White Robed Monks of St. Benedict

Semi-Plenary Saturday, October 23, 2010

SP 3, 4 Infinity Through Presence

The New, True Infinity, Peter Dziuban. Author/Lecturer Something important–and revealing–concerning infinity has been largely overlooked. This discusses a "new" definition of infinity, not thoroughly investigated by scientists and philosophers. The term infinity generally used today, is largely derived from finity. Traditionally, infinity has been considered endless finity, an indefinite, unlimited finity. Almost always, infinity starts with finity, and is said to be an endless or indefinite version of that.
Another, entirely different definition is found in the root meaning of the word itself. The prefix "in" means no or not. Thus, in-finity does not mean endless or indefinite finity. It means no finity whatsoever. To summarize the distinction: the traditional infinity always involves number, measurement, size, finity–even if that finity is extended beyond the grasp of human thought. In contrast, the "new" infinity has nothing to do with finity–but is undeniably present and real, as will be shown. It is an infinity that is not merely, as Plotinus said, "beyond number," but preclusive of numbers. It is an infinity that leaves no finite mathematics–yet which may answer deeper mathematical questions.
This article does not challenge the other "infinities" as currently utilized in finite human experience, especially mathematics. This is simply an examination of infinity when taken to mean no finity whatsoever. It is an infinity that, itself, is All. It leaves no finite form or quantity–not even any finite mental forms, thus no finite thinking, or attempts at verbal description–yet we do our best under the finite limitations of words. While this infinity cannot be mentally grasped, one definitely can think about what such an infinity means, and its implications. It provides an entirely new basis from which to consider Life's biggest questions, offering a new look at Ultimate Reality.

Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Believing. Robert Dittler, Ph.D.
We live our lives based upon possibilities and assumptions we create. We then call these possibilities and assumptions our beliefs. Because these assumptions or beliefs are held in the mind, are products of the mind, they are made-up, created. We then believe our beliefs. We call them true or false. If our beliefs are challenged, we argue, fight, or declare war upon each other to find out whose belief is supposedly true. Some of us love the drama and, within it, create meaning and purpose for our lives in a universe with no meaning and purpose as the universe is just as it is that it is.
None of us really knows what we each are doing. We may believe we know what we are doing and, in the same moment, we may realize that we also made erasers for our pencils or can press the delete button on our key pad.
Examine how we interpret our lives and our experience. What assumptions have we made about our own selves and the world, and have left these assumptions unexammed for months, years, and millennia. For how many years did we believe the Earth was flat? Being without thought, as infants, did we actually choose not to like spinach - or did we just not like spinach? From whence do we emerge our thought, feelings, emotions, sensations? We have science that can explain via neuro networking activity how we think, feel, sense, and emote . And from beyond the "I", we know, neither from our science nor from our experience, that we make all of this up. So let us let our ego-selves reside in Peace and let our beliefs be just what they are - beliefs.

Perspective Taking. Scott Kiloby ("Non-Dual"Author/Teacher)
Scott Kiloby will speak about how nondual awareness provides an openness to explore "perspective taking." Perspective taking is the capacity to look from many perspectives. For example, through perspective taking, scientists can take up the proper injunctions to recognize nondual awareness. Likewise, nondualists can take up the proper injunctions from scientists and look from their perspective. Neither view gets absolutized in perspective taking. This broadens the conceptual lens through which we see the world. Perspective taking applies to all relationships.

SP4 Nondual Medicine

Illness, Nonduality, and Holism. EricMein, M.D.
At the personal level, very few things challenge our nonduality consciousness more than dealing with our own physical bodies and health issues. Our bodies exist in states of dynamic equilibrium where the visible and invisible realms meet and play out their perpetual dance. These bodies, however, deteriorate over time and eventually die. Illness carries with it the implication that we are not whole and have failed. The process of illness can heighten the perception of a mind-body duality and usually reinforce our reliance solely on the paradigm of scientific materialism in the form of modern medicine. At the societal level, modern medicine has always been resistant to any science based on the primacy of consciousness. As cutting edge research now makes clear that no line can be drawn between psyche and soma, the pattern of explaining everything in biochemical and molecular terms with no room for spirit is becoming ever more entrenched. Spirit/mind/body approaches have been diluted into isolated alternative therapies to be considered individually for their active physical processes. "The biological sciences are historically known to lag well behind physics in their conceptual approach and one of the largest challenges in the coming decade will be to birth the ideas of modern physics into practical and accepted applications in medicine. This talk will explore these issues in more depth to help initiate further discussion on the topic.

"Remembering the Future: The Power of Premonitions, and How Hiey Shape Our Existence". Larry Dossey, MD (EXPLOREjournal)
Throughout recorded history, people have claimed the ability to sense the future, on occasion, through premonitions, instinct, intuition, hunches, or "gut feelings." This ability has been dismissed as anecdotal, fanciful, and impossible by conventional science. Recently, however, this dialogue has changed. Computer-based laboratory experiments, now replicated worldwide, indicate an innate ability to sense future developments.
"Premonition" comes from words meaning "forewarning." Biologists suggest that precognitive abilities may have become innate because they serve a survival function. This is consistent with surveys indicating that most premonitions warn individuals of threatening events, such as natural and manmade disasters and ominous health events.
Dr. Dossey will emphasize reports from patients and physicians of health-related premonitions, and will discuss why these experiences deserve our attention. He will show why premonitions should be considered a form of preventive medicine, and why they can be crucial considerations in the therapeutic encounter. Dr. Dossey will discuss the empirical research documenting our innate premonition sense, how to cultivate and enhance this ability, and its impact on our lives.
A new image of consciousness will be presented: a nonlocal image, in which consciousness manifests infinitely in space and time, with stunning implications for the survival of bodily death.
At the end of the presentation, you are better able to:

1. Describe one clinical event suggesting the operation of unconscious premonitions
2. Define "presentiment"
3. Name one behavior that has been proved to enhance precognitive performance in laboratory tests
4. Describe the importance of nonlocal awareness in the therapeutic encounter

An Introduction to Quantum Integrative Medicine. Antit Goswami, Ph.D. Professor of Physics (retired) (University of Oregon, Eugene)
Brief Description: In the field of medicine today, besides the conventional allopathy there are a whole bunch of medicinal systems collectively called alternative or complementary medicine. In this talk, I will show how an approach based on quantum physics and the primacy of consciousness integrates these disparate systems of medicine, both conventional and alternative. In particular, I will discuss how homeopathy and acupuncture are explained in the new approach and how a coherent theory of mind-body medicine can be built. I will also discuss the concept of health management and positive health.

Microbes - the play of life. Emmanuel Drouet, Ph.D. Professor of Virology (Universite Joseph-Fourier, Grenoble, France)
Microbes – i.e. the viruses, the bacteria - are everywhere and constitute nine out often cells in the human body! There are uncountable millions of different kinds of microbes, but only a few thousand cause diseases in plants and animals. They are the play of life, in the shakepearean sense, and now we have tantalising information regarding the influence of viruses on the evolution of all cellular life forms from bacteria to humans, approaching the deeper questions about the so-called "genome creativity". This means that the driving forces for hereditary change in evolution are the same driving forces that underpin the genetic, and epigenetic, basis of disease. Coming back to the microbes, they are players at a microscopic level and most m's are harmless to other life forms, which really means to other forms of themselves. In a different corner of the stage, the forms we call viruses – which are the tiniest "living" microorganisms - are at play {in a selfish or altruistic way); Now rather unfairly, viruses have gained a notoriously bad reputation as infectious agents, which seems a bit rough as they're only doing what they've been programmed to do, i.e. grow and multiply and "spread themselves upon the earth", which by all accounts they're doing brilliantly as they are the most numerous and fastest evolving organisms on the planet. But the full extent of this role is only just emerging, and scientists are reappraising not just the relationship between viruses and their hosts, but also the main principle of evolution. We must find a unified vision around the role of viruses and us human beings; there is not an aggressor (the virus) and an individual who has an illness called a virus. Given the huge viral presence in our genome (9% of the human genome are integrated viruses called HERVs or Human Endogenous Retroviruses), we cannot afford to ignore die viruses in general and their omnipresent symbiotic life in nature.
This session is eligible for CE credit.