Consciousness-Centered Education
Consciousness-centered education (CCE) initiatives integrate objective, subjective, and transcendent ways of knowing. With the goal of helping students to reach their full potential, CCE models encourage introspection, reflection, and meditation in the classroom. CCE curricula attempts to bring education into alignment with values of unity, relationship, and wholeness. It encourages students to not only learn a predetermined set of skills but also how to live meaningfully in the world.
Consciousness, Creativity, the Future
New Course Offering at University of Michigan
This class is conceived as a leadership think tank that probes the outer edges of the human imagination in response to the challenges, as well as opportunities for growth, that are unique to the present moment in the history of the world. The course will be taught in collaboration with SIMA Studios and feature corresponding guest lectures. In partnership with UNESCO, SIMA’s education streaming platform – SIMA Academy – is empowering 100,000+ students across the globe through the power of social impact films.
CCE Initiatives Supported by Molly’s work
The Tuning the Student Mind Foundation
An outgrowth of the college course, the Tuning the Student Mind Foundation (TTSM) supports colleges and universities as they pilot consciousness-centered educational experiences for students and faculty. Offering both consultation and seed grants, the Tuning the Student Mind Foundation helps educators develop curricula that focus on connection over separation, collaboration over competition, and academic inquiry as a complement to deepening consciousness and self-awareness.
Past Tuning the Student Mind Foundation seed grants have included student meditation training, conference scholarships, and the TTSM sponsored speaker series at the University of Michigan.
- At the University of Arkansas
Mind Life
Molly teaching
The Tuning the Student Mind Speaker Series at the University of Michigan
Presented in conjunction with the University of Michigan Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies (PCCS), the TTSM speaker series spotlights cutting-edge, high-level thinking and research on a range of topics in consciousness, contemplative studies, and integral psychology.
We invite bold, visionary thinkers from diverse areas in the field of consciousness studies to share their wisdom with faculty, students, and the community at large with the goal of introducing their work to an interdisciplinary audience. The series aims to create connections, spark new ideas, and enhance the conversation around consciousness and contemplative practices.
College for Creative Studies students
Students during a presentation
In the Classroom
Past Speakers Include
- Yuria Celidwen, PhD, Independent Activist
Indigenous Wisdom in a Technological Age - Kim Pemberthy, PhD, Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia
New Frontiers in Consciousness Research - Avi Loeb, PhD, Astrophysics, Harvard University
In Search for Extraterrestrial Technological Equipment - David W. Robinson-Morris, PhD, Activist/Author
Ain’t Even Been Planted Yet: Tilling the Soil of Contemplative Justice and Radical Imagination - Julian Rubinstein, Filmmaker/Author and Terrance Roberts, Activist
Film Screening and Workshop The Holly - Marcus Anthoney, PhD, Futurist
Reclaiming Your Authentic Self During the A.I. Explosion: A guide to developing Deep Futures, with Embodied Presence and Integrated Intelligence - Anil Maheshwari, PhD, Maharishi University of Management
Consciousness-Based Leadership: Principles and an Original Case Study - SIMA sponsored course taught by Virginia Pittaro, Director of Global Partnerships at SIMA Academy
- Michelle Coltrane and Brandee Younger
Oral History Project: Alice Coltrane
Music Professor Ed Sarath developed the Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies over a decade ago to bring together students, faculty, and members of the broader Michigan community from across diverse disciplines to discuss issues related to the development of human creativity and consciousness. PCCS is rooted in the idea that a revolution in consciousness is key to addressing the growing number of challenges facing our world, and that creativity is the exterior manifestation of consciousness growth. The program encompasses an inter-disciplinary major and aims to bring consciousness studies and contemplative practices into the educational mainstream. It emphasizes the importance of diverse perspectives, ways of knowing, and creative and spiritual expression to education and the importance of consciousness, spirituality, and creativity to social justice conversations. At the core of the initiative is the belief that to make our American institutions and society at large more diverse and equitable, we must recognize and integrate ways of knowing and contemplative practices from cultures across the globe that have previously been excluded from western academic and intellectual conversations. Molly has served as the co-director of PCCS since 2020.