Annual Gathering 2024: Reconfiguring Science and Spirituality
Speakers
-
Paul KieniewiczAstronomer and GeologistPaul Kieniewicz was born in Scotland, and holds degrees in Astronomy and Geophysics. He is Vice-Chairman of the Scientific and Medical Network. More recently he lives in Poland, where he lectures and writes on Gnosticism, translating Gnostic texts into Polish. He is the author of science fiction novels, Immortality Machine and Gaia’s Children, and co-author (With Andrew Glazewski) of Harmony of the Universe and The Cosmic View.
-
John HandsAuthorJohn Hands was trained in science, specializing in chemistry, at the University of London. He co-authored two research studies and also published one book in the social sciences. He tutored in physics for Britain’s Open University, was visiting lecturer at the University of North London and then RLF Fellow at University College London where he began more than 10 years writing the award-winning COSMOSAPIENS Human Evolution from the Origin of the Universe. He spent a further six years writing its sequel THE FUTURE OF HUMANKIND Why We Should Be Optimistic, which was published in 2023. He has also written three novels and has been published in 12 countries.
-
Steve TaylorPsychologist, Researcher, Speaker, AuthorSteve Taylor PhD is the author of many best-selling books on psychology and spirituality, and is a researcher and senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. His books include The Adventure, Extraordinary Awakenings, The Fall, The Leap and Spiritual Science. His books have been published in 20 languages. Eckhart Tolle has described Steve’s work as “an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.’
-
David LorimerWriter, Lecturer, Poet, EditorDavid Lorimer, MA, PGCE, FRSA is a visionary polymath – writer, lecturer, poet and editor who is a Founder of Character Education Scotland, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network and former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society. David is also the Editor of Paradigm Explorer, and Chair of the Galileo Commission, which seeks the expand the evidence base of science of consciousness beyond a materialistic world view.
Originally a merchant banker then a teacher of philosophy and modern languages at Winchester College, he is the author and editor of over a dozen books, including Survival? Death as Transition (1984,2017) Resonant Mind (originally Whole in One) (1990/2017), The Spirit of Science (1998), Thinking Beyond the Brain (2001), The Protein Crunch (with Jason Drew) and A New Renaissance (edited with Oliver Robinson). He has edited three books about the Bulgarian sage Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov): Prophet for our Times (1991, 2015), The Circle of Sacred Dance, and Gems of Love, which is a translation of his prayers and formulas into English. His book on the ideas and work of the Prince of Wales – Radical Prince (2003) – has been translated into Dutch, Spanish and French. His most recent books are A Quest for Wisdom and his collection of poems, Better Light a Candle.
-
Vasileios BasiosPhysicist, Senior researcherDr Vasileios Basios is a senior researcher in the Physics of Complex Systems at the University of Brussels, with over 25 years of experience in research and coaching. His interdisciplinary work focuses on self-organisation, emergence in complex matter, complementarity and the foundations of complex systems. Mentored by Nobel laureates Ilya Prigogine and Grégoire Nicolis, Dr Basios received his Ph.D. from the University of Brussels after studying cybernetics with John S. Nicolis. His research interests include foundations of complexity science, emergence in complex matter, nonlinear dynamics and chaos in biological information processing, computability and the logic of extended Bayesian inference.
He is deeply interested in the history of scientific ideas and their role in transforming science beyond the mechanistic worldview. His work aims to bring insights from complex systems science to consciousness studies, working towards an inclusive and self-reflexive interdisciplinary science of consciousness. In 2023, his research team received the inaugural Linda G. O’Bryant Noetic Sciences Research Prize for their study on detecting deviations from random activity as indicators of nonlocal consciousness correlates beyond the brain. By contributing to complexity and consciousness research in a variety of formats, from podcasts to books to peer-reviewed papers, he aspires to advance knowledge in this evolving field.
-
Bernard CarrEmeritus Professor, SMN PresidentProf Bernard Carr is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. For his PhD, he studied the first second of the universe with Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University and Caltech. His professional area of research is cosmology and astrophysics and includes such topics as the early universe, black holes, dark matter, and the anthropic principle. He is a former chairman and current President of the Scientific and Medical Network and a former President of the Society for Psychical Research.
-
Annine EG van der MeerHistorian, AuthorDr Annine EG van der Meer is a Dutch historian of religion who holds a PhD in theology from the University of Utrecht. She was the seventh, last and only female student to write her doctoral thesis under the guidance of the late Prof Dr Gilles Quispel. He was an internationally known scholar of apocryphal Christian texts, famous for his translation of the so-called fifth Gospel, The Gospel of Thomas and other texts from the Nag Hammadi Library, rediscovered in Upper-Egypt in 1945.
Annine has written several authoritative books about the hidden history of the sacred feminine and of women and their forgotten contribution to evolution and civilization. This involves digging Her-Story out from under His-Story in order to write Our-Story. Where necessary, she integrates the established images of woman and man for the purpose of achieving equality, harmony, balance and peace in the world. In 2008, she founded Pansophia Foundation, a school of Wisdom in the 21st century, which she led until 2018. Its mission was to combine the raising of consciousness with spirituality and empowerment of women. In 2015, she founded her own Dutch publishing house Pansophia Press, in which she continues this wisdom work, supported by a large Pansophia community in The Netherlands. In 2010, Annine was one of 33 women to be honoured worldwide for her work about the Divine Feminine.
Annine is the author of 20 books in Dutch, English, French and German. In Dutch, English and French, she has published, The Black Madonna from Primal to Final Times (with 289 Illustrations and a list of short descriptions of 450 Black Madonnas in France), 2015, 2018, 2019. In English and German she has published, The Language of MA the primal mother. The evolution of the female image in 40.000 years of global Venus Art, 2013, 2020. In 2021, she published a very successful Dutch book, Maria Magdalena Ontsluierd (Mary Magdalene Unveiled), a commentary on The Gospel of the Beloved Companion, written by Mary Magdalene herself, only released in 2010. In 2023, she published the English translation and updated book, Mary Magdalene Unveiled. Hidden sources restore her broken image. In 2025 The American publisher Bear and Company published her book Magdalene’s Ascension.
-
Robert HoldenAuthor, Radio HostRobert Holden’s innovative work on psychology and spirituality has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, a PBS special Shift Happens! and in two major BBC-TV documentaries on happiness. He has presented two hugely popular TED Talks, and is the author of 14 best-selling books including Happiness NOW!, Shift Happens!, Authentic Success, Loveability, and Life Loves You (co-written with Louise Hay).
-
Bernard BeitmanPsychiatristBernard Beitman, MD, is the author or editor of seven psychiatry books, recipient of two national psychiatry awards for his psychotherapy training program, and former chair of psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is the Founding Director and President of The Coincidence Project. His first coincidence book, Connecting with Coincidence (2016) was followed by a second, Meaningful Coincidences: How and Why Synchronicity and Serendipity Happen (2022). He is working on a coincidence autobiography.
-
Predrag SlijepcevicBioscientist, philosopherPredrag Slijepcevic is a bio-scientist and philosopher of biology with over 30 years of experience at the universities of Cambridge, St Andrews, Leiden, and Brunel. Predrag’s primary research interest is the biology of telomeres, or physical ends of chromosomes, that regulate the ageing processes and contribute to some diseases. In parallel, Predrag investigates how biological systems, from bacteria to animals and beyond, perceive and process environmental stimuli (biological information) and how this processing, a form of natural learning, affects the organism-environment interactions. Predrag has published widely in leading scientific journals, including Nature. Biocivilisations: A New Look at the Science of Life (Chelsea Green) is his first book in English.
-
Evelyn ElsaesserIndependent researcherEvelyn Elsaesser is an independent researcher and author in the field of death-related experiences, notably After-Death Communications (ADCs) and Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). She is the project leader of the long-term international research project “Investigation of the Phenomenology and Impact of Spontaneous After-Death Communications”, as well as a founding and current member of the Board of Swiss IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies). She lives in Switzerland. Her most recent book is Spontaneous Contacts with the Deceased.
-
Oliver LazarOliver Lazar is a medical doctor and professor of computer science. He obtained his doctorate of medicine in 2008 with his dissertation on “Effects on the sympathetic nervous system with combination therapies in the treatment of patients with high blood pressure” in the Department of Nephrology at the University Hospital Essen. He headed the IT department of the general public hospital in Zell am See/Austria and gained in-depth experience in applied research through various research projects as a scientist and project manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS) in Duisburg. He has been professor of computer science at the FOM University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf since 2012. He is the author of Beyond Matter.
-
Mona SobhaniCognitive neuroscientist, author, and entrepreneurMona Sobhani, PhD is a cognitive neuroscientist, author, and entrepreneur. A former research scientist at the University of Southern California, she holds a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Southern California and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University with the MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. She is the author of Proof of Spiritual Phenomena: A Neuroscientist’s Discovery of the Ineffable Mysteries of the Universe (Park City Press/Inner Traditions), which details her transformation from a diehard scientific materialist to an open-minded spiritual seeker. In the Brave New World of Psychedelic Science substack, she writes about the psychedelic renaissance, altered states of consciousness, and the transpersonal. She is co-founder of Exploring Consciousness, a community of curious scientists who are seeking to understand consciousness, spirituality, and the nature of our reality.
