Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi earned a degree in physics from the University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland, in 1989. From 1990 to 1991, he served as an assistant at the Department of Theoretical Physics (DPT) of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), where he studied the foundations of quantum theory with Constantin Piron. In 1992, he joined the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IPT) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), and following a fruitful scientific collaboration with Ph. A. Martin, he obtained his PhD in 1995 with a study on time observables in quantum scattering theory.

Since 1996, he has worked as a manager in the private sector, as an independent researcher, and as a teacher. In 2010, he founded the Laboratory of Basic Self-Research (LAB), whose mission is the development and dissemination of skills and knowledge aimed at maximizing human potential. Also in 2010, he initiated a scientific correspondence with Diederik Aerts, through which he reconnected with the ideas of the Geneva–Brussels school, leading over the years to a productive scientific collaboration.

In 2016, he joined the Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies (CLEA) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), collaborating and interacting with many of its members. His research focuses on the foundations of physical theories, quantum mechanics, and quantum cognition. He is also active in the exploration of consciousness, primarily from an experiential, first-person perspective (inner research). He is the editor of the journal AutoRicerca and president of the company Area 302, whose mission is the promotion and organization of courses, seminars, conferences, congresses, and other activities of scientific, educational, cultural, artistic, and social value.

Francesca Vicky Scher is an artist, graphic designer and writer. She has a background in ethnology, philosophy, translation, foreign language and writing pedagogy. Since adolescence she has cultivated a deep interest in the psychospiritual dimension. In the 1990s she came to work with subtle energies, practicing as a therapist, and developed a personal approach to astrology.

Sound researcher, composer, author and music producer with over thirty years of experience, Federico (Igor) Milanesi manages a Music Studio in London, where is working with emerging artists, while dedicating himself to a musical project that blends the use of ancient and ethnic instruments with the most modern technology, in addition to a more personal project, [Be Cause] (https://be-cause.bandcamp.com), in which he merges the passion for the music of the so-called independent scenario with lyrics of an eminently inner character – now on its third album. As a composer, he has composed music for films (Perché il fuoco non muore, la vita agra di Tina Modotti, 2013), for the Web, as well as documentaries and television commercials. As an author, he collaborates with Universal Publishing, writing songs for the artists represented by the label. As a sound researcher in connection with the inner sphere, together with the author and scholar Andrea Di Terlizzi, he carried out thirty years of theoretical and practical study of sound, understood as an expression of the principle of vibration, in close relationship with its connection with the human emotional and mental sphere. In this context, together with Di Terlizzi, he created the albums: Mystica vol. 1, 2 and 3, The sound of silence, Aquarius; Inner Circle, Open Space, Translucency, Fluctuations, and is currently working on numerous new projects under development. This type of music aims to generate a harmonious environment and is designed to produce a rebalancing effect, making sound geometries that profoundly influence the listener, helping her/him develop contact with a deeper part than the ordinary conscious sphere. The co-creation with the LAB is embedded into this context, where sound research merges with aspects of an inner character, generating perceptual potentialities, openings of an almost visual nature, but also lightness and attention to the aesthetic content of the musical composition.

Danzatrice appassionata dall’età di cinque anni, Cristina Martinelli si diploma in Educazione Fisica e continua la sua ricerca sul corpo e il movimento attraverso la formazione in Danza Sensibile e Danzamovimentoterapia ad indirizzo psico-dinamico, approfondendo il tema delle catene muscolari in relazione alla strutturazione psicocorporea dell’individuo con Benoite Lessage.

Per un decennio assiste e collabora con Claude Coldy nei seminari in natura e in studio.

Durante un lungo periodo conduce gruppi di adulti e integra la Danza Sensibile nel suo lavoro di insegnante di attività motorie nelle scuole primarie.

Dall’incontro con Nanni De Ambrogio, promotore e co-fondatore e del Mindfulness Project, nasce la “Meditazione Sensibile”.

Sperimenta per qualche anno, insieme a Marina Borruso, tecniche focalizzate sul momento presente del Maestro Eckhart Tolle.

Attualmente unisce la sua passione per il movimento a un percorso spirituale, focalizzato sulla crescita personale attraverso la connessione con la Natura.

Per aprire il corpo e scoprire spazi di luminoso respiro, per aprire lo sguardo nella quiete dell’accoglienza, per aprire il cuore nella sua qualità amorevole. Partendo da sé, nella propria coerenza e nella propria verità, è possibile ritrovare la capacità di orientarsi verso il riconoscimento del valore del movimento nella vita e della vita.

Born in Sardinia in 1983, Sara Chessa lives in the United Kingdom, where she works as an independent journalist, covering human rights, freedom of information, politics and society for several news outlets, including Global Insight, flagship magazine of the International Lawyers Association. Since 2019, she has covered Julian Assange's extradition trial for the news website Independent Australia. Following both the proceedings in London courts and other happenings in relevant contexts - such as the Council of Europe in Strasbourg - she analysed the key facts and political background of the case. In Italy, she wrote of the case for MicroMega and Dolce Vita Magazine. In 2023, the Italian publisher Castelvecchi published her book "Distruggere Assange. Per farla finita con la libertà di informazione". The work recounts the Julian Assange extradition trial and the peaceful protest of civil society to demand his release. For the Italian portal Filosofia in Movimento, Sara produced - together with Antonio Cecere - the video interview series "Libertà di informazione e diritti umani" on the relationship between democracy and the right to know. As a media freedom activist, she has been personally involved in initiatives to raise awareness about the WikiLeaks case among European institutional figures. In this capacity, together with John Shipton - Julian Assange's father - she has lectured on the issue at cultural and academic bodies. She was also an active participant in the informational meetings that led, in 2019, to the formation of the Italian Parliamentary Committee for monitoring the Assange case, founded at the time by Senator Gianni Marilotti. In 2011, in collaboration with Patrizia Manduchi, an ordinary professor at the University of Cagliari, she conducted field research in Kosovo, focusing on the secularised way of living the Islamic faith that characterises the country's Albanian population. A few months later, Sara earned her master's degree in Social Sciences and Development Cooperation with a thesis on Muslim History and Institutions that expounded the investigation findings. As a poet in the Sardinian language, she placed third in the 2021 edition of the Montanaru Literary Prize, organised by the municipality of Desulo (Nuoro). As a spiritual research scholar and yoga teacher, Sara Chessa holds seminars in London together with Federico Milanesi, with whom she founded the London Spiritual Development Centre, a classroom of practice where the founding principle is the absence of constituted authority and the sharing of tools for inner inquiry and reality.

Elisita Smailus (1958) has more than 30 years of experience in the field of dance and integrated body therapies. She has led innovative training programs in numerous practice and teaching contexts, collaborating with institutions in Switzerland and Germany. In her work, she uses and combines different aspects of human expression, including body awareness, movement, poetic dimension, verbal and nonverbal communication, and improvisation, with the goal of enhancing well-being and promoting personal growth. Diploma in Social Economy (1987), Social Dance Therapist (ZW-tk, 1990), Certified Movement Analyst (CMA; Berlin 1997), Diploma of Advanced Studies TanzKultur (2008) and Master of Advanced Studies TanzKultur (University Bern, 2011). In training since 2012 to become Creative Soma-Therapist, Germany (completed in 2021). Studies for Moving Cycle Practioner (University Heidelberg, 2013-15) and in Kestenberg Movement Profile (St. Gallen, 2013). Choreological Summer Studies at Trinity Laban London (2008, 2009, 2010). Training in Vocal Dance and Voice Movement Integration (Amsterdam, 2001-2003). Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP, 2013-2014). Working freelance in the field of educative arts and social dance therapy in Switzerland and Germany: Assistant in CMA-Program (D-Berlin, 1999/2000). Conception and conduction of the yearly based 5-weekend-format LABart-Basic program "Connected Body - Dynamic Form in Space" - overall eight times: (D-Freiburg/Emmendingen, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 & CH-Lugano, 2008, 2009, 2010 & D-Karlsruhe, 2014). Teaching LBMS and creative dance at a private Movement Teacher Training School (CH-Zurich, 1999-2005). Teaching the "Basic Body Work" 5-weekend module in a social dance therapy program (D- Freiburg, 2004, 2007, 2010); Guest teacher for the Laban Movement Analysis modules in a dance therapy program (Hamburg, 2012-2014). Assistant in a dance and art therapy program (Gunzenhausen, 2016-18). Teacher-co-instructor in a creative dance therapy program (D-Emmendingen, 2021-2024)

La psicologia mi consente di navigare la complessità umana attraverso la relazione di aiuto, sostenendo benessere e trasformazione con radici scientifiche e metodologiche. Costruisco percorsi in cui movimento e creatività diventano cura, ascolto e possibilità. Spazi in cui ogni persona può riscoprire il proprio equilibrio e potenziale, tornando ad abitare pienamente la propria vita, nel rispetto del ritmo interiore, delle risorse personali e della propria autenticità. Nella pratica clinica approfondisco la psicoterapia corporea, la psicosomatica e gli approcci di cura al trauma. Coltivo lo studio della meditazione buddhista tibetana e delle pratiche psicocorporee e creativo-espressive, per agire oltre il piano verbale nei processi terapeutici. La metodologia della danza movimento terapia assume che mente e corpo siano in costante interazione. Le emozioni si mostrano attraverso manifestazioni somatiche e nel movimento, in uno spazio oltre la parola nel quale possiamo entrare in contatto con il sentire autentico e la saggezza del corpo. Possiamo esprimere ciò che siamo nell’unità psicocorporea e attraverso il dialogo motorio osservare e ascoltare le emozioni, rendere visibili i movimenti interiori, permettere all’essere di esprimere la sua identità unica in armonia e sviluppare coscienza corporea. L’incontro tra competenze scientifiche e sensibilità artistica mi ha portata a sviluppare un approccio multidimensionale alla cura, all’apprendimento e alla trasformazione. La parola *psicologia* deriva da *psyché* (anima, soffio, spirito) e *lógos* (discorso, studio): un filo d’oro che connette persone, discipline e culture diverse. Così, il discorso sul mistero del soffio che anima le nostre vite è per me un filo invisibile e prezioso, capace di tessere relazioni autentiche e generative. Credo nella terapia dell’anima come un’arte trasformativa: un’alchimia che trasforma profondamente la nostra relazione con noi stessi e con gli altri. Sono qui per creare spazi di evoluzione interiore, tornando all’essenza e dialogando con il linguaggio della psiche. Nel mio lavoro si intreccia l’esperienza artistica, in cui movimento, umanità e creatività sono al centro di una ricerca viva.

Born in Mendrisio, Switzerland, on August 27, 1960, Manuela Canova has always been passionate about body language and expression which she first met through a theatre experience when she was very young and then deepened thanks to dance therapy, while her main professional path developed around teaching languages at the local scuola media. For more than twenty years, though not continuously, she has been trying to make people engage in the process of self-investigation and growth through the expressive movement, encouraging self-acceptance and creativity, in order to enhance physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. After training as a holistic operator at Milena Rottmann's school, where she deepened numerous psychotherapeutic approaches, such as bioenergetics, Gestalt, massage, voice and breath work, she explored the connections between dance, movement and therapy at the Riza Institute of Psychosomatic Medicine in Milan. She qualified as a conductor of groups in dance therapy at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tanztherapie, of the Fritz Pearls Institut, in Germany, and kept deepening her research by attending various courses and workshops around dance therapy and the art of movement. Among others she had the opportunity to learn from Laura Sheleen and her Junghian approach, Ya’cov and Susannah Darling Khan and their Movement Medicine, Nunzia Tirelli and the Laban Movement Analysis, Rosa Maria Govoni and the Authentic Movement. At the same time she carried out a four-year theatrical training at the Concreta in Mendrisio and since 2017, she has resumed theatrical research at Magliaso’s Agorateatro. Since 2012 she is an accredited Practitioner of The Journey method, by Brandon Bays, and gives individual sessions, helping people to recover from emotional and/or physical pain, finding back to their full potential.

Luca Panseri si è appassionato sin da giovanissimo alla filosofia e alla psicoanalisi, mosso dal bisogno di trovare risposte agli interrogativi esistenziali fondamentali. Contemporaneamente all’iscrizione a medicina ha iniziato la sua terapia personale ad orientamento analitico-esistenziale. È specializzato in psichiatria presso l’Università di Pavia e ha lavorato nove anni nei dipartimenti di salute mentale che ha lasciato nel 1999 per dedicarsi unicamente alla libera professione, alla ricerca e all’insegnamento. L’esperienza terapeutica personale ha costituito l’asse portante di tutto il suo percorso formativo unitamente allo studio e progressiva integrazione degli insegnamenti psichiatrico-psicoanalitici, filosofici (sia della filosofia occidentale che orientale) e di esperienze di lavoro corporeo. Vive attualmente in Canton Ticino.

Cristina was born in 1968, and in the 2000s she landed in different schools of Yoga and Meditation, between Como and Milan. She has the opportunity to meet Antonella Spotti and Andrea Di Terlizzi, attending their School of Inner Inquiry. In 2015, she undertakes a path for the use of Tibetan Bells with Tibetan master Thonla Sonam, also traveling to Nepal to immerse herself in Tibetan culture and discover how bells are still manually forged, whose alloy is composed of 7 metals, connected to 7 celestial bodies. Since 2018, she has been embarking on a path of Spagyric Medicine with Master Carlo Conti, a natural therapeutic system that treats the whole human being - body, soul and spirit. This medicine is based on the alchemical ability of plants and minerals to carry their Archetypes and qualities into the individual. The 7 Archetypes are related to the 7 planets of tradition, of our solar system: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. All her studies were first undertaken for personal growth, and then she integrates them and offers them to those who wish to experience them, through individual or group sessions. She developed with his sister Donatella the Sound Medicine method, with which she offers group sessions of Yoga Nidra accompanied by the sounds of Tibetan bells and other instruments.

An ethnomusicologist by training, Viola Albertine continued her studies in historical harps with Maria Cleary at the “Haute école de musique Genève-Neuchâtel” (Geneva HEM). After having trained in fine arts, cultural geography, dance, piano, for some years she has been exploring the voice on her own. At first, a wordless voice, which lets vibrate what passes through the body, then the voice finds the words and creates poetry. Today Viola Albertine accompanies her singing with a harp or a harmonium, music box and a Tibetan bell. She reinterprets the ancient love songs of the troubadours and trobairitz of the twelfth century, makes sounds flourish, near and far, terrestrial and stellar, with personal texts or beloved poems, including poets Philippe Jaccottet, Roberto Juarroz, Hafez, Rumi, Hilda Doolittle Andrée Chedid, Mariangela Gualtieri. The language becomes multiple, from French to Occitan, from Occitan to her mother tongue, Italian. In the inspiration of the moment, between improvisation and composition, listening to the most intimate, the voice sings in the silence that settles.

Cristiane Gaspar is a translator specializing in Italian-to-Portuguese translation. After graduating in librarianship in Brazil, she gained experience in the field of digital libraries. Later, she moved to Italy, to a charming seaside town in Calabria, where she undertook translation studies. She became passionate about spiritual topics and consciousness studies after experiencing parapsychic phenomena and out-of-body experiences. Cristiane has translated books and texts by various authors, specializing in these topics and helping to spread knowledge through her work. In addition, she is an agent of the Guardians of Humanity and actively participates in courses and study groups.

Born in Mariano Comense, Italy, on October 22, 1966, Donatella Galli has been teaching yoga and meditation techniques for more than twenty years. She regularly holds meetings of practice, both in groups and as an individual coach, in dedicated centers, companies, and even at home. In addition to traditional Yoga, her skills include Yoga in pregnancy, Yoga for the elderly and Yoga for children and adolescents. In her professional career, she has gained experience in multiple work contexts, from dentistry to natural cosmetics, from furniture design to the world of fashion, developing projects and collaborations with numerous companies in the sector. Her innate attention and predisposition for the human dimension and for the applied arts have led her over the years to turn her sensitivity towards a dimension of culture, beauty and elegance, understood above all as human qualities, at the service of a 360° well-being. She has thus been able to deepen forms of harmony that are more and more inner, in a thirty-year course of study and research aimed at the development of human potential. The knowledge and experiences collected, which she has always applied and tested in her everyday life, embrace different aspects of integral Yoga, such as postural education (Asana), the direction of conscious breathing (Pranayama) and more internal practices, such as Meditation (Dhyana) and Yoga Nidra. She also studied various forms of internal martial disciplines, including Tai Chi. An important and constant reference point of her training path is the work carried out by Andrea Di Terlizzi and Antonella Spotti, within the Sphera Method, which in the words of its founders is "a method for understanding the mechanisms that regulate human life, from the psyche to the emotions, from the health of the body to the growth of talents and individual potential, up to the understanding-realization of the spiritual nature of the human being,” this outside of pre-established schemes and pre-established dogmas. Offering to others the precious knowledge received is at the center of her current interests and represents an incentive to keep herself up to date and constantly evolving. Among her many interests there is also natural hygiene and natural nutrition, cycling and trekking, travel and culture in general. Her native language is Italian, but she also speaks a good French and English.

Luca Sassoli de Bianchi began his studies in micro-engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and then moved towards an artistic career, with a training in Media & Interaction Design, at the École Cantonale d'Art in Lausanne (ECAL), acquiring numerous skills, including: photography, filmmaking, graphic design, event management and programming. He cultivates the passion of travel and is often active in volunteering. For the LAB, he has collaborated over the years in the editing of the AutoRicerca journal and in the creation of numerous video contents, also participating in the first episode of the [Parlor](https://youtu.be/N7w5ReBm_j0).

She is the Founder and CEO of [Social Business Earth](https://socialbusinessearth.org), a social enterprise whose mission is to end extreme poverty and create equal opportunities for all. Her vision and commitment to build a more inclusive economy and poverty-free world led her to spread sustainable business models on a global level. She has contributed to the design and implementation of several social businesses in Europe, Asia and Africa. She is a practitioner and student of Zen Buddhism since the age of 17, she is vegan and a strong advocate of the Natural World. She holds a BA in Journalism from Pepperdine University, Los Angeles and an Executive MBA from Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano.

Born in Mendrisio, Switzerland, on 7 July 1971, for more than twenty years Patrizia Verdiani has accompanied people individually, and small group, on paths grouth, always using three hundred- and sixty-degrees personalized approaches. Her skills derive from multiple life experiences and from her tireless search for new "maps" to understand herself and reality. Already at nineteen she published an autobiography in which she recounts her "Ulyssic pilgrimage" through the streets of the world, in an attempt to reconcile with herself and to claim her own uniqueness. She worked as a decorator, graphic designer, typographer, also managing a small art department of a large company. She studied clothing techniques and engaged in the restoration of antique carpets. As a restorer, she graduated and specialized in the art of stucco, dealing with the restoration of numerous buildings, collaborating with the historical monument’s office. For a time, she co-founded and managed an art gallery, where she hosted artists and animated small experimental groups, ranging from conferences to dance, from meditation to yoga, from ethnic music to shamanic practices, from music therapy to aromatherapy. In parallel with her studies and work activities, she discovers that she has a gift in her hands and an innate ability to connect with people's experiences and aspirations, helping them to rediscover the lost sense of their daily life, in paths of both inner and outer harmonization. She deepens various forms of massage (lymphatic drainage, classic, sports, relaxing, holistic), counting among her clients big names in industry and politics, in the world of entertainment and sport, both in Lugano and abroad. In her journey, the art of massage reunites with the spirit of shamanism, until leading small experiential groups in the desert of North Africa, where participants could live the experience of the outer desert as a symbol of an inner space, accompanied by massage and Sufi dance, in a deep listening of themselves. She collaborates with the Laboratorio di Autoricerca di Base and offers her personalized work in different centers. Driven by the desire to assist others, she draws on the teachings of numerous masters and teachers of inner investigation, achieving various training also in counseling, with different approaches and orientations: philosophico-imaginal, existential humanistic and of generative psychology.

Rodrigo has worked in Consciousness research with institutions such as the Scientific and Medical Network (SMN), and non-ordinary states with the Coma Science Group within the Centre du Cerveau, a specialized unit that studies Near-Death Experiences and the Sensation and Perception Research Group (SPRG), a research group that studies self-induced cognitive trance and clinical hypnosis applications. He is currently carrying out research on gifted OBE subjects in association with the Swiss Institute of Noetic Sciences (ISSNOE) and carrying equal research partnership with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). ​Rodrigo was one of the founding members of the International Academy of Consciousness (IAC), where he was a board director and lead instructor for 11 years. He has worked in the field with precursor historical institutions such as the International Institut of Projectiology and Conscientiology (IIPC), a Federal Public Utility Institution (UPF) founded in 1994 by pioneer OBE researcher Dr Waldo Vieira to empirically study OBEs and the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS-France). He is currently the CEO of Gamma Wave Technologies Ltd, working as a lead MedTech neuroscientist developing a clinical-grade sleep headband with neuromodulation functions (Class I Medical Device). ​Rodrigo has lectured internationally on the subject of non-ordinary states at the Society of Psychical Research (SPR) as well as its Scottish branch, the "Breaking Convention", a biennial multidisciplinary conference on psychedelic consciousness, the Society of Scientific Exploration (SSE Club), a critical international forum for research on human capabilities, the Institut of Research on Extraordinary Experiences (INREES), and lectured at Congresses such as "1st Consciousness Science Congress" and the "Congrés des Thérapies Quantiques". ​He has been featured in acclaimed documentaries such as "Voyage Hors du Corps – La Science à l’épreuve de la Conscience" and "Insight Out – The transformative effects of OBEs", among others, as well as many magazines. Rodrigo has coached workshops internationally on non-ordinary states of consciousness and OBEs since 2005. His own experiences were emphasized in his book "Out-of-the-Body Experiences − An Experiential Anthology", which highlights ninety OBE phenomena in accounts collected worldwide and reflects his personal inductions of OBEs since the age of 19. Rodrigo's PhD research is associated with the neurophysiological correlates of OBE phenomena proposing an extended phenomenological approach and new neurophysiological OBE models. He is currently doing research on the Vibrational State and the neurophysiological correlates of OBEs on gifted subjects, as well as carrying out experimental research on the neuromodulation of OBEs through precise multi-focal tES (transcranial Electric Stimulation). He is equally pursuing innovative research on psychedelics, such as N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), considering their potential and limitations for the induction of OBEs.