Infinite Potential: The Legacy of David Bohm

On Saturday 21st November I attended the above one-day "Open Dialogue" at Queen Mary College in London.The programme included presentations by Professor Bernard Carr, Professor Basil Hiley, Professor Leroy Little Bear, Lord Stone of Blackheath and our very own FORUM member (and fellow Wirralian but now living in Italy) Dr. F David Peat.

It was fascinating to hear anecdotes about Professor Bohm from those who knew him well such as Prof Hiley, Dr. Mary Cadogan and David Peat. I spoke to Professor Hiley after his presentation and we discussed the actual date of Alain Aspect's famed "Paris Experiment" (something that no book on the subject that I have read is precise about - usually it is stated as taking place in "the early 1980's). I am delighted to state that I received an email from Prof. Hiley yesterday that confirmed it to be 1981.

I also discussed with Prof. Hiley our mutual interest in the writings of the German philosopher Fichte.At lunch I experienced one of life's (probably) unique experiences .... sitting next to a Nobel Prize Winner. This was Professor Brian Josephson of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. Prof. Josephson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his discovery of the Josephson effect (don't you find it an amazing synchronicity that somebody called Josephson discovers an effect with exactly the same name as his own? Indeed this seems to happen a lot. I wonder why nobody has noticed this before?) This Josephson effect has important applications in quantum-mechanical circuits, such as SQUIDs. The eagle-eyed (or elephant-memoried) of you will recall that on page 395 of ITLAD you will find a note on these "superconducting quantum interference devices" and the work done on these at SUNY. Little was I to know at the time of writing that note that I was to have lunch with the man who discovery made this work possible! Honour indeed.Prof. Josephson is fascinated by parapsychology (this may come as a surprise to many "skeptics" who like to suggest that "real scientists" have no interest in such things. In fact Prof. Josephson had a fascinating "app" on his iphone that had been designed by Prof Russell Targ (what, another "real scientist" eh?) This had been designed to test psi.

Finally, David Peat finished off the day with a fascinating, and very moving, talk about Bohm's final years. The picture above is David's book on Bohm. It is well worth reading.

Scientific & Medical Network Presentation - 7th February

As many of you will know I am a fairly active member of The Scientific & Medical Network (The SMN). I have done various lectures for them across the country and I have been invited back for the third time to talkto the Manchester Group.

Usually this takes place at the home of the local organisor, Christine Heaton. However because she is of the impression that attendance may be slightly larger than usual she has hired a room in St Claire's Friary in Higher Blackley, Manchester. The meeting will start at 11:00 am and finish around 4:00pm

This looks to be a very interesting day. I will be lecturing on my new book in the morning and in the afternoon a philosopher will discuss his new theory about Near-Death Experience.

It promises to be a really interesting day ... and possibly an opportunity for some of you folks out there to not only get along to one of my talks but also meet some interesting people (and some fellow itladians).

If you are interested please contact Christina Heaton at christinaheaton@msn.com for further details.

Article: "The Metaphysics Of Near-Death Experience

On Sunday a small group of Itladians attended a meeting of the Manchester branch of the Scientific & Medical Network (SMN). These were Di (Woodsprite), Dr. Alan Roberts, Hephzi Yohannan and Keith Robbins. Indeed the excellent afternoon presentation was made by another Itladian, and member of this blog, Joanne (Persephone). Unfortunately Karl (A Dark Philosopher)would have been at the meeting but for a kindly errand of mercy that he had to make to a friend in need.

As you all may be aware I am a full member of the SMN and I have now done five presentations to various SMN groups across the UK and one in Switzerland (where I finally met fellow SMN member and Blog/Forum member Dr. Art Funkhouser)with more planned for the future.

Indeed this is the reason for this posting. At Sunday's meeting was a guy by the name of David Lawton. I recognised the name because David has written a fascinating article on the Near-Death Experience. This was published in the last edition of the SMN Journal.

David and I have both been invited to do presentations at the next Manchester SMN Meeting on 7th February 2009. The overall impression I have is that David himself, and some of the other SMN members, consider that our relative positions vis-a-vis the NDE phenomenon are at opposite ends of a spectrum. Indeed I was given the distinct feeling that the 7th February meeting has the potential to be slightly confrontational. I find this curious because I really enjoyed David's paper and saw some interesting parallels with regard to itlad ... particularly David's very philosophical approach to the phenomenon.

I would like you guys opinion with regard to David's paper. Do you feel that one viewpoint negates the other?

The article can be downloaded in a pdf format from:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mrgc8c3zhpu/ntwrk97.pdf

(simply copy and paste the above link into your address bar or web search engine).

I look forward to your opinions (Susan Marie particularly).

The Scientific & Medical Network Blogspot

As you will be aware I am a member of an organisation called The Scientific And Medical Network (as are about half a dozen members of this site). I am delighted to see that they now also have their own site on Blogger.

The blogmaster of this new site (Dr. Olly Robinson) has asked me to become a regular contributor to this infant site and my first contribution will appear soon.

Please check this site out. Although CTF and ITLAD are known by a few members of SMN (I have been invited to talk by four SMN Groups - Western Switzerland, Yorkshire, Manchester and Devon) I feel that we need to become actively involved in helping this 'baby' blog grow.

The SMN is fertile ground for itladian theory and I feel that if some of us here place comments on their Blog Site it can only attract more attention to the ideas and theories so wonderfully discussed on these pages.

The site can be found at: http://scimednet.blogspot.com/

Announcement

This meeting will be open to all so if you are interested and fancy a short break in beautiful Devon please consider popping along.

Scientific and Medical Network
(Exploring the frontiers of Science, Medicine, Spirituality & Human Experience)

The Devon and Cornwall Branch, presents...

Is there life after death?

*A presentation by Anthony Peake,author of, ‘Is There Life After Death? - The extraordinary science of what happens when we die’. Talking about his theory titled, ‘Cheat the Ferryman’, Anthony puts forward a scientific, challenging and revolutionary explanation on what happens to consciousness at the point of physical death.

*A presentation by William Murtha, author of the forthcoming book, ‘Dying for a Change’, talking about his personal near-death experience, which vividly describes the emotional, physiological and psychological impacts that he experienced. He will also give a brief update on worldwide studies, into the fascinating and ever-expanding scientific field of research into near-death experiences.

Saturday 16th February 2008.
(Begins 12pm, ends 3-30pm. With break for lunch 1-15 till 2)

**Light Refreshments Available**

Venue…Bogan House, Totnes (Opposite Civic Square)
*(SMN members £3 Non-members £4)