Dates: Sundays February 4, March 3, April 7, May 5, June 2 & July 7, 2024
Time: 1 pm - 3 pm EST (NYC TIME)
Admission: $75 ($65 for Patreon members)

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot attend live

Please note: Zoom invites are sent five days before the first class meeting. If you do not receive it, please email us at info.morbidanatomy@gmail.com.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, David Byrne said, “It’s a hard thing for us to intuitively accept the idea of ‘self is an illusion.’ It’s very Buddhist, but it’s also increasingly more scientific. It’s not just a spiritual concept. It’s also a kind of neural concept.”

This overlap between scientific evidence and spiritual, occult, paranormal, and otherwise decidedly non-rational beliefs, experiences, and tools has been happening more and more. Let’s take a closer look at what is happening across a variety of scientific disciplines that support—along with new evidence to contradict, in some cases!—the uncanny aspects of life.

This winter, join practicing medium Tiffany Hopkins for a reading group that will investigate how science is beginning to align with the spiritual. Each month, we’ll read a cutting-edge sciencey book (yes, it’s going to be a lot!) from a different discipline, transversing cognitive science, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, ecopsychology, and of course, physics, to get a better understanding of current research on the mysteries of life (and death). Then we’ll meet to dive deeper into the content, talk about what we read, and make more sense out of it all than we could alone.

Get ready to nerd out and blow your own mind! Please note that some of the later books may change based on our conversations and interest.

SCHEDULE

Session One · February 4: Neuroscience

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, Iain McGilchrist, 2009

This one is a beast - check out his YouTube talks to get a summary of the book if you haven’t finished it by our first meeting.

Session Two · March 3: Neuropsychology

Death as an Altered State of Consciousness: A Scientific Approach, Dr. Imants Barušs, 2023

Session Three · April 7: Evolutionary Biology & Neurology

The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe, Stephen W. Porges, 2020

Session Four · May 5: Philosophy

The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge, Jeffrey Kripal, 2019

Session Five · June 2: Physics

Quantum Strangeness: Wrestling with Bell's Theorem and the Ultimate Nature of Reality, George S. Greenstein, 2023

Session Six · July 7: Ecopsychology

A Wild and Sacred Call: Nature–Psyche–Spirit, Will W. Adams, 2023

About the Host

Tiffany J. Hopkins began studying mediumship after moving into her great-great grandmother's cottage in Lily Dale, the world's largest community of Spiritualists. As a professional researcher with a degree in cognitive science, she believes that looking at the rational side of the mysteries of life is both fascinating and necessary. Reading books like The Flip (Kripal, 2019), The Master and His Emissary (McGilchrist, 2009), and The Trickster and the Paranormal (Hanson, 2001) helped her understand how science and spirituality are merging. Tiffany is a practicing medium, educator and independent futurist.

About the Artist

Grete Stern (1904-1999) was a German-Argentine photographer and graphic designer. She emigrated from Germany in 1932 for obvious reasons, leaving her Berlin photography and design studio and studies at Bauhaus. She went first to London, leaving for her husband’s native Argentina soon after. This photograph is from a series of illustrations of womens’ dreams that she made for a magazine column “El psicoanálisis le ayudará” (“Psychoanalysis will help you”).

Images:

1. Dream No. 7, Who Will She Be? (detail), 1949. Photograph by Grete Stern / Courtesy Museum of Modern Art © 2015 Estate of Horacio Coppola. More interesting info: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/grete-sterns-interpretation-of-dreams

2. Illustation of The Soul thfrom Orbis Sensualium Pictus (aka The World of Things Obvious to the Senses drawn in Pictures), John Comenius, mid 17th Century