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Recent studies (Walsh, UC Irvine) have shown that the more one practices Buddhist meditation, the more one experiences synesthesia, a blending of senses. In fact, the highest states appear to be invariably synesthetic. In their new book, Tasting the Universe, journalist Maureen Seaberg and Tibet House Director of East West Research, Dr. William C Bushell, go on a quest to determine the truth of this noetic state which occurs naturally in about five percent of the population and is being feverishly researched around the globe in top neuroscience labs. Dr. Robert Thurman, Dr. Amit Goswami, Dr. Stuart Hameroff, Lama Za Rinpoche and other top thinkers provide a spiritual and even quantum context for the experience through interviews appearing in the book. And adding glamour to the mix, they get the first-time testimony of synesthetes Itzhak Perlman, Billy Joel and the family of Marilyn Monroe (who has recently been found to have been a synesthete).

Thursday, April 14

Presenter:

Dr. William C. Bushell, PhD, Director of East-West Research at Tibet House US, has conducted scientific research on meditation and related practices around the world for decades. 

Maureen Seaberg has been a journalist for 20 years. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, Irish America and on MSNBC and PBS. A synesthete all her life, her letters, numbers, days of the week, months and some music appear to her in full color: K is teal; 8 is aubergine. She has presented on synesthesia and spirituality at the Toward a Science of Consciousness (TSC) Conference at the University of Arizona, Tucson, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and at NYU. She will lead a synesthesia workshop May 1 for TSC in Stockholm, Sweden.  

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