Is Imagination Real?
Moderated by
Elizabeth R. Koch
Registration Now Open
Attendance is Complimentary. Registration is Required.
What if imagination is one of the most powerful forces shaping your reality?
Join Elizabeth R. Koch as she moderates a conversation with Cassandra Vieten, PhD, Jonathan Schooler, PhD, and Stephen Asma, PhD, on the science of imagination and its extraordinary role in how we experience ourselves and the world around us.
Far more than creativity or fantasy, imagination influences how we perceive reality, construct meaning, make decisions, solve problems, build relationships, and envision the future. It helps shape the stories we tell ourselves, the possibilities we can see, and the lives we ultimately create.
Drawing from psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, mindfulness, and consciousness research, this conversation explores imagination as a fundamental human capacity that expands resilience, fuels innovation, deepens empathy, and opens the door to new ways of seeing.
Together, the panel will invite us to reconsider imagination not as an escape from reality but as one of the primary ways we make sense of it, and how understanding this remarkable capacity can help us expand the walls our Perception Box.
5:00 p.m.: Doors open, reception
6:00 p.m.: Program begins promptly
7:00 p.m.: Book signing and reception
In-person attendees will receive a complimentary book.
Bios
Cassandra Vieten, PhD, is Clinical Professor and Director of the Center for Mindfulness at the Centers for Integrative Health in the Department of Family Medicine at UC San Diego. She is also Director of Research at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and Clinical Psychology Director at the Psychedelics and Health Research Initiative at UCSD. She is Senior Advisor of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation, where she served as Executive Director from 2019–2023, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where she served as President from 2013–2019. Her research has focused on spirituality and health, transformative experiences and practices, development of mindfulness-based interventions for emotional well-being, and advancement of media technologies to inspire awe. She is the author of the forthcoming book Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination (Simon and Schuster, August 2026).
Jonathan Schooler, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), Director of UCSB’s Center for Mindfulness and Human Potential, and Director of the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind. His research intersects philosophy and psychology, including the relationship between mindfulness and mind-wandering and theories of consciousness. A former holder of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, Jonathan has had his research featured on television shows including Closer to Truth, BBC Horizon, and Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. With over 270 scholarly publications and over 50,000 citations, he is a six-time recipient of the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science™ Highly Cited Researcher Award, the recipient of ScholarGPS’s 2025 Top Scholar Award as well as their Highly Ranked Scholar - Lifetime in All Fields of Scholarly Endeavor, and one of the top 100 cognitive psychologists according to bothScholarGPS.com and Academicinfluence.com.
Stephen Asma, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago and cofounder of the Research Group in Mind, Science, and Culture. He is the author of 11 books, including The Emotional Mind (Harvard),The Evolution of Imagination (Chicago),On Monsters (Oxford), and The Alchemist’s Thread (HarperCollins). He has lived and taught in Shanghai, Beijing, and Phnom Penh; lectured internationally at institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, Fudan, Xi’an Jiaotong, and the Smithsonian; and written for The New York Times, Aeon, The Boston Globe, and other major outlets. He was also the executive producer and cohost of the hit podcast Chinwag, in which he and Oscar-nominated actor Paul Giamatti explored esoterica, high strangeness, and the odd corners of culture with guests from science, art, and entertainment. As a blues musician in Chicago, Asma played regularly with Bo Diddley and Buddy Guy.
Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination
Cassandra Vieten, PhD
The Evolution of Imagination
Stephen T. Asma, PhD