Consciousness, Communication, and Change
(Theosophical Society, Aug 2018) – Using science and spiritual practices to become a more powerful agent for change.
How We Change and Why We Don’t
(Seven Rays Conference, Nov 2017) – Cognitive, social, and brain science, along with practices for powerful presence, that can empower changemakers to be more effective. Cassandra Vieten, President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, reveals insights on how we change and why we don’t — despite the best intentions. In fact, we may be doing exactly the wrong things for change, behavioral and cognitive science show. Cassandra shares secrets of what works!
Purpose to Impact
(Global Purpose Summit, San Francisco, Nov 2017) How to connect with and align with the deepest source of your inspiration to become a powerful and effective change agent. Social-, cognitive-, and neuroscience have a lot to tell us about how people actually change their minds and how they are inspired to take action. In this talk, learn how the science of consciousness transformation can boost your effectiveness as a change agent. Make your talks, strategies, and media more engaging and powerful by incorporating specific strategies that research indicates work to change worldviews and behaviors, and avoiding methods that science indicates are ineffective or unintentionally counterproductive. We will also explore the qualities one might practice and embody to enhance their change-making work, such as dignity, authenticity, trustworthiness, vulnerability, and inspiration.
Exploring Inner Space and Our Own Consciousness
(Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas – April 2018) – Using science to study the objective sense of interconnectedness, as well as the subjective realities of awareness and consciousness. Beginning with a meditation, Cassandra Vieten opens this talk an awareness exercise, challenging us to focus within. She discusses the objective sense of interconnectedness, as well as the subjective realities of awareness and consciousness. She poses the questions:How can we use science to measure these experiences?What purpose can scientific study of these phenomena bring to our world?
Unlocking Latent Potentials by Inducing Awe and Wonder
(Awakened Futures Summit – UCSF Mission Bay – June 2019) – How inducing experiences of awe and wonder with psychedelics, meditation, VR might unlock latent capacities and skills that we might not be able to access otherwise.
The Future of Meditation Research
(IONS – April 2016) – Recommendations for expanding the science of meditation. Cassandra Vieten gives an overview of the Future of Meditation Research (FOMR) initiative recently launched by IONS to explore the deeper aspects of meditation and transformational experiences. While research to-date has focused on the secular and cognitive aspects of meditation, a broad range of reported events — such as past-life recall, synchronicities, precognition and extra-sensory perception, experiences of God and deities — remains uncharted scientific territory. IONS formed the FOMR group to support research and researchers in exploring these domains.
Inner Space
(March 2017) – Being aware of the things that are happening in our body, and what does it mean and how do you get to that place of awareness. For Cassandra Vieten, PhD, President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, there is a place in ourselves that isn’t about thinking, about what we are feeling or about our body sensations. Transformative practices (yoga, meditation, tai-chi…) are meant to help us balance our body, our heart and our mind in order to reconnect with this inner space.
Aha! Moments, Awe and Flow States
(Institute of Noetic Sciences, July 2017). A panel with Cassandra Vieten, Dacher Keltner, Rave Mehta, and Loren Carpenter, discussing the nature and transformative potential of awe, aha moments, and flow states. Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell was inspired to create IONS after he saw the earth from outer space and experienced an awe that forever transformed his perspective. We can’t all go to space, but in the course of our own lives, we can still experience extraordinary moments that also stretch our understanding of reality to accommodate new possibilities. In a noetic experience, we tap into a limitless wellspring that holds creative ideas, healing energy, and information that was previously unavailable to us. These experiences often hit us randomly, like lightning bolts—or they seem to be random—but science is beginning to discover how we can access them intentionally. In the first part of this session, we’ll explore the science of awe, aha! moments, and flow; in the second part, we’ll learn how spiritual practices, augmented by virtual reality, can harness the power of the mind for healing, flow, love, and compassion.
Technology & Practice: Exploring Consciousness & Mindfulness in a Digital World
(Augmented World Expo – June 2017) – A panel at the Virtual World Society Track at AWE USA 2017 – the largest conference for AR+VR. A talk from the Virtual World Society Track at AWE USA 2017 – the largest conference for AR+VR in Santa Clara, California May 31- June 2, 2017.
Are We in the Midst of a Scientific Revolution?
(Science and Nonduality – Feb 2014) – Thomas Kuhn described scientific revolutions as “tradition-shattering complements to the tradition-bound activity of normal science,” and noted that they are typically invisible as they are happening and fully recognized only in retrospect. But what if we were aware that we were in the midst of one? This talk will discusses five reasons to believe we may be, and will suggest practices for consciously riding the waves of shifting paradigms.