WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?

Cassandra Vieten, PhD

President and Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences

Cassandra Vieten, PhD, is President and Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, San Diego, having previously held positions as a mind-body medicine and behavioral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute. In addition to her leadership role at IONS, a frontier consciousness research center, she has conducted numerous studies on experiences and practices that lead to fundamental shifts in consciousness, worldview, and ways of being. Her current work focuses on developing spiritual competencies for mental health professionals, examining extraordinary experiences during and after meditation, virtual reality approaches to inducing awe, and teaching changemakers and politicians how to utilize consciousness to make their communication strategies more effective (see noetic.org/experience/C3 and campaignscience.com). She is author of Mindful Motherhood: Practical Tools for Staying Sane During Pregnancy and Your Child’s First Year, and coauthor of Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life, and Spiritual Competencies in Clinical Practice: Guidelines for Psychologists and Mental Health Professionals. She has published numerous articles in scientific journals, is an internationally recognized speaker and workshop leader, and is a Huffington Post and Psychology Today blogger. She’s a mom and loves singing, soccer, nature, and travel.