Organizational alignment requires a common understanding of what each organization seeks to achieve and where the commonalities reside. We have been calling this kind of alignment Consciousness Alliance between partners sharing a common vision for how an understanding of, and appreciation for, the nature of consciousness can help our world evolve towards a place of greater health and harmony.

Experience has shown that getting an understanding of where and how we can best align and collaborate is most effectively achieved through face-to-face interaction, and so we are looking to schedule a set of gatherings for this purpose.  If you are an organization that would like to partner with (or in many cases continue to partner with) ICRL, the SMN, and many others, please fill out the below form to share your availability for coming together.

We are excited to be holding our next Consciousness Dialogues Retreat Thursday, September 11 through Monday, September 15th at the Pari Center in Tuscany, Italy.  Nestled on a hilltop surrounded by olive groves, vineyards and the heavily wooded countryside of the Maremma region of Tuscany, Pari is part of a village that has remained in a remarkable state of preservation, with a surrounding landscape that is home to wild boar, deer, pheasant and numerous species of plants, animals and birds.

During a Consciousness Dialogues retreat, participants become part of a ‘We’ that engages in a wide range of group experiences, such focused meditation, out-of-body experiences, dance, improv, group art creation, and (of course) variations of PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) Laboratory experiments like remote viewing and affecting Random Event Generators.  Each session is followed by a group dialogue where that experience is explored in a more intellectually-centered discussion.

Feedback from past participants includes comments such as “diverse collection of open-minded, beautiful souls”… “it felt like a true exploration”… “[I loved] the balance between experiencing and dialogue”…” It was hard to go back to the ‘I’ space that is normal life after leaving that lovely ‘WE’ space we created”.

We aim to have groups that are as diverse as possible: every age range, widely varied backgrounds, and varied philosophical perspectives. Prior experience is not at all required, and many past participants noted that not been steep in these kinds of circles was actually a benefit for them in getting the most out of the retreat.

The $1,350 registration fee covers all retreat activities, lodging, and food.  If you are attending with a partner and would like to share a room, please select the $2,200 option which will register both participants in a single transaction.

If your plans change between now and September, that’s not a problem. You will receive a full refund if cancel prior to September 1st. For cancellations between September 1-6th, we can provide a partial refund of 50%. After September 6th we cannot offer a refund as we will have already paid the expenses for your participation (and these retreats are priced at cost, so there is no profit buffer from which we can draw).

Note that we are dedicated to ensuring that this experience is open to youth and others who may be financially disadvantaged. If you are in that situation, we may be able to identify a patron to help offset your registration costs.  Also, for those who placed a downpayment during last year’s preregistration window, you will have a different registration fee.  If either of these conditions apply to you, please contact ICRL directly to reserve your place.

Lastly, when you are ready to check out, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support ICRL.  These donations will be used to provide assistance to youth as described before.  Note that you will also have the option to support the Zeffy platform, which is not part of ICRL.  Because the registration fee is not insignificant, the default Zeffy donation is rather high.  Know that you can adjust the Zeffy donation to $0 (or whatever you like) by simply selecting ‘Other’.

 

Verifying Spiritual Reality
Robert Traer

The evidence for spiritual reality is overwhelming. It has been published in countless books and journals and shared in thousands of videos and documentaries. In fact, the evidence is so vast that it would take a person years to review. And that is precisely what Robert Traer has done. In his book, Verifying Spiritual Reality, published in 2024, Robert pulls together a wealth of information, weaving it together in a summary that is easy to read, engaging, and ultimately compelling.

Join us online at 3:00 pm EST (two hours later than our usual time) on Saturday, March 8th as Robert gives us an overview of his motivation for writing this book, his experience in writing it, and of course the book itself.

You can register using the below form, or by following this link should you encounter any browser issues with the embedded form.  Attendance is free, although if you are able to, please consider making a small donation to ICRL via the form to help support ICRL and our efforts like these meetups.

Note: The below Zeffy form automatically defaults to making a donation to Zeffy when you include a donation to ICRL. The Zeffy donation is not required, and you can simply choose “other” and leave the space blank to donate just to ICRL.

Liminal Spaces, Folklore, and Anomalous Experience
Kirsty Allan

Join Kirsty for a gentle and fascinating exploration of certain spaces and places that we can call ‘liminal’. Uncover these often subtle thresholds of possibility in which we experience strange encounters, events and beings. From everyday locations we frequent without much thought, to the more seemingly significant – discover how a state of suspension between worlds is only every a stone’s throw away.

This online meetup will be held at 1:00 pm EST on Saturday, February 1st. After Kirsty’s presentation will be an interactive discussion for participants to ask questions and further explore the topic of liminal spaces (and perhaps even some spaces themselves!).

You can register using the below form, or by following this link if you have any browser issues with the embedded form.  Attendance is free, although if you are able to, please consider making a small donation to ICRL via the form to help support ICRL and our efforts like these meetups.

Note: The below Zeffy form automatically defaults to making a donation to Zeffy when you include a donation to ICRL. The Zeffy donation is not required, and you can simply choose “other” and leave the space blank to donate just to ICRL.

Old Thinking, New Thinking, and Newer Thinking Still:
A Discussion with Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove

There is perhaps no more important mechanism for changing the way humanity sees itself than to open the dialogue on topics that have historically been taboo, and there is perhaps no one who has been more effective doing so than Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove.  For nearly forty years Dr. Mishlove has been giving a voice to topics that others have refused to discuss through television broadcasts in the 1980’s, his famous New Thinking Allowed podcast (which now has over 1500 videos available online), and his long-standing textbook, The Roots of Consciousness: The Classic Encyclopedia of Consciousness Studies Revised and Expanded. The PK Man: A True Story of Mind-Over-Matter. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “Parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university, past president of the Intuition Network, and a past-vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, from which he received the 2001 Pathfinder Award. He is the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death and presently serves on the board of directors of the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies. He also serves as co-director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science.

During this online meetup at 1:00 pm EST on Saturday, January 18th, we will have an open, unscripted conversation Dr. Mishlove, exploring what he feels are the most profound insights and impactful realizations he has come upon during his lifelong studies.

You can register using the below form, or by following this link if you have any browser issues with the embedded form.  Attendance is free, although if you are able to, please consider making a small donation to ICRL via the form to help support ICRL and our efforts like these meetups.

Your Year in Review, Your Year to Come

A growing tradition with ICRL Meetups is to dedicate some time for members of the ICRL family to share what they have been doing, where they are in their lives, and what they are envisioning for the year to come.  Please join our next Meetup on the Winter Solstice, December 21st, 2024 at 1:00 pm EST, to share your stories and your intentions.

Each person will be invited to take a few minutes (think like five minutes, not like thirty minutes) and let others know what’s happening. You do not need to prepare anything formal, although feel free to put together a picture or two if you wish… simply grab some eggnog, a warm, fuzzy blanket, and ease into the end of the year with friends!

After the passing of her father, Liz Entin delved into understanding the possibilities of life after death, ultimately writing two books about her investigations.

She now runs a podcast, WTF Just Happened, in which she has interviewed over a hundred people on a wide range of related topics.

In episode 108, she interviews ICRL’s president, Jeff Dunne, about the research done at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Laboratory.

Check out the recording, and perhaps even share it (and other of Liz’s work) within your circles!

We are excited to announce the release of ICRL Press’s 22nd title: Verifying Spiritual Reality, by Robert Traer.

In the process of academic research, the first thing one does is to read the ‘survey’ materials that give an overview of the field. This book provides just that – an overview of the overwhelming evidence that is out there supporting the undeniable evidence that we are more than physical beings. But unlike academic articles or dry textbooks, Traer’s work goes beyond being thorough, providing an approachable, engaging summary of evidence for our spiritual nature.

This is an absolute must-have for anyone who is interested in explaining to others why we are, without any doubt, spiritual beings.

The book is on Amazon in both paperback and digital formats.

We are honored that our next ICRL Meetup, to be held online on Saturday, November 30th at 1:00 pm EST, will feature Dr. Bill Bengston speaking about:

Making “Unconventional” Healing “Conventional”: A Selection of Research

Abstract
Research has provided us with innumerable studies demonstrating what I call “stage 1,” or proof of concept. Within this stage are reliable data showing such things as healing itself shows a lack of respect for distance, belief, and a whole host of correlates which have been uncovered. The list of things currently unknown has also seemingly continued to expand, thus providing stage 1 researchers with ample fodder to continue inquiry.

At the same time, healing also has a clinical component, but the number of people who might benefit from unconventional healing approaches far exceeds the number of healers capable of providing sufficient services.

How to meet the demand? In order to make healing widely available, two conditions must be present: healing intention must be made storable (stage 2) and healing must be made scalable (stage 3). There has been a paucity of research on stages 2 and 3. This presentation will look at a selection of research on all three stages.

About Dr. Bengston
Bill Bengston is an emeritus professor of statistics and research methods at St. Joseph’s University in New York, and the past President (2010-2022) of the Society for Scientific Exploration, an international group of scientists who study anomalies. Bill has been doing research into anomalous healing for over forty years, and has numerous peer reviewed academic publications. His memoir, The Energy Cure, is published by Sounds True Publishers. He has also lectured widely in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Bill’s research has produced the first successful full cures of transplanted mammary cancer and methylcholanthrene induced sarcomas in mice by energy healing techniques that he helped to develop. He has also investigated assorted correlates to healing such as EEG and fMRI entrainment, and geomagnetic micropulsation anomalies in healing space. His current work involves the attempt to reverse engineer healing and reproduce healing without the healer, and to develop therapies that can be scaled. To read more, see bengstonresearch.com.

You can register for this meetup using the below form. Any donation to ICRL to support these Meetups is greatly appreciated (and tax-deductible).  Please note that Zeffy, the company that handles registration system, will default to a donation to them based on any donation to ICRL.  You can eliminate this if you wish by customizing that Zeffy donation and setting it to $0.

 

This first Consciousness Dialogues retreat of 2025 will begin the afternoon of Wednesday, March 26 and continue through the morning of Sunday, March 30.  During these days participants will participate as a group in a selection of activities designed to highlight different aspects awareness. Some examples from the inaugural CD retreat include: guided meditation, out-of-body experiences, dance and improv, group art creation, and (of course) variations of PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) Laboratory experiments like remote viewing and affecting Random Event Generators.

After each activity, the group participates in a Bohm-esque discussion focused on exploring the prior consciousness experience through the lens of foundational principles.

The cost for retreat participation is $500, which includes lodging, food, and all materials associated with the activities. The food at the retreat is all vegetarian with vegan options, but non-vegetarian cuisine is within walking distance.

If you are local to Gainesville and/or would prefer to handle your own lodging, please reach out to discuss potential discounts. If you are a student who wishes to attend but is financially limited, please also reach out, as ICRL and the BIHS may be able to provide supplemental support. Note that travel to and from the Gainesville area is the responsibility of the individual participant, although we may be able to assist with coordinating with other retreat attendees.

Please register using the below form. Note that in the checkout process, the service, Zeffy, that handles the financial transaction defaults to making a donation to Zeffy. Unless you want to specifically want to support them, you will need to manually change the default donation to $0.