Join Lynda Barry, Matthieu Ricard, James Fadiman, David Krakauer and Other Experts at the 12th Annual International Bioethics Forum: Creative Insight

12th Annual International Bioethics Forum: "Creative Insight: Further Studies in Human Consciousness" - Madison, WI - April 25-26, 2013 (Graphic: Business Wire)

MADISON, Wis.--()--Icons in the fields of creativity, consciousness and compassion will share their work and personal experiences through presentations and informal conversations during the 12th Annual International Bioethics Forum: “Creative Insight: Further Studies in Human Consciousness” held this April 25-26, 2013, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Hosted by the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute (BTC Institute) and Promega Corporation, Creative Insight includes the opportunity to enjoy an intimate dinner with presenters on Thursday, April 25, 2013, and multiple book signings by presenting authors throughout the forum. Registration is limited to the first 350 requests.

Cartoonist, artist, author and speaker Lynda Barry is the beloved creator of the weekly comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek and the creative force behind multiple illustrated works, including The Good Times are Killing Me, Cruddy, One! Hundred! Demons! and What It Is, which won the comic industry’s 2009 Eisner Award. Barry’s talk, Creative Concentration: How Science Helps Me Understand Art, will explore how images fuel imagination and lend power to the arts.

French translator for the Dalai Lama, Buddhist monk and author of the 2007 bestseller Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D. will discuss Creativity and the Power of Kindness, offering techniques to free the mind from the treadmill of thoughts that can hinder creativity to achieve state of openness, lucidity, flexibility, clarity and wisdom. This is a rare opportunity to hear from Ricard, who observes a vow of silence while in residence at the Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery near Kathmandu, Nepal.

Often introduced as the foremost authority on the many uses of psychedelic substances, the Harvard- and Stanford-educated James Fadiman, Ph.D. will explore the connection between psychedelics and scientific problem solving during his presentation: Can Psychedelics Accelerate Scientific Problem Solving? The Research and the Possibilities. “Certain psychedelics, when taken in a focused set and setting, appear to facilitate the solution of technical as well as theoretical scientific problems,” says Fadiman.

Director of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, David Krakauer, D. Phil. will discuss how intelligence has transformed the nature of life on earth over the last 4.5 billion years during his talk on The Nature of Creative Intelligence. “In the age of intelligent machines, the Darwinian-collective model is being accelerated beyond recognition, suggesting the possibility of radical change in the nature of education, research and society,” says Krakauer.

Barry, Ricard, Fadiman and Krakauer will be joined by other luminaries in the fields of creativity and consciousness, including:

  • Erik Davis: Cultural critic, freelance journalist and lecturer presenting Shamanism 2.0: The Creative Imagination in the Age of Neuroscience and Hypermedia.
  • Rex Jung, Ph.D.: Assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico presenting Are Intelligence and Creativity the Same or Different as Far as the Brain is Concerned?
  • Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D.: Adjunct assistant professor of psychology at New York University presenting The Neuroscience of Creativity, Flow and Openness to Experience.
  • Alfonso Montuori, Ph.D.: Professor and department chair of the Transformative Studies Ph.D. and Transformative Leadership M.A. at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco presenting The Future of Creativity and the Creativity of the Future.

Wisconsin Public Radio/Public Radio International Executive Producer Steve Paulson will moderate the event. Paulson produced the Peabody Award-winning To the Best of Our Knowledge interactive series Meet Your Mind: A User’s Guide to the Science of Consciousness.

Creative Insight will be held at the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center (5445 East Cheryl Parkway) on the Promega Corporation campus in Madison (Fitchburg), Wisconsin. In addition to the BTC Institute and Promega, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation are Platinum Sponsors of this event.

For more information or to register, please visit: http://www.btci.org/bioethics/default.html.

About BTCI

The BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute (BTCI) is a not-for-profit organization operated exclusively for educational, scientific, and cultural purposes. Learn more about its K-12 programs, scientific course offerings, and annual educational forums and symposiums at http://www.btci.org.

Contacts

BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute
Karin Borgh, (608) 277-2508
karin.borgh@btci.org

Release Summary

Icons in the fields of creativity, consciousness and compassion will share their work and personal experiences during the 12th Annual International Bioethics Forum held on April 25-26 in Madison, WI.

Contacts

BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute
Karin Borgh, (608) 277-2508
karin.borgh@btci.org