SNEAK PEEK

Synopsis

Now in the final phase of production, Frontiers of the Mind: The 100-Year Project is a feature-length documentary chronicling the history and present-day actualization of the 14th Dalai Lama's vision: a dialogue between the Tibetan Buddhist monastic tradition and Western academic science.

In 1987, the Dalai Lama followed his curiosity about the sciences and initiated the first Mind & Life Dialogues at his home in exile in Dharamsala, India, with neuroscientist Francisco Varela and entrepreneur Adam Engel. Eleven years later, in 1998, Emory University entered into a formal partnership with the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhist community in exile, creating the Emory-Tibet Partnership.

The film heavily features the Dalai Lama and intimately follows the current generation of monastic science leaders as they carry forward his vision. The main characters include Geshe Sangpo, Geshe Thabke, Ani Choyang, and Dr. Robin Nusslock, founder of the research training internship for monastic scientists at Northwestern University. We follow them as they work to expand a new chapter of research training for Tibetan monks, nuns, and scientists across the globe — advancing what the Dalai Lama calls the “100-Year Project.”

One key initiative featured in this film is their unique research into lucid dreaming, and specifically into the ancient practice of Dream Yoga, conducted in collaboration with scientists at Northwestern University’s Sleep and Memory Lab under the direction of Dr. Ken Paller and Dr. Gabby Torres-Platas. The film also documents the subsequent establishment of sleep research labs at the Tibetan science centers and monasteries in India supported by the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (an offshoot of the Emory-Tibet Partnership) with the guidance of Dr. Robin Nusslock.

Their goal: to explore whether the intersection of these two great traditions is truly possible — and, if so, whether together they can help to create a healthier, happier future for humanity.