the brain can then re-energize these ancient neurochemical pathways and re-engage the spiritual and mystical mind. More popular theories posit that DMT may play a role in dreams, and that it is released by the pineal gland during peak states of consciousness and spiritual awakening. Ethnographic and Paleoanthropological research is documenting the wide entheogenic use of these tryptamines in the New World for millennia, revered as sacraments to explore doorways to spirituality. My own neurophenomenological EEG studies of the acute effects of inhaled N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, have documented a reversible hypercoherence in network connectivity reorganization and a robust increase in power of Gamma oscillations (35-50 Hz). This finding is significant as Gamma power increases have been reported with meditation, happiness and compassion states, lucid dreaming and Ayahuasca. Gamma band synchronization is a fundamental process of cortical computations and is involved in many cognitive processes as well as higher states of consciousness.

The complexity sciences have complemented, enhanced, and repaired our overly mechanistic worldview with the paradigm of emergent organicism. Although missing from the mechanistic story, we find the biology of emotion center stage in this new world view. To discover the vital biological function of emotion is to realize each living system’s creative role in an ecologically interdependent biosphere, within a deterministic yet participatory self-organizing universe. Coupling feelings that in-form the mind with behaviors that move the body, emotional processes deliver the animation and guidance identified by the old vitalists as “spirit” in all living creatures. Emotion empowers legitimate – yet compatibly constrained - free will, it’s very physical constraints offering innate guidance for using that freedom optimally, complete with protective safeguards until that guidance is mindfully tapped.This brief introductory overview will sketch a path from the dualistic conjugate variables of physics – the dynamic dance of Yin/Yang opposites in the creative process, to show how the binary (pleasurable and painful) nature of emotional qualia provides feedback signals that embody simple rules, those that yield the dynamically complex behavior, and “edge-of-chaos” criticality characteristic of self-organizing systems. We will discover how good and bad feelings work together, serving the functional master of “self-regulation”, mediating and uniting many multi-dimensional facets of the self - body (cells, organs, organ systems), mind (habits, memories, motives) any genetic or quantum (not-yet-self) potentials we might legitimately consider as “soul”. We will find not one but three levels of information encoded within emotional feelings (everyday feelings such as joy, sadness, trust, mistrust, anger, gratitude, envy, admiration, etc.), now delivering a host of biological information that science has long over-looked, an essential foundation for of all human values. We will transcend the naturalistic fallacy, recovering Hume’s original wisdom: “Reason is and ought to be, the slave of the passions”.

As a global community, it is time for us to realize that living within dualistic consciousness and an illusion of separation is not sustainable. Our species and our planet will not be able to survive if we continue to ignore the spiritual, ecological and social fabric of interconnectedness that sustains life on this planet. We are all being called to wake up to the nondual truth of our shared Being and find solutions in an infinite Intelligence beyond our conditioned mind. A new kind of activism is now being called forth that combines embodied nondual awakening with direct action inspired and guided by true wisdom.This presentation will explore what both science and nondual wisdom traditions are telling us about the unity of all life, the effects of our consciousness on the material world, and what is necessary in order to bring our world into balance and harmony with this truth. It is time for us to join together and bring nondual wisdom to our global concerns and face our collective shadow without getting stuck in a polarized duality of “us vs. them.” When the two forces of spiritual awakening and social/political activism join forces and work collaboratively, this gives birth to a more powerful agent of change than either alone could provide. We can then be consciously responsive rather than unconsciously reactive and begin to dissolve the divisions that are creating so much inequality and injustice in our world.This presentation will include group discussion and, if time allows, a guided practice for meeting our reactions to what is happening in our world in/as all-inclusive awareness rather than from reactive mind, and experiencing it resolve back into the Source.

“To be awake, to be enlightened, is to be fully and completely embodied. To be fully embodied means to be at one with who we are, in every respect, including our physical being, our emotions, and the totality of our karmic situation.” (Reggie Ray)Human biological responses to fear, stress and trauma can hinder our access to inherent self-healing abilities. In addition, we culturally overvalue thinking and action and undervalue the cultivation of somatic (body) intelligence. Non-dual wisdom arises spontaneously in the body when we are able to move beyond self and concept.Stress, trauma, body symptoms can guide us towards emotional and spiritual growth when we can directly experience the body as love. This somatic intelligence is deeply rooted in the practice of embodied meditation. Non-dual wisdom can be experienced as pure awareness that is free from judgement and beyond belief systems. This intelligence depends upon feeling safe within ones body and in relation to others.This talk focuses on three key aspects of somatic inquiry towards non-dual wisdom: how we view ourselves in relation to stressors such as trauma and emotional obstacles, the importance of body awareness in relation to self and others, and paths to implement somatic intelligence in our daily life. Drawing from Hakomi psychotherapy, embodied meditation practices from Reggie Ray, and trauma resolution techniques, this talk provides an in-depth understanding of what is means to live from somatic intelligence.

At the center of your brain, at the same location of your third eye, your brow center, there is a cavity filled with fluid. This fluid-filled cavity is called the third ventricle. It is bordered by the pituitary gland in front and the pineal gland in back, and has been referred to as the ‘Crystal Palace’ and the ‘Cave of Brahma.’ The fluid within the cavity is called the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). As an embryo developing awareness, you are bathed in this primordial fluid in your mother’s womb. Now, in you, it bathes your entire central nervous system, inside and outside your brain, traveling all the way down around your spinal cord to your sacrum as well as within a central hollow canal inside your spinal cord. The CSF is home to many neurotransmitters and signaling molecules providing an elaborate range of biological functions. Interestingly, the CSF contains the ‘spirit molecule’ DMT that is released by the pineal gland. Furthermore, the cells contacting the CSF can receive information related to light, vibrations, movement, and molecules. The CSF utilizes volume transmission and its information can be quickly dispersed and simultaneously target key brain regulatory centers due to its fluid nature. Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “fluids come together and the ‘I Am’ appears.” The CSF may therefore serve as a vehicle for immediate signaling to major control centers of the brain and may be significant in regulating consciousness, the flow of spirit, the sense of ‘I Am’. Let us connect with our CSF, visit the ‘Cave of Brahma’, and explore our internal ocean.

At the core of many discussions on spirituality lies the concept of self. Historically, however, mainstream science has mostly kept the subjective, ourselves, out of our picture of the Universe in search of an objective reality. Even studies of the human brain mostly focus on a third-person perspective—scientists usually study others’ brains, not their own. Since the discovery of quantum physics, human observers have played a more relevant role in the physical sciences. However, for more than a century much has been debated about what is the actual content of quantum theory. Although substantial progress has been done, no general consensus has been reached. Here we argue that the field of artificial intelligence provides a fresh perspective to reason more carefully about the actual role observers play when they perform an experiment. We discuss how quantum theory can be understood from two intuitive principles: (i) inference is a physical process performed by physical systems, observers, which are also part of the experimental setup; (ii) experiments must be described from a first-person perspective—this leads to self-reference, complementarity, and some new intuition on the concept of self. In short: We are physical, We observe ourselves. From this perspective, quantum dynamics can be understood as the iterative construction of the observer’s subjective state. Using available experimental data, we argue that the quantum of action is the result of the additional energy required to transition from unconscious to conscious perception. We discuss how these ideas can help bridge science and spirituality by offering a conceptual framework to reason about spirituality without the need of the traditional notion of spirit.

There’s growing evidence that ayahuasca has a rich potential for therapeutic healing. This presentation is based on data collected in North America including self-reports of 81 people (2008-2011) and interviews with an additional fifty, some of whom have been followed-up for seven years. It was found that after drinking this potent tea, people reported the same kind of changes that are sought in psychotherapy: greater self-acceptance, improved mood, increased feelings of love and compassion in interpersonal relationships, reduced alcohol intake, and improved health behaviors. Questions remain, however, about how these changes happen and how they can be integrated. This presentation will discuss how psychotherapy during the so-called golden hours and days immediately following an ayahuasca ceremony are optimum for therapeutic work. This is a time of increased neurological flexibility and connectivity along with a quieting of the Default Mode Network which is responsible for much of our neurotic thought patterns. Spiritual experiences in ayahuasca ceremonies can lead to discontinuous transformation, as described by William James, and a cosmic shift in worldview. Therapeutic integration involves differentiation of psychological issues from numinous experiences, distinguishing between levels of existential meaning. The recalibration or reorganization of psychic architecture after ayahuasca needs to be stabilized and translated into daily life.

Join fellow SAND'ers in co-creating a gigantic human mandala led by Earthscape artist Andres Amador. YOU will be a piece of the creation as you are linked and connected with other participants to create a huge mandala on the main lawn of the Dolce Hayes Mansion. Come prepared to lay on the grass.