How to Defeat Materialism: Science biases & psi evidence - Avanti Shrikumar PhD
About the event
How has materialism become so baked into the Western worldview? Why is science and academia so hostile toward psi phenomena, despite the strength of the evidence?
Multiple lines of evidence make a hard-to-dismiss case for the reality of psi phenomena - veridical near-death experiences, 1000s of cases of children with verified past-life memories, and meta-analyses of lab experiments demonstrating the reality of phenomena like precognition.
In this presentation, Avanti Shrikumar will discuss the strong case that parapsychology belongs in science. And asks: why is it considered controversial?
She will describe the watershed historical moment that consigned parapsychology to the scientific margins by the heavily biased National Research Council review commissioned by the U.S. Army in 1987. And how it was deeply flawed, despite the official assessment that “using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well established”.
Avanti will address the current leading objection to parapsychology: the evidence must be flawed because psi is “impossible”. She will discuss a plausible mechanism for how psi exists
She will also discuss how sceptics think, the flaws in common lines of attack against psi, and the reasons why it can be so difficult to see those flaws. This will include a little-known secret to clear thinking. Finally, she will discuss how parapsychology communities contribute to their own marginalisation, and what is required to fix this.
About Avanti Shrikumar:
• A career academic and researcher • graduated from MIT in 2013 with a degree in Computational Biology • PhD from Stanford in 2020 • the creator of widely used tools in machine learning for genomics • Recently joined the field of parapsychology after becoming convinced that most societal problems are linked to the denial of psi. • Read more on her Substack: [datadrivenspirituality.substack.com](https://kor01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdatadrivenspirituality.substack.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cf29a6be8d13047ad9e8c08df1ed4981d%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C639263570614718047%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=INTAO5m4h9N8ELd0vtaCatOZ0J4rVSeUslihxXGDndA%3D&reserved=0)
Post-Event Social Lunch Hangout (12.45 - 2.00pm) Afterwards, you are invited to lunch with everyone at Flora Indian Restaurant (3min walk from the venue)
PLEASE NOTE:
• 11AM Start - Please be considerate and arrive early. • $10 Cover Charge: Room hire, facilities, and running costs.
