Category Archives: Abstracts

On The Development of Measurement Technologies and their Effect on The Evolution of Consciousness

Zachary Stein

I argue that the historical development of measurement technologies correlates with the evolution of consciousness through a series of phases, roughly coterminous with those posited by Jean Gebser. From the first local measuring rods and bushels, through our globally standardized metric system, to today’s advances in biometrics and psychometrics, measurement technologies have not only shaped humanity’s practices, from science to economics, they also deeply reflect the structures of consciousness that have characterized cultural evolution. Gebser pioneered a method for investigating the evolution of human consciousness by looking into the perspectival structure of works of art and other cultural artifacts. I will undertake something similar by looking at case studies from historical metrology—involving details of the increasingly complex technological instrumentalities deployed for measurement—that exemplify the profound transformations in consciousness that accompany radical innovations in measurement. I also suggest some processes by which metrics shape consciousness, and vis-a-vis, positioning measurement as part of a multi-dimensional dialectic of consciousness evolution. This sets the stage for speculations about how future measurement technologies will impact the evolution of consciousness, with a focus on psychometrics (standardized testing and psychological profiling) and biometrics (customized medicine and retinal security scans). I suggest that we are entering an era of hyper-measurement, when more parts of ourselves and our lives are implicated in complex measurement practices than ever before. The effect will be to deepen the self-referentiality and multi-perspectivalism of post-modernity, and to hasten the coming of emergent integral a-perspectival forms of praxis, problem-focsed metrological pluralisms, and the ever louder reassertion of the inevitable and ineliminable immeasurables.
Dr. Zachary Stein

Deep Phenomenology

Bonnitta Roy

Our modern epistemic toolkit[1] gives us new insights into the nature of consciousness and provides us with more explanatory power when speaking about the transformations in consciousness we call awakening. Research has also recently shown that feeling and perception can detect more subtle phenomena then the mind is able to categorize, linguistically or conceptually. Without categories, we are unable to map these subtle phenomena to objective correspondences, and therefore, cannot theorize about them. This means that when it comes to consciousness, phenomenological practices are more precise than categories, and therefore must be the measures against which our theories are evaluated. In this presentation I review the deep phenomenological practices of awakening and enlightenment that can serve as a guide to improving evaluative discourse on theories about the levels and evolution of consciousness.

[1] Which includes neuroscience, meta-psychology, process philosophy, complexity science, and RQM (relativistic quantum mechanics).

bonnittaroy@mindspring.com

Eco Philosophy and the Feminine Divine; Biogenesis, Psychogenesis, Cosmogenesis; Towards an Integral Futurology

Barbara Karlsen

Just as there has been a time on Earth when human life and mind were not yet embodied, the higher planes of consciousness may also be waiting their time to become a part of our ordinary embodied reality. The human body in symbiosis with Nature and Cosmos provides a coherent, and unifying ontology for establishing a higher order of consciousness; a state of creative potentiality marked by a common primal power that inhabits and informs the prima materia of all living organisms. Situating the body in an active site of primal consciousness (Nature) and externalizing our formative consciousness (embryogenesis), we influence everything germinal to becoming human. Participation in this context could be said to characterize the fullness of integral or unified consciousness. Through such participation, one could discover a source of wholeness ordering one’s existence and expression that knows no human, theoretical, temporal or spatial differentiation. Like Gebser’s view of evolution and that of Sri Aurobindo, the notion that the ultimate potentials of human consciousness are enfolded in the Origin- make it possible for us to conceive of reorganizing new developmental lines by tuning in to our human origins. This view sees the world of the human and the cosmos as an interwoven primordial reality, where higher and higher forms of consciousness evolve out of a process of involution and evolution of varying planes of consciousness. At each transition, the new power not only evolving out of the old, but also transforming whatever preceded it in creative interaction of pluralism. The blueprint ‘ a supramental knowledge” as Sri Aurobindo describes it, based on a fully conscious identity with the whole. This Supramental knowledge could be said to characterize the fullness of unified consciousness. As consciousness mutates toward its innate integrality, it drastically restructures human ontology, and with it civilization as a whole (Gebser, 1989).

barbarakarlsen@gmail.com

Lessons from the Fireground: How Active Consciousness and Situational Awareness Impact Flow-Based Decision Making

L. Glick-Smith, Ph.D.

Most of us do not make life and death decisions every day. However, we do make decisions that impact our well-being and the well-being of others. This presentation introduces the concept of flow-based decision making using the fire service as a model for training in active consciousness and situational awareness. Dr. Glick-Smith’s post-doctoral research has focused on an extreme experiential training program in the fire service called Georgia Smoke Divers. This presentation will highlight the technologies and methodologies this organization uses to promote active consciousness and situational awareness. The resulting stories from the members of this organization speak to the sense of well-being that accompanies flow-based decision making.

judy@mentorfactorinc.com

THE COLLECTIVE

Daniel Mezick

In 1895 Gustav LeBon wrote THE CROWD, a pioneering curation of ideas about group consciousness that has since influenced many people, including heads of state.  Since then, research and findings on the group mind have advanced considerably. How does the group influence individual consciousness? How may we more fully develop genuine mindfulness in groups? This is a topic that has the clear potential to create immediate and positive change across all of society.

In this experiential session, the influence of groups in the development and operation of individual consciousness (and vice-versa) is explored. In particular the theory of modern Group Relations as expressed in the early works of Wilfred Bion is presented for careful consideration, with practical examples. We also identify specific devices such as facilitation, and interaction protocols, which can be used to increase individual and group-level mindfulness when working in groups.

The session includes a brief group exercise that bring direct experience of the session to the group-as-whole.

dan@newtechusa.net

Related Links:

http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/pap148h.html

http://human-nature.com/hraj/work.html

http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/lebon/Crowds.pdf

Finding You in a World of It: Martin Buber Meets T’ai Chi

Rick Barrett

The mysterious, paradoxical world of t’ai chi ch’uan seemingly defies the laws of physics. A tiny woman easily uproots a large man. A sedentary ninety-four year old man learns to walk again. That world becomes instantly accessible, however, when approached as an exercise of authentic engagement, as postulated by Martin Buber. When I meet You with my whole being, I shift from object-based consciousness to non-objective, transrational/transpersonal awareness. This heightens body-mind coherence as demonstrated by some remarkable abilities, including “effortless power” and “rooting” (enhanced connection with the earth). This will be an interactive demonstration and explanation.

tcalchemy@aol.com

The Unified Context of Consciousness

Zoran Josipovic, PhD
New York University

 The phenomenal unity of consciousness has been a much-debated topic. Many disparate processes in the brain appear to be unified in moments of conscious experience. But this unity does not seem to be a fixed property. Our conscious experiences can be more or less fragmented, so that on one end of the spectrum we can have dissociative states with a relatively low level of unity, while on the other end we can have states of consciousness such as those experienced through contemplative practices, which appear to have a very high degree of unity. I will present findings that point to the network in the brain that may facilitate these enhanced states of unity, and is, perhaps, involved in all unified conscious experiencing.

z7j950@gmail.com

Self Reflective States of Awareness and Technology: Local Train vs. Express

Magdalena

Ph.D. Candidate, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, Ca.

When looking at Quantum Physics theory the Observer Effect, it appears that consciousness, in the form of creation, has an interdependent relationship with everything in the Universe. Therefore human beings and all of creation are intricately connected and have a cause and effect relationship with each other. Scientific research has also demonstrated that the dynamic interconnected component of the Universe, when examined as a whole, not in isolated parts of itself, reveals that individual parts affect each other and the whole. It is this partnership, in participation with our belief systems and behaviors, that reinforces or reinvents the reality we experience. With conscious awareness of the power we as humans have in creating our reality, it would be beneficial to be acutely aware of where we focus our minds, our thoughts, as well as activities, in which we participate.

Brain research findings, demonstrate that an individual’s brain processes its experiences and constructs its reality dependent on how it is wired. The utilization of certain tools that evoke self-reflective states of awareness, such as mindfulness-based meditation, have been found to rewire the brain, contributing to a permanent change in one’s perception and behavior, consequently shifting personal reality and in turn creation. I assert that certain technology-based tools are available that can provide a viable option to connect to self-reflective states of awareness that one may experience in meditation. These tools offer an efficient and expedient way to induce transformation by allowing one to reach certain brain states that can facilitate relaxation and connect to a broader perspective.

Some Nichiren-Buddhist Perspectives on Consciousness

Richard (Rick) Wilson

The presentation will begin be revisiting briefly the great first-century(?) Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna’s famous concept of shunyata (emptiness / non-substantiality / devoidness). Does it mean that all phenomena (including consciousness) are really “nothing” at their core (whatever that in turn might mean), or something more subtle and dynamic than that? I will argue for the latter: that, as Daisaku Ikeda, President of Soka Gakkai International (and my mentor), has written, shunyata might be understood as “a kind of infinite potentiality, [from which] anything and everything may be born or produced, depending on what causes happen to affect it,” and as “a program for action.” I will then move on to consider two constructs of the Tiantai school in China, which traces its lineage to Nagarjuna. The first is its refinement of shunyata into the three unified, mutually-inclusive perspectives of non-substantiality, provisional existence, and the Middle Way. The second is the concept, not unique to Tiantai, of the nine consciousnesses. The first five consciousnesses correspond to the five senses; the sixth and seventh deal with the workings of the conscious, reflective mind, of self-awareness, and of a reified ego; the eighth is for “karma storage.” The ninth, a “fundamentally pure” consciousness, underlies, transcends, and permeates the unceasing, dynamic, interpenetrating activities of the other eight. The idea of a stratum of mind, of life, unaffected by karma, accessible to us all at any moment, supports the radical perspective that Buddhahood is something we inherently possess, something to reveal in the present, rather than to attain in the future. And finally, I will briefly consider what Nichiren, the great 13th-century Japanese Buddhist leader and teacher, did with these ideas in his own teachings.

rick.wilson.ab71@post.harvard.edu