A practitioner and advocate of Metta, or loving-kindness meditation, who overcame significant personal loss from an early age. Her story exemplifies transforming pain into beauty, and she is featured to highlight the benefits of embracing one's vulnerabilities.

A researcher described as an intellectual heir to William James, who centers his work on self-transcendent experiences (STEs). His career was inspired by a mystical experience in college, emphasizing the potential positive impact of such phenomena on personal meaning and peace.

A Harvard Medical School psychologist who experienced the traumatic loss of her father and advocates against the cultural suppression of grief. Her insights focus on the dangers of the "tyranny of positivity" and the importance of creating space for sadness and sorrow.

The chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, known for his meaning-centered psychotherapy. Breitbart helps terminally ill patients find meaning in their lives, motivated by his own cancer experience and family legacy.