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SCIY today announced three significant new features:

1) All Articles
2) IY-related Books
3) See Full Text of Recent Comments   more »

Please include a hotlink to each article you suggest.

Thanks,

~ ron (rjon)
SCIY Founding Editor

SCIY is provided as a free service to all. Anyone is welcome to read SCIY with no signup required. The founders, administrators and editors of SCIY are engaged in the study and practice of Sri Aurobindo's "Integral Yoga," a non-sectarian spiritual path toward realizing "a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity."* - Our aspiration for SCIY is to foster inclusive scientific, cultural and spiritual research that serves this realization. We invite those who share this aspiration to join us.

SCIY's original founders (in September 2005) were Ron Anastasia*, Debashish Banerji, Rich Carlson, and Rod Hemsell. Rich chose to resign in early 2008.

SCIY's Senior Editors (have Administrative privileges)

Ron Anastasia** (ronjon, Founding Editor)
RY Deshpande (RY Deshpande)

SCIY's Editors (have Article posting privileges)

Debashish Banerji (Debashish)
Kim Anway-Anastasia (Kim)
Rod Hemsell (Rod)
Vladimir Yatsenko (Vladimir)
Ulrich Mohrhoff (Koantum)
Prapanna Smith (Prapanna)
Rakesh Gade (Rakesh)
William M.H. Kötke

The "posts" on SCIY are analogous to the articles in a typical paper magazine, and the comments are similar to "Letters to the Editor." Those who wish to post comments to our posted articles are required to create free "Reader Accounts" (and provide bona fide email addresses so as to prevent spam bots from functioning).

A small group of volunteer "Editors" has the ability to post articles to SCIY. They all have relevant professional level backgrounds, HTML skills and English language competence to choose or write articles that meet our quality standards.

If you are interested in becoming an SCIY Editor, you are welcome to begin posting comments to existing articles so we can get to know you and the potential contribution you could make to SCIY.

Click here for more information re the background of SCIY's Current Editors.

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* SCIY is hosted on BlogHarbor.com, an independent, fee-based ISP. Ron is the "Owner" (BlogHarbor's term) of SCIY, meaning that he initiated SCIY on BlogHarbor and has been the sole funder of BlogHarbor's monthly hosting fees since then. One advantage of this arrangement is that SCIY can remain free of the distracting and often intrusive advertising of ad-based blogs and forums.

** Ron is the final arbiter of all disputes and the final authority re all administrative decisions, including the assignment of Administrator and Editor status, the banning of troublesome posters, and the deletion of articles and comments non-conforming to SCIY's groundrules. Note that this private, fee-based status differs from the large ad-supported public blogs and forums such as Google's 'Blogger,' MSN's 'Spaces', and Yahoo's 'Groups.'

SCIY is a webzine (an online multimedia magazine), with many different Categories and Topics being explored. For example, this article is posted within a subTopic called "Getting started," which is a "child" of a Topic called "HOW TO USE SCIY." And that Topic is a child of a Category called "INTRO TO SCIY," one of our 5 main Categories. This may sound a bit complex at first, but you'll soon find that it sounds more complicated than it actually is. Here's how it works: ...   more »

This will come up when you’re ready to post a new comment. It’s a system to prevent machine driven comment spam.

It works because character recognition computers can't easily read the digitally distorted verification word, which prevents them from accessing the commenting system. - Just type in the verify word.

SENIOR EDITORS (have administrative privileges)

Ron Anastasia (Founding Editor - "ronjon")
Ronjon's academic background is in cognitive psychology (Berkeley & Harvard), theoretical physics (U.C., Berkeley), and appropriate technology & system dynamics computer modeling of complex systems (MIT). His Ph.D. (Cand.) is in Humanistic Sciences with a focus on the interactions between consciousness changing practices and the development of sustainable values and lifestyles in the context of the world problematique. (”World Problematique” is a concept created by the Club of Rome to describe the set of crucial problems now facing humanity – including environmental & climatic, political, social, economic, technological, psychological and cultural factors.)

Ron founded several small high-tech companies during the 80s and early 90s in areas of personal computer training, holistic healthcare and appropriate technology. His ventures included the world's largest personal computer training center in the early 80s, a widely-used computerized holistic health blood analysis method during the middle 80s, and in the early 90s a photovoltaic R&D company which set a new world's record for solar cell efficiency using high-energy lasers for dopant implantation.

For the past 10 years Ron has been doing consulting and research around the world for various non-profit organizations. His passion has been working with intentional communities which integrate art and science with philosophy and spirituality into practical new models for sustainable development and human unity. He has worked closely with Paolo Soleri at Arcosanti, an experimental arcology in central Arizona, where he was the Co-Director with Michael Gosney of the biannual Paradox Conferences and wrote the Introduction to Soleri's coffee-table book What If? Collected Writings 1986-2000. He then lived half-time for three years at the Federation of Damanhur in the foothills of the Italian Alps while researching its fascinating work with esoteric physics. Ron's work is now focused on the international community of Auroville in Pondicherry, India, where he has lived for 2-4 months per year for the past several years.

Ron and his Hollywood Television-Director wife Kim live in the beach community of Marina del Rey, California.

R. Y. Deshpande
Dr. Deshpande was for many years a professor of Physics and the Associate Editor of Mother India, at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. Prior to that he was a Research Physicist at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, both in Bombay, and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California. He has headed a number of Atomic Energy and Space Projects in advanced technology. He is also the author of at least 50 scientific research papers in professional journals, and numerous books in poetry, prose, and edited prose on the subject of Integral Yoga. He is affiliated with the Savitri Bhavan research institute at Auroville.

EDITORS (have article-posting privileges)

Debashish Banerji (Debashish)
Debashish Banerji, Ph.D. (Indian Art History, UCLA). Former president of East-West Cultural Center and Sri Aurobindo Center, Los Angeles. He is a well-know teacher of Indian spiritual culture. He is a Faculty member of The Gnostic Center in India and the University of Philosophical Research (UPR) in Los Angeles, California and the Education Coordinator of UPR. He also curates art exhibits and lectures frequently on Integral Yoga in the US and India.

Kim Anway-Anastasia
Kim is Ron's spouse. She is a TV director who is currently the Director of the popular entertainment news show Access Hollywood, produced at the NBC Universal Studios in Burbank, California. She holds a Masters Degree in Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her major instrument is the silver flute. Her interests include rock climbing, underwater cave diving, scuba diving, and travel. She has frequently traveled to Auroville with Ron and has been a student of the Integral Yoga for several years.

Rod Hemsell
Rod is an educator and author who lived in Auroville and at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1968 to 1983. During this time he also traveled widely and spoke about Auroville and Sri Aurobindo's philosophy at centers and universities in India, as well as publishing articles and essays. In 1991 he founded the GAIA Learning Center in Crestone, Colorado, USA, and the GLOBE Charter School in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1995. He gave a lecture and presentation on Savitri and participated in a panel on Auroville at the 1993 Parliament of the Worlds Religions in Chicago. Since 1994 he has conducted annual Savitri Immersion workshops at the Sri Aurobindo Learning Center in Crestone. He is now a full-time resident of Auroville.

Vladimir Yatsenko
Vlad graduated from St. Petersburg University (Leningrad, Russia) in Oriental languages and Literature (Sanskrit and Indo-Aryan languages), and in General and Theoretical Linguistics. He studied at Poona University, in the Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit Studies, Vyakaranam, India. He is associated with Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune as a life-member. He joined Auroville in 1992 and since then has been teaching Sanskrit language, the Vedas, Upanishads, and the Gita, in Auroville and Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, and is now a researcher in residence at Savitri Bhavan in Auroville. He is currently doing his Doctorate in "Sri Aurobindo’s Thought” with SACAR (Sri  Aurobindo Center for Advanced Research) and HUA (Hindu University of America).

Ulrich Mohrhoff
Dr. Mohrhoff is a quantum physicist/philosopher who teaches contemporary physics and quantum philosophy at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry, India. He received his education (in physics) from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. His chief interests are the foundations of quantum mechanics, the ontological implications of contemporary physics, the nature of consciousness, the place of physics in the context of a larger reality, and the nature of that larger reality. He has published numerous articles on these subjects. He is currently the managing editor of AntiMatters, a recently launched online journal addressing issues in science and the humanities from non-materialistic perspectives.

Prapanna Smith
Prapanna is the Founder/President of the Center for Integral Education, the Rainbow Kids Integral School and the Integral Elementary School in La Jolla, a small oceanside suburb of San Diego, California. He holds a Masters Degree in Education Administration from the University of Redlands ,a California Administrative Credential, and a California Teaching Credential. During a 5-year career in California public education he taught all the subjects of the curriculum with at-risk middle school children, and social studies in the regular and GATE programs. Prapanna lived at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1998 to 2001 and, during that time, he was a teacher of History, Geography, Philosophy, and Study Skills at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre for Education (SAICE). During his tenure at SAICE, Prapanna was highly involved with the school's latest experiment in Free Progress Education, a truly student-centered approach to learning and teaching that is being developed and refined at the school. Prapanna is currently working on a Doctorate in Educational Leadership at UC San Diego and CSU San Marcos.

Rakesh Gade
Rakesh is a pharmacist by profession and is interested in chemistry and the biological sciences. He has been reading Sri Aurobindo's books for several years and has been a frequent contributor to article discussions on SCIY.

William M. H. Kötke
William is SCIY's newest Editor. He is a published author, professional editor and book publisher. For more info see:  www.angelfire.com/electronic/literaryservices/