Elias Amidon is co-director, with his wife, Rabia, of the Boulder Institute for Nature and the Human Spirit which runs national and international training programs in support of human rights, citizen peacemaking, environmental ethics, and indigenous cultures. During the 90’s he taught in the masters program of Environmental Leadership at Naropa University in Colorado; he is a trained wilderness quest guide and has led quests for over 12 years. With Rabia, he is co-editor of the books Earth Prayers, Life Prayers and Prayers for a Thousand Years.

Elias is a Murshid, senior teacher, and lineage holder of the International Sufi Way, an inner school in the lineage of Indian Sufi master Inayat Khan. Over the years he has studied and practiced Sufism in America, Europe, India, North Africa, and the Middle East. He is also initiated into the Qadiri Sufi order and the Soto Zen Buddhist order of the White Plum Sangha.

Rabia Elizabeth Roberts, Ed.D., is a peaceworker, women’s advocate, and senior teacher in the Sufi Way, as well as a practitioner and scholar of Buddhist teachings. She has served on peace teams with Elias in Nicaragua, Burma and most recently Iraq. In 2002 she was elected to the Governing Board of the global Nonviolent Peaceforce and serves on its executive committee.

A trained wilderness rites–of–passage guide she uses a pan-cultural approach to personal transformation and wilderness experience. She helped to found the Institute for Deep Ecology, the Environmental Leadership Department at Naropa University, and the Spirit in Education Movement (SEM) in Thailand. She has taught philosophy and social advocacy at Harvard and Marquette Universities and written books and articles on prayer, mysticism, and social action.

Achaan Sulak Sivaraksa, Thai activist, Buddhist scholar and Southeast Asia’s foremost human rights advocate; Nobel Peace Prize nominee, winner of the Right Livelihood Award, and author of many books, including Seeds of Peace and When Loyalty Demands Dissent.

Hernan Sinte Sapa, Peruvian healer and spiritual leader in the Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor, an alliance of North and South American indigenous people.

Ginny Jordan, MFA, mystic, poet, and Jungian therapist from the United States. Ginny brings a life of experience as a pilgrim and teacher of the inner stages of the journey.

Pracha Hutanuwatr, Thai author, activist, and ex-Buddhist monk, director of the Spirit in Education Movement and Wongsanit Ashram in Thailand. Pracha has worked for many years with the indigenous people of Burma and Thailand.

Fr. Paolo Dall’Oglio, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian, Syria. Father Paolo is an Italian Jesuit priest who re-discovered and rebuilt the Monastery of St. Moses, dedicating it to the furthering of a positive Christian-Islamic relationship.