Beth Adelson

Beth Adelson is a meditation teacher and a cognitive scientist working on complex problem solving. She was one of the first scientists to uncover the structure of the mind by looking at the semantically rich domains. She initiated this area of work by looking at analogical problem solving, memory organization and categorization processes in the domain of computer science. She also looked at problem deconstruction in conflict resolution and discovery and insight processes.
Dr. Adelson has held positions at Yale, MIT, and CMU. She is a past Program Director with the National Science Foundation, where she organized a Cognitive Science Program. She is Professor Emerita at Rutgers University.
Dr. Adelson is currently working on rendering original Buddhist texts into language useful in society today. This has allowed her to develop meditation practices which help with concerns like chronic pain, interpersonal relations, and eating disorders. She finds that these practices make people happy and effective in everyday life.
Her meditation teachers include: Salzburg, Boorstein, Goldstein and Arnell; Tsultrim Allione and Alan Wallace; and Roshis Shunryu Suzuki, Joan Halifax and Jan Chozen Bayes. She spent seven years in Theravadan Buddhist retreat.
Her research on how intensive meditation effects perception and action in interpersonal and professional conflict is endorsed by the Dalai Lama.
In her early career, Adelson was trained as a dancer at the Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham studios in New York City, and danced professionally for ten years. In conjunction with this work, she began her yoga practice at the age of 17. Her current yoga teaching integrates meditative contentment of heart and mind into the physical poses.
Dr. Adelson has a long-term daily meditation practice which focuses on Jhana, meditative absorption; and the Brahma Viharas, the transformative qualities of the heart.

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