Galileo Commission Summit V – Spiritual Awakenings Book Launch

Speakers

• Athena D. Potari Philosopher
  

  Athena D. Potari

  Philosopher

  Dr Athena Potari is Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University (2022/23). She received her PhD from the University of Oxford, specializing in Political Philosophy, and holds an MA in Political Theory summa cum laude from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). In 2020, she was the youngest female scholar to receive the prestigious Academy of Athens Award of Philosophy. She is the founder of Atheonoa – a forum devoted to the study of Ancient Greek Philosophy as a non-dual wisdom tradition which combines scientific reasoning with the experiential realization of Logos and Being as Eudaimonia. She is the author of A Call for a Renaissance of the Spirit in the Humanities published by the Galileo Commission.

• Bo Ahrenfelt Former Psychiatrist, Radio producer
  

  Bo Ahrenfelt

  Former Psychiatrist, Radio producer

  Dr Bo Ahrenfelt, MD is a former psychiatrist at St. Sigfrid’s mental hospital in Växjö and visiting consultant in private institution in Hovmantorp, Sweden. Also, radio producer at the Swedish national network within his fields of competence, and founder of Institutet för Liv och Arbete (Inst for Life and Work), which he led for twenty-five years, a network of professionals working with change and development on individual, group and system level in the private and public sectors. Author of Conflict Management Handbook (1993), Territories and Leadership (2012) and Change as Being State (3rd edition 2013). Currently partner of SustainChange AB, with a focus on human sustainability.

• Chris Roe Chair in Psychology, Director
  

  Chris Roe

  Chair in Psychology, Director

  Dr Chris Roe holds a Chair in Psychology at the University of Northampton, UK, and is Director of their Centre for the Psychology and Social Sciences. He is the International Affiliate for England of the Parapsychology Foundation and a Vice-President of the Society for Psychical Research, and served terms as President of the Parapsychological Association and as Chair of the British Psychological Society Transpersonal Psychology Section. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Parapsychology and is on the editorial board for the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research and the Transpersonal Psychology Review. His research interests are around the phenomenology of paranormal experience, particularly as it affects wellbeing, as well as experimental approaches to test claims for extrasensory perception and psychokinesis.

• Christopher Bache Professor Emeritus, Author
  

  Christopher Bache

  Professor Emeritus, Author

  Dr Chris Bache is Professor Emeritus in the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University where he taught for 33 years. He is also adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and on the Advisory Board of Grof Legacy Training. Chris’ passion has been the study of the philosophical implications of nonordinary states of consciousness, especially psychedelic states. An award winning teacher and international speaker, Chris has written four books: Lifecycles, Dark Night, Early Dawn, The Living Classroom, and LSD and the Mind of the Universe – the story of his 20 year journey with LSD. Chris is a father of three, a Vajrayana practitioner, and lives in Weaverville, NC, with his wife Christina Hardy.

• David Lorimer Writer, Lecturer, Poet, Editor
  

  David Lorimer

  Writer, Lecturer, Poet, Editor

  David Lorimer, MA, PGCE, FRSA is a writer, lecturer, poet and editor who is a Founder of Character Education Scotland, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network  and former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society. David is also the Editor of Paradigm Explorer, and Chair of the Galileo Commission, which seeks the expand the evidence base of science of consciousness beyond a materialistic world view.

  Originally a merchant banker then a teacher of philosophy and modern languages at Winchester College, he is the author and editor of over a dozen books, including Survival? Death as Transition (1984,2017) Resonant Mind (originally Whole in One) (1990/2017), The Spirit of Science (1998), Thinking Beyond the Brain (2001), The Protein Crunch (with Jason Drew) and A New Renaissance (edited with Oliver Robinson). He has edited three books about the Bulgarian sage Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov): Prophet for our Times (1991, 2015), The Circle of Sacred Dance, and Gems of Love, which is a translation of his prayers and formulas into English. His book on the ideas and work of the Prince of Wales – Radical Prince (2003) – has been translated into Dutch, Spanish and French. His most recent books are A Quest for Wisdom and his collection of poems, Better Light a Candle.

• Eben Alexander Scientist, Author
  

  Eben Alexander

  Scientist, Author

  Dr Eben Alexander III received his BA in Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1976, MD from Duke University in 1980, completed neurosurgical residency at Duke in 1987, and a cerebrovascular fellowship at Newcastle General Hospital in the UK, before teaching neurosurgery at the Brigham & Women’s and Childrens’ Hospitals and Harvard Medical School in Boston for 15 years, achieving the rank of Associate Professor. He also held academic positions at UMass Memorial and the University of Virginia, and wrote over 150 peer-reviewed papers and chapters. His clinical expertise and leadership included advances in linear accelerator-based stereotactic radiosurgery for numerous indications, development of the world’s first intra-operative MRI system, and advanced management of brain tumors and functional disorders (movement disorders, refractory pain syndromes).

• Federico Faggin Physicist, Engineer, Inventor, Entrepreneur
  

  Federico Faggin

  Physicist, Engineer, Inventor, Entrepreneur

  Federico Faggin received a Laurea degree in Physics, summa cum laude, from the University of Padua, Italy, in 1965, and moved to Silicon Valley in 1968. He developed the MOS Silicon Gate Technology in 1968; the world’s first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 in 1971, and several highly successful microprocessors, like the Intel 8080 and the Z80 produced by Zilog, his first startup company. Faggin was CEO of several high-tech startup companies he founded and directed since 1974. He is currently president of Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation, dedicated to the science of consciousness. Faggin has received many international awards, including the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, from President Barack Obama. In 2021 he published his autobiography Silicon.

• Gary E. Schwartz Professor, Author
  

  Gary E. Schwartz

  Professor, Author

  Dr Gary E. Schwartz has been a Professor of Psychology, Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery at the University of Arizona for more than thirty years. He was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and a tenured Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Yale University. His integrative research bridging mind-body medicine, energy medicine, and spiritual medicine has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Mental Health, and numerous private foundations. He has published more than 500 scientific articles and chapters and authored or edited 25 books. He directs the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health at the University of Arizona and served as the founding president of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences

• Helané Wahbeh Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
  

  Helané Wahbeh

  Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences

  Dr Helané Wahbeh is the Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University, and President of the Parapsychological Association. Dr Wahbeh is clinically trained as a naturopathic physician and research trained with a Master of Clinical Research and two post-doctoral research fellowships. She has published on and spoken internationally about her studies on complementary and alternative medicine, mind-body medicine, extended human capacities, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and their relationships to physiology, health, and healing. Dr Wahbeh is especially known for her research around — and noetic approach to — channeling.

• Jennifer “Kim” Penberthy Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
  

  Jennifer “Kim” Penberthy

  Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

  Dr Jennifer “Kim” Penberthy is the Chester F. Carlson Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, Division of Perceptual Studies, and the Associate Director for Clinician Wellness at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Kim is a board-certified clinical psychologist and conducts research, teaches, and provides clinical care. Her research interests focus on the mind-body relationship and exploring human consciousness as well as extraordinary human experiences and the impact of such on human abilities and wellness. Recent work includes exploring the occurrence and impact of after death communications. She is also dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion and exploring contemplative practices across cultures and marginalized groups. She lectures internationally, and has published extensively on contemplative practices and psychotherapy, including four books, and scores of manuscripts and book chapters.

• Jessica Corneille Research Psychologist
  

  Jessica Corneille

  Research Psychologist

  Following her own sudden non-dual experience one morning in February 2016, Jessica Corneille, MSc decided to change the course of her life by quitting her career in the arts/cultural heritage preservation (and as an aspiring art curator), to play her part, instead, in helping to de-stigmatise, de-pathologise and raise awareness around spiritual awakening, enlightenment, and non-dual experiences within mainstream psychology.
  She graduated with Distinction from a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Greenwich, where she focused her studies on the psychology of exceptional human experiences (transpersonal, anomalistic and parapsychology), under the guidance of Dr David Luke. She is now a fully-qualified research psychologist specialising predominantly in spiritual awakenings of a spontaneous nature, as well as other non-ordinary states of consciousness. Jessica has presented her work at a number of academic conferences, including with the British Psychological Society. She also works for the Scientific and Medical Network, is a member of the Galileo Commission steering committee, a collaborator of the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium and Spiritual Crisis Network, and a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher. She also runs peer-support groups for people undergoing spiritually transformative experiences, both with the Psychedelic Society UK and Spiritual Awakenings International.
  Her greatest missions in life are 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, and in helping individuals come to the realisation of their highest human potential.

• Joan Walton University researcher and educator
  

  Joan Walton

  University researcher and educator

  Dr Joan Walton’s first degree was in Social Theory and Institutions (University of Bangor, North Wales). Following University, she travelled for a year in India and South East Asia, including working in one of Mother Teresa’s children’s homes in Calcutta. Her early professional career was in social work, mainly working with children and families in residential and community settings. In 1995 she established an independent Centre for Action Research and Education, which enabled her to be involved in a wide range of staff development and research projects in the public, private and not-for profit sectors. Following completion of her PhD in 2008, she had a career change, and entered the academic world, initially at Liverpool Hope University, and now at York St John University in the School of Education.

• Joyce Hawkes Scientist, Public Speaker
  

  Joyce Hawkes

  Scientist, Public Speaker

  Dr Joyce Hawkes’ doctorate in Biophysics opened her to a career at the depths of cellular function. She received a National Honorary Award and was elected as Fellow in the AAAS based on her research. Seven years after an NDE in the late 70s she was ‘called’ to change careers and became a healing facilitator, teacher, and author. She has published books, taught internationally and has a TEDx talk with over 1 million views. Additional television appearances and interviews are linked on her web site: CellLevelHealing.com. Joyce has followed a deep sense of guidance to combine science and spirit for physical, mental, and emotional healing for nearly 40 years. The efficacy of this approach for the unique needs of each individual has led to abundant results.

• Jude Currivan Cosmologist, Author
  

  Jude Currivan

  Cosmologist, Author

  Dr Jude Currivan has a master’s degree in physics from Oxford University and a doctorate in archaeology from the University of Reading. She is a cosmologist, planetary healer, futurist, author who was previously one of the most senior business women in the UK and in 2017 she co-founded WholeWorld-View. Integrating leading edge science, research into consciousness, and universal wisdom teachings into a wholistic world-view underpins her work serving conscious evolution and empowering transformational and emergent resolutions to collective human and planetary issues. For over two decades she has also travelled around the world in service to planetary healing. A member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle (www.evolutionaryleaders.net) she is also the international and award-winning author of six books to date, latterly The Cosmic Hologram: In-formation at the Center of Creation. Her next book, Gaia: Her-Story will be published in 2022.

• Laurel Waterman Writer, Speaker
  

  Laurel Waterman

  Writer, Speaker

  Laurel Waterman, MA currently a doctoral student in Curriculum and Pedagogy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, has been teaching creative non-fiction writing at the University of Toronto since 2009. She published About Local Food: Four Conversations with Toronto Food Activists, a book based on her MA research in Adult Education and Community Development. Waterman has been a writer, researcher, and editor for several books, essays, research projects, and conference presentations throughout her academic career, mostly in the areas of non-fiction writing, education, food systems, and environmental sustainability. In 2021, she was awarded a grant from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship fund for her doctoral research in consciousness studies education. She is a student member of the Academy for the Advancement of Post-materialist Sciences (AAPS).

• Marilyn Monk Professor Emerita at University College London Institute of Child Health
  

  Marilyn Monk

  Professor Emerita at University College London Institute of Child Health

  Prof Marilyn Monk, BScHons, MScHons, PhD is Professor Emerita at University College London Institute of Child Health. She has been a research scientist for 60 years, university lecturer, head of UCL Molecular Embryology Unit, and has published over 200 scholarly papers. She is known for her work on DNA replication and repair, amoeboid cell signalling, regulation of differential gene expression in development, discovery and establishment of epigenetics, discovery of deprogramming to stem cells and, technically, the miniaturization of molecular analyses to the sensitivity of the single cell. Her pioneering work on preimplantation diagnosis of genetic disease earned her an invitation from the Nobel Secretariat to speak at Karlskoga. Marilyn Monk is also an Alexander Technique teacher and Psychosynthesis Counsellor.

• Marjorie Woollacott Researcher, Author
  

  Marjorie Woollacott

  Researcher, Author

  Dr Marjorie Woollacott has been a Professor and Chair in the Dept. of Human Physiology and a member of the Institute of Neuroscience, at the University of Oregon. In addition to teaching courses on neuroscience and rehabilitation, she taught courses on complementary and alternative medicine and meditation. Dr. Woollacott has received over $7.2 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health and other research agencies for her research in child development, aging, rehabilitation medicine and meditation. She has published more than 200 scientific articles and written or co-edited eight books, the most recent being Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind. She has recently (2017) accepted the position of Research Director for the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and is the President of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences.

• Michael Grosso Writer
  

  Michael Grosso

  Writer

  Dr Michael Grosso studied classics and received his PhD in philosophy from Columbia University. He has taught philosophy and the humanities at New Jersey City University, CUNY (City University of New York), and Kennedy University, CA. His recent books include Smile of the Universe: Miracles in an Age of Disbelief; The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation; The final Choice: Death or Transcendence; Experiencing the Next World Now. Michael’s focus is on the science of extraordinary human experience and the creative implications of altered states of consciousness.   He is also a painter who works at the interface of art and the paranormal.

• Natalie L. Dyer Research scientist
  

  Natalie L. Dyer

  Research scientist

  Dr Natalie Dyer is a Research Scientist with Connor Integrative Health Network, studying the therapeutic effects of integrative medicine practices, including yoga, meditation, and energy medicine. She is also the President of the Center for Reiki Research, where she conducts and educates the public about Reiki research. She completed her Doctorate in Neuroscience at Queen’s University and Postdoctoral Fellowships in Psychology at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. She has published many scientific papers and presented her research to many diverse audiences. Natalie is also an energy medicine practitioner and teacher specializing in Reiki and North American, European, and Tibetan shamanic practices.

• Neal Grossman Professor of Philosophy, Author
  

  Neal Grossman

  Professor of Philosophy, Author

  Dr Neal Grossman received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from Indiana University in 1971. He taught Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago until he retired in 2013. Relevant papers include: (i) Who’s Afraid of Life After Death?, JNDS, May, 2002; (ii) Four Errors Commonly Made by Professional Debunkers (JNDS, 26(3), Spring 2008) (iii) Review of “The Self Does Not Die”, JNDS, 34(4), Summer 2016. His first book, The Spirit of Spinoza: Healing the Mind, (ICRL, 2014) is a readable presentation of Spinoza’s remarkable system of spiritual psychotherapy. And his second book, Conversations with Socrates and Plato [iff books, 2019] describes “how a Post-Materialist Social Order Can Solve the Challenges of Modern Life and Insure Our Survival”.

• Stephan Schwartz Writer, Researcher
  

  Stephan Schwartz

  Writer, Researcher

  Stephan A. Schwartz is a Distinguished Consulting Faculty of Saybrook University, a BIAL Foundation Fellow, columnist for the journal Explore, and editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net. He is one of the founders of Remote Viewing research, and the author of nearly two hundred papers in peer-reviewed journals covering a spectrum of disciplines, two dozen book chapters, and an award-winning author of four non-fiction books, and three novels. He is the recipient of the Parapsychological Association Outstanding Contribution Award, OOOM Magazine (Germany) 100 Most Inspiring People in the World award, and the 2018 Albert Nelson Marquis Award for Outstanding Contributions. He is listed in: Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the West, Who’s Who in Healthcare and Medicine.

• Steve Taylor Psychologist, Researcher, Speaker, Author
  

  Steve Taylor

  Psychologist, Researcher, Speaker, Author

  Steve Taylor, PhD is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK, and a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. He is the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality, including Extraordinary Awakenings, The Clear Light, Out of the Darknessand Spiritual Science. His books have been published in 20 languages, and he writes blog articles for Scientific American and Psychology Today. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as ‘an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.’

• Vasileios Basios Physicist, Senior researcher
  

  Vasileios Basios

  Physicist, Senior researcher

  Dr Vasileios Basios is a physicist, conducting interdisciplinary research on the foundations of complexity science and nonlinear systems, self-organization and complex matter. During his formative years, he was tutored by Ilya Prigogine (Nobel Laureate) at the Solvay Institutes in ULB and by Emilios Bouratinos on meditation and philosophy. He is interested in the complex interface between action and information and the history of ideas in science and their role in the transformation of science beyond the prevailing naïve materialistic reductionistic world-view. With others from PEAR Lab, he initiated the Mind-Matter-Mapping Project and has since published essays for ICRL where he now serves as a Trustee. He is a member of the Board of the Scientific and Medical Network and the Steering Team of the Galileo Commission.