Joel & Michelle Levey, the stewards of the Kohala Sanctuary, have devoted their lives to the exploration and integration of the modern mind sciences, ancient wisdom traditions, and wholistic healing traditions. They first came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1975, and have been profoundly inspired by the peoples and nature of this sacred land. Professionally, Joel & Michelle's pioneering work spans many disciplines including: integrative & mindbody medicine; noetic & mind sciences; cyberphysiology, neurofeedback & clinical biofeedback training; peak performance training & extra-ordinary human potential; leadership development & resilience, and developing healthy high performing organizational teams and culture.



The Leveys are co-founders of: WisdomatWork.com; InnerWork Technologies, Inc.; SportsMind, Inc.; The International Center for Corporate Culture & Organizational Health; and the International Center for Contemplative Inquiry. Their work in the world has lead them to work with leaders and teams in over 200 leading organizations around the globe including: NASA, World Bank, M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center, Intel, Intuit, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, MIT, Stanford Research Institute International, Menninger Foundation, Boeing, the U.S. Army Green Berets, West Point Military Academy and with many professional & service organizations. They were honored to serve at the Clinton Global Initiative as facilitators of dialogue among world leaders seeking to find solutions to the greatest challenges of our times.

Michelle & Joel serve on the faculty of the clinical faculty at the Center for Spirituality and Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School, and faculty at the Institute for Religion and Health at the University of Texas Medical Center. They are also involved in curriculum design for the Univeristy of Hawaii School of Medicine. They have also served as faculty at Antioch & Bastyr Universities, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad India (AsiaÕs best business school), International Center for Organization Design and the World Business Academy.

Joel Levey, Ph.D., directed clinical programs in Biofeedback, Stress Management, Pain Management, Psychophysiological Therapy,and Hospice Training for Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. Michelle Levey, M.A., directed similar programs at Children's Medical Center in Seattle. Their pioneering work in Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM), Integral Medicine, Mind-Science & Medicine, and "Ethics, Psychophysiology, and The Sacred," has inspired faculty and students at dozens of medical and nursing schools including: Menninger Foundation, University of Washington School of Medicine and School of Nursing, Bastyr University, Antioch University, Washburn University, University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality & Healing, Brown University, UCLA, Albert Einstein University, and the American Medical Student Association. They served on the core design team for North Hawaii Community Hospital's pioneering "Live Well" program which was an intensive cross-cultural program blending traditional Hawaiian values with the best of medical and biobehavioral science. The outstanding clinical outcomes for the "Live Well" participants demonstrated the efficacy of this integrative, multicultural approach to promoting wellness in our local Hawaiian community.

Nobel Laureate the Dalai Lama has blessed and encouraged Joel & Michelle's work and teachings, and once wrote in a letter to them saying: "You are presently engaged in work that has great prospects for bringing the Dharma (the inner sciences and technologies of human development and transformation) to a very wide section of people who may not under ordinary circumstances come into contact with these teachings." Their work has also been praised by: Andrew Weil, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Goleman, Margaret Wheatley, Robert Thurman, Larry Dossey, Joan Borysenko, and Willis Harman.

Michelle & Joel have coached a number of Olympic and World Class champions and designed & directed biocybernautic training for the US Army Green Berets' acclaimed "Ultimate Warrior Training Program, aka "Jedi Warrior" which was described by West Point leaders as, "The most exquisite orchestration of human technology that we have ever seen," Michael Murphy & George Leonard, founders of the Esalen Institute described the program as, "Jedi Warrior was the most extensive and advance leadership development program to be offered in modern times."

Michelle & Joel have been fortunate to study intensively with many of the world's most revered contemplative teachers and have been encouraged by many of them to keep their wisdom traditions alive through teaching others. They are active in interfaith community work with a diversity of other leaders from faith traditions and social justice movements in the NW US and in Hawaii. Their combined 60 years of intensive contemplative practice draws inspiration from many of the world's great wisdom traditions. Among their many teachers are: The Dalai Lama, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, Kalu Rinpoche, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, , Krishnamurti, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Reb Shlomo Carlbach, Reb Zalman Schacter Shalomi. Ram Das, Sogyal Rinpoche, Gen Lamrimpa, Tharchin Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Dipama, Sakya Dagmola KushoDeshung Rinpoche, S.N. Goenka, David Chethlahe Paladin, Pir Vilayat Khan, Postneshin Jelaleddin Loras, Jack Kornfield, Robert Thurman, and Rina Sircar.

Joel and Michelle have been fortunate to devote a number of years of their lives to intensive silent contemplative retreat, including a one-year silent meditation retreat. They have also been intensively involved with psychophysiological research on meditation, consciousness, and extraordinary human performance and were identified by the Institute of Noetic Sciences--for whom they have participated in numerous research colloquiums--as leading contemporary "teachers of transformation.

Joel & Michelle Levey live in Hawi in the North Kohala district of the Big Island of Hawaii and steward The Kohala Sanctuary a working organic permaculture farm and zone of peace in Hawi, North Kohala on the northern tip of the Island of Hawaii. See our Kohala Sanctuary.