II INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

THE SYMPOSIUM DOCUMENT

The meeting on Science and Consciousness set out to address various key questions rising from the study of consciousness in all its aspects. Over sixty people from very diverse backgrounds came to Athens from 18 countries.

The following main areas were addressed:

  • The nature of Reality and its relation to consciousness.
  • The adequacy of current scientific approaches to consciousness.
  • Theories of mind-brain interaction.
  • The nature of human identity.
  • The need for a new scientific paradigm.
  • The need for an interdisciplinary science of consciousness.

The format of the meeting consisted of five working groups reporting to a plenary session, plus plenary presentations by individual speakers.

Disciplines represented included physics, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, sociology, medicine, engineering, ecology, parapsychology, mathematics and ethology. There were thus a multitude of viewpoints with their various concepted schemes and language. This put a premium on listening and communication.

Given this diversity of viewpoints, not to mention the variations within individual disciplines, it was hardly surprising that the symposium did not achieve a consensus on many of the detailed issued raised; nor did we feel that such a consensus should be arrived at by glossing over our differences or finding a convenient form of ambiguous drafting. There are no square brackets for negotiation in this draft!

The following points were generally agreed:

  • Current scientific approaches did not give us an adequate picture of reality.
  • There was therefore a need for an extended or revised scientific paradigm.

The following areas remained in dispute:

  • The nature of reality and how best to understand it.
  • The nature of consciousness itself; some argued for a physical basis, while others were convinced that consciousness was intrinsically non-physical.
  • The role of mind/brain interaction: some agreed that consciousness emerged from brain processes; others that consciousness (or the soul) interacted with the body.
  • Some placed emphasis on the need for more systematic scientific approaches to consciousness; others emphasised the importance of spiritual disciplines in the investigation and enhancement of consciousness.
  • Human identity was defined by some in terms of physical and biological substructures interacting with sociocultural background and conditioning; others preferred to see our intrinsic identity as metaphysical, even if physically based and conditioned.
  • Some argued for an extension of the existing scientific paradigm to encompass consciousness; some that science should simply recognize the limitations of its approaches, confined as they are by measurement of events and processes in the physical world. It was remarked that a new paradigm would have to stake out appropriate epistemological boundaries, approaches (eg intuition, gnosis), methods, and procedures for verification.
  • Some advocated an interdisciplinary science of consciousness, (commenting that the outlines of such a science already existed in psychology and neuroscience) while others focussed on an approach which would combine science with other disciplines, suggesting that the term ‘consciousness studies’ would be more apposite. Reservations were expressed about the potential misuse of a science of consciousness

PRACTICAL PROPOSALS

  • The continuation of inter- and trandisciplinary dialogue about consciousness in Athens and elsewhere, with an attempt to maintain the spontaneous process of our meeting.
  • The establishment of an Institute or Academy to coordinate research, education, bibliography, resource databases, a joined and interdisciplinary meting
  • The drawing up of educational programs which include courses on aspects of consciousness relevant to general education on specific scientific and other disciplines; such courses should be practical as well as theoretical, looking at inner as well as other contexts.

The pursuit of consciousness-raising in institutions and areas of conflict.

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