Lessons from Utopia: Reflections on Peak Transformative Experiences in a University Studio in Auroville, India

Le Hunte, Bem; Ross, Katie; Clarence-Smith, Suryamayi Aswini; Rosegger, Aditi (2022) Lessons from Utopia: Reflections on Peak Transformative Experiences in a University Studio in Auroville, India. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Learning for Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 863-881.

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Abstract

This is an inquiry that sets out to create and observe transformative learning within a three-week global studio in Auroville, an intentional community in India. This global studio is an elective within the fourth year of the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation (BCII) at the University of Technology Sydney (Australia).By taking students from a highly experimental degree (BCII) into an experimental society (Auroville), we witnessed experiences described by students, facilitators, and Aurovilians as including an expanded awareness of self, of nature, of their cohort, and of a fresh connection to lived human and beyond-human unity. In this chapter, we define these as peak transformative experiences: intense and profound moments of ineffable illuminations and discoveries, sometimes even spiritual or mystical states of consciousness, which, with processes of meaning making and integration, can transform perceptions and enactions of self, identity, intrinsic values, and ways of being in society. We further uncover and synthesise the enabling conditions of these peak transformative experiences, and consider their relevance for transformative learning.

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	Education > Continuing Education Spirituality > Spirituality (General)
Depositing User:	Dr. Suryamayi Clarence-Smith
Date Deposited:	07 Mar 2022 07:01
Last Modified:	07 Mar 2022 07:01
URI:	http://aurorepo.in/id/eprint/230

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