World Spirituality Council

David Abram is a cultural ecologist, philosopher and performance artist and is the founder of the Alliance for Wild Ethics. He is the author of the Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. He is an acclaimed lecturere, storyteller and magician who has worked with many indigenous people from Indonesia, Nepal and the Americas.

Barbara Alexander M.A., M.Div. is an integral practitioner and teacher whose practice is based in Marin County, CA. Her passion for human development spans 35 years and she brings her training in Integral Coaching, Integral Theory, Gestalt therapy, Esoteric Healing and Spiritual Direction to her work with individuals and organizations. Barbara has studied and practiced in the both the Buddhist and the mystical Christian traditions. She is adjunct faculty in spirituality at her alma mater, San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Arjuna Ardagh is an awakening coach, founder of the Alchemy Institute and the Living Essence Foundation and author of seven books and many audio and video products, including the 2005 bestseller The Translucent Revolution and his latest book, Leap Before You Look. He has trained more than 800 facilitators of awakening since 1995, and has been working with people, both individually and in organizations since 1983.

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.

Angeles Arrien is a cultural anthropologist, award-winning author, educator, and consultant to many organizations and businesses. She lectures and conducts workshops worldwide, bridging cultural anthropology, psychology, and comparative religions. Her work is currently used in medical, academic, and corporate environments.

Coleman Barks is a published original poet and is the preeminent translator of the 13th-century mystic poet Rumi. He has been a student of Sufism since 1977 and performs live with accompanying musicians throughout the country. He taught poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years.

Dr. Michael Beckwith’s life is a living testament to building spiritual community. In the 1970’s he began an inward journey into the teachings of East and West, and today teaches universal truth principles found in the New Thought-Ancient Wisdom tradition of spirituality. Gifted with a vision of a trans-denominational spiritual community, in 1986 he founded the Agape International Spiritual Center upon his faith in that original vision.

Saniel Bonder has helped people fulfill their quests for a spiritual enlightenment they can naturally integrate with everyday human activity and relationships—and with their deeper life-purposes. He is the founder of the “Waking Down in Mutuality” teachings and, with his wife Linda, is co-creator of the “WholeHEART Way.”

Dr. Joan Borysenko is a pioneer in integrative medicine and a world-renowned expert in the mind/body connection. She has been a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and is a best-selling author. Her work has been foundational in an international health-care revolution that recognizes the role of meaning and spirituality as an integral part of health and healing.

Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault is an Episcopal priest, author of five books, and internationally known retreat leader. She is passionately committed to the recovery of the Christian contemplative path, is the principal teacher for the Contemplative Society, and has worked closely with Father Thomas Keating as a teacher of Centering Prayer.

Dr. Mariana Caplan is the author of seven books and numerous articles on cutting edge topics in Western spirituality, including the seminal book: Halfway Up the Mountain: the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment and Do You Need a Guru?: Understanding the Student-Teacher Relationship in an Era of False Prophets. Her recent release, Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, won three national awards for the Best Spiritual Book of 2009, and the COVA Visionary Award for best Book of the Year.

Deepak Chopra is acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest leaders in the field of mind body medicine, and continues to transform our understanding of the meaning of health. He is a prolific author of over 56 books, more than 100 audio, video and CD-ROM titles which have been translated into 35 languages with over 20 million copies sold worldwide. Chopra’s popularity as an international presenter and keynote speaker is exemplified in an impressive list of honorariums. Esquire Magazine designated him as one of the top ten motivational speakers in the country; and he is a recipient of the Toastmasters International Top Five Outstanding Speakers award.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens is an author and one of the world’s foremost authorities on living food nutrition, holistic lifestyle and complementary medicine. He is Founder/director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, and the Culture of Life online community.

Krishna Das has brought devotional yogic chanting with a Western influence to the world for the last several decades. Sharing his heart through music and chanting is the basis of his spiritual work; his way of serving the Divine within himself and others. He has recorded 13 albums to date, and travels the globe performing kirtan, concerts, and chanting retreats. He has taught with Ram Dass and sung for many saints and yogis throughout the world.

Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars, one of the main interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, and a leading spokesperson for the emerging American Buddhism. He is a bestselling author, poet and chantmaster and a sought after speaker and workshop leader.

Rabbi Avram Davis, Ph.D. is the founder of Chochmat HaLev, Center of Jewish Spirituality, an active congregation serving over 250 households in the San Francisco, East Bay area. He has written books on Jewish mysticism and meditation.

Sofia Diaz is a hatha yoga master, a lineage holder in the Balasaraswati lineage of the South Indian temple arts and a recipient of numerous meditation empowerments in both Tibetan and Shakta Tantric traditions. She turns the body wisdom practices she is empowered, into accessible teachings and practices for the modern western mind. Being an inspired woman practitioner, the rigors of her practice have resulted in great clarity and expertise in the domain of Feminine Spiritual practice, which she has been generously teaching for 28 years.

Michael Dowd is the author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, which has been endorsed by 6 Nobel laureates and other science luminaries, and by religious leaders across the spectrum. He and his wife, Connie Barlow, travel the continent as America’s evolutionary evangelists, and have spoken to more than 1,500 groups over the past 9 years.

Gordon Dveirin, Ed.D. is a consultant in organization and human development. His public and private sector clients have ranged from the Smithsonian Institution to the Women’s Vision Foundation. In 2004, he co-founded the Claritas Institute for Interspiritual Inquiry and its Interspiritual Mentoring Program. He is coauthor (with his wife, Joan Borysenko) of Saying Yes to Change and Your Soul’s Compass.

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.

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.

Mark D. Forman, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Integral Studies Department at John F. Kennedy University and adjunct faculty at The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Mark is a psychotherapist and has worked with a variety of clinical populations, most recently at San Jose St. University’s Student Counseling Center. He has recently completed a text on Integral Psychotherapy entitled, A Guide to Integral Psychotherapy: Complexity, Integration, and Spirituality in Practice.

John Friend is one of the most charismatic and highly respected hatha yoga teachers in the world. Blending an uplifting Tantric yoga philosophy with an entertaining sense of humor and a profound knowledge of biomechanics, John’s teaching style guides each student to live every moment fully from the heart. He is the founder of Anusara Yoga is one of the most popular and fastest growing schools of yoga in North America.

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 iEvolve: 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 Marc Gafni’s In-depth biography
Click here Marc Gafni’s Teachings Biography

Gangagi is an American author, speaker, and spiritual teacher in the lineage of Poonjaji and his teacher, Sri Ramana Maharshi. She shares her direct experience of the essential message she received and offers it to all who want to discover true and lasting fulfillment. She powerfully articulates how it is really possible to discover the truth of who you are and to be true to that discovery.

Sharon Gannon and David Life created Jivamukti Yoga, which is a highly regarded worldwide method, with a path to enlightenment emphasizing compassion for all beings. They are pioneers in teaching yoga as spiritual activism/activation. She is also a musician, producer, dancer, poet, animal rights activist and author of several books on yoga, veganism and animal rights.

Philip Goldberg is a spiritual counselor, meditation teacher and ordained Interfaith Minister. The author or coauthor of 19 books, he lectures and leads workshops throughout the country. A novelist and screenwriter as well, he lives in Los Angeles, where he founded Spiritual Wellness and Healing Associates (SWAHA). He is Director of Outreach for SpiritualCitizens.net. and blogs regularly on the Huffington Post and Intent.com.

Todd Goldfarb is a business coach, motivational speaker and internet entrepreneur based in Manhattan, New York.Todd has been coaching individuals and organizations for more than 10 years. He has been featured in several magazines, and lectured to more than 2,000 small business owners all over the U.S. regarding business promotion and marketing.

John Gray is author of the groundbreaking Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, the New York Times number one best-selling book of the last decade, Gray launched a Mars-Venus book series that changed the way men and women will forever view relationships. In the fifteen years since, John Gray has sold over 50 million books in more than 45 languages throughout the world.

Andrew Harvey is a renowned and distinguished mystical scholar, Rumi translator and explicator, poet, novelist, spiritual teacher and writer, and architect of Sacred Activism.

Gail Hochachka is the founder of Drishti–Centre for Integral Action, a non-profit organization that researches, consults, teaches, and conducts projects in community and international development in Central and South America, Africa and Asia. She is a Journal of Integral Theory and Practice author and teaches as part of the Integral Theory faculty at JFK University.

Dr. Jean Houston is a scholar, philosopher and researcher in human capacities and one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. A powerful and dynamic speaker, she holds conferences and seminars with social leaders, educational institutions and business organizations worldwide. She is a prolific writer and author of 26 books, founded the Foundation for Mind Research and the Mystery School, served as an advisor to UNICEF, and currently serves as a consultant with the UNDP.

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.

Eli Jaxon-Bear is an author and spiritual teacher who has studied in many traditions, including Zen and finally in the lineage of Poonjaji. After he met his final teacher, he was sent back into the world to share his unique psychological insights into the nature of egoic suffering. He currently teaches through the Leela Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to world peace and freedom through universal self-realization.

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.

Jerry Jud is a wise spiritual elder and the founding father of Shalom Mountain Retreat Center, founded in 1969, as a process for exploring the transformative power of loving community. In 1976, Shalom Mountain Retreat and Study Center was established in the Catskill Mountains 100 miles northwest of New York City.

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.

Dr. Robert Kegan is nothing short of the academic ambassador of human development. As a Harvard-trained developmental psychologist, Kegan is best known for championing the idea that there is life after adolescence; that adult mental development need not end at age twenty; that adults may, indeed must, continue to develop throughout adulthood. He single-handedly transformed epistemology, often considered a dry, academic exercise, into a dynamic event by helping us understand that it is not what we think, but rather how we think.

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.

Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX is President and Spiritual Director of Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute in Melbourne, Australia and E-Vam Institute in Upstate New York. He is recognized as the ninth incarnation of the Traleg line by His Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa and was accorded the title Kyabgon, a significant distinction retained by only a few lineage holders of the Tibetan tradition. He regularly gives lectures and seminars worldwide on Buddhism and related topics.

Tripp Lanier is host of The New Man Podcast, a professional men’s coach, an entrepreneur and artist. As a host, he has interviewed such notable personalities as Ken Wilber, Marcus Buckingham, Bill Harris and Steve Pavlina. Tripp was also featured in EnlightenNext’s issue dedicated to “Constructing the New Man.” For twelve years, Tripp created TV shows and ads for the likes of ESPN and scores of political campaigns through his media production company.

Dave Logan, a best-selling author, is an expert in cultural transformation in the workplace, serving as senior partner at CultureSync and on the faculty of the Marshall School of Business and works with Fortune 500 companies, governments, and nonprofits. Much of CultureSync’s work is derived from a ten-year study of over 24,000 people published at Tribal Leadership (2008), which shows how organizational culture evolves over time and how leaders can nudge it forward.

Dr. Stuart C. Lord, a nationally recognized expert in service learning, multicultural and spiritual education, and leadership and ethics became the fifth president of Naropa University on July 1, 2009.

Frederic Luskin, Ph.D. serves as the Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects, an ongoing series of workshops and research projects that investigate the effectiveness of his forgiveness methods on a variety of populations. He currently serves as a Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at Stanford University and is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

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.

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.

Rev. David McCallum, SJ is a Jesuit priest working in the field of adult development, focusing on issues of leadership and spiritual maturation. Currently, he serves as assistant to the president of Le Moyne College for Strategic Development and Leadership. He has a doctorate in Adult Learning and Leadership at Columbia University, Teachers College, on the implications of adult developmental maturation for leadership capacity.

Rabbi Miriam Maron is an ordained Rabbi, and a spiritual healer and mentor in private practice. She performs sacred dance and teaches intensives on Jewish Kabbalistic and Shamanic healing modalities. She is also a prolific singer and songwriter with seven albums featuring Jewish healing and mystical songs and chants.

According to the Utne Reader magazine, Silvia Nakkach, M.A., M.MT is one of “forty cutting-edge artists who will shake the art world in the new millennium.” Silvia has cultivated a voice that transports listeners into the heart of devotion, while garnering numerous awards, grants, and commissions as a composer. She is an internationally accredited specialist in cross-cultural music therapies, including music shamanism and the use of sound to transform consciousness.

Claudio Naranjo is an elder statesman of the U.S. and global Human Potential Movement and the spiritual renaissance of the late 20th Century. Dr. Naranjo was among the staff of the early stage of Esalen Institute, where he became one of the three successors to Fritz Perls. Later his life’s pilgrimage brought him in contact with various spiritual masters including Swami Muktananda, Idries Shah, Oscar Ichazo, Suleyman Dede, H.H. the XVIth Karmapa, and, most decisively, Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche.

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.

Terry Patten co-developed Integral Life Practice with Ken Wilber and the core team at Integral Institute, and was the senior writer of the book, Integral Life Practice. With Integral Spiritual Practice, he leads people step-by-step into a life of heart-centered evolutionary unfoldment. He hosts the acclaimed online teleseminar series Beyond Awakening: The Future of Spiritual Practice. Terry speaks and consults internationally, inspiring, challenging, and connecting leaders and institutions worldwide. His personal web sites are http://gobeyondawakening.com, http://theispcommunity.com, and http://integralspiritualpractice.com.

Dr. Christoph Quarch – Philosopher theologian, journalist.
He runs an extensive, nationwide seminar-program and has published more than 20 books on issues of spirituality and philosophy.  Since 2001 he has operated a Philosophy-Café in Fulda.  After his dissertation on “Soul and Being – Plato’s Metaphysics of Life” for five years he was editor of the periodical “Protestant Commentaries”, from 2000 to 2006 academic director of the German Protestant Kirchentag and from 2006 to 2008 chief-editor of the periodical “Publik-Forum”. From 2005 to 2008 he was program-director of the Spiritual Summer Academy Hombroich. www.lumen-naturale.de

Robin Reinach, MFA is an Integral Community Organizer in New York City, a writer and a mom. Robin is currently enrolled in One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and halfway toward earning her ordination as an Interfaith Minister.

Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina, USA
He is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virgina, Charlottesville. Dr. Sachedina, who has studied in India, Iraq, Iran, and Canada, obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He has been conducting research and writing in the field of Islamic Law, Ethics, and Theology (Sunni and Shiite) for more than two decades. In the last ten years he has concentrated on social and political ethics, including Interfaith and Intrafaith Relations and Islamic Biomedical Ethics.  Dr. Sachedina’s most recent publications include: The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism (Oxford University Press, 2002), Islamic Biomedical Ethics: Principles and Application (Oxford University Press, 2009), Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights (OUP, Sept. 2009) in addition to numerous articles in academic journals. He is an American citizen born in Tanzania. http://people.virginia.edu/~aas/info/vitae.htm

Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp is an award winning human rights advocate, lecturer, writer, environmental activist and champion of civil society worldwide who is active in a wide variety of progressive, humanitarian, and interfaith organizations and initiatives. Born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Rabbi Soetendorp was saved by a righteous couple and survived as a ‘hidden child’. He is president and founder of the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values, Rabbi Emeritus of the Liberal Jewish Community in The Hague (The Netherlands) and past president of the European Region of the World Union for Progressive Judais. Furthermore Rabbi Soetendorp is Earth Charter Commissioner, Founding Board Member of Green Cross International, Co-chair of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders, member of the Council of Religious leaders in Europe, and member of the recently formed council of conscience working with Karen Armstrong towards tha Charter of Compassion. Awraham Soetendorp participates as a key discussion partner of the World Economic Forum in his function of Religious Leader. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the World Council of Religious Leaders, launched in Bangkok in June 2002. www.soetendorpinstitute.org

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.

Jai Uttal has cut a serpentine swath through the musical world over the course of a recording career that’s spanned more than two decades, with treks into multi-cultural world music, avant-garde jazz, electronic rock and traditional Indian kirtan—or sacred chants—that have become staples in the yoga-practicing community.

Frances Vaughan, Ph.D., is a psychologist and a trustee of the Fetzer Institute. She is the author and co-editor of books and articles on psychology and spiritual growth. A pioneer in transpersonal psychology, she has studied several spiritual traditions and has served as President of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and the Association for Humanistic Psychology and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D. is a dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. He was ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk by H. H. the Dalai Lama. Currently, he is the president and founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, and teaches Buddhist philosophy and meditation throughout Europe and North America.

Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., has spent nearly a quarter century researching and practicing in the world’s great spiritual traditions. His critically acclaimed book, Essential Spirituality, is a summary of that wisdom, outlining the seven spiritual practices common to the world’s major religions. He is currently a professor of psychiatry, philosophy, and anthropology at the University of California at Irvine.

Rabbi Gershon Winkler is a charismatic teacher who has devoted much of the past two decades to writing and teaching about the lesser-promulgated wisdoms of Judaism and to Hebraic scriptural interpretation. He is the founder of the Walking Stick Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the recovery and preservation of indigenous Hebrew spirituality. He is also an author of fourteen books on Jewish law, lore, mysticism and theology.

Wyatt Woodsmall is 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.

Michael Zimmerman is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Tulane University. He is also a Professor of Philosophy, as well as Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry in Tulane Medical School.