Lindsay Briner, MA, PhDc

Research Scientist and Principal Investigator

With over a decade of yoga and meditation experience, Lindsay has been a seeker of Truth with relentless passion. As a scientist, Lindsay is earning a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at Sofia University in 2018. Her foundational background is in neurobiology, where she predominantly investigated the effects of transcendental meditation on the neuroendocrine stress response. Lindsay received a Master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology with a specialization in Neurophenomenology and Consciousness at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 2012. Most recently she has been working as a Research Associate at the Transformative Technology Lab in Palo Alto, CA alongside Dr. Jeffery A Martin on her dissertation; researching the psychology and neuroscience of people transitioning into persistent nonsymbolic experience, also referred to as Nondual awareness, unity consciousness, awakening, enlightenment, oneness, and many others. Lindsay works as a consultant for organizations on the cutting edge of science and technology, focusing on the ethos of human optimization. She has been seeing clients as a transformational counselor since 2009, certified in several psychosomatic modalities.

Robert K. C. Forman, Ph.D

Robert K. C. Forman, Ph.D, has devoted his life, both personally and professionally, to the sense that many have described of being called by something greater than ourselves. With a Ph.D. from Columbia University and an honorary Doctorate from Sweden’s Lund University in comparative religion, specializing in the nature of spiritual experiences, he became a tenured Professor of Religion at the City University of New York. Having gone through his own permanent spiritual shifts, he has always been more interested in the transformative power of practice and direct experience than any theory. With 50 years of daily meditation and yearly solo retreats, Dr. Forman has worked with and been a spiritual counselor for thousands of people who are serious about their spiritual lives. He has authored 11 books and 40+ articles on the topic, including Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness and the well-received Enlightenment Ain't What It's Cracked Up To Be. He has founded many programs and initiatives such as the SoulJazz Program and The Forge Institute's Guild of Spiritual Leaders, and was lead professor in The Conscious Leadership Institute in the One Spirit Learning Alliance. He is currently writing a book on the role of community in spiritual transformation. He believes that our task is to respond to the never ending challenge of the Spirit: "Come. Be true to what is so in you. Live it. Be it. Abide in deep integrity with what you really are. Come.”

Zoran Josipovic, PhD

Zoran Josipovic, PhD, is a Research Associate and Adjunct faculty at the Psychology Department and director of the Contemplative Neuroscience Lab at New York University. He is also the founding director of the Nonduality Institute, adjunct faculty at Sofia University, and the founding member of MARGAM -- Metro-Area Research Group on Awareness and Meditation. His research focuses on the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain, and on the functioning of anti-correlated networks in the brain. Zoran is a long-term meditation practitioner in the Tibetan, Zen and Advaita Vedanta traditions.

Arnaud Delorme, PhD

Arnaud Delorme, PhD, is a CNRS principal investigator at the National Center for Scientific Research in Toulouse, France; faculty at the University of California, San Diego; adjuct faculty at Sofia University; and a consulting research scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He is a long term Zen meditator, and has taught in India on the neural correlates of conscious experience in a Master's degree program for the Birla Institute of Technology.

Mariana Caplan, PhD, MFT

Mariana Caplan, PhD, MFT, is a psychotherapist, yogi, and the author of six books in the fields of psychology and spirituality, including the award-winning Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path (Sounds True, 2010), the seminal Halfway Up the Mountain: the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment (Hohm Press, 1999), and The Guru Question: The Perils and Rewards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher (Sounds True, 2011). As a psychotherapist, she specializes in using somatic approaches to therapy to support spiritual practitioners and teachers of all traditions and religions to heal trauma and thrive, as well as working with complex spiritual traumas within spiritual communities. As a yogi, she founded and teaches The Yoga and Psyche Method, which integrates the insights of somatic psychology, trauma research, neuroscience, and yogic practices.

Jeffery Martin, PhD

Dr. Jeffery A. Martin is a CIIS and Harvard trained social scientist who researches personal transformation, and is a leading expert on non-symbolic consciousness (extraordinary well-being, enlightenment, nonduality, mystical experience, etc.). He specializes in bringing rigorous empirical research and testing to transformational techniques and theories that have previously been supported anecdotally. A bestselling author and award winning educator, he has co-edited, authored, or co-authored over 20 books and numerous other publications; appeared in a wide variety of media; and lectured broadly in both academic and public forums.

Paul J. Mills, PhD

Paul J. Mills is Professor and Chief, UC San Diego Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, Director of the UC San Diego Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health, and Director of Research for The Chopra Foundation. The Center is advancing research excellence in integrative health to transform how medicine is practiced, supporting education and mentorship in integrative health research for students as well as healthcare professionals, and helping to guide the creation of new models of clinical care, combining the best of traditional medicine and evidence-based integrative therapies. The overarching goal is to advance the investigation of integrative health approaches and the integration of effective approaches in health care. He has expertise in Integrative Medicine and psychoneuroimmune processes in wellness and disease, publishing numerous manuscripts and book chapters on these topics.