Interactive AI hologram takes a spiritual avatar

On February 15th, the Isha Foundation invited the world to Mahashivratri at the Isha Yoga Centre (in Coimbatore, India) – one of the globe’s largest multi-cultural events and spiritual festivals, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors in person from over 100 countries, and approximately 140 million via global streaming.

For the first time this year, attendees were able to have their own one-on-one conversations with an AI Avatar of Sadhguru by visiting the Proto Hologram units at the event. Through it, attendees received answers to their questions in keeping with his wisdom, and Yoga practices. They were also able to have Sadhguru’s avatar take a selfie and download the photos via Proto’s innovative selfie feature. 

“Our hope is that through this, we see more people taking up the simple, evidence-based Yoga and meditation practices that Sadhguru is offering.” said Henry Asplin, a representative from Isha Foundation. “Mahashivratri is one of the largest multi-cultural events on the planet, and for us this is a way to connect further with this global audience, and offer them a unique experience – in their own language.”  

“When people step in front of Sadhguru in the Protos at Isha Yoga Centre, they hade a genuine experience of his presence, from head to toe,” said David Nussbaum, Inventor and Founder of Proto Hologram. “It’s the same reason our technology is used by doctors having life changing conversations with patients every day – when what people are talking about matters more than anything in the world, the importance of feeling like they are really together adds focus, trust, and real human connection.” 

The AI hologram represents a continuation of Isha Foundation’s approach to leveraging technology to support meditators in their practice. In February 2025, Sadhguru launched Miracle of Mind, a free AI-powered meditation app offering a simple 7 minute meditation. The app uses AI in an ‘ask Sadhguru’ feature to tailor support for each user’s journey. It broke records at launch by getting over 1 million downloads in 15 hours, outpacing ChatGPT, Tik Tok and Instagram’s initial adoption.