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  • Nova Campfire: In Search of Consciousness: New Frontiers in Science, Wisdom, and the Nature of Reality
Event

Nova Campfire: In Search of Consciousness: New Frontiers in Science, Wisdom, and the Nature of Reality

In the September 24 Nova Campfire, “In Search of Consciousness: New Frontiers in Science, Wisdom, and the Nature of Reality,” leading thinkers explored the frontiers of consciousness. In a time when science and society are both confronting the limits of material explanations, this conversation invited us to consider consciousness not as a byproduct of the brain, but as foundational to reality itself. 

Drawing from neuroscience, psychiatry, physics, philosophy, and personal experience, our panelists explored the nature of consciousness. Perspectives included spirituality, near-death experiences, and insight aligned with ancestral and Indigenous wisdom from beyond one’s immediate location or personal experiences. 

Expanding our awareness and engaging new paradigms could open pathways for human development and deeper understanding, shaping not only how we view ourselves and each other, but also how we design and relate to emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. As questions about machine sentience, cognition, and responsibility grow increasingly urgent, understanding consciousness becomes even more critical.

A broader understanding of consciousness can transform our inner lives and our collective response to global challenges. When we awaken to our profound interconnection with all life, new possibilities emerge for the well-being of people and the planet.

 

See the full event recording below and scroll further for individual presentations.

Program and Panelists

A brief introduction from Susan Prescott, director of the Nova Network, and Brian Berman, president and founder of the Nova Institute for Health, followed a general welcome and “mindful moment” from Rick Scott. Panelists presented for 7-8 minutes, weaving their narrative threads to provide the fabric for discussion that all attendees then contributed to.

Welcome

portrait of nova institute founder brian berman

Professor Brian Berman, MD, is the president and founder of the Nova Institute for Health and professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he was director of the Center for Integrative Medicine. He is one of the most highly funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers in the field of integrative and complementary medicine. A pioneer in the field and founder of the first U.S. academic medical center-based program for integrative medicine in 1991, he received two Bravewell Collaborative awards in leadership and service. He continues to conduct NIH-funded research at University of Maryland and promote a broad vision of health through leadership at Nova Institute for Health.

Consciousness: New Frontiers in Science, Wisdom, and the Nature of Reality

headshot of professor susan prescott

Susan Prescott is director of the Nova Network. She is a professor of planetary health at University of Western Australia, editor-in-chief of Challenges, and a Scholar at the Nova Institute for Health in Baltimore. She is a pediatrician, immunologist, artist, and award-winning author, internationally recognized for cutting-edge research into early environmental determinants of health and disease. Her global work promotes awareness of the interconnections between personal and planetary health in ways that inspire creative, integrated, and wise approaches, grounded in reciprocity, for social and ecological justice and flourishing futures.

The Sapient Cosmos: What a Modern-Day Synthesis of Science and Philosophy Teaches Us about the Emergence of Information, Consciousness, and Meaning

James Glattfelder

James B. Glattfelder is an author, academic, and quantitative researcher interested in the foundations of reality, the nature of consciousness, and the limits of knowledge. His latest book, The Sapient Cosmos: What a Modern-Day Synthesis of Science and Philosophy Teaches Us about the Emergence of Information, Consciousness, and Meaning chronicles an ongoing paradigm shift affecting physics and philosophy. James holds an MSc in theoretical physics and a PhD in complexity science. For sixteen years, he worked in the traditional finance industry next to the distributed ledger ecosystem and was also a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich. He enjoys sharing his work at international academic and non-academic events, and multiple media outlets have featured his research. James lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Infinite Awareness: Exploring the Material World as a Manifestation of a Universal Consciousness

Marjorie Woollacott

Marjorie Woollacott, PhD, is an emeritus professor and prior chair of the Department of Human Physiology and member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. She taught courses in neuroscience and rehabilitation, as well as complementary medicine and meditation. She is president of the Academy for the Advancement of Post-Materialist Sciences, research director for the International Association of Near-Death Studies, and co-director of the Galileo Commission, a part of the Scientific and Medical Network. Woollacott has published more than 200 scientific articles and written or co-edited eight books, including Infinite Awareness. Between the scientific and spiritual worlds, she breaks open the definition of human consciousness to investigate the existence of a non-physical and infinitely powerful mind.

Pachamama: The Sacred Consciousness of the Earth and the Entirety of Space and Time

Anita Sanchez

Dr. Anita Sanchez, Nahua (Aztec) and Toltec, is a transformational leadership, global nonprofit, and Fortune 500 corporate consultant, coach, and author. She weaves Indigenous wisdom and science with contemporary life to support individual wholeness and the evolution of collective consciousness in partnership with People, Spirit, and the Earth. Anita is author of the international award-winning book, The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. She is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council and Evolutionary Leaders, and a passionate board member of Bioneers and Kinship.Earth. Anita is a member of Indigenous Elder Circles including Wisdom Weavers of the World, Fire Circle Earth, the Well Being Project, and Earth Rise Collective.  Anita was born into a Midwest family that was economically poor, yet rich in Mexican-American and Nahua and Toltec heritage. Fortified with the strength of her elders and connection to the earth, she became the first in her family of more than one hundred first cousins to earn a doctorate degree. 

Transformation through Relationship: Nature as an Expression of Connected Consciousness and Universal Symbiosis

Susan Erdman

Susan Erdman, PhD, is globally recognized for her pioneering work in microbial ecology and its influence on human health and well-being. With a background in comparative medicine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and postdoctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health, she brings a unique perspective integrating immunology, cancer biology, and a systems view of health. Her federally funded research has illuminated how microbes shape inflammation, resilience, and emotional states through the gut–brain–immune axis. Guided by rigorous science and deep reverence for life’s interconnectedness, Dr. Erdman views microbes as fractal expressions of universal symbiosis, reminding us of the repeating patterns that link all living systems. Her work invites us to remain open to the mystery and wonder of a conscious universe, expressing itself through creativity, relationship, and the beautiful diversity of form.

Ancestral and Indigenous Notions of Consciousness: A Perspective from Indigenous Māori of Aotearoa

Natasha Tassell-Matamua

Natasha Tassell-Matamua is an associate professor in the School of Psychology at Massey University in Aotearoa, New Zealand, where she established the Centre for Indigenous Psychologies. Her research and teaching is in Indigenous psychologies, particularly the utilization of Indigenous knowledge to effect meaningful change across a range of contexts. For the past 16 years, she has researched near-death and other exceptional experiences of consciousness. She has published extensively in the area and provided numerous presentations both nationally and internationally. Natasha is a member of the advisory board for the International Association of Near-Death Studies, a board member of the Academy for the Advancement of Post-Materialist Science, an associate editor for EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing, and an associate editor for the journal Psychology of Consciousness.

Date

September 24, 2025

Time

11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET

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Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.

  • Persistence: “People did not simply progress through this sequence and experience healing. The healing journey was a recursive, back and forth process. They found helpers, used the skills/resources that those helpers provided, found other helpers that provided more resources and used those skills and resources. As this process continued, people experienced a gradual amelioration of their suffering. Although many despaired at times, all demonstrated the quality of persistence—they refused to give up.”
  • Safety & Trust: “To connect to helpers, it was essential for people to feel safe in those relationships and able to trust that the person would be a helper and not a barrier to healing. Persons whose wounds included a violation of trust were especially careful about testing the safety of new relationships.”

Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”

  • Reframing: “A particularly important skill was the ability to reframe—that is to look at suffering through a different lens.” This does NOT mean minimizing trauma or pain, but rather it often means the opposite: understanding what happened was wrong, unfair, or uncontrollable and that we are not to blame for it.
  • Responsibility: While we don’t have control over what happened to us, we are the only ones who can help ourselves heal. “A third essential resource that people acquired or refined was the ability to take an appropriate amount of responsibility for their healing journeys. They participated actively in the process of healing. Once again, some participants already had developed this skill, and some acquired or refined it from their helpers.”
  • Positivity: “Another resource that people acquired or refined during their healing journey was choose to be positive—that is to have some optimism about their situation.” People have varying predispositions to positivity. In the study, positivity was important in helping people heal. This doesn’t mean a toxic positivity, but rather simply finding some good in life and feeling hopeful about our situations.

“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad. 

When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.) 

“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”

  • “Moving from being wounded, through suffering to healing, is possible. It is facilitated by developing safe, trusting relationships and by positive reframing that moves through the weight of responsibility to the ability to respond.”
  • “Relationships with health professionals were among these but were not necessarily any more important to the healing journey than other kinds of helpers, which included family members, friends, spirituality and their God, pets, support groups, administrators, case workers and supervisors.”

Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.” 

Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”

 In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.” 

  • Helping Others: We find meaning in helping others. “Understanding that suffering gives the strength and experience to help others in similar situations.”
  • Hope: We begin to have hope that we will not always feel this bad. A Crohn’s patient said, “I think gradually I realized that I was going to feel better. I did have days when I actually didn’t vomit, when I did feel better. And I think gradually I came to believe that maybe I could have a normal life again.”
  • Self-Acceptance: We see our inherent value and understand that we are not to blame for our suffering. A participant living with HIV said, “I’m really proud of myself. I think that now I still want to live. I don’t want to die, and I really love myself a lot. I have a lot of comfort in myself.”

Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding. 

There is some debate about whether people always experience suffering on the path to healing.

Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors. 

“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”

Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.

Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.

Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.