Ways to Go Beyond
by Rupert Sheldrake
Book Discussion Group with Jeff Pinnette
Third Sunday of the Month
 10 am - 12 pm | January - June

This discussion group will explore the effects of spiritual practices through Rupert Sheldrake’s companion volume to Science and Spiritual Practices entitled Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work: Seven Spiritual Practices for a Scientific Age. In this sequel, Sheldrake looks at seven spiritual practices that are personally transformative and have scientifically measurable effects.

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1. The Spiritual Side of Sports

2. Learning from Animals

3. Fasting

4. Cannabis, Psychedelics and Spiritual Openings

5. Powers of Prayer

6. Holy Days and Festivals

7. Cultivating Good Habits, Avoiding Bad Habits, and Being Kind.

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Sheldrake combines the latest scientific research with his knowledge of mystical traditions around the world and explains why these seven practices work. They give a greater sense of connectedness. They make people happier and healthier. He looks at their effects inside our brains, throughout our bodies, and on our relationships. He asks whether spiritual experiences are essentially illusory, or if they give us direct connections with realms of consciousness greater than our own.

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Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of morphic resonance. He is the author of more than eighty-five scientific papers and twelve books. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard University, and a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. From 2005 to 2010 he was Director of the Perrott-Warrick project for research on unexplained human and animal abilities, funded by Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California, and of Schumacher College in Devon, England.

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In this discussion group, we’ll read the book together during each session with no reading assignments. This discussion group meets on the third Sunday of the month from 10:00 AM to Noon.

 

Jeffrey Pinnette is the facilitator for this discussion group. He is a long-term Jung Center member and current serves as co-chair of the Center’s Board and as the Program Committee chair. He lives in Topsham.