Oseas Barbarán

Oseas Barbarán Sanchez is a Shipibo indigenous leader, current president of the Confederation of Amazonian Nationalities of Peru, a national indigenous organization that represents 944 native communities of the Peruvian Amazon. Born in the native community of Callería in the jungle, where he still resides, has been a friend of this project since its beginning.
 
We've had the honor of visiting Oseas and his community, for the filming of a documentary in production about the effects that evangelization has had on Shipibo shamanic traditions, in particularly with Ayahuasca, the most sacred medicine for his people, which evangelism has turned into a tabboo for many communities. 

Matrushree Smrithi Rekha

Ananthalakshmi (Smrithi Rekha) Adinarayanan is the co-founder of Anaadi Foundation and Dharma Gurukulam. She is a national expert on Indian Knowledge Systems, author of IKS books for young learners and regularly teaches at IITDelhi. She was formerly an Edtech - Cognitive Science researcher and a Faculty member of the CSE Department at Amrita University. She has an MS in Information Systems from State University of New York, USA and Amrita University. With a rich experience in teaching and research, Smrithi has inspired several teachers and students through her insights on the teaching and learning process. In 2015, she was at the University of LAquila, Italy as Visiting Professor. She devotes her energies in designing the various initiatives and programs of Anaadi Foundation.

Shriman Adinarayanan

Shriman Adinarayanan and Matrushree (Ma) is a co-founding Guru of Anaadi Foundation, a spiritual organisation started in 2015. Adinarayanan is a Siddhayogi who has spent more than 250 days in mouna tapasya. The dampati belong to the spiritual parampara of Mahavatar Kriya Babaji. After a deep spiritual experience (which he later realised as the experience of Samadhi) during his graduate studies in the US, Siddhayogi Shriman Adinarayanan had a strong desire to return to India to dedicate himself to spirituality and serving the society.
 
Since their marriage in 2004, Adinarayanan and Smrithi have been leading a yogic life of simplicity and purpose. After spending some time in the software industry and with the intention of living a life that can be of benefit to a larger number of people, especially the youth, they moved to academics. Their sadhana and Adinarayanan's mouna tapasya inspired them to make the essence of the spiritual parampara of the country available to everyone. They continue to teach at various institutions including IIT-Delhi. After more than a decade of teaching and research experience, the dampati started Anaadi Foundation for loka sangraha and since then they have been reaching out to children, youth and families through their online and in-person programs on Yoga, Ithihasa-Purana and Vedanta blending unique insights from modern science. Being grihasthas and being able to integrate sadhana into their daily life has inspired a lot of grihasthas who visit the ashram.

Charles Halpern, J.D.

Charles Halpern is considered one of the pioneers of public interest law. His book, "Making Waves and Riding the Currents" tells the story of how he brought public interest activism, mindfulness, and meditation into law schools and courthouses across the United States. Charles was the founding dean of CUNY School of Law, and has taught law at Stanford, Berkeley, and Yale-- among many other institutions.  
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He was the first President of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, where he helped develop innovative philanthropic initiatives, collaborating directly with contemplative leaders like the Dalai Llama, the late Ram Dass and Jon Kabat-Zinn. He later launched the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, which worked to infuse a contemplative dimension into higher education, law, journalism, and business.

Ayize Jama-Everrett

Ayize Jama-Everett holds three Master’s degrees: Divinity, Psychology, and in Fine Arts, Writing. He blends these degrees in all his work, often identifying as a guerilla theologian, a community-based therapist, and an afro-futurist in the same breath. He’s taught at Starr King School for the Ministry, California College of the Arts, The University of California, Riverside, Western Colorado College, and several private High schools for over twenty years. His expertise includes working with adolescents, the history of substance use in the United States, the history of Sacred Plant medicines in the Maghreb, the religious roots of political violence from Ireland to the Middle East, educational arts pedagogy, and Afrofuturism. He’s published several novels and recently produced the documentary, A Table of our Own, which focuses on the gathering of Black luminaries that do work in the psychedelic space. In an effort to destigmatize and contextualize Black communities’ use of plant medicine for healing, this beautiful documentary demonstrates the role that BIPOC storytelling and art can play in the process of decolonizing education and empowering our communities.