Profs and Pints - Richmond

Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “Existence Beyond the Body,” a discussion of studies of consciousness after death, with researchers from the Division of Perceptual Studies in the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/out-of-body/ .]

There aren’t any easy scientific explanations for “out-of-body” or “near-death” experiences or for memories of past lives. Yet such extraordinary experiences are taken seriously by UVA’s Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), which for nearly 60 years has rigorously examined scientific evidence related to the mind’s relationship to the body and the possibility of consciousness surviving physical death.

Learn about such research and what it has yielded so far at a talk given by three of the division’s researchers from the fields of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences: Assistant Professor David Acunzo, Research Assistant Professor Marieta Pehlivanova, and Research Associate Professor Philip Cozzolino.

In a talk tackling some of the biggest questions facing humankind, the researchers will discuss their scientific approach to making sense of extraordinary human experiences and their impact on individuals. They’ll also present evidence that they have derived from lab-based experiments and other studies.

The researchers will describe the seminal work that led to the creation of DOPS—studies of children who speak at length and in great detail about what appears to be a past life—and they’ll talk about how it continues to this day with the help of new neuroimaging techniques. You’ll learn how DOPS also leads in the study of out-of-body experiences, during which people have the unique sense of feeling disembodied or existing in space away from their physical body.

The researchers also will discuss their thorough investigations of near-death experiences—intensely vivid (and often life-transforming) experiences that occur when individuals are close to death or clinically dead and subsequently resuscitated. These often occur during cardiac arrest, which may lead to the ceasing of brain activity, or under deep general anesthesia—conditions in which no awareness or sensory experiences should be possible.

Some of the most profound experiences that people have are shrouded in mystery. This talk won’t provide all of the answers, but at least will bring you up to speed on some intriguing efforts to find them. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A 19th-century Luigi Schiavonetti illustration (with tint added) of Robert Blair's poem “The Grave.”

Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “Nosferatu Versus Dracula,” on the rivalry between two versions of a vampire and its lasting impact on how we think of their kind, with Stanley Joseph Stepanic, who teaches a course on Dracula and vampire folklore as an assistant professor of Slavic languages and literature at the University of Virginia.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/orlok/ .]

The Robert Eggers remake of Nosferatu that was released to acclaim this past Christmas Day represents just the latest effort to bring this vampire to life. It’s tempting to credit the acclaimed German silent film director F.W. Murnau as the first to do so, but doing so obscures how much Murnau owed to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, who continues on his own to pop up on the big screen every few years.

Come dig up the vampires beneath the vampires with the help of Dr. Stanley Stepanic, whose course on Dracula ranks as one of UVA’s most popular and who previously has given several excellent Profs and Pints talks.

He’ll discuss the folkloric origins of Stoker’s Count Dracula and how Nosferatu and its lead character Count Orlok fit into the picture. You’ll learn how these reimagined versions of long-feared undead beings helped cement the vampire’s status as one of the most enduring and prominent symbols of the human condition throughout the world.

Though considered a landmark of horror fiction today, Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was not initially a success. Stoker died in relative obscurity, remembered primarily for his contributions to theater operations and not his writing. What brought attention to the novel was a copyright lawsuit alleging that Murnau had essentially robbed Stoker’s grave by turning Dracula into his 1922 silent film Nosferatu.

The subsequent legal battle over the film and the media attention generated by it led Stoker's widow, Florence, to move forward with a dramatic production of Dracula which was first performed in England in 1924 and then on Broadway in the United States in 1927. These stage productions in turn led to the first proper film version of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi and released in 1931.

Through such developments, Count Dracula evolved from a relatively minor villain that introduced little that was new to vampire literature into a popular culture phenomenon who has appeared in the media in countless forms. He and his various offspring will loom larger in your imagination as a result of this talk. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: From a 1922 German promotional poster for Nosferatu. Artist: Albin Grau.