Roger is  a Corporate Philosopher who has devoted his life to help make the world a better workplace.

Roger read History at London University and studied the History of Western Philosophy with the late Lord Conrad Russell, son of the philosopher Bertrand Russell. He draws on a wide range of professional experience as a banker, a social worker, an executive coach and CEO of a UK subsidiary of Adecco, the world's largest personnel services group.

Roger is the author of "ethicability® : How to decide what’s right and find the courage to do it". This framework has been used or endorsed by organizations as diverse as AstraZeneca, the Cabinet Office; Citigroup; and the Institute of Business Ethics. He has also published “How to do what’s RIGHT”, a short guide to ethical decision making. He is a regular contributor of articles to newspapers and business journals and speaks regularly at conferences and seminars, including those for the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the NHS and the UK Defence Academy. He is Visiting Professor of Organizational Ethics and teaches on the Executive MBA programme at Cass Business School. He is co-founder of the Soul Gym at Worth Abbey (featured in BBC 2's “The Monastery”); a Director of the Centre for Applied and Professional Ethics at the Open University; a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and a Fellow of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.  

Watch a video clip of Roger on CNBC

Their Yoga encompasses Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga. Philip Jacobs gave a talk on Saturday after supper on Advaita which was well received and to conclude the weekend, Arjuna Ishaya gave a talk on The Power of Now.

On Sunday afternoon Kirsten Chick  from The School of Natural Nutrition spoke to us about the balance and chemistry of the body: how it is affected by diet, the stress of modern life and also the effects of sunshine and meditation on our attitude.

John and Ruth have moved to Shipton under Wychwood in Oxfordshire, where they continue to run the Yoga Centre and it was decided that they would stop the 6.30pm Thursday Yoga Group but instead hold 2 days of Yoga each term. All members are warmly invited, whatever your ability. Please keep your eye on the noticeboard for future dates. The next one is 11th October from 10 am until 9pm. There is no charge for Study Society Members.

John and Ruth will be on the Greek Island of Lesbos for a Yoga Retreat, from 15 May - 5 June. You are very welcome to join us for 1, 2 or even all 3 weeks. Please look on our web site for further details.

A talk by Dr Mike King at Colet House on Sunday 13 April at 11.45

Dr King is Reader at the London Metropolitan University, a director of the Scientific and Medical Network, and author of fifty papers on art, science and the spirit. His book Secularism: The Hidden Origins of Disbelief is the first of two volumes dealing with the secular mind and the re-emergence of spiritual thinking.

In this talk Dr King will speak on the non-dual spiritual path of Advaita, and how it can be relevant in a culture that has its eye turned to politics, arts and sciences; in other words to the 'productions of time' that William Blake refers to in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

This talk immediately follows the AGM business meeting. It will be followed by an informal lunch to which all are welcome. Please would members and associates bring a dish to share.

A Scientific & Medical Network Frontier Lecture by Colin Tudge

Feeding People is Easy is a hopeful book that proposes a completely fresh approach to all our food problems, both global and individual – and one that is entirely positive. Colin Tudge shows that there is a correspondence between excellent farming, sound nutrition and great cooking. If we want a better world, then we have to take our affairs into our own hands. Colin’s book points the way.

Colin Tudge has been a science writer for many years, mainly for New Scientist, Farmers Weekly and BBC Radio 3. He has also worked for various agricultural research institutes, and has therefore been able to pursue his interest in food and farming and the underlying sciences and practicalities at first hand in many countries. Feeding People is Easy is his twelfth book.

Wednesday 12th March at 7.00 pm
Colet House, 151 Talgarth Road, London W14.
Tickets £12.00 (£10.00 for SMN Members)
(Reservations: Colet Members – Contact the office. Others call 01608 652000 or email info@scimednet.org).
 

A talk by Dr. Nigel Hamilton  at Colet House  on Monday 21 Jan at 7pm 

Dreams and a knowledge of Alchemy have traditionally been used by the Spiritual Guide within the Sufi tradition. This talk will first draw on dream experiences that illustrate the successive stages of spiritual awakening, and then discuss the various Alchemical Operations that have been employed to facilitate the transformation process.
 
Dr.Nigel Hamilton Ph.D., Dipl. Clinical Psychotherapy and Social Psychiatry has been the UK representative and a Spiritual Retreat Guide for the Sufi Order International for the past 26 years. He is also a member of the United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapists and is the Director of the Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy Education.

This talk will trace the story of Europe’s encounter with the religious-philosophical traditions of India, beginning with the European ‘discovery’ of Indian metaphysics in the Romantic period. It will go on to  show how a series of great Indian thinkers – from Rammohan Roy and Vivekananda to Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan – played a seminal role in the creation of  a universal world religion  as a result of their encounter with the West. The key to this was the role of Advaita Vedanta as a dominant force in modern Indian intellectual thought, and its relationship with European idealist philosophies. It is also, paradoxically, the story of the emergence of Indian nationalism and anti-colonialism which were linked to belief in the underlying spiritual identity of India and its basis in the monistic thinking of Advaita Vedanta.   

John Clarke is Professor Emeritus in the History of Ideas at Kingston University, and is the author of Oriental Enlightenment: the Encounter between Asian and Western Thought.

The Scientific and Medical Network Frontier Lecture given by Barbara and Dennis Tedlock

At Colet House on Tuesday 9th October, 7pm to 9pm 

Dennis and Barbara will unravel the truth about current New Age claims predicting a world-change in 2012 based on the Mayan Calendar.

Dennis Tedlock is an anthropologist and linguist whose teaching and research center on the indigenous languages, verbal arts, writing systems, philosophy, and religion of the Americas. He has done field research among the Zuni of New Mexico and the Maya of Guatemala and Belize. His books include Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy (with Barbara Tedlock), Finding the Center: The Art of the Zuni Storyteller, and The Dialogic Emergence of Culture (with Bruce Mannheim). For Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, he received the PEN Translation Prize

Barbara Tedlock is a UB Distinguished Professor of Anthropology. She has done ethnography in Brazil, Nigeria, Guatemala, and with Zuni Indians in New Mexico. Along with husband, she served as co-editor of American Anthropologist, the journal of the American Anthropological Association. Her interests center on the American Southwest and Mesoamerica and include subjects such as shamanism, Zuni art and aesthetics, the cultural organization of time and space, ethnomedicine and cognitive, psychological and symbolic anthropology. Additionally, Tedlock was initiated as a Shaman by the Maya Quiche of Guatemala.

She has published several books: Time and the Highland Mayan (1982), Dreaming: Anthropological and Psychological Interpretations (1987), The Beautiful and the Dangerous: Zuni Indian Encounters (1992) ,Teachings from the American Earth (co-edited with Dennis Tedlock) (1992) and The Woman in the Shaman's Body (2005).

In 1997, Tedlock, along with her husband, won the American Anthropological Association President's Award for distinctive leadership at the American Anthropologist.

The Spirit of the Enlightenment
 
If we make the distinction between a secular worldview, predicated on science, humanism, materialism and atheism, and a religious worldview, predicated on a sacred dimension of non-duality (and requiring in the Western tradition the term ‘God’), then the Enlightenment period is considered by both groups to be the source of divergence between these worldviews. But a close examination of some fifty key Enlightenment thinkers shows that only perhaps four of them wanted the end of the religious worldview. How secularism then emerged is something of a puzzle, but this talk will focus more on the spirituality of key Enlightenment thinkers and how it relates to Eastern concepts of non-duality. It will be shown that, for example, Descartes (most controversially), Spinoza and Leibniz all pursued a lyrical, transcendent, world-curious religiosity, as profoundly spiritual thinkers with a deep empathy for the non-dual. It will be argued that this is more typical of the Enlightenment than reductionist materialism or atheism.
 
Dr Mike King is the director of the Centre for Postsecular Studies at London Metropolitan University, a director of the Scientific and Medical Network, and author of fifty papers on art, science and the spiritual (www.jnani.org/mrking/writings). This talk is based on a section of his forthcoming book ‘The Hidden Origins of Secularism’ to be published by Lutterworth Press.

Search for Truth : P D Ouspensky in Russia and England 

A special exhibition and weekend conference, with special guest speakers:

Prof. Sergey Kashchenko: Archival research on Ouspensky in Russia
Prof. Wallace Martin: Cultural influences on Ouspensky in Russia
Peter McGregor Eadie: Ouspensky in England
Prof. Jacob Needleman: Ouspensky’s contribution to philosophy

David Temple
Music Director of Crouch End Festival Chorus
 
A CHILD OF OUR TIME
 
Focusing his thoughts on one particular piece, Sir Michael Tippett’s 20th Century Oratorio A CHILD OF OUR TIME,  David will explore the interpretative process from the conductor's point of view, how to communicate this with the performers and ultimately the audience.  The talk will include some background on the work and its subject matter and some insight as to how he prepares the score and the performance.

David Temple came to London in 1972 from the North East and joined the London Philharmonic Choir where he sang under chorus master John Alldis.  In 1984 he began his work with the newly formed CEFC. The choir has progressed from being a reputable local choral society to become a choir of international standing.
He is also Musical Director of the Hertfordshire Chorus and regularly leads acclaimed performances with them in St Albans Cathedral.

The talk will be followed by lunch for members and their guests and visitors.  All are most welcome.  Would members and associates please bring a dish to share.