451. Marjorie Woollacott - a podcast by Rick Archer

Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Ph.D., has been a neuroscience professor at the University of Oregon for more than three decades and a meditator for almost four. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for 35 years, she has co-authored a popular textbook for health professionals that is in its 5th edition, and has written more than 180 peer-reviewed research articles—several of which were on meditation, the topic that motivated her to write the book Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind.

As a neuroscientist, Marjorie Woollacott had no doubts that the brain was a purely physical entity controlled by chemicals and electrical pulses. When she experimented with meditation for the first time, however, her entire world changed. Woollacott’s journey through years of meditation has made her question the reality she built her career upon and has forced her to ask what human consciousness really is. Infinite Awareness (winner of the 2017 Parapsychological Association Book Award, Eric Hoffer Book Award, and the Nautilus Book Award) pairs Woollacott’s research as a neuroscientist with her self-revelations about the mind’s spiritual power. Between the scientific and spiritual worlds, she breaks open the definition of human consciousness to investigate the existence of a non-physical and infinitely powerful mind.Website: marjoriewoollacott.com

Marjorie is the president of an organization called The Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences, which she co-founded with Gary Schwartz at the U. of Arizona. The organization hopes to help impel the paradigm shift away from materialism.Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interviewInterview recorded April 22, 2018

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.Chapters:


00:00:00 - Introduction and Background00:03:26 - A Mantra for Anxiety Relief
00:06:13 - The Life-Changing Initiation00:08:59 - Integrating Science and Spirituality
00:11:49 - The Excitement of Consciousness Studies00:14:29 - The Lack of Curiosity in our Worldview
00:17:13 - The Connectedness of All Beings00:20:08 - The Disconnect between Scientists and General Public
00:23:04 - The Shift in Scientific Consciousness00:26:01 - Consciousness as a Universal Substratum
00:29:06 - The Implicate Order and Karma00:31:59 - The Consciousness in Every Particle of the Universe
00:35:02 - The Filtered Theory of Consciousness00:38:12 - The Enlightened Master's Consciousness
00:41:17 - Cultivating Non-bounded Reality00:44:13 - Idealist Monistic Philosophies
00:47:00 - The Numinous Consciousness00:50:02 - The Manifestation of Consciousness
00:52:48 - The Effects of Meditation on the Brain00:55:34 - Stillness of the Mind and Pure Consciousness
00:58:21 - The symbiotic relationship between science and spirituality01:01:24 - The Limitations of Randomized Controlled Trials in Determining Effectiveness
01:04:04 - Subtleties and Realities of Perception01:06:53 - Exploring Subtle Realms of Perception
01:09:45 - The Mechanics of Awareness01:12:30 - The Nature of Consciousness and Binding
01:15:19 - The Subtle Body and its Faculties01:18:19 - The Experience of Atheists
01:21:08 - The Power of Positive Thoughts and Non-Local Consciousness01:24:15 - Exploring the Hypotheses of Consciousness
01:27:05 - Ken Wilber Interview

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