Presenter Biographies

Swami Kriyananda

Swami Kriyananda is one of the few living direct disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose guru was Sri Yukteswar.

A highly respected spiritual teacher around the world, Swami Kriyananda founded Ananda, which means “joy” in Sanskrit, in 1968 to fulfill Yogananda’s vision of “World Brotherhood Colonies,” or spiritual cooperative communities.

Amit Goswami, Ph. D.

Amit Goswami, Ph. D., is a professor of physics (retired) at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he has served since 1968. He is a pioneer of the new paradigm of science, called science within consciousness, an idea he explicated in his seminal book, The Self-Aware Universe, where he also solved the quantum measurement problem elucidating the famous observer effect.

Goswami has written six other popular books based on his research on quantum physics and consciousness. In The Visionary Window, Goswami demonstrated how science and spirituality could be integrated. In Physics of the Soul he developed a theory of survival after death and reincarnation.

His book Quantum Creativity is a tour de force instruction on how to engage in both outer and inner creativity. Goswami's book, The Quantum Doctor, integrates conventional and alternative medicine. His latest book, Creative Evolution, is a resolution between Darwinism and intelligent design of life. Finally, in his book God Is Not Dead, Goswami demonstrates science’s re-discovery of God. Goswami’s books have been translated into nine languages.

In his private life, Goswami is a practitioner of spirituality and transformation. He calls himself a quantum activist. He was featured in the film "What the Bleep Do We Know?” and its sequel “Down the Rabbit Hole.”

Joan Borysenko

Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., is Director of Mind-Body Health Sciences, LLC in Boulder, Colorado. Her doctorate is in cellular biology from the Harvard Medical School, where she also completed post-doctoral fellowships in experimental pathology, behavioral medicine, and psychoneuroimmunology. She is a licensed clinical psychologist, a spiritual director, and a trainer of spiritual directors through the Claritas Institute, of which she is the co-founder. Dr. Borysenko is a former faculty member of both Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School.

A renowned pioneer in the field of stress and health, she is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and 15 books, including the New York Times’ best seller, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind. Her most recent books, It’s Not the End of the World: Developing Resilience in Times of Change and Fried: Why You Burn Out and How to Revive, speak to the needs of the liminal times we are living in. Dr. Borysenko is a much sought-after national speaker, known for her gracious presence, authenticity, humor, and ability to inspire as well as to inform. A blogger for the Huffington Post and Oprah.com, she also contributes to numerous magazines in the United States and abroad, and to newspapers ranging from The Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Robert M. Schoch

Dr. Robert M. Schoch, a full-time faculty member since 1984 of the College of General Studies at Boston University, earned his Ph.D. (1983) in Geology and Geophysics at Yale University. He also holds an M.S. and M.Phil. in Geology and Geophysics from Yale, as well as degrees in Anthropology (B.A.) and Geology (B.S.) from George Washington University. Additionally, Dr. Schoch is a member of the Advisory Board, Ananda College of Living Wisdom.

Dr. Schoch has been quoted extensively in the media for his pioneering research using geological analyses to recast the date of the Great Sphinx of Egypt, as well as for his work on ancient cultures and monuments in such diverse countries as Egypt, Turkey, Bosnia, Romania, Wales, Scotland, Mexico, Peru, Chile (Easter Island), and Japan. Dr. Schoch’s research has been instrumental in spurring renewed attention to the interrelationships between geological and astronomical phenomena, natural catastrophes, and the early history of civilization. Dr. Schoch has appeared on many radio and television shows and is featured in the Emmy-winning documentary, The Mystery of the Sphinx, which first aired on NBC. He has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

Dr. Schoch is the author or coauthor of both technical and popular books, including the trilogy with R. A. McNally: Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations (1999), Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America (2003), and Pyramid Quest: Secrets of the Great Pyramid and the Dawn of Civilization (2005). A recent book publication by Dr. Schoch is The Parapsychology Revolution: A Concise Anthology of Paranormal and Psychical Research (compilation, and a hundred pages of commentary, by Robert M. Schoch and Logan Yonavjak; 2008). Dr. Schoch's works have been translated into numerous languages and distributed around the world. He is also the coauthor of an environmental science textbook used in universities across the United States, and has contributed to numerous magazines, journals, and reviews on geology, parapsychology, and ancient civilizations.

Christopher Dunn

Christopher Dunn has an extensive background as a craftsman, starting his career as an indentured apprentice in his hometown of Manchester, England. Recruited by an aerospace manufacturing company, he immigrated to the United States in 1969. Over the past 49 years, Chris has worked at every level of high-tech manufacturing from machinist, toolmaker, programmer, and operator of high-powered industrial lasers, Project Engineer, and Laser Operations Manager. For the past 16 year, he has served as Human Resources Director for a Midwest aerospace manufacturer.

Chris's pyramid odyssey began in 1977 after he read Peter Tompkins' book Secrets of the Great Pyramid. His immediate reaction to learning of the Great Pyramid's precision and design characteristics was to consider that this edifice may have had an original purpose that differed from conventional opinion. After further research and study of source material on various theories, Chris concluded that it must have originally been built to provide a highly technical society with energy—in short, it was a very large machine. Discovering the purpose of this machine and documenting his case has taken the better part of twenty years of research.Chris’s book, The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt, published in 1998, describes a holistic energy device that is harmonically coupled with the Earth and its inhabitants.

Chris has published over a dozen magazine articles, including the much quoted "Advanced Machining in Ancient Egypt" in Analog, August 1984, and has had his research referenced in over a dozen books on Egypt. In the United States he has appeared on PAX Television, the Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Lifetime Television, and the History Channel.

Chris’s second book, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs, focuses on his research into the manufacturing capabilities of the ancient Egyptians. Through his engineer’s eye and camera, he reveals previously overlooked magisterial characteristics of Egyptian architectural and manufacturing wizardry.

Dr. Claude Swanson

Dr. Claude Swanson was educated as a physicist at MIT and Princeton University. For the last fifteen years, interspersed with his conventional professional career in applied physics, Dr. Swanson has pursued investigations into "unconventional physics." His principal interest has been unified field theory, the so-called "Theory of Everything," which could explain the universe at the deepest possible level. This has led him to investigate many aspects of the paranormal, apparently real phenomena that violate our present science. Paranormal phenomena, which have now been proven in the laboratory in many cases, offer a window into the deeper universe and the mysteries of consciousness, and unlock new forces and principles which conventional science has only begun to glimpse.

Swanson conducted postgraduate work at Princeton and Cornell Universities on the design of superconducting plasma containment vessels for fusion energy systems. He then began work for Aeronautical Research Associates of Princeton, and later formed his own consulting company, which carried out studies in applied physics for commercial and governmental agencies, including DuPont, United Technologies, the U.S. Army and Navy, DARPA and the CIA, among many others.

Dr. Swanson has conducted extensive research into how paranormal phenomena can be incorporated into modern science, including research of the scientific literature, experiments and investigations, interviews with scientists, and has attended and spoken at conferences.

His research has involved underwater archaeology in Bimini, scientific measurements in haunted houses, experiments in remote viewing and psychokinesis, and testing of new devices which can measure these strange forces. He has just published a book, The Synchronized Universe, which summarizes some of the new discoveries of this emerging science.

Walter Cruttenden

Walter Cruttenden is a researcher and author of books and films on ancient cultures and the cycle of the ages, a.k.a. the Great Year.

He presently serves as the Director of the Binary Research Institute in Newport Beach, California, which investigates the cause and consequences of solar system motion, the apprent driver of the changing ages.

Recent works by Walter include Ancient Cosmology: A Map of the Future (Noetic Sciences), the alternative history book Lost Star of Myth and Time, the award winning documentary film, The Great Year (narrated by James Earl Jones) and children’s book, The Great Year Adventures: with Tommy the Time-Traveling Turtle.

As part of his efforts to explore the subject of long term cyclical effects on humanity Walter hosts the regular pod cast series, The Cosmic Influence, and organizes the annual Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge (CPAK), which features authors and scientists from around the world discussing the implications of celestial cycles on biology, archaeology, anthropology and related sciences.

Cruttenden has appeared several times on The History Channel, PBS and many news programs, and has been a repeat guest on syndicated radio shows, especially in the alternative science field, such as Coast to Coast AM, with George Noory.

Uma Krishnamurthy, M.D.

Uma Krishnamurthy, M.D., has been exposed to spiritual teachers and yoga philosophy from early childhood. Born into a family of Theosophists dedicated to teaching spiritual topics, she grew up in an atmosphere deeply imbued with spirituality and concern for universal human well-being. From her early teens, she assisted her father in running spiritual retreats. She qualified as one of the early child psychiatrists in India, and spent the first years of her career working with children, parents, and teachers in Bangalore, particularly interested in bringing spirituality into psychiatry. The fields of healing, yoga psychology, and transformation of emotions are currently her main areas of interest and research.

Dr. Krishnamurthy has been traveling worldwide for the past ten years leading workshops and spiritual retreats on yoga psychology. She regularly conducts workshops at the Yoga Biomedical Trust in London, at Sivananda Yoga and Vedanta Centers worldwide, and at Krotona Theosophical Society in Ojai, California.

Dr. Krishnamurthy has also received formal training in classical Indian dance (Bharatiya Vidya / Bharatanatyam). Her research on the similarities of yoga and classical Indian dance has received much acclaim.

Possessed of great intelligence, creativity and presence, she is much loved by those who attend her Retreats.

Joseph Selbie

Joseph Selbie is the co-author of The Yugas: Keys to Understanding Our Hidden Past, Emerging Energy Age, and Enlightened Future. The book explores the ancient Indian tradition of a 24,000-year cycle of human development. During the cycle, mankind evolves or devolves through clearly discernable ages, or yugas. Each shift to a new yuga changes the consciousness and abilities of mankind. As mankind’s consciousness changes, so does civilization and human development. The yugas provide solutions to many ancient mysteries and offer us a profound key to understanding our modern era – the energy age.

Author and lecturer, Joseph studied ancient Western cultures at the University of Colorado and ancient Eastern cultures at UC Berkeley. For over thirty years he has taught and lectured on the yugas and the principles of Eastern philosophy, throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Joseph is currently working on a book that addresses the frontiers of science and consciousness. He lives with his wife at Ananda Village, a spiritual community in Northern California. Joseph is the founder and CEO of Tristream, a web development, marketing, and application design firm. He is considered an expert in the field of interaction design.

David Steinmetz

David Steinmetz is the co-author of The Yugas: Keys to Understanding Our Hidden Past, Emerging Energy Age, and Enlightened Future. David’s background includes forty years of scientific work, including astronomy, optical metrology, and optical engineering at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. David is currently teaching science, astronomy, and physics at the Ananda College of Living Wisdom. He has been writing and lecturing on the topic of the yugas for more than a decade. David lives with his wife at Ananda Village, a spiritual community in Northern California.