On Saturday 2nd May 2026, the Centre for Liminal Studies (CLS) held its official opening at Broughton Hall Estate — and it is fair to say the occasion exceeded every expectation we had set for it.
For those of us who have been working toward this moment, seeing the Centre come to life as a physical, functioning space felt genuinely significant. CLS was founded on a conviction that rigorous inquiry into the nature of consciousness, reality, and human experience deserves a dedicated home — one where science, the arts, and experiential practice can operate not as separate disciplines but as complementary strands of the same investigation. Broughton Sanctuary provides exactly that kind of environment.
The launch was attended by friends, collaborators, and supporters, and was made especially meaningful by two guests whose presence carried real symbolic weight. Jill Russell — a pioneering figure in the consciousness research community and a close associate of Bob Monroe himself — joined us to mark the occasion. Alongside her was Allyn Evans, CEO of the Monroe Institute, who made a joint ribbon cut with Jill to formally open the Centre. That moment — the legacy of Monroe’s foundational work meeting the emerging frontier of consciousness science — felt like precisely the kind of threshold-crossing that the word liminal was made for.
The Centre’s founding directors are Kirsty Allan, Jon Cheetham, Luigi Sciambarella, Pam Sciambarella, and Paul Stevens. Bringing this team together has been a deeply collaborative process, and the launch reflected that — a shared project rather than any single person’s vision.
We are grateful to Sophie Moszkowicz for her considerable help in getting everything ready, to Gary Brown for his photography, and to Stuart Brown for this evolving website. Above all, our thanks go to Roger Tempest and the Broughton Hall team for their support and their trust in what we are building here.
The Centre is open. The work begins.
