The Council of Sages
The Council of Sages is a body of experts who are selected based on their contributions to the field of Transpersonal Psychology and on their interest and support for ITP as a leading institution in the field.
Being named to the Council of Sages is intended as a way in which the school can honor the sage and as a way in which the sage can honor the school through limited participation.
Current members of the Council of Sages:
Jeanne Achterberg is a scientist who has received international recognition for her pioneering research in medicine and psychology. A faculty member for 11 years at Southwestern Medical School, she is a Professor of Psychology at Saybrook Institute in San Francisco. Dr. Achterberg received her Ph.D.in General Experimental Psychology from Texas Christian University and has authored over 100 papers and five books.
She is acclaimed for her work on the use of imagery in healing, psychoimmunology, behavioral strategies for the reduction of pain and anxiety, and the role of women as health consumers. Her research focuses on the psychological aspects of cancer, a comparison of biofeedback and physical therapy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and a test of behavioral strategies for pain and anxiety associated with orthopedic trauma.
Imagery in Healing is critically acclaimed as a classic in the field of mind/body studies, and Woman as Healer is described as a ground breaking work, surveying the activities of women from prehistoric times to the present. Rituals of Healing is a primer on the use of creative therapies for health and medicine, and won the Book of the Year Award from the American Nursing Association. Her latest book, Lightning at the Gate, the story of her personal healing journey, was published in 2001.
Angeles Arrien is an anthropologist, educator, award-winning author, and consultant to many organizations and businesses, including the Fetzer Institute. She lectures nationally and internationally; conducting workshops that bridge cultural anthropology, psychology, and mediation skills. Her work with multi-cultural issues, mediation, and conflict resolution has been used with the International Rights Commission and the World Indigenous Council. She has also presented her material on the Cable News Network (CNN).
She is the founder and president of the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research, and a Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Dr. Arrien’s research and teaching have focused on values and beliefs shared by humanity cross-culturally, and on the integration and application of multi-cultural wisdoms in contemporary settings. She teaches universal components of leadership skills, communication, health care, and education. Her work reveals how indigenous wisdoms are relevant in our families, professional lives, and our relationship with the Earth.
She is the author of The Four-Fold Way™; Walking the Paths of the Warrior; Teacher, Healer and Visionary; Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them, winner of the 1993 Benjamin Franklin Award. Her latest book, The Second Half of Life, was published in 2006. In addition, she has written numerous articles and teaching modules on a variety of topics and has received three honorary doctorates.
Christina Grof is an author, teacher, artist, psychotherapist, founder of the Spiritual Emergence Network, and co-creator of Holotropic Breathwork. She is past-president of Grof Transpersonal Training, vice-president emeritus of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), and an advisor to the board of the Spiritual Emergence Network. For almost thirty years, she has been active in the field of Transpersonal Psychology, which includes the spiritual aspects of human nature, as well as the emotional, mental, physical, and social aspects, as essential to a full understanding of the whole person.
Ms. Grof is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with mythologist Joseph Campbell and poet Muriel Rukeyser. Since 1976, she has given workshops and lectures in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. From 1976 until 1988, Ms. Grof was in residence at The Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California, where she and her husband coordinated and led a series of 28 experimental month-long educational programs, as well as numerous workshops. In the last few years, she has focused on writing and lecturing.
Ms. Grof is the author of The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spiritual Path (Harper San Francisco, 1993), the forthcoming memoir, The Eggshell Landing, and is currently working on a book of her paintings. Her other books, written with Stanislav Grof, M.D., are Beyond Death (Thames and Hudson, 1980), Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (J.P. Tarcher, 1989), and The Stormy Search for the Self (J.P. Tarcher, 1990).
Stanislav Grof is a psychiatrist with over forty years experience of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness (induced by psychedelic substances and various non-drug techniques) and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he also received his scientific training - an M.D. degree from the Charles University School of Medicine and a Ph.D. from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Grof 's early research in the clinical uses of psychedelic substances was conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was Principal Investigator of a program systematically exploring the heuristic and therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances. In 1967, he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, and subsequently continued as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins University.
In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he lived until 1987 as Scholar-in-Residence writing, giving seminars, lecturing and developing Holotropic Breathwork with his wife Christina Grof. In 1993, he received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology. He has published over 140 articles in professional journals, as well as 17 books, which have been translated into 16 different languages.
Jean Houston, scholar, philosopher and researcher in Human Capacities, is one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She is long regarded as one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement.
In 1965, along with her husband Dr. Robert Masters, Dr. Houston founded The Foundation for Mind Research. She is also the founder and principal teacher of the Mystery School, a school of human development, a program of cross-cultural, mythic and spiritual studies, dedicated to teaching history, philosophy, the New Physics, psychology, anthropology, myth and the many dimensions of human potential. This school is in its 24thd year and takes place on both the East and West Coasts. She also leads an intensive program in social artistry with leaders coming from all over the world to study with Dr. Houston and her distinguished associates. This program in innovative leadership strategies is now in its 6thth year. She is also the Founder as well as the Program Director of the International Institute for Social Artistry.
A prolific writer and author of 25 books including A Passion for the Possible, Search for the Beloved, Life Force, The Possible Human, Public Like a Frog, A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story, and Manual of the Peacemaker. A recent book, Jump Time explores a new Global Paradigm and speaks boldly of a regenesis of human society. The questions raised in this book and the exciting suggestion of possibilities are producing new pioneers - Social Artists - working on the frontiers of this new global society.
Huston Smith is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University. For fifteen years he was Professor of Philosophy at M.I.T. and for a decade before that he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently he has served as Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
Holder of twelve honorary degrees, Dr. Smith’s fourteen books include The World’s Religions which has sold over 2 ½ million copies, and Why Religion Matters which won the Wilbur Award for the best book on religion published in 2001. In 1996 Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS Special, "The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith", to his life and work. His film documentaries on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won International awards, and The Journal of Ethnomusicology lauded his discovery of Tibetan multiphonic chanting* as “an important landmark in the study of music."
For over half a century, Huston Smith has built bridges of understanding between faith traditions with his depth of scholarship, commitment to education, spiritual inquiry, and his generous spirit. His book, The Illustrated World’s Religions, illuminates some of the core teachings of the world’s religions, as well as the threads that unite them, offering clear access to faiths and cultures across our planet, and creating avenues for interfaith dialogue. Dr. Smith’s life and work has been instrumental in establishing pathways of peace across the sectarian divisions that divide our world.
Frances Vaughan is a psychologist, author and co-editor of many books, papers and articles on psychology and spiritual growth. As a pioneer in transpersonal psychology, Dr. Vaughan was a founding faculty member of the Institute of Transpersonal psychology. Later she joined the clinical faculty at the University of California Medical School at Irvine. At present she is a founding faculty member of the Metta Institute.
Dr. Vaughan has lectured and conducted workshops throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America. She has served as President of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and the Association for Humanistic Psychology and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is currently a trustee of the Fetzer Institute. The mission of the Fetzer Institute is to foster the awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community.
Dr. Vaughan has been a practitioner of meditation since 1972, and she participated in many of the human potential developments in California. She has studied and practiced Buddhist, Sufi and Hindu spiritual traditions in addition to deepening her understanding of Christian mysticism. She has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and on the board of editors of several journals. She graduated from Stanford University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.
Roger Walsh is a professor of Psychiatry, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of California Irvine, in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, within UCI's College of Medicine. Dr. Walsh is respected for his views on psychoactive drugs and altered states of consciousness in relation with the religious/spiritual experience, and has been quoted in the media regarding psychology, spirituality, and the medical effects of meditation.
Dr. Walsh holds an M.D. from the University of Queensland Medical School and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Queensland. He authored The World of Shamanism: New Views of an Ancient Tradition, and Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind, co-authored Paths Beyond Ego (1993) with Frances Vaughan, and his latest book is A Sociable God: Toward a New Understanding of Religion by Ken Wilber and Roger Walsh (2005). His writings and research have received over two dozen national and international awards and honors.