David Lorimer; Towards A New Renaissance

In these wide-ranging reflections David Lorrimer, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network (former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society) speaks about the decline of modern civilisation and the emergence of a creative minority which renews human society in each of its cycles. Other themes include the sense of human ‘progress’, the source of consciousness and the importance of spiritual discipline (helped in his case by his early athletic training), on science (and especially scientific discovery) as a contemplative activity – contemplation in contrast to mere observation – and the political challenge of our time to understand the difference between freedom and control, an understanding that requires us to go beyond our materialistic worldview. In the second part of the talk, David continues in his reflection on the loss of the value of self discipline. "Culture implies cultivated people. Cultivating yourself requires a disciplined process. Another element of our culture which undermines this is the constant distractions that we are subjected to, the so-called the Attention Economy. All of that disperses our substance of being. We need to bring back to one-pointedness, because attention is our most important form of currency."