Speakers and Chairs

After decades as a physician and teacher at Harvard Medical School and elsewhere, renowned academic neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander thought he knew how the brain, mind, and consciousness worked. A transcendental Near-Death Experience (NDE) during a week-long coma from an inexplicable brain infection changed all of that – completely. Memories of his life had been completely deleted, yet he awoke with memories of a fantastic odyssey deep into another realm – more real than this earthly one! Since his 2008 NDE he has been reconciling his rich spiritual experience with contemporary physics and cosmology. We are conscious in spite of our brain. By probing deeply into our own consciousness, we transcend the limits of the human brain, and of the physical-material realm. His story offers a crucial key to the understanding of reality and human consciousness.

A pioneering scientist and thought leader in consciousness studies, Dr. Alexander has been a guest on Dr. Oz, Oprah, and many other media programs. His most recent book, Living in a Mindful Universe: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness, (co-authored with Karen Newell) has garnered accolades from many scientists around the world who study the mind-body question and the nature of consciousness. His earlier books, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife and The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife, have collectively spent more than two years atop the New York Times and international bestseller lists. www.ebenalexander.com

Bethany Butzer writes, teaches, and does research in the fields of positive psychology and transpersonal psychology, which emphasize the development of human strength and potential. Bethany received her PhD in psychology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. She has worked in the corporate world and in academia, and she also spent several years as an entrepreneur. From 2013 to 2015 she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School, where she studied the effects of yoga in school settings. Bethany lives in Prague, where she recently completed a position as a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New York in Prague. She is currently a Lecturer for the Alef Trust MSc programme in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology and she is also the Assistant Director of the Alef Trust PhD programme in Applied Transpersonal Psychology. Her research focuses on yoga and mindfulness for youth, as well as transpersonal topics such as synchronicity, parapsychology, and ecopsychology. She teaches undergraduate and Masters-level courses on topics such as research methods, positive psychology, consciousness, and career development. Learn more about Bethany at www.bethanybutzer.com.

Paul Filmore is chairman of the Scientific and Medical Network. He is also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the university of Plymouth, having lectured predominantly to postgraduates in personal and professional development, entrepreneurship, electronics and business management. Previously he had an extensive career as a research physicist at Surrey University.

His current research is in creativity and break-through problem solving both for the individual and organisations. He gives talks around the world and is a regular judge for international innovation competitions. He also runs an educational consultancy. He always looks for opportunities to incorporate the spiritual aspect in his research talks, workshops and teaching.

Jessica Corneille, MSc is a Research Psychologist specialising in spontaneous spiritual awakening experiences. She graduated with a Masters Degree in Psychology (Distinction) from the University of Greenwich, where she focused her studies on exceptional human experiences. With a passion to bridge the worlds of science and spirituality, her mission is to challenge the default pathologisation of awakening experiences by helping to inform and encourage mainstream psychology to look beyond the current designated spectrum of ‘normality’, to encompass the transpersonal as something that is intrinsic to the human experience. She is also dedicated to helping individuals come to the realisation of their highest human potential, and fulfils part of this mission both as a Kundalini Yoga teacher and contracted leadership and empowerment coach. Jessica has presented her work at a number of academic conferences, including with the British Psychological Society, and has published articles for the Psychedelic Society, Paradigm Explorer, and Towards a New Renaissance, as well as a chapter in a new book exploring Spiritual Awakenings among members of the Scientific community. She also works for the Scientific and Medical Network, is a member of the Galileo Commission steering committee, and a collaborator of the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium and Spiritual Crisis Network – and runs regular sharing circles/peer-support groups for individuals undergoing profound spiritual transformation in central London.

Peter has been part of the editorial board for a number of journals, including the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, the Journal of Consciousness Studies and the Journal of Epilepsy and Behaviour.

Siegmar Gerken, PhD, ECP, HP (Psy​cho​ther​apy) stud​ied psy​cho​logy, edu​ca​tion and an​thro​po​logy. He taught on the Fac​ulty of the JFK University So​mat​ic
Psy​chology De​part​ment, the Santa Bar​bara Gradu​ate In​stitute, the Esalen In​sti​tute, and the Be​ha​vi​or​al Ther​apy Train​ing In​sti​tute in Ham​burg. He teaches at uni​ver​sit​ies and private in​sti​tutes world​wide, on the in​ter​con​nec​ted​ness of
psycho​so​mat​ic pro​cesses as they mani​fest on the levels of body, emo​tions, mind, will and con​scious​ness. For almost 15 years, Dr Gerken also led Change Management workshops at the Norwegian Defense University College.

His re​search in en​ergy field doc​u​ment​a​tion with Prof. F. A. Popp on coherence and psy​cho-emo​tion​al states opened new ho​ri​zons to sci​ent​ists and prac​ti​tion​ers. He is co-founder of the Scientif​ic Com​mit​tee of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy. Dr. Gerken is a lec​turer, ther​api​st, train​er and su​per​visor and with his wife Cornelia the Co-founder of the International Training Institute of Core Evolution® and CoreSoma® and of the International Institute for Energy and Consciousness. In his Energy, Love and Consciousness Programs™ he connects with the Essence within to share empathy, compassion and the wisdom of the Body-Mind, to meet our individual and collective challenges in Ecology, Environment and the sustaining of our planet.

Website: www.CoreEvolution.com

One of today’s most literate voices of esoterica and mysticism, Mitch Horowitz is the author of books including Occult America, One Simple Idea, The Miracle Club, and the forthcoming Daydream Believer and Uncertain Places. The Washington Post says Mitch “treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.” Mitch’s 2022 film The Kybalion premiered as the #3 documentary on iTunes. His books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean. The Chinese government has censored his work.

Dr. Yvonne Kason MD, MEd, CCFP, FCFP, is the President and Co-Founder of Spiritual Awakenings International, and is the Co-Leader and Co-Founder of Toronto Awakenings Sharing Group. She has had five Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), two in her childhood and three in her adult life, as well as multiple Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs). She is the Past-President of IANDS, the International Association for Near-Death Studies (2019-2020). Dr. Kason is a retired family physician and transpersonal MD-psychotherapist, previously on faculty at the University of Toronto, and an internationally renowned medical expert on NDEs and other STEs.

In 1990, Dr. Kason was the first Canadian medical doctor to specialize her medical practice in the research and counselling of patients with diverse types of STEs. She has 40 years of experience counselling STE Experiencers. She co-founded the Kundalini Research Network in 1990, and later co-founded the Spirituality in Health-Care Network in 2000. Dr. Kason is the person who first coined the phrase “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” or “STEs” in 1994.

Dr. Kason has five published books, her most recent, Touched by the Light: Exploring Spiritually Transformative Experiences (2019). She has made hundreds of professional presentations and has given scores of media interviews, and is in demand as a keynote speaker. In 2020 she was interviewed on The Dr Oz Show, and on Coast to Coast. Dr. Yvonne Kason lives in Toronto, Canada, and enjoys “snowbirding” during the winter months, in Encinitas, CA.

www.spiritualawakeningsinternational.org
www.torontoawakenings.org

Prof Jeffrey Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought and the Associate Dean of the Humanities at Rice University. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he also chairs the Board of Trustees. Jeff is the author of eight monographs, including, most recently, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge (2019). He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of science and esoteric literature for the University of Chicago Press collectively entitled The Super Story. His full body of work can be seen at jeffreyjkripal.com. This year he co-ordinated a conference on Archives of the Impossible.

Prof Les Lancaster is a Founding Director and Dean of the Alef Trust. He is Professor Emeritus of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, an Honorary Research Fellow in Religions and Theology, University of Manchester, UK, and Associated Distinguished Professor of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, US. He has previously served as Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, as President of the International Transpersonal Association, and as a Board member of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. Les’ research interests focus on the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness and the connections between this topic and mysticism, specifically focusing on Kabbalistic Psychology. His published works include The essence of kabbalah and Approaches to consciousness: The marriage of science and mysticism.

David Lorimer is author and editor of over a dozen books, including ‘Survival: Death as Transition’, ‘Resonant Mind’, ‘Radical Prince: the Practical Vision of the Prince of Wales’, ‘Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality’ ‘A New Renaissance’ and ‘The Protein Crunch’ (with Jason Drew). He is a Fellow of the International Futures Forum, Founding chief executive of Character Scotland, and former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society. He was educated at Eton and the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge. After a spell in merchant banking, he spent a number of years teaching modern languages and philosophy at Winchester College.

Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “Parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited, American university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He currently hosts and produces the New Thinking Allowed channel on YouTube.

Judith Quin is a multi-award winning vocal confidence and communication specialist, international public speaker, author, and member of both the Association of Sound Healers and Association of Transformational Leaders of Europe. Judith works with Voice-Vibration Sounding as both a meditation tool and as a key to help recognise and release the trapped energies, emotions and experiences held in your body and brain that have been holding you back.
yourwholevoice.com

Steve Taylor PhD is the author of many best-selling books on psychology and spirituality, and is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. His new book is Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation, and his others books include The Clear Light, The Leap and Spiritual Science. His books have been published in 20 languages. He regularly appears in the media in the UK, including on Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day. He writes blog articles for Scientific American and for Psychology Today. www.stevenmtaylor.com

Natasha Tassell-Matamua, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Massey University and Director of the Centre for Indigenous Psychologies. She is of Indigenous Māori, Cook Islands and European descent. Her research focusses primarily on near-death and other exceptional experiences of consciousness and their implications for humanity, as well as the interface between such experiences, spirituality and Indigenous knowledges.

Lila Moore is a pioneering transdisciplinary artist and theorist with expertise in the fields of technoetics, cybernetics, screen-dance, mysticism, spirituality and movement-based holistic therapies. She holds a PhD in Dance on Screen (Middlesex University), M.Phil and MA in film and fine art (Central Saint Martins) and her writings were published in academic journals and books. Moore’s films and artworks are exhibited in juried and curated exhibitions and archived by SIGGRAPH and Archive of Digital Art. She is a lecturer and dissertation supervisor for the Alef Trust and recipient of the Outstanding Lecturer award from the Department of Mysticism and Spirituality, Zefat Academic College. Her work evolves via the Cybernetic Futures Institute.

Dr Oliver Robinson is a psychologist and interdisciplinary thinker whose research and writings span lifespan development, personality, mental health, philosophy and spirituality. He is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, and author of the books Development through Adulthood and Paths Between Head and Heart. His personal website is www.oliverrobinson.info. He is also co-organiser of the Beyond the Brain conference.

Dr. Helané Wahbeh will share about the IONS Channeling Research program and how the Noetic Signature concept arose for its studies. The Noetic Signature is the unique way that we tap into information and energy not limited by our conventional notions of time and space. Dr. Wahbeh will review the studies that went into developing the Noetic Signature Inventory that allows people to discover and explore their Noetic Signature. She will also review the 12 characteristics that make up the Noetic Signature. 

Ben Gross learnt to play guitar and sing bhajans and Osho songs from the age of 7 in India. Ben has travelled the world learning songs from India, the South American Medicine tradition and Rainbow Gatherings. He held singing circles for many years for Green Angels and Inspiral Lounge and now runs Wider Horizons Singing Circles. Ben is producer of Wider Horizons – The Transformational Gathering in Nature for Young Adults and will present the work he has been doing developing this exciting initiative with the kind support of funding from the SMN. Check out widerhorizons.events for more info and @benbenjimusic for more of Ben’s music.

Dr Jessica Bockler is a theatre practitioner and transpersonal psychologist who works across academic and applied disciplines: from arts and health, to transpersonal and integral theory, to transformative learning, to social change. Jessica is a Founding Director of the Alef Trust and Programme Director for its Master’s pathway. She is Principal Research Lead for Alef Trust’s global Conscious Community initiative which aims to connect, support and resource change makers in their work. Jessica is also a member of the academic advisory board of the Inner Development Goals initiative, and she is a member of the UNDP’s Conscious Food Systems Alliance which advocates for consciousness-raising practices in systems transformation and sustainable development.