Upcoming Sages & Scientists event
About the author
- Bernardo Kastrup
- I'm the executive director of Essentia Foundation and my work has set off the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism. I have a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another Ph.D. in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence). As a scientist, I have worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the 'Casimir Effect' of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). I've also been creatively active in the high-tech industry for almost 30 years, having co-founded parallel processor company Silicon Hive (acquired by Intel in 2011) and worked as a technology strategist for the geopolitically significant company ASML. Most recently, I've started AI hardware company Syncthetics B.V., currently in stealth mode. Formulated in detail in many academic papers and books, my ideas have been featured on 'Scientific American,' the magazine of 'The Institute of Art and Ideas,' the 'Blog of the American Philosophical Association' and 'Big Think,' among others. My latest book is 'Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st-century's only plausible metaphysics.'
Most popular posts
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Image source: Wikimedia Commons. As we leave yet another intense week behind, there is a confluence of concerning thoughts in my mind re... -
Photo by Bernardo Kastrup of a statue by Hildegard Bienen, hereby released into the public domain. Most people fear death. And amon... -
Editorial note: I originally intended to publish the essay below in an (online) magazine, not my own blog. I still have this intention, but... -
I have just participated—literally 10 minutes ago as I write these words—in an online debate organized by the IAI , in which Donald Hoffman,... -
(Update 13 April 2016: A follow-up essay has been published after a study author commented on this post. Click here to view. ) From PN... -
YouTubing physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has now replied to my criticism of her debate performance against me, published yesterday on this b...
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Cover of Newsweek magazine with Eben Alexander's story. Newsweek Magazine's cover article this week is Eben Alexander's r... -
I recently was invited by Curt Jaimungal, of the Theories of Everything podcast, to debate philosopher Tim Maudlin on issues of philosophy ...
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I woke up today to the news that the Vatican has declared homosexuality a 'sin' and a 'choice' (Some have claimed that what ... -
This summer lots of exciting new literature on Analytic Idealism is coming out, some of which you may already have noticed. If not, this bri...
At $1575 + $225 per nite per room, I do hope you 1 percenters learn something you can use to reach the rest of us 99%
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with this... I wouldn't be able to attend myself if I weren't a speaker. Yet, there is a reasonable plan here, to address the most influential people in the world in the hope of a cascade effect throughout society. And the event does cost a small fortune to organize and realize...
DeleteI don't think Shermer is a sage or scientist. Why is he always trotted out?
DeleteDeepak tries to make sure materialism/"skepticism" is represented. Mlodinow is there also.
DeleteI think it should be renamed, "Sages and Scientists and Skeptics."
Deletei love the science and spirit talks
Deleteyeah the shift is happening but i guess it is good show people all sides of the world but i hope like dean radien said the next 20 years the shift will take place and the way people think of the mind is already changing
DeleteSorry but when I see Deepak Chopra's net worth listed as $80 million. This guy is nothing but a business man who peddles a ton of overpriced merchandise. Sure this guy will tell you about alternative lifestyle if you have money in your wallet.
DeleteThis is the equivalent of Hillary Clinton saying she's for the every man when she has fundraisers costing over $300,000 per couple and only the elite can attend and then the democrats complain there's to much money in politics. Chopra isn't poor, and the price of these conventions makes it inaccessible to pretty much everyone. Inequality is growing. Bernardo, I've bought 4 of your books and I think you're one of the most intelligent and insightful writers, but this to me is nothing but a schmooze event for the elite.
Luke, trying as much as possible not to pass judgment or be biased, I will state some facts I simply know: Deepak invests huge amounts of money in charity, including in his native India. Many children there owe their lives to him. He also needlessly exposes himself to the worst kind of vitriolic attacks -- which doesn't at all help his image or his sales -- in order to promote a consciousness-only ontology that brings comfort to millions. He also finances -- and helps with -- academic research on alternative medicine out of his own pocket, including cooperations with at least one Nobel Prize winner I know of. And the results of some of this research are astounding and academically recognized by heavy weights such as Eric Schadt. It's very difficult for me to see how the man could not be considered a significant positive force in the world.
Deletei think deepak is great he does help alot with so many things he is trying as hard as he can to fund the shift in science and help people get in touch with there soul
DeleteIn my mind when you look at this guy's massive catalogue of supplements, clothing wear, teas, bathing products and a super expensive resort and spa, this guy is peddling a merchandise brand not a vision. Sorry Bernardo we'll have to agree to disagree. I've no doubt you'll defend Deepak seeing as how you've been invited by him and are friends.
DeleteI came to becoming interested in your philosophy through your long list of wonderful blog entries that i've read over many times and several (very reasonably priced) books full of insightful material. I'm convinced you're an actual genuine person who wants to share his viewpoint with the world and not through some massive branding enterprise, charity or no charity.
If it wasn't for your humble blog I wouldn't have considered Idealism seriously. Meaning in Absurdity and Dreamed Up Reality were incredibly fascinating and you've convinced me, with very credible arguments. And without a suspicion you're trying to sell me something or paying an arm and a leg.
Anyways, I'll drop the negativity from now on towards Deepak but I'm deeply suspicious of him. I will however continue to support you.
Deepak is the owner of a large human resource file including a conversation he started in 2003 giving his people in India the chance to explain what their importance could be to the science of the West. I've translated a book of an 'ordinary' indian author called 'Self Designed Universe'in my native language (Dutch). By doing so I learnt so much. I've even discovered the very significant resemblance of the Sashara Lotus with the E-8 symbol Western science made from the Universe. Not that this was accepted but the mere conversation on the Internet between scientists from East and West with ordinary lay people has made it possibe that you do not need a university degree to discover what really matters in life. Like Deepak promotes: basic values like love and understanding are what makes a human really human........ And if that has brought him also success in the Western commercial way of life? Why not lol After all it's all about the money anyway if one is really honest :)
DeleteEnjoy it Bernardo ... I concur that it seems vitally important that these individual minds get together as a collective to forge a much needed re-imagined paradigm to replace the prevailing deprived one, and affect those minds that might actually affect the institutions so mired within it. For unless those change consciously, one suspects the alternative bottom-upwards upheaval will not be without a great deal more suffering.
ReplyDeleteI think that more than symposiums or conferences, what you guys need to do is meet in secret with philanthropists with similar views, and make plans on slowly dessiminating this sort of thought into the mainstream media (with robust versions of defeaters for materialism that an 8 year old can understand). Your views are insanely scientific and much more fleshed out than popular dogmas in academia and public opinion, but nearly no one holds to them except for yourselves as researchers and a few thousand people who listen/study this stuff themselves. That needs to change if science or ethics are ever going to progress. We're seeing all kinds of crazy failed theories to attempt to circumvent antirealism in quantum mechanics getting asserted and reasserted in the public sphere, people denying they exist to maintain materialism, and a culture that is completely disengaged and fallen to the level of Nietzsche's last man due to lack of any perceived ethics or value. This insanity needs to be put to a stop, and you guys have the resources to do just that, if you carefully coordinate your efforts.
ReplyDeleteDitto that Trev ... although given that the mass media are pretty much shills and paid propagandists for the materialist model it may be easier said than done. Are they going to bite the hand that feeds them? Those prospective philanthropists are going to have to offer a more lucrative handout ... or so it seems. But it may well be worth a try. As is often the case, this may not happen the way it's expected to happen.
DeleteThe philanthropists are there and we do talk to them regularly. But the whole thing is, well (brace for cliche), extremely difficult...
DeleteIt is just the topic where those philanthropists themselves are interested in. Like Deepak always says: the universe is a field of endless possibilities. Look how many are interested in space travel to mention just one.
ReplyDeleteAs many philanthropists as there are, each one has his/her own interest at heart.
Deepak just happens to have a vivid interest in combining Eastern and Western scientific knowledge.
Well if that's your interest you came to the right address :)
>> As many philanthropists as there are, each one has his/her own interest at heart. <<
DeleteThis is the crux of the problem, even when all these interests are altruistic.
That's why people on the Internet have invented other ways to be supported like for instance Crowdfunding. Because the same goes for every one: as many people as many interests :)
DeleteIf you have an interesting project for which you want support to organize it, pledge for a certain amount on one of those funding pages, tell the people about your project with interesting accompanying videos and in how much time you want to realize it. Then sit and wait..... There are always people who have interest. Here is a link to a very good site:
https://www.kickstarter.com/
There are of course many more in different countries (different languages).
Deepak for instance founded the Isha organization in this way. I was interested and did also contribute to that initiative.
But one can also do that studying on the Internet. That does not cost that much money. I do this already from the very beginning of the nineties as I am also very interested in the combining of the above topic. I took the best from both for my own wellbeing and live healthy and happily with that without having to have a degree except I have become a Master at the Univesity of Life :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think the skeptics have anything coherent to offer and shouldn't be invited to these things.
ReplyDeleteIt makes it painfully clear that they don't have anything coherent to offer ;)
DeleteThey do have. I learnt in school to compare different opinions against one another and then draw my own conclusion. When one is fed information in just one way it sooner or later begins to look like indoctrination.......
DeleteThe problem with humans is that every one of them believe he/she is right lol.
DeleteGreat game to put all those opinions in a golf card game and wipe them out one against the other until that what really matters to you is left :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv25EcaUQBo
DeleteIn this interview Robert Kuhn makes the suggestion of adding consciousness as a fifth force to the four forces in Nature. This makes it then a fundamental force like the other ones but without giving it the status of having to be the fundamental underlying truth as Vedanta believes. It would make science an open area again where all points of view are valid until really proven otherwise........
Ah thanks for that Poems. It's interesting to see Kuhn become more accepting of the possibility of immaterialism as the Closer to Truth series goes on. I also like that at least he's willing to talk to people who are engaged with ESP research and the like.
DeleteI was impressed Kuhn agreed with Hammeroff that trying to explain consciousness via complexity was "ridiculous".
:) as Deepak predicted: the survival of the wisest........
DeleteBeautiful. Don't forget to stop by Burger Factory 2 for the best Tacos in Los Angeles. Don't let the new name fool you. It's all Hispanic run for 50 years. We use to "live there" when I went UCLA Med School.
ReplyDelete1358 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90037
(323) 296-2519
:) Cheers!
Delete"Life came into being by accident and has no purpose", says neuroscientist, prof Swaab in his recent book. Therefore it is impossible to "discover new ways of understanding consciousness and delve deeper into the true meaning of human existence." I'd pass. At $1575 + $225 per nite per room you get lots of beer instead.
ReplyDeleteI've read his book: We are our brain. Dr. Swaab is an eminent scientist and if he says that life came into being by accident and has no purpose I can respect his truth. He also is convinced that the disease of Alzheimer is more or less coming to us all when we reach a certain age. Maybe it was not such a good idea of science to try to lengthen our lives by finding so many cures to diseases.
DeleteConsciousness and being aware of it will make this babyboom generation the first to have to deal with a medical problem you younger generation have no idea of its wide consequences......
Go ahead and take a lot of beer to drink away the burden of truth.......
To be a skeptic is one thing. To be a dogmatic fundamentalist like Shermer is something else. I have lost all respect for Chopra for befriending Shermer, and offering a platform for his fundamentalist attitude and bullshit.
ReplyDeleteEven sceptics like Shermer have a valuable function in the consciousness discussion. Do not judge such people because their input may be of the utmost importance to really come to terms of ones own truth as a continuing process in ones own life. Like for me catholic dogmas did in the process of my life......
DeleteI've given Deepak another cookie baked from his own homemade dough lol;
ReplyDeleteWatching a few videos about consciousness by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and David Chalmers i've combined the information into my own theory which hasn't really that much changed since the first Intentblog discussion we had with DK Matai during some years inbetween 2003 and 2007:
Maybe consciousness is a fundamental energy force like the other fundamental forces in Nature: the gravity -, electromagnetical -, strong - and the weak- force. This energy is a pushing force to let one radiate it in such a way that what one radiates one receives back. If you think about that seriously , then you have solved the hard problem completely. The consciousness force is like a boomerang. It can be positive, it can be negative. It gives every one the choice of receiving exactly back THAT what one radiates. In this way I can maintain perfect health by radiating unconditional love into my bodymind and receive that back. I can radiate love and understanding into my surroundings and receive that back. If I am aware of this conscious energetic force, I can direct it exactly into the direction I want.
Of course I only know that this is real in my subjective reality. How do I know how someone else experiences this?
Maybe it works in my life as the exact simulation I need and is the underlying truth exactly that information which I receive to accomplish the above in my life.
So I live and let live in peace as my ultimate truth having solved the hard problem for myself in this way :)
No need to attend the Sages and Scientists conference after all!
ah yes! your mind is not "in your head"; your head is in your mind.
DeleteMany leading physicists now say that Nature is deterministic. If that is so, Deepak simply had to appear, i.e. a deepakless universe is impossible in every subjective reality.
ReplyDelete:)) Yeah it is also called the feminine energy..........
DeleteFree will is dead, let’s bury it. Dr Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist, explains in her blog why free will doesn't exist. Then she goes on: "Free will of the experimentalist is a relevant ingredient in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Without free will, Bell’s theorem doesn’t hold, and all we have learned from it goes out the window. This option of giving up free will in quantum mechanics goes under the name “superdeterminism” and is exceedingly unpopular."
ReplyDeleteBecause no one has free will, free will of the experimentalist must be an illusion and superdeterminism must be true.
http://backreaction.blogspot.fi/2016/01/free-will-is-dead-lets-bury-it.html
No one really knows for sure whether we have free will or not.
DeleteI personally have the feeling free will is partly present in my life, but who am I? I haven't studied mathematics and cannot put it in a formula anyway. I translated a book from an Indian author called: "Self Designed Universe", that deals extensively with the four fundamental forces and the title to me already says enough :)
The four forces surely influence our lives in the different stages of it. The Higgs boson has become the breech of the standard model.
But physicists are already speculating about having found the fifth force of nature......
I've read an article in the New Scientist of July/August 2016 that Hungarian physicists have discovered a new particle that could be responsible for a as yet unknown fifth fundamental force of nature.
Colleagues at the University of California have recently analysed the Hungarian measurements again and came to the same conclusion.
So life just goes on while new discoveries are in the 'eye of the observer' as quantum theory supposes. Whether that observer has free will or not remains to be seen.
As long as the freedom of inquiry and investigation remains we will probably work it all out.........
As Dr Hossenfelder explains, free will simply can't exist. If it does exist, then modern physics and all science is mumbo-jumbo. Therefore Bernardo has to join Deepak Chopra and 30 other experts in Los Angeles, California. He cannot do otherwise.
ReplyDelete:) Well, maybe that is the difference between the masculine and the feminine energy. I feel my free will up to as certain point because I also know that my brain takes a decision a number of seconds before I am aware of it, as has been investigated. But I feel through intuition what the brain will decide.......
DeleteSo if you have the combination of the energies well balanced, nothing is mumbo jumbo and all is possible. It is all definitely worth to exist, the East and the West as a combination of the best knowledge there is. Unfortunately humankind is still not balanced enough to recognize its own potential.........
DeleteThe Hossenfelder article explains nothing. "According to our best present understanding of the fundamental laws of nature, everything that happens in our universe is due to only four different forces: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear force. These forces have been extremely well studied, and they don’t leave any room for free will. "
DeleteWhat do these 4 forces have to do with why I like various things and not others? Why I engage in various activities and not others? Can she write an equation that will predict what I do tomorrow? To say these four forces can describe the totality of our existence is just pure myopic stupidity.
What I have understood from translating the book "Self Designed Universe" by Harbhajan Singh (Indian author I "met" on the first Intentblog of Deepak Chopra) is that we as humans get entangled into those forces during our lifetime and our goal is to get disentangled from them again.
DeleteThe four forces work in a human body in such a way (according to this book) that as a baby/toddler/young child you deal a lot with gravity by getting yourself up and walk around. In adolescence the electro-magnetic force is the strongest, during adulthood it is the strong force (rational thinking) and in old age the weak force is the one.n Although all four are of course constantly present.
When one becomes aware of this one can develop a certain influence on those forces and in India they have quite different ways of dealing with them than in the West.
Osho (named Bhagwan in the late seventies/beginning eighties) had a very good solution how to deal with this.
He told people that when they awoke in the morning to become alert and watch oneself get entangled in that what one heard, or did during the day.
Then before going to sleep one should go over the day-experiences in the opposite direction from the last one to the first. One could then be completely disentangled from it (and go to sleep "free" :)).
Osho compared life and the four forces with a spring. First it winds itself up, then it unwinds itself.
Think of it, it is a clever idea.
Maybe there is a way to put this in a formula. At least the free will lies in the fact that one is capable ofconsciously disentangling from the entanglement.........
I'm free to chose my next thought.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting page...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sott.net/article/321408-Civil-servant-missing-most-of-his-brain-still-conscious-Your-brain-is-not-your-mind
"To say these four forces can describe the totality of our existence is just pure myopic stupidity." What if reverse is true and the totality of our existence is really controlled by these four forces? What if these four forces are gods?
ReplyDeleteThat maybe totally dependent on what you mean by the word "gods". I translated this word for myself in : g-iving o-rder d-ynamically s-imultaneously :). In that way to me the four forces could be called gods...
DeleteSame could be said of the word soul. According to me my soul is a s-elf o-mnipotent u-niversal l-ife system and that would mean that the four forces could be present in my soul and I have become fully aware of that......
DeleteI know myself in the beautiful enfoldment of a rose........
DeleteIt endures the natural forces during its lifetime.....
Humands are just a species in a universe full of wonder and expression. Why believe we are something special?
For me it is already good to have lived a simple life and having blossomed like a flower. The flower doesn't last in the end but the seeds of it will blossom again and again. Isn't that in the end the purpose of life?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1i1fPHrjI0
DeleteThe question seems to be "has Bernardo to join the symposium, or could he cancel?" Whatever he does, he has to obey the four forces.
ReplyDelete"According to our best present understanding of the fundamental laws of nature, everything that happens in our universe is due to only four different forces: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear force. These forces have been extremely well studied, and they don’t leave any room for free will."
ReplyDeletePhysics do not about reality but models of reality that are only abstractions, cuts what interests physicists, so that argument is invalid.
I've watched your presentation on the Sages and Scientists syposium yesterday. I liked it. But what I really liked were your comments during the panel discussion thereafter. Well, it seems there are two of you who do understand what is is all about. The rest is still wrapped up in their own personal point of view.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bernardo!
Just curious, who are the sages attending this event?
ReplyDelete