Bio
Brian Lord is a postdoctoral research scientist at the SEMA (Science Enhanced Mindful Awareness) Lab at the University of Arizona, where he continues to build on his PhD research on the effects of transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) on the meditating brain. At SEMA, Brian has focused on building systems – spanning EEG, MRI, psychophysiology, and psychometrics – that enable their unique research into meditation and neuromodulation.
His contributions have played a central role in SEMA’s groundbreaking milestones, including:
- Demonstrating that tFUS can alter DMN activity, a finding now being replicated in other labs.
- Leading an experimental trial showing that tFUS-assisted meditation training can accelerate mindfulness acquisition in novices by decoupling default mode and central executive networks.
- Co-facilitating the first ultrasound-assisted meditation retreat.
Before joining the University of Arizona, Brian studied humanistic, depth, and parapsychology at the University of West Georgia. He worked in Special Collections at the Ingram Library, where he processed remote viewer Ingo Swann’s personal files. During this work, he uncovered the lost manuscript Psychic Literacy, which he edited and published with Swann’s estate. Immersion in Swann’s experimental work gave Brian a rare perspective on what it looks like when rigorous inquiry is applied to unconventional frontiers in consciousness studies, an outlook that continues to inform his scientific career.
Earlier in his path, Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in Biopsychology at Oglethorpe University and explored electronic music production and performance. These formative experiences deepened his interest in biology and consciousness, laying groundwork for the directions his later research would take.
Brian’s research is motivated by his longstanding interest in the nature and potential of the human mind. His work seeks to bring together the precision of modern cognitive neuroscience with the broader perspectives he encountered in his early explorations of parapsychology and human potential. By integrating rigorous scientific methods with a willingness to investigate frontier topics, he is pursuing the development of novel technologies, such as focused ultrasound and photobiomodulation, that may reveal new possibilities for both the scientific community and the individual explorer. In 2025, he married his wife, Erica, and they reside in the desert landscape of Tucson, AZ.
