Google launches school for the soul

WHILE the online search outfit Google has been making employees redundant as part of its cost-cutting programmes, it has apparently stepped up their education of theosophy, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual development techniques.

According to the Italian newspaper Republica, Google University, which opened in 2008, is going great guns teaching the Buddhist concepts of altruism.

The university is inspired by the pop psyche best seller writer Daniel Goleman who penned a book called Emotional Intelligence, and is organised in collaboration with the theosophical Esalen Institute, which is a big New Age conference centre in California.

The goal of the school is not to 'teach' Googlers how to program, but become better people. Courses include New Age topics such as the neuroscience of empathy. It also covers things such as mental development, emotional development, health and spiritual contentment and understanding of the Buddhist concept of altruism.

The University has apparently been attracting the top names of the New Age movement as speakers.

It is only open to Googlers on the sound basis that if they become highly evolved better people then they will have more commercial value. µ