William Ury

William Ury, cofounder of Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation, is the coauthor of Getting to Yes (whose German title is Das Harvard Konzept), the bestselling negotiation book in the world with over thirteen million copies in thirty-five languages. His most recent book is the award-winning Getting to Yes with Yourself, just published in German by Campus Verlag.

For the past thirty-five years, Ury has served as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts ranging from family feuds, labor strikes, and boardroom battles to wars in the Middle East, the Balkans, Russia, and Latin America. He currently works as an advisor to the president of Colombia on ending a fifty-year civil war.

Ury is founder of the Abraham Path Initiative, which seeks to bring people together across cultures by opening a long-distance walking route in the Middle East that retraces the footsteps of Abraham and his family. He is also co-founder of the Climate Parliament, which unites parliamentarians from around the world with civil society to bring about a transition to renewable energy.
www.williamury.com

Dr. Gordon Neufeld

Dr. Gordon Neufeld is a Canadian developmental psychologist with over 40 years of experience with children and youth and those responsible for them. A foremost authority on child development, Dr. Neufeld is an international speaker, a bestselling author (Hold On To Your Kids) and a leading interpreter of the developmental paradigm.

Dr. Neufeld has a widespread reputation for making sense of complex problems and for opening doors for change.

While formerly involved in university teaching and private practice, he now devotes his time to teaching and training others, including educators and helping professionals. His Neufeld Institute is now a world-wide charitable organization devoted to applying developmental science to the task of raising children. Dr. Neufeld appears regularly on radio and television. He is a father of five and a grandfather to six.
www.neufeldinstitute.org

Dr. Deepak Chopra

The medical doctor, university teacher and bestselling author Dr. Deepak Chopra is regarded as one of the most brilliant philosophers of our time. For a long time, the native Indian worked successfully as an internist and endocrinologist at a hospital. Seeking an animated form of western medicine, he has been dedicating his life to the boundary between science and spirituality since the 1980s.

As the founder of the Chopra Foundation and co-founder and chairman of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California, he combines the knowledge of the West with the wisdom of the East in a unique way. He is a pioneer of holistic alternative medicine and has published 80 books about healing, transformation and higher consciousness, which have been translated into 43 languages and sold over 20 million copies. He is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post and a regular contributor to Oprah.com, Intent.com and the Huffington Post. Time Magazine counts Chopra among the 100 most outstanding minds of the 20th century.
www.deepakchopra.com

Scilla Elworthy

Founder of the Oxford Research Group and Peace Direct

Dr. Scilla Elworthy holds a PhD in political science and is the former Director of the Oxford Research Group (ORG), which she founded in 1982 to analyze how and by whom nuclear weapons decisions are made worldwide. It is for this work that she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She then founded Peace Direct, which grew out of ORG’s conflict prevention work. She has been a consultant to UNESCO as well as research director for Minority Rights Group, before she managed a self-help organization in Africa. She is the author of many books and reports on defense and security issues and a gifted public lecturer in Europe, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.
www.worldfuturecouncil.org/scilla_elworthy.html
www.preparingforpeace.org/elworthy_biog.htm

Jean Houston

Dr. Jean Houston is one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement and is one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our times. In her inter-disciplinary approach, Dr. Houston combines a deep knowledge of history, culture, new scientific results, spirituality and human development. She is the author of 26 books and is also known as a dynamic and powerful speaker and leader of large seminars and conferences, who can inspire, inform and activate her audience in an entertaining way. Her passionate interest is always focused on supporting the inner visions, abilities and possibilities of each person or group and translating them into action.

Jean Houston earned a Ph.D. in Psychology and a PhD in Religion. She founded institutions such as The Foundation for Mind Research (1965); the Mystery School (1983) – now called Renaissance of Spirit; the Possible Society (1984); as well as the Jean Houston Foundation (2008), which offers “Social Artistry”, a training program for executives at the international level. She is a consultant to international organizations, to UNICEF in human and cultural development and to the United Nations, as well as to leading figures such as the Dalai Lama, President Clinton and his wife Hillary, and President Carter.

She has taught at various universities and colleges as a professor and guest professor.

Thomas Hübl

Thomas Hübl is a modern mystic, spiritual teacher, author and systems-thinker. His work integrates the essence of the great wisdom traditions, scientific knowledge and his own personal experience. For almost 15 years, Thomas has been leading international workshops, multi-year training programs and online courses. He is the initiator of the ‘Celebrate Life Festival’ as well as founder of the ‘Academy of Inner Science’ and of the ‘Pocket Project’. Thomas was born in Austria in 1971 and now lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, with his wife, the Israeli artist Yehudit Sasportas and their daughter Eliya.

www.thomashuebl.com

Byron Katie

Founder of The Work, has one job: to teach people how to end their own suffering. When Katie appears, lives change. As she guides people through her simple and powerful process of inquiry, called The Work, they find again and again that their stressful beliefs – about life, other people, or themselves – radically and positively shift.

Katie, who recently did The Work with Oprah, has worked with millions of people all over the world who report profound experiences and lasting transformations.

Time Magazine names Katie “a spiritual innovator for the new millennium”. Eckhart Tolle calls The Work “a blessing for our planet.”

www.thework.com

Bart Weetjens

Bart Weetjens is a Zen Buddhist priest and social entrepreneur. He founded „Apopo” initiating the use of trained rats as an alternative and sustainable landmine detector in response to the global landmine challenge. He collaborates with vulnerable communities in countries with a weak governance, affected by the terror of warfare and may help inspire Europe to turn around a fearful society into a trusting one.

Bart also initiated the Wellbeeing project, wich is inspired by a sense of caring and compassion for all the people who work to build a better world, as well as to support the many causes and movements for which they work, the Wellbeing Project is focused on both modeling support to social change leaders, and cultivating a shift in the culture of the field toward one that is healthier and supportive of inner wellbeing. Bart served the Global Agenda Council on Humanitarian Assistance.

He has been elected an ASHOKA fellow and a SCHWAB fellow to the World Economic Forum. He won a Skoll Award for social Entrepreneurship in 2009.
www.apopo.org, www.wellbeing-project.org

Ed Mitchell

Traveling back to Earth, having just walked on the moon, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell had an experience for which nothing in his life had prepared him. As he approached the planet we know as home, he was filled with an inner conviction as certain as any mathematical equation he’d ever solved.

He knew that the beautiful blue world to which he was returning is part of a living system, harmonious and whole—and that we all participate, as he expressed it later, “in a universe of consciousness.”

Trained as an engineer and scientist, Ed Mitchell was most comfortable in the world of rationality and physical precision. Yet the understanding that came to him as he journeyed back from space felt just as trustworthy—it represented another way of knowing. This experience radically altered his worldview: Despite science’s superb technological achievements, he realized that we had barely begun to probe the deepest mystery of the universe—the fact of consciousness itself. He became convinced that the uncharted territory of the human mind was the next frontier to explore, and that it contained possibilities we had hardly begun to imagine. Within two years of his expedition, Edgar Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973.

Today, Dr. Mitchell is member of the Board of Directors of the Institute. He continues to be active at events at the Institute, e.g.with lectures and conferences.

(* 17.09.1930 in Hereford, Texas; † 04.02.2016)

Tami Simon

Tami  Simon is Publisher, CEO, and Founder of Sounds True. In 1985, at the age of 22, Tami Simon founded Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company dedicated to disseminating spiritual wisdom. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Sounds True has published more than 800 audio, video, music, and book titles along with online courses and events. A two-time winner of the Inc 500 award as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America, Sounds True is widely recognized as a pioneer in providing life-changing, practical tools that accelerate spiritual awakening and personal transformation. In addition to being the publisher and CEO of Sounds True,  Tami  hosts a free weekly podcast series called Insights at the Edge, in which she interviews Sounds True authors about the growing edge of their life and work. Additionally,

Tami  is a senior meditation instructor under the guidance of Reggie Ray, who teaches in the practicing lineage of the great siddha and Tibetan Buddhist meditation teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
www.soundstrue.com

Eckhart Tolle

Spiritual teacher and author, born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher in London. Since 1995 he lives in Vancouver, Canada.
www.eckharttolle.com & www.eckharttolle.de

Ken Wilber

Born in 1949 in Oklahoma City, Ken Wilber lived in many places during his school years, due to his father being in the Air Force. With 22 books on spirituality and science, and translations in more than 25 countries, Wilber is now the most translated writer on consciousness studies in the United States. He is seen as an important representative of transpersonal psychology, which emerged in the sixties from humanistic psychology, and which concerns itself explicitly with spirituality. For the fundamental and pioneering nature of his insights, he has been called “the Einstein of consciousness research”. In 2000 he founded the Integral Institute, a think-tank for studying issues of science and society in an integral way.
www.kenwilber.com

Gerald Hüther

Prof. Dr. Gerald Hüther is one of the most famous brain researchers in Germany. He heads the Center for Neurobiological Prevention Research at the Psychiatric University Clinic of Göttingen, writes non-fiction books, organizes congresses, and works as a consultant for politicians and entrepreneurs. As co-publisher of scientific journals, co-founder of the Network for Education and Training and frequent guest in the media, he is committed to the distribution and implementation of the insights from modern brain research. He sees himself as a “bridge builder” between scientific insights and social or individual life practice, with the aim of creating favorable conditions for the development of potential, especially in the area of education and training, as well as at the level of political and economic leadership.

Michael Laitman

Michael Laitman is a Professor of Ontology and the Theory of Knowledge, Doctor of Philosophy and Kabbalah, and has a Master of Science of Biocybernetics. He gives lessons for 30 years and founded the public education and research center Bnei Baruch, which has more than 2.5 million students and holds the world’s most comprehensive educational materials about the Kabbalah. He has written more than 30 books, translated into 27 languages. His lessons to his students can attend free of charge every day live on the Internet.

As a scientist and global thinker, Laitman is a sought-after lecturer on the topic of authentic Kabbalah. He is frequently invited to participate in prestigious international meetings such as the World Wisdom Council and the Club of Budapest, and in the last two years he has been in numerous meetings in the United States, Canada, Europe , Russia, and Latin America. Most recently, as the founder and president of the Ashlag Research Institute (ARI), he has established ties with UNESCO on the subject of global education.

www.laitman.de
www.kabbalah.info

Other Presenters:

Lawrence Bloom, Stephan Breidenbach, Pia Gyger & Niklaus Brantschen, Günter Faltin, Diane Hamilton, Thomas Harms, Johannes Heimrath, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gary Joplin, Kosha Joubert, Kira Kay, Christina Kessler, Ervin László, David Less, Lindsay Levin, Auke van Nimwegen, Aftab Omer, Terry Patten, Margret Rasfeld, Miles Kessler Sensei, Tom Steininger, Elaine Valdov

 

“Coming to Celebrate Life Festival is like being given a helicopter view of your life. You are enabled to rise above the daily preoccupations and see everything with a much broader perspective. The effect of this is reassuring, and strangely gentle.

It also provides a glimpse into the future. This is because 70 people are giving their skills and their care as volunteers, and their spirit of service is contagious – it spreads to all of us and we find ourselves doing things for others and taking care of the environment. Imagine that 1,000 people can camp together for more than a week, and I never saw one piece of litter. By contrast, others were constantly helping me. This is a body-felt experience of how we could live co-operatively, and how connected life could be – and can be – if we intend it so.”
Scilla Elworthy

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“I love to dive into my heart looking around what’s going on there, sinking deeper and deeper through the darkness into the light – not forgetting to breathe, please! This is the place where I want to encounter others. That’s why I go to the festival, because this summer it is about the mystical principles that want to express themselves through me also. I want to find these pearls laying beyond my experiences together with other explorers, discovering them mutually shouting: Look, this is the essence! This is us!”
Joachim Christoph Wehnelt

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“My first encounter with Thomas and Transparent Communication was merely a “mistake”. I applied for the PGL-training as a communication trainer with the intention to apply the new knowledge into my work. I did not expect that my whole life would change afterwards. Although I have been walking my spiritual path for quite a while, his modern mysticism and also his laser-like precision when approaching a concern or personal dilemma, changed my view on spirituality, too. Our spirituality needs to support our every-day life to make the best of ourselves “in the market” and Thomas not just represents this view, but walks it every day. Celebrate Life Festival is one of the events, that are in my calendar the first every year. Inspiring, self-questioning, deep and recharging at the same time.”
Emese Moricz

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“What pulls me to come is it’s unique combination. It’s not just a spiritual retreat. It’s just not a festival. There is a joyful sense of completeness, that this is how life is supposed to be lived.

The connections with others as important as the meditations and lectures. Being and being together. Great fun if you ask me …!”
Stig Albansson

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