Andrew Cohen

Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural critic, revolutionary idealist, founder of the nonprofit organization EnlightenNext, Inc., and editor-in-chief of its flagship publication, EnlightenNext magazine (formerly known as What Is Enlightenment?). A visionary thinker, Cohen is widely recognized for his original contribution to the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality. Through his talks, intensive retreats, publications, and ongoing dialogues with leading philosophers, mystics, and activists, he is becoming a defining voice in an international alliance of individuals and organizations that are committed to the transformation of human consciousness and culture. His speaking engagements have included keynote addresses and presentations for the Integral Leadership in Action Conference; the LOHAS International Conference; the Association of Global New Thought; the Australian Institute for Management; IBM Management Group, Amsterdam; the International Conference on the Frontiers of Yoga and Consciousness Research, India; John F. Kennedy University; Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado; New York University; Novozymes, Denmark; and the Parliament of World’s Religions, among others. Cohen participates in Deepak Chopra’s Alliance for a New Humanity and their Evolutionary Leaders Forum. He is the author of Living Enlightenment: A Call for Evolution Beyond Ego, Embracing Heaven and Earth, Enlightenment Is a Secret, and is currently writing a new book due for release in the spring of 2010.

“In some rare cases the fullest illumination occurs spontaneously to some fortunate being. Such a being blesses the generation in which he or she happens to live and act. Andrew Cohen is one such being. He is a modern Western mystic who shines like a light in darkness.”
His Holiness Swami Chidananda
President, Divine Life Society

“Andrew Cohen is an important voice that needs to be heard. He brings a fresh and profound approach to spirituality grounded in his own awakened awareness, and he seeks nothing more than to awaken others to a freedom and fullness that is their own inherent condition.”
Ken Wilber
Founder, Integral Institute
Author of A Brief History of Everything

Websites: AndrewCohen.org, EnlightenNext.org

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Carter Phipps

Carter Phipps is the executive editor of EnlightenNext magazine. His first book, Evolutionaries, a manifesto for the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality, will be published by Harper Perennial in spring 2011. Phipps’s areas of expertise range from metaphysics to politics to science and technology, and his in-depth features reflect the careful rigor of contemporary journalism and a passionate concern for the development of human culture. He regularly represents EnlightenNext magazine at conferences and leadership gatherings, including Deepak Chopra’s Evolutionary Leaders Forum, the invitation-only Assembly of Leaders prior to the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions, the 2008 Edinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace, at educational institutions including Brown University, JFK University, and the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, and conferences sponsored by Praxis Peace Institute, Wisdom University, and Integral Institute. Phipps has appeared on BBC Radio’s “Reporting Religion” and on New Dimensions radio, and he is a regular guest on Deepak Chopra’s Wellness Radio on Sirius. Phipps is featured in The Shift, an upcoming documentary, alongside global spiritual leaders and activists including the Dalai Lama, Al Gore, and Desmond Tutu.

“We live in one of those rare moments in human history when the deepest metaphysical questions are being turned over and examined as we search for a new orientation that will serve us for the next millennium. It would be hard to find a better guide into this fascinating conversation than Carter Phipps.”
Brian Swimme, PhD
California Institute of Integral Studies
Author of The Universe Story

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Elizabeth Debold

Elizabeth Debold, EdD, is senior editor of EnlightenNext magazine, as well as an author, internationally renowned gender researcher, and cultural commentator. Her bestselling book, Mother Daughter Revolution: From Good Girls to Great Women, was heralded by Gloria Steinem and Carol Gilligan as “the book women have been waiting for.” Debold received her doctorate in human development and psychology from Harvard University, where she was a founding member of the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development, directed by Dr. Carol Gilligan. Debold has been sought as an expert on girls, women, and the evolution of gender roles by major media outlets in the U.S. and abroad and has lectured in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She has made multiple appearances on Oprah, Good Morning America, and NPR, and was featured in a major Lifetime documentary on girls’ development. Currently, she cohosts a regular weekly web broadcast about spiritual and cultural evolution through EnlightenNext. She has also consulted to numerous films/television programs, as well as to foundations, nonprofit educational organizations, corporate law firms, and businesses. She has taught at The New School for Social Research, Harvard University, and The Graduate Institute, where she was the academic director of the Master of Arts program in Conscious Evolution. Her work has appeared in academic publications, popular media, and international anthologies as well as in EnlightenNext magazine. She is under contract for a new book, tentatively titled The Evolution of Love: Men, Women, and the Possibility of Transformation, to be published by Pantheon.

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Ross Robertson

Ross Robertson, senior associate editor, joined EnlightenNext’s editorial staff in 2003. His in-depth reporting has covered an eclectic range of topics over the last six years, from studies of postmodern neo-tantra, manliness, and Gen X cultural forms to explorations of evolutionary philosophy, consciousness studies, and critiques of popular New Age art and media. In particular, Robertson has worked ongoingly to help define and articulate an emergent perspective within twenty-first century environmental thought known as “bright green.” His workshops, lectures, and roving reportage for EnlightenNext have taken him from the halls of MIT and the University of Massachusetts to the utopian streets of Burning Man and the Italian spiritual community of Damanhur. Earlier incarnations of Robertson’s professional life saw him working stints as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and environmental activist with a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, including Planet Drum Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and of Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

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Tom Huston

Tom Huston is a senior associate editor of EnlightenNext magazine. Since 2003, his work has focused on making important philosophical distinctions in modern mysticism (Getting Clear About Enlightenment, Everyday Advaita); chronicling the development of evolutionary philosophy (A Brief History of Evolutionary Spirituality); tracking the cutting edge of science and cosmology (Which Came First: The Chicken or the Big Bang?, The Genesis Device); and exploring the confusing cultural predicament of Generation Y (Evan & Ella, The Dumbest Generation?). A passionate advocate of integral philosophy, Huston was invited to be a founding member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute in early 2000, and became a student of Andrew Cohen’s teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment soon after. He currently lives and works at EnlightenNext’s main headquarters in western Massachusetts.

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Joel Pitney

Joel Pitney joined the editorial staff of EnlightenNext magazine as an associate editor in late 2007. His work has centered around helping to define the borders of the emerging new movement in consciousness and culture that is often referred to as the “integral perspective” through his feature article “The Integral Emergence” (Issue 42), “Closet Mystics” (Issue 43), and “The Dawn of a New Worldview” (Issue 43). Prior to his work at EnlightenNext, Pitney spent six years working in the field of sustainable agriculture, managing organic farms in Oregon, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Most recently, he helped found the online marketing and communications start-up ThoughtLead. Pitney received a BS in environmental science from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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Megan Cater

Megan Cater joined the editorial staff of EnlightenNext magazine in early 2009. Cater’s primary areas of interest include science, art, parenting, health care, and integral philosophy, which she has been studying under the guidance of Steve McIntosh since 2007. Originally from Mississippi, Cater spent over twelve years living in Oregon and Washington, where she worked as an acupuncturist and massage therapist while studying Tai Ji and Qi Gong. A former whitewater and deep canyon river guide, she has been a lifelong athlete, becoming a Junior National Triathlon Champion in 1992. Cater received a BS in environmental studies and alternative medicine from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.