The Weekend University

Research tells us that our autonomic nervous system scans our body four times per second asking “am I safe?, am I safe? am I safe? am I safe?” If the answer is ‘yes’, we stay neurobiologically in our prefrontal cortex, the most mature part of our brain, our wise adult self, the part of us that is here and now that can observe, reason and decide. However, if the answer is ‘no, I don’t feel safe’, more primitive parts of our neurology get activated. The wise adult self shuts down and the more primitive reactive automatic parts of our nervous system take over. We find ourselves, despite our best intentions, repeating the same dysfunctional moves in relationships that we first learned in our childhood. The sense of the whole of US, disappears and we move into a you and me, win or lose adversarial contest. The spiritual teacher, Krishnamurti, once said “True liberation is freedom from our own automatic responses.” This workshop teaches the skill of ‘relational mindfulness’, the cultivation of our wise adult selves even in heated moments. Trauma pulls us into immature behaviors in our relationships and learning mature relational skills has the power to heal our deepest injuries. --- Terrence Real is an internationally recognized family therapist, speaker, and author. He founded the Relational Life Institute, offering workshops for couples, individuals, and parents along with a professional training program for clinicians to learn his Relational Life Therapy methodology. He is the bestselling author of “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”, “How Can I Get Through to You?”, and “The New Rules of Marriage”. You can check more of his work at https://terryreal.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 - Terry’s website: https://terryreal.com - Terry’s books: https://terryreal.com/product-category/books - Terry’s audio books & courses: https://terryreal.com/product-category/audio-books-courses - Terry’s new book “US” PRE-ORDER at: https://terryreal.com/us-book

In a previous two-hour lecture for TWU, I argued for the nature of consciousness as a foundational element in the cosmos, not derivative from anything else.  In this talk, I will not attempt to repeat that argument, but start from where I left off.  In a new book, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World (Perspectiva Press, November 2021), I ask how we come to know anything at all, and move on to consider what we can say about the irreducible ‘building blocks’ of reality: time, space, matter, consciousness, values, purpose and the sense of the sacred.  I take value and purpose to be implied by the very nature of consciousness itself; constitutive of reality, not ‘invented’ (though obviously particular values and particular purposes may be); that although science is popularly thought to contradict such a view it does not, rightly understood, do so at all; and that reason and evidence strongly supports such a conclusion.  I hold that our failure to understand this lies at the heart of our global predicament. --- Dr. McGilchrist has published original research and contributed chapters to books on a wide range of subjects, as well as original articles in papers and journals, including the British Journal of Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Times. He has taken part in many radio and TV programmes, documentaries, and numerous podcasts, and interviews on YouTube, among them dialogues with Jordan Peterson, David Fuller of Rebel Wisdom, and philosopher Tim Freke. His books include Against Criticism, The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning, and Ways of Attending. He published his latest book: The Matter With Things, a book of epistemology and metaphysics. You can keep up to date with his work at https://channelmcgilchrist.com Dr Iain McGilchrist is a Psychiatrist and Writer, who lives on the Isle of Skye, off the coast of North West Scotland. He is committed to the idea that the mind and brain can be understood only by seeing them in the broadest possible context, that of the whole of our physical and spiritual existence, and of the wider human culture in which they arise – the culture which helps to mould, and in turn is moulded by, our minds and brains. He was formerly a Consultant Psychiatrist of the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley NHS Trust in London, where he was Clinical Director of their southern sector Acute Mental Health Services. -- 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 McGilchrist’s website: https://channelmcgilchrist.com - Dr McGilchrist’s books: https://amzn.to/3eU89TF

Mark has a pretty interesting story to tell. Earlier in life, he was an international drug smuggler, an addict of 17 years, homeless, and has spent time locked up in a Spanish prison. Now, he is a leading addiction psychotherapist at Harley Street Clinic in London, a bestselling author of two books, a family-man, and a sought after speaker and teacher on working with addiction. His work has attracted praise from the likes of Russell Brand and Ross Kemp, and he has been featured on BBC, the Daily Record and numerous other news outlets. In this interview, we explore: — Mark’s background and his journey to recovery — Common myths surrounding addiction — The root causes of addiction — Mark’s 5-step framework for working with addiction in psychotherapy And more. Mark will be presenting on Schema Therapy & Addiction at our forthcoming Day on Addiction Online Conference on September 25th, 2022. The other speakers will be Dr Anna Lembke, who will give a talk on Dopamine and Addiction, and Professor Marc Lewis will present on Internal Family Systems and Addiction. --- Mark Dempster is a Harley Street Addiction Specialist, author, and former addict. In his younger years, he was addicted to alcohol and drugs, which eventually led to him smuggling, dealing, prison and homelessness. After turning things around in his thirties, he is on a mission to help others recover from addictions and flourish in their lives. He is the author of two books on addiction: Nothing to Declare and The Ongoing Path. You can learn more about Mark’s work at www.markdempstercounselling.com, and follow him on Twitter @mdcounselling. --- Interview Links: — Reinventing Your Life - Dr Jeffrey Young: https://amzn.to/3cfen2F — Mark’s books: http://markdempstercounselling.com/book

The comparative study of identical and fraternal twins is a powerful method for identifying the relative contributions of genes and environments to individual differences in behavioral, physical, and health-related characteristics. Studies of reared-apart twins provide even more compelling ways to approach this same class of questions, given that the co-twins were raised in different homes, communities and/or countries, so were unable to influence one another. This talk first reviews the different types of twins and the logic behind twin designs before presenting findings from past, recent and current studies of twins who grew up separately. Here, the focus will be on the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart and the Fullerton Study of Chinese Twins; however, research using reared together twins, virtual twins (same-age-unrelated individuals reared together who replicated twinship but without a genetic link) and unrelated look-alikes will also be described with reference to family relations, tacit coordination, personality similarity, and bereavement. The vast body of evidence indicates that genetic influence is pervasive, affecting virtually every measured human trait, but environmental factors also play a role. The occasional abuse of twin studies must be recalled to prevent their future occurrence. --- Prof. Nancy L. Segal, PhD is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Twins Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton. She has authored over 250 articles and six books on twins; her seventh book, Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart was released in November 2021. Dr. Segal’s 2012 book, Born Together-Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study, won the 2013 William James Book Award from the American Psychological Association. She was a speaker at a TedX event in Manhattan Beach, California (2017), and delivered invited addresses at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2018) and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, in Florence, Italy (2019). She was also an invited participant in a debate on parenting organized by Intelligence Squared in New York City (2019). Dr. Segal’s work has been featured in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She has appeared on national and international television and radio programs, including The Today Show, 20/20, Long Lost Lives, AirTalk (NPR) and Hidden Brain (NPR). Dr Segal can be contacted via email at: nsegal@fullerton.edu, and you can learn more about her work on: drnancysegaltwins.org -- Links: - Get our latest psychology lectures emailed to your inbox: http://bit.ly/new-talks5 - Check out our next event: http://theweekenduniversity.com/events - Prof. Segal’s website: http://drnancysegaltwins.org - Prof. Segal’s books: https://amzn.to/3EMVOfb

So many of us believe that we are free to shape our own destiny. But what if free will doesn’t exist? What if our lives are largely predetermined, hardwired in our brains – and our choices over what we eat, whom we fall in love with, even what we believe are not real choices at all? Neuroscience is challenging everything we think we know about ourselves, revealing how we make decisions and form our own reality, unaware of the role of our unconscious minds. Did you know, for example, that: — Anxieties and phobias can be carried across generations in a family? — Your genes and pleasure and reward receptors in your brain will shape how much you eat? — We can sniff out ideal partners with genes that give our offspring the best chance of survival? In this talk, leading neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow will draw vividly from everyday life and other experts in their field to show the extraordinary potential as well as dangers which come with being able to predict our likely futures – and looking at how we can alter what’s in store for us. Lucid, illuminating, awe-inspiring, this talk will revolutionise your understanding of who you are – and empower you to help shape a better future both for yourself and the wider world. --- Dr Hannah Critchlow, PhD is an internationally acclaimed neuroscientist based at the University of Cambridge, who specialises in demystifying the human brain on Radio, TV and at Festivals. Dr Critchlow helped present BBC’s Tomorrow’s World Live and BBC2 -The Family Brain Games, published ‘Consciousness: A Ladybird Expert Guide’ with Penguin and The Science of Fate with Hodder in May 2019, which made The Sunday Times Bestseller list. In 2019, Hannah was named by Nature as one of Cambridge University’s ‘Rising Stars in Life Sciences’ in recognition for achievements in science engagement. She was also elected member of the prestigious European Dana Alliance of the Brain and joined the judging panel for the prestigious Wellcome Trust Science book Prize for 2018. Dr Critchlow’s work in science communication was named as a Top 100 UK scientist by the Science Council in 2014 and one of Cambridge University’s most ‘inspirational and successful women in science’ in 2013. While completing her PhD, Hannah was awarded a Cambridge University Fellowship and as an undergraduate received three University Prizes as Best Biologist. -- 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 Critchlow’s profile: https://bit.ly/drcritchlow - Dr Critchlow’s book: https://amzn.to/3GBXwkd

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