Father Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. A Franciscan priest and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM, his work is grounded in practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized. …
Larry Payne, PhD, is an internationally respected yoga teacher and author. A founding father of Yoga Therapy in the U.S., he is coauthor of Yoga Rx and the bestselling Yoga for Dummies. He is based in Los Angeles, where he founded the Samata Yoga Center, Prime of Life Yoga® and the Yoga Therapy Rx program …
Mariana Caplan is a psychotherapist, a yoga teacher, and the author of numerous magazine articles and six books in the fields of psychology and spirituality, including Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, Halfway Up the Mountain: the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment and The Guru Question: The Perils and Rewards of …
Steve Bhaerman is an internationally known author, humorist, and workshop leader. For nearly 30 years, he has written and performed as Swami Beyondananda, the “Cosmic Comic.” Swami’s comedy has been described both as “comedy disguised as wisdom” and “wisdom disguised as comedy.” Marianne Williamson has called him “The Mark Twain of our generation.” Since 2005, …
Dr. Igor Iwanek is a composer and performer whose music has earned awards at festivals in Europe, Japan and the USA. His compositions are rooted in the tradition of Bach and Scriabin, and draw inspiration from a range of influences, from Hindustani Ragas to Afro-Cuban dance music. As an active multidisciplinary educator, Igor teaches the importance of …
Naveed Hameed is a documentary filmmaker, an interfaith activist and a facilitator in the media and development sectors. Growing up in an impoverished Christian family in predominately Muslim Pakistan, he became a peace activist as a student and now uses media as a tool of expression and a bridge builder. His documentaries have won awards …
NaRon D. Tillman is Pastor and Musical Director of St. Phillips Christian Church (DOC) in Brooklyn, New York. He is a faith, leadership and wellness coach, and a serial entrepreneur since age 19. His community work takes him from boardrooms and investor meetings to at-risk schools, shelters, senior centers and more. A graduate of Drake …
Sandra McLanahan, MD, is a holistic physician with a private practice in rural Buckingham, Virginia. She was Director of Stress Management for the pioneering research team led by Dr. Dean Ornish, which proved that heart disease can be reversed by natural methods including a very low-fat diet, yoga, meditation/relaxation and social support. A graduate of …
Zach Leary is the host of the “It’s All Happening” podcast. He calls himself “a blogger/writer, a futurist, spiritualist, digital branding specialist and self-proclaimed social theorist.” He is a practitioner of bhakti yoga as taught through many of the Vedantic systems of Northern India, which “unlock doorways that allow the soul to experience its true …
Joan Shivarpita Harrigan, Ph.D. is the director of Patanjali Kundalini Yoga Care—USA, and the author of Kundalini Vidya: The Science of Spiritual Transformation and the forthcoming Stories of Spiritual Transformation: The Fulfillment of Kundalini Process. She has practiced, studied, and taught Raja Yoga and Advaita Vedanta for over thirty years. Upon being initiated as a …
Dr. Robert Rosenthal is the Co-President of the Foundation for Inner Peace, which publishes A Course in Miracles. Previously, he served on the Foundation’s Board of Directors for almost 25 years. He has studied and taught the Course’s metaphysics for over 40 years and was a practicing, board-certified psychiatrist and psychotherapist until retiring to assume …
Robert Keith Wallace, Ph.D. conducted pioneering research on the Transcendental Meditation technique. His seminal papers published in Science, the American Journal of Physiology, and Scientific American supported a new paradigm of mind-body medicine and brain development. The founding President of Maharishi University of Management and of the Maharishi Ayurveda Corporation of America, he is currently …
Veena R. Howard, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at California State University, Fresno. She teaches and researches Asian religious traditions, Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy, animal ethics, interfaith interactions among Hindus and Muslims, and gender issues in Indian philosophy. The author of Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism: Renunciation and Social Change, she has also …
Rabbi Sharon Brous is the founder and Senior Rabbi at IKAR, which she calls “a laboratory for bold, imaginative Jewish practice.” Based in Los Angeles, it became one of the fastest growing Jewish communities in the country, and Rabbi Brous has been credited with “reanimating Jewish community and re-energizing prayer at a time of growing …
Vikram Zutshi is a writer-producer-director based in Los Angeles. After several years in indie film and network TV production, then an executive at 20th Century Fox and Rogue Entertainment, he went solo, producing and directing feature films and documentaries. A passionate yogi, he is the founding editor of Sutra Journal and writes frequently on Buddhism, …
Stephen Dinan is the founder and CEO of The Shift Network and a member of the Transformational Leadership Council and Evolutionary Leaders. He helped create and direct the Esalen Institute’s Center for Theory & Research and served as director of membership and marketing at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. A social entrepreneur and leading voice …
Elias Amidon is the spiritual director (Pir) of the Sufi Way. He has been an initiate of the Sufi Way for 44 years and was appointed as the Pir of the order in 2004. His root teacher was Pir Fazal Inayat-Khan, and he has also studied with Qadiri Sufis in Morocco, Theravaden Buddhist teachers in …
Marc Barasch is the author of the bestseller The Compassionate Life, which helped inspire the Compassionate Cities movement and the film “I Am.” Marc later founded the Green World Campaign on an ethos of “green compassion,” which integrates ecological health, social wellbeing, and universal spiritual values. The GWC has planted millions of trees and practiced …
Ed Sarath is Professor of music in the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. He is also director of the U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies and designed the BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies. His book, Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness: Jazz as Integral Template for Music, Education, and …
Amanda J. Lucia is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside, where she is a Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Immigration and Religion. Her research focuses on religious encounters between North Americans and South Asians since the early-19th century. Her first book, Reflections of Amma: Devotees in …
Amanda J. Lucia is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside, where she is a Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Immigration and Religion. Her research focuses on religious encounters between North Americans and South Asians since the early-19th century. Her first book, Reflections of Amma: Devotees in …
Dean Sluyter has taught natural meditation throughout the U.S. and beyond for over 40 years, from the Guatemalan rainforest to New Jersey prisons. He is the author of four books, including Cinema Nirvana and his most recent, Natural Meditation: A Guide to Effortless Meditative Practice, which won the 2015 Nautilus Gold Prize for best book …
Edward F. Kelly is a Research Professor in the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in psycholinguistics/cognitive science from Harvard in 1971 and spent the next 15-plus years working mainly in experimental parapsychology. Later, at the University of North Carolina, he studied human cortical adaptation to tactile …
Emma Seppala, Ph.D., is Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. The author of The Happiness Track, she is a health psychologist and leading expert on happiness, compassion, resilience and mind-body practices for trauma and well-being. She contributes to Psychology Today, Harvard Business Review, and MindBodyGreen. She is also …
Claire Hoffman writes for national magazines and holds a master’s degree in religion from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She was a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. The author of Greetings from Utopia Park Surviving a Transcendent Childhood, she serves on the …
MC Yogi has become known as a modern day ambassador of yoga to the West and a leading voice in the emerging genre of conscious music. From headlining international music festivals and teaching some of the largest yoga classes in North America, he blends his knowledge of yoga with hip hop, reggae and electronic music. …
Andrew Harvey is an internationally known translator, scholar of mysticism, and spiritual teacher. He has written and edited more than 30 books, including best-sellers such as The Hope, and The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. He has won the Christmas Humphries Prize (for A Journey in Ladakh) and the Nautilus Prize twice. Andrew has …
Arun Deva is an Ayurvedic practitioner, an Ayur*yoga Therapist and a Vinyasa Krama certified yoga teacher. Arun teaches internationally, lectures at conferences, writes articles for various publications and offers consultations and treatments, including panchakarma and yoga therapy, at his Los Angeles clinic, Arunachala Yoga & Ayurveda. He teaches the Ayurveda and Yoga modules for Teacher …
Deepak Chopra, M.D is the author of more than 80 books translated in over 43 languages, including 22 New York Times bestsellers. His latest book, coauthored with Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi, is Super Genes. Trained in internal medicine and endocrinology, he is the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing outside San Diego, an adjunct …
Francis Bennett is a former Trappist monk and hospice chaplain. His beliefs evolved to a more inclusive mystical, non-dogmatic approach when, in 2010, while in the middle of mass, he experienced “a radical perceptual shift in consciousness,” illuminating the awareness that the presence of God is at the heart of everything. His vision is informed …
Marianne Williamson is an internationally renowned spiritual teacher, an electrifying speaker and a prolific author whose books include six N.Y. Times bestsellers-four of which, notably A Return to Love, reached the #1 spot. Her other books include The Law of Divine Compensation, Everyday Grace, Healing the Soul of America, and A Year of Miracles. An …
Dr. John Andrews is a physician, trained in the US and UK, who specialized in internal medicine before meeting the spiritual teacher Osho and exploring meditation as a basis for holistic approaches to well-being. He was Osho’s personal physician, taking care of his body for many years including his final days. He currently gives courses on meditation at the …
Larry Dossey, M.D., is a former physician of internal medicine and former Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital. Dr. Dossey is the author of 12 books dealing with consciousness, spirituality, and healing, including the New York Times bestseller Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, and most recently One …