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. (AbD) 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.)

He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Free Speech Movement during the 60's at Berkeley and was the Founding Director or the Appropriate Technology Group at MIT from 1975 to 1979. His personal teachers and mentors have included Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome; Amory Lovins, Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute; Prof. Carroll Wilson, first Director of the US Atomic Energy Commission & then a member of the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome; Peter Senge, Founder of the Society for Organizational Leaning and author of “The Fifth Discipline” and “The Dance of Change”; Stan Krippner, then President of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; the architect-philosopher Paolo Soleri; Oberto Airaudi (Falco), the spiritual leader at the Federation of Damanhur in Italy; and Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, the co-founders of Integral Yoga and the Auroville international community in India.

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 retired from the hi-tech fast lane and 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 also lived for 6-months per year 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 is presently the Founding Editor of SCIY (Science, Culture and Integral Yoga), a webzine which in 2 years has grown from its 4 founders to over 25,000 viewers located in 80 countries. Ron and his Hollywood Television-Director wife Kim live in the beach community of Marina del Rey, California. They're now planning a move to the west coast of the Big Island in Hawaii.

Hi Ranjan,

Your inquiry encouraged me to post a new article with information about the backgrounds of SCIY's Editors. You can view it at:

http://www.sciy.org/blog/INTROtoSCIY/Gettingstarted/_archives/2005/11/26/3377312.html

Hi Ron,

What was MVN's role on SCIY?


-RNN