Psychotherapy, Spirituality, and the Evolution of Mind

An Interdisciplinary Symposium

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Conference Faculty

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Stephen Batchelor is a teacher, renowned scholar, and former monk in both Tibetan and Zen Buddhist traditions whose work weaves together both western and eastern philosophical wisdom. Mr. Batchelor is the author of several books including Alone With Others, The Awakening of the West, and Buddhism Without Beliefs ,which explore the meaning and possibility of what it is to have an authentic encounter with life. He is Director of Studies at Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Enquiry in Devon, England.

Eugene D'Aquili, M.D., Ph.D. is a psychiatrist and distinguished scientist who contributed to the development of biogenetic structuralism, a movement in the forefront of consciousness studies which has important implications for psychology. His work unites the perspectives of evolution, neurobiology, and anthropology as well as the introspective disciplines. Dr. d'Acquili is the co-author of Brain, Symbol and Experience - Toward a Neurophenomenology of Human Consciousness, and is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

Arthur J. Deikman, M.D. has done pioneering work in the scientific study of meditation and the mystical experience. His thirty years of research in this area has resulted in numerous scientific papers and three books including The Observing Self - Mysticism and Psychotherapy. These works reflect a modern perspective on spirituality based on developmental, psychodynamic, and cognitive psychologies and informed by personal experience with Zen Buddhist and Sufic traditions. Dr. Deikman is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he combines teaching, research, and private practice.

Mark Epstein, M.D. is a psychiatrist who has published numerous articles on the integration of Buddhist thought and psychoanalytic theory. He is best known for his ground-breaking book Thoughts Without a Thinker, which delineates a Buddhist approach to psychotherapy in terms of the Buddhist psychology of mind and the psychoanalytic themes of repeating, remembering, and working through. Dr. Epstein is in private practice in New York City and is consulting editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Mark Finn, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who has coordinated several east coast conferences on Buddhism and psychotherapy. Dr. Finn is the co-author of the edited volume Object Relations Theory and Religion: Clinical Applications. His written work creatively explores Tibetan Buddhist spiritual biographies and what these narratives imply about psychological change. He is Associate Director of Training and Chief Psychologist at North Central Bronx Hospital and is in private practice in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Jonathan Lear, Ph.D. is a philosopher and psychoanalyst who is interested in the philosophy of mind and has delved into the roots of modern psychoanalysis in the classical works of Aristotle and Plato. Dr. Lear's work addresses many interesting questions about human nature, including the role of rationality and irrationality in the human being. He is author of Love and Its Place in Nature, and the forthcoming volume Inside and Outside the Mind. He is John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor, Committee on Social Thought, The University of Chicago.

Jeffrey Rubin, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst whose professional focus is to bring the insights of Buddhist meditation to the field of psychoanalysis and to bring psychoanalytic understanding to bear on the experience of meditation. He is on the faculty of the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health and the Object Relations Institute in New York City. He is the author of the recently published Psychotherapy and Buddhism: Toward an Integration, and the forthcoming Psychoanalysis on the Couch: Exploring the Blindness of the Seeing I.

John Suler, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist whose interests include, in addition to eastern philosophy, the psychology of cyberspace, the psychology of creativity, and the theory and practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Dr. Suler is the author of the comprehensive Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Eastern Thought . He has also written numerous articles addressing various aspects of mental imagery in the organization and transformation of the self. Dr. Suler is Professor of Psychology at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

Charles Tart, Ph.D. is a psychologist and scholar whose 1969 book Altered States of Consciousness established him as a major contributor in the human potential movement. Dr. Tart's body of work has been dedicated to the exploration of states of consciousness, the psychology of spiritual awakening, and paranormal experience. A prolific writer, he is the author of States of Consciousness, Waking Up - Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential, Living the Mindful Life, and Body Mind and Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality. Dr. Tart is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, and serves on the faculty at The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo, Alto.

Evan Thompson, Ph.D. is a philosopher whose interests include cognitive science and the philosophy of mind, western phenomenology, and eastern philosophy. He co-authored, with Thomas Varela, The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience , which pioneered the application of Buddhist meditative psychology to the western scientific study of the mind. Dr. Thompson is Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, at York University in Toronto.

Robert Thurman, Ph.D. is one of the foremost exponents of Indo-Tibetan culture, religion, and Inner Sciences and is the author of Essential Tibetan Buddhism . A former monk of the Gelugpa order and a renowned Buddhist scholar, he is co-founder of The Tibet House in New York, often called the unofficial embassy of Tibet. Recently named one of the most influential people in America by Time Magazine, Professor Thurman is an embodiment of "engaged Buddhism," tirelessly active in teaching the dharma and expounding upon its value and relevance to our global human predicament. He is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies in the Religion Department at Columbia University, New York City.

Judith K. Welles, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst and past Director of Training at the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies. Allergic to orthodoxies of every stripe, she has spent twenty five years refining her understanding of the essence of healing narratives and the creation of new meanings. She is co-author of The Narration of Desire: Erotic Transferences and Countertransferences .


Conference Created and Organized by:

Marjorie Schuman, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Los Angeles, and is an associate member of the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies. She has long been interested in Buddhist meditation and the integration of the dharma into her work as a psychotherapist. She has published several papers on the eastern philosophical paradigm and its implications for psychoanalysis/consciousness research.

Fernando Mata, D.C. is a chiropractor who practices with a holistic approach. His academic background is in physics and philosophy, and his life pursuit has been to understand and experience the great mystical spiritual paths. He is especially interested in the theory of evolution and its implications for epistemology and spiritual gnosis.