About Us
We are researchers investigating the neuroscience of meditation and well-being. Our aim is to make the tools of meditation and an understanding of how they work accessible to all.Who are we?
Neurons of Potential was born out of a desire to bridge the gap between science and meditation.
We are passionate about well-being and understanding the practices of meditation through a scientific lens. That passion has led us into the growing field of research known as ‘contemplative neuroscience’. Our goal with these courses is to bring this emerging field out of the lab and into the world, by providing clear and scientifically grounded meditation instruction and information.
We believe, and the science now confirms, that the ability to understand and skilfully navigate one’s own mind can have a huge impact on well-being, individually and collectively. A wider adoption of these techniques could have far reaching positive impacts on society, ecology and humanity.
Your Instructors
Our teachers are active academic researchers investigating the mechanisms of meditation, metacognition, emotions and human well-being. We bring this expertise into what we teach and how we communicate.
Lars Sandved Smith
Lars is an ex-management consultant (KPMG & Deloitte) with a background in physics and has more recently retrained as a computational neuroscientist.
He is currently completing his PhD at the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies developing computational models of meditation, metacognition and self-regulation.
He has been teaching meditation for 5 years and completed his meditation teacher training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.
Prof Mark Miller
Mark is a philosopher and cognitive scientist, professor at the University of Monash’s Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies. He investigates the mechanisms of cognitive disfunction (eg. addiction, anxiety) and cognitive ‘superfunction’ (e.g. mental well-being, joy, emotional flourishing).
He has been teaching meditation for 6 years. He is the founder of Edinburgh’s Mindfulness Network and is a registered teacher at The Dharma Treasure Sangha. Mark apprenticed with the late neuroscientist and lifelong meditation teacher John (Culudasa) Yates.