about

Academic bio

[In the traditional third person]. Ruben completed an award-winning PhD on the cognitive science of insight at The University of Queensland in 2019, followed by post-doctoral research at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam on the computational neuroscience of meditation. He was then tenured at Southern Cross University as an Associate Professor (US level). In 2025, Ruben founded the Flourishing Intelligence Program (FLIP) at Linacre College, University of Oxford. Ruben is also co-director of the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing at Linacre College, University of Oxford, a Senior Researcher within the psychiatry department, and forthcoming visiting Professor at the Centre for Brain and Cognition, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain. Ruben has made significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the science of consciousness, meditation, and insight. His work also reveals a pathway towards better and safer artificial intelligence based on the science of consciousness and contemplative wisdom. His work has been featured widely, including The New York Times, TIME, Scientific American, TEDx, Vice, ABC, Aeon, VOX, New Scientist, and in the Nature collection. Ruben’s research is supported by major grants from the Medical Research Future Fund, The Peregrine Foundation, and philanthropic donations from the Cillo family. Ruben has an eclectic contemplative background, including Zen, Advaita, and Theravada, and his interviews and writings have attracted millions of views.

Personal bio

I was raised in a Christian family that immigrated from Finland to Australia in 1989 where I attended school in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in my state. Somewhere around my 16th birthday, between suspensions from school, I decided to seek truth regardless of the consequences, assuming that “all roads lead to Rome”. A few months later I could no longer hold onto my religion, which catalysed a deep-dive into science, philosophy, and rationality. In parallel I spent most of my afternoons practicing martial arts. But after competing in Muay Thai Kickboxing semi-professionally for three years, my body started to give out. I found myself with two broken ribs, a torn chest muscle, and two ruptured discs in my lower back (not exactly but almost at the same time), which made me rethink my trajectory. Then, at the age of 19, I had a revelatory experience that once again shook my worldview: I discovered that there was another way to “know” and that deeper insights and wisdom could be uncovered through direct experience. I transferred all my classes from geology to psychology and neuroscience, founded two businesses, started a daily meditation practice, and met Ordinary Mind Zen teacher Gregg Howard. I began to see the emptiness of intellectual insights and focused on non-dual practices. 10 years later, in a final desperate and disillusion-fueled sprint for the finish line, I spontaneously determined: “I will not stand up from the cushion until this is over“. Three minutes later an ineffable shift occurred and I could no longer find any hint of a problem with life. There was no finish line but there was also never a race. In an effort to clarify what I had learned, I began practicing sutta-based Vipassanā meditation under the guidance of Prof. Henk Barendregt. Although I remain a simple student of life itself, in 2024 I was given permission to teach Vipassanā by Henk Barendregt who was the student of Kobun Chino Roshi (1938-2002) and Phra Khru Mettavihari (1942-2007). I’m not actively teaching, but accidents happen. Nowadays, I spend my time researching the mind with the goal of devising empirically grounded but wholehearted paths towards self-knowledge and beyond.

beyond self and no self
we sit perched on a branch
made of air
our wings spread wide
our minds untethered
the dhamma runs free