What if the Brain Does NOT Create Consciousness?

Could consciousness be more than an illusion? Could it be the very fabric of reality itself?

The Mind-at-Large Project is a three-year conference series, with associated film and other media, that investigates consciousness and its role in reality. The project seeks to challenge the common yet unnecessarily-restrictive worldview that posits that brains alone are required for consciousness. The first gathering, “A New Dawn,” inaugurates this unfolding inquiry. Convening April 15-17, 2026 at the University of Exeter, thought leaders and emerging scholars will come together to explore the deeper nature of mind- from the quantum to the ecological, from the human to the transpersonal.

We invite papers that engage creatively and critically with the re-emerging paradigm of “mind-at-large,” traversing multiple thresholds of philosophical, scientific, and cultural discourse, including but not limited to:- Philosophy of Mind: panpsychism, idealism, dual-aspect monism, process philosophy, nondualism- Mind & Matter: quantum theory, observer participation, the metaphysics of measurement- Biology & Consciousness: cognition in plants, animals, and bioelectric systems- 4E Cognition: embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended mindIndigenous and Animist Perspectives: relational ontologies and ecological mind- History of Science & the Disenchantment of Nature: recovering participatory modes of knowing- Theology & Cosmology: panentheism, pantheism, and the divinization of nature- Extraordinary Experience: psychedelic, mystical, and psi phenomena as windows onto a wider consciousness Join us. Submit your work. And be part of the paradigm shift.Sign up for updates & early-bird tickets → https://mindatlargeproject.com/ Submit abstracts here → https://ctr4process.org/mind-at-large/submit/ Check out the Mind-at-Large Project Playlist here → https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPacM28YkMQCHdQl2_3OvDmHPl6jJRJcz&si=MxhDoX6bJjkEzMXK