Unified Consciousness:
One Mind One Heart
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.
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, such as Rowan Williams (ex Archbishop of Canterbury), Mary McAleese (former President of Ireland) and Cynthia Bourgeault (Episcopal priest and wisdom teacher) among others, will explore its meaning for us today.
Is the transformation of the human into a loving person possible?
“I think Unified Consciousness means the transformation of the human into a loving person. Not arguing about our differences but seeing we come from the same source and that we are capable of the same transformation.” Father Laurence Freeman, WCCM Director.
In conversation with HH the Dalai Lama at the end of 2021, Father Laurence Freeman asked to reflect on the potential of the human to achieve this unified consciousness with mind and heart becoming one….
Is it possible for the human race to be more in one mind and heart?
What will be covered in this series?
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.
Register for the Full Series
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Register for full series (get 10 talks for the price of 7)
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All sessions are preceded by a group meditation (optional)
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Time to interact with the speakers
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Lifetime access to recordings (single sessions registrations give 1 year access)
Schedule of Dates & Speakers
Making it Simple: contemplation, simple life and focused mind
15 February with Rowan Williams
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”.
Sufism: Humanity's primordial tradition
22 March, with Prof Darwin Absari
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.
Contemplative Presence in a Traumatized World
5 April, with Cynthia Bourgeault
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.
Minds Beyond Brains
17 May, with Rupert Sheldrake
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.
How can meditation and meditators contribute to a more humane world? 26 July, with Herman Van Rompuy
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.
Inalienable Human Rights: God's Gift to his People
27 September, with Mary McAleese
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?
Where do theism and non-theism converge?
25 October, with Alan Wallace
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.
Mesoamerican expressions of the Unified Consciousness
8 November, with Alex Zatyrka
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.
On the Scientific Inquiry into Consciousness and Intelligence
13 December, with Marco Schorlemmer
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.