Mission
The Center for Contemplative Research (CCR) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization founded in 2021 by scholars B. Alan Wallace, PhD and Eva Natanya, PhD. CCR maintains its primary center in Crestone, Colorado, with other centers underway in Italy and New Zealand.
The founding vision of CCR posits that the problems of human civilization stem from mental affliction, and that to address the crises humanity faces and bring about a new era of human flourishing, we must address their root causes in the mind. CCR sees a future guided by collaborative, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary inquiry, where scientists and contemplatives work together in mutual respect to fathom the nature and potentials of the mind and seek to discover and implement the sustainable causes of personal and social well-being.
The mission of CCR is to develop, apply, and proliferate methods of contemplative science — through expert training, collaborative research, and accessible education — to deepen empirical understanding of genuine well-being, further the exploration of the nature and potentials of consciousness, and offer accessible tools for flourishing to the world.
Impact
CCR leads the way for another scientific revolution, made possible if we relax a constraint in science: that empirical knowledge must come from only the five physical senses of touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. CCR seeks to demonstrate that our sixth mode of experience — mental perception — is a valid avenue of empirical inquiry and thus a legitimate mode of scientific exploration. Establishing mental perception as a part of science creates the possibility for a deeper, more integrative foundation for inter-contemplative dialogue. Seeking common ground that is reached through the rigorous and replicable experiences that arise from practice — not merely from a comparison of texts, rituals, or belief systems — CCR seeks to overturn dogmatism in both religion and academia, and to arrive at the deepest truths of existence through radical empiricism, while never forsaking heart-opening faith in the honesty and integrity of the great teachers, saints, and prophets who have preceded us, pointing the way to what they have seen.
It is CCR’s hope that this common ground inspires invigoration and application of contemplative techniques and deep discovery across traditions, toward better human flourishing in the face of ever-steepening odds.
