Charles Tart on the Intention Download Series

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Join the distinguished academic psychologist Charles Tart for an insightful and humorous exploration of intention and its relationship with mindfulness, will, and enlightenment. The interview begins with a look at the history of psychology and its virtual exclusion of the term “will” from its lexicon; since the terms “will” and “intention” are largely interchangeable, this means that for much of the last century intention was not a subject of scientific study. He then notes the remarkable ability of subjects to confirm their own beliefs in psychical experiments: Those believing in psychic abilities performed above “chance” and those who do not believe in psychic ability performed well below “chance” – signifying that the latter group had formed an unconscious intent to underperform. For the cultivation of intention, he sees the practice of mindfulness meditation as foundational, helping us to focus our minds and refine our intention by avoiding the pitfalls of our natural distractibility and lack of mental discipline. In the realm of group intention, Tart shares his wariness of the power of collective intention, preferring the heroic solo enlightenment of the Buddha to social or spiritual movements that too often multiply our everyday insanities.

You can read the transcript of this recording here.