The Thorn Institute

Beyond the Brain 2026 · Scientific & Medical Network

November 2026 · date TBA · Online conference. Annual virtual conference exploring whether consciousness extends beyond the physical brain, featuring frontier researchers, NDE scholars and philosophers of mind.

Beyond the Brain is the Scientific and Medical Network's annual virtual conference on the question of whether consciousness is reducible to the physical brain. The format brings together neuroscientists, philosophers of mind, NDE researchers and people working on anomalous cognition in roughly equal measure.

The virtual-only format makes it accessible from anywhere, and the recordings tend to be available afterwards. A reasonable on-ramp for people who want to engage with the empirical and philosophical case for non-reductive views of consciousness without the venue overhead.

Dates and registration on the conference site.

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