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UCLA was snubbed by women's NCAA tournament selection committee
The UCLA women's basketball team drew the toughest NCAA tournament regional field after getting passed over for the No. 1 overall seed.
Women's March Madness bracket 2026: Updates, NCAA Tournament schedule and dates
Here's everything to know about the 2026 women's NCAA Tournament as the bracket is unveiled on Selection Sunday.
Selection Sunday 2026: Live updates on March Madness, bracketology for men's NCAA tournament as Duke, Arizona, Michigan, Florida secure No. 1 seeds
2026 Selection Sunday Live Updates: Men's, Women's NCAA Tournament Brackets
Selection Sunday unfolds tonight, with the men's tournament bracket revealed first, followed by the women's. Follow along with us!
Women's NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday live updates: Bracket unveiled today
The countdown to women's March Madness begins on Selection Sunday. UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas appear to be locks for No. 1 seeds.
Men’s March Madness Selection Sunday Live Updates: Seeds, Matchups and Analysis
March Madness is finally upon as the selection committee will name the 68 teams competing in the NCAA tournament. Follow along with SI.
Final Bracketology: CBS Sports projection sees Iowa State reclaim No. 2 seed, SMU stays in the field of 68
Here is the final CBS Sports Bracketology projection ahead of the 2026 NCAA Tournament selection show
Men’s College Basketball Bracketology for Selection Sunday Morning 2026
The only real drama left is the Atlantic 10’s bid total and how that will affect the Cut Line picture.
How to watch Selection Sunday for the NCAA bracket release
Indiana enters Selection Sunday firmly on the wrong side of the bubble. Here’s how and when to watch the selection show.
How to watch Selection Sunday for the NCAA bracket release
Selection Sunday has arrived. Here are all the details.
2026 NCAA Tournament bracket expert picks: No. 1 seeds predicted before Selection Sunday show
Michigan has a lot on the line Sunday vs. Purdue in the Big Ten Championship
Final 68-team bracketology for 2026 Women’s NCAA Tournament
The Ivy League title was decided and the top 16 seeds have been revealed. Hours before Selection Sunday, we have a clearer picture of the field of 68.
Your Selection Sunday Viewing Guide: March 15, 2026
We have NINE more automatic bids to hand out before we get to the bracket reveals tonight!
March Madness 2026 live updates: Bracketology, bubble watch, predictions for NCAA Tournament field of 68
With Selection Sunday just a few days away, here's the latest as the NCAA Tournament's field of 68 is built
Bracketology: Race for NCAA Tournament's top seeds enters final stretch before Selection Sunday
Duke, Arizona and UConn begin conference tournament play with the NCAA Tournament's No. 1 seeds still at stake. Here's how the bracket's top line could unfold before Selection Sunday.
USA TODAY Sports Network 2026 All-ACC men's basketball awards, player of the year
Cameron Boozer and Duke basketball took home major honors in the USA TODAY Sports Network's All-ACC awards. Check out the full selections.
USA TODAY Sports Network 2026 All-ACC men's basketball awards, player of the year
Cameron Boozer and Duke basketball took home major honors in the USA TODAY Sports Network's All-ACC awards. Check out the full selections.
Broncos' finalized order of picks in 2026 NFL draft
The league has announced the finalized order of picks in the 2026 NFL draft. The Broncos currently hold nine selections.
Trotter's Trends: Cardiac Kemba, reincarnated; limping into Selection Sunday and the rim-defense script
Here are some notable trends to know ahead of Selection Sunday.
Trump 'disappointed' by the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei in Iran
The U.S. sanctioned Mojtaba Khamenei for representing his father to advance his \
Trade Your Smartphone for an ’80s-Style Digital Watch
These retro selections may have some new tricks, but they keep things comparatively simple.
USA TODAY Sports Network 2026 All-SEC men's basketball awards, player of the year
Darius Acuff Jr. and the Florida Gators took home major honors in the USA TODAY Sports Network's All-SEC awards. Check out the full selections.
Marubeni Chosen for the 2026 Health & Productivity Stock Selection (Fifth Selection over Four Consecutive Years), and Certified as a “White 500” Company for the Ninth Consecutive Year
Marubeni Corporation
Bracketology: Top storylines, questions, seeding scenarios with a week until NCAA Tournament selection show
Here's the full rundown of where the Bracketology picture stands with a week until the field is announced
Bracketology Bubble Watch: Risers and fallers following a day of epic carnage for NCAA Tournament hopefuls
With just a week until Selection Sunday, here's a breakdown of the convoluted bubble picture
2026 iMac Rumored to Come in New Colors
Apple's upcoming 2026 iMac will be available in a refreshed selection of colors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. In today's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that the next iMac will feature a new selection of colors. This could be the first true refresh of the device's color options in five years. The iMac redesign introduced in 2021 uses a distinctive two-tone color design, where the color appears differently on the front and back of the machine.
March Madness bubble watch: Stock up, down heading into conference tournaments
With Selection Sunday a week away, teams on the bubble are running out of time to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee.
Spring Training: Honor Health opens lot for fans
For some Spring Training fans, their parking selection could be a game changer for some Valley students, as Honor Health opens its lot, in the name of a good cause. FOX 10's Megan Spector has more.
Which teams do top NCAA Tournament contenders like Duke and Michigan not want to draw on Selection Sunday?
Not all draws are created equal on Selection Sunday.
USA TODAY Sports Network 2026 All-SEC women's basketball awards
Mikayla Blakes was the unanimous Player of the Year in the USA TODAY Sports Network All-SEC selections and awards for the 2025-26 season.
L-L League girls basketball coaches tab top players, defenders, all-academic picks for 2025-26 season
The Lancaster-Lebanon League girls basketball coaches have weighed in with their all-star selections for the 2025-26 season.
A photo gallery of Major League Baseball's spring training
Spring training exhibition games have begun in Major League Baseball. Here's a selection of photos curated by AP photo editors. AP photography: https://apnews.com/photography Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews
VOS Selections owner Victor Schwartz risked his business to challenge Trump’s tariffs
When President Donald Trump announced plans to raise the nation’s effective tariff rate to levels not seen since 1930 on April 2, 2025, most CEOs were silent. They’d seen how voicing opposition to any of the president’s ambitions – let alone his signature economic policy – could quickly prove even more costly than the policies he enacted.
NFL Analyst Reacts to Surprising Saints Mock Draft Selection
Planning progresses on new $12 million emergency department at Essentia Health-Fosston
Work will start on a new emergency department at Essentia Health-Fosston this spring following the selection of Kraus-Anderson as the general contractor.
MLBPA chooses Tony Clark’s replacement one day after abrupt resignation
The Major League Baseball Players Association appointed Bruce Meyer as its Executive Director one day after the sudden resignation of Tony Clark. Jeff Passan of ESPN was first to report Meyer’s appointment Wednesday. According to Passan, the selection of Meyer…
Low-Cost MacBook Expected on March 4 in These Colors
Apple will announce its rumored low-cost MacBook at its event on March 4, with the device coming in a selection of bold color options, according to a known leaker. Earlier this week, Apple announced a "special Apple Experience" for the media in New York, London, and Shanghai, taking place on March 4, 2026 at 9:00am ET.
Miami University's NCAA Tournament selection scenarios: Can Redhawks get in with one loss?
Can the Redhawks get into the NCAA Tournament with a loss? What about two or three losses? Here's the rundown
YouTube TV Gets Cheaper Sports, News, and Entertainment Bundles
YouTube is splitting YouTube TV into a selection of tailored YouTube TV Plans, allowing subscribers to pay less for a smaller selection of channels. "TV should be easy," reads the blog post announcing the change. There are 10+ new plans across Sports, News, Entertainment, and Family, at prices that are $11 to $28 below the $82.99 per month cost for a full YouTube TV subscription.
Not-so-American football: the Super Bowl's overseas stars
The Super Bowl may be as American as apple pie, but a surprising number of this year's stars hail from overseas.That international expansion was also a key motivation behind the selection of this year's Super Bowl performer Bad Bunny, who is expected to provide the first half-time show sung entirely in Spanish. amz/bb
Bad Bunny doesn’t need the NFL as much as the NFL needs him
The National Football League is not new to global superstars nor controversy. The Puerto Rican superstar’s selection as the halftime show performer has come with both – but will also bring more eyes from around the world onto the sport in a way the league has been craving.
Behavioral health IT pilots to focus on data exchange
The Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced the selection of nine pilots as part of the Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative to help improve behavioral health data exchange across care settings.
In Pictures: Sporting photos of the week
A selection of some of the most striking sports photographs taken around the world over the past seven days.
In Pictures: Sporting photos of the week
A selection of some of the most striking sports photographs taken around the world over the past seven days.
Black History Month at Hofstra Showcases Art, Politics, Culture, and Business
Black History Month, and every month, is an opportunity to educate, listen, and lift one another. Hofstra University offers a comprehensive selection of events, covering the arts, politics, history, and culture. Our Unfinished Revolution(s)Hofstra University Museum of ArtOpening reception, Th
Largest Entertainment Arena In US Partners With Cannabis Businesses To Sell THC Drinks At Concerts And Sports Games
The largest entertainment arena in the U.S. is entering into a historic partnership with two cannabis drink brands, with plans to provide adult guests with a selection of hemp-derived THC beverages to enjoy. The brands—Señorita and RYTHM—announced the years-long partnership with the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday. Adults 21 and older will have the […]
When might Asheville's post-Helene small business program begin?
Asheville's post-Helene Small Business Support Program could take its next step with the selection of organizations to administer local grants.
Omitted Henderson 'backs' Farrell's squad decision
Iain Henderson says he "would love" to continue playing for Ireland as long as he can despite missing out on Six Nations selection.
Surprise Xbox Developer Direct Sale 2026 goes live on Microsoft Store
With Microsoft's next big Xbox showcase on the horizon, a new Xbox Developer Direct Sale has just gone live with big discounts on a selection of games.
Inter Milan 1-3 Arsenal: Gabriel Jesus and Viktor Gyokeres give Mikel Arteta selection headache as Gunners win again in Europe
Report as Arsenal beat Inter Milan 3-1 at San Siro in the Champions League; Gabriel Jesus scored twice to hand the Gunners victory; Arsenal guarantee place in round of 16 after securing top-eight finish; watch Arsenal vs Man Utd live on Sky on Sunday - kick-off 4.30pm
Shapiro says Harris’ vetting team asked whether he was ‘an agent of the Israeli government’
A number of forces on the left questioned Josh Shapiro’s ties to Israel during Kamala Harris’ rushed running mate selection process in 2024. In his new memoir out next week, the Pennsylvania governor says the former vice president and her vetting team were among them.
World Sports Photography Awards 2026 winner revealed
BBC Sport and the World Sport Photography Awards present a selection of the world's finest sporting images from this year's competition
An icy swim and luscious lupins– readers’ best photographs
A selection of Guardian readers’ photographs from around the world
3 Ravens selected to 2025 All-Pro Teams
While the Baltimore Ravens’ 2025 season was collectively a disappointment, certain players still had impressive individual campaigns. After having six of their own voted to the Pro Bowl a few weeks ago, the Ravens saw three players announced as Associated Press 2025 All-Pro selections earlier this week. Kyle Hamilton and Jordan Stout were each awarded […]
Cowboys end up with no first-team All-Pro selections
The Cowboys' disappointing season continued when the 2025 first-team All-Pro selections were announced and no Dallas players made the cut.
Tampa named top 5 for business headquarters | FOX 13 Tampa Bay
A life-saving business is eyeing Tampa as its new United States headquarters. It comes after Tampa was named a top destination to set up business headquarters by a Site Selection survey. FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky reports.
Tampa Ranks in Top 5 for Business Headquarters
Tampa Ranks in Top 5 for Business HeadquartersTampa is kicking off the New Year with another top national ranking.Site Selection Magazine placed Tampa in the top five cities in the United States for businesses to set up headquarters.
Share your health and fitness questions for Devi Sridhar, Mariella Frostrup, and Joel Snape
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night
New Orleans all-metro swimming teams headlined by All-Americans from Jesuit, Mandeville
New Orleans all-metro swimming selections are based on times and placements from the LHSAA state championships at SPAR Aquatic Center in Sulphur.
Mamdani Nominates Top City Lawyer and Deputy Mayor of Health
The mayor-elect said the selections indicate his administration’s commitment to help New York City’s vulnerable residents.
EPL GW-19 Rate My FPL Team
I used my free hit chip for Gameweek 18 and it delivered a mixed set of results for my squad, with a few positives but also some disappointing returns in key areas. In goal, my goalkeeper of the week, Jordan Pickford, justified the selection. He kept a clean sheet against Burnley and finished with 6 […]
Callum's most anticipated games for 2026
Callum picks out the games he is most looking forward to in 2026. There is more than a dash of horror in his selection.
Top 6 on 6: 2025’s most popular sports coverage
Here’s a selection of First Alert 6’s most popular sports coverage of 2025.
Pinta 3.1 is Out with Axonometric Grids, Marching Ants + More
Pinta 3.1 is available for download. The open source image editor adds axonometric grids, polygon selection tool, lower memory usage – and lots more!
Six Brilliant Brain Science And Psychology Books From The Year
A selection of science-based books from the year that together shine new light on who we are and why we think and act as we do.
The RPS Selection Box: Ollie's bonus games of the year 2025
There are just too many games to celebrate in 2025, but here are a few more that didn't make the cut in our best games of the year.
Penguins prospect selected for Team USA’s World Junior team
Will Horcoff, the Penguins’ 24th overall selection in the First Round of the 2025 NHL Draft, will compete for Team USA for the tournament, which runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Minneapolis.
Pictures of the year: Entertainment
A selection of some of our top entertainment photos from 2025.
In Pictures: Sporting photos of the week
A selection of some of the most striking sports photographs taken around the world over the past seven days.
Best space board games to play this Christmas
Enjoy some out-of-this-world fun this Christmas with my selection of the best space board games available right now.
Nutcracker entertainment
The Hilltop Montessori Singers entertained the crowd gathered for the unveiling of the five new nutcrackers that were added to the Nutcracker Village on Nov. 25. The 11 children performed a selection of Christmas songs, receiving a round of applause after each holiday favorite. — Julie Stenger
Prisco's Week 16 NFL picks: Seahawks-Rams prediction, plus more expert selections
Pete Prisco reveals all of his Week 16 picks, including the Lions to beat the Steelers.
Prisco's Week 15 NFL picks: Broncos vs. Packers prediction, plus more expert selections
Pete Prisco reveals all of his Week 15 picks, including the Bills beating the Patriots.
Apple AirTag 2: Four New Features Found in iOS 26 Code
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products. Here's what's supposedly coming: An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already fairly simple, but there's room for improvement with the naming and emoji selection.
Stand up and take a stand, ACC. Call Notre Dame's bluff after CFP brouhaha
After brouhaha with the College Football Playoff selection of Miami, the ACC must play hardball with Notre Dame and regain respectability.
Club Brugge 0-3 Arsenal - send us your thoughts
Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned. Come back on Thursday for a selection of your replies
Sports Illustrated’s 2025 College Football All-Americans: Full First and Second Teams
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza leads the way on offense, while Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez tops the defensive selections.
ACC doubles down on College Football Playoff expansion after Notre Dame fallout
The ACC also wants to explore reducing or eliminating the weekly release of the College Football Playoff selection committee's top 25 rankings
CBS Sports' College Football All-America Team 2025: First-team picks from our experts
The complete 2025 College Football All-America Team, featuring first- and second-team selections and headlined by Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, our Player of the Year
2026 MLB Draft: White Sox secure No. 1 pick after winning Draft Lottery
This will mark Chicago's first No. 1 selection since 1977
In Pictures: Sporting photos of the week
A selection of some of the most striking sports photographs taken around the world over the past seven days.
Is this the solution to the selection process? 🤔
Is this the solution to the selection process? 🤔
College Football Playoff selection: Notre Dame AD details damaged ACC relationship
Notre Dame didn't mind Miami making their case, but felt the ACC was 'taking a lot of shots at us'
College Football Playoff selection: Notre Dame has assurance, light 2026 schedule
A change in Notre Dame's relationship with the CFP committee should bode well for next season's playoff hopes
Canes' Cristobal feels for Irish: 'A tough business'
Miami coach Mario Cristobal is relieved the Hurricanes earned a berth in the College Football Playoff field, but he understands the selection process isn't perfect
College Football Playoff selection: ACC awaits decisions on Miami, Duke
A College Football Playoff doomsday scenario is here for the ACC as Duke tops UVA in the championship game
Where to watch College Football Playoff selection show live: Time, TV channel and schedule
The CFP Selection Committee will reveal its final rankings Sunday
Bowl projections: Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas Tech headline CFP bracket
Final picks from CBS Sports for this season's College Football Playoff and bowl slate on the eve of Selection Sunday
BYU wide receiver calls out CFP committee's bias to SEC, ESPN
BYU football's Parker Kingston took a shot at the CFP selection committee having "bias toward ESPN, SEC" when asked on the Cougars' Playoff hopes.
Houston logs six 2025 All-Big 12 selections
Tanner Koziol and Amare Thomas lead the way as First Team All-Big 12 selections.
Trump picks College Football Playoff? Rubio had to be joking
Secretary of state says Miami Hurricanes should be in or Donald Trump should take over the CFP selection process.
College Football Playoff Rankings: Projecting top 25 teams ahead of penultimate reveal
The CFP Selection Committee will reveal its latest batch of top 25 rankings Tuesday night
In Pictures: Sporting photos of the week
A selection of some of the most striking sports photographs taken around the world over the past seven days.
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.