Back from My Blog Hiatus

I’m back from my self-imposed hiatus. As I have been on a mini-sabbatical from teaching this semester, the past few months have been a whirlwind of travel and activity. I attended the TED conference (http://www.ted.com), the Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference in Tucson (http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/tucson2008.htm) where I gave a talk and demo’d some new work. We are hosting the conference in Hong Kong next year (http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/hongkong.htm). I was also invited to give a talk at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Conference held at the Yale Divinity School (http://www.sacaaa.org/). The trip to the East Coast was particularly special because my wife and kids came along and we spent a few days in New York together beforehand. During the travels, I met many new friends as well as reacquainting myself with many old ones as well.

TED was an amazing event where I got to meet many inspiring freethinkers including Karen Armstrong. It was her book, A Short History of Myth that I first encountered the term “Phusikoi.” I was privileged to have attended a breakfast and sat at the same table with her (religion is essential to humanity), Dan Dennett, and my friend Sue Blackmore (both Dan and Sue are from the atheist/skeptics camp). I was able to spend time with all of them which helped me build my case regarding inner experience that I presented at the Yale conference. There were some really inspiring talks this year at TED including one by Jill Bolte Taylor that has been making the rounds on the Internet (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229). My wife and I will be attending together next year.

Continuing my thoughts on entertainment for a thinking person, among the many new friends that I made during my travels was singer-songwriter Nellie McKay (http://www.nelliemckay.com/) who I met at TED where she performed. The combination of satire and musical talent was really refreshing. It’s really exciting to see messages delivered in a fresh new way and there is nothing like humor to get ideas across in a non-threatening way. I’ve also recently discovered the work of Bill Hicks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q95kX_EP2Nk) and Doug Stanhope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI_yaifPIEU&feature=related) that encourage people to question the status quo... with humor.