Conversations Beyond Science & Religion

No subject so sharply highlights the contrast between science and religion as evolution. Over 150 years ago Darwin ( http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/151902/Charles-Darwin) wrote that all living things descended from one common ancestor through the process of natural selection ( http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Natural_selection) . Later biologists found a mechanism for evolution...

Media outlets ( http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/tech/innovation/big-bang-gravitational-waves/)across the globe have recently reported that a group of physicists, using sophisticated imaging equipment in the south pole, have detected gravity waves that in turn prove the reality of the inflationary big bang. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_%28cosmology%29) So what does this mean? What are gra...

The idea of an awakening permeates the world’s spiritual literature. The term “Buddha” itself means, “the awakened one.” Upon this awakening we rise to a higher level of awareness where we come to understand the true power of the world. Kundalini experiences show that awakenings are real. These are events where a person, through mediation, yoga, or otherwise, manages to tap the energy source to be...

A Shaman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism) connects the unseen with the seen; mind with the physical world. Mediating between the two, shamanic wisdom teaches how mastering the self leads to mastery over our lives. In this week's show, Philip Mereton talks with internationally known professor of anthropology, Bonnie Glass-Coffin ( http://bonnieglasscoffin.com/) , co-author of Lessons in Co...

Cosmologists have declared 96% of the universe missing. Two mysterious things, dark matter ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter)and dark energy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy) , make up most of what cosmologists believe to be the cosmos. Neither can be seen, leaving 4% consists of things we are familiar with, dirt, stones, water, and stars. On this show, Richard Panek, author of,...

We each live stories; the ones we write and the ones others write for us. Today most of us follow the story of materialism, which tells a tale of separateness; particles separated in matter; stars separated in space; people separated from each other. But another storyline is developing. This is one where we find that separateness -- like the early Indian thinkers said -- is an illusion., we all co...

The true aim of science is to understand the world so that we can master it, and make it work for us. This also happens to be the goal of many self-help books, which give instructions for how to access the Source, the subconscious, the unified mind and find the Secret for seeing our intentions fulfilled. Philip Mereton’s guest this week is Michael Samuels, ( http://michaelsamuelsbooks.blogspot.com...

Higher consciousness, expanded awareness; one mind. Great thoughts. But unless we find a way to apply them to everyday life, these high-sounding ideas may not carry us too far. In her new book, Madly Chasing Peace: How I Went to Hell to Happy in Nine Minutes a Day, ( http://www.dinaproctor.com/book.html) Philip Mereton's guest this week, Dina Proctor, ( http://www.dinaproctor.com/) tells her story...

Along with being the newest of the world's major religions, Mormonism ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism)has also somehow become the least understood. On this show we go beneath the surface and explore how Mormonism's views of the afterlife and reincarnation compare to other religions and to modern accounts of near-death experiences. Is Mormonism an outlier or an evolutionary strand of Chris...

Among the strongest of our conditioning beliefs is that consciousness arose from the dust; only matter is real, spirit is invisible to science. Yet, oddly, this matter-first model, attributed to Issac Newton, has been overturned by quantum theory, ( http://www.integralscience.org/ConsciousQM.html) though this fact has not filtered into the scientific community. Perhaps no one has done a better job...

On this show, Philip Mereton, talks with bestselling author, Mario Livio ( http://www.mariolivio.com ), about the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics ( http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Wigner.html) in explaining the universe, and the “brilliant blunders” of great scientists. Whether looked at through the lens of science or religion, the success of mathematics in explaining th...

A song is on your mind; it plays on the radio; you're thinking of a friend; she texts you. "Synchronicity," ( http://carl-jung.net/synchronicity.html) a term coined by the great Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, are "meaningful coincidences," the simultaneous occurrence of independent events that appear to come from a source that understands the whole picture, like an author who knows where the story...

According to a recent CBS poll, 57% of the American public believes in some form of physic phenomena. But according to modern science, psychic phenomena is unproven, and anyone who believes in these events is in some way deluded ( http://www.michaelshermer.com/the-believing-brain/) . Philip Mereton's guest this week, Dean Radin ( http://deanradin.com/) , perhaps more than any other person, has use...

Cosmologists have declared 96% of the universe missing. Two mysterious things, dark matter ( http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dark-matters-elusiveness-means-search-may-soon-become-more-challenging&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20140102 ) and dark energy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy) , make up most of what cosmologists believe to be the cosmos. Neither can be seen, leaving 4% consist...

The notion that we are part of one mind stands directly opposed to virtually everything we’ve been taught, which makes it a strange idea. Don’t we all have separate bodies with separate brains, disconnected creatures following our own paths? Isn’t all that matters our own personal success? On this show, Philip Mereton explores the notion of the one mind with, Dr. Larry Dossey, ( http://www.dosseyd...

Mainstream motivational teachers say we can be whatever we want to be. This week’s guest, Chris M. Sprague, ( http://chrismsprague.com/ ) teaches something different. Each of us, he believes, is wired to thrive in different ways, and the secret to success is understanding our own internal wiring system. Once we align our lives with our wiring, anything is possible. Also on this show, Philip Mereto...

The quest for the fountain of youth remains one of our most deeply held but elusive dreams. But if we can’t have eternal life, we can at least try to optimize our potential lifespans. This is the purpose of Lifespan Seminar ( http://www.lifespanseminar.com/ ), the organization headed by this week’s guest, Guy Joseph Ale. He teaches that we must first understand our own potential lifespans, and the...

In reincarnation, the soul moves through history occupying different bodies following the law of karma ( http://www.spiritual-encyclopedia.com/karma.html) . With karma, our past actions determine our future selves. So if reincarnation is true, we each have lived past lives the memory of which is buried “soul-deep” in our consciousness. In her new book, Your Soul Remembers: Accessing Your Past Live...

Reconciling science and religion remains an unfinished project. Some believe science can answer all the big questions -- including creation and the origin of life -- and therefore there is no need for religion. Others want to base society upon ancient religious manuscripts, regardless of what the findings of science show. Still others believe science and religion cover different domains, and the t...

According to Albert Einstein, energy ( http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/emc1.htm) equals mass times the speed of light squared. So that means both mass and energy are the same thing in different forms, and that mass is condensed energy. The equation would apply not only to the stars and nuclear power, but also to our own bodies, which of course have mass. So that further means we are really ene...

The Book of Genesis contains more than the story of creation and the Garden of Eden. According to the Qabalah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic_Qabalah) , hidden in the original Hebrew symbols is a code carrying a message broader than the stories convey, telling us something important about our human potential. Listen in as Philip Mereton unlocks the Genesis Code with guest, Glynda-Lee Hoffm...

On October 8, 2013, the Nobel committee awarded the most prestigious prize in science to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert for the detection of the Higgs particle at the Large Hadron Collider, the world most powerful particle accelerator. The Higgs particle (aka the God particle), as the theory goes, is the mediator of the Higgs field, which gives elementary particles their mass. This discovery, he...

Everyone knows that our physical bodies develop in stages from childhood to adult. But what about spirituality? Does that develop as well? And if we view spiritual development as something that all people go through, might this provide a way to understand the sharp differences between the new atheists (such as Richard Dawkins ( http://www.amazon.com/s/ref =nb_sb_ss_i_1_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbo...

In shamanism, the symptoms of illness are symbols of the state of your being. This truth extends from the individual person to the world at large. To heal ourselves we must realize we are an intertwined part of the circle of life, engaged in a process of re-membering our true selves, striving to move in harmony with the flow of being. This week's guest, don Oscar Miro-Quesda ( http://www.heartofth...

The multiverse ( http://www.allaboutscience.org/multiverse.htm) . String theory ( http://superstringtheory.com/) . The God particle. The inflationary Big Bang. Dark matter and dark energy. These are some of the latest theories of physics, but do they say anything about reality? How does someone test to see if there are really trillions of additional universes beyond the boundaries of this one? Or...