Roger N. Walsh

Roger Walsh MD., Ph.D., D.H.L. graduated from Australia’s Queensland University with degrees in psychology, physiology, neuroscience and medicine. He then came to the United States as a Fulbright scholar, and now holds professorships at the University of California at Irvine in the departments of Psychiatry, Philosophy, and Anthropology, as well as in the Religious Studies Program. His writings focus on topics such as psychological wellbeing, and the practices to cultivate it such as meditation, psychotherapies, and yogas, on virtues such as wisdom, and on the psychological roots of our global crises. His writings and research have received over twenty national and international awards as well as an honorary doctorate, and he was named the University of California, Irvine Distinguished Writer. His books include “Essential Spirituality: The Seven Central Practices” (with a foreword by the Dalai Lama), “The World of Shamanism” (“a major step forward in understanding”—Charles Tart), and “The World's Great Wisdom” with contributions by leading scholar-practitioners from major religions and philosophies. “Higher Wisdom” contains interviews with eminent psychedelic researchers such as Albert Hofmann, Stan Grof, and Huston Smith. Together with his late wife, the psychologist Frances Vaughan, he edited “Paths Beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision” with contributions by leading thinkers such as Ken Wilber, Daniel Goleman, and the Dalai Lama, as well as “Accept This Gift” and other books of quotations. On the personal side, he has been a long-term practitioner and researcher of contemplative practices, and his more curious activities include trying to learn trapeze and standup comedy (not simultaneously) with extremely limited success in both.