September 16-18, 2022
Our lives are embedded in a single constant medium -our own consciousness.
Despite this ever-present reality, we rarely take time to consider it. What does it mean to be conscious? How do we interact with other conscious beings and can we participate in their consciousness? Can we shape or impact consciousness? What role do ethics play? What is the implication that we humans appear to have a conscience embedded in our consciousness? To answer these questions we have gathered four diverse thinkers and practitioners.
Jonathan Pageau
Jonathan Pageau graduated with distinction from the Painting and Drawing program at Concordia University in Montreal during the late 1990s. Quickly disillusioned with contemporary art, he discovered icons and traditional Christian images along his own spiritual journey. Rekindling his love of art through study of traditional forms, Jonathan developed a passion for wood carving. Having studied Orthodox Theology and Iconology at the University of Sherbrooke, since 2003 Jonathan has been carving different types of liturgical objects. His carvings have been commissioned by churches, bishops, priests and laypeople in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He has participated is several exhibitions of icons and teaches icon carving with Hexamaeron. Jonathan also produces online videos discussing Christian symbolism in all its forms.
Dr. John Vervaeke
John Vervaeke is an Associate Professor, in the teaching stream. He has been teaching at the University of Toronto since 1994. He currently teaches courses in the Psychology department on thinking and reasoning with an emphasis on insight problem solving, cognitive development with an emphasis on the dynamical nature of development, and higher cognitive processes with an emphasis on intelligence, rationality, mindfulness, and the Psychology of wisdom. He is the director of the Cognitive Science program where he also teaches courses on the introduction to Cognitive Science, and the Cognitive Science of consciousness wherein he emphasizes 4E (embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended) models of cognition and consciousness . In addition, he teaches a course in the Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health program on Buddhism and Cognitive Science. He is the director of the Consciousness and the Wisdom Studies Laboratory. He has won and been nominated for several teaching awards including the 2001 Students' Administrative Council and Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students Teaching Award for the Humanities, and the 2012 Ranjini Ghosh Excellence in Teaching Award. He has published articles on relevance realization, general intelligence, mindfulness, flow, metaphor, and wisdom. He is first author of the book Zombies in Western Culture: A 21st Century crisis which integrates Psychology and Cognitive Science to address the meaning crisis in Western society. He is the author and presenter of the YouTube series, Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.
Dr. Richard Maundrell
Richard Maundrell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Lakehead University. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Waterloo and began teaching at Lakehead in1985. He teaches courses in biomedical ethics, philosophy of mind, logic and critical thinking. He has published on a variety of topics in journals including The University of Toronto Quarterly, Dialogue, McGill Journal of Law and Health, and Impact Ethics. His current research concerns consciousness and the determination of neurological death.
Paul Vanderklay
Rev. Paul Vander Klay is the pastor of Living Stones Christian Reformed Church in Sacramento California. He has a BA in History from Calvin College and an M.Div from Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids Michigan. He grew up in Paterson New Jersey in his father's racial reconciliation church. He served 6 years as a missionary in the Dominican Republic. He's got a YouTube channel and podcast commenting on the work of Jordan Peterson, John Vervaeke, Jonathan Pageau and others who pertain to the intersection of Christianity and the Meaning Crisis.
Join us in exploring these questions and more in a conference that will emphasize the development of insight and connection through in-the-moment process and discussion between our speakers and participants.