Both religion and science make truth claims about ultimate reality. For that reason there is growing interest among scientists, theologians, and laypeople to ask if science and religion can both answer the same questions about reality and have real points of interaction. I like to think of myself as part of this exciting and stimulating … Continue reading Science and religion
The theory of evolution is now universally taught in schools. The clash between science and religion was partly because religion got something badly wrong. This was religious people claiming that the Bible is literally true as a source of knowledge about our natural origins. The Darwinian view easily saw off the creationists within conventional academia. … Continue reading Evolution theory – Does it fully explain our natural origins?
Film about Emanuel Swedenborg Written and presented by the novelist Philip Makatrewicz, the documentary explores the central themes of Swedenborg’s life and work, charting his journey from scientific genius to mystical savant – messiah to some, madman to others. Examining the influence his vast and varied writings have had in the spheres of science, literature, … Continue reading Heaven, Hell & Other Places
You may wonder that if memories are chemically and electrically stored in the way neuroscience describes, does this mean that your brain is the be-all and end-all of your memory and that without your brain you would remember nothing after death?
In deciding what to believe sooner or later you come up against something that is greater than yourself. Toddlers make every effort to get their own way but eventually have to submit to parental authority. Young people test their limits climbing mountains or visiting wild places until forced to acknowledge their helplessness in meeting the … Continue reading What to believe – How do I decide?
Someone suggested that if you talk to God, it’s prayer but if God talks to you, its schizophrenia. How could Swedenborg, with a European reputation as a scientist, turn to what seems like mysticism? This short video was produced by Science and the Outer Streams shows Jonathan Rose a prominent Swedenborgian scholar being interviewed by Andy Nesky about this … Continue reading Was Swedenborg a mystic?
Turn on the television news and there is an almost overwhelming focus on financial mess, social problems or crime. So what actually is the meaning of life? When I look around me I can’t help longing for a better kind of world. Sometimes I feel we are so used to the unsatisfactory state of things that we have given up hoping for something better.
Is idealism completely out of fashion? Have we become too cynical to have a vision of utopia? Or are we too scared of being tarnished with the same brush as the fanatical extremists who have not been slow in broadcasting their own hate filled criticism of modern life. Perhaps I’m being hopelessly idealistic but surely society could be better. How can I find my perfect society? What follows are the prejudices of an idealist.
by Stanislav Grof, Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology, State University of New York Press. 2000. ISBN 0 7914 4622
This book is about modern consciousness research. It is written by one of the founders of transpersonal psychology and covers his ideas regarding non-ordinary states of consciousness. His term for these is ‘holotropic’ experience which signifies ‘moving towards wholeness.’ His discussion draws on for example such fascinating human states of consciousness as past-life experiences, peak experiences, communication with spirit guides and channelling, near-death experiences, crises of shamans like witch-doctors, states of possession, and awakening of Kundalini. He also reports findings from his original research into ‘psychedelic therapy’ and ‘holotropic breathwork’.
One critic has commented ‘If more psychiatrists could be persuaded that human consciousness transcends the limitations of the physical brain and instead is but an aspect of what may best be described as ‘cosmic consciousness,’ we could not only expect treatment modalities to change, but we could also anticipate the possibility of culture-wide rethinking … about the nature of personhood.’