RegistrationRegistration TBD
Call for papersDate: by February 15, 2025.
Star Island offers discountsDiscounts are available based on need. Learn more on the Star Island financial grants section of their registration page.
Fellowships & ScholarshipsIRAS offers a range of Fellowships & Scholarships.
Streaming the Conference Sessions and Chapel TalksUnable to go to the conference? Become an IRAS member and stream the conference sessions and chapel talks for free! Access will be provided at the start of the conference.
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2025 IRAS Conference StatementIn recent decades we have seen an increase in scientific, philosophical and theological research focused on the processes involved in “spiritual” transformation. This has generated a more comprehensive science-based understanding, including physical, psychological and substance-induced approaches that promote intentional opening to spiritual experience. There is evidence that we have a spiritual core (central and innermost) biologically wired into us that is normally “outside of awareness,” that there are ways to open and engage that core and that when people open to that awareness, they often describe the experience as mystical or numinous.
We invite everyone — educators, ministers, civic leaders — in addition to scientists, philosophers, theologians and people who are simply interested — to discuss and explore those experiences, which appear to be linked to creativity, vitality, a feeling of wholeness, a sense of meaning and purpose, awe and wonder, unity and communion with others, including connection to the earth and its diverse inhabitants. Aspects of spiritual consciousness may also foster healing from trauma. Spiritual transformation might even be defined as a falling in love, as it encourages a comprehensive agape for the world, ourselves, others and life itself. This conference will provide participants with opportunities to:
Conference Program Chairs: John Calvin Chatlos, MD and Catherine Keller, PhD |