The Laboratory of Evolution

The research unit known as the “Laboratory of Evolution” began in 1984 in one of the available spaces at Bharat Nivas, as a temporary location. In 1985, the LOE became the LOE-CHU, thanks to the addition of a twin research unit, the Centre for Human Unity. The overall purpose of the joint unit was to be a centre of documentation and training, a dynamic focus for stimulating research done in Auroville and elsewhere concerning the further evolution of our human species, which Sri Aurobindo and The Mother not only announced but opened the way for. Focused on the evolutive vision and work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and several related subjects from traditional knowledge such as religion and esoterism as well as contemporary sciences including Physics, Biology, New Dimension, NDE, Body Consciousness and Health, the library is a constant reminder that the whole earth itself is a “laboratory of evolution”.

The LOE lending library is open to Aurovilians, Newcomers and Guests as well as Volunteers. They can find the complete works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in several languages and also books written by the Ashram disciples, Aurovilians as well as CDs and DVDs related to Auroville (films and lectures).

The unit’s most visible aspect until now has been its specialised library, covering the numerous topics related to the study of evolution, past and future, seen both from a scientific and a spiritual point of view in the light of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s evolutionary vision and work. Besides what concerns those specific topics, Aurovilians, Newcomers and guests can find in the LOE-CHU multimedia library a whole range of books, magazines, CDs and cassettes in many languages about evolution and related topics, with the possibility of obtaining further information and advice if requested.

The research aspect of the unit has developed steadily over the years, and the various expressions of that research are attracting more and more interest, from outsiders as well as from Aurovilians. On an ongoing basis the unit is engaged in the following research work:

• Integral Yoga and its confluence with the emerging new scientific paradigms in physics, biology, medicine, history, etc.
• An Index of Mother’s Agenda, the 13 volume record of Mother’s pioneering steps towards a conscious and transformed body, the future body, which evolution is already now preparing for a transformed human species.
• The secret consciousness in our body cells and how to awaken and develop it (a book is currently being written on this topic, and a number of workshops have been held).
• Messages and other texts by The Mother about Auroville. These have all been put together into one large compilation, which individuals or working groups in Auroville can photocopy for their own use. Others just ask orally for what they need.
• Development for many years of an innovative board game, “Gayatri”: evolution played as “the adventure of consciousness and joy” (Sri Aurobindo, Savitri).
• Flowers and consciousness.
• Awakening of body consciousness through hatha yoga and martial arts.
• Research on chakras.

Some years ago the unit put up an exhibition on the ancient idealistic city created more than 3,000 years ago in Egypt by the Pharaoh Akhenaton on the present site of Amarna. The exhibition was prepared and presented by one of the members of LOE/CHU, based on research started by another member and greatly enlarged by this member. This research, which has been published as a beautiful bilingual small book with many remarkable pictures, shows a deep similarity on many points between the ideals of that ancient city and those of Auroville.

On-going interviews of various Aurovilians are being collected in volume after volume of a research project called ‘Auroville Agenda’, which aims at documenting as much as possible of Auroville’s collective inner development through that of its individual participants. One important area of research envisioned also from the start needs to be added to what is already being done: the kind of scientific research which a “laboratory of evolution” ought also to do. For example, to experiment with the diverse biofeedback instruments which show the physiological effects that the various states of consciousness have on the human body.

With the help of such devices, even children could learn (to a certain extent) how to be, at will, in a specific state of consciousness, and how to communicate more consciously with their body. Sri Aurobindo and Mother underlined how helpful it would be to add the scientific approach to the purely inner, spiritual approach in our evaluative endeavour: this would be one way to follow their advice on this point.

All the aspects of the work encompassed by the vast scope of the unit are presented to the outside world through a big website/blog, which keeps being improved and made ever more supple, easy to access, and to explore.