Transcript

So now Jeffrey tells me that I'm signed up for the important keynote talk. This is the first time I've heard that, so I'll deliver for you. In that vein, I just want to thank Jeffrey and Nicole for organizing such a special conference. I think what's going on here is very important, and I feel very lucky to be a part of this and to share this with you. So I'm going to talk to you today, mostly about ultrasonic neuromodulation, but some other approaches that we've been investigating to accelerate the meditative path, or contemplative practices, as Jeffrey said, just couple disclosures, I am working with a company in Palo Alto called Alchemist, with Jeffrey and Sanjay, and I'm also a consultant on different projects that are involved in looking at neuromodulation to enhance meditation and other things.

So back about 2005 I was a pretty nervous undergraduate student presenting my first poster at a major scientific conference called the Society for Neuroscience. If you don't know this conference, it's 15 to 20,000 neuroscientists. So brain scientists the smartest people in the world, besides rocket scientists. And this is like a fourth or maybe even an eighth of the size of the posters. It's just giant and very scary, especially if you've got sort of a nervous disposition.