The Future of Intelligence – A Four-Part Series
In partnership with the World Community for Christian Meditation
“Humanity is now too clever to survive without wisdom”
– EF Schumacher
There is a new expansion in our time of the concept of intelligence far beyond measurable IQ. The pioneering work of Howard Gardner on multiple intelligences has laid the groundwork for the integral intelligence we need to encompass emotional, social, spatial, ecological and spiritual intelligences. At a time of a rapid expansion of ‘artificial’ intelligence and machine ‘learning’, we need to reflect on our relationship to the forms of these multiple intelligences. The roots of the word ‘intelligence’ show us it means to ‘read between’ (inter-legere).
The term ‘intellect’ is understood by traditional philosophers to refer to our capacity for gnosis or transcendent knowledge through the experience of sharing identity of being the One. It is more than reason as our capacity for analysis (the roots of this word suggest ‘to loosen)’. It transcends the over-domination of the left hemisphere as described in the recent profound work of neuroscientist and philosopher Dr Iain McGilchrist in his Magnum Opus The Matter with Things. It is this left hemisphere mode of attention and perception that now dominates our culture and has created our serious imbalance and existential unease.
When we look at the symptoms of the present crisis it is hard not to say “how foolish we can be in wasting our intelligence and our opportunities.” The fear is lurking in many minds that we may be becoming little more than consumers controlled by algorithms derived from artificial intelligence. But there is a way forward through this impasse: a new integrated intelligence. We hope that the stimulating conversation with the major minds we will meet in this series will awaken this insight and elaborate its practical implications.
In this series of round table dialogues, we will explore this integral intelligence: the several balanced and unified forms of intelligence that humanity is gifted with. Beginning with a session on hemispheric intelligence featuring Dr Iain McGilchrist, speakers in the series will go on to explore the unique nature of spiritual intelligence, the challenges of AI, and finally the art of socio-political intelligence. This integration of intelligences is needed to co-create a humane world for future generations.
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Broad format and itinerary:
18:30 – 19:00 Meditation (optional)
19:00 – 19:30 Speaker (30 min)
19:30 – 19:40 Respondent 1 (10 min)
19:40 – 19:50 Respondent 2 (10 min)
19:50 – 20:05 Discussion between Speaker and Respondents (15 min)
20:05 – 20:10 Break (5 min)
20:10 – 20:55 Q&A (45 min)
April 21 – Hemispheric Intelligence
Dr Iain McGilchrist
Natalie Zeituny
Marco Schloremmer
July 21 – Spiritual Intelligence
Fr Laurence Freeman
Lama Alan Wallace
Rev Cynthia Bourgeault
September 8 – Artificial Intelligence
Dr Susan Schneider
Prof Andrew Briggs
Alessandro Colarossi
November 24 – Socio-Political Intelligence
Prof Charles Taylor
Dr Mary McAleese
Dr Athena Potari
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About our guest speakers:
Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, philosopher and literary scholar. He is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and of the Royal Society of Arts, as well as a former Clinical Director of the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. He is the author of a number of books but best known internationally for his recent Magnum Opus, The Matter with Things and his 2009 work The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. His work has achieved international recognition and acclaim, which marks him out as one of the most significant thinkers and philosophers of our time.
Dr Marco Schorlemmer is a research scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where he has led several national and international research projects on Automated Theorem Proving, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Multi-Agent Systems, and Computational Creativity. He is co-founder of the ‘País Conscient’ platform that arose from the ‘National Plan for Values’ initiative of the Catalan government, and he collaborates with the World Community for Christian Meditation and its Meditatio Centre in London on initiatives that aim at restoring the contemplative dimension of our society’s scientific and technological activity.
Natalie Zeituny is a reality researcher, modern mystic, clairvoyant healer, and conscious business entrepreneur. She has been researching consciousness, the nature of reality and how these impact individuals, collectives and society for over thirty years. As the founder of Ensoulment, she is dedicated to applying reality models to facilitate personal, social and planetary transformation. As the founder of Conscious Business Center, she advised fortune 500 leaders including Apple, Google and Yahoo while hosting seminars, lectures and counselling hundreds of individuals worldwide. For the last ten years, she has been enchanted by the magic and mystery of reality exploring how could we design life-affirming regenerative humanity through ensoulment. Her work has been published in four books and numerous essays. Find out more at: www.nataliezeituny.com.
With Irish and English roots, Laurence Freeman, OSB was educated by the Benedictines and studied English Literature at New College, Oxford University. Before entering monastic life, he worked with the United Nations in New York, in Banking and Journalism. He is Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) a global, inclusive contemplative community.
Fr. Laurence Freeman is a monk of the Benedictine Congregation of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. His is the director and spiritual guide of the World Community for Christian Meditation. John Main was his teacher and Fr. Laurence assisted him in establishing the foundations of the Community. Fr. Laurence is the author of a number of books on Christian Meditation. He travels extensively giving presentations and leading Christian Meditation Retreats.
Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, and theologian. For thirty years she worked closely with Fr. Thomas Keating as a student, editor, and colleague and has taught and written extensively on Centering Prayer. She is a core faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation and founding director of an international network of Wisdom Schools. In addition to her work on Centering Prayer, she is the author of numerous other books on the Christian Mystical and Wisdom tradition, including The Wisdom Jesus, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, and her most recent, Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm.
Alan Wallace, PhD is a prominent voice in the emerging discussion between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists who question the materialist presumptions of their 20th-century paradigms. He left his college studies in 1971 and moved to Dharamsala, India to study Tibetan Buddhism, medicine and language. He was ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, and over fourteen years as a monk he studied with and translated for several of the generation’s greatest lamas. In 1984 he resumed his Western education at Amherst College where he studied physics and the philosophy of science. He then applied that background to his PhD research at Stanford on the interface between Buddhism and Western science and philosophy. Since 1987 he has been a frequent translator and contributor to meetings between the Dalai Lama and prominent scientists, and he has written and translated more than 40 books. Along with his scholarly work, Alan is regarded as one of the West’s pre-eminent meditation teachers and retreat guides. He is the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and is the motivating force behind the development of the Center for Contemplative Research in Tuscany, Italy.
Prof Susan Schneider is the founding director of the new Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). She writes about the nature of the self and mind, especially from the vantage point of issues in philosophy, AI, cognitive science and astrobiology. In her recent book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of the Mind, she discusses the philosophical implications of AI, and, in particular, the enterprise of “mind design.” As the NASA chair, Schneider has recently completed a two-year project with NASA on the future of intelligence. She now works with Congress on AI policy. She also appears frequently on television shows on stations such as PBS and The History Channel (see below for clips). She writes opinion pieces for the New York Times, Scientific American and The Financial Times. Her work has been widely discussed in the media, and she is currently working on a new book on the shape of intelligent systems. Learn more at: www.schneiderwebsite.com.
Prof Andrew Briggs is the emeritus holder of the Chair in Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford. His research interests focus on nanomaterials for quantum technologies and their incorporation into practical devices, alongside fundamental investigations of the role of information in nanoscale thermodynamics. From 2002-2009, he directed the UK Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Quantum Information Processing. Current work in his laboratory develops machine learning for measuring and tuning quantum devices, with results that greatly exceed what is possible for humans.
He is a Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford, Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion, and Member of Academia Europaea. He has over 650 publications, with more than 28,000 citations.
His books for a general readership include The Penultimate Curiosity: How Science Swims in the Slipstream of Ultimate Questions, with Roger Wagner (2016), for which there is a documentary film and study guide and the six-book series for children, The Curious Science Quest, with Julia Golding and Roger Wagner (2018-9); It Keeps Me Seeking: The Invitation from Science, Philosophy and Religion, with Hans Halvorson and Andrew Steane (2018); Human Flourishing: Scientific insight and spiritual wisdom in uncertain times, with Michael Reiss (2021).
Alessandro Colarossi is an accomplished IT professional, having spent over a decade in virtually every facet of tech, from support and web design to cartoon animation and game development. Alessandro is currently employed as a Customer Success Manager at Google. He has a diploma in Systems Analysis from Sheridan College and a philosophy degree from York University with a concentration in AI. Alessandro is a frequent contributor in Philosophy Now Magazine and has been published in York University’s philosophical review. He also co-authored a book entitled Becoming Artificial which explores the nature of humanity, technology, artifice, and the irreducible connections between them.
Prof Charles Taylor is a Canadian philosopher who has made major contributions in many fields of social and poetical theory, philosophy of mind and moral thought. Despite his diverse range of thought he calls himself a “monomaniac”, concerned with only one fundamental aspiration: to develop a convincing ‘philosophical anthropology’. His great works, Sources of the Self and A Secular Age have changed the way these topics are viewed and appreciated. He has always been active in politics and social questions. A patron of the WCCM, he gave the John Main Seminar in 1988 on ‘Christian Identity and Modernity’.
Mary McAleese is a mother of three, lawyer, religious thinker and immensely popular former President of Ireland from 1997 until 2011. She was the first President to come from Northern Ireland. The theme of her presidency was Building Bridges and her work for peace and reconciliation culminated in the historic state visit to Ireland by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011. A barrister and journalist by training she was Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin, Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies and first female pro-Vice Chancellor at the Queen’s University of Belfast. She also worked as a journalist in Irish radio and television. She was a non-executive director of Channel 4 television, the Royal Group of Hospitals Trust, Northern Ireland Electricity and BBC Northern Ireland.
For many years prior to her election as President of Ireland she was involved in social justice campaigning. She was a co-founder of Belfast Women’s Aid, the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas and Co-Chair of the Working Party on Sectarianism set up by the Irish Council of Churches and the Catholic Church. She is the author of Reconciled being: Love in Chaos (1997), Building Bridges (2011), Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law (2014), Children’s Rights and Obligations in Canon Law (2019), Here’s the Story: A Memoir (2020). She has a Licentiate and Doctorate in Latin Catholic Church Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where she studied from 2012 to 2018. Her current area of research is children’s rights in Canon Law and intellectual rights and freedoms in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Mary is currently Chancellor of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, chair of the Ansari Institute at The University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Professor of Children, Law and Religion at the University of Glasgow and a Canon of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin.
David Lorimer 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. He has also been editor of Paradigm Explorer since 1986 and completed his 100th issue in 2019. 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 new book of essays, A Quest for Wisdom was published in 2021. David is also Chair of the Galileo Commission which seeks the expand the evidence base of science of consciousness beyond a materialistic world view. His website is www.davidlorimer.co.uk.
TICKETS
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Speakers
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Andrew BriggsProfessor Emiritus
Prof Andrew Briggs is the emeritus holder of the Chair in Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford. His research interests focus on nanomaterials for quantum technologies and their incorporation into practical devices, alongside fundamental investigations of the role of information in nanoscale thermodynamics. From 2002-2009, he directed the UK Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Quantum Information Processing. Current work in his laboratory develops machine learning for measuring and tuning quantum devices, with results that greatly exceed what is possible for humans.
He is a Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford, Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion, and Member of Academia Europaea. He has over 650 publications, with more than 28,000 citations.
His books for a general readership include The Penultimate Curiosity: How Science Swims in the Slipstream of Ultimate Questions, with Roger Wagner (2016), for which there is a documentary film and study guide and the six-book series for children, The Curious Science Quest, with Julia Golding and Roger Wagner (2018-9); It Keeps Me Seeking: The Invitation from Science, Philosophy and Religion, with Hans Halvorson and Andrew Steane (2018); Human Flourishing: Scientific insight and spiritual wisdom in uncertain times, with Michael Reiss (2021).
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Alessandro ColarossiIT professional
Alessandro Colarossi is an accomplished IT professional, having spent over a decade in virtually every facet of tech, from support and web design to cartoon animation and game development. Alessandro is currently employed as a Customer Success Manager at Google. He has a diploma in Systems Analysis from Sheridan College and a philosophy degree from York University with a concentration in AI. Alessandro is a frequent contributor in Philosophy Now Magazine and has been published in York University’s philosophical review. He also co-authored a book entitled Becoming Artificial which explores the nature of humanity, technology, artifice, and the irreducible connections between them.
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Charles TaylorPhilosopher
Prof Charles Taylor is a Canadian philosopher who has made major contributions in many fields of social and poetical theory, philosophy of mind and moral thought. Despite his diverse range of thought he calls himself a “monomaniac”, concerned with only one fundamental aspiration: to develop a convincing ‘philosophical anthropology’. His great works, Sources of the Self and A Secular Age have changed the way these topics are viewed and appreciated. He has always been active in politics and social questions. A patron of the WCCM, he gave the John Main Seminar in 1988 on ‘Christian Identity and Modernity’.
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David LorimerWriter, Lecturer, Poet, Editor
David Lorimer, MA, PGCE, FRSA is a visionary polymath – 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.
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Mary McAleeseFormer President of Ireland
Mary McAleese is a mother of three, lawyer, religious thinker and immensely popular former President of Ireland from 1997 until 2011. She was the first President to come from Northern Ireland. The theme of her presidency was Building Bridges and her work for peace and reconciliation culminated in the historic state visit to Ireland by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011. A barrister and journalist by training she was Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin, Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies and first female pro-Vice Chancellor at the Queen’s University of Belfast. She also worked as a journalist in Irish radio and television. She was a non-executive director of Channel 4 television, the Royal Group of Hospitals Trust, Northern Ireland Electricity and BBC Northern Ireland.
For many years prior to her election as President of Ireland she was involved in social justice campaigning. She was a co-founder of Belfast Women’s Aid, the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas and Co-Chair of the Working Party on Sectarianism set up by the Irish Council of Churches and the Catholic Church. She is the author of Reconciled being: Love in Chaos (1997), Building Bridges (2011), Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law (2014), Children’s Rights and Obligations in Canon Law (2019), Here’s the Story: A Memoir (2020). She has a Licentiate and Doctorate in Latin Catholic Church Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where she studied from 2012 to 2018. Her current area of research is children’s rights in Canon Law and intellectual rights and freedoms in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Mary is currently Chancellor of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, chair of the Ansari Institute at The University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Professor of Children, Law and Religion at the University of Glasgow and a Canon of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin.
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Iain McGilchristPsychiatrist, Philosopher, Literary Scholar
Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, philosopher and literary scholar. He is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and of the Royal Society of Arts, as well as a former Clinical Director of the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. His previous book, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World reached international recognition and acclaim and has marked him out as one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers of our time.
His latest publication is the two-volume work, The Matter with Things which was published in November 2021 by Perspectiva Press. This is a sustained critique of reductive materialism, and concerns such questions as ‘Who are we? What is the world? What is the nature of time and space? What do we mean by purpose, value and the divine? And how do we most reliably set about finding out?’
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Athena D. PotariPhilosopher
Dr Athena Potari is Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University, where she explores possibilities for an expanded practice of Philosophy by re-integrating elements and histories of the feminine. She received her PhD from the University of Oxford specializing in Political Philosophy, and her MA in Political Theory with Distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is recipient of the Academy of Athens Award of Philosophy (2020), author of “A Call for a Renaissance of the Spirit in the Humanities” published by the Galileo Commission, and Member of the Galileo Commission Steering Committee. In 2019, she founded Athenoa, a School of Hellenic Philosophy based in Greece where Hellenism is approached as a living wisdom tradition whose core consists in the inextricable synthesis of scientific reason and spirituality. Her work aims to revive the deeper spiritual and experiential dimensions of Hellenic Philosophy as a living spiritual lineage, combining discursive rigor and embodied meditative practices, with the aim of awakening to the ever-present mystery of being – our true Self.
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Susan SchneiderFounding Director, Center for the Future Mind, Florida Atlantic University
Prof Susan Schneider is the Founding Director of the new Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). She writes about the nature of the self and mind, especially from the vantage point of issues in philosophy, AI, cognitive science and astrobiology. In her recent book, ‘Artificial You: AI and the Future of the Mind’, she discusses the philosophical implications of AI, and, in particular, the enterprise of “mind design.” As the NASA chair, Schneider has recently completed a two-year project with NASA on the future of intelligence. She now works with Congress on AI policy. She also appears frequently on television shows on stations such as PBS and The History Channel. She writes opinion pieces for the New York Times, Scientific American and The Financial Times. Her work has been widely discussed in the media. She is currently working on a new book on the shape of intelligent systems (with W.W. Norton).
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Natalie ZeitunyEnsoulment & Reality Cosmologist & Speaker
Natalie Zeituny is a reality cosmologist and consciousness architect. She is a clairvoyant, energy healer, creator of “ensoulment”, and an international speaker. She has published four books, and as a social entrepreneur, dedicated to innovative applications of reality models that facilitate personal, collective, and planetary transformation.
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Marco SchorlemmerResearch Scientist
Dr Marco Schorlemmer is a research scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where he has led several national and international research projects on Automated Theorem Proving, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Multi-Agent Systems, and Computational Creativity. He is co-founder of the ‘País Conscient’ platform that arose from the ‘National Plan for Values’ initiative of the Catalan government, and he collaborates with the World Community for Christian Meditation and its Meditatio Centre in London on initiatives that aim at restoring the contemplative dimension of our society’s scientific and technological activity.
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Laurence FreemanMonk
With Irish and English roots, Laurence Freeman, OSB was educated by the Benedictines and studied English Literature at New College, Oxford University. Before entering monastic life, he worked with the United Nations in New York, in Banking and Journalism. He is Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) a global, inclusive contemplative community.
Fr. Laurence Freeman is a monk of the Benedictine Congregation of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. His is the director and spiritual guide of the World Community for Christian Meditation. John Main was his teacher and Fr. Laurence assisted him in establishing the foundations of the Community. Fr. Laurence is the author of a number of books on Christian Meditation. He travels extensively giving presentations and leading Christian Meditation Retreats.
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Cynthia BourgeaultEpiscopal Priest, Theologian
Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, and theologian. For thirty years she worked closely with Fr. Thomas Keating as a student, editor, and colleague and has taught and written extensively on Centering Prayer. She is a core faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation and founding director of an international network of Wisdom Schools. In addition to her work on Centering Prayer, she is the author of numerous other books on the Christian Mystical and Wisdom tradition, including The Wisdom Jesus, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, and her most recent, Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm.
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Alan WallaceScholar, Meditation teacher
Alan Wallace, PhD is a prominent voice in the emerging discussion between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists who question the materialist presumptions of their 20th-century paradigms. He left his college studies in 1971 and moved to Dharamsala, India to study Tibetan Buddhism, medicine and language. He was ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, and over fourteen years as a monk he studied with and translated for several of the generation’s greatest lamas. In 1984 he resumed his Western education at Amherst College where he studied physics and the philosophy of science. He then applied that background to his PhD research at Stanford on the interface between Buddhism and Western science and philosophy. Since 1987 he has been a frequent translator and contributor to meetings between the Dalai Lama and prominent scientists, and he has written and translated more than 40 books. Along with his scholarly work, Alan is regarded as one of the West’s preeminent meditation teachers and retreat guides. He is the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and is the motivating force behind the development of the Center for Contemplative Research in Tuscany, Italy.