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In memoriam Ron Jon Anastasia d. October 20th 2009

Originally posted on sciy.org by Rich Carlson on Thu 22 Oct 2009 05:04 PM PDT  




Ron's academic background was in experimental and cognitive psychology (U.C. Berkeley & Harvard), theoretical physics (U.C., Berkeley), and appropriate technology & system dynamics computer modeling of complex systems (MIT). His Ph.D. (AbD) was in Humanistic Sciences with a focus on the interactions between consciousness changing practices and the development of sustainable values and lifestyles in the context of the world problematique. (”World Problematique” is a concept created by the Club of Rome to describe the set of crucial problems now facing humanity – including environmental & climatic, political, social, economic, technological, psychological and cultural factors.)

Ron was a member of the Steering Committee of the Free Speech Movement during the 60's at U.C. Berkeley, where Ron graduated in 1969 with High Honors and he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society and Mensa. – In grad school at MIT Ron was the Founding Director of the Appropriate Technology Group at MIT from 1975 to 1979.

His personal teachers and mentors have included Buckminster Fuller (the inventor of the geodesic dome); Amory Lovins (Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute); MIT Professors Carroll Wilson (first Director of the US Atomic Energy Commission & then a member of the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome) and Peter Senge (Founder of the Society for Organizational Leaning and author of “The Fifth Discipline” and “The Dance of Change”); Stan Krippner (then President of the Association for Humanistic Psychology); the architect-philosopher Paolo Soleri; Oberto Airaudi (Falco, the spiritual leader at the Federation of Damanhur in Italy); and Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (the co-founders of Integral Yoga and the Auroville international community in India).

Ron founded several small high-tech companies during the 80s and early 90s in areas of personal computer training, holistic healthcare and appropriate technology. His ventures included the world's largest personal computer training center in the early 80s, a widely-used computerized holistic health blood analysis method during the middle 80s, and in the early 90s a photovoltaic R&D company which set a new world's record for solar cell efficiency using high-energy lasers for dopant implantation.

 Ron retired from the hi-tech fast lane and for the past 12 years was doing consulting and research around the world for various non-profit organizations. Ron's passion has been working with intentional communities which integrate art and science with philosophy and spirituality into practical new models for sustainable development and human unity. He  worked closely with Paolo Soleri at Arcosanti, an experimental arcology in central Arizona, where he was the Co-Director with Michael Gosney of the biannual Paradox Conferences and wrote the Introduction to Soleri's coffee-table book What If? Collected Writings 1986-2000.” He also lived for 6-months per year at the Federation of Damanhur in the foothills of the Italian Alps while researching its fascinating work with esoteric physics.

His last works work were focused on the international community of Auroville in Pondicherry, India, where he lived for several months per year for the past several years.

Ron was the Founding Editor of SCIY (Science, Culture and Integral Yoga), a webzine which in four years has grown from its 4 founders to over 25,000 viewers monthly located in 80 countries, and has had some four million viewings. Ron is survived by his wife Television-Director Kim Anway-Anastasia, who did a remarkable job caring for him over the past year during his illness.

<bio edited by rc>

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