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Consciousness Quotient Institute

About Us

About Us

CQ-i Research Team


Sona Ahuja | Research Director, CQ-i Assessment Studies

SonaAhujaHello! I am from Gujarat, India originally, born and brought up there and now live in Dayalbagh, Agra, India. I am a teacher-educator and a researcher of consciousness. As part of my academic interest, I prepare prospective teachers for conscious education for over a decade.

I started my journey of research in consciousness studies through the Centre for Consciousness Studies, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (CCS-DEI), India. I attended various workshops and conferences in this area. While looking for a psychological measurement of consciousness, I came across CQ-i. I had a rigorous discussion over this topic in the ‘Basic Course on Neuro-Sciences and Cognitive Sciences’ organized by CCS-DEI. Though initially, researchers at the center were cynical to accept CQ-i, presently, numerous researches are conducted in India relating consciousness with other factors using CQ-i. I have conducted various experimental studies at CCS-DEI, Agra, and presented the results at ‘Toward a Science of Consciousness’ conference series held annually. CQ-i has given me a new perspective in studying consciousness and conducting research in this area. Using CQ-i, I wish to continue seeking answers to unexplored research questions in the science of consciousness.

E-mail: sona@consciousness-quotient.com

Ovidiu Brazdău | Research Director, CQ-i Development

Hi! My research is focused on studying intentional evolution, developing the Consciousness Quotient Inventory (CQ-i), and introducing the conscious experience as a research variable in psychological assessment. This process took some years, while trying to ascertain a way to identify and scientifically measure the collective patterns of conscious experiences.

The beta version of the CQ-i was developed through 14 studies on a population of 6,800 individuals. It was released in 2008, and presented the next year at the Toward a Science of Consciousness conference.

In 2016 I decided to quit my formal academic career at the Ecological University in Bucharest, after 14 years of teaching research methodology and other topics, to focus on the CQ-i development and to manage some entrepreneurial tough times. The standardized version of the CQ-i was released in 2020, using a normative sample that included 2,266 participants from 96 countries. Our researches revealed that collective conscious experiences, as explored with the CQ-i test, appear to have 15 patterns common to all of us, comprising the Consciousness Quotient model.

Now, the research objective is to gather a more diverse and large enough sample, to re-check the CQ-i patterning model, and to see the results of the experiment with the 15th scale, the “Awakening Skills”, for which we added 31 items that explore the depths of the awakening journeys.

E-mail: ovidiu@consciousness-quotient.com

Keith Fiveson | Partner, Conscious Organizational Development

My mission is to help individuals and organizations to become more conscious, awake, and alive to life and all of its opportunities. Along with the team, we help bring training, and development of people, based on assessments, to help strengthen organizations one person at a time.

I am certified as a yoga therapist and meditation teacher, I have practiced and studied mindfulness/meditation for over 25 years. I bring over 30 years of experience to my practice. An alumnus of Price Waterhouse Coopers, I was the founder of IT Enabled Services Alliance, Inc., a global consulting firm. I was the Director for Global Solutions at British Telecom, AT&T, and MCI Telecommunications, later to become Verizon Business. I designed communications solutions to engage and connect people and organizations globally, for customer service support and outsourcing experiences. I have helped develop solutions for Best Buy, CUNA, Apple, McGraw-Hill, Time Warner, Autism Speaks, General Electric, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch, among others.

Conscious Work | Life Coach
M: 9179529662
www.workmindfulness.com

Cristian Opariuc | Psychometrics Research Coordinator

opariuc2Hi! I am a fan of psychometrics since 1997.  After completing the military service, I worked as a chief psychologist in the gendarmerie, until 2001. During this time, in addition to psychological assessment and counseling, I was interested in building a comprehensive computerized psychological evaluation methodology. Since 2007, I teach at Ovidius University in Constanta, a nice town near the Black Sea.

In recent years, I have been interested in organizations and communication management issues in organizations, for which I have developed a series of computer tools, based on an original concept, designed to optimize decision-making and psychological assessment. In addition, my doctoral thesis aims at the same area of interest, focusing on the psychological evaluation models, based on item response theory.

Other professional activities include studies and research on organizational climate in a cable company (RDS-RCS Iasi) and the Constanta County Council, translation and adaptation of organizational diagnostic tools (with Filaret Sintion from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences), writing scientific books on data analysis, research methodology, and psychometrics.

Valita Jones | Research Associate

ValitaJonesI was born in Muskegon Heights, Michigan on January 3, 1964. I am the oldest of seven children. I have three adult children, two sons and a daughter, and I am also the proud grandmother of two grandsons. I am a social scientist, trained, and experienced working within diverse and demanding environments including educational, administrative, and community.

I hold an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, an M.A. in Postsecondary Educational Leadership, and BA degrees in both Psychology and Africana Studies. Additionally, I have several certificates in Management and Leadership, Community College Teaching, both from San Diego State University, and a certificate from the University of Oklahoma, College of Continuing Education, and Institute on Crisis of Young Black Males. While in my doctoral program, I developed a new leadership framework, that is focused on what I call Conscious Leadership.

Conscious leadership is grounded in being purposeful and intentional, incorporates the sociocultural knowledge of reciprocity, allows for shared accountability and responsibility and is highly functional within organizations, which are networked and interconnected. I believe leadership is a natural state of being, however, it must be shared and built on reciprocity. I think we have to begin re-educating and re-teaching what it looks like to be a conscious human being, therefore a conscious leader.

I regard myself as highly knowledgeable about the functionality of higher education systems and organizations. I have worked in community colleges, private and public universities, which has provided me with the opportunity to gain valuable insight, while shaping me as a conscious systems thinker. As an adjunct professor I have taught courses in the following areas: Cultural Competency, Educational Leadership in a Diversity Society, Introduction to Psychology and Cooperative Work Experience. I have an extensive background in qualitative research, leadership, student affairs and human development and functioning. I believe consciousness is universal, however, sometimes its best explained from a familiar worldview, one that may be grounded in cultural ways of being and traditions. I enjoy facilitating the human development process for people, especially from a conscious cultural lens/paradigm. My formal self-imposed title/role is Sakhu Sheti. This is an ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) term meaning one who is an illuminator of the soul/ healer.

Currently, I work as a Director of Recruitment and Outreach at California State University San Marcos, San Diego, USA. However, I consider myself a cultural custodian and spiritual librarian. I believe it is my “purpose” to assist human beings in awakening and becoming conscious. I want to do that through a process of education, research, and coaching, so that we create a different world that is purposeful. My primary goal is to fulfill my “purpose” and practice being a universal citizen of the world, who is focused on being a practitioner of enlightenment, using the message of oneness, vibrational love, awareness and consciousness. Using the principles of balance (Maat)… truth… justice… order… love… harmony… peace… reciprocity, thereby growing a more conscious and informed world citizen!

Sadhna Sharma | Research Associate

Sadhna_SharmaHello. I was born in Agra, India and my bringing up was done in different states of India. I am a Senior Research Fellow at Dayalbagh Educational Institute in Agra. My research interests include consciousness-based education and contemplative pedagogy.

I did my Master’s degree in education, which helped me explore the practices prevalent in the field of education. I discovered that it was educational psychology and particularly the field of consciousness, which can help in the development of learner-centered approaches in teaching.

I have completed my doctoral research in the field of contemplative pedagogy., with a research involving exploration and testing of the techniques and methods for adolescents that can be employed in the mainstream classrooms to evolve conscious learners.  During my Ph.D. research, I also tried to explore how much adolescents understand and comprehend the CQ-i. The research paper based on the study is entitled as ‘Consciousness Quotient Inventory administration on adolescents: difficulty level assessment’.

Some of the other research papers upon which I have worked include: “Consciousness Quotient as a predictor of executive functioning”, “Blend of phenomenology and scientific approaches in yoga and meditation researches” and “Leadership Approach in relation to levels of consciousness: a correlational analysis”. Presently, all my endeavors are aimed at the development of a component in the curriculum which can help the learners in the realization of the witnessing awareness or the conscious being.


“Becoming Conscious” Collection | Guest Authors


Jeff Warren

Jeff Warren teaches meditation. He co-wrote “Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics” (with Dan Harris), wrote “The Head Trip”, and founded “The Consciousness Explorers Club”. His mission is to empower people to take charge of their own mental health, through the creative application of meditation and personal growth practices. He also teaches people how to guide and share practices in community.
www.jeffwarren.org

Jana Dixon

Having gone through two kundalini awakenings, Jana Dixon was compelled to attempt to present a manual for others to guide them through the difficult stages of the inner transformation. Kundalini awakenings are completely out of the ordinary and so we must go to extraordinary lengths to explore, explain and investigate how to make the most of this… the most wonderous time of our lives.
www.biologyofkundalini.com

John Stewart

John Stewart is an Australian evolutionary thinker, and a member of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Research Group of the Free University of Brussels. His main interest is in the development of an evolutionary worldview that reveals to us who we are, and what we should be doing with our lives. 
www.evolutionarymanifesto.com

Cornelia Câcu

Cornelia Cacu was born in Romania in 1984; she obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Cybernetics and Bachelor’s Degree in Theatrical Arts, both universities having a major impact in her vertical development. She currently works in Finances and is a Founding Member of the “Sounds of Om Association” which promotes projects for sustaining the transformational processes and personal growth.
www.sunetedeom.ro

Alison Crosthwait

Alison Crosthwait is a transformational coach living in Toronto, Canada. She believes that healing herself is the most important part of her service and her journey of self-growth and understanding is long and varied.
www.alisoncrosthwait.com

Raluca Ciobanu

Raluca Ciobanu is an art therapist and works with children on the autism spectrum, using various methods focused on developing a better adult-child connection, and finding new ways to improve the acquisitions sustainably.
www.facebook.com/kaRAmearttherapy/

Sharing awareness consciously together

Awakeness has no image, yet – like a mirror – it unites, reflects, and transforms our imaginations, causing love and awe; by sharing awakeness, the delusions of separation dissolve, awakening and enlightening our selves and all of humankind.

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Learn to explore your dreams and work with your unconscious mind. The course is an easy-to-use guide to the dreamwork methodology developed by Strephon Kaplan-Williams, founding father of dreamwork psychology.
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