Many people overlook the deeply metaphorical nature of our language, thought, and action. Metaphor can help us access deeper levels of consciousness, connecting to more universal and creative aspects of what it means to be human and revealing the interrelationships with each other and the world around us.
This creative workshop will guide participants through a series of Clean Language* questions to facilitate an imaginative process that will allow each person to create (by drawing, annotating and speaking in response to the questions) a personal metaphor, grounded in their own physical, cultural and creative experience.
The starting point will be to imagine a vessel, as an invitation to connect to individual and shared meaning and experience of what it means to be in participatory and reciprocal relationship with other humans and the more-than-human world.
*Clean Language is a method of questioning that removes all assumptions and biases from the questioner. Through a set of 12 simple questions, it draws on the power of metaphor to allow people to develop meaning and clarity that can support them to bring about personal or group change.
Jessica is an experienced facilitator with over a decade of expertise in Bohm Dialogue. The principles of a dialogue practice provide a grounding in all aspects of her facilitation work. As founder of Creating Meaning, she works with purpose-led organisations, supporting them to navigate complexity and change and strengthen the human skills that make transformation possible. Alongside her facilitation work she is researching a PhD in ecolinguistics and regenerative language. Enriched by her background in art and design, Jessica weaves theory and practice to create meaningful and creative dialogues and workshops that aim to transform how people communicate and relate to themselves, each other and the world around them.
What to Bring
During this session you will be drawing an image of your personal metaphor. Come prepared with drawing materials of your choice – pens, pencils, and paper. We will work on one sheet of paper so if you are able to have a largish sheet of paper (A3 or flipchart size, although A4 will also work) that will give you more space for your drawing to evolve throughout the process. The workshop will be a combination of individual drawing and small group discussion so please be prepared to participate in breakout sessions. Please ensure your microphone is working ahead of time, and we encourage you to have your cameras on during the breakouts to help the small groups connect and share together.
Paths to Knowing Consciousness and Reality
From the Indigenous to the Academic
A unique conference to explore how experiential and intellectual learning can be united into a fully holistic science.
ICRL’s president, Jeff Dunne, is proud to be chairing this special event at the Pari Center in Tuscany, Italy from May 20-27, 2026. Bringing together some of the greatest minds and hearts of our time from both Western and Indigenous cultures, we will hear presentations, engage in practices and ceremonies, and discover the power of collaborative, community exploration of ourselves and our realities.
Do not wait to register, as space is limited to 30 participants and will fill up very quickly. Click below to learn more and reserve your place!
degree from Hollis University and has accumulated a diverse work experience, spanning multiple disciplines: education, technology, business and law, predominately in support and administrative roles. She currently works for the College of New Jersey in its Office of Disability Support Services. Lynn Ann has been an administrative assistant to ICRL’s President since 2011, and has extensive familiarity with the organization’s structure and activities, along with a deep commitment to its mission.
Vasileios Basios is a physicist, conducting interdisciplinary research on the foundations of complexity science and nonlinear systems, self-organization and complex matter. During his formative years, he was tutored by Ilya Prigogine, at ULB where he received his PhD, and by Emilios Bouratinos on meditation and philosophy. He is currently interested in the complex interface between action and information. Other interests include the history of ideas in science and their role in the transformation of science beyond the prevailing naïve, materialistic, mechanistic-reductionist world-view. With others from PEAR, he initiated the Mind-Matter-Mapping Project and has since published several essays for ICRL. He is also a member of the Board of the Scientific and Medical Network and the Steering Team of the Galileo Commission. Vasileios is inspired by the prospect of introducing self-reflection into the practice and understanding of science, and the emergence of a Self-Reflexive Science of Consciousness.
Ian Cook is a Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he directs the UCLA Depression Research and Clinic Program at the Semel Institute and was the inaugural holder of the Joanne and George Miller and Family Endowed Chair in Depression Research at the Brain Research Institute. He has been a part of the PEAR/ICRL family since 1980, when he was among the first undergraduate students to conduct research at the PEAR lab. He graduated from the Yale School of Medicine and pursued his residency training and research fellowship at UCLA. His research has focused on understanding the relationships among the mind, the brain, and the body, and in translating developments in technology into more effective treatments for disorders of mood and cognition.
Bob (Brahmatirtha) was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1949, completed his B.S. in Chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1971, and received his M.S. in Geology from Rutgers University in 1975. After a twenty-year career serving as a geologist and vice-president of a large regional environmental company, he currently works as an environmental consultant to state governments. He has been a member of the Bhaktivedanta Institute since the inception in 1976, giving a presentation at their First International Conference on Life Comes from Life in 1977, and working on a multitude of projects with R.L. Thompson (Sadaputa) from 1995 through 2008. He is also a certified court mediator. He now serves as the Director of the Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies.
Carolyn is a writer and dancer, two avenues that support her central purpose as a healer. Through her numerous books she teaches that every moment brings unbidden opportunities from the universe, that every day of is filled with beauty and surprise. Ecstatic experience is the goal of her work, the personal to the cosmic. 
The largest dataset collected at PEAR used Random Event Generators, or REGs. These devices were essentially electronic coin flippers that produced a series of 1’s and 0’s; operators were instructed to influence the machines to produce more 1’s than 0’s or vice versa.
