THE SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL NETWORK

with

The Institute of Noetic Sciences

The Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia

Alef Trust

Exploring The Extended Nature of Reality
6-8 November 2026

Beyond the Brain is more than a conference – it is a bridge between science and spirituality. Join us for the world’s leading conference on the frontiers of consciousness research where science meets spirit, and personal experience meets scientific inquiry. For 30 years, Beyond the Brain has brought together pioneering researchers, scientists, and seekers to explore one of the most profound questions of our time:

Does consciousness extend beyond the physical brain?

Topics of the 2026 Conference

Reality Reconsidered

Foundational models and empirical/methodological work pushing beyond materialism to understand what consciousness fundamentally is.

Max Velmans – The Psychophysical Cosmic Mind

Federico Faggin – The Universe is Self-Knowing

Alex Burdya – Beyond the Brain by the Numbers: a blinded AI-panel study points to the brain as a filter of consciousness

Tom Stedall – Empirical Research in Symbolic Reality

Death, Dying & Survival

What happens at and after death, and the evidence for consciousness surviving it.

Vera Spillner – Physics & Near-Death Experiences: Unexpected Parallels in Timelessness, Oneness, and Consciousness

Chris Kerr – Validating Patient Experiences at the End of Life

Suzanne Giesemann – What’s Missing? Openness to Experience and Understanding Consciousness (evidential mediumship)

Laleh Quinn – Anomalous Communication: A Breakthrough Testing Methodology Using AI

Altered & Expanded States of Consciousness

Consciousness stretched beyond ordinary waking awareness through psychedelics, sound, music, and poetry.

Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes – Metaphysics of Psychedelics and the “Mind-at-Large”

Jane Cuva & Jericca – Portal to a Golden Age (musical performance)

Lisa Masé & Evan Premo – Live Entheoacoustic Sound Journey

Rachel Salter – The Troubadours: Love Songs of the Universe. Music, Poetry and the Expansion of Consciousness

Communication Beyond Ordinary Channels

Information and connection moving through non-standard, non-verbal, or non-linear means.

Marina Weiler – Communication Beyond Speech: Investigating Information Transfer in Nonspeaking Autism

Daniel Bourke – Déja Rêvé and Love at Second Sight

Julia Mossbridge (interview by Prof Marjorie Woollacott) – Exceptional Human Performance: psi effects, precognition and presentiment

What you’ll experience

Talks from world-leading thinkers in science, psychology, and spirituality

New research that challenges reductionist assumptions and opens new paradigms

Daily experiential sessions for direct engagement with expanded states

A global community of open-minded professionals, researchers, and seekers

What people say

I regard consciousness as fundamental, matter is derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness. There is no matter as such; it exists only by virtue of a force bringing the particle to vibration and holding it together in a minute solar system; we must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. The mind is the matrix of all matter.

Max Planck, Nobel Laureate

Beyond the Brain is a wonderful conference that grounds the outer reaches of science in everyday experience. The speakers are the leaders in their fields. The SMN attends to all necessary details to make this a meaningful and memorable experience. I will continue to attend each year.

Beyond the Brain just gets better every year. It offers a range of inspiring presentations by international speakers and opportunities for experiential sessions that are seldom found anywhere else.

I think Beyond the Brain and the work of the Scientific and Medical Network very important. Their tireless work to shift the boundaries defined by scientific materialism and find common ground between the material and non-material worlds has to be a keystone to a better understanding of the world and cosmos in which we all live.

I attend Beyond the Brain every year. It is a spiritual pilgrimage which I joyfully undertake to discover more about ‘who I am’. It is the only place I know of where I can meet up with so many spiritually curious, like-minded souls, all intent on exploring consciousness in an open ended but scientifically informed manner.

Quite frankly, this symposium served as an inspiration to me during what I consider to be ‘dark times’ in planetary consciousness. The speakers were excellent and the information quite likely vital if humanity is to survive the current challenges we now face as a collective species.

Wonderful opportunity to listen to inspiring people, learn about the latest experiments and hypotheses and discuss ideas on consciousness and psi phenomena with others.

A most stimulating and mind-expanding experience.

The whole weekend was life changing and inspirational!

This far exceeded my expectations and allowed me to interact with leading academics on the subject of Near-Death Experience and allied subjects.

Thank you for another wonderful event – immensely enjoyable.

Thank you so much to the organizers and the speakers for their generous sharing… Very inspiring!

It was time WELL SPENT

This conference was a very well-planned and presented, offering wonderful insights into the world ‘Beyond the Brain’

I certainly will now be joining your organization. Great job!!!

My sincere thanks to all the organisers and presenters for their generosity, love and goodness.

David Lorimer is an excellent host, speaker and organizer. (…) Marjorie Woollacott is a true class act. She is a true model for clarity, humility, and breadth of approach, with a wonderful demeanor.

What a joy to stumble upon and experience this conference! For several years the idea of using my technical side and energy healing/expanded consciousness side together to help humanity has been hanging around, seemingly looking for viable paths in society. This conference opened up several possibilities for me – thank you so much!!! I plan to attend every year going forward if possible!

Only found SMN through the Galileo Commission and that only through Iain Mcgilchrists podcasts from earlier this year. Blown away by how much knowledge is locked inside this network completely opaque to me for all these years. So much to catch up on.

This was my first SMN event. I heartily applaud their work, and will be interested to join more of them.

We are in a civilisational inflection point marked by converging ecological, technological, and existential crises. These are not isolated issues but symptoms of a deeper epistemic collapse. The story that the West tells about reality is breaking down. We are entrenched in and increasingly disillusioned with reductionist, materialist paradigms.