Current Research

Death Makes Life Possible

 

Transformation

What are transformative experiences? When and why do they occur? How can they bring about positive enduring changes in our lives and the lives of others? These are questions Marilyn Schlitz has pursued and continues to pursue in her research on transformation.

Dr. Schlitz is the Principal Investigator on a qualitative and quantitative study of transformative practices. In these studies, Schlitz and her co-researchers examine the common themes of the transformative path, and provide insight and experiential techniques to help others to catalyze and maintain transformative shifts in their own lives. Read more background on the IONS website.

BOOK: Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life

Audiobook DVD: Living Deeply: Transformational Practices from the World’s Wisdom Traditions. (Excerpt below.)

 

Worldview Explorations

Understanding that everyone has a worldview, and that this worldview shapes people’s values and informs all their actions, is the essential starting point for education and research in this area. Among other research initiatives, Marilyn Schlitz continues to be one of the key contributors and researchers for the Worldview Explorations Project.

The Worldview Explorations Project is an educational initiative based on decades of research that introduces students to curriculum designed to enhance their understanding of the role of worldview in their lives, and how such an understanding can be used to cultivate compassion, empathy, and integrity in all facets of life. Visit the “Worldview” section of the Previous Research page for published articles on this topic.

In a recent Skype interview, Dr. Schlitz discussed how we can develop a culture of empathy:

 

Extended Human Capacities

A broad area of research, Dr. Schlitz has made frontier contributions in this field for decades. This field of inquiry examines a variety of phenomenon, including telepathy, clairvoyance, mediumship, mind-matter interaction and essentially all human capacities that appear to extend beyond the boundaries of space and time.

In a new experiment, recently funded by the Bial Foundation in Portugal, Dr. Schlitz will be working with Daryl Bem and Arnaud Delorme to test the hypothesis that the expectancy of the experimenter will have an impact on the outcome of a psi task. For more on this experiment, click here.

Marilyn also conducted a recent interview with Deepak Chopra exploring the nature of nonlocality and how it might apply to a theoretical basis for extended human capacities. Check it out here:

 

Consciousness and Healing

Dr. Schlitz has conducted extensive original research in consciousness and healing, and in addition to numerous academic papers, co-edited the publication titled Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind Body Medicine.

As Senior Scientist at California Pacific Medical Center, Dr. Schlitz has the privilege of working with a multidisciplinary team to explore the mind/body relationship. She is also working with a network of health professionals to shift the paradigm from a disease-based to a healing-based model of healthcare. She is applying her insights about change and transformation to helping craft a new system of medicine in America.

During an interview for the documentary film, The Living Matrix, Schlitz discusses the power of our thoughts to heal: