Consciousness: Re-Defining Our Parameters

Part of Advaya Initiative’s ‘the re-enchantment series: Unlocking Magic & Inspiring Action’

We’ve fallen out of love with the world. It’s clear from the way we treat it.

Every other Monday in central London from 8 October to 3 December 2018 we will be re-igniting curiosity as we explore aspects of daily life including consciousness, quantum physics, trees, holistic science, native spirituality, sacred geometry, storytelling and sound.

Mass mental illness and climate change are not inevitable. They are the result of certain narratives, behaviours and habits. Let’s shift perspectives, empower ourselves for change and co-create a future we want to be a part of.

Rupert Sheldrake#

The Mind beyond the Brain

Most scientists assume that the mind is located inside the head. But there are good reasons for thinking that this view is much too limited. People can influence others at a distance just by looking at them, even if they look from behind and if all sensory clues are eliminated. People’s intentions can also be detected telepathically by animals from miles away, and some people can tell who is calling them before they pick up the phone. Our minds seem to extend stretch out beyond our brains through attention and intention. And they are also open to more-than-human forms of consciousness, both through spontaneous mystical experiences and through spiritual practices.

David Luke#

Consciousness & Psychedelics

The traditional use of psychoactive plants and fungi for spiritual and shamanic purposes has occurred for thousands of years, whereas the Western scientific research of these substances has only been explored in the last 100 years, and prohibition stalled the last 50 years of this. Now that scientific research is resuming, what do psychedelics tell us about the stranger and more exotic side of human consciousness, and what can be learned from the traditional shamanic practices with these substances?

“To live an enchanted life is to pick up the pieces of our bruised and battered psyches, and to offer them the nourishment they long for. It is to be challenged, to be awakened, to be gripped and shaken to the core by the extraordinary which lies at the heart of the ordinary. Above all, to live an enchanted life is to fall in love with the world all over again.”
— SHARON BLACKIE