Laurence Freeman is a Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Monte Oliveto and Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation. He was born in England where he was educated by the Benedictines and studied English Literature at Oxford University . Before entering monastic life he had experience with the United Nations, banking and journalism. In the monastery his spiritual teacher was John Main with whom he studied and whom he helped in the establishment of the first Christian Meditation Centre in London . In 1977 he went with John Main at the invitation of the Archbishop of Montreal to establish a Benedictine community of monks and laypeople dedicated to the practice and teaching of Christian Meditation. Fr Laurence studied theology at the Universite de Montreal and at McGill University , made his solemn monastic profession in 1979 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1980. After John Main's death in 1982 he continued the work of teaching meditation that had now begun to develop a global community. In 1991 Fr Laurence returned to England to establish the International Centre of the newly formed World Community for Christian Meditation that is now present in about a hundred countries. Laurence Freeman is the author of many books and articles including "Light Within", "Selfless Self", "Web of Silence", "Common Ground", "A Short Span of Days", "Your Daily Practice" and "Jesus: The Teacher Within". He is also the editor of John Main's works and a member of the Board of Medio Media, the publishing arm of the World Community. He has conducted dialogues and peace initiatives such as the historic Way of Peace with the Dalai Lama and is active in inter-religious dialogue with other faiths as well as in encouraging the teaching of Christian meditation to children and students and in the re-appropriation of the contemplative wisdom tradition in the Church and society at large

Ken "Bear Hawk" Cohen, author of the critically acclaimed classic, Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing (Random House, 2003), is a a health educator, a traditional healer, and scholar of indigenous medicine. He is the recipient of the 2003 Elmer and Alyce Green Award for Innovation in Energy Medicine. Although best known for his pioneering work in Chinese healing arts (qigong), he has followed the "red road" of Native American wisdom as his personal spiritual path for thirty years.

Of Russian Jewish ancestry, Bear Hawk is an adopted member of a Cree family from Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Canada and teaches with the blessings and support of traditional elders of many Nations. He is an initiate of the Red Cedar Circle (Si.Si.Wiss Medicine) and various medicine societies. Bear Hawk was an apprentice to Cherokee spiritual teacher Keetoowah Christie, from 1977-87. He also trained with elders from the Northeast, Northwest, and Northern Plains.

In his quest for the common root of healing, Bear Hawk was initiated into Filipino oracion, prayer healing and psychic surgery, after a five year course of study. He studied African medicine with the Zulu shaman, Ingwe, in the lineage of the Holy Man, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, and is a keeper of the sacred "bones" used in divination. Bear Hawk was one of four North American students of a master healer of the Igbo Tribe, Nigeria and is fully trained as an Igbo priest/shaman (dibia).

Bear Hawk demonstrated his healing abilities as one of nine "exceptional healers" studied by the Menninger Institute. He is a popular speaker at scientific, healing, and theological conferences. Bear Hawk's lectures have been sponsored by the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, the American Cancer Society, the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine, the World Congress on Energy Medicine, the Canadian Ministry of Health, and numerous universities.

In addition to writing Honoring the Medicine, Bear Hawk is the author of "Native American Medicine" in Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This was the first work on Native American medicine to be included in a U.S. medical school textbook. He is also the author of Native Wisdom: 7 Keys to Health and Happiness (Sounds True, audio CD) and more than 200 journal articles on health and spirituality

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche who will speak on Healing with the Five Elements. President of Ligmincha Institute, as well as its resident Lama, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is a master of the Dzogchen meditative tradition of Tibet. Since he was thirteen years old he practiced Dzogchen with his masters from both the Bon and Buddhist schools: Lopon Sange Tenzin, Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, and Geshe Yungdrug Namgyal. He completed an eleven year course of traditional studies in the Bon tradition at the Bonpo Monastic Center, Dolanji, HP, India, whereupon he qualified for the Doctorate Degree of Geshe. He is also an accom-plished scholar in the Bonpo and the Buddhist textual traditions of philosophy, exegesis, and debating. Upon graduation in 1986, he was employed at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives at Dharamsala, India. That same year he was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the representative of the Bon school to the assembly of deputies of the government in exile.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche was the first to bring the precious Bon Dzogchen teachings to the West in 1988, when he was invited by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche to Italy in order to teach at his center. He is one of the very few Bonpo masters living in the West who is trained in the Bon tradition and qualified to teach. Rinpoche is a well-known master, having traveled widely, giving teachings in Tibet and in the West for the past ten years. He is a scholar as well, having written several books and articles in Tibetan and English. During the 1991-92 academic year he was selected as a Rockefeller Fellow at Rice University in Houston, Texas. During this period he continued his research on early Bonpo Tantric deities and their relationship with Buddhist traditions in the early period of Buddhism in Tibet. Rice invited Rinpoche back to teach for the spring semester of 1993 and he was awarded a second Rockefeller Fellowship. Tenzin Rinpoche is the author of Wonders of the Natural Mind, in which he presents the view and practice of the Bon Dzogchen ("Great Perfection") teachings, and he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for 1994-95 to conduct academic research on the logical and philosophical aspects of the Bon tradition. He appeared on the Discovery Channel in 1994, where he explained the principles involved in Tibetan dream practice as part of their three-part series entitled The Power of Dreams. His most recent book, relased in 1998 by Snow Lion Publications, is on the Tibetan dream yoga practices.

Rinpoche founded Ligmincha Institute in March of 1992 in order to preserve the culture, religious teachings and arts of Tibet and Zhang Zhung. The aim of the Institute is to introduce to the West the wisdom traditions of the Bonpo which are concerned with the harmonious integration of internal and external energies, and most importantly with the spiritual path to enlightenment. Rinpoche currently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he has established Ligmincha Institute. He travels and teaches extensively throughout Europe, the United State, and Mexico.

Arthur M. Kleinman, M.D. is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, where he chaired the Department of Social Medicine from 1991 to 2000.  He is also Professor of Social Anthropology at Harvard University.  Dr. Kleinman's research includes: international mental health; cross-cultural studies of depression; the experience of chronic illness; the anthropology of social suffering; and social health policy concerning the overlap of social and health problems including substance abuse, violence and trauma; and ethnicity and health.  He has conducted research in Chinese society since 1968.  Dr. Kleinman directed the World Mental Health Report and was a member of the Steering Committee of the American Psychiatric Association-National Institute of Mental Health Taskforce on Culture and Psychiatric Diagnosis and Co-Chair of the Committee on Culture, Health and Human Development for the Social Science Research Council.  He has authored more than 175 articles and five books, edited or co-edited 17 volumes, and founded the journal Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry , which he edited for a decade.  Dr. Kleinman has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.  Since 1978, Dr. Kleinman has co-directed an NIMH-funded Postdoctoral Training Program in Clinically Applied Anthropology.  Dr. Kleinman has expertise in international, cross-cultural and anthropological aspects of mental illness.

His honors include: an honorary doctorate from York University in Canada; this year's Franz Boaz Award from the American Anthropological Association; the Welcome Prize in Medical Anthropology, and membership in the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Physician and Patient.

Dr. Kleinman has practiced as a psychiatrist and is an expert on depression.  He has taught several generations of Harvard medical students such subjects as the social roots of disease, the doctor-patient relationship, culture and health care, the moral basis of medical practice, and he co-teaches a new course on medicine and religion.

Born a third generation Californian, in San Diego , Desda Zuckerman now lives north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County , with her husband of 32 years, Bob.

Desda Zuckerman is a dynamic, international healer, speaker and teacher. A natural intuitive with clear sight, clear hearing and clear knowing abilities, she has made it her life's work to understand and learn to use her exceptional gifts.

Ms. Zuckerman has created a healing modality based on this long path and the knowledge it has produced. Using her deep soul impact healing system of Core Individuation tm , Desda works in full partnership with her clients. Her ability to hold the focus of balancing and guiding the total being to wholeness produces deep inner healing with results on many levels. Another major life accomplishment has been the mapping of the Human Structure. This is the "energy" that Desda sees and feels around and through every person. Core Individuation is based in what has become known as Desda's Anatomy.

She is currently teaching workshops, a multi-level seminar series, teacher trainings, an ongoing practitioner education and an apprenticeship program. Her 30-plus years of work and research in the field of psychic awareness puts her in the unique position to support others in the development of their extra-sensory skills.

Bradford Keeney, Ph.D., is Distinguished Scholar of Cultural Studies, Ringing Rocks Foundation. He has worked at some of the most respected psychotherapy centers in the United States including the Ackerman Institute in New York City, the Karl Menninger Center in Topeka, and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, and was director of several family therapy doctoral programs. His creative approach to psychotherapy is presented in the clinical videotape series, Brief Therapy Inside Out , produced by Zeig, Tucker & Thiesen. A Clinical Member, Approved Supervisor, and Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and Advisory Board Member of the National Academy for Certified Family Therapists, he has presented training programs, workshops, and keynote addresses throughout the world and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs.

The author of several classics in the field of family therapy, including Aesthetics of Change , Mind in Therapy , and Improvisational Therapy , he has also written numerous titles for the popular press, such as Everyday Soul , The Energy Break , Shaking Out the Spirits , Crazy Wisdom Tales , and Bushman Shaman: Awakening the Spirit through Ecstatic Dance. As an improvisational performer, he has toured the world from New York City to Rio de Janeiro, including a special performance with jazz guitarist Al Di Meola at the Miami Arena. His musical compositions are featured on the CD albums, Precious is His Love and African Heat: Ecstatic Rhythms for Boiling Soul .

Keeney, who has carried out one of the broadest and most intense field studies of global shamanism in history, is the editor of the critically acclaimed book series, Profiles of Healing , a ten-volume encyclopedia of the world's healing practices, and is the subject of the book, American Shaman: An Odyssey of Global Healing Traditions written by Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson.

Bradford Keeney is accepted as an elder shaman and spiritual teacher in numerous cultures throughout the world, including the Japanese tradition of seiki jutsu , the Guarani Indians of lower basin Amazonia, the Zulu sangoma community, the elder Shakers of St. Vincent, diverse folk healers of Brazil, and the Balians of Bali, among others. Regarded as a n/om kxao (owner of spiritual power) by the Bushmen of Namibia and Botswana, he founded Thara Tjua (Shaking House), the Bushman Healing Conservancy.