B. Alan Wallace

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For the New Zealand cricketer, see Alan Wallace (cricketer).
B. Alan Wallace, Padma Samten, Marlene Rossi Severino Nobre, and Roberto Lúcio Vieira de Souza, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 2009

Bruce Alan Wallace [1] (born 1950) is an American author and expert on Tibetan Buddhism. He has translated many Tibetan texts and authored books on Eastern and Western scientific, philosophical, and contemplative modes of inquiry. He also writes about his view of the dialogue between science and Buddhism and critiques scientific materialism.[2] He participated in and translated for the Dalai Lama at many of dialogues held by the Mind and Life Institute.[3] He is the co-author on multiple scientific articles, published in high ranked journals such as Psychological Science.[4] He is founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.[5]


Life and career

In 1987, Wallace obtained a B.A. in physics, philosophy of science and Sanskrit from Amherst College, followed in 1995 by a Ph.D. in religious studies from Stanford University.[6] His doctoral dissertation was on The Cultivation of Sustained Voluntary Attention in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. He taught for four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.[7]

Wallace founded the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies in 2003, with the objective of "furthering such interdisciplinary and cross-cultural investigation of the nature and potentials of consciousness and extending its benefits to the general public." One of the institute's projects is the Shamatha Project, a longitudinal scientific study of the effects of intensive meditation training.[8][9] This developed into the International Shamatha Project (ISP).

Wallace worked with psychologist Paul Ekman and Eve Ekman on the Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) project.[10] For over twenty years, Wallace has led workshops on dream yoga and has collaborated with Stephen LaBerge.[11]

View of consciousness

Wallace puts forward the hypothesis that individual consciousness emerges from deeper, underlying levels of consciousness, an idea that he says originates in Buddhism.[12][13] He explains, "The psyche is not emerging from the brain, conditioned by the environment. The human psyche is in fact emerging from an individual continuum of consciousness that is conjoined with the brain during the development of the fetus."[2][14] He describes this view as being opposite to the view taken by neuroscientists, who see consciousness as the product of brain functioning.[2]

Wallace draws analogies between these underlying levels of consciousness and quantum mechanics.[15] He also suggests that meditation is a way to explore paranormal phenomena such as clairvoyance and extrasensory perception[13][16][15] and that these phenomena should be tested using the scientific method without the dogma of materialism.[16] This has received criticism from materialist skeptics on the grounds that the evidence for such paranormal phenomena is extremely controversial. Neurologist, author, and skeptic Steven Novella states that the use of quantum mechanics in this context amounts to "quantum woo" or quantum mysticism.[14] Novella suggests that when Wallace employs the analogy of "vacuum state of consciousness" to describe one of these deeper levels of consciousness that this is a case of "using the language of quantum mechanics without applying its meaning - a classic feature of pseudoscience."[14]

Selected works

Scientific Articles

Books on Buddhism and Science

  • Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice, New York: Columbia University Press, 2011
  • Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009 (Also published in Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Tibetan translations)
  • Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality. Co-authored with Brian Hodel. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2008 (Also published in Dutch and Spanish translations)
  • Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007 (Also published in Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and Tibetan translations)
  • Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007 (Also published in Portuguese, Korean, and Thai translations)
  • Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground. Edited by B. Alan Wallace. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003
  • The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000
  • Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Brain-science and Buddhism. Edited by B. Alan Wallace, Zara Houshmand & David Livingston. Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1999 (Also published in Dutch, Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, French, Chinese, Italian translations)
  • Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind. Revised edition. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1996. Re-edition of Choosing Reality: A Contemplative View of Physics and the Mind. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1989 (Also published in French and Korean translations)

Books on Tibetan Buddhism

  • Dreaming Yourself Awake: Lucid Dreaming and Tibetan Dream Yoga for Insight and Transformation, Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2012
  • Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2011
  • Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2011
  • The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind. Forward by Daniel Goleman. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006 (Also published in Complex Chinese, Catalan, Italian, German, Indonesian, Portuguese, Romanian, Chinese, Spanish, and Mongolian translations)
  • Genuine Happiness: Meditation as a Path to Fulfillment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005 (Also published in Spanish and Russian translations) Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2001 (Also published in Dutch, Italian, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean translations)
  • The Four Immeasurables: Practices to Open the Heart. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2010. Re-edition of The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating a Boundless Heart, 2004; re-edition of Boundless Heart: The Four Immeasurables, 1999 (Also published in Italian, French, and Dutch translations)
  • Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Refining Attention. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2005. New edition of The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Tibetan Buddhist Meditation. Chicago: Open Court Press, 1998 Tibetan Buddhism From the Ground Up. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1993 (Also published in Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Korean translations)
  • The Seven-Point Mind Training. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2004. Re-edition of A Passage from Solitude: A Modern Commentary on Tibetan Buddhist Mind Training. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1992 (Also published in Italian translation)
  • Tibetan Tradition of Mental Development. Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. Sherpa Tulku,trans. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, 1974, 1976, 1978; rev. eds. 1985 & 1992 (Also published in Italian translation)
  • Spoken Tibetan. Co-authored with Kerrith McKenzie. Mt. Pèlerin, Switzerland: Center for Higher Tibetan Studies, 1985

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Cultivation of Sustained Voluntary Attention in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism". PhilPapers. 1995. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Paulson, Steve (November 27, 2006). "Buddha on the brain". Salon. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  3. ^ "Center for Mind Body Research".
  4. ^ a b "Intensive meditation training improves perceptual discrimination and sustained attention".
  5. ^ "GENUINE HAPPINESS: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment". Publishers Weekly
  6. ^ Paulson, Steve (1 November 2010). Atoms and Eden: Conversations on Religion and Science. Oxford University Press. pp. 145–. ISBN 978-0-19-978150-8.
  7. ^ Alumni of Stanford's Buddhist Studies Program
  8. ^ "Meditation Research - replacement source".
  9. ^ "To make a killing in the markets, start meditating". Bloomberg News, by Katherine Burton and Anthony Effinger, via Financial Post, May 29, 2014.
  10. ^ Kemey, Margaret; Foltz, C.; Cavanagh, J. F.; Cullen, M.; Giese-Davis, J.; Jennings, P.; Rosenberg, E. L.; Gillath, O.; Shaver, P. R.; Wallace, B. A.; Ekman, P. (Dec 12, 2011). "Contemplative/Emotion Training Reduces Negative Emotional Behavior and Promotes Prosocial Responses" (PDF). Emotion (Winter). doi:10.1037/a0026118. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2015-07-15. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Stumbrys, Tadas (January 2013). "Book Review:Dreaming Yourself Awake – Lucid Dreaming and Tibetan Dream Yoga for Insight and Transformation, by B. Alan Wallace". International Journal of Dream Research 6(1):69-70. doi:10.11588/ijodr.2013.1.10038.
  12. ^ Repetti, Rick (28 July 2016). Buddhist Perspectives on Free Will: Agentless Agency?. Taylor & Francis. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-1-317-36209-8.
  13. ^ a b Smetham, Graham (August 2015). Quantum Path to Enlightenment. Lulu. pp. 91–93.
  14. ^ a b c Novella, Steven. "B. Alan Wallace and Buddhist Dualism". Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  15. ^ a b Smetham, Graham (2012). Quantum Buddhist Wonders of the Universe. Lulu.com. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-1-4717-7368-6.
  16. ^ a b Scialabba, George (25 February 2007). "Contemplate this: AI vs. meditation". The Boston Globe.

External links

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