MLE Friends: Webinars

Martijn van Beek is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and affiliated with the Interacting Minds Centre, both at Aarhus University, Denmark. Having previously spent many years working and conducting research in Ladakh and elsewhere in the Himalayan region, his current research explores the meeting ground between contemplative traditions, especially Buddhism, consciousness research and modernity. One of the goals of his current research is to contribute to refining our understanding of the significance of the spread of mindfulness and related forms of modern contemplative practice for people and for society today. He is also engaged in research on the (micro--) phenomenology of contemplative experience. Martijn teaches on contemplative life in context, in theory and in practice at Aarhus University; in the programme “Training Empathy” for professionals working with children and young adults offered by Børns Livskundskab, The Danish Society for the Promotion of Life Wisdom in Children; and at Vaekstcenter, the intentional community where he lives, and elsewhere.

Dr. Wolfgang Lukas holds an MSc degree in physics from Graz University of Technology and a PhD degree in physics from University of Innsbruck. He was a member of the ATLAS collaboration at CERN from 2010-2017. Intrigued by the vast potential and challenge of "bridging" scientific collaboration with contemplative practices and community-building, he initiated the Contemplative Scientific Collaboration project in 2016 and the Mindful Researchers initiative in 2020, with support by the Yoga Science Foundation. He contributes to research projects and publications related to open and collaborative science. Wolfgang began exploring contemplative practices in 2005, with an initial focus on Theravada Buddhism and a growing interest in Dzogchen. His heart also lights up for process facilitation (Art of Hosting, Council), participatory decision-making (certified moderator for Systemic Konsensing®), poetry, storytelling, filmmaking, deep ecology, contact improvisation, and walking barefoot. Wolfgang has been participating in MLE events since 2013, while supporting the ESRI community-building and hosting teams since 2017.

Dr. Antonino Raffone completed a Master in “Psychology” and a Doctorate in “Cognitive Psychology and Science” at Sapienza University of Rome. He is currently Full Professor at the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). Prof. Raffone is also Visiting Professor at the “School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions” at Nalanda University, India. He is also Director of the Interuniversity Center ECONA at Sapienza University of Rome, President of “Consciousness, Mindfulness, Compassion – CMC – International Association”, and Chief Editor of the Specialty Section on “Consciousness Research” of Frontiers in Psychology. His internationally recognized research is interdisciplinary and multi-method, with a particular focus on cognitive neuroscience of consciousness and mindfulness meditation, as well as on their neurocognitive correlates and implications for psychological wellbeing. He is a member of Mind & Life Europe. 

Dr. Marieke van Vugt is an assistant professor at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Engineering (ALICE) of the University of Groningen (Netherlands). The research in Dr. van Vugt's lab focuses on how, when and why we mind-wander, and what the fundamental cognitive operations are that underlie meditation and mindfulness. Most recently, she started to investigate how analytical meditation practiced by Tibetan monks and nuns affects cognition and emotion. She addresses these questions using a combination of computational modeling, neuroscience, and experimental psychology tools. She very much enjoys projects were science, art (particularly classical ballet), and contemplation meet.

Thorsten Barnhofer, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, where he conducts research into the use of mindfulness-based interventions for the prevention and treatment of depression and associated mental disorders across the lifespan. He has a particular interest in the mechanisms by which mindfulness meditation may reverse the psychological and biological factors that hold chronic and recurrent forms of depression in place. A cognitive-behavioural therapist and mindfulness teacher, he regularly offers mindfulness workshops and retreats for mental health professionals.

Prof. Fabienne Picard is neurologist in the EEG and Epilepsy Unit of the Neurology Department at the University Hospitals of Geneva. She holds a MD degree in medical studies in Neurology as well as a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) in Cellular and Molecular Biology (neurobiology) from the Faculty of Medicine of Strasbourg, France and is internationally renowned in the field of epilepsy genetics.

Over the last ten years, her research has focused on the role of the insula in self-awareness through the study of 'ecstatic' epilepsy, which symptoms show similarities with states of consciousness reached in meditation. She has published around 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. 

Anna Bornstein is a Swedish writer and journalist, with a lifelong experience of stillness. Her books and journalism focus mostly on existential topics. For thirty years, she wrote regularly for the Swedish Daily News.

Dr. Luisa Damiano is Associate Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the IULM University (Milan, Italy), and the coordinator of the Research Group on the Epistemology of the Sciences of the Artificial (RG-ESA). Her main research areas are: Epistemology of Complex Systems, Epistemology of the Cognitive Sciences, and Epistemology of the Sciences of the Artificial. Since 2007, she has been working on these topics with scientific teams all across Europe and in Japan. Among her publications there are many articles, the books Unità in dialogo (Bruno Mondadori, 2009) and Living with robots (with Paul Dumouchel, Harvard University Press, 2017) and several co-edited journal special issues. For more information about her interdisciplinary work, click here. 

Michel Bitbol is researcher at CNRS/Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. He received a M.D., a Ph.D. in physics and a 'Habilitation' in philosophy. After a start in scientific research, he turned to philosophy of science, editing texts by Erwin Schrödinger and formulating a neo-kantian philosophy of quantum mechanics.

He then studied the relations between physics and the philosophy of mind, in collaboration with Francisco Varela, and drew a parallel between Buddhist dependent arising and non-supervenient relations in quantum physics. He also developed a first-person conception of consciousness expressed from the standpoint of an experience of meditation. More recently, he engaged a debate with the philosophical movement called 'speculative realism', from the same standpoint.

Giuseppe Pagnoni is Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. After a Master in Physics, he completed a PhD in Neuroscience and has worked for several years in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Emory University, Atlanta (GA), USA. He has led and collaborated to neuroimaging studies on diverse topics including reward processing, the interaction of immune and brain function, social cognition, intrinsic brain activity, pain processing, mental effort, meditation. He is currently interested in the application of the predictive coding framework to the study of contemplative practices.

In this talk, Dr. Edel Maex shared with us some of the riches of his long experience as a psychiatrist teaching mindfulness and as a Zen practitioner and teacher. Starting from Platform Sutra, a landmark teaching of the Chan tradition of Buddhism, he unfolded two ways of relating — what he calls the “narrative mode” and the “presence mode”. He  specifically explored how the two are inextricably linked, like the front and back foot in walking, and how the two modes have informed his professional experience as a psychiatrist. This talk should be of interest to practitioners and non-practitioners alike, as it will point to the universal ways that we attempt to navigate the edges between certainty and uncertainty.

Dr. Edel Maex is a psychiatrist and Zen teacher living in Antwerp, Belgium. Teaching mindfulness became his way to integrate his Zen practice and his practice as a psychiatrist. He founded the Stress Clinic at the ZNA Hospital in Antwerp. He is the author of several books on mindfulness and Buddhism.

Claire Petitmengin is Professor Emerita in Philosophy at the Institut Mines-Télécom and member of the Archives Husserl, Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. Her research focuses on the usually unrecognized dynamics of lived experience and 'micro-phenomenological' methods enabling us to become aware of it and highlight its essential structures.

She studies the epistemological conditions of these methods, as well as their educational, therapeutic, artistic and contemplative applications. She currently devotes herself to exploring the links between the ecological crisis and our blindness to our lived experience.

Donata Schoeller is a philosopher that has initiated the international research project Embodied Critical Thinking in 2018, together with the philosopher Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir. She now is the Academic Director of TECT (Training in Embodied Critical Thinking), an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership in Higher Education in which five European Universities participate. In the last years, she has been a guest professor at De Paul University in Chicago, a fellow at the Max-Weber-Kolleg at the University of Erfurt, and currently is a guest professor at the University of Iceland as well as a senior lecturer at the University of Koblenz.

Among her recent publications is a monography on Close Talking: Erleben zu Sprache bringen, a volume on  Saying What We Mean, ed. with Ed Casey, a  co-edited volume on Nachdenklichkeit and a co-edited volume on Thinking Thinking. She has translated Eugene Gendlin's philosophical main work A Process Model into German, together with Christiane Geiser, and has written a first introduction to this groundbreaking philosophical work. Her PhD on humility is published in the 2^nd edition. She is an accredited Focusing-Trainer,  and also trained in Thinking-at-the-Edge by Prof. Eugene Gendlin and in Micro-phenomenology by Prof. Claire Petitmengin. She is an invited teacher of methods of Embodied Critical Thinking at institutes, academies and universities in Europe, the US and Israel. She has three grown up daughters. donataschoeller.com

Steven Laureys MD PhD FEAN is an award-winning neurologist and neuroscientist recognised worldwide as a leading clinician and researcher in the field of the neurology of consciousness. He is an active member of Mind and Life Europe and former president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and has published over 500 scientific articles on the workings of the human mind. He is known for his studies on consciousness after coma but also on near-death experiences, anesthesia, dreaming, hypnosis and meditation.

Prof. Dr. Laureys is Research Director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (2012), founding director of the "GIGA Consciousness Research Unit" (2014) and "Coma Science Group" (2006) of the University of Liège and "Centre du Cerveau" at the University Hospital of Liège (2019) and visiting professor at CERVO Brain Research Centre in Canada (2021). He recently co-founded the Mind Care International Foundation and published the international bestseller "The no-nonsense meditation book" (Bloomsbury 2021) in collaboration with Matthieu Ricard.

https://www.drstevenlaureys.org/

Photo credit: Debby Termonia

Kevin Hawkins has worked with adolescents and young people in various contexts for over 40 years - as a teacher, school head, and social worker in the UK, Africa, and Europe. For 10 years, he was Middle School Principal at the International School of Prague in the Czech Republic. He is a Senior Lead Trainer for the Mindfulness in Schools Project (UK) and has taught mindfulness to children, teenagers, teachers and parents since 2008. In 2012 he co-founded MindWell, which supports educational communities in developing wellbeing through mindfulness and social-emotional learning (SEL). He has been a lead consultant to the International Baccalaureate Organisation on SEL and mindfulness and he is a facilitator for the evidence-based CARE program (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Educators). He is a regular speaker, writer and presenter on the topics of mindfulness, wellbeing and social-emotional learning in education. His first book on mindfulness in education, Mindful Teacher, Mindful School, Improving Wellbeing in teaching and learning, was published by SAGE in July 2017. His second book, The Mindful Teacher's Toolkit - Awareness-based Wellbeing in Schools is co-written with Amy Burke and will be published in October 2021, also by SAGE/Corwin. Kevin trained in mindfulness in Europe and the USA with Mark Williams (Oxford Mindfulness Centre), Jon Kabat-Zinn, Saki Santorelli and Florence Meleo-Meyer (UMass Medical School, Centre for Mindfulness), and with Dr. Amy Saltzman (Still Quiet Place).

Prof. Katherine Weare is a long time friend of MLE and board associated who has helped to form and shape the CCE. She is also co-lead for education for the UK 'Mindfulness Initiative', an internationally respected and influential think tank which works closely with MLE, including through the work of its director, Jamie Bristow. Katherine is known internationally for her work on well-being, social and emotional learning and mindfulness in education. She has published widely, reviewed the evidence base, advised the UK government, EU and WHO, and developed practical strategies in these fields across most European countries. Her recent best selling book, co-written with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh 'Happy Teachers Change The World' has been translated into many languages.

Salla-Maarit Volanen (PhD), Folkhälsan Research Center and University of Helsinki (Faculty of Medicine, Dept of Public Health) is the leader of The Healthy Learning Mind Research Project exploring the effectiveness of mindfulness intervention programs among 12-15 year old students in school contexts for the first time in Finland. Funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the project was expanded to a development and teacher training project in 2016. As both a social and public health scientist, her passion is to create societally meaningful contributions and to use the evidence based research for the benefit of all. Accordingly, her team's studies are located in a real-world setting (early childhood education and schools), and are closely linked to practices and the promotion of health.

Ville Husgafvel is a doctoral student in the Study of Religion at the University of Helsinki, a qualified subject teacher in Religious Education and Secular Ethics (basic education and general upper secondary education), and a trained MBSR instructor. His PhD dissertation is entitled: 'Recontextualizing Mindfulness: The Selective Adaptation of Buddhist Meditation Practices in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programme'. He has published in Contemporary Buddhism, Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies, and Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion. 

Thomas Legrand holds a PhD in (Ecological) Economics and has studied international development, political science, and management. He works in the field of sustainability for UN agencies, companies, and NGOs, with a focus on forest conservation, climate change, sustainable finance, organizational transformation, and leadership. He currently works with UNDP on the Conscious Food Systems Alliance.

His spiritual journey began at the age of 23 with an encounter with native spirituality in Mexico, before embracing the widsom of a wide range of traditions and practices, including meditation, energetic healing, and Tai-chi-chuan. He lives with his wife and two young daughters near Plum Village, the monastery of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in the Southwest of France, his native country.

His spiritual search, his thinking as a social scientist, and his professional experience have gradually converged on the importance of spiritual wisdom in humanity's ongoing transition. Searching for a way to mainstream this understanding in the political and sustainability conversation, he has dedicated much of the last 10 years to researching and reflecting on how we can radically rethink our model of development. The result is his forthcoming book "Politics of Being. Wisdom and Science for a New Development Paradigm" (to be released January 2022).

More information can be found here

Antoine Lutz is a research director at INSERM in the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CNRL). He did his PhD in cognitive neurosciences in Paris, with F. Varela. During his postdoctoral work with R. Davidson, at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, he pioneered the neuroimaging study of meditation. In 2008, Davidson and him were awarded a NIH-NCCAM grant to fund the first American Center of Excellence on Research dedicated to neurophysiological study of meditation.

At the CRNL since 2013, his research group focuses on investigating the neurophysiological basis of mindfulness and compassion meditations and their impact on consciousness, attention and emotion regulations, and pain perception as measured by cognitive, affective and social neuroimaging paradigms using EEG, MEG, intra-cortical EEG, and fMRI. This research is funded by an European ERC consolidator grant (Brain&Mindfulness). He is a work package leader in a European research consortium investigating the impacts of meditation practices on ageing and well-being (Meditageing, H2020, PI G. Chételat). He participates to the ANR MindMadeClear (PI H. Mounier) on neurocomputation and meditation.

Elena Antonova is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Brunel University London, which she joined in June 2019. Prior to that she was a lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London (KCL), where she remains a Visiting Researcher. Elena lectures on the neuroscience and clinical applications of mindfulness. Her research focuses on the effects of long-term mindfulness practice using neuroimaging and psychophysiology methods, with the application to the prevention and management of psychopathologies.

She has been actively involved with the Mind and Life Institute since 2011 and Mind & Life Europe since 2013, organisations catalysing inter-disciplinary scientific research into the effects of contemplative practices. She was elected a Mind & Life Research Fellow for her contribution to contemplative science in 2017. Elena is an experienced mindfulness instructor (MBCT) trained in line with the Good Practice Guidelines in the UK. Elena has had a personal mindfulness meditation practice since 1998 and has attended numerous meditation retreats since 2001. http://qwww.brunel.ac.uk/people/elena-antonova

Tania Singer is the scientific head of the Social Neuroscience Lab of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, Germany. After doing her PhD in Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, she became a Post-doctoral Fellow at the same institution, at the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, and at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London. In 2006, she first became Assistant Professor and later Inaugural Chair of Social Neuroscience and Neuroeconomics as well as Co-Director of the Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research at the University of Zurich. Between 2010 and 2018 Tania Singer was the director of the department of Social Neurosciences at the Max Planck Institute of Cognitive and Human Development in Leipzig.

Her research focus is on the hormonal, neuronal, and developmental basis of human sociality, empathy and compassion, and their malleability through mental training. She is the principal investigator of a large-scale, nine-month longitudinal meditation based mental training study, The ReSource Project, and investigates together with Dennis Snower how psychology can inform new models of Caring Economics. Tania Singer is author of more than 150 scientific articles and book chapters and edited together with Mathieu Ricard the two books Caring Economics (2015) and Power and Care (2019).

Diego Hangartner, Switzerland

Diego Hangartner, Pharm.D., PCC [b. 1962] completed his studies in pharmacology at the ETHZurich, specializing in psycho-pharmacology and addiction. His main interest is to understand what constitutes a healthy mind, and how to cultivate it. He lived for 11 years in Dharamsala, India, learned Tibetan, and studied for 7 years at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. He completed several retreats, worked as an interpreter, translating Tibetan into many languages, and published a few books. On returning to Europe in 2003, he taught widely, and organized several large events with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and participated in research aimed at exploring the benefits of meditation as a long-term practitioner. Collaborations with many universities and research institutes, such as the Max Planck Institute, EPFL, Universities of Zurich, Lyon, Madison, USA, etc.

Diego is associated and worked with the Mind and Life Institute since the 1990's: he was Mind and Life's COO from 2009 - 2012 in the USA. In 2008, he co-founded Mind & Life Europe and was its director until 2015. Diego founded the Institute of Mental Balance and Universal Ethics (IMBUE), an interdisciplinary initiative, to develop and provide tools and programs that foster mental balance. He created and teaches "The Wheel of Mental Balance", a methodology to cultivate a healthy and resilient mind. Diego is also a professional certified coach (PCC), working with individuals, leaders and teams with a special focus on flourishing and development through a process of structure and discovery - insight generation, unfolding and forwarding action. For more information: www.diegohangartner.org

Father Francis Tiso, Italy

A New York native, Father Francis Tiso holds the A.B. in Medieval Studies from Cornell University.  He earned a Master of Divinity degree (cum laude) at Harvard University and holds a doctorate from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary where his specialization was Buddhist studies. He translated several early biographies of the Tibetan yogi and poet, Milarepa, for his dissertation on sanctity in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. He has led research expeditions in South Asia, Tibet and the Far East, and his teaching interests include Christian theology, history of religions, spirituality, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. 

Father Tiso was Associate Director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2004 to 2009, where he served as liaison to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Sikhs, and the Reformed (Calvinist) Churches. Since 1988, Father Tiso is a priest of the Diocese of Isernia-Venafro, Italy, where he now serves as chaplain to the migrant communities in the Province of Isernia. He is President and Founder of the Association ?Archbishop Ettore Di Filippo?, which serves migrant and vulnerable populations in the Province of Isernia. He was Diocesan Delegate for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs from 1990 to 1998 (re-appointed in 2016) and rector of the Istituto Diocesano delle Scienze Religiose (1990-93).

Father Tiso is the author of Liberation in One Lifetime (2014) and Rainbow Body and Resurrection (2016), two books on Tibetan and inter-cultural studies. He is the recipient of grants from the American Academy of Religion, the American Philosophical Society, the Palmers Fund in Switzerland, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, CA. He has served on the faculty of two MLE summer seminars in Germany.