The theme of this week’s podcast is “Big Ideas”. We need big ideas to accompany mystical insights in order to consciously embrace the developmental implications of what these insights reveal to us about the human experience and life as a whole.

For this week’s podcast we present a far-reaching inquiry into the different absolute dimensions of Spirit, ranging between an examination of THE postmodern existential problem of being itself, the definition of non-duality, and the evolution of enlightenment.

You can listen to the latest podcast produced from last week’s session by clicking here:

On last Tuesday’s Meditation+Evolution session, Patrick encouraged us after a period of meditation to explore how the experience was and if we had any other questions about it. In this podcast a young woman is explaining that her problem was attachment to wanting things to be a certain way – and this opened up a fascinating inquiry into what meditation is and how sitting still really is the process of becoming more conscious.

You can listen to the latest podcast produced from last week’s session by clicking here:

The following was submitted by Sonia Davidson:

The Meditation&Evolution meetups on Tuesdays at EnlightenNext in Islington really are enlightening! I attend as many as I can as we are in the midst of a 20-week course based on Spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen’s Being & Becoming retreat held in Tuscany last August. After spending 10 sessions on ‘Being’ we are now exploring the ‘Becoming’ dimension of Evolutionary Enlightenment which is about awakening to Spirit as the evolutionary impulse.

These evenings are led by Patrick Bryson who is a senior student of Andrew Cohen. He always begins with an introduction to the topic for the evening followed by a short audio clip by Andrew Cohen. Patrick explains and guides us in a short period of meditation where we learn about the always subtle practice of letting go of everything. I am amazed each week by how the meditation is always very still, deep, ever-new and rejuvenating, even though many of the participants hardly know each other!

Through practicing letting go of everything in meditation, we then transition into a lively, passionate and engaged discussion on the the theme for the evening. The subtley and profundity that is revealed as everyone shares their experience really deepens the individual and the groups understanding! And the discussion always overflows into the delicious, light vegetarian supper that is served afterwards.

I find the weekly Meditation&Evolution meetups invaluable as they are a weekly source of inspiration. Each time I delight in the joy of discovering who I really am and in sharing this deep experience with the other participants who attend.

ANDREW COHEN
a Half Day Seminar
Saturday, March 10th 2012, 1:00-6:00 pm

BOOK NOW for our early bird special £45

For twenty-five years, Andrew Cohen has been redefining spiritual awakening for our contemporary world—a world characterized by exponential change and an ever-expanding appreciation for the processes of evolution. During this seminar, Andrew will guide you through an in-depth exploration of his original spiritual path, practice, and philosophy, which he calls “Evolutionary Enlightenment.”

During this seminar you will:

• Engage directly with Andrew Cohen through question-and-answer sessions;

• Discover a unique perspective on how your own development can contribute to the evolution of the whole.

The essential message of Evolutionary Enlightenment is simple, yet profound: Life is evolution, and enlightenment is about waking up to this fundamentally creative impulse as your own deepest, most authentic self. Cohen defines this essential spiritual impulse as nothing less than the powerful force of creativity that has been driving the evolution of the universe since the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago. By engaging with Cohen, you will learn how to access this spiritual force within yourself and experience directly the powerful—and deeply rational—teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment.

In preparation for the seminar, we recommend that you read Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening, his newly published book, available for purchase at (link). Alternatively you will be able to purchase a book after the seminar and get it personally signed by Andrew Cohen. (Delicious Vegetarian meals on sale for £10 available before and after the seminar).

BOOK NOW for our bring a friend for £80

BOOK NOW Full price

ANDREW COHEN video On Oneness

More about Andrew

Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, bestselling author, and founder of the global nonprofit EnlightenNext and its award-winning publication, EnlightenNext magazine. His original teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment redefines spiritual awakening within the context of cosmic evolution and highlights a new understanding of God or Spirit as the creative impulse toward change in both self and culture. After a transformative meeting with the renowned Indian Advaita Vedanta master H.W.L. Poonja in 1986, Cohen began teaching internationally and almost immediately started reshaping the larger cultural conversation about the purpose and significance of enlightenment in our time. Andrew’s work has brought the timeless depth of enlightened wisdom into the twenty-first century and significantly redirected its purpose and promise–calling not for transcendence of worldly attachment, but for a deep and heroic responsibility for the evolution of the world. His bestselling book, Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening, is the product of his 25 years of spiritual teaching and since its publication in September, 2011, it has already garnered praise from some of today’s leading spiritual and cultural figures as one of the most important spiritual works of our time. Andrew lives and works at the EnlightenNext headquarters in Western Massachusetts and spends much of his time travelling around the world giving retreats, seminars, and public talks about Evolutionary Enlightenment.

How would a scientist prove or disprove the existence of God? What could they possibly be looking for? Bernard Carr and Chris Parish held a public dialogue late last year at EnlightenNext titled “Consciousness and Cosmos”.

Having traversed widely differing pathways, Carr and Parish draw on their insights borne of a lifetime of enquiry. Parish is a committed life-long practitioner of enlightenment, expert Enlightened Communication facilitator, and director of EnlightenNext in the UK. Carr is a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London, Chair of the Scientific and Medical Network, and former President of the Society for Psychical Research.

You can read an editorial that Carr has written for the Scientific and Medical Network about the evening’s dialogue, which he titled Cosmic Conversation.

You can also listen to a podcast produced from the conversation on the evening.

A very big part of the transformational process, from the perspective of evolutionary enlightenment, is going back to before the beginning and discovering a source of pure motivation that is uncorrupted by ego. In this week’s podcast from the Tuesday Meditation+Evolution evenings at EnlightenNext we hear from Andrew Cohen introducing the subject, and from Patrick Bryson as he tackles questions ranging from the true nature of intuition and motivation, a victimised vs. non-victimised relationship to life, and how discovering this deep source that is within us all relates to the global crisis we are in.

Thursday December 8th an eager London audience experienced a rich and very satisfying evening the third event in our Enlightennext Evolutionary WorldView conversation series, between Chris Parish and Bernard Carr on the topic of Cosmos and Consciousness. Bernard is a Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University in London and is also current chair of the Scientific and Medical Network. Bernard has an incredible mathematical command of physics but unlike many so knowledgeable, he is very down to earth speaks clearly and communicates with an engaging effervescent passion.

Evolutionary WorldView conversations are structured evenings, where the speakers explore fascinating questions in a generative conversation that are aimed to expand consciousness over the course of the evening. This is in order to bring an evolutionary worldview into the perception of the audience as well as the participating speakers. We consciously steered last Thursday’s conversation away from getting into very technical questions about physics and conversed about generally about the relationship between Cosmos and Consciousness.

There was a real partnership and synergy between both Parish and Carr right from the start and their emphases on primacy and fundamental nature of consciousness featured very strongly throughout the dialogue. For Bernard Carr parapsychology bridges the gap between science and spirituality, though at the end of the evening this view morphed for a few instants. One of the questions we put both speakers concerned whether the discoveries of quantum physics were scientific proof of the existence of spirituality as is popularly promoted through films such as ‘What the Bleep!’ Carr said Quantum Physics blew apart reality as we knew it, what we thought once as solid matter in our Newtonian universe was changed irreversibly. Carr then developed his point around the uncertainty principle which he said there was some evidence that consciousness effected science, plus there was the proven evidence of quantum entanglement and these discoveries were leading people to make some exaggerated conclusions about the nature of physics at this level and spirituality. He said he was a conservative on this topic and granted that quantum phenomena were mysteriously inexplicable, though the phenomena themselves, he would not claim was scientific proof of spirituality.

As the evening unfolded both speakers got progressively more animated with each question, Chris Parish launched into a passionate explication about intersubjectivity and consciousness and that objectifying our shared cultural agreements and putting focus on the need to develop our shared values would be the most effective way to evolve these more concretised structures of our consciousness. One of the high points of a fascinating evening for me was a moment when second tier consciousness became infused by the third tier. Bernard Carr had a mini epiphany when at one point near the end when he realised evolution was not what finally severed religion and science, the final nail in the coffin as it were, but that evolution is what would actually bring both together!

A close friend and key member of the SMN network in the Q&A section after attentively following the trajectory of the evening’s conversation asked both speakers about whether they thought the cosmos was evolving towards a God like state eventually reaching a pre-existing higher plane or was the cosmos evolving as God? Neither speaker had a definitive answer neither of which can be elaborated upon here, however suffice it to say it kept both on their toes and was an exciting way to wrap up the evening!

This week we kicked off the Becoming section of our Tuesday night Meditation+Evolution programme. The topic was Emergence. As Andrew Cohen describes, “Emergence means creating the conditions for higher potentials that never existed before to enter into time and space”. This week’s podcast centers around a discussion when a gentleman asks Patrick Bryson whether this emergence is actually a new thing, and this opens up a fascinating look at what it really means for us now, and also brings light to the very definition and perspective we have on Culture itself.

During last Tuesday’s Meditation+Evolution evening, Chris Parish, MD at EnlightenNext UK, gave us an insightful evolutionary view of the history of Non-duality. The most poignant insight he gave is that only in the last few decades has meditation been associated with stress relief. Throughout the history of human civilisation, meditation has always been about the very serious business of Enlightenment. You can listen to our first podcast supporting the Tuesday evening events.