Seekers and Sages Community Circle Series - Registration

Michael Lifshitz, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University, working at the intersection of contemplative practice, neuroscience, and anthropology. He studies practices that aim to transform subjective experience—from meditation and hypnosis to placebos, prayer, and psychedelics. He completed his PhD in Neuroscience at McGill and then a postdoc in Anthropology at Stanford. Drawing on this interdisciplinary background, his research explores how experience, neurobiology, and cultural context interact to shape the process and outcomes of spiritual practice.

Josh Brahinsky is a researcher at UC Berkeley in Psychology in the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, and a Teaching Faculty at UCSC. His work links anthropological and neuroscientific methods to explore the ways contemplation invites and shapes sensory capacity and experience. He studies a variety of contemplative practices, including varieties of prayer and meditation, focused especially on the worship practices of charismatic evangelicals. He did his PhD in the History of Consciousness at UCSC and then a postdoc in Anthropology at Stanford.

Pam Kramer is President of ITP International, a non-profit organization that stewards ITP and the work of its founders, George Leonard and Michael Murphy. Pam is an ITP Mastery teacher, is on the faculty of Esalen Institute and presents workshops at venues in the US and abroad. She is engaged in training ITP teachers, helping to form ITP groups and bringing integral principles and practices to the workplace. Pam is a performance consultant and executive coach with 30 years' consulting experience for organizations and entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area.