About ICR

Michael Bradford

Michael Bradford has been involved in research on Kundalini and consciousness for more than 40 years. In 1977 he traveled to India where he spent six years serving as a volunteer worker for the Central Institute for Kundalini Research, founded and directed by the late Pandit Gopi Krishna. Michael has been a board member of the Institute for Consciousness Research (I.C.R.) since it was founded, and has been Director of Publications during this time. In 2015, he became a board member of the Emerging Sciences Foundation (E.S.F.) and is currently acting as an advisor to the E.S.F.’s Kundalini Experimental Project.

In 1985 Michael began working full time as an IT consultant in the data processing field, and retired in March 2014. He currently lives in the Toronto area.

Dale Pond

Dale L. Pond has been involved in Kundalini Research for more than 30 years and is the corresponding secretary of The Institute for Consciousness Research. She resides in Markdale, Ontario, Canada, with her husband Paul. In 1975 she was introduced to meditation and spiritual laws and had a transformative experience that changed her life. In 1977 she met Gopi Krishna and learned about Kundalini, the psycho-physiological mechanism held to be responsible for the evolution of consciousness acting within the human body and brain. In 1988 she experienced a profound Kundalini awakening that opened her up to the creative impulse. Poetry flowed, songs came and she began painting and wood sculpting. She also had what she calls ‘a blossoming of the intellect’, which inspired her to read, focusing mainly on the lives of mystics and geniuses in order to understand the process she was undergoing. Having found the answers to many of her questions within this framework, she continues to promote Kundalini research. She intimately shares details of her transformative experiences and how she has woven them into her life in a balanced and healthy way.

Ted Wood

Ted Wood is a founding member and current treasurer of ICR and has been an active supporter of Kundalini Research for more than 30 years. He is a Unitarian Universalist and member of the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. Ted serves on the Board of Amnesty International Toronto Organization and is Chair of Amnesty International Group 142 which focuses on the rights of Indigenous peoples. Ted is a Chartered Professional Accountant and retired Chief Financial Officer.

Sabine Bruestle

Sabine Bruestle first became interested in the “spiritual world” in 1984 and as part of her own healing process studied various energy healing modalities. She became involved with ICR and the exploration of Kundalini in the early 1990’s after spending several months in Zuerich, Switzerland, administering the literary estate of the late Pandit Gopi Krishna. Connecting with our “inner sparkle”, that light, that love, that moves us deeply, and creating a healthy lifestyle and physical environment to support that, are topics very close to her heart. Sabine is actively engaged in the corporate world as Director of Operations of a Specialty Medical Device company and is a long-time board member of ICR.

Myrna Filman

Myrna Filman is a Nurse Practitioner who resides in northern California. She became interested in spiritual issues at a young age. This lead to an intense longing and search for answers to questions regarding the nature and meaning of life that have piqued humankind since the beginning of time. Following an intense Kundilini awakening at the age of 21, this search took her to Europe where she met Gopi Krishna. She has worked in neuroscience research and psychiatry. She remains involved in promoting Kundalini research and Kundalini as the basis of consciousness and religion.

Meet the ICR "Long-Time" Board Advisers

Paul Pond

Paul Pond, Ph.D., has a doctorate in physics and has been involved in Kundalini experience and research for more than 40 years. He has written and spoken extensively on the subject. His focus has been on lifestyle issues and their impact on individual spiritual experience.

In 1973, after having spent three years doing post-doctoral research, Paul’s life underwent a dramatic event while he was meditating. The experience included energy movement in the body and an explosion of inner light and sound followed by a river of tears of joy. His perception and direction of life permanently changed at that moment. He realized that there are subtle laws of consciousness just as there are the physical laws of physics and decided shortly thereafter to pursue the study of consciousness.

At the time, Paul had no idea what had happened to him. It was the introduction of the concept of Kundalini through the writings and discourses of Gopi Krishna whose call for a scientific investigation of the Kundalini phenomena appealed Paul. He has added his voice to the call for open-minded research into Kundalini ever since.

Eileen Holland

Eileen Holland has been involved with ICR since its inception. The writings of Gopi Krishna have inspired her for 40 years. She credits these for increased creativity, a healthier life-style and greater insight into herself and others. Much of her activities in ICR involved membership on the Steering Committee, writing literary research papers on mystics and geniuses, presentations at the Annual Conferences and washing multiple dishes after Conference meals. At 81 years of age her activities have waned but never her belief in the way to self-knowledge.

Patrick Hayne

Patrick was introduced to the books of Gopi Krishna in the mid 1970's, at the same time that he took up the practice of meditation. Those writings, and Patrick's experiences in meditation were leaps forward in answering questions which had been left unanswered in his undergraduate studies in biology.

Gopi Krishna's appeal to scientists to examine and test what he claimed about human consciousness, has continued to resonate deeply with the scientist in Patrick, from those early days to the present. Though he has been immersed in the business world. Patrick has never ceased to hunger for a world that embraces the gift left behind by Pandit Gopi Krishna - a glimpse of our destiny.

Alf Walker

Alf Walker has retired from his practice as a Psycho-dynamic Psychotherapist and as a Captain on the Toronto Fire’s Hazardous Materials Unit. Alf was first introduced to, and fascinated by, the concept of Kundalini when he was fifteen years of age. Since that time, he has been studying and exploring the literature and techniques to achieve Higher States of Consciousness individually and collectively. Alf volunteered at the Kundalini Yoga Research Center in Dehra Dun, India in 1982/83 and has been an avid student and promoter of the work of Pandit Gopi Krishna since 1976.

Helga Schroeder

Helga finally followed her dream of self-exploration after leaving the corporate world in 1989. She submerged herself in different health modalities ending up focusing on the yogic tradition and philosophy . For the past 40 years Helga has studied and practised various forms of yoga and meditation. During her search for a deeper meaning to life she has spent time in ashrams in Europe, USA and India. She is the founder of the “Beyond Limits” yoga studio in Meaford. It is here where she guides accessible and gentle yoga, using a self-empowering, mindful approach that facilitates deep release for beginners, as well as experienced practitioners.

Helga attended many seminars with the ICR over the past 20 years. Her desire is to assist in spreading the wisdom of Gopi Krishna.

Teri Degler

Award winning author Teri Degler has been researching and writing about the lives of highly creative mystics and geniuses since 1979 when she was introduced to the idea that the lives of these extraordinary individuals would show evidence of what the ancient yogis described as the awakening of kundalini-shakti. It was Gopi Krishna’s contention that this research would show that there was only one spiritually transformative “energy” whether it was known as holy spirit, holy wind, jeng chi, kundalini, or any other name. What’s more, this spiritual force was responsible for the evolution of consciousness.

This powerful, unifying concept led Teri to also research the divine feminine known as Shakti in the yogic tradition and the parallels with Sophia in old testament Christianity and Shekinah in Jewish mysticism.

Three of Teri’s twelve published books deal with these concepts, in particular, The Fiery Muse: Creativity and The Spiritual Quest and The Divine Feminine Fire: Creativity and Your Yearning to Express Your Self. Teri is currently studying Sanskrit in hopes of someday being better able to understand the ancient Tantric and Shakta texts.

Vitold Kreutzer

Vitold Kreutzer is a custodian of a little piece of nature, a baker of organic goods, a promoter of alternative and subtle forms of energy, and human sustainability, and a student of a healthy evolution for all life on this planet. The initial conscious meeting with Gopi Krishna, Consciousness and Kundalini in the 1970’s has permeated and guided his being like a life beacon in this earthly journey.

Living in an off grid home, being responsible for his life choices, studying and practicing the enormous fields of energy, healing and evolution, has brought him to this moment: conscious, aware and communicating with the ultimate intelligence of all life. A commitment to the study and experience of the spirit in nature and humanity and their connection to the cosmos is a daily expression of who and what he is.