ABOUT
Carrie Heeter makes meditation fun. Seriously.
A research scientist, professor of serious game design, and meditation teacher, Carrie brings innovative experience design expertise to the realm of meditation. She combines neuroscience, imagination, deep understanding of attention, breath, and movement, and game design to offer unique, high impact meditation experiences.
For the last 15 years Carrie has studied yoga and meditation one-on-one with her mentor and colleague, Marcel Allbritton. She has also continuously participated in formal programs and courses on meditation and yoga philosophy offered by Marcel’s mentor, Chase Bossart through Yoga Well Institute. Her work with meditation is grounded in the viniyoga lineage of TKV Desikachar and Sri Krishnamacharya.
Carrie’s book—An Inside Look at Meditation: Experiences for healing, support, and transformation—brings the experience of meditation to life through stories and reflections, yoga and scientific principles, and examples.
As a Michigan State University professor Carrie worked with hospice and palliative care organizations to deliver and study 6-week meditation programs that helped healthcare professionals mitigate burnout and manage stress.
Carrie founded Michigan State University’s Serious Game Design graduate program, teaching game designers how to combine fun with serious goals such as learning, health, and inspiration.
She has won myriad awards for innovative design including Discover Magazine’s Software Innovation of the Year and Meaningful Play’s Lifetime Innovator Award. Carrie has designed and directed development of more than 50 interactive experiences including meditations, games, online learning systems, virtual reality, and patient empowerment software.
She has published more than 100 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and proceedings about meditation, individual and social impacts of interactive technology, virtual reality, and serious games.
Her current work includes creating a series of short “Mindtools” practices accessible for people with no experience in meditation. Mindtools & Inspirations are 3-minute experiences where Carrie guides you to shift focus from external (doing) to internal (listening, noticing, being). Each experience plants a seed—an idea, a feeling, or a practice—you may want to revisit throughout the week. Titles such as Childhood Cupcake, Basking in Sunlight, Wave Vacation, and Field of Sunflowers illustrate the sense of meaningful yet playful experiences.
What could be more awesome than designing meaningful, useful, interesting meditations where the experience each person has is unique to them, using the technology of their human system—their mind and body?
