The famed 19th century Indologist Max Muller introduced an influential dating system for the Vedic tradition that remains the dominant scholarly model. Thompson discusses more recent scholarship that could suggest a significant expansion upon Muller’s timeline, and thus bring many dates closer to those described in Puranic literature.
In recent times philosophical thinkers have been confronted by the mind-body problem, no less vigorously than they have been for thousands of years. Thompson considers the relevancy of this dilemma by comparing the Gestalt theories of perception with the Bhagavatam's philosophy of the soul.
Thompson presents an overview of the cosmic models described in Purāṇic accounts. He follows this with several intriguing interpretations, concluding that the organic approach of traditional Eastern culture appears to be in sharp contrast with the reductionism and determinism presently influential in Western thought.
Deterministic qualities identified with modern science tend to undermine the virtuous aspects of human experience, such as responsibility, accountability, morality, and ethics. How, then, can personal freedom of choice be compatible with a mature understanding of the laws of physics? Thompson offers an introspective analysis proposing connections between individual consciousness and a “higher nature” that serves as a wellspring of inspiration.
Thompson discusses a number of features of contemporary evolutionary theory that appear compatible with arguments for intelligent design. He notes that an exclusively materialistic interpretation of Darwinian theory leaves much about human nature unexplained, and suggests that reasonable alternate perspectives can also be taken into consideration and studied with an open mind.
Thompson shares a set of conceptual models for museum exhibits designed for the Mayapura Prabhupada Avenue Project, a preliminary initiative meant to complement the massive Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. Thompson describes how concepts such as these tend to demonstrate the authenticity of classic Vedic culture.
In this lecture, Thompson discusses how physical and mental conditioning can affect a personal sense of identity. This corresponds well with a traditional understanding of karma, something Thompson illustrates by utilizing virtual reality as a metaphor.
Uniformitarianism, a fundamental principle of modern science, assumes that the laws of physics can be uniformly applied throughout time and space. In this presentation, Thompson discusses textual evidence offered from within the Vedic tradition to consider a more elaborate structural model of the cosmos.
Thompson examines Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick’s reductionist argument that the mind is non-different from the brain, a thesis published in his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (1994). After a survey of traditional Vedic antitheses to a mechanistic worldview, Thompson questions the validity of defining the human mind as a by-product of neural action as an adequate explanation for thinking, feeling, and willing.
Reductionist thinkers tend to experience “consciousness" as a persistent enigma.
