International conference on “Exploring Consciousness- From Non- Locality to Non- Duality: The Man- Machine Debate” inaugurated

Union Minister of Ayush Shri Sarbananda Sonowal today inaugurated the international conference on Consciousness with the theme, “Exploring Consciousness- From Non- Locality to Non- Duality: The Man- Machine Debate” at NIMHANS, Bengaluru. The conference is organized by India Foundation and NIMHANS and supported by Ministry of Ayush.

 

On this occasion, Shri SharbanandaSonowal said, “India is endowed with a tradition of spiritual inquiry closely connected to the study of nature and life, which developed into the sciences of Ayurveda and yoga. India is an ideal meeting ground for pioneering research in the field of consciousness studies, in relation with the quest for attaining and maintaining health and wellbeing in the mind and in the body at the individual and social level.”

The conference will bring together some of the most eminent researchers and inventors in the areas of physics, biology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, quantum computing and allied fields as well as scholars and spiritual teachers of the major Indic Spiritual and psychological disciplines and doctrines.

Earlier in the day the Minister also inaugurated the Centre of Excellence project in the Department of Integrative Medicine, NIMHANS, Bengaluru as part of “AYURSWASTHYA YOJANA”, a flagship programme under Ministry of Ayush. The Centre of Excellence (CoE) will strengthen competencies of Ayush professionals in Education technology, Research & innovation and others.

Main objectives of the CoE project at NIMHANS is to conduct clinical trials in four neuro-psychiatric disorders to establish efficacy, safety and proposed mechanism of Integrated Yoga and Ayurveda treatment approaches. It will also understand the Integrative neurobiology of Neuropsychiatric Disorders (“Doshic-Brain”), create a unified digital database and train and develop clinician-scientists who have niche skills-sets in examining brain-health from both traditional and modern scientific approaches.