Thomas G. Howe Publishing Honorarium
Our 2011 Thomas G. Howe Publishing Honorarium was awarded to Kavita Byrd for her contribution"Kundalini and the Role of the Feminine in Global Transformation". In her paper Kavita presents a compelling argument for us to honour both the feminine nature in ourselves and women's role on society. As she states, the microcosmos reflects the macrocosmos, there is no question that the imbalance of power between actual men and women in society reflects and reinforces the imbalance between masculine and feminine principles and energies in the collective consciousness.' It is clear that change is required in both our society and social structures around the world if humankind is to prosper. ICR is grateful to Kavita for her submission and pleased to publish this essay as a part of our Honorarium program.
TO ENCOURAGE KUNDALINI RESEARCH
ICR has established an Honorarium Fund to encourage and support those researchers and authors who write and submit articles and research papers to ICR that further the Institute's research.
To date much of ICR’s efforts in this regard have been focused on literary research that relates kundalini experience to mystics and geniuses from different spiritual traditions. For an overview of these efforts click here. A description of the characteristics and attributes of kundalini experience and mystical experience often being explored in these papers may be found here.
A broader look at the Institute’s research goals is presented in the "Memorandum for Kundalini Research" and follows the Kundalini hypothesis as first set out by Gopi Krishna:
Within a framework of remarkably similar characteristics, the mystic, the genius, the psychic and some of the mentally ill exhibit extraordinary states of consciousness. We propose to investigate whether one psycho-physiological process, Kundalini, is responsible for these phenomena.
The following abstract briefly summarizes the proposed research:
Research has been proposed to investigate the hypothesis that there is a specific psycho-physiological mechanism, referred to as Kundalini in esoteric scriptures, in human beings. The Kundalini hypothesis suggests that human evolution has proceeded by the action of this mechanism in the human body and brain. Traditionally, Kundalini is held to be responsible for creativity, inspiration, genius, mystical experience, psychic phenomena and, in its morbid form, certain classes of mental illness. The proposed research would involve the collection, analysis, and documentation of both psychological and biological data relative to the common characteristics which appear to be the result of an awakened Kundalini. We believe that these objectives can be accomplished via the following avenues of investigation:
- Literary research into the lives and writings of great mystics and geniuses and the written and oral traditions of ancient esoteric teachings.
- The acquisition of statistical data from persons experiencing the symptoms of a Kundalini awakening.
- The validation of the Kundalini hypothesis through a successful "awakening" in selected subjects within a scientifically monitored environment.
Qualifying authors will be acknowledged each August at ICR's Annual General Meeting. The amount of the Honorarium will come from the interest earned on the endowing funds.
To be considered, the completed article must be a minimum of 4,000 words in length, and submitted to the Article Review Committee. More information on the academic standards and expectations relating to papers being submitted to the Honorarium Fund may be found here. For interested authors, an outline and abstract of your proposed article should be submitted to ICR at ppond@icrcanada.org.
We look forward to receiving contributions that will further the advancement of knowledge of the Kundalini phenomena.
For those of you who are not inclined to write an article but would like to contribute to the Research effort, contributions to the Thomas G. Howe Publishing Honorarium Fund are welcome click here .
