Part One: Bill Meacham on Consciousness and Human Excellence

The study of consciousness can be approached from a first-person point of view that is analagous to objective scientific study in its rigor and methodology. Phenomenology is the attempt to examine one’s own experience exactly as it is experienced, without bias or presupposition, and to report one’s findings to a community of practitioners. Phenomenological investigation reveals structures of experience that are corroborated by neuroscience and that have a certain unassailable impact on the investigator him- or herself. Having originary evidence of the workings of one’s own mind gives one great assurance — we might almost say certain knowledge — of the deep anatomy of one’s very being. Each of us is constituted as Being-in-the-World. We are ineluctably co-present with the objects of our experience and cannot help but participate in their formation as experienced. In doing so we constitute our own self as well. Knowledge of the nature of that self is the ultimate goal of the philosophical quest. Both the method and the findings of phenomenology yield important insights into the nature of human beings and how we can live a fulfilling life.

Background information.

You may download the article that accompanied that talk through these links:

• Article- INACS-PUB-Consciousness and Hypnagogia (.doc)
• Article_INACS_PUB_Consciousness (.pdf)

Thanks to Anne Beversdorf for recording and hosting the audio files for this podcast at her website, www.Stariel.com

May 2010, Dr. Sirley Marquez Bonham on Hypnogogic states.

Experiences of Consciousness Beyond Hypnagogia:

Using introspective experiences to develop skills like Remote-Viewing, Lucid-Dreaming, Out-of-body Experiences, or for the development of Spiritual Experiences

Hypnagogia is a generic label given to sensorial perceptions that happens “automatically” – without conscious control – while falling asleep, or while awakening from sleep. Hypnagogia may also happen while a person is meditating – or while in trance-like situations.

In this talk we will explore what can be learned from the perceptions we encounter during the sleep/awake thresholds, and from trance-like situations usually encountered in introspection practices like, for example, meditation and hypnosis. The most common and accessible skills that can be developed through situations of hypnagogia are lucid-dreaming and out-of-body experiences. However, remote-viewing frequently makes use of perceptions “on the threshold of consciousness,” which is obviously within the realm of hypnagogic perceptions. Remote-viewing may also make use of a conscious interaction with the subconscious mind, done while fully awake. Therefore, while working on developing these skills, we willingly or unwillingly tend to encounter experiences that are considered spiritual, and may be used for personal and spiritual development. We will discuss various examples of situations where the explorer discovered him or herself in contact with something that could be interpreted as our higher-self, or by a surprising meeting with a spiritual teacher or guide to help along the way. 

This talk expands on the former talk presented through INACS in May 2007, titled:

Consciousness and Hypnagogia:

Dream imageries, reveries, and the development of a relationship with the “unconscious” mind

By Sirley Marques Bonham, Ph.D.

You may download the article that accompanied that talk through these links:

• Article- INACS-PUB-Consciousness and Hypnagogia (.doc)
• Article_INACS_PUB_Consciousness (.pdf)

About the Author:

Sirley Marques Bonham is a Ph.D. physicist by education, but due to her long time involvement with the subject of consciousness, she also considers herself somewhat of a neuroscientist. She was born in Brazil and first came to the US in 1986 to follow post-doctoral research with the Astrophysics Group at the University of Chicago and the NASA-financed Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia (IL), near Chicago. Her main scientific work was done in an extension of Einstein’s unified field theory, but she has also worked in neuroscience research at the University of Texas at Austin, and in biophysics for the US Air Force in San Antonio, Texas. She has also taught at universities in Brazil, South Africa, and the US.

Dr. Bonham’s involvement with the phenomenon of Consciousness, as viewed by neuroscience, started in 1992 through a group of scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, followed by a brief work with a group for research in neuroscience, specifically in the processes of memory and learning, at the University of Texas at Austin. Though she has learned about the paranormal through her father’s interest in this area, it has been her practice to approach this science strongly rooted in a scientific perspective, which has influenced her personal self-experimentation with the phenomenon of awareness during sleep, represented by the modern approach to the so-called out-of-body experiences, and the recently developed techniques of lucid-dreaming.

Dr. Bonham came to live in Austin, Texas, in 1993. She presently is a visiting scholar at the Center for Relativity at the University of Texas at Austin, and is a member and scientist of the Institute for Neurosciences and Consciousness Studies (INACS). Her writings can be accessed at her website: www.TheConsciousDreamer.org

WHEN: Tuesday, May 11th at 7pm

WHERE: Austin Center for Spiritual Living
4804 Grover Ave
Austin, TX 78756

Consciousness Connections Meeting

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

6:30p Social, 7:00-9:00p Program

Austin Center for Spiritual Living

4804 Grover

Note – New Location

Visitors are welcome, the meeting is free.

Book donations are welcome.

Documentary and Panel Discussion

“God on the Brain”

From BBC Horizon (2003)

Rudi Affolter and Gwen Tighe have both experienced strong religious visions. He is an atheist; she a Christian. He thought he had died; she thought she had given birth to Jesus. Both have temporal lobe epilepsy.

Like other forms of epilepsy, the condition causes fitting but it is also associated with religious hallucinations. Research into why people like Rudi and Gwen saw what they did has opened up a whole field of brain science: neurotheology.

The connection between the temporal lobes of the brain and religious feeling has led one Canadian scientist to try stimulating them.  80% of Dr Michael Persinger’s experimental subjects report that an artificial magnetic field focused on those brain areas gives them a feeling of ‘not being alone’. Some of them describe it as a religious sensation.

“…a high probability [Ellen White] had temporal lobe epilepsy” says Prof Gregory Holmes, Dartmouth Medical School. His work raises the prospect that we are programmed to believe in god, that faith is a mental ability humans have developed or been given. And temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) could help unlock the mystery.

What side are you on, science or spiritualism? Be prepared to defend your position.

The documentary will be shown followed by a discussion. Is Illumination, cosmic consciousness, Kundalini and various religious sensations a spiritual manifestation, or is it simply the neurological manifestation of the brain? If there are volunteers from the audience, a panel will be selected for a debate and Q & A. Please prepare for a lively debate.

Resources:

Great article:

www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=24068

Good articles:

www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/neuronewswk.htm
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_3_116/ai_53739125/?tag=content;col1

A few others:
blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/06/this-is-your-brain-on-religion-.html
www.livescience.com/culture/090309-brain-religion.html
www.religionlink.com/tip_050425.php

Recommended Reading…

Why God Won’t Go Away

Brain Science and the Biology of Belief

Authors

Andrew Newberg, Eugene A’Quili, Vince Rause

Over the centuries, theories have abounded as to why human beings have a seemingly irrational attraction to God and religious experiences. In Why God Won’t Go Away authors Andrew Newberg, M.D., Eugene D’Aquili, M.D., and Vince Rause offer a startlingly simple, yet scientifically plausible opinion: humans seek God because our brains are biologically programmed to do so.

Researchers Newberg and D’Aquili used high-tech imaging devices to peer into the brains of meditating Buddhists and Franciscan nuns. As the data and brain photographs flowed in, the researchers began to find solid evidence that the mystical experiences of the subjects “were not the result of some fabrication, or simple wishful thinking, but were associated instead with a series of observable neurological events,” explains Newberg. “In other words, mystical experience is biologically, observably, and scientifically real…. Gradually, we shaped a hypothesis that suggests that spiritual experience, at its very root, is intimately interwoven with human biology.” Lay readers should be warned that although the topic is fascinating, the writing is geared toward scientific documentation that defends the authors’ hypothesis. For a more palatable discussion, seek out Deepak Chopra’s How to Know God, in which he also explores this fascinating evidence of spiritual hard-wiring. –Gail Hudson –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Brain in the Soul

The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief

By

Michael R, Trimble, M.D.

“There have been a flurry of books recently on God and the brain, written either from the cold hard world of a neuroscientist or the more abstract but less brain-informed pulpit of a spiritual leader. Trimble tackles this most important topic with his unique knowledge and perspectives gained as a knowing and caring physician, a critical neuroscientist, a gifted historian, and a superb storyteller. He fuses these fields to address the simplest and most important questions: Why do we cry when we listen to music, or pay money to go and weep in the theater? This book is a remarkably new approach to understanding why we behave, think, and feel as we do.” — Mark S. George, Medical University of South Carolina

Inspired by the writings and reflections of his patients — many of whom have epilepsy, psychosis, or affective disorders — Trimble asks how the human species, so enamored of its own logic and critical facilities, has held from the dawn of civilization strong religious beliefs and a reverence for the arts. He explores topics such as the phenomena of hypergraphia and hyper-religiosity, how religious experiences and poetic expression are neurologically linked with our capacity to respond to music, and how neuropsychiatric disorders influence behaviors related to artistic expression and religiosity by disturbing brain function.

NeuroNews – A Toyota Unbash

Toyota technology has brain waves move wheelchair
The Associated Press

TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed a way of steering a wheelchair by just detecting brain waves, without the person having to move a muscle or shout a command. Toyota’s system, developed in a collaboration with researchers in Japan, is among the fastest in the world in analyzing brain waves, it said in a release Monday.

Past systems required several seconds to read brain waves, but the new technology requires only 125 milliseconds , or 125 thousandths of a second. The person in the wheelchair wears a cap that can read brain signals, which are relayed to a brain scan electroencephalograph, or EEG, on the electrically powered wheelchair, and then analyzed in a computer program.

Research into mobility is part of Toyota’s larger strategy to go beyond automobiles in helping people get around in new ways. The new system allows the person on the wheelchair to turn left or right and go forward, almost instantly, according to researchers. Coming to a stop still requires more than a thought. The person in the wheelchair must puff up a cheek, which is picked up in a detector worn on the face.

Japanese rival Honda Motor Co. is also working on a system to connect the monitoring of brain waves with mechanical moves. Earlier this year, Honda showed a video that had a person wearing a helmet sitting still but thinking about moving his right hand. The thought was picked up by cords attached to his head inside the helmet. After several seconds, Honda’s boy-shaped robot Asimo, programmed to respond to brain signals, lifted its right arm.

Neither Honda nor Toyota said it had any plans to turn the technology into a product for commercial sale as each said they are still developing the research.

www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/features/high_tech/49426247.html

INACS News…

Benefits of an INACS membership include but are not limited to Quickstart grants, the NeuroNews newsletter, monthly meetings related to consciousness (Consciousness Connections), and attendance at quarterly research and educations meetings. Membership is $25 a year and can be paid through Paypal on the INACS website  www.INACS.org

For those of you that have a project that is consistent with the INACS mission, and need financial assistance, a Quickstart Grant might be available.

The INACS NerveCenter space is available for classes and lectures. Call 704-8167 for information.

INACS The Organization…

The Institute for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies, Inc.

Or INACS, is an Austin-based, 501 (c) 3,

nonprofit, scientific, Research, and educational institute,

incorporated in the State of Texas.

Vision

Our vision is to contribute to the positive development of our local, national, and international communities, as well as the other-than-human communities with whom we share the earth, by supporting scientific inquiry and hosting educational opportunities for the study of consciousness in all its forms.

Mission

INACS’ mission is to expand, deepen, and enrich our understanding of brain functioning and the phenomenon of “consciousness,” and to develop innovative, practical applications of this understanding for public benefit. INACS will pursue its mission by:

• Conducting scientific research on the human mind/brain system.
• Promoting closer cooperation among consciousness researchers through publications, conferences, and similar activities.
• Offering educational opportunities to mental health professionals and the public.
• Investigating PSI and related phenomena

Current Research Projects

EEG correlates of Human Subtle Energy Vibrational States

Robert F. Price PhD

Psycho-Grapho Correlation Study

Raymond Hawkins PhD, Marcus Barnes

QEEG Correlates to Motor Tasks – Baseline Studies

James King, Jan Six, PhD

Finding the Golden Key to Every Kid (Quick Start Grant)

Roberta Shoemaker-Beal, ATR-BC

12593 Research Blvd., Suite 302, Austin, Texas 78759   www.INACS.org

The Consciousness Groups…

ACA (Austin Creativity Association)

A forum for professionals seeking to explore and develop creative ideas and technologies.

www.amcreativityassoc.org

Austin IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences Community Group)

Consciousness research & education group founded by astronaut Edgar Mitchell

www.ionsaustin.org 258-9878

Anomaly Archives

Library of scientific anomalies located in the INACS Nerve Center

www.anomalyarchives.org

INACS (Institute for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies)

Consciousness research and education group located in NW Austin on Research Blvd.

www.INACS.org 425-0822

Jung Society Austin

Promoting the study of Carl Jung’s psychological works

www.jungsociety.com 366-2357

MUFON – Mutual Unidentified Flying Objects

www.austinmufon.org 250-1167

What if it Really Works

Internet radio featuring the spiritual and metaphysical

www.whatifitreallyworks.com 673-7051

Austin IONS January 26th. Movie Premier: Beyond Belief by Austin filmakers, Becky Hays and James Holtzknecht. Embark on a journey of expanded awareness with interviews of leaders in the conscousness movement.

Austin Center for Spiritual Living, 4804 Grover Ave, just south of 49th street and just east of Burnet Road.

7 PM Free and open to the public.
Go to …. www.IONSAustin.org for more information.
www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com/bbproject.html

Save the date Jan 26th, Tuesday next week, for the Austin IONS~INACS combined meeting will be a movie premier, of Beyond Belief: the movie. Check out the trailer. See the press release below.

DVD’s of the film will be available for sale.

The producers of Beyond Belief are committed to empowering individuals and organizations to achieve their maximum potential.

IONS~INACS will be in our NEW event location:

Austin Center for Spiritual Living
www.AustinCSL.org

PRESS RELEASE: BEYOND BELIEF

Present Course Media L.L.C. Releases an Inspiring
Self-Empowerment Documentary

Present Course Media LLC is proud to announce the release of Beyond Belief, a compelling documentary film that will change your life. The DVD will be available in time for the holidays! The release is scheduled for December 15, 2009.
———————–
Embark on a journey of expanded awareness Beyond Belief. This innovative film reveals the role beliefs and the subconscious mind play in creating your experience. Uncover the source of limiting beliefs that stop you from having what you want.

Beyond Belief provides tools to release limiting beliefs and remove obstacles that are blocking you. Discover the powerful resources you have buried deep inside. Unleash the potential of your creative mind.

Wake up…to your dream life.
————————–
Beyond Belief features some of the top authors, researchers, scientists, teachers, psychologists, personal transformation experts, healers, and spiritual leaders in the world. Experts from the films The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know join inspiring leaders in delivering a powerful message that will transform your life.

Featured Experts:

Jack Canfield, Julia Cameron, Robert Dilts, Bob Doyle, Jonathan Ellerby, Stewart Emery, Timothy Freke, Amit Goswami, Christina Hall, David R. Hamilton, Maisha Hazzard, Elaine Hendrix, Tad James, Adriana James, Bruce Lipton, Brad Morris, Judith Orloff, Greta Sesheta, Marci Shimoff, Sandra Anne Taylor, James Twyman, Joe Vitale, Cheryl J. Ward, Dr. Darren Weissman

Produced and directed by Becky Hays and Jim Holzknecht, Beyond Belief is an invaluable resource for anyone who truly wants to create the life of their dreams.

For More Information:
www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

THE SHIFT – A Movie Being Made by a Movement

This coming Tuesday, December 9th, a joint INACS & Austin IONS community event is happening at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin at 4700 Grover at 6:30pm CST.

12/08/09: The Shift Movie – www.IonsAustin.org

Download the PDF Flyer: Lo Res / Hi Res

November 6th, 7th & 8th, 2008

In this workshop: Discover the unification of physics and metaphysics. Find the origins and inner workings of consciousness and reality,mind and matter. Understand who, what and why you are. Integrate your personal experience and present understanding within a larger scientific context. See how love, spirituality and quantum mechanics are derived as fundamental aspects of reality. Nuclear physicist Thomas Campbell helped get Bob Monroe’s laboratory for the study of consciousness up and running in the ’70s. Tom, the “TC (physicist) ”in Monroe’s book Far Journeys, has been a serious explorer of the frontier of reality, mind, consciousness, altered states and psychic phenomena for 35 years. He has steered his research toward discovering the outer boundaries, inner workings and causal dynamics of the larger reality system. He published his My Big TOE trilogy (my-big-toe.com) in 2003. It is a logic-based work of science representing the results and conclusions of his scientific exploration of the nature of existence.

Download the PDF Flyer: Lo Res / Hi Res

INACS and Austin IONS Present: Dean Radin at The Crossings!

JULY 21st – Science and Psychic Phenomena: Present Status and Future Prospects

Co-sponsored with The Institute for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies (INACS) and the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS) Dean Radin, Ph.D.

Our everyday experience of the world presents us with independent objects, separated in space and time. Our perspective of reality involves concepts such as cause-and-effect, force, and a persistent, stable reality. This worldview, learned early in life, is reinforced by Western education and society, and is taken for granted by most adults. Occasionally there are challenges to this worldview. One example is the development of quantum mechanics, which has dissolved most of the basic assumptions underlying common sense reality. Another is psychic phenomena, commonly reported but scientifically controversial. In this evening lecture, Dean Radin, a senior scientist with IONS, will present the possibility that psychic phenomena are the human experiences of quantum reality, as discussed in his new book, Entangled Minds. We will examine this idea by considering:

• what quantum entanglement is
• the fundamental differences between classical and quantum realities
• the latest scientific evidence for psychic phenomena
• why these effects are important

Course 05900-212, Tuition $15 | Tuition discounts are not available.

Dean Radin studies the nature of human consciousness, focused on phenomena such as intuition, gut feelings, and “psychic” phenomena. He is the cofounder of the Boundary Institute and is a senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

JULY 22nd – Entangled Minds: Understanding Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality

Co-Sponsored with The Institute for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies (INACS) and the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS) Dean Radin, Ph.D.Nearly everyone has had the experience of knowing who[base ']s on the line before picking up the phone or dreaming events before they happen. Many scientists believe that such common experiences are due solely to coincidence, wishful thinking, and other delusions. That belief is driven strongly by the lack of a plausible theory for how such “psychic” experiences can exist, and not by the actual scientific evidence. This one-day workshop explores this evidence that some psychic phenomena do exist, and the possibility that a rational explanation for psychic phenomena may be on the horizon.

Course 05900-213, Tuition $95 | Housing fees; page 35. Tuition discounts are not available.

Dean Radin studies the nature of human consciousness, focused on phenomena such as intuition, gut feelings, and “psychic” phenomena. He is the cofounder of the Boundary Institute and the senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences

Help Us Promote This Event:

Download and Distribute PDF Flyers

Science & Psychic Phenomena Lecture / Entangled Minds Workshop

William A. Tiller, Ph.D., who appeared in the widely viewed 2004 film, “What the Bleep Do We Know?,” will continue the movie’s tradition of exploring quantum physics and consciousness by presenting two mind-bending lectures in Austin this fall on the theme, “Some Science Adventures with Real Magic.”

Dr. Tiller, a member of the Stanford University faculty and a Fellow to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, will present an free evening lecture on Friday, September 30 followed by an all-day seminar on Saturday, October 1. The seminar includes a gourmet catered lunch and snacks, and there is a catered reception following the seminar. Both events take place at the First Unitarian Church of Austin, 4700 Grover Avenue, and are sponsored by the Institute for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies, The Human Potential Center, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences (Austin group).

The lecture on Friday night is free and open to the public. The price for the all-day seminar Saturday is $75 by August 15, and $95 thereafter. You can register for the Saturday seminar below. Preregistration for the Friday lecture is not necessary.

Dr. Tiller spent nine years as Advisory Physicist at Westinghouse Research and holds several patents. He is the author of more than 250 papers and three books, including his most recent book with the same title as his lectures, Some Science Adventures with Real Magic.

Dr. Tiller believes that mainstream science hasn’t taken psychic and psychoenergetic phenomena seriously enough, and so he has developed a new theoretical framework that takes such experiences into account. In his research he has found that people can, with focused mental and spiritual energy, intentionally alter physical reality, and he has proposed a scientifically plausible mechanism for this process.

Dr. Tiller’s Appearances in Austin