November 18-22, 2015 conference was held in Chicago, IL
- Suggested Reading List
- Registration Form (fill it out and send to barrylia [at] comcast.net – payments due at conference).
- Schedule
- Housing: we are arranging for rooms in the homes of local people. Please indicate on your registration if you would like for us to place you in such a room. We have told potential hosts that you will pay up to $40/night. The conference will take place at the Branch, 4249 North Lincoln Ave. which is in the 60618 zip code area should you want to make your own arrangements with airbnb.com or local hotels.
- Meals: breakfast and lunch will be provided at the Branch. Dinners are not included. We will make reservations for groups at nearby restaurants.
2015 Natural Science / Mathematics-Astronomy Section Conference, co-sponsored by the Biodynamic Association
Vitality and Quality as Seen Through Picture Forming Methods: Bridging the Polarity of the Analytical and the Imaginative in the Evaluation of Food and Water
We are pleased to announce that the 2015 annual Science Section Conference will take place in Chicago from Wednesday evening the 18th to Sunday midday the 22nd of November. Continuing our work on “inner capacity building,” we will further engage in anthroposophically-inspired qualitative science in considering how the Picture Forming Methods contribute to the assessment of quality in food and water.
This year we are also inviting members of the Medical Section and the Agriculture Section to join us, and we are working closely with the Biodynamic Association’s research group, in order to reach a broader audience. The Picture Forming Methods are well known in Europe, used in biodynamic circles for Demeter certification and in anthroposophical medical institutes for assessment of medicaments. For over 15 years an association of practitioners has met annually in Europe, furthering the methodology and establishing EU Standards according to ISO-Norms for such practical applications. It is hoped that this conference will also galvanize people working with the Picture Forming Methods here in America.
To accommodate those who are not members of the School for Spiritual Science, Class Lesson work and Section business will be conducted early in the mornings before the regular conference meeting time, so as to afford a smooth collegial working during the conference itself.
From Europe, we have invited Maria Olga Kokornaczyk, who is working at the Iscador AG, a cancer research institute in Arlesheim, Switzerland, to speak of Pfeiffer’s Circular Chromatography and Sensitive Crystallization Methods, as well as the new Droplet Evaporation Method. She has contributed to the development of this new method with a body of research in peer-reviewed journals. Jennifer Greene of the Water Research Institute in Blue Hill will present Theodor Schwenk’s Drop Picture Method, as applied in water quality assessment. We are sorry to report that Bruno Follador will not be able to join us this year, as previously announced. In order to ground our discussions for non-practitioners of the picture forming methods, conference participants will each be guided hands-on through the steps of making their own “Rising Picture” by the Capillary Dynamolysis Method initiated by Lili Kolisko.
Such a “picture forming” theme of sorts has actually been with us for many years in our Science Section conferences, as all of Nature shows us “pictures” of becoming, manifesting and dying away, of forms which arise out of dynamic forces working in the material world. In a sense we have been “reading the Book of Nature” as Goethe describes it, through the “pictures” that Nature presents—be they from the animal world in Schad’s three-fold perspective several meetings ago or from the soulful world of color brought to life by an artistic sensibility last year.
In addition to specific picture forming methods topics, Ross Rentea, M.D., will give us a picture of Lili Kolisko’s life and her breakthrough discoveries using germination experiments to study the behavior of potentized remedies. Walter Goldstein will also report on a pilot year of the Quality Testing Network, launched by the Biodynamic Association with cooperating researchers and organizations to promote healthy farms, soils, and food. Lastly, those of us who attended the Evolving Science 2015 Science Section conference at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland last month will open the first evening with reports and reflections on the status of Goethean and anthroposophical science in Europe.
Scientists, physicians, farmers, prep makers, compost makers, wine growers, food quality researchers, even artists: please join us in Chicago from November 18th through 22nd for our next exploration of anthroposophically-inspired science, as we grapple with the methods and philosophical understanding of this science of bringing to visible expression the holistic effects of the otherwise invisible form-creating energies present in all organic material.
For agenda and registration materials, see the links below.
On behalf of the conference planning committee, John Barnes, Jennifer Greene, Robert Karp, Barry Lia, Andrew Linnell, and Sarah Weber.
To Attend:
Registration Form (fill it out and send to barrylia [at] comcast.net – payments due at conference).
Schedule and Suggested Reading List
Invited Speakers:
- Dr. Ross Rentea, Founder Lily Kolisko Institute
- Maria Olga Kokornaczyk, PhD, Iscador AG
- Jennifer Greene, Founder and Director Water Research Institute
- Walter Goldstein, PhD Director Mandaamin Institute
- Philippe Coderey, Director Viticulture at Bonny Donn Vineyards
- Barry Lia, PhD, Lia BD Consulting
Other information:
- Housing: we are arranging for rooms in the homes of local people. Please indicate on your registration if you would like for us to place you in such a room. We have told potential hosts that you will pay up to $40/night. The conference will take place at the Branch, 4249 North Lincoln Ave. which is in the 60618 zip code area should you want to make your own arrangements with airbnb.com or local hotels.
- Meals: breakfast and lunch will be provided at the Branch. Dinners are not included. We will make reservations for groups at nearby restaurants.