Conference Overview and Speaker Topics

May 25-28, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend

Friday evening through lunch Monday

Healing: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science
Joan Borysenko

The current revolution in health and wellbeing draws from the deep well of yoga science in its prescriptions for physical healing, mental health, and optimal performance. There are stunning parallels between modern and ancient mind training techniques that help in the quest to use stress as a portal to awakening, recover from addictions, and focus attention in the present moment. The psychology of mind/body medicine includes training in meditation practice, breathing techniques, mindfulness, gratitude, forgiveness, the use of witnessing to manage emotions, and the cultivation of cognitive awareness and choice. In this lecture we'll explore the intersection of modern neuroscience, psychology, and spiritual practice.

The Epochal Changes of Hamlet’s Mill
Walter Cruttenden

Walter will explore the cycle of the ages as depicted in the myth and folklore of Hamlet’s Mill. This is the name of book written by Giorgio de Santillana, the former professor of the history of science at MIT, and his equally learned co-author, Hertha von Dechend, an anthropologist from the Wolfgang Goethe - University of Frankfurt.

The book was written in the 1960’s, and both authors have since passed away, but their work stands as a prescient study of myth and folklore, which they believed was a “scientific language of yore”. In it they found not a primitive babble, as most of their academic peers professed, but rather a wisdom so deep as to be almost incomprehensible to a still material age.

Needless to say, these two scientsists rattled the status quo and were severely criticized for their viewpoints. It is only today when we begin to understand the yugas, and the vast accomplishments of the ancients, that Giorgio and Hertha are redeemed.

Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt and South America
Christopher Dunn

"There is a growing realization that ancient cultures were highly developed and had a unique and impressive command of the material world. The terra-forming and building projects the ancient Egyptian and Peruvian's undertook are symbolic of an important aspect of any culture that is exercising the inspiration to invent and create. By examining the creations of ancient cultures, from an engineering perspective, one sees that genius was at work in millennia past.

 From the genius of the pyramids, and the temples and statuary of Egypt, to the confounding mystery of pre-Inca architecture in Peru and Bolivia, ancient tools left their signature on hard igneous rock and disappeared from the archaeological record. In this presentation, these unique signatures will be identified and the high technology that was lost in time will be brought to life."

God Is Not Dead
Amit Goswami, Ph. D.

Quantum physicist Amit Goswami will demonstrate that the answer to this often difficult question in the traditional scientific community is a resounding "Yes." This answer comes from increasingly conclusive evidence in favor of God as the creative agent for consciousness, and therefore, the ground of all being. This increasing awareness and its subtle, but definitive scientific backing is consistent with the dynamics of the ascending Dwapara Yuga in which we now find ourselves. Amit will also introduce you to quantum activism: how to live as a quantum connoisseur of God.

Yoga Therapy
Uma Krishnamurthy, M.D.

Uma Krishnamurthy, who is a pioneer of yoga psychology, will introduce the basic concepts of her field, and how she has successfully blended the most intrinsic ancient wisdoms and knowledge of yoga and healing with the specific spiritual, emotiona, and physical needs of people in this increasingly energetic and fast-paced time. She will discuss her own ideas that she has developed and presented worldwide through many years of practice on yoga therapy for the transformation of negative emotions. She will also discuss the yoga psychology approach to positive mental health, one of the most central subjects in personal development during this time.

Dwapara Religion - The Spiritual Quest in the Energy Age
Swami Kriyananda

According the yugas, mankind entered an energy age, called Dwapara Yuga, in 1700AD. Since 1700AD we’ve seen a scientific revolution that has overturned the notion of matter as an independent reality. We now know that matter is a condensed form of energy. This knowledge has transformed world civilization. At the same time, we’ve seen a quieter, yet more profound, revolution. Through personal experience, people are becoming more and more aware of their own life energy. This awakening awareness is as vastly transformative, inwardly, as scientific change is outwardly.

The resulting changes in our approaches to physical, mental and emotional well-being are widespread. Mind-body, alternative, holistic, and energetic healing work with the subtle energies that sustain our bodies. But perhaps the most profound change can be seen in people’s attitude toward religion, and the new wave of experiential spiritual practices, such as yoga and meditation, that are embraced world-wide. Direct personal experience, not belief, is becoming the foundation of religion in our, Dwapara, energy age.

Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), the Great Sphinx (Egypt), and the Last Satya Yuga
Dr. Robert M. Schoch

Based on the work of Swami Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936), the last period of ascending and descending Satya Yugas (often referred to as Spiritual or Golden Ages) lasted from approximately 16,300 BCE to 6700 BCE, peaking around 11,500 BCE. By conventional thinking, this was a time when humankind was in a primitive gatherer-hunter stage characterized by a relatively low level of technological development and, by extrapolation, a relatively low level of mental and spiritual development. Recent archaeological discoveries are overturning this traditional view; there is now evidence that sophisticated culture and true civilization existed over ten thousand years ago during the last Satya Yuga. Particularly important in this regard is the site of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey as well as the re-dating of the Great Sphinx of Egypt.

Conventional Egyptologists have traditionally dated the Great Sphinx to circa 2500 BCE. During my geological investigations of the Sphinx, I found erosion and weathering features on the Sphinx’s body and the walls of the Sphinx enclosure that could only have been produced by heavy rainfall and substantial water runoff occurring over an extended period of time. However, the Sphinx sits on the edge of the Sahara Desert and the region has been extremely arid for the last 5000 years (with a very different climate earlier, which included more rain). Furthermore, various structures securely dated to the Old Kingdom show only erosion that was caused by wind and sand (very distinct from water erosion). Based on this data, the oldest portions of the Great Sphinx, which I refer to as the “core-body”, may date to 7000 BCE to 9000 BCE or earlier, thus placing the original Sphinx in the last Satya Yuga.

When, in the early 1990s, I first concluded that the oldest portion of the Great Sphinx dates back thousands of years earlier than previously believed, Egyptologists were outraged, saying such an early date was impossible because there was no evidence of advanced civilization prior to circa 3500 BCE. Now there is new and dramatic evidence that supports my original thesis, at a site in modern Turkey known as Göbekli Tepe. Here is found a Stonehenge-like series of complexes constructed of magnificently carved 10- to 15-ton stone pillars showing incredible sophistication yet dating back nearly 12,000 years, placing the site squarely in the last Satya Yuga. The Göbekli Tepe complex appears to be neither domestic (such as a habitation site) nor defensive (such as a fort), but rather a site that had some other less “practical” function, and thus has been referred to as a “temple” or spiritual center. The full significance of Göbekli Tepe still eludes us.

Sri Yukteswar correlated the Yuga Cycle with Precessional Ages; following this line of reasoning, the height of the last ascending Satya Yuga occurred during the last Age of Virgo (as named in the West due to the occurrence at this time of the Spring Equinox in the constellation of Virgo; the Fall Equinox occurred at this time in the constellation of Pisces). Interestingly, there is evidence that the structures at Göbekli Tepe are astronomically aligned and may have tracked precessional changes over a period of approximately 2,000 years, up until the time when the site was purposefully and mysteriously buried around 10,000 years ago, prior to the transition leading to the next yuga, the Treta Yuga. Returning to the Great Sphinx, often seen to this day as a symbol of profound wisdom and knowledge, it too has astronomical significance and, like Göbekli Tepe, did not serve a simple mundane function. The qualities of both sites are indicative of advanced civilization and are in keeping with the spiritual emphasis of the last Satya Yuga.

A New Renaissance
Joseph Selbie

We are in the midst of a New Renaissance. The European Renaissance was inspired by classical Greek science and philosophy that was rediscovered in Europe after being lost for nearly 2000 years. Our New Renaissance, similarly, is inspired by ancient knowledge – but even older than the knowledge of the classical Greeks. Eastern understanding and use of life force – yoga, prana, chi, acupuncture, Ayurveda, pranayama, meditation – dates back hundreds of years before the classical Greeks. In terms of the yugas, our present era corresponds to the time when ancient man understood, and freely used, life force. Today’s pioneering western scientists, who are exploring the subtle energy connections between body and mind, have been inspired and guided by these ancient traditions. Our New Renaissance is spurring a revolution in our understanding and practices around healing, psychology, and religion, and, like the European Renaissance, the ideas behind the revolution blend ancient and modern knowledge.

Looking Back to See Ahead
David Steinmetz

The cyclic view of history has real meaning for us when it gives insight to the present, and direction for the future.  The history of the descending arc of the cycle that corresponds to our own ascending age has striking similarities and also significant differences to the world we know. For example, in ancient Egypt there were powerful magical spells that only the Pharaoh was allowed to use. Today presidential authorization is required for the use of the most powerful weaponry.  

Trends that can be seen in descending ages are happening in reverse in the present ages. For example in ancient times punishments for common crimes became increasingly severe as the descending ages progressed.  Today’s punishments are much less severe than those of a millennium ago reflecting the opposite trend.  

Technological knowledge has accumulated over time, giving a superficial impression of linear progress, but a close look at the ways in which it has been applied reflects the ebb and flow of the yugas.  The difficulty of recognizing ancient technology that is beyond our present understanding or was anciently understood from an entirely different perspective has contributed to the illusion of linear development. But with a mind open to the possibility, there are ample hints of our future to be found in the imperfect memories of the past.

Rediscovering An Ancient Science
Dr. Claude Swanson

The conventional Western view of history depicts man evolving in a linear progression from a primitive past, slowly learning over time until reaching our present “pinnacle” of science, knowledge and culture. At the same time, other accounts, such as those found in ancient India, China and the Americas, describe “golden ages” in the past, and depict history as made up of cycles. In the Vedic history of old India these cycles were called the “Yugas.” In this account, there have been many periods when man reached heights of great wisdom and accomplishment, only to decline and forget in ensuing “dark ages.”

Clues of an ancient wisdom include electrical batteries built thousands of years ago, steel spheres from civilizations which should have been in the stone age, complex mechanical computers requiring sophisticated understanding of astronomy and metalworking, and huge stones such as those at Baalbek which can hardly be moved by modern machinery. The layer one foot thick of fused green glass found in Western India and in Israel could not be explained by archaeologists until the atomic bomb test at Alamogordo in 1945. After the blast, scientists discovered the same type of green glass layer at the test site. The intense heat of the atomic explosion had melted the sand to form the glass. The scientific leader of the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, realized immediately that this weapon matched exactly the one described in the Vedic Mahabarata written thousands of years ago.

If modern discoveries are often “rediscoveries” of ancient knowledge, then recent scientific advances may shed light on the mysteries surrounding ancient sites and stories. One area of new technology, for example, involves subtle energy, also known as chi, prana, torsion, and the “Life Force.” This new science is unlocking some of the mysteries of ancient sites. For example, pyramids are known to produce certain types of subtle energies, and may serve to enhance intuition for those who sit in certain spots beneath the apex. This same energy may be responsible for the cycles of civilization itself, as the earth moves through different regions of space with different concentrations of this energy. Could it be that at the height of the “golden ages,” this energy was understood very well, and the building of pyramids was a way to preserve and accumulate this energy, to make it available at least to the priestly class during later periods when the background energy was weak? In Dr. Swanson’s talk he will review several modern discoveries and show how they help us understand the lost wisdom of past golden ages.