Glenn Aparicio Parry, PhD, is author of Original Thinking: A Radical Revisioning of Time, Humanity, and Nature. He is the founder and director of the Circle for Original Thinking, a think tank based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In this video, originally recorded in 2015, he describes his participation, for over a decade, in a series of dialogues between native American elders, academic linguists, and theoretical physicists. These meetings caused him to question very basic notions such as the nature of time. Native Americans tend to see time as circular rather than linear. He also notes that, in modern western culture, humans believe themselves to be separate from nature, whereas native Americans see themselves as part of nature. He points out that native American languages emphasize process. They have many verbs and few nouns. This was in accord with the thinking of the physicists. He discusses the role of dreams in shaping our view of reality. He challenges the notion that we can “conquer” nature.

(Recorded on November 14, 2015)

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Published on December 17, 2020