Yuria Celidwen

Yuria Celidwen, Ph.D., I am a native of Indigenous Nahua and Maya lineages from the cloudforests of Chiapas, Mexico. I am of Earth; my heart is on fire. My family is one of mystics, healers, poets, and explorers of the soil and the soul of life’s strength, tenderness, and fragility. I grew up with one wing in the wilderness and another in the magical realism of Indigenous dreamlands and stories. My Elders’ songs enthralled my childhood and enhanced my mythic imagination and emotional intuition. They’ve become the fertile soils and waters where the seeds of reverence, play, and wonder dig their roots.

I am a Truth-bearer, trickster dreamer, and culture-shifter. As a scholar, my research converges the vibrant threads of Indigenous studies, cultural psychology, and contemplative sciences. I am interested in transdisciplinary approaches to Indigenous forms of contemplation and the transcendent experience embodied in prosocial behavior (reverence, ethics, compassion, and a sense of awe, love, and sacredness).‎

I have developed a broader statement I call the “ethics of belonging,” encouraging awareness, intention, and relational well-being and actions toward planetary flourishing. Within this work, I examine how our personal stories relate to cultural accounts that can transform our identities and the social and racial injustices of our times. This ethos orients us toward an ever-expansive unfolding of a path of meaning and participation rooted in honoring Life.

My work at the United Nations supports international humanitarian efforts for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. My specific concentration is the advancement of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the rights of Nature. The materials we create are distributed globally and reach vast audiences, from Heads of State, academic institutions, and the general public. I also established the first long-term mindfulness and compassion training workshop for UN staff in 2016.

I teach Indigenous epistemologies and spirituality and my work pioneered the Indigenous contemplative experience within contemplative studies. In addition, I lead workshops on prosocial practices (such as heartfulness, compassion, kindness, gratitude, etc.) from an Indigenous perspective. I emphasize cultivating a sense of reverence and ecological belonging, raising awareness of social and environmental justice and community-engaged practices, revitalizing Indigenous languages, traditional medicine, clean energy, and conservation.

I am a research scientist affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Psychology, where I conduct research into Indigenous forms of contemplation expressed through transcendence practices, including Indigenous qualitative methodologies and Western laboratory science in experimental design, physiological measurement, and the concepts and tools of social and cultural psychology. I served as Senior Fellow at the Other & Belonging Institute (OBI) (2023-2025) where I bridged belonging work from Indigenous perspectives in defense of rights to our spiritual practices against extraction and appropriation in Western psychedelic therapeutics and research. In addition, I have been a Mind and Life Institute fellow since 2022 for my work establishing the field of Indigenous Contemplative Sciences.

I co-chair the Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), and I am part of the steering committee of the Contemplative Studies Unit.
I co-chaired the Indigenous Religions Unit and was the Women’s Caucus Liaison to the Board of the Western Region of the AAR (2018-2021), where I previously co-chaired the Psychology, Religion, and Culture unit (2016-2019).

As an Indigenous woman and as a scholar, I have taken the quest to reclaim our Indigenous voices as holders of sophisticated systems of contemplative insight. I am committed to the reclamation, revitalization, and transmission of our Indigenous wisdom for social and environmental justice.