Across the world, a new conversation is emerging—a conversation about the future of civilization itself.
As our existing systems reach their limits, we face an urgent crossroads: one path leads toward collapse, another toward increasing control and centralization. But a growing chorus of thinkers, visionaries, and cultural pioneers are pointing to a third possibility—a conscious, regenerative, and life-affirming future.
This series of conversations explores that possibility.
While we draw on the term Third Attractor—popularized by Daniel Schmachtenberger—this vision is part of a larger movement of aligned ideas: Regenerative Civilization, Metamodern Society, Game B, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, Planetary Civilization, The Integral Age, The Great Transition, Symbiotic Civilization, The Noosphere, Civilizational Awakening, and the Second Renaissance.
Each points toward a future rooted in wholeness, complexity, interconnection, and evolution.
Daniela is speaking with thought leaders and cultural change-agents who are helping to shape this emerging reality. We’ll explore what must die, what wants to be born, and how we might co-create a path forward that honors the full depth of our humanity and the profound challenges of our time.
These conversations are not just about ideas—they are about activating the future, together.
Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Religion for eight years and helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He is presently serving as Associate Dean of the Faculty and Graduate Studies in the School of Humanities. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Jeff is the editor-in-chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes) and the author of eight monographs, including, most recently, The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities (Chicago, 2022). He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of science and American metaphysical literature for the University of Chicago Press collectively entitled The Super Story. His full body of work can be seen at http://jeffreyjkripal.comDaniela Bomatter is a Swiss-born former software engineer and business leader who rose through various leadership positions to become CEO of SwissEnergy at the Federal Office of Energy in Switzerland. After a successful career in technology and public service, her life took a transformative turn through the encounter with spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen and his teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment.
As a co-founder of Manifest Nirvana, Daniela has been a senior practitioner of Evolutionary Enlightenment, living, studying, and working closely with Andrew Cohen from 2008 until his passing in March 2025. Her work continues to carry forward the essence of his vision—an awakening that is not separate from evolution itself.
She now lives in Tiruvannamalai, India, where she founded and runs the Manifest Nirvana Ashram, a vibrant hub for spiritual practice, dialogue, and conscious community within a small sustainable village. From there, she also facilitates the activities of the online ashram (manifest-nirvana.com), offering courses, dialogues, and retreats dedicated to evolutionary spirituality, collective awakening and cultural change.
In 2025, Daniela published her first book, The Viratya Myth Begins—a mythic-visionary narrative exploring the next step of human evolution through a fusion of story, philosophy, and consciousness inquiry.
