The contributors
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Priya Ananda
Priya Ananda’s interests are in transformational psychology, Buddhist philosophy and comparative religion. An engineer by background, she has been exploring various philosophies and practice systems for many years. Coming across Buddhism changed her perspective dramatically. Traversing the path of Yogic tradition of Buddhism, she trained under eminent Tibetan Buddhist masters like HH Penor Rinpoche, Khenchen Pema Sherab, Khenchen Namdrol and Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso. She teaches emotional management methods. She was instrumental in establishing Thubten Lekshey Ling, a Buddhist Centre of Learning in Bangalore.
Bharati Baveja
Bharati Baveja, Ph.D., former Head and Dean is working as a Professor in the Department of Education, University of Delhi. Currently, she is also the Director Women Studies and Development Center. Her experience in the field of Teacher Education and engagement with research in the domain of Learning and Pedagogy in the past two decades finds expression in the research papers and articles published in journals of repute. Her participation in the National Focus Group on Teacher Education constituted by NCERT has led to the development of rich insights in the field. She led a major curriculum reform in Teacher Education at the University of Delhi while she was the Dean.
William Braud
William Braud earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Iowa in 1967. At the University of Houston, he taught and conducted research in learning, memory, motivation, psychophysiology, and the biochemistry of memory. At the Mind Science Foundation (San Antonio, TX), he directed research in parapsychology; health and well-being influences of relaxation, imagery, positive emotions, and intention; and psychoneuroimmunology. He was Professor and Dissertation Director, Global Programs, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (Palo Alto, CA), where he directed doctoral dissertation research, and continued research, teaching and writing in areas of exceptional human experiences, consciousness studies, transpersonal studies, spirituality and expanded research methods.
R. M. Matthijs Cornelissen
R. M. Matthijs Cornelissen teaches Integral Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry. He is a Dutch physician who settled in India in 1976. From 1977 to 1992 he worked in the Delhi Branch of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, where he co-founded Mirambika, a research centre for integral education. In 1992 he moved to the main Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. Presently he is involved in a variety of projects concerned with the development of a new approach to psychology based on the Indian tradition. To this end he founded the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Consciousness Studies in 2001, and the Indian Psychology Institute in 2006. He edited two earlier volumes on Indian Psychology, Consciousness and its transformation (2001), and Indian psychology, consciousness and yoga (2004), the latter together with the then Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Kireet Joshi.
Ajit K. Dalal
Ajit K. Dalal is Professor of Psychology at the University of Allahabad. He has obtained his doctoral degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and has published in the areas of causal attribution, health beliefs and indigenous psychology. He received the Fulbright Senior Fellowship and worked at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is also a recipient of the UGC Career Award, Rockefeller Foundation Award and ICSSR Senior Fellowship. He was a visiting faculty at many places, including Queen’s University, Canada; National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi; Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Calcutta University, Kolkata. His books include Attribution theory and research, New directions in Indian psychology(Vol. 1), Social dimensions of health and Handbook of Indian psychology. Presently, he is the editor of the journal Psychology and Developing Societies published by Sage.
Rajen K. Gupta
Rajen K. Gupta is Professor of Human Behavior & Organization Development with Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India. He has successfully guided more than twenty PhD scholars and have more than a hundred research publications to his credit in areas of organization culture, Organization development, learning in organizations etc. He has designed and implemented developmental interventions for several business organizations and educational institutions.
Neeltje Huppes
Neeltje Huppes was born in the Netherlands. After post graduation in the sixties, she taught in a progressive school and at a young age became a member of a special Commission set up by the Dutch Government to revamp education in Secondary schools. Her search for in-depth innovation led her to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The urge to live in India increased and in the seventies she came to Puducherry. She lived for fifteen years in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch where she founded, together with Matthijs Cornelissen, a Research Centre for Integral Education, focusing mainly on teacher education. The urge for a more intense inner quest brought her back to Puducherry where she is presently teaching in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. She wrote Psychic education, a workbook, New-Delhi, SAES (2001). She has lectured in India and abroad on various aspects of Integral Psychology. In February 2006, she opened together with Matthijs Cornelissen the Indian Psychology Institute.
Vladimir Iatsenko
Vladimir Iatsenko, a Sanskrit scholar in Auroville since 1993, is working as a researcher at the University of Human Unity, Auroville. He has graduated in Sanskrit and General Linguistics from St. Petersburg University, Russia and studied Panini Ashtadhyayi in Poona University in 1991–1992. He is a life-member of BORI in Pune, and a teacher and facilitator of on-line courses at ICIS in Delhi, IPI and SACAR in Pondicherry.
Kapil Kapoor
Kapil Kapoor, Ph.D., is former Professor of English, Centre for Linguistics and English, and Concurrent Professor, Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was Dean of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU, from 1996 to 1999 and Rector (Pro-Vice-Chancellor) of the University from 1999 to 2002. His teaching and research interests include literary and linguistic theories, both Indian and Western, philosophy of language, nineteenth century British life, literature and thought and Indian intellectual traditions. He has been lecturing on these themes and has written extensively on them. He has been teaching for almost fifty years now. His two books, Dimensions of Pāṇini grammar: The Indian grammatical system and Text and interpretation: The Indian tradition, have been published in 2005. Indian knowledge systems (2 Vols.), edited by him, has also been published (2005). Literary theory, Indian conceptual framework (1998); Canonical texts of literary criticism (1995); Language, literature and linguistics; The Indian perspective (1994); and South Asian love poetry (1994) are among his earlier publications. He has been a member of the Governing Body of Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla and of the Governing Body of Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), a member of the Academic Council of Indian Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath and Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad and of the Executive Councils of Central University of Hyderabad and of Gurukula Kangri, Haridwar. He has delivered lectures by invitation in several universities in India in the areas of Indian philosophy, grammar, aesthetics and literatures. He is currently Chief Editor, the Sahitya Akademi Encyclopaedia of Indian poetics, a UNESCO project, and Chief Executive Editor of the Indian Heritage Research Foundation (USA) sponsored Encyclopaedia of Hinduism. He is a nominated Visiting Professor at the Irish Academy of Cultural Heritages, University of Ulster, U.K. 2005-2009.
Vinita Kaushik Kapur
Vinita Kaushik Kapur was a doctoral student in Social Anthropology at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Sociology, at the Delhi School of Economics. She gave up her studies when she found academia to be in conflict with the way she was thinking about life especially in the context of several new philosophical perspectives that she was engaging with. She instead chose to translate into action the new meanings that had begun to inform her life. She became a subsistence farmer at Geddai in the Nilgiri hills. She then formed a small alternative school on the farm using several innovative pedagogical styles. She also taught at The Valley School of the Krishnamurti Foundation for several years. At present she is working as an ethnographic researcher.
P. Ram Manohar
P. Ram Manohar is an Āyurvedic physician and has an MD degree in Āyurvedic Pharmacology. He is currently the Director and Chief Scientific Officer, AVP Research Foundation, Coimbatore. He was research advisor to Indian National Science Academy and member of Central Council of Indian Medicine, and has served in the editorial board of Indian Journal for History of Science and International Journal of Āyurveda Research. He is currently Chief Editor of ASL Musculoskeletal Diseases Managing Editor of Ancient Science of Life. He was the PI on the Indian side of first ever NIH, USA funded research grant to study Āyurveda outside the United States, which received the Excellence in Integrative Medicine Research Award from European Society of Integrative Medicine. He has published research papers and books both in India and abroad and has made research visits to USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium for the promotion of Āyurveda.
Michael Miovic
Michael Miovic, MD, is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist with extensive background in psycho-oncology (the care of cancer patients). He has a special interest in spiritual issues in mental healthcare, and has published a number of case studies, articles and book chapters on that topic. He has collaborated with colleagues in the United States, Europe and India to help develop the field of integral psychology, and is now focused on expanding the scope of that endeavor to encompass a geo-spiritual understanding of the Earth consciousness based on Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy.
Girishwar Misra
Girishwar Misra, Ph.D., is currently Professor of Psychology and Dean, Research (Humanities & Social Sciences) University of Delhi. During his academic career spanning over four decades, he has earlier taught at the Universities of Bhopal, Allahabad and Gorakhpur. He has been a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Fulbright-Nehru Lecturer at New School of Social Research, New York. The Government of Madhya Pradesh has conferred upon him Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru National Award for contributions to social sciences. He was awarded National Fellowship by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). His research interests include self-processes, well-being, emotions, and qualitative methods. He has authored or edited over several books including Psychological Consequences of Prolonged Deprivation, Applied Social Psychology In India, Perspectives on Indigenous Psychology, Psychological Perspectives on Stress and Health, Psychology and Societal Development, Psychology In India: Advances in Research (4 Volumes), Handbook of Psychology in India and Psychology and Psychoanalysis. He is a Past President of the National Academy of Psychology, India and edits its journal Psychological Studies (Springer). He is currently editing the Sixth ICSSR Survey of Research in Psychology.
Alok Pandey
Alok Pandey, MD, is a psychiatrist by profession who has served with the Indian Air Force for twenty years before taking premature retirement. He has held several important assignments including Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Bangalore University and Head of the Neuropsychology division of the prestigious Indian Institute of Space and Aviation Medicine. He has written and lectured extensively in India and abroad on issues relating to Yoga psychology, health, stress management, education. He has conducted workshops on the Gita and Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. His book Death, dying and beyond was published in 2006.
Ashish Pandey
Ashish Pandey is Assistant Professor in Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management in Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai, India. He has published in areas of spirituality in management, collective consciousness perspective of organization, Appreciative Inquiry, spiritual climate and learning in several national and international journals like Global Business Review, Journal of Business Ethics, AI Practitioner, etc. He also facilitates leadership and organization development interventions based on synthesis of contemporary management thoughts and Indian traditional wisdom for variety of organizations and institutions.
Anand C. Paranjpe
Anand C. Paranjpe is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Humanities at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Poona in India; did post-doctoral work at Harvard and taught at Simon Fraser University from 1967 to 2001. His main research interests are self and identity, theoretical psychology and psychological concepts from the intellectual and spiritual traditions of India. He was awarded Smith-Mundt and Fulbright scholarships for postdoctoral research under the direction of Prof. Erik H. Erikson in 1966-67, and was elected Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association in 2004. His publications include: In search of identity (Macmillan/Wiley Interscience, 1975), Theoretical psychology: The meeting of East and West (Plenum, 1984), and Self and identity in modern psychology and Indian thought (Plenum,1998).
R. S. Pirta
Raghubir Singh Pirta, Ph.D., formerly Professor at the Department of Psychology, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla received training in experimental psychology. The theoretical understanding of Pirta refined in several brief sojourns to the Center for Ecological Sciences, I. I. Sc., Bangalore, however, it is with the Chipko activists in the Himalayas that he imbibed the humane spirit about Nature. His research publications in the area of animal behaviour and ecology also include two volumes: Ecology and human well-being: Nature and society in Himachal Pradesh (2007), and Pastoralism and the tribesman of mountain: Arung zet sa of kanaor (2009). He is currently exploring the institution of local deities in the western Himalayas.
Ajith Prasad
Ajith Prasad’s principal areas of interest are Buddhist philosophy and the study and practice of its methods of psychological transformation. Ajith teaches methods from Buddhism for managing emotions and developing mind. He also gives lectures on philosophy in various forums. After completing his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Science in 1994, he had a career in technology and management. He also continued his personal quest for understanding consciousness. This led him to Buddhism. From 2007 onwards, Ajith is focusing fulltime on the study and practice of Buddhist philosophy and path. He took to the Yogic tradition of Buddhism and trained under the guidance of many Tibetan masters, particularly with HH Penor Rinpoche, Khenchen Pema Sherab, Khenchen Namdrol and Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso. He was instrumental in establishing Thubten Lekshey Ling, a Buddhist Centre of Learning in Bangalore.
Kumar Ravi Priya
Kumar Ravi Priya, a Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, is presently serving as an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. His research interest lies in studying the psychology of social suffering and healing processes by locating human suffering caused by environmental, social and political forces in its cultural and historical context.
K. Ramakrishna Rao
K. Ramakrishna Rao is currently the Chancellor of GITAM University and Chairman of the GITAM Institute for Gandhian Studies. His previous assignments include Chairman, Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Professor of Psychology and Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University, Executive Director of the Foundation for Research on the Nature of man, USA, Advisor on Higher Education and Vice-Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Planning Board, Government of Andhra Pradesh. His publications include over 200 research papers, nearly 50 book chapters and 20 books including Consciousness studies: Cross-cultural perspectives (McFarland, 2002), Cognitive anomalies, consciousness and yoga (Matrix Publishers, 2011), and Gandhi and applied spirituality (Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 2011).
Kiran Kumar K. Salagame
Kiran Kumar K. Salagame is currently a Professor of Psychology at the University of Mysore. He was a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow (1990-91) and Fulbright Nehru Visiting Lecturer (2011) at USA. He is a Fellow of the Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists, and Member, National Academy of Psychology, India. He is an Associate Editor of Psychological Studies and has been serving on the Editorial boards of many national and international journals. He is an Honorary Professor and Member of Scientific Board, Yoga Federation of Serbia, Belgrade; Member of the Board of International Transpersonal Association, USA. Integrating Indian psychological concepts with mainstream psychology is his current focus. His publications relate to meditation and yoga, states of consciousness, Indian psychology, holistic health, positive psychology, transpersonal psychology and social cognition. He has authored The psychology of meditation: A contextual approach.
Peter Sedlmeier
Peter Sedlmeier, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. He teaches mainly courses on research methods and evaluation, but also on computer modelling, judgment under uncertainty, and cognitive science. He has written and edited five books, among them, Improving statistical reasoning: Theoretical models and practical implications, as well as numerous book chapters and articles in leading international psychology journals and edited books. His research focuses on the processing of time and frequency, psychology of music, judgmental errors, associative learning and, more recently, Indian psychology. He has held a two-year Humboldt-Fellowship at the University of Chicago, USA, and was a guest professor at Pondicherry University, India.
Bahman A. K. Shirazi
Bahman A. K. Shirazi, Ph.D., is currently a faculty member and archives coordinator at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco and an adjunct faculty at Sofia University, USA (formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology). He has taught in the areas of integral psychology, research methodology, psychology of Sufism, and developmental psychology among other areas. His publications include book chapters and articles in the areas of integral psychology and Sufi psychology, including a book chapter titled: ‘Integral psychology: The metaphors and processes of personal integration’ (in Consciousness and its transformation, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2001), and two book chapters on integral psychology: ‘Integral psychology: Psychology of the whole human being’ (in Consciousness and healing: Integral approaches to mind-body medicine, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Elsevier pub., 2005) and ‘Dimensions of integral psychology’ (in Unity in diversity: Fifty years of cultural integration, Cultural Integration Fellowship, 2004). He has been a guest editor for ReVision journal and is a contributing editor to the online journal Integral Review.
Anjum Sibia
Anjum Sibia is Professor of Psychology at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi. She has conducted researches, published and presented papers/book chapters in the area of emotions and learning, innovative school practices, teacher questioning, peer tutoring, emotional intelligence and prepared monographs and exemplar materials. Her publications include research monographs, Life at Mirambika and Valuing teacher questioning and chapters in Introduction to psychology, textbooks for senior secondary stage. She has co-edited Handbook of personality measurement in India, Functional assessment guide: A handbook for primary teachers and self learning module Assessment and appraisal in guidance and counselling. She is also associated with training counsellors in the area of Assessment and Appraisal for Guidance and Counselling. Her other areas of interest/work include qualitative case study, caring in teaching, aesthetics in education, and evaluation of psychology textbooks.
Kundan Singh
Kundan Singh, Ph.D. is an Associate Core Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto and Adjunct Faculty the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco from where he obtained his doctorate in Humanities. Kundan is specifically interested in translating spiritual practice for inner and outer transformation, which includes building a new consciousness for global and local social change. Author of a book titled “The Evolution of Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrishna, and Swami Vivekananda,” and a few book chapters and journal articles like “Beyond Postmodernism: Towards a Future Psychology,” “Relativism, Self-Referentiality, and Beyond Mind,” “Relativism and Its Relevance for Psychology,” and “Beyond Mind: Towards a Future Psychology,” his areas of research include Integral Yoga of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, Contemporary and Traditional Vedanta, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Sufism of the Indian subcontinent, Spirituality and Social Action, Globalization, Social Change and Personal Responsibility, Indian Psychology, Transpersonal Psychology, Postcolonial and Postmodern Psychology, Integral Psychology, Yogic Psychology, Cultural Psychology, Theoretical Psychology, Social Psychology, Depth Psychology, Postmodern Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Epistemology, Critical Thought and Deconstruction, Cross-cultural Psychology and East-West Studies among a few others.
K. M. Tripathi
K. M. Tripathi is a clinical psychologist by training. Presently, he is Deputy Director in Centre for Yoga, Malaviya Bhawan, Banaras Hindu University with which he has been associated for the last 24 years. Repeatedly elected as Secretary, Indian Academy of Yoga during 1990 to 2000, he has been the joint editor of the quarterly journal of the Academy, The Yoga Review, for 3 years. Besides editing the book Yogabhyasa avam swasthya—Ek kshetra pustika, he has contributed 7 chapters in books and authored and co-authored 34 papers and articles. His main area of interest is Indian approaches for the promotion of mental health.
Suneet Varma
Suneet Varma is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi. His research interests include philosophy of psychology/ theoretical psychology, the Indian perspective on psychology, and integral psychology. His most recent writing is titled, ‘Bhakti and well-being: Healing and beyond’.