Center for Consciousness Center . Tucson . Arizona

TOWARD A SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 2011 - STOCKHOLM

MAY 1-8, 2011

WORKSHOP - Synesthesia Sunday UPDATED SCHEDULE

May 1 - Full Day

Northern Lights: Expanding the Lexicon of Synesthesia

Synesthetes from around the globe will gather in this workshop showing several distinct areas of research and personal experience which call for an expansion of the definition of synesthesia. Synesthesia, as it is defined now, is "a sensation that normally occurs in one sense modality occuring when another modality is stimulated." But what of the lit quality of the photisms synesthetes see? And what of the colors they often associate with things like numbers, letters and music? And what of the landscapes that they see, alphabets sometimes climbing upwards or encircling them in their mind's eyes? What about their empathic experiences? Or their facility with metaphor? Join both researchers and actual synesthetes in their quest to show a great diversity of experience and evidence toward broadening the current view of what it means to have synesthesia.

Moderator, Maureen Seaberg is a NYC-based journalist and author whose book on synesthesia, Tasting the Universe (April 2011 release) features first-time interviews with many famous synesthetes. (There is also a colorful chapter about the Tucson TSC 2010). Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Daily News, Irish America, ESPN the magazine and on MSNBC and PBS. A synesthete herself, she is moderating at TSC for the second time a workshop about synesthesia for the Stockholm 2011 conference. She has also presented at the American Synesthesia Association Conference at Vanderbilt University and at New York University. Her forms of synesthesia include grapheme (letters and numbers), colored days of the week, months and music and some motion-to-hearing synesthesia. She is a graduate of Penn State University and holds a certificate in superior-level Spanish language from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid.

William C Bushell Neil Theise Patricia L Duffy Nancy Clark Michael Sollberger Alexandra Kirschner

Carrie C Firman Jason Padgett Berit Brogaard Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe Dirk Proeckl Engelbert Winkler

William C Bushell, PhD, received his doctorate in Psychological and Medical Anthropology from Columbia University’s historic Department of Anthropology, where he was also a Fulbright Scholar, before becoming a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard. He has for many years been affiliated with the Anthropology Program at MIT as well as Director of East-West Research at Tibet House in NYC, and has co-directed several major conferences with Professor Robert Thurman and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the most recent one leading to publication of a ground-breaking volume, Longevity, Regeneration, and Optimal Health; Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives(Bushell, et al, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol 1172, 2009). His most recent publications and presentations – including at the Society for Neuroscience Meetings, the Salk Institute, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories – have presented material supportive of a neurobiological model suggesting that meditative practices may result in enhanced sensory-perceptual functioning meditated through neuroplasticity. This work has recently culminated in a recent presentation at NYU which foreshadows his offerings at the Stockholm Conference: “Buddhist Emptiness as a Scientific Question: Can ‘Yogic Direct Perception of Subtle Moment-to-Moment Impermanence’ Be Explained by Attention-Driven Neuroplastic Changes in Sensory-Perceptual Systems?”

Neil Theise, MD is a practicing physician and an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of adult stem cell plasticity. Applying complexity theory to cell biology he has extended his work to areas of theoretical biology, suggesting alternate models of the body, other than classical cell doctrine, which may be necessary to understand non-Western, "yogic" approaches to the body and health. These explorations have also disclosed striking scientific parallels to insights regarding the nature of reality derived from contemplative (e.g. Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu) traditions. Himself a long time Zen Buddhist practitioner, he is a Senior Student of Roshi Enkyo O'Hara of Village Zendo in New York City.

Patricia Lynne Duffy is the author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color their Worlds (Henry Holt & Company), the first book by a synesthete about synesthesia. She is a co-founder of and consultant to the American Synesthesia Association. Duffy is also an instructor of writing and language skills in the United Nations Language and Communications Programme for Diplomats and Staff at UN Headquarters in New York. She has traveled and worked in Africa, Asia, and Europe. For helping to bring renewed attention to synesthesia research and for other educational projects, Duffy received the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Teachers College, Columbia University. She gave a plenary talk on synesthesia at TSC 2010 in Tucson. Duffy’s special interest is in what she terms "personal coding", the unique way that each person codes information and makes a one-of-a-kind "inner map" of the world around them.

Michael Sollberger is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He studied philosophy and neurobiology at the University of Fribourg and Paris-Sorbonne. In 2010, Michael received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Lausanne with a dissertation on the metaphysics of perceptual consciousness. His current research concentrates mainly on issues in philosophy of mind and perception, philosophy of science (especially cognitive science and neuroscience), and epistemology.

Nancy Clark is a psychotherapist, medical intuitive, author and international lecturer. She is presently a candidate for ND. Seminars on many subjects as well as her 125-hour course and clinic in “Medical Intuitive Certification” have been taught around the world for twenty years. Originally, seminars were designed for residents in post communist countries to help residents improve their lives by reducing stress. Dr. Clark serves on the board of the International Association of Near Death Studies as coordinator of international groups. Nancy is the founder and director of AZ Integrative Therapies in Tucson. The purpose of the Center is to present a radically new approach to intuitive energy healing integrating East/West traditions.

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe studied English and Philosophy at the Universität Düsseldorf, Germany. In 1994 he obtained his Ph.D. at the Department of Drama, Theatre and Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London. From 1994 to 2007, he was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth. Since October 2007 he has been Professor of Drama at the Lincoln School of Performing Arts, University of Lincoln. He has numerous publications on the topic of Theatre and Consciousness to his credit, including Theatre and Consciousness: Explanatory Scope and Future Potential (Intellect, 2005) and is founding editor of the peer-reviewed web-journal Consciousness, Literature and the Arts and the book series of the same title with Rodopi.

Alexandra Kirschner of Stuttgart has been a singing instructor since 1994 for the boys choir Aurelius Sängerknaben Calw in Germany. A synesthete, she specializes in training children but has also trained adult voices. Since learning a name for her synesthesia four years ago, she has worked to incorporate that awareness into her teaching and has even discovered and cultivated young synesthetes in her choir. She believes there are methods to bring out the talent of synesthetes and non-synesthetes alike using color associations for music.

Jason Padgett is a mathematician and businessman and artist born in Alaska now living in Washington State, U.S. He has acquired synesthesia and savant syndrome due to a brain injury suffered in a mugging eight years ago. Since that time, he has had many profound insights about math and physics and asserts that he is seeing space-time itself. Padgett has undergone mostly positive personality changes in his long road to recovery. He has overcome Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which incapacitated him for four years after the crime and has gone back to college to better explain the math he is intuiting on a daily basis. He is both a math and physics theorist as well as an artist who draws the grids and fractals he sees synesthetically. His resulting art won Best International Newcomer in the Art Basel Miami Beach competition.

Carrie C Firman - Carrie C Firman holds a BA in Commercial Design/Photography and worked in the design industry. This spring, she is finishing her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies degree at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. Carrie experiences synesthesia, the union of the senses, though she didn’t know it was abnormal until she was 25. Her interactive computer art, objects, and installations are inspired by her visual relationship with sound, music, pain, and time. Carrie also presented her work at the American Synesthesia Association conference in October 2010.

Berit Brogaard has written since 1999 for publications such as "Journal of Philosophy,", "Journal of Biological Chemistry," "Consciousness and Cognition," "Cognitive Science," and "Journal of Medicine and Philosophy". " In her academic research, she specializes in rare brain conditions such as synesthesia and blindsight, brain intervention and emotional regulation. From 2007 to 2009 she was a research fellow at the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University. She has a 5-year medical degree in neuroscience from the Danish National Hospital and the University of Copenhagen and a Ph.D. in philosophy from State University of New York at Buffalo.

Dirk Proeckl is a neurologist as well as psychologist working in his own medical practice in Wörgl. Tirol, Austria. His special interests focus on the interaction between psyche and nervous system. He has studied multimodal psychosomatic rehabilitation of migraine; the distribution of neurotransmitters within the central nervous system; the readyness potential in he electroencephalogram and dipol source analysis of color-evoked potentials and of epileptic potentials in the electroencephalogram. In recent years he has worked in collaboration with Engelbert Winkler on the topic of optimizing their methods to achieve the state of Hypnagogic Light Experience, including the implications for understanding synesthesia.

Engelbert Winkler is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, and legal consultant for children's and youth´s issues with his own practice in Wörgl, Tirol, Austria. In 1994 he founded a family counseling institute named Kooperative Familienberatung. He studied philosophy, pediatrics and psychology in Innsbruck. He is also certified through further study in existential analysis, hypnotherapy and other disciplines. He is particularly interested in the neuronal basis and effects of Near Death Experience as well as the development of new uses of the Hypnagogic Light Experience. In recent years he has been collaborating with Dirk Proeckl on the topic of optimizing their methods to achieve the state of Hypnagogic Light Experience and expanding their knowledge of resulting neurophysiological and psychological processes (including the implications for understanding of synesthesia).

SCHEDULE

WORKSHOP - Synesthesia

Sunday, May 1 - Full Day

9:00 am – 5:15 pm

Time and Location: TBA

Chair, Maureen Seaberg

Participants:

William C Bushell, Neil Theise, MD, Patricia Lynne Duffy, Michael Sollberger

Nancy Clark, Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, Alexandra Kirschner, Jason Padgett,

Carrie C Firman, Ezgi Sorman, Berit Brogaard, Dirk Proeckl, Engelbert Winkler

Synesthesia, as it is defined now, is "a sensation that normally occurs in one sense modality occuring when another modality is stimulated." But what of the lit quality of the photisms synesthetes see? And what of the colors they often associate with things like numbers, letters and music? And then there are their prodigious memories – aided by this color, which acts like a mnemonic… And what of the landscapes that they see, alphabets sometimes climbing upwards or calendars encircling them in their mind's eyes? What about their empathic experiences? Or their facility with metaphor? Or their ability to identify other synesthetes? Or their perfect musical pitch? Join both researchers and actual synesthetes in their quest to show a great diversity of experience and evidence toward broadening the current view of what it means to have synesthesia. Maureen Seaberg

9:00 - 9:05 Introductory Remarks by Dr. Stuart Hameroff, Director, The Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson

9:05 -9:10 Expanding the Lexicon of Synesthesia - Why Synesthesia's Definition Needs Updating - brief remarks and introduction of speakers by Maureen Seaberg , a NYC-based journalist , author and synesthete.

9:10 - 9:45 William C Bushell, Director of East-West Research Tibet House, NYC: “Neuroscientific and Quantum Physical Approach to Advanced Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation: Perceptual Learning, Neuroplasticity, Texture, Fractals, and Synesthesia. A Model In-Progress.”

9:45-10:20 Neil Theise, practicing physician, stem cell pioneer and synesthete, NYC: “Complexity theory and the ‘science of being’: The relationship of insights from scientific and contemplative practices of investigation.”

10:20- 10:55 Michael Sollberger, philosopher, Lausanne, Switzerland: “Rethinking Synesthesia.”

10:55-11:25 Berit Brogaard, neuroscientist, philosopher and synesthete, St. Louis, “The Superhuman Mind: From Synesthesia to Savant Syndrome.”

11:25-12:00 Patricia Lynne Duffy, author and synesthete, NYC, "The Landscapes of Synesthesia: a talk” and a reading from her book, Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color their Worlds.

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Nancy Clark, psychotherapist ,medical intuitive and author, Tucson, AZ: “Evolving Perceptions.”

1:30-2:00 Ezgi Sorman, healer, synesthete, Deepak Chopra protégé, Istanbul, Turkey: “Hearing with my Hands, Seeing with my Heart and Healing with Prana -the Universal Energy.”

2:00-2:30 Carrie C Firman, artist/designer and synesthete, Buffalo, NY: “Art as Inquiry.”

2:30-3:00 Daniel Meyer -Dinkgräfe, Professor of Drama, University of Lincoln, UK: “Synesthesia in Drama and Theatre.”

3:00-3:15 Break

3:15-3:45 Dirk Proeckl and Engelbert Winkler, Tyrol, Austria: “The Hypnagogic Light Experience – and Synesthesia.”

3:45- 4:15 Alexandra Kirschner, voice instructor and synesthete, Stuttgart, Germany: “Synesthesia and Singing: A Challenge.”

4:15- 4:45 Jason Padgett, mathematician, synesthete and savant, Federal Way, Washington: “Geometric Synesthesia.”

4:45- 5:15 Maureen Seaberg: “Can Synesthetes be Identified by Their Written and Spoken Word?” including a reading from her new book on synesthesia, Tasting the Universe.

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