Mind and Life Summer Research Institute

http://www.mindandlife.org

June 3-9, 2007

Garrison, New York

The Mind and Life Summer Research Institute is an intensive six-day meeting for advancing the groundbreaking research currently being done at the intersection of contemplation and the cognitive and behavioral sciences. The Summer Institute provides a context for leading scientists and research psychologists working in this field to come together with contemplative teachers and scholars, as well as a group of emerging scientists, to share recent findings and chart future directions for this revolutionary development in the mind sciences.

Purpose

The purpose of the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute is to advance collaborative research among behavioral and clinical scientists, neuroscientists, and biomedical researchers based on a process of inquiry, dialogue, and in some cases, collaboration, with Buddhist contemplative practitioners and scholars and those in other contemplative traditions. The long-term objective is to advance the training of a new generation of behavioral scientists, cognitive/affective neuroscientists, clinical researchers, and contemplative scholar/practitioners interested in exploring the potential influences of meditation and other contemplative practices on mind, behavior, brain function, and health. This includes examining the potential role of contemplative methods for characterizing human experience and consciousness from a neuroscience and clinical intervention perspective.

The specific goals of the Summer Research Institute are:

1) to nurture creative and strategic dialogue between modern experimental psychologists, clinical researchers, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, on the one hand, and Buddhist and other contemplative practitioners and scholars, on the other, with the aim of developing research protocols for investigating human mental activity and its potential effects on health and wellbeing;

2) to encourage and mentor a cadre of nascent scientists (graduate students and post-docs) and young Buddhist and other contemplative practitioners and scholars in an effort to develop the next generation of scientists, clinicians, and scholars interested in innovation and collaboration at the mind-brain-behavior interface;

3) to advance a collaborative research program to study the influence of contemplative practices on the mind, on illness and behavior, and on brain function by informed use of individuals who have, through intensive training and practice, developed a high degree of intimacy with and control over their own mental functioning.