Read about the “relaxation response” as defined by the father of mind-body medicine research, Dr. Herbert Benson.

Mind and Life Institute was created in 1987 to promote neuroscience research on the mind, Buddhism, health and meditation.

The International Islamic University of Malaysia is an educational institution in Kuala Lumpur.  The school has a variety of program courses and research, which include medicine, law, engineering, Islamic practice, and education.

The Council for Secular Humanism is considered one of the leading free-thought groups. Based in Amherst, N.Y., the CSH is an umbrella for a range of other organizations. They include the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, which includes The Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and a publishing house, Prometheus books. “Camp Inquiry” is a summer camp sponsored by the Center for Inquiry, which is […]

William Hurlbut is a physician and professor of human biology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., whose training in medical ethics and theology informs his work on the biological basis of moral awareness, and the integration of theology and philosophy of biology. He edited  Becoming Human: Evolutionary Origins of Spiritual, Religious and Moral Awareness. […]

Thomas Jay Oord is professor of theology and philosophy at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho, and works with the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love. He wrote Science of Love: The Wisdom of Well-Being (Templeton Press, 2004).

Samuel Oliner is emeritus professor of sociology and director of the Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. Oliner co-founded the institute in 1982 to study altruism and seek ways to enhance altruism and prosocial behavior in society. A native of Poland, Oliner was rescued by a non-Jewish family at age […]

University of California at Los Angeles anthropology professor Joan Silk published a study of chimpanzees in the Oct. 27, 2005, Nature that showed that the chimps were motivated to obtain rewards for themselves but not to provide rewards for other group members. In other words, they did not show altruistic behavior, contrary to expectations raised […]

Ruben Habito is a professor of world religions and spirituality at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is co-editor of The Practice of Altruism: Caring and Religion in a Global Perspective. He specializes in Buddhism and wrote a chapter in Altruism in World Religions.