The Consciousness Residency at Edge Esmeralda 2026

Why this question, why now?

There has never been a more important moment to ask what it means to be human.

AI is rapidly transforming how we think, create, relate, and build, and in doing so, it sharpens the questions that have always mattered most. What is consciousness? What makes human experience irreducible? How we might deepen our understanding of mind, meaning, and aliveness itself.

The bulk of attention right now is going to machine consciousness: whether large models have inner experience, what to do about it if they do. The older and harder one is how consciousness actually shows up in a human body. In tissue and breath and vasculature and electrical activity. Or how trauma is held, how attention works, how an ordinary nervous system becomes capable of an extraordinary state.

The science has been quietly maturing for a decade, through the psychedelic research renaissance, contemplative neuroscience, vagal and autonomic regulation work, and a new generation of mechanistic theories of consciousness that take embodiment seriously. The institutions hosting that work have stayed siloed. The field is now ready for the kind of sustained, cross-disciplinary attention that academic departments are not built to provide.

A field stuck between two worlds

Consciousness research has lived across scattered domains for decades. Science, philosophy, spirituality, psychology, art, and lived practice. Each has produced real insight. The field still looks like a puzzle spilled across the floor: fragments compiling on their own, with no picture clear enough to guide collective progress.

Part of this is a categorization problem. Consciousness has had a hard time finding its place. On one side it gets dismissed as woo, pseudoscience, or ancient wisdom that should stay in the mystic realm. On the other it has been siloed in philosophy departments, separated from the empirical methods that would test its claims. The two camps barely interact.

The result is a frontier field that remains under-invested in talent and capital relative to what it is asking. The way subjective experience arises, and how to influence it well, will shape how we live, how we build AI, how we design cities, how we approach health and illness. The field is worth treating as such.

Why Edge is building a container for it

Edge City is betting that consciousness is one of the frontier fields of the next decade and that it deserves a place equal to its ambition. A place where ideas about mind and meaning are taken as seriously as ideas about AI, biology, or governance, here a neuroscientist mapping vasculature and a practitioner in deep meditation can find each other over coffee and walk out of the room with something to build. Where someone who has spent years working alone on the inner life of being human can feel, sometimes for the first time, that their ideas matter and that they have collaborators ready to help them test, refine, or build.

Edge Esmeralda is built for that. Our popup villages function as living labs inside a flourishing community. Residents and villagers live, work, and play together. The day starts with movement, opens into shared meals, focused work in the afternoons, and evenings of panels, demos, debates, and roundtables.

The rhythm looks like ordinary village life, but the mechanisms for interaction are powerful. The shared ecosystem allows for ideas to collide and become meaningful projects in limited time. The inherent sense of play allows for wackier ideas to go from impossible solutions to protocols within a week. Four weeks of that, and people leave with meaningful projects they would never have arrived at alone.

Everyone in the village is within ten minutes of one another, which means low logistical friction and high network density. Ideas move from whiteboard to prototype in days rather than months. There is urgency, because the container dissolves at the end of June. There is also freedom, because nothing institutional rides on what gets tried.

If the project is to bring science, philosophy, and practice into faster and deeper contact, this is the environment that lets it happen.

The Residency

From May 30 to June 27, 2026, fourteen researchers, builders, and practitioners will live together at the Calderwood Inn in Healdsburg, California, embedded inside Edge Esmeralda 2026, a popup village of 500+ people working at the frontiers of technology, science, governance, health, and culture.

Their methods vary widely. Laboratory neuroscience. Contemplative practice. Applied AI. Chronic pain research. Anomalous cognition. Somatic work. Vasocomputation. Embodied phenomenology. Some of them will disagree with each other. That is part of the point.

Consciousness almost certainly requires multiple explanatory layers held in the same room at once: neural, computational, phenomenological, physiological, social, and probably some we do not yet have language for. The residency exists to create sustained contact between people approaching those layers from very different directions, and then to ask what can now be built, tested, practiced, and made real. As part of making this real is working and research in conjunction with consciousness experiences including breathwork, Jhourney meditation, sound healing and much more!

The aim is straightforward: closer working relationships between theory and practice, isolated insight brought into the open, intuitions made testable.

Meet the Residents

Adam Safron

Adam Safron is a research scientist at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, where he works with Michael Levin. His work spans biologically-inspired AI, meditation, psychedelics, human sexuality, and theories of consciousness grounded in harmonic and embodied systems. He is currently organizing a Royal Society special issue on agency and self-world models in natural and artificial intelligences, and developing a formal theory of love he believes may hold the solution to the alignment problem for human and non-human beings. Adam will be joined by Victoria.

Max Shen

Max Shen is a scientist and entrepreneur focused on chronic pain resolution and somatic intelligence. After recovering from debilitating chronic pain through somatic and Tibetan Buddhist practice, he turned to researching spontaneous pain recovery and embodied cognition. He holds two degrees from MIT, has shaped international biotech safety standards by red-teaming DNA synthesis devices, represented New Zealand as a medalist at the International Biology Olympiad, and has published in NeurIPS, Cognition, and the Institute for Progress. At the residency, Max will study qualitative patterns in chronic pain resolution, run workshops on somatic intelligence, and look for collaborators. His research partner Tanner Holman will join for part of the month.

Tanner Holman

Tanner Holman is Max Shen’s research partner and co-author of Debug Your Pain, an essay collection and coaching practice for resolving chronic pain. A movement coach grounded in the Rolf, Feldenkrais, and Alexander somatic lineage, he treats pain as a control signal the nervous system can be retrained out of, rather than a biomechanical fact to stretch or strengthen away.

Erik Enger Karlson

Erik Enger Karlson is a technical builder and entrepreneur developing AI products that facilitate contemplative practice and wisdom development. He has led consciousness technology initiatives with organizations including Jhourney, Art of Accomplishment, and Spirit Tech Collective.

Alex Rockhill

Alex Rockhill is a neuroscientist specializing in ultrasound and electrophysiology. His work has included research with the Massimini and Tononi groups on Integrated Information Theory using TMS-EEG and sEEG, work at Forest Neurotech studying movement and mood with ultrasound functional imaging, and ongoing collaboration with Mike Johnson on vasocomputation. Alex lives in Eugene, OR.

Albert Brox

Albert Brox is the founder of Eve Labs, which builds models that decode semantic content from EEG and other noninvasive neural sensors, making cognitive state machine-readable so that AI systems can synchronize more tightly with human preferences. Albert is joining via Danielle Strachman.

Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson is the founder of the Symmetry Institute, author of Principia Qualia, and a previous co-founder of the Qualia Research Institute. His current work develops vasocomputation, a framework connecting contemplative phenomenology, active inference, trauma, and embodied cognition through physical mechanisms in the vascular system. At the residency, he will continue this work alongside Alex Rockhill.

Leo Christov-Moore

Leo Christov-Moore is a senior research scientist at the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, where he leads the E4 project. With a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA and prior positions at UCLA and USC, he combines multimodal neuroimaging, complex systems theory, contemplative practice, psychedelic research, and human-AI paradigms to study trust, belief change, mind-body interaction, and non-ordinary states. His work has been supported by NSF, NIMH, Templeton World Charity Foundation, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, and the Survival and Flourishing Fund.

Angie Normandale

Angie Normandale leads Aintelope, an international nonprofit working at the intersection of consciousness and AI safety. She studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford, where she designed and researched neural networks, and is currently pursuing a master’s in Computer Science with AI. Her recent work has focused on expanding funding pathways for AI safety research.

Theo Sechopoulos

Theo Sechopoulos approaches the hard problem of consciousness through computational and higher-order theories of mind, including the use of introspective language models as a probe for human and animal consciousness. He researched at MIT Computational Cognitive Science and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from MIT. Theo joins through an Astera Institute work trial.

Paul H. Smith

Paul H. Smith spent seven years inside the U.S. military’s Star Gate remote viewing program as a remote viewer, training instructor, and unit historian, studying under Hal Puthoff and Ingo Swann. He holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, consciousness, and parapsychology. He is president of Remote Viewing Instructional Services, a founding director of the International Remote Viewing Association, and the author of Reading the Enemy’s Mind and The Essential Guide to Remote Viewing.

Peter Moltke Skov-Andersen

Peter Moltke Skov-Andersen is a neuroscientist with the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the lab behind the first rigorous neuroscience of jhana absorption and meditative cessations of consciousness. His own work spans fMRI studies of LSD and music, behavioral neuropharmacology of MDMA, and EEG of advanced meditation. He also contributes to clusterfree.org, developing psychedelic-informed guides for cluster headache prevention.

Raven

Raven joins from SleepAwake Camp, a 30-day immersive program drawing on somatic experiencing, bioenergetics, Byron Katie’s The Work, and Tibetan Buddhist meditation, among other traditions.

Sam Brown

Sam Brown is a technology innovator and consciousness researcher whose work explores the intersection of spiritual alignment and technical systems. He developed an AI system that utilizes quantum randomness to “engineer synchronicity,” producing outputs that correspond with the user’s psyche at a rate significantly higher than chance - a phenomenon confirmed by a double-blinded study. His deeper mission is one of re-enchantment, helping individuals directly experience a participatory universe that is responsive to their presence. Sam also facilitates workshops on generating synchronicity and will be attending the residency for the final two weeks of Edge Esmeralda.

Harry Gandhi

Harry Gandhi is working on embodied cognition via Lumen Labs. In his free time, you can find him on a pickleball court, in nature, writing, or whipping up a storm in the kitchen. Before Lumen, he built a sensor company, and was an investor at 1517 Fund and Amplify Capital.

Wyatt Rodgers

Wyatt Rodgers leads the residency on the ground. His work sits at the intersection of measurement, healing, meaning, expectancy, and consumer health technology. He has moved from aerospace instrumentation through biomedical research to evidence strategy at an embodied wellness technology company. His core questions are how to pursue rigor without flattening lived experience and how to design technologies, businesses, and research cultures that deepen self-knowledge rather than reorganize agency around the tool. His own navigation of complex chronic illness keeps these questions immediate and practical.

Take part in the experiences

Theory and research only go so far. A lot of what we know about consciousness comes from practice, and the residency is built to hold both. Edge Esmeralda runs daily practices that help people land in their bodies and access the kinds of experiences the residents are studying. These are open to everyone in the village, and the residency will be tracking how people respond.

A few of the experiences in rotation:

Breathwork with Dr. Erica Matluck and Paul Kuhn: Two weeks of daily sessions to sharpen awareness and bring people into closer contact with themselves. OUROS is an immersive journey to attune to deeper layers of knowing and perceiving. Through movement, breath, and sound - participants will use the technology of the body as a vehicle to access gnosis - direct knowing beyond thought. Over 5 days, we will explore universal themes of the human experience; Birth, Freedom, Acceptance, Death & Rebirth and Expression.

Sound Baths and Meditation: Daily Sound Bath + Meditation sessions to quiet the system and make space for stillness. Sound Baths are an immersive experience designed to support nervous system regulation, emotional restoration, and expanded states of awareness through sound and meditation. Using crystal singing bowls, gongs, chimes, breath, stillness, and guided awareness practices, these sessions will deepen states of consciousness - where frequency, vibration, and attention influence both the body and the mind.

Ancient traditions have long understood sound and meditation as a tool for healing, connection, and transformation. These sessions invite you to slow down, soften mental noise, and reconnect with yourself through both the physiology of relaxation and the deeper intelligence of presence.

Yoga and Ecstatic Dance: Daily yoga and weekly Ecstatic Dance to move the body and shift energy. These immersive movement experiences of yoga and Ecstatic Dance help access the body as a pathway for healing, expression, and transformation. Rooted in ancient and modern understandings of the nervous system, these practices invite participants to move beyond performance and into deeper embodiment, presence, and emotional release.

Through intentional movement, free-form expression, rhythm, and breath, we create space to regulate the body, awaken creativity, release stored tension, and reconnect with our inner knowing. These are grounding movement meditations; these sessions are an invitation to soften the mind, trust the body, and remember movement as medicine.

SleepAwake: Experiential programming from the SleepAwake Camp team to help people meet their inner child and move toward real awakening. Sessions will deepen the connection between play, presence, healing, and awakening. Through reflection, connection, and inner exploration, this offering invites participants to reconnect with the parts of themselves often buried beneath productivity, identity, and everyday conditioning - including the curiosity, wonder, creativity, and authenticity of the inner child.

Blending elements of personal growth, embodiment, conscious community, and emotional awareness, SleepAwake creates space for both deep reflection and lighthearted discovery. This is an invitation to reconnect to what feels real, and explore what awakening can look like experientially - through human connection, self-inquiry, and fully being alive in the present moment.

Daily sauna evenings: Time to slow down and connect with one another at the end of the day. Saunas are a space to sweat, soften, connect, and unwind together and our Sauna Sessions offer an opportunity to support circulation, nervous system recovery, relaxation, and emotional release through the grounding ritual of heat and shared human presence. Across cultures and throughout history, saunas have served not only as spaces for physical wellbeing, but as communal gathering places for conversation, reflection, storytelling, and connection.

Whether you come to recover, have meaningful conversations, or simply sit quietly in shared stillness, this is an opportunity to slow down and reconnect with your body, and the people around you. Stay hydrated, listen to your limits, and allow the warmth to help dissolve stress, tension, and separation.

Cookbook for Human Connection with Mike Wang. Shared meals built as experiments in connection. Join Mike Wang for an experience exploring the ingredients that help humans build deeper, more authentic connections. Through thoughtful prompts, storytelling, play, and conversations, these sessions invite participants to move beyond surface-level networking and into genuine relational connection.

This is an integration of social experimentation, community practice, and reflective gathering, The Cookbook for Human Connection explores what helps people feel seen, safe, inspired, and truly human together. Participants come curious, open-hearted, and ready to connect in ways that are playful, intentional, and unexpectedly meaningful.

The aim across all of our offerings is the same as the research: to understand what helps a person come alive, and to discover by doing.

Joining us

Edge Esmeralda 2026 runs May 30 to June 27 in Healdsburg, California. To learn more and apply, visit edgeesmeralda.com.

The Consciousness Residency will run the whole of Edge Esmeralda and will host a series of workshops and experiments for the broader community to tap into. If you’re a researcher, builder, or practitioner working at this frontier, come find us.

Come curious, bring some rigor, and be as willing to participate as you are to observe.

If you’d like to support the residency as a partner or collaborator, reach Katherine at katherine@edgecity.live or Janine at janine@edgecity.live.

The Supporters

This field is heavily underfunded for how high-impact the results could be. We want to see the field go from tens of millions in funding to billions. A world where humans flourish is one we should all be striving to achieve in our lifetime.

A huge thank you to those that are supporting these early efforts:

We’ll continue our efforts to support researching and building toward a theory of consciousness that is scientifically viable through grants. If you’d like to be a donor, please reach out.

If you’re interested in supporting, please get in touch.

Edge City creates popup villages around the world that convene people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society.

Our mission is to act as a society incubator: a living lab to experiment with new ideas, technologies, cultures, and organizations, with the goal of advancing human flourishing.

- The Edge Esmeralda Team ☀️