The ideas presented during the conference were broad ranging, including the study of exceptional states of consciousness and intuitive intelligence, the role of intentionality in consciousness, and discussion of the physics of psychoenergetic phenomena.

We especially enjoyed the presentation of Steven Halpern, one of the earliest leaders in the field of sound healing, that included hearing the music plants can create. Using a technique similar to galvanic skin response, electrodes are placed on a leaf and a stem close to the base of the plant. When the plant makes an “energetic output”, the information is fed into a synthesizer to create musical tones. As the plant “hears” what its output is, it learns to make music. Two “new” plants were used for the presentation, ones which had to learn the process. It was fascinating to hear the plant “exploring” the musical tones and fairly shortly making sounds that conjured up what the “music of the spheres” must sound like.

Experimenters have found that plants sometimes “sleep” or temperamentally refuse to play the game. Plants also play “duets”. In general, the various themes of the conference referred to the present state of the world science has created, a world which will become uninhabitable, a world which persists in armed aggression and humans lacking the wisdom to govern scientific and technological advancements to ensure the survival of humankind.

Keynote speaker Peter Russell, student of Stephen Hawking and author of the Brain Book, and The Global Brain Awakens, is described as scientist and futurist. His path began in science and diverged when he observed that science was ignoring some of the most basic questions about human existence. Russell feels we can no longer ignore the extraneous effect of consciousness in basic (pure) scientific research. He believes we are at the beginning of possibly many changes in our world view, just as we have seen how Copernicus, Galileo and Newton changed the world view of their times. He believes that consciousness is the center of this new paradigm shift but also points out that this idea, as expressed in Eastern philosophy, has been around a long time. He points out that the word science comes from scire which means “to know”. The big questions are “How does consciousness manifest as space, time and matter?” and “What is this thing we call “I”?

Huston Smith, author of World’s Religions, one of the most authoritative books on religions and featured guest on Bill Moyers’ 1996, five-part PBS series, The Wisdom of Faith, discussed how science and consciousness are moving closer. His analogy of the “the light at the end of the tunnel” was an expression of the convergence of the scientific view (which states that life began in slime and that matter is fundamental--consciousness is minimal) and the religious view (which generally states that God/consciousness emanated from the divine).

Elizabeth Targ, M.D., Director of the Complementary Medicine Research Institute at California Pacific Medical School and Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, was the principal investigator of two wellknown studies of distant healing and prayer for AIDS patients. She has been addressing the problem of eliminating the “hope/expectation” effect in studies of this type. One of her most interesting stories was of how Harvard Medical School hosted a conference on distance mental influences on living systems but stipulated that there be no publicity. She commented that such activity creates the illusion that there is no serious research in this area. She enumerated the extensive research on the influence of distance mental influences on cells, fungi, bacteria, mice skin wounds, and tumor growth. She commented that the NIH is now giving grants in this area including a study of Reiki.

Matthew Fox, in his keynote address Wisdom: Rules for Living in the Universe, emphatically stated that we need wisdom because we are a destructive species. Fox felt that the questions posed by quantum physics have resulted in there being far more scientists today who are mystics than there are bishops. Fox’s message was that academia educates but ignores wisdom and that Western technological education has brought about world devastation. He stated that our task now is to survive as a species. He commented that awe is the beginning of wisdom, that wisdom and creativity go together, and that developing a sense of awe through the obvious avenue of the arts is left out of our schools. Fox gave his eight rules for living:

practice generosity as exemplified by the universe (the sun shines) Recognize the interconnectedness of all life (all matter is made of light) Allow expansion (the universe is expanding, are we?) Celebrate variety/diversity (our imaginations feed on variety) Allow room for creativity (if the schools don’t provide it, find it elsewhere) See the beauty in all things (the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is passé and leads to an insensitivity toward that which we deem not to be beautiful) Learn that sacrifice and suffering is a school (needs to be recycled into compassion) Allow paradox and humor in your life.

The way we choose to live our lives is an art form. Fox states that education is a funnel in which spirit and creativity are filtered out and as such borders on “educational abuse”. He feels that meditation should be introduced into schools. As an example, Fox reminded his audience that 238 states of mind are recognized by Buddhists. Such powerful inner technologies are left out of education.

During the question and answer period, when someone spoke of the difficulties of introducing yoga into the elementary schools and stated that the word “imagine” could not be used, he pointed out that the current attitudes in the schools amounted to “pathological adultism”.

Deborah Rozman, Executive Vice-President of HeartMath Institute, author of Women Heal With Their Hearts and Intui-Technology--The New Paradigm, helped to develop training programs and research which shows the heart is an information processing system and central source of intelligence of the human system. Their research at HeartMath shows that a coherent heartbeat pattern has been proven to be a universal guiding principle for behavior, indeed, that the heart, being more than a pump, is the controlling center of other systems. The heart produces 2.5 watts of power and can be measured via ECG at any point on the body, e.g., earlobes, little toe, etc. It generates 40-60 times more electrical power than the brain. The heart is a self-organized system continually transmitting neural, hormonal, rhythmic and pressure messages to the brain. Cardiac coherence occurs when the heart’s rhythm and electrical output is highly ordered.

The researchers at HeartMath have shown that positive emotions such as love, care and appreciation increase the coherence in the heart’s beating patterns. It has been shown that an emotional state such as love increases amplitude in the heart wave. During coherence, brain wave patterns entrain with heart rate variability (HRV) patterns. The nervous system and immune functions are enhanced. Entrainment is a phenomenon of systems or organisms that move into synchronization or oscillation at the same frequency and operate with a higher degree of efficiency and coherent communications. It is now possible to measure the heartbeat of one person being registered in another’s brainwaves. It helps us understand the mechanics of how a loving and caring nature promotes health in self and others. Repetitive emotional and psychological states affect neural pathways either by reinforcement or atrophy. In this way both emotional and physical responses become “hard wired” and automatic in our systems.

For example, love has been shown to increase the amplitude of heartbeats. Conversely, under persistent stressful situations excessive cortisol is produced resulting in erratic heart rhythms and neural signals transmitted from the heart to the brain where brain cells are destroyed in the hippocampus thus affecting learning and memory. In other words, the emotions you dwell on become “fixed” with time. Loving and caring people have been shown to have decreased levels of stress hormones and higher IgA (the immune system antibody, immunoglobulin) levels, get sick less often and are less vulnerable to disease. They also have increased norepinephrine, a chemical released from the nerves functioning to balance the nervous system.

The HeartMath techniques include:

Thinking of a stressful situation Shifting focus away from the mind to the heart Breathing through the heart for 10 sec. or more Asking the heart intuitively for a practical response to the situation. Listening for the answer.

The technique also involves using designer music (Heart Zones) which increases mental and emotional balance and renewed vitality. The music enhances positive emotional states in autonomic and immune function (Stress Medicine, Vol 12:167-175).

Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Magical Child and Evolution’s End, was introduced to HeartMath techniques suffering with severe arrhythmic, atrial fibrillation and trachycardia. Within two weeks of practice, he improved dramatically, stopped taking betablockers, and has been medication-free for three years.

Dean Radin, author of The Conscious Universe, conducted advanced telecommunications research at Bell Labs and GTE Labs. Combining his training in electrical engineering and psychology, he shifted his attention to the study of exceptional states of human consciousness. Radin stated that the important question of this field is Who, What, Where, and When is the Self?

The standard view is that the brain equals the self. The emerging view is one of neo-materialsim, the self is here and now and transcends space and time and that reality is fluid. Of special interest to us was his discussion of the distance influence of living systems, real-time healing and retro-time healing. Emphasizing the need to control our fears and demons as researchers explore new territory, Radin quoted John Cage, composer, “I don’t know why people are afraid of change or new ideas, I’m afraid of the old ideas!”

Brian O’Leary, former NASA astronaut, Doctorate in Astronomy, is a noted researcher on surface properties of Mars and the search for life there. Author of Exploring Inner and Outer Space, The Second Coming of Science and Miracle in the Void, O’Leary spoke in his presentation, Towards a New Science of Consciousness, of how he was fired from the Physics Dept. of Princeton when his research led him “too far afield”. He lamented the tendency of Western science to lump serious research in with “new age” ideas (as perceived by the general public).

He felt that paradoxes in science can only be explained by the impingement of consciousness and that a higher sense of ethics is needed in order to make scientific results useful in a positive way. O’Leary likened mainstream science as a box with every “sanctioned” avenue of inquiry inside, i.e., only the orthodox views are permitted to be studied. Outside the box are subjects like exploring inner space, distance healing and prayer, reincarnation, paranormal experiences, consciousness, etc. Using cold fusion as an example, he informed us that this technology is alive and well via the underground, but publicly has been shouted down and ignored by mainstream science. In other words, suppression is rampant in universities and government.

William Tiller, the most well-known physicist at the conference, presented his thoughts on spiritual development and the physics of psychoenergetic phenomena, the culmination of his newest book, Science and Human Transformation: Subtle Energies, Intentionality and Consciousness. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. His theories show how intentionality produces changes in the physical world such as:

Significantly altering the pH of purified water up or down. Significantly increasing the in vitro activity of the liver enzyme, alkaline phosphate. Significantly increasing the in vivo ATP/ADP ratio and decrease larval development time for fruit fly larvae. Transforming the space of the experimental locale to a higher level of symmetry in nature.

Judith Orloff, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and author of Second Sight and Dr. Judith Orloff’s Guide to Intuitive Healing, is a prominent medical intuitive. The daughter of two doctors, she exhibited unusual perceptions as a child and was steered away from her intuitions primarily by her mother. She was later able to understand that her mother, having these same abilities, did not want her to go through a childhood being “odd”. In her teen years she rebelled, did drugs and eventually, while in therapy, was sent to Thelma Moss, a psychic researcher at UCLA, Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Her experiences were validated and she was invited to work at the Institute. She met such people as Uri Geller, was introduced to Kirlian photography and finally realized that she wished to become a doctor. She has combined her intuitive abilities with her private practice in psychiatry. She believes that the future of medicine lies in incorporating intuition and spirituality. It was interesting to us that a significant number of researchers have arrived at the same belief that the unified field theory correlates with ancient systems of meditation affirming the idea that the more we enter higher states of consciousness, the more these states carry over into everyday life.