Emma Swan is a researcher in psychology and complex systems science whose work examines collective human dynamics and flourishing. Drawing on complex adaptive systems science, she studies how connection emerges within individuals, between people, across communities, and within our embedded environments.

At Arizona State University, her research is focused on transitions in collective human dynamics, exploring how synchrony and non-ordinary states emerge in groups. Her wider work spans interoception, distributed intersubjectivity, inter-brain synchronisation, and contemplative practice in context. As co-founder of the Darkness Therapy Institute, she also supports rigorous, safety-led research into darkness immersion. Outside the lab, she practices the traditional, contemplative art of mosaic.

Growing up among artists and contemplatives gave her a global perspective, carried into humanitarian work in Peru, with Tibetan refugees in India, and in supportive housing for psychiatric patients. Her work unites scientific insight and human experience to foster flourishing and connectedness at every scale of life.