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Bill Cassidy is ready to cut a deal on Obamacare
The top Republican on health care also said he wants a vote this week on a GOP alternative to a Democratic bill to extend expiring subsidies.
2 best friends bought a house together before they turned 25. They're still happy with their decision 3 years later.
Sophie Harper and Madison White bought a home together in Austin in 2022. One has a boyfriend, but they wanted to be homeowners as friends.
Entertainment jackpot: Larchwood casino enhances entertainment
LARCHWOOD—Grand Falls Casino & Golf Resort northwest of Larchwood wants to be known as “the entertainment destination,” according to marketing director Greta Brower, especially as its growing “exponentially” in 2026.
Tell us: What was your top live entertainment event of 2025?
We want to know what local concert, comedy show, or theater experience stands out from the last year.
STEM Students Blend Science and Policy in New Capitol Campus Fellowship
Ella Camp (C'26) has always loved science but wanted to pivot from a career focused solely on research. In a new Earth Commons fellowship, she found an opportunity to dig into environmental public policy.
Check out your personal Xbox stats for 2025 with #MyYearOnXbox
Want to know how many games you've played and achievements you've unlocked this year? Check out your Xbox Wrapped to find out!
Make a political hero of Zack Polanski if you want. Just don’t forget to engage your brain
The Green party leader is riding high in the polls. But across the political spectrum, uncritical adulation leads nowhere fast, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde
Trump says he just wants to 'do what's right' in the Warner deal
Trump said he wants to "do what's right" in the media war brewing between Netflix, Paramount, and Warner Bros.
Nexxen is latest programmatic player to widen TV's live sports window
The ad tech company wants to make it easier for buyers to funnel budgets from smaller brands into live sports TV ad avails.
Hochul: Grieving Families veto should come as no surprise
“Don’t pass the same bill four times if you want a different result,” she said.
Xbox architect Jason Ronald teases big things for 2026 — “we want to celebrate the great legacy of Xbox next year”
A new BBC video showcases the Xbox Ally X handheld and includes a short interview with Jason Ronald, who hints that Xbox’s 25th anniversary could bring major announcements.
Here are 3 things Portland’s mayor wants to see in the central city by 2030
Hitting any one of the targets announced by Mayor Keith Wilson will likely be an extremely tall order.
Portland mayor wants to double size of city’s small business tax exemption
During a speech at the Oregon Leadership Summit, Wilson said he will propose doubling the city’s business license tax exemption from $50,000 in gross receipts annually to $100,000.
Pamela Anderson wants to change her name
Pamela Anderson is considering a name change as a way to reconnect with her roots.
Supreme Court seems likely to give Trump more power over agencies
President Trump wants the Supreme Court to overturn a 90-year-old precedent limiting his ability to remove leaders of independent agencies.
Google is making playing PC games on Android XR as easy as opening an app
Want to play your PC games in XR? Google's making it easy with PC Connect for Android XR.
Watch: What Do Republicans Really Want on Health Care?
On “What the Health? From KFF Health News,” distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and podcast host Julie Rovner sat down with Avik Roy, a GOP health policy adviser, to talk about how health care has evolved as a Republican Party issue.
'We want to stop girls from dropping out of sport'
The students have taken part in a BBC documentary looking at ways to stop this from happening.
21 Design Flaws That Make Me Want To Throw My Phone Across The Room Because Apparently No One Tests These Things Before Releasing Them
The rage I felt after I read these is just indescribable.
When News Becomes Entertainment; Check That Off The List
People want news, but not from news outlets; X’s blue checkmarks are coming home to roost; and Meta is finally paying publishers (kind of).
Analysis: Trump’s first problem on the economy and health care: admitting he’s got a problem
President Donald Trump has a fresh chance this week to act on a priority voters continually say they want fixed — but over which he’s in denial.
Analysis: Trump’s first problem on the economy and health care: admitting he’s got a problem
President Donald Trump has a fresh chance this week to act on a priority voters continually say they want fixed — but over which he’s in denial.
Want to stay healthy after 40? Doctors say men should consider 14 medical tests
Men face higher chronic disease rates after 40. Learn which medical tests doctors say are vital for preventing heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.
Science Sunday: Balloons ‘matter’ inflation race
Science Central joined WANE 15 Saturday Morning to show how matter in the air might inhibit blowing up a balloon.
Why Indiana GOP voters want their senators to defy Trump’s threats
Republicans in the Indiana state Senate could give President Donald Trump a major political black eye this week — and the conservative voters who elected them say they don’t mind.
'Godfather of AI' Geoffrey Hinton says computer science degrees 'will remain valuable' — and students should learn to code
AI pioneer and Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton said students who want to become AI researchers need to focus on critical thinking.
The Jets believe they're a different team — it's time to prove that...
The last place that Glenn and the Jets want to be is last place, and a season sweep by the Dolphins, on a three-game heater, would all but doom them to the AFC East basement.
Key matchups: Saints vs. Buccaneers
The Saints will have to win these key matchups if they want to win on Sunday.
iOS 26.2 Will Add Two New Features To CarPlay In December
When Apple launches iOS 26.2 in December, CarPlay will get two useful new features that iPhone owners are going to want to check out.
Inside Brooklyn’s first women’s sports bar: ‘We just wanted the Liberty game on’
A fortuitous Hinge match of like-minded New York Liberty fans turned into New York City's newest women's sports bar.
Fargo health officials say they 'just want to save more lives' with syringe services program
Fargo Cass Public Health leaders sat down with The Forum to explain how the program at the Harm Reduction Center works.
The Memo: Hegseth sees political dangers wane on boat strikes
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got a key moment of respite late this week that could help him bat back a plethora of controversies. The moment came on Thursday, when Adm. Frank Bradley reportedly t…
My dad warned me the food-truck life was the 'worst business' — 4 years in, I finally get it
Petey Stathopoulos runs a coffee cart in New York City just like his father. It's not the life he wants, but he's grateful for what it taught him.
QUARLES: When math adds up more in sports than in classroom
Everything went according to planned Thanksgiving week, at least as far as college and pro football games having the results I wanted to see. The right teams — Dallas, and
Frostburg State set to face Kutztown in quarterfinals
KUTZTOWN, Pa. — Frostburg State is one of eight teams remaining in the Division II playoffs. If the Bobcats (11-2) want to reach the Final Four, they’ll have to conquer one of the top teams in the nation. Kutztown University has reached at least the second round in five of the last six seasons, including a semifinal berth in 2023. The Golden Bears (13-0) were ranked in every coaches poll this ...
Running Out of Time, Republicans in Congress Still Lack a Health Plan
Top Republicans have said they want to produce a proposal in short order to counter Democrats pressing for an extension of health care subsidies. They have not gotten far.
Emmitt Smith Wants Men To Be More Mindful About Their Health
Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith is is partnering with Depend to raise prostate health awareness and encourage ment to screen early for cancer.
What key swing voters want from their candidates: From the Politics Desk
Plus, the health care stalemate on Capitol Hill sets up a major 2026 issue.
Continuing to Deliver on the America First Global Health Strategy with the Signing of the United States-Rwanda Bilateral Health Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding - United States Department of State
Today in Washington, Jeremy Lewin, Senior Official, Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom and Olivier Nduhungirehe, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation signed the Department of State’s second bilateral health cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, between the United States and Rwanda. The five-year, $228 million arrangement outlines a comprehensive vision to […]
A look back at the top 10 Capital Region business stories of 2025
From political shake-ups to billion-dollar industrial bets, the Capital Region’s biggest business headlines this year delivered plenty of suspense, as Business Report highlights in its latest issue. Baton Rouge’s arena dreams faced a plot twist when Oak View Group—the partner LSU wants for the job—got pulled into a federal indictment tied to bid-rigging allegations in […]
College in the US didn't give me the independence I wanted. I moved to Germany, where medical school costs me $100 per semester.
Erika Roberts wasn't enjoying college in the US, did her research and moved to Munich where she is studying medicine at the cost of $100 per semester.
Trump’s NIH director visits with Mass. scientists, health care executives affected by research funding cuts
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said he wants Iowa and Nebraska to have equal opportunities for research funding as Massachusetts.
Trump’s NIH director visits with Mass. scientists, health care executives affected by research funding cuts
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said he wants Iowa and Nebraska to have equal opportunities for research funding as Massachusetts.
Councilman wants to establish business improvement district on Jacksonville’s Westside, similar to the one in 5 Points
A Jacksonville councilmember is proposing to establish a business improvement district on the Westside, according to News4JAX partners at the Jacksonville Daily Record.
Tony Fadell, iPod co-creator, might want to be Apple’s next CEO: report
A new report offers an overview of possibilities for when Apple’s CEO Tim Cook steps down, including Tony Fadell returning.
DeSantis details phased approach to eliminate Florida property taxes with 2026 ballot requirement
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants a property tax elimination plan "that can pass" with voters when it potentially hits the 2026 ballot, as he provides updates on the proposal.
U.S. cities pitch to host worlds in Olympic sports
Officials from a dozen U.S. cities visited Lausanne, Switzerland, to show that they want to host more world championships and top events in Olympic sports.
Are you a swing voter? We want to hear how you're feeling about politics
Do you think the country is going in the right or wrong direction? Are you happy with your vote last year or do you have any regrets? Or maybe you sat the election out? NPR wants to speak with swing voters across the political spectrum.
U.S. cities come to home of Olympic sports to pitch hosting future world championships
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Sports officials from a dozen United States cities went to the heart of the Olympic family this week to show their country wants to host more world championships and top…
Anthony Letai pledges to ensure stability for extramural and intramural cancer science
Stepping into the NCI director’s job at the end of a nerve-racking year, Anthony Letai wants you to know that the federal government is not going out of the business of cancer research. To access this subscriber-only content please log in or subscribe.If your institution has a site license, log in with IP-login or register […]
UK-EU youth mobility scheme could let tens of thousands live and work abroad
Ministers want to secure deal by end of 2026 as part of a broader reset of Britain’s relationship with Europe
Trump wants more health savings accounts. A catch: they can’t pay insurance premiums
Wealthier Americans are using them to pay for gym equipment, cedar ice baths, and hemlock saunas, but poorer Americans can’t use them for insurance.
Albritton on SSUT lawsuit: 'Politics has repercussions'
Sen. Greg Albritton, chairman of the powerful Senate General Fund budget committee, wanted to send a message Thursday to Alabama cities considering joining a lawsuit against the state over the distribution of sales taxes collected from online purchases.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says he might rename the company 'Agentforce'
The SaaS pioneer recently learned in focus groups that customers want to talk about AI agents now
Margot Robbie addresses audience concerns about 'Wuthering Heights' casting: 'Trust me, you’ll be happy'
Margot Robbie wants audiences to know she hears their concerns about her and Jacob Elordi's casting in the upcoming adaptation of Emily Brontë's gothic romance, 'Wuthering Heights': "I get it."
OnePlus 15 is finally up for pre-order in the US, here's when it ships
You need to act fast if you want the free perks. The OnePlus 15 is finally up for pre-order in the US today, following a rather lengthy launch delay caused...
Meta Poached Apple’s Top Design Guys to Fix Its Software UI
Meta wants to make its AI hardware slicker and more fashion-forward. It also needs to make its software more usable. The way to do all that appears to be hiring design maestros away from Apple.
Gavin Newsom wants Democrats to be more ‘culturally normal.’ Huh?
OPINION: Gov. Gavin Newsom often brags about California’s diversity. But his latest remarks sound like a slap at the proudly non-normal state he’s led for seven years, Joe Garofoli writes.
The GOP Still Can’t Agree on a Health Plan
Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Republicans still can’t decide whether they want to put forward their own alternative or what that might include. Meanwhile, the CDC and FDA are roiled by debates over vaccines. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Aneri Pattani about her project tracking opioid settlement payments.
In Laurel, details thin about proposed state-run mental health facility
Details about the state’s proposed psychiatric facility in Laurel have been thin on the ground for local elected officials. The list of unknowns includes where exactly the state wants to build the 32-bed facility, the next steps for the project and what role, if any, local government officials will play in approving the plan.
Metroid Prime 4 Has Optional Music Locked Behind $30 Paywall
Want to choose the music you listen to in the desert of Viewros while riding your Vi-O-La? Then you'd better buy a Samus Aran Amiibo.
Video: Opinion | The Shifting Politics Around Transgender Rights
The A.C.L.U. lawyer Chase Strangio joins Ross Douthat to discuss policies and attitudes toward young people who want to transition.
Trump wants a health care deal. He’s leaving the details to Congress.
Several GOP lawmakers have proposals to address the year-end expiration of enhanced ACA subsidies.
N.Y. lawmakers' bill would move state's presidential primaries to Super Tuesday
The argument for the legislation is New York’s waning importance in the presidential nomination process in recent years.
Trump calls Somalians 'garbage,' which Minnesota officials call racism
Trump blasted Somali immigrants as 'garbage' he doesn't want in the country. But Minnesota officials called the criticism 'racism' and 'un-American.'
I flew in Air India's posh business-class seat for 15 hours. I didn't want to get off the plane.
My long-haul international flight in Air India's business class had great suite-style seats, storage, and amenities that made the upgrade worth it.
N.Y. to launch tool in 2026 to curtail elderly scam victims
State lawmakers want to address an increase in the financial exploitation of New York adults next session.
Republicans want a health care plan. They don’t know what will go in it.
House and Senate Republicans need to build consensus around a health care proposal by the end of next week if they want to compete with a Democratic plan.
Space is filling with junk and scientists have a fix
Earth’s orbit is getting crowded with broken satellites and leftover rocket parts. Researchers say the solution is to build spacecraft that can be repaired, reused, or recycled instead of abandoned. They also want new tools to collect old debris and new data systems that help prevent collisions. The goal is to make space exploration cleaner and more sustainable.
Paramount throws in more cash in bid for Warner; Comcast wants to combine assets with NBCUniversal
Jockeying for HBO-owner Warner Bros. Discovery has intensified as the auction appears to enter its home stretch.
Trump rails against Somali migrants: ‘I don’t want them in our country’
The president blasted Minnesota’s Somali community as “garbage” in a rant also attacking Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar.
McWane Science Center unveils terrapin conservation lab. How to help in 2025
The Birmingham museum partners with UAB to raise endangered Mississippi Diamondback Terrapins before releasing them back to Alabama's coastal marshes.
Trump backs vessel strike effort amid follow-up hit fallout
“I want those boats taken out, and if we have to, we’ll attack on land also,” Trump said
Army veteran to challenge LePage in Maine 2nd CD primary
When asked about facing former Gov. LePage, a well-known opponent, Clark said he wants to give voters a choice.
NASA's PUNCH Tracks Comet Discovered by SOHO Spacecraft
From August to October, NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission tracked comet 2025 R2 (SWAN) — one of the thousands of comets
Sony a7 V Has New 33MP Partially Stacked Sensor and Faster Processor
Sony wants to be mid-range champion.
The verdict is in, and I owe it all to The Alligator - The Independent Florida Alligator
Since I stepped foot on campus as a sports journalism major, I knew I wanted to work for the largest student-run independent newspaper in the country. What I didn’t know was how much The Alligator would shape me into the person I am today.
Steam Machine is a Dream Come True But There's Already a Massive Problem
Steam Machine sounds like a great option for those who want to get into PC gaming, but there seems to be a catch
As political winds shift, top chipmaker TSMC looks beyond Taiwan
The lifeblood of Silicon Valley — advanced microchips — pumps from a science park on Taiwan's west coast, mostly from TSMC, the world's biggest chipmaker. But now the company is looking abroad for places to grow.
Republican who wants to ‘go in’ to Venezuela explains her support for removing Maduro from power
The Red Sox are already crying poor
As free agency begins, the Red Sox want you to believe they don’t make money.
Oleksandr Usyk expresses desire to fight Deontay Wilder who would be open to world title clash in 2026
Oleksandr Usyk wants to defend his world heavyweight titles against Deontay Wilder, who has welcomed a fight against the unified world champion.
Buddy Dyer says Bale Dalton is the best Democrat to take on Cory Mills
'I’m honored to support him, and I encourage others who want a steady, principled voice in Congress to join me.'
USA's Worst-Case Group: 'No' to Norway but Alexi Lalas, Landon Donovan Want Ghana
U.S. Soccer legends Alexi Lalas, Stu Holden, Landon Donovan and Cobi Jones name the teams they want to avoid at the 2026 World Cup draw.
Trump says he "wouldn't have wanted" a reported second strike on alleged drug boat
Netflix Makes Screencasting From Phones To A Bigger Screen Almost Impossible
If you wanted to watch Netflix on a TV, you could always screencast a show or movie from your phone directly to a smart TV. That's no longer possible.
Capitol agenda: Health deal hinges on Trump
Capitol Hill factions are trying to figure out what the president wants and how to entice him to their side.
Shark scientists want their research to help save threatened species, but don’t know how. Our new paper can help.
Sharks are some of the most threatened animals on Earth, and accordingly many scientists who study sharks want their research to be useful for conservation. However, most scientific training does n…
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.
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