COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS WITH OUR ADVISORY PANEL
Laura and Paul are working with these advisors on a wide variety of projects, all aspects of their work with CI.

Academic Research with Todd & Christine VanPool, Professors of Anthropology
The VanPools are collaborating with Laura and Paul on a number of projects. One is identifying the parameters of the physiological shift activated by the practice of Ritual Postures, and this last February, the VanPools brought Laura and Paul out to the University of Missouri’s Cognitive Neuroscience Systems (CNS) Core Facility for EEG tests. This is in follow up to initial findings of the unusual hybrid state of Beta plus simultaneous Theta from the 1980’s lab tests with the practice at the Universities of Vienna and Munich.

• A project using statistical analysis is underway to answer key questions about this practice. Todd is charting and databasing key elements from documentation and input Laura and Paul provide, from their own and the journal notes of CI participants over many sessions with different postures.
• Another project is correlating the experiences across time. They are comparing current experiences, with those from Goodman’s 50-year old archives, and those of ancient cultures to better understand the cosmology of early cultures, and how these experiences impact and shape our lives, our culture, our worldview, and well-being. This project also aims  to compare the experiences of this practice with the Near. Death Experience, Mindfullness, Yoga postures and meditation, and other modalities of deep inner reverie.
• Publishing based on this research is another. So far the team has published two academic papers and one book, that incorporates their collaborative efforts, with more outlined.
• Laura and Paul have recorded several interviews with the VanPools on various aspects of this research and posted them on Youtube.  They are each looking at grants to help with this research.

Global Collective Consciousness Initiative with Brian Tucker, Chairperson, Community Outreach
Brian is guiding CI in research and outreach projects within CI’s community to help members identify and actualize our individual and collective skills to contribute to the advancement of the world at this critical stage of planetary evolution.

Brian is also aligning with other organizations on a similar mission to foster a sustainable and flourishing world that recognizes humanity’s interconnectedness with all life, and to respect all relevant disciplines, experience, understanding, and available resources, collaborating in an inclusive process that allows the synthesis with the world community that addresses global collective consciousness.

Outreach through Museum Exhibits with Barbara Cox, Photokunst.com
Laura and Paul have designed a museum exhibit based upon their work with ceremony and art as a powerful medium for activating hearts and minds. The aim is to demonstrate in an interactive and multi-meda exhibit how ancient cultures used art, symbol, sound, theatre and more to contain and transmit universal truths. CI Advisor Barbara Cox of Photokunst.com, a member of the exhibition committee of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art in Friday Harbor Washington is advising on this as a traveling exhibit for museums across the country, that includes art pieces, a 30-minute film, and accompanying book.

Laura & Paul’s previous museum experience was collaborating with artist Mel O’Callahan on a March 2017 exhibit at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. They advised on CI’s ceremony and ritual tools to create an authentic, usable set for the art exhibit and choreographed the performance piece, which they performed on the set for the first three weeks of the three-month-long exhibit, and taught Mel’s Parsons Paris students to perform. The exhibit proved quite popular, attended by over 3,500 on opening night, and covered by major media.

Deepening our Relationship with Earth & Sky with Tony Hull, Astrophysicist / Archaeo Astronomer
Tony and Paul have collaborated on creating two installations of Gnomon Circles for ceremonial and educational use, one at the CI facility in Santa Fe, one at the CI facility in Sedona. Gnomons are a simple but sophisticated early instrument used by ancient cultures to track the sun at the Solstices and Equinoxes, that mark both the annual calendar and East-West / North-South alignments. Tony’s research at Chaco Canyon National Park and other archaeoastronomy sites has confirmed the gnomon’s efficacy. Laura and Paul incorporate their Gnomon Circles to deepen our relationship with earth and sky, our planet and cosmos, ceremonially and as a visual demonstration. They are presenting on this at the Anthropology of Consciousness 2024 conference.