Bhaktivedanta Institute

Through its distinctive research and degree programs, the Bhaktivedanta Institute (B.I.) is in the forefront of the newly emerging scientific field of Consciousness Studies. In 1990, the Institute conducted in San Francisco, the First International Conference on the Study of Consciousness Within Science, in which fourteen major research scientists including three Nobel Laureates presented papers. The Institute has, since then, conducted, the world's only and longest running colloquium on science and consciousness in the Bay Area. As a logical culmination of these activities, the Bhaktivedanta Institute started in 1997 the world's first (and so far the only) full-fledged graduate degree (M.S./Ph.D.) program in "Consciousness Studies", in collaboration with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, one of India's foremost technological universities. This program is based on the Institute's own research initiative within the new field of consciousness studies.