After graduating magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 1967, Dr. Borysenko earned her doctorate in Medical Sciences from the Harvard Medical School, where she completed post-doctoral training in cancer cell biology. Her first faculty position was at the Tufts University College of Medicine in Boston. But after the death of her father from cancer, she became more interested in the person with the illness than in the disease itself, and returned to Harvard Medical School to complete a second postdoctoral fellowship, this time in the new field of behavioral medicine. Under the tutelage of Herbert Benson, M.D., who first identified the relaxation response and brought meditation into medicine, she was awarded a Medical Foundation Fellowship and completed her third post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology.

In the early 1980's Dr. Borysenko co-founded a Mind/Body clinic with Dr. Benson and Dr. Ilan Kutz, became licensed as a psychologist, and was appointed instructor in medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Her years of clinical experience and research culminated in the 1987 publication of the New York Times best seller, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, which sold over 400,000 copies. The 20th anniversary edition, newly revised, was published in 2007.

Author or co-author of 13 other books and numerous audio and video programs, including the Public Television special Inner Peace for Busy People, she is the Founding Partner of Mind/Body Health Sciences, LLC located in Boulder, Colorado and the Director of The Claritas Institute Interspiritual Mentor Training Program.

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Dr. Edgar Mitchell, BSc, PhD

On January 31, 1971, Navy Captain Dr. Edgar Mitchell embarked on a journey into outer space that resulted in becoming the sixth man to walk on the moon. The Apollo 14 mission was NASA's third manned lunar landing. This historic journey ended safely nine days later on February 9, 1971. It was an audacious time in the history of mankind. For Mitchell, however, the most extraordinary journey was yet to come.

As he hurtled earthward through the abyss between the two worlds, Mitchell became engulfed by a profound sensation "a sense of universal connectedness." He intuitively sensed that his presence, that of his fellow astronauts, and that of the planet in the window were all part of a deliberate, universal process and that the glittering cosmos itself was in some way conscious. The experience was so overwhelming Mitchell knew his life would never be the same.

Scientist, test pilot, naval officer, astronaut, entrepreneur, author and lecturer, Dr. Mitchell's extraordinary career personifies humankind's eternal thrust to widen its horizons as well as its inner soul.

His academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University, a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a Doctor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT.

Dr. Mitchell has received many awards and honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the USN Distinguished Medal and three NASA Group Achievement Awards. He was inducted to the Space Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1998. He was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

After retiring from the Navy in 1972, Dr. Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to sponsor research into the nature of consciousness as it relates to cosmology and causality. In 1984, he was a co-founder of the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization of those who have experienced space travel.

He is the author of "Psychic Exploration," 1974, "The Way of the Explorer," 1996, (Third edition, 2006) as well as dozens of articles in both professional and popular periodicals. He has devoted the last 35 years to studying human consciousness and psychic and paranormal phenomena in the search for a common ground between science and spirit.

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Dr. Raymond Moody, MD, PhD

Dr. Moody is the best-selling author of eleven books including Life After Life—which has sold over 13 million copies world wide—and Reunions, as well as numerous articles in academic and professional literature. He continues to capture enormous public interest and generate controversy with his ground-breaking work on the near-death experience and what happens when we die.

As a featured expert in the media, Dr. Moody has appeared three times on Oprah, as well as on hundreds of other local and nationally syndicated programs such as MSNBC: Grief Recovery, NBC Today, and ABC's Turning Point.

Dr. Moody is a world-renowned scholar and researcher and is the leading authority on the 'near-death experience'—a phrase he coined in the late seventies. His research into the phenomenon of near-death experience had its start in the 1960's.

His academic credentials include an M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia, 1976, a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1969, a M.A. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1967 and a B.A. with Honors in philosophy from the University of Virginia, 1966.

Dr. Moody trains hospice workers, clergy, psychologists, nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals on matters of grief recovery and dying.

One of his current projects involves people at the bedside of the dying who often report extraordinary spiritual experiences. The bystanders feel that they empathically co-live the dying experience of the person who passes away. Dr. Moody's research on these empathic or shared death experiences will eventually be published.

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