Wednesday, November 4, 2020   8:12 PM

Ecology, Nature and Parapsychology: An Online Symposium

Humanity’s greatest challenge is the current ecological crisis. How may parapsychology contribute to the expected changes of behavior?

PA Members will explore this question on November 21, 2020 (9am - 3pm EST) in an online symposium chaired by PA President Renaud Evrard. This event is the first of a series of quarterly symposia on various parapsychological topics.

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Parapsychology is a scientific attempt to explore as-yet-unknown rules of nature. With the current concerns of the ecological crisis, it’s time to assess how this discipline may contribute to expected changes of behavior by changing the way we think about our place in the cosmos. Ecology may become parapsychology’s next challenge.

The most obvious intersection between ecology and parapsychology is a commonly reported aftereffect of several different types of exceptional experiences (psychedelics, near-death or abduction experiences, etc.): the experiencer comes away from their encounter with an enhanced sense of connection to the environment and the world around them.

The “ecological self” is a new sense of self that sees the environment as an extension - or part - of the person. The study of this rising “ecological consciousness” shows another promising aspect of exceptional experiences. In a similar vein, the worldview of animism may offer parapsychology a viable alternative to physicalism, entailing ethical implications for its methods and practices.

Explanatory models for living organisms must take into account the existence of the background reality described by parapsychology, along with the modes of causation it implies. Therefore, a new theory of evolutionism is being developed in parapsychological circles. What is the place of psi in nature?

Sessions and Speakers

Ecology: Parapsychology’s Next Challenge
Renaud Evrard

The notion of ecosystems is all about relationships, a connection of everything through networks of reciprocal exchange. How does parapsychology intersect with the field of ecology?

Parapsychology and the Ecological Self
Jack Hunter

Deep Ecologists have argued that the ecological crisis is simultaneously a psychological and spiritual crisis, and that we will need to re-conceptualize our relationship to the world in which we live.

The Missing Link: What Psi Tells Us About Biology and Evolution
Michael Nahm argues that current mainstream biologists lack an encompassing understanding of organisms, and explains why psi is necessary to expand current biology, including evolutionary biology.

Psi, Psychedelics and Nature
David Luke

The practice of psychedelically inducing psi is embedded within a nature-based eco-spiritual epistemology and is difficult to disentangle as a web of interconnected relations

The Ethical Implications Animism Psi Has for Parapsychology
Building on recent research in science studies, the worldview of animism offers parapsychology a viable alternative to physicalism entailing ethical implications for its methods and practices.

General admission: $40
PA Professional, Associate, and Supporting Members: $25

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