TT7: Awe, Wonder, and Transcendence
September 13–18, 2026
Oratorio di Barottoli
Awe is one of the most profound human experiences — a moment when beauty, mystery, or immensity disrupt ordinary perception and invite us beyond words.
This Think Tank explores how wonder, transcendence, and the longing for wholeness shape our relationship with consciousness, Nature, and reality itself. From mystical traditions and nondual belonging to neuroscience and the limits of perception, we ask whether transcendence reveals something essential about existence — or reflects our deepest search for meaning, timelessness, and unity.
PARTICIPANTS
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Diana Fosha is a psychologist, researcher, and founder of AEDP™, a transformational psychotherapy model centered on healing, attachment, and emotional flourishing. Her work integrates neuroscience, trauma studies, and experiential clinical practice to explore how suffering can become a pathway toward resilience and human growth.
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Bernadette Wegenstein is a filmmaker, media scholar, and Professor at Johns Hopkins University whose work bridges documentary filmmaking, language, feminist thought, and storytelling. Her research and creative practice explore how media and embodied narratives shape perception, identity, and human experience.
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Robert Harrison is a scholar, writer, and Professor at Stanford University whose work explores literature, philosophy, memory, death, and the symbolic dimensions of nature. Through books, dialogue, and cultural inquiry, he reflects on how imagination and history shape human meaning.
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Andreas Weber is a biologist, philosopher, and writer whose work challenges mechanistic views of life through ecology, semiotics, and embodied meaning. His reflections explore vitality, relational existence, and the living world as a space of shared participation.
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Jane Bennett is a political philosopher and scholar of environmental humanities whose work explores materiality, ecological thought, affect, and the vitality of nonhuman life. Her research invites deeper reflection on agency, interdependence, and the creative dimensions of the cosmos.
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Cláudio Carvalhaes is a Brazilian theologian, liturgist, performer, playwright, and earth thinker whose work bridges spirituality, ritual, ecology, and the arts. His interdisciplinary practice explores belonging, justice, and sacred imagination through theology and embodied expression.
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Noga Arikha is a philosopher, historian of ideas, and essayist whose work bridges embodied cognition, neuroscience, philosophy, and the humanities. As a “science humanist,” she fosters dialogues on the relationships between mind, body, and self, exploring how embodied experience shapes human understanding, culture, and political life.
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