Reconciling Neuroscience with Spirituality

Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Ph.D., has been a neuroscience professor at the University of Oregon for more than three decades and a meditator for almost four. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for 35 years, she has co-authored a popular textbook for health professionals that is in its 5th edition, and has written more than 180 peer-reviewed research articles—several of which were on meditation, the topic that motivated her to write the book Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind. As a neuroscientist, Marjorie Woollacott had no doubts that the brain was a purely physical entity controlled by chemicals and electrical pulses. When she experimented with meditation for the first time, however, her entire world changed. Woollacott’s journey through years of meditation has made her question the reality she built her career upon and has forced her to ask what human consciousness really is. Infinite Awareness (winner of the 2017 Parapsychological Association Book Award, Eric Hoffer Book Award, and the Nautilus Book Award) pairs Woollacott’s research as a neuroscientist with her self-revelations about the mind’s spiritual power. Between the scientific and spiritual worlds, she breaks open the definition of human consciousness to investigate the existence of a non-physical and infinitely powerful mind. Website: marjoriewoollacott.com Marjorie is the president of an organization called The Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences, which she co-founded with Gary Schwartz at the U. of Arizona. The organization hopes to help impel the paradigm shift away from materialism. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Transcript of this interview Interview recorded April 22, 2018 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction and Background 00:03:26 - A Mantra for Anxiety Relief 00:06:13 - The Life-Changing Initiation 00:08:59 - Integrating Science and Spirituality 00:11:49 - The Excitement of Consciousness Studies 00:14:29 - The Lack of Curiosity in our Worldview 00:17:13 - The Connectedness of All Beings 00:20:08 - The Disconnect between Scientists and General Public 00:23:04 - The Shift in Scientific Consciousness 00:26:01 - Consciousness as a Universal Substratum 00:29:06 - The Implicate Order and Karma 00:31:59 - The Consciousness in Every Particle of the Universe 00:35:02 - The Filtered Theory of Consciousness 00:38:12 - The Enlightened Master's Consciousness 00:41:17 - Cultivating Non-bounded Reality 00:44:13 - Idealist Monistic Philosophies 00:47:00 - The Numinous Consciousness 00:50:02 - The Manifestation of Consciousness 00:52:48 - The Effects of Meditation on the Brain 00:55:34 - Stillness of the Mind and Pure Consciousness 00:58:21 - The symbiotic relationship between science and spirituality 01:01:24 - The Limitations of Randomized Controlled Trials in Determining Effectiveness 01:04:04 - Subtleties and Realities of Perception 01:06:53 - Exploring Subtle Realms of Perception 01:09:45 - The Mechanics of Awareness 01:12:30 - The Nature of Consciousness and Binding 01:15:19 - The Subtle Body and its Faculties 01:18:19 - The Experience of Atheists 01:21:08 - The Power of Positive Thoughts and Non-Local Consciousness 01:24:15 - Exploring the Hypotheses of Consciousness 01:27:05 - Ken Wilber Interview