ConnectIONS Live!
Co-produced by the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the Scientific and Medical Network.
How can we move from a sense of separation to interconnectedness?
In this free webinar based on his recent book Spiritual Science, Steve Taylor explains how human goodness — as manifested in qualities such as compassion, altruism and justice — is related to a sense of connection. Conversely, what we think of as ‘evil’ is related to a sense of separation. A sense of separation brings an inability to empathize, or take other people’s perspectives, and a preoccupation with one’s own desires and goals.
How Oneness Leads to Goodness: The Spiritual Source of Compassion and Altruism
Friday, January 22, 2021
11:00am – 12:30pm Pacific
Steve will then explore whether separateness or connection are fundamental to human beings. Our culture assumes that separateness is fundamental, and this has had a disastrous effect, emphasizing and encouraging individualism and selfishness. As Steve’s philosophy of panspiritism suggests, human consciousness is a manifestation of a more fundamental universal consciousness, which is ‘transmitted’ into us via (primarily) the brain. When human beings experience our interconnection, we feel empathy and compassion. Altruism and social justice result from this. Our sense of separation is superficial and aberrational. One of the goals — arguably the main goal — of spiritual practices and paths is to transcend the sense of separateness and attune to our fundamental oneness. In this way, spiritual development is intimately connected with altruism and social justice.
HOST
David Lorimer is a writer, lecturer, poet and editor who is a Founder of Character Education Scotland, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical and former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society. He has also been editor of Paradigm Explorer since 1986 and completed his 100th issue in 2019. He is the author and editor of over a dozen books, including Survival? Death as Transition, Resonant Mind (originally Whole in One), The Spirit of Science, Thinking Beyond the Brain, and Radical Prince about the ideas and work of the Prince of Wales. He is the originator of the Inspiring Purpose Values Poster Programmes, which has reached over 350,000 young people. He is also Chair of the Galileo Commission which seeks to widen science beyond a materialistic world view.
SPEAKER
Steve Taylor, PhD is the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality, and is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University. He is the current chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. His books include Spiritual Science, Waking From Sleep, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, Back to Sanity, The Calm Center and The Leap. His books have been published in 20 languages, and Eckhart Tolle has described his work as “an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.” His new book The Clear Light has just been published. His articles and essays have been published in many academic journals, magazines and newspapers, including Philosophy Now, The Psychologist, The Journal of Humanistic Psychology and The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. He writes blog articles for Scientific American and for Psychology Today. Steve lives in Manchester, England with his wife and three young children.
Kerstin Sjoquist is the Director of Experience & Engagement at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. A long-time IONS member, a series of synchronous and magical events led Kerstin to a staff position at the Institute in 2014, where she now spends her days in support of the creation of IONS programmatic offerings to benefit those who seek a deeper engagement with potential and fulfillment. Prior to joining IONS, Kerstin was the founder and CEO of Consciousness Arts, Inc., specializing in psycho-spiritual products, classes, and services to assist people in expanding and enhancing their lives.
Nina Fry-Kizler, MA, is a Senior Designer in the Experience Department at IONS. A former professor in the Holistic Health Education Masters Program at JFK University, she teaches classes on the psychology and physiology of stress, the challenges of change/transformation, energy models of healing, wellness coaching and mind-body approaches to self-care. Nina was trained in the Mind-Body Medicine Professional Training program from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine and as a Birth Doula through Doulas of North America. Nina’s teachings are centered around how to use revolutionary mind-body medicine and energy healing techniques to activate the relaxation response and the body’s innate healing capacity to improve emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.
Claudia Welss, Executive Producer
Cassandra Vieten, Producer
Bristol Baughan, Co-Director
David Whelan, Co-Director 
Loren Carpenter, Executive Producer
Rev. Jeremy Nickel, Founder of EvolVR
Robert Alexander, Composer
Dee Merz brings the culmination of 35 years of intense curiosity, mature experience, and enlightened evolution into the art and science of healing. Dee’s intuitive skills help her clients to reconnect with their own mystic power, rediscover the meaning and purpose of their life journey, and most importantly to become re-enchanted with their own spirit. Dee is trained in Vital Energy Transformations, Master Certificate in Intuition Medicine® Certified First, Second, Third Degree Reiki Master in Usui System of Natural Healing; and is senior faculty at the 
Claire Lachance serves as the CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where she has championed strategic clarity, healthy culture, and operations grounded in integrity and best practices. Claire earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA magna cum laude in Economics from Tufts University. Representing IONS around the world, Claire is passionate about the expansion of Noetic Leadership as a vital tool for addressing the profound opportunities and challenges of our times.
Tami Simon founded 
Claire Lachance serves as the CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where she has championed strategic clarity, healthy culture, and operations grounded in integrity and best practices. Claire earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA magna cum laude in Economics from Tufts University. Representing IONS around the world, Claire is passionate about the expansion of Noetic Leadership as a vital tool for addressing the profound opportunities and challenges of our times.
Anita Sanchez, PhD is a brilliant international leadership, team, organizational development consultant, trainer, speaker and coach, focusing on diversity, inclusion & engagement, organization and leader development, transformational positive change, communication, unconscious bias and applied neurophysiology/resilience. Her passion is bridging indigenous wisdom and the latest in science to inspire and equip women and men to live their higher purpose in service and joy. Anita is a member of the Board of the Bioneers Organization and of the Pachamama Alliance whose focus is to inspire people to create an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and social just human presence on our earth. Dr. Sanchez is a vision keeper for the Tipping Point Festival, a 10-year large scale collective action strategy to shift the narrative to a New Human Story of global unity.
Jim B. Tucker, MD is a child psychiatrist and the Bonner-Lowry Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is Director of the UVA Division of Perceptual Studies, where he is continuing the work of Ian Stevenson on children who report memories of previous lives. He is the author of two books that together have been translated into twenty languages, Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives (2005) and Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives (2013), a New York Times bestseller. He has published numerous papers in scientific journals and given talks to both scientific and general audiences.
Marc Blesoff, IONS Certified Conscious Aging Facilitator, says he used to know everything and trust nothing. Now, he knows nothing and has glimpsed trust. He used to believe in coincidence, but doesn’t anymore. For over 30 years Marc was a criminal defense attorney. Then a mediator. Six years ago, he began facilitating the IONS Conscious Aging Workshops. He hasn’t stopped. Marc is a member of 
