Another Review for the Integral Warrior in Cincinnati

I received a great review from Larry, one of the men in my Cincinnati Integral Warrior men's group. You can read that here. Larry sent out another review to the men in his MKP (Mankind Project) i-group that he was kind enough to share with me, and so I'm sharing with you. My hope in sharing is that it will encourage other men to step into this life-changing and transformative process.


Here's his review of the second weekend of the 6-weekend process. Thank you, Larry. It is such a pleasure to have you in this group.

Gary - Laughing White Horse

Men,

I know that one or two of the men were interested in hearing about the next six Integral Warrior workshops with Gary Stamper, so I thought I would just send my account of it to everyone in our i-group. (Participation in the rest of this workshop is already closed, but I suspect that Gary may be persuaded to repeat this series again next year in Cincinnati if enough men show interest.)

This weekend the workshop was held in an idyllic setting in a home in the woods overlooking a bike trail and a small river. The weather was perfect. The Warrior weekend was the first of four initiations that the six men who have chosen this workshop will experience (Warrior, Lover, Magician, King).  Gary basically takes the MKP's approach to the four main archetypes to a much deeper level. In this workshop, we explored the passive and active shadows of the warrior and how those shadows showed up for each of us. I was able to clearly define my own weaknesses and struggles that appear whenever the warrior in me is repressed, much as we did in the MKP initiation. Going much deeper than MKP work, Gary also guided us through a study of the states and stages of masculine development in order to discover our deepest purpose and our mission. He used both Spiral Dynamics and Integral Theory (the most comprehensive map of human consciousness yet devised) to guide us to our warrior gold.

Gary is one of the most powerful facilitators that I have ever met. Using Spiral Dynamics, he is able to eloquently and artfully provide the framework for tracking the historical evolution of the world's cultures, from primitive man to the present, and show how it applies as well to organizations and individuals. His explanation of Integral Theory and Practice brought simplicity and clarity to this rather cumbersome subject. And he brings his own gold -- integrity, humility, and the open-hearted gift of his mission to the weekend.

For me, the workshop was the perfect blend of the cognitive (with the stimulating discussions about how individuals and cultures move from one level of consciousness to the next) and experiential (with the Shamanic journeys that he led with an almost hypnotic intensity). A final ritual ceremony (which we designed ourselves) allowed me to declare my ownership of the warrior archetype and all of its shadows.

I am looking forward with renewed zeal to the next three archetype workshops and the final ceremony next year for my emergence as an Integral Warrior, embracing and balanced by Lover, Magician, and King.  Apparently I may also choose at this time to accept the mantle of Shamanic Priest, although personally I don't feel comfortable accepting this title -- I just don't feel the need for titles to bring my gifts to the world. This ceremony will be witnessed by family and friends, much like the priestess workshop that my wife and the other fifteen woman completed a few weeks ago with Gary's wife Anya. I'll keep you posted as to the date. Here's a link to his webpage that describes his work in more detail: http://www.garystamper.com/integralwarrior.htm.

I seem to remember that he will be facilitating a two-day Shamanic Breathwork weekend for men on October 9th and 10th. Here's a link to that:http://www.garystamper.com/breathwork.htm. I will look for some more details on that and send it along separately. I think Bob Wuest was going to help promote that one.

Larry
Bear Hug