Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society at Society for Neuroscience meeting, 2005

sfn.org/content/Public...ctureSeries.htm

Excepts from Neuroscience Quarterly:

A new feature of the annual meeting, starting in 2005, will be a lecture series titled "Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society." The first speakers will be the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, at the 2005 meeting, and Frank Gehry, the architect, in 2006...

The Dalai Lama, the 2005 speaker, has had a long interest in science and has maintained an ongoing dialogue with leading neuroscientists for more than 15 years. His talk is expected to focus on the study of empathy and compassion and how meditation affects brain activity. "As the cover of the March National Geographic indicates, he has already had an influence on the design of experiments of great interest to neuroscientists, and to the public at large..."

The Dalai Lama is the winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize for Peace and is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. He has long had a keen personal interest in the sciences, and has said that if he were not a monk, he would have liked to have been an engineer.

The Dalai Lama has enjoyed relationships with many scientists, including long friendships with the late renowned philosopher of science Sir Karl Popper, and with physicists Carl von Weizsäcker and the late David Bohm. He has participated in many conferences on science and spirituality. At the Alpbach Symposia on Consciousness in 1983, the Dalai Lama met Francisco Varela who, in partnership with Adam Engle, later created the unique form of in-depth dialogue between Buddhism and science that has grown into the Mind and Life Institute, of which he is honorary chairman (www.mindandlife.org). Since the first Mind and Life meeting in 1987, the Dalai Lama has regularly dedicated a full week of his busy schedule to these biennial meetings. To date, there have been 12 Mind and Life dialogues on subjects ranging from emotions and neuroplasticity to quantum mechanics. Mind and Life XIII will take place just prior to this year’s SfN annual meeting in Washington, DC, and is on the topic of "Science and Clinical Applications of Meditation."