In a recorded Facebook Live broadcast, host Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and David E. Presti, neurobiologist, psychologist, cognitive scientist, and professor at Berkeley, discuss lucid dreaming and conscious sleeping from the perspectives of modern science and direct meditative experience.
David E. Presti is a neurobiologist, psychologist, and cognitive scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1991. From 1990 and 2000 he worked as a clinical psychologist in the treatment of addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco. Dr. Presti received his doctorate in molecular biology and biophysics from the California Institute of Technology and in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. For 10 years (1999-2010) he served as a core faculty member in the California School of Professional Psychology (Alliant University) graduate program in psychopharmacology, providing training to clinical psychologists interested in prescribing psychotropic medications. Since 2004 he has been teaching neuroscience to Tibetan monks and nuns in India and (more recently) Bhutan, as part of a dialogue between science and religion initiated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His areas of expertise include human neurobiology and neurochemistry, the effects of drugs on the brain and the mind, the treatment of addiction, and the scientific study of the mind and consciousness. Learn more about Dr. Presti here
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal (host) is an acclaimed author and a respected teacher of students worldwide. As the founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International, he has established numerous centers and institutes of learning in the United States, Mexico, South America, Europe and India. Fluent in English, Rinpoche regularly offers online teachings in the form of live webcasts, online workshops and YouTube videos. He is renowned for his depth of wisdom; his clear, engaging teaching style; and his dedication to making the ancient Tibetan teachings highly accessible and relevant to the lives of Westerners.