About Us

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, FOUNDING MEMBERS

Zoran Josipovic, PhD
Zoran is a research associate and adjunct assistant professor in the Psychology Department, New York University, and founder and director of the Nonduality Institute. Zoran is interested in states of consciousness cultivated through contemplative practice, what these states can tell us about the nature of consciousness and its relation to authentic subjectivity, and what relevance this may have for understanding the global and local organization in the brain. He uses fMRI and a variety of visual and other stimuli to explore functional connectivity changes in the brain’s networks. In his previous life he worked as a clinical psychotherapist, and as a bodyworker, and has taught meditation at Esalen Institute for many years.

Jolie Gorchov
Jolie is a 15-year student of Vipassana meditation, studying with Shinzen Young and Gina Sharpe and at Barre Center for Buddhist Study. Jolie teaches meditation at New York Insight Meditation Center and Yoga Sutra, and mentors prison inmates on Buddhist study and practice. She is currently a psychology student at NYU. In a previous life she was a producer and editor on feature films and documentaries.

Jake H. Davis
Currently a Ph.D. student working in moral psychology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science at the CUNY Graduate Center, Jake began mindfulness practice at age fourteen at the Insight Meditation Society. He went on to delve deeply into the Burmese tradition of Theravada practice, gaining years of experience in the monastic life under the guidance of Sayadaw U Pandita, engaging in long periods of silent retreat practice, and working as an interpreter for a number of Burmese meditation masters. Jake’s current work examines the relations between attention, consciousness, and moral sentiments, in the Buddhist Pali texts and in current emperical research.

David Bosch
Does egocentric distance influence the type of information we use to understand our world? If a target is perceived as far away – in terms of spatial, temporal or social distance or hypotheticality – do people rely on global/abstract/integrated feature dimensions to form – and make inferences from – categories, to represent another’s internal state, or to take another’s perspective? Does the reverse (near leads to local/concrete/fragmented) also hold? My research investigates the role of egocentric distance in determining what class of information we choose to use, and to transfer or project onto, novel instances. We are inundated with data on a daily basis, and the factors that shape our choice of what information matters, often without our explicit awareness, are critical to a better understanding of how people learn about their environment and interact with one another.

Currently a PhD candidate in NYU’s cognition & perception program, David is also a long time student of Khenpo Lama Pema Wangdak.

CURRENT TALKS

PAST TALKS