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Unified Consciousness:
One Mind One Heart

The Common Insight of all Spiritual Traditions and of the Greatest Scientists

Special Series

Unified Consciousness is the WCCM theme for 2022. The essential reality of the consciousness of mind and heart is a shared insight of all spiritual traditions as well as of the greatest scientists of the modern era. In a series of talks throughout the year, spiritual teachers, social leaders, thinkers and writers with contemplative wisdom will explore its meaning for us today.

Each monthly session will be hosted by Laurence Freeman who will also open the discussion between the speaker and the audience. A Chat Room for further reflection among the participants will also be made available between the regular sessions.

The pace of climate change, like Covid 19, is helping humanity to awaken to its unity by showing how we can act for the common good, overcoming dividedness with one mind and heart. At the same time, a tide swell of nationalism and blind greed resists this crucial moment of evolution. This series of talks informs and supports the contemplative mission, which calls us all beyond our self-created obstructions. To realise the common mind needed to deal with the global crisis a critical mass of contemplatives is needed who represent human diversity by discovering oneness within themselves. They will pilot a new way of seeing, thinking and acting.

Different expressions of wisdom in this series will show why unified consciousness is both our top priority and a thrilling opportunity for human evolution.

If you subscribe to the whole series at a special rate then should you miss any of the live sessions, you may watch them later at your leisure. Over the year this unique series will build an enlightening, hopeful perspective for the future of humanity, and as soon as it becomes possible, a final, in-person conference will be hosted at Bonnevaux.

Unified Consciousness is our original home, our source of being, our quest and our true home. ​

Introducing the theme of Unified Consciousness

Father Laurence Freeman invited His Holiness to talk about how heart and mind can be combined in a unified consciousness. Essentially, how can someone be transformed into a more loving person. This talk was held online on 1st December 2021 and introduces the theme of the 2022 series: Unified Consciousness.

Register for the Full Series

£200
£ 140
  • Register for full series (get 10 talks for the price of 7)
  • All sessions are preceded by a group meditation (optional)
  • Time to interact with the speakers
  • Lifetime access to recordings (single sessions registrations give 1 year access)
  • Registration form at bottom of page

The prices reflect the need to achieve self sufficiency. Therefore if you’re able to give a little more we would be very grateful. If you need a concession please let us know. We do not turn anybody away for lack of resource.

  • Schedule of Dates & Speakers

18 January

Laurence Freeman
Laurence Freeman

Uses - and Dangers - of Division

Universal wisdom recognises that reality is one, simple and eternal. Yet experience seems to show how diabolical division is ever rampant, causing endless suffering and conflict. Laurence Freeman, Benedictine monk and Director of the WCCM, will explore the shadow side of the enlightenment process at the heart of our human reality and show how the dark night we must pass through contains the seeds of renewal.

15 February

Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams

Making it Simple: contemplation, simple life and focused mind

In this talk, Dr Williams will describe the ways in which the Christian tradition thinks about the life of the spirit as a “simplification” that draws together the diffused strands of identity into a unified presence, exploring with us how to relate this process to what we might mean by a “simple life”.

22 March

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Prof Darwin Absari

Sufism: Humanity's primordial tradition

Amidst the challenges of the global pandemic and terrorism, Prof Absari perceives a living tradition present in every human being. Continuously nurtured by the influences of all religious and spiritual traditions, he explores how each tradition can help humanity to face its current challenges through a unified consciousness.

5 April

Cynthia Bourgeault
Cynthia Bourgeault

Contemplative Presence in a Traumatized World

Episcopal priest and wisdom teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault will highlight the unitary relationship between contemplation and action. Many see them as alternative paths of service, but great teachers, like the ‘Cloud of Unknowing’ expose this as a false dichotomy.

17 May

Rupert Sheldrake
Rupert Sheldrake

Minds Beyond Brains

A paradigm-challenging scientist and man of faith, Dr Sheldrake will share his latest insights with this contribution to the series, contesting the materialist philosophy, still predominant in institutional science today, that minds are located inside heads and mind is merely the activity of the brain. 

26 July

Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Van Rompuy

How can meditation and meditators contribute to a more humane world?

Since his departure from a prestigious political career, Herman Van Rompuy has been recognised as a statesman of depth and wisdom. Having consolidated his practice of meditation through the pandemic, he will share some insights into the similarities he sees between the inner and outer worlds, each marked by a process of both individualisation and fragmentation.

27 September

Mary McAleese
Mary McAleese

Inalienable Human Rights: God's Gift to his People

Among the inalienable rights of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) are a series of intellectual rights; freedom of expression, conscience, thought, opinion, religion and the right to change religion. Some see these rights as arising from ‘natural law’, as an innate element of human dignity. Some describe them as God-given. What does this mean for the most powerful Christian community on earth, the Catholic Church?

25 October

Alan Wallace
Alan Wallace

Where do theism and non-theism converge?

Trained in science, monastic discipline and scholarship in Buddhist thought, Alan Wallace has long opposed the false dogma of materialism. He says that if we read the biblical account of Creation as a starting point of theism and the Buddhist presentation of samsara and karma as showing the non-theism of a Buddhist worldview, a fundamental incompatibility between them seems obvious.

8 November

Alex Zatyrka
Alex Zatyrka

Mesoamerican expressions of the Unified Consciousness

Fr Zatyrka introduces some of the narratives emerging from the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica, establishing their correspondence with other more mainstream cultural traditions, and exploring the common ground that underpins these mystical and religious forms.

13 December

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Marco Schorlemmer

On the Scientific Inquiry into Consciousness and Intelligence

As a pioneering researcher into Artificial Intelligence (AI), a father of two and a meditator, Marco Schorlemmer shows unified consciousness at work in both science and contemplation. While the expanding growth of AI may give rise to some anxiety, Marco uncovers how a healthy, unified human intelligence can safeguard the healthy development of an increasingly digital intelligence network.

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