This is a continually updated course developed over several years by a Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia. Though I haven't yet read all of it, my initial impression is that it's quite thorough and can provide a good background for reading SCIY.
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Part 1 consists of notes on the philosophical and scientific underpinnings of this course in consciousness. We establish the context of our discussion within the three major types of metaphysical philosophy, ask the questions that are naturally raised when one begins a study of conscious mind, summarize the scientific data that must be taken into account in any attempt to understand the phenomena of consciousness, and present a simple, understandable description of the philosophical and quantum theoretical basis for the need to include consciousness in our description of the material world.

We shall see that, from a sound, scientific point of view, not only is it impossible to understand the material world without considering the consciousness of its observer, but, in fact, it is Consciousness which manifests the world. However, it cannot be the individual consciousness of the observer that does this, but it must be nonlocal, universal Consciousness. ...   more »

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Prof. Debashish Banerji is now teaching online classes on Sri Aurobindo's opus "The Life Divine." You can listen to recordings of these classes here on this page or in Debashish's JYOTI Journal on SCIY at:

Life Divine classes via Skype, by Debashish Banerji, Ph.D.

Highly recommended!

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Notes:

1) These online classes began on March 22, 2007. To hear the early classes, go here, then scroll to the bottom of the page.

2) Click on the more » link below each Hipcast.com icon to see the beginning and end of each LD quote being discussed, and a link to an online version of the text graciously provided by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

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The conflict between being well behaved, being good, not gulping down more than your share, and being selfish enough to get your fair share, “is eternal and encompasses virtually all species on earth,” [the author] writes, and it likely occurs on any other planet that supports life, too, “because it is predicted at such a fundamental level by evolutionary theory.” How do higher patterns of cooperative behavior emerge from aggregates of small, selfish units? With carrots, sticks and ceaseless surveillance. In the human body, for example, nascent tumor cells arise on a shockingly regular basis, each determined to replicate without bound; again and again, immune cells attack the malignancies, destroying the outlaw cells and themselves in the process. The larger body survives to breed, and hence spawn a legacy far sturdier than any tumor mass could manage. ...   more »

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