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Dear MG-ED-DV and MGTDEV members:
You and your colleagues are cordially invited to this special
conference:
Consciousness and the Future of Psychology:
A Conference Honoring Pioneering Psychologist Charles "Skip" Alexander
PLACE
Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa
DATES
Thursday October 22, 1998 (beginning in the evening) to Sunday, October
25,
1998 (ending at noon)
CONTENT
The conference will focus on the future of psychology in the areas
related
to Charles "Skip" Alexander's work. It will include:
* invited guest speakers
* poster presentations
* and reflections on the life and work of Charles N. Alexander
Dr. Alexander was a deep thinker and extremely productive researcher,
who
made important contributions to understanding consciousness and
consciousness-based approaches in a number of theoretical and applied
areas, including:
* Developmental psychology and higher states of consciousness
* Collective consciousness and peace research
* Health psychology
* Rehabilitation
* Organizational psychology
His work was on the cutting edge of these fields, focusing particularly
on
articulating and empirically testing the paradigm of consciousness
presented in the Vedic Science of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In this view,
consciousness is the fundamental level of nature, identical with the
"unified field of natural law," which can be directly experienced
through
meditation as pure consciousness, the simplest form of awareness. This
reality has been experienced and described by influential thinkers and
writers in different cultures throughout the ages.
In his more than 80 articles and books, Dr. Alexander articulated a
profound integration of the perspectives of Vedic Science and modern
science. He was able to connect the Vedic conceptualization of
consciousness to the language and concepts of various academic fields,
showing convergences and overlaps between these perspectives. This
conference is being organized in the spirit of his work to expand and
deepen understanding of these connections.
This gathering will be valuable for scholars and students interested in
exploring theoretical and empirical implications of consciousness for
various academic fields. It will also be useful for practitioners
interested in understanding and applying technologies of consciousness
based on this paradigm. All members of the conference will enjoy the
opportunity to network with scholars and innovative practitioners in
this
emerging area.
The sessions will focus on the speakers' own work as it connects to
consciousness and the future of their fields. Speakers may elaborate
connections with Dr. Alexander's work. Individuals familiar with Dr.
Alexander's work will serve as discussants.
An initial list of speakers at the conference includes (for fuller
biographical descriptions see the conference web site at
http://www.mum.edu/alex_conf/):
Overview:
David Orme-Johnson, Founding Chair, Psychology Department, Maharishi
University of Management.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Developing Higher States of Consciousness in the
Individual and the Society: An Overview of Charles Alexander's
Contribution
to Psychology"
Developmental Psychology and Higher States of Consciousness:
Ellen Langer, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Chair, Social Psychology
Program, Harvard University. Dr. Langer has authored a number of books
including Mindfulness (translated into eight languages), The Power of
Mindful Learning, and Higher Stages of Human Development: Perspectives
on
Adult Growth, edited with Dr. Alexander.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Mindfulness: When West Meets East"
Juan Pascual-Leone, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and senior
member
of the program in Developmental and Cognitive Processes, York
University,
Canada. Dr. Pascual-Leone is a leading developmental psychologist
responsible for initiating the Neo-Piagetian movement and developing a
dialectical constructivist approach to human development.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Mental Attention, Consciousness, and the
Progressive Emergence of Wisdom"
Frederick Travis, Ph.D., Chair, Psychology Department, Associate Dean of
the Graduate School and Director of the EEG/ Psychophysiology lab at
Maharishi University of Management.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "The Maharishi Junction Point Model of States of
Consciousness: A field model that places ordinary waking, sleeping, and
dreaming into the larger context of higher states of consciousness"
Susanne Cook-Greuter, lic. phil. l., from the University of Zurich,
co-edited a book entitled Transcendence and Mature Thought with Melvin
Miller and is collaborating with him on a volume on Spirituality and
Creativity.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Experiencing the Limits of the Rational Mind at
the Highest Stages of Ego Development: A Step Towards
Ego-Transcendence?"
Lynne Mason, Ph.D., Research Associate and Visiting Scholar at the
University of Minnesota (UM) at the Center for Spirituality and Healing
and
a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in
the
Psychology Department.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "The electrophysiological correlates of inner
awareness during sleep as an indicator of higher states of
consciousness"
Julia Guttmann, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology, Iowa Wesleyan
College.
Presentation Title: "Emotional Experience in Higher States of
Consciousness"
Rehabilitation:
Farrokh Anklesaria, Barrister at Law, Director of the Enlightened
Sentencing Project, and past International Director of Rehabilitation
Programs for Maharishi University of Management.
Presentation Title: "Overview and Practical Applications of
Maharishi's
Consciousness-Based Rehabilitation Program"
Hon. David C. Mason, Judge, 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri
Presentation Title: "Rehabilitation from Within: My Experience with
the
Transcendental Meditation Program in Sentencing and a Vision of Future
Possibilities"
Hon. Henry E. Autrey, Judge, 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri
Presentation Title: "A Judge's Perspective on the Use of the
Transcendental Meditation Program in Criminal Justice"
Hon. Anna Forder, Judge, 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri
Panel Chairperson for panel on consciousness-based approaches to
criminal rehabilitation.
Jayne Gackenbach, Ph.D., editor of Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain:
Perspectives on Lucid Dreaming and the forthcoming Psychology and the
Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implications.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Consciousness Studies as Rehabilitation Among
the
Central Alberta Cree"
Elaine Cassel, J.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology, Lord Fairfax
Community College and for 19 years criminal defense attorney in private
practice. Author of the forthcomingThe Psychology of Crime (with Douglas
Bernstein).
PRESENTATION TITLE: "The Three R's of Corrections (Retribution,
Revenge,
and Recidivism): Is There Room for Rehabilitation?"
Robert Ferguson, former director, Transcendental Meditation Program, MCI
Walpole, Massachusetts.
PRESENTATION TITLE: A view from the inside: The impact of the TM
Program in the lives of incarcerated men.
Kofi A. Kondwani, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health, Postdoctoral
Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health,
Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Kondwani has directed TM programs in
California and Georgia state prisons.
PRESENTATIOIN TITLE: Rehabilitation from inside out: Using the TM
technique
to improve inmate behavior and recidivism.
Field Nature of Consciousness, Collective Consciousness and Societal
Implications:
John Davies, L.L.B., Ph.D., Director Global Events Data System Project
and
Co-Director of the Partners in Conflict and Partners in Development
Project, Center for International Development and Conflict Management,
University of Maryland. Dr. Davies was one of the first to rigorously
measure the impact of group meditation on collective consciousness.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Political Culture, Collective Consciousness, and
Strategies for Conflict Management"
Jeffrey C. Alexander, Ph.D., Professor and former Chair, Department of
Sociology, UCLA, brother of Skip Alexander, and one of the leading
theorists in the field of sociology today.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Developmental Stages and Collective
Consciousness:
Sociological Reflections on some of Skip Alexander's Most Challenging
Ideas"
John Hagelin, Ph.D., Professor of Physics and Chair of the Physics
Department, Director of the Institute of Science, Technology, and Public
Policy at Maharishi University of Management. Dr. Hagelin has written
and
presented extensively on the connections between physics and
consciousness.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "The Quantum Physical Foundation of
Consciousness"
Roger Nelson, Ph.D., Coordinator of Research at the Princeton
Engineering
Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory, Princeton University, and Director
of
the Global Consciousness Project.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Laboratory Studies of Consciousness-Related
Anomalies"
Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D., Director of Research, Noetic Sciences Institute.
Dr. Schlitz has published numerous articles on cross cultural healing,
consciousness studies, psi research, sociolinguistics, and the sociology
of
science.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Intentionality: A Force for the Future"
Dean Radin, Ph.D., three-time President of the Parapsychological
Association and author of the award-winning The Conscious Universe .
PRESENTATION TITLE: "The nature of causality and a possible future
for
consciousness research"
Organizational Psychology:
William Torbert, Ph.D., Professor of Management at Boston College's
Carroll
School of Management, where he earlier served as Graduate Dean. He has
authored Managing the Corporate Dream, which won the Alpha Sigma Nu
national book award.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "A Developmental Approach to Social Science:
Integrating 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-Person Research/Practice through Single,
Double, and Triple-Loop Learning"
Dennis Heaton, Ed.D., Chairman of the School of Business and Public
Administration, Maharishi University of Management.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "The Effect of Higher Stages of Individual
Development on Performance in Organizations"
Harald Harung, Ph.D., President of Harvest, a consulting firm based in
Oslo, Norway and author of Invincible Leadership.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Higher Stages of Collective Development and
Organizational Transformation"
Mary Martha Stevens, RDH, Ph.D. Acting Program Director, Health and
Human
Services, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS. Dr.
Stevens
is former Manager of Health and Wellness for the Puritan-Bennett
Corporation in Overland Park, KS, where she initiated a model
Consciousness-Based Corporate Development Program.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Promoting Corporate Development Through
Transcendental Meditation: A Case Study at Puritan-Bennett Corporation"
Health Psychology:
Robert Schneider, M.D., is Dean of Maharishi University of
Management-College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine and Director of the
Center
for Health and Aging Studies. Dr. Schneider is a leading researcher on
the
effects of consciousness-based programs for hypertension, cardiovascular
disease, and aging.
PRESENTATION TITLE: "Consciousness and Health: Clinical Effectiveness
of
Maharishi Vedic Medicine"
Other speakers to be announced.
POSTER SESSIONS
Individuals wishing to present posters of original research in any of
the
five areas of this conference are invited to submit 200-300 word
abstracts
to the conference organizing committee at <
Alexconf@mum.edu> by
September
15, 1998. These posters should relate to the theme of the conference:
consciousness and the future of psychology. Abstracts will be included
in
the version of the conference proceedings published on the Internet and
may
be included in the published conference proceedings.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Proceedings of the conference will be published on the Internet and
possibly in book form.
ADDITIONAL CONFERENCE FEATURES
The host of this conference, Maharishi University of Management, is a
leader in consciousness research-its faculty has published more than 400
articles in this area-and has pioneered Consciousness-Based Education.
If
there is interest, participants will have an opportunity to:
* tour the MUM research facilities
* observe a demonstration of Yogic Flying-an aspect of the Maharishi
TM-Sidhi program for developing higher states of consciousness
* tour consciousness-based health rejuvenation facilities
* hear a presentation on Consciousness-Based Education
* tour the award-winning K-12 Maharishi School of the Age of
Enlightenment
* talk with members of the interdisciplinary faculty at MUM representing
the sciences and humanities who have been working together on issues of
consciousness for 25 years.
CONFERENCE FEES
Received before October 9
$125 adult full conference fee
$50 adult per day conference fee
$75 student full conference fee
$30 student per day conference fee
Special group rates for students of $15 per day per student are
available
when five or more students come from a single institution. The same rate
will apply to one accompanying faculty member for each group.
After October 9
$140 adult full conference fee
$60 adult per day conference fee
$85 student full conference fee
$35 student per day conference fee
Special group rates for students of $20 per day per student are
available
when five or more students come from a single institution. The same rate
will apply to one accompanying faculty member for each group.
WEB SITE
Please see the conference web site (http://www.mum.edu/alex_conf/) for
further information on the conference, including transportation and
lodging, conference schedule once it is finalized, and background on Dr.
Alexander's work.
REGISTRATION
There are three options for registering for the conference:
1) By phone: Call 515-472-1135 between the hours of 10-12:00 and
1:30-3:00.
If no one answers, leave your name and daytime telephone number so that
your call can be returned.
2) By e-mail: Send an e-mail to
conted@mum.edu with your name,
conference,
and credit card information. There is an e-mail link through the web
page
at
http://www.mum.edu/alex_conf/.
3. At the door: Payment can be made by check, credit card, or cash.
Charges
at the door are more expensive, as noted above under conference fees.
FURTHER INFORMATION
For questions on the conference send an e-mail to
Alexconf@mum.edu or
contact Dr. Jamie Grant at 515-472-7000 x5022.
Jamie Grant
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor of Education Communication numbers:
FM 1064 515.472.7000 x5022
(direct)
Maharishi University of Management 515.472.7884 (home &
fax)
Fairfield, Iowa USA 52557
jgrant@mum.edu (e-mail)
http://www.mum.edu
http://www.mum.edu/ed_dept/