Homepage of R. M. Matthijs Cornelissen

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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 centre 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 occasionally contributes an Indian Psychology related blog to the ipi-website.
He can be reached at matthijs@ipi.org.in


Indian Psychology related articles

 

  1. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2011). Types of knowledge and what they allow us to see: How our research methods affect the quality of our psychological understanding
  2. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2011). Are Schools Injurious to Health?

    3. Educational theories and policies tend to include noble and inspiring ideals regarding the "all-round development" of the students. The practice lives, however, rarely up to the intent. More often than not, the content of the curriculum and the manner in which it is transacted are such, that a negative effect on the healthy development of the students is almost inevitable. This chapter asks attention for some of these factors, and suggests that much could be gained, if we would be more open to what the Indian tradition can contribute to contemporary psychology.

  3. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs, Misra, Girishwar & Varma, Suneet (2011). Introduction to Foundations of Indian Psychology

    4. A short introduction to Indian Psychology

  4. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2009). Sri Aurobindo, A short biography
  5. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2007). In Defence of Rigorous Subjectivity

    6. This article gives the basic argument why rigorous, yoga-based, research of first person experience is necessary to take Psychology further. It is based on a keynote given at the Annual Conference of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the BPS in 2007.

  6. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2006). Research about yoga and research in yoga: Towards rigorous research in the subjective domain

    7. This article tries to explain how first-person, yoga-based research can be made rigorous and reliable.

  7. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2006). What is knowledge? A reflection based on the work of Sri Aurobindo

    8. This article looks from an experiential angle at the different types of knowledge that are involved in yoga-based research. A slightly shorter version has been included in Matthijs Cornelissen, Girishwar Mishra and Suneet Varma (eds.) (2011), Foundations of Indian Psychology (Vol. 1), New-Delhi: Pearson.

  8. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2003). Onward she passed… Rejection as described in Savitri

    9. The article takes examples from “Savitri”, a book by Sri Aurobindo, to explain the concept of “rejection”, one of the three main skills needed for any true spiritual endeavour. It traces the crucial role played by “rejection” in the yoga of Ashwapati and Savitri.

  9. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2002). Integrality

    10. An informal talk given at the Cultural Integration Fellowship in San Fransisco, linking the concept of integrality back to the Sanskrit word "purna" (April 2002)

  10. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2002). Sri Aurobindo’s Evolutionary Ontology of Consciousness

    11. In this article a comparison is drawn between Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary conceptualization of consciousness and the concepts of consciosuness more commonly encountered in contemporary consciousness sudies. A number of ontological and epistemological questions arising out of this comparison are discussed.

  11. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2001). Introducing Indian Psychology, the Basics
  12. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2001). Introduction to Consciousness and Its Transformation
  13. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2001). Towards an Integral Epistemology of Consciousness: A radical proposal based on Sri Aurobindo's work

    14. A paper presented at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore during a conference on Consciousness and Evolution (June 2001)

  14. Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2000). The Integration of Psychological Knowledge from the Spiritual Traditions in the Psychology Curriculum

    15. A paper published in the journal of the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology section of the British Psychological Society (August 2000)