Leadership

Barbara Alexander M.A., M.Div. is an integral practitioner whose practice is based in Marin County, CA. Her work with individuals and groups combines 35 years of education and experience in psychology and spirituality with a deep passion for growth and development.Barbara’s journey began as an undergraduate when she discovered developmental psychology and deepened when a powerful awakening experience led her to explore the spiritual dimension of reality. She practiced Gestalt psychotherapy for 20 years. During that time she practiced Theravada Buddhism. Wanting to understand the tradition of her youth, she then studied and practiced in an Esoteric Christian spiritual community for 8 years. When she could no longer resist the pull to seminary, she continued her studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary. During that time Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, the beautiful map that illuminates the complex terrain of human development became her framework, integrating her deep love of spirituality and psychology into a coherent whole. Her training continued by participating in several workshops at the Integral Institute and being certified in Integral Coaching by Integral Coaching Canada.

Barbara writes, “I remember the shiver of excitement I felt the first time I heard Ken talk about a trans-lineage path because it was what I was seeking. No longer comfortable in one tradition, I longed for a path with rigor; one that included the wisdom and practices of the great spiritual traditions rather than setting them aside as anachronisms no longer relevant to the 21st century. The foundational teaching of World Spirituality does just that and many people are finding a home here. I am honored to offer my gifts and participate in Spirit’s next unfolding.”

Rev. Sam Alexander – is Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael. He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, B.A., and Union Seminary in Virginia, M.Div. Sam has served congregations in Maryland and the San Francisco Bay area. He serves as Adjunct Instructor in Homiletics (Preaching) at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He lives with his wife, Barbara, in their recently emptied nest in Fairfax, California.

Sam writes: “I’m a sixth generation Presbyterian Elder. I tell my colleagues that means what I believe is, by very definition, Presbyterian. (They usually roll their eyes. Who can blame them?) Yet now I find myself dis-identifying with the Church in its current iteration, and reaching towards a next expression of what my tradition, (and yours), has been pointing towards all along. The dialogue I have with Marc Gafni inspires that reach. More than that, when we at CWS engage each other, our common faith and practice leads each of us into a transfigured identification with the roots of our faith.”

Marcy Baruch serves as the Board Secretary and Ambassador-at-Large for the Center for World Spirituality. She is a musical artist, vocal coach, student of sacred text, and a senior student of World Spirituality teaching.

She writes, “From the very first moment I heard Dr. Marc speak, I knew that I had met the teaching that I wanted to serve and empower in the world. Marc’s teaching on World Spirituality, Unique Self, Eros and more is both dazzling in its complexity and simplicity, and answers a profound need in the world.”

Marcy received her BA in Religion and Music, and is a lifelong student in these areas as well as in philosophy, psychology, and feminist theory. She regularly performs and teaches vocal workshops at New Thought centers around the country, where she is a beloved regular guest of dozens of congregations. She is the powerful and ethereal voice and songwriter of three CD’s, including her most recent release, The Strength of Love. Her song “This Inner Space” won the emPower Music & Arts 2009 Posi Award for the Best Healing Song. After the release of her 2nd CD, Clearly, she was named among the nation’s Top Ten independent female singer/songwriters by Femmusic Magazine. She looks forward to writing with Dr. Marc on feminist discourse, and to releasing a CD based on Unique Self and other sacred teachings.

Liza Braude-Glidden, MA, is the artistic director of Beanfields, a new natural foods company that helps improve the global food supply by making yummy, plant based, Non-GMO verified foods, with beans as the primary ingredient. Their snacks are available at natural food stores in eighteen western states. Liza has a long history as a process leader and catalyst in community based nonprofits and small businesses, including some focused on sacred sexuality and other sacred and artistic themes.

Liza is a lifelong yogi and a yoga teacher in the Kripalu tradition. She currently practices with Julian Walker in Los Angeles. She practices trance dance with Stumbling Towards Ecstasy. She has published a steady stream of articles, songs, poems, prayers and other contemplative writings in the literary and alternative press since 1972. She has a twenty-two-year deep friendship with Shalom Mountain Retreat and Study center and its mystical heartland, Timshel. She sits on the board in a consortium with Tom Goddard and Elizabeth Helen Bullock. She has been part of the integral scene in LA for the last five years, engaging Integral Life Practice with a small, dedicated group of Integral practitioner.

Liza sees her work with The Center for World Spirituality as a big-picture context for her lifework, and treasures the opportunity to bow to an ever larger and simultaneously more intimate Center.

Kathy Brownback – For years it has been obvious to me that we have to evolve spiritually, and now I have found a group that is committed to it in all the ways that matter to me. I’ve had a longstanding practice of meditation and yoga, and have a strong familiarity with the Christian tradition as an ordained minister, though I seldom identify myself as such right now. For the last 23 years I’ve been an academic teacher in the religion and philosophy department at Phillips Exeter Academy, a private high school in New Hampshire. As a result of meeting Marc at a retreat with Diane Hamilton in 2009 and studying with him privately since then, I’ve been able to bring Unique Self teaching into my classroom at Exeter. Although meditation and other practices helped the kids to feel calmer and to begin to access True Self, it often left them psychologically stranded. The combination of meditation plus Unique Self teachings, however, has been a hit: their identities and need to feel special are affirmed in Unique Self teaching, along with their sense of connection to classmates. As I said in a blurb for Marc’s new book, they are looking for a sense of God/Spirit that can energize and challenge them beyond the separation from others that has often characterized their experience of religion. As Unique Self is one of the lodestones of a World Spirituality, my immediate goal is to teach and write about it with increasing depth—in my classroom, with my colleagues, for CWS, and in other academic settings, which include a college/university gathering this summer on Contemplative Studies. To do so feels like a unique calling.

Elizabeth Helen Bullock – Elizabeth Helen Bullock’s connection with the Divine as Radiant Love began early through the radical study of a Christian mystical tradition. Drawn to a world spirituality that transcended any one tradition, her search brought her to study in the ancient wisdom of the wilderness at the National Outdoor Leadership School. A year-long journey through Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal helped form an expanded consciousness of the divine within all humanity and insight into the interconnection of all peoples and spiritual paths. Working with a Wisdom Healer in Bali over the course of 2 years opened spiritual channels.

She found and ran for 13 years a successful distance education company providing college courses to Massachusetts state inmates. During an 8-year stint with a private boarding school, Elizabeth Helen facilitated weekend retreats for over 500 families in a transformational therapeutic experience. She has been trained in Introductory and Advanced Shalom Retreat Leadership Process. She has also completed training in Tantra, 5 Rhythms, Ayurvedic healing, Insight and Metta meditation, creative writing, and Integral Theory.

Discovering Marc Gafni’s inspired sacred teaching brought a coherence and integration to her practice. His radical visioning of Unique Self came as a personal transmission experience. CWS embodies an organizational potential to bring revolutionary illumination to our world. Elizabeth Helen is the CWS Board Liaison.

Mariana Caplan, PhD, is a psychotherapist, professor of yogic and transpersonal psychologies, and the author of seven books in the fields of psychology and spirituality, including the forthcoming: The Guru Question: The Perils and Awards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher and the seminal Halfway Up the Mountain: the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment. Her recent release, Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, won five national awards for best spiritual book of 2010. She has spent 20 years researching cutting edge and controversial topics in Western Spirituality, and focuses her consultation and psychotherapy practice on somatic approaches to healing trauma and spiritual issues. She is the co-founder of The Center for World Spirituality and an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies and Naropa University. She has degrees in cultural anthropology, counseling psychology, and contemporary spirituality, and is a teacher and practitioner of yoga philosophy and asana.

Marty Cooper – I have been practicing psychotherapy for ten years, and have enjoyed a steady private practice in San Francisco for the last six. My clinical focus, with individuals and in group settings, is on the treatment of depression and anxiety from a mindfulness/Buddhist perspective. I have published a collection of essays on the subject, and am working on a book that fleshes out an Integral/AQAL way of understanding and treating depression and anxiety.

My spiritual path has taken me through a number of teachers, starting with S.N.Goenka, the Indian vipassana teacher, to Adyashanti. I am currently working with Linda Groves-Bonder in the Waking Down in Mutuality school. I’ve also been a long-time student of Wilber’s work, and was reinvigorated by Marc’s ISE1 to take another dive into Integral, which has led deeper into his teaching and recently the work of CWS.

Chahat Corten, spiritual teacher, is one of the founding members of the Venwoude Integral Practice community in Holland. She stood with her partner Ted Wilson in the development of spiritual contexts and in the founding and development of Venwoude. Chahat is well-trained and thoroughly cooked in sacred communal living and many modalities of spiritual practice. Gentle and holy laughter and ecstatic creativity merged with penetrating wisdom – unique teachings in the realms of relationship and sexuality – embodied practice and the formation of evolutionary  WE-space, rooted in her realization of emptiness and fullness – is what she offers from her heart. Chahat has been empowered as a World Spirituality teacher. She is a senior student of Dr. Marc Gafni.

Decker Cunov is the Executive Director & Founder of AuthenticWorld, committed to inspiring people towards more fulfilling relationships. He’s spent the last decade working successfully with everyone from soldiers to teenagers, from the clinically dysfunctional to doctors & lawyers, from a mechanic in Wisconsin to top level executives across the country, helping them reach unprecedented levels of success in relationship in organic and profound ways.

Dr. Warren Farrell has been chosen by the Financial Times as one of the world’s top 100 thought leaders. He feels, though, that the mind can be misused as easily as well-used; spiritual centering facilitates the mind being well-used both externally and internally.

Dr. Farrell’s books are published in over 50 countries, and in 15 languages. They include two award-winning international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are plus The Myth of Male Power. A book on couples communication, Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, was a selection of the Book-of-the Month Club. His book, Father and Child Reunion, has inspired many dads to be more involved with their children. And Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap–and What Women Can Do About It was chosen by U.S. News and World Report in 2006 as one of the top four books on careers.

Dr. Farrell has taught at the university level in five disciplines, and appeared on more than 1,000 TV shows, from Oprah to Larry King Live. He has been featured repeatedly in Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He has two daughters, and lives with his wife in Mill Valley, California, and virtually at www.warrenfarrell.com.

Heather Fester, Ph.D.– I’m an assistant professor of English with a background in linguistics, rhetoric, and writing, and I have taught writing classes on the college level for ten years, the last five of which have been at a small open-admissions institution in Missouri. In part, my scholarship efforts have focused on broadening the established connection between the university and the public who funds and participates in it. As they are shaped through this dialogue, new forms of scholarship emerge as a response to the changing needs in the lives of teachers, students, and the greater community.My path into spiritual practice has been an integral one, steeped in the Western traditions of creation spirituality, contemplation, poetry, storytelling, philosophy, depth psychology, and textual study. I’m truly a mystic at heart. After attending Integral Spiritual Experience 1, I began to study with Marc, who has opened me to a set of practices that most deeply meet my needs, based on the Enlightenment of Fullness: reality consideration, evolutionary prayer, eros, Unique Self study and practice, masculine/feminine shadow awareness, and tikkun olam—the healing or fixing of the world. My current practices incorporate both emptying and fullness, ranging from yoga, qi gong, zazen, chant, post-tribal shamanism and other subtle practices in the tantric and mystical traditions, to evolutionary prayer and writing as meditation.

For CWS, I have fulfilled the roles of dharma student, volunteer, and editor. I’ve been passionate about this work of bringing the world traditions into conversation since I was a young, and I agree with the Dalai Lama that when the world’s traditions come together in friendship, real conversation about change is possible. CWS is a place where this is happening, a place where I see the ritual beauty and depth of the traditions preserved and honored, while the integral conversation emerging among them is given space to unfold gracefully. CWS provides a space where art in spiritual practice is nurtured. And, CWS based on integral principles also represents a more embodied approach to spiritual life that does not just transcend and include ever-evolving stages of development, but does so lovingly, while helping people ground their practices and improve their lived realities-at the root-inviting them more fully into their spirits, bodies, minds, social networks, and hearts.

Lesley Freeman has served as administrative and creative assistant for several diverse organizations and projects including Angelic Organics CSA Farm, the award-winning documentary film “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” (with an appearance as the singing bee), Erwan Davon Teachings, satsangs with Dr. Laurie Moore, and the Art Monastery Project. Lesley enjoys exploring song, words, and play to give permission and context to human questions and relationships.

Dr. Marc Gafni holds his doctorate from Oxford University and has direct lineage in Kabbalah. He is a Rabbi, spiritual artist, teacher, and a leading visionary in the emerging World Spirituality movement. He is a co-founder of The Center for World Spirituality, a scholar at the Integral Institute, and the director of the Integral Spiritual Experience, as well as a lecturer at John F. Kennedy University. The author of seven books, including the national bestseller Soul Prints and Mystery of Love, Gafni’s teaching is marked by a deep transmission of open heart, love and leading edge provocative wisdom. Gafni is considered by many to be a visionary voice in the founding of a new World Spirituality and one of the great mind/heart teachers of the generation.
Click here for In-depth biography
Click here Marc Gafni’s Teachings Biography

Lori Galperin began her 25 year career as a relational and sex therapist, training at Masters & Johnson Institute, where she eventually became co-director. As an outgrowth of working in this arena and becoming aware of the dearth of treatment contexts to address the more profound injuries that undermine healthy intimate and sexual functioning, Lori went on to co-found the first inpatient sexual trauma program in the country, ultimately establishing 3 such programs. Working in the early days with a panoply of sex and intimacy related matters spanning diverse populations including: incest families, sex offenders, victims of sexual abuse and individuals struggling with sexual addiction provided a unique entry point into the fields of trauma, dissociation and attachment theory and treatment.Lori says, “Amidst 25 years of teaching, writing and program innovation runs the animating desire of bringing together all the ‘necessary and sufficient’ elements of healing. In service of that endeavor, my team and I attempt to endlessly identify, study and incorporate state-of-the-art techniques, methods and modalities – knowing full well that any vehicle is only as effective as its ability to allow in the Infinite.”

Lori’s most recent work includes founding and clinically directing 2 treatment centers for eating disorders in St. Louis, Missouri and 1 more in its formative phases on the Monterey Peninsula of Northern California, where Lori hopes to (eventually) grow old by the sea.

Bence Ganti, MA, is the founder and president of the Integral Academy in Hungary. Bence encountered integral theory in 1997, and has been pursuing this interest since that time. Becoming the main voice and disseminator of Ken Wilber’s integral teachings in Hungary led him to establish Integral Academy in Budapest in 2006. Through the course of its success he gained years of experience in integral community building and business. After studying at Integral Institute in 2004, he applied for a US green card in a lottery and had the good fortune of winning it. Seeing it as a calling, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to offer his skills in the emerging integral community. Bence is a practitioner of Buddhist meditation, yoga, and integral psychotherapy. As a therapist he developed his own groupwork, Integral Group Experience, that follows the principles of the Flow and Unique Self expression. As a singer and guitarist he also offers music nights, where he facilitates the celebration of the divine through chants, guitar playing, drumming, and dancing. He serves CWS as a Program Director, and is proud to be the chair for Hungary.

Mike Ginn – Mike Ginn’s university degrees are in psychology, adult development, and whole systems design. He’s addressed socio-cultural aspects of change in large human systems while working at a Federal R&D Center and at Sun Microsystems. He’s participated in the transformational trainings of Landmark Education over the past 15 years, and has attended many Integral Institute events and workshops. Mike currently lives in Carmel with his wife Carol Tisson, and owns and operates a small business that sells goods online.

Mike is honored to support the work of the CWS – for him it represents the possibility that integral being and thinking will make a difference in the world and for humanity.

Thomas G. Goddard, JD, PhD, is the President and CEO of The Integral Company, a firm dedicated to helping individuals and organizations to operate consciously and joyfully in the world. In his work with organizations, Dr. Goddard brings his expertise in Integral Theory and industrial and organizational psychology to diverse organizations, primarily in the health care sector. His work with organizations has taken him throughout the United States and to Latin America, the South Pacific, and the Middle East.In his work with individuals, Dr. Goddard empowers his clients to live full, conscious lives. Dr. Goddard has earned a law degree and masters and doctoral degrees in psychology. He has received specialized training in emotional intelligence, Respectful Confrontation, shadow work, tantra, the Shalom process, and consciousness studies. A founding member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute, he has led mindfulness and Integral Theory trainings and workshops for the National Institutes of Health, Shalom Mountain, The Omega Institute, The Chrysalis Group, and the Center for Creative Therapies and the Arts. Dr. Goddard serves as one of the three members of the Executive Council of Shalom Mountain, Inc., a retreat center in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

Tom writes, “My spiritual journey throughout my adult life has been marked by a yearning for a global, transformational conversation at the ‘deep end of the pool,’ where the mystics of all the great spiritual traditions meet in deep resonance with one another. The Center for World Spirituality has drawn my support because it offers the best opportunity for such a conversation I’ve seen in nearly 40 years of searching.”

Leon Gras is trainer, coach and core-member, living at Venwoude Integral Practice Community in the Netherlands (www.venwoude.org) for the past 10 years. He facilitates training programs on the issues of Men, Women, Intimacy & Relationships and guides people individually in the field of love making and the art of relating. At Venwoude, Leon is responsible for the movement of bringing Venwoude in connection to the world and the growth of the beautiful container Venwoude is and can be for this planet. Leon holds a strong vision of creating synergy between people and organizations from different backgrounds, countries and beliefs from which a world spirituality may emerge.

Sally Kempton has been practicing and teaching in a Hindu tradition for 30 years, twenty of them as a Swami, or Hindu monk of one of the Dasnami order of sannyasins. A former New York journalist who wrote extensively for the Village Voice, Esquire, New York Magazine, and the New York Times, she left her career in the early 1970s to study with her guru, Swami Muktananda. In the 1980s, she became one of the key teachers in the Siddha Yoga tradition as well as the first editor of a magazine, Darshan, which aimed at finding the shared truths within different spiritual traditions.

Sally has spent many years studying Kashmir Shaivism and yoga philosophy, as well as investigating esoteric mysticism as it appears in different traditions, including Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Sufism. Since 2002 she has lived and taught as a lay teacher of meditation and spiritual wisdom. Her work aims at bringing the wisdom of non-dual philosophy and yoga into the problems and challenges of daily life. Sally’s teaching is based on the philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism, on the core texts of yoga and devotional Hinduism, and deeply influenced by Integral theory. She is the author of two books, The Heart of Meditation and Meditation for the Love of It, writes a column, Wisdom, for Yoga Journal, and teaches regular teleconference classes as well as retreats and workshops at conference centers like Kripalu, Esalen and Mt. Madonna.

Sally says, “I was originally drawn to the spiritual path through the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a radically prescient nineteenth century Indian saint who realized God through the practices of several different traditions. My deepest conviction is that all the traditions contain authentic pathways to mystical realization, as well as authentic guidelines about how to live. As we move outside of conventional religious frameworks, it’s imperative that our practice carry an authenticity and rigor that is comparable to the rigor of the traditions, even as it acknowledges and works with the gifts and questions of modernity and post modernity. I am excited that the Center for World Spirituality has the potential to define a trans-lineage spirituality that is powerful enough to hold practitioners steady in the radical transitions of our times, and to lead us in working with the transformative energies all around us for the highest good. To me, World Spirituality holds a promise that as a group, we can discover pathways to full self realization and skillful enlightened action, which are rigorous, authentic, dogma free, and capable of riding the energy of this pregnant moment in human evolution.”

Victoria Myer is the former owner and current Business Manager and Communications Coordinator for Shalom Mountain, a recently converted non-profit retreat center that offers transformational retreats and trainings in Shalom Process, personal and spiritual growth, along with a Wisdom School of which Marc Gafni is the lead teacher. Victoria has long been a practitioner of earth-based ritual in community and has been informed by studies in Yoga, Wicca, Shamanism, Creative Process, Tantra and most recently the teachings of Marc Gafni. Her role as a mother and a lover has been a significant gift that she offers into the world with great integrity and an open heart. Victoria’s dream for Center for World Spirituality is to manifest ever evolving levels of consciousness in an ever expanding and connected global spiritual network.

Terry Nelson writes, “In my 30 years working as a Lifespring trainer, I have coached thousands of people all over the world to be more successful in fulfilling their commitment to becoming fully human. I think the work of CWS, to provide us human beings with a new and powerful lens through which to view our spiritual journey, will help all of us greatly. Hopefully, this wisdom will also reduce the likelihood of bad things being done in the name of religion. I am not a fan of crusades or suicide bombers. Enough!”

Terry is currently an executive development coach. He was Vice-President of Lifespring, a personal development training company. He worked as an analyst for the Congressional Budget Office and was a Peace Corps Volunteer and Training Project Director in Thailand. For the last 11 years, he has coached his kids’ basketball and soccer teams. Terry lives in Mill Valley, California with his wife and two children. He holds a BA from UW-Madison and an MPA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell.

Carlos Neumann

Eben Pagan is an entrepreneur that has had great success in a market providing dating advice for men. Eben’s main focus is on business optimization, management, and growth. Rather than focus on a few tricks or techniques, he teaches core strategies to help entrepreneurs take their business to the next level. An example of what he teaches is learning how to think like your customer, communicating with them effectively, and using data to make the right marketing decisions. He also talks about finding top talent, building a team, and creating an efficient & effective way to get them working together.

Mary Ann Voorhies, Mary Ann Gray Voorhies’ two university degrees are in the area of Behavioral Science/Psychology and Education. She has attended numerous tranformational educational programs and workshops over the span of the last 25 years. Mary Ann is the great-grandaughter of a Methodist minister and is steeped in the Wesleyan Christian tradition. She has also practiced Hatha yoga for over 30 years and is a certified Registered Yoga Teacher. She also has two certifications in Energy Medicine at the Master level. Mary Ann also holds a certification in Movement Psychology (based on Tai Chi) and is a certified Ontological Linguistic Coach. Her major career focus, at present, is her practice of Clinical Somatic Education–in the tradition of Thomas Hanna.She writes, “The moment I first heard Dr. Marc Gafni speak, I knew that I wanted to work with him. I have always had, as far back as I can remember, a deep longing for a worldwide integral understanding of spirituality and a deep longing for a sense of brotherhood among the peoples of the earth and for the promotion of an appreciation for all spiritual paths. As a student of Dr. Marc Gafni, I have gained a deep appreciation of his teachings on Unique Self, Eros, Agape Love, and the evolving revolutionary understanding of the masculine and feminine which, in my opinion, will aid profoundly in the evolution of humankind. The purpose and mission of the Center for World Spirituality so resonates with the longings at the core of my being that I am estatic to be a part of promoting the possibilities that, together, we can accomplish at this momentous time in history.”

Dr. Wyatt Woodsmallis the founder and President of Advanced Behavioral Modeling,. Inc,. a training and consulting firm committed to dramatically increasing the performance of organizations and individuals through the use of advanced behavioral and learning technologies. Wyatt is an expert modeler, business consultant and trainer.He is known for his vast range of interests and for his ability to synthesize complex ideas into new and more powerful models. Wyatt has been instrumental in pioneering the concepts and applications of behavioral modeling technology in the public, business and athletic sectors. He is the co-creator of Advanced Behavioral Modeling (ABM) ™ which is a technology for capturing and transferring excellence. ABM™ is a synthesis of the NLP approach to modeling with ideas from artificial intelligence, cybernetic epistemology, systems science, values research, human typological analysis, accelerated learning and cognitive psychology.Wyatt did modeling projects with the US Government in areas includingMorse Code reception, recruiting techniques, Hovercraft operations,pistol and rifle marksmanship, computer systems administration,knowledge engineers, and synthesis and creativity. In the privatesector he has worked with Polaroid, General Motors, MCI, and AveryDennison. He has been working for twelve years with the US OlympicDiving Team and coaches. ABM’s work contributed to the 6 U.S. medalswon at the 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 Olympics in diving.  Other notablemodeling projects include modeling 50 successful entrepreneurs inYorkshire, United Kingdom and modeling the most successful salesmen inthe history of his industry in the world with 165 million in sales inone year.  With his wife Marilyne Wyatt modeling Michel Thomas whocould teach people to speak a language proficiently in five days.In addition to modeling and consulting on performance enhancement,Wyatt conducts in-house management, leadership, supervision, values,creativity, sales,  negotiations and entrepreneurial trainings. He alsodoes public trainings in NLP and Advanced Behavioral Modeling. He hasconducted over 36 NLP Trainer’s Trainings in 12 countries on threecontinents. Wyatt has conducted basic and advanced NLP Trainings inover 25 countries on all five continents. He is the first person evercertified as a Master Trainer and as a Master Modeler. He is the pastPresident of IANLP (International Association for NLP) and an honorarymember of GANLP. He has a Ph. D. from Columbia University, and M.Div.From Union Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Physics from theUniversity of Virginia. Wyatt is generally recognized as the “TrainersTrainer” and as one of the most creative minds in NLP. He is theforemost modeler in the NLP community. He is the co-author of PeoplePattern Power: The Nine Keys to Business Success and of Time LineTherapy and the Basis of Personality and of over 50 published articleson NLP.  He is the co-author with his wife Marilyne of Michel Thomas:The Master Teacher.

Senior Faculty

Sally Kempton, formerly known as Swami Durgananda, is recognized as a powerful meditation guide and as a spiritual teacher who integrates yogic philosophy with daily life. She is the author of The Heart ofMeditation, and writes the popular Wisdom column for Yoga Journal. A teacher in the tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism Sally conducts conducts workshops and retreats on applied philosophy and meditation. She is also a core founder and faculty of iEvolve: Global Practice Community.

Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of many books, including two award-winning international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are and The Myth of Male Power. He conducts corporate training and is the only man in the US to have been elected three times to the Board of Directors of the National Organization for Women. He is a teacher, business owner and has done expert witness work in the sex discrimination and sexual harassment area for the US Air Force.

Center for World Spirituality Ambassadors

Marcy Baruch is a lifelong lover of the question, What is it to perceive, embody, and unfold the divine? Her work as a musical artist invites listeners into spaces of communion and grace. As a vocal coach of ten years, she brings a highly skilled awareness of the body’s sound-making mechanisms to her support of speakers and singers who wish to merge with, and emerge as, the full, life-affirming resonance of their unique voices.

Thomas G. Goddard, JD, PhD, is the President and CEO of The Integral Company, a firm dedicated to helping individuals and organizations to operate consciously and joyfully in the world.

Center for World Spirituality Chair

John Mackey is Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market, a $4 billion Fortune 500 company, and a “Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For” every year since 1998. John Mackey was named the “Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Of The Year” in 2003. John is a strong believer in FLOW principles, including free market principles and empowerment management.

Academic Chairs

Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Ph.D. is the chair of the Integral Theory Department at John F. Kennedy University, the Executive Editor of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice and he is co-author of the newly released Integral Ecology. He is currently the most published author applying the Integral model to a variety of topics including education, sustainable development, ecology, intersubjectivity, science and religion, consciousness studies, and play.

Clint Fuhs is the founder of Core Integral, a company dedicated to expanding access to, and ensuring the integrity of a comprehensive understanding of the Integral approach. He is a senior student of Ken Wilber’s, and is currently completing a PhD in Human and Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University. He is also an adjunct faculty member at both JFK and Fielding Graduate Universities.

Richard Mann, Ph.D. has degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan, and has taught psychology at both prestigious schools. In 2001, he co-directed a team of prominent developmental psychologists for the Human Change Project. Its goal was to create an Encyclopedia of Human Development, a detailed and easily accessible catalog of all research on human psychological and spiritual growth.

Zachary Stein received a B.A. in philosophy from Hampshire College in 2004 and an Ed.M. in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 2006. He is currently a student of philosophy and cognitive development pursuing a doctorate at Harvard. He is also the Senior Analyst for the Developmental Testing Service where he has worked for years employing cognitive developmental models and metrics in a variety of real world contexts.

Australian Chair

Dr. Christine McDougall is an authority on integrity. When people lead with integrity they get results, build enduring brands, and gain respect. They can look themselves in the mirror and like who they are. Organizations that model integrity are leaving a positive legacy for everyone and everything they touch.

Canadian Chairs

Kim McDonald has dedicated the past 10 years to facilitating individual psycho-spiritual evolution within an integrally informed private practice. With an academic background in psychology and a decade of grounding in the Integral model Kim has focused on the field of subtle energies as a portal to integrative healing. Married for over 26 years and a devoted mother of 3 children, Kim’s core passion is the practice of embodying and balancing Freedom and Fullness in everyday life.  In addition to her private practice work, Kim is a skilled events organizer. For the last 15 years her personal spiritual path has been strengthened by insight meditation, Iyengar yoga and psychotherapy. Kim, along with her co-chairs Deanna Silvester and Colin Muir, is now dedicated to the birthing of the Canadian Center for World Spirituality which will be located in Canada’s heartland, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Colin Muir has been exploring contemplative practice, mystical insight and related spiritual terrains of knowing/being since the early 1970’s, helping to establish one of the first ashrams in central Canada in 1973. Throughout his life, he has endeavored to strike a healthy balance between deep interior reflection and pragmatic exterior engagements. His academic background in philosophy, as well as a long-term interest in the writings and insights of prominent liberation theorists, coupled with the study and application of critical philosophy, supported a 30-year career in community development. Over the course of his formal work career as a social animator, Colin was instrumental in helping to establish over 30 community based, non-profit corporations and large multi-sectoral networking organizations, as well as facilitating over 100 inner city, grassroots community development projects.

Deanna Silvester has been exploring, teaching and facilitating individual and relational development professionally for nearly 40 years, including 11 years teaching professional ethics and facilitating theory & practice integration as a fulltime faculty member at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. After a significant interior awakening in the mid-1980’s, the nature of her own inquiry deepened (along with the emergence of some significant subtle energy transformative capacities) and has continued to evolve into a more conscious, integral spiritual unfolding. Upon meeting her beloved partner, Colin Muir, in the mid-1990’s, and coming to share his passion for the many gifts of Ken Wilber’s integral framework, Deanna began actively exploring the nature and practices of primary relationships which are built around a more integrally informed spiritual perspective or what she and Colin have now come to call a “Sacred Partnership”.

European Chairs

Germany

Thomas Hübl is a contemporary spiritual teacher of uncompromising clarity, which brings the enlightened potential of a new “Culture of WE” into the light. His workshops and trainings invite people to experience a deeper dimension of self-awareness and individual responsibility. Radical transcendence of ego opens the door to deeply authentic expression, service to the world and stable relationship with the absolute. Experiencing a driving inspiration to evolve, people give their gifts to the world in concrete ways.

Kerstin Tuschik has been on a conscious path of spiritual and personal growth for more than 20 years always yearning for unity, love and consciousness.

Her professional, academic and experiential background ranges from stage dancing and its didactics, physics, psychology, alternative education, personal and spiritual growth studying different practices and approaches with various teachers, constellations processes, human resources and organizational development, change management, coaching and various forms of psychodynamics.

Integral Theory has helped her to connect the dots. Through her dedication to this field, she met Dr. Marc Gafni and connected deeply to his vision of a World Spirituality based on Integral Principles, his trans-lineage path dharma on Unique Self and the New Enlightenment, and his transmission of Love. Studying with him and representing Center for World Spirituality in Germany while being connected to this international trans-lineage sangha is a deep pleasure and joy for her.

Holland

As one of the founding members of the Venwoude Integral Practice community in Holland, Renso Chahat Corten is well-trained and thoroughly cooked in communal living for 25 years. Lightness, humor and endless creativity for life’s challenges in the area’s of relationships, sexuality, embodied practice and a motivating WE-space, rooted in her realization of emptiness and fullness, is what she offers from her heart.

Leon Gras is trainer, coach and core-member, living at Venwoude Integral Practice Community in the Netherlands (www.venwoude.org) for the past 10 years. He facilitates training programs on issues like Men, Women, Intimacy & Relationships and guides people individually in the field of love making and the art of relating. At Venwoude, Leon is responsible for the movement of bringing Venwoude in connection to the (integral) world and the growth of the beautiful container Venwoude is and can be for this planet. Leon holds a strong vision of creating synergy between people and organizations from different backgrounds, countries and beliefs from which a world spirituality may emerge.

Norway

Chameli Ardagh is the Director, Founder and Senior Teacher of the Awakening Women Institute. She is a celebrated transformational leader and one of the world’s leading pioneers on contemporary feminine spirituality.

 

Switzerland

Hans Jecklin has been a successful entrepreneur in the music business for all of his professional life. Some 40 yeas ago, he got involved in Jungian psychology, leading on to the exploration of various forms of meditation, spiritual traditions and processes of inner change. His integrated experience as an entrepreneur, as a spiritual practitioner and as a facilitator of inner work form the basis for his capacity as a coach and mentor for conscious evolution in business and society, individual and institutional. Hans Jecklin also is an author and a captivating speaker on aspects of global responsibility and spirituality. Hans Jecklin is an initiator and vision-holder of Global Spirituality.

Annette Kaiser is today a spiritual director of „Villa Unspunnen“ in Switzerland and „Windschnur“ in Germany. She was authorized by the English-Russian Sufi teacher Irina Tweedie to carry on this tradition, which she makes accessible in today’s world. She is married, has two grown children and teaches mainly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She is author of eight books and in 2000 developed in the Integral DO-Path. Her deepest heart-wish is the transconfessional spirituality that manifests in this world based on the reality of Oneness.