Events


Atma Paradigm webinar series 2020

35 dynamic talks delivered between April and December 2020

Access the series on Youtube 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVgitaOD8fo&t=88s


What is the Atma Paradigm?
    What is consciousness?
    What is Matter & Reality?
    What is Life and how does it originate & proliferate
    The Universe - origins and beyond

These are the big questions of our origins and existence. The Atma Paradigm provides unique & compelling answers to how it all works. It builds from validated scientific evidence analysed by sound philosophical logic. 

It challenges explanations of cause and complexity that rely on chance, randomness and vague pseudo-scientific terms such as emergent properties, instinct and so on. The evidence tells a different story - one that can be understood only by the unique insights of Vedanta, Sankhya & the Yoga traditions.

The Atma Paradigm presents a comprehensive study of consciousness and explains why a physicalist view that the brain is the source of consciousness remains the Hard Problem. Rather, the actual evidence and logic suggests we work on the principle that consciousness possesses properties that cannot be reduced to physics. This allows us to examine consciousness as the source of specifying information which addresses the other problem of structural complexity within biology and physics.What emerges is a new metaphysical framework that is entirely consistent with validated science. It does, however, require us to move beyond many of the biases, beliefs, assumptions and unsubstantiated assertions fed to the public in the name of science.

This is the Atma Paradigm - a comprehensive and science-consistent philosophical framework derived from the Vedic perspective

The presenter

Akhandadhi das is a philosopher with particular training in the integration of modern science and the philosophies of Vedanta, Sankhya and Yoga. Currently he is the director of the Science & Philosophy Initiative, a UK association with links to the Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies in USA. He is best known as a regular broadcasts on the BBC since 1989

This Webinar

This webinar series is accessible to all - whether you have a background in science or not.
And particularly inspirational to those new to Vedic concepts.

This is an opportunity:
     to resolve many of your questions regarding science and philosophy
     to discover new insights into the metaphysics of reality
     to gain new perspectives regarding consciousness, life, origins etc.
     to deepen appreciation for the insights of the the ancient Vedic tradition
     to encourage your personal path as an active explorer of the inner world of consciousness

Topics

The Atma Paradigm Webinar will cover the following topics:
Part One       The nature of consciousness

Part Two       Understanding matter & how we are conditioned within it 

Part Three     Unravelling life, evolution, transmigration

Part Four       The universe from start to finish and beyond


Transmission & Availability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVgitaOD8fo&t=88s

 

 

Schedule of talks for Part One

 

1.1   Introduction to the Atma Paradigm

Relationship of science & philosophy

The limits of the scientific process & use of bad philosophy

How the insights of the Vedas address the big questions

The key principles of the Atma Paradigm
Overview of the four parts of the series

 

 

1.2   What is consciousness?

Clarifying the key aspects of phenomenal consciousness

Starting point - what can we know for certain?

Exercises based on Jiva Goswami’s four arguments
You - the consciousness scientist

‘Unified qualitative subjectivity’

 

 

1.3   Qualia - the ‘Hard Problem’ of consciousness

Is there proof that consciousness is non-physical?

What are qualia? Various types

Exercises exploring how we experience them.

How qualia challenge the idea that the brain can produce consciousness

 

 

1.4   The Brain Model failure

How does the brain work? What is it capable of?

Francis Crick’s model of perception

Where are qualia? Where is the observer?

More brain problems - sparseness, time lag

The absurd conclusions of physicalist interpretations

 

 

1.5   Unpacking physicalist theories of consciousness

Theories of consciousness - why so many?

What is their evidence or justification?

Examples of the four types: Diminish, Conjure, Deny, Promise

Identifying the standard flaws of each type

Can we create consciousness with AI?

 

 

1.6   The atma - an alternative approach

The integration of experience & the analogy of computing

Proposition of a non-neural source of consciousness

Defining the precise nature of the atma

How the atma explains the neuroscience evidence

Addressing the challenges to non-neural consciousness

What is consciousness made of?

 

 

1.7   The atma - direct evidence

Examples of direct scientific evidence of the atma

Hydrocephalus- do we need a brain

NDEs & OBEs - clinical research evidence

Is there direct evidence for the Brain Model

Evidence for consciousness in animals & plants

 

 

1.8   Why this is important - and useful

Defining the self - coherent, unchanging, autonomous

The atma as non-temporal

Identification and the VR model

Values, free will, meaning and purpose

How the atma concept opens up the rest of science

 

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