Optimist>The Optimist

A Visionary Dialogue with Ervin Laszlo, Claire Zammit, Craig Hamilton, Lynne McTaggart, Marilyn Schlitz, Pim van Lommel, John Hagelin and Fred Travis.

Hosted by The Intelligent Optimist’s Jurriaan Kamp

The coming expansion of consciousness will change the world beyond anything we can imagine. That’s the premise and promise of our first Visionary Dialogue featuring some of the leading minds—and souls—in the field in conversation with each other and with you about topics like:

• Is a new era of consciousness really on its way? How do we know?

• What will it look like? What effect will it have?

• How can we be active participants in its emergence?

In past centuries, humanity has pursued the discovery of everything that could be seen and touched. The overwhelming question regarding the “why” of our existence—the understanding of consciousness—was shoved aside for the sake of convenience. But that doesn’t mean evolution can escape the question. Physicists are discovering ever-smaller particles. It seems that matter ultimately dissolves in energy. At the same time, brain research shows that our thoughts—proof of our consciousness—are energy as well. So the science of matter may be leading to the question of consciousness, bringing us closer to our biggest “why?”

Join us for six weeks as we leave the tired ideas behind and lean into the unknown together.

COURSE OUTLINE

Session 1
Marilyn Schlitz
How do spiritual practices and experiences affect people’s health, emotional balance and spiritual well-being? That’s the question Marilyn Schlitz has been studying at the Institute for Noetic Sciences, following three groups of spiritual practitioners over the course of a year, and she’ll speak about the results and how you can use them to bring about fundamental shifts in your worldview and, as a result, in your life.

Session 2
Lynne McTaggart
We urgently need a new story, says journalist Lynne McTaggart, who is known for her ability to synthesize the complex ideas emerging from the border of science and spirituality. In her book, The Bond, McTaggart outlines a future in which a new paradigm for living in intimate partnership and connection starts with the understanding—which she calls “shocking in the breadth of its implications”—that nothing in the world is separate. McTaggart will weave her version of the new narrative, rich with the latest scientific realizations, in a way that your life will never be the same. 

Session 3
Claire Zammit and Craig Hamilton
Husband-wife team Claire Zammit and Craig Hamilton have the same vision: an awakened world. Zammit’s focus is what she calls the sacred task of midwifing the integral feminine, while Hamilton’s is to guide those on the frontlines of the shift in consciousness in aligning their lives with the evoluntary impulse, thereby moving forward with greater velocity. Both are inspiring speakers who are walking the talk, and we’re honored to have them with us.

Session 4
Ervin Laszlo with Gyorgyi Szabo
Renowned systems theorist Ervin Laszlo’s 16-point Oneness Declaration, published for the first time in the January/February issue of The Intelligent Optimist, is one of the most profound documents to cross our desks in a long time. In it, Laszlo asserts that the separate identities we ascribe to ourselves as individuals is purely for the sake of convenience, and the real truth lies far beyond appearances. Once we realize that, it will change everything—everything—about ourselves and as a result, about the world we live in. Listen as the three-time Nobel Prize candidate explains what we must do to live up to this challenge—and what will happen when we do.

Session 5
Pim Van Lommel
Former cardiologist Pim Van Lommel’s research on near-death experiences has yielded profound insight into the connections between our bodies, minds and spirits as a result of the unexpected lessons we’ve learned about the relationship between consciousness and brain function. We first published Van Lommel’s findings in a story that created a buzz in our offices in 2007—odewire.com/60467/life-goes-on.html—and we’re excited to have him bring us up to date on what he's learned since that time about the relationship between consciousness and brain function and how this new knowledge stands to change the way we live.

Session 6
John Hagelin and Fred Travis
The science of consciousness is gaining momentum, agree John Hagelin and Fred Travis, who have worked for years at the heart and soul of Transcendental Meditation in the U.S. , the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa. Studies are gaining credence, and ideas like Hagelin and Travis will outline in this session—that a critical mass of advanced practitioners meditating simultaneously can result in outcomes that people have believed impossible: an end to terrorism, an advance in collective consciousness, a world at peace, for example—are beginning to capture the collective imagination. Come on that “What if” journey with us as Hagelin and Travis lay out the research and its practical implications on our lives.

Who should register for this event?

Who shouldn’t register for this event would be a much shorter list! Sign up if you:

• Want to join with us in taking collective consciousness to the next level

• Want to put the new ideas about consciousness to work in your life

• Don’t know much about the consciousness field and want to learn

• Are tired of being the only one in the room who wants to talk about this stuff

• Live and breathe these ideas and have questions for any of our speakers

• Are excited to participate in another Intelligent Optimist event and know this one will be mind-blowing and life-changing

• Have joined The Intelligent Optimist or The Intelligent Optimist Circle of Friends and would like to attend FREE as part of your membership

About Ervin Laszlo (see video)

Ervin Laszlo is a systems philosopher, integral theorist and classical pianist. Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, he has authored more than 70 books, which have been translated into 19 languages, and has published in excess of 400 articles and research papers. Laszlo is generally recognized as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory. His appointments have included research grants at Yale and Princeton Universities as well as professorships for philosophy, systems sciences, and future sciences at many prestigious universities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. He has served as the program director for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). For many years, he has served as president of the Club of Budapest, which he founded. He is an advisor to the UNESCO director general, an ambassador of the International Delphic Council and member of the International Academy of Science, World Academy of Arts and Science, and the International Academy of Philosophy.

About Claire Zammit 

Claire Zammit is an acclaimed transformative educator and co-creator of the Calling in The One online course, the Calling in The One coaching certification training and the Feminine Power courses for women. Together with Katherine Woodward Thomas, she leads a thriving community of thousands of women throughout the world. Zammit is a highly trained specialist in transformative education with a unique gift for designing and delivering leading-edge programs that give participants access to embodied and lasting change. She is the co-author of Feminine Power: Awakening to the Creative Force of Life and co-creator and co-host of the internationally acclaimed Women on the Edge of Evolution teleseries. Claire lives with her husband, Craig Hamilton, in California’s Bay Area.

About Craig Hamilton

Craig Hamilton is a pioneer in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality. In his inspired writings, talks, and teachings, he calls us to awaken beyond the confines of the separate ego and dedicate our lives to the further evolution of consciousness itself. As the founder and guiding force behind Integral Enlightenment, Hamilton offers spiritual guidance and teachings to a growing international community of students in 25 countries around the world. Through his online Academy for Evolutionaries, he teaches a series of experiential telecourses guiding participants through a process of spiritual awakening into an "evolutionary relationship to life." Hamilton’s work at Integral Enlightenment integrates decades of intensive spiritual practice with insights gleaned during his eight years as Senior Editor of the award-winning What Is Enlightenment? magazine. For 13 years, he participated in the dynamic living “laboratory of evolution” known as EnlightenNext, ultimately playing a key role in the leadership of this thriving international spiritual community. In his current work, he is helping to articulate an authentic “evolutionary mysticism”—an “integral enlightenment” which illuminates the vital relationship between individual transformation and collective evolution. Hamilton is a founding member of Ken Wilber's Integral Institute, a member of the Esalen Center for Theory and Research, and was a participant in the Synthesis Dialogues, a 35-person interdisciplinary think tank presided over by HH the Dalai Lama. His celebrated conversations with other luminaries are regularly heard by New Dimensions Radio’s seven million listeners, and form the basis of the acclaimed webinar series, “The Great Integral Awakening: Pioneering A New Spiritual Path,” and "Awakening the Impulse to Evolve: The Birth of Evolutionary Spirituality." He is also a co-writer on the documentary film The Shift.

About Lynne McTaggart

Lynne McTaggart is a best-selling author, researcher and lecturer who builds bridges between science and spirituality. For 20 years she has been researching medicine and its shortcomings as well as what quantum physics means for us and the world we live in. She is an internationally recognized spokesperson on the science of spirituality and the award-winning author of five books. She is also co-executive director of Conatus, which publishes some of the world’s most respected health and spirituality newsletters. In The Bond: How to Fix Your Falling-Down World, she helps readers enjoy cooperative relationships and become powerful agents of change and with The Field, McTaggart synthesizes the discoveries from quantum physics about the nature of consciousness into a theory the average person can understand. For her work on the border between science and spirituality, The Watkins Review has chosen McTaggart as one of the 100 most spiritually influential people in the world.

About Marilyn Schlitz

Marilyn Schlitz is the ambassador for creative projects and global affairs and a senior scientist at the Institute for Noetic Sciences. She is the immediate past president and CEO of the organization and has worked there for 19 years. Her work focuses in psychophysiology, cross cultural healing and consciousness studies. She has given lectures, conducted workshops, and taught all around the country. She has authored and co-authored numerous books, including Living Deeply: The Art of Science of Transformation and Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. Schlitz received a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Texas, Austin, and completed two post-doctoral fellowships: one in the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, Science Applications International Corporation, the other in psychology at Stanford University.

About John Hagelin

John Hagelin is a world-renowned quantum physicist, educator, public policy expert and proponent of peace. Hagelin has conducted pioneering research at CERN (the European Center for Particle Physics) and SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) and is responsible for the development of a highly successful grand unified field theory based on the superstring—a theory that was featured in a cover story of Discover magazine. And Hagelin is unique among scientists in taking the next step: applying this knowledge for the practical benefit of humankind. He has pioneered the use of unified field–based technologies proven to reduce crime, violence, terrorism and war and to promote peace throughout society, published groundbreaking research establishing the existence of long-range “field effects” of consciousness generated through collective meditation and shown that large meditating groups can effectively defuse acute societal stress, providing a practical foundation for world peace. As a result, Hagelin received the prestigious Kilby Award, which recognizes scientists who have made major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology.

He is the director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, a leading science and technology think tank and the president of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, an organization of leading scientists throughout the world dedicated to ending nuclear proliferation and establishing lasting world peace. He was the Natural Law Party and Reform Party U.S. presidential candidate in 2000.

About Fred Travis

Fred Travis received his masters degree and Ph.D. in psychology from Maharishi University of Management in 1988, then returned to the university in 1990 to direct research at the Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition.  Since 1990, he has authored 47 papers and conference presentations that investigate the relation between brain patterns, conscious processes, states of consciousness and meditation practice. His recent work has focused on world-class performers—athletes who have received gold medals in World Games, National Games or the Olympics; top-level managers; and professional musicians.  He regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, gives seminars, and speaks at conferences on brain development in children and across the lifespan.

About Pim Van Lommel

Pim van Lommel worked as a cardiologist at the Rijnstate Hospital, an 800-bed teaching hospital in Arnhem in the Netherlands, from 1977 to 2003. He published several professional papers on cardiology. In 1986, he began studying near-death experiences in patients who survived a cardiac arrest. In 2001, Van Lommel and others published their Dutch study in the reputable medical journal The Lancet. In addition, he has authored chapters in several books about near-death experiences and also published articles about the subject. In 2007 he published Endless Consciousness: A Scientific Approach to the Near-Death Experience in the Netherlands. This book was a bestseller: Within a year, more than 100,000 books were sold. It was subsequently published in English by Harper Collins titled Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience. In recent years, Van Lommel has lectured worldwide on near-death experiences and the relationship between consciousness and brain function. In 2005, he was granted the Bruce Greyson Research Award on behalf of the International Association of Near-Death Studies. A year later, he was granted a Lifetime Achievement Award by the president of India at the World Congress on Clinical and Preventive Cardiology in New Delhi.