Welcome to
Cambridge Consciousness Forum
The Forum
Cambridge Consciousness Forum offers a safe space to share and explore our thoughts and experiences around who we are, as conscious human beings – what is the nature of consciousness as a whole? Does it, and do we, evolve?
We don't say 'This is how it is', but ask 'What do you think? Does this resonate with your experience?'
We organise events and workshops with speakers, videos, and facilitated discussion groups. So far, speakers have included Dr Peter Fenwick, Dr Steven Taylor and Iain Ball, Jeannet Weurman, Chris Bache, Maria Papaspyrou and Mick Collins.
Events are a mixture of in-person and online. You can find recordings of some past events below in the video library.
We look forward to organising more events in the future, and hope to see you there!
All art images are by kind permission of the artist
Ted Wallace - http://tedwallaceart.com/
Past Events and Video Library
Near Death Experiences (NDEs), Spiritual Transformation
& the Evolution of Consciousness
This was our first event, attended by about 75 people.
The speakers, Dr Peter Fenwick, Dr Steve Taylor and Iain Ball, were wonderful and thought-provoking. You can see the videos below.
They were kindly recorded by Jason Read, who edited and uploaded them on the Cambridge Consciousness Forum YouTube Channel and to our Facebook page. You are free to share those videos with whomever you like.
Peter Fenwick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExovYF9pSno&t=6s
Stephen Taylor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf4Etcg_EDw&t=5s
Iain Ball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGNyHYqfuE&t=1s
The talks were followed by small groups, facilitated by volunteers from the Cambridge Group Therapy Centre.
The day allowed us to share thoughts, feelings and experiences that go deep and are core to who we are as human beings, but which we usually have little opportunity to explore with others in a safe space.
The proceeds for the day (£315), including book sales (kindly donated by Dr Peter Fenwick) were donated to Arthur Rank Hospice, Cambridge.
The Revolution of Consciousness - Shifting Myths in the Modern World
Many of us feel we are living in a world in crisis. This day was for us to explore how we find personal meaning and a sense of direction through our experience.
We had to cancel due to Covid, but one of the talks - ‘A World That Is Not Connected To The Soul Cannot Heal’ - was recorded. You can find it below and on our YouTube channel.
It attempts to answer the question of meaning and direction, drawing on Carl Jung, Ervin Laszlo, Stan Grof, Maria Papaspyrou and James Hollis. These authors point to the vital importance of engaging with our inner depth - the personal and collective unconscious - to find wisdom and healing. They suggest we need to revalue the archetypal Feminine to restore a sense of inter-connection and a balance in how we live.
Facing archetypal levels of consciousness and the individual and collective trauma held in our Shadow, can be challenging. It may involve experiences of 'ego-death' as our everyday awareness is overwhelmed and our sense of personal boundaries is temporarily suspended. Two archetypal myths, that of the Hero's Journey and of the Great Mother (Anima Mundi), can inspire and guide us through such encounters. We ask whether a new myth might be emerging.
At the end of the presentation a number of prompt questions are given for discussion, as well as a number of books Jeannet has found helpful. You are welcome to share this presentation for discussion with friends or family, or share it on social media.
A World that is not Connected to the Soul cannot Heal
An expanded version of the above talk, including additional material from Chris Bache’s book ‘LSD and the Mind of the Universe – Diamonds from Heaven’, was delivered to the Cambridge Jungian Circle via Zoom on 17 April, 2020.
Chris Bache shares from his experience, giving his own, profound insights into how we can find meaning in what is happening in the world.
This is a pre-recorded version of the talk, in case you want to hear it. There is also a link below, with the other videos.
Psychedelics and the World Crisis
Chris Bache, Maria Papaspyrou and Mick Collins offered profound insights and visions from experiences with non-ordinary states of consciousness to sustain us during this time of global crisis.
They gave the following presentations:
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Chris Bache - A Visionary Experience of the Birth of the Future Human
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Maria Papaspyrou - The Regenerative Wisdom of Femtheogenic Consciousness
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Mick Collins - Philodelia: The Heart of Deep Transformation
This is the link if you want to watch the live recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueeXXG6cyWo&feature=youtu.be
Because it was a live recording, there is a lot of waiting time. You can skip to the speakers at - Chris Bache - 43 minutes in, Maria Papaspyrou - 1h57m in, and Mick Collins - 3h11m in. The Q&A starts at 4h43m. The intro starts at about 25 minutes in.
You can also find the individual recordings (without waiting time) on our YouTube channel.
Soul Progression & The Restorative Spirit
This one-day, in person workshop was facilitated by Mick Collins. It was based on the ideas from his book – The Restorative Spirit.
Mick used a mix of individual, pair, and group work and discussion to explore deep well-being. He helped us think about how we can we care for ourselves soulfully and spiritually in the deeply challenging times we live in.
Mick talked about visionary energies, dreaming, imaginative action, identifying new patterns and possibilities for living, lucid prayer and participation, and living sacramentally. This event was not recorded.
Proceeds from the day including book sales (£332) were donated to Mary’s meals, a charity that feeds starving children in Africa. https://www.marysmeals.org/
Healing The Collective - The Role of Psychedelics in Global Evolution.
A Panel Discussion with
Alexander Beiner, Maria Papaspyrou, Sameer Patel & Marianne Murray
Moderator - Greg Donaldson; Organiser: Jeannet Weurman
29 November, 2024.
(For information on the panellists and moderator, please see the text on YouTube.)
It was wonderful to see so many people show up in person and on-line to hear our panellists reflect on some fundamental questions in the face of a world in crisis.
The conversation (apologies for the echoey sound for the first 6 or so minutes – after that it’s okay) touched on a wide range of issues, from the role of psychedelics in mental health treatment, to the influence of Big Pharma on how we work with trauma, to the function of psychedelics as non-specific amplifiers of our individual and collective psyche.
Psychedelics are one way of entering expanded states of awareness. Others include spontaneous mystical and kundalini-like spiritual awakenings. They are potential healing agents which need presence, participation and working through – a deep engagement with psyche. Expanded states are ‘holotropic’ – they align our personal and collective psyche with an inner movement towards wholeness and evolution.
The panellists reflect on:
• How to work with expanded states, which can help us open to & tolerate difficult to reach material, so we can mature with our wounding, rather than disconnecting - often the aim of conventional medicine. They can also profoundly destabilise us.
• How our incentive structure influences development of our approach, the dangers of commercialisation, and how we must bring the deepest quality of our being to work with these states therapeutically. With the need for preparation and integration it is hard to make this work commercially viable.
• The implications of our individual & collective wounding, our ‘crisis of meaning’, and the grief many of us feel as we face our mortality and the complexity, suffering and destruction in our world.
We need support from community, validation of our experiences, and a rootedness in the ancestral realm.
We need a new language for our experiences, and collective rituals and initiatory experiences to hold us as we process pain.
We need to learn to be present in our relationships – with ourselves and with each other & the world around us.
Expanded states can give experience of an underlying entanglement, a unity of existence, which can change our sense of place and purpose. While we cannot change the world, we can and must change our culture.
I hope you enjoy the views explored in this recording, and that you find them nourishing and supportive of your journey.
‘We need to find ways to stand in the face of what is upon us’, we are told. ‘We need to relate to crisis from a place that is embodied, ensouled, and work with the world from the inside-out’, and, as one of our panellists concludes:
‘We are the ones called to do the work!’
The Organiser
Jeannet Weurman
I am a retired senior social worker with a diploma in person-centred counselling and groupwork.
I trained with Stan Grof as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator and am currently starting the second and final year of the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy Deep Relational Process Training (psychedelic assisted therapy).
Together with the Association of Palliative Care Social Workers, I work to develop trauma-informed working in hospice and palliative care.
The first talk for Cambridge Consciousness Forum was a fund-raiser for Arthur Rank Hospice, but I love it when people come together to share their thoughts and experiences, and speak from the heart, so one meeting led to another …
Link with Cambridge Psychedelics
It seems to me one way we can explore our own, and maybe a universal consciousness is through non-ordinary states of consciousness. ‘Psychedelics’ means ‘mind manifesting’. There are many ways of entering such states, like meditation, breathwork, and other, sometimes spontaneous, processes. The experiences that come with them can be profoundly challenging.
Cambridge Psychedelics is a facilitated peer support and sharing circle with the aim of supporting the integration of psychedelic experiences into people’s lives in a way that is helpful and meaningful to them.
The group focuses on experiences induced by use of psychedelics. It does not offer therapy. It is simply a safe space for people to share their experiences or hear from others if they are considering whether use of psychedelics is right for them.
The group recognises the positive potential of the use of psychedelics, but will work within the law. Participants are asked not to turn up under the influence of substances and not to take psychedelics in the session. We will also ask participants not to share information about illegal psychedelic services.
To keep the cost of attending the integration circle as low as possible, proceeds from events organised by Cambridge Consciousness Forum may be used to subsidise it.
