As SCIY's readership has steadily increased during the 21 months since its founding in September 2005, the inclusion of the term "Integral Yoga" in its name has been a source of ongoing misunderstanding...

In the years since Sri Aurobindo coined it in the early 1900's, the terms "integral" and "yoga" have been adopted by many other individuals and organizations. E.g., in the United States, Ken Wilbur has become strongly associated with the integral thought movement and founded the Integral Institute in 1998. And in contrast to its Indian spiritual meaning, the word "yoga" is often interpreted in the West as a set of exercises and postures for relaxation and physical conditioning...

We're posting this article to request feedback from SCIY's readers. What do you think about this proposed name change?   more »

For the first time, a group led by Nobel laureate Eric Cornell at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder has confirmed a 1955 prediction, by physicist Evgeny Lifschitz, that temperature affects the Casimir force, the attraction between two objects when they come to within 5 millionths of a meter (approximately 1/5,000 of an inch) of each other or less. These efforts heighten the understanding of the force and enable future experiments to better account for its effects...

What was happening here? The Casimir force arises from effects of the vacuum (empty space). According to quantum mechanics, the vacuum contains fleeting electromagnetic waves, in turn consisting of electric and magnetic fields. The electric fields can slightly rearrange the charge in atoms. Such "polarized" atoms can then feel a force from an electric field. The vacuum's electric fields are altered by the presence of the glass, creating a region of maximum electric field that attracts the atoms. ...    more »

This is Part 1 of a series of quoted passages from the book The Field: the Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, by science journalist Lynn McTaggart. It’s an excellent non-technical explanation about the metaphysical implications of modern quantum theory, especially what’s called the ‘Zero Point Field.’ I hope this can provide a useful vocabulary for our ongoing dialogues re possible relationships between science and spirituality. I’ll say more in future comments to these articles. ~ ron

...The notion of an electromagnetic field is simply a convenient abstraction invented by scientists (and represented by lines of 'force', indicated by direction and shape) to try to make sense of the seemingly remarkable actions of electricity and magnetism and their ability to influence objects at a distance — and, technically, into infinity — with no detectable substance or matter in between. Simply put, a field is a region of influence. As one pair of researchers aptly described it: 'Every time you use your toaster, the fields around it perturb charged particles in the farthest galaxies ever so slightly.' ... In the quantum world, quantum fields are not mediated by forces but by exchange of energy, which is constantly redistributed in a dynamic pattern. This constant exchange is an intrinsic property of particles, so that even 'real' particles are nothing more than a little knot of energy which briefly emerges and disappears back into the underlying field. According to quantum field theory, the individual entity is transient and insubstantial. Particles cannot be separated from the empty space around them. Einstein himself recognized that matter itself was 'extremely intense' — a disturbance, in a sense, of perfect randomness — and that the only fundamental reality was the underlying entity — the field itself. ...

The Zero Point Field is a repository of all fields and all ground energy states and all virtual particles — a field of fields. ...

The existence of the Zero Point Field implied that all matter in the universe was interconnected by waves, which are spread out through time and space and can carry on to infinity, tying one part of the universe to every other part. The idea of the Zero Point Field might just offer a scientific explanation for many metaphysical notions, such as the Chinese belief in the life force, or qi, described in ancient texts as something akin to an energy field. It even echoed the Old Testament's account of God's first dictum: 'Let there be light', out of which matter was created. ... If all subatomic matter in the world is interacting constantly with this ambient ground-state energy field, the subatomic waves of the Zero Point Field are constantly imprinting a record of the shape of everything. As the harbinger and imprinter of all wavelengths and all frequencies, the Zero Point Field is a kind of shadow of the universe for all time, a mirror image and record of everything that ever was. In a sense, the vacuum is the beginning and the end of everything in the universe. ... If that were true, it meant every part of the universe could be in touch with every other part instantaneously. ...

... If matter wasn't stable, but an essential element in an underlying ambient, random sea of energy ... then it should be possible to use this as a blank matrix on which coherent patterns could be written, particularly as the Zero Point Field had imprinted everything that ever happened in the world through wave interference encoding. This kind of information might account for coherent particle and field structures. But there might also be an ascending ladder of other possible information structures, perhaps coherent fields around living organisms, or maybe this acts a a non-biochemical 'memory' in the universe. It might even be possible to organize these fluctuations somehow through an act of will. ... this represented nothing less than a unifying concept of the universe, which showed that everything was in some sort of connection and balance with the rest of the cosmos. The universe's very currency might be learned information, as imprinted upon this fluid, mutable field of information. The Zero Point Field demonstrated that the real currency of the universe — the very reason for its stability — is an exchange of energy. If we were all connected through the Zero Point Field, then it just might be possible to tap into this vast reservoir of energy information and extract information from it. With such a vast energy bank to be harnessed, virtually anything was possible — that is, if human beings had some sort of quantum structure allowing them access to it. But there was the stumbling block. That would require that our bodies operated according to the laws of the quantum world. ...   more »

In January 2007, SCIY's readership rose to a new high of 14,365 individuals, a 16% increase from December '06. Those readers viewed SCIY's pages a total of 81,769 times, a 40% increase from Dec. '06 and also a new record.

SCIY's readers have now accessed SCIY a total of 449,745 times from September 2005 through February 2007. ...   more »

This is one of the best summaries of the science of climate change and global warming forecasting I've seen. It's by Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT, who was recognized in 2006 by Time magazine as "one of the world’s 100 most influential people." Highly recommended.

...The evolution of the scientific debate about anthropogenic climate change illustrates both the value of skepticism and the pitfalls of partisanship... general awareness of the issue dates to a National Academy of Sciences report in 1979 that warned that doubling CO2 content might lead to a three-to-eight-degree increase in global average temperature. Then, in 1988, James Hansen, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, set off a firestorm of controversy by testifying before Congress that he was virtually certain that a global-warming signal had emerged from the background climate variability... Most scientists were deeply skeptical of Hansen’s claims; I certainly was...

At roughly this time, radical environmental groups and a handful of scientists influenced by them leapt into the fray with rather obvious ulterior motives. This jump-started the politicization of the issue, and conservative groups, financed by auto makers and big oil, responded with counterattacks... A very small number of climate scientists adopted dogmatic positions and in so doing lost credibility among the vast majority who remained committed to an unbiased search for answers... On the right, the search began for negative feedbacks that would counter increasing greenhouse gases: imaginative ideas emerged, but they have largely failed the acid test of comparison to observations. But as the dogmatists grew increasingly alienated from the scientific mainstream, they were embraced by political groups and journalists, who thrust them into the limelight. This produced a gross distortion in the public perception of the scientific debate. Ever eager for the drama of competing dogmas, the media largely ignored mainstream scientists whose hesitations did not make good copy. As the global-warming signal continues to emerge, this soap opera is kept alive by a dwindling number of deniers constantly tapped for interviews by journalists who pretend to look for balance...    more »

Thanks to RY Deshpande for this wonderful link!

Audio recordings of The Mother reading Savitri, compiled by Narad.

Cavaet: Listening to these recordings could change your life ...   more »

In December 2006, SCIY's readership rose to a new high of 12,415 individuals, a 37% increase from November. SCIY's readers have now logged in from over 80 countries: ...   more »

The concluding section on Techno-Capitalism and Post-Human Destinies by Debashish Banerji continues its second installment's reflections on the Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence presented to us as the emerging destiny of post-Enlightenment Modernity and compares this destination with its appropriation and supercession in the Neo-Vedantic teleology of Sri Aurobindo. What are the differences, dangers and promises of these destinies and what are the conditions for achieving an alternate destination? ...   more »

A Spiritual Biography of Savitri

02: Hard is it to Persuade Earth-Nature's Change

Hard is it to persuade earth-nature's change;
Mortality bears ill the eternal's touch:
It fears the ...   more »

A Spiritual Biography of Savitri

01: Savitri Awakes among the Human Tribes
 
And Savitri too awoke among these tribes
That hastened to join the brilliant Summoner's chant
And, lured ...   more »

“Savitri is represented in the poem as an incarnation of the Divine Mother,” said Sri Aurobindo in a letter written in 1936 about his epic 'Savitri.' “This incarnation is supposed to have taken place in far past times when the whole thing had to be opened out, so as to hew the ways of Immortality.”

In one of the evening talks he used to have with his attendant disciples, after the accident to his right thigh bone on 24 November 1938, Sri Aurobindo explained the symbolism in 'Savitri' as follows: “Satyavan whom Savitri marries is the symbol of the Soul descended into the Kingdom of Death; and Savitri, who is, as you know, the Goddess of Divine Light and Knowledge, comes down to redeem Satyavan from Death’s grasp. Aswapati, the father of Savitri, is the Lord of Energy. Dyumatsena is ‘one who has the shining hosts’. It is all inner movement, nothing much as regards outer action.

The poem opens with the Dawn. Savitri awakes on the day of destiny, the day when Satyavan has to die. The birth of Savitri is a boon of the Supreme Goddess given to Aswapati. Aswapati is the Yogi who seeks the means to deliver the world out of Ignorance.” ...   more »

Announcing an Auroville Conference:

The Collective Yoga of Man: A World in Process
January 12-14, 2007 - Auroville, India

All the ‘knowings’ of the past pale in comparison. A ‘being’ emerges.. borne on the crest of a new wave.. that rises from the oceans of the Infinite. Parameters of convention cease – psychologically speaking. There is no known ‘psychology’ to determine what is happening. It is a veritable adventure into the ‘unknown’. An ‘unknown’ of ‘being’ itself…
What then are the ‘tools’ at our disposal? Are there any tools? Or, is there only the action.. of a movement forward.. into a future of hitherto unknown possibilities.
The seeds, possibly, of a new creation? Creation of a new man – who learns to live in another world? Or, who learns to live in the world in ‘another’ way!

To be, to live, to explore this ‘other’ way becomes the one pursuit of all our seekings. ...   more »

SCIY's statistics for the month of October 2006 again showed rapid growth, nearly doubling over September. SCIY's readers have now logged in from over 70 countries ...   more »

I wonder if Auroville's planners are keeping up with the immensely creative work on urban design now underway around the world?

New York’s Van Alen Institute['s] The Good Life: New Public Spaces of Recreation, an exhibition at Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 showcasing dozens of projects either planned, under construction, or already realized that insert the rare combination of scenic refuge and pure pleasure into the hurly-burly of cities. “People are just desperate for these sites,” senior curator Zoë Ryan says. “Not everyone can escape the city during the summer, so this sort of destination has become increasingly important.” ...   more »

SCIY's statistics for the month September 2006 again showed rapid growth, approximately doubling over August ...   more »

This is the 3D technology that the World Memory Theatre (see prior posting) will be using for its public-access exploratorium theatre. I'm looking forward to experiencing it myself.

IN a nondescript optics lab in tucked into an anonymous office park in the San Fernando Valley, the photon hackers of Deep Light are showing me the future of media. The object of their affection is a small screen on which an animated gladiator is clashing scimitars with a horned monster in a Coliseum-like setting. But this isn't a flat cartoon image: it's full 3-D space, the combatants circling each other inches from my eyes so convincingly that my hand twinges to grab them - and I'm not wearing those clunky red-and-blue cardboard glasses, either. I'm seeing a 3-D image with the naked eye. ...   more »

SCIY is continuing its remarkable growth rate. Our total page views for the month of August 2006 increased by 63% over July, to over 20,000 views! - Here are the details: ...   more »