SCHEDULE

Tucson Convention Center (TCC) and Holiday Inn City Center

For full details of the sessions see:

Plenary presentations          Concurrent presentations           Poster sessions

 Saturday, April 25

Sunday, April 26

Saturday, April 25, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Observing the Mind: Basic Training in Skilled Means
Charles T. Tart
 
In the last century, psychologists tried to develop a science of the mind using introspective data and failed. A major reason for this failure is that the ordinary mind has little skill at observing itself. The "normal" state of consensus consciousness is like a virtual reality, generating apparently real experiences based on cultural conditioning and often distorting perception to support these scenarios. This workshop will introduce participants to three basic techniques for calming the mind (concentrative meditation), developing deeper understanding of the mind (insight meditation), and becoming able to observe deeper mental processes under ordinary life conditions (Gurdjieffian self-remembering). The emphasis is on learning actual skills. These skills can make us better scientists, improve our ability to obtain actual data about consciousness, and apply to personal efforts such as stress reduction, and clearer reality contact. Prior reading of Tart's books Waking Up and Living the Mindful Life would be helpful, but is not required.

Charles T. Tart is the first holder of the Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is internationally known for his psychological work on the nature of consciousness, particularly altered states of consciousness; as one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology; and for his research in parapsychology. His two classic books, Altered States of Consciousness (1969) and Transpersonal Psychologies (1975), became widely used texts that were instrumental in integrating these areas into modern psychology.

Our inner world creates fascinating and inexpressible images through dreams. Often we forget them or push them aside the next morning because of our inability to understand their significance. Yet these images can hold the key to our self-realization and personal fulfillment. They carry with them the power to change our lives. In this experiential workshop, you will learn an effective new approach to dream interpretation that will allow you to discover how your dream images speak to the purpose and the goals of your life.

David Roomy Jungian therapist and certified process worker, presents seminars and lectures throughout North America. He is a former visiting professor of the Meninger Foundation and a former staff member of the Union Theological Seminary. He is author of Inner Journey to Sacred Places (1997).

 Saturday, April 25, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Health, Healing and Consciousness
Wendy Kohatsu, Karen Koffler, and Roberta Lee

Physicians find themselves shaping a new paradigm for their role in health and healing.  Within this new paradigm, “consciousness” emerges as a tool for both the healer and the patient.  Fellows from the Program in Integrative Medicine at The University of Arizona will discuss the integral role of consciousness from the medical perspective.  Specific topics of discussion will include:  a survey of modalities related to Mind/Body therapy; psychoneuroimmunology and the immune system in healing; and, Mind/Body dynamics in healing and the placebo response as a powerful therapeutic ally.

Wendy Kohatsu, Karen Koffler, and Roberta Lee are Fellows in the Program in Integrative Medicine which offers a unique blend of didactic instruction and clinical training in a variety of Mind/Body therapy modalities, as well as acupuncture, osteopathy, and homeopathy.  One of the objectives of the Program in to shift the paradigm of medicine to include a broader definition of health in which the Mind/Body perspective is included. The Program's Director is Andrew Weil.

Saturday, April 25, 1:30-5:30 p.m.

Consciousness Reveals a "Global Workspace" Capacity in the Brain: There IS a Place Where It All Comes Together.
Bernard J. Baars and Katharine McGovern

Global Workspace (GW) theory is a simple cognitive architecture developed to account qualitatively for a large set of matched pairs of conscious and unconscious processes.  Like other cognitive architectures, GW theory may be seen in terms of a theater metaphor of mental functioning. Consciousness resembles a bright spot on the theater stage of working memory, directed there by a spotlight of attention, under executive guidance. The rest of the theater is dark and unconscious. "Behind the scenes" are contextual systems that shape conscious contents without ever becoming conscious. (An example is the dorsal cortical stream of the visual system.) While this framework is very simple, it has a surprising qualitative fit with the facts.

Bernard Baars is a psycholinguist by training, with lifelong interests in philosophy, meditation, and all aspects of human psychology. Starting about 1980 he developed a most extensive cognitive account of consciousness, with clear implications for the sister issues of volition and self. He has recently written In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind (1997).

Sunday, April 26, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Overview of Tucson III
Victor Shamas

Prepare to participate fully in the forthcoming debate about whether and how science can explain consciousness with this overview of plenary, concurrent and poster sessions that have the most relevance to your own research and/or practice and to which you can contribute the most.

Victor Shamas has a strong commitment to interdisciplinary education and has taught courses in the fields of psychology, chemistry, natural history, and communications. He was one of the coordinating faculty of "Dialogs on Consciousness", offered by The University of Arizona.  His research focuses on the role of consciousness in the creative process. Besides his empirical work, he has recently co-authored theoretical papers in the following edited volumes: Implicit Memory and Metacognition by L. Reder, Contemporary Hypnosis Research by E. Fromm & M. Nash.

The "microworld" of atomic systems is radically different from the "macroworld" of usual physical objects. The quantum theory accounts for these radically new features which include the indivisibility of systems during interactions, the wave-particle dual nature of all matter, and the instantaneous non-local interactions between systems, among other interactions. The fact that physical phenomena can exhibit such strange features suggests that these features also underlie some of the strange features of conscious experience, and helps to reconcile conscious experience with the physical world.

Workshop participants will examine, in a qualitative, non-formalistic way, key issues such as:

• What exactly are the quantum features supposedly relevant to consciousness?
• Does the quantum theory question the notion of objective reality as is often claimed and if so, would this affect consciousness studies?
• Are contemporary philosophers of mind justified in calling themselves "physicalists" while ignoring - as they often do - the best theories about matter, such as quantum theory?

Paavo Pylkkänen is senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Skoevde, Sweden, where he coordinates a Consciousness Studies undergraduate program. He was previously a visiting researcher at the Department of Physics, Birkbeck College, University of London. He is co-editor of Brain, Mind and Physics (1997).

Sunday, April 26, 1:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

The Mammalian Visual System
Christof Koch

"Vision" and "Visual Consciousness" represents -- for now -- the most promising model system for understanding the psychology, the neuronal basis and the function of  consciousness in monkeys and humans. Any such understanding must be based on knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the primate visual system. This three and a half hour long workshop will review the anatomy and the electrophysiology of the visual system of the macaque monkey, from the distal retina to the posterior parietal and inferior temporal cortices.  This will be complemented by a description of the anatomy and physiology of the human visual system based on functional imaging methods (in particular fMRI).  Course material will be handed out.  Topics to be covered include: retina, lateral geniculate nucleus, striate/primary visual cortex (V1), extrastriate cortex (V2, V3, V3A, V4, MT), Van Essen & Felleman cortical hierarchies, pulvinar, magnocellular and parvocellular pathways, posterior parietal cortex and the dorsal pathway, inferior temporal cortex and the dorsal pathway, pathways for color, functional maps in humans using fMRI, face processing areas.

Christof Koch is Professor of Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology.  He is president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and most recently author of Biophysics of Computation:  Information Processing in Single Neurons which is due out in 1998 from Oxford University Press.

“Binding” is the brain’s ability to produce coherent representations of the world and harmonious, functional behaviors from fragmented external information. “Binding” occurs even though information is received in multiple forms through numerous sensory channels, and initially processed in many separate pathways and areas that appear to reside in a fragmented fashion throughout the brain. In this workshop, we will analyze the binding problem from the point of view of the contents of consciousness. We will review the relevant conceptual foundations and empirical findings, and try to develop an understanding of the problem at the different levels of description. The core question is whether binding at the phenomenological level can be understood or explained by referring to neurocognitive mechanisms working at a different level of description.

Antti Revonsuo, a psychologist and philosopher, is currently a post-doctoral Fellow of the Academy of Finland. He directs a multidisciplinary research project on consciousness at the University of Turku. He is co-editor of Consciousness in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience (1994) with current empirical research in the neural basis of visual awareness, the binding problem, and the phenomenology of dreaming.  His theoretical interests are how to conceptualize conscious phenomena in a fruitful and systematic way, and whether a unified science of consciousness is possible.

Lucid dreaming (dreaming while knowing that one is dreaming) is not only an extraordinary experience; it is also a learnable and highly useful skill. That skill allows a unique encounter of our conscious and unconscious minds. Recent scientific research has proven the reality of lucid dreams and has led to new methods of inducing them. In this workshop, you will learn techniques for inducing, stabilizing, and controlling lucid dreams, and how to use them for the exploration and development of consciousness. You don't have to sleep through your dreams.

Stephen LaBerge is an authority on lucid dreaming. His pioneering studies at Stanford University have brought scientific attention to this remarkable state of consciousness. For the past decade, he has researched methods for teaching people to become lucid dreamers, developing mental techniques and lucid dream induction devices. He is the author of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.

Sabino Canyon
Sabino Creek originates more than 6,000 feet above the desert in the Santa Catalina Mountains. This rare perennial stream with its canyon watershed supports a lush riparian community, including wildlife and native fish. Tour the canyon in an open-air tram, with a presentation by an interpretative specialist and opportunities for exploration of the riparian and stream communities.
When: Tuesday, April 28, 12:30-5:00 p.m.
Cost: $45; includes transportation and guide, admission, and beverage

Tubac and San Xavier
Enjoy a trip through some of the most picturesque and peaceful territory in Southern Arizona. Visit Tubac, Arizona's oldest European settlement, now an internationally known artists' colony and the site of ruins dating back to the late 1600s. Just a few miles south you'll stop at Tumacacori National Monument, site of a mission originally built by the Franciscans and restored in 1929 by the National Park Service.

You'll also visit San Xavier del Bac, located on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation. Founded by Father Eusebio Kino in the late 1700s and often referred to as "The White Dove of the Desert," it is Arizona's most famous and impressive mission and a functioning church that holds daily and weekly masses.
When: Wednesday, April 29, 12:30-5:00 p.m.
Cost: $45; includes transportation and guide, admission, and beverage