The Trip To...

Getting half way around the world is never easy.  And getting to a small town in northern India makes the journey even more difficult.  By my calculations, I will be in transit for about 32 hours.  I could break the trip up into shorter segments by staying overnight somewhere, but that would add an extra day that I cannot give up.

The Best Plans

Many international flights into large cities in India arrive in the very early morning hours, often between midnight and 3 am.  Because the Science for Monks workshops are held in places that are outside large cities, I have had to take another domestic flight to get to the location.  This is the case for my upcoming trip to India:  I arrive at midnight and must make a connecting flight later the same day.

I had planned to make a connectng flight at 11:30 am which would give me several hours to get some sleep after the long flight from Seattle.  I booked a room at a hotel near the airport for this short layover.  However, I just received news that the 11:30 am flight has been cancelled and I have been rebooked on an 8:30 am flight instead.

So, in the best scenario, my flight will arrive at midnight and I will have time collect my bags, change some dollars to rupees, and find my way to the hotel.  If I get to the hotel by 2 am, I'll have about 5 hours before I have to turnaround and get back to the airport from the domestic flight.

Whenever you travel, it is best to be flexible because some things are beyond your control.

Slide Prep

Neuroscience moves at a very fast pace.  That is why I change my presentations each year for the Science for Monks workshop.  I try to present the newest findings in a way that the monks can appreciate the work coming out of research laboratories around the world.  Many of the hands-on activities we do are the same year to year, but these might be framed differently if there has been a new discovery.

Of course, if I change my presentation, the slide must be translated into Tibetan so the monks can read the material.  I am almost finished with my revisions so the translators will have enough time to do their work.  Below is one slide for the "Brain brain, what is a brain?" activity.  Each monk will be given an everyday object and they must think of ways that the brain is similar to and different from the object.

New for 2016 Workshop

During the upcoming Science for Monks workshop in Bir, we will be doing a few new things.  For one, a neuroethicist from the University of Washington will join me at the workshop.  We hope to have a discussion with the monks about the benefits and problems associated with neurotechnologies.  We are also going to try the "rubber hand illusion." The rubber hand illusion is a demonstration of how body ownership can change.  For the demonstration, a person puts his hand in a place where his real hand cannot be seen and a rubber hand model is placed in a similar place where it can be seen.  If the person's hand and the rubber hand are touched at the same time in the same place for a minute or two, the person often comes to believe that the rubber hand is his own.  It doesn't work on everyone, but we will give it a try.

Back to Bir

Slight change in plan.  The workshop has moved from Dharamsala to Bir.  Bir is about a two hour car ride from Dharamsala so all flight arrangements stay the same.  In 2011, I was in Bir for my first trip to India to teach neuroscience to the monks and nuns.  Bir is a beautiful place with sweeping views of the Himalaya foothills.

Lectures Online

I just found some of my lectures (in English with Tibetan translations) from my 2013 trip to India online.

Return Route

This October I will be making my sixth trip to India to teach neuroscience to Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns.  

Getting to India is always an adventure and I have taken different paths to travel around the globe.  Thinking back to my other trips, I have traveled to India via Amsterdam, Paris (twice), Tokyo, and Dubai.  This year I will travel through Tokyo (Narita) again.   International arrivals into India are usually very late at night, often between midnight and 3 am.  I plan to get a hotel for about 10 hours in Delhi before getting on another flight to Dharamsala.