Shamatha and Vipashyana in the Dzogchen Tradition (Affiliate Course)

Why do some heterodox scientific theories attract such vehement ridicule, while others are merely contentious? From adaptive mutation to psi phenomena to water memory to UFOlogy, from plant consciousness to morphic resonance, the “excluded other” in science points to a transition in the defining mythology of civilization. Each bespeaks a universe in which intelligence, purpose, and consciousness are not the sole province of human beings, vitiating a key pillar of dualistic thinking. Because they pose such an ideological and psychological threat, these theories incite a more-than-intellectual hostility. This talk will explore the crisis of science and the emergence of a new mythology that might, not replace, but transcend and include it.

Juan Nunez del Prado has been researching ‘The Supernatural Andean World’ since 1968. In 1979, he became apprentice to Don Benito Qoriwaman Vargas, Don Melchor Deza, Don Andres Espinoza and Don Mauel Quispe. All of them were indigenous Andean spiritual teachers, traditionally called ‘Paqo’ or ‘Alto Misayoq’. Their beliefs combined fundamental Christian beliefs, with beliefs and rituals originating from the sophisticated Pre Columbian animism of the Incas.