Jason Silva

In his book Sacred Derangement, Jason Silva invites audiences to rediscover creativity as a sacred act — a state of consciousness that fuses emotion, intuition, and imagination into something transformative. This keynote explores how deliberate encounters with awe, wonder, and ecstatic experience can be harnessed as tools for innovation, resilience, and leadership in an age of relentless acceleration. Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, Silva reveals how moments of creative disruption break habitual thinking, dissolve fear, and unlock new modes of expression. Delivered as an immersive, multimedia experience, this talk is simultaneously a manifesto and a practice: a call to live more awake, more inspired, and more fully alive.

Artificial intelligence is not simply a new tool — it is a new kind of cognitive partner that is reshaping how we think, create, and make decisions. In this keynote, Jason Silva explores what it means to be human in an era of machine intelligence: how AI extends our perceptual and creative capacities, where it falls short of genuine understanding, and how leaders and organizations can harness the human-AI collaboration to produce outcomes neither could achieve alone. Drawing on his work in AI-assisted filmmaking and his deep background in cognitive science, Silva offers a vision of augmented humanity that is neither utopian nor dystopian — but genuinely transformative. Audiences leave with a framework for embracing exponential change without losing the irreplaceable qualities that make us human.

Technology is accelerating faster than our intuitions can track. AI is superseding human capacities in domain after domain. Biology is becoming a programmable medium. The pace of disruption is generating both extraordinary opportunity and very real anxiety — and most organizations are still responding with linear thinking. In this keynote, Jason Silva maps the landscape of exponential change and asks the deeper question: what is the mindset, creativity, and consciousness required to thrive in the 21st century? Drawing on positive psychology, neuroscience, and decades of work at the frontier of innovation, he shows how reframing uncertainty as an invitation — rather than a threat — unlocks cognitive flexibility, resilience, and the kind of adaptive intelligence that exponential times demand.

Research from Stanford and other leading institutions has confirmed what artists and philosophers have long intuited: experiences of awe are profoundly transformative — boosting creativity, compassion, and wellbeing while producing measurable physiological benefits. In this keynote, Jason Silva — a self-described wonderjunkie and epiphany addict — makes the case for awe as a strategic leadership capability, not just a personal indulgence. He explores how organizations can deliberately cultivate conditions for wonder: through immersive experiences, exposure to complexity, and the kind of cognitive stretching that generates breakthrough thinking. For leaders navigating constant change, this is a compelling argument for building wonder into the culture of how we work.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called it flow — the state of total absorption in which time dissolves, performance peaks, and creativity surges. In this keynote, Jason Silva explores the neuroscience and psychology of flow states and how organizations can deliberately design for them. He examines how breakthrough innovation almost always emerges from these peak states, why risk and challenge are prerequisites rather than obstacles, and how leaders can build teams and environments that consistently generate the conditions for flow. Drawing on his work in filmmaking, live performance, and decades of research into human potential, Silva offers practical frameworks for moving individuals and organizations from routine to remarkable.