A Field for the Future

A Field for the Future:
Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the “Manifesto for a Post-Materialist Science”

February 21, 2024
9:00am PST  | 12:00pm EST  | 5:00pm GMT  |  6:00pm CET 

with
Karalee Kothe
Lisa Miller
Lorne Schussel
Gary E. Schwartz
Laurel Waterman
Marjorie Woollacott

Hosted by Àlex Gómez-Marín

A free, online, live event at the Pari Center.

In collaboration with:
The Scientific and Medical Network (SMN);
The Academy for the Advancement of PostMaterialist Sciences (AAPS).

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Karalee Kothe has been a student of consciousness since she was a kid. The beauty of nature, the joy of music and dancing, the exploration of knowledge, and the enduring love of her family have been her guiding lights on her path. She obtained a master’s degree from the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University, and she is currently a clinical health psychology PhD student at the University of Colorado, Denver. Her research interests presently include understanding terminal lucidity, the sudden return of energy and clarity before death, and examining the intersection of meaning, spirituality, and health.

Lisa Miller, Ph.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Her innovative research has been published in more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Cerebral Cortex, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Miller is Editor of the Oxford University Press Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality, Founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the APA journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice, an elected Fellow of The American Psychological Association (APA) and the two-time President of the APA Society for Psychology and Spirituality. A graduate of Yale University and University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate under the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, she has served as Principal Investigator on multiple grant funded research studies. Dr. Miller speaks and consults around The Awakened Brain and The Spiritual Child for the US Military, businesses (including tech, finance, HR and sales), personal development, faith based organizations, schools and universities, and for mental health and wellness initiatives.

Lorne Schussel, Ph.D is Adjunct Assistant Professor and Core Faculty at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute of Columbia University, Teacher College.  He is the Research Director of the Contemplative Science and Post Materialism Lab as well as the PI of the Contemplative Neuroscience and Connectivity Project. His research focuses on the utilization of contemplative practices, human connectivity, contemplative neuroscience, EEG hyperscanning, and integrating clinical biomarkers into treatment. Dr. Schussel developed a psychological healing practice known as “The Best Self Visualization Method” which has been cited in the New York Times, ABC-online, and the Huffington Post. His thoughts on creativity and neuroscience have been quoted recently in Health.com  He has also been an invited speaker at the United Nations Mission to Nigeria and United Nation Church Center and his method has been added to a curriculum for mental health and resilience at Zucker Hillside Hospital (NorthWell Health) and the Long Beach School District. He has presented to corporate leaders in Indonesia as part of a mental health initiative for the COVID-19 crisis and lectured to Psychiatry Medical Residents at Mount Sinai Hospital, Glendale Adventist Hospital and to the University of Southern California. Dr. Schussel has worked as visiting faculty at the California State Judicial College teaching about mental health and employee burnout to appointed state judges and offered meditation, loving-kindness and resilience programs to Police Officers in NY, CA, and MA.

Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D., is professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery at the University of Arizona, and Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health (www.lach.arizona.edu). He received his PhD from Harvard University, and was a tenured professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yale University. He served as the founding President of the Academy for the Advancement of Post-Materialist Sciences. Schwartz has published more than 500 scientific articles and chapters, including six in the journal Science. His research has been funded by NSF, NIH, NIMH, NCCAM, DARPA, private foundations and donors. Schwartz has co-edited more than a dozen academic volumes and authored more than a dozen books for the general public including The Afterlife Experiments, The G.O.D. Experiments, and The Energy Healing Experiments. 

Laurel Waterman is a Ph.D. Candidate in Curriculum and Pedagogy, Wellbeing Emphasis, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She teaches narrative non-fiction writing at the University of Toronto and is an Adjunct Faculty in the Alef Trust’s MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality, and Transpersonal Psychology. She is a board member of The Scientific and Medical Network (SMN), an educational organization focused on the intersection of science and spirituality, and belongs to the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences (AAPS Global). Laurel’s research focuses on consciousness studies and education, with the goal of popularizing participatory and postmaterialist paradigms of consciousness in the field of education.

Marjorie Woollacott, Ph.D., was professor and chair of the Dept. of Human Physiology and is a member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. She is President of the Academy for the Advancement of Post-Materialist Sciences, On the Science Committee of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Co-Director of the Galileo Commission and Research Director for the International Association of Near-Death Studies. Woollacott has received over 7.2 million dollars in research funding for her research in rehabilitation medicine, meditation, spiritual awakening and end-of-life experiences, has published over 200 scientific articles and written or edited nine books, including Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind (receiving 8 book awards) and Spiritual Awakenings: Scientists and Academics Describe Their Experiences.