Helena Matheopoulos was born in Athens and has lived in London most of her life.

She was educated at Pierce College, the American school in Athens, holds a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in Mediaeval History from University College, London and is fluent in six languages.

Upon graduation she began her journalistic career as Fashion Editor of The Tatler (3 years) and The Daily Express (2 years) before joining the Arts Page of The Evening News with a weekly column dedicated to interviews with famous personalities in the Arts. She was also a regular contributor to The Sunday Times, Gramophone and Opera Now and a regular columnist for the Saturday magazine of The Times for a year (1992-93). Currently she is International Editor-at-Large of Greek Vogue.

Her first book, MAESTRO: ENCOUNTERS WITH CONDUCTORS OF TODAY, published in Britain (Hutchinsons) and the US (Harper & Row), was named "Music Book of the Year 1983" by the magazine Stereo Review.

It was followed by BRAVO: TODAY'S TENORS, BARITONES AND BASSES DISCUSS THEIR ROLES, published in both countries (by Weidenfeld and Harper & Row respectively) and translated into several languages, including Chinese. It was also chosen as THE book offered as The 1986 Season Prize to the winner of the weekly interval quiz of the hugely popular Saturday radio relay of Metropolitan Opera performances, "Live from the Met."

DIVA: TODAY'S SOPRANOS AND MEZZOS DISCUSS THEIR ART (Gollancz, 1991) had three hardback editions within a year and two paperback editions in the UK as well as the US and was followed by a second volume on the same subject: DIVA: THE NEW GENERATION (Little, Brown)

In 1996 she published a biography of King Juan Carlos of Spain, JUAN CARLOS I: A KING FOR TODAY, with His Majesty's collaboration This was followed by a biography of Placido Domingo: PLACIDO DOMINGO: MY ROLES IN OPERA (Little Brown, 2000), which has been published in eight countries including, of course, the US (Baskerville Publishers).

In autumn 2011 “Fashion Designers at the Opera” (an illustrated coffee table volume), is being published by Thames & Hudson in both the UK and the US .

Parallel to her writing activities, Helena Matheopoulos was Artistic Advisor to the Athens Megaron from its opening in 1991 to the end of 1995.

From 1996-2004, she was Special Adviser for Vocal Projects of London's Philharmonia Orchestra and, after making it Resident at the Athens Megaron, also Director of its Athens Residency.

Since 2000, she has also been a regular speaker at several venues in the US and the UK on subjects related to her books, (e.g., “Callas, the Sacred Flame”, “Greek Gods, Myths and Heroes at the Opera”, “The Art of the Tenor”, The Search for Don Giovanni”, “The Rise and Rise of the American Diva”, “The Art of Placido Domingo” etc).

In autumn 2011, she was invited to speak at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, following which she has been invited to the Oxford Literary Festival in March 2012 and the Buxton Music festival in July 2012.

In 2005, she became Artistic Administrator of Apollonian Enterprises, a company specializing in the organization of musical Events, including, in 2005, a concert titled “Greece at the Opera” at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan with 6 soloists and the Orchestra of La Scala, which was repeated in 2006 at London’s, Cadogan Hall with the Royal Philharmonic.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. He’s the author of the bestselling Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (with Rick Mendius, M.D.; Foreword by Dan Siegel, M.D. and Preface by Jack Kornfield, Ph.D.), published in 21 languages, and Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (New Harbinger, 2011). He is the founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, he's taught at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and in meditation centers in Europe, North America, and Australia.

The companion to his bestselling book, Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (New Harbinger, Nov 2011), presents over 50 quick yet profoundly powerful simple practices to change the neurocircuitry in our brains to lead to greater happiness, love and wisdom. As an expert in neuroscience and positive psychology, Dr. Hanson guides the reader through the contemplative practices and offers additional material for deeper understanding of the exercise.

An authority on self-directed neuroplasticity, Dr. Hanson’s work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Consumer Reports Health, and U.S. News and World Report. He edits the Wise Brain Bulletin, and his weekly e-newsletter - Just One Thing – has over 26,000 subscribers, and also appears on Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and other major websites. He has several audio programs with Sounds True, and his first book was Mother Nurture: A Mother's Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate Relationships (Penguin, 2002).

A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA, Dr. Hanson is a trustee of Saybrook University. He also served on the board of Spirit Rock Meditation Center for nine years, and was President of the Board of FamilyWorks, a community agency. He began meditating in 1974, trained in several traditions, and leads a weekly meditation gathering in San Rafael, CA. He enjoys rock-climbing and taking a break from emails. He and his wife have two adult children.

In The Emotion Code, renowned holistic physician and lecturer Dr. Bradley Nelson skillfully lays bare the inner workings of the subconscious mind. He reveals how emotionally-charged events from your past can still be haunting you in the form of “trapped emotions” emotional energies that literally inhabit your body.

Dr. Nelson explains clearly and concisely how trapped emotions can create pain, malfunction and eventual disease. In addition, trapped emotions can exert a dramatic effect on how you think, the choices that you make, and how successful you will be.

Perhaps the most important discovery that Dr. Nelson has made is that trapped emotional energies will often gather around the heart, creating a “Heart-Wall” that may block you from giving and receiving love freely.

The Emotion Code is a powerful and simple way to rid yourself of unseen baggage. Releasing trapped emotions often results in the sudden disappearance of physical problems, self-sabotage, and recurring relationship difficulties.

Filled with real-world examples from many years of clinical practice, The Emotion Code is a distinct and authoritative new work that is destined to become an instant classic on self-healing.

The Emotion Code has been created to give you new insight, to show you how trapped emotions can cause all kinds of problems, and give you the means to release them. You can take your life back, enjoy better health, and finally be free from the insidious and subtle forces that trapped emotions are exerting upon you.

Philip Coppens’ publishing career began at the age of 23, when he edited the legacy of the late Belgian historian Marcel Mestdagh’s research into European megaliths into a much-anticipated sequel. That same year, he also helped edit a controversial non-fiction thriller on the theft of Jan Van Eyck’s The Adoration of the Lamb, which was made into a documentary both for Flemish television and the BBC.

If there is one thing that sets Coppens apart from other writers, it is that he is often ahead of the trends. He wrote the first guide in more than four decades about Rosslyn Chapel – the only one to do so before The Da Vinci Code made that Scottish chapel world famous in 2003. He also researched the origins of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull, before the 2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie, resulting in a series of controversial articles, which came to the attention of The Washington Post.

As a journalist, he had investigative research into the Kennedy assassination submitted before a US government enquiry in 1993. Two years later, he broke the story of the existence of Chinese pyramids to an international audience. Many of the stories in the so-called “esoteric field” have at one point passed through his hands, including The Templar Revelation, the book on which The Da Vinci Code was based. In 1999, he was the principal researcher for Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince’s The Stargate Conspiracy, which investigated current politicians’ apparent obsession with ancient Egypt, thus combining his passion for politics and history. The book was dedicated to him.

He is the author of numerous books in the English language, specifically The Stone Puzzle of Rosslyn Chapel (2002), on the enigmatic Scottish chapel and its relationship with freemasonry and the Knights Templar; The Canopus Revelation (2004), on the lore of the star Canopus in ancient cultures; Land of the Gods (2007), on the prehistory of Southern Scotland and the myth of King Arthur; The New Pyramid Age (2007), detailing the most recent discoveries that have changed our understanding of pyramids; and Servants of the Grail (2009), identifying the real people encoded into the medieval Grail legends. In 2011, he published an ebook, 2012. Science or Fiction?, with Digital Journeys, which aims to bring clarity as to what 2012 is truly all about. The ebook is also the first to have incorporated video, featuring an interview-style conversation with Philip.

In the bestselling The Ancient Alien Question (2011), he addressed the question whether extra-terrestrial contact has occurred in our past. In early 2012, he published the ebook Killing Kennedy, on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, showing Oswald was not the assassin and the murder itself the result of a conspiracy. The Cryptogram of Rennes-le-Chateau (2012) is a short ebook guide to the small French village and its mysteries. He has recently completed The Lost Civilization Enigma, due for publication on October 22, 2012 and is currently working on Mysteries of the Ancient World, set for publication in the spring of 2013..

In 2009, he wrote and principally featured in Reality Entertainment’s 2012: Signs of the Times (released in US via Warner Home), providing a unique perspective on the 2012 phenomenon. He also created The Ancient Alien Question DVD (2012, released in US via Warner Home, which was also a PayPerView movie on TimeWarner, XBox360, Playstation, etc.).

Apart from English books, he has one French language bestselling book to his credit, La Quête de Saunière (2008), co-authored with André Douzet. In 2004, he also wrote De Da Vinci Code Ontcijferd, a Dutch guide to The Da Vinci Code, which saw a reprint within three weeks of publication and was a top ten bestseller in the Netherlands.

Together with Patrick Bernauw, he wrote De Paus van Satan (2010) , Philip's only novel - so far.

Philip has also contributed to, or been acknowledged in, the following publications or productions:

• Pre-Atlantis (Dutch title), co-author with Marcel Mestdagh (1994)
• The Templar Revelation, by Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince (1997)
• The Stargate Conspiracy, by Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince (1999)
• Saunière's Model and the Secret of Rennes-le-Château, by André Douzet (2001)
• EGYPT: "Image of Heaven" - Het Sterrenbeeld van Horus (Dutch title), with Wim Zitman (2006; Dutch edition 2000)
• The Dan Brown Companion, by Simon Cox (2006)
• Rosslyn Revealed, by Alan Butler & John Ritchie (2006)
• The Cygnus Mystery, by Andrew Collins (2006)
• An A to Z of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, by Simon Cox & Mark Oxbrow (2007)
• Darklore (Volumes 1-5), compiled and edited by Greg Taylor (2007-10)
• Unearthing Ancient America, compiled and edited by Frank Joseph (2009)
• Ancient Code - The Book. Are You Ready for the REAL 2012? (2009)
• Beneath the Pyramids, by Andrew Collins (2009)
• PARANOIA: The Conspiracy Reader, Volume 1, by Joan d'Arc and Al Hidell (2010)
• Ancient Aliens: Season One (2010), Season Two (2010), Season Three (2011) and Season Four (2012)
• The Lost Empire of Atlantis by Gavin Menzies (2011)
• Exposed, Uncovered, & Declassified: Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past, by Kirsten Dalley and Michael Pye (editors) (2011)

Apart from books, Philip also devotes a lot of attention to essays and feature articles, which have appeared in magazines and anthologies on all continents. His articles have appeared in Fortean Times, NEXUS, Hera, Fenix, Mysterien, New Dawn, Atlantis Rising, Ancient American, Paranoia Magazine, Legendary Times, etc. and have a large and dedicated following on the internet. He holds the record as having most articles published in NEXUS, a magazine published in more than ten languages, with newsstand distribution in Australia, Great Britain, the United States, Italy, France and many other European countries, bringing to the world exciting new discoveries, such as the existence of pyramids in China and Bosnia and controversial articles on the state of modern archaeology and Egyptology, as well as political scandals, ranging from the corridors of the CIA to the Vatican.

In 1995, he established Frontier Magazine (formerly Frontier 2000) together with Herman Hegge, a newsstand magazine in the Netherlands and Belgium. Since 1995, Frontier Sciences Foundation has grown to incorporate, amongst others, Frontier Bookshop and Frontier Publishing, as well as hosting the annual Frontier Symposium and Frontier Award. In 2008, he organized the Histories & Mysteries Conference in Edinburgh, which included the first ever public display of the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull, receiving blanket media coverage for the event from the UK press (newspapers, television and radio).

Since 1995, he has lectured on the subject in the United States, Great-Britain, France, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands. He has been extensively interviewed for radio and television, including The History Channel (US) with shows such as Civilization Lost and America's Book of Secrets, Coast to Coast AM (US), Belgium's Kanaal 2 and VRT news, Voyager (RaiDue – Italy), Edge Media TV (UK), etc. He is one of the key contributors and interviewees for The History Channel’s most popular television series Ancient Aliens, for the fourth season running.

All of these books, articles and appearances have made him a household name in the field of alternative science, where he holds a unique position, as he is considered to be a believer by the skeptics, and a skeptic by the believers – a testament to his investigative knack.

Together with his wife, Kathleen McGowan, he hosts a weekly radio show The Spirit Revolution on BBS Radio and leads the successful Sacred France tours, as well as The Writer's Grail seminars.

Eric Herm was raised on a cotton farm near Ackerly, Texas. Leaving the farm to pursue other interests, he graduated from Abilene Christian University with a degree in broadcast journalism. After working in sports television broadcasting, Herm soon chose the life of a vagabond. He lived and worked in Colorado and Alaska, writing about his own personal adventures along life’s highway.

Traveling extensively through America, Mexico, Europe and Northern Africa, he witnessed various lifestyles, personalities, and cultures. Throughout his travels, these experiences helped open his mind to the endless possibilities of living life to the fullest. Satisfying his restless spirit, Herm returned back to the land that has been in his family for almost 90 years. He started his life as a farmer all over again.

As a naturalist, he continues to seek a more balanced relationship between his family’s farm and Mother Nature, and details the transformation of himself and his family farm in his new book Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth.

“Everything is connected. That bond is what keeps this Planet dancing round in poetic choreography. That connection is what keeps us all alive. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. If we are capable of destruction, we are most certainly capable of healing.” - Eric Herm

Jack Abramoff's rollercoaster life story might as well be a major motion picture. In fact, it is. Already two major motion pictures based on Abramoff's story have hit the silver screen. Dubbed on the cover of Time Magazine as the "Man Who Bought Washington", Abramoff rose to become one of America's most successful and prominent lobbyists, before becoming enmeshed in the most harrowing political scandal since Watergate.

Having served 43 months in federal prison, Abramoff is out and ready to speak. Few know more than he about how Washington really works. Abramoff once famously labeled the dysfunctional and Byzantine system which has become our federal government as the "favor factory". None can better show why this factory needs to be shuttered, so good government and democracy can prevail.

With an extensive background in personal and professional development, communications, and business, Kristi Blicharski is a passionate, positive force for creating happiness, success, and empowerment. Her modern, fresh blend of inspiring ideas and practical tools mixed with new and proven concepts for creating greater happiness are quickly catching on in today’s high-speed environment, where so many are overwhelmed, over plugged in, and searching for something more.

Passionate about sharing her own experiences and dedicated to helping people avoid burnout, find happiness, and create a foundation for their best life, Kristi launched Creating Your Bliss. Today, she writes, speaks, and works with individuals and groups sharing her ideas and lessons, inspiring others create more happiness, wellness, and success.

Kristi has been featured in several media outlets, including Entrepreneur, CNN, Natural Awakenings, Shecky’s, It’s a Glam Thing, Holistic Life Magazine, and Successful Living. She’s a regular blogger for The Huffington Post and AOL Healthy Living, and is working on her first book.  In addition to coaching and speaking, she also continues as Creative Director and Brand Strategist for Bliss Media, the marketing and events division of her company.

Kristi regularly gives her energy and know-how to non-profit organizations. She is a Luminary Circle member of ShopLACity campaign, which encourages L.A. residents to support local businesses.  She loves water sports, Yoga, trail running, gardening, and adventure. A Southern California native, she lives it up in LA.

Dr. Steinman received his medical school training at Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in primary care internal medicine at UCSF. He then joined the UCSF Division of Geriatrics for fellowships in the VA National Quality Scholars Program and the UCSF Clinical Geriatrics Fellowship. Dr. Steinman has been a member of the faculty at UCSF since 2004.

Dr. Steinman is a recognized leader in identifying and improving the quality of medication prescribing in clinically complex older adults. He devotes most of his time to research, while also maintaining an active clinical practice in the geriatrics clinic and inpatient general medicine service at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Dr. Steinman's research program focuses on improving how doctors prescribe medications for older adults, and is supported by grants from the VA Health Services Research & Development Service, the National Institute of Aging, and the American Federation for Aging Research. His research interests also include pharmaceutical industry marketing and the impacts of marketing on physicians and trainees.

Dr. Steinman is Director of Research Training for the UCFS Division of Geriatrics, and also serves as Director of Comparative Effectiveness Research at UCSF's Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). He is President of the California Region for the Society of General Internal Medicine.