Bill Akpinar, D.Ac., D.D.S., M.D., B.S.
University Health Sciences School of Medicine (U.H.S.A.), Ataturk University School of Dentistry, American College of Acupuncture, City University of New York
Dr. Bill Akpinar is the director of the Center for Healing in New York. He has successfully integrated Eastern and Western Medicine in his field for over 20 years. Having served as director of two major teaching hospital-based anesthesiology and pain management programs in the New York City area, Dr. Bill continues to train medical, dental, and podiatry residents. He holds numerous board certifications and fellowships, including acupuncture, pain management, forensic medicine, forensic dentistry, traumatic distress, as well as herbal and Tibetan medicine.

Dr. Bill thrives on the use of many non-traditional techniques in combination with his anesthesiology background in the field of headache and TMJ pain disorders, including music therapy (he is an accomplished musician), Chinese Heal Martial Arts, such as Chi Kung (he holds several black belts and practices various “internal” healing martial arts styles), oxygenation therapy, and has been trained by noted Chinese, Indian, Shaolin, Sufi, and Tibetan healing masters in the course of his career (including a mentorship with the Dali Lama’s personal physician, while in Tibet).

As medical director of the United States Karate Team, under the direction of his teacher and world Karate champion Terrence "Tokey" Hill, Dr. Bill has had the opportunity to apply his healing skills to the team in his travels with them. Dr. Bill now serves as medical director of the University of Natural Medicine, Santa Fe, New Mexico and is constantly searching for ways to bridge Eastern and Western Medicine and bring this knowledge to the public.

Lynn V. Andrews
School of Sacred Arts and Training
Lynn Andrews is an internationally acclaimed author who has written 18 books, including Medicine Woman (now in its 39th printing), Jaguar Woman and Crystal Woman. Considered a preeminent teacher in the field of personal development, Lynn is a 21st Century shaman whose words reflect her path, a path of heart. Her work explores the ancient teachings taught by the Sisterhood of the Shields, which embrace the study of global shamanic cosmologies and sacred art technologies. For over a decade, people from all over the world have gathered with Lynn for her annual Joshua Tree four-day retreat. In 1994, The Lynn Andrews Center for Sacred Arts and Training was created--a unique mystery school designed to integrate the sacred into every aspect of life.

David Christopher, BA, MH, AHG
Brigham Young University, The School of Natural Healing
For the last 20 years David Christopher has been a popular world wide speaker. He has generated new ideas on the management of high blood pressure, diabetes and auto-immune diseases, and was one of the first to discourage the use of Prozac in favor of natural methods. Alarmed by the growing use of Ritalin, David developed an alternative program for ADD and ADHD.

In 1974, David Christopher, M.H., took his place by his father's side at The School of Natural Healing. David's book entitled An Herbal Legacy of Courage is a loving tribute to his father. Today, thousands of individuals practice the art of natural healing thanks to his continued directorship and teaching.

David Christopher is a prominent herbalist in the United States and is a founding member of the American Herbalist Guild. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University, and his Master's degree from The School of Natural Healing. David's herbal studies began at the foot of America's foremost herbalist, his father, Dr. John R. Christopher, MH, ND. As the director of The School of Natural Healing he ensures that the School offers the best herbal education in the field. David is also a popular radio talk show host, and his program, A Healthier You. An Herbal Legacy of Courage, a biography on his father's life, is David's most recent publication.

Willard H. Dean, M.D.
American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Dean practices holistic medicine in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he co-founded the Center for Self Healing. Although trained in general medicine, he specializes in preventive and behavioral medicine, emphasizing wellness and alternative therapies. He has been on the faculty and boards of several schools of natural healing and is currently serving to help establish certification in holistic medicine. He is a published author and is writing series of texts on the different systems of the body, their diseases and treatments. His lifestyle reflects his beliefs of health and well-being.

David Frawley, O.M.D.
International Institute of Chinese Medicine, Ashtanga Ayurvedic College (Pune, India).
Dr. Frawley has a twenty-year background in natural healing, including the systems of Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, and Western Herbalism. He has a doctors' degree in oriental medicine from the International Institute of Chinese Medicine where he taught herbal medicine for several years. He is associated with the Ashtanga Ayurveda College in Pune, India and other Ayurvedic schools in India, where he has lectured on a number of occasions. Dr. Frawley is also a Vedic astrologer, Sanskrit and Vedic scholar, and teacher of yoga and meditation. He writes regularly for various yoga, Ayurvedic and Hindu publications in the United States and India.

Dr. David Frawley is one of the few Westerners ever recognized in India as a Vedacharya or teacher of the ancient wisdom. In 1991 under the auspices of the great Indian teacher, Avadhuta Shastri, he was named Vamadeva Shastri, after the great Vedic Rishi Vamadeva. In 1995 he was given the title of Pandit along with the Brahmachari Vishwanathji award in Mumbai for his knowledge of the Vedic teaching. Over the years Vamadeva has received many awards and honors for his work from throughout India.

Vamadeva (Dr. Frawley) is a unusual western born knowledge-holder in the Vedic tradition. He carries many special Vedic ways of knowledge (vidyas), which he passes on to students in India and in the West. His vast knowledge is rooted in intuitive and past life influences, as it is more than could be gained in a single life experience, though he has studied many traditional texts and with many teachers.

In India, Vamadeva is recognized not only as a Vedacharya (Vedic teacher), but also as a Vaidya (Ayurvedic doctor), Jyotishi (Vedic astrologer), Puranic (Vedic historian) and Yogi, a rare feat for an American born in Wisconsin. He is now a visiting professor for the Vivekananda Yoga Kendra in Bangalore, India, a government approved deemed university for yogic and Vedic studies and also a teacher with the Sringeri Shankaracharya Math, the most central of the traditional Vedantic centers in India.
In India, his translations and interpretations of the ancient Vedic teachings have been given the highest acclaim in both spiritual and scholarly circles. In America he is well known as a teacher and practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine and of Vedic astrology (Jyotish) and has done pioneering work on both these subjects in the West. In Sept. 2000, he was regarded as one of the 25 most influential Yoga teachers in America by the magazine Yoga Journal.

It is very difficult to get authentic knowledge about Vedic teachings and its related traditions of Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, Ayurveda and Vedic Astrology. Yoga is often reduced to mere asana or yogic postures. Tantra has become little more than sex. Vedanta has often been reduced to a mere conceptual philosophy or an Advaitic pop psychology. Academic presentations of these subjects, not being done by practitioners, remain caught in semantics and theoretical issues.

Vamadeva (Dr. Frawley) presents authentic Vedic knowledge in the Western world and in a lucid presentation recognized by the tradition itself. He has worked extensively teaching, writing, lecturing, conducting research and helping establish schools and associations in related Vedic fields over the last thirty years. He has studied and traveled widely gathering knowledge, working with various Vedic teachers and groups in a non-sectarian manner.

Vamadeva sees his role as helping to revive Vedic knowledge in an interdisciplinary approach for the planetary age. He sees himself as a teacher and translator to help empower people to use Vedic systems to enhance their lives and aid in their own Self-realization. He sees Vedic wisdom as a tool for liberation of the spirit, not as a dogma to bind people or to take power over them. Vedic knowledge is a means of communing with the conscious universe and learning to embody it in our own life and perception.

Maria Gabrielle, N.D., L.M.T.
Westbrook University, St. Peter's Jesuit College
Dr. Maria Gabrielle is the founder of Alternative Therapy Associates, a holistic medical center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she treats patients from all around the world. Her specialty within the Naturopathic practice is Biological Medicine, which includes Darkfield Microscopy according to Dr. Guenther Enderlein, Biological Terrain Assessment, Herbology, Nutrition, Bio-energetic Evaluation, Sanum Therapy, Orthomolecular Medicine and Homeopathy. Dr. Gabrielle has studied internationally to develop her eclectic expertise in the field.