Annual Conferences that Explore the Nature of Consciousness
SCS conferences reflects the values and goals of The Society for Consciousness Studies, a professional scholarly organization that honors work of quality from all authentic scholarly traditions, including philosophical, psychological, sociological, and other scientific understandings of consciousness.
Within this broad framework the SCS explores potential advances beyond the classical and postmodern knowledge paradigms that have dominated science and scholarship during the past century.
Everyone (including members of the public) are welcome to join SCS’s conferences, and learn about the cutting edge of consciousness science!
The most recent annual conference of the Society for Consciousness Studies took place on December 5th, 2020 and was held online.
Videos of past Conference Sessions can be found here.
Speakers for the December 5, 2020 Conference
Alethea Nerad, MBC, CPC, PhD(c)
Feminine Consciousness and the Wisdom of the Heart
Patrice (Alethea) Nerad, MBC, CPC, PhD(c) has a deep and extensive background in organizational/ systemic consciousness and is also known for her energy/healing work related to heart consciousness.
Some of her early work has sought to enhance organizational and systemic consciousness through deeply reflective conversations and coaching moving towards an ecosystemic understanding. Her doctoral dissertation, “Separation from the Real: The Power of Story at the Heart of the Civil Commitment Process”, takes a deep dive into the mental health system (judicial/legal/psychiatric) through a transdisciplinary and ecosystemic lens. Patrice has also organized and facilitated high – level conferences for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was co-technical editor for three separate NSF symposium volumes. She was instrumental in the funding/founding of a large NSF Center of Excellence. She has consulted with several foundations and non-profits positioning them for their future work and growth. She was instrumental in the passage of the first law in the country related to the practice of unlicensed healing modalities such as reiki, healing touch, etc so healing practitioners could practice without fear of potential reprisal. She has taught Science and Spirituality courses at the college level along with other courses on healing, intuition, subtle energy and heart consciousness.
With over 25+ years in the consulting, coaching and energy healing and teaching realms she walks the ropes between the worlds of consciousness. gardenersoftheheart @gmail.com Feminine Consciousness and the Wisdom of the Hear
Marcus T Anthony, Associate Professor (Futures Studies) Beijing Institute of Technology
Embodied Presence and Responsible Active Citizenship in the Age of Dissent
Marcus T Anthony is Associate Professor of Strategy and Foresight at Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, China. Anthony has worked in Education for twenty-five years, teaching in Australia, New Zealand, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He is an active writer and speaker in the Futures Studies community in the Asian-Pacific region. His areas of interest and research include the futures of the mind, China, and Education. His most recent Power and Presence Project has sought to explore the possible applications of Embodied Presence in reference to personal and collective empowerment, amidst the crisis in sensemaking. Anthony has published fifty academic works, including journal papers and book chapters, mostly in Futures Studies. His ten popular and academic books include the upcoming Power and Presence: Reclaiming Authenticity in a Weaponised World.
Ed Sarath, University of Michigan
What is Consciousness? Intimations of an Improvisation-based Ontology
Ed Sarath is Professor of Music in the Department in Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation and head of the U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies. He is active as performer, composer, recording artist and author. His books Improvisation, Creativity and Consciousness (SUNY 2013), and Black Music Matters (2018) are the first to apply principles of Integral Theory to music.
Pratibha Gramann, Ph.D, De Anza College
Cosmic Motivational Psychology Gunas Affect Cognition
Pratibha Gramann holds a doctorate in Psychology and Consciousness from Saybrook University, S.F., and a master’s in Higher Education and Counseling from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She does Inner Wellness Life Coaching. She researches ancient Indian texts and interprets them to express their relevance for modern mind. Her work is centered on the scholarly development of a psychological paradigm for the human, subjective evolvement of consciousness. She is working on a book to show the relationship of consciousness and materiality for consciousness development. pratibhagramann @gmail.com.
Miloslava Kozmová, Ph.D.
Metacognition in Non-Lucid Dreaming So Far Exists Without Neural Correlates
Miloslava Kozmova, Ph.D. My research interests pertain to dreaming consciousness, specifically problem-solving dreams, and volitional, cognitive, and emotional capacities of healthy non-lucid dreamers which I am expanding into dreams of medically-diagnosed patients. I am a lecturer in psychology at University of Massachusetts, Boston, and research associate at Human Sleep and Immunology Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., who has held faculty appointments at Akamai University, Fordham University, Kent State University, New York University, Saybrook University, Sofia University, and the California Institute for Integral Studies. He has received lifetime achievement awards from the Parapsychological Association, the International Association for the Study of Dreams, and the Society for Humanistic Psychology. Krippner is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, which granted him its 2002 Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Development of Psychology. He is co-author of the award-winning book Personal Mythology, and co-editor of the award-winning book Varieties of Anomalous Experience, and has published over 1,000 peer-reviewed articles.
Gary Lachman
Gary Lachman is the author of twenty books on the links between consciousness, culture, and the western inner tradition, most recently The Lost Knowledge of the Imagination, Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson, and The Secret Teachers of the Western World. He writes for different journals in the US, UK, and Europe, where he also lectures, and his work has been translated into several languages. He is on the adjunct faculty in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. In a former life he was a member of the pop group Blondie and in 2006 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Born in New Jersey, since 1996 he has lived in London, UK. His website is garylachman.co.uk. gary_lachman @yahoo.co.uk
Kiran Kumar Salagame, Ph.D.
Towards bridging the two streams of knowledge on the Primacy of consciousness
Dr. Kiran Kumar Salagame served as a Professor and Chair in the Department of Studies in Psychology, University of Mysore, Mysore, India. He obtained his Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology and worked on Altered States of Consciousness for his thesis four decades ago. He was a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow, at Saybrook Graduate School, in San Francisco, in 1990-91 and conducted a study on meditation, which is published as a monograph, The Psychology of Meditation- A contextual approach. In the past four decades he has been engaged in mainstreaming the psychological concepts and perspectives embedded in the Vedic tradition of India and has contributed for the development of Indian Psychology(www.drkirankumar.academia.edu). Currently he serves as the Vice-President of International Transpersonal Association, USA.
Peter Fenwick
The Changes in Consciousness Surrounding Death
Dr. Peter Fenwick is a Neuropsychiatrist. He was educated at Cambridge and at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. He ran an epilepsy unit at the Maudsley Hospital in London., and was Part of Kings College London. He has for a long time been interested in NDE and wrote The Truth and The Light, an account of over 400 Cases. His interest in consciousness started with his first paper on meditation in 1969. He became interested in how we die and researched the phenomena around the time of Death. This work was published in the book The Art of Dying and in several scientific papers. It became clear the death shows many non-local phenomena and is and expansion of consciousness.
Allan Combs
Allan Combs is a neuropsychologist, system theorist, and consciousness researcher at the California Institute of Integral Studies where he directs the Center for Consciousness Studies. He is also Professor Emeritus of psychology at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Combs is the author of over 200 publications on consciousness and the brain. His books include “Consciousness Explained Better,” “The Radiance of Being,” and “Mind in Time: The Dynamics of Thought, Reality, and Consciousness” with Ben Goertzel and Mark Germine. He was also the winner of the 2002-2003 National Teaching Award of the Graduate Liberal Studies Association. sourceintegralis .org/ . ciis .edu/About_CIIS/Center_for_Consciousness_Studies.html. Allan is the Doshi Professor of Consciousness Studies; CIIS Director: Center for Consciousness Studies CCS @CIIS.EDU
Jeffery A. Martin, Ph.D.
Jeffery A. Martin is a CIIS and Harvard trained social scientist who researches personal transformation. He specializes in bringing rigorous empirical research and testing to transformational techniques and theories that have previously been supported anecdotally. Jeffery is a leading expert on non-symbolic consciousness (enlightenment, nonduality, mystical experience, union with God/nature, etc.). He holds several graduate degrees and specializes academically in technology, psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and transformative studies. A bestselling author and award winning educator, Jeffery has co-edited, authored, or co-authored over 20 books and numerous other publications; appeared in a wide variety of media; and lectured broadly in both academic and public forums. Jeffery is currently the director of the Center for the Study of Non-Symbolic Consciousness. nonsymbolic.org. jeffery.a.martin @gmail.com.
Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D
Aging and Transformation: A Naturalistic Model for Awakening to Life’s Third Act
Marilyn Schlitz is Senior Fellow and President Emeritus of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. She was President and CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences from 2009 to 2012. Her work focuses in psychophysiology, cross-cultural healing, and consciousness studies. She has given lectures, conducted workshops, and taught all around the country. She completed her training in psychology, behavioral and social science, and philosophy at Stanford University, University of Texas, San Antonio and Wayne State University, Detroit. She received her PhD in anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin. She has been featured in various writings, interviews, and videos. As well, she has authored and co-authored numerous books, such as Living Deeply: The Art of Science of Transformation and Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. marilyn @noetic.org.
Debby Flickinger
The Emergence of Integral Consciousness: The Miracles that Weave together Caritas Process™
Debby Flickinger teaches Caring Sustainability™ within all of her work. She is an affiliated faculty at Union Institute and University (UIU) teaching courses on social justice, engaging differences, and sustainability through a caring science lens. she received my doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Debby has contributed a chapter in Miracles and Mysteries Witnessed by Nurses, a collection of stories edited by Jean Watson, Ph.D. She has also published articles about the intersectionality of consciousness and cross-cultural shamanism, and facilitated workshops at various conferences around the globe, including Riga, Latvia.
Martha Brumbaugh, PhD
The Emergence of Integral Consciousness: The Miracles that Weave together Caritas Process™
Dissertation/Thesis mentor and coach. Educational life coach.
I use Cross-Cultural and Shamanic and Earth-Based Spirituality Practices to help students engage with their work at a different level of consciousness. As an Ed. Life Coach I help graduates apply for jobs, develop their courses, and design their online spaces.
Stephan A. Schwartz
America, Consciousness and the Covid-19 Pandemic: What Have We Learned?
Stephan A. Schwartz is a Distinguished Consulting Faculty of Saybrook University, a BIAL fellow, columnist for the journal Explore, editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net, and award-winning author of both fiction and non-fiction. For 50 years he has been studying the nature of consciousness and is one of the founders of modern Remote Viewing research.
Barbara Karlsen
The Human Body in Sympoiesis with Nature and Cosmos: Towards an Emergent Ontogenesis with the Cosmo
Barbara Karlsen is a Somatic Psychotherapist, Continuum Movement teacher and a Somatic Re-Birther. She is presently working on a book for Inner Traditions based on the new biology and movement as source of evolutionary novelty to drive the complex interactions between cells, genes, tissues and microbes. These are fundamental aspects of the divergence and evolution of our species that we have lost due to mechanistic science, modernity, and technological individuation. Her work is inspired by the teachings of Jean Gebser, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and Teilhard. She has a private therapy practice in Marin County, CA. and teaches movement throughout the Bay area. For more information go to barbarakarlsen.com.
Michael Jawer
Sentience as the Precursor of Consciousness and the Key to Panpsychism
Michael Jawer is a Washington, DC-based writer, speaker and researcher. His expertise is the nexus of personality development, body/mind, emotion, and spirituality.
Jawer is the author of three books: Sensitive Soul (Park Street Press, 2020) and, with Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD, The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion (Park Street Press, 2009) and Your Emotional Type (Healing Arts Press, 2011).
His papers have appeared in Frontiers in Psychology–Consciousness Research, Journal of Interpersonal Neurobiology Studies, Science & Consciousness Review, Explore, Seminars in Integrative Medicine, and the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, while his feature articles and interviews have run in Psychology Today, Spirituality & Health, Aeon, Nautilus, Minding Nature, Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, Edge Science, Noetic Now, PsychCentral, and Scientific American.
Jawer also blogs for Psychology Today (“Feeling Too Much”).
Further information about his work can be found at www.michaeljawer.com.
Elizabeth W. Krasnoff, PhD(c)
Effects of Auditory Binaural Beats on Consciousness and the Human Nervous System
Elizabeth W. Krasnoff, PhD(c), MIM, is currently working towards her doctorate in Consciousness and Transformative Studies with a focus in Consciousness Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Her inquiry is into the Effects of Auditory Binaural Beats on Consciousness and the Human Nervous System. She is a certified Intuitive, Sound Practitioner, Heartmath® Practitioner and a Shamanic Practitioner in training. In 2018, Elizabeth was published in the World Futures Journal and The Society for Consciousness Studies. In 2020 she had two articles published in the Journal of Conscious Evolution and one in the SF Yoga Magazine. She presents on sound and consciousness at venues such as the Tuscon Science of Consciousness Conference, Yale Divinity School, The Graduate Institute, CIIS, CIHS, the Academy of Intuition, the Globe Sound Healing Conference and JFK University. Elizabeth has a private practice in Marin, Sound Medicine, where she offers clients intuitive counseling, sound and biofeedback to help manage the stress and find healthy rhythms. www.Sound-medicine.com.
Elizabeth Stephens, Ph.D
Findings from a Multi-group Study of Nondual Claimants
Elizabeth is a Ph.D. student at California Institute of Integral Studies, conducting her dissertation research on traits of persistent nonduality. She spent many years working as a CPA for Silicon Valley investment funds. Prior to that, she studied Comparative Religion at Harvard University, writing her undergraduate thesis on states of consciousness in the Upanishads and Yoga Sutra.
Thomas Brophy, Ph.D
Thomas Brophy is President of California Institute for Human Science, CIHS. CIHS is a mind-body-consciousness based university with programs in Clinical Psychology, Integral Health, and Comparative Religion and Philosophy. As well as being chief executive officer, he teaches Foundations of Integral Studies, and forefront issues of mind-body cosmology at CIHS. He earned a Ph.D. in physics at University of Colorado, Boulder, working with LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) and NASA interplanetary spacecraft projects, and was a National Science Foundation exchange scientist to the Japan Space Program, University of Tokyo. Through partnership with Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, founder of CIHS, he has developed science-consciousness integrative research and teaching programs. He has published several books, peer reviewed scientific articles in premier journals, been a featured presenter at scientific conferences, television documentaries, and Integral spirituality meetings around the world.
Sponsors
The Society for Consciousness Studies
CIIS Center for Consciousness Studies
California Institute for Human Science
Center for the Study of Non-Symbolic Consciousness
TransTech Lab