The Book

When I was a young neuroscience professor in Virginia, I had a profound spiritual awakening during a meditation retreat which truly transformed my world view and my life. However, I didn’t know how to integrate these two parts of my life – so I basically led two separate lives, the neuroscience professor in rehabilitation medicine, and the spiritual seeker. In private conversations with some of my colleagues around the world, I discovered that they were doing the same thing in their lives – keeping this important element in their lives very private – because they feared a loss of their scientific credibility if they shared it.

I wondered how many other scientists and academics have this same experience and quandary?

And when I was given the opportunity to propose the topic for this volume, I knew immediately what I wanted to do: to ask Scientists and academics from around the world who had experience a spiritually transformative experience, to tell us about it, and then describe their own transformation and the challenges they faced in integrating into their career and their lives. I wanted to invite them to share these previously private profound awakenings and transformations with the rest of the world. So in this volume we went to both scientists and other academics, typically with PhDs or other Doctoral degrees, and let them share the experience of their own spiritual journey. As I read each essay that was submitted, I was profoundly moved by not only the experiences that these academics related, but the amazing transformational effects on their worldviews and their careers.

~ Marjorie Woollacott, PhD