Dear friends and colleagues,
What happens in the brain during experiences of oneness, surrender, and spiritual transformation? How might science help us understand mystical experience while still honoring its depth, mystery, and lived meaning?
We are delighted to invite you to register for the 2026 MSR Research Colloquium, "The Mystical and Research: Dwelling at the Threshold of Knowing."
We begin on June 11 at 10:00 a.m. EDT with our Opening Plenary, featuring Andrew B. Newberg, M.D., and co-hosted by Stacey Guenther and Naida Culshaw. Andrew's keynote will explore the biological correlates of mystical experiences and brain structures, followed by dialogue with the MSR Flamekeeper Jody Fry and plenary participants.
And the conversation will continue through the sessions that follow:
• How might timelessness become a spiritual bypass?
• How can meditative inquiry shape teaching, research, and creation?
• What becomes possible when researchers refuse to let conventional rigor forbid insight?
• What other ways of knowing might research make space for?
If you are intrigued by mystical experiences, contemplative inquiry, and transformative ways of knowing, we warmly invite you to join us!
Register for free on Eventbrite
Please help us spread the word widely by sharing this invitation with colleagues, students, practitioners, and communities who may be interested!
Warmly,
MSR Research Colloquium Organizing Committee
(Tianyuan Yu, Naida Culshaw, Stacey Guenther, Konstantin Weicht, Gaëtan Mourmant, Aditya Agrawal, and Danyil Nychka)
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Tianyuan Yu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax NS Canada
Representative-at-Large (Research)
Management, Spirituality & Religion Division, Academy of Management
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