Summary

September 14, 2011. Orientation. Discussion of Dick Bierman's presentience studies, qualia (a.k.a. "raw feels"), explanation of "Readings in Consciousness: Master List." Voting. One-minute essay: What are you looking forward to in this course? What do you dread about this course?

September 21, 2011. Announcements: results of voting, importance of coming to class. Comments about 1-minute essays: Possibility of transformation, importance of allowing confusion to occur, confirmation bias, synthetic nature of knowledge, deep ignorance. Small groups discussion of Homework Question 1. Explanation of how to score the BACARQ. Explanation of relationships between BACARQ scales; willingness to comply, importance and training of the will; beliefs vs. Performance IQ; authenticity, transparency, genuineness; institutionalization of materialism; definitions of consciousness, Alan Turing, Steven Harnad, operationalization of subjective consciousness₂, Turing Test; Assagioli's egg diagram, accessing subconscious and superconscious, guidance, puppet of god. One-minute essays: In what ways did the various discussions in class today advance your understanding of the subject matter of this course? Also, any questions or comments.

September 28, 2011. Comments about 1-minute essays: Distinction between defining something and explaining it. History of REG research at Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory: Bob Jahn's thesis student, electronic REG, Murphy, FieldREG, Global Consciousness Project. Class demonstration of FieldREG. Comments about Homework Question 1: Don't use plural pronoun when you need the singular; include an introduction in your answers; explanation of "intentionality" as "aboutness;" beliefs can be held authentically or inauthentically; beliefs as part of subpersonalities with integration of subpersonalities as authentic; openness associated with both Extraordinary Transcendence and authenticity; superconscious could lead one to authenticity, but not part of materialist concept of reality; personality characteristics correlated with transcendence involve authenticity, e.g., lack of concern for social acceptance. Small groups discussions of Question 2: How does authentic science get beyond scientific materialism? The role of open-mindedness with materialists having a strong confirmation bias; use of appropriate methods such as introspection; good data can be available from subjective observations; synthesis of knowledge; the question of what it would be like if more scientists were authentic; indoctrination into materialism; discouragement of pushing of boundaries. Lecture regarding the dysfunctional nature of "the system:" Example of the evaluation of hemispheric lateralization theory of gender differences in psychopathology; Hillary Putnam's logical boo-boos; social scientists' misunderstandings of statistics. Lecture regarding materialism: Materialism as a schema as well as an intellectual tradition; Gessendi, Boyle, Leibnitz, Hume, and Laplace in the development of the notion that the universe is made of tiny billiard balls that bang into each other with predictable collisions. The disappearance of matter: Black-body radiation, the photoelectric effect, the development of Quantum Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Field Theory, the Schrödinger equation, the appearance and disappearance of particles, lucid dreaming Samuel Johnston's refutation of Bishop Berkeley's idealist argument. Discussion of the personalization of scientific knowledge. One-minute essays: What do you think stops scientists from being authentic?

October 5, 2011. Comments about 1-minute essays: Importance of giving young people access to information as part of education; importance of mentors; examples of dysfunctionality of inauthentic science (Bengston's studies of laying of hands with mice with breast cancer, Colin Campbell's "China Study," cold fusion); authenticity as uncomfortable; importance of examining everything for oneself, but also of moving on when something is understood; significance of mathematical and physical background for trying to understand the nature of reality. Comments about homework Question 2, "How does authentic science get beyond scientific materialism?": Importance of proofreading answers; importance of using both readings to answer the question; materialism as the worldview of scientism; authentic science does not necessarily entail the use of unconventional methods; necessity of self-transformation for doing authentic science; scientific materialism as a worldview unlike authentic science which is a mode of science; proving the existence of anomalous phenomena would not create a shift toward authentic science given that people would be unlikely to change the mode with which they approach the world, so that today's heresy would simply become tomorrow's dogma. Small groups discussions of Question 3: What do transcendent states of consciousness tell us about consciousness? Class discussion: disappearance of subject-object dichotomy; consciousness₃ as Wolff's sense of self; transcendent states as characterized by increased value; analogy of mirage; partial elevation in psychosynthesis. Writing of 1-minute essays: Make up a short answer question and an essay question that you would like to see on the mid-term test. I will use those for making up a practice test.

October 12, 2011. Comments about Homework Question 3: Importance of answering the question; meditation as an activity rather than a state of consciousness; importance of defining the terms in the question as part of the answer; recognition that not all transcendence is the same. Small Groups Discussion of Question 4, "How could a person successfully guide herself toward exceptional well-being?": Spiritual intelligence, exceptional physical well-being, inability to do things in the accustomed manner having become used to superconscious assistance. Review: The theosophical model, emanationism, intentionality, what transcendent states tell us about consciousness, imperience vs experience. One-minute essays: Make up a short-answer question and an essay question that you would like to see on the mid-term test.

October 19, 2011. Midterm Test.

October 26, 2011. Explanation of Question 6; making sure that all of the readings are used for answering questions. Comments about Midterm Examination: For Question 13, could have discussed scientism and what is wrong with its essence, methodology, and worldview; also, the politics of science; for Question 14, needed to spend as much time discussing the second question as the first. Comments concerning Holvenstot article: The creative research is in the fringes rather than the mainstream. Comments about mediumship: Channelling, cryptomnesia, cold reading, explanations for why mediums get correct information, conversations with Kurt Godel. Class discussion about anomalies: Seeing colours around people, siddhis, theory of centres in etheric body, importance of being clear, practice of harmlessness, service to others, the significance of authentic relationships, changing IQ, honesty and losing friends. One-minute essays: Writing about anything students want.

November 2, 2011. Comments about 1-minute essays. Comments about homework question 5. Guest lecture: The nature of mediumship, examples of mediumship.

November 9, 2011. Comments about 1-minute essays: Scepticism about mediumship, effort to understand reality, the importance of allowing confusion to occur. Comments about homework question 6: List of 20 factors that could contribute to successful anomalous information transfer. Small groups discussion of homework question 7: Pure consciousness allows for the understanding that consciousness is not necessarily structured by intentionality, cessation of breathing and heartbeat. Lecture: Styles of meditation, witnessing meditation, practice of witnessing meditation, concentrative meditation, practice of concentrative meditation. Writing of 1-minute essays.

November 16, 2011. Comments about 1-minute essays: The idea that that to which we direct attention has an increased likelihood of occurrence. Comments about Homework Question 7, "What does the occurrence of pure consciousness tell us about the nature of consciousness and reality?": Pure consciousness could be the result of physical processes; pre-trans fallacy; Wolff's state of non-duality not a state of pure consciousness. Lecture about Quantum Mind: Quantum theory vs. quantum mechanics; criteria for a theory of consciousness; decline of computationalism; rejection of neuron doctrine; eliminative materialism; importance of considering quantum theory when trying to understand the brain; the double-slit experiment; superposition; delayed-choice experiments; quantum entanglement; contextuality; Bose-Einstein statistics; Bose-Einstein condensation; memory as a spinor field; consciousness as the cause of the collapse of the state vector; decoherence; quantum mechanical tunnelling in the brain; volition as the cause of the collapse of the state vector; self-directed neuroplasticity; A Watched Pot Never Boils; volitional ordering of quantum fluctuations; pre-physical substrate; John Wren-Lewis' endarkenment; implicate order; deep consciousness; quantum field theory; volition acting through creation and annihilation operators; volition acting through pre-physical substrate to affect physical manifestation; the role of collective beliefs and morphic fields in physical manifestation. Writing of one-minute essays: Summary of quantum mind.

November 23, 2011. Comments about 1-minute essays: Failure of scale modelling for processes in the small; Tibetan dream yoga, dreamsigns, and waking up as ways of understanding the nature of the ordinary waking state. Comments about homework question 8: Practical factors such as openness and mindfulness; quantum theory; implicate order; theosophical model. Small groups discussion of Question 9: Implications of retrocausation on the nature of time, consciousness, and reality; moving between different timestreams. Lecture: Daryl Bem's Experiment 9; studying for examinations after their occurrence; PMIRs. Class exercise: Reflexive meditation, disidentification exercise. Writing of one-minute essays about whatever.

November 30, 2011. Comments about 1-minute essays: Addictiveness of the class; liberating aspects of reflexive meditation. Comments about Homework Question 9: Precognition and premonition as instances of retrocausation; time as an "amorphous fluid goop"; consciousness as the source of the environment in which we act; the manner in which meaning rather than physical structures determine the contours of reality. Small-groups discussion of Homework Question 10: Disidentification as a way of not getting sucked into a vortex; the importance of authenticity and free thinking; effects of neuroleptics and the use of l-dopa; psychosis as a manifestation of inner dynamics; importance of societal feedback. Lecture: State-specific sciences; alternative logics; pseudoscepticism; sheep-goat effect; numinous events; events that occurred in Beatrice on March1, 1950; "as if" exercise. Writing of one-minute essays about whatever.