The conceptual foundation and framework for the work of the Institute is provided by a long-term study about the natural conditions, demands and challenges of human existence and development, particularly human mental existence and mental development. The role of nature, and the role and responsibility in our existence and development that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.

It is a study moreover about the human created socio-cultural reality and conditions of existence. The conceptual foundation and mental practices that lie behind how we understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions. How as a species we got to where we find ourselves today, the historical path and direction of human conceptual and mental self-development and growth. How human beings, through the ages, have understood and managed their existence and development. The understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices they developed, on which they relied, how they developed and used them. How today we understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties. The understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we develop, on which we rely and how we develop them; limits and shortcomings, where they contradict, conflict with and fall short of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence. Results and consequences, for the individual, society, the human species, future generations, nature and the natural environment.

It is a study also about the direction of the answers and solutions, the direction we need to take in conceptual and mental development, individually and as a species. The understanding, the mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we need to develop, how to develop and use them, to deal with the problems and challenges we face today; to understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties within the natural parameters, the boundaries and limits of existence set by nature. To sustain an expanding global human population in equitable ways on the limited and finite natural material resources base of the Earth, and not contribute further to the premature demise in the long term of the human species at its own hands.

The results and findings of the study are set out in a series of working papers.

    1. Mental Existence and Mental Development - The natural conditions, demands and challenges of the mind, mental existence and mental development. What takes place, what we face and have to deal with, what we do and need to do, what we must establish, develop and maintain individually in the mind and mental existence, how to understand and manage them.

    2. Nature and Natural Universe - The nature, structure and workings, unfolding, change and transformation of the natural universe. Elementary particles and forces, matter and energy, atoms, molecules and compound substances, inorganic and organic matter, cells, organisms and human beings.

    3. Initial Conditions of Mental Existence, and Early Human Responses - Levels of human development, conceptual-mental, socio-cultural, religious, political, economic-material and scientific-technological development. The roots and beginnings of the historical path and direction of human conceptual and mental self-development. The conditions, demands and challenges of mental existence, and early human responses at the dawn of human consciousness. Fundamental assumptions, approaches and practices of understanding and managing existence and development arising out of early human responses.

    4. Historical Path and Direction of Human Conceptual and Mental Development - The historical path and direction of human conceptual and mental self-development, that has taken the human species to where we find ourselves today and the problems and difficulties we face and we create. How, through the ages, human beings have understood and managed existence and development. The understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices they have developed, on which they relied and how they developed them, as reflected in the development of Greco-Roman, Judeo-Islamic-Christian, scientific culture. The dominant culture globally today, that is defining, governing and directing existence and development more than any other culture.

    5. Scientific Culture - How today, in scientific culture, we understand and manage existence and development, particularly the mind, mental existence and mental development. The views, beliefs, values, conventions and practices of scientific culture. The understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them.

    6. Limits and Consequences of Scientific Culture - The limits, shortcomings and contradictions of the beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices of scientific culture. How they contradict, conflict with and fall short of the natural conditions of existence, that lie behind and that are reflected in human experience. The results and consequences, of how in scientific culture we understand and manage existence and development, for the human individual, society, the human species, nature and the natural environment.

    7. Conditions and Developments at the Turn of the 21st Century - Conditions, problems and difficulties of existence, and the direction of development, trends and tendencies in socio-cultural development at the turn of the 21st century.

    8. Traditional and Contemporary Views and Practices - Traditional and contemporary views and practices, their limits and shortcomings, of understanding and managing existence and development. Dealing with and addressing the limits and shortcomings, problematic results and consequences of the historical path and direction of human conceptual and mental self-development. How today we understand and manage existence and development, the fundamental assumptions, approaches and practices that lie behind, define and govern them.

    9. Beyond Religion, Philosophy and Science: Changing the Way we Understand and Manage Existence and Development - The direction we need to take in conceptual and mental development, individually and as a species, to understand and manage existence and development in changing conditions within the natural parameters, the boundaries and limits of existence set by nature. Understanding and managing existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties at a fundamental level, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. Sustain an expanding global human population in equitable ways on the finite and limited natural material resources base of the Earth, and not contribute further to the premature demise in the long term of the human species at its own hands.

    10. Looking Ahead: Potential and Possibilities - The potential and possibilities in addressing the conditions, problems and difficulties we face and we create, of understanding and managing existence and development at a fundamental level, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a differentiated, integrated, connected and related way, from the inside out and from the bottom up. How, as a result, understanding and managing existence and development, human behaviour, actions and practices, social, political, economic, scientific and technological conditions and development, human relations and interactions with nature and the natural environment will differ from those of today.