• Can mysticism improve your cognitive and creative abilities and stimulate your overall development?

• Can you talk about the need in the world for your life’s work?
  video (5,8mb) | transcript
• How can we create an environment that children are motivated to find meaning and purpose with their lives?
  video (6,8mb) | transcript
• Can you tell us something more about your approach? (part A)
  video (5,7mb) | transcript
• Can you tell us something more about your approach? (part B)
  video (5,7mb) | transcript

۞  Gerard Bodifée talks about humans as meaning making beings.

• Do we as human beings find meaning in the cosmos by taking a religious approach to it?
  video (9,9mb) | transcript
• The Now is eternal. Is that right?
  video (5,5mb) | transcript
• Science often denies that the Kosmos has brought us forth as meaning-making beings. The fact that we are able to do this emerges from the very cosmos that they are studying. Is that right?
  
  video (5,7mb) | transcript

• Do we jump to the next evolutionary level by means of increased communication of the individuals at that level?
  video (9,5mb) | transcript
• Do we find an individual and a social aspect in evolution?
  video (7,5mb) | transcript

۞  Gerard Bodifée talks about some of the practical paths we can take towards a Full Existence.

• Do you think there is a practical path to this Full Existence?
  video (5,1mb) | transcript
• Should we take practical steps towards integrating science and religion?
  video (7,5mb) | transcript

• The Minkowski Space
  video (9,0mb) | transcript
• Imaginary time
  video (8,2mb) | transcript
• Dark Matter revisited
  video (6,5mb) | transcript
• The One divided
  video (6,5mb) | transcript

۞  Han de Wit discussed the relationship between psychotherapy and taking a spiritual path such as Buddhism.

• Are there any theoretical similarities between your work in Contemplative Psychology and the work of Ken Wilber?
  video (8,1mb) | transcript
• (continued)
  video (4,3mb) | transcript
• Is there a relationship between psychotherapy and the path of meditation?
  video (8,3mb) | transcript
• (continued)
  video (4,8mb) | transcript
• Should we do psychotherapy before we start meditating?
  video (8,5mb) | transcript
• Can you be neurotically enlightened as well?
  video (6,7mb) | transcript

۞  In these fragments Fons Wils talks about the distribution of matter in the universe, the problems with the Big Bang as a theory, and the possibility of an alternative theory for the Big Bang.

• Why does matter matter?
  video (7,6mb) | transcript
• Is the Big Bang fact or hypothesis?
  video (8,2mb) | transcript
• And can we find an alternative?
  video (8,3mb) | transcript

۞  Gerard Bodifée points to the Greatness and Smallness of our human existence in this interview.

• Is the Fullness of Being a triangulation of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful?
  video (9,9mb) | transcript
• Could we say that we are halfway between the Beasts and the Gods?
  video (4,9mb) | transcript

۞  We had a talk with Veerle Fraeters (Belgium) about Gender and Spirituality. In this interview Fraeters focused on 12th and 13th century women’s visionary mysticism, and in particular on Hadewijch of Brabant. In the first fragment you will also hear Fraeters sing from the Songs of Hadewijch.

• What was the setting for female mysticism in the 12th and 13th century in the Low Countries?
  video (6,8mb) | transcript
• (continued)
  video (5,9mb) | transcript
• Can you tell us something about the type of spirituality these women practised?
  video (9,3mb) | transcript

۞  Douwe Nutterts talks with us some more about psycho-spiritual work, his influences from humanistic psychology, his use of meditation, etc.

• You are also influenced by humanistic psychology and the human potential movement, is that right?
  video (10,7mb) | transcript
• Did teaching help you to go beyond book knowledge?
  video (5,07mb) | transcript
• Do you have many colleagues within this field?
  video (10,7mb) | transcript
• Can Psycho-Spiritual Work contribute to the Interfaith Dialogue?
  video (9,8mb) | transcript

۞ We continue our talk with Marinus Jan Marijs. The topics covered in this session include bhava samadhi and what it means, the mystic ability of seeing auras, etc.

• You define the emptiness of nirvana as relative emptiness and the emptiness of turiya as absolute emptiness, is this right?
  video (11,4mb) | transcript
• There are four different steps of bhava samadhi. Could you explain us the differences between these steps and what the distinction is based upon? (part one)
  video (9,1mb) | transcript
• There are four different steps of bhava samadhi. Could you explain us the differences between these steps and what the distinction is based upon? (part two)
  video (3,8mb) | transcript
• What are your thoughts on mysticism as a prerational and mythical system versus mysticism as a transrational and transpersonal system? (part one)
  video (6,3mb) | transcript
• What are your thoughts on mysticism as a prerational and mythical system versus mysticism as a transrational and transpersonal system? (part two)
  video (6,3mb) | transcript

۞  We continue our talk with Gerard Bodifée on the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. This time we talked about Teilhard de Chardin and his grand vision.

• Teilhard de Chardin can only be understood within a religious framework, not a scientific one, is this right? (part one)
  video (7,9mb) | transcript
• Teilhard de Chardin can only be understood within a religious framework, not a scientific one, is this right? (part two)
  video (7,6mb) | transcript

۞ Fons Wils  takes us deeper into the problems of physics and where to look for some of the answers.

• Other properties of matter.
  video (8,8mb) | transcript
• Where do the laws of physics come from?
  video (6,3mb) | transcript
• Black holes and the disappearance of energy.
  video (8,3mb) | transcript

۞ After the murder of a Muslim teacher in Antwerp (Belgium), a priest, a rabbi, and an imam decided to get together to have a talk. They called the initiative ’Trialogue’, and aimed at a friendly dialogue between the different faiths in order to talk about a diversity of subjects with religious and social relevance.

We had a talk with the priest, Hendrik Hoet, about this project, and about modern-day Christianity.

• What is the story behind "Trialogue"?
  video (8,7mb) | transcript
• Religions are sometimes hijacked as a means to commit violence and terrorism. Do the three of you feel that you have teamed up to combat this phenomenon? (part one)
  video (12,7mb) | transcript
• Religions are sometimes hijacked as a means to commit violence and terrorism. Do the three of you feel that you have teamed up to combat this phenomenon? (part two)
  video (8,7mb) | transcript
• What is your view of secular law as we know it in our society?
  video (10,3mb) | transcript

۞ Fons Wils (Belgium) expounded his novel theory on the origin and structure of the universe. This interview was not a regular Q & A. Instead, we decided to let Wils explain his novel theory in bite-sized bits. Each bit will explain a certain topic and will take us progressively deeper into the theory.

We start out by having a look at some of the nagging questions in physics today.

• Looking for the origin of things...
  video (8,8mb) | transcript
• Why does matter have the properties it has...
  video (6,8mb) | transcript
• The question of quantum entanglement...
  video (5,6mb) | transcript

۞ Dr. Arnold De Loof (Belgium) tackles one of the Big Questions: What is Life? Is it possible to come to a good working definition of what constitutes Life? De Loof certainly thinks so as he explains in our interview.

• We will start with a simple question. Can you explain us what is Life?
  video (8,8mb) | transcript
• What is the difference between Life and Death?
  video (10,1mb) | transcript
• When you terminate the highest level of communication of a chicken, the cells of that chicken can still be alive, but the chicken as such is dead. Is this correct?
  video (9,2mb) | transcript
• You identify both individual evolution in levels and social evolution in levels? Is this correct?
  video (7,6mb) | transcript

۞  Dr. Han de Wit (The Netherlands) , founder of Contemplative Psychology, talks about his field and about his path as a student of Trungpa Rinpoche and as a Buddhist teacher (acharya) of Shambhala International (www.shambhala.org)

• What is the story of contemplative psychology?.
  video (8,8mb) | transcript
• Would you agree that the meaning of the terms "meditation" and "contemplation" have been inverted during the course of history?
  video (8,3mb) | transcript
• Do mystics across traditions understand each other?
  video (7,9mb) | transcript
• Would you agree that interfaith dialogue cannot work at the level of surface structures? And could mysticism, as deep structure, play a bigger role in this?
  video (6,3mb) | transcript
• You are involved in building a Naropa Institute between Belgium and the Netherlands. Can you tell us something about this?
  video (7,3mb) | transcript

۞ In this interview Marinus Jan Marijs (The Netherlands) talks about the phenomenology of nirvikalpa samadhi, turiya and turiyatita, and bhava samadhi. He gives detailed descriptions based on his personal experiences and extensive comparative research.

• Could you talk with us about your typology of mysticism ?
  video (6,8mb) | transcript
• Can you explain the difference between the stage of nirvana and the state of nirvikalpa samadhi?
  video (10,7mb) | transcript
• Would you agree with the idea that non-dual mysticism (ie. turiya and turiyatita states) is non-developmental?
  video (7,8mb) | transcript
• Is there a correspondence between the different levels of emptiness and those of form?
  video (3,7mb) | transcript

۞  Douwe Nutterts (The Netherlands) talks with us about Psycho-Spiritual Work and his role as a guide and teacher for personal and spiritual development.

• What is the meaning of Psycho-Spiritual Work? And what does it involve?
  Temporarily off-line. Read here why and what you can do about it | transcript
• Is Psycho-Spiritual Work the same as Transpersonal Psychotherapy?
  Temporarily off-line. Read here why and what you can do about it | transcript
• How do you see your own role in this process? Is it the role of a guide?
  Temporarily off-line. Read here why and what you can do about it | transcript
• Are you influenced by certain Contemplative Traditions?
  Temporarily off-line. Read here why and what you can do about it | transcript