The Outer and Inner Universe: Cosmos, Consciousness and The Limits of Reality

THE OUTER AND INNER UNIVERSE: COSMOS, CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE LIMITS OF REALITY

A public lecture by Bernard Carr, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, followed by a dialogue with Venerable Ajahn Brahm exploring the blending boundaries of classical physics, consciousness, mind and spirituality.

Join Professor Bernard Carr for a special public lecture exploring both the outer universe of black holes, cosmology, and the inner universe of mind, consciousness and meaning. Drawing on a lifetime of work at the frontiers of physics, Professor Carr will examine whether our current scientific picture of reality is complete — or whether it may need to expand to better account for consciousness itself.

The lecture will be followed by a special dialogue with Venerable Ajahn Brahm on science, spirituality and the deeper questions of human experience.

Professor Bernard Carr is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. His professional area of research is cosmology and astrophysics and includes such topics as the early universe, dark matter, black holes and the anthropic principle. For his PhD he studied the first second of the Universe, working under the supervision of Stephen Hawking at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology. He then held Fellowships at Trinity College and the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge before moving to Queen Mary College. He is the author of nearly three hundred scientific papers and the books Universe or Multiverse? and Quantum Black Holes.

Ajahn Brahm was born in London in 1951 and earned a degree in theoretical physics from Cambridge University. He became a monk in 1974 in the Forest Tradition. Ajahn Brahm is today a revered spiritual teacher and guide, and is abbot of the largest Buddhist monastery in the Southern Hemisphere. He is the author of Opening the Door Of Your Heart, Mindfulness Bliss and Beyond, The Art of Disappearing and Don’t Worry Be Grumpy.
His public teachings regularly attract thousands to his inventive and insightful talks. He was awarded John Curtin medal in 2004 for his vision, leadership and service to the community and he is also recipient of Order of Australia in 2019 for service to Buddhism and gender equality.

This public lecture is part of the Black Swan Summit Australia and is presented by the UWA Data Institute and UWA Institute of Advanced Studies.