Open Sciences was created due to the response of the “Manifesto for a Post-Materialist Science” published in the journal Explore in 2014 ¹ . The second manifestation of that response, as chronicled in the 2018, March/April Explore article ² is the newly established Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences. The AAPS is a 501(c) 3 non-profit membership and education organization whose mission is to promote open minded, rigorous and evidence-based enquiry into postmaterialist consciousness research.

As President of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences, and with the enthusiastic support of our Board of Directors, I would like to invite you to become a member of our newly founded organization, the AAPS. Our vision is to inspire scientists to investigate mind and consciousness as core elements of reality.

In order for our Academy to have an effect on the scientific and academic community, as well as the world, our goal is to have a membership of two thousand scientists, university students, and science-minded individuals within this first year.

By joining the academy, you will be part of this important community of scientists and science supporters, and you will thus be making a professional and personal contribution to this important cause. Our plan is to build a visionary organization that will have a powerful voice in the world in order to promote open-minded, rigorous and evidence-based enquiry into postmaterialist consciousness research and to positively impact scientific progress, public policy and society.

We encourage you to read the new article in Scientific American, co-authored by Dr. Menas Kafatos, our President-Elect, that makes the strong case for this paradigm change in science.

Below are quotes from our founding president, Dr. Gary Schwartz, Dr. Menas Kafatos, and myself, from our new book on the primacy of consciousness being published by the Academy and provided as part of your membership.

The emerging area of research encompassing survival of consciousness –as strong as it is when viewed in terms of the convergence of evidence across domains of knowledge (e.g. after death communications, near-death experiences, evidence of reincarnation, laboratory studies with evidential mediums, laboratory research with technology), is consistent with the primacy of consciousness hypothesis.
Dr. Gary Schwartz, Professor, Psychology, University of Arizona

If your model includes the understanding that consciousness is primary, and that there is a continuum of consciousness within everything, the feeling of universal connection inherent in this model will naturally generate compassionate action: you understand that what happens to others also happens to you.
Dr. Marjorie Woollacott, Professor Emeritus, Neuroscience, U. of Oregon

The nature of consciousness, however, continues to challenge all of science and in particular how something as “not material” as the mind couples to “material objects.” ….To continue to insist that science has nothing to say about philosophical under-standings or vice versa, is to deny our integrated unity of what it is to be human.
Dr. Menas Kafatos, Professor, Physics, Chapman University

We are in the midst of a historical paradigm shift and the future of science belongs to all of us, if we take an active part.

Together we can unite to create scientific research, education, theory, and applications that are based on including the mind as a component of the nature of reality. The AAPS works every day towards this end, but it can’t happen without your support and wisdom.

I hope you will join us and shape the future! Membership in the AAPS is available in three categories:

Full Member: for scientists and scholars from any academic discipline or professional field, normally with advanced graduate degrees, interested in the advancement of postmaterialist sciences.

Affiliate Member: for community members interested in supporting the advancement of the mission and goals of the AAPS. $150/year

Student Member: for active students enrolled in PhD, MD, other doctoral degree programs interested in careers contributing to the evolution of postmaterialist science. $75/year

The Academy’s first published volume titled, “Is Consciousness Primary? Perspectives from Founding Members of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences is currently in press and will be offered to members as part of the membership fee.

Download and submit the AAPS Member Application Form.

Membership fees can be sent by check or through AAPS website

AAPS Executive Office
Attn: Membership
1601 N. Tucson Blvd.
Medical Center, Suite 17
Tucson, Arizona 85716

For more information, please be sure to visit us at www.AAPSglobal.com

Kindly and with great honor,

Marjorie Woollacott, PhD
AAPS, President

1. Beauregard M, Schwartz GE, Miller L, et al. Manifesto for a post-materialist science. Explore. 2016;12(2):272-274.

2. Schwartz GE, Woollacott M, Schwartz A, et al. The Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences: Integrating Consciousness into Mainstream Science. Explore 2018;14(2):111-113.