Fred Cummins

My book on joint speech (unison speech, choral speech, chanting) is available from Nov 1 from Cambridge Scholars and the usual outlets. (Hit me up for a pre-final electronic copy if curious) #jointspeech

Our article on Miryachit published today. A culturally determined startle syndrome with links to shamanism in the Saami nation. Like jumpers and latah it is getting less common with globalisation …mentdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/md…

Our event (2nd July) on poetry, voices, breath and neuroscience will include some amazing poets - @WillEaves @LukeKennard @CamilleRalphs_ - and also vocal performances from the incredibly talented @FFSYTHO and @Reeps1. Ticket link in next tweet.

In advance of our gala night of poetry and neuroscience at the @bloomstheatre (2nd July), where @FFSYTHO will perform while @fcummins looks at her breath control, I asked grok to draw a brain listening to rap music.

@sophiescott If you are around in London on July 2nd, I recommend this gig, where we will lark around about voices, brains, and embodiment. With @FFSYTHO on vocals.

Will and I are running an event about poetry, science, breath and music, with extra added BRAINS. More info and tickets here: ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-the…

Look at this lovely photo of @willeaves, poet and author. But I bet you’d also like to get a proper look at his BRAIN as well (surely this isn’t just me?). Well, the good news is that on the 2nd July, you will be able to get to grips with his neural activity!

@FFSYTHO @sophiescott @salonikrishnan I'm really looking forward to this too....

@sophiescott @salonikrishnan @fcummins Super excited for this ! Give you a call first thing Monday

@sophiescott Catch ya later.

Good morning!

I feel deeply honored to be the 2025 recipient of the KHMW Van der Aa oeuvre prize. Most of all, I feel this is a serious mark of academic recognition for the study of esotericism as a new field of research. uva.nl/shared-content…

We need a new path for modernity based on the idea of durée and a shared creativity of nature-culture, not a scientistic narrative of subjective minds grasping objects out-there. Kant to be dumped. This can lead to an orthodox Christian metaphysics via Bergson, Péguy and Latour.

If we were designed to think solo, monologue would be easier than dialogue. Dialogue involves INCREDIBLY complex acts of prediction, coordination, task-switching and mind-reading--yet we find it MUCH easier than monologue. Why? Maybe thinking is a bicycle built for 2.

This comedy night will star @lasana_harris @steven_bloch @Rameos2 and some exceptionally funny UCL students - having just seen their practice sets, this is going to be a fantastic evening of Brain Science Comedy, all hosted by the brilliant @abigoliah

Or as I would put it: the Biggest of all can also be found in the Smallest of all (and vice versa).

@sophiescott Ooh, great topic Sophie. Good to see it picked up!!!

Do you have a BRAIN? Have you ever listened to ASMR sounds (sounds that give you a pleasant sense of touch)? Then you’ll never guess what! Oh, you did guess correctly, yes, we would very much like to look at your brain. We are London based and we can pay you. More info in these images:

The metaphors of artificial intelligence | Science science.org/doi/full/10.11…

For all of the people outside of Aotearoa New Zealand sharing this video, here's some context for what the haka was about: In short, a party who received 8% of the vote want to rewrite our constitutional document to remove rights for indigenous Māori. x.com/StrayDogNZ/sta…

We are happy to recognize the archetypal reality of anything at all, except ourselves. The terrible secret which has been forgotten is that humanity, itself, is an archetype— and forget the danger of identifying with being a human being. - #PeterKingsley, ‘Catafalque’

“Very many mistakes have been made because the right method of examining the holy texts has not been discovered by the greater number of readers . . . it is their habit to follow the bare letter. Scripture interweaves the imaginary with the historical, sometimes introducing what is utterly impossible, sometimes what is possible but never occurred. . . . [The Word] has done the same with the Gospels and the writings of the Apostles; for not even they are purely historical, incidents which never occurred being interwoven in the “corporeal” sense. . . And who is so silly as to imagine that God, like a husbandman, planted a garden in Eden eastward, and put in it a tree of life, which could be seen and felt. . . . And if God is also said to walk in the garden in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that any one will doubt that these passages, by means of seeming history, though the incidents never occurred, figuratively reveal certain mysteries.” ORIGEN (c. 185 – c. 253) Early Christian scholar I wish present day dogmatic fundamentalists were as intelligent and nuanced in their understanding as Origen Art: Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), Adam and Eve, 1526, personal photo.

This talk will delve into the creation of the Buddhist hanging within the Qing imperial court. *This lecture will be delivered at the Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. FREE, no booking required for onsite attendance. Book for online viewing: shorturl.at/yD71e

IN YOUR FOREST OF DESIRE THE MIND GOES HUNTING By #Kabir Kabir, in your forest of desire the mind goes hunting. Garden of the body, deer of bliss: ready-aim—fire.