A View From India on Women Achievers, Knowledge Systems, Psychology, and Psi

Abstract

In the millennia old cultural moorings of the Indian sub-continent, the feminine principle, Shakti (prakrti, primordial cosmic energy, nature), is a core principle. Shakti is venerated in her benign and malevolent forms across the country. Despite the uncertainties of life, human nature, and society, women have played a significant role in the survival and progress of this ancient civilizattion. Indian women, in the formal and informal sectors, have contributed to the knowledge systems and the scientific enterprise. In the first part of this paper, I present a brief historical background on the status of women, and few recent examples of Indian women achievers. As a psi theorist, my interest rests in understanding the phenomena, for which understanding core concepts becomes a necessity. India is home to a diversity of philosophical schools and a vast body of literature that cover the body-mind-consciousness complex, with several scholars from the past to the present, contributing their views. Based in the Indian knowledge systems, Indian psychology has much to contribute the theoretical issues in psi. In the context of this special issue, an inter- and intra-school discussion becomes too vast. Thus, in this paper I take the approach of presenting a consolidated view without fidelity to any specific school of thought. In the first section relevant core concepts are briefly described. This is followed by briefly describing the views on psi perceptions, both in agreement and disagreement, as noted by scholars from the various schools of thought.