We co-sponsored this conference, which culminated in the publication of the book Philosophy and Psychedelics (Bloomsbury, 2022).
Panpsychism, Psychedelics, and Paranormal Experience
Experience is fundamental to reality. As Alfred North Whitehead wrote, the “final real things of which the world is made up….are drops of experience, complex and interdependent.” As such, CPS conducts research and programming pertaining to the nature of experience. This involves a wide range of themes, including transpersonal psychology, panpsychism and panexperientialism, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, paranormal experience, and more.
Recent Activities
Aesthetics & Phenomenologies, Theology & Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science & Epistemologies, Ideologies and Cultural Conflicts
28 – 30 June 2022 — University of Exeter
Keynote Speakers: John Buchanan, Farzad Mahootian, Luis Eduardo Luna
Welcome talks from: Christine Hauskeller, Celia Morgan, Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Philosophy of Psychedelics: Philosophical Frameworks for Exceptional Experience
April 15-17, 2021
University of Exeter, UK
Can Exceptional Experience Help Save the World?
March 21-24, 2018
Claremont School of Theology, USA
This conference explored applying the insights from process philosophy and transpersonal psychology to the issues we are facing today. How can we bring our understandings into the world to create a more sustainable, just, and humane civilization for future generations?
Our aim was to explore how Whitehead’s metaphysics can be applied to connect insights from transpersonal psychology with fostering sustainable, ecological civilization. We see this as an opportunity to build strategic relationships and develop some mechanisms for the social change necessary for humanity to not only survive, but thrive. Some basic questions we plan to explore are: How can we best understand exceptional experience? How can we more fully integrate such experience into science and culture? How can exceptional experience be leveraged to address the global crisis?
Affiliated Programs
Dreamshadow Group: Practical and Theoretical Aspects of Exceptional Experience
Dreamshadow Group is a Vermont-based nonprofit dedicated to applied philosophy based on the works of Alfred North Whitehead and the research of Stanislav Grof, a co-founder of transpersonal psychology and developer of Holotropic Breathwork. Our mission is to foster the creative application of exceptional experience, based on an approach that combines personal development and community building in the context of a process-based metaphysical framework. Our training program has two major aspects: the practice of breathwork and the study of classic philosophy to facilitate deep personal exploration and strengthen the ecological and spiritual connections to the cosmos that modern culture has disrupted. We offer breathwork workshops and training, online study groups, and conferences in partnership with the Center for Process Studies, The University of Exeter (UK), and others.
Dreamshadow Group, Inc.
http://www.dreamshadow.com/
Leonard Gibson, PhD and Elizabeth Gibson, MS
128 Solar Park
Pawlet, VT 05761