Brian Les Lancaster PhD is a Founding Director and Dean of the Alef Trust. He is also Professor Emeritus of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK and an Honorary Research Fellow in Religions and Theology, University of Manchester, UK. He has previously served as Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, as President of the International Transpersonal Association, and as a Board member of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. Les’ research interests focus on the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness and the connections between this topic and mysticism, specifically focusing on Kabbalistic Psychology. He has researched consciousness for more than 40 years and studied the Kabbalah and other schools of mysticism for over 50. His focus has been to formulate a neo-Kabbalistic approach that is informed not only by centuries of Kabbalistic texts but also through the insights of modern transpersonal psychology. He is a prize-winning author, having written numerous journal articles and chapters in edited books. His own books include The essence of kabbalah; Approaches to consciousness: The marriage of science and mysticism; and Kabbalah in the transpersonal age: Psychology, mysticism, and soul (forthcoming).