Project organized by

The Scientific & Medical Network

Author: Nikolay Petrov

  • New Concepts of Matter, Life and Mind

    In light of the current, revolutionary advances in the natural sciences and in the study of consciousness, the concepts of matter, life, and mind have under-gone major changes. This paper outlines some basic aspects of these changes, taking in turn the emerging concept of matter, of life, and of human mind and consciousness. The concept…

  • Was Buddha Just a Nice Guy? – Dean Radin

    Did Buddha’s teachings survive and thrive because he was more attractive or charismatic than most, or because he was a great teacher and a tireless advocate of the poor? Asking such questions about revered religious icons is asking for trouble, so we may consider a more contemporary figure – the Dalai Lama. Does the Dalai…

  • Science is Ready for Consciousness: Federico Faggin

    In this fascinating interview Federico Faggin, designer of the first commercial microprocessor and pioneer in the movement to base mathematical theory on consciousness, urges science to embrace consciousness to explain the weirdness of quantum physics, and use it as the instrument of scientific investigation. “There need no longer be a duality between mind and matter,”…

  • A (very) Brief History of Certainty

    The future is uncertain; this is true for the nature we describe and this is true on the level of our own existence. But this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity. Time becomes ‘construction’ and creativity a way to participate in this construction.

  • Time, Chaos and the Laws of Physics: A 1995 Dialogue

    One of the overall conclusions of a rich day was that we are not at the end of physics, but rather at the end of predictability and certain­ty, which means including novelty and creativ­ity. And a science in which creativity and participation in the construction of the world are intrinsic is a science, which overcomes…

  • Evolution and the Transcendence of Mind

    Perhaps, then, with a bit of humility and a sense of humour, computer science can help us learn something about the mind’s radically transcendent nature. After all, it is the human mind that invents artificial ones (as much for the fun as for the utility of it) and then has room left over to defy…

  • Life at the Edge of Science

    She begins with considerations on the role of anomalies in science, which she regards as crucial to promoting continuous scientific innovation and breakthroughs. Instead of a state of ‘balanced openness’ recommended by the author, the reactions of orthodox scientists to anomalies are frequently hostile and defensive. This in itself is less surprising when one considers…

  • Gary Schwartz on the Science of the Afterlife

    In this interview, Gary Schwartz, an adviser to the Galileo Commission, discusses the most recent evidence of the afterlife. He answers questions including: What are the most convincing arguments for the existence of the afterlife? What are the most gripping experiences he’s had, inside or outside of the lab? What changes has he made after…

  • Neuroscience, Responsibility and the Law – David Lorimer

    A group of fifteen neuroscientists, philosophers and lawyers met under the auspices of the Network at Drynachan Lodge near Inverness in Scotland to discuss the issue of responsibility as understood by modern neuroscience on the one hand and our legal system on the other.

  • The Physics of Organisms and the Naturalistic Ethic of Organic Wholeness

    Participatory knowledge knows no bounds nor boundaries. There is no fragmentation into disciplines, no demarca­tion into secular versus sacred domains: it is at once sublime and practical. It is one, and integral to life. By living our life as parent, builder, gardener, labourer, artist, scientist, all, we participate in celebrating and creating reality.

  • The Issue Before Us: Reassessment of the Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science

    The scientific and medical communities have given a rather unfriendly reception to research in psi phenomena, dissociative states, altered states of consciousness, extraordinary healings, and other areas related to consciousness in some of its non-normal forms. This has been mainly because the meaning and significance people tended to attach to these experiences seemed to clash…

  • Language, Energy & Consciousness: Can “Energy Talk” Enlighten Us About the Mind?

    One of the thorniest issues in “energy” and “consciousness” work is the tendency to confuse the two. Consciousness does not equal energy, yet the two are inseparable. Consciousness is the “witness” which experiences the flow of energy, but it is not the flow of energy. We might say consciousness is the felt interiority of energy/matter-but…