LAURENCE FREEMAN osb is a Benedictine monk of the Monastery of Christ our Saviour, Turvey, England, a monastery of the Congregation of Monte Oliveto. He is Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation.

His spiritual teacher was John Main. He helped Fr John to establish the first Christian Meditation Centre in London in 1975. After John Main died in 1982, Laurence Freeman continued the work of teaching meditation that had now begun to develop a global community. In 1991, he established the International Centre of the newly formed World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) that is now present in more than a hundred countries.

The success of Laurence Freeman's publications and his organisation show that he has something to offer which is entirely distinctive. He believes that contemplation can and will transform the lives of busy working men and women in a turbulent world. Through his talks, retreats, seminars and his published works, Laurence Freeman goes out to meet busy people involved in industry, education, ecumenism and the caring professions, in the conviction that society can be transformed by the transformation of the hearts and minds of ordinary mortals, who do not have to be cloistered behind monastic walls. In 2010, he launched the Meditatio outreach programme of the World Community.

Laurence Freeman is the author of many books and has recorded many talks. His books include Light Within, The Selfless Self, A Short Span of Days, Christian Meditation: Your Daily Practice, Jesus: The Teacher Within, First Sight: The Experience of Faith, Sensing God, and Beauty's Field: Seeing the World. He is also the editor of John Main’s works.

PATRICIA NG, with her husband Peter, founded the Singapore chapter of The World Community for Christian Meditation in 1988, and worked with him in coordinating the activities of the community. In July 2003, Patricia was diagnosed with advanced-stage stomach cancer and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Her serenity and joyful spirit even as she underwent the rigours of cancer treatment impressed her doctor, who invited her to start a meditation group at the hospital. Patricia accepted the challenge despite her deteriorating condition and started a group for patients and caregivers, leading it until her passing on 14 February 2005. Six months before she died, Patricia accepted another challenge to record her reflections on life, death, suffering and healing from the view point of a patient, a wife, a mother. Her generous openness and quiet strength continue to touch lives today through the DVD she recorded From Panic to Peace, and the audio CD Lessons for the Living from the Dying.

DR BALFOUR MOUNT is a Surgical Oncologist. He was the Founding Director of the Royal Victoria Hospital Palliative Care Service, Palliative Care McGill, and the McGill Programs in Whole Person Care. He was Chairperson, 1976 – 2004, of the biennial International Congresses on Care of the Terminally Ill and is an Officer of The Order of Canada. His published works include books, teaching films and audiotapes on oncology and palliative care.