Thursday, November 11, 2010

Change in Schedule:

     November 18, 2010  Gary continues leading discussion about Biocentrism, by Robert Lanza MD

     November 25, 2010   Thanksgiving. No meeting.

     December 2, 2010  Bake Off

     December 9, 2010  Near Death Experiences. Book by Jeffrey Long MD

     December 16, 2010   Centering prayer, Jean H.

     December 23, 2010 Sharleen will present info on the Winter Solstice.

     December 30, 2010 Gunther Pohlmann Society

     January 20 & 27, 2010  Possibly we will learn about focusing by presentation from Tom R.

    February 3, 2010  Bake Off

     February 10, 2010  Dave and Judy K will have a guest, by the name of Rob Schleck ? sp, to discuss education.

    February 17, 2010  Paul N will present the Heart Sutra.

Biocentrism, by Gary

       Biocentrism, book by Robert Lanza MD.
Dr Lanza is a stem cell researcher and has written well respected treatises in his field. But this is his first venture into a book of this nature. He is postulating a paradigm shift in the theory of our universe and of consciousness.
     On this date we spent the first of two sessions discussing and questioning Dr. Robert Lanza's 7 principles of Bicentrism. There was considerable discussion because these  concepts were hard for us to wrap our minds around.
      First Principle of Biocentrism: What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An "exteranl reality, if it existed, would --by definition--have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and timea re not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind.

     Second Principle of Biocentrism: Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined. They are different sides of the same coin and cannot be divorced from one another.

     Third Principle of Biocentrism: The behavior of subatomic particles -- indeed all particles and objects -- is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Without the presence of a conscious observer, they at best exist in an indetermined state of probability waves.

     Fourth Principle of Biocentrism: Without consciousness, "matter" dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that could have preceded consciousness only existed in a probability state.

     Fifth Principle of Biocentrism: The structure of the universe is explainable only through biocentrism. The universe is fin-tuned for life, which makes perfect sense as life creates the universe, not the other way around. The "universe" is simply the complete spatio-temporal logic of the self.

     Sixth Principle of Biocentrism: time does not have a real existence outsdie of animal-sense perception. It is the process by which we perceive changes in the universe.

     Seventh Principle of Biocentrism: Space, like time, is not an object or a thing Space is another form of our animal understanding and does not have an independent reality. We carry space and time around with us like turtles with shells. Thus, there is no absolute self-existing matrix in which physical events occur independent of life.

     If you obtain this book to read and better understand these principles, turn to Page 91 and 92 and read a great paragraph that describes this reasoning.

     Gary plans to spend next week in further discussion of this important book.


   

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Gary's Presentation on Biocentrism and the book by Dr. Lanza.

Every now and then, a simple yet radical idea shakes the very foundations of knowledge. The startling discovery that the world was not flat challenged and ultimately changed the way people perceived themselves and their relationships with the world. For most humans of the 15th century, the notion of Earth as ball of rock was nonsense. The whole of Western natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change again, forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory. At the same time, these findings have increased our doubt and uncertainty about traditional physical explanations of the universe’s genesis and structure.

Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around. In this new paradigm, life is not just an accidental byproduct of the laws of physics.

Biocentrism takes the reader on a seemingly improbable but ultimately inescapable journey through a foreign universe–our own–from the viewpoints of an acclaimed biologist and a leading astronomer. Switching perspective from physics to biology unlocks the cages in which Western science has unwittingly managed to confine itself. Biocentrism shatters the reader’s ideas of life, time and space, and even death. At the same time, it releases us from the dull worldview that life is merely the activity of an admixture of carbon and a few other elements; it suggests the exhilarating possibility that life is fundamentally immortal.

Biocentrism awakens in readers a new sense of possibility and is full of so many shocking new perspectives that the reader will never see reality the same way again.

Here is a site which states some of Lanza's premises and also raises questions about some of them. I am looking forward to hearing Gary's presentation.



Below is a link that presents some of Lanza's ideas and also some contradictory ideas as well.
http://nirmukta.com/2009/12/14/biocentrism-demystified-a-response-to-deepak-chopra-and-robert-lanzas-notion-of-a-conscious-universe/

Schedule for Upcoming Spirit Mind Body meetings.

     November 11 and 18, 2010  Gary presenting a book by Robert Lanza MD., Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe. 

     November 25. No meeting. Thanksgiving.

     December 2, 2010  Bake Off

     December 9, 2010  Ann S presenting the data presented in the book: Evidence of the AfterLife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences. by Jeffrey Long MD, with Paul Perry.
Dr. Long is a radiation oncologist who gathered people's near death experience stories online and applied statistical analysis to them to formulate the data as evidence for an afterlife.

     December 16 and December 23, 2010  The topic is Focusing

     December 30, 2010  Gunther Pohlmann Society.

    

A Combination of spiritual items: November 4, 2010

     Jean H performed one of her centering prayer services. As usual this provides a very spiritual transformation for the group.

      Heidi brought Pandau (Hmong) tribal art pieces which are needlework and textiles done in primary colors and very attractive.  This folk needle craft is 4000 years old. The pieces Heidi presented belong to a former student of Heidi's. Below is a newspaper article about this folk art. Hopefully it is readable.
Another newspaper article about health care, and hospice care led to a discussion of these topics and end of life issues.

Marriage, Renewal and Ancient History October 28, 2010

     The SpiritMindBody Session opened this time with a restatement of the marriage vows by one of our leaders, Todd and D and his wife Sue. Ten years ago this year they were married in a Buddhist Ceremony conducted by another of our leaders, Paul. This couple decided they wanted to repeat the vows at this time. Our group witnessed this very moving ceremony.