Projects
Consciousness Educators’ Network
Over 2024–25, twelve pilot projects were launched across schools, universities, and community learning environments. These projects explore themes such as consciousness and wellbeing, embodied and heart-centred learning, environmental and intercultural awareness, and consciousness in leadership and creativity.
The Network continues to expand as educators collaborate through monthly meetings, international presentations, and shared inquiry.
This page keeps you updated on projects that have been — and are currently — developing.
Current & Past Projects
Consciousness Education: A Course in Curriculum and Pedagogy for Wellbeing
Dr Laurel Waterman
Postgraduate students in Education, University of Toronto
Consciousness Education and Wellbeing: Is There a Relationship?
Dr Laurel Waterman & Dr Imants Barušs
Undergraduate Psychology students, King’s College, Western University (Canada)
Consciousness Unleashed: Seeding Epicenter LA
Dr Laurel Waterman & Allison Paradise
School-aged children and youth in LA County, USA; teacher training programs
Exploring Consciousness: The Hands That Move the Mustard Seed
Adi Vickers, PhD Candidate
Primary and secondary school students in India and Ireland
Consciousness in Popular Culture
Jonathan Allday, PhD
Youth in three secondary schools in England
Exploring the Inner
Keith Beasley, PhD
Students and staff at the University of Bristol
Developing an Understanding of Spirituality in the Primary School
Trudi Garratt-Ward, PhD
Primary school teachers and trainees, York St John University and partner schools
Promoting Health Through Transforming Consciousness
Trevor Griffiths, PhD
University staff and students
Heart Sense: Re-Imagining the Heart as an Organ of Perception
Louise Livingstone, PhD
Adults
Conscious Compassion: Compassion Within, Unity Beyond
Melanie Oborne
Young adults (18–25), primarily female
Telepathy & Intention: Recognizing Our Interconnectedness
Krista Stanley, PhD
Postgraduate students in Science & Consciousness, Ubiquity University
The Mind of a Meditator
Dr Marjorie Woollacott
Adults studying yoga at the Risman Hatha Yoga School
Animal Wisdom, Inner Gold: How Art and Nature Help Us Re-member
Carol Bradbury
Children aged 9–10 (adaptable for other age groups)
The Way of the Mystic: Embodying the Peace of Presence
Helen White Wolf
Adults
How to Expand Beyond Materialism: Belief, Experience, and Consciousness Education
Annie Margaret, PhD
Undergraduate students, Atlas Institute, University of Colorado
Project Advisors
Max Velmans, professor emeritus of psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, is a fellow of the British Psychological Society, a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences, an Honorary Member of SMN, and has been involved in consciousness studies for over 50 years. His main research focus is on integrating work on the philosophy, cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology of consciousness, and, more recently, on East–West integrative approaches. He has over 130 publications on these topics. His book Understanding Consciousness (2000, 2nd ed. 2009) develops “reflexive monism”, an analysis of the conscious self-observing universe, that was shortlisted for the British Psychological Society book award in both 2001 and 2002 and listed as the year 2000 “milestone in psychology” by Psychologie Heute in 2024. Other publications include Consciousness (2018) (a four-volume collection of major works), Towards a Deeper Understanding of Consciousness (2017), the co-edited Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (2007, 2nd ed. 2017), How Could Conscious Experiences Affect Brains? (2003), Investigating Phenomenal Consciousness: New Methodologies and Maps (2000), and The Science of Consciousness: Psychological, Neuropsychological and Clinical Reviews (1996). He was a co-founder and 2004–06 chair of the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, an Indian Council of Philosophical Research National Visiting Professor for 2010–11, and from 2007 onwards has been the main organiser of Totnes Consciousness Café, which brings advances in conscious studies to the local community.
Professor Max Velmans
Kate Adams PhD has over 30 years’ experience in education and is currently Professor of Education at Leeds Trinity University, UK. She began her career teaching in primary schools before moving into academia, where her research focuses on children’s spirituality, with a particular interest in their anomalous experiences. Her doctoral work investigated 7-11 year olds’ experiences of dream consciousness, exploring dreams they believed had a divine connection. Since then, Kate has investigated various experiences in childhood that were perceived as real but often dismissed by others as imagination. She has published extensively for almost three decades, including research papers, professional articles, and books such as Unseen Worlds: Looking Through the Lens of Childhood and the co-authored The Spiritual Dimension of Childhood. Kate’s writing highlights the implications for education, advocating for educators to remain open to diverse interpretations of experiences that go beyond dominant cultural narratives.
Professor Kate Adams
Imants Barušs, PhD After graduating with a Gold Medal from the Science, Technology, and Trades program at Northern Secondary School in Toronto, I entered the elite Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto on a scholarship and attained honours standing at the completion of my first year. But then I became preoccupied with existential questions, leading me into a more diverse range of studies, with the result that I graduated in 1974 from the New Program with an interdisciplinary BS. After four years working as a roofer, I enrolled at the University of Calgary and, in 1983, completed a MSc in Mathematics with specialization in Mathematical Foundations, writing my thesis about forcing in topoi. A chapter and a half from my thesis was published as a paper A Reduction Theorem for the Kripke-Joyal Semantics in Logica Universalis, incidentally giving me Erdös Number 3. As my existential quest led into an interest in consciousness, I switched to psychology, graduating in 1989 from the University of Regina with a PhD in Psychology. My dissertation The Personal Nature of Notions of Consciousness was published in 1990 as a book by University Press of America. In 1987 I accepted a full time position in the Psychology Department at King's University College. In 1993 I was granted tenure, and in 1999 I achieved the rank of Professor. I am the Recipient of The King's University College Award for Excellence in Teaching for Full Time Faculty for 2003-04. Since 2004 I have been teaching courses only about consciousness, altered states of consciousness, and the psychology of religion and spirituality. I am also an Adjunct Research Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Western University, a Doctoral Level Member of the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Western University, and an Associate member, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Western University. I have supervised 48 undergraduate research projects, thirteen of which have resulted in papers, or been included in papers, that have been published in refereed, academic journals. I have written, or co-authored, 8 books, 59 papers, and 22 reviews, and given or co-authored 132 presentations, mostly about fundamental issues concerning consciousness. I have been invited to present papers at the University of Latvia, American Mensa, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of California Berkeley, the Great Space Center, Victoria Hospital, the Medical Psychotherapy Association of Canada, and St. Thomas Aquinas High School. My written papers, many of which were invited, have been published in consciousness studies, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, medicine, mathematics, physics, and other science journals. I have had papers published not only in English, but also in Latvian and Russian. One of my books, Alterations of Consciousness, published by the American Psychological Association, was listed for a while as a best seller by the publisher, has sold over 4,000 copies, and is now in its second edition. Transcendent Mind, which I co-authored with Julia Mossbridge, and which was also published by the American Psychological Association, was the #1 New Release in Popular Experimental Psychology on Amazon.com for a while and has sold over 2000 copies. Also published by the American Psychological Association was my most recent book Death as an Altered State of Consciousness, which has sold 374 copies in the first six months, and which was a finalist for a PROSE 2024 Book Award. I am an Associate Editor for the Journal of Scientific Exploration and a consulting editor for Psychology of Consciousness. I have received a total of over $220,000 in grants and donations, including a recent 26,500 Euro research grant from the Bial Foundation. I have served in a number of administrative roles including Chair of the Department of Psychology and member of the Senate of Western University. I am currently a member of the Society for Scientific Exploration, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Society for Consciousness Studies (which I helped to found), and the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences (as well as being on its founding board of directors).
