About Know The Self Academy
Know the Self Academy is a practice community dedicated to cultivating the human capacities needed to live with greater awareness, discernment, integrity, and stewardship. We believe that many of the qualities our world most needs are not acquired from outside ourselves, but awakened and refined through direct experience, disciplined practice, and meaningful relationship.
Rather than asking people to adopt a philosophy, we invite them into an ongoing process of observation, experimentation, and refinement. Through practices such as Time Sync Mastery (TSM), Council, Se-Kem, Forest Tuning, mentorship, and community dialogue, members develop practical skills for navigating life with greater coherence, responsibility, and authentic leadership.
At the heart of the Academy is what we call the Living Library; our evolving body of knowledge. Every training, initiation, Council, project, and lived experience contributes to the continual refinement of our frameworks, practices, and teachings. Rather than preserving fixed doctrine, we remain committed to learning from life itself.
The Academy is organized around a council model rather than a guru model.
We believe wisdom can emerge from any seat in the circle, and that genuine leadership begins with self-leadership. Our aim is not to create followers, but to cultivate self-governing human beings who can be trusted with power, influence, and stewardship in service to their families, communities, organizations, and the living world.
Our Team & Board
Know the Self Academy is guided by leaders whose lives have unfolded across different generations, cultures, disciplines, and parts of the world. We believe wisdom is strengthened—not diminished—by difference.
Our facilitators and board members bring decades of experience spanning leadership, technology, ecology, philanthropy, the arts, entrepreneurship, community development, and contemplative practice. While each offers a unique perspective, all share a common commitment: cultivating human beings who can be trusted with greater influence, responsibility, and stewardship.
Together, they help shape an Academy that honors many ways of knowing while remaining united by a shared purpose.
Our Leadership Team
AEON KARRIS | FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
Aeon Karris is a systems thinker, entrepreneur, deep ecologist, speaker, and leadership mentor whose work spans more than three decades at the intersection of technology, culture, community, sustainability, and consciousness. In 1994, she co-founded a pioneering digital design agency working at the forefront of the emerging internet, virtual reality, and interactive media, with an international client base rooted largely in Japan. She later helped build and expand an early artificial intelligence company into Japan, while leading ventures exploring the convergence of digital art, electronic music, technology, and consciousness.
Living and working extensively in Japan, India, Mexico, and the United States expanded Aeon’s inquiry from technological innovation into human and living systems. She has participated in 17 intentional-community projects worldwide and worked alongside entrepreneurs, large-scale land stewards, cultural innovators, and visionary leaders—deepening her study of ecology, regenerative design, consciousness, and the dynamics of human collaboration.
Aeon has led more than 150 retreats and transformational experiences and spoken internationally, including at YPO and Volcano Innovation Summit. Today, as Founder of Know the Self Academy and creator of Time Sync Mastery (TSM), she brings these worlds together to cultivate the human capacities required to navigate increasing power, complexity, and technological change with discernment, integrity, and stewardship.
ARTHUR WALD | PROGRAMMING & COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR
Arthur Wald helps people cultivate greater coherence, presence, and embodied leadership through disciplined practice and direct experience. As the Programming & Communications Director at Know the Self Academy and a Lead TSM Facilitator, Arthur specializes in helping people bridge profound inner work with practical, everyday life. His work supports leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives, and facilitators in translating insight into authentic action, resilient leadership, and meaningful contribution. A lifelong meditator, mentor, entrepreneur, and group facilitator, Arthur draws from a diverse background spanning Clinical Hypnosis, Positive Psychology, Gestalt practice, leadership development, and Time Sync Mastery (TSM). Before joining the Academy, he spent years supporting entrepreneurs, creatives, and public-facing leaders, developing a deep understanding of how to remain grounded under pressure, communicate with clarity, and navigate high-performing environments without losing one’s authenticity. As a queer man in a long-term partnership, Arthur brings both lived experience and grounded wisdom to helping others transform challenge into resilience, authentic expression, and deeper connection.
JULIET TRAIL PhD | INSTRUCTOR
Juliet Trail helps people cultivate compassion, creative expression, and the courage to transform lived experience into meaningful contribution. An instructor at Know the Self Academy, Juliet brings more than twenty-five years of experience guiding individuals, organizations, and communities through personal and collective transformation. Her work weaves together writing, music, performance, mindfulness, and compassion practices to help people discover and express their most authentic voice. A best-selling author, award-winning leader, and multi-disciplinary artist, Juliet is the author of Compassion and Coincidence, a reflection on the relationship between compassion, synchronicity, and meaningful change. As co-creator of The Birth of a Phoenix, she guides participants in transforming personal stories into works of art that embody their deepest truth.
Our Board Members
JANET WALD JUBAS | BOARD MEMBER & PATRON
Janet Wald Jubas brings a lifelong commitment to stewardship, compassionate leadership, and service to the mission of Know the Self Academy. As a Board Member and Patron of the Academy, Janet helps steward its mission through thoughtful leadership, generous support, and a deep commitment to cultivating a thriving community. A dedicated meditator for nearly four decades, she is passionate about creating environments where people feel supported, challenged, and empowered to grow. Janet has served on the boards of the Betty Ford Center and the Harmony Project and has long supported organizations including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hebrew University, and JLTV. Drawing on her experience as a behavioral therapist and family mentor for children on the autism spectrum, she brings wisdom, presence, and deep compassion to every community she serves.
NERINGA YOUNG | BOARD MEMBER
Originally from Lithuania and now based in Mexico, Neringa Young brings a global perspective to community building, innovation, and conscious leadership, helping cultivate the relationships and networks that allow meaningful ideas to flourish. As a Board Member of Know the Self Academy, Neringa contributes strategic insight shaped by more than a decade of building thriving technology communities. As the founder of Build Stuff, the largest software development conference in the Baltics, she has brought together thousands of software developers, entrepreneurs, international speakers, and industry leaders to foster learning, collaboration, and innovation. With a background in sales leadership, marketing strategy, and community development, Neringa is passionate about creating environments where people can connect, contribute, and grow. She also mentors young women through Women Go Tech, supporting greater diversity and opportunity within the technology sector. At Know the Self Academy, she helps bridge technology, human development, and ethical leadership, contributing to a future where innovation is guided by wisdom, stewardship, and service.
VANYA ORR | BOARD MEMBER
At ninety-two, Vanya Orr brings a lifetime of ecological stewardship, community leadership, and service to Know the Self Academy. Originally from Wales, Vanya spent more than twenty years in India, where she founded The Earth Trust in the Nilgiri Hills of South India. Through this work, she helped regenerate ecosystems, strengthen food security, support women’s health and economic independence, and preserve Indigenous knowledge and agricultural traditions. She established training centers, producer cooperatives, and community-led initiatives that continue to influence both people and place. A pioneer in organic and biodynamic farming, Vanya has devoted her life to understanding the relationship between healthy land, resilient communities, and human well-being. Her leadership is grounded not only in vision, but in decades of practical work alongside farmers, women, families, and local communities. Now based again in Wales, Vanya brings to the Academy a rare depth of lived wisdom and an enduring commitment to service. As a Board Member, she helps ensure that the Academy’s approach to leadership remains rooted in ecological responsibility, cultural respect, community resilience, and right relationship with the living world.