The Beshara Lecture 2023

The Coincidence of Opposites

Speaker: Iain McGilchrist

Sunday 9th July, 2023
14:00 – 15:30 BST (via Zoom)

How to Book

Free but registration by Eventbrite is required
Entry by ticket from Eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-coincidence-of-opposites-tickets-642248832547

If there is Oneness, what are the Many? Are they the same? What do we mean? I suggest that the coincidence of opposites is a truth of unsurpassed importance, but that we have been educated into believing that it is, quite simply, nonsense; and that this plays a neglected role in our failure to make sense of the world.

Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neurologist, philosopher and writer whose seminal work, The Master and His Emissary (2009) presented the notion that the two hemispheres of the human brain approach the world in two very different ways. He argues passionately for the importance – often overlooked in the modern world – of the right hemisphere, which sees the world as a unified, living process. In his most recent book, The Matter with Things (2021) – see this review – he further explores the philosophical implications of this idea. The book is a magnum opus of some 1500 pages which amounts to a very strong argument, supported by an extraordinary range of evidence, for a unified view of the cosmos. See Iain’s website for more details: https://channelmcgilchrist.com/

The Beshara Lecture is an event organised by the Beshara Trust, usually annually. A speaker is invited to present a paper on the ways in which a deep understanding of unity illuminates different areas of human knowledge, informing their research, practice or personal contemplation.

Aspects of Science, Imagination and the Mystical

Saturday 14th June 2025
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

With Peter Coates

This talk will consider the vital role of the Creative Imagination in Natural Science and in the Mystical Philosophy of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi.

Contact: Michael Cohen  london@beshara.org

Paradise E’Now or The Smile of the Spirit

Saturday 24th May 2025
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

With Charles Mugleston

A special Birthday Celebration with music, exploring, experiencing & soulfully enjoying the Ruba’iya’t of Hakim Omar Khayya’m translated & adapted by the Anglo-Irish genius Edward FitzGerald of Woodbridge, Suffolk into “English Music” in 1859.

Contact: Michael Cohen  london@beshara.org

Open Meetings

Mondays 7th April, 2025
Monday 5th May, 2025
17:30–18:30 BST

Saturday 26th April, 2025
Saturday 24th May, 2025
9:00am-10:00am BST

Are you interested in sharing your thoughts and in contributing to the development of Beshara? We are excited to invite you to another series of monthly online Open Meetings

Know Yourself

Saturday 26th April 2025
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

You yourself are the object of your quest

Reading and discussion of a classic explanation of the Oneness of Being, attributed to Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi and Awhad al-din Balyani and translated from the Arabic by Cecilia Twinch.

Contact: Michael Cohen, london@beshara.org

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