Keynote Presenter

Matthijs Cornelissen

Matthijs Cornelissen teaches Integral Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry, and is the director of the Indian Psychology Institute. He is a Dutch physician who settled in India in 1976.

From 1977 to 1992 he worked in the Delhi Branch of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, where he co-founded, together with Neeltje Huppes, Mirambika, a research center for integral education. In 1992 he moved to the main Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.

Presently he is involved in a variety of projects concerned with the development of a new approach to psychology based on the Indian tradition. To this end he founded the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Consciousness Studies in 2001, and the Indian Psychology Institute in 2006.

He organized several conferences, seminars, and workshops on Indian psychology, and edited three books on the same subject: Consciousness and Its Transformation (2001); Indian Psychology, Consciousness, and Yoga (2004); and Foundations of Indian Psychology (in 2 volumes) (2010). Matthijs contributes Indian Psychology–related blogs to the Indian Psychology Institute website.

How Sri Aurobindo's View Gives Meaning, Direction, and Infinity to Life

This plenary session will offer participants a chance to go within as we look at how Sri Aurobindo's teaching and practice gives meaning, direction, and infinity to life.

The Transformation of the Lower Vital

Insights on transforming our lower nature.