December, Tuesday 7th 2004
Serena Roney-Dougal: The Fascinating World of the Subliminal Mind
The concept of the subliminal mind was first proposed by William Myers in the 19th century, but it is recent research in subliminal perception and parapsychology that has brought the full range and depth of this aspect of consciousness to our awareness. The hypnagogic state, that state of consciousness we experience as we are falling asleep, enables us to explore the symbolic, archetypal, mythic type of mentality associated with the subliminal mind. The technique that enables us to go consciously into the hypnagogic, used widely in parapsychology, is called the Ganzfeld. The subliminal mind is aware of all perceptions, governs our conscious mind and links it with the collective unconscious, the world mind. It is this level of mind which registers incoming psychic perceptions and which governs our dreams.
Serena Roney – Dougal did a PhD thesis in Parapsychology at Surrey University, is the author of ‘Where Science and Magic Meet,’ recently reprinted by Vega Books, and ‘The Faery Faith,’ published by Green Magic. She has spent over 30 years studying and experiencing scientific, magical and spiritual aspects of the psyche, and has lectured and taught courses, seminars and workshops in America, Europe and India. At present she lectures on Parapsychology at Bihar Yoga Bharati, India during the winter.
November, Tuesday 23rd 2004
Geoffrey Cornelius: What Mode of Knowing is Divination?
Divination in its manifold forms makes a significant appearance and contribution in every culture and time, but has dropped entirely from view in modern institutions of knowledge. Is it because it doesntwork? Or is it because, although it doeswork`, we no longer have an adequate point of reference to the way in which it might work?
Geoffrey Cornelius has a background in astrology and occult philosophy, including the Chinese oracle text I Ching. He is currently undertaking postgraduate research in the hermeneutics of divination at the university of Kent, Canterbury, where he also teaches on the MA programme in the Study of Mysticism and Religious Experience. Amongst his publications are Introducing Astrology (with Maggie Hyde and Chris Webster – Icon1995); and The Moment of Astrology : Origins in Divination (Penguin/Arkana 1994; revised edition Wessex Astrologer 2003)
October, Tuesday 12th 2004
Timothy Glazier: The Paradigm that Shapes our World
In the SMN we hear much of paradigms in relation to the material sciences, frequently with reference to the mechanistic, reductionist paradigms that have dominated scientific thinking for centuries. However, there is a science that governs and shapes the world in which we live – at every level and in every detail – and, amongst other things, drives the direction of scientific enquiry and development. This is the science of economics.
Judging by the condition of humanity today – the huge variations of wealth at a personal and national level, the pressures on individuals in most walks of life, the ongoing pollution and destruction of the biosphere, the phenomenon of modern terrorism and war, even the very survival of the human race – suggest that there are some serious flaws in the paradigm that governs this science.
From a lifelong interest in the causes of economic injustice, Timothy Glazier will suggest that the problem comes with the break down of the relationship between mankind and the planet within the developed world, which has lead to the ‘commodification’ of nature and the failure of responsibility of those who control access to natural resources. He will be considering how this corruption of the economic paradigm arose and why it is so damaging, but also suggest that there are signs that it is changing.
Timothy Glazier was introduced to the fundamentals of economics at the School of Economic Science. He is a Council Member of the Henry George Foundation, the pressure group for economic change, and is a member of the International Union for Land Value Taxation and Free Trade. He gives talks on radical approaches to the economic problems facing mankind and his papers include ‘The Neolithic Mind – the lost symbiosis between mankind and nature’, ‘The Descent of Man – from wanderer on the earth to owner of the land’ and ‘Economics at the Turning Point’.
September, Tuesday 14th, 2004
Roger Woolger: Eternal Return: the Convergence of Buddhism and Transpersonal Psychology
In recent years our understanding of the death transition and the ‘eternal return’ of the soul has been greatly enriched by reports of near death experience, past life and perinatal regression work and accessible new commentaries on the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book(s) of the Dead). Roger Woolger is a Jungian analyst and transpersonal psychotherapist who has worked with bardo phenomena for over 20 years. In this talk he will describe the healing power of journeys and encounters in the inner worlds between lifetimes and how they are illuminated by Buddhist, Hindu, shamanic and spiritist teachings
Dr Roger Woolger is a therapist trained at the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich who holds a psychology degree from Oxford University and a Ph.D in Comparative Religion. He has been conducting professional trainings in Deep Memory Process (DMP) in Europe, Brazil and the United States since 1993 and lectures widely on mysticism and spiritual psychology in Britain and brazil. He is the author of Other Lives, Other Selves (Bantam), a classic study of past life regression as a transpersonal therapy and The Goddess Within (with Jennifer Barker). Currently he is researching a book on releasing spirit energies.
August, Tuesday 17th, 2004
Jorge Ferrer: Participatory Spirituality and the Conflict of Cosmologies
Human transpersonal cognition has brought forth a rich variety of visionary worlds and spiritual understandings. Traditionally, each spiritual cosmology has claimed an exclusivist or inclusivist stance by which it wishes to successfully interpret, situate, and/or encompass the rest of competing intersubjetive realities. This conflict of cosmologies can be profoundly perplexing for the modern mind: How can we account for important differences among spiritual visions when most of them claim to depict universal and ultimate truths about ‘things as they really are’? In this presentation, we will explore how a deeper look into the participatory nature of spiritual knowing can transform this apparent conflict into an opportunity for celebration and creative mutual transformation. We will also discuss how this participatory understanding can help us to discriminate between more and less grounded cosmological visions.
Jorge N Ferrer, Ph.D. is associate professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, and author of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality (SUNY Press). In 2000 he received the Fetzer Institute’s Presidential Award for his seminal work on consciousness studies.
July, Thursday 15th 2004
John Clarke: Taoism: Ancient Spiritual Path and Modern Way for the West
Taoism is the last great Asian spiritual tradition to impinge on Western consciousness, and in some ways the least understood. In this talk I will outline its origins and some of its key ideas, and will discuss ways in which it offers a spiritual path for the modern world.
John Clarke is Professor Emeritus at Kingston University where for some years he was head of the undergraduate programme in the history of ideas. He has degrees in philosophy from London University and taught philosophy at McGill University, Montreal, and at the University of Singapore. Following several books on C.G. Jung, his research in recent years has concentrated on the influence of Eastern thought on the West, and his books include Oriental Enlightenment and The Tao of the West. He is currently working on a history of philosophy which integrates Western and Asian insights.
June, Thursday 17th 2004
Jack Herbert: Alchemy’s Royal Art and the Creative Imagination
This illustrated lecture will discuss ‘the royal art (ars regia)’ as it was known, in terms of its dual purpose ‘of transmuting metal and souls’; at the same time highlighting the central role of the creative imagination in all this. As such the vital contribution of alchemy in upgrading the imagination inside Western civilization will be emphasized.
Jack Herbert, who comes from Wales, studied William Blake at Cambridge under Kathleen Raine and has lectured at the universities of Munich and Kyushu, Japan. Until recently e was staff tutor for literature with the Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education. He hs published poems and articles in literary journals and completed a study of The German Tradition – Uniting the Opposites: Goethe, Jung and Rilke, described in the Scientific & Medical Network Review as ‘a fascinating and erudite book’ a real feast of ideas in progression’. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy.
JuneTuesday 15th, 2004
Collin and Niall Campbell: Ukhuthuasa, The illness of calling: an understanding of spiritual emergence among traditional southern African cultures and its possible relevance in Western society.
Collin and Niall Campbell will look at illness which is understood among indigenous cultures of Southern Africa to have its roots or cause in the calling to practice as a spirit medium and healer. This understanding of spiritually caused illness is not unique to Southern Africa. It is well understood in most primal cultures of the world. More recently depth and transpersonal psychologists in western culture have begun to recognized and explore this form of illness and it has come to be referred to as spiritual emergence.
They will show some slides and talk about their school and training program in Botswana. Folliwing is a brief overview of the school and its intent.
The Ngwenyama School for Traditional Healers was established in mid 2000, as a response to the growing number of people seeking structured assistance and training through periods of what has come to be referred to as spiritual emergence in modern transpersonal psychology.
The Ngwenyama School is built and operated on the principals and methods of a traditional Southern African, Venda / Shangaan training school for traditional healers. Apart from providing training and support for people undergoing spiritual emergence, our mission is also to help with the reconstruction of traditional Southern African spiritual initiation rites. The Ngwenyama School is a member of a network of traditional initiation lineages or lodges who share the same desires to see these traditions preserved and reintegrated into modern society.
Colin Campbell grew up in rural south – eastern Botswana. During this time he acquired knowledge of Tswana culture and their traditional healing methods. He has been trained and initiated as a Tswana traditional doctor, diviner and Sangoma. Subsequently he has studied a wide range of spiritual traditions practiced by indigenous oral cultures from around the world.
Colin has a full time consultation practice in Cape Town, South Africa where he uses traditional African medicine as a basis for self exploration and healing. He has been involved in the facilitation of human potential training and workshops over the last thirteen years and has been conducting public rituals for the last nine years.
Niall Campbell was born and brought up on a farm in Southern Botswana. From age 12 he has studied traditional medicine and customary law under different teachers from various regions of Southern Africa. After graduating as a Sangoma, Niall with his brother Colin established the Ngonyama Lodge for the training of Sangomas and the collection and utilization of rapidly disappearing traditional knowledge. Niall practices traditional medicine in Botswana where he is also involved in the running of Ngonyama Lodge.
May 18th 2004
John Gruzelier: Scientific Validation of the Johrei Healing Method.
Johrei is a Japanese form of non-touch healing and a philosophy of life adopted by several million people. Research will be outlined showing in controlled studies its benefits in healthy volunteers under stress through assessment of mood, immune function and EEG.
John Gruzelier is Professor of Psychology, Division of Neuroscience and Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce, and the International Organisation of Psychophysiology for which he also serves on the Board of Governors. He has been the President of the British Psychophysiology Society and the Vice-President of the European Federation of Psychophysiological Societies. He is Co-chair of the Section on Psychoneurobiology of the World Psychiatric Association and Board member of the International Society of Neuronal Regulation. Since 1984 he has been Co-Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Psychophysiology and since 2001 editor of Contemporary Hypnosis. His interests in hypnosis include neurophysiology and brain models, hypnotic susceptibility, self hypnosis and Johrei for enhancement of health, immunity and well being, and the negative effects of stage hypnosis. His applied research interests also include neurofeedback with studies on enhancing music and cognitive function and clinical studies on schizophrenia and ADHD. Research also includes the psychological significance of EEG rhythms, schizophrenia and psychosis-proneness. He has over 250 scientific publications.
April 20th 2004
Victor Mansfield: Self and Other: Gazing into the Enchanted Mirror
Individuation, or the process of realizing who we are truly meant to be, always requires introversion and focus on our own images, feelings, and reflections. At times, we become keenly aware of our separation from collective values and behavior. Yet, relationship with others and the world is essential for making individuation real and substantial in our lives. However, psychological projection deeply conditions these relations and is especially problematic in times of crisis and in turbulent political life. This lecture/discussion addresses how understanding the process of projection advances our individuation while simultaneously enabling us to act more rationally and compassionately in a chaotic and violent world. We also extend these ideas by developing the notion of the archetypal field.
Victor Mansfield is Professor of Physics and Astronomy and chairman of his department at Colgate University, in Hamilton, NY, USA, where he also teaches popular courses including Jungian psychology and Tibetan Buddhism. He has lectured throughout the USA and in England, Holland, and Sweden. He developed his keen interest in Jungian psychology, astrology, and Eastern philosophy while earning his Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics at Cornell University. A student of Jungian psychology and Eastern Thought for nearly thirty-five years, he has practiced and studied with spiritual leaders in the U.S., Europe, and India. Among his many publications are Synchronicity, Science, and Soul-Making (Open Court, 1995) and Head and Heart: A Personal Exploration of Science and the Sacred (Quest Books, 2002). He warmly invites you to his web site where you can read his recently published interdisciplinary papers, information about his books, seminar schedule, and his curriculum vita.
March 25th 2004
Rupert Sheldrake: The Extended Mind
We have been brought up to believe that the mind is located inside the head. But there are good reasons for thinking that this view is much too limited. Recent experimental results show that people can influence others at a distance just by looking at them, even if they look from behind and if all sensory clues are eliminated. And people`s intentions can be detected by pet animals from miles away. Hundreds of recent tests have also shown that people can tell who is calling them before they pick up the phone. The mind may be extended not only in space but in time. Rupert Sheldrake will discuss empirical evidence for this idea, and show how his hypothesis of morphic fields could provide an explanation.
Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 75 technical papers and ten books. A former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he took a Ph.D. in biochemistry, and philosophy at Harvard University, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, and Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. He is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, near San Francisco, and lives in London with his wife and two sons. His most recent book is THE SENSE OF BEING STARED AT, AND OTHER ASPECTS OF The EXTENDED MIND.
February, Tuesday 17th 2004
Leon Schlamm: Ken Wilber’s Integral Psychology: Identifying Alternative Soteriological Perspectives
Leon will question Wilbers claim that his spectrum model of consciousness is supported by the materials of all the worlds major mystical traditions, arguing that his integral, hierarchical perspective privileges some traditions, while distorting others. I will argue that while Wilber`s model provides a valuable cartography of transpersonal structures and states of consciousness, it cannot adequately handle the materials of soteriological traditions that either emphasise the numinous as other than oneself and or which affirm that there can be no gradual, or progressive, spiritual development at all.
Dr. Leon Schlamm is lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is convenor of the University’s MA programme in the study of mysticism and religious experience. His teaching and research interests include taxonomical studies of mystical experience, and analytical and transpersonal psychology. He has contributed many articles to scholarly journals and books on C. G. Jung (most recently in Harvest and Jung and the Monotheisms, ed. J.Ryce-Menuhin), Rudolf Otto (Religious Studies) and Wilber (Religion 2001).
January, Thursday15th 2004
Edi Bilimoria: Sir Isaac Newton ‘ Primarily an Occultist and Mystic
Sir Isaac Newton is a household name among scientists, but even today, mainstream scientists are deeply embarrassed by, and so assiduously ignore Newton’s profound and sustained researches into alchemy, mysticism, chronology, prophecy, history and above all, religion and esoteric philosophy. In fact the innermost thoughts of Newton ‘ one of the most religious and spiritually-minded men of his day ‘ have been perverted and only the mere husk of his great mathematical learning was turned to account. This workshop will attempt to show the colossal range and depth of Newton’s researches and explain the manner of his working. Hence to justify the famous remark by Lord Keynes (who rescued a large number of Newton’s alchemical papers) to the Royal Society Club, that ‘Newton’s deepest instincts were occult.’
Edi D. Bilimoria (DPHIL, FIMECHE, CENG) works as a Consultant Engineer for the transport, petrochemical, construction and oil and gas industries. He has been Project Manager and Head of Design for major projects such as the Channel Tunnel, London Underground systems and offshore installations. He is a keen musician an international lecturer for the Theosophical Society and an active participator and lecturer for The Scientific & Medical Network.