Why is it that despite the growing body of evidence for metaphysical phenomena, like reincarnation and out-of-body experiences, mainstream academia remains unconvinced? Professor Frank Poletti of the Esalen Center for Theory and Research (CTR) says that it has to do primarily with the scientific materialism that pervades not only higher education, but also dominates most of Western culture. That’s why he and the CTR’s international think tank of mystically inclined scholars are going outside traditional academic circles to define a new cosmology—one that strips science of its materialistic bias in order to give consciousness its due.

In this Unbound interview with EnlightenNext’s Joel Pitney, Poletti beautifully articulates the vision behind the CTR and the emerging new worldview that they’re helping to pioneer. Drawing on ten years as its coordinator, Poletti gives an inside look into some of the CTR’s most exciting projects, including their “survival of bodily death” research and their work to make the rich history of Western esotericism relevant to our modern world. Finally, Poletti gives a compelling description of the subject that may be closest to Esalen’s heart: expanding the mainstream concept of evolution to include the evolutionary mysticism of figures such as Sri Aurobindo, Ken Wilber, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

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