Jim Garrison - Politics in the 21st Century

Politics in the 21st Century. Part 1. Flirting With Disaster.

In this fascinating and provocative interview, Ken and Jim Garrison discuss Wisdom University, the explosive rise of the "cultural creatives" around the world, the need for developmental studies in contemporary politics, and the seemingly unavoidable catastrophe the world may be heading toward....

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Who: Jim Garrison is, among other things, the chairman and president of the State of the World Forum, which he cofounded with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1995. The State of the World Forum (SWF) is often thought of as a "shadow UN," in that it is the largest forum of world leaders outside of the United Nations. From Margaret Thatcher to Ted Turner, from the Queen of Jordan to Desmond Tutu, from Jimmy Carter to George Bush Sr., all have been part of the extraordinary dialogue that is the State of the World Forum. Jim is also the president and chairman of Wisdom University, a higher-education institution that offers a "commitment to personal and professional renewal" by "nurturing and addressing the whole person."

Summary: "The planet," Jim Garrison is fond of saying, "is on a collision course with itself." The monumental challenges of the 21st century seem dire indeed, almost insurmountable in many ways. And to make matters worse, only a portion of the population has the developmental capacity to fully recognize the complexity of our collective problems, while the majority of the world remains blissfully unaware of the impending catastrophe we seem to be heading toward. And many of those who can see feel utterly helpless to do anything about it, unable to find their own ecologically sensitive values reflected in the culture at large. And so they anxiously await what many perceive as the inevitable, a tsunami of global crises to wash over us all, rendering the fruits of human civilization undone in a single fell swoop.

And yet, isn't it too soon to write the future off to these sorts of doom and gloom scenarios? After all, aren't we finally beginning to see some sort of shift for the positive, a shift toward more progressive attitudes and more effective strategies for the future? Many in the U.S. are experiencing a real sense of rekindled hope and civic potency—especially in light of the Democratic primaries, which seems to be galvanizing a great number of people toward much deeper engagement with the political process. Researchers such as Paul Ray are reporting the rise of an exciting new demographic in the world within a population he refers to as the "cultural creatives." While there is still some debate over how to slice up this data or what conclusions to draw from Ray's statistics, it is clear that the number of "cultural creatives" is increasing at a fairly explosive rate, currently representing about 26% of the American voting populace. But many of these "bright greens" (as they are often called) continue to struggle to have their voices heard by the movers and shakers of world politics, and fear that unless they find a way to constellate themselves into a viable political voice, the slumbering giant of humanity will continue to sleepwalk ever closer to the precipice of ecological collapse.

If there is one thing to be said for certain about the human race, it is that we will always find a way to actualize every ounce of potential available to us, in whatever form that potential takes—whether it is the potential for barbarism, for savagery, for merciless destruction, degradation, and depravity; or whether it is the potential for transcendence, for compassion and idealism, for the heights of creativity and noble vision—we are all of these, simultaneously, all at once. We move in every direction possible, though always with a slight-but-significant tilt toward greater depth, freedom, and fullness. The current condition of humanity has been described as growing "better and better, worse and worse, faster and faster," which only makes some sort of breaking point seem even more inevitable, and the need for a developmental understanding of the human condition more crucial.

"All the world's a stage," history's most cherished bard tells us, "and all the men and women merely players." But what Shakespeare could not have possibly known at the time he wrote these words is that the world is not a single monolithic stage, but is in fact a graduating succession of stages, each built upon the other—each with its own set of players, its own set of shared values, and its own lens through which the world is interpreted. Likewise, the game of global politics is not to be played upon a single flat chessboard, but on many boards simultaneously—like a game of "Asimovian Hyperchess" in which moves are played across multiple geometric planes simultaneously. This is how politics in the 21st century must be approached, taking into account all of the different developmental levels human beings grow through (e.g. magic, mythic, rational, postmodern, and integral), while bringing as much healthy balance as possible to the individuals and cultures who exist at each of these particular levels. And only a genuinely integral analysis of world politics can promise the sort sanity and stability our yet-unborn progeny prays for us to find, before it's too late....

"You can't get 'better and better, worse and worse, faster and faster' without something going 'pop' sooner or later, in a way that would be catastrophic...."

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Saul Williams - Deconstructing the "N-Word"

Introducing Niggy Tardust - Deconstructing the "N-Word"

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Who: Saul Williams, Slam poet and Hip Hop emcee-extraordinairre, who has just released his exceptionally beautiful new album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust.

Summary: In this incredible walkthrough of The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, Saul discusses the overall concept of the album, as well as an in-depth look at many of the songs. The album is about transcendence, pure and simple, as the title clearly states—whereas David Bowie used the Ziggy Stardust character to challenge people's notions of sex, gender, and image, Niggy Tardust uses Hip Hop to challenge our attitudes of race, racism, and identity. It forces us to confront our accumulated fears, discomfort, and victimhood around some extremely sensitive issues, without the Novocain of political correctness or identity politics to numb our exposed nerve endings. He explains his effort to redefine the "N-word" itself—liberating a word synonymous with human oppression by allowing us to fully feel its power, its violence, and its pain. It is an attempt to infuse the profane with the sacred, a Tantric impulse to recognize all of existence as truly not-two, where Spirit can fully embrace even the darkest regions of our soul.

There is much talk in America recently around the issues of race. As Barack Obama continues to amass more and more delegates, we have begun to collectively reflect upon our relationship with race and racism, and the conversation seems to have polarized into two radically different positions. On one hand, Obama's viability as a presidential candidate across a wide range of demographics prompts liberals to proudly declare that, finally, we live in a "post-racial" America, no longer tethered to the racial divisiveness that has infected our political systems since the country's inception. On the other hand, a great number of people are still asking the question "are we ready for a black president?," which itself seems to indicate that a genuine "post-racial" America is still on the horizon of human evolution. The truth, of course, lies somewhere between, or beyond, these two extremes—we have certainly made some tremendous strides in our collective attitudes toward race and racism, but we cannot confuse our accomplishments with outright victory. There can be no singular victory over racism, but like peace itself, it is a victory that must be won again and again, perpetually into the future.

In furthering the dialogue on race and racism, Hip Hop culture offers a fascinating means of exploring the subject, as racial identity has always been at the front and center of the art form. Just as in any genre of art, Hip Hop is capable of reflecting the entirety of the human condition—all of our beauty, all of our misery, all of our scars and scabs, all of our boundless creativity and limitless potential. Consider the wide range of conscious depth as expressed through Hip Hop—developmental studies have consistently shown that human beings develop through several distinct stages of consciousness and identity: from ego-centric consciousness ("me"), to ethno-centric consciousness ("others like me," in terms of race, religion, nationality, etc.), to world-centric consciousness ("all of us"), to Kosmo-centric consciousness ("all of existence").

Each of these broad stages of human development open us to radically different ways of perceiving ourselves and the world around us, with our entire sense of identity being the interface between the two. And we can find all of it within Hip Hop—from the power-driven thug mentality of ego-centrism, to the rivalries, racism, and misogyny of ethno-centrism, to the more conscious expressions of world-centrism often found in underground Hip Hop, to the rare but remarkable few who, like Saul, are using the art as a genuine means of embodied mysticism and Self realization.

Hip Hop culture includes all of these very different attitudes and altitudes of consciousness, which has made it one of the most controversial art forms in the modern world, and especially frustrating to those who want to either idealize it, demonize it, or dismiss it altogether. With roots extending deep into the core of African-American oppression, Hip Hop offers us a fascinating glimpse into the problems of race and racism in the world, as well as a means of overcoming our limited perceptions of reality by simply opening ourselves to all of the different voices the genre has to offer, and integrating these perspectives into a cohesive understanding of ourselves and each other. From this integration we can begin to see the subtleties that exist between, for example, the well-known Hip Hop groups N.W.A. and Public Enemy, the former offering a 1st-person account of life in the ghetto from an ego/ethnocentric point of view, and the latter offering a more 3rd-person view of the ghetto from a largely world-centric perspective. Both accounts are necessary for a full picture to emerge, which Hip Hop culture is more than happy to serve up.

While studying the Integral model, it can be easy to mistake "race" as a notion which, once we move past the ethno-centric stage of development, is something we no longer need to concern ourselves with. (Speaking in the context of the U.S., this is probably more true for whites than minorities, simply because minorities often report being subtly reminded of the color of their skin on a daily basis, simply from living in a white-majority mainstream culture.) But it is important to remember that even if we have moved beyond our exclusive identity with our own racial heritage, that aspect of our identity does not simply vanish, but instead becomes even more textured and nuanced than ever before. We also have the ability to more deeply explore other racial identities, cultures, and heritages, further enriching our own, and slowly peeling back many of the residual filters we unconsciously place over our perceptions of reality. The goal is not to be color-blind, as our politically-correct society often tells us to be, but to allow ourselves to see the entire spectrum of color, much more vividly than ever before. From this integral vantage point, we can see that our similarities are where we find Truth, our differences are where we find Beauty, and navigating between the two is where we find our Goodness.

There aren't many artists in the world today who more fully exemplify this integrative consciousness in Hip Hop than Saul Williams. His capacity to so fully engage the "language of the mystics" of the spiritual realm, to pull it down through the sounds and visions of the mental realm, and to push the transcendent clarity of consciousness through your entire body, is absolutely unparalleled. And while he is pushing spirit all the way down through our souls, through our minds, and into our feet, he is simultaneously pulling some of our darkest shadows up through consciousness, using art to disarm much of the fear and resentment that has prevented our collective dialogue around race and racism from moving forward for decades.

This is a truly one-of-a-kind discussion, which you will find nowhere else in the world. We recommend that you visit www.niggytardust.com, download this exceptional album for a mere five dollars (or for free, if you can't donate at this time), and listen to this fascinating conversation....

Editor's Note - A Brief Exploration of Race and Hip Hop

Hip hop is a natural evolution of 20th century music, which is itself considered by many to have been derived almost entirely from the legacy of black music and culture. In the early 1950's, much of America was becoming fascinated by the new sounds they began to hear on local radio stations around the country, which were playing an exciting mix of black music, including gospel, blues, and boogie-woogie. In 1954, Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Records, was searching for someone who could translate these new sounds into something he could sell to white people. Despite the remarkable influence black music was having upon American culture, the Civil Rights movement had yet to hit its stride, and there was still as of yet no place for black artists within the newly-emerging mainstream of popular culture. To be blunt, black people were simply not marketable. So Sam found the perfect man to help bring black music into the larger culture—and that man was Elvis Presley.

Remaining one of the most controversial figures in modern music, Elvis has been accused on the one hand of "stealing" black music and diluting it to the point where it was finally acceptable to the sensibilities of white America. Elvis himself is quoted as saying "The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. They played it like that in their shanties and in their juke joints and nobody paid it no mind 'til I goosed it up. I got it from them." On the other hand, Elvis is credited as being a genuine step forward for black and white culture alike; as Little Richard said: "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."

Whether or not we perceive Elvis as a thief or as an innovator, one thing remains certain—almost the entire legacy of Rock and Roll can be attributed to his magnificent wake. Rock music itself became the soundtrack to the Civil Rights movements in the late fifties and sixties, and its unique confluence of black and white art may have actually contributed to the culture of racial equality that was beginning to emerge at this time.

Fast forwarding through five decades of music culture, it isn't hard to see the natural progression of black music through many different forms of music, wildly mutating and undulating into almost as many different sorts of sounds as the human ear is capable of hearing. Blues and boogie-woogie became Rockabilly in the 1950's, which became Rock and Roll in the late 50's and 60's, branching out into soul, funk, R&B, and disco in the 70's. It was here that Hip Hop began to take its roots, naturally evolving out of Rock and Roll into an utterly novel genre of music—even though Rock and Hip Hop continue to share some very deep similarities, most notably in the verse-chorus-verse song structure and predominantly 4/4 timing (so much so that it might be said that the primary difference between them is in overall aesthetic directionality—while many prefer to Rock from side to side, Hip Hop moves your inner b-boy up and down....)

The massive success of Hip Hop as a global art form causes many people to proclaim Hip Hop to be the return of Rock and Roll to the people who created it in the first place. At the same time, Hip Hop has already escaped these sorts of ethnocentric notions of cultural ownership, and is currently blossoming as a genuine global art form. There are much-debated statistics that report 70% of Hip Hop sales coming from white people, one of the most significant examples ever of this sort of cross-pollination of perspectives through popular culture. But this is not as idyllic as it may sound, and continues to cause much uneasiness in black culture. Adding to the complexity of race in Hip Hop, many of the more "conscious" Hip Hop artists report a largely white turnout at live shows—which isn't a bad thing from a world-centric perspective, but can be very frustrating for black artists trying to convey a message to their own culture. At the same time, criticism from within black communities has also been leveled against certain so-called "Gangsta rappers" who, far from keeping it real, are creating larger-than life personas and exaggerated theatrics based upon negative stereotypes, for the sake of selling music to white people. This, these critics argue, perpetuates those stereotypes in much the same way the racist "minstrel shows" of the 19th and early 20th century did, in which whites and even blacks would wear "blackface" and perform extremely racist skits, acts, and songs. In fact, the parallels between much of mainstream Hip Hop and minstrelsy can be summed up in this quote from Wikipedia:

"Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it resulted in the first broad awareness by white Americans of aspects of black folk culture."

But let us not forget all those artists who, like Saul, continue to bring genuine artistry, creativity, and spirituality to the art, despite the fact that the radio is dominated by the same shallowness and superficiality that dominated the 80's music scene. While "conscious" Hip Hop artists like Saul, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, The Coup, Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique, and many others are pushed to the wayside of a mainstream which once reflected our stream-of-collective-consciousness—but has now been reduced to lowest-common-denominator marketing—let's also remember that the music industry's grasp over mainstream culture is beginning to crumble, creating more and more ways for these more enlightened artists to bring their art to the masses.

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Rupert Sheldrake - How Do We Account for Memory in Nature?

Integral Evolutionary Biology. Part 1. How Do We Account for Memory in Nature?

The man behind the theory of morphic resonance shares his impulse to explore the evolutionary impulse behind the Kosmos itself. From physics, to chemistry, to biology, to psychology, to spirituality and more, these two pioneers share their understanding of how Spirit is manifesting moment-to-moment in and through the leading edge of consciousness awareness….

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Who: Rupert Sheldrake is a British biologist and author who has developed the theory of morphic resonance, incorporating the insights of early twentieth century morphogenetic fields, and extending the understanding of biological “fields” to entire species—not merely individual groups of embryonic cells—and where evolutionary habits of nature can explain far more than eternal laws of nature.

Summary: Einstein proposed and believed in an eternal unchanging physical universe, governed by static laws, not an integrated Kosmos of both interior and exterior dimensions, governed by Kosmic habits. The difference between the two should not be underestimated. Whereas Einstein has famously stated, “God does not play dice,” Rupert and Ken go on to discuss a universe where God does indeed play dice, but in an evolutionary and developmental context—every new game of dice builds upon the billions of games played since the Big Bang, and every new game brings, or builds upon, an aspect of novelty: something the Kosmos has never seen before. The more this novel dimension gets repeated in subsequent “games,” the more likely that we will continue to see it pervade all corners of the universe, in that particular dimension, species, or level of development. One could say it’s the snowball effect writ large, and acting nearly instantaneously across innumerable light-years.

Sounds different from your high school biology class, yes? One reason for this is that Rupert and Ken are exploring how evolution and development occurs in all dimensions of existence—from physics, to chemistry, to biology, to psychology, to spirituality, and more. As Ken would state it, there is a fundamental Eros to the universe, a drive to reach higher, deeper, and further… not to get away from manifestation, but to include and embrace as much of it as possible! Here’s the funny thing about this Kosmos of ours: there are no Platonic Ideals that we should be reaching to understand. There are no eternal Forms. What we—as humans—are given is an evolutionary space in consciousness, a certain degree of depth and complexity that is waiting to be expressed in the universe, and as conscious, sentient beings, we literally determine the form that this space-potential will take as it manifests in the Kosmos. Our intentionality, and our choices, will mold the face of our collective will atop the deep structures presented to us. Nothing is pre-given except for Eros and the possibility of depth and complexity of expression that is on the horizon of our shared consciousness. It’s not so much that humanity is created in God’s own image, but that humanity is God-in-action, and we create the next form of God-in-action based on our own image of what is possible. There is no one responsible beyond ourselves for what comes next. If that happens to be true, it might be good that we all get on the same page, yes?

But that’s another discussion. In a developmental and evolutionary context, getting all of humanity “on the same page” is far more complicated than it might initially appear. However, if you’re reading these words right now, it means you’re interested in the same degree of passionate creativity and responsibility that an Integral View helps clarify and enact. You’re not alone. For a mind that only sees surfaces, one could think that this is a dialogue merely about biology, and a pretty far-out biology at that. But this dialogue is not merely about biology. It’s about the nature of the Kosmos itself. It’s about the mechanisms of evolution, the process that brought you, personally, to where you are right now. What you do from here is up to you: will I look back and understand the Kosmic forces responsible for my existence in this very moment, or will I distract myself with other affairs? It’s not that either choice is good or bad. It’s about the nature of choice itself. Will you join us on this exploration?

The surprising fact about continued human development is not that one’s sense of “family” gets smaller, but that it gets bigger, to the edges of the Kosmos itself…. We’d love to see you there, which is only ever here, closer to home than we’d ever dare to expect….

"Classical European philosophy could deal with planets beings spheres and having ellipses as orbits, but it could not create equations for giraffes or hedgehogs or any other animal or plant—basically just matter and energy, but not form…."

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Neale Donald Walsch - Making Space for Emergence

Conversations Between Two Faces of God. Part 1. Making Space for Emergence.

Neale Donald Walsch, writer of the Conversations With God series, discusses the need help create "safe spaces" for each other—not only to support those already on the path toward their fullest potential, but so people who may still be "in the closet" in regard to their spirituality can recognize the fact that their higher intuitions are real, that growth is possible, and that conversations with God are anything but uncommon....

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Who: Neale Donald Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger who's nine Conversations With God books and sixteen additional books on a contemporary understanding of God have touched millions of lives around the globe. He is also the founder of Humanity's Team, a spiritual movement dedicated to "a civil rights movement for the soul."

Summary: This is a dialogue of inspiration and awakening. This is an exploration of what it means to awaken to one's True Nature, and how one expresses that understanding—because it is the action following enlightened realization that has an impact in this world that we share, and those actions can be more or less wise, compassionate, and impactful depending upon circumstances in all the dimensions of an Integral understanding of reality.

Having travelled the globe sharing "the good news" (to borrow from another tradition), Neale reports that nearly everyone he meets, from Norway to South Korea and beyond, is suffering some form of anxiety regarding their ability to enact their vision of life at it should be, in every realm of humanity—social, political, cultural, educational, you name it. Neale explains how it feels like there is an enormous population of people ready to make real change in the world, but they are all in the closet, alone, and in that isolation they feel powerless. For Neale, his life right now is about helping create a safe and encouraging space for people to leave their closets, and enter the common room of shared purpose, intention, and consciousness. "Oh, I'm not the only one who feels this way? I'm not crazy? I'm actually a part of a very large part of the world population? All right, let's start this party and get things moving!!!"

As Ken relates, this phenomenon is powerfully present at Integral Seminars. When participants are asked about what they liked most about their experience, the top two response are: 1. I loved the teachers; 2. I really loved spending five days with fifty people with whom I could share my entire being, and leave my closet far behind. As Neale and Ken agree, the power of creating and maintaining a safe "we-space" for those reaching intuitively towards humanity's highest possibility cannot be underestimated. The revelations of the Western Enlightenment unfolded in the safe spaces of select universities and coffee shops—who knows what the safe spaces for the leading edge of consciousness of today may yield.

What an Integral Approach reveals is that there are two fundamental dimensions of what one's "highest possibility" actually is. As Ken explains, by looking at the cross-cultural knowledge of what it means for consciousness to expand and grow, there are both states and structures of consciousness—the former being freely available to everybody (e.g. spiritual states, emotional states, altered states, etc.) and the latter being earned through the process of vertical growth (e.g. through magic, mythic, rational, postmodern, and integral stages of development)—and both showing the capacity, and natural urge towards, increasing depth and complexity.

"Some person once wrote me and said 'you know, there's a lie on the cover of your book. Your book is called Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue—Mr. Walsch, with respect, there's nothing uncommon about it....'"

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Stone Gossard: Pearl Jam - Restoring Idealism to Rock and Roll. Part 1. From the Birth of Grunge to the Death of an Industry.

Pearl Jam: Restoring Idealism to Rock and Roll. Part 1. From the Birth of Grunge to the Death of an Industry.

Few bands in recent history have done more to express idealism and authenticity in music than Pearl Jam. In this fascinating interview with guitarist Stone Gossard, we are offered an insider's view of the gritty origins of grunge music, the iconic rise of the "most popular band of the 90's," and the struggles of maintaining one's artistic ideals in the vertigo of sudden fame.

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Who: Stone Gossard, guitarist and founding member of Pearl Jam, one of the most influential bands in recent decades, and often described as "the most popular American rock band of the 1990's."

Summary: Every now and again, pop culture is forced to reinvent itself. Like an epic drama among Hindu deities, our collective tastes are born, destroyed, and reborn again, swinging like a massive pendulum from one aesthetic extreme to the other. As a new cultural niche becomes more and more popularized, what typically begins as fierce artistic independence eventually devolves into reckless overindulgence, and creative novelty slowly bleeds away until all that is left is a formulaic husk used to manufacture tomorrow's next fads. It is usually at this point, when a particular scene becomes so over-saturated that it can no longer support the weight of its own excess, that the entire scene will die an often-humiliating death, bloated and alone on an unflushed toilet.

In the 1980's, the music scene in America was dominated by the glut and theatrics of "glam metal." For nearly 10 years, most of popular music was defined by sex, drugs, and machismo-in-drag, and an entire generation of youth nearly lost themselves within a cloud of hairspray. There was a void in the cultural heart of the musical mainstream that was dying to be filled—an utter lack of artistic interiority, emotional depth, and authenticity. Untold millions were craving artistic substance, and were only offered artificial decadence.

Then along came grunge, taking the entire world by storm in the early 90's. From the rain-soaked streets of Seattle emerged a new voice for American youth. In much the same way that punk music arrived just in time to offer salvation for our Disco-era sins, grunge music promised to completely cleanse our cultural palette, placing an aesthetic imperative upon more simplicity, more spontaneity, and more sincerity. And so bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam came into the mainstream, forever changing the landscape of American music. From behind a tsunami of massively distorted guitars, hallowed vocals, and countless acres of flannel, appeared an unmistakable return to introspection and idealism—even while cloaked by themes of angst and despair, the natural result of our collective interiors being ignored for almost a decade.

Few bands of the era embody this move toward introspection and idealism as strongly as Pearl Jam. As the grunge scene continued to explode, it was becoming apparent that the inherent iconoclasm of the scene was ill-suited to handle the immense pressures of fame, and many artists found themselves circling the drain of inevitable self-destruction—for many, Kurt Cobain's suicide was a morbid reminder of what can happen when artistic ideals are reduced to mere currency for the status-sphere. One by one the originators of grunge began to fall away, and an impossibly huge body of talent was forever lost to suicide and drug addiction.

Not many bands survived as the industry began churning out the newest grunge-inspired fads, marketed (ironically) as "alternative rock." Pearl Jam was one of the few who did make it through this period of intense commodification. Unlike most others from the Seattle era, they were able to prevent themselves from being crushed by the enormous pressure that their celebrity brought to their personal and professional lives. While they did in a sense try to distance themselves from their own fame, they were also simultaneously using their celebrity as a platform for their idealism, soon finding themselves fighting "on all fronts" for initiating real change in the world. From their famed battle with the corruption of the Ticketmaster venue monopoly, to publicly berating the policies of George W. Bush, to expressing pro-choice sentiments in concert, to promoting awareness around Crohn's disease—Pearl Jam was helping to return rock and roll to its roots, in terms of both the profoundly personal and the deeply political. And they continue to do it to this day, over 18 years since the band first formed.

In this dialogue Stone Gossard leads us through the story of Pearl Jam's iconic rise, as well as his own experiences in the early grunge scene, long before any of us had ever known what "Teen Spirit" actually smelled like. Stone and Ken also discuss the current state of the music industry, some of the key problems it needs to come to terms with, and the role of record labels in the future of music. Stone's story is one that is truly aligned with the essence of Integral Art, which attempts to restore Beauty to it's rightful place within the human condition—emphasizing creativity instead of deconstruction, idealism instead of apathy, depth instead of sensationalism, authenticity instead of irony—and always reflecting the fullest expressions of both artist and audience alike. We hope you can join us in this fascinating exploration of artistic idealism and creative reverie....

"We felt liberated by the idea of punk rock, by the idea of social movements that gave what you were doing a little bit more significance.... We had a general belief that art was important... and that there was a whole world to be discovered as you filter art through your unique perspective."

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Steve Whitmire on Integral Naked - It's Not Easy Being Teal

Steve Whitmire - It's Not Easy Being Teal. Part 1. The Performer Behind the World’s Most Famous Frog Recounts Coming to an Integral View.

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The Muppet famous for saying "It’s not easy being green," carries on the creative tradition founded by Jim Henson in Steve Whitmire’s puppeteering of this international figure with a decidedly more Integral tilt.

Who

Steve Whitmire is one of the few individuals who has carried on the whole-hearted legacy of Jim Henson, and the mastery and development of puppetry through Jim’s unique Muppets. Since the passing of Jim Henson in 1990, Steve has served as the animating force and puppeteer for beloved characters such as Kermit the Frog and Sesame Street’s Ernie.

Summary

Steve Whitmire spent 14 intense and creative years with the extraordinary Jim Henson before his passing. As of 2008, Steve has been the animating force behind, most notably, Kermit the Frog for nearly two decades. This was not something Steve planned for in any way. Jim passed away at the age of 53 from an infection that no one could have seen coming—although it later became revealed that Jim had been considering Steve for the puppeteer of Kermit, so that Jim could explore other creative endeavors.

However, their connection had started decades earlier. When Steve was a scant 10-years-old, he wrote Jim a letter to express his appreciation for his work, and to ask if he had written anything on the construction of puppets. In fact, Jim had not written anything on the construction of puppets at that time, but responded personally to Steve’s letter, and directed him toward some simple Muppet patterns that had been published a few years ago in a magazine.

Thus started the career of a life-long Jim Henson puppeteer, aided by Steve’s mother’s sewing machine. As Ken comments, puppeteering can be, and has been, looked at by the world’s great Mystical Traditions as a metaphor for ultimate Spirit being the transcendental Puppeteer of all worldly phenomena. And there is much truth in that observation. Spirit, if nothing else, inhabits a massive number of multiple perspectives, and in order to perform puppeteering successfully, one literally inhabits, and becomes one with, the puppet’s personality. It is a minor re-enaction of what Spirit does moment-to-moment spontaneously, throughout the entire Kosmos.

As with Jim Henson, Steve Whitmire is a very humble soul. If nothing else, Steve is honored to carry on a tradition started by a modern-day master, by whatever name. Jim’s productions have been among the most successful television series in history: Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and Fraggle Rock were all international sensations. Sesame Street alone has aired more than 4,100 episodes over a 38-season run, winning 109 Emmy Awards in the process—and it’s still going. To say that Steve is a modern-day backbone of the Muppet tradition is in no way an exaggeration. You may not see his face, but you can see Steve animating Kermit the Frog in a musical duo with Kylie Minogue on YouTube, along with many other notable appearances.

Kermit the Frog was, and is, a public, (inter)national expression of the pluralistic, green worldview—but always with a subtle reminder of how multicultural expressions can be reconciled and brought together with an Integral View. It may not be easy being green, but it’s ever harder being teal (where an Integral understanding begins and expands). With the spirit of growth that Jim Henson embodied and intuited, and that Steve Whitmire carries on in an evolutionary context with a clearly Integral perspective, we invite you to celebrate this artistic and creative dimension of puppetry, and “taking the perspective of other” that it implies, in this one-of-a kind-dialogue….

"Jim walked into the room and said, ‘I want to do a show that will change the world and end war'—and the writers said, 'Well that’s great Jim, how could we possibly do that?' We didn’t know, but Fraggle Rock was the first ever international coproduction of any television show...."

(Click here for full dialogue.)

Previously on Integral Naked:

Tim Black - Indigenous Cultures in the Modern World

James Turner - The Integral-Political Imperative

Sally Kempton - Designer Spirituality, or Discipline Disaster?

Ken Wilber - The Origins of the Integral Perspective

Sally Kempton - From Bohemian Rebel to Integral Swami

Joe Perez - The Power of Integral Reconciliation

Alanis Morissette - Healing the Ruptures

Sally Kempton - Seeing Beyond the Mythic God

Joe Perez: Soulfully Gay - Out of the Closet, Into an Integral Embrace

Dan Millman: The Peaceful Warrior's Way - The Highest Teaching

Alex Grey: Integral Art - Anchoring the Seed of Liberation

Alanis Morissette: From Jagged Little Pill to Flavors of Entanglement

Sharon Stone: Like a Fine Diamond....

Dan Millman: The Peaceful Warrior’s Way - “This Is How to Do It”

Alex Grey: Integral Art - When Psychedelics Reveal the Spirit Within

Deepak Chopra: Buddha - A Story of Enlightenment

Integral Art

Recent Guests

Ken Wilber - Taking Perspectives on the Culture Wars

Ken Wilber - An Interview with Myriades 1. Part 3. Taking Perspectives on the Culture Wars.

click here for free sample! (right-click to download)

In an interview for Myriades 1, an Argentinean cultural magazine, Ken discusses the difference between modernity and post-modernity, and how an Integral Approach exposes the difference between flatland pluralism and a truly developmental, Integral view on growth and distinctive maturity....

Who

Gaspar Segafredo, Editor-in-Chief of Myriades 1, an Argentinean cultural magazine with an integral approach.

Summary

Gaspar and Ken engage this last section of their dialogue with vigorous inquiry.  Gaspar begins by asking if democracy, the United Nations, and human rights fundamentally stem from "pluralism."  The answer, as the evidence shows, is yes and no.  Modernity, starting with the Western Enlightenment, attempted to free itself from dogmatic mythic religion, and declare that all humans are equal.  In fact, enacting that impulse has been more of a progressive movement—not a historical moment in time—that continues to this day.  First it was that all (white) men are equal, then including all African (black) men, then including women, then including children.

In a very real way, postmodernity finished the Enlightenment project that modernity started, wherein all human beings—regardless of race, religion, creed, sexuality, etc.—should be accorded the same fundamental human rights.  But postmodernity and the pluralism it encourages can, and has, often gone too far in its impulse to equalize.  It has even gone so far as to deconstruct nearly all meaning whatsoever, which reveals the narcissistic and nihilistic core at the center of a glorious impulse taken to its pathological limits.  This is where an Integral Approach comes into play.       

An Integral Approach takes the many gifts and insights of pluralism, and then finds the patterns that connect.  All views have their right to exist, but that doesn’t mean that all views are equal.  Here, Gaspar and Ken explore developmental studies, and how—universally, research shows—people move from egocentric (I, me), to ethnocentric (you, us), to worldcentric (all of us), to (all sentient beings) Kosmocentric.  This is not merely an academic consideration.  This is a reflection of the world we all live in, where 70% of the world population is at ethnocentric or lower (to put it bluntly, Nazis or lower). 

Here, Gaspar and Ken discuss developmental stages in terms of the ability to take perspectives.  For example, egocentric can take a 1st-person perspective, ethnocentric can take a 2nd- person perspective, worldcentric-modern can take a 3rd-person perspective, worldcentric-postmodern can take a 4th-person perspective, and integral-Kosmocentric can take a 5th-person perspective (and beyond).  All of those stages of development, and stages of perspective-taking, are allowed, included, and embraced in an Integral Approach.  The question is, how can we help people grow into more mature, complex perspectives?  This is one of the many fascinating topics that Gaspar and Ken explore in this introductory, yet leading-edge, dialogue….

(Click here for full dialogue.)

James Turner on Integral Naked - The Integral-Political Imperative

James Turner - The Integral-Political Imperative. Part 1. The Nader Years.

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A founding pioneer in more Integral forms of law, politics, and federal regulation shares how he got his start applying the concepts of an infamous political activist to all areas of our modern economic society, offers a fascinating glimpse into 18th-century American political history, and suggests how a more Integral Politics can illuminate and enlighten even the realm of bureaucracy….

Who: Jim Turner is a principal in the Swankin & Turner law firm, a founding member of Integral Institute, and its Integral Politics and Integral Business branches. He is also the host of “Of Consuming Interest” on the Progressive Radio Network.

Summary: Jim Turner began his career as a young law student who realized that Ralph Nader’s pointed critique of the automobile industry circa the 1960’s (e.g., Unsafe at Any Speed) wasn’t merely about cars, but about corporate power and responsibility in nearly every sector of society—and the press simply wasn’t getting it, nor the general population. Jim felt it was his responsibility to suggest to Mr. Nader how his message might be more broadly and effectively communicated—and so he tracked Mr. Nader down, eventually ending up being invited to dinner at Ralph’s home.

Nader appreciated what Jim had to say about finding parallel problems in other corporate arenas, and then said, “Well, what would you do?” Jim said, “Let’s do food.” It turns out Ralph had been a cook in the Army for six months, so he gave the go-ahead. Then, in 1970, with the assistance of two-dozen medical, law, and political science students, Jim published The Chemical Feast: The Ralph Nader Study Group Report on Food Protection and the Food and Drug Administration—hailed by Time Magazine as “The most devastating critique of a government agency ever written.”

But, ultimately, it’s not merely about cars or food, or any specific product. It’s about a more Integral Approach to corporate entities, the government agencies that regulate them, and the citizen-consumers who are affected by the actions of both (and who, as Jim makes clear, usually get the short end of the stick). Here, Jim and Ken go right back to the dawn of the United States as a country—and as an economic force—and the Hamiltonian (large federal government) and Jeffersonian (small federal government) influences that continue to this day. Ken comments that only a truly Integral Politics can reconcile the important truths of both perspectives, and then transcend-and-include them in a post-postmodern politics that today’s world demands. Jim responds by commenting that he and Lawry Chickering (both founding members of I-I) are writing a book called The Transpartisan Imperative, which is clearly an expression of the Integral Imperative in the world at large.

(To learn more about an explicitly Integral-AQAL Politics, click here.)

“Consumers play a role in the economy like voters in the political process… but the alliance between the corporate sector and the government can be so tight, that there can be huge barriers for the individuals’ wellbeing and interests being taking care of….”

(Click here for full dialogue.)

Sally Kempton on Integral Naked - Designer Spirituality or Discipline Disaster?

Sally Kempton - Religion in the Modern World. Part 3. Designer Spirituality or Discipline Disaster?

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A deceptively profound and skillful pioneer in more Integral forms of spirituality explores what the future of spiritual practice might look like, and perhaps even more importantly, who is going to teach it—the narcissistic offspring of boomers and modern culture, or the growing number of young stars shooting for an ever-brighter tomorrow?

Who: Sally Kempton, also known as Swami Durgananda, is among the most dynamic, insightful, and sought-after teachers of Siddha Yoga, and is author of the celebrated guide to spiritual practice, The Heart of Meditation: Pathways to a Deeper Experience.

Summary: Sally Kempton is one of the most extraordinary pioneers in more integral, comprehensive forms of spiritual teaching—but my oh my, she’ll be the first to tell you it isn’t always easy, for her or her students!

For anyone walking around the modern spiritual marketplace, one of the largest challenges is simply not knowing what the “right” thing to do is anymore. With unprecedented access to all the great Wisdom Traditions from across the world, one is left with several very difficult questions. For students, which tradition should I pick—or should I pick more than one? For teachers, should I continue to pass on my spiritual knowledge in the way it was passed on to me—or should I add in some complimentary techniques from other traditions?

This is an exploration requiring equal parts courage and humility, and it’s about this journey of exploration that Sally and Ken discuss, in nuance, with passion, and always with humor. Who will be the next generation of teachers of explicitly Integral spirituality, in each tradition, or as a tradition in itself? Who is going to train those teachers in the first place? Will the teachers of tomorrow help personalize spiritual practice to each person, a kind of “designer spirituality,” or will they forget entirely the importance of discipline, and simply have a bunch of “designer egos” walking around instead? Can teachers of today and tomorrow hold both “unique fit” and discipline in their minds simultaneously?

As Sally and Ken discuss, studies have shown that the twenty-somethings of today are even more narcissistic than their boomer parents (a rather frightening achievement), and yet within that generation is an eerily high number of young people who seem to have shot right to the top of the evolutionary wave, and are ready to keep riding higher! So what on earth does that mean for the future of spirituality? A bunch of “be-here-now,” don’t worry about practice, you’re already enlightened so just go play video-games teachers? Or a crop of teachers looking to synthesize and integrate the best that the traditions have to offer, within a framework that understands developmental structures, ever-present spiritual states, but also understands that those higher states won’t stick without diligent practice?

At the leading-edge of consciousness, where these questions are being pondered from an Integral view by both teachers and students, we are the ones who have to answer our own deepest questions, through trial and error, with support from others on the same path of discovery, and with the courage to let the exhilarating birthing pains of a more Integral form of spirituality come into the world through you. Why would anyone embark upon such a path? Because their own Highest Self is telling them “walk this way.” It is the call of Eros and evolution itself, which is precisely and only the gesture of Spirit-in-Action—your own I AMness asking you, personally, to help divine truth shine brighter, and embrace more, than what has come before.

Sound like a commitment to egoic self-aggrandizement? A Messiah complex perhaps? Not at all. Because if you truly realize what you have just devoted yourself to, humility will knock you flat. In a post-metaphysical Integral spirituality, where it is understood that consciousness evolves, those at the leading edge of consciousness evolution are literally co-creating the structure of consciousness, the world-space, into which untold numbers of others will eventually follow. So, um, don’t screw it up… and don’t let the fear of screwing up paralyze you either. Breathe, smile, and go find some friends—and teacher(s)—to help create this path together….

“I’m interested in what degree of discipline this new generation of teachers is going to require from students. My teacher used to wake people up at 3AM to go meditate. It was total boot camp. That’s very hard to do in Western culture without being called authoritarian, cultish, etc….”

(Click here for full dialogue.)

Ken Wilber - The Origins of the Integral Perspective

Ken Wilber - The Origins of the Integral Perspective (19:22)

click here to listen, absolutely free! (right-click to download)

In this fascinating and memorable introduction to the Integral Vision, Ken is asked the question "How would you define what you do?" As the widely-acknowledged leader in the field of Integral studies and application, Ken goes all the way back to the beginning: a medical student at Duke University who couldn’t get any of the important questions answered from that traditional educational setting. What’s the meaning of life? Why am I here? What’s the good life? What is the Good, the True, the Beautiful? Fundamentally, what is important in human life?

Having written The Spectrum of Consciousness when he was 23, Ken began the life-long pursuit of trying to understand the meaning and importance of being human at a remarkably early age, having since expanding his work into over two-dozen books, each building on the insights of the one before. Life, and human life in particular, is a developmental affair. It’s not that there are (as Gaspar and Ken discuss) 6-7 major psychological and spiritual approaches to the same fundamental human condition, there are 6-7 developmental levels of consciousness. From archaic, to magic, to mythic, to rational, to pluralistic, to integral and beyond, there is no one answer to the meaning of life. The meaning of life literally develops along with the structures of human consciousness, in complimentary and simultaneous growth through states of consciousness, where “wakefulness” progresses from waking-gross, to dreaming-subtle, to deep-dreamless-sleep, to ever-present nondual. There are two “axes of enlightenment,” one in structures of consciousness and one in states of consciousness (see Ken’s book Integral Spirituality for more detail on this topic).

Gaspar and Ken end by talking about the fact that Ken isn’t imposing an Integral framework on anyone—he’s giving people who are already at an integral level of development a map and a way to talk about what they are already experiencing, but don’t have a language to talk about their deepest insights intuitions into life. All we do is help provide the most complete map and language for the Integral developmental wave at the leading edge of evolution, and we’d love to have you listen in and help unfold and express this blooming edge of consciousness….

Sally Kempton on Integral Naked - From Bohemian Rebel to Integral Swami

Sally Kempton - Religion in the Modern World. Part 2. From Bohemian Rebel to Integral Swami..

(click here for free sample)

One of the most nuanced, courageous pioneers of Integral forms of spirituality shares her own story of leaving her place among the liberal feminist elite, spending three decades plumbing the depths of Siddha Yoga, and "coming back to the marketplace" with a more comprehensive, integral vision for the meaning of living a spiritual life….

What Sally and Ken discuss in this dialogue is nothing less than the very future of spirituality, what it might look like, and who is going to lead the way. Sally’s perspective on this topic is incredibly nuanced, based on a lifetime spent delving into the depths of what is problematic about religion and spirituality, what the fundamental core of Liberation is in each tradition, and what isn’t even addressed by most forms of spirituality—like psychological shadow work, which Enlightenment per se literally doesn’t touch.

Born to socially-conscious parents, Sally describes herself when she was a young woman as an "ultra-leftist bohemian rebel" with a powerful feminist bite—who then abandoned the progressive cultural elite of New York City to go to India and become a devotee of Swami Muktananda. This, shall we say, was a radical change. Not only was she embracing spirituality and religion (a Leftist no-no, being seen as "the opiate of the masses"), but she was also submitting herself to a male guru in a distinctly hierarchical society (unthinkably anti-feminist, certainly for her peers).

But this was not giving up, and this was not regression. This was an incredibly important step in Sally’s life, and a bold move towards integrating truths about human existence—not deconstructing and dividing them, as was (and is) so popular. Sally spent nearly three decades in the Siddha Yoga community as a highly-regarded senior teacher, under the traditional name bestowed on her by Swami Muktananda: Swami Durgananda. Then, in 2002, Sally saw clearly that she could no longer continue to deepen and evolve her teaching methods while remaining in an ashram setting. So, with the community’s blessing, she laid aside her monastic robes, and started teaching independently. She is currently working with a small community of students on developing a four-year curriculum based on the best of what Siddha Yoga has to offer, and informed and fleshed out by the Integral Model. Sally is a founding teacher at Integral Spiritual Center, and a true gift to anyone lucky enough to cross paths with this astonishingly wise, humble, and courageous spiritual pioneer. We invite you to listen in and enjoy….

"Back in the 60s and 70s, there was an anticipation that Realization would take care of everything—and when it didn’t, there was substantial disillusionment. But all that’s needed is an Integral Approach to spirituality, and we’re seeing that more and more…."

click here for full audio

Joe Perez on Integral Naked - The Power of Integral Reconciliation

Joe Perez - Soulfully Gay. Part 2. The Power of Integral Reconciliation.

(click here for free sample)

The author of one of the most searing, courageous personal memoirs of our time shares how extraordinarily helpful an Integral Approach can be in reconciling and integrating even the most volatile, difficult, highly-charged aspects of one’s own being—and not only live to tell the tale, but find true meaning, peace, and wholeness.

In the foreword to Soulfully Gay, Ken Wilber writes: "Joe Perez’s book is perhaps the most astonishing, brilliant, and courageous look at the interface between individual belief and cultural values that has been written in our time. By a homosexual, or a heterosexual, or any other sexual I am aware of." Ken wrote this foreword without even having met Joe—probably one of the strongest complements one writer can give to another—and Soulfully Gay is the second offering from our Integral Books imprint at Shambhala Publications.

We pick up this second half of Joe’s incredible story in the year 2000, when Joes launches into a four-year process of trying to reconcile and integrate his identity as a gay man, his relationship to organized religion, his occasional psychotic episodes, and his genuine spiritual experiences—the last year of which is powerfully chronicled in Soulfully Gay. During this year, Joe’s life is often literally hanging by a thread (first because of HIV/AIDS, and second by nearly driving off a cliff). But it’s also during this year that the most significant kind of integration occurs in this beautiful, courageous man. In part by reading Ken’s work on an Integral Approach, Joe is able to find a way to understand and find a place for all the apparently disparate elements of his life—including the homophobic tendencies of mythic-traditional Christianity.

Indeed, one of the most important parts of Joe’s growth and integration is in his spiritual life. Having been raised Roman Catholic—staunchly homophobic—then having religion completely deconstructed by his time at Harvard and the University of Chicago, while also experiencing authentic mystical states, Joe wasn’t quite sure where to turn when he realized that he was in dire need of a spiritual perspective in order to effectively confront his demons. Here, Joe and Ken discuss the fact that religion and spirituality looks and acts differently at different human developmental levels (e.g., from archaic, to magic, to mythic, to rational, to pluralistic, to integral, and so on). In fact, because human beings live at every single one of those levels, religion must find a healthy way to express itself at each level—not try to convert everyone to just one level (usually mythic-traditional).

Joe is pioneering not only how to live an Integral Life as a gay man, but also a uniquely Integral Spirituality for anyone with a same-sex orientation. In fact, Joe and Ken go on to explore how "gayness" can be looked at as a universal feature of human nature, woven into the very fabric of the Kosmos itself….

"When I tried to meditate, I would shake and hyperventilate. I feared that if I got more in touch with my true nature, I would go insane again. That was a real dilemma… and one that Integral helped resolve."

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Alanis Morissette - Healing the Ruptures

Alanis Morissette - From Jagged Little Pill to Flavors of Entanglement. Part 2. Healing the Ruptures.

(click here for free sample)

One of the most dynamic and live-out-loud artists of our time shares how, over the course of a lifetime and 11 albums, she has come to a deeply integral—and deeply personal—understanding of why "touching on all the bases" is by far the most rewarding way to engage spirituality, relationships, and self-expression.

Alanis Morissette is a glorious example of what it means to talk about living an Integral Life in a way that is fun, accessible, and quite simply the most natural thing in the world. Why would you want to do anything less than touch in on all the bases of one’s life? Actually, it’s a little spooky how spot-on she is, apparently without even really trying. Alanis has this uncanny ability to talk about a certain dimension of her life, and how she has, over a lifetime, come to a place of inner peace and integration in that particular dimension. The uncanny part is that Ken will then mirror back to her the fact that she just walked us through all the important elements of that part of one’s life, exactly as the Integral Approach would do, but without any unfamiliar technical wording. It’s pretty amazing.

Just one example: Alanis and Ken start the dialogue by talking about what practices Alanis does for her spiritual dimension. She then lists everything from "being still" meditation, to prayer, to the exaltation of singing on stage, to walking in nature with her dogs. Ken then goes on to speak about what we call "The 1-2-3 of God," and how Spirit (or God, by whatever name) can be known and investigated in three fundamental dimensions: 1st-person (I), 2nd-person (You), and 3rd-person (It). Spirit in 3rd-person is the Great Perfection of the Kosmos, the unified Web of Life, and Nature with a capital "N." Spirit in 2nd-person is the great other, the great Thou or You that created the entire universe, a living intelligence infinitely greater than one’s separate self-sense. Spirit in 1st-person is the recognition that at the core of one’s personal experience of consciousness is the pure consciousness of Spirit itself, living as you and through you, in the Supreme Identity of I AMness. Alanis’s "being still" touches on Spirit in 1st-person, her prayer and singing touches on Spirit in 2nd-person, and walking in nature touches on Spirit in 3rd-person.

The next major topic of discussion has to do with the role of relationships in Alanis’s life, and how masculine and feminine types (whether in a man or woman, gay or straight) show up in relationship, and what their primary pathologies look like. To summarize, the masculine dimension in all of us is geared towards autonomy, and the feminine dimension in all of us is geared towards communion. Unhealthy masculine is not just autonomy, but dissociation from relationship. Unhealthy feminine is not just communion, but fusion in relationship. Both of these dimensions have something to learn from the other, and any Integral Approach would be sure to include both.

It’s hard to describe Alanis’s presence in this dialogue as anything other than "delicious." You get the sense that she doesn’t stop smiling for half an hour straight, and her laughs punctuate and liberate almost every other sentence. If for no other reason than to imbibe the joyous nectar of this brilliant soul, we invite you to listen in, and drink deeply of an Integral Life lived full-to-overflowing….

"I think ultimately I was born to help heal the rupture between self and self, self and other, and self and Spirit…."

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Sally Kempton - Bringing Greater Consciousness to the Dialogue on Religion: Seeing Beyond the Mythic God

Sally Kempton - Bringing Greater Consciousness to the Dialogue on Religion. Part 1. Seeing Beyond the Mythic God.

(click here for free sample)

One of the most extraordinary explorers and teachers of a more integral approach to spirituality—and one of the most sought-after teachers of Siddha Yoga—shares how, through the story of her life, she came to a deep understanding of why the highest form of spiritual teaching must be integral, comprehensive, and inclusive of all aspects of human life.

Sally Kempton is one of the most extraordinary pioneers in more integral, comprehensive forms of spiritual teaching, and she is also the last one who would ever make a big fuss about it.  But Sally is worth getting excited about, and we want to let you in on the secret. 

Born to socially-conscious parents (her father was a Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal news columnist), Sally went on to an amazing career as a feminist activist and writer for publications such as The New York Times, Esquire, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and Harpers.  She was a brilliant example of what it meant to be at the leading edge of the socially-consciousness political Left, where religion and spirituality was generally seen as "the opiate of the masses," and one of the most oppressive forces in human history.

That all changed when Sally experienced for herself an insight so powerful that only spiritual or mystical terms seemed to apply.  Here, Sally and Ken talk about the absolutely crucial distinction between mythic, dogmatic pre-rational forms of religion and spirituality (think Crusades, homophobia, etc.), and the direct, experience-it-for-yourself trans-rational forms of religion and spirituality (think liberation, enlightenment, etc.)  The tragedy is that the social and political Left—not that the Right does any better—can almost never make this distinction: all they see is the conservative, traditional, literalistic form of religion that is probably responsible for more suffering than any other element of human existence, and therefore miss entirely the core mystical truths at the contemplative center of every major religion, whereby liberation is a direct experience of ever-present Spirit, not the salvation promised by strict belief in a mythic god. 

What makes Sally such an extraordinary teacher is that she started as one of the leading exemplars of spirituality's chief opponent—the social-activist Left—and then through direct experience and years of training she came to know personally what the heart of spirituality really is.  She has lived, and excelled, on "both sides of the street."  Together, Sally and Ken explore what a 21st-century spirituality might look like, a truly Integral spirituality, and the exciting steps each one is making towards making this vision come to life.  This new expression of spirituality can be adorned—if one chooses—with the beloved symbols of the sacred tradition one feels most drawn to.  Integral Spirituality is both a bold new path into the future of spiritual meaning, but resting always on, and transcending and including, the work and devotion of all who have come before us, clearing the path so that we could see all the more clearly who we really are….

"Back in the 60s and 70s—and also today—from the point of view of social activists, to have any form of interiority was actually seen as traitorous, selfish, and a way of 'going to sleep on the job.'"

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Joe Perez - Soulfully Gay: Out of the Closet, Into an Integral Embrace

Joe Perez - Soulfully Gay. Part 1. Out of the Closet, Into an Integral Embrace.

(click here for free sample)

The author of one of the most searing, courageous personal memoirs of our time shares how an Integral Approach helped him reconcile a life of fierce inner struggles with what it means to be a gay man in today’s culture, the difference between genuine spiritual experiences and psychotic episodes, and the thorny intersection of homosexuality and Christianity.

In the foreword to Soulfully Gay, Ken Wilber writes: "Joe Perez’s book is perhaps the most astonishing, brilliant, and courageous look at the interface between individual belief and cultural values that has been written in our time. By a homosexual, or a heterosexual, or any other sexual I am aware of." Ken wrote this foreword without even having met Joe—probably one of the strongest complements one writer can give to another—and Soulfully Gay is the second offering from our Integral Books imprint at Shambhala Publications.

In this dialogue, we are introduced to this "rip-roaring wonder of a writer," and hear Joe share the first part of his journey towards reconciling and integrating a life very nearly torn to shreds. This rather extraordinary chronicle unfolds around several conflict-inducing facts, one of which is that Joe is indeed gay; another of which is that Joe was raised Roman (homophobic) Catholic; another is that Joe tested HIV positive at age 24; another is that he often has authentic mystical states; and yet another is that Joe is, but only occasionally, clinically psychotic. It is the jolting collision of those items, held together by Joe’s courage in the face of them all, that makes his story so incredible in so many ways.

But all those items didn’t merely collide; they coalesced, through agony, and euphoria, and sheer determination into a deeply Integral life. Joe’s story is a shining example of why an Integral Approach is far more than "just a map," or "just cognitive head-stuff." Integral helps one find a place for everything in one’s life. Integral helps find the patterns that connect. In an Integral life, there’s room for everything... even all the things that one has disowned, shoved into the shadows, pushed away; and because all these parts of one’s own being are held at arm’s length, one can never feel truly whole. As Ken so beautifully summarizes, "Joe’s life is being artfully lived in the very fact of its truthfulness, its deep embrace, shadows and warts and worms and all, woven unhesitatingly into the tapestry of a lustrous display, a deep peace, an abiding love... and therein, surely, a lesson for us all...."

We invite you to meet this extraordinary man, and listen in to this extraordinary story....

"I didn’t know who I was anymore. Any sense of meaning or purpose had come crashing down around me. Then, one ordinary day, I was preparing for bed, and I became overwhelmed by this sensation of euphoria and bliss that permeated everything in my awareness...."

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Dan Millman - The Highest Teaching

Dan Millman - The Peaceful Warrior's Way. Part 2. The Highest Teaching.

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It is one of the remarkable blessings of the 21st century to have such unprecedented access to all the world's great spiritual traditions. While navigating this rich ocean of wisdom, how can we determine what the "highest" spiritual teaching really is? How does it relate to day-to-day life? And how can we begin to claim this truth as our very own, right now?

From the philosophy of tennis to the highest spiritual teaching in just a few short sentences—such is an example of the tremendous value of Dan Millman. He brings us from a place we understand, a place we are comfortable with, to a place where we might be able to see something new: something bigger, brighter, and more embracing than what we had seen before—and all from the familiar comfort and safety of our favorite pair of tennis shoes.

Perhaps that's a silly example, but this really is the kind of skill that Dan has developed over the course of a dozen books and countless teaching engagements. As he relates, most of the time, people aren't asking him about the ultimate nature of reality—they're asking him about how to deal with their boss, their finances, their lover, their health, their career. Quoting a famous Indian mystic, Dan says, "I give people what they want, so eventually they will want what I want to give them." Here, Dan is referring to the core wisdom in all the great contemplative traditions, the wisdom that liberates, enlightens, and transforms.

What follows is a truly inspiring—and, indeed, enlightening—conversation about the nature of reality, the meaning of spirituality, and what the "highest teaching" really is. To say anything more would be doing this dialogue a disservice, because the extraordinary interplay of subtlety, profundity, and skillful means displayed by these two teachers is more than a paragraph can summarize. We most humbly and earnestly invite you to listen in for yourself, so that this transmission of hard-earned wisdom is direct and unfiltered….

"The act of 'exchanging self for other' is one of the most profound spiritual practices of all time. In a sense, with every breath you live the life of Jesus and the life of Buddha...."

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Integral Naked continues to be an excellent source of stimulating content and provocative conversations with the world's greatest thinkers, leaders, artists, and visionaries. Be sure to stay tuned to the IN Podcast for more weekly audio updates....

Alex Grey - Integral Art: Anchoring the Seeds of Liberation

Alex Grey - Integral Art. Part 4. Anchoring the Seed of Liberation.

(click here for free sample)

Alex Grey and Ken Wilber explore an integral approach to art, how visionary and spiritual art can plant a seed of liberation in the mind of the viewer, and how one can recognize and anchor that realization in one's own life.


Alex and Ken begin the conversation by discussing a question that's fundamental to the success of any visionary and spiritual artist: how do you "plant a seed of liberation" in the mind of the viewer? If you are interested in getting to know your own higher dimension of being, seeking out this kind of transcendental art can be one important practice in your own integral life—and if you have some kind of understanding of what's happening when a piece of art pops you into a higher state of consciousness, the more likely that realization is going to "stick," and stay with you longer.

What Alex has had the good fortune to discover, and the skill to express, is that portraying—as he puts it—"transcendental light in relationship with the body" is a very effective way to help people resonate with a piece of transformative art. As Ken goes on to mention, all states of consciousness are supported by their corresponding bodies, and by depicting some of the higher and more refined bodies, Alex has been able to elicit and anchor some of the higher and more refined states of consciousness in viewers.

An example from more traditional sacred art helps make clear what all of this actually means: when Christian artists paint halos around the heads of saints, they are depicting a subtle-body aspect of a saint's higher state of consciousness—and if you gaze upon the image of a saint long enough, you may start to feel saintly yourself. What's extraordinary about Alex's work is that he has taken this general concept and brought it into the modern world, always drinking deeply from the world's wisdom traditions, but then expressing those visionary insights with astonishing creativity, detail, and clarity.What follows is an in-depth discussion—carried over from Part 3 of this dialogue—of how entheogens (psychedelics) have played a pivotal role in Alex's development as an artist. One reason we are always eager to explore this topic with Alex is that he is one of the very few people who have, over a lifetime of experience, used these powerful substances in a genuinely responsible and growth-oriented manner. Entheogens are a controversial topic in spiritual practice, but experiential evidence from various practitioners suggests that use can have a powerful impact on one's spiritual perspective. Whether one is personally interested in using entheogens on one's own path or not, this is an extremely enlightening part of the dialogue, simply because this topic is so rarely spoken about in a healthy, rational, and transparent manner.

"For example, when viewing art from a truly enlightened Zen Master, there can be four simple brush strokes for a stalk of bamboo, and BOING—Big Mind."

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Integral Naked continues to be an excellent source of stimulating content and provocative conversations with the world's greatest thinkers, leaders, artists, and visionaries. Be sure to stay tuned to the IN Podcast for more weekly audio updates....

Alanis Morissette - From Jagged Little Pill to Flavors of Entanglement

Alanis Morissette - From Jagged Little Pill to Flavors of Entanglement

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Seven-time Grammy Award winner Alanis Morissette takes us on a tour of her life and career by sharing how the threads of her life have increasingly come together into one integral tapestry—where once there may have been jagged fragments, we can now see conscious and playful entanglement with all of life….

Alanis Morissette is one of those rare souls who has been brave enough to live, learn, and grow in the public eye, over the course of eleven albums, starting with Alanis, when she was just seventeen. Now, with her latest album—Flavors of Entanglement—near completion (no release date yet, sorry!), Alanis and Ken explore how her personal and professional life has increasingly reflected an integral impulse towards embracing as much of the human experience as possible. In one of the many light and humorous moments of this dialogue, Alanis shares that she gets bored hanging around with people who have less than a "multi-tentacled" approach—truly one of the most original, and funny, ways we've ever heard someone express their understanding an integral life.

One of the fascinating elements of this dialogue is that the discussion of Alanis's personal and professional life meshes into one unified story. Her art is a reflection and expression of who she is, who she has been, and who she'd like to be—truly an astonishing feat, given that most of what the music industry produces is a superficial shimmer of human drama and emotion, not the deep, complex, and passionate narrative that life really is. As Ken shares, Alanis recently told him that she thought her purpose "was to connect the human and the divine," a remarkably succinct summary of what art has the power to do, and, indeed, is one of its highest purposes.

Alanis, with a laugh, says she's "always had a little love affair with God," although, she reflects, God is also the first thing to go when she gets stressed. Here, Alanis and Ken both share their deep appreciation for the role that shadow work can have in helping one have a clearer connection with ever-present Spirit, and also in just leading a happier, healthier life. Ken goes on to mention that, in today's world, "God has a serious PR problem." The mainstream media simply doesn't know the difference between contemplative, liberating, "experience it for yourself" spirituality, and dogmatic, mythic, "believe the Word or you're going to hell" spirituality. Alanis, needless to say, is a radiant example of a spirituality that transforms, a spirituality that you feel and breathe and touch, where one is connected directly to the center of this conscious and living Kosmos.

"I still find myself in certain circles of people who have just one focal point, and I usually glaze over after a while—if it's not a multi-tentacled approach to something, it's probably time to leave!"

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Integral Naked continues to be an excellent source of stimulating content and provocative conversations with the world's greatest thinkers, leaders, artists, and visionaries. Be sure to stay tuned to the IN Podcast for more weekly audio updates....

Sharon Stone - Like a Fine Diamond.... Part 2

Sharon Stone - Like a Fine Diamond, This Stone Shines in All Dimensions. Part 2.

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In this captivating and deeply personal dialogue, Sharon Stone shares her experience as a high-profile actress turned international activist, and how an integral impulse has guided both her personal and professional life. Her story is truly an inspiring one, because through it all, people have said "You can't do that,"—and all along, she's done it anyway, literally saving thousands of lives in the process....

Why, in the broader scheme of things, would it matter that an award-winning actress has been living an intuitively integral life? Because, not only will an integral approach make one a better actor, but it will inform all of one's off-screen activities—and if you're Sharon Stone, that includes raising $1 million in five minutes to help prevent malaria in Tanzania, publicly supporting an AIDS research institution back when that would have been a career-killing move, and becoming a minister so that she could help her homosexual friends gain access to their lovers in the hospital. For Sharon, celebrity has been a tool that she's used to help as many people as she can, both in her local community and across the globe—and because she has approached each situation from an integral, comprehensive, and embracing viewpoint, she has done admirably at "touching on all the bases" for each endeavor, and therefore helping each one succeed as much as possible. And she was doing it years before activism became chic amongst the Hollywood elite, almost a full decade before Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie, and Brad Pitt began making headlines for their philanthropic work around the world.

After exploring how an integral approach has manifested in her public work in the world, Ken asks her about the more personal dimensions of how she's brought together and integrated all the aspects of her own being. First of all, Ken offers, Sharon is living proof that a stunningly beautiful woman can have a heart, a mind, and a spirit to match. Then, in perhaps the dialogue's most revealing and touching moment, Sharon shares that perhaps the one area of her personal life that needs the most healing and integration is with her intimate relationships. Having had several failed relationships, including a divorce in 2004, she mentions that she hasn't really allowed herself to even consider that there might be, somewhere, a "perfect partner" for her—not, as both Sharon and Ken laugh, another "fixer-upper."

Finally, Sharon and Ken talk with excitement about the third Integral Spiritual Center gathering coming up this October 29 -31, where along with Sharon, Michael Crichton, Scott Glenn, and Chantal Westerman have been invited to come, with most of them planning to do so. Integral Spiritual Center brings together thirty of the world's finest contemplative teachers, all of whom are actively applying an integral approach in their own tradition or lineage, and then has "teachers teaching teachers," so that the wisdom of each and all comes together in an integral framework and embrace, co-creating a "trans-path path" to the future of spirituality.

"In Tanzania, we know we've caused a third less deaths from malaria by something I specifically stood up and did at the World Economic Forum—when they were all saying 'Sit down Miss Stone, this isn't the time or the place.'"

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Integral Naked continues to be an excellent source of stimulating content and provocative conversations with the world's greatest thinkers, leaders, artists, and visionaries. Be sure to stay tuned to the IN Podcast for more weekly audio updates....

Dan Millman - The Peaceful Warrior's Way. Part 1. This is How to Do It.

Dan Millman - The Peaceful Warrior’s Way. Part 1. “This Is How to Do It.” (click here for free sample)

Many of us have been told about the spiritual life, but how do we begin to actually live it? Author Dan Millman has devoted his writing career to exploring this very question. Here he shares his own personal story behind his impulse to develop a "ground-up" approach to daily life, a wonderful reminder of how simple and practical an Integral Life Practice can be....

Many of us are familiar with Dan's first book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior—which has at least 2 million copies sold, and probably 6-7 million readers. But what many people often miss is that Dan has spent the twenty-five years since Peaceful Warrior’s publication writing 12 more books, and it is in these books where Dan lays out how you can actually take the inspiring impact of Peaceful Warrior and put it into practice. Do you want more than just inspiration? Do you really want to change your life? Dan will show you how, in literally twelve different ways.

As Dan mentions to Ken, “Spiritual life, by whatever name, begins on the ground, not up in the air.” Ken goes on to note that what Dan and Tony Robbins (another Integral Naked guest) share is an emphasis on taking physical action right now as a practical means to seeing actual change in one’s life. Further, Ken mentions that Dan is “one of the masters of mastery,” which can be seen not only in his incredible body of work, but in the fact that Dan was a world champion in trampoline gymnastics at only the age of 18. However, as Dan is quick to make clear, none of this would have happened without four radically different mentors he worked with over the course of two decades, who he refers to as The Professor, The Guru, The Warrior-Priest, and The Sage. Now, Dan is a full-blown mentor himself: accessible, practical, and always moving towards a more complete, comprehensive, and indeed integral approach to living a deeply awake life.

“You’re one of the masters of mastery—you have led a life of world-class action, and, as you know, if you can get the body to do something, the mind will follow….”

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Integral Naked continues to be an excellent source of stimulating content and provocative conversations with the world's greatest thinkers, leaders, artists, and visionaries. Be sure to stay tuned to the IN Podcast for more weekly audio updates....

Alex Grey - When Psychedelics Reveal the Spirit Within

Alex Grey - When Psychedelics Reveal the Spirit Within. (click here for free 10 minute sample)

An important part of Alex’s development as an artist came from visionary insights while on psychedelics, particularly during formative years in the '70s. As anyone who lived through the '60s and '70s will probably tell you, psychedelics can give you "some pretty wild experiences." But at what point does a "wild experience" give way to a life-changing spiritual or religious experience? Lots of people have taken psychedelics; some report seeing God, some don’t. So what’s going on here? In your own life, if you have experimented with psychedelics, how did you interpret your experience? Secularly, spiritually, or as just scary as hell?

In this dialogue, Alex and Ken almost exclusively use the term "entheogen" when referring to psychedelic substances such as LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, peyote, and so on. One meaning of entheogen literally translates as "that which reveals the Spirit within." As Alex elaborates, the intention you had when you chose to take such a substance is extremely important in determining what your experience will ultimately be. Were you simply looking to have some fun, or were you earnestly searching for Spirit, God, or Reality, by whatever name? Both uses are clearly valid within their own purposes, but in Alex’s case, it was very much the latter—and he did see something far more Real than anything he had seen before.

Alex and Ken go on to discuss the process by which Alex, as an artist, tried to depict some of these profound experiences in his paintings, resulting in masterpieces such as "Universal Mind Lattice," "Theologue," and "Deities and Demons Drinking From a Milky Pool," so that others might be able to glimpse aspects of their own deeper and truer nature. Such is one of the most important roles of visionary and integral art—whereby it becomes transformative art—and Alex is among the most accomplished artists in this important and specialized realm of creativity.

"Not everyone who takes mushrooms is going to interpret this as a religious opening for themselves… they might just see it as, 'Wow, that was weird.'"

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Integral Naked continues to be an excellent source of stimulating content and provocative conversations with the world's greatest thinkers, leaders, artists, and visionaries. Be sure to stay tuned to the IN Podcast for more weekly audio updates....

Deepak Chopra - Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment - Part 2

Deepak Chopra - Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment - Part 2 (click here for free 10 minute sample)

After discussing the presentation and criticism of Buddha in detail in Part 1 of the conversation, Deepak and Ken move on to explore some of the most central tenets of the Buddhist tradition, as well as Vedanta Hinduism. Mentioned first is the trikaya or "three body" doctrine, whereby all sentient being are said to have a nirmanakaya (gross body), samboghakaya (subtle body), and dharmakaya (causal body). These three bodies are said to literally support, respectively, gross-waking consciousness, subtle-dreaming consciousness, and causal-deep-sleep consciousness—all of which are states of consciousness, which everyone experiences every single day, because everyone wakes, dreams, and sleeps (it is through contemplative practice that these states reveal their deeper nature, and one can begin to Witness all states, and then find nondual Union with all states). In addition to bodies and states, Ken reminds us that both Vajrayana Buddhism and Vedanta Hinduism posit sheaths—or koshas or structures or levels—of consciousness, such as annamayakosha (material), pranamayakosha (emotional-sexual), manomayakosha (middle mind), vijnanamayakosha (higher mind), and anandamayakosha (bliss mind). Together, states, bodies, and sheaths/structures paint a very sophisticated picture of what contemplative, trans-rational spirituality is all about (and to which we would add, in an AQAL and Integral Approach, quadrants, lines, and types.

"Once you realize the world is a dream of creative play, you can do as this Zen koan suggests: If you see a boat on the horizon, pick it up…."

Rabbi Zalman and Ken Wilber - God in the 21st Century. Part 2. A Better Set of Skillful Means.

God in the 21st Century. Part 2. A Better Set of Skillful Means. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ken Wilber

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Two of today's most accomplished "wise men" discuss the essential ingredients of an integral spiritual path, and the importance of knowing how to communicate that knowledge with clarity and compassion.

Who: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements, and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Spiritual Center and author of Integral Spirituality.

Relevance: What use is the liberating wisdom of contemplative spirituality, such as Jewish Hassidism and Kabbalah, if those who know the secrets of these traditions don't have the skillful means—the upaya—necessary to communicate those truths to all sentient beings in a way that they can hear? How might a more Integral Spirituality, in any tradition, create a more effective upaya?

Summary: Continuing their conversation about "God in the 21st Century," these two long-time friends and founding members of Integral Spiritual Center bring their attention to the question of what is most essential to the spiritual and integral path, and how best to share those truths. For an Integral Life Practice, what is most essential is the Body, Mind, Spirit, and Shadow dimensions of any person (with "auxiliary modules" such as sex, ethics, relationship, and more). And yet, as Reb Zalman so eloquently states, even if you know a deep spiritual or integral truth, if you don't have the upaya, the skillful means, necessary to communicate the importance of such a truth—we have a real problem.

Since most traditions agree that spiritual enlightenment reveals the universal Spirit-nature of all beings, those who have come to know their own Spirit-nature have an obligation to help share, reveal, and point out that truth to all those who may not yet have recognized their own True Nature. It is not enough to say that everyone, exactly as they are, is in perfectly union with ever-present Ayin, and Ultimate Reality. That is absolute truth. However, relative truth is that it is necessary for that reality to be a conscious understanding for each individual. The means by which a spiritual teacher—by whatever name—helps make this understanding truly conscious in another human being: that is the realm of skillful means. As Reb Zalman and Ken agree, skillful means must be adapted to the four-quadrant dimensions (intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social) of any given situation. Such is the nature of a truly Integral Spirituality, a vision with which Reb Zalman clearly resonates. As this wise elder Rabbi has publicly stated, "The Kabbalah of the future will rest on Ken's work."

Why Integral?: An Integral Approach to spirituality is the first approach to explore in detail the difference between states of consciousness and structures of consciousness, and how development can unfold in each dimension of human experience. This is quite possibly the most significant contribution to our understanding of human nature in decades, because the explanatory power of the Integral View as a whole is simply unrivaled. Integral doesn't change the content of human experience, it helps contextualize and explain the content that is already there. Particularly when it comes to the realm of spirituality, religion, and ultimate concern—even if that ultimate concern is scientific materialism—the possibilities for division and strife are nearly endless. An Integral Approach shows how there really is room in the Kosmos for everyone, and how the Good, the True, and the Beautiful actually evolve and develop into ever-more inclusive, complex, and radiant forms.

To learn more about how an Integral Approach can be applied to spirituality, see the essay "What Is Integral Spirituality," the book Integral Spirituality, and the learning community at Integral Spiritual Center (where Rabbi Zalman is a founding member and teacher).

*****

(To check out Part 1 of this conversation, click here. To explore Reb Zalman's other audio and video appearances on Integral Naked, a dozen in all, click here.)

keywords: Jewish Renewal, Spiritual Eldering, Jewish With Feeling, Baal Shem Tov, Desert Fathers, Kabbalah, Hasidim, Mike Murphy, George Leonard, Esalen Institute, Integral Transformative Practice, Integral Life Practice, Teilhard de Chardin, Alex Grey, Thomas Merton, satori (a "clear glimpse" of enlightenment, from Zen Buddhism), upaya ("skillful means," from Mahayana Buddhism), Integral Spirituality, stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), The Secret, Jacob Atabet, Integral Spiritual Center, "What Is Integral?," The Integral Vision.

most memorable moment: "I'm a spiritual peeping tom! I want to see how people 'get it on' with God… because devoutness is beautiful."

BOOKMARKS:

Sharon Stone and Ken Wilber - Like a Fine Diamond, This Stone Shines in All Dimensions

Like a Fine Diamond, This Stone Shines in All Dimensions. Part 1. Sharon Stone and Ken Wilber

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A Hollywood star who has refused to limit her shine to any one dimension of her being shares her life experience as a high-profile blonde bombshell who has broken all the rules, and forged a more integral, inclusive path for living, working, loving, sharing, creating.

Who: Sharon Stone, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee, and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Institute and the man behind the idea of Integral Actors Studio.

Relevance: The appeal of an Integral Approach spans a truly astonishing number of disciplines, communities, and professions—Hollywood being a perfect example. Sharon has had a rather extraordinary life and career, and together, Ken and Sharon walk through the first segment of this remarkable trajectory, touching in always with the orienting contours of an Integral View….

Summary: Our story begins in Meadville, PA, where Sharon was born. At the age of 15, Sharon was transferred from her local high school to enroll in Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. With an IQ of 154, an honorary doctorate from the aforementioned institution, and ordination from the Universal Life Church, Sharon is just about as far from the "dumb blonde" stereotype as you could possibly get (which is hard to avoid if you live in Beverly Hills).

In fact, Sharon has had a decidedly integral tilt to her life from just about from the word "go." She has been active in independently pursuing her own spirituality since the age of 10, she's extremely intelligent and unabashed about her opinions ("Nice girls aren't supposed to act this way"), she crafted her physique into lean, muscular fighting form for an on-screen brawl with Arnold Schwarzenegger, she has raised $1 million in five minutes for humanitarian aid, and, need we say it, she's simply drop-dead gorgeous (one of the top 25 sexiest women ever to appear in Playboy magazine, one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people in the world, one of Empire magazine's 100 sexiest stars in film history, etc.). This is a woman who has been intuitively "touching on all the bases" all her life.

After getting her first break when Woody Allen picked her out of a line and she became the "pretty girl on train" in his 1980 Stardust Memories, Sharon's career steadily picked up speed until it simply shot through the roof a short decade later. Starting with Total Recall in 1990, then Basic Instinct in 1992, and then Casino in 1995, Sharon describes those years as something like "hanging onto a rocket while trying to not fall off or get burned." For her role as Ginger McKenna in Casino, Sharon received a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

In one of the many fascinating sections of this dialogue, Sharon and Ken discuss what it was like for Sharon to allow herself to truly "become" the bisexual serial killer in Basic Instinct, Catherine Tramell. As Sharon recalls, the prospect of really diving into the darkest aspects of her own being was terrifying, and the actual process of doing so was extremely difficult—but at the end of it all, she looked back and said, "Is that it? Is that all there is?" Ken summarizes that "really good acting is really good psychotherapy," and in the year or so of shooting for the film, Sharon probably got five years worth of psychotherapy.

Why Integral?:

To really discover and learn about the life and work of any person (whether Sharon Stone, or anyone else), you of course would want to touch on as many aspects of their being as possible—otherwise, you might miss something really important. What an Integral Approach provides is a simple, clear, and accurate map of the human experience, one that you can check in on whenever you want to get your bearings. Everyone has body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. Those dimensions are there whether one acknowledges them or not, so why not take a moment to check in with all of them? It's quick, easy, enlightening, and fun.

An Integral Approach is behind the concept of Integral Actors Studio, where Ken envisions a convergence and integration of manifold modalities brought to bear on the actor's craft and guiding vision. In a dialogue that you can find here, Ken describes what such an "integral package" would entail, and reveals how personal, cultural, and institutional dimensions can be mindfully engaged through psycho-synthesis, yoga, meditation, peer work, technical exchange programs, and other practices. Many people in entertainment have expressed a great deal of interest and excitement about creating an Integral Actors Studio, from Julia Ormond, to Steve Brill, to Saul Williams, and more.

keywords: Meadville PA, feminism, Pussycat Dolls, Carl Jung, Dzogchen, Maha Ati, Dalai Lama, Ford Modeling Agency, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, William Powell, Stardust Memories, Woody Allen, Irreconcilable Differences, Blake Chandler, United Church of Christ, Baptist Church, Scientology, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Casino, Ginger McKenna, Catherine Tramell, shadow work, psychotherapy, Integral Actors Studio, Zen Buddhism, Roy London, Susan Sarandon, Larry Wachowski, Speed Racer, Integral Spirituality, "What Is Integral?," The Integral Vision.

most memorable moment: "We 'barbie dolls' are not supposed to behave the way I do. People like it so much more when you just smile and nod. But I really don't believe in the end that that's doing your best."

BOOKMARKS:

Corey deVos and Ken Wilber - A Post-Metaphysical Interpretation of Synchronicity

A Post-Metaphysical Interpretation of Synchronicity (54:11)

This is a discussion between Ken Wilber and Corey deVos, Managing Editor of Integral Naked and KenWilber.com, as well as Audio Manager for Integral Institute, about an integral interpretation of Synchronicity.

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Corey's question:

Synchronicity has long been an intrinsic part of my own spiritual path, something i have come to regard as a sort of "experiential faith", and i have long desired to find a place for it within the integral model. For me, synchronicity feels almost like a collapse of the four quadrants of my holon into a singular experience of tetra-emergence, in which my UL intention, my UR actions, my LR circumstances, and my LL sense of meaning and context all fall into perfect symmetry with each other. In these moments, there is a sensation that the totality of my subject suddenly becomes object in my awareness, a sort of bird's-eye-view of self--and perhaps more profoundly, there is usually a sense of presence of and sometimes even subtle interaction with an intelligence that is undeniably greater than my own.

In the twenty tenets, there is a wonderful description of the relationship that exists between junior and senior holons, namely that the lower determines the possibilities of the higher, the higher determines the probabilities of the lower--so that of all the things that could possibly happen, certain things become more likely to happen. Could this have something to do with synchronistic experiences? Would this explain why there have been so many different names for this synchronicity throughout history: magenta fate, red destiny, amber miracles and grace, orange luck and coincidence, green "interconnectivity of the web-of-life".... And if there is indeed a higher holon determining the probability fields of my human experience, what/where/who is that higher holon?

Previous interpretations of Synchronicity, according to altitude:

Magenta: fate, omens
Red: destiny
Amber: miracles, divine providence, karma
Orange: coincidence, “statistical anomalies”
Green: web-of-life interconnectivity, Celestince Prophecy version of Synchronicity, Hippie Karma
2nd Tier: symmetrical collapse of intention (UL), behavior (UR), meaning (LL), and circumstance (LR)

Deepak Chopra and Ken Wilber - Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment - Part 1

Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment - Part 1 (27:00)

Deepak Chopra and Ken Wilber

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Who: Deepak Chopra, one of the world’s great leaders in mind-body medicine and enormously successful popularizer of spiritual principles, and Ken Wilber, widely-acknowledged leader of the Integral movement and founder of Integral Institute.

Relevance: In his latest book, Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, Deepak offers us his own creative vision for how it may have felt—from the inside, in first-person narrative—for Gautama Buddha during his search for, and realization of, spiritual Enlightenment. But not everyone is thrilled about Deepak’s treatment of the founder of this great tradition. Deepak and Ken discuss many perspectives related to this naturally sensitive subject, in search of a more comprehensive and integral view.

Summary: As Deepak is the first to admit, his new book Buddha is a fictionalized treatment of the life and awakening of Gautama Buddha—in fact, the subtitle to the book says as much up front: A Story of Enlightenment. For that matter, Publisher’s Weekly wrote “Chopra scores a fiction winner.” Everyone seems pretty clear about the fact that Deepak took the creative liberties needed to describe a first-person account of what Gautama Buddha may have been thinking, feeling, and experiencing during various stages of his life and awakening. And yet, certain traditional Buddhist scholars, teachers, and academics find the book offensive, mis-leading, and possibly even heretical.

As Deepak and Ken discuss (and we hear the Dalai Lama agrees), that kind of perspective rather seems to miss the point: if the popularizing influence of a fictionalized account of the life of Buddha brings a wider audience of people to an appreciation of the Buddhadharma, isn’t that ultimately a successful expression of upaya, or skillful means? Is it not the duty of a bodhisattva to use skillful means to communicate the truth of Reality by whatever means actually work? And once introduced to this wonderful tradition, is it not likely readers will be turned on to Buddhism in general, and start exploring the detailed and rigorous offerings of other teachers, scholars, and writers? To suggest that a man with a medical degree from Harvard is incapable of understanding the true sophistication of the Buddhist tradition is just silly—it’s simply not what he was going for in this particular work.

Deepak and Ken also touch on the always-lively topic of how to interact with people who stridently insist that scientific materialism is the only approach that’s “really real” (e.g., a world with no respect or understanding for the true depth of the consciousness principle, and certainly no room for a transcendental or universal Spirit). In a surprisingly humorous account, Deepak goes on to describe getting kicked out of a major conference for rebutting a particularly offensive presentation by Richard Dawkins—a spat that he assures us he’s over now, but it’s a darn good story nonetheless.

Why Integral?: As time has shown again and again, for any discussion of spirituality and religion in the modern and postmodern world to get any real traction, there are several key ingredients that you simply must have, or the conversation goes nowhere, and often goes nowhere with great ferocity. A truly Integral dialogue would include All Quadrants, Levels, Lines, States, and Types (AQAL for short), but the bare-bones framework you need to make any sense of spirituality at all is simply the distinction between states of consciousness and stages of consciousness.

States of consciousness are ever-present possibilities, the five most common being gross (waking), subtle (dreaming), causal (deep sleep), witnessing (turiya), and nondual (turiyatita). Each state can be penetrated with full wakefulness and clarity, whereupon, the great traditions say, one can contact deeper and deeper dimensions of reality, and ultimately awaken to the nondual Ground of All Being. Stages of consciousness refer to the developmental structures in consciousness through which each of these profound states will necessarily be interpreted. Using Gebser’s terms, these stages run from archaic to magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral and super-integral—everyone starts at square one at birth, and stages can’t be skipped (that’s what makes them stages). But here’s the fascinating thing: all five major states of consciousness can be experienced at nearly any stage of development! Using five states and the seven stages mentioned here, that’s at least 35 distinct spiritual experiences, and the fact is, they are all real. Without a framework that can take into account just how wide (states of consciousness), and how deep (structures of consciousness), the spiritual-religious terrain really is, any conversation about spirituality in today’s world is going to be sorely lacking.

Finally, an Integral Approach is valuable in that it vigorously defends against the myth of the given, or the philosophy of consciousness, or the belief that there is one pre-given reality—from sensorimotor to metaphysical—and that all you have to do is “see it correctly.” To explore this topic, which is absolutely crucial for spirituality and religion to gain credibility in the modern and postmodern world, see Ken’s Integral Spirituality, and particularly appendix III.

keywords: Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, Integral Spirituality, Krishnamurti, Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, meme, TED Conference, states of consciousness (gross-waking, subtle-dreaming, causal-deep-sleep, witnessing-turiya, nondual-turiyatita), stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), Jean Gebser, pre-rational to rational to post-rational, Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett, Stages of Faith, James Fowler, Robert Thurman, Zen Buddhism, “What Is Integral?,” A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "I can tell you how it all began: In 1980, I was sitting in Madison Square Garden listening to Krishnamurti—and I couldn’t understand what he said. And I thought, 'Maybe if I can understand what he's saying, then maybe I can explain it better for the general public….'"

BOOKMARKS:

Rabbi Zalman and Ken Wilber - God in the 21st Century. Part 1. If God Is Not Great, Which God Are You Talking About?

God in the 21st Century. Part 1. If God Is Not Great, Which God Are You Talking About? (27:00)

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ken Wilber

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Two of today's most accomplished "wise men" discuss the current atmosphere of attack on all things spiritual, and how a more compassionate and integral spirituality could change the tone of this crucial conversation.

Who: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements, and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Spiritual Center and author of Integral Spirituality.

Relevance: Led by individuals such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, the contemporary debate about "Is god necessary?" has captured national attention—but how sophisticated is this dialogue, really? Two of today's finest "wise men" explore how a more comprehensive, compassionate, and integral discussion of spirituality in the 21st century might move forward.

Summary: Does the fact that Moses didn't literally part the Red Sea mean that all spiritual and religious concerns are null, void, and illusory? This seems to be what a growing chorus of voices is saying, and whether cheering or jeering, the world is paying attention. Of course, it's not exactly a feat of extraordinary intellectual achievement to point out, for example, the fact that Jesus could not have been born of a biological virgin, nor could Lao Tzu have been 900 years old when he was born. As Reb Zalman mentions, it reads in the Zohar (one of the central texts of Jewish Kabbalah), "Anybody who reads the stories of the Bible as if they were literal stories has never entered into the real kingdom."

As notoriously stated in the title of Christopher Hitchens' latest book, God Is Not Great, a question conveniently ignored may be one of the most important: what god are we talking about here? Ken goes on to mention that "god" has at least two major dimensions in human experience, one in states of consciousness and one in structures of consciousness, and taken together, there are at least several dozen different meanings of "god," all of which are real and meaningful to different people. So which god is not great? And if you can persuasively argue that one particular god is not so great (at least to you), does that mean the other several dozen god-meanings are kaput? It is these kinds of questions with which Reb Zalman and Ken wrestle—but not so that they can attempt to demolish the "opposing view." There is room enough in a truly world-centric and integral spirituality for all views, so long as they don't themselves try and eradicate views other than their own.

Reb Zalman and Ken go on to talk about the empirically rigorous nature of contemplative training, the fact that the scientific method itself is necessarily agnostic, the two hands of Spirit (manifest and un-manifest), and the utter importance of never forgetting the true Heart of compassion to all those with whom we share this precious human birth.

Why Integral?: An Integral Approach to spirituality is the first approach to explore in detail the difference between states of consciousness and structures of consciousness, and how development can unfold in each dimension of human experience. This is quite possibly the most significant contribution to our understanding of human nature in decades, because the explanatory power of the Integral View as a whole is simply unrivaled. Integral doesn't change the content of human experience, it helps contextualize and explain the content that is already there. Particularly when it comes to the realm of spirituality, religion, and ultimate concern—even if that ultimate concern is scientific materialism—the possibilities for division and strife are nearly endless. An Integral Approach shows how there really is room in the Kosmos for everyone, and how the Good, the True, and the Beautiful actually evolve and develop into ever-more inclusive, complex, and radiant forms.

To learn more about how an Integral Approach can be applied to spirituality, see the essay "What Is Integral Spirituality," the book Integral Spirituality, and the learning community at Integral Spiritual Center (where Rabbi Zalman is a founding member and teacher).

*****

(To check out Reb Zalman's other audio and video appearances on Integral Naked, a dozen in all, click here.)

keywords: Jewish Renewal, Spiritual Eldering, Yotam Schachter, scientific materialism, Kabbalah, Hasidim, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Integral Spirituality, Eye to Eye, eye of flesh, eye of mind, eye of spirit, string theory, Gaia, Trungpa Rinpoche, Sufism, stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), Integral Spiritual Center, Intelligent Design, Gurdjieff, LSD, shamanic experiences, "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "This simple statement shows why strict scientific materialism doesn't work: 'I love my spouse.' Ok, so prove it. You can't, and yet you know it's real. Such is often the case when it comes to God and Spirit…."

BOOKMARKS:

What Is the Feminine Shadow? Part 2.

What Is the Feminine Shadow? Part 2. (Getting Ready for the September Seminar!) (27:00)

Willow Pearson, Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei, and Sofia Diaz
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The core teachers of the wildly successful Women’s Integral Life Practice Seminars three-years running come together to discuss one of the special topics of this September’s seminar!

Who:

Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei – Diane is Genpo Roshi’s first successor in the Big Mind Process lineage, as well as a dharma holder in traditional Zen, she is also a trained mediator. Diane has taught at I-I’s Integral Life Practice and Integral Life Practice Level 2 seminars, and has conducted her own Integral Zen Seminar.

Sofia Diaz – Sophia is a gifted teacher of yoga and sacred movement who derives her style of teaching and body philosophy from the South Indian temple arts and their accompanying scriptures. Sofia has taught at I-I’s Integral Life Practice and Integral Life Practice Level 2 Seminars, and has conducted her own Integral Body as Breath Seminar.

Willow Pearson – Willow is a psychotherapist, vocal therapist, and directs the I-I Center for Integral Sexuality and Gender Studies, and co-directs the I-I Center for Integral Psychotherapy. Willow has taught at I-I’s Integral Life Practice Seminar and Integral Psychotherapy Professional Seminar.

Together, this will be their third year leading the Women’s Integral Life Practice of Fullness and Freedom Seminar!

Relevance: The three core teachers of the Women’s Integral Life Practice of Fullness and Freedom Seminar discuss different manifestations of the Feminine Shadow, and how it can be used as an ally (a special feature of this September’s seminar!)

Summary: To give an example of the unique kind of co-creative experience they plan to offer in this September’s workshop, Sofia, Willow, and Diane engage a topic of rather extraordinary richness: what is the feminine shadow? Shadow work is one of the four core modules of an Integral Life Practice (the others being Body, Mind, and Spirit), with the term "shadow" representing the personal unconscious, or the psychological material that we repress, deny, dissociate, or disown (which can be not only the lowest and worst aspects of us, but the highest and best). Unfortunately, denying this material doesn’t make it go away; on the contrary, it returns to plague us with painful neurotic symptoms, obsessions, fears, and anxieties. Uncovering, befriending, and re-owning this material is necessary not only for removing the painful symptoms, but forming an accurate and healthy self-image, incorporating both the devils and angels in all of us.

With this general understanding of shadow in mind, Diane, Sofia, and Willow explore how some of the uniquely feminine aspects of shadow might manifest in the lives of women (not because the feminine quality or type is exclusive to women, but because most women would self-identify as having a deeply feminine essence, and so these kinds of questions are of very real concern). Willow goes on to suggest The Virgin, The Whore, The Amazon, and The Hag as four archetypes to reflect on, and how each one has a unique shadow manifestation as well as a unique feminine wisdom at its core. This second part of their three-part conversation focuses particularly on the various manifestations of, and an integral understanding of, The Amazon archetype, all the while exploring what integral feminine consciousness lived through women looks like, in all its forms and contexts.

Why Integral?: An understanding of developmental stages, it turns out, is one of the most important contributions of an Integral Feminism. In a world seemingly beset by the divisive, aggressive, and oppressive aspects of the y chromosome, the cry has often gone out that we must replace the men in power with women! Surely they have the linking, connecting, and healing qualities needed to mend this planet. Well, yes and no. As the work of Carol Gilligan—one of the most popular, and most misunderstood, feminist writers—shows, both men and women grow through four hierarchical stages of moral growth: from selfish (egocentric), to care (ethnocentric), to universal care (worldcentric), to integrated (Kosmocentric). Men traverse these stages with an emphasis on justice and autonomy, and women traverse these stages with an emphasis on care and relationship—hence the title of Gilligan’s popular work: In a Different Voice—but they both proceed through the same general waves of increasing care and concern. The problem with the world situation is not men (or the masculine mode), nor is the cure women (or the feminine mode); rather, what is needed is higher levels of both. (Elizabeth Lesser, founder of Omega Institute, found this topic so important that she and Ken spent an entire dialogue exploring the need for a "three-dimensional feminism"—a feminism that understands developmental depth. We consider this conversation required listening for anyone interested in learning about the true gifts of an Integral Feminism.)

Come Join Us This September! This is the third year we've held this seminar with the core teaching team of Diane, Sofia and Willow. We will cover the core modules of Integral Life Practice—Body, Mind, Spirit, and Shadow—and a whole lot more. The past two Women's seminars have been over-the-top incredible. The groups that have come through have had the privilege of entering into surprisingly deep intimacy and radical growth, where love and challenge meet in a practice environment where self and Self are not opposed, and girl and God are one.

In addition to the other core modules of ILP, this year we'll have a special emphasis on Feminine Shadow as Ally…. What is she, how does she manifest, what does she look like at different levels of development, and why we need our female friends to work with her.

This seminar is intended for both women new to or unfamiliar with Integral as well as those who currently have an Integral Life Practice or have joined this seminar or other ILP seminars in the past.

Women's Integral Life Practice of Fullness and Freedom Seminar

September 16-21
Omega Institute
Rhinebeck, NY

To Sign Up, see www.integraltraining.org

*****

(For Part 1 of this one-of-a-kind dialogue, click here.)

keywords: Women’s Integral Life Practice of Fullness and Freedom Seminar, AQAL (All Quadrants, Levels, Lines, States, and Types), feminine and masculine types, The Virgin, The Whore, The Amazon, The Hag, shadow work, Hillary Clinton, gay culture, Integral Life Practice Starter Kit, the Four Quadrants (I, We, It, Its), Carol Gilligan, general stages of moral growth (egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric, integrated), logic of care and concern (feminine), logic of rights and justice (masculine), Kwan Yin, Kanzeon Bodhisattva, Integral Feminism, Pre/Trans Fallacy, Integral Sex and Gender Studies, “What Is Integral?,” A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: “With an Integral bandwidth, you can see how to be infused with communion—whether with your intimate partner, your job, your family—not in fusion with that communion….”

BOOKMARKS:

Michael Murphy and Ken Wilber - The Secret of Transformation. Part 1. Esalen, Aurobindo, and Integral Practice

The Secret to Transformation. Part 1. Esalen, Aurobindo, and Integral Practice. (40:00)
Michael Murphy and Ken Wilber

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As Ken stated in The Eye of Spirit: "Michael Murphy very well might be the single most significant spiritual pioneer of our generation, if for no other reason than the extraordinary spaces that he created in which others could transform as well."

Esalen was the first major growth center, and the single largest source of transformation, in Michael and Ken's generation—and it's still going strong, particularly with the recent influx of first-rate management and leadership. The techniques used there are still those that are the major sources of consciousness transformation for anyone who is interested in doing so. Michael Murphy, George Leonard, and Ken Wilber are the three people who have done the most work—often together—on integral transformative practices. Mike and George's version they call Integral Transformative Practice (ITP), and Ken's version (developed with his associates at I-I) he calls Integral Life Practice (ILP)—with both sharing the same roots, aims, goals, and many of the same practices.

Using this rich history of working in similar and complementary veins as a base, Michael and Ken leap into sharing what's new and exciting on the very leading edge of transformative practices, as well as their lives. For Michael, this includes organizing research—actual empirical research—on reincarnation, participating in several book projects, and furthering his uniquely vast knowledge of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo (a spiritual-integral pioneer of the first order). For Ken, he just happened to knock off two books this summer—Overview and Superview—both being new and brilliant volumes on development through structures of consciousness and states of consciousness, what can go wrong in each of those dimensions, and suggested therapies in each case. Overview will serve as an introductory volume for the interested layperson, and Superview will explore this territory in much greater detail for the serious student (together they will be known simply as Transformations).

While on the topic of ground-breaking books, Ken goes on to share why he considers Michael's masterwork, The Future of the Body, "a product of genius," and why Michael's book The Life We Are Given (co-authored with George Leonard) was and is such a pioneering and crucial contribution to our understanding of a truly comprehensive, integral approach to growth and development. What all of their discussions share—a topic that is gone into in even richer detail in Part 2 (soon to follow)—is the very nature of human growth and transformation itself: what it is, why it happens, and the very secrets of how to make it happen for individuals who wish to do so….

keywords: Esalen Institute, The Future of the Body, The Life We Are Given, Integral Spirituality, Sri Aurobindo, Record of Yoga, Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind, Supermind, structure-stages, state-stages, stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), sheaths of consciousness, states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, deep sleep, turiya, turiyatita), bodies (gross, subtle, causal), Vedanta, five koshas: annamayakosha (material); pranamayakosha (emotional-sexual); manomayakosha (middle mind); vijnanamayakosha (higher mind); anandamayakosha (bliss mind), "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "So tell me, Mike, how was it really that night when you slept with Marilyn Monroe?"

BOOKMARKS:

Lama Surya Das and Ken Wilber - Buddha Is as Buddha Does. Part 2. From Heroic Effort to Awakened Awareness.

Buddha Is as Buddha Does. Part 2. From Heroic Effort to Awakened Awareness. (45:00)
Lama Surya Das and Ken Wilber

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Lama Surya Das invites us to learn how to be a bodhisattva, exploring ten of the most important practices of enlightened living, held always in an integral embrace.

Who: Lama Surya Das, author of the bestselling Awakening the Buddha Within and the just-released Buddha Is as Buddha Does, and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Spiritual Center and author of the ground-breaking Integral Spirituality.

Relevance: If you had the opportunity to become a bodhisattva right now, would you take it? Would you at least like to learn what being a bodhisattva is all about? If the answer to either is "yes," we have a treat for you: Lama Surya Das' new book Buddha Is as Buddha Does is an extraordinary handbook for enlightened living, exploring ten practices essential to bodhisattvahood. Does your spiritual practice touch on all ten? And if we are truly going to be the most effective, compassionate bodhisattva possible, are we practicing a deeply integral spirituality, and touching on all quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types?

Summary: Buddha Is as Buddha Does explores the ten paramitas as the "Bodhisattva Code" for enlightened living. The ten paramitas—or as Surya likes to call them, the "ten transformative practices"—are as follows: generosity, ethics, patience, heroic effort, mindfulness, wisdom, skillful means, spiritual aspirations, higher accomplishments, and awakened awareness (as Ken comments, these can also be looked at in terms of multiple intelligences or developmental lines). Done correctly, the practice and expression of any one of these qualities is to express all ten—and yet, you really must engage each one on its own terms. Surya and Ken make note of the "two truths doctrine," and how absolute truth is that the ultimate goal and ground of all practice is always-already 100% present—whether you practice or not—and relative truth is that if you don't practice, in the words of a great Zen master, "you'll remain an idiot."

In Part 1 of this dialogue, Surya and Ken discussed the first three practices: generosity, ethics, and patience. In this concluding portion of their conversation, they walk through the remaining seven practices: heroic effort, mindfulness, wisdom, skillful means, spiritual aspirations, higher accomplishments, and awakened awareness. Other topics include why at least one Buddhist luminary considers accidental "sin" worse than intentional sin, the difference between "self power" and "other power" in spiritual practice, why the insights of meditation won't stick without a sturdy ethical framework, and why the critique that meditation is merely narcissistic navel-gazing couldn't be more wrong—it is, after all, foundational to the bodhisattva's commitment to liberate all beings.

If practice is clearly part of enlightened living, both "pre" enlightenment and "post" enlightenment, what are the essential dimensions of our being that we should exercise? With a truly Integral Spirituality (in any tradition), the four basic modules for an Integral Life Practice are body, mind, spirit, and shadow. If abiding by the "ten transformative practices" is your chosen method for engaging enlightened living (in whatever tradition you choose to apply them) we could hardly recommend a better contemporary guide to that path than Surya's Buddha Is as Buddha Does—always keeping in mind the touch-points of an Integral Approach, including states, stages, and shadow (see Scholar's Notes), and embracing body, mind, and spirit, in self, culture, and nature.

Scholar's Notes (for Advanced Students and Curious Listeners):

Three of the most important elements for any contemporary spiritual path to address are states, stages, and shadow—and, unfortunately, most contemplative traditions only have a clear awareness of states, to the detriment of stages and shadow. For a full treatment of this topic, see Ken's Integral Spirituality and "What Is Integral Spirituality?" (see keywords).

States: States of consciousness are marked by their transient nature: they come, stay a bit, and they go. The three primary states of consciousness available to all humans are waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, and what the great contemplative traditions do is show how one can gain mastery in each of those states, and realize their ever-present Ground and nondual Suchness. Furthermore, states of consciousness can be trained in a certain order—often moving from gross, to subtle, to causal—and this is an occurrence of state-stages.

Stages: While states come and go, stages, levels, or waves of consciousness are permanent structures in consciousness, which unfold cross-culturally from egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric to Kosmocentric—these are called structure-stages. Almost without exception, the meditative and esoteric traditions of the world have no knowledge of this aspect of human growth. Because these are the structures in consciousness that will interpret the significance of various states of mystical union, no tradition can afford to ignore stages of development.

Shadow: Another item not found in the traditions is an understanding of psychodynamic repression, whereby an individual literally splits off and dissociates some aspect of his or her I-ness, often then projecting it on someone else (I'm not angry, but my boss sure is). This aspect of self doesn't actually go away, it just shows up in various inauthentic or "shadow" manifestations (I'm not an angry person, but I am awful sad lately). Meditation can teach you how to transmute or transcend this shadow element (I'm sad), but not access the original impulse (I'm mad), which can exacerbate the original fracture in the practitioner's psyche.

A note on transformative practices: In an Integral Approach, "transformation" refers to movement between levels of development, while "translation" refers to activity within a level of development. Because the traditions generally don't understand structure-stages, guidelines such as the ten paramitas often serve primarily as healthy translation at a given level, although genuine transformation to a higher level can be, and often is, a result of these practices.

*****

Thanks largely to Surya's forethought, we've become aware that for some individuals—such as certain monks, who may not even have a credit card in their name—it's truly beyond their capabilities to even sign up for the free month offered to new Integral Naked subscribers. For people in this kind of situation, please email suryatalk@integralinstitute.org, and we'd be happy to provide you with a direct link to this dialogue….

Enjoy!

(For Part 1 of this conversation, click here. To check out Surya's previous appearances on Integral Naked, click here.)

keywords: Buddha Is as Buddha Does, Integral Spirituality, Awakening the Buddha Within, Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism, Dalai Lama, bodhisattva, Lance Armstrong, Milarepa, Margaret Mead, The Secret, "two truths doctrine," sila (morality), dhyana (meditation), prajna (radical insight), Natural Radiance, D.T. Suzuki, Lankavatara Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Gandhi, Integral Life Practice, "What Is Integral Spirituality?," Integral Spiritual Center, "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "With Heroic Effort you sometimes have to turn it over to a power greater than 'I,' and you stand aside—but it turns out that's also your own highest Self, so it heals the self/other dualism…."

BOOKMARKS:

Genpo Roshi and Ken Wilber - Big Mind Big Heart. Part 2. 50 Minutes or 5 Years.

Big Mind Big Heart. Part 2. 50 Minutes or 5 Years. (45:00)
Genpo Roshi and Ken Wilber

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The head of the largest Zen lineage outside of Japan shares how, after three decades of teaching Zen the traditional way, he is pioneering a new and startlingly fast technique of pointing to ever-present Big Mind/Big Heart.

Who: Genpo Roshi, creator of the Big Mind Process and author of Big Mind/Big Heart,and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Institute and author of Integral Spirituality.

Relevance: In the foreword to Genpo Roshi's latest book, Big Mind/Big Heart: Finding Your Way (available in special edition now), Ken writes: "Let me state this as strongly as I can: the Big Mind Process (founded by Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi) is arguably the most important and original discovery in the last two centuries of Buddhism."

Summary: As Genpo so clearly articulates, "We shouldn't stand in the shadows of our ancestors, we should stand on their shoulders." However, this sentiment isn't shared by everyone within the Zen Buddhist tradition, some of whom view innovations such as the Big Mind Process as irrelevant at best and a kind of heresy at worst—the great ancient Patriarchs crafted this teaching exactly as they intended, so don't mess with it. But, as Ken's strong praise gives hint, there are many voices both in and outside of Zen who believe that Big Mind Process is a novel, effective, and altogether genuine step forward in how we share and perceive spiritual realities, in any tradition—Buddhist or otherwise—that chooses to engage this extraordinarily adaptable technology.

As with nearly all esoteric techniques developed by the world's great wisdom traditions, Big Mind Process helps one access ever-present states of enlightened awareness (in contrast to structures of consciousness, which are discussed in Scholar's Notes below). What makes Big Mind unique is the remarkable speed with which an individual can get in touch with their own deepest Self, often delivering an initial kensho or awakening in 50 minutes rather than 5 years—a not-uncommon length of time for many people engaged in a contemplative practice before they have such a realization. It's not that these five years are wasted in conventional forms of meditative training, but if it's possible—and indeed likely—that one can introduce a student to their own True Nature at the beginning of that process, wouldn't those five years be significantly, perhaps radically, more productive and less frustrating for both student and teacher?

The "I had to suffer for years so you will too" attitude just isn't an adequate response to the fact that a technique is now publicly available that almost 99% of participants report gave them an authentic "peek" experience of their own Big Mind—which they can then refine and integrate in the years to come under the expert guidance of a qualified teacher (Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, you name it).

In this second chapter of their four-part dialogue, Genpo and Ken go on to cover a spectrum of topics relevant to all forms of spirituality in the modern and postmodern world, using the Big Mind Process as a prime exemplar. Topics include: the intersection of "lineage mind" and "evolutionary mind," the relation of states and stages, the separation of church and state, the pre/trans fallacy, and the 3-2-1 Process for shadow work.

Scholar's Notes (for Advanced Students and Curious Listeners):

Three of the most important elements for any contemporary spiritual path to address are states, stages, and shadow—and, unfortunately, most contemplative traditions only have a clear awareness of states, to the detriment of stages and shadow. For a full treatment of this topic, see Ken's Integral Spirituality and "What Is Integral Spirituality?" (see keywords).

States: States of consciousness are marked by their transient nature: they come, stay a bit, and they go. The three primary states of consciousness available to all humans are waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, and what the great contemplative traditions do is show how one can gain mastery in each of those states, and realize their ever-present Ground and nondual Suchness. Furthermore, states of consciousness can be trained in a certain order—often moving from gross, to subtle, to causal—and this is an occurrence of state-stages.

Stages: While states come and go, stages, levels, or waves of consciousness are permanent structures in consciousness, which unfold cross-culturally from egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric to Kosmocentric—these are called structure-stages. Almost without exception, the meditative and esoteric traditions of the world have no knowledge of this aspect of human growth. Because these are the structures in consciousness that will interpret the significance of various states of mystical union, no tradition can afford to ignore stages of development.

Shadow: Another item not found in the traditions is an understanding of psychodynamic repression, whereby an individual literally splits off and dissociates some aspect of his or her I-ness, often then projecting it on someone else (I'm not angry, but my boss sure is). This aspect of self doesn't actually go away, it just shows up in various inauthentic or "shadow" manifestations (I'm not an angry person, but I am awful sad lately). Traditional meditation can teach you how to transmute or transcend this shadow element (I'm sad), but not access the original impulse (I'm mad), which can exacerbate the original fracture in the practitioner's psyche. In the hands of a facilitator familiar with the process of psychodynamic repression, Big Mind (and Voice Dialogue) can be used to access this original-impulse material, which is fantastic, particularly in conjunction with the 3-2-1 Process of Integral Life Practice.

The Big Mind Process is excellent for accessing states of consciousness and both healthy and unhealthy aspects of structures of consciousness already developed in an individual. Like all other known practices or techniques, it cannot "call forth" structures of consciousness "above the head" of a given individual—they quite literally aren't there, but they can be with further growth. Repeated access to various state experiences as provided, for example, by Big Mind help make the subject of one stage the object of the subject of the next, the fundamental pattern of consciousness development, which applies to both state-stages and structure-stages.

*****

Are you ready to meet your own Big Mind/Big Heart, already present here and now, waiting for you to claim it? We'd love to meet you there—and we'd love to have you join us with these two titans of contemporary spirituality….

(To read the entire foreword to Genpo's new book Big Mind/Big Heart, click here. To check out Genpo's prior audio and video appearances on IN, including experiential follow-along Big Mind Process instructions, and Part 1 of this dialogue, click here.)

keywords: Big Mind Process, Big Mind/Big Heart, Integral Spirituality, “What Is Integral Spirituality?”, 3-2-1 Process, Integral Life Practice, structure-stages, state-stages, states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, deep-sleep, turiya/witness, turiyatita/nondual), stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), Susanne Cook-Greuter, sheaths of consciousness, Vedanta Hinduism, Vajrayana Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, The Flower Garland Sutra, nirmanakaya (“gross body”), samboghakaya (“subtle body”), dharmakaya (“causal body”), Master Rinzai, the pre/trans fallacy, Abhidharma, Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei, “What Is Integral?,” A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "If we're just making the assumption that 'my consciousness can never possibly inhabit the same space that some of our extraordinary ancestors did'—they would be very disappointed in us."

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 03.19.07 - Exploring "The Secret." Part 1. The Tricky Business of Creating Your Own Reality. (With Julian Walker)

Exploring "The Secret." Part 1. The Tricky Business of Creating Your Own Reality. (38:00)
Julian Walker and Ken Wilber

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Julian Walker is a respected yoga teacher known for his integrally-informed approach to transformation, healing, bodywork, psychotherapy, and spirituality. He also maintains an active blog on Zaadz.com, and some of his recent posts regarding the pop-spiritual phenomenon known as “The Secret” caught our attention. Although clearly not alone in expressing concerns about The Secret, we found Julian’s views to be remarkably comprehensive, precisely because it's based in large measure on an explicitly integral framework.

The Secret, which can be found in both DVD and book form, has managed to hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and maintain a firm grip on the top two spots at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Borders for weeks. The central tenet of The Secret is “The Law of Attraction,” whereby one’s feelings and thoughts quite literally attract, manifest, and create real events in one’s life—the assumption being that most of us do this unconsciously, and making this process conscious is “The Secret” that “has travelled through centuries to reach you.”

As Ken and Julian agree, what can be so tricky when evaluating a new approach such as The Secret, is that at first glance it can appear fairly innocent, even if lacking any kind of critical depth. If it’s helping people feel empowered and positive about their lives, what’s the problem?

Well, the problem is that it’s not a basically solid approach with room for improvement, it’s a fundamentally confused way of understanding reality that misunderstands and contorts the genuine truths that it intuits. Some of the central points that Julian and Ken discuss are as follows:

• As with any “you create your own reality” schema, The Secret fails what can be called “the Auschwitz test.” According to The Secret, everyone who was murdered at Auschwitz—or Rwanda, or Darfur—created that reality for themselves, and therefore they are to blame for their fate. For obvious reasons, this position is an unconscionable as it is untenable.

• By teaching that the world quite literally revolves around you, The Secret encourages and entrenches narcissism. In developmental psychology, narcissism doesn’t mean an unhealthy obsession with thinking only about yourself, it means you can’t think about yourself. The capacity for self-reflexive awareness just isn’t there. The entire world and everyone in it is simply an extension of your-self, and you are literally unable to take the perspective of another human being. This is not mystical union; this is pre-rational fusion, and without the ability to take the perspectives of other sentient beings, the entire foundation for ethics evaporates.

• Actually, you are creating the universe moment-to-moment, but it’s not the “you” that you think. According to the great contemplative traditions, every person has at least two “selves”: the finite, temporal, egoic self-sense, and the infinite, transcendental, unqualifiable Self, or I-AMness. Your Self, your I-AMness, is indeed giving rise to the entire radiant Kosmos in this and every moment, but The Secret teaches that your separate self has the power to personally manifest a new car, win the lottery, or cure cancer… and this simply isn’t how things work.

• “The Law of Attraction” is true—as far as it goes. The problem is that The Secret takes this one relatively small piece of the puzzle and makes it the entire puzzle. A positive outlook will change your life and your intentions will co-create your reality, but so will brain chemistry, interior level of development, family relationships, natural disasters, cultural trends, language structure, environmental toxins, and, basically, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

• Developmentally, if one uses a scale ranging from archaic to magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral to super-integral, The Secret teaches the magical thought structures that were humanity’s leading edge several hundred thousand years ago. As Ken explains, The Secret encourages childlike “primary process thinking,” which can be in the form of “the law of attraction” (e.g., if one black thing is bad, then all black things are bad) and “the law of contagion” (e.g., if this particular man was powerful, then a lock of his hair must be powerful too).

• The importance of understanding how unconscious psychological shadow elements color and affect one’s experience, and how The Secret can agitate, alienate, repress, or—perhaps even more worrisome—act on these disowned elements of consciousness.

• The genesis of the pre/trans or pre/post fallacy, and how The Secret is a perfect example of elevating pre-rational childish impulses to trans-rational spiritual glory. Simply because both categories of experience are non-rational, they can easily be confused, and often are.

The extraordinary thing about this dialogue is that, for all the critiques Ken and Julian have of The Secret, it’s not meant as a put-down or a mean-spirited attack. As evidenced by its incredible popularity, there are millions of people who are starving for something other than traditional religion or modern science in their search for meaning. By using an Integral Approach, one is able to look at what new offerings like The Secret have to bring to the table, and assess in good faith what their strengths and weaknesses really are, for the health and nourishment of every soul who dare grasp for “something more”—and for what we consider to be the real Secret of transformation and human happiness, we recommend an Integral Life Practice and an Integral Spirituality, bringing together Body, Mind, and Spirit, in Self, Culture, and Nature.

We hope you’ll join us for this intelligent, exciting, and illuminating exploration of one of the biggest waves in popular spirituality today….

keywords: Julian Walker’s Blog, Zaadz.com, The Secret, “What Is Integral?,” infrared (archaic), magenta (magic), red (ego-power), amber (mythic), orange (rational), green (pluralistic), teal (beginning integral), turquoise (mature integral), indigo (super-integral, spiritual), “What Is Altitude?,” Gene Gebser, Jane Loevinger, centauric, vision-logic, pre/trans fallacy, pre-rational/rational/trans-rational, reductionism, elevationism, Buddhism, Heinz Kohut, narcissism, subjectivity, Freud, Jung, reality principle, primary process thinking, ethics, law of attraction, law of contagion, Auschwitz, John Paul Sartre, shamanism, Atman, Fred Alan Wolfe, quantum mechanics, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, David Bohm, Integral Spirituality, A Brief History of Everything.

Most memorable moment: “It doesn’t help for people to be eating cardboard for lunch, even if it has ‘God’ written all over it….

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 06.18.07 - Escaping Flatland. Part 2. Dual Civil Wars in the American Political Scene.

Escaping Flatland. Part 2. Dual Civil Wars in the American Political Scene. (29:00)
Stuart Davis and Ken Wilber

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Ken Wilber dialogues with Stuart Davis on the state of US politics, the presidential candidates, and how Integral Politics helps us understand the road to a more inclusive, worldcentric tomorrow.

Who: Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Naked and Integral Institute and pioneering author of two-dozen books on an AQAL-Integral framework, and Stuart Davis, long-time guest interviewer on IN and about-to-explode entertainment icon for all things integral.

Relevance: For the first time in history, a woman and an African American are the two most visible candidates for the American Presidency. Alongside this clearly progressive movement in modern politics is the almost-as-clearly regressive tilt to the past two presidential terms. As convenient as it might seem to simply divide these phenomena along party lines, an Integral analysis recognizes not only the dichotomy of Democrat and Republican, but also a hidden split in the heart of US politics, the effects of which will fundamentally determine the course of the world's most powerful nation in the coming years.

Summary: Everyone knows about the difference between Democrat and Republican, Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative. But as ubiquitous as this distinction is, no one has been able to give a theoretical explanation of what drives this split in a way that holds up to rigorous inspection—that is, until an Integral Approach was applied to politics. In his as-yet-unpublished trilogy The Many Faces of Terrorism, Ken reveals what appears to be the key to the entire puzzle: camps on the political Left attribute the fundamental cause of human suffering to external causes, whereas camps on the political Right attribute the fundamental cause of human suffering to internal causes. For example, why are people homeless? Left: because they are downtrodden, they lack opportunities, they are victims of the system (all external forces). Right: because they have no work ethic, they have no family/religious values, no internalized sense of shame (all internal forces).

Integral Politics takes this elegant, sturdy distinction as the basis for an even more revealing analysis—because you can be an internalist or externalist at different levels, waves, or altitude of development, and historically these have changed over time. At the time of the Enlightenment, to be on the conservative Right was to be at a fundamentalist-amber altitude (ethnocentric), and to be on the liberal Left was to be part of the flowering modernist-orange altitude (worldcentric). Fast forward to the late 20th century, and now the new Left is associated with postmodern-green altitude (furthering modernity's worldcentric impulse), and the new Right has moved into modernist-orange altitude (hence "Ayn Rand" or "Wall-Street" Republicans). No longer is there just Left and Right, but old Right (traditional) and new Right (modern), and old Left (modern) and new Left (postmodern), with new Right and old Left uneasily sharing the same general modernist territory. What hasn't changed throughout it all? You got it: Right is still internalist, and Left is still externalist.

Returning to our current situation, Stu and Ken discuss how the first "civil war" of American politics is indeed along the Democrat/Republican or Left/Right or External/Internal line just mentioned. But as Ken explains, the second, hidden, civil war is raging smack dab in the middle of the Democratic Party. Quite simply, the new postmodern Left and the old modern Left despise each other almost as much as they despise the Right, fracturing their ability to actually function as a unified party—a problem that the new/old Right has navigated with significantly more success. This, as much as anything, was responsible for the outcome of the past two elections, and will be a deciding factor in 2008.*

Stuart and Ken go on to talk about the fascinating relationship between climate and altitude, the astonishing degree of narcissism in the generation born of the baby boomers, and the exciting launch of AQAL Journal (where dozens of Integral scholars have written more than 2000 pages of original material in 19 separate disciplines, which is then discussed live with Ken on bi-weekly conference calls with members of Integral Institute.

Scholar's Notes (for Advanced Students and Curious Listeners):

*Integral Politics is itself without political affiliation, hoping instead to help all political endeavors become as integral as they can. That said, it's also true that historically Democrats have been operating roughly one full stage higher than Republicans (which isn't to say necessarily healthier in all ways, just developmentally higher). Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice-President Al Gore have both publicly endorsed Ken's work, most recently with Clinton's appearance at the World Economic Forum. With the leading edge of the Democratic Party at postmodern-green, the natural next step for pioneering individuals will be to push into an integral-turquoise altitude, which we can see is already beginning to happen—and could certainly happen with pioneering individuals coming out of Republican or Independent camps as well. Integral Politics, precisely because it endeavors to transcend and include all important perspectives won't be Democratic or Republican, Left or Right, because it will demand the integration and equal attention to both external and internal realities, promoting the greatest depth for the greatest span across all levels.

Integral Politics actually draws upon four major scales, and several minor scales, only two of which are discussed in this dialogue (internalist/externalist, and altitude). For a full introduction to Integral Politics, click here.

*****

As Stuart emphasizes, Integral is not merely a theoretical mind-game with no real relevance to making the world a better place. Integral is about helping make sure that Stu's daughters—Ken's goddaughters—will be living in a world where our children and grandchildren can thrive. You cannot change the world unless you understand it first, and we'd love to have you join us in this venture….

keywords: The Many Faces of Terrorism (forthcoming), Integral Politics – Part I, Integral Politics – Part II, Integral Politics: A Summary of Its Essential Ingredients (Part III), Democrats, Republicans, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Western Enlightenment, Renaissance, Internal-External axis, John Anderson, Independents, geopolitics, The Civil War, agrarian South, industrialist North, Venezuela, happiness index, Canada, Mexico, baby boomers, boomeritis (pluralism infected with narcissism, also called "pluralitis"), AQAL Journal, 9/11, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, World Economic Forum, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), Voltaire, Max Planck, "What Is Altitude?," "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "The simple rule that Democrats are going to have to learn, or they're never going to elect anybody, is: when green (postmodern) attacks orange (modern), ambe (traditional) wins.

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 06.11.07 - Telling the Story of Development. Part 2. Where We Are Today, Who We Might Be Tomorrow.

Telling the Story of Development. Part 2. Where We Are Today, Who We Might Be Tomorrow. (41:00)
Susanne Cook-Greuter and Ken Wilber

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One of the most important developmental psychologists working today shares her thoughts on the current state of academia and the culture at large, and why it’s so important to encourage flourishing at every stage of development alongside the invitation to keep growing.

Who: Dr. Susanne Cook-Greuter, founding member of I-I and Harvard Graduate School of Education graduate who has taken the pioneering developmental work of Jane Loevinger to important new heights, and Ken Wilber, author of Integral Psychology and Integral Spirituality, two seminal texts exploring the finer points of truly Integral human development.

Relevance: One of the concepts that make an Integral Approach more than a merely two-dimensional map of reality is its deep understanding of the developmental nature of human growth and unfolding. Failing to take into account the developmental aspect of interior growth is to guarantee a profoundly inadequate mode of relating to your fellow man and woman. Susanne is at the leading tip of scholars and researchers actively exploring and documenting this crucial dimension of human experience.

Summary: Susanne has dedicated her life to documenting and understanding how stages of self-identification and growth unfold in individuals, with an eye particularly on the least-understood and least-studied realms of the higher levels of adult development. Expanding upon the work of her mentor and teacher Jane Loevinger, Susanne has empirically demonstrated that there are legitimate stages of development beyond the "Integrated" stage that was the uppermost possibility in Loevinger’s work. Reaching the "Integrated" or, as Susanne calls it, the "Construct-aware" stage is no small feat—and is comparable to other integral and second-tier levels in other systems—but the remarkable fact is that there are even more integral levels than that—levels that begin to take on a distinctly transpersonal or spiritual tenor, transcending and including all that has come before in the development-that-is-envelopment pattern of evolution itself.

Clearly, Susanne’s work is an extremely important facet of both the theoria and praxis of a more Integral Approach to the human condition. In addition to the fascinating details regarding the practical experience of charting these new waters, Susanne and Ken talk about how the heavily postmodern climate of academia and society at large has influenced this work. The truths revealed by a pluralistic and postmodern view are of utmost importance in terms of how we understand the world today, but far too often those views degenerate into boomeritis, pluralitis, and the mean-green-meme—all different names for what is essentially postmodern imperialism and dogmatism, whereby no truths that question a postmodern approach will be tolerated. Indeed, Susanne tells us about the tricky task of explaining to her academic superiors that their postmodern approach was merely a stepping stone to yet further levels of development. But however difficult the going may get, there are definitely pockets of integral and developmental consciousness present—and emerging—in academia, from colleagues at HGSE, to the two graduate-degree programs offered through John F. Kennedy University and the Fielding Graduate University.

Further topics include the difference between "talk" and "walk" (or simply "levels and lines"), why states are exclusionary and stages are inclusionary, why it’s so important to encourage flourishing at every stage of development alongside the invitation to keep growing, how different stages of development responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and why computerizing the Sentence Completion Test (created by Loevinger, and expanded by Susanne) might be the next big step in learning ever-more about the ways we learn and grow.

keywords: Sentence Completion Test (SCT), Postautonomous Ego Development: A Study Of Its Nature And Measurement, Transcendence and Mature Thought in Adulthood, Creativity, Spirituality, and Transcendence, states and stages, developmental studies, Wilber-Combs Lattice, levels and lines, Skip Alexander, Transcendental Meditation, Integral Spirituality, Jane Loevinger, Erik Erikson, Clare Graves, "What Is Spiral Dynamics?," Robert Kegan, Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, GWF Hegel, Sri Aurobindo, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind, Supermind, Michael Commons, Francis Richards, cognitive development, postmodernism, boomeritis, pluralitis, mean-green-meme, states of consciousness (gross waking, subtle dreaming, causal deep-sleep, ever-present nondual), Loevinger’s stages of ego development (symbiotic, impulsive, self-protective, conformist, conscientious, individualistic, autonomous, integrated—with Susanne "adding on" construct-aware, ego-aware, transpersonal), Genpo Roshi, AQAL (All Quadrants, Levels, Lines, States, and Types), JFK University, Fielding Graduate University, altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), 9/11, Bill Torbert, cognitive neuroscience, The Many Faces of Terrorism (forthcoming), "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment:"The whole climate of postmodernism, with its rabid anti-ranking of any sort, made sure they got rid of all hierarchies—and when they did, they also got rid of all growth…."

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 06.04.07 - Michael Bergt: Crossing Lines: States, Structures, and the I of the Beholder

Crossing Lines: States, Structures, and the I of the Beholder (37:00)
Michael Bergt and Ken Wilber

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The creator of some of the most original and striking contemporary artworks-of-depth
engages Ken Wilber on why some viewers "get it," why some viewers don’t, and how an Integral Approach can help make sense of it all.

Who: Michael Bergt, acclaimed creator of some of the most original and superbly executed artworks-of-depth in our time, and Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Naked and author of Integral Art landmark contributions "Integral Art and Literary Theory" and "To See a World," among others.

Relevance: As stated in Ken’s "To See a World": It is not the object expressed, but the depth of the subject expressing it, that most defines art. A merely postmodern view cannot recognize this, but a post-postmodern or Integral view can. The depth of Michael’s subjectivity is deep indeed, and his technical skill is breathtaking—a fantastic example of what an integral artist can be, and an ideal person to converse with.

Summary: Without question, Michael’s work draws you in (see below to view the gallery). But what exactly is happening to those captivated by these visions, and why also do so many people simply get that blank-stare look on their face? As Ken comments, artwork infused with a certain depth of consciousness by its creator can actually be "deep" in two distinct ways, each of which the "I of the beholder" must resonate with (what the physical eye sees is one thing, what the unique "I" in each of us sees is another). An artist who is transmitting various profound states of consciousness through his or her work at least has a chance of evoking that same state in the viewer—because states of consciousness (such as waking, dreaming, and deep-sleep) are available to anyone. However, an artist who is transmitting a higher structure of consciousness will have a necessarily smaller pool of individuals who have the potential to resonate with the full spectrum of meaning the artist intended (it’s a smaller group of people because the higher you go on any developmental scale, the fewer individuals there are actually living there).

In the Crossing Lines catalogue retrospective of Michael’s work, John D. O’Hern states: "Bergt’s integral growth in body, mind, and spirit are revealed in his art as a vehicle for the viewer to cross his or her own lines and to rejoin the oneness they once were." Here we see reference to both states (realizing your ultimate Oneness is an ever-present potential state) and structures (Michael’s growth to an integral level of development). Nearly everyone has the ability, or at least possibility, of getting a taste of their own ever-present Oneness through Michael’s work, but as Ken points out, only about 0.5% of the population can see and appreciate the integral wave of growth that is informing everything Michael does—hence the blank-stare look of the other 99.5% (it’s literally "over their heads," although further development can remove this gap). Of course, part of what makes Michael such a skilled artist is that, as he explains, he tries to make each piece engaging on several levels: even if the higher significance of a sculpture like "Spirit and Flesh" escapes a particular viewer, one can’t help but appreciate its physical beauty and craftsmanship.

As Michael and Ken conclude, there is something about art that inspires and brings forth the best in us—Ken’s written works on this topic are some of his favorite writings, and Michael’s catalogue of drawings, paintings, and sculptures speaks for itself. But what’s even better is hearing it straight from the artist himself, and we invite you to listen in to exactly that….

(To get the complete audio-visual experience, check out Michael’s Crossing Lines gallery—and be sure to listen to the special extended-play bonus audio, located on the same page, in which Michael and Ken discuss more than a dozen individual pieces in detail.)

keywords: states and stages, Integral Art, Hakuin, Zen Buddhism, calligraphy, Ernst Fuchs, surrealism, Philip Rubinov-Jacobson, Foreword to Eyes of the Soul, Anselm Kiefer, Andrew Wyeth, Alex Grey, altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment:"How do I convey non-duality, with a bunch of dualistic forms on my hands? That’s one of the challenges…."

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 05.28.07 - Hal and Sidra Stone: The History of Voice Dialogue. Part 2. Relationship, Communication, and the Aware Ego.

The History of Voice Dialogue. Part 2. Relationship, Communication, and the Aware Ego. (37:00)
Hal & Sidra Stone with Bert Parlee

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The founders of Voice Dialogue—the technique from which Genpo Roshi created the Big Mind Process—share the inner workings of this powerful psychotherapeutic tool, more than three decades in the making.

Who: Hal and Sidra Stone, creators of Voice Dialogue (the founding component of Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind Process) and the Psychology of the Aware Ego, and Bert Parlee, an Integral Life Coach, I-I seminar trainer, and co-Director of the Integral Psychotherapy Center at Integral University.

Relevance: There are many ways that our "disowned selves," or aspects of consciousness that we have rejected, can come back to make our lives difficult, in the form of neurosis, projections, psychosomatic symptoms, and so on. Voice Dialogue is a unique psychotherapeutic technique that has the power to address, liberate, and integrate a wide range of these "disowned selves." In the context of a truly Integral approach, which recognizes developmental structures of consciousness and the major states of consciousness, this is a wonderful tool.

Summary: Hal and Sidra, who are now in their 80’s and 70’s respectively, have spent the past 35 years teaching together on the topic of Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of the Aware Ego—and boy do they have some stories to tell! As they relate, when speaking to various selves within a single individual, that person may experience different physical symptoms, different postures, and, no kidding, even different eye colors. The interior impact can be even more striking: aspects of self that one didn’t even know one had can be brought to light, shared, and made a conscious and functional expression of the Aware Ego.

The Aware Ego, as Sidra and Hal explain, is that mature aspect of self that can hear both sides of a particular inner continuum (e.g., Outgoing versus Shy, Generous versus Stingy, Impulsive versus Calculating, etc.), both voices within your very own self, and make a decision based on the input of both. Hal and Sidra go on to explain the important energetic aspect of working with different voices, whereby the same exact words—e.g., "I don’t think we can afford to buy that new car right now"—can communicate dramatically different messages depending on whether voiced by the Judgmental Mother, the Cautious Accountant, the Worried Child, or the Aware Ego.

One of the wonderful contributions of Voice Dialogue—and of Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind Process, which uses the same basic technique to rapidly access genuine spiritual states of consciousness—is the simple practice of naming your experience in a practical and intuitive way. The inner sense of freedom one can achieve by simply naming and interacting with different aspects of your inner world is quite powerful, following the basic consciousness-growth principle of "making subject an object" (see Scholar’s Notes), and this kind of work is highly recommended as a potential part of one’s Integral Life Practice.

Scholar’s Notes (for Advanced Students and Curious Listeners):

This discussion is primarily meant to draw out the details and history of the Voice Dialogue system. As such, there is little AQAL discussion or Integral contextualization in the discussion. Integral Theory views Voice Dialogue as a superb tool to reach certain types of shadow elements, alienated potentials, and subpersonalities. As for "levels and lines"" (or simply "altitude"), a key element to remember is that Voice Dialogue and other similar techniques can reach past and present levels of development, but cannot itself call forth higher or not-yet-emerged levels of development. Technically, it can access the embedded unconscious and the submergent unconscious, but not the emergent unconscious (although the more that present translations are made healthy and functional, the more likely higher translations are to emerge).

The embedded unconscious is the level of development with which the self is identified at any given moment. As Robert Kegan summarized development, "The subject of one stage becomes the object of the subject of the next." The "subject of one stage" is so identified with that stage that it cannot see it as an object, but rather uses it as something with which to see the world. That is the embedded unconscious. Should any aspect of a stage or level of development become either fixated, on the one hand, or repressed, on the other, various shadow or subconscious material is generated. This is generically referred to as the submergent unconscious (or even the "repressed-submergent" unconscious, for severely dissociated material).

Voice Dialogue, and similar techniques, are a wonderful way to contact any alienated material from previous stages of development, giving voice to the hidden aspects of your own self. And it can help make your present subject more easily seen and voiced, thus helping development itself unfold more quickly and gracefully—i.e., more integrally. Again, higher or not-yet-emerged stages cannot fully be called forth (i.e., the emergent unconscious cannot be fully contacted). But giving voice to the alienated parts of yourself right now can help give voice to your even greater self of tomorrow.

*****

There is a special quality that comes along with Hal and Sidra teaching, talking, laughing, and sharing together that is almost irresistibly inviting—how can they sound so wise, and yet so clearly lighthearted at the same time? We invite you to listen in, and find out for yourself….

To listen to Part 1 of this dialogue, click here.

keywords: Voice Dialogue, Psychology of the Aware Ego, Big Mind Process, "What Is Altitude?," levels and lines, the Aware Ego, the Judgmental Mother, the Victim Daughter, the Protective Father, the Primary Self, the Witness, enlightened relationship, Robert Kegan, Integral Life Practice, Integral University, "disowned" selves, "What Is Integral?," Ken Wilber, A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "We get the charge of divinity when we’re with somebody and they’re in a huge fight—at that moment, we feel God….

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 05.21.07 - Telling the Story of Development with Susanne Cook-Greuter

Telling the Story of Development. Part 1. Zürich to Cambridge. (37:00)
Susanne Cook-Greuter and Ken Wilber

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One of the most important developmental psychologists working today shares her path from a working-class family in Switzerland to academic excellence and innovation at Harvard University, exploring the higher stages of consciousness available to us all.

Who: Dr. Susanne Cook-Greuter, founding member of I-I and Harvard Graduate School of Education graduate who has taken the pioneering developmental work of Jane Loevinger to important new heights, and Ken Wilber, author of Integral Psychology and Integral Spirituality, two seminal texts exploring the finer points of truly Integral human development.

Relevance: One of the concepts that make an Integral Approach more than a merely two-dimensional map of reality is its deep understanding of the developmental nature of human growth and unfolding. Failing to take into account the developmental aspect of interior growth is to guarantee a profoundly inadequate mode of relating to your fellow man and woman. Susanne is at the leading tip of scholars and researchers actively exploring and documenting this crucial dimension of human experience.

Summary: How did a young girl growing up in Switzerland, where only boys were encouraged to go to high school—let alone university—end up working with some of the finest minds in the world at the Harvard Graduate School of Education? As Susanne and Ken joke, perhaps it had something to do with being born on a street called “Philosopher’s Path.” However it happened, that path led her straight to HGSE, home to Robert Kegan, Carol Gilligan, Kurt Fischer, Howard Gardner, and Jane Loevinger, probably the single greatest concentration of developmental studies “greats” you’ll find anywhere—most of whom are either founding members of I-I, or good friends.

Susanne has taken Jane Loevinger’s work with tracing ego development, or how individuals understand themselves and their own self-identity, and has quite literally taken it to new heights (for the details on this, see Scholar’s Notes). Developmental studies tracks how growth or actualization hierarchies appear in human beings, and the secret to this particular game is understanding that growth hierarchies are what is necessary to eliminate dominator or pathological hierarchies—the higher an individual is on a psychological growth hierarchy, the more inclusive, embracing, caring, conscious, and compassionate that individual is going to be (rather than repressive, domineering, and authoritarian, which are characteristic of lower levels of development). The fact that Susanne is mapping and elucidating some of these higher stages of consciousness growth and evolution is really quite a significant achievement, and contributes directly to how each of us—you and I—can reach towards and manifest our own highest possibilities, “telling the story of development” in our own lives….

keywords: developmental studies, Creativity, Spirituality, and Transcendence, University of Zürich, Switzerland, Harvard University, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Robert Kegan, Carol Gilligan, Kurt Fischer, Howard Gardner, Jane Loevinger, Harry Lasker, Sentence Completion Test (SCT), Loevinger’s stages of ego development (symbiotic, impulsive, self-protective, conformist, conscientious, individualistic, autonomous, integrated—with Susanne “adding on” construct-aware, ego-aware, transpersonal), Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, structure-stages, state-stages, Integral Spirituality, Integral Psychology, Integral Training, Charles “Skip” Alexander, Transcendental Meditation (TM), Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "School was the one place where I felt seen for who I was. But my parents didn’t even think that I should go to high school, because girls prepared for marriage… and that was it."

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 05.14.07 - Integral Art: Two Kinds of Higher with Alex Grey

Integral Naked What's New 05.14.07

AUDIO:

Integral Art. Part 2. Two Kinds of Higher (42:17)
Alex Grey and Ken Wilber

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If you had the opportunity to become a bodhisattva right now, would you take it? Would you at least like to learn what being a bodhisattva is all about? If the answer to either is "yes," we have a treat for you! In this week's talk, Ken and Lama Surya Das discuss the essentials of enlightened living, exploring ten key practices to bodhisattvahood....

What is enlightened living, really? To begin, Surya is quick to point out, it's not merely quietistic and passive, which is sometimes how Buddhism is perceived (e.g. just sitting around and staring at your navel). Particularly for the Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions, awakening comes with the spiritual obligation to help others come to that same realization—this is the work of a bodhisattva. In other words, enlightened living is something you do, something you express, something your practice, grounded always in ever-present Suchness and I AMness.

Buddha Is as Buddha Does explores the ten paramitas as the "Bodhisattva Code" for enlightened living. The ten paramitas—or as Surya likes to call them, the "ten transformative practices "—are as follows: generosity, ethics, patience, heroic effort, mindfulness, wisdom, skillful means, spiritual aspirations, higher accomplishments, and awakened awareness (as Ken comments, these can also be looked at in terms of multiple intelligences or developmental lines). Done correctly, the practice and expression of any one of these qualities is to express all ten—and yet, you really must engage each one on its own terms. Surya and Ken go on to talk about the " two truths doctrine," and how absolute truth is that the ultimate goal and ground of all practice is always-already 100% present—whether you practice or not—and relative truth is that if you don't practice, in the words of a great Zen master, "you'll remain an idiot." Together, Surya and Ken walk through the first three practices: generosity, ethics, and patience.

If practice is clearly part of enlightened living, both "pre" enlightenment and "post" enlightenment, what are the essential dimensions of our being that we should exercise? With a truly Integral Spiritualit y (in any tradition), the four basic modules for an Integral Life Practice are body, mind, spirit, and shadow. If abiding by the "ten transformative practices" is your chosen method for engaging enlightened living (in whatever tradition you choose to apply them) we could hardly recommend a better contemporary guide to that path than Surya's Buddha Is as Buddha Does—always keeping in mind the touch-points of an Integral Approach, including states, stages, and shadow (see Scholar's Notes), and embracing body, mind, and spirit, in self, culture, and nature...

keywords: Allyson Grey, Shamanism, LSD, Paul McCarthy, deconstructionism, Andy Warhol, Vedanta Hinduism, sheaths of consciousness: annamayakosha (food/matter); pranamayakosha (prana, élan vital); manomayakosha (mind); vijnanamayakosha (higher mind); anandamayakosha (spiritual bliss),Vajrayana Buddhism, three bodies (gross, subtle, causal), three states (waking, dreaming, deep sleep), Wilber-Combs Lattice, Integral Spirituality, The Mission of Art, structure-stages, state-stages, stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), Daniel P. Brown, Transformations of Consciousness, Genpo Roshi, Michelangelo, "What Are the Chakras?," "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: “I was always looking at the fact that transcendental art was working on one major dimension—getting you to something higher. But now there are two kinds of higher!”

BOOKMARKS:

Integral Naked 05.07.07 - How to Be a Bodhisattva with Lama Surya Das

Buddha Is as Buddha Does. Part 1. How to Be a Bodhisattva (42:17)
Lama Surya Das and Ken Wilber
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If you had the opportunity to become a bodhisattva right now, would you take it? Would you at least like to learn what being a bodhisattva is all about? If the answer to either is "yes," we have a treat for you! In this week's talk, Ken and Lama Surya Das discuss the essentials of enlightened living, exploring ten key practices to bodhisattvahood....

What is enlightened living, really? To begin, Surya is quick to point out, it's not merely quietistic and passive, which is sometimes how Buddhism is perceived (e.g. just sitting around and staring at your navel). Particularly for the Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions, awakening comes with the spiritual obligation to help others come to that same realization—this is the work of a bodhisattva. In other words, enlightened living is something you do, something you express, something your practice, grounded always in ever-present Suchness and I AMness.

Buddha Is as Buddha Does explores the ten paramitas as the "Bodhisattva Code" for enlightened living. The ten paramitas—or as Surya likes to call them, the "ten transformative practices "—are as follows: generosity, ethics, patience, heroic effort, mindfulness, wisdom, skillful means, spiritual aspirations, higher accomplishments, and awakened awareness (as Ken comments, these can also be looked at in terms of multiple intelligences or developmental lines). Done correctly, the practice and expression of any one of these qualities is to express all ten—and yet, you really must engage each one on its own terms. Surya and Ken go on to talk about the " two truths doctrine," and how absolute truth is that the ultimate goal and ground of all practice is always-already 100% present—whether you practice or not—and relative truth is that if you don't practice, in the words of a great Zen master, "you'll remain an idiot." Together, Surya and Ken walk through the first three practices: generosity, ethics, and patience.

If practice is clearly part of enlightened living, both "pre" enlightenment and "post" enlightenment, what are the essential dimensions of our being that we should exercise? With a truly Integral Spiritualit y (in any tradition), the four basic modules for an Integral Life Practice are body, mind, spirit, and shadow. If abiding by the "ten transformative practices" is your chosen method for engaging enlightened living (in whatever tradition you choose to apply them) we could hardly recommend a better contemporary guide to that path than Surya's Buddha Is as Buddha Does—always keeping in mind the touch-points of an Integral Approach, including states, stages, and shadow (see Scholar's Notes), and embracing body, mind, and spirit, in self, culture, and nature .

keywords: Buddha Is as Buddha Does, Integral Spirituality , Awakening the Buddha Within, Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism, Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, Amartya Sen, bodhisattva, The Secret, Roger Walsh, Abraham Lincoln, "two truths doctrine," Natural Radiance, Mike Murphy, George Leonard, Integral Life Practice, " What Is Integral Spirituality?," Integral Spiritual Center, Baker Roshi, Ben Hogan, Suzuki Roshi, D.T. Suzuki, "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: Ken: "I once heard a paradox defined as 'two truths standing on their heads trying to attract attention.'" Surya: "That looks like us!"

BOOKMARKS:

Ken Wilber and Corey deVos - Does Physics Prove God?

The central question of this dialogue has to do directly with the relation of modern quantum physics and spirituality. In effect, does physics prove God? Does the Tao find proof in quantum realities?

Answer: "Categorically not. I don't know more confusion in the last thirty years than has come from quantum physics...."

Ken goes on to outline the three major confusions that have dominated the popular (mis)understanding of the relationship of physics and mysticism.

#1: Your consciousness does not create electrons. Unlike Newtonian physics, which can predict the location of large objects moving at slow speeds, quantum physics only offers a probability wave in which a given particle, like an electron, should show up. But here's the funny thing: it is only at the moment that one makes the measurement that the electron actually does "show up." Certain writers and theorists have thus suggested that human intentionality actually creates reality on a quantum level. The most popular version of this idea can be found in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?!, in which we "qwaff" reality into existence.

Ken suggests this is both bad physics and bad mysticism. As for the former, in his book, Quantum Questions, Ken compiled the original writings of the 13 most important founders of modern quantum and relativistic physics, to explore their understanding of the relationship of physics and mysticism. Without exception, each one of them believed that modern physics does NOT prove spiritual realities in any fashion. And yet each of them was a mystic, not because of physics, but in spite of it. By pushing to the outer limits of their discipline, a feat which requires true genius, they found themselves face to face with those realities that physics categorically could not explain.

Likewise, none of those founders of modern physics believed that the act of consciousness was responsible for creating particles at the quantum level. David Bohm did not believe that, Schroedinger did not believe that, Heisenberg did not believe that. That belief requires the enormous self-infatuation and narcissism, or "boomeritis," of the post-modern ego, and Ken goes into the possible psychology behind all of that.

#2: Quantum vacuum potentials are not unmanifest Spirit. The immediate problem with the notion that certain "unmanifest" or "vacuum" quantum realities give rise to the manifest world, and that the quantum vacuum is Spirit, is that it immediately presupposes a radically divided Spirit or Ultimate. There is Spirit "over here," manifestation "over there," and it's only through these quantum vacuum potentials that Spirit actualizes manifestation—with Spirit set apart from manifestation.

As the great contemplative traditions agree, true nondual Spirit is the suchness, emptiness, or isness of all manifestation, and as such leaves everything exactly where it finds it. Nondual Spirit is no more set apart from manifestation than the wetness of the ocean is set apart from waves. Wetness is the suchness or isness of all waves. By identifying Spirit with quantum potential, you are actually qualifying the Unqualifiable, giving it characteristics—"and right there," Ken says, "things start to go horribly wrong, and they never recover. These folks are trying to give characteristics to Emptiness. They therefore make it dualistic. And then things get worse from there...."

#3: Just because you understand quantum mechanics doesn't mean you're enlightened. Physics is an explicitly 3rd-person approach to reality, whereas meditative, contemplative, or mystical disciplines are explicitly 1st-person approaches to reality. Neither perspective is more real than the other, but each perspective does disclose different truths, and you cannot use the truth disclosed in one domain to "colonize" another. The study of physics, as a 3rd-person discipline, will not get you enlightenment; and meditation, as a 1st-person discipline, will not disclose the location of an asteroid (or an electron). The "content" of enlightenment is the realization of that which is timeless, formless, and eternally unchanging. The content of physics is the understanding of the movement of form within time, i.e. that which is constantly changing. And if you hook Buddha's enlightenment to a theory of physics that gets disproved tomorrow, does that mean Buddha loses his enlightenment?

Ken goes on to suggest that what might be influencing quantum realities is not Suchness per se, but bio-energy or prana, which may be the source of the crackling, buzzing, electric creativity that so many theorists have tried to explain at the quantum level. Of course, it remains to be seen exactly what further research does and does not support.

*Corey deVos and Ken Wilber - Does Physics Prove God?

Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber - Centering Prayer - Part 2 - Jesus: Faith, Formula, Trikaya

In this series, Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber discuss the history of Fr. Keating’s spiritual path. As abbot of St Joseph's, Fr. Keating invited Eastern meditation teachers to instruct Christian monks in meditation. As the Eastern teachers presented their practices, their means to an end, Fr. Keating realized, “We had no such methods, no practices.” His longing for contemplative practices, a means to experience communion with the Divine Presence, inspired the revival of Contemplative Christianity and the creation of the practice of Centering Prayer.

Fr. Keating also discusses the scriptural and historical roots of contemplation within the Christian tradition, as if he were giving a heartfelt sermon. He concludes that Jesus has always encouraged us to go into our “inner room.” Centering Prayer is one means to enter that room, and consent to receive God’s love. These conversations are truly a blessing…

*Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber - Centering Prayer - Part 2 - Jesus: Faith, Formula, Trikaya

02.10.06 Emilio Martinez - Are You in Duality with Your Spirituality?

Emilio Martinez - Are You in Duality with Your Spirituality?

02.04.06 Ken Wilber - The Many Faces of Terrorism

Ken Wilber - The Many Faces of Terrorism

01.21.06 Ken Wilber - The Meaning of the Avant Garde

Ken Wilber - The Meaning of the Avant Garde

01.21.06 Ed Kowalczyk, Stuart Davis, and Ken Wilber - Produced by God - The Highest Self and the Creative Process - With Special Performance: Overcome

Ed Kowalczyk, Stuart Davis, and Ken Wilber - Produced by God - The Highest Self and the Creative Process - With Special Performance: Overcome

01.14.05 Tami Simon - Making Love at Work

Tami Simon - Making Love at Work

01.14.05 Terry Patten - Living an Authentic Spiritual Life

Terry Patten - Living an Authentic Spiritual Life

01.06.06 Father Thomas Keating - Centering Prayer - Part1 - A Prayer, A Presence, A Secret

In this series, Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber discuss the history of Fr. Keating’s spiritual path. As abbot of St Joseph's, Fr. Keating invited Eastern meditation teachers to instruct Christian monks in meditation. As the Eastern teachers presented their practices, their means to an end, Fr. Keating realized, “We had no such methods, no practices.” His longing for contemplative practices, a means to experience communion with the Divine Presence, inspired the revival of Contemplative Christianity and the creation of the practice of Centering Prayer.

Fr. Keating also discusses the scriptural and historical roots of contemplation within the Christian tradition, as if he were giving a heartfelt sermon. He concludes that Jesus has always encouraged us to go into our “inner room.” Centering Prayer is one means to enter that room, and consent to receive God’s love. These conversations are truly a blessing…

*Father Thomas Keating - Centering Prayer - Part1 - A Prayer, A Presence, A Secret

01.06.06 Stuart Davis - Easter (Live at Penny Lane)

Stuart Davis - Easter (Live at Penny Lane)

12.30.05 dj rekluse - The Vast Expanse (Grey Shadow mix)

dj rekluse - The Vast Expanse (Grey Shadow mix)

12.30.05 David Deida - Pleasure Therapy Pt. 2

David Deida - Pleasure Therapy Pt. 2

12.16.05 David Deida - Pleasure Therapy Pt. 1

David Deida - Pleasure Therapy Pt. 1

12.16.05 Michael Zimmerman - What You'll Want on Top of Cocaine Mountain

Michael Zimmerman - What You'll Want on Top of Cocaine Mountain

12.10.05 David Deida - The Yogic Practice of Courtship

David Deida - The Yogic Practice of Courtship

12.10.05 Fred Kofman - Sexual Morality

Fred Kofman - Sexual Morality

12.02.05 Ken Wilber and Mark Gafni - God is a Blogger

Ken Wilber and Mark Gafni - God is a Blogger

12.02.05 Ken Wilber and Corey deVos - Integral Institute Updates

Ken Wilber and Corey deVos - Integral Institute Updates

11.25.05 Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - The Supreme Identity

Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - The Supreme Identity

11.25.05 Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - A Likely Story

Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - A Likely Story

11.25.05 Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Intellectual Illumination

Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Intellectual Illumination

11.25.05 Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - All Of Reality In One Moment

Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - All Of Reality In One Moment

11.25.05 Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Out of the Self, Into The Light

Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Out of the Self, Into The Light

11.25.05 Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Picking a Path

Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Picking a Path

11.25.05 Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Psychosis or Mystical State?

Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber - Psychosis or Mystical State?

11.19.05 Rabbi Marc Gafni and Ken Wilber - Seven Levels of Erotica

Rabbi Marc Gafni and Ken Wilber - Seven Levels of Erotica

11.19.05 Rabbi Marc Gafni - Imagination in Erotica

Rabbi Marc Gafni - Imagination in Erotica

11.11.05 Ken Wilber - Hurts More, Bothers You Less

Ken Wilber - Hurts More, Bothers You Less

11.11.05 DJ Mediocrates - Hurts But It's Okay

DJ Mediocrates - Hurts But It's Okay

11.4.05 Ken Wilber - Tonglen - Part 1

Ken Wilber - Tonglen - Part 1

11.4.05 Rabbi Marc Gafni - Tonglen - Part 2

Rabbi Marc Gafni - Tonglen - Part 2

10.28.05 Stuart Davis - Wizard (live at Penny Lane)

Stuart Davis - Wizard (live at Penny Lane)

10.28.05 Terry Patten - Living your Heart

Terry Patten - Living your Heart

10.20.05 Saul Williams - Telegram (live at Boulder Theater)

Saul Williams - Telegram (live at Boulder Theater)

10.20.05 Fred Kofman - Admirable Attributes

Fred Kofman - Admirable Attributes

10.13.05 Serj Tankian - Politics, Justice, Rock and Roll

Serj Tankian - Politics, Justice, Rock and Roll

10.13.05 Michael Zimmerman - We Cant Kill the Planet

Michael Zimmerman - We Cant Kill the Planet

10.6.05 Ed Kowalczyk - That Moment of One-ness Is What Performing Is All About

Ed Kowalczyk - That Moment of One-ness Is What Performing Is All About

10.6.05 Stuart Davis - Nothing In Between (live from Ken's loft)

Stuart Davis - Nothing In Between (live from Ken's loft)

9.29.05 Saul Williams - Children of the Night

Saul Williams - Children of the Night

9.29.05 Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi - Sex, Drugs, and Rock of Ages

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi - Sex, Drugs, and Rock of Ages

9.22.05 Michael Crichton - At the Dangerous Edge of the Knowledge Quest

Michael Crichton - At the Dangerous Edge of the Knowledge Quest

9.22.05 Roger Walsh - 10 Minutes to Recontact Sacred Breath

Roger Walsh - 10 Minutes to Recontact Sacred Breath

9.15.05 Ken Wilber - Turning Spinach into Candy

Ken Wilber - Turning Spinach into Candy

9.15.05 Roger Walsh - 10 Minutes to an Eternal Perspective

Roger Walsh - 10 Minutes to an Eternal Perspective

9.8.05 Willow Pearson - One Taste

Willow Pearson - One Taste

9.8.05 Ken Wilber - Integral Ecology

Ken Wilber - Integral Ecology

9.1.05 Saul Williams - Art as a Contemplation of Being

Saul Williams - Art as a Contemplation of Being

9.1.05 Justin Miles - Dream Drumming

Justin Miles - Dream Drumming

8.25.05 Rick Rubin - Ken Wilber - Beyond Genre Part1 - Making Space for Greatness

Rick Rubin - Ken Wilber - Beyond Genre Part 1 - Making Space for Greatness

8.25.05 Ottmar Liebert - Untitled #9

Ottmar Liebert - Untitled #9

8.18.05 TSO - Mike Murphy - Storytime

TSO - Mike Murphy - Storytime

8.18.05 John Petersen - What's the Best (And Worst) That Could Happen in the Near Future

John Petersen - What's the Best (And Worst) That Could Happen in the Near Future

8.11.05 Stuart Davis and Ed Kowalczyk - Smoke (live)

Stuart Davis and Ed Kowalczyk - Smoke (live)

8.11.05 Marc Palmer-Beyond Race and Racism - An Integral Approach

Marc Palmer-Beyond Race and Racism - An Integral Approach

"D:\integralnaked\Podcast\Mark Palmer - Beyond Race and Racism - An Integral Approach.mp3"

8.04.05 David Deida-Sexuality as Art

David Deida - Sexuality as Art

8.04.05 TSO-Andrew Cohen-Deepening

TSO - Andrew Cohen - Deepening

7.27.05 Larry Wachowski-The Many Meanings of the Matrix

Larry Wachowski - The Many Meanings of the Matrix.mp3

7.27.05 Ed Kowalczyk-Heaven

Ed Kowalczyk - Heaven

7.20.05 TSO-Everpresent

TSO- Everpresent

7.20.05 Jim Garrison-The State of the World in the Wake of Iraq

Jim Garrison - The State of the World in the Wake of Iraq

7.11.05 Saul Williams-ShaClackClack

Saul Williams - Sha-clack-clack.mp3

7.11.05 Alex Grey- Art, Spirit, Psychedelics

Alex Grey - Art, Spirit, Psychedelics.mp3

7.11.05 Stuart Davis-Belle(dj rekluse rekalibration)

Stuart Davis - Belle (dj rekluse rekalibration)

7.03.05 Ken Wilber-Everpresence

Ken Wilber - Everpresence

7.03.05 Billy Corgan-Leading Edge Consciousness and the Avant-Garde

Billy Corgan - Leading Edge Consciousness and the Avant-Garde

7.03.05 Stuart Davis-Swim(live)

Stuart Davis - Swim(live)