From April 26 to 29, In Denver, Colorado is being held the first International Symposia for Contemplative Science Research, which brings together more than seven hundred participants —psychologists, clinicians, neuroscientists, philosophers and contemplatives of different traditions, mainly Buddhists and Christians.
Plenary session presentations are given by those who, for over twenty years have been the pioneers of research on meditation and mind training – Richard Davidson, Jon Kabat-Zinn, John Teasdale, Evan Thompson, Cliff Saron Michel Bitbol, Wolf and Tania Singer, Barbara Fredrickson, Marsha Linehan, John Dunne, Mark Greenberg, Sharon Salzberg and Brother David Stein-Rast, to name a few.
These alternate with workshops on research projects in progress ont the effect that meditation can have on the development of compassion, mindfulness, emotional balance, management of pain and depression. There is also debate about the nature of consciousness, as well as the opportunities and challenges of collaboration between contemplatives and modern sciences. The symposium is marked by the presence of several hundred young researchers who wish to devote their careers to contemplative sciences.
Proceedings are live-streamed on http://contemplativeresearch.org/