Andrew Cohen + Howard Bloom

Is faith a function of the individual or of society? Writer Howard Bloom, known for his unconventional approach to the study of mass moods and cultural convolutions, meets with spiritual teacher Andrew Cohento dissect the role of faith in society.

This event is part of The Road That Teaches series that complements the exhibition Pilgrimage and Faith: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam(July 1, 2011 – October 24, 2011). The Road That Teaches is a Wednesday evening conversation series, exploring the nature of faith and pilgrimage, between two people from different walks of life or differing spiritual experiences. To view more conversations in this series, click here.
Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, and founder of the global nonprofit EnlightenNext and its award-winning publication EnlightenNext magazine. Since 1986, Cohen has been traveling the world giving public lectures and intensive retreats. Through his writings, his teachings, and his ongoing dialogues with philosophers, scientists, mystics, and religious leaders from almost every major tradition, he has become known as one of the defining voices of the new evolutionary spirituality. Cohen’s new book Evolutionary Enlightenment will be released by Select Books Fall 2011.
Howard Bloom, a Visiting Scholar at New York University, has been called “next in a lineage of seminal thinkers that includes Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Freud, and Buckminster Fuller” by Britain’s Channel4 TV, “the next Stephen Hawking” by Gear Magazine, and “The Buckminster Fuller and Arthur C. Clarke of the new millennium” by Buckminster Fuller’s archivist. Bloom is the author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History (“mesmerizing”-The Washington Post), Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century (“reassuring and sobering”-The New Yorker), and The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism (“A visionary creation.” Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, eleventh President of India). Bloom has founded three international scientific groups: the Group Selection Squad (1995), which fought to gain acceptance for the concept of group selection in evolutionary biology; The International Paleopsychology Project (1997), which worked to create a new multi-disciplinary synthesis between cosmology, paleontology, evolutionary biology, and history; and The Space Development Steering Committee (2007), an organization that includes astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Edgar Mitchell and members from NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. He has done 20 years of fieldwork in mass behavior, founding two successful businesses in popular culture andhelping to build or sustain the careers of Michael Jackson, Prince, Bob Marley, Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Billy Idol, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, Simon & Garfunkel, Queen, Kiss, Aerosmith, Run DMC, and roughly 100 others of the ilk.