B. Alan Wallace
Encyclopedia
B. Alan Wallace is an American author, translator, teacher, researcher, interpreter, and Buddhist practitioner interested in the intersections of consciousness studies and scientific disciplines such as psychology
, cognitive neuroscience
, and physics
. He endeavors to chart relationships and commonalities between Eastern and Western scientific, philosophical, and contemplative modes of inquiry.
Since 1976, Wallace has taught Buddhism
, philosophy
, and meditation
in Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia. Wallace grew up in America and Switzerland but left college after three years to study Buddhism in India. He has served as interpreter for many Buddhist contemplatives and scholars, including the Dalai Lama
. He is a prolific author of numerous books and essays and has translated dozens of Sanskrit
and Tibetan
texts into English. Wallace has a bachelor's degree in physics
and philosophy of science
from Amherst College
and a Ph.D. in religious studies
from Stanford. He also founded and is President of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. In 2010 Wallace became the Director and Chairman of the Phuket International Academy Thanyapura Mind Centre, which provides a blend of contemporary psychology and neuroscience alongside ancient Asian contemplative practices. He is currently leading two 8-week, residential, intensive meditation retreats there each year, which are open to all who are interested in developing exceptional mental balance and well-being. In addition, together with Paul Ekman
he is leading a 6-week course to train instructors in "Cultivating Emotional Balance," a 42-hour program developed by Dr. Wallace and Dr. Ekman, which was scientifically studied at the University of California, San Francisco. All these retreats and courses are organized in collaboration with the Santa Barbara Institute. His life's work focuses on a deep engagement between Buddhist philosophical and contemplative inquiry and modern science and philosophy, with a special emphasis on exploring the nature and potentials of the mind in a radically empirical manner, as free as possible from the dogmas of religion and materialism.
, where, as an Independent Scholar, he studied physics, the philosophy of science, and Sanskrit, completing his undergraduate degree summa cum laude and phi beta kappa in 1987 http://alanwallace.org/profile.htm. His undergraduate honors thesis was published in two volumes, Choosing Reality: A Contemplative View of Physics and the Mind and Transcendent Wisdom: A Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. In 1987, with the permission of the Dalai Lama, he formally returned his monastic vows, and two years later married Vesna A. Wallace, an accomplished Buddhist scholar in her own right. In that same year, he enrolled in the graduate program in religious studies at Stanford University
, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1995. During these years at Stanford, he also continued his studies of the philosophy of science and of the mind. His main research centered on integrating Buddhism with Western science and philosophy with the aim of achieving a more comprehensive understanding of consciousness. His dissertation was published under the title The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Tibetan Buddhist Meditation, and during this time he also wrote The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness. In 1997, he joined the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California
, Santa Barbara, where he taught courses on Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture, as well as the interface between science and religion. In 2001, he left his position at the university and devoted himself to a six-month solitary meditation retreat in the high desert of eastern California. In 2003, Alan established the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, a non-profit institution concerned with synthesizing scientific and contemplative inquiry into the nature and potentials of consciousness.
s over the last thirty years in India, Europe, and North America. In 1979, he served as the Dalai Lama's interpreter during his first teaching tour in the West, during which he lectured in Switzerland and Greece before making his way to the United States for his first visit there. Since the founding of the Mind and Life Institute in 1987, he has helped to organize its conferences, for which he, together with Dr. Thupten Jinpa
, has served as interpreter for the Dalai Lama
and the participating scientists and philosophers. From 1992 to 1997, he served as the interpreter and translator for Gyatrul Rinpoche, a senior Lama of the Nyingma
Order of Tibetan Buddhism.
Selected Essays:
More information on the Shamatha Project
More information on CEB
More information on CALM
, the pioneering American psychologist and philosopher whom he often refers to as one of his "intellectual heroes."
Google Tech Talks http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=983112177262602885
Shambhala Mountain Center http://www.shambhalamountain.org/programs/686
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain...
, and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. He endeavors to chart relationships and commonalities between Eastern and Western scientific, philosophical, and contemplative modes of inquiry.
Since 1976, Wallace has taught Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
in Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia. Wallace grew up in America and Switzerland but left college after three years to study Buddhism in India. He has served as interpreter for many Buddhist contemplatives and scholars, including the Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
. He is a prolific author of numerous books and essays and has translated dozens of Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
texts into English. Wallace has a bachelor's degree in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...
from Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
and a Ph.D. in religious studies
Religious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
from Stanford. He also founded and is President of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. In 2010 Wallace became the Director and Chairman of the Phuket International Academy Thanyapura Mind Centre, which provides a blend of contemporary psychology and neuroscience alongside ancient Asian contemplative practices. He is currently leading two 8-week, residential, intensive meditation retreats there each year, which are open to all who are interested in developing exceptional mental balance and well-being. In addition, together with Paul Ekman
Paul Ekman
Paul Ekman is a psychologist who has been a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He has been considered one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century...
he is leading a 6-week course to train instructors in "Cultivating Emotional Balance," a 42-hour program developed by Dr. Wallace and Dr. Ekman, which was scientifically studied at the University of California, San Francisco. All these retreats and courses are organized in collaboration with the Santa Barbara Institute. His life's work focuses on a deep engagement between Buddhist philosophical and contemplative inquiry and modern science and philosophy, with a special emphasis on exploring the nature and potentials of the mind in a radically empirical manner, as free as possible from the dogmas of religion and materialism.
Biography
Alan Wallace was born in Pasadena, California, in 1950, the son of Protestant theologian David H. Wallace, and was raised in the United States, Scotland, and Switzerland. In 1968, he began his undergraduate education at the University of California, San Diego, with an emphasis on biology and philosophy. He spent his third year abroad at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where he shifted the direction of his studies to Tibetan culture and language. Wishing to immerse himself more fully in the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism, in 1971 he discontinued his university education and moved to Dharamsala, India, where he enrolled in classes at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, which was established in that year under the auspices of the Dalai Lama. In 1973, as a newly ordained Buddhist monk, he enrolled in the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, where he trained until 1974. The following year he received full monastic ordination from the Dalai Lama, who then encouraged him to join the renowned Buddhist contemplative Geshe Rabten at the Tibet Institute in Switzerland. Two years later, he continued his training and also began teaching at the Center for Higher Tibetan Studies in Mt. Pelerin, Switzerland, still training under Geshe Rabten and many other Tibetan scholars and contemplatives. In 1979, with the encouragement of the Dalai Lama, he returned to India, where he began a series of solitary meditation retreats, first under the direct guidance of the Dalai Lama, and later in Sri Lanka and the United States. In 1984, he enrolled in Amherst CollegeAmherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, where, as an Independent Scholar, he studied physics, the philosophy of science, and Sanskrit, completing his undergraduate degree summa cum laude and phi beta kappa in 1987 http://alanwallace.org/profile.htm. His undergraduate honors thesis was published in two volumes, Choosing Reality: A Contemplative View of Physics and the Mind and Transcendent Wisdom: A Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. In 1987, with the permission of the Dalai Lama, he formally returned his monastic vows, and two years later married Vesna A. Wallace, an accomplished Buddhist scholar in her own right. In that same year, he enrolled in the graduate program in religious studies at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1995. During these years at Stanford, he also continued his studies of the philosophy of science and of the mind. His main research centered on integrating Buddhism with Western science and philosophy with the aim of achieving a more comprehensive understanding of consciousness. His dissertation was published under the title The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Tibetan Buddhist Meditation, and during this time he also wrote The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness. In 1997, he joined the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
, Santa Barbara, where he taught courses on Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture, as well as the interface between science and religion. In 2001, he left his position at the university and devoted himself to a six-month solitary meditation retreat in the high desert of eastern California. In 2003, Alan established the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, a non-profit institution concerned with synthesizing scientific and contemplative inquiry into the nature and potentials of consciousness.
As a translator
B. Alan Wallace has served as translator for dozens of Tibetan lamaLama
Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...
s over the last thirty years in India, Europe, and North America. In 1979, he served as the Dalai Lama's interpreter during his first teaching tour in the West, during which he lectured in Switzerland and Greece before making his way to the United States for his first visit there. Since the founding of the Mind and Life Institute in 1987, he has helped to organize its conferences, for which he, together with Dr. Thupten Jinpa
Geshe Thupten Jinpa
Geshe Thupten Jinpa has been a principal English translator to the Dalai Lama since 1985. He has translated and edited more than ten books by the Dalai Lama including The World of Tibetan Buddhism , A Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus , and the New York Times bestseller...
, has served as interpreter for the Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
and the participating scientists and philosophers. From 1992 to 1997, he served as the interpreter and translator for Gyatrul Rinpoche, a senior Lama of the Nyingma
Nyingma
The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...
Order of Tibetan Buddhism.
Published Books
- Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity.
- Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality, co-authored with Brian Hodel.
- Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness.
- Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge.
- The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind.
- Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment.
- Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground (Ed.).
- Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training.
- The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness.
- Boundless Heart: The Four Immeasurables.
- The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Tibetan Buddhist Meditation.
- Tibetan Buddhism From the Ground Up.
- A Passage from Solitude: A Modern Commentary on Tibetan Buddhist Mind Training.
- Choosing Reality: A Contemplative View of Physics and the Mind.
Published Translations
- The Vajra Essence: From the Matrix of Primordial Consciousness and Pure Appearances: A Tantra on the Self-arisen Nature of Existence by Düdjom Lingpa (Mirror of Wisdom Publications, 2004).
- Healing from the Source: The Science and Lore of Tibetan Medicine by Dr. Yeshi Dhonden (2000).
- Naked Awareness: Practical Teachings on the Union of Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen by Karma Chagmé, with commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche (Snow Lion Publications, 2000).
- Transcending Time: The Kālacakra Six-Session Guruyoga by Gen Lamrimpa (Wisdom Publications, 1999).
- Realizing Emptiness: The Madhyamaka Cultivation of Insight by Gen Lamrimpa (Snow Lion Publications, 1999).
- A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahāmudrā and Atiyoga by Karma Chagmé, with commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche (Snow Lion Publications, 1998).
- Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos by Padmasambhava, with commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications, 1998).
- A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life: A translation from the Sanskrit and Tibetan of Ṥāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra by Ṥāntideva, co-translated with Vesna A. Wallace (Snow Lion Publications, 1997).
- Ancient Wisdom: Nyingma Teachings of Dream Yoga, Meditation and Transformation, by Gyatrul Rinpoche. Co-translated with Sangye Khandro (Snow Lion Publications, 1993).
- Shamatha Meditation: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on Cultivating Meditative Quiescence by Gen Lamrimpa (Snow Lion Publications, 1992).
- Transcendent Wisdom: A Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life by the Dalai Lama (Snow Lion Publications, 1988).
- The Kalachakra Tantra by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1986).
- The Life and Teachings of Geshé Rabten by Geshé Rabten (George Allen & Unwin, 1980).
- Waterdrop from the Glorious Sea: A History of the Sakya Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism by Sherab Gyaltsen Amipa (Tibet Institute, 1976).
- The Ambrosia Heart Tantra: A Classic Treatise on Tibetan Medicine, Annotated by Dr. Yeshi Dhonden (Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, 1976).
Essays
B. Alan Wallace has written dozens of published essays in the fields of philosophy, psychology, physics, and Buddhism. Electronic copies of his essays are available from his website.Selected Essays:
- "Vacuum States of Consciousness: A Tibetan Buddhist View." In Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychology: Transcending the Boundaries. D.K. Nauriyal, ed. London: Routledge-Curzon, 2006, pp. 112–121.
- "Awakening to the Dream" Tricycle, Winter 2006, pp. 52–57.
- "Religion and Reason: Letter to a Christian Nation Reviewed." Shambhala Sun, November 2006, pp. 99–100.
- "Mental Balance and Well-Being: Building Bridges Between Buddhism and Western Psychology." American Psychologist, October 2006.
- "Immaterial Evidence." Tricycle, Spring 2006. pp. 84–86.
- "Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being." Co-author with Paul Ekman, Richard Davidson, and Matthieu Ricard. Current Directions in Psychology, 2005, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 59–63.
- "The Intersubjective Worlds of Science and Religion." Science, Religion, and the Human Experience. James Proctor, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- "A Science of Consciousness: Buddhism (1), the Modern West (0) The Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2003.
- "The Spectrum of Buddhist Practice in the West." Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia, Charles Prebish & Martin Baumann (eds.). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
- "Tibetan Buddhism in the West: Is It Working?" Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer 2001, pp. 54–63.
- "Intersubjectivity in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism." Journal of Consciousness StudiesJournal of Consciousness StudiesThe Journal of Consciousness Studies is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated entirely to the field of consciousness studies. It was previously edited by Joseph Goguen. It has been co-edited by the philosopher of mysticism, Robert K.C...
, 8, No. 5-7, 2001, pp. 209–30. - "Afterword: Buddhist Reflections," concluding essay for Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Brainscience and Buddhism. With Zara Houshmand and Robert Livingston. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1999.
- "The Dialectic Between Religious Belief and Contemplative Knowledge in Tibetan Buddhism." Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections of Contemporary Buddhist Scholars, John Makransky & Roger Jackson, eds., pp. 203–214. London: Curzon Press. 1999.
- "The Buddhist Tradition of Samatha: Methods for Refining and Examining Consciousness." Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6, No. 2-3, 1999. pp. 175–187.
The Shamatha Project (2007)
Recent studies of the effects of meditation practices on stress management and emotional stability and of meditation as a therapeutic agent have produced exciting results. But the studies conducted to date have been short-term and have generally used non-intensive interventions. The Shamatha Project includes a team of talented neuroscientists and psychologists in a longer-term study, with state-of-the-art methods, to examine the effects of intensive meditation training on attention, cognitive performance, emotion regulation, and health. This effort, the Shamatha Project, garnered the endorsement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and initial funding from three private foundations, The Fetzer Institute, the Hershey Family Foundation, and the Yoga Research and Education Foundation. The training methods, taught by Dr. Alan Wallace, included deep, intensive meditation training that fosters attentional vividness and stability as well as compassion, loving-kindness, empathetic joy, and equanimity. The expected benefits included greater attentional control and increased ability to regulate emotions and apply prosocial values and motives.More information on the Shamatha Project
Cultivating Emotional Balance
The Cultivating Emotional Balance research project arose from a dialogue between biobehavioral scientists studying emotion and the Dalai Lama and Buddhist monks and scholars. This meeting, which took place in March 2000, in Dharamsala, India, was one in a series sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute to foster an interchange between the Buddhist tradition and Western science.More information on CEB
The Compassion and Attention Longitudinal Meditation Study (CALM)
Increasing evidence suggests that meditation improves both emotional and physical well-being. However, much remains to be understood about how meditation might confer these health benefits. To address key unanswered questions within the field of meditation research, investigators from the Mind-Body Program and Emory-Tibet Partnership at Emory University are collaborating with the Santa Barbara Institute to conduct the Compassion and Attention Longitudinal Meditation (CALM) Study. The CALM Study will extend recent findings that training in compassion meditation reduces the types of deleterious physical and emotional responses to psychological stress that have been associated with an array of modern illnesses, including depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dementia.More information on CALM
Other Projects
- Consultant for The Mechanisms of Meditation Project, with Charles Raison as the Principal Investigator, co-sponsored by Emory UniversityEmory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
and the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, 2007 – present. - Consultant for the research project Cultivating Emotional Balance in the Classroom (CEBC), with Patricia Jennings as the Principal Investigator and Margaret Kemeny as Co-Principal Investigator, co-sponsored by San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, the University of California, San Francisco, and the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, 2005 – present. - Consultant and meditation instructor for the Mindful Attention Training (MAT) for epilepsyEpilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
, a research project to study the effectiveness of attentional training for reducing the frequency and intensity of epileptic seizures, directed by Dr. Jerome Pete Engel at the Reed Neurologic Research Center at UCLA, and Dr. Christoph Baumgartner at the Medical University of ViennaMedical University of ViennaThe Medical University of Vienna is a medical university in Vienna, Austria.Formerly the faculty of medicine of the University of Vienna, became an independent university on January 1, 2004...
, 2005 - 2006. - Consultant for the Mindful Awareness Project (MAP), involving research to develop meditative training for the prevention and treatment of ADHD, directed by Dr. Susan SmalleySusan SmalleyDr. Susan Smalley was born February 18, 1955 in Minneapolis, Minnesota grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana-Professional Experience:She is Professor of Psychiatry and Founder and Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior...
and her colleagues at the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics at the UCLA School of Medicine, 2004–present. - Co-principal investigator and Contemplative Director for the “Shamatha Project,” a longitudinal, scientific study of the effects of 3 months of attentional training on attentional and emotional balance, in collaboration with a team of cognitive scientists at the University of California, DavisUniversity of California, DavisThe University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
; co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara Institute and the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, the Department of Psychology, and the Imaging Research Center, 2003–present. - Consultant and trainer for the “Cultivating Emotional Balance” (CEB) project, co-sponsored by the University of California, San FranciscoUniversity of California, San FranciscoThe University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
and the Santa Barbara Institute, 2003–present. - Consultant and interpreter for a research project on traditional Tibetan medical treatmentTraditional Tibetan medicineTraditional Tibetan medicine is a centuries-old traditional medical system that employs a complex approach to diagnosis, incorporating techniques such as pulse analysis and urinalysis, and utilizes behavior and dietary modification, medicines composed of natural materials and physical therapies...
for breast cancerBreast cancerBreast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
, University of California at San Francisco and California Pacific Medical CenterCalifornia Pacific Medical CenterCalifornia Pacific Medical Center is one of the largest private, non-profit, academic medical centers in Northern California. The Medical Center is a combination of four of San Francisco's oldest medical institutions: Pacific Presbyterian Hospital, Children's Hospital of San Francisco, Davies...
, San Francisco, 1995-8. - Researcher in the project “Training the Mind” to conduct psychological and neuroscientific studies of attention and compassion among advanced Tibetan contemplatives in northern India 1990-1992.
Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies
In 2003, B. Alan Wallace founded the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies as a not-for-profit institution with the interest of furthering our understanding of the nature, origins, and role of consciousness. He proposes that the nature of consciousness can most deeply be studied from a first-person perspective, and not be limited to the third-person methodologies of psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Optimally, the first-person methods of the contemplative traditions of the world, such as Buddhism, may be integrated with the objective methods of science to create a new discipline of "contemplative science." Influences on his thinking and research derive not only from Buddhism and contemporary physics and neuroscience, but also William JamesWilliam James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
, the pioneering American psychologist and philosopher whom he often refers to as one of his "intellectual heroes."
External links
- Official website
- Review of Wallace's Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge
- Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies
- 'Towards the First Revolution in the Mind Sciences', a lecture at Google headquarters
- Wallace interview on The Skeptics' Guide to the UniverseThe Skeptics' Guide to the UniverseThe Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a weekly, 80 minute podcast hosted by Steven Novella, MD, and a panel of "skeptical rogues". It is the official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society, and is produced in conjunction with the James Randi Educational Foundation...
- Wallace interview on Skeptiko
- Audio Interview Series on Buddhist Geeks
- “Naturalizing the Mind Sciences,” presented as a keynote address for the conference “Mind & Reality: A Multidisciplinary Symposium on Consciousness,” hosted by the Center for the Study of Science and Religion at Columbia University, Feb. 25-26, 2006.
Selected References & Sources
Snow Lion Publications http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/wallace.phpGoogle Tech Talks http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=983112177262602885
Shambhala Mountain Center http://www.shambhalamountain.org/programs/686