6) About me

Marina P. Bonser, Ph.D.

What I have done for the betterment of our world

chronologically organized content of this website

I was born on February 14, 1961, and grew up in the beautiful city of St.Petersburg, which is nicknamed the cultural capital of Russia. Exploration and interpretation of our world was my favorite activity since childhood. When I was about ten y.o., I expressed it by phrasing the thought that a human being is a tool for the world's self-exploration. In my High School of Extensive Learning of Physics and Mathematics # 30 (http://www.school30.spb.ru), I conducted research work in astronomy “Generation of Spiral Structure in Galaxies”. My research won the first prize at St. Petersburg’s City Research Conference for high school students and was approved as the basis of a future thesis for a Ph.D. by St. Petersburg University astronomers.

Later, when I was a student of St. Petersburg State University (http://eng.spbu.ru/) I began to work with high school students at the Extracurricular Activities Center as a teacher of extracurricular education in 1989-2000 (http://ddut-sp.narod.ru/). Due to this work, my research interests focused on the field of education. I wanted to explore the potential of education on the formation of a student’s worldview and perception of the world. I organized and led extracurricular activities to foster the multidimensional development of teenagers and young adults.

Eventually, in 1993, I developed a three-year program “A person and the Universe” with multidisciplinary content: courses in philosophy and sciences in order to raise student’s interest in exploring our world, and to help them to learn how to think “outside of the box”; workshops in psychology in order to harmonize their relations with others and themselves; fitness programs for a healthy lifestyle; outdoor trips for connection with nature and ecological awareness development. This program was based on the idea of the interconnectedness and similarity of a person with the whole universe.

In my thesis for M.S. in Mathematics: “Movements of Space and Planes in Lobachevski’s Geometry” (the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia; http://www.herzen.spb.ru/), I found new approaches to solutions for some equations, and then developed and conducted a special extracurricular course on Lobachevski’s Geometry for high school students which I added to my program. I was awarded the “Honorary Certificate for Outstanding Service and Innovative Activity Over Many Years,” and later received a promotion to the highest possible level for teachers in Russia. The goal of the research activity which leads to the development of this program was the exploration of approaches for enhancing human life quality, and then the achievement of a sustainable balance in the development of the system “a person- the world”. This goal leads me to the development of another program by 1994 which was based on the new concept of how guided imagery can help people to develop skills of better interaction with natural environments and harmonize a person’s inner world. I called it “Unity with Nature”. By that time I have been trained extensively in both Raja and Buddha Yoga, Tai Chi, and various techniques of meditation, and I was an experienced instructor in mountaineering, backpacking, kayaking, and cross-country skiing. I also had a deep lifetime experience of communication with nature spending long periods of time in solo backpacking trips in the wilderness. This program increases the level of health, spirituality, and ecological awareness of students. I taught it for years in Russia, first for high school students, then for some of their parents and teachers, then for college students and other adults. I presented it at conferences in California and England. It received an appreciation in esoteric circles of Saint Petersburg (1995), Moscow (2001), San Francisco and Los Angeles (1997), Leeds and Southampton (2000), London and Brighton (2002). I moved to California in 2006 and founded Nature Connection Club (NCC) with four locations in California in 2008. The content of the NCC website (www.NatureConnectionClub.org) is now included here under the subpage "Unity with Nature".

Both programs helped me to explore the mechanism of human perception and its participation in worldview formation, and make conclusions on the effective ways of building the world's model in human consciousness which would be the closest to reality. This was the basis for my research work: “Global Thinking Development of High School Students in the Conditions of the Integration of Curricular and Extracurricular Education” which I completed and defended in 2004 at the State Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education (http://spbappo.ru/), also internationally recognized granting degree university in Saint Petersburg. I discovered a new approach to the concept of Global Thinking (GT), developed a scale for the measurement of GT levels and associated educational technology for the development of GT. The theoretical results were confirmed experimentally in 5 schools of Saint Petersburg. This fact points out the potential for a new level of Global Education around the globe. It is super-disciplinary research based on connections between many fields: such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, ecology, system dynamics, global and environmental education. I received a Russian Ministry of Education Grant for my research project. The high academic value of my work was recognized by professors in Russia and abroad. My courses for the development of Global Thinking were recommended for educational and organizational leaders as well as for government and industry leaders. During my doctoral studies, I was working as a Vice Principal for Experimental Curriculum Development at the Advanced School for Global Education # 631 (http://school631.spb.ru/), which gave me an opportunity to verify my technology. In 2010 I founded a worldwide educational resource for the development of Global Thinking based in California: www.GlobalThinkingWorld.net. Now this information can be found under the subpage "How to Measure and Develop Global Thinking".

In 2012 I completed the concept of Sustainability of Consciousness which explains interrelations between environmental, socio-economic, and personal sustainability, and suggests a toolkit of new strategies of sustainable development of human civilization on our planet. In the same year, I put together Pattern Resonance Theory which explains why and how we recognize and enjoy the beauty of this world, integrates oriental and occidental, traditional and modern views, and combines scientific, spiritual, and artistic approaches to understanding the world. This theory includes perspectives for the enhancement of human health on body, mind, and spirit levels based on this theory, which involves harmonizing unnatural vibrations caused by manmade environments. By 2014 I completed the concept of Metaphilosophy of the New Global Era which gives a strategy of the development of meta-philosophical worldviews based on the different approaches to world exploration and also on the worldviews of different cultures. My "World Puzzle Project" ("Global Mind" Project) will support and verify aspects of this theory via practice and bring more data for composing a “map" of relations between worldviews of different cultures, religions, people, and groups. I believe that international efforts put into this project will bring more peace to human relations and increase harmony in our lives.

At the beginning of 2016, I put together the “Global Consciousness Attunement Project” (“Global Heart Project”) initiated by Pattern Resonance Theory as an experiment of its partial verification. It involves actions of all layers of humanity and supposed to help in harmonizing the functioning of the societies and nature on our planet. It is also a public affair for peace and harmony around the world. This simple synchronized action which is in our human power could be leverage which would help to start moving imbalanced processes on the planet into the direction of harmony. However, the degree of the integration of Earth's population didn't reach yet a level that would've been enough for this simple action. Soon after that, I opened a new section "The Nature of the World's Integration", and included the new article "Science in the Processes of Integration: Bridging Approaches to the World's Exploration". "Metaphilosophy of New Global Era" is now included in this section.

In 2014-2015 I was working as Assistant Professor of Math at the Community College in Sacramento area in California (http://www.flc.losrios.edu/), and in 2017-2018 as Associate Professor of Aviation English at the State University of Civil Aviation located in Saint Petersburg, Russia (https://spbguga.ru/). My concept of English in the globalization context can be found in the section for the world's integration. In the 2019 International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace published my article: "Global Aviation System: Towards Sustainable Development".

To be continued...

P.S. I am extremely grateful to my son who was willing and able to give me financial support during my doctoral studies and occasionally later when it was necessary. I also want to thank everyone who gave me a countenance, especially at the most difficult time periods. Other than that there were no conditions in my life for the development of groundbreaking theories needed in the contemporary world, and also for conducting my courses and projects. Somehow I was able to find ways to do it periodically because that what I feel I live for. However, no wonder that I had long gaps in my research activities. Particularly, the theory of Sustainable Consciousness should have been “born” 5 years earlier, and the ideas of the two following theories were hanging in my mind for more than 10 years, even before I started to write my Ph.D. thesis.

At this point, I think it is enough information about me related to this website. Sometime later I might write a full story of my unusual, difficult, and interesting life which will include also other aspects of it.

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