‘Profound injustice’: IIT Mandi on news coverage of mind, brain and consciousness conference

IIT Mandi Statement

During the summer vacations at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, after students had left campus following their examinations, the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications (IKSMHA) Centre of the institute organised the Mind, Brain, and Consciousness Conference (MBCC) 2026 during June 03 – 06, 2026. The conference featured 30 keynote and invited talks by internationally-recognised researchers and scholars across neuroscience, consciousness studies, psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and the arts.

The intellectual range of speakers was remarkable. Josefa Becerra, an astronomer from the Canary Islands who has spent twenty years observing living galaxies, presented her work linking neural networks in the brain to galaxy clusters in deep space. Prof. Giorgio Ascoli spoke on the world's largest database of neural junctions. Peter Jan Maes presented research on the effects of music on offenders within the European Union penal system. Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty illuminated the mathematics of Indian classical music. Other distinguished speakers included Prof. Stuart Hameroff, Prof. Dimitris A. Pinotsis, and Prof. Sisir Roy. The discussions were rich in scholarship and focused on contemporary developments in mind, brain, and consciousness research.

In addition, there were approximately 50 parallel sessions, of which one was devoted to reincarnation. This topic carries deep civilisational resonance in Indian society, being intrinsically connected to the concept of the eternality of consciousness. Following the Dalai Lama's recent statement on identifying his successor, leading universities worldwide have begun engaging with reincarnation as a subject of serious academic inquiry. The conference organisers approved this one special session among many proposed, in the same spirit of open scholarly investigation.

What followed was a profound injustice. Careers360 published an article on June 05, 2026 at 11:34 hrs, nearly four hours before the reincarnation session actually took place at 15:30 hrs. The article included the claim that 10 to 12 biometric machines were placed around the conference hall to monitor student attendance. The story was picked up by one national agency after another, and petitions were circulated demanding the removal of Prof. Laxmidhar Behera as Director of IIT Mandi. In his own words: "Why should one make attendance compulsory at an academic conference attended by more than 500 scholars from across the globe? Can anyone term a scholarly conference on consciousness an ‘after-life conference’?"

Josefa Becerra, whose participation IIT Mandi worked for a whole year to secure, was deeply disturbed by these reports. She wrote to Prof. Behera expressing how profoundly MBCC had brought together India's millennia-old knowledge systems with the frontiers of modern science. Belgian filmmaker Frank Theys, who was documenting the Chakra sessions at the conference, was equally troubled. He observed that India's introspective tradition of consciousness studies was being brought into genuine dialogue with quantum technology and that this was precisely what was being misrepresented.

Prof. Behera, a robotics engineer by training, has collaborated with Dr. Pushpendra Singh to develop an advanced instrument capable of scanning the brain and mapping twelve layers of consciousness. He has also worked with Prof. Chayan Kanti Nandi on the scientific exploration of plant consciousness. Even after each conference day ended, Prof. Behera and his team continued working through the night on measurements of deep brain states — the kind of quiet, unglamorous dedication that does not make headlines.

The distress expressed by the international scholarly community prompted the IIT Mandi team to approach Careers360 directly. Careers360, after reviewing the matter, decided to withdraw the article. This act of editorial responsibility begins, at least in part, to address the national and international harm caused to Prof. Behera, to MBCC, and to its distinguished scientific participants.

IIT Mandi is committed to the serious scientific investigation of ancient knowledge systems, not through blind faith, but through the rigour of testing, refinement, and empirical inquiry. We know that not every claim will withstand scrutiny. But we are committed to asking the questions that others have not dared to ask, and to doing so with the tools of twenty-first century science. That is how we intend to make India shine.