The Future of Consciousness Starts Tomorrow

Be there or be fractal

Tomorrow we launch our new online seminar, The Future of Consciousness. I am delighted with the 15+ speakers who will be joining us over the next six weeks. They include many of my favorite living thinkers. I almost feel it is like (dare I say it?) a nascent movement.

I just held a prepatory online conversation with one of our speakers, Alex Ebert (front man for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and philosopher), which you can watch here (or read the transcript here):

I learned a number of things during this single conversation with Alex that I find relevant and even consequential for how I will approach the world from now on. And during the next six weeks, I expect the same will be true for many if not all of our shared investigations. For example, Alex explained what scientists have discovered about the difference in brain structure of liberals and conservatives, and how this impacts their experience of reality and what choices they make. Here is an excerpt:

Alex: The conservatives have more gray matter in their amygdala and liberals (self-professed liberals) have more gray matter in their anterior cingulate cortex.

I think that this is very interesting. Of course, the amygdala sort of predates the frontal cortex. So we can easily say (if we want to as liberals) “well, conservatives are obviously less evolutionarily evolved”.

Daniel: That's like a literalization of the Ken Wilber idea, in spiral dynamics, of consciousness moving inexorably, in stages, towards greater equality and social justice.

Alex: Yes. And remember that the anterior cingulate cortex’s function, among many things, is pattern matching. So think about an anterior cingulate cortex—the liberal mind—in overdrive, where everything is the same:

“This is similar to this and this is similar to this and this is similar to this and everything is similar.” “I'm just like the Muslim down the street.” “I'm just like that thief over there.” “I'm just like everyone.” “Everyone is me and I am everyone.”

And all of a sudden all the boundaries are dissolving—and the conservatives are freaking out, going, “No!”

While you can, of course, listen to podcasts or read books by some of the speakers, there is something different about experiencing the moment as thoughts and ideas are generated, perspectives clash and evolve. It is more like a transmission: Anything can happen.

The seminar can also help you fully anchor and internalize new ideas and paradigms you may already understand to some extent. A number of our speakers consider themselves analytic idealists, including Neil Theise and Bernardo Kastrup, who joins us tomorrow. Idealists believe that evidence increasingly supports the view that consciousness, not physical stuff, is the "ontological primitive," the foundation of reality.

Idealism gives us an entirely new way of understanding both Cosmos and Psyche. It allows for psychic and paranormal activity, which speakers like Dean Radin, Gary Lachman, and Jeffrey Kripal have made their speciality. We will explore the potential for a future where we evolve the latent capacities of the human mind via psychedelics, seeking a "neuro-singularity," with Tom Roberts and David Luke. We will also consider the dangerous, perhaps devastating impacts of "cognitive Capitalism" on consciousness and brain organization, with artist and author Warren Neidich.

I honestly believe The Future of Consciousness will be a groundbreaking workshop - one you will not want to miss!

If you haven't signed up yet, I hope you will join us today (or tomorrow, before 1 pm EST!). We really don't want to turn people away for lack of funds if we can avoid it.

If you would like to attend but the price is a big impediment for you right now, please send me an email and let me know what works for you. My email is Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com.

Here is a code for 20% off for the seminar, which we are offering in partnership with KOLAPSE, a wonderful web magazine and film streaming platform:

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow! We run live on Sundays, from 1 - 4 pm EST, and Wednesdays, 2 - 4 pm EST. The live sessions will be recorded and available for replay soon after.

Kind regards,

Daniel