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Humans have a remarkable capacity to feel and enact care for others. But this capacity is not universally expressed: decades of research have elucidated the contextual, social, cognitive-affective, and relational factors that limit the tendency to experience empathy and engage in prosocial action. Buddhist contemplative traditions have long been concerned with the alleviation of suffering and expanding the boundaries of those who we hold in our circle of care. Recent years have seen a growth of interest in contemplative approaches to cultivating compassionate responses to suffering. This dissertation explores contemplative approaches to training compassion, focusing on the question of whether we can, with volitional training, expand the boundaries of our circle of care.Chapter 1 draws on contemporary research from cognitive, affective, and social psychology to provide an integrative review of empirical studies of compassion training. I consider what constitutes compassion training and offer a summary of current meditation-based approaches. I then provide an overview of the empirical evidence for a relationship between compassion training and changes in socioemotional processes, prosocial behavior, and physiological stress responses to the perception of others’ suffering. I further address challenges in interpreting data from these studies, considering training-related mechanisms of change and how compassion-relevant processes might develop over time. I conclude by outlining key theoretical challenges for future research.Chapters 2 and 3 empirically investigate two key issues in contemplative approaches to training compassion: the generalization of training effects, and the volitional expansion of the circle of care. Leveraging EEG data collected as part of the Shamatha Project—a multimethod study of the psychobiological effects of intensive meditation retreat training—these chapters work to contribute to the understanding of the neurocognitive consequences of intensive contemplative training.Establishing whether effects instantiated through meditation training generalize to other, non-meditative states is an essential link in understanding how contemplative training may influence behavior—including responses to suffering—outside of the meditative context. In Chapter 2, I examine retreat-related changes in the resting brain. I show that rest is not a static baseline but rather indexes behaviorally meaningful effects of retreat training. Notably, the training-related changes in the resting brain observed in Chapter 2 closely mirror patterns of change observed in these same participants when they actively practiced mindfulness of breathing meditation. This offers support for the idea that changes instantiated during meditation practice may generalize to other, non-meditative contexts, providing key evidence for the generalization of meditation-related change.In Chapter 3, I explore whether brain activity recorded during compassion meditation provides evidence that contemplative training can extend the circle of care. Using microstate analysis, I first show that the general patterns of retreat-related change observed during compassion meditation are similar to those of the resting brain. This finding establishes global shifts in brain dynamics as a core consequence of intensive meditation training. I next use sequence analysis to compare temporal patterns of brain activity during compassion meditation when a close other, a difficult other, and all others are taken as the object of compassion. I hypothesize that the mental representations of these various others—reflected in the ongoing activity of the brain—should become more similar with training. I find consistent differences in microstate sequences as a function of the target of compassion. I do not, however, find any evidence that these sequences become more similar with training. Thus Chapter 3 establishes microstate sequence analysis as a viable method for distinguishing target-based differences in brain activity during compassion meditation, but does not offer evidence for the extension of the circle of care.As a whole, this dissertation grapples with how we can understand and measure the consequences of contemplative practice. The empirical studies offer two small contributions to the greater project of understanding if and how we can collectively expand our circles of care.

Microstate analysis of scalp EEG collected during sessions of guided compassion meditation over the course of two 3-month residential meditation retreats

Meditation is an umbrella term for a number of mental training practices designed to improve the monitoring and regulation of attention and emotion. Some forms of meditation are now being used for clinical intervention. To accompany the increased clinical interest in meditation, research investigating the neural basis of these practices is needed. A central hypothesis of contemplative neuroscience is that meditative states, which are unique on a phenomenological level, differ on a neurophysiological level. To identify the electrophysiological correlates of meditation practice, the electrical brain activity of highly skilled meditators engaging in one of six meditation styles (shamatha, vipassana, zazen, dzogchen, tonglen, and visualization) was recorded. A mind-wandering task served as a control. Lempel–Ziv complexity showed differences in nonlinear brain dynamics (entropy) during meditation compared with mind wandering, suggesting that meditation, regardless of practice, affects neural complexity. In contrast, there were no differences in power spectra at six different frequency bands, likely due to the fact that participants engaged in different meditation practices. Finally, exploratory analyses suggest neurological differences among meditation practices. These findings highlight the importance of studying the electroencephalography (EEG) correlates of different meditative practices.

This review examines recent (2016 onwards) neuroscientific findings on the mechanisms supporting mindfulness-associated pain relief. To date, its clear that mindfulness lowers pain by engaging brain processes that are distinct from placebo and vary across meditative training level. Due to rapid developments in the field of contemplative neuroscience, an update review on the neuroimaging studies focused on mindfulness, and pain is merited. Mindfulness-based therapies produce reliably reductions in a spectrum of chronic pain conditions through psychological, physiological, and neural mechanisms supporting the modulation of evaluation and appraisal of innocuous and noxious sensory events. Neuroimaging and randomized control studies confirm that mindfulness meditation reliably reduces experimentally induced and clinical pain by engaging multiple, unique, non-opioidergic mechanisms that are distinct from placebo and which vary across meditative training level. These promising findings underscore the potential of mindfulness-based approaches to produce long-lasting improvements in pain-related symptomology.

A growing number of publications have been exploring the possible effects of mindfulness-based interventions on teachers’ well-being and their professional lives. Notwithstanding promising results in this domain, this paper identifies some difficulties involved in introducing teachers to mindfulness and proposes that there may be a need to develop alternative routes by which to expose more teachers to experiences of mindfulness. We report on a mixed method study of a 5-week teacher learning program implemented in an Israeli middle school with 30 teachers, 28 of which were females, with an age range of 29–55. The program was designed to invite teachers into initial experiences with mindfulness without formally engaging in mindfulness practice but rather based on studying education-relevant brain theory through a contemplative pedagogical approach. Outcomes were analyzed quantitatively by comparing collaborative concept maps created by the participants before and after undergoing the program, and qualitatively by analyzing themes extracted from the participants’ discourse. Findings show that the program (a) mobilized teachers from fixed to growth mindsets in regard to their role as educators as reflected in a significant increase in teachers’ beliefs that basic brain abilities are malleable (as extracted from the concept maps, p = 0.004), (b) offered them initial experiences of mindfulness, and (c) possibly opened them to consider more direct approaches to mindfulness practice that are offered in mindfulness-based interventions.

Mindfulness and compassion meditation are thought to cultivate prosocial behavior. However, the lack of diverse representation within both scientific and participant populations in contemplative neuroscience may limit generalizability and translation of prior findings. To address these issues, we propose a research framework calledIntersectional Neurosciencewhich adapts research procedures to be more inclusive of under-represented groups. Intersectional Neuroscience builds inclusive processes into research design using two main approaches: 1) community engagement with diverse participants, and 2) individualized multivariate neuroscience methods to accommodate neural diversity. We tested the feasibility of this framework in partnership with a diverse U.S. meditation center (East Bay Meditation Center, Oakland, CA). Using focus group and community feedback, we adapted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) screening and recruitment procedures to be inclusive of participants from various under-represented groups, including racial and ethnic minorities, gender and sexual minorities, people with disabilities, neuropsychiatric disorders, and/or lower income. Using person-centered screening and study materials, we recruited and scanned 15 diverse meditators (80% racial/ethnic minorities, 53% gender and sexual minorities). The participants completed the EMBODY task – which applies individualized machine learning algorithms to fMRI data – to identify mental states during breath-focused meditation, a basic skill that stabilizes attention to support interoception and compassion. All 15 meditators’ unique brain patterns were recognized by machine learning algorithms significantly above chance levels. These individualized brain patterns were used to decode the internal focus of attention throughout a 10-min breath-focused meditation period, specific to each meditator. These data were used to compile individual-level attention profiles during meditation, such as the percentage time attending to the breath, mind wandering, or engaging in self-referential processing. This study provides feasibility of employing an intersectional neuroscience approach to include diverse participants and develop individualized neural metrics of meditation practice. Through inclusion of more under-represented groups while developing reciprocal partnerships, intersectional neuroscience turns the research process into an embodied form of social action.

One of the core teachings of Buddhism is the doctrine of anattā. I argue that there is good evidence that anattā as understood in early Buddhism should be viewed less as a doctrine and a metaphysical pronouncement (‘no-Self’) than as a soteriological claim (‘not-self’) – an appeal and a method to achieve, or move progressively closer to, liberation. This view opens up anattā to empirical scrutiny – does un-selfing, as an act, lead to liberation? Neuroimaging data collected on Buddhist or Buddhism-inspired meditators show interesting correspondences with this view of not-self as a possibly soteriological strategy. First, meditation leads to a quieting of the narrative self. Second, this quieting of the narrative self seems to lead to at least momentary increases in well-being. Third, this process can be learned, and seems to be already underway after a mere 40 hours of experience. Finally, very highly accomplished meditators seem to be able to tune down even the core self and truly experience anatt...

This paper puts forward a methodology for engaging and incorporating the findings of contemplative neuroscience into pastoral care and counseling, guided by the theological foci of critical correlation and emancipatory praxis. A key finding is that the regular practice of mindfulness, whether in the context of daily meditation and/or contemplative prayer, can reduce activity in regions of the brain associated with fear and stress. The use of mindfulness has become a central feature of several of the third-wave cognitive therapies, including Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT), with the clinical approach to treatment guided by research on the neural bases of emotion.

Accumulating research in education shows that contemplative practices contribute to and foster well-being of individuals in sustainable ways. This bears special importance for teachers, as it affects not only them but also their students. Based on accumulating behavioral and neuroscientific findings, it has been suggested that a key process by which mindfulness meditation enhances self-regulation is the altering of self-awareness. Indeed, accumulated work shows that the underlying networks supporting various types of self-awareness are malleable following meditative practice. However, the field of education has developed independently from the study of the self and its relation to contemplative neuroscience thus far, and to date there is no systematic account linking this accumulating body of knowledge to the field of education or discussing how it might be relevant to teachers. Here we show how incorporating insights from contemplative neuroscience-which are built on the conceptualization and neuroscience of the self-into contemplative pedagogy can inform the field and might even serve as a core underlying mechanism tying together different empirical evidence. This review points to potential neural mechanisms by which mindfulness meditation helps teachers manage stress and promote supportive learning environments, resulting in improved educational outcomes, and thus it has significant implications for educational policy regarding teachers.

Time estimation is an important component of the ability to organize and plan sequences of actions as well as cognitive functions, both of which are known to be altered in dyslexia. While attention deficits are accompanied by short Time Productions (TPs), expert meditators have been reported to produce longer durations, and this seems to be related to their increased attentional resources. In the current study, we examined the effects of a month of Quadrato Motor Training (QMT), which is a structured sensorimotor training program that involves sequencing of motor responses based on verbal commands, on TP using a pre-post design. QMT has previously been found to enhance attention and EEG oscillatory activity, especially within the alpha range. For the current study, 29 adult Hebrew readers were recruited, of whom 10 dyslexic participants performed the QMT. The normal readers were randomly assigned to QMT (n = 9) or Verbal Training (VT, identical cognitive training with no overt motor component, and only verbal response, n = 10). Our results demonstrate that in contrast to the controls, longer TP in females was found following 1 month of intensive QMT in the dyslexic group, while the opposite trend occurred in control females. We suggest that this longer TP in the female dyslexics is related to their enhanced attention resulting from QMT. The current findings suggest that the combination of motor and mindful training, embedded in QMT, has a differential effect depending on gender and whether one is dyslexic or not. These results have implications for educational and contemplative neuroscience, emphasizing the connection between specifically-structured motor training, time estimation and attention.

In this essay, I detail the mainsprings of Evan Thompson's creative synthesis of Indian philosophy, Western phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and neuroscience—what he calls “contemplative neuroscience”—and sketch some of his key arguments. I focus on his method of “neurophenomenology” and the connections among his understanding of three key concepts: consciousness, dreaming, and the link between the two—imagination. I explore three epistemological questions his work raises: When contemplatives claim to access nondual, pure awareness, is this truly knowledge? If so, what kind of knowledge is it? And can it be deemed scientific in any meaningful way? My criticism has to do with what I take to be a glaring omission in the book: it does not directly investigate what I want to call the “phenomenology of kensho,” of the breakthrough experiences long-time meditators are alleged to undergo.

In Buddhism, happiness is achieved when a person can perceive the true nature of reality, unmodified by the mental constructs we superimpose upon it. This authentic happiness comes from having an exceptionally healthy state of mind that underlies and suffuses all emotional states and that embraces all the joys and sorrows that come one's way. The mental states necessary for authentic happiness are not simply found or happened upon. Rather, happiness is achieved through mental training that purges the mind of afflictive emotions, such as hatred and compulsive desire, which literally poison the mind, and above all through the eradication of ignorance. This article discusses the Buddhist conception of happiness and its attainment. In particular, the article addresses the methods and practices that Buddhism employs to train the mind to achieve authentic happiness and the recent developments in contemplative neuroscience that complement and advance these methods.

The term ‘contemplative’ is now frequently used in the fast growing field of meditation research. Yet, there is no consensus regarding the definition of contemplative science. Meditation studies commonly imply that contemplative practices such as mindfulness or compassion are the subject of contemplative science. Such approach, arguably, contributes to terminological confusions in the field, is not conducive to the development of an overarching theory in contemplative science, and overshadows its unique methodological features. This paper outlines an alternative approach to defining contemplative science which aims to focus the research on the core capacities, processes and states of the mind modified by contemplative practices. It is proposed that contemplative science is an interdisciplinary study of the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity of the mind and associated modes of existential awareness modulated by motivational/intentional and contextual factors of contemplative practices. The metacognitive self-regulatory capacity is a natural propensity of the mind which enables introspective awareness of mental processes and behaviour, and is a necessary prerequisite for effective self-regulation supporting well-being. Depending on the motivational/intentional and contextual factors of meditation practice, changes in the meta-cognitive self-regulatory processes enable shifts in modes of existential awareness which determine our sense of self and reality. It is hypothesized that changes in conceptual processing are essential mediators between the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity of the mind, motivational/intentional factors, context of meditation practice and the modulations in modes of existential awareness. Meditation training fosters and fine-tunes the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity of the mind and supports development of motivational/intentional factors with the ultimate aim of facilitating increasingly advanced modes of existential awareness. Implications of the proposed framework for definitions of mindfulness and for future systematic research across contemplative traditions and practices are discussed. It is suggested that the proposed definition of contemplative science may reduce terminological challenges in the field and make it more inclusive of varied contemplative practices. Importantly, this approach may encourage development of a more comprehensive contemplative science theory recognizing the essential importance of first and second person methods to its inquiry, thus uniquely contributing to our understanding of the mind.

The study of subjective, first-person experience is a topic with both philosophical and practical implications. In this article, I discuss the value of collecting a critical mass of prose or verbal descriptions of introspectively determined, subjective effects of pharmacological agents. I suggest that datasets of introspective reports fit in the modern research landscape at the intersection of biomedical informatics and the emerging discipline of contemplative neuroscience. I compare the current proposal to Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), discuss relevant methodological and conceptual issues in the study of introspection, and provide a list of questions for directing future investigation.

Mindfulness is a way of attending – an attentional practice – that is derived from Asian contemplative traditions but has been secularized (and Westernized) in the context of clinical psychology [e.g., Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002] and the emerging field of contemplative neuroscience [e.g., Lutz, Donne, & Davidson, 2007]. A major impetus for contemporary research on mindfulness was the creation of mindfulness-based stress reduction, a therapeutic intervention developed by KabatZinn [1982] that, together with variants such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy [Segal et al., 2002], is now widely used to improve functioning in patients with a variety of disorders, from depression and anxiety disorders to chronic pain [for a review, see Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004]. As Kabat-Zinn [1994, p. 4] described it, ‘Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.’ As such, mindfulness training typically entails focusing one’s attention on a particular aspect of one’s current experience, including practicing refocusing one’s attention after one’s mind has wandered. For example, during mindfulness training, participants might focus their attention on their breathing. When they notice that their attention has instead been diverted by salient anticipations, recollections, or perceptions, they may observe (nonjudgmentally) the ease with which the mind wanders and then bring their attention back to their breathing. Participants generally find that with practice, it becomes easier to sustain their full attention for longer periods of time. Mindfulness practice may occur in the context of sitting meditation, but may also occur in the context of other activities, such as walking or eating. Indeed, a useful way to think about acting (or thinking) mindfully is as ‘super-intending’ one’s behavior, as suggested by a classic text from the Buddhist canon, the Saundaranandakavya (Nanda the Fair), in which the author, Aśvaghos. a (approx. 1st century), writes: ‘... You should super-intend your walking by thinking, ‘‘I am walking,’’ your standing by thinking, ‘‘I am standing,’’ and so on; that is how you are asked to apply mindfulness to all such activities’ [c. 50 CE/1959, p. 107]; see also the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale by Brown and Ryan [2003]. Understood in this way, mindfulness entails reflecting deeply on what one is experiencing; attending more fully to more aspects of one’s experience, as opposed to processing them in a shallow fashion and quickly moving on to thinking about

This article explores initial findings and the implications of neuroscientific research on meditation. Meditation is conceptualized here as a family of complex emotional and attentional regulatory training regimes developed for various ends, including the cultivation of well-being and emotional balance. The review focuses on the mental processes and the underlying neural circuitry that are critically involved in two styles of meditation. One style, Focused Attention (FA) meditation, entails the voluntary focusing of attention on a chosen object. The other style, Open Monitoring (OM) meditation, involves non-reactive monitoring of the content of experience from moment to moment. We discuss the potential regulatory functions of these practices on attention and emotion processes and their putative long-term impact on the brain and behavior.

In Tibetan medicine, health is not achieved as long as mental health isn’t present. Eventhough it is an equivalent to WHO definition of health, in comparison with conventional Western medicine, Tibetan medicine offers strategies to become familiar with one’s own mental construction and physiology of the mind. Because hygiene semantically implicates a continuous activity with its final result (i.e. purity of the mind), it is prefered upon health to demistify the consequence of a proces. By this poster, it is my goal to sistematically present latest research in the field of contemplative neuroscience. Tool used for the development of this research was online medical database (e.g. www.online-baze.hr).

The holistic experiential benefits of meditation among a widely ranging population have been well established within the empirical literature. What remain less clear are the underlying mechanisms of the meditative process. A large impediment to this clarity is attributable to the lack of a unified and comprehensive taxonomy, as well as to the absence of clear differentiation within the literature between method of practice and resulting state. The present study discusses and then attempts to identify within our sample a theoretically universal culminating meditative state known as Nondual Awareness, which is differentiated from the method or practice state. Participants completed an in-lab meditation, during which neurological patterns were analyzed using electroencephalography (EEG). Analyses indicated significantly higher EEG power among slower wave frequencies (delta, theta, alpha) during the reported nondual events. These events appear neurologically distinct from meditation sessions as a whole, which interestingly demonstrated significant elevation within the gamma range.

Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) is a specifically-structured walking meditation, aimed at improving reflectivity and lowering habitual thought and movement. Here we set out to examine the possible effect of QMT on reflectivity, employing the Hidden Figures Test (HFT), which assesses both spatial performance (measured by correct answers) as well as reflectivity (interpolated from correct answers and reaction time). In the first study (n = 24, only females), we showed that QMT significantly improves HFT performance, compared to two groups, controlling for cognitive or motor aspects of the QMT: Verbal Training (identical cognitive training with verbal response) and Simple Motor Training (similar motor training with reduced choice requirements). These results show that QMT improves HFT performance above the pre-post expected learning. In the second study, building on previous literature showing gender-dependent effects on cognitive performance, we conducted a preliminary pilot examining gender-dependent effect of training on reflectivity and its electrophysiological counterparts. EEG analyses focused on theta, alpha and gamma coherence. HFT performance and resting-state EEG were measured in 37 participants (20 males), using a within-subject pre-post design. Following training, HFT performance improved in both genders. However, we found a gender-dependent difference in functional connectivity: While theta and alpha intra-hemispheric coherence was enhanced in females, the opposite pattern was found in males. These results are discussed in relation to neuronal efficiency theory. Together, the results demonstrate that QMT improves spatial performance, and may involve a gender-dependent electrophysiological effect. This study emphasizes both the importance of studying gender-related training effects within the contemplative neuroscience endeavor, as well as the need to widen its scope towards including "contemplation in action".

A NEUROSCIENCE OF ENLIGHTENMENT? The field of contemplative science is rapidly growing and integrating into the basic neurosciences, psychology, clinical sciences, and society-at-large. Yet the majority of current research in the contemplative sciences has been divorced from the soteriological context from which these meditative practices originate and has focused instead on clinical applications with goals of stress reduction and psychotherapeutic health. In the existing research on health outcomes of mindfulness-based clinical interventions, for example, there have been almost no attempts to scientifically investigate the goal of enlightenment. This is a serious oversight, given that such profound transformation across ethical, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive domains are taken to be the natural outcome and principle aim of mindfulness practice in the traditional Buddhist contexts from which these practices are derived. If short-term interventions as short as a few sessions are now beginning to produce neuroplastic changes (Tang et al., 2010; Zeidan et al., 2010; Xue et al., 2011), it may be that even in secular contexts, practitioners are already developing states and traits that are associated with progress toward enlightenment. In order to carefully assess the potential effects of meditative interventions it is of singular importance to ask whether enlightenment can be traced to specific neural correlates, cognition, or behavior.

Despite the growing interest in the neurobiological correlates of meditation, most research has omitted to take into account the underlying philosophical aspects of meditation and its wider implications. This, in turn, is reflected in issues surrounding definition, study design, and outcomes. Here, I highlight the often ignored but important aspect of definition in the existing scholarship on neuroscience and meditation practice. For a satisfactory account of a neuroscience of meditation, we must aim to retrieve an operational definition that is inclusive of a traditional ontological description as well as the modern neurocognitive account of the phenomena. Moving beyond examining the effects of meditation practice, to take a potential step forward in the direction to establish how meditation works, it becomes crucial to appraise the philosophical positions that underlie the phenomenology of meditation in the originating traditions. This endeavor may challenge our intuitions and concepts in either directions, but issues pertaining to definition, design, and validity of response measures are extremely important for the evolution of the field and will provide a much-needed context and framework for meditation based interventions.

Author(s): Stimson, Dayna Averiett | Abstract: This paper explores the field of contemplative neuroscience as a means of studying consciousness on both neurological and experiential levels. While our current scientific paradigm favors the view that consciousness is a purely physical phenomenon and should be examined as such, contemplative neuroscience posits that awareness, attention, and emotion are malleable skills that can be refined in order to provide detailed, accurate self-reports about the conscious experience. These reports can then be used to inform neurological data, in order to form a more holistic understanding of consciousness as both a physical and mental process. Buddhist meditation techniques are a paradigm example of the type of training necessary to cultivate accurate awareness of mental states. I practiced Buddhist meditation extensively over several months as a way to inform my study. In addition, I conducted a comprehensive review of scientific publications on the current research being conducted on meditation, and philosophical literature on the importance of contemplative training in respect to neuroscience. My experience meditating highlighted the large difference between the untrained, unaware mind and the mind that has been trained in awareness, emphasizing the value of using experienced contemplative practitioners as a means to further consciousness studies. These results point to a need to use refined phenomenological reports as a more accurate way of interpreting neurological data, making use of subtleties and details that would not be available to us were we to use untrained subjects.

How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments? How can the emergence of complexity in hierarchical systems such as the brain, based at the lower levels in physical interactions, lead to something like genuine free will? The nature of our understanding of free will in the light of present-day neuroscience is becoming increasingly important because of remarkable discoveries on the topic being made by neuroscientists at the present time, on the one hand, and its crucial importance for the way we view ourselves as human beings, on the other. A key tool in understanding how free will may arise in this context is the idea of downward causation in complex systems, happening coterminously with bottom up causation, to form an integral whole. Top-down causation is usually neglected, and is therefore emphasized in the other part of the book’s title. The concept is explored in depth, as are the ethical and legal implications of our understanding of free will. This book arises out of a workshop held in California in April of 2007, which was chaired by Dr. Christof Koch. It was unusual in terms of the breadth of people involved: they included physicists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, and theologians. This enabled the meeting, and hence the resulting book, to attain a rather broader perspective on the issue than is often attained at academic symposia. The book includes contributions by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, George F. R. Ellis , Christopher D. Frith, Mark Hallett, David Hodgson, Owen D. Jones, Alicia Juarrero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Christof Koch, Hans Küng, Hakwan C. Lau, Dean Mobbs, Nancey Murphy, William Newsome, Timothy O’Connor, Sean A.. Spence, and Evan Thompson.