What if neuroscience and a 1,000 year old contemplative tradition were describing the same reality?
Join us to find out.
Discover how meditation reshapes your mind —and how yogic wisdom can help you unlock its deepest potential.
April 16 - May 7, 2026
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The Neuroscience of Meditation
What actually happens in the brain when you meditate?
In recent years, neuroscience has begun to uncover the remarkable ways that meditation reshapes the brain and expands awareness.
Yet, long before brain scanners existed, the Nondual Tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism described these same inner shifts with extraordinary precision.
Join acclaimed neuroscientist Dr. Marjorie Woollacott and senior yoga teacher Barrie Risman for a transformative journey that blends cutting-edge neuroscience with timeless yogic wisdom. Together, they bring more than six decades of inquiry into the nature of the mind and consciousness.
April 16 - May 7
Lifetime access
Livestreamed Sessions
Asana Classes
Guided Meditation
What You'll Learn
Meditation works by gradually loosening the mental filters that narrow your perception of reality. As those filters soften, something opens — a deeper dimension of yourself that exists beyond the habitual story of who you think you are.
Neuroscience and Kashmir Shaivism both point toward the same truth: that expanded awareness isn't a mystical abstraction. It's a fundamental shift in how your mind operates and how you experience the world.
Each week. of our course, you'll discover:
- How meditation reshapes the brain and supports lasting mental shifts
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Parallels between neuroscience and yogic teachings on consciousness
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Yogic practices that cultivate clarity, resilience, and emotional balance
- Practical techniques to bring expanded awareness into daily life
- How inner transformation can inspire purposeful, meaningful action
You'll leave with a concrete toolkit you can use immediately — and return to again and again.
Why This Matters Now
We are living through a time of relentless complexity — information overload, uncertainty, and a pace of change that leaves little room to simply be. Many of the tools we reach for to cope only add to the noise.
Many approaches to meditation treat the mind as something to be tamed. This course starts from a different premise: that the mind, seen clearly, is not the problem. Expansion of consciousness, not suppression of thought, is where the real shift happens.
When that shift occurs, something changes in how you meet the world. Clarity, resilience, and compassion stop feeling like things you have to force — and start emerging on their own.
Through guided practices and practical exercises, you'll learn to bring that vast awareness into the texture of your daily life.
I found the whole course fascinating — particularly the research on how practicing the eight limbs of yoga produces changes in the brain and deepens compassion. It gives real validity to what so many of us have experienced on the mat, and made me profoundly grateful to have been introduced to this practice. So many aha moments."
— Lilly Mirijello, Montreal
Marjorie offers a brilliant scientific window into what's actually happening in our brains while we meditate and practice yoga. Beyond the insights themselves, she gave me a compelling, evidence-based way to share the value of this practice with others — something I've been looking for.
— Sofija Pekic Quarrie, Serbia
This course gave me a much deeper understanding of meditation and how the mind works to release the tension we accumulate in our complex, ever-changing world. I especially appreciated how Marjorie answered my question about what happens in the brain during a bittersweet moment — a response I'll carry with me. Grateful to both Marjorie and Barrie for this offering.
— Heidi Tyson, New York
Enroll for $150 CAD
Includes 6+ hours live instruction, on-demand yoga classes and lifetime access to all materials.
Each week you'll receive:
- 90-minute lecture and practice session with Marjorie and Barrie
- 60-minute on-demand, all-levels yoga session guided by Barrie
- Live Q&A with Marjorie and Barrie
Schedule: Thursdays, 7-8:30 pm ET
April 16, 23, 30, and May 7, 2026
Thursday sessions are livestreamed on Zoom and recorded. All materials are available for lifetime access, so you can participate live or revisit the teachings as often as you wish.
See the FAQs below for more information about the course schedule and recordings.
Yoga teachers: This course qualifies for 9 CE hours with Yoga Alliance.
Are you a returning student or need a reduced rate? Contact us for details.
About Your Teachers
Dr. Marjorie Woollacott is an Emeritus Professor of Human Physiology and member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. She is President of the Academy for the Advancement of Post-Materialist Sciences, on the Science Committee of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Co-Director of the Galileo Commission, and Research Director for the International Association of Near-Death Studies. Dr. Woollacott has published over 200 scientific articles and written or edited nine books, including the award-winning Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of a Scientific Mind and Spiritual Awakenings: Scientists and Academics Describe Their Experiences. She has led workshops on the nature of consciousness and taught meditation for over four decades.
Barrie Risman, E-RYT 500, is an internationally-recognized yoga teacher, public speaker, and author. Her book, Evolving Your Yoga: Ten Principles for Enlightened Practice, is a guide for teachers and continuing students to deepen, expand, and integrate the benefits of yoga in their lives. Widely known as a teacher's teacher, she shares yoga around the globe through her ongoing classes, workshops, retreats, and trainings, both online and in person. Barrie is also a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects, an experiential group work designed to help individuals find clarity of vision and emotional sanctuary while living through this precious and precarious moment on our planet.