Live Webinar / Sept. 5, 2021
Noon EST / 9am PST / 6pm CET

Scientific materialism derived from the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm that postulated an independent physical world, where consciousness, through the random evolution of species, developed as an accidental byproduct of increasing biological complexity. However, through experiment, quantum physics discovered that consciousness, not matter, is the basis of reality. A definable world only comes into being when an observer makes an observation. What we experience as physical reality emerges from the infinite source field or plenum of consciousness. The new paradigm — explored by diverse thinkers including Amit Goswami, Robert Lanza, Rudolf Steiner, Edgar Mitchell, and more — can be called “monistic idealism.” 

For physicist Amit Goswami: “The consciousness of the subject in a subject-object experience is the same consciousness that is the ground of all being. Therefore, consciousness is unitive. There is only one subject-consciousness, and we are that consciousness.” According to Robert Lanza: “Some may imagine that there are two worlds, one “out there” and a separate one being cognized inside the skull. But the “two worlds” model is a myth. Nothing is perceived except the perceptions themselves, and nothing exists outside of consciousness.” James Matlock notes: “There is only one substance and that is consciousness.” This is the same viewpoint as Eastern mysticism. 

Monistic idealism — the new world revealed by quantum physics — allows us to make scientific hypotheses about the workings of reincarnation, the subtle bodies and energy systems, and, potentially, the existence of an afterlife. Once this is generally understood and accepted, it will be possible to supersede scientific materialism and establish a new coherent worldview which allows for psychic phenomena, reincarnation, and the afterlife. As we integrate such subjects into an expanded scientific worldview, they will be made a focus for further investigation. As we supersede scientific materialism and embrace monistic idealism, our priorities as a species will also change radically. 

Live Webinar / Sept. 12, 2021
Noon EST / 9am PST / 6pm CET

We can never know with absolute certainty what is true. As William James noted, "A concrete test of what is really true has never been agreed on.” The existence of an afterlife will never be proved in the same way a mathematical theorem can be demonstrated. However, the evidence for the existence of an afterlife becomes, by logical deduction and inference, quite substantial when we turn our attention to the amassed evidence. 

There are many testimonies on Near Death Experience (NDE), where patients whose brains have no measurable activity describe leaving their body and recount a variety of well-documented experiences (entering a tunnel of light, meeting guides and relatives, and so on). Mediumship is also a fascinating if controversial phenomenon. There are many well-documented cases of mediums taking on the personality of a deceased person and evincing their specialized knowledge and skills. In one demonstration, a living chess grandmaster played a game against a deceased one, via a medium, who possessed his old skill and playing style. Through mediums, spirits have discussed their experience in the afterlife in great detail. Thousands of children around the world spontaneously recall their past lives with specific details. Professor Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia visited hundreds of these cases, often bringing the children back to the place and family they remembered, where they were recognized. He also found that the children often had birth marks related to their past lives. Apparitions of the dead are also well-documented, as is telephone calls received from the dead, via the bizarre phenomenon of Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC). 

We will review a range of arguments made against the evidence by skeptics and scientific materialists, along with refutations of their arguments. 

Live Webinar / Sept. 19, 2021
Noon EST / 9am PST / 6pm CET

In the late 19th Century, a group of socially prominent, highly educated and articulate scientists and thinkers focused their attention on psychic phenomena and the continuity of consciousness after death. In England and the US, they performed experiments and studied all types of inexplicable cases. The most influential was Frederic Myers, co-founder of The Society for Psychical Research and close friend of the philosopher William James. Myers’ 1200-page opus, The Survival of the Human Personality after Bodily Death, was published posthumously, in 1903.

In that book, Myers developed a theory of the human personality, divided into subliminal and supraliminal consciousness, which explained the evidence he found for the continuity of consciousness after death. His theories are currently having a second wave of popularity, as Edward and Emily Kelley explored in their impressive compendium, Irreducible Mind. In this session, we will review ideas from Myers, James, and other members of the Society, relating them to current perspectives on consciousness, reincarnation, and other the topics we can explore as part of a new “science within consciousness.” 

Live Webinar / Sept. 26, 2021
Noon EST / 9am PST / 6pm CET

We explore models and schemas of the afterlife and reincarnation found in Vedanta and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, formalized in The Bardo Thodol or The Tibetan Book of the Dead. We consider ideas from Namkai Norbu and The Dalai Lama on “subtle” and “very subtle consciousness.” We look at recent cases of monks whose bodies did not decay after death, or whose bodies apparently shrank to a tiny size, signifying attainment of the Rainbow Body.

We compare Eastern and Western ideas on reincarnation. We explore the ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1865 - 1925), a visionary who founded Anthroposophy and Waldorf Schools. Steiner said that the mission of his life was to bring the knowledge of reincarnation back to the West and described the process in great detail in a series of books, Karmic Relationships. We also consider contemporary thinkers such as Patrick Harpur and Rupert Sheldrake, who integrate principles of Western esotericism into a contemporary scientific framework. 

We review what can be gleaned from hypnotic regression to the between-life state: Mediums claimed to contact the disincarnate spirits of figures like Bertrand Russell and Frederic Myers, who gave long discourses on the afterlife, even considering it from the scientific perspective. If there is an afterlife, where is it? Is it in a parallel dimension or universe? We explore the two forms of DMT and String Theory to help anchor a new paradigm and provide the basis for future investigation.