Miguel Farias is an experimental psychologist, former Lecturer at Oxford University, founding director of the Brain, Belief, & Behaviour Lab, co-author of ‘The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?’, and lead editor of the Oxford Handbook of Meditation.
Sara Shah is a seasoned meditation and mindfulness expert, her almost decade of work in the space spans from advising Silicon Valley mental health startups building meditation apps to hosting international women’s meditation retreats merging ancient and modern practices. She also creates corporate mindfulness programs for leading multinational corporations. Sara’s meditative training includes Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Christian, and Shamanic traditions, ranging from the traditional to the esoteric. Her work and teachings continue to combine compassion-based, heart-centric, and embodied meditative practices. Her previous academic research evaluated the potential impact of compassion based mindfulness practices for trauma-populations, most notably female and child refugees. Her current academic research focuses on the anthropology of pilgrimage—the practice of pilgrimage as a metaphor for life and life as a metaphor for pilgrimage. And ultimately, the practice of pilgrimage as a potential gateway to meditation and deeper soul healing.
