What and where is the mind?
by:
Lois and Kuruvila Zachariah
when:
Sunday, September 28, 2014 - 14:15 to 15:15
held at:
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work Wilfrid Laurier University 120 Duke Street West Kitchener, Ontario N2H 3W8
George Wald, 1967 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology asserted that
…Mind, rather than emerging as a late outgrowth in the evolution of life, has existed always as the matrix, the source and condition of physical reality - that the stuff of which physical reality is composed is mind-stuff…
We start with some observations about mind-stuff: What is Mind? Where does it exist? What does it do? Can I care for, improve and safeguard my mind and thus act in coherence with planetary networks of life and matter?
Mind and meaning come first and life uses them to evolve interactive patterns of relationships.
Two great universities, Harvard and Princeton were the settings of insights regarding mind: we comment on experiences of Wilder Penfield, Richard Alpert.
Most remarkably, mind-stuff is believed to manifest in three organs, not just the head. We comment on the mind of the brain, the mind of the heart and the mind of the gut.
We conclude with remarks on Mind and the Self.
We, Lois Zachariah (b. 15 June 1941) and Kuruvila Zachariah (b. 10 March 1934) are grandparents of four. We taught biology and did research at the University of Waterloo and Conestoga College. For several years we studied and were mentored in Ignatian spirituality by Jesuits at Guelph. Today, we are engaged in spiritual direction, in workshops and as retreat directors, integrating our interests in science, in ecological networks and in prayer.