I just landed Monday night coming back to Seattle after having spent a few days in San Raphael, CA, attending and presenting at a conference. The conference, which gathered teachers from all over the world for the third consecutive year, is called Science and Nonduality (SaND for short.) You can check out their website here (http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/ .)

That such a conference exists is in and of itself an immense blessing, but to be able to be a part of it is an incredible gift. SaND is a place where spiritual teachers at the edge of the evolution of consciousness, as well as poets, dancers and painters, come to speak of an awareness beyond words. Beside them are renowned quantum physicists, psychologists, mathematicians, brain scientists, university professors and authors who, too, stand at the edge of the evolution of consciousness. These scientists’ presentations are the ones which impact me most because their logic and rational break down my resistance to their arguments. Through their scientific method they bring my rational ego along, and prove the convergence of conclusions between science and nondual spirituality.

Here are a few presenters that I invite you to check out: John Hagelin, Ph.D., a world-renowned quantum physicist who spoke about super string theory as the dancing primordial energy underlying all of Creation. Dean Radin Ph.D., is another scientist who showed his and many other large scale published research proving the reality of pre-cognition. Mind boggling! Drew Dellinger is an amazing nondual poet worth checking out on this YouTube video.  Finally, two spiritual teachers worth adding to your list, Peter Dziuban who wrote Consciousness is All and is gifted with the ability to help you see reality as it is, and a fabulous woman named Unmani who helps you deconstruct who you think you are through the powerful practice of not-knowing.

One of my personal highlights during these few days was to meet one of my heroes, Rabbi David Cooper. I had the privilege to sit down with him for almost an hour and engage in conversations about the unique gift that Judaism can bring to nondual practices. Rabbi Cooper is the author of the book God Is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism that all of us need to have on our bookshelf. Talking to him reminded me that not only God is a verb, God-ing as this Reality moment to moment, but that, as expressions of that Divine One—one with the One—we too are verbs. We see ourselves as separate nouns—Olivier, Sarah, David—when in facts we are Olivier-ing, Sarah-ing, David-ing moment to moment as well. I am not a separate entity (separate “i”) having an experience; I am experience-ing. There is no separate “i,” separate self, reading these words right now outside of the act of reading them. When we say “I AM reading” we are absolutely correct; that is what/who we are in that moment: reading. And the “I AM” is not “me” but the Oneness of Being God-ing through the illusory “me,” as the illusory “me.”

This year I was privileged to also share a presentation at the conference. While I am waiting to have access to the video, you can see the slideshow of the SaND presentation below. I will be presenting a slightly extended version on November 9, at the annual Torathon which is held on Mercer Island at Herzl Ner Tamid synagogue. Click here for details on the Torathon.

B’Shalom.
Rabbi Olivier

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