Keynote Address: The Mystery of Consciousness by Peter Russell
With his characteristic blend of physics, psychology, philosophy and mysticism, Peter Russell articulates a new worldview that bridges both science and spirit. The key is the nature of consciousness. Modern science, which has enjoyed so much success in furthering our understanding of the material world, has singularly failed to account for consciousness. Yet without consciousness there would be no science. As far as the contemporary scientific worldview is concerned, consciousness is one big anomaly. Peter Russell challenges sciences assumption about the nature of reality. Rather than trying to account for consciousness in terms of the material world, he proposes a new metaparadigm (the paradigm behind our various scientific paradigms) in which consciousness is as fundamental as space, time, and matterperhaps even more so. This new view of consciousness leads a new understanding of Godnot the Almighty, father-figure God of classical religion, but the God of which the mystics have always spoken, the Godhead shining within us all as the light of consciousness. We are on the threshold of a revolution in worldview even more profound and far-reaching than that initiated by Copernicus 500 years ago. All the pieces for the new worldview are in place. Nothing new needs to be discovered. All that is required is for us to put the pieces together and explore the new picture of the cosmos that emerges. When we do we discover a world in which the worldviews of science and spirituality no longer conflict, but represent two different views of reality. Such a convergence is most needed today, for it is the spiritual aridity of the current times that lies behind the many challenges now facing humanity.
