A curated collection of documentaries, scientific insights, and philosophical perspectives on quantum physics, non-duality, and the mysteries of existence.
This vault archives YouTube transmissions and corresponding literature across meditation, neuroscience, ontology, ecology, AI, spirituality, and cosmology.
In this Part I of Essentia Foundation's Analytic Idealism Course, we investigate whether our ordinary intuitions about the nature of reality and the world at large can be true at all. Link to PART II:
In this Part I of Essentia Foundation's Analytic Idealism Course, we investigate whether our ordinary intuitions about the nature of reality and the world at large can be true at all.
Rupert gave a talk entitled The Science Delusion at TEDx Whitechapel, Jan 12, 2013. The theme for the night was Visions for Transition: Challenging existing paradigms and redefining values (for a more beautiful world). In response to protests from two materialists in the US, the...
https://youtu.be/sF03FN37i5w
Rupert gave a talk entitled The Science Delusion at TEDx Whitechapel, Jan 12, 2013. The theme for the night was Visions for Transition: Challenging existing paradigms and redefining values (for a more beautiful world). In response to protests from two materialists in the US, the talk was taken out of circulation by TED, relegated to a corner of their website and stamped with a warning label.
Biology/Ecology
Plant Communication with Pam Montgomery
Plants and trees give us our very life. Without them, we wouldn’t have our breath, tissue, food, cognitive abilities of “higher mind,” emotional stability, and spiritual guidance. Because of our close symbiotic relationship, we share a common ground with the plants that surround us. Our...
https://youtu.be/HWd118P7syY
Plants and trees give us our very life. Without them, we wouldn’t have our breath, tissue, food, cognitive abilities of “higher mind,” emotional stability, and spiritual guidance.
Because of our close symbiotic relationship, we share a common ground with the plants that surround us. Our life-giving connection with the green beings is inherent in our humanness and our birthright is to be intimately related.
Communicating effectively is one of the foundations in a relationship that builds to a co-creative partnership. We all know how to communicate with plants... this innate knowledge lives within us, but has been forgotten due to the chaotic nature of our day to day lives.
Altruism
Animal emotions and empathy with Frans de Waal
Do animals show empathy? Are there any signs of morality in animal societies? Can a monkey distinguish right from wrong? And what are the standards of what is right and what is not? Does morality evolve in time both for human societies and animal societies?...
https://youtu.be/leCDilISCEc
Do animals show empathy? Are there any signs of morality in animal societies? Can a monkey distinguish right from wrong? And what are the standards of what is right and what is not? Does morality evolve in time both for human societies and animal societies?
It is hard to imagine that empathy—a characteristic so basic to the human species that it emerges early in life, and is accompanied by strong physiological reactions—came into existence only when our lineage split off from that of the apes. It must be far older than that. Examples of empathy in other animals would suggest a long evolutionary history to this capacity in humans. Over the last several decades, we’ve seen increasing evidence of empathy in other species. Emotions suffuse much of the language employed by students of animal behavior -- from "social bonding" to "alarm calls" -- yet are often avoided as explicit topic in scientific discourse. Given the increasing interest of human psychology in the emotions, and the neuroscience on animal emotions such as fear and attachment, the taboo that has hampered animal research in this area is outdated. The main point is to separate emotions from feelings, which are subjective experiences that accompany the emotions. Whereas science has no access to animal feelings, animal emotions are as observable and measurable as human emotions. They are mental and bodily states that potentiate behavior appropriate to both social and nonsocial situations. The expression of emotions in face and body language is well known, the study of which began with Darwin. Frans de Waal will discuss early ideas about animal emotions and draw upon research on empathy and the perception of emotions in primates to make the point that the study of animal emotions is a necessary complement to the study of behavior. Emotions are best viewed as the organizers of adaptive responses to environmental stimuli. If you like this kind of stuff you should read: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
Science
Two robots debate the future of humanity
Hanson Robotics Limited's Ben Goertzel, Sophia and Han at RISE 2017. Now for something that’s never been done onstage before. While they may not be human, our next guests are ready to discuss the future of humanity, and how they see their types flourish over...
https://youtu.be/1y3XdwTa1cA
Hanson Robotics Limited's Ben Goertzel, Sophia and Han at RISE 2017. Now for something that’s never been done onstage before. While they may not be human, our next guests are ready to discuss the future of humanity, and how they see their types flourish over the coming years.
Documentaries
Is Humanity at a Turning Point? Fritjof Capra on Patterns of Connection
Michael Shermer speaks with scientist, educator, activist, and accomplished author, Fritjof Capra, about the evolution of his thinking over five decades. In this conversation, based on Capra’s book, Patterns of Connection, Shermer and Capra discuss: what it means to be spiritual in an age of...
https://youtu.be/CAp6_H23CpA
Michael Shermer speaks with scientist, educator, activist, and accomplished author, Fritjof Capra, about the evolution of his thinking over five decades. In this conversation, based on Capra’s book, Patterns of Connection, Shermer and Capra discuss: what it means to be spiritual in an age of science, nuclear energy and why Capra thinks we don’t need it and Shermer thinks we do, 50 years of progress or regress, limitations of models and theories of reality, limitations of analogies between western physics and eastern mysticism, mind and consciousness, and why Capra is hopeful for the future of humanity.
Books
Welcome to the The Wandering, Winding Way of the Wound: Bayo Akomolafe
The Wandering, Winding Way of the Wound or the Politics of Cure, the Shadows of Harm Reduction, and Transgressive Networks of Care at World End was a webinar hosted by Bayo Akomolafe at SAND in 2022.
https://youtu.be/9zpw3uUVFmg
The Wandering, Winding Way of the Wound or the Politics of Cure, the Shadows of Harm Reduction, and Transgressive Networks of Care at World End was a webinar hosted by Bayo Akomolafe at SAND in 2022.
Biology/Ecology
Kenny Ausubel – The Sting: The Role of Fraud in Nature | Bioneers
Nature is sending us extravagant distress signals. Earth is a hot mess. From Covid to climate catastrophe to fascism, the perils of disinformation are a matter of life and death. We'd better get really good really fast at reading Nature's mind. The stakes are too...
https://youtu.be/_vDeQj7mkf0
Nature is sending us extravagant distress signals. Earth is a hot mess. From Covid to climate catastrophe to fascism, the perils of disinformation are a matter of life and death. We'd better get really good really fast at reading Nature's mind. The stakes are too high to keep drinking the collective Kool-Aid.
Kenny Ausubel, CEO and founder (in 1990) of Bioneers, is an award-winning social entrepreneur, journalist, author and filmmaker. Co-founder and first CEO of the organic seed company, Seeds of Change, his film (and companion book) "Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime" helped influence national alternative medicine policy. He has edited several books and written four, including, most recently, "Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature."
Mark Plotkin: Maps, Magic and Medicine in the Rainforest | Bioneers 2016
Mark Plotkin, groundbreaking ethnobotanist and author of seminal books including "Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice", works closely with Indigenous peoples and uncontacted tribes in the northwest Amazon. As co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) in 1995, he depicts ACT's work partnering with over 30...
https://youtu.be/HnQ-en_z_7I
Mark Plotkin, groundbreaking ethnobotanist and author of seminal books including "Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice", works closely with Indigenous peoples and uncontacted tribes in the northwest Amazon. As co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) in 1995, he depicts ACT's work partnering with over 30 South American tribes, including the Kogi, to map, manage and protect over 70 million acres of ancestral forests. He describes collaboration with elder healers to develop and implement successful "Shamans and Apprentices" programs to transmit sacred healing information down through generations within the tribes themselves.
Altruism
David Korten – Replacing the Suicide Economy
David Korten is an economist, author, activist, and prominent critic of corporate globalization. He is perhaps best known for his bestselling 1995 book, When Corporations Rule the World – an examination of market libertarians’ twisting of famed economist Adam Smith’s teachings and a vision of...
https://youtu.be/7dqWdt2gTDg
David Korten is an economist, author, activist, and prominent critic of corporate globalization. He is perhaps best known for his bestselling 1995 book, When Corporations Rule the World – an examination of market libertarians’ twisting of famed economist Adam Smith’s teachings and a vision of an alternative sustainable economy based on small-scale, localized cooperative enterprises. He was named an Utne Reader visionary in 2011. His publications are required reading in university courses around the world. Korten is also the cofounder and chair of YES! Magazine, a nonprofit publication focused on sustainability, alternative economics and peace.
Biology/Ecology
Eva Jablonka: Inheritance Systems and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis
There is a debate among evolutionary biologists today about the need to significantly revise the neo-Darwinian model of evolution that was dominant over the last seventy years. After presenting the views for and against the revision, I discuss the challenges to the traditional theory that...
https://youtu.be/7egenDMARgY
There is a debate among evolutionary biologists today about the need to significantly revise the neo-Darwinian model of evolution that was dominant over the last seventy years. After presenting the views for and against the revision, I discuss the challenges to the traditional theory that are coming from an expanded notion of heredity, focusing on the evolutionary implications of epigenetic and cultural inheritance. I suggest that these challenges require a reformulation of basic assumptions of the dominant neo-Darwinian version of evolutionary theory and the construction of a new, extended and revised evolutionary thought-style.
Altruism
Riane Eisler speaks at Collective Trauma Summit 2021
Dr. Riane Eisler was a part of the Collective Trauma Summit 2021, an online event to explore how to work with individual, ancestral, and collective trauma. Eisler was a featured speaker and delivered a talk about shifting from the "trauma factories" of Domination Systems to...
https://youtu.be/_8TYztRhOvg
Dr. Riane Eisler was a part of the Collective Trauma Summit 2021, an online event to explore how to work with individual, ancestral, and collective trauma. Eisler was a featured speaker and delivered a talk about shifting from the "trauma factories" of Domination Systems to Partnership Systems.
