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Colorado's politics faces major questions in 2026 election and legislative session
The stakes for the 2026 election and legislative session are enormous.
L3Harris sells 60% stake in space propulsion business for $845 million
L3Harris Technologies said on Monday it will sell an about 60% stake in its space propulsion and power systems business to private equity firm AE Industrial Partners for $845 million, including debt.
Universal Music acquires 30% stake in India’s Excel Entertainment, valuing Bollywood production house at $267m
As part of the deal, UMG will roll out a dedicated Excel music label with global distribution capabilities.
Divided GOP returns to Washington this week for key vote on health care
Congress returns this week to a slew of bitter political fights and the threat of another government shutdown at the end of the month — all while facing high stakes as President Donald Trump and GOP leaders attempt to unify their fractured party in a midterm year.
Universal Music Buying 30% Stake In India’s Excel Entertainment
Universal Music India is set to take a stake in Excel Entertainment, the Bollywood movie studio behind films such as 'Don' and 'Dil Chahta Hai'.
Universal Music Acquires 30 Percent Stake in India’s Excel Entertainment
As part of the deal, which values Excel at $290 million, Universal Music Group will receive global rights to all future original soundtracks attached to projects produced by the fast-growing Indian company.
Welcome to the new, sorta socialist era of American capitalism
Trump is having the government buy stakes directly in companies — and it's going to change the way we all do business and reshape the economy.
Business owners set to unlock wealth rather than retire, Raymond James poll shows
Most plan to exit financial stakes in next decade but many aim for new ventures beyond retirement.
Universal Music Takes 30% Stake in India’s Excel Entertainment With $267 Million Deal
UMG's Indian division acquires significant minority stake in Bollywood studio Excel Entertainment for $267 million, gaining global soundtrack rights.
Game Thread: Suns and Thunder meet again with different stakes
It’s their first non-NBA Cup matchup of the season.
Mar-a-Lago is a familiar place for Trump to manage high-stakes military operations
Hours after declaring from underneath the tented ceiling of Mar-a-Lago’s Tea Room that Venezuela’s leader was in American custody and the US was running the country, President Donald Trump emerged victorious onto his club’s crowded patio as dinner-goers cheered the audacious mission he’d ordered up from a few yards away.
Asad Haider, Leftist Critic of Identity Politics, Dies at 38
In “Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump,” he argued that focusing on identity obscured a more fundamental injustice: economic inequality.
Week 18 game preview: Bears vs. Detroit Lions
Chicago hosts Detroit in the season finale Sunday with playoff seeding at stake. @SamHouseholder previews the Lions.
I visited Amsterdam for the first time with my family — here are 4 things that surprised me most about our trip
Our first trip to Amsterdam as a family was great, but there are mistakes I wish we avoided and tips I wish we knew before we got to the Netherlands.
How Jewish politics are shaping the 2026 election map, from coast to coast
In New York, Maine, Michigan and more, antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment are driving high-stakes contests.
AMC Entertainment (AMC) Amends Debt Terms, Expands ATM Offering Capacity, and Sells Majority Hycroft Stake
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AMC) is one of the best NYSE stocks under $5 to buy. On December 22, AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AMC), along with its subsidiary Muvico, LLC, entered into an agreement with holders of Muvico’s Senior Secured Exchangeable Notes due 2030 to amend the notes’ indenture. The goal is to adjust terms […]
From aisles to ballots: How Mass. grocery prices explain what’s at stake in the 2026 midterms
With the 2026 midterms looming, Bay State Democrats are vowing to keep the pressure on Republican President Donald Trump's White House.
Trump 2.0 is dismantling American science. Here's what's at stake, according to researchers.
U.S.-based researchers detail how their work has been disrupted by funding cuts and policy changes ushered by the second Trump administration.
Grice Connect’s local sports coverage builds community connection across Bulloch County
Grice Connect highlighted the growth of its high school sports coverage at its annual Stakeholder Luncheon, emphasizing consistent reporting across all four Bulloch County programs and a team-based approach to same-night coverage. Leaders said the expanded sports initiative strengthens community pride, youth engagement, and connection by celebrating student-athletes beyond the scoreboard.
NFL Panic Meter: What's on the line in Week 18, including Aaron Rodgers playing perhaps his last game
I went to Hawaii for the first time. My trip would've been better if I'd known these 5 things before I left.
Though I planned a lot for my first trip to Hawaii, I would've saved time and money in Oahu if I'd known these tips and how to avoid some mistakes.
Bears vs. 49ers: San Francisco outlasts Chicago in high-stakes thriller to keep No. 1 seed hopes afloat
The 49ers' win sets up a Week 18 matchup against the Seahawks with the No. 1 seed on the line.
Ohio politics: 2025 Year in Review
The year in Ohio politics saw several developments that will set up high-stakes battles in 2026.
Close Up: Taking a look at Iowa politics in 2025 and what's ahead in 2026
After a turbulent political year, Iowa is already looking toward a high-stakes 2026.
NFL Week 17 Live Updates, Scores: Colts-Jaguars, Jets-Patriots, Seahawks-Panthers, More
There's plenty of high-stakes football on Sunday. Here are all the top moments and highlights from Sunday's games.
Google founder Sergey Brin tells Stanford engineering students: I made the mistake of thinking I am the next Steve Jobs and can make ... - The Times of India
Tech News News: Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently shared an important tip that he said he learned from one of the company's biggest hardware failures. During a t.
Cowboys fend off rally from surprisingly competitive Commanders, send reeling rivals to Christmas Day defeat
In a game with nothing at stake but pride, the Cowboys and Commanders put on a better-than-expected show to kick off the NFL's Christmas Day slate.
Don't make these mistakes when planning your family's inheritance
More money, more problems? Billionaires are passing down trillions to their kids. Here's what they are doing wrong.
AMC Entertainment Stock Hits All-Time Low Despite Avatar Success, Billionaire Buy-In
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) stock hit a new all-time low Tuesday at $1.64, even as the company reported its strongest pre-Christmas weekend since 2021. Here’s what investors need to know. Don't Miss: These five entrepreneurs are worth $223 billion – they all believe in one platform that offers a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends 7 Million Gamers Already Trust Gameflip With Their Digital Assets — Now You Can Own a Stake in the Platform What To Know: The bearish price action s
Cowboys-Commanders Preview
This is not exactly what the NFL and Netflix had in mind when they thought they would be getting big-name quarterbacks Jayden Daniels vs. Dak Prescott and a high-stakes matchup of NFC East rivals Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys in the Christmas Day spotlight.
2025 NFL Week 17 Best Bets, Expert Picks: Back Broncos, Bears in Key Road Games
The stakes are high in NFL Week 17, and Geoff Schwartz is back with his best bets, featuring a few squads that are eyeing the postseason.
BP agrees deal to sell £7.4bn stake in Castrol to US investment firm
Stonepeak will acquire 65% of lubricants business as part of wider plans for the oil company to pay down its debt
BP to Sell Majority Stake in Castrol Business for $6 Billion
The UK oil giant will divest a 65% stake, retaining the remaining interest via a joint venture, it said Wednesday. BP is shedding assets to reduce debt and turn around years of lagging performance that put the company in the crosshairs of activist shareholder Elliott Investment Management. It kicked off the sale process for Castrol back in February, when then-Chief Executive Officer Murray Auchincloss unveiled a strategic reset, promising to refocus on oil and gas, slash costs and reduce debt.
Gold, silver and platinum hit record highs as investors look for Santa rally; BP to sell stake in Castrol for $6bn
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Redacted Material in Some Epstein Files Is Easily Recovered
The ease of recovering information that was not properly redacted digitally suggests that at least some of the documents released by the Justice Department were hastily censored.
How not to misread science fiction
Focusing on the futuristic tech that appears in sci-fi without paying attention to the actual point of the story is a big mistake, says Annalee Newitz
YOUR INPUT WANTED: Help shape the 2026 Delta Science Plan
The Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program has released the third iteration of the Delta Science Plan for public review. The Delta Science Plan outlines the vision, principles, and strategies guiding science in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. All members of the Delta science community and interested stakeholders are encouraged to provide input. This includes federal, state, and local agency scientists, tribes, non-governmental organizations, academic researchers, and members of the public who care about the future of the Delta. The Delta […]
Bengals take advantage of mistakes in blowout win at Miami
For at least one game, the Cincinnati Bengals looked like the team fans were expecting this season.
Top 25 And 1: Stakes high for Kentucky vs. St. John's in CBS Sports Classic
The Wildcats face the Red Storm in Atlanta to get a busy Saturday started
Protective teams Georgetown and Xavier meet in Big East clash
Two of the better teams in the nation at avoiding self-inflicted mistakes will square off Saturday night when Georgetown meets Xavier in a Big East Conference game at Washington, D.C.
Blakeman stakes out positions after Stefanik exits governor's race
It was his first address since Rep. Elise Stefanik dropped out of the race for governor of New York.
HHS requests advice on using AI for lowering healthcare costs
A new RFI from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is seeking stakeholder input on how to realize artificial intelligence goals and usher in nationwide, clinical-scale adoption of the technology.
Why Using Your Home Address for Your Business Can Be a Costly Mistake
One early decision many founders overlook can quietly affect their privacy, credibility and ability to scale.
Industry Stakeholders, Experts React to Trump’s Schedule III Cannabis Order
Business executives, advocates, attorneys, politicians, and ancillary service providers overwhelmingly applaud the order as a first step, not an end destination.
Broncos vs Jaguars Week 15: Keys to victory
Who would’ve thought that at the beginning of the season we’d be able to say that with a win and certain losses on Sunday, the Broncos can secure the top seed in the AFC? Honestly I was hoping we’d be able to clinch a playoff spot, but there is so much more at stake here. […]
Russia says it hopes Trump did not make ‘fatal mistake’ after latest US strike on vessel in eastern Pacific kills four
Pete Hegseth says attack took place on Wednesday as Russian foreign ministry warns of ‘unpredictable consequences for the entire western Hemisphere’
Culture Council: Running a Business? 10 Ways to Stay Cool Under Pressure
High-stakes moments can make or break a business. As a leader, your personal practices and mindset can help you stay steady when it matters most.
Diageo to sell Kenyan drinks business to Japan’s Asahi in $2.3bn deal
Spirits group will offload its 65% stake in EABL as it seeks to reduce debt
Netflix Just Canceled One of My 10 Favorite Shows of the Year and I’m Not Happy
Netflix just made a major mistake. It canceled one of the best shows of 2025 after just one season, 'Boots,' and I'm not happy about it.
I visited Japan for a week. From missed experiences to money mistakes, I should've done these 6 things differently.
After spending a week traveling around Japan and Tokyo for the first time as an American, I have regrets about how I planned my trip and spent money.
Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Trump facing GOP pushback over his comments on Rob Reiner
An 11th-hour decision to back out of Miami mental health center? That’s a mistake
Fiscal responsibility is good, but the timing here is odd. | Opinion
The Death—and Rebirth—of Science Diplomacy
Once a vehicle for global cooperation, international science has become a high-stakes arena of geopolitical rivalry.
Sergey Brin, who came back to Google to work on Gemini, says staying retired would have been a 'big mistake'
Sergey Brin says the pandemic pushed him back into Google, where he's now helping drive its Gemini AI efforts.
Top story: Amid NIH funding cuts and uncertainty, Gov. Healey says future of science, research in Massachusetts is at stake
Top story: The visit included a tour of the new Paul J. DiMare Center and a closed-door meeting with UMass Chan faculty members.
Sen. Rand Paul says redistricting could lead to political violence
The Kentucky Republican said he believes redistricting efforts across the political aisle are a "mistake" that could lead voters to feel disenfranchised.
Amazon pulls AI recap from Fallout TV show after it made several mistakes
The errors included getting dialogue wrong and incorrectly claiming a scene was set 100 years earlier than it was.
Amazon's Official 'Fallout' Season 1 Recap Is AI Garbage Filled With Mistakes
Prime Video's latest needle-poke into generative AI's bubble comes on the heels of its anime dubbing debacle.
The Senate is set to vote on two rival health plans. Here's what's at stake for Americans
The U.S. Senate is set to vote on two partisan health bills addressing expiring COVID-era subsidies. These subsidies help millions of Americans with insurance costs.
Democrats target ‘vulnerable’ Republican senators ahead of high-stakes health care showdown
The Democratic National Committee launches ad campaign targeting four vulnerable Republican senators ahead of crucial Senate votes on ACA tax credits affecting 20 million Americans.
Trump, GOP face test in Miami mayor runoff: Meet the candidates
The fight to fill Miami’s mayoral office comes to a head on Tuesday evening during a special runoff election that has high stakes for national politics
Atalanta vs Chelsea – Match Preview and Team News
Two sides locked together on 10 points in the Champions League league phase meet in Bergamo on Tuesday as Atalanta host Chelsea in a high-stakes encounter at the Gewiss Stadium. A victory for either s...
Rally House Breaks Company Online Sales Record After Electric Sports Weekend
LENEXA, Kan., Dec. 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rally House is thrilled to announce that the company has achieved the largest single-day online sales total in its history. Fueled by an extraordinary combination of high-stakes sports moments and early holiday shopping energy, Rally House saw online sales soar more than 50% year-over-year, marking a historic milestone for the brand and showcasing the company’s commitment to customers, fans, and partners. Fans across the country turned to Rally Hou
NFL Week 14 Live Updates, Scores: Bengals-Bills, Steelers-Ravens, Colts-Jaguars, More
There are a lot of games that have playoff-like stakes across the NFL on Sunday. Here are the highlights and top moments from Week 14.
Institutional investors own a significant stake of 40% in Seaport Entertainment Group Inc. (NYSE:SEG)
Key Insights Institutions' substantial holdings in Seaport Entertainment Group implies that they have significant...
Trump Is Repeating One of Biden’s Big Mistakes
Downplaying voters’ economic pain will backfire.
California health officials issue urgent warning to mushroom foragers after deadly poisoning outbreak
California health officials warn against mushroom foraging after a deadly outbreak in which death cap mushrooms were mistaken for edible varieties.
Politics-first Christians are living in the wrong chapter of history
Ryan Sanders: The Bible describes distinct chapters in humanity’s relationship to the divine. The mistake of many modern evangelicals, like 7 Mountain...
4 ChatGPT Prompts To Turn Your Business Idea Into Reality In 2026
Learn how four practical ChatGPT prompts can help anyone refine a business or side hustle idea, avoid common mistakes, and gain traction in 2026.
Health AI hits point-solution burnout
As the health AI market matures, the pressure to deliver real value for all stakeholders is intensifying.
Is Christianity “Anti-Science”?
The idea that Christians are inherently anti-science is not only common but persistent, echoed in conversations and cultural commentary for as long as I can remember. I often hear claims that Christianity has historically repressed scientific progress, sometimes citing stories of Christians burning scientists at the stake or actively inhibiting scientific advancement out of dogmatic […]
Britain’s slot-machine politics
Voting is becoming a high-stakes, wildly unpredictable gamble
Middleby to Sell 51% Stake in Residential Kitchen Business to 26North in Transaction Valuing the Business at $885 Million
ELGIN, Ill., December 04, 2025--The Middleby Corporation ("Middleby") (NASDAQ: MIDD) today announced entry into a definitive agreement under which it will sell a 51% stake in its Residential Kitchen business to affiliates of 26North Partners LP ("26North") in a transaction valuing Residential Kitchen at $885 million. Following this transaction, Middleby will own a 49% non-controlling interest in a new standalone joint venture holding the Residential Kitchen business, while receiving upfront cash
Strategies to Help Students Embrace Science Instruction (Opinion)
Knowing how to redirect science denial in your classroom is a strong way to start.
Quin Hillyer: Louisiana should think twice before cutting from Safe Havens for mental health
The St. Tammany Parish Council seems poised to eliminate funding for its Safe Haven mental health campus. That would be a major mistake, this columnist argues, adding that the underfunding of mental health care is a statewide problem.
Rep. Crow to GOP: Trump is going ‘cost you your job’ after high-stakes TN special election
Oregon’s governor unveils a ‘roadmap’ to business prosperity. Here’s what’s at stake
The blueprint comes as Oregon faces sluggish population growth, high housing costs and other faltering economic indicators.
What’s at stake for health care reform? Insights from Florida and Massachusetts | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Health care access, costs, and coverage – particularly for lower-income Americans – are expected to undergo dramatic changes in the next few years. Enhanced
The US is taking a stake in a chip startup led by Intel's ousted CEO
The US is investing up to $150 million in xLight, a chip startup chaired by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, to boost domestic chipmaking.
Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on the political reaction to Trump's boat strikes
Bills show resilience in overcoming mistakes, injuries by dominating Steelers
Put aside the turnovers, middling passing production, poor tackling and all the other issues that have hounded the Buffalo Bills for much of this season
How upcoming business leaders are using AI to prep for high-stakes deal negotiations—and everyday interactions
Students at American University’s Kogod School of Business are learning how to use AI to sharpen the way they negotiate everything from job offers to high-stakes mergers.
9 mistakes to avoid making at a work event, according to etiquette experts
According to etiquette experts, avoiding leadership and hiding behind your phone are things you should never do at a work event or holiday party.
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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