CONFERENCE > SPEAKERS SAND 2013
Oct. 23 - 27, 2013 SAN JOSE, CA
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Speakers Bios
Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.
Psychiatrist and one of the founders of Transpersonal PsychologyStan Grof, M.D., Ph.D. is a psychiatrist with more than fifty years experience researching the healing and transformative potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. His groundbreaking theories influenced the integration of Western science with his brilliant mapping of the transpersonal dimension. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of Transpersonal Psychology and received an Honorary Award for major contributions to and development of the field of Transpersonal Psychology from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology in 1993. Dr. Grof is also the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and its past and current president. He has organized large international conferences throughout the world and continues to lecture and teach professional training programs in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology. Currently, Dr. Grof is Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, and teaches at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA www.stanislavgrof.com/
Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas), ph.d.
Founder of the Diamond Approach®Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas), was born in the Middle East, but at age 18 he moved to the USA to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics, where he was studying Einsteirn's theory of general relativity and nuclear physics, when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him more and more into inquiring into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature. Hameed is the founder of the Diamond Approach® - a spiritual teaching that utilizes a unique kind of inquiry into realization, where the practice is the expression of realization. Freedom is living our realization, a dynamic enlightenment where our transcendent nondual truth lives personally in the world. This inquiry opens up the infinite creativity of our Being, transforming our lives into a runaway realization, moving from realization to further realization. Almaas' books include: The Inner Journey Home, Essence , The Pearl Beyond Price , Luminous Night’s Journey , and The Unfolding Now.
Deepak Chopra, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Founder of the Chopra Center for WellbeingDeepak Chopra, M.D is the author of more than 70 books, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His medical training is in internal medicine and endocrinology, and he is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and an adjunct professor of Executive Programs at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University Columbia Business School, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Columbia University, and a Senior Scientist at the Gallup organization. For more than a decade, he has participated as a lecturer at the Update in Internal Medicine, an annual event sponsored by Harvard Medical School’s Department of Continuing Education and the Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. www.choprafoundation.org
Cassandra Vieten
President of the Institute of Noetic SciencesCassandra Vieten, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Scientist at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, and Faculty Member/Psychologist at California Pacific Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry. She received her PhD in clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She completed her pre- and post-doctoral research training at UCSF, working primarily on the biological and psychological underpinnings of addiction and alcoholism. Cassi is co-author of Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life and author of Mindful Motherhood: Practical Tools for Staying Sane During Pregnancy and Your Child's First Year. http://noetic.org/
Menas Kafatos
Professor of Computational Physics and Director of Excellence at Chapman University
Dr. Menas Kafatos is The Fletcher Jones Endowed Professor of Computational Physics and Director of Excellence at Chapman University. He received his B.A. in Physics from Cornell University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. After postdoctoral work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, he joined George Mason University and was University Professor of Interdisciplinary Sciences there from 1984-2008. He has authored and co-authored numerous books including The Conscious Universe, The Non-local Universe and Principles of Integrative Science. He is a recipient of the Rustum Roy Award from the Chopra Foundation, which “honors individuals whose devotion and commitment to their passion for finding answers in their field is matched only by their commitment to humanity” and the IEEE Orange County Chapter - Outstanding Leadership and Professional Service Award. He has been interviewed numerous times by national and international TV networks, newspapers and radio programs.
http://chapman.edu/CS/pcse/faculty/kafatos.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menas_Kafatos
Susana Martinez Conde, Ph.D.
Director of the Martinez-Conde Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience at the Barrow Neurological InstituteDr. Susana Martinez-Conde is the Director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. She has published articles in Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and writes the "Illusions" column for Scientific American: MIND. She is a member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood and the Magic Circle in London, author of the international bestselling book Sleights of Mind, and producer of the annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest (http://illusionoftheyear.com). Dr. Martinez-Conde is among the premier science communicators in the United States.
Dave Pruett
By profession, Dave Pruett is a former NASA researcher, an award-winning computational scientist, and a lauded emeritus professor of mathematics at James Madison University (JMU). By nature, he is a contemplative, a student of mysticism, and an admirer of Native American spirituality, particularly in regards to reverence for the Earth. His professional and personal attributes merged in late career in two meaningful endeavors: the development of “From Black Elk to Black Holes: Shaping a Myth for a New Millennium,” an acclaimed honors course at JMU that received a 2002 Templeton Foundation Science-Religion Course Award; and the recent publication of Reason and Wonder: A Copernican Revolution in Science and Spirit (Praeger, 2012). Twelve years in gestation, Reason and Wonder--“a love letter to the cosmos” that synthesizes modern scientific insights with ancient wisdom--recently garnered an American Library Association’s CHOICE Award. Dave lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with his wife Suzanne Fiederlein and daughter Elena.
Dean Radin, PhD
Senior Scientist at the IONS Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Psychology at Sonoma State University. His original career track as a concert violinist shifted into science after earning a BSEE degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude with honors in physics, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and then an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For a decade he worked on advanced telecommunications R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories and GTE Laboratories. For over two decades he has been engaged in consciousness research. Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, University of Nevada, and several Silicon Valley think-tanks, including Interval Research Corporation and SRI International, where he worked on a classified program investigating psychic phenomena for the US government.
He is author or coauthor of over 200 technical and popular articles, a dozen book chapters, and several books including the bestselling The Conscious Universe (HarperOne, 1997) and Entangled Minds (Simon & Schuster, 2006). Both of these books are in print, and so far they've been translated into six foreign languages. A new book will be published in 2013.
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is one of only a few masters of the Bön Dzogchen tradition presently living in the West. An accomplished scholar in the Bön Buddhist textual traditions of philosophy, exegesis, and debate, Tenzin Rinpoche completed a rigorous11-year course of traditional studies at the Bönpo Monastic Center (Menri Monastery) in India, where he received his Geshe, degree. In 1992 Tenzin Rinpoche founded Ligmincha Institute in order to preserve and introduce to the West the religious teachings and arts of the ancient Tibetan Bön Buddhist tradition. Fluent in English, Rinpoche is known for his clear, lively, and insightful teaching style and his ability to make Tibetan practices easily accessible to the Western student. He is a highly respected and beloved teacher to students throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe. In addition to Ligmincha Institute and its affiliates in the United States, Rinpoche has established centers in Central and South America, Europe and India. Rinpoche is the author of 9 books: Wonders of the Natural Mind, in which he presents the view and practice of the Bön Dzogchen teachings; and The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep; Healing with Form, Energy, and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen, Unbounded Wholeness, Tibetan Sound Healing, Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech and Mind, Awakening the Sacred Body, and Awakening the Luminous Mind. http://www.ligmincha.org/
Lothar Schäfer, Ph.D.
Professor of Physical Chemistry (emeritus) at the University of ArkansasLothar Schäfer is a Distinguished Professor of Physical Chemistry (emeritus) at the University of Arkansas. His research in the areas of Physical Chemistry, Electron Diffraction, Applied Quantum Chemistry, and Computational Chemistry led his team to develop the first real-time gas electron diffraction instrument in which diffraction data are recorded on-line, enabling the first pulsed-beam, Time-Resolved Electron Diffraction studies of laser-excited molecules. Additionally, they performed the first quantum chemical geometry determinations of peptide molecules, predicting structural trends in proteins a decade before they were experimentally observed. He is the author of the book, "In Search of Divine Reality - Science as a Source of Inspiration which has been translated in Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Since 1998, Dr. Schaffer has given more than 160 public lectures in the US and abroad. He has been a guest on CUNY-TV and Chopra radio.
Francis Lucille
Advaita TeacherFrancis Lucille is a spiritual teacher of the tradition of Advaita Vedanta (non-duality). He became a disciple of Jean Klein, a French Advaita teacher whom he met in 1975. This was the beginning of a close association that lasted until the death of his friend and spiritual master in 1998. Jean Klein's own guru, "Panditji" Rao, whom he met in India in the nineteen-fifties, was a college professor in Bengalore who taught Sanskrit and belonged to a lineage of traditional Advaita Vedanta teachers. www.francislucille.com
James Austin, PhD
Professor of Neurology, Author
James Austin is Emeritus Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. His formal Zen training began in 1974 in Kyoto with Nanrei Kobori-Roshi, an English-speaking Rinzai master. Since then, his quest as a Zen practitioner has been to clarify how brain research can help us understand the meditative transformations of consciousness. His earlier MIT Press publications include: Zen and the Brain (1998), Zen-Brain Reflections (2006), and Selfless Insight (2009). In the latest book Meditating Selflessly (2011), he presents a simplified approach to everyday meditative practices summarized in terms of many do’s and don’ts. http://zenandthebrain.weebly.com/index.html
David Loy
Zen teacherDavid Loy, PhD, was the Besl Family Chair Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati from 2006 to 2010. His books include "Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy" (Yale University Press, 1988). He is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, where he completed formal koan training under Zen Master Yamada Koun Roshi. For more information: www.davidloy.org
Evan Thompson
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto Evan Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, and Co-Chair of the Mind and Life Institute's Program and Research Council (www.mindandlife.org
Peter Russell
M.A., D.C.S., F.S.P.Peter Russell is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, of The World Business Academy and of The Findhorn Foundation, and an Honorary Member of The Club of Budapest. At Cambridge University (UK), he studied mathematics and theoretical physics. Then, as he became increasingly fascinated by the mysteries of the human mind he changed to experimental psychology. Pursuing this interest, he traveled to India to study meditation and eastern philosophy, and on his return took up the first research post ever offered in Britain on the psychology of meditation. He has written several books in this area -- The TM Technique, The Upanishads, The Brain Book, The Global Brain Awakens, The Creative Manager, The Consciousness Revolution, Waking Up in Time, and From Science to God. http://www.peterrussell.com
RUPERT SPIRA
Artist and Non-duality TeacherFrom an early age Rupert was deeply interested in the nature of Reality. For twenty years he studied the teachings of Ouspensky, Krishnamurti, Rumi, Shankaracharya, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta and Robert Adams, until he met his teacher, Francis Lucille, twelve years ago. Francis introduced Rupert to the teaching of Jean Klein, Parmenides, Wei Wu Wei and Atmananda Krishnamenon and, more importantly, directly indicated to him the true nature of experience.
Rupert’s first book is "The Transparency of Things," subtitled "Contemplating the Nature of Experience,". His second book, "Presence Volume I The Art of Peace and Happiness and Presence Volume II The Intimacy of All Experience" has been currently released by Non-Duality Press. www.rupertspira.com
Christopher A. Fields, Ph.D.
independent scientistDr. Chris Fields is an independent scientist interested in both the physics and the cognitive
neuroscience underlying the human perception of objects as spatially and temporally bounded entities.
His particular interests include quantum information theory and quantum computing on the one hand,
and creative problem solving, early childhood development and autism-spectrum conditions on the
other. His recent papers have appeared in the International Journal of Theoretical Physics,
Information, International Journal of General Systems, Advances in Cognitive Psychology, Frontiers in
Perception Science and Medical Hypotheses among others. He is currently editing a Research Topic
titled “How humans recognize objects: Segmentation, categorization and individual identification” for
Frontiers in Perception Science.
Dr. Fields began his career as an experimental physicist, obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science
(University of Colorado, Boulder, 1985), and was an early developer of automated DNA sequence
analysis tools and systems for the Human Genome Project. He has published over 130 refereed papers
in nuclear physics, artificial intelligence, molecular biology and cognitive psychology. He holds U.S
Patent # 5355435 (1994) for an integrated circuit chip that simulates a mammalian cortical neuron. Dr.
Fields was the founding Scientific Director of the National Center for Genome Resources (Santa Fe,
NM) and the founding Chief Scientific Officer of Molecular Informatics Inc. http://chrisfieldsresearch.com.
Mark Matousek
AuthorMark Matousek is the author of two award-winning memoirs, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (an international bestseller) and The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search For His Lost Father (Los Angeles Times Discovery Book), as well as When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living. A featured blogger for Psychology Today (where his Ethical Wisdom column appears weekly), and the Huffington Post, he has contributed to numerous publications including The New Yorker, O: The Oprah Magazine (where he was contributing editor), The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Yoga Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Details, AARP, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review (contributing editor), and many others. A popular lecturer and writing teacher, he is the Creative Director of V-Men (with Eve Ensler), an organization devoted to ending violence against women and girls, and has just published a new book, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life.
Fariba Bogzaran, Ph.D.
Visionary, Professor, and Artist Fariba Bogzaran, visionary, professor and artist is the founder of the dream studies program at JFK University and co-founder of the Lucid Art Foundation. She is one of the pioneers in the field of dream studies and has received recognition of outstanding contribution to the International Association for the Study of Dreams. In the 1980's, she researched the science of lucid dreaming with Lucidity Project team at Stanford Sleep Laboratory and has written and taught the spiritual aspect of lucid dreaming, awareness methods and creativity for over twenty years. Her work with arts and consciousness connected her to the lineage of Surrealism and Dynaton group and as an artist she combines art and science to explore the mind through lucid dreaming and as a scholar she has curated numerous exhibitions since 1985. She is the author of many articles on arts, consciousness and dreams and co-author of three books: Extraordinary Dreams (SUNY, 2002); Five Keys to the Secret World of Remedios Varo (2008) and forthcoming book Integral Dreaming (SUNY). Lucid Art Foundation.
In the 1980's, she researched the science of lucid dreaming with Lucidity Project team at Stanford Sleep Laboratory and has written and taught the spiritual aspect of lucid dreaming, awareness methods and creativity for overtwenty years. Dr. Bogzaran has received recognition of outstanding contribution to the International Association for the Study of Dreams and Professor of the Year from Graduate School for Holistic Studies, John F. Kennedy University. www.bogzaran.com
Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (b. 1940) is an internationally acclaimed theologian who was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He holds a doctorate, summa cum laude, in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris.
Seeking to establish a new pedagogy for learning spirituality that was grounded in an effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical traditions in such figures as Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas, as well as interacting with contemporary scientists who are also mystics, Fox founded the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality.
He is author of 28 books which have sold more than 1.5 million copies in 42 languages. His bestselling works in the U.S. include: Original Blessing (350,000 copies sold); A Spirituality Named Compassion (150,000 sold); The Coming of the Cosmic Christ 100,000+ sold) and Prayer: A Radical Response to Life (formerly, “On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear—160,000 copies sold). His books have received numerous awards and he is recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award of which other recipients have included the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks and Maya Angelou. He is also a recipient of the Ghandi-King-Ikeda Award from Morehouse College International Chapel that is awarded for dedication to peace, unity, non-violence and justice. He has led a renewal of liturgical forms with “The Cosmic Mass” that mixes dance, techno and live music, dj, vj, rap and contemporary art forms with the western liturgical tradition. Many people have been trained in celebrating these post-modern forms of worship. Canadian television filmed the Mass and ran it on prime time and 800,000 persons saw the presentation. Brazilian television also ran a segment on the Mass. http://www.matthewfox.org/
Unmani
Teacher and Author Unmani points very directly to who you really are beyond all the words and concepts. If there is a readiness to hear this, then there is a possibility to investigate the reality of everything that you have ever believed in. Realizing more and more that your whole life is based on an assumption of who you think you are, there is a total freefall into not knowing. Unmani travels around the world offering spontaneous and uncompromising nondual Meetings and Retreats in 'Not-Knowing'. These Retreats have an intensely intimate flavor as Unmani invites you to wake up to the way it actually is beyond all your hopes and fears. In having a dialogue with Unmani there is no escape from the unknowable reality of life.Unmani is the author of two books ‘I am Life itself’ and ‘Die to Love’ and is now writing a third book. www.die-to-love.com
Rudolph E. Tanzi
Professor of Neurology, Harvard UniversityJoseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy, Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Director, and author – “Decoding Darkness: The Search for the Genetic Causes of Alzheimer’s Disease”. My research is primarily aimed at identifying and characterizing Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-associated gene mutations/variants with the ultimate goal of defining the molecular, cellular, and biochemical events leading to neuronal cell death in the brains of AD patients. A significant portion of AD is caused by the inheritance of defective genes, while specific gene variants can increase lifetime risk for the disease. To date, four different genes have been implicated to play a role in familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD). My lab has been involved with the discovery of three of these genes, including (the amyloid ??protein precursor [APP], presenilin 1 [PSEN1], and presenilin 2 [PSEN2]) that harbor defects causing “early-onset” forms of the disease with virtually 100% certainty usually under 60 years old. Our studies are targeted toward determining the pathogenic mechanisms by which defects or variants carried by these genes contribute to the neurodegenerative process in the brains of patients with AD. For this purpose, we are employing cell-based and animal models including Drosophila. An in-depth understanding of the normal function of the AD genes and how mutations and variants of these genes can lead to ?-amyloid deposition, neuronal cell death, and dementia will be invaluable for the development of novel treatments for AD. Along these lines, our current focus is to translate knowledge gained regarding genetic mechanisms of neuropathogenesis of AD into drug discovery. We are also searching for genes that cause autism and related disorders.
Bruce Hood
I am currently Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at the University of Bristol, UK. I have been a research fellow at Cambridge University, a visiting scientist at MIT and a faculty professor at Harvard. I am the author of “SuperSense: Why we believe in the unbelievable” and “The Self Illusion: How the social brain creates identity.” In 2011, I delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures broadcast on the BBC.
Jaime A. Pineda, Ph.D.
Professor of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience, UCSDDr. Pineda is Professor of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, having served on a number of NIH committees and as reviewer for several scholarly journals. He is the author of over 100 articles, books, and reviews on the interdependency between brain and mind. In his research, Dr. Pineda uses multimodal brain imaging techniques, as well as behavioral, psychological and pharmacological methods to understand normal and abnormal cognition. As principal investigator on a project studying Autism Spectrum Disorder, he is interested in developing strategies to reduce cognitive, behavioral, and neurofunctional deficits through self-directed neural plasticity. He has published many widely cited papers in animal and human cognitive and systems neuroscience.
Jac O' Keeffe
Jac O’Keeffe was raised in rural Ireland. In 1997 her life changed dramatically when she experienced a spontaneous inner awakening. Her quest ultimately led to That, which is beyond the mind and transcends dualistic thought. Jac’s satsang style is to respond to each person individually since there is a unique life to be lived while one’s true identity unfolds. She places things in context while point ing to the unlimited movement of consciousness—and beyond; prior to consciousness itself. She has the unique ability to pinpoint where people are stuck due to identified thought. Jac now spends her time between Ireland and North America, facilitating spiritual meetings and dialogues.http://www.jackieokeeffe.com
Ellen Emmet
Movement Therapist Ellen is a psychotherapist and dance movement therapist in the tradition of non-duality. She received her MA in Transpersonal psychology at JFK University in California and has studied the yoga of non-duality for many years with her teacher Francis Lucille. www.ellenemmet.com
Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson describes himself as a spiritual "uncomplicator". Others describe him as a teacher, author, columnist, musician - with a focus on meditation and peacefulness. Until recently he wrote a syndicated newspaper column on meditation that reached a weekly audience of several million. He now does this online. He's the businessman-author who wrote all those books with 'Calm' in the title (over a dozen, in 24 languages, more than 10 million in sales), and started the 'little book' phenomenon that swept the world with the Little Book of Calm. He is equally well known as a teacher of meditation. In the Eighties and Nineties he introduced millions of readers to its wonders. He thrives in a number of worlds where peace of mind is longed for but seldom achieved - among other things he's a businessman, has served on many company boards, is corporate adviser and director of a medical research foundation. http://www.calmcentre.com/
Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His books (The Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics) as well as his other essays and blog posts on web magazines have generated a vast online following; he speaks frequently at conferences and other events, and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts. Writing in Ode magazine’s “25 Intelligent Optimists” issue, David Korten (author of When Corporations Rule the World) called Eisenstein “one of the up-and-coming great minds of our time.” Eisenstein graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, and spent the next ten years as a Chinese-English translator. He currently lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with his wife and three sons. http://charleseisenstein.net/
Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D.
Founder of The Lucidity InstituteStephen LaBerge is the first scientist to empirically prove the existence of the phenomena of lucid dreaming. His work has developed this technique into a powerful tool for studying mind-body relationships in the dream state and he has demonstrated the considerable potential for lucid dreaming in the fields of psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine. His book on the subject, Lucid Dreaming, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming and his more academic Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain have received enormous popular interest. He is the founder of The Lucidity Institute, an organization that promotes research into lucid dreaming, as well as running courses for the general public on how to achieve a lucid dream.
Catherine Pépin, Ph.D.
Theoretical Physicist, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Saclay, FranceCatherine is a French theoretical physicist working in the field of Quantum Emergent phenomena. Quantum Field theory, complexity and emergence are the key words of this research where quantum physics, originally designed to describe the realm of the microcosm, is found to emerge at the macroscopic scale in the form of very mysterious and spectacular phenomena. Catherine obtained her PhD from the University of Grenoble and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France), in 1996. From 1996 to 1998 she was a post doctorate research fellow at MIT (USA), followed by two years at Brasenose College, Oxford University (UK). Since 2001, she is permanent research scientist at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Saclay, France. Author of more than 50 scientific publications in Quantum Field Theory and Condensed Matter Physics, she is a Leader Research Scientist of her institution since 2007. In 2005, she received a strong spiritual call which told with no doubt that in addition to the wonders of Scientific endeavour, there is an unmistakable Otherness, a presence impalpable to the mind. Her spiritual quest thus started in June 2006 with the meeting of late Stephen Jourdain'. During the year 2007, she went through a Shamanic initiation involving Iboga and Ayahuasca, the African and South Amazon sacred plants known to open doors of the Spirit. She spent a few years with Andrew Cohen, studying until recently the teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment. She believes the spiritual call received in 2005, while she was still a fundamentally materialistic scientist, was not an accident . It was an experience of a universal longing in the human Soul for a deep and uncompromising re-union of Science and Spirit.
Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D.
President Emeritus IONSMarilyn Schlitz, Ph.D. is a social anthropologist, researcher, writer, and charismatic public speaker. She is currently the President Emeritus and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where she has also served as President and CEO. Additionally, she is a Senior Scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center, where she focuses on health and healing. For more than three decades, Marilyn has been a leader in the field of consciousness studies. Her research and extensive publications focus on personal and social transformation, cultural pluralism, and mind body medicine. She has a depth of leadership experience in government, business, and the not-for-profit sectors. Her broad and varied work has given her a unique ability to help individuals and organizations identify and develop personal and interpersonal skills and capacities needed by 21st century leaders. She is currently producing a feature film with Deepak Chopra.
Isaac Shapiro
Isaac Shapiro is an internationally known facilitator, fascinated with life lived in alignment with the world's wisdom traditions. He enjoys exploring with and assisting those who share this interest. At nineteen, he had a recognition of unconditional love and peace and became passionately interested in living like that. This interest was the springboard into looking fresh at many of the aspects of life that we take for granted including our thinking, emotions and beliefs, how the body, mind and nervous system function, and the subtleties of the building blocks that show up as a sense of “I”. He explored, communal living, growing food organically, mind clearing using biofeedback, Feldenkrais bodywork, group energy dynamics and awareness and attention work. In 1991, he met the Master of Advaita, HWL Poonja (Papaji). Since being asked by Papaji to be available for those that have this interest in Truth/love, he has been holding meetings worldwide. Over the years, Isaac saw the extent that trauma pervades human functioning, making the felt sense of the Truth of who we are difficult to live. He now includes a somatic approach, to facilitate that this love affair becomes available to all. www.isaacshapiro.org
Pamela Wilson
Pamela speaks the Truth of advaita, non-duality - that the universe is one undivided whole. For the last twelve years she has traveled widely in the United States, Canada and Europe, holding satsang and giving private sessions. Week-long retreats have been held in Mexico, Costa Rica, France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the USA. She has endeared herself to many through her lighthearted humor and compassion, and deep understanding of what it is to be human. She lives in Napa, California. www.pamelasatsang.com
David Ellzey
Global EntertainerAfter receiving standing ovations at the last few conferences, David is glad to be a part of this important event once more. Often called, “an alchemist of space”, David is a performer, humorist, and #1 best-selling author, who has inspired a quarter of a million people worldwide to laugh and uncover a boundless sense of being. At an early age, he studied how to create universes in space and silence through the ancient art form of pantomime under the teaching of a Kabbalah master. David is known for his side-splittingly funny physical performance skills, humorously enlightened characters, and astute commentary on this human journey of awakening. His new book, The Ocean of Now, focuses on the joy and potential awakening found only in the present moment, even as your eyes rest upon these words. http://www.davidellzey.com/
Shauna Shapiro, ph.d.
Shauna L. Shapiro, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University, and previously served as adjunct faculty in Andrew Weil’s Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Shapiro’s research investigates the clinical applications of mindfulness meditation in psychotherapy and health care. She has published over 50 book chapters and journal articles, and is co-author of the forthcoming book, The Art and Science of Mindfulness. Dr. Shapiro is the recipient of the American Council of Learned Societies teaching award, acknowledging her outstanding contributions to graduate education in the area of mindfulness and psychotherapy.
Kazuaki Tanahashi
Kazuaki Tanahashi, born in Japan and active in the United States since 1977, is an artist, writer, and worker for peace and the environment. Kaz’s one-stroke paintings, multi-color Zen circles, and calligraphy have been in solo exhibitions throughout the world. His publications include Brush Mind, Penetrating Laughter: Hakuin’s Zen and Art, Lotus, and Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Also, The Heart Sutra: Exploring Wisdom Beyond Wisdom is forthcoming from Shambhala Publications. He is the founding director of A World Without Armies and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. For more information: www.brushmind.net.
Robert Burton
Neurologist, NovelistRobert Burton, MD is a neurologist, novelist, and most recently, the author of A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves. A graduate of Yale University and University of California at San Francisco medical school, he was formerly Chief of the Division of Neurology at Mt. Zion-UCSF Hospital and Associate Chief of the Department of Neurosciences. Burton’s work has appeared in Salon and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others, and he frequently is invited to speak about the brain, the mind, neuroscience, and philosophy of science. Previous books include On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not, and three novels addressing the question of personal identity (including when cloned). Website:. http://www.rburton.com/.
David Shannahoff-Khalsa
Director of The Research Group for Mind-Body Dynamics at UCSDDavid Shannahoff-Khalsa is the Director of The Research Group for Mind-Body Dynamics at UCSD’s BioCircuits Institute, and a member of the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine. He has discovered a novel step in the evolution of the nervous system that gives new insights to mind-body states and their control. He has published widely in scientific journals and conducted clinical trials using Kundalini Yoga meditation techniques for treating OCD, and pioneered the use of magnetoencephalography to study these techniques. He has taught Kundalini Yoga meditation at the American Psychiatric Association since 2003 for a wide range of psychiatric disorders, and written four books that include 100+ meditation techniques and disorder-specific protocols for all of the major psychiatric disorders.
James Fadiman, Ph.D.
Author/ReseacherJames Fadiman, Ph.D. author/editor of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic Journeys (Park Street Press, 2011), has been guiding and researching entheogenic journeys for decades. He cofounded The Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, does management consulting, has taught at Stanford, Brandeis and San Francisco State and has written textbooks, a psychedelic novel (The Other Side of Haight), a self-help book and a play. Currently he is researching ways to use extremely low doses of psychedelics and amassing profiles of present day psychedelic drug users.
Diana Reed Slattery, Ph.D.
Novelist, scholar, and video performance artistDiana Reed Slattery is an novelist, scholar, and video performance artist. Slattery’s science fiction novel, The Maze Game, tells the story of a game played on mazes made of the psychedelic language, Glide. She received her Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Plymouth, UK, for research in psychedelics, language, and the phenomenology of altered states of consciousness. States of extended perception were used in the conception, design, and implementation of her LiveGlide video performance software. Psychedelics provided the means to emerge from the cocoon of natural language into what could be understood as both a pre-linguistic state of direct apperception of the world around and inside us, and as a post-linguistic realm of evolutionary forms of language.
