23rd IAGG world congress of gerontology and geriatrics

While finalizing the presentation and preparing myself for travelling to Amsterdam I was staying in the UK after attending the conference on Consciousness Education at York St John University two weeks ago. It worked out wonderfully that Roger Tempest, the custodian of Broughton Sanctuary, enabled me to spend 10 days on the grounds of this impressive estate, spiritual retreat and nature rewilding project in North Yorkshire with my campervan, which took a huge strain off my travel budget and, at the same time, enabled me to complete this work in peace and quiet in a tranquil setting surrounded by beautiful nature and positive energy. I am very grateful to Roger – who also generously supports other consciousness research projects – for this support of my research; it was a wonderful time, and I hope to be able to return to the site one day to run a retreat on Conscious Ageing.

The literature I am refering to in my research is from a broad range of scientific and spiritual traditions. I refer here only to some sources which are directly connected to this presentation. 

You will get an overview about my initial research process from this article: 

• Wichers B., (2025). Dementia and the Dissolution of the Self - A Transpersonal Perspective Journal of Transpersonal Research, 17 (1), 31-40

List of References 

• Adyashanti (2010). The end of your world. Uncensored straight talk on the nature of enlightenment. Louisville, CO: Sounds True.
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• Atchley, R.C. (2011). How spiritual experience and development interact with aging. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 43(2), 156-165.
• Bourgeault, C. (2024). Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Christian Mystic. Shambala
• Cook-Greuter, S.R. (2014). Ego development: A full-spectrum theory of vertical growth and meaning making. [Online document] Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publica-tion/356357233
• Cooper, A.C., Ventura, B., & Northoff, G. (2022). Beyond the veil of duality—topographic reorganization model of meditation. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2022.
• Corneille, J.S., & Luke, D.P. (2021). Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings: Phenomenology, Altered States, Individual Differences, and Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 12.
• Dass, R. (2001). Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying. Riverhead Books.
• Freimann, A., Mayseless, O., Hart, T., & Johnson, A. (2024). Living transcendence: A phenomenological study of spiritual exemplars. The Humanistic Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000359
• Garcia-Romeu, A. (2010). Self-Transcendence as a Measurable Transpersonal Construct. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 42, 26.
• Grof, S., & Grof, C. (1989). Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis. TarcherPerigee.
• Josipovic, Z. (2019). Nondual awareness: Consciousness-as-such as non-representational reflexivity. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2019(1)
• Josipovic, Z. (2021). Implicit–explicit gradient of nondual awareness or consciousness as such. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 7(2), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niab031
• Kitwood, T. (1997). Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First. Open University Press.
• Laukkonen, R.E., & Slagter, H.A. (2021). From many to (n)one: Meditation and the plasti-city of the predictive mind. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 128, 199-217.
• Laukkonen, R.E., Sacchet, M.D., Barendregt, H., Devaney, K.J., Chowdhury, A., & Slagter, H.A. (2023). Cessations of consciousness in meditation: Advancing a scientific under-standing of nirodha samāpatti. Progress in Brain Research, 280, 61-87.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.007
• Lenzoni, S., Morris, R.G., & Mograbi, D.C. (2020). The petrified self 10 years after: Current evidence for mnemonic anosognosia. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 465. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00465
• Lindström, L., Goldin, P.R., Mårtensson, J., & Cardeña, E. (2023). Nonlinear brain corre-lates of trait self-boundarylessness. Neuro-science of Consciousness, 2023.
• Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. Spring
• Metzinger, T. (2020). Minimal phenomenal expe-rience: Meditation, tonic alertness, and the phenomenology of “pure” consciousness. Philosophy and the Mind Sciences,1(I), 7. https://philosophymindscience.org/index.php/phimisci/article/view/8960
• Newberg, A., & d’Aquili, E. (2001). Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief. Ballantine Books.
• O’Fallon, T. (2015). The evolution of the human soul: Developmental practices in spiritual guidance. [Master’s Thesis]. Lorain Center for Incarnational Spirituality, Issaquah, WA https://www.terriofallon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Evolution-Of-The-Human-Soul-10.pdf 
• Rogers, C.R. (1995). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Sabat, S. R. (2001). The Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease: Life Through a Tangled Veil. Blackwell.
• Segal, S. (1998). Collision with the Infinite. Life be-yond the personal self. San Diego, CA: Blue Dove Press.
• Tornstam, L. (2005). Gerotranscendence: A developmental theory of positive aging. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
• Wacks, V.Q. (2011). The elder as sage, old age as spiritual path: Towards a transpersonal gerontology. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 43(2), 127-155.
• Wichers, B. (2011): Entwurf für ein Integrales Demenz-Konzept. Masterarbeit. [Draft for an Integral Dementia-Concept] (Unpublished Master’s thesis). University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Göttingen, Germany.
• Wilber, K. (2006). Integral spirituality. A startling new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world. Kerala, India: Integral Books.
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• WHO (World Health Organization), (2019). ICD-10 Version 2019, V Mental and behavioural disorders (F00-F09) Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders [Web page]. Retrieved from: https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/F00-F09
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