Surviving Death and the Illusion of Reality
Carl Jung theorized and wrote about the “collective unconscious” and “the psychoid nature of the universe” in ways that opened the door to embracing a 21st New Science of Consciousness. “Pay Attention to Awakening” offers extraordinary conversations between Polly and her guests, leaders in this new science, who span the range from being researchers of psychedelic experience to scientists of the consciousness of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), to Buddhist teachers of contemporary and Early Buddhism. In these conversations, you will engage a new paradigm that claims we inhabit a field of consciousness, filtered by a human brain, gnerating an interactive reality that is based on our perceptual and relational capacities, instead of inhabiting a material world in which consciousness is an epiphenomenon. Polly joins these courses live to take questions from participants.
Developing Consciousness in a Chaotic World
Human consciousness is born within relationships and develops through relationships. In this course we investigate the mysteries of how and why people do and do not develop their psychological and spiritual self-awareness over their lifetime.
First, I talk with psychologist and scientist Dr. Michael Lewis about his world renowned research on the birth of self-awareness in the human toddler. What is the foundation of human consciousness? How do we become aware of our own awareness? Then, I speak with psychologist Dr. Ken Wilber about what predisposes some people to becoming rigid and defensive, as adults, while others become open-minded and complex.
Next, Mark Matousek and I converse with the neuroscientist Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor about the emotional and intellectual potentials of the human brain for shaping both narrow judgments and open intuitions.
Then, I have some delightful and extraordinary spiritual conversations with spiritual leaders and experts from different backgrounds: Evangelical
Christian minister Ken Wilson, Professor of Comparative Religion and Physics (Chair of the Gurdjieff Foundation of India) Dr. Ravi Ravindra, psychologist, poet, and Zen teacher Dr. Beth Jacobs, and Professor of Anthropology and researcher on “hearing voices,” Dr. Tanya Luhrmann. In each of these extended dialogues, we speak in depth about what awakens human beings, and is transformative of our consciousness. We talk about how to develop through relationships with God, ourselves, and our fellow humans – and how we can listen for the voice of God and know when God is speaking to us.
Finally, I speak with Professor of Buddhist Studies and Pure Land Priest Dr. Mark Unno and Jungian analyst Dr. Leslie Stein about their own spiritual developments and perspectives on mystical experiences: what lasts, what changes us, and what is true about experiences of grace.
The purchase of this course includes a monthly LIVE discussion and Q&A with Polly Young-Eisendrath.