This weekend I submitted an abstract to speak at The Science & Nonduality Conference to be held in San Rafael, California, in October of this year. The theme for this year is “The Nature of Self.”
As a lover of creativity and the creative process, I am constantly exploring what it is that makes creativity possible. Hopefully my abstract piques your own interest to further explore the miraculous nature of creativity:
How do the coveted mystical experiences expressed in religious texts differ from the experience of the inventor at the moment of insight? How does artistic expression differ from scientific discovery? How does creativity and innovation of the cosmos and the evolution of the natural world (causality) differ from the creativity, innovation, and evolution of humankind (karma)?
Or are there more fundamental themes running throughout these diverse expressions of creativity, themes that might allow for a deeper sense of meaning, purpose, and joy in the individual, themes that could open unforeseen dialogues across all the various disciplines, themes that might lead to greater creative expression and innovation in all fields, themes with the power to heal the prevailing schism between humankind and the world we inhabit?
Contrasting the scientific hypothesis of conscious self-awareness emerging some 150,000 years ago—the emergence itself resulting from more and more complex orderings of matter—with more traditional views that the material universe precipitated out of consciousness itself, I will explore the non-dual aspects of creativity and the creative process across art, science, and religion, demonstrating how both the scientific and traditional approaches together enriches the creative process as a whole. Furthermore, by using the Golden Gate and the bridge that spans it as a metaphor, I will demonstrate the importance of developing both our ineffable experience of the absolute Self as well as the confidence, purposefulness, and directionality of our finite egos.
For more information on the Science and Nonduality conference, go here.