Dr Music will examine how early experiences, secure attachments, and safe environments can lead to more altruistic, prosocial, and empathic ways of acting while stress, trauma, and neglect can lead to more aggression, callousness, and antisocial behaviour. He will examine what current research and clinical understandings can teach us about living a Good Life. Why might we, and the children or adults, act selfishly and antisocially? Are we born selfish or cooperative and what might sway us in either direction? How do both stress-inducing family contexts and competitive social and economic environments undermine our capacity to feel safe, experience well-being, or care much for ourselves or others? How does a consumerist, materialist ethos, as well as the challenges posed by the cyber-age and increasingly speeded up lives have an impact? This talk will draw on lessons from developmental science, neurobiology, psychoanalysis, and mindfulness to examine the links between feeling good and being good, and generally ponder the Good Life. --- Dr Graham Music, PhD is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Centre and an adult Psychotherapist in private practice. Formerly Associate Clinical Director of the Tavistock Clinic’s Child and Family Department, he works at the Portman as a forensic psychotherapist, and his clinical experience has for decades been mainly with trauma. He has developed and managed a range of services working with the aftermath of child maltreatment and neglect. He supervises and teaches nationally and internationally, and has a particular interest in linking cutting-edge developmental findings with therapeutic practice. His publications include Nurturing Children: From Trauma to Hope (2019), Nurturing Natures: (2016, 2010), Affect and Emotion (2001), The Good Life: (2014) and the forthcoming Resparking (2022), as well as co-editing From Trauma to Harming Others (2021), and shortly his new book Resparking will come out shortly.

Former social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction-machine. We are users, waiting for our next hit as we like, comment and share. We write to the machine as individuals, but it responds by aggregating our fantasies, desires and frailties into data, and returning them to us as a commodity experience. This talk will provide an unflinching view into the calamities of digital life: the circus of online trolling, flourishing alt-right subcultures, pervasive corporate surveillance, and the virtual data mines of Facebook and Google where we spend considerable portions of our free time. You’ll learn about the political and psychological effects of our changing relationship with social media, what’s really behind our addiction, and how to set yourself free. --- Richard Seymour is a writer and broadcaster and the author of numerous books about politics, including The Liberal Defence of Murder (Verso, 2008), Against Austerity (2014), Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics (Verso, 2016) and The Twittering Machine (The Indigo Press, 2019). He completed his PhD in sociology at the London School of Economics under the supervision of Paul Gilroy. In 2005, Seymour’s blog: ‘Lenin’s Tomb’ was named as the 21st most popular blog in the UK, and his writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Jacobin, the London Review of Books, the New York Times and Prospect. --- Links: - Get our latest psychology lectures emailed to your inbox: http://bit.ly/new-talks - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events/ - Richard Seymour’s book: https://amzn.to/2S0XpHL

For 15 years, the transpersonal psychologist Steve Taylor has been researching cases of ‘transformation through turmoil,’ or spontaneous spiritual awakening caused by suffering. In times of bereavement, serious illness, addiction, deep depression and intense stress, a miraculous transformation can occur: the death of an old identity and the birth of a new, spiritually awakened self. In this session based on his upcoming book Extraordinary Awakenings, Steve shares some cases from his research, and explains the reasons why intense suffering can lead to transformation. Then he explains what we can learn from the phenomenon, with principles that we can apply to our own spiritual development. He also explains the global and evolutionary aspects of the phenomenon, in relation to the crises we face as a species. Steve will also lead meditations and exercises to show how we can harness the transformational power of crises and turmoil in our lives. -- Steve Taylor, PhD, is the author of Extraordinary Awakenings and many other bestselling books including The Leap and Spiritual Science. He is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University and the chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. Steve’s articles and essays have been published in over 100 academic journals, magazines, and newspapers and he blogs for Scientific American and Psychology Today. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as ‘an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.’ Steve lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three young children. Visit him online at www.stevenmtaylor.com -- Links: - Get our latest psychology lectures emailed to your inbox: http://bit.ly/new-talks5 - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events/ - Dr Taylor’s website: https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/ - Dr Taylor’s books: https://amzn.to/3gblkke

Within us, the dim cavern of the unconscious holds our forbidden feelings, secret wishes, destructive impulses, and creative urges. Over time, these “dark” forces take on a life of their own, forming the Shadow. A recurring theme in literature and legend, the Shadow is like an invisible twin, a stranger that is us, yet not us. When it acts out, we hurt ourselves or others. As we bring it into awareness with shadow-work, it loses its grip on us and we experience deeper self-knowledge, greater authenticity, and greater choice over our thoughts and behaviors. We also discover that the contents of the Shadow are not all bad; even our undeveloped gifts, talents, and dreams lie dormant there–the gold in the dark side. This talk will explore the formation of shadow in childhood, the common ways we encounter the shadow in life, and how to “romance” it, or make a conscious relationship with it. The Shadow is not a problem to be solved; it’s a mystery to be faced. -- Dr. Connie Zweig, Ph.D., is a retired therapist, co-author of Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow, author of Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality, and a novel entitled ‘A Moth to the Flame: The Life of Sufi Poet Rumi’. Her new book, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul, extends shadow-work into late life and teaches aging as a spiritual practice. Connie has been doing contemplative practices for 50 years. She is a wife and grandmother and was initiated as an Elder by Sage-ing International in 2017. After investing in all these roles, she is practicing the shift from role to soul. -- Links: - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events - Dr Connie Zweig, PhD website: https://conniezweig.com - Dr. Zweig’s books: https://amzn.to/3Djvx6X

In this talk, Rupert Spira will explore the perennial, non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions: reality is a single, infinite and indivisible whole whose nature is consciousness or spirit. Central to this understanding is the recognition of the nature of consciousness, which has been described in the Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism as ‘the greatest secret, more hidden than the most concealed of things, and yet more evident than the most obvious of things’. Rupert will suggest that the overlooking of the nature of consciousness is the root cause of suffering within individuals, conflicts between communities and nations, and the degradation of our environment and that its recognition must, therefore, be the basis of a new paradigm that restores well-being to individuals and peace to our communities. --- Rupert Spira was deeply interested in the nature of reality and the source of lasting peace and happiness since his early age. After spending twenty years immersed in the teachings of classical Advaita Vedanta, he met his teacher, Francis Lucille, who introduced him to the Direct Path approach whereby one may recognise the source of peace and happiness in oneself. Rupert has written several books and holds regular meetings and retreats online, as well as in Europe and the United States. He is also a noted potter, trained in the British Studio Pottery school, with work in public and private collections. You can learn more about his work at www.rupertspira.com. -- Links: - Get our latest psychology lectures emailed to your inbox: http://bit.ly/new-talks5 - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events - Rupert’s website: https://rupertspira.com - Rupert’s publications: https://rupertspira.com/store

How Victor Frankl’s experiences in Nazi concentration camps informed the development of logotherapy and existential analysis (EA), why the search for meaning is our deepest motivation, and how EA brings philosophy, psychotherapy, and spirituality together through a scientific methodology to help individuals unlock a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. -- Alfried LÄNGLE, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. h.c.mult., professor and honorary professor, was born in 1951 in Austria where he still lives. He studied medicine and psychology at the Universities of Innsbruck, Rome, Toulouse, and Vienna. After years of hospital work in general medicine and psychiatry and in an outpatient department of social psychiatry, in 1982 he started a private practice in psychotherapy, general medicine, and clinical psychology in Vienna. At the same time, he came into close collaboration with Viktor Frankl (1983-1991). He assisted Frankl’s lectures at the university for years and worked together with him in many relevant fields of Logotherapy. He is the founder and president (1983-2017) of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis in Vienna (www.existenzanalyse.org), whose honorary president was Viktor Frankl until 1990. By this date, Frankl resigned from his honorary presidency because of Längle’s new developments in the field of existential analysis (methods, implication of existential self-experience in the training and seminars, rejecting the exclusive use of the meaning paradigm in psychotherapy and enlarging its theoretical basis, implementation of biographical work). Dr. Längle is a Professor at the University of Vienna (Sigmund Freud University), Klagenfurt and Moscow (HSE). He has over 400 publications, 2 honorary doctorships and 6 honorary professorships, as well as a gold medal from the Republic of Austria for scientifically high contributions. -- Links: - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events - Dr Alfried Längle, PhD website: https://www.laengle.info - Dr Alfried Längle, PhD books: https://amzn.to/3wGafix

Annahita believes that the dramatic rise in mental illness and how we treat those who are mentally ill exposes a dysfunction inherent within our society. She believes there’s a place for psychiatric medication, but emphasises that we need to move away from a standardised and restrictive approach to mental illness that is over reliant on sedation and dampening feelings and desires. Based on this premise, Annahita argues that contemporary mental health treatments need reviewing and revising. Annahita asks attendees to consider a world where people battling with terminal illness, trauma, stress or depression have access to a range of evidence-based self-transcendent treatments (inclusive of nature, music, and mindfulness-based therapies, and positive technologies and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy). In this talk, Annahita draws on applied research in psychology to make a case for VR-assisted self-transcendent treatments. She summarises some of the extant evidence in this area, explains what the Virtual Reality Overview Effect is, the rationale, theoretical framework behind it, summarises the mission, and milestones reached. -- Dr Annahita Nezami, CPsychol, DPsych, MSc, BSc, is a counselling psychologist providing psychological consultation, assessment and therapy to organisations, individuals, and couples. Her areas of interest include space psychology, higher states of consciousness, wellbeing, performance, neuropsychology, and trauma. Annahita lectures nationally and internationally, and has presented her ideas about the Overview Effect and mental health on BBC Radio 4, Central St Martin’s, UCL, and TEDx. She researched the therapeutic value of the Overview Effect as part of her doctoral studies. After completing her studies, she founded VR Overview Effect (VROE); the first tech-based multi-sensory company that designs and researches treatments based on the self-transcendent experience of the Overview Effect. You can learn more about Annahita’s work at www.vr-overview-effect.co.uk or follow VROE on Instagram @vr_overvieweffect or on twitter @DrAnnahita. Frank White has authored numerous books on topics ranging from space exploration to climate change to artificial intelligence. His best-known work, “The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution”, is considered by many to be a seminal work in the field of space exploration. A film called “Overview,” based largely on his work has had nearly 8 million plays on Vimeo. Since his book was published in 1987, “The Overview Effect” has become a standard term for describing the spaceflight experience. The fourth edition of The Overview Effect, including original interviews with 31 astronauts, is scheduled for publication in 2019. You can learn more about Frank’s work at: https://frankwhiteauthor.com/ -- Links: - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events/ - Dr Nezami’s website: https://www.vr-overview-effect.co.uk/ - Frank’s website: https://frankwhiteauthor.com/ - Frank’s books: https://amzn.to/3kg0a7b

This talk will describe how we can evolve more nurturing societies. The human and biological sciences have converged in recent years in showing that individuals and human groups are most likely to thrive in nurturing conditions. Nurturing environments minimize toxic biological and social conditions, richly reinforce diverse forms of prosocial behaviour, limit influences and opportunities for antisocial or unhealthful behaviour, and promote psychological flexibility, which involves mindfully acting in the service of one’s values. Considerable research has shown how we can create these conditions. The talk will review what we know about the development of antisocial behaviour and antisocial groups. It will then describe family, school, and community programs and policies that foster prosocial development. Finally, it will describe the growing movement to promote prosociality around the world. -- Anthony Biglan Ph.D. is a Senior Scientist at Oregon Research Institute and President of Values to Action. His book, The Nurture Effect: How the science of human behaviour can improve our lives and our world, describes how behavioural science research has brought us to the point where it is possible to evolve a society in which virtually every person is living a productive life in caring relationships with others. His new book, Rebooting Capitalism: How we can forge a society that works for everyone, explains how we evolved a form of capitalism over the last 50 years that has impoverished millions of Americans, undermined the regulation of harmful business practices, and corrupted most of the major sectors of society. The book provides a roadmap for how we can evolve a more nurturing form of capitalism. -- Links: Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events Dr Anthony’s website: https://tonybiglan.com Dr Anthony’s books: https://amzn.to/2Or2WZQ

The concept of society as an organism stretches back to antiquity and was a mainstay of 19th and early 20th century social science. Likewise, 19th century evolutionary thinkers such as Spencer and Lamarck envisioned evolution as in part a conscious process and even Darwin shared these views to a degree. Both of these concepts–society as an organism and conscious evolution– became marginalized and even taboo within evolutionary biology during the middle of the 20th century. Group selection seemed to be authoritatively rejected and all adaptations were explained as for the good of individuals and their selfish genes. And evolution was said to have no purpose whatsoever: Variation is random and only the immediate environment does the selecting. Today, these seemingly authoritative positions themselves appear outdated. The individualistic focus can be seen as part of a broader intellectual trend of individualism, which also pervaded economics and the social sciences during the same period. And the denial of any conscious component to evolution was overly influenced by mendelian genetics, as opposed to other evolutionary processes such as human cultural evolution. In my talk, I will show that the concepts of society as an organism and conscious evolution can be fully validated by modern evolutionary science, providing a practical framework for consciously evolving a planetary superorganism. -- David Sloan Wilson is one of the world’s foremost evolutionary thinkers and a gifted communicator about evolution to the general public. He is SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. In addition to his teaching and research, David is President of Prosocial World – an organisation which aims to catalyze positive cultural change to consciously evolve who we are, how we connect with each other, and how we interact with the planet. David is passionate about making evolution more accessible to a wider audience, and was invited to speak with the Dalai Lama about his work in 2019. He is the author of several books on evolutionary theory, including: “Atlas Hugged” (his first novel), “This View of Life”, “Evolution for Everyone”, “Darwin’s Cathedral”, “Does Altruism Exist?”, and the co-author of “Prosocial”, along with Paul Atkins and Steven Hayes. You can learn more about David’s work at https://www.thisviewoflife.com and https://www.prosocial.world -- - Get our latest psychology lectures emailed to your inbox: http://bit.ly/new-talks5 - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events/ - Professor Wilson’s website: https://thisviewoflife.com/ - Professor Wilson’s books: https://amzn.to/3B7ErEi

The ‘hard problem’ of consciousness is very topical in neuroscience today. It asks why our brains, which function unconsciously for the most part, require consciousness at all. It also asks how the subjective stuff of experience can be inserted into our mechanistic account of brain functioning. There seems to be no place or need for subjective experience in the physical universe. In this talk, Mark Solms will outline the novel approach to this problem that he has taken in his recent work as reported in his new book, the Hidden Spring: a journey to the source of consciousness. The argument begins with the claim that it is a mistake to take human cognition as our model example of consciousness. Why tackle the problem from its most complex end? If we begin with the simplest forms of animal consciousness, he argues, the ‘hard problem’ becomes less hard. -- Professor Mark Solms is best known for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming, and for his pioneering integration of psychoanalytic theories and methods with those of modern neuroscience. He holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital (Departments of Psychology and Neurology). His other positions have included: Honorary Lecturer in Neurosurgery at St. Bartholomew’s & Royal London School of Medicine, Director of the International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Centre, London, and Director of the Arnold Pfeffer Center for Neuro-Psychoanalysis at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Professor Solms’ books include: Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis (winner of the NAAP’s Gradiva Award Best Book, Science Category in 2001), The Brain and The Inner World (2002), and most recently: Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness (2021) --- - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events/ - Professor Solms’s books:https://amzn.to/3ekCTx2