Where the Himalayas Met Clinical Reality
The Founder Behind the Institute for Emergence
Meet the Founder
Dr. Matthew Braunstein
Founder & Director, Institute for Emergence
Dr. Matthew Braunstein is the founder and director of the Institute for Emergence. He is trained in psychology and consciousness and holds a doctorate in Vedic Science. His academic and clinical background includes work in personality research, conflict mediation, group counseling, and helping individuals and communities navigate issues of identity, marginalization, stigma, and belonging. Drawing on a deep understanding of neurochemistry and consciousness, his work integrates decades of cross-disciplinary insights, including research in neurophysiology and consciousness.
Twenty-five years earlier, he participated in a rare series of private meetings with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, internationally regarded as the foremost authority on the nature and mechanics of consciousness. These meetings focused on how psychological growth and healing are related to the inner mechanics of consciousness.
After years leading programs and institutions across the U.S., Europe, and India, Matthew did what few people would ever consider doing: spending nearly 20 years in silence and solitude in the Himalayas.
That silence was broken only when a group of psychologists—confronting a national mental health crisis—reached out to him. They weren’t looking for advice. They were searching for a missing framework that could explain the urges that drive addiction, anxiety, and disconnection. What they didn’t yet realize was that the problem wasn’t our bothersome reactions and cravings. It was how psychology misunderstood them.
That’s the version of me you’d find on paper. But this work didn’t come from credentials or professional associations. It came from the rawness of being alone with my own nature—and with existence itself.
“I didn’t go to the Himalayas to create a psychology program. I wasn’t thinking about psychology at all and had no intention of returning with anything to teach.
If those psychologists hadn’t called me, none of this would have happened. Looking back, I see the Himalayas became the perfect laboratory—not for studying others, but for confronting myself so fully that something universal began to emerge.”
—Dr. Matthew Braunstein
