The series of VideoPodcast conversations is associated to the incorporation of a society - ‘Academic Circle Erasmus’ - a society that strives for the reconnection of the Humanities with the Natural Sciences; in short it strives for the resurrection of the Renaissance. Subject to a final decision of incorporation of the association participants to the VideoPodcast will be offered a free membership of this society for the first year ending 18 February 2022.

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12 online conversations on Perspectives on Synchronicity, Inspiration, and the Soul by Rico Sneller

With Rico Sneller & Mark Koops, March 2021 - February 2022

Format: VideoPodcast conversation

Historical facts, great achievements, grand failures, happiness and unhappiness, all have in common that they came into being through some form of synchronicity. It is never a single event that determines the creation of something of significance, it is always a combination of events, waves and trends that lead to a certain outcome, whether positive or negative. In the current time juncture, where we seem to be touching on limits of resilience of the earth and its people, a situation compounded by Covid-19, there is a sense that we have reached the end of a trail, the end of an old synchronicity.

For maybe a century and a half we thought there was only one direction, a direction of deterministic planning for better lives, supported by more and more technology. This sense of control over ever more prosperity is leaving us. We thought we were in a plannable world, ‘economic growth’ was abundant for decades. We thought we were in control but today we are starting to realize that the control was only an appearance of control, that it was maybe just happenstance: post WWII positivism to rebuild our nations, with new technologies, with automation to produce ever more. A number of things came together to create the synchronicity of what looked like eternal growth. Synchronicities by their very nature are not stable, synchronicities after some time lose their steam, other events (‘waves’) start to interfere and start to disentangle the cohesion of the previously synchronous system, to be replaced...to be replaced by WHAT?

If the old synchronicity does not work anymore, what new synchronicity should we then create? What kind values do we cherish? Do we all share the same values, or are there values that ultimately conflict with each other? Are synchronicities controllable through their design and their internal nature? Are synchronicities pure happenstance? To what extent can consciousness be in a driving seat towards the synchronicities that we (think we) desire? What if, after a century of boundless ‘growth’, we, human mankind, discover that we are merely a plaything in the hands of greater forces? Many questions. If human mankind is to play a role in synchronicity, we first must determine what kind of synchronicity we want, what this synchronicity should do for us, what kind of lives we want to pursue.

But before even thinking of trying to design a new synchronicity, we must delve much deeper into ourselves, dive into the fabric of our soul and spirit. What is it that we want? What is it that we are capable of? Do we, humans, want or need long term control? Or are humans designed to react to every days’ happenstance and hope for the best? What do we foster more, our individuality or commonality?

The above are some questions that will come up in an online conversation between Rico Sneller and Mark Koops. Input to the conversations are 12 themes selected from the book Perspectives on Synchronicity, Inspiration, and the Soul by Rico Sneller, published in 2020 (repr. 2021). Rico Sneller is a philosopher who has been teaching philosophy for many years at the University of Leiden. He orients his thinking from the humanities. Mark Koops, an earth scientist who orients his thinking from the perspective of natural sciences and the logic of Socrates.

The conversations will be broadcasted online over 12 months, an episode every month. The series forms the backbone for the first 12 months of the formation of the association the ‘Academic Circle Erasmus’, an association that strives for a reinstitution of the Renaissance.

Through the series of conversations, Rico and Mark hope to inspire many others to hold similar conversations to help us all synchronize our thinking about what we want, about what why we want and about how we will achieve what we want.

But ultimately, the conversations are to seed breadcrumbs … breadcrumbs to maybe follow or maybe deviate from ... with new breadcrumbs to follow... to see if together we can create A Perfect Storm for mankind, a synchronicity of working together in commonality across the inclusivity of all humans from all walks of life.

Members of the Academic Circle Erasmus receive private access to the broadcasts at no charge. Members will be encouraged to submit questions to enhance the relevance for the listener. The series will be released to the general public at a commercial price.

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Programming - times to be set - dates may change

1. {Fri 19 March 2-4pm} Introduction. Science, philosophy, and spirituality. (Introduction, pp. ix-xxiii)

How to assess the current split between science, philosophy, and spirituality? How to assess vulgar conceptions of either of these? E.g., ‘science’ is often equated to its materialistic offshoots or laboratory practices; ‘philosophy’, to conceptual analysis; and ‘spirituality’ to flee-floating self-obsession. Can these three be matched or aligned? Should they be?

2. {Mo 19 April 2-4pm} ‘Do we have a soul?’

The notion of ‘soul’ seems to be an odd, obsolete expression for what is preferably called the ‘psyche’, or better even, the ‘mind’. Art, religion, and even large strands in Western philosophy, cannot dispense with the notion. What does this mean? Could it be that, by avoiding to speak about ‘soul’, mainstream scientific discourse has involuntarily cut itself off from its roots? And humankind along with it?

3. {Mo 3 May 2-4pm} Culture and psychopathology: pathways towards the soul?

Human culture, whether in a narrow or a broader sense, is often reduced to its alleged ‘evolutionary’ constituents. But does this not erroneously misrepresent what might equally be seen as an anticipation of what humankind might still become? Likewise, psychopathology is frequently seen as a human failure. Instead, along with human culture, it might represent a trajectory towards a better self-understanding of human nature in terms of soul.

4. {Mo 7 June 2-4pm} Inspiration

The concept of ‘inspiration,’ key to human flourishing, has more in store than it seems. Ensnared between the extremes of ‘inward’ or ‘outward’ origin, it might equally suggest a reframing of ‘time’ and ‘space’. How about resituating the latter in the former, in other words, how about starting to think in light of inspiration towards time and space (as derivates rather than original determinants)?

5. {Mo 5 July 2-4pm} Ecstasy

Ecstasy, if it has still any meaning at all to human beings, can rightfully be seen as a philosophical root experience. Socrates and/or Plato spoke about eros as a divine madness. Whereas the history of western thinking has the outlook of being rational and argument-based, a close re-reading of its major texts shows a different story. Perhaps philosophy and mysticism are more interrelated than appears at first sight. Should this make sense, then it would be fascinating to endeavour into the human mind, in search of its inner ‘heat’.

6. {Mo 6 Sept 2-4pm} Possession

Both inspired and possessed people can be charismatic. Unfortunately, the difference between the two becomes clear when it is too late and damage has been done to followers of the latter (cf Hitler, bin Laden, etc). But what is at the core, the difference between inspiration and possession is fluid? Should we be wary of inspired people altogether? Is there a possibility to distinguish?

7. {Mon 4 Oct 2-4pm} Synchronicity and necessity

‘Synchronicity’ comes down to an acausal determination of events (provided that the word ‘determination’ still makes sense here). David Hume deprived causal relations of logical cogency. He thereby risked to generalize coincidence. Would it be meaningful, however, to imagine a deeper, ‘illogic’ notion of necessity, which rules synchronicity events?

8. {Mon 1 Nov 2-4pm} Synchronicity and causality

A natural science view: History, the living of our lives, the building of societies, ‘that what we do on earth’ is built bottom-up by synchronicities in Cartesian-Space-Time. However, only synchronicities that have been seen / recognized by a consciousness that observes a meaning into the synchronicity. While Jung would say that a synchronicity is built up out of meaning, a natural quantum scientist would say that the synchronicity exists because meaning is provided to it simultaneously with - but logically after - the synchronicity coming into being.

9. {Mon 6 Dec 2-4pm} Physiognomy

Racism and anti-Semitism stand as a historical warning against reducing human beings to their physical characteristics. Still, human faces reveal expressions, which speak to observants endowed with subtle perception. Artists, actors, or novelists count among the

latter. How to resort to physiognomy in a viable way without throwing the ‘baby’ of subtle perception away with the ‘bathwater’ of reductive, derogatory racism and determinism?

10. {Mon 10 Jan 2-4pm} A “higher metaphysics”

Which human experiences allow for a 21st century return to metaphysics? Should not the human scope move from the single mind to a more transpersonal perspective? Is contemporary philosophy capable of accounting for such a multifocal approach?

11. {Mon 7 Feb 2-4pm} Death

Unfortunately, ‘death’ is usually defined in negative terms, as being the cessation of heartthrob, breathing, etc. Few people realise that negative definitions are uninformative. They betray our ignorance and do not allow for the apodictic certainty scientists often claim to have. What if death, rather than being a mere cessation of ‘vital’ (sic) organic functions, entailed an enhancement of human consciousness, insofar as it continued inchoate tendencies of pre-mortal existence?

12. {Mon 7 March 2-4pm} Suffering

Suffering has always posed the biggest riddle to humankind. Easy answers abound, both inside and outside humankind’s spiritual and ideological traditions, but they rather hurt than help. Perhaps suffering can be seen as a symptom of a deeper inner struggle, as the top of an iceberg. How to account for this? How to avoid simplistic theodicies here, and do justice to the intensity of suffering?

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You can register for these events at any date; all twelve sessions will be recorded and made accessible to all those who have registered. This way, you can watch the seminars at your own convenience.

To register, please visit: https://rico-sneller.blogspot.com/2021/03/perfect-storm-video-podcast-series-on.html

For more information on the seminar series, please contact Rico Sneller at h.w.sneller@gmail.com. 

To learn more about Academic Circle Erasmus, please click here.

In support of the series, Cambridge Scholars are offering Perspectives on Synchronicity, Inspiration, and the Soul at a special 25% discount. This offer is available when purchasing exclusively through the CSP website. Enter the code SNELLER25 at the checkout to redeem.