Sri Aurobindo contends that consciousness exists in a continuum and is independent of human existence, thought or feeling

About My Research Libraries Lit. Reviews Posted by: Dorianne 30 January 2008
IRB (Institutional Review Board) Demystified……..

All academic research institutions in the US are required to have Institutional Review Boards (IRB’s) to ensure that research is conducted in an ethical manner and does no harm to the participants. I have just completed my first IRB application, because I wish to interview six people for my final in-depth Human Development and Consciousness knowledge area (KA) paper. Here’s the description of the research that I wrote for the application:
This research project was inspired by my KA702 overview reading assignment of Satprem’s Sri Aurobindo, or The Adventure of Consciousness (1968). Aurobindo contends that consciousness exists in a continuum and is independent of human existence, thought or feeling. There is no such thing as unconsciousness; only other consciousness. Satprem describes the planes of the mind that one encounters in seeking higher consciousness, including ordinary, higher, illumined, intuitive, overmind and supramental mind consciousness. He states there are several paths to higher consciousness, but meditation is the most common.

The final section of Satprem’s book discusses Aurobindo’s goal to evolve the human species to a new level of existence and physical being in order to save our species and our planet from extinction. Although this seems to be far-fetched, we already have documented evidence of mind over matter. Dr. Bruce Lipton, in his book, The Biology of Belief (2005) has spent the past 30 years researching DNA and how the mind can alter the behavior of our genes. Yogis and people who meditate regularly have been able to fast for months, consume poison without adverse affects and levitate their bodies. People reduce their blood-pressure and eliminate migraine headaches through biofeedback techniques. Mind-healing and prayer have been proven to heal cancer, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.
My interest for this project is to understand the experience of these higher planes of consciousness during and after meditation. I have had my own experiences through meditation practices and I wish to add narratives related to other meditators’ experience. I plan to compare the narratives with each other and with Western and non-Western consciousness theories...

Lipton, B. H. (2005). The biology of belief: unleashing the power of consciousness, matter and miracles (1st ed.). Santa Rosa, CA: Mountain of Love/Elite Books.
Satprem. (1968). Sri Aurobindo: or, The adventure of consciousness (1st U.S. ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
Categories: research Tags: academia, consciousness, education, IRB, meditation, PhD, research