Professor Arne Næss

Norsk Taiji Senter’s patron

Professor Næss is one of Norway’s most distinguished philosophers. The cornerstone of his work is a broad concern for the welfare and the flourishing of humanity and nature. Through his extensive writings, and teachings, he has brought philosophy into a key position in the academic and intellectual life in Norway. He is the founder of ‘Deep Ecology’. The University of Oslo has created ‘The Arne Næss Chair in Global Justice and the Environment’ in order to gather international scholars to conduct research and further cause of justice and the environment. In 2005 he was decorated with the Royal Norwegian St. Olav’s Order for his social engagement.

Pamela and Arne

How they met

At the turn of the century, Pamela Hiley was invited onto the committee set up to bring His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Norway. When he arrived in autumn, part of the four day programme that was set up, was a dialogue with Professor Arne Næss, Bishop Rosemari Køhn, and Erik Damman in Oslo Spektrum. As the trademark deep resounding laughter of His Holiness made the table that stood between the panel members them shake, his staff got anxious that there would be a scene if it tipped over. As Pamela raced across the stage to save the table from falling and the staff of His Holiness from undue stress, she appeared in the life of Professor Arne Næss for the first time. This became the start of a deep friendship that evolved as time went by through their shared, deep resonance with nature based philosophies. It was further deepened through shared experiences with the indigenous people of the Americas and Norway as well as members of the Gandhi family, Johan Galtung and astronaut-scientist Edgar Mitchell. When Pamela opened her new center in 2006, it was therefore natural for her to invite Arne to be the patron.

Gunnar Pedersen

Gunnar Pedersen has studied Taijiquan since 1995 and is training to become an instructor. He is an economist from University of Oslo and has worked as a management consultant focusing on economic analysis, strategy and business development. Gunnar has for the last 7 years studied Polarity Therapy and has his practice at the Taiji Senter.

Hilde Barstad

Hilde Barstad has trained Taiji and Qigong since 1990. In 2007, she became a certified taiji instructor at NTS. Hilde is educated as a lawyer and has worked in the Norwegian Directorate for Immigration, Ministry of Transport & Communications and the Ministry of Defense. She has also been a member of the City Council of Oslo. She is currently working as Project Leader for the Norwegian Football Organization.

Kjell Tjensvoll

Kjell started practising taiji at The Norsk Taiji Senter in 1998. He graduated as an instructor in 2007. Kjell is an economist. Most of his work experience is as a consultant, advisor and project manager in the IT sector. He is currently employed as a senior advisor in The Norwegian Knowledge Center for the Health Services.

Lars Mortensen Lægreid

Lars has trained taiji and qigong since 1994 and is currently training to be a Taji instructor at NTS. Lars’ educational background is in Philosophy, Economy and Accupressure Therapy. He is the Director of Project Design AS, a higher education program that facilitates leadership and project management and the Consulting company, Emergence AS.

Irene L. Erhardt-Wästberg

For the past seven years, Irene has been practising and working with Pamela Hiley on many NTS/PPF projects. Born in the US, she has also lived in the UK, Switzerland and Sweden. Irene holds an M.Ed in Educational Psychology from the US and has done Post Graduate studies in Education and Development at Stockholm University. Professionally, she has developed many innovative educational programs and projects within both the private and public sectors and was an Advisor at the American Embassy, Oslo. She was one of the founders of the Association of International Professional Business Women.

Pamela Hiley

Pamela Hiley is the founder, managing director and head teacher of Norsk Taiji Senter. Read more about her.

Guro Brendbekken

Membership secretary

Guro Brendbekken has been practising taiji since 1985. In 2007 she entered a teachers training course and is now a certified taiji instructor at Norsk Taiji Senter. She is educated as a civil engineer from NTH with her Masters Degree in Mechanical Geotechnics. She has been working with several consultants in Norway in varying positions, also as a technical and personnel leader. She is today the director of her own company, Optimal Geoteknikk AS.

Mikkelai Downing

Coordinator for Research on the subject of Taiji in Norway

In 1993 Mikkelai started his studies at NTS and is a certified teacher of Taiji. He is educated in the History of Religion. He has also studied Islam in Western Europe and changes in religion as the result of migration and globalization.
Mikkelai has a Masters in Taiji and Daoism and is conducting research on the development of training in Norway and how to integrate the philosophy of taiji into business, politics and the educational system to develop a more harmonic society.

Eivind Figenschau Skjellum

Webmaster

Eivind started his meditation practice in 2001 and has been an avid student of consciousness since. He has a college degree in IT from HiØ and a Bachelor’s of graphic design from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth. He works as a graphic designer at the tiny Oslo-based design agency Sigarett. On his spare time, he develops his book projects, practices jujitsu, and engages in social work. Eivind is also the facilitator for the Peace Point Youth Council.

Frank Heggen

Senior Advisor, Business Council for Peace

Frank Heggen has trained Taiji for one year. He is educated as an economist (Cand.oecon), and has studied in Canada, Norway, and The Netherlands. He has 7 years of work experience from the financial and industrial sector in Canada and Norway mainly within compliance, ethics, and risk management. He has worked for Royal Bank of Canada, Gjensidige, Norsk Hydro, and Yara International. He is advising management and boards on regulatory issues and how to integrate ethics and compliance in operations, business strategy & development.

Bjarte Hiley

Responsible for Taijiquan youth work

Bjarte has trained taiji actively for 3 years, but taijiquan has been an important part of his life, since both his mother and father teach taijiquan. At the age of 8 he had his first qigong demonstration in front of an audience of 100 observers and visiting taiji masters. As a young teenager, his interest wained, only to come back stronger at the age of 18. Bjarte has arranged youth courses in taiji and wishes to demonstrate to the youth that they can gain great insight and purpose with the practice of taijiquan.

Frode Karlsen

Frode has trained taiji at NTS for one year. He studied Kungfu for 6 years, but in the last few years has explored qigong and taiji with different instructors, until he discovered the fellowship he saught at NTS. Frode is trained as an Energy Masseur and Reflexology therapist and has his practice in Oslo. He also works with children at an after school program and his hobbies are: juggling, tightrope walking, and climbing. His passion, however, is for taijiquan.

Professor Rune Svarverud

Institute for Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo

Areas of expertise: Chinese history, Classical Chinese Language. His current research project, ‘the Chinese Individual’, focuses on the remarkable change of concepts and practices related to the individual and its position in Chinese society, community and family since the late 19th century, and especially in the past 60 years.

Egil Lothe

Leader of the Norwegian Buddhist Society

The president of The Buddhist Federation of Norway since 1988, Egil is engaged in working for peace, human rights and inter-religious understanding. He has been involved in peace dialogue in Sri Lanka and has been active for a number of years in the dialogue on freedom of religion with China as the group chair of the China Project of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He has also been the leader of the Council of Religious- and Life Stance Communities in Norway and has been active in a number of projects on inter-religious dialogue.

Professor Chung-YingCheng

University of Hawaii

Established the Norwegian Daoist Association with Norsk Taiji Senter on May 17 2007. Professor Cheng is a senior scholar in Chinese philosophy, with a broad and deep background in the traditions of classical Chinese philosophy and Neo-Confucianism. He received his doctorate from Harvard University in the field of analytical philosophy and logic. He has received fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, the Pacific Cultural Foundation and the Stanford Institute in the Philosophy of Science.

Professor Chung met Pamela Hiley for the first time at the International I Ching conference in Shangdong University in 2000.

Suxue Tian

President of the Beijing Taiji Association, China

Mr Tian is president of the Beijing Taiji Association and responsible for its 2.7 million members. He met Pamela Hiley in November of 2007 and is partnering with her to organize Norsk Taiji Senters 25-year jubilee trip to China in 2008.

Business Council for Peace

Corporate Governance

Peace Point Foundation is partner and the Norwegian coordinator for ongoing projects initiated by the Global Peace Initiative and the Business Council for Peace.