Article

AUM 2007 Conference

“Integral Yoga in Dialogue with the World”
June 20–24, 2007

Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)
Petaluma, California

In the spirit of modeling this collaborative dialogue with the world, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is hosting and co-organizing the event.

Integral Yoga in Dialogue with the World
What is the 21st-century relationship between Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary vision and the evolving fields of human knowledge and experience? With the enormous research opening up in the fields of consciousness and spirituality, with a quantum leap in emergent knowledge happening simultaneously across disciplines—from the hard and soft sciences of physics, biology, and psychology to the applied researches in ecology, integral healing, whole systems behavior, and collective intelligence—what does the Integral Yoga Community have to share with and learn from its evolutionary allies in the world, particularly in view of the evolutionary crises that presently threaten the very sustainability of our terrestrial existence?

This conference will explore and address these questions primarily through presentations and panels in a dialogue-based format designed to:

• identify, heal, and clear unconscious divisions and blockages;
• foster deep listening, mutual learning, and the cross-pollination of knowledge streams;
• expand boundaries, build bridges of trust and collaboration;
• develop a more integrated, effective, and applied sense of the term "integral.”

The "evolutionary allies" who will participate as panelists and presenters include Michael Murphy (author, founder of Esalen Institute), Barbara Marx Hubbard (visionary, president of Foundation for Conscious Evolution), Brian Swimme (CIIS professor, cosmologist, author), Elisabet Sahtouris (evolutionary biologist, author), Robert McDermott (CIIS Professor, philosophy and comparative religions), and Craig Hamilton (former managing editor, What is Enlightenment? magazine).

Joining us in this dialogue is Sraddhalu Ranade from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and Ameeta Mehra from the Gnostic Centre in New Delhi.

Meals
Meals will be vegetarian. Please contact the Public Programs office to indicate dietary restrictions (dairy, egg, soy, wheat, etc). 415.575.6175

Fees
$632 for double occupancy
$740 for single occupancy
$352 for commuters
$125 Commuter day rate
$175 Overnight day rate (includes lunch, dinner and breakfast)

Scholarships
Some scholarship assistance is available to those in need.
Please apply via email at aum2007scholarships@yahoo.com.

Directions and Information http://www.noetic.org/contact.cfm

Shuttle Transportation
Airport shuttle transportation is available door-to-door from San Francisco and Oakland airports to Marin and the IONS campus. For reservations and prices, please contact:

Western Eagle Shuttle (www.marinairporttransportation.com phones: 415-533-4466, 415-342-6444
Marin Door-to-Door (www.marindoortodoor.com phone: 415-457-2717

General Conference Schedule and Format
(All presentations and panels are audience interactive. Format timings are approximate and subject to fine-tuning.)

Wednesday, June 20
Arrival (check-in after 2 p.m.), informal interaction, settling into rooms
Dinner
Orientation followed by Brian Swimme's DVD

Thursday, June 21
6:30-8 a.m. - meditation space available
8-9 a.m. - breakfast
9-10:30 a.m. - Barbara Marx Hubbard plenary presentation
10:45-12:45 p.m. (panel 1) - The Soul/Psychic Being in Integral Yoga, Christianity and Sufism"
1-2:15 p.m. lunchbreak
2:30-4:30 p.m. (panel 2) - "Atom and Eve and the Evolution of Consciousness"
4:45-6:15 p.m. - workshops, open time...
6:30-7:45 p.m. - dinner
8-10 p.m. - entertainment, performances, creative improv

Friday, June 22
6:30-8 a.m. - meditation
8-9 a.m. - breakfast
9-10:30 a.m. - Elisabet Sahtouris plenary presentation
10:45-12:45 p.m. (panel 3) - "An Educational Curriculum for a Transitional Humanity"
1-2:15 p.m. lunch
2:30-4:30 p.m. (panel 4) - "Evolutionary Activism, Sustainable Transformation and the Divine Feminine"
4:45-6:15 p.m. - workshops
6:30-7:45 p.m. - dinner
8-10 p.m. - evening entertainment/performances, creative improv

Saturday, June 23
6:30-8 a.m. - meditation
8-9 a.m. - breakfast
9-10:30 a.m. - Sraddhalu Ranade plenary presentation
10:45-12:45 p.m. (panel 5) - "Integral Psychology"
1-2:15 p.m. lunch
2:30-4:30 p.m. (panel 6) - "Facing the Challenge of Fundamentalism and other Shadow Issues in the Ongoing Evolution of Integral Yoga"
4:45-6:15 p.m. - workshops
6:30-7:45 p.m. - dinner
8-10 p.m. - evening entertainment/performances, creative improv

Sunday, June 24
6:30-8 a.m. - meditation
8-9 a.m. - breakfast
9-12:45 p.m. closing circle/conclusions, next...
1-2:15 p.m. lunch
departures (after lunch)

Presentations

THURSDAY MORNING

An Evolutionary Synthesis: The Radical Potential of Conscious Evolution Now - Barbara Marx Hubbard. Barbara will synthesize the latest memes for the evolution of the universe, the evolution of evolution, the evolution of society and the evolution of the person in a grand break-out, a new beginning.

Dr. Barbara Marx Hubbard
There is no doubt in my mind that Barbara Marx Hubbard who helped introduce the concept of futurism to society is the best informed human now alive regarding futurism and the foresights it has produced. ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Noted author, futurist, citizen diplomat and social architect Barbara Marx Hubbard is at the forefront of an emergent ‘post-conventional’ worldview called ‘Conscious Evolution’. She posits that evolutionary forces characterized by intensified social and technological creativity, deepening spirituality and environmental systems awareness are now coming together to create global change of a magnitude even greater than that of the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. Many people regard her as an heir to Buckminster Fuller.

Daughter of toy tycoon Louis Marx, she graduated from Bryn Mawr College (cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science) and studied at L’Ecole des Sciences Politique and the prestigious Sorbonne in Paris before becoming involved in the 1960s with social movements desiring a more sustainable Earth.

In the 1970s, Hubbard organized twenty-five ‘Syncons’ (synergistic convergences) and the multimedia ‘Theatre For The Future.’ During the 80’s she developed and co-chaired a number of US-Soviet Citizen Summits and hosted ‘Potentials: Envisioning The New Millennium’, a stunning television series which included Gene Roddenberry, Timothy Leary, Buckminster Fuller and Ray Bradbury. Space migration, life extension, and macropolitical models are just some of the memes that Hubbard has promoted for over forty years. In 1984, Hubbard made political history when her name was placed in nomination for the vice presidency of the United States.

Barbara has co-founded several major organizations including the World Future Society and the Association for Global New Thought. In 1992 she co-founded the Foundation for Conscious Evolution which has recently created “Gateway to Conscious Evolution,” a first of its kind guided educational program over the internet. This program covers the developmental path toward the next stage of human evolution and is now reaching thousands of people globally. She appears on many television and radio interviews and speaks internationally before audiences as wide ranging as NASA to the Inner city of Los Angeles.

Barbara is currently producing a seven part documentary series entitled “Humanity Ascending: A New Way through Together.” This transformational series presents vital elements to awaken the codes for our own conscious evolution and offers direction, meaning and a vision toward our birth as a new humanity.

She is the author of five books; The Hunger of Eve: One Woman’s Odyssey toward the Future; The Evolutionary Journey: Your Guide to a Positive Future; Revelation: Our Crisis is a Birth –An Evolutionary Interpretation of the New Testament; Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of our Social Potential and Emergence; The Shift from Ego to Essence.

FRIDAY MORNING

Living Consciously on a Hotter Planet – Elisabet Sahtouris The way we see our world, govern ourselves and manage our economies has been closely related to our scientific understanding of a non-living universe running down by entropy and an inevitable evolutionary struggle in scarcity. An updated scientific story shows this model to be obsolete, inefficient, expensive and dangerous. Our new understanding of a conscious self-creating universe, the biology of sustainable, value-creating natural systems, from our own bodies to rainforests, and our seeing that we create our own realities has direct application to how economics and governance will work in the future to everyone's benefit despite the changing climate. If we take our clues from living nature we can survive and even thrive in the Hot Age that is now inevitable.

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris
Elisabet Sahtouris is an internationally acclaimed evolution biologist, futurist and author who sees globalization as a natural evolutionary process in forming global family and the oncoming Hot Age as our greatest opportunity for living better cooperatively. She is a fellow of the World Business Academy and a member of the World Wisdom Council. Her venues include The World Bank, the UN, Boeing, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Tokyo Dome Stadium, Australian National Govt, Sao Paulo's leading business schools, State of the World Forums and the World Parliament of Religions. Her books include EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution; A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us and Biology Revisioned with Willis Harman. Websites: www.sahtouris.com and www.ratical.org/lifeweb.

SATURDAY MORNING

Prophesies of Destruction and the New Creation - Sraddhalu Ranade All religious traditions and esoteric traditions of manking prophesy a cataclysmic change to come as well as promise a golden age. In this presentation, we survey some of these traditions and the deeper sense of their foresight. We explore some of the present trends in human development from this deeper spiritual perspective and recognize the overwhelming importance of the present transition.

Sraddhalu Ranade is a scientist, educationist and scholar. He has been an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram since he was six months old, where he grew up in the care of late Sri M. P. Pandit. He is presently involved in various activities including video productions, teacher-training programs, and software development.

He has been involved in various research projects including artificial intelligence based on neural networks, multimedia search and retrieval, and educational tools. Apart from his responsibilities in editing the Service Letter, publication of books, and related activities, he also devotes time to teaching at Sri Aurobindo International Center of Education.

A multi-faceted personality, he delivers talks and conducts workshops on numerous themes including Integral Education, Management, Self-Development, Indian culture, Science and Spirituality, Yoga. Over the years he has addressed many thousands of students in numerous schools, colleges and universities all over India on these themes, conducting intensive teacher-training workshops in Integral and value-based education. He has also addressed special interest groups including management associations, educationists, lawyers, doctors and scientists worldwide.

AUM panels/panelists (in sequence)

(1)The Soul in Integral Yoga and Other World Traditions
Alan Combs (moderator); Hillary Anderson, Arya Maloney, Sraddhalu Ranade, Bahman Shirazi.

Allan Combs, Ph.D. (moderator) is a consciousness researcher and systems theorist at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the author of over fifty articles, chapters, and books, including Synchronicity : Through the Eyes of Science, Myth and the Trickster, with Mark Holland; and The Radiance of Being: Understanding the Grand Integral Vision; Living the Integral Life, winner of the Best-Book Award of the Scientific and Medical Network of the UK.

Hilary Anderson, Ph.D., served as a professor, dean, and as a founding board member of CIIS. She has taught at National University and served as administrative faculty at International College in Los Angeles. A nationally known lecturer, scholar, therapist, and seminar leader, Dr. Anderson founded the Universal Way Foundation. Her publications include numerous essays and articles on integral psychology and oracular symbolism.

Arya Maloney, M.A. Clinical Psychology has over thirty years experience both as a psychotherapist and as a practitioner of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. His psychological training includes family therapy, gestalt, process-oriented psychology, holotropic breathwork and several body-centered psychotherapies. He has taught chemistry, philosophy, religion and psychology on the university level and is a co-founder of the Mindbody Centre in Kingston, New York. He is the author of recently published Alchemy of the Soul: Integral Healing: The Work of Psychology and Spirituality (Blue Dolphin Press) which is also serialized in the Indian journal, NAHMAH.

Sraddhalu Ranade (See presenter bios)

Bahman A.K. Shirazi, PhD. is former Director of Graduate Studies and current faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. He has devoted the last two decades of his academic career to the development of integral psychology. He has written the first dissertation on integral psychology titled Self in Integral Psychology and has published several book chapters and presented at a number of international conferences on various aspects of integral psychology. Bahman’s integral world view is informed by various world traditions including Buddhism and Sufism.

(2) Atom and Eve and the Evolution of Consciousness
Brant Cortright (moderator); Barbara Marx Hubbard, Michael Murphy, Sraddhalu Ranade, Brian Swimme.

Brant Cortright, MFT, PhD is Professor of psychology at CIIS and the author of the just-published Integral Psychology: Yoga, Growth, and Opening the Heart (SUNY Press). He also authored Psychotherapy and Spirit (SUNY Press) and maintains a private practice in San Francisco.

Barbara Marx Hubbard (See presenter bios)

Michael Murphy is the co-founder and chairman of Esalen Institute and the author of both fiction and non-fiction books that explore evidence for extraordinary human capacities. During his forty-year involvement in the human potential movement, he and his work have been profiled in the New Yorker and featured in many magazines and journals worldwide. After graduating from Stanford University, he did graduate work there in philosophy, practiced meditation at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in South India in 1956 and 1957, and co-founded Esalen in 1962. In the 1980s, he helped organize Esalen’s pioneering Soviet-American Exchange Program, which became a premiere vehicle for citizen-to-citizen relations between Russians and Americans. Mike is author of The Future of the Body, The Life We Are Given (with George Leonard), In the Zone: Transcendent Experience in Sports (with Rhea White), The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation (with Steven Donovan), God and The Evolving Universe (with James Redfield and Sylvia Timbers), and four novels Golf in the Kingdom, The Kingdom of Shivas Irons, Jacob Atabet, and An End to Ordinary History.

Sraddhalu Ranade (See presenter bios)

Brian Swimme
Dr. Brian Swimme’s research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics of the universe, the relationship between scientific cosmology and more traditional religious visions, the cultural implications of the new evolutionary epic, and the role of humanity in the unfolding story of Earth and cosmos. In 1998 he founded the international Epic of Evolution Society, a forum for artists, scientists, ecofeminists, ecologists, religious thinkers and educators interested in the new story. He is the author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis, 1996), Manifesto for a Global Civilization (with Matthew Fox) (Bear and Company, 1983), The Universe is a Green Dragon (Bear and Company, 1984) and The Universe Story (Harper, 1992) which is a culmination of a ten-year collaboration with cultural historian Thomas Berry. Brian's media work includes the video series, Canticle to the Cosmos and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos.

3) An Educational Curriculum for a Transitional Species
Mary Alexander, AVI-USA president (moderator); Robert McDermott, Melissa Michaels, Sraddhalu Ranade, Joseph Subbiondo.

Mary Alexander has been guided by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for thirty-seven years and lived and worked in Auroville from 1972-1977. She has National Certification in Early Childhood Education and has taught in an inner city public school for 20 years, the last 9 years as a kindergarten teacher. She is a certified Empowerment Coach and PSYCH-K ® practitioner and weaves these diverse elements together in her teaching and coaching. She is currently serving as AVI-USA President.

Robert McDermott, PhD. has served as president emiratus and current faculty member at CIIS. He is also Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY), where he was chair of the philosophy department and of the program in religion and culture. Prior to his coming to CIIS, he taught philosophy and comparative religion for 27 years: seven years at Manhattanville College (1964-71), and 20 years at Baruch College (1971-90). Robert has been the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships, and professional honors, including a Fulbright grant for study and travel in India (1966) and a position as senior Fulbright lecturer at the Open University, England (1975-76) where he was advisor and contributing editor to sixteen films on "Man's Religious Quest." With the support of Laurance S. Rockefeller, he has co-directed a four-year project, "The Recovery of Thinking in Philosophy, Science, and Education." Robert is editor of The Essential Aurobindo (1988) and The Essential Steiner (1984).

Melissa Michaels, Ed.D. is a social artist, dancing and dedicated to our collective renewal through the liberation of the creative spirit. She is the founder and director of Surfing The Creative® International Youth Rites of Passage Programs, Golden Bridge, a not-for-profit organization linking youth leaders across the globe, and Wild Life Productions. Through movement-based programming and ongoing mentoring, Melissa is committed to improving and empowering the lives of young people and the adults who serve them. Melissa’s work utilizes somatic and social arts to establish body and heart as resources for authentic expression. Rooted in rhythm and fueled by breath, this work inspires the sacred union between Spirit, flesh, psyche, and deed.

Sraddhalu Ranade (See above)

Joseph L. Subbiondo is president of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) where he was appointed in July, 1999. Prior to this appointment, he served as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Santa Clara University, Academic Vice President at the University of the Pacific (UOP), and Dean of Liberal Arts at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Mr. Subbiondo has been an active member in the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), and he served as Chair of the American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD). He presents on a variety of academic topics at national conferences, and he has been program director for four conferences on Spirituality in Higher Education that were co-sponsored by CIIS, AAC&U, and NASPA. He participates regularly in the accreditation process as team chair and member for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. Mr. Subbiondo’s publications on higher education include co-authorship (with William Berquist and Gary Quehl) of Innovation in American Higher Education, a monograph published by the USA Group Foundation.

Mr Subbiondo’s area of scholarship is the history of linguistics, and he presents papers at national and international conferences as well as publishes articles and book reviews in journals such as Journal of English Linguistics, Language, Language and Communication, Lingua and Historiographia Linguistica. His book, John Wilkins and 17th Century British Linguistics, was published by John Benjamins Press in 1992. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Henry Sweet Society at Oxford University and is a member of the Executive Committee for the North American Association for the History of Language Sciences.

4) Evolutionary Activism, Sustainable Transformation and the Divine Feminine.
Savitra (Moderator); Charles Flores, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Elisabet Sahtouris, Savitra (Alan Sasha Lithman.

Charles Flores, Ph.D. (cand.) is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at JFK University, Pleasant Hill, California, and is the West Coast Coordinator of AVI-USA. He practices psychotherapy at the Contra Costa Juvenile Drug Court. Charles has been practicing Integral Yoga since 1993.

Barbara Max Hubbard (See presenter bios)

Elisabet Sahtouris (See presenter bios)

Savitra (Alan Sasha Lithman)
Cultured in the activist milieu of the 1960s, Alan Sasha Lithman hitchhiked from London to India to meet the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He received the name "Savitra" from her and began a new life in the pioneering global community experiment of Auroville located in coastal South India where he spent the next 21 years (1969-1990) apprenticing "applied spirituality", community-building and environmental restoration in the interface of first-world/third-world realities. He helped jumpstart Auroville's initial organization and communication systems as well as the afforestation program which eventually planted over two million trees, reviving a barren plateau back into lush tropical forests. Following his Auroville experience, he returned to the States, relocating to Ashland, Oregon where he presently resides. His work and writings over the decades have brought him into a broad spectrum of collaborative relations including Margaret Mead, David Brower, Michael Murphy, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston, Ervin Laszlo and Matthew Fox. His latest book, An Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium, was published by White Cloud Press with support from the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

5) Integral Psychology
Celeste Powell (moderator); Brant Cortright, Richard Stein, Kathleen Wall, Eric Weiss

Celeste Powell, MSW, PhD is currently Chief of Behavioral Medicine Services at Kaiser Permanente Medical Group. She is a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and member of the East Bay Aurobindo Study group. She is also a member of the Institute of Noetic Science as well as member of IONS study group in Danville, CA. Celeste is in private practice and is also an organizational development consultant. She has had a life long aspiration of living an integral life i.e. physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wholeness while being engaged in daily living.

Brant Cortright, Ph.D., is Professor of psychology at CIIS and the author of the just-published Integral Psychology: Yoga, Growth, and Opening the Heart (SUNY Press). He also authored Psychotherapy and Spirit (SUNY Press) and maintains a private practice in San Francisco.

Richard Stein, M.D. is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, who has been in private practice in San Francisco for the last 30 years. He lived in Pondicherry in 1973 – 4, where began a lifelong study of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, as well as an exploration of his own dreams and inner life through the writings of C.G. Jung. Upon returning to San Francisco, he completed his psychiatric residency and undertook 6 years of Jungian analytic training. He has taught the works of Sri Aurobindo and of Jung, at CIIS and the San Francisco Jung Institute, as well as in other US cities and abroad. In a recent series of talks in Auroville, he continued his work towards a personal synthesis of integral yoga and analytic psychology. His son and daughter are both now in college, and he continues to teach and work as a senior training analyst at the Jung Institute in addition to his clinical practice.

Kathleen Wall Ph.D. has been a practicing psychologist for 28 years and a student of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for the past 20 years. She is an Associate Professor on the faculty of The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto, California. She is Co-Leader with Carl Peters M.D. of the Group for Integral Consciousness, co-author with Gary Ferguson of Rites of Passage: Celebrating Life’s Changes Beyond Words Publishing, Oregon. She is co-developer with Carl Peters M.D. of Psychospiritual Integration and Transformation (PSIT), which they teach at ITP and in private workshops. PSIT is a psychospiritual counseling theory and method based on the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Dr’s Wall and Peters have taught PSIT for 5 years to over 100 students and are now conducting research, in collaboration with some ITP Ph.D. students, on the psychospiritual effects of PSIT.

Eric Weiss, PhD, MFT is a professor of Philosophy and Cosmology at CIIS and at the Sophia Center of Holy Names College in Oakland, CA. He is also a psychotherapist in private practice. Dr. Weiss studied, practiced and taught Tibetan Buddhist meditation for seven years under Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. For the past ten years, he has been studying and teaching the ideas and practices of Sri Aurobindo. His teaching includes both introductory and advanced courses on Sri Aurobindo at the graduate level, as well as private classes on Integral Yoga, and many public lectures. In addition, he uses the principles of Integral Yoga actively in his psychotherapy practice. His doctoral dissertation used the ideas of Alfred North Whitehead to reconcile Sri Aurobindo’s cosmological ideas with those of modern science. Eric brings to his teaching of yoga an appreciation for the issues of everyday modern life, and for the world situation which is such a factor in yogic practice today.

6) Facing the Challenge of Fundamentalism and other Shadow Issues in the Ongoing Evolution of Integral Yoga
Savitra (moderator); Craig Hamilton, Lynda Lester, Mytrae Meliana. Michael Murphy.

Savitra Alan Lithman (See above)

Craig Hamilton is an independent researcher, writer, broadcaster, and lecturer with a passion for the evolution of consciousness. He is best known for his acclaimed work as managing editor of the award-winning magazine What Is Enlightenment(?), a post he held from 1997 to 2005. His feature articles have examined the landscape of an emerging evolutionary spirituality and have contributed significantly to the forging of a new, scientifically informed spiritual worldview bridging the great wisdom traditions of both the East and the West. An active player on sustainability issues, Craig has been the driving force behind the grassroots movement surrounding Low Carbon Diet, an easy-to-use carbon reduction guide, and the “Global Warming Café,” a workshop which uses the successful World Café model of large group dialogue to bring communities together in a heartfelt exploration of and response to the climate crisis. Craig is a founding member of Ken Wilber's Integral Institute, and a participant in the Synthesis Dialogues, a 35-person interdisciplinary think tank presided over by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. A 20-year spiritual practitioner, Craig spent over a decade living in Andrew Cohen’s spiritual community in Lenox, MA, and remains closely connected to Cohen’s teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment.

Michel Murphy (See above)

Linda Lester began the practice of Integral Yoga in 1974. She edited the Integral Yoga journal Collaboration from 1995–2005 and has served on the boards of Auroville International USA and the Sri Aurobindo Association. She co-organized AUM 1988, helped found the AUM Continuity Committee, and is on the planning team for AUM 2008 in the Rocky Mountains. From 2000–2004 Lynda co-moderated the Integral Yoga Forum, an online study group with about 100 members. In 2003 she took part in a series of conference calls with geographically distributed participants to explore Sri Aurobindo’s Record of Yoga. She hosted the Sri Aurobindo Circle of Boulder for eight years and is now active in the Aurocommunity of Sacramento and Lodi. Lynda has given many presentations on Integral Yoga to organizations around the U.S., including the Institute for Noetic Sciences-Denver, Savitri House, the Cultural Integration Fellowship, Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham, various professional and study groups, and five AUMs. Lynda is a writer/editor whose most recent position was a sixteen-year stint at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, where she wrote about scientific computing and climate modeling. She is currently working on a book about consciousness, evolution, and the Grateful Dead.

Mytrae Meliana received her M.A. from the Integral Counseling Psychology program at CIIS. She is a long time student of Vedanta and Integral Yoga. She presented at the Fourth International Conference on Integral Psychology on "Spiritual Bypassing." She is a psychotherapist with a private practice in San Francisco and works at the Community Institute for Psychotherapy in San Rafael.

AUM Workshops

Thursday, June 21
Melissa Michaels: “Our Golden Bridge ~ Connecting through the Arts of Body and Heart”
Wolfgang Schmidt-Reinecke: “Integral Dynamics”
Jerry Schwartz: “Spirituality & Money: Supporting the Manifestation of the Future”
Arya Maloney: “Integral Healing: The Work of Psychology and Spirituality”

Friday, June 22
Craig Hamilton: “Living on the Edge of Evolution: Spirituality and Mysticism in an Evolving Universe”
Soleil Lithman: “The Heart, Psychic Being, and Light in the Body”
Margo MacCleod: “Exploring the Future of Integral Education”
Will Moss: “Service and the Psychic: Reaching Beyond our Borders”

Saturday, June 23
Sraddhalu Ranade: “The Practice of Integral Yoga”
Margaret Phanes: “Spheres of Influence: Visual Meditations of Light”
Kathleen Wall and Carl Peters: “Psychospiritual Integration & Transformation: Grounding the Evolution of Consciousness into Earthly Life”
Hilary Anderson: "Exploring Ways to Express the Divine Feminine through Integral Yoga

Workshop Descriptions and Bio-data

“Our Golden Bridge ~ Connecting through the Arts of Body and Heart”
Join Melissa Michaels for this Dance and Dialogue, a dynamic exploration of Self, our Diverse Community and the Spirit Moving Us All.

Melissa Michaels, Ed.D. is a social artist, dancing and dedicated to our collective renewal through the liberation of the creative spirit. She is the founder and director of Surfing The Creative® International Youth Rites of Passage Programs, Golden Bridge, a not-for-profit organization linking youth leaders across the globe, and Wild Life Productions. Through movement-based programming and ongoing mentoring, Melissa is committed to improving and empowering the lives of young people and the adults who serve them.

Mapping the journey from trauma to dynamic well - being, her work utilizes somatic and social arts to establish body and heart as resources for authentic expression. Rooted in rhythm and fueled by breath, this work inspires the sacred union between Spirit, flesh, psyche, and deed.

Melissa’s work is a pathway from the longing of the Spirit to the ecstasy of the ordinary.
(Further info @ http://www.bdanced.com & http://www.goldenbridge.org)

“Integral Dynamics”
What is the relevance of Don Beck's Spiral Dynamics and Ken Wilber's Integral Philosophy for the Aurobindonian community? The basis of these current philosophies will be reviewed through a power point presentation. What is the relavance of Integral Yoga for Beck and Wilbur? Proposals and ideas will given to the audience for discussion.

Wolfgang Schmidt-Reinecke, MA, has served as Executive Director of Auroville International and was the former Chairman of AVI Germany for 15 years. A former Board member of the Ken Wilber Association - Germany, he has been involved with Integral Yoga since 1972. He is also a journalist, author, consultant, magazine editor and documentary film-maker.

“Exploring the Future of Integral Education”
1.) What is the essence of "integral education" as defined by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? I will ask participants to share their sense of the core elements and bring the results of an informal survey to share.
2.) What is actually happening in the US that is being called "integral" or "integrative" education? I will share what I know from higher education and ask participants to add from their store of experience and knowledge.
3.) To what extent should we be presenting, advocating for, and/or making known Sri Aurobindo and Mother's vision and work? Little mention is made of their names even when the inspiration comes from their work. Are there reasons to insist on going to the original source? If so, how should this be done? If not, how can the original work more fully inform and inspire moves toward truly integral forms of education in the US (or elsewhere)?
Margo W. MacLeod has spent the last 20 years and more in the academic world primarily as faculty and administrator at Goddard College, distinguished for its progressive, holistic approach to education. She has also been honored to serve on the board of the Foundation for World Education.

“Integral Healing: The Work of Psychology and Spirituality”
The movement from an ego-centered to a soul-centered psychology demands an integral vision of the human being as well as the means to unite the disparate dimensions of this being. Drawing from his therapeutic work in Alchemy of the Soul, Arya will show how Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary paradigm of the human psyche coupled with the transpersonal psychotherapies of Mindell, Grof and Raheem forge a psychotherapeutic approach capable of integrating body, life-force, mind, soul and spirit.

Arya Maloney, LMHC, M.A. Clinical Psychology, has over thirty years experience as a psychotherapist and practitioner of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. His psychological training includes family therapy, gestalt, process-oriented psychology, holotropic breathwork and process acupressure. He is the author of Alchemy of the Soul: Integral Healing: The Work of Psychology and Spirituality. Blue Dolphin Publishing, March 2007.

“Living on the Edge of Evolution: Spirituality and Mysticism in an Evolving Universe”
Is there a relationship between our personal spiritual path and humanity’s collective evolution? Is it possible that, in engaging in authentic spiritual practice, we are not merely transforming ourselves but participating in a cosmic, evolutionary process?

This workshop will guide participants on an experiential journey into the meaning, significance, and practice of spiritual transformation in light of our new, scientific understanding of evolution.
Bringing together leading-edge transformational insights drawn from integral theory, evolutionary spirituality, and depth psychology, this exploration in consciousness will show you how to leap beyond the patterns of your conditioned personality and discover the dynamic aliveness and boundless creativity of your own Evolving Self. Together, we will discover how our own spiritual life can be illumined and inspired by the direct recognition of the vast, evolutionary significance of every authentic step we take toward Divinity. Through conversation and individual and group exercises, we will explore:

• How to awaken the “evolutionary impulse” within each of us.
• The exponential transformative power of the field of collective consciousness.
• Meditation & spiritual practice in an evolutionary context.
• Why awakening our higher “spiritual conscience” is the key to lasting transformation.
• What it means to live every moment of one’s life as an agent of evolution.

Craig Hamilton is a speaker, writer, workshop leader and transformative coach with a passion for the evolution of consciousness. He is best known for his acclaimed work as Senior Editor of the award-winning What Is Enlightenment? magazine, a post he held from 1997 to 2005. His feature articles and interviews have helped to chart the landscape of an emerging evolutionary spirituality and have contributed to the forging of a new, scientifically informed spiritual worldview bridging the great wisdom traditions of the East and the West.

Craig is also a veteran radio personality whose conversations with leading luminaries are regularly heard by New Dimensions Radio’s seven million listeners, and form the basis of the forthcoming documentary film: Toward a Science of Consciousness. He is a founding member of Ken Wilber's Integral Institute, and a participant in the Synthesis Dialogues, a 35-person interdisciplinary think tank presided over by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. A 20-year spiritual practitioner, Craig is an insightful teacher whose vast mystical experience and understanding illuminates all of his work. He is currently at work on his first book, exploring the emerging worldview of evolutionary spirituality.
(www.craighamilton.us)

“The Heart, Psychic Being, and Light in the Body”
This lively workshop will include both audience participation and a colorful power point presentation. You will learn some of the latest findings from Heartmath Institute, Candace Pert, and Mae Wan Ho. Plus peak into your own cellular consciousness.

Soleil Lithman, MA, is founder of The Hladina Method, an evolutionary healing process for discovering the psychic being and integrating cellular consciousness. She gave a very successful 3 week training program in Auroville in March 2007. Her 19 AV interns continue to practice there. Soleil has been part of the Integral Yoga since 1971.

“Service and the Psychic: Reaching Beyond our Borders”
In the Integral Yoga, the Psychic Being and the Psychic Transformation are the foundation upon which all else is built. In this interactive workshop, we will explore how the Psychic can be the foundation of our work in the world as well.

Will Moss first learned of Sri Aurobindo and Mother in 1970 in Boston. It was 'love at first sight', like coming home. He participated in the first AUM gatherings in New Hampshire. He joined the board of the SAA in 1990, and participated in the formation of both Auroconf and the Miraura web site, as well as the first Integral Psychology conference at Matagiri. He moved with his family to the coast of Maine in 2001, where he has become increasingly involved in the local Unitarian-Universalist church.

“Spirituality & Money: Supporting the Manifestation of the Future”
Jerry Schwartz will initially explore the mystical and occult context of money energy. He will present conceptual frameworks and experiential practices that allow one to work with greater clarity to understand money as a spiritual force.

He will talk about how to understand the influences that affect the flow of money, including the impact of social, political, and economic forces and will conclude with the issue of directing the flow of money in serving the Divine Consciousness. He will speak of different modes and structures that can give effective form to our aspirations to use money to assist the earth’s spiritual transformation.

Jerry Schwartz, CFP®, is a 17 year Board Member and Treasurer of the Foundation for World Education. He is a Principal of Arista Investment Advisors, Ltd., a life purpose financial planning and investment management company. He began his work in this field in 1977, and has volunteered his time extensively for many years to advise non-profit organizations. He also lectures and teaches courses on money management and in using money wisely, as a transformative and redemptive spiritual power.

“The Practice of Integral Yoga”
The work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is more than a philosophy or evolutionary vision for a new spirituality. Yet their work does not codify or spell out any uniform rituals, disciplines or ceremonies that one must religiously follow. This workshop will focus on the question: "How does one actually practice the Integral Yoga?"
Sraddhalu Ranade is a scientist, educationist and scholar. He has been an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram since he was six months old, where he grew up in the care of late Sri M. P. Pandit. He is presently involved in various activities including video productions, teacher-training programs, and software development.
He has been involved in various research projects including artificial intelligence based on neural networks, multimedia search and retrieval, and educational tools. Apart from his responsibilities in editing the Service Letter, publication of books, and related activities, he also devotes time to teaching at Sri Aurobindo International Center of Education.
A multi-faceted personality, he delivers talks and conducts workshops on numerous themes including Integral Education, Management, Self-Development, Indian culture, Science and Spirituality, Yoga. Over the years he has addressed many thousands of students in numerous schools, colleges and universities all over India on these themes, conducting intensive teacher-training workshops in Integral and value-based education. He has also addressed special interest groups including management associations, educationists, lawyers, doctors and scientists worldwide.

“Spheres of Influence: Visual Meditations of Light”
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother embody rich sources of inspiration and experience. We open to their illumination and guidance to deepen our Divine connection. Through digital media, aspects of their shared vision will be rendered into meditations of light. From an Integral perspective, concepts, symbols, forms and color will be placed before our perception. The intention of these visual meditations is to center our consciousness, concentration, and contemplation. “…as one offers a flower, a prayer, an act to the Divine, one can offer too a created form of beauty, a song, a poem, an image, a strain of music, and gain through it a contact, a response or an experience.” (Letters on Yoga)

Margaret Astrid Phanes, M.A., MFT, is a visionary, artist and trainer. Ms. Phanes has pioneered digital art as visual meditation. As a trainer, she has worked in digital art and consciousness at UCSC University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and the College of the Botanical Healing Arts. Currently, she teaches digital media arts and concentration meditation training at the College on Maui. She is an online facilitator for the Sri Aurobindo Darshan: The University of Tomorrow, India. Her artwork has appeared in numerous publications, art and web exhibitions. For more information on digital art as visual meditation, visit: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~phanes.

“Psychospiritual Integration & Transformation: Grounding the Evolution of Consciousness into Earthly Life”
The basis of our workshop is the aspiration to foster evolution of consciousness in daily life. We will integrate witness consciousness and psychic center leadership to harmonize personality elements via surrender in accepting the responsibility of each person’s mission for enabling and expressing the evolution of consciousness in their lives.

Kathleen Wall, Ph.D, has been a practicing psychologist for 29 years and a student of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for the past 20 years. She is an Associate Professor on the faculty of The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto, California. She is Co-Leader with Carl Peters M.D. of the Group for Integral Consciousness, co-author with Gary Ferguson of Rites of Passage: Celebrating Life’s Changes, Beyond Words Publishing, Oregon. She is co-developer with Carl Peters M.D. of Psychospiritual Integration and Transformation (PSIT), which they teach at ITP and in private workshops. PSIT is a psychospiritual counseling theory and method based on the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Carl Peters, MD, MA (Art), has aspired to integrate psychotherapy and spiritual practice for more than 45 years. His consciousness has evolved via training as a psychiatrist, Zen Buddhism, Psychosynthesis and study of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s teachings (25 Years). Kathleen Wall Ph.D. and Carl co-created Psycho-Spiritual Integration & Transformation which they taught for 6 years at Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and in professional workshops.

Exploring ways to express the Divine Feminine through Integral Yoga Dynamics - Hilary Anderson
This workshop explores how Integral Yoga's profound values of wisdom, power, harmony and work play through our lives. These values are embodied in the Divine Feminine aspect of consciousness expressed in the dynamic archetypal images of the great goddesses Mahesvari, Mahakali, Mahalaksmi and Mahasarasvati. We will discover how the energetic interplay occurs between these images in the course of following the Integral Path. We will also honor the importance of balancing these cosmic forms in a kind of heightened personal creative expression in today's relationship challenges at home and in the workplace. By identifying some of their energetic expressions in Tantra's subtle cakra system and Sri Aurobindo's inter-dimensional scheme of energy dynamics, hopefully we will have opportunity to reflect on our own individual guidance from within and perhaps share a few of our experiences with one another in small group settings, as time permits.

Hilary Anderson, Ph.D, is a former faculty, dean and founding board member of CIIS. In 1992 she founded the Universal Way Foundation, Los Angeles, to support research, study groups, programs and celebrations that promote self-integration and cross-cultural regard for all spiritual pathways. She travels widely conducting seminars and counseling in Integral Psychology, specializing in the Divine Feminine as a way of accessing deeper dimensions for self-discovery and transformation.

Artistic Performances

Thursday, June 21 evening: Jeremy and Jivatma Roske, musical sharing and the voice of youth; followed by Jenny Caroff's Indian dance recital

Friday, June 22 evening: Barbara Marx Hubbard's 40-minute DVD "Humanity Ascending", followed by open discussion, interaction and improv.

Saturday, June 23 evening: Memorial for Bina Chaudhuri followed by devotional chanting offered by Shri Karunamayee and accompanists.

A tribute to Bina Chaudhuri, Co-founder of CIIS by Jim Ryan
Jim Ryan Ph.D. is co-director of Asian and Comparative Studies program at CIIS and Vice President of the Cultural Integration Fellowship. Jim's general interests are in the culture, history, and philosophies of India. He is specifically interested in the various forms of Hindu tantra, particularly the Kashmir Shaiva traditions, the tradition of Sri Aurobindo, and the "modernized" tantra of Haridas Chaudhuri. A secondary interest is in Jainism and the historical interplay between the non-theistic philosophical traditions and Hinduism. Jim is the co-author of the recently published Encyclopedia of Hinduism.

Concert by Karunamayee
Sri Karunamayee is world-renowned for her soul-empowering singing. Steeped in music from her early years, she began formal studies in North Indian Classical singing with Pandit Vinay Chandra Maudgalya, and refined her music under the revered tutelage of Kirana Gharana maestro, Pandit Pran Nath. Sri Karunamayee has served as an innovative music educator from primary to postgraduate levels. She was also an ‘A’ classed broadcast artist of All India Radio for many years. Music has always served as her spiritual compass throughout life. In 1966, she entered Sri Aurobindo Ashram, where she founded Mothers’ Temple of the Fine Arts (Matri Kala Mandir), and where she has supported the daily meditations with music for 40 years. In recent years she was commissioned to compose music for the archives of Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, one of India’s most respected cultural institutes. Her music is highly regarded for its meditative and yogic qualities. Many of her own compositions are inspired by the sacred texts of diverse faith traditions. She travels internationally to foster music as a sacred pathway to the Divine, and to serve as a bridge of interfaith understanding.

For more information and to register online, please visit