Wisdom Council

Ken Wilber is the most widely translated academic writer in America, with 25 books translated into some 30 foreign languages, and is the first philosopher-psychologist to have his Collected Works published while still alive. Wilber is an internationally acknowledged leader and the preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development, which continues to gather momentum around the world.

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. 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. She is adjunct faculty 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. She is especially appreciated for her love of mythology and storytelling as a method for illuminating our hidden strength and beauty.

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 has a life as 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. 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. Dan Brown is a clinical mental health counselor and renowned for his knowledge of meditation practice. He has studied Tibetan, Buddhist Sanskrit, and Pali forms of Buddhism and holds his Ph.D. in Religion & Psychological Studies at the University of Chicago. He has taught hypnotherapy for over 35 years and is regarded as an expert in the field of trauma and abuse.

Dr. Mariana Caplan is the author of seven books and numerous articles on cutting edge topics in Western spirituality, including the seminal books: Halfway Up the Mountain and Do You Need a Guru?. Her recent release, Eyes Wide Open , 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, plus more than 100 audio, video and CD-ROM titles which have been translated into 35 languages with over 20 million copies sold worldwide.

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. He is also a psychiatrist, family therapist, Ayurvedic practitioner, homeopath, acupuncturist, medical researcher, and ecological leader.

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. 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 is the author of two books: The Way of Flame, Judaic Mysticism, and the editor of Meditation From the Heart of Judaism.

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. Her practice has 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, and many others.

Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of many books, including two international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are and The Myth of Male Power. He conducts corporate trainings 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 expert witness in the sex discrimination and sexual harassment area.

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. 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 The Center for World Spirituality and the author of seven books, including the national bestseller Soul Prints and Mystery of Love. 

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.

Todd Goldfarb is a business coach, motivational speaker and internet entrepreneur based in Manhattan. 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. He is the author of over 30 books, including The Hope, A Guide to Sacred Activism, The Direct Path, and Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi.

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, and founded the Foundation for Mind Research and the Mystery School.

Thomas Hübl is a contemporary spiritual teacher of uncompromising clarity who 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.

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. He is also 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, in 1969, of Shalom Mountain Retreat Center, 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.

Dr. Robert Kegan is Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development, and Chair of the Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is best known for championing the idea that there is life after adolescence; that adults may, indeed must, continue to develop throughout adulthood. His books include the seminal The Evolving Self.

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 of Meditation, 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.

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.

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.

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).

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. Dr. Lord has helped foster the growth and advancement of many communities as both educator and humanitarian.

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 the Austin-based Whole Foods Market, a $4 billion Fortune 500 company.The company was named 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, 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. Her many works include Bridging the Worlds: Support for the Chronicly Ill and Those in Transition.

Silvia Nakkach, M.A., M.MT is one of forty cutting-edge artists who will shake the art world in the new millennium, according to the Utne Reader. 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.

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 Swamis and spiritual masters.

Eben Pagan is an entrepreneur who has had great success in a market providing dating advice for men. Eben’s main focus is on business optimization, management, and growth. He teaches core strategies to help entrepreneurs advance, learn how to think like their customers, and make data-driven decisions. He also consults around finding top talent, building cohesive teams, getting teams to them working together efficiently.

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. Terry speaks and consults internationally, inspiring, challenging, and connecting leaders and institutions worldwide.

Joe Perez A graduate of Harvard University in comparative religion and philosophy, Joe has pioneeered weblog journalism and autobiography. He has written many experimental weblogs since 2003 and his spiritual memoir, begun at the age of 33, was acclaimed by Ken Wilber as the work of “a rip roaring wonder of a writer.” He is now Executive Editor of Spirit’s Next Move, the daily blog of the Center for World Spirituality.

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. He is a former  academic director of the German Protestant Kirchentag and was recently program director of the Spiritual Summer Academy Hombroich.

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. She is also a Certified Advanced Gestalt Practioner. He has hosted events with Ken Wilber, Dr. Marc Gafni, Clint Fuhs, Alex Gray, Terry Patten, and others in her home.

Anthony Robbins is a world authority on leadership psychology, peace negotiator, humanitarian, strategic advisor to world leaders, successful entrepreneur, honored business strategist, award-winning speaker, internationally best-selling author, authority on peak performance, and innovator in psychology and intervention. His nonprofit, the Anthony Robbins Foundation, provides assistance to inner-city youth, senior citizens, homeless, and feeds millions of people in countries all over the world.

Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virgina, Charlottesville. He has studied in India, Iraq, Iran, and Canada, and 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.

Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D.  is a clinical psychologist and author who has pioneered the application of systems concepts of family therapy to this intrapsychic realm. Dr. Schwartz co-authored, with Michael Nichols, Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, the most widely used family therapy text in the U.S. He founded the Center for Self Leadership (CSL), which has evolved a comprehensive approach for working with individuals, couples, and families.

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 variety of progressive, humanitarian, and interfaith organizations and initiatives. He is president and founder of groups including the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values and Rabbi Emeritus of the Liberal Jewish Community in The Hague.

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 employs cognitive developmental models and metrics.

Rev. Tom Thresher, Ph.D. is currently the pastor of a nascent Integral Church in western Washington. His recent book, Reverent Irreverence: Integral Church for the 21st Century, From Cradl e to Christ Consciousness examines the church’s nine year exploration using the integral map. He holds an M.A. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University.