About Felipe
I am a full-time psychiatrist, researcher and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. I aim to help people experience greater love, bliss, connection and meaning in their lives.
On March 31, 2019, I awoke from sleep to a new reality. Although I woke up to the same body, the same small apartment overlooking a concrete parking lot, next to the same beautiful wife, father of the same rambunctious kids, with the same stressful-but-rewarding job, everything seemed different.
Everything seemed newly created, as if from nothingness. The quality of my awareness had changed. Instead of identifying only with my history and body, the “me-ness” I had always known, I awoke to feeling as though my awareness was somehow connected to everything around me.
It felt as though I swallowed the universe, as if the blackness of the night sky had come alive inside of me, with its stars twinkling in my awareness. It felt like everything I had known about myself and my history was a form of ego. Ego, a survival system created by evolution. It also felt like this was not the whole truth of what I am or what others are.
Albert Einstein once wrote that “our sense of individuality is an optical delusion of consciousness”. That became experientially real in my own awareness. I felt as though underneath the individual things and people I perceived was a deeper connectedness. This led me to experiences beyond normal, everyday happiness, to states of deeper bliss and love – states that I had only read about.
My research and clinical work on ways to increase happiness and cultivate empathic connection took on even greater meaning and urgency. I decided to share my work freely so that others could benefit from the guided imagery and mindfulness instructions I was researching by creating the online Fern Hill Center.
FAQ
How does the “mainstream” psychiatry community view Dr. Jain?
Dr. Jain is a highly respected psychiatrist who is extremely active in his field. He teaches classes on depression and resilience to Harvard Medical Students. He supervises residents in their psychopharmacology clinic in the #1 ranked Massachusetts General Hospital-McLean Hospital psychiatry residency program. He receives grants from the National Institutes of Health and runs a lab with more than eight personnel. He publishes his research in mainstream scientific journals and gives talks at mainstream psychiatric conferences.
There is a Zen saying, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” While Dr. Jain would not endorse chopping wood, carrying much water, or being “enlightened” (a vague term with a lot of different meanings), the general sense of continuing the trajectory of his work from prior to his awakening has remained.
Where did Dr. Jain go to medical school?
Dr. Jain went to Harvard Medical School. He was one of only 31 students in his year to graduate from the prestigious Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He graduated with honors in a special field for his thesis on neurophysiology.
Where was Dr. Jain born and raised?
Dr. Jain was born and raised in San Rafael, California. His parents both taught meditation and yoga at various points in their careers, including at substance rehabilitation facilities.
What are Dr. Jain's favorite hobbies?
Dr. Jain loves hiking in nature, meditating (of course!), spending time with his wife and two kids, cooking (when there is time!) and writing poetry.
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