Ways to Go Beyond

Ways to Go Beyond

Talk
Monday, January 28, 2019 - 19:00 to 20:30
Science
Spiritual
Wellbeing
Alternatives says: 
Explore ways of going beyond everyday states of mind
Description: 

This talk launches Rupert Sheldrake’s new book, Ways to Go Beyond in which he looks at seven spiritual practices that are personally transformative and have scientifically measurable effects. All provide ways of going beyond our everyday states of mind into a sense of a greater conscious presence, bliss, fuller understanding, or deep connectedness.

In this sequel to Science and Spiritual Practices, Sheldrake writes as both a scientist and a spiritual explorer, and assesses practices that are not normally thought of as spiritual, such as participation in sports, learning from animals and psychedelic experiences, as well as more traditional practices like fasting, praying, observing holy days and being kind. He asks why these practices work. Are their effects ‘all inside the brain’ and essentially illusory? Or can we really make contact with forms of consciousness greater than our own? Sheldrake suggests that we can.

About the speaker, Rupert Sheldrake

Rupert Sheldrake PhD is a biologist and author of more than a hundred technical papers and nine books, including The Science Delusion (called Science Set Free in the US).

He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and the History and Philosophy of Science at Harvard. As a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, he was Director of Studies in Cell Biology, and was also a research fellow of the Royal Society. He worked at the University of Malaya on tropical ferns, and in Hyderabad, India, as Principal Plant Physiologist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). In India, he also lived for two years in the ashram of Fr Bede Griffiths in Tamil Nadu. From 2005-2010, he was Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project for the study of unexplained human and animal abilities, funded fromTrinity College, Cambridge.

He is currently a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California, of Schumacher College in Dartington, England and of the Temenos Academy in London. He lives in London and is married to Jill Purce, with whom he has two sons, Merlin, a mycologist and author of the bestselling book Entangled Life, and Cosmo, a musician.

Timetable: 
7pm
Talk starts
8.30pm
Talk ends and book signing starts
Venue: