Courage and Showing Up

"Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?" - Marian Wright Edelman

Courage, also known as fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation. It can be divided into "physical courage," when faced with physical pain, hardship, and threat of death - and moral courage - in the face of shame, scandal, and discouragement (source: Wikipedia).

The Catholic Church says that courage is one of the Four Cardinal Virtues. "Cardinal" is considered to be a "pivotal" virtue because to possess courage, one must must be able to sustain it in the face of difficulty.

The precise view of what constitutes courage varies among cultures. It also varies among individuals, particularly from different altitudes, or structure perspectives. I'm wondering if a lack of fear in a situation that would normally generate it, while present at all altitudes, might be more prevalent at second tier? How much of that is actual courage and how much is developmental, where fear drops away?

Some hold that courage requires one to have fear and then overcome it.

One of my own fears revolved around letting go of SeattleIntegral: not only giving up my role as the pivotal force driving it, but actually encouraging others to step up and take over the reins, thereby giving up what some might consider "my power."

I didn't, and don't, see it that way. I was more powerful by giving up my power. I was able to make a larger contribution to the big picture by stepping back and allowing others to develop, and by nurturing that development. It's the equivalent of a parent stepping back and allowing a child to mature, an act that must happen so the child can become an adult. It's very difficult to do, and a courageous act in and of itself.

One of the problems I see in other organizations is that leaders who hold the power are unwilling to step aside to allow others to also develop into leaders. These power leaders, well intentioned as they may be, actually stand in the way of the healthy development of the organizations.

As leaders, we must have the courage to step aside when the time is right.

Illustration by Gary Kelley

An Apology to Ken Wilber

I've never met Ken Wilber, but I've talked to him on the phone a few times, and I consider him a friend. More than that, Ken's writing has had a major impact on my own transformation . I would not have the awareness, such as it is, I have today if I had never found Ken's writing.

I know a lot of people, all around the world, who could say the same thing about Ken and his work. I owe him a debt of gratitude far bigger than I could ever repay, and yet somehow, I doubt Ken would say I owed him anything.

So when I wrote an article a few days ago on what I'm seeing as contradictions in Ken's languaging, and yes, even some integral historical revisionism, I was, and am, unapologetic for what I described. My concern for revisionism being used by someone I love is colored by the repulsive revisionist tactics I've seen the present U.S. adminstration use. That there are apparently problems at I-I is obvious: We all have them, including me, and the organizations I work with, some of them my doing. I remain concerned about what I described in that blog: for Ken, and us all.

So where's the apology in all this?

My apology is to Ken for the graphic I created for the article, that has now been pulled. As a former newspaper editorial cartoonist, I used extreme graphics and images to make a point. The image I used was, I think, cruel and unecessary to make my point.

Ken, I apologize for the graphic.

Transcending the Ego

I got my ass kicked by my bloated ego this week. It reared it's ugly head and went after someone else's bloated ego, and almost caused a problem that could have torn apart some really important work. I finally refused to play anymore, and found a way to move in a different direction, but there will probably have to be some serious repair work somewhere down the road if I'm to have any kind of relationship with them.

All of this got me thinking more about ego. Our egos can be our friend or they can be our enemy. I speak of ego as if it were another, but we have met the enemy, and he is us. I am my ego, and my ego is me. Ego is one of the fiercest of all the warriors and will fight to the death when attacked.

The trick, I think, isn't getting rid of, or squelching, the ego, it's learning to work with it in healthy, as opposed to pathological, ways. Ego reality and agenda are very strong, and mine was in serious shadow, and, fortunately, I'm doing enough shadow work (3-2-1 Shadow Work Process, private therapy) to know my shadow when I don't see it. It may take me a little while, but I can recognize when I go into "ego mode," and then I know what I need to do to let go.

I'm working on seeing at the moment it arises.

This got me thinking about how ego affects our transformation and structure stages. Can someone who's at higher levels of development have a huge ego? Obviously, yes. But if they allow that ego to be the boss, then while they may be still be operating from a higher stage, it's not in a healthy way.....and if lower stages of development have unhealthy aspects, why wouldn't higher stages, as well? Ken Wilber reminds us that there is nothing linear about overall development.

An unhealthy, or even pathogical, display of ego is in the self-system, and has failed to integrate, caught up in infantile wishes and never satisfactorily moves past earlier stages, and can show up as fixation: "I want to be right."

Ego is a basic indredient of our essential make up. From time to time it will reign supreme anyway, regardless of any attempts to diffuse its tryanny. When you are lit up like a hundred watt lightbulb, don't deny it. Smile and tell the truth about it.

Digitally enhanced photo by Gary Stamper

HUH?

"Integral Institute is now searching for a CEO, which will be the first time we have officially filled the office of CEO since our inception. In other words, this is the chance to be the first CEO in the history of the first truly integral organization in history." (source)

What happened to Steve Frazee, and isn't he still listed as the CEO of Integral Institute on this page on Integral Institute's website as of this writing? First, ITP became ILP in a bit of revisionist history in Integral Spirituality (see pg 201, IS, and A Theory of Everything), and now this? Wha 'sup?

So, in the last couple of weeks, Gail Taylor, Community Director, and Steve Frazee, the CEO, have both resigned from I-I. What's going on, there? I constantly hear, "you have no idea what's going on at I-I." Duh, you think? I wonder how that happens?

And how did I-I go from not being second tier to a truly integral organization within a year? Am I mistaken (possibly), but wasn't I-I listed as Turquoise in the Culture by Altitude column of the September issue of Holons? Not anymore.

I can only imagine how difficult it must be at I-I at this time, but let me be perfectly clear: I-I is coming under fire from a lot of places, and I'm concerned that this stuff just gives critics more ammunition.

What's an Amber person to believe, anymore?

Digital Pinnochio by Gary Stamper

A Reality Check for Integral Salons

From Ken Wilber's blog:

"We have Integral University just beginning; we have Integral Seminars and Integral Training; we have twenty-three Integral Centers—from Integral Medicine to Integral Business to Integral Sustainability to Integral Politics to Integral Education to Integral Law to Integral Art to Integral Consciousness Studies; we have Integral Coaching and Consulting, just beginning; we have Integral Spiritual Center, with thirty of the world’s absolutely finest spiritual teachers, coming together semiannually to change the very face of religion itself; we have Integral Naked expanding into new markets, including Hollywood and beyond; to name a few. All of these will come together in the first Annual Integral Conference. And we have just created our membership magazine, The Integralist: A Journal of Both/And, to give expression to all of that.

What's missing here? Nothing. There is more to integral emergence than meets the eye.

"Integral Cognition"

A great post from David Jon on Zaadz. Thanks to ebuddha for pointing it out.

Carrying Water

There is a Zen saying, "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water." What’s the difference? The tasks are the same. The need is the same. What about the frame of mind? Who is chopping? Who is carrying water?

There have been some major moves forward this week in creating an International Integral Salon Organization, and in creating a relationship between some of the salons that have already solidly emerged and Integral Institute. The Salon leadership Council, a self-selected group of experienced salon leaders from around the world, is now beginning the process of inviting some other "mega" salons, and their leaders, to join us in what can no longer be stopped.

The salons are roaring, their voices uniting, and these voices are being heard and are making a difference in their communities. Together, we can make a difference in the world.

As a co-founder of one of these mega-salons, It has been my privilege and honor to serve in the development of our local salon, and I consider it my highest cause and purpose to play a role in the development of an international organization of salons.

Venita, Tom, Jake, and Elle, all played significant roles in helping create the container in which all of this arises. Now, as we attempt to partner with Integral Institute, we each carry the container which holds the water.......and we must remain mindful that while the container is important, it's the water that counts.

It's time for us all to work together and carry water.

Digital Image by Gary Stamper

A Holacratic Proposal to Integral Institute about Integral Salons

This week, the London, Seattle, NY, and Sydney Integral Salons got to sit down with Integral Institute and talk about salon organization. Facilitated by Brian Robertson, the salons presented two almost identical proposals to I-I on how to more effectively communicate and partner with each other.

I think one of the reasons Brian was brought in to facilitate was because SeattleIntegral offered a Holacratic Proposal. Holacracy is the system I-I, and SeattleIntegral, are using as governing principles, and holacratic proposals must be considered by the governing organization. I also believe, to their credit, I-I was ready and eager to listen to this growing community of salons that have tetra-emerged on their own.

In this conference call it was proposed, and accepted, by the Salon Leadership Council and I-I, that the proposals be forwarded to I-I's leadership for their approval.

This could well be the start of an entirely new relationship between salons and Integral Institute. It is critcal that this relationship be a partnership.

Seattles' proposal starts out:

"A proposal from the Integral Salon Leaders Council, wherein we provide a new direction, and a shared vision for relationship and support between integral salons, what Ken calls “crucibles of consciousness struggling to be born,” and Integral Institute. "

To read the entire proposal, go here.

New Salons "Discovered?"

I would have posted this as a comment on Ken's blog, but there doesn't seem to be a place to do that, so I'm responding to a blog by Clint (Fuhs) on Integrale Perspecktiven.

I'm amazed that, 4 years down the road of heavy involvement with Integral salons and the integral salon communities, that I was totally unaware of this huge integral salon of about 200 people in Europe, called Integrales Forum. In addition, I just found out last night that there's also a salon in Spain of about 200 people, as well. How could we be so unaware of what each other is doing and have missed these salons?

Video here.

Happy Integratefullness Day!

Thanksgiving is a wonderful EthnoCentric holiday. It embodies everything good about traditional amber (Blue in SDi terms) and will, no doubt, continue to serve the mainstream (amber to orange) populace for generations to come.

Many of us will gather 'round our family tables for traditional meals and time, with parents, siblings, husbands, wives, significant others, children, friends, extended family members, and more...and, yet...what about those of us who find ourselves looking at the world, and our universe, through more complex lenses? "Thanksgiving," my personal favorite holiday, as special as it is, seems, well....partial.

First, Thanksgiving is pretty much a national holiday, rising up out of the first North American settlers' celebration of being in a new country. Tres' EthnoCentic! But, the idea behind Thanksgiving is bigger than that. It's all about gratitude.

So, in a larger context, with a larger purpose, I'd like to propose that we start thinking about a day of gratitude that could be shared with the entire world, separate from location, ethnocentricity, race, creed, politics, religion, level of development, whatever, and that we consider calling this day of gratitude "Integratefullness Day," or Gratitude Day: a combination of an integral perspective, gratitude, and the fullness from which it arises.

Integratefullness = Integrate + Grateful + Fullness.

It's probably not for everyone, but it doesn't mean we can't build an awareness around it and carry it in our hearts.

Today, and every day, I am grateful to so many for so much.

First, my immediate family, my Mom and Dad, my sister Sooz, and my unbelievably loving daughters, Morgan and Tanya, their husbands, and my three grandkids (with another on the way!!!), who I love more than words can ever say......
Anyaa.......
Tom, Venita, Jake, Elle, Anita, Blaine, Nina, and new Core group members Susan and Chris: What we are building together!....
Everyone at SeattleIntegral: What a rich, diverse, and wonderful group you are.....
Ken, for kicking me in the butt and changing my life.....
Everyone at Integral Institute for what you're doing......
An emerging consciousness.....
The three hundred or so people who visit this blog every week, reading, even when I struggle to find my voice.....

....and for this huge, unbound, and limitless heart space I find myself holding and sharing.....even if you piss me off (smile...), I still hold a place in there for you.

Happy Integratefullness Day!

A New Day For Integral Salons

An account of the conversation between Integral Institute and Integral Salon Leaders from all over the world that might change the course of how we interact together.

Video here.

I promise these will get better, and I also promise I won't stop writing.

There is a problem with my password verification between YouTube and the recently purchased "Blogger" so you'll have to follow the link.

Positive Aspects of Anger, Part 2

I am often so frustrated at Integral Institutes' seemingly inability to see some things that seem so obvious to me. Case in point, creating a space where integral salons can come together, learn from one another (and learn from the many gifts of Integral Institute), and continue the evolutionary unfolding of new and existing salons.

This is anger, pure and simple, born out of frustration of I-I not seeming to learn from it's mistakes, and not learning from those who have actually gone, and continue to go, before: successful integral salons.

As I promised in my original post on anger, this is the second post on how anger can be an inspiration, and become a way for us to actually increase our awareness around the things that make us angry. In particular, this is about how my anger may result in what I hope will be a productive and, hopefully, evolutionary suggestion on how I-I relates to salons.

I've written a proposal called "A Holacratic Proposal to Integral Institute." In this proposal I'm calling for a new direction and a shared vision for relationship and support between integral salons, what Ken calls "crucibles of consciousness struggling to be born," and Integral Institute.

The problem to date, in my opinion, is that I-I has been using a "top-down" approach in creating a salon organization without regard to what is already emerging. While a "top-down" approach can work with strategies of information processing, this is not possible with organic systems, such as integral salons.

While I-I has been struggling with their organization, we have been struggling with ours. Cities like Seattle, New York, London, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Sydney, Frankfurt, and others, already have robust salons well along the way in their evolution.

Tomorrow evening, salon leaders from all over the world, will be discussing this proposal, and a similar one from iNYCS, with leaders from Integral Institute to see if we can come to an agreement on how to do this. It's the first time Integral Institute has sat down with us to, hopefully, ask us what we want.We want to be listened to.

Anything else just pisses me off.

I-I logo representation and iSalons logo by gary Stamper

A Brief Laugh about Irony and anger...I think....

I'm stting here absolutely amazed.... I write a couple of blogs about anger, and suddenly Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity start showing up in my Google AdSense listings at the top (they seem to be gone several hours later). AdSense picks up on your subject matter and provides relative linking.......lol!

I know......this is not second tier.... but sometimes it's all about transcend and include, baby!


Ahhhh.... that little piece of being pissed off felt really good!

"Transcend this" image by Gary Stamper available as a bumper sticker here

Postive Aspects of Anger, Part 1

This blog is, and always has been, a journal first, and a blog second. It's mostly about trying to figure out how to live a life, my life, in an integral manner. In the previous post, I promised to give some examples of how anger can be used in a positive way. This first personal example of anger acting in a positive way is related to an earlier post. I got quite a lot of comments on that post, and comments that I value, so I'm taking the position that I was being as authentic, and genuine, in that post as am capable of being at my current level of development. I suggest you go back and read it it before continuing.

(pause....)

Now that you've refreshed your memory on that post, I can continue this story. I was contacted again by this old girlfriend, with the suggstion that we get together. Had I completely let go of those old feelings? Nope! But....I was able to look at it without attachment, and without expectations, and still....This was a person who had meant something deep to me at one time.

We set up a time to meet.

Long story short, she backed out at the last minute (a familiar pattern) and over three almost incoherent emails, demonstrated her inability to relate to me in any meaningful manner, whatsover.

Long story short, again: I was angry, but not because she had cancelled, but rather, that I had allowed myself to get pulled into these familiar patterns, once again. I was also sad for her because she was either unable or unwilling to see what was going on, or worse, was a conscious participant in this game.

This time, I emailed her telling her that I only wanted people (friends, lovers, whatever) in my life who are able to come from an authentic place, and that I wasn't gong to allow this behavior in my life. I received one more email from her and I haven't, and won't, respond.

The point is, that I used my anger to break off a negative aspect in my life, which then became a postive aspect through my action. My anger, and my compassion for her, allowed me to choose not to continue in this pathological behavior, and made it possible for me to make that conscious decision to walk away.

I am sad for her, but I feel good about my choice.

A New Perspective on Anger

I just finished my second therapy session last night. You're probably thinking, "Gary, you're obviously nuts, why would you be in therapy?" The reason I'm there is because I'm being completely serious, and sincere, about my evolving consciousness, and private therapy is one more way to look at the things about me I'm not seeing. It's part of my intention to try to live and embody an integral life....not a lifestyle, but an integral life.

Wilber sez that our shadows are the single most important thing about us inhibiting our growth and transformation. So, if I'm to be truly committed to consciously facilitating my own evolution, I have no choice but to try and reveal, and face, my shadows.

BIG MIND has a strong shadow component that allows us to safely confront our shadows by asking the various archetypes within us for permission to confront these shadow elements, and to let go of them. I can't recommend this process strongly enough. This is a process that has the power to change the world. Get to a seminar, get a DVD, the ILP Home study Kit (Big Mind is a module within it), or download it off Integral Naked, but get it.

Back to my therapist: He asked what I get a angry about , and, of course, I replied, I don't get angry (Hoo-boy, some shadow there!). Turns out we meant different things. When I think of anger, I think about the person who blows up with their anger, who completely loses it, loses control, strikes out, breaks things, or people. It's ugly, it's explosive, and it's violent. We all know people who do that. That's not me! I don't act like that!

But I do get pissed-off!

Using that definition, I don't get angry. I was viewing anger as an attack, rather than an attempt at contact. My therapist has correctly pointed out that anger is attached to aliveness and creativity, and that to repress it is to deaden those areas of ourselves. But I've discovered I'm not deadening or supressing my anger, I'm just calling it "being pissed-off."

I'm also seeing my anger is showing up as a way of saying, "I don't want any barriers between us," rather than an expression of wanting to hurt someone, and in that sense, my anger is healthy. It is healthy because it inspires a desire to want to change things rather than to break or destroy them.

Our anger can be a call for our passions to "come alive" with conscious awareness, energy, and implementation, and can give birth to new ways of looking at how to live, and love, in meaningful, productive, and sacred ways. Many of us have the capacity to choose that path as a result of the things that anger us.

I'm going to give a couple of examples of how anger can do that over one or two upcoming posts. I know when I can have an impact on the things that make me angry, and when I can't. When I can't, I can recognize and accept my anger, knowing I can't change things, and be willing to make a conscious decision to walk away. letting go of my anger. I also know when I might be able to make a meaningful difference, and harvest my anger to a useful, higher purpose, letting my anger, and my passion, drive me to effect those changes.

For the video blog on this subject, click here

Why No ILP or ITP?

At our ITP/ILP meeting (Integral Transformative Practice and Integral Life Practice) last night, we had about 10 people attend. Our reservation for a room had been messed up, so we retired to a small meeting room to meditate and dialogue.

SeattleIntegral, the second-largest integral salon in the world (I know....you've heard it before...), has hit a milestone of 150 members this week, and yet, we only have 10 people show up for the ITP/ILP group.

I've been pondering why, out of a group this large, we only have 10-12 members show up on a regular basis. Does this mean that only a small group of people actually have an ITP/ILP? Well, I think it depends on how you define those practices. By Integral Institute's current measurement, the ILP Home Study Kit is the embodiement of the highest practive available anywhere on the planet.*

Can you truly claim to live an integral life, or embody integral, if you're not doing Integral practices that touch on each quadrant? If, like me, you favor one quadrant, and most people do, there's a tendency to remain "stuck" in the safety of that quadrant. One of the things an integral practice should do, is balance you out. It doesn't mean you have to be a superb weightlifter (upper right quadrant activity) for example, but that you're doing something in that quadrant to balance out the tendency to be too much in your head (okay, I gave away my favorite quadrant).

Now, in fairness, we have several other smaller sub-groups of SeattleIntegral that meet specific needs: Couple of study groups, and spiritual, leadership, psychology, and Meetup. groups....but....read what Ken Wilber says in Integral Spirituality, "The Myth of the Given Lives On," appendix III, page 300:

"Not supplementing is no longer something that is without its effects and consequences. Not supplementing - not making one's spiritual practice into an integral spiritual practice - can slowly kill you, more or less literally, or worse: figuratively, because what kills you is the the soul struggling to be reborn into today's integral age, struggling to be born into it's own highest estate of Freedom and Fullness,** struggling to acknoweldge the the Spirit that that embraces the the entire Kosmos whole, with love and charity, valor and compassion, care and consciousness, interiority and identity, radiance and luminosity, ecstacy and clarity, all at once, and once and for all."

What Wilber is talking about, spirit, could easily be any other, and all other, practices.....and without balancing those practices, heart, mind, body, and spirit, you have to stop and ask yourself, "is it integral, or am I not quite there, yet?

*That's too bad, because , as good as it is, and it is very, very good, it is by definition, a solitary practice. i.e., "Home Study Kit." Murphy and Leonard's ITP is, at this point, and in my opinion, more integral than the I-I's ILP. Why? Because ITP does include group practices. There's an entire chapter called "The Magic of Community," something sorely lacking in the ILP Home Study Kit.....so far. It's not that the ILP creators aren't aware of the lower left community aspect, so it's hard to understand why they left the lower right structures out. I think they may have just run out of time. New ILP study groups, like SeattleIntegral, are exploring the community aspects of an ILP.

**"Freedom and Fullness" are the elements of enlightenment: see pg 243, Integral Spirituality, Integral Post-Metaphysics.

Logo image by Gary Stamper

The Poem I Can Finally Let Go Of....

I still think of you often,
but it doesn't hurt anymore....
except for that dull ache
that just won't seem
to go away.
No, it doesn't hurt anymore....
even when the radio plays
"Your Body Is A Wonderland."
My Buddha nature
has accepted
and transcended....
I am unattached....
still.....
But it doesn't hurt anymore
Is my mantra.
I repeat it over
and over....
and over ....
Breathe.....

BIG MIND - The Awakening of Everyone

The Awakening of Everyone

Today I'll be immersed in 6 hours of BIG MIND with Genpo Roshi sponsored by SeattleIntegral. One of the great things about being producing these events is that I get to see people that I might not ordinarily have an opportunity to do so. We have over 70 people registered for the event, and I get to introduce him. Life is good.

More on "Where Do You Stand On God?"

I've come to realize that there's an even more serious problem in "The New Atheism" approach to denying a Mythic God (The original post is here) that causes some real damage: The problem is that this new atheism doesn't only deny a mythic God, something that higher levels of spiritual consciousness wouldn't deny, but that this new atheism also denies any sort of spiritual approach altogether.

Quoting Ken Wilber in Integral Spirituality, page 193, while "the religious myths simply are not empirically real....one must move from myth to reason to trans-reason in order to plumb the depths of spiritual realities. That is, one must allow the line of of spiritual intelligence to continue its growth from amber into higher levels, and, conversely, forcing the myths to remain as they are is the surest way to keep mythic believers frozen at that level and slip into a pernicious Level/Line Fallacy."

He continues, "But in order for the higher levels in the spiritual line to be recognized and allowed, the spiritual line itself needs to be recognized and honored."

In other words, because of the New Atheists' refusal to recognize stage/structure states of development, they are also committing a Level/Lines Fallacy, trapping all who might want to reach for higher levels of spirituality at the mythic level. They fail to realize that the human heart senses domains of existence that science can never define, explain, or fill.

Ironically, proponents of Intelligent Design, trying to have science prove mythic-level poetry, makes them guilty of the LLF as well, and they become the unwitting partners of the New Athiests.

Cartoon by Gary Larsen

An Integral Look at First-Tier Politics

Normally, I wouldn't pick on first tier perspectives precisely because they are first tier, but I'm going to make an exception here because a very good friend of mine claims to be an Integral Conservative.

I don't even know what that means, and he hasn't done a good job of defining it. Is an integral conservative an integrally informed person with conservative leanings? Hell, I'm that! I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal. "Let's see...where are those weapons of mass destruction? Not under here...."... he can't be a conservative about Integral. That would mean he's trying to conserve an integral approach that is still emerging, so there's nothing to conserve, yet.

The very term, Integral Conservative, is an integral oxymoron. The very idea of being "conservative," or liberal, for that matter, stems from a particular quadrant and a developmental level (IMHO). A self view of being a conservative stems from an interior view of the upper left quadrant (I could go on about this, and mercifully won't), and indicates a typology stemming from that quadrant, and cannot, therefore, be integral by itself.

But enough about setting the stage. In a post by my friend called Get Real, America, he claims that the failures, or inaction, of Republicans over last 6 years can de solved by electing more Republicans. The problem here is obvious: never accept responsibility for anything. Let's see....you literally control all three of the branches of government, and still can't get anything done?

In another post, called The March of Educational Folly, he says, "This year the liberals have done a masterful job building a narrative about the Bush folly in Iraq. Maybe it will get them control of Congress on Tuesday." Again, this is all about shifting blame and responsibility. "It's not my fault," is the getting-old-real-quick-ploy this adminstration uses over and over again. The problem with this statement is that liberals aren't much better than conservatives, and certainly cannot lay claim to doing anything "masterfully." Quite the contrary, they have bungled everything, including their own message.

Again, most conservatives, and my friend, accept no responsibility for any of this. An exception is Richard Perle, famed neo-con and co-author of the Iraq War plan, who just said, "this administration is a dysfunctional disaster." Add to that the new issue of The American Conservative, that asks, "Who killed Conservatism?" This is not a rant against conservatives. Quite the contrary, it is a plea for the return of conservatism in all its glory.

Conservatives (and liberals for their complicity) have only themselves to blame for the failed and tragic actions of this administration. The Plan For New American Century is a monumental failure....it just doesn't work!

My friend goes on to say, "But it is liberal follies, not Bush follies, that really threaten us."

I'm not going to argue this point, because the response is clear enough to anyone who is interested in reading this blog. What I will add, is that, according to my friend, everything is the fault of liberals, so I suggest that his worldview doesn't allow him to see any further than his developmental ideologies and altitude, and that is not an integral perspective.

So what is an Integral Conservative? Well, I posit it will take at least 50 years before any aspect of integral could be considered conservative, and then only by those would oppose new integral concepts in favor of existing concepts, and who would wish to preserve the status quo....whatever that might eventually be, and by that act alone, would cease to be integral.

What I'm left with is that, today, an Integral Conservative is a person who cognitively gets some of this stuff, but cannot possibly embody it. From my friends writings, I can't even accuse him of using integral concepts to forward his own first tier causes. It just isn't there. He sees the only thing he can see.

For more reading on the concept of Integral Conservatism:
Integral Options
Integral Visioning
Integral Multiplex

Where Do You Stand on God?

I've done some more thinking about this post from an integral perspective and have added some edits below. They are in blue, just like this.

Holons, Integral Institute's new monthly newsletter, is broken down in a really interesting way: Articles are listed by quadrants, altitude, and culture (althought the "culture" part is almost exclusively western, particularly American...I'm sure it will get more integral as time goes by). All in all, it's a great first step in providing second tier perspectives on a wide variety of subjects.

The section on "culture by altitude" particularly caught my attention, largely due to Sam Harris' new book, "Letter to a Christian Nation," and it's relegation to an orange altitude. One of the problems I see with the Holons quote is that there is just a short paragraph of a pop-up blurb that claims that Harris has a "kind of violence in his rational reductionism, which doesn't get resolved until trans-rational and integral stages," without explaining why. The only link takes you directly to the Random House website which is basically a commercial for the book. In my humble opinion, this is less than satisfying. I want to know why the editors have taken this position, not just that they have.

Much more richness on this subject is contained in the November issue of Wired magazine, in an article entitled, "The New Atheism," by Gary Wolf. This article, featuring inteviews with Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), and Daniel Dennet (Breaking The Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon)...., is described thusly: "A band of intellectual brothers is mounting a crusade against belief in God. Are they winning converts, or merely preaching to the choir? These three, a "holy trinity of rationalism," eventually call us out to join them in an uncompromising (key word) war against faith. This is the mean orange meme, a double irony in that Dawkins coined the word "meme," and that this is extremism in opposition to extremism: sort of a "fundamentalist" rationalism.

All of these guys are partially right, and when you look at a lot of religion over the centuries, and even today, maybe a lot right. Still today, a lot of damage and cruelty is done in many of its forms, from the Catholic Church's stand on birth control to Islamic suicide bombers to the religious right in America (just think stem cell research), and even fundamentalist patriarchical Buddhism. These are not problems just for the New Atheists, but for humankind in terms of untold suffering, but also problems for people with a more evolved spirituality. It's still only partially right.

The point I want to make is that rejection of extreme fundamentalism shouldn't, and doesn't, logically lead to atheism.

What Dennett, Harris, and Hawkins don't get, or at least take into consideration, is the concept of an evolving God along with evolving structure-states and levels of development, which, quite simply, solves their problem by giving them someplace to go. Yes, that's right.....the conveyor belt from Integral Spirituality. What I don't get, is (these are smart guys....a lot smarter than I am) why don't they get it? Same answer....structure/stages (Okay... I get it).

....Spirituality......not just for religion anymore........

Quoting author Wolf, "The New Atheists have castigated fundamentalism and branded even the mildest religious liberals as enablers of a vengeful mob. Everybody who does not join them is an ally of the Taliban. But, so far, their provocation has failed to take hold. Given all the religious trauma in the world, I take this as good news. Even those of us who sympathize intellectually have good reasons to wish that the New Atheists continue to seem absurd. If we reject their polemics, if we continue to have respectful conversations even about things we find ridiculous, this doesn't necessarily mean we've lost our convictions or our sanity. It simply reflects our deepest, democratic values. Or, you might say, our bedrock faith: the faith that no matter how confident we are in our beliefs, there's always a chance we could turn out to be wrong."

That's green-emergent-to-teal speaking, but it can be taken a lot further. Just as slavery, once deemed okay by religion, was abolished, we have a lot of work to do. Better than throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Now that's depth.

Link: http://www.kenwilber.com/blog/trackback/191

Don't Just Sit There....Do Something! (Part 3)

Everyone I know whom I would classify as 2nd tier is doing something. That's not to say everyone who is doing something is 2nd tier, but once you make that "monumental shift," from my perspective, you have no choice, any more than a caterpillar has a choice as whether to become a butterfly or not. Once you understand what's at stake, once you see from a 2nd tier perspective, you have to do something, be involved, make a difference. To do nothing would be to turn your back on your very being.

I know of people who operate from 2nd tier but who have never heard of Ken Wilber or integral. Knowing about the integral approach is not a prerequisite to 2nd tier, but it sure is a great map!

One of the things that happened to me, before I knew about Wilber or the integral approach, was that I started developing practices without even knowing what I was doing. Let me reframe that...I knew what I was doing, but couldn't name it. I recognized there was immense value in leading a balanced life, and began doing something about it. Doing something. I was swimming competitively, working out 4-5 days a week, lifting weights, watching my diet, reading books that I thought would develop my mind and awareness, and meditating. It wasn't long until I began developing a sense of Spirit that had been long missing from my life, and began looking at things around me in a different way. I'm convinced today that my intuitive development of "an integral life practice" prepared me to more fully comprehend the integral approach when it was finally presented to me.

So, let's say someone who is still first tier, who gets this stuff cognitively, but doesn't yet embody it, wants to push their consciousness to greater span and depth.....what can they do? Start by developing an Integral Life Practice. By consciously immersing ourselves in 2nd tier practices, we "fake it until we make it." Remember the old Henny Youngman joke where someone asked the comedian how to get to Carnegy Hall? Youngman replied. "practice, practice, practice." By practicing, we rest in the subtle and causal states of those practices, until they become second nature to us. They might not feel natural, at first, but one of the tenets of making changes in your life, is to do what it is you want to change, or adopt, for 30 days until it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, you own it, you embody it.

What is Integral Life Practice? "Developed at Ken Wilber's Integral Institute, it is a highly flexible system for working on your physical health, spiritual awareness, emotional balance, mental clarity, relational joy, and energy level, within a framework where everything fits together—where you finally make sense, because no important part of you is left out. Practicing this elegant, flexible system even for just 10 minutes a day will enhance literally everything—it will make your life more joyful, loving, healthy, whole, intelligent, fun, and compassionate."

It is through these balanced practices that someone can "hurry" this development.

But you have to want it....and you have to do something.

Don't Just Sit There....Do Something! (part 2)

In my last post on this subject, a couple of days ago, I promised to delve deeper into why I think people don't get more involved. More to the point, why people join a group and then seem not to participate in an activity that I am so incredibly passionate about. In this case, it is specifically around SeattleIntegral, the second-largest integral salon in the world, and arguably, the salon with the most impact on other salons, the norming, storming, and forming intersubjective local spaces and communities that are trying to create new paradigms and practices from emerging levels of consciousness.

It is because of my admitted lack of understanding that I am trying to flesh out the reasons for this lack of participation, or as it's known in online group circles, "lurking." There's even a larger picture, here, that I think is related: Why are people so apathetic in general? While I'm not going to try to answer that in the context of this post, I will try to answer the smaller question around salons, particularly SeattleIntegral, because that's the one I know.

An online group is a system (it's the online part that makes it a system), a lower right quadrant social holon, and its exchanged artifacts, through the the participation of individual holons (people) in that lower right quadrant. But can people who just sign up for the list and then don't participate in the list be called part of the social holon known as SeattleIntegral?

It depends on what your definition of "sex" is......er, participation. If they are reading, then, yes...I think they are participating (small p) to some degree. But why don't they Participate (big P)?In my last post on this subject, I pointed out that there could be several reasons why people don't respond or post, and promised to expand on it in this post.

I believe the very simple answer lies in the AQAL model and its five aspects, but particularly with levels and lines. Seattle is perhaps one of the greenest communities in the United States. Maybe not as green as Portland, but we have a much larger population, and before I go any further, I want to point out that I mostly love green. It is a very high level of development, and deserves an incredible amount of credit for the many things it has accomplished in the last 30-40 years.

However, as Ken Points out, no level can see beyond their own development. While a new structure or stage might be emerging, unless someone has moved into that new stage, they really can't see the level above them. It's the reason that, while I cognitively "get" Indigo, I can't really understand it until I can live and embody it.

Salons have a unique role in the emerging integral consciousness. We naturally have a lot of orange and green, especially in communities like Portland and Seattle, and where there is a lot of orange and green, there's going to be some curiosity about what appears to be emerging, or 2nd tier capacities. My sense, from three years of experience, is that a lot of the lurkers in our groups are basically orange and green, and as such, while they are interested, mostly don't really know how to participate in some of these conversations.

In addition, large orange/green communities are going to have a relatively (no pun intended) large amount of 1st tier emergent to 2nd tier people. One of the roles of salons, I'm convinced, is to provide a nurturing ground for all of these individuals to expand and develop, both horizontally and vertically: Horizontally by providing opportunities to develop more span and skills, and vertically by providing opportunities for peak state experiences. This is why practices are so very critical

Ultimately, I think without embodying an integral approach, we simply can't be that passionate about it. No passion largely means no Participation.

Next: How does one go about getting Integral, and can you make it happen?

The Elimination of a Shadow

This is not her fault, it is mine. This is not her story, it is mine. She was everything I ever wanted in a woman....beautiful (to me), intelligent, awake....and she boldly professed her love for me as I was cautiously and carefully holding back, not wanting to loosen my heartstrings too quickly, or to frighten her off. After her proclamation, I immediately opened my heart and allowed her full access to it based on her words and my belief in them.

Not too much later (the whole thing only lasted three months) she began pulling away. I won't go in to the reasons why, except to say part of it (I believed) was that she had deep unresolved pain from an earlier event that I can't begin to imagine from my masculine perspective. I readily admit I didn't handle her pain well. Instead of just being there for her, I thought I might be able to fix things for her. I was terribly wrong, and in that sense, I didn't deserve her in my pre-David Deida masculine/feminine world.

We thought we could be friends (I thought if I could be around her long enough she'd eventually come around). Again, I was wrong. I remember the blood draining from my face and my world crashing around me as she told me of her desire to be with another man as we had finished dinner one night in a restaurant. During a walk around Greenlake together later that evening, I was able to pull it together, but it was clearly over. I despised her for her cruelty, and loved her still. We tried to be friends (she continued pulling away, I continued hoping she'd change her mind) but we were fooling ourselves.We stopped seeing each other.

Several months later, she contacted me and apologized for the way she had acted. We agreed to try to be friends, and wound up on another walk around Greenlake, and when it was over, we agreed to a movie or dinner soon, and she invited me to call her. After three calls, and three "I can't's," I stopped calling. I don't remember how I found out (a forwarded email?), but it wasn't long after that she moved, changed her email, and her phone number without leaving any forwarding info. End of story. That was three years ago. All this time, I've been putting her out of my mind, rather unsuccessfully.

Forward to last week. I'm on Match.com, looking for a conscious relationship, and I get an email from her (she's on Match, too), suggesting we might talk and get together for a walk. I'm still wrapped up, even three years later, with the memory of that relationship, but wiser and not willing to step into anything without care. After a couple of emails, I tell her I'd like to see her, but I'm not going to pursue it, and she will have to do the reaching out, if we're to meet.

Meanwhile, I begin the 3-2-1 Shadow process, from the Shadow Module of the Integral Life Practice on the whole thing, and I have this shadow conversation with her, wherein I am able to let the whole thing go and come to complete acceptance with the realization that I am not in love with this person, but, rather, in love with who I thought she was, and the ideal I was projecting on her. Totally unfair to her, and to me. But mostly, there's the realization that the person I was in love with may not even exist, except in my own shadow projection.

And with that, I free myself from my projection, and from the hold I allowed her to have on me, and accept that it doesn't matter if I hear from her, because I don't know who she is....I only know who I thought she was, and who I wanted her to be. With that, I'm one step closer to knowing who I am. I can stop consoling and deluding myself around this one choice. More importantly, I can, in my own mind, free her of any responsibility for my feelings.

By the way...she hasn't contacted me as of this writing, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

Don't Just Sit There...Do Something! (Part 1)

There are people in the Seattle Integral Salon, SeattleIntegral, that I've never met. Sure, some are from London, Germany, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and even Phoenix and DC. But there are of lot of local members on our discussion list, who live in, or around, Seattle, that have never come to an event, written or answered a post on that list, or done anything integral at all that I'm aware of. Of course, just because I'm not aware of it doesn't make it so.

Maybe some of these people (Lurkers, as they are known in group world) are doing amazing things that would blow us all away. If they are, I would hope they would be inspiring the rest of us to greater horizontal and vertical awareness by modeling the possibilities for the rest of us.......but most lurkers just lurk.

This isn't my first list. I belong to Don Beck's Spiral Dynamics Integral list, and I was a member of the Ken Wilber Yahoo list for a couple of years, until it started getting nasty, and I decided to opt out. I also belong, and have belonged, to several other lists, local and internationally. I created the SeattleIntegral list and have moderated it for these last three years, through good, and some difficult, times. On these various lists, we've had lots of discussions about lurkers, and when those have happened, sometimes a lurker will speak up. According to the few who do speak up, sometimes they're just too busy (but not too busy to read?), some don't feel they have enough knowledge to contribute (but knowledgeable enough not to ask questions?), and some are just shy.

Then there are those with agendas.

The agenda joiners don't want you to know who they are, and won't introduce themselves to the group. Geoffrey Falk, self-proclaimed Wilber critic and cult writer, quietly joined our list and proceeded to write a scathing analysis of a social event (a social event??? That's what you got?) we sponsored without ever asking one of us what our intentions were. Even today, a year later, I can't take Falk seriously because of his rash assumptions and because his shadow mercilessly appears in his criticisms. According to Wikipedia, Falk apparently had an abusive experience with a community. I feel compassion for him, but I'm not going to let him beat up on me or SI.

I've also recognized people from other lists, who have tried to join the SI list, who were extremely disruptive when allowed to participate. I've told more than one, upon joining the group, that I would not tolerate the behavior they exhibited on other sites, and that if they started, I would remove them immediately. They were also told that if they wanted to conduct respectful exchanges with others, they would be welcome. They didn't stay.

But, I'm not really talking about the agenda joiners. The ones I've been thinking about do nothing.....and I think I know why a lot of them do nothing, and I'll address it in another posting, soon.

Bumper sticker image from the iBoutique

A Shameless Personal Plug

Those of you who know me, know and understand that I'm seeking ways to turn my integral passion into an integral living, without becoming a "consultant." This posting is a brief rundown on how I'm going about making that happen.

First, I'd like you to visit a new website/artifact I've created, the i-Boutique, with the help of Cafe Press. Here, I'm using my design abilities, along with my razor-sharp wit (UL), to create integral apparel (UR) with an attitude (UL again). The current designs are integrally-themed and also include some apparel designs for SeattleIntegral. To avoid any conflict of interest, as one of the leaders of SeattleIntegral, all the profits from the sale of SeattleIntegral related items go to support the Seattle salon (LL). Please buy a lot.

Second, I'd like you to visit my regular website, www.garystamper.com. I'm an internationally known designer, having won several intenational design awards, and an accomplished illustrator. One of my most recent projects was the design of the book cover for Don Beck's newest book, a re-release of The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future in Search of a Template for the World.

Another path is a startup company called Integral Marketing Associates. This will probably eventually shift to my main site, as one of my goals is to provide design, illustration, marketing, web design, and presentation materials to the integral community. IMA is the company you won't have to explain the integral concepts to......I already get you and your audience. The motto of this startup is "Marketing From All Four Quadrants."


I'm continuing to look for ways to support myself through my passions: Art and Integral. Another way I'm trying to do that is through this blog. Some of you may have noticed I've begun posting some advertising links on this blog. No one has complained, and I hope that's not because no one's reading! I found out about how to do this through Steve Pavlina's blog, "Personal Development For Smart People." That's me....and you, or you wouldn't be reading me! I invite you to go to the top of the page, see the links, and click through on some of them if they interest you. When you do, I get paid, and you don't even have to buy anything!

And last, there's Seattle Body Paint....I have no idea how this fits in with Integral....It's just a hell of a lot of fun for all the obvious reasons!

Groups and Dominate Modes of Discourse

Recently, integral salon leaders from around the world, friends all, even though I haven't met them all....yet...were hit with a request from one of us to help with the energy of the salon they lead. Another salon leader followed that up with their own questions about dominant voices taking over meeting with uninformed knee-jerk reactions, leaving the leaders of the group struggling with how to handle those situations. I'll eventually post the entire conversation (as soon as we've agreed how), but wanted to share some insights on group process that we've learned frome at SeattleIntegral. Lord knows, we've had our share of disastrous meetings! I remember one Meetup in particular, that had fallen apart with those knee-jerk reactions, where my wise-beyond-her-years friend Kari and I sat across from each other smiling and laughing inside, and wondering, what the F*** just happened? Here's an excerpt I posted from the email exchange.

Judging from the experiences we've had at SeattleIntegral, this is a common problem with groups. What we've learned is that the conversation will be dominated by whatever holonic level the majority of attendees intersect at. In other words, wherever your "dominant mode of discourse" (Integral Spirituality, Chapt. 7, page 149) is located, that's the level where the conversation takes place....and if the Dominate Monad of the majority of attendees is at first tier, you're going to have a first tier conversation (I just went nuts when I read this...it was exactly what we had been dealing with! Ken did it again!)

Now, there are some things you can do about that: be aware of the dominant monads of the individuals attending your meeting, if possible (you'll learn who is what very quickly in these situations, but it may take several meetings), and set up your meeting accordingly. Second tier, or teal/turquoise can skillfully guide the conversation by setting the tone of the meeting response before that participation begins.

For example, if your dominate mode of discourse is amber (mythic-membership), set up rules ahead of time.....If it's orange (achiever), set up rewards or a goal to be accomplished....if it's green (individualist), well, good luck, and goodbye! No, seriously, set up the abilty for everyone to have a voice, but limit the time for each (because you only have so much time, right?).

Another thing you do is set a "safety system" with other second tier group members, who understand that when things start to go toward a first tier dominate mode of discourse, you gently guide the conversation back (understanding each others roles in this situation and what to look out for ahead of time is critical).

We've learned these things from having meetings go right out the window because we lost control. Our leadership group, the Core Group, has mostly second tier people trying to learn how to operate as a second tier leadership group, but, in any group, if you have a couple of people at first tier consciousness, and we all have elements of other levels and stages that sometimes show up in our shadows, therein lies the challenge.

The final point I'll make is that our salons (yours? Ours? Anybody?) seem to be made up of mostly of orange and green-emergent-to-whatever folks, (with a little blue now and then) and our job as second tier salon leaders is to be able to provide the context and a space where consciousness can grow and people can be helped in whatever ways possible to see both horizontal and vertical perspectives.

We are not trying to run a second tier salon. We're trying to develop a second tier leadership group, a very different thing. This Core Group is trying to develop what the next evolutionary phase of an Integral Salon might look like. We don't tell our "sub-groups" what to do, how to think, what to program, anything.....We're "only" trying to provide a larger context for more complexity.

We're actively pursuing Holacracy/Sociocracy as a governance system (like I-I), in the hope that the other sub-groups might join in that circle to create a larger organization. We've just approved our first set of by-laws (again, that govern the Core Group, not the sub-groups), and a lot of other things.

So, back to what we don't do: All of the Core group members are also members of various sub-groups, so we have a very good idea what the ITP/ILP, IOS, Integral Spirituality, Meetup groups are doing (these Core Group members are, in most cases, guiding those groups to a certain extent, if only by example).

As long as we have first tier folks who cognitively get this stuff but can't embody it, we have to take it to them...we have to have these conversations in their language, with just enough taste to allow them to question, to create the disorienting dilemmas, and also allow them to move at their own speed.

The reason the remainder of the group is functioning so well, is because we're all on the same page. Some of us have gone through the "Generating Transformative Change in Human Systems" program from Pacific Integral (google them), and we've had a great deal of experience with Integral Leadership, shared altered states of consciousness and their various energy fields, and have a dominant mode of discourse. Some previous members were asked to leave....second tier cannot fear hierarchies, and if someone isn't fitting in, or is getting in the way of the group progress, they have to go: The compassion of the blade.

How we "regulate" that is that no longer can anyone just "Join" the Core Group. You would need to be invited to join, or you could petition the group. Most of us are certified through the GTC program to Integral Assessments on groups and people, and most have done the Cook-Grueter Leader Development Profile (LDP), so we know what our individual action-logic is, and to be in the Core group, you'd need to be at the Strategist level (second tier), or pretty damn close.

Now, as for the groups where the discussions start getting out of hand, we generally have a minimum of 2-3 Core Group members at most meetings and when the discussion starts going south, we're not afraid to pull it back, and to tell people why. This is a conscious response from the Core group members because we have talked about how to respond in certain situations. That does not mean that we don't allow Amber, Orange, or Green to share what they're thinking, but it does mean sometimes pointing out the ways that thinking is amber, Orange, or Green, and why.

One of our favorite sayings is, "well, that's a perspective".....and then moving on....

So how do we open a meeting where we know there will a combination of several memes? An opening statement might be something like "we're going to follow these rules (amber/mythic), so we can accomplish (Orange/achiever) such-and-such, and everyone will have a chance to be heard (Green/egalitarian)...and since we only have this much time......." Remind Amber that rules need to be followed, Orange that we have goals, and Green that others need to be heard.

Original Image by Gary Stamper at the iBoutique

Consciousness Shifts and the Middle Class

Historically, there have been three types of government rule: Warlords, Theocracy, and Aristocracy. Although there have been occasional pockets of democracy throughout history, it has not, by any means, been the norm. During the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries, and early into the 21st, we have been engaged in a rather spectacular experiment never seen before on this scale.

We all know what warlords look like: they are the Genghis Khans and the Sadaam Husseins. They may take on the look of a somewhat modern society, and use the tools of modern society, but make no mistake: They are warlords pure and simple, and operate from an egocentric, or a pre-operational consciousness level.

A theocracy, on the other hand, is the church-state of Catholicism, some Islamic-Muslim states, and the Church of England (and the US if we're not careful), just to name a few, and operate from absolutist, conformist (conform or else), mythic, authoritarian, and ethnocentric consciousness.

Aristocracies, such as Kings, corporate states, and ruling classes, operate primarily from strive drive, rational, or concrete operational consciousness, most of the time ruling by controlling who has the money. Egocentric and ethnocentric Wealth rules.

But every so often in history, there arises the phenomenon of democracy....and by democracy, I'm not talking about lassiez-faire capitalism, but the rise of a middle class, and the power that comes with it.

There many things that democracies have in common, but there are a couple you might not have thought about. For instance, do you know what the Renaissance, The Enlightement, and the Age of Aquarius of the 21st century all had in common?

For one thing, they were all preceeded by societies that had developed a strong middle class. Let me explain how.

The Renaissance was preceeded by the Bubonic Plague, the "Black Death," that took one-third of Europe's population. Afterwards, there was an extreme shortage of labor, and to get things done, wages increased dramatically, creating a middle class that had leisure time: Time to think, do art, create...and ask serious questions.

The Enlightenment was preceeded by Spain's forays into the New World, where they brought gold back in droves, creating untold wealth and also creating a middle class across Europe ...again....time to think, time to do, as opposed to having to pay attention to just surviving.

The Age of Aquarius, those quaint 60's some of us older folks had the pleasure of living through, were actually started by the founding fathers of this country, almost 200 years before. The American Revolution wasn't a wealthy class creating an elitist country. For the most part, America was created by middle class people who were throwing off the chains of an oppressive aristocratic form of government. Yes, there were some who wanted to keep a new aristocracy in place, like John Adams, but the middle class won out. A Worldcentric consciousness bloomed.

Now move that some 150 years forward with Roosevelt correcting the faults of a corporate aristcracy that drove America into the Great Depression, coining the term "a living wage", the strenghtening of unions, and the creation of the greatest middle class ever seen, culminating at it's peak in the 1970's. Pow! The Age of Aquarius.... In fact, it was so powerful, that other countries are actually doing it better than we are today, since Reagan began systematically dismantling the middle class in the 1980's.

Today, we're seeing the emergence of another level consciousness: the Integral Movement. The middle class has not yet completely gone away, despite conservative efforts to return us to a ruling aristocracy, and soon we may see the emergence of an integral population large enough to significantly impact the world we live in...it is well on it's way.

Democracy....a middle class....evolving consciousness....Kosmoscentric conciousness...perhaps enough to make a permanent difference in how we all live on this tiny planet.

Coming soon: a plan to have the integral movement and salons move into politics and begin making a difference in local elections.

An in-depth review of Ken Wilber's new book, Integral Spirituality

We are now past the fourth meeting of our SeattleIntegral "sub-group," The Integral Spirituality Group, dedicated to the study of Ken Wilber's newest book, Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World.

SeattleIntegral's Integral Spirituality Group is the first formal IS Group on the West Coast and is a combination of experience and study centered around Ken's new book. Integral Spirtuality attempts to include the profound insights of the great spiritual traditions - respecting their essential identities - while exploring new forms of practice and realization, seeking a trans-path to the future of religion....no small task!

Our meetings have provided many insights into Wilber's new perspectives (known as Wilber 5), including insights to our own perspectives. Crucial to these insights is the expansion of the AQAL model (a combination of interior/exterior/individual/collective, or the four quadrants), into eight perspectives, or zones, pointing out that every quadrant has an interior and exterior (1st person, 2nd person perspective) element that must now be considered.

In other words, meditation is an Upper Left experience of the AQAL model. But if I'm talking about my meditation, that's a first-person experience of the UL quadrant. If I'm talking about your meditation, that's a second-person perspective of a first-person experience. Simple, huh?

As an artist, I intuitively and immediately understood the importance of perspectives. What I see depends entirely upon where I stand. At one meeting, I drew out a landscape looking at a mountain range across the plains, with telephone poles and road diminishing in the distance toward the mountains. I then proposed, what if I were standing over here, instead of where I was standing in my original drawing? Would not my perspective be different?

What we see, our perspective, largely depends on the culture in which we were brought up. In Integral Spirituality, Ken brings new understanding and tolerance for the perspectives of others....among many other wonders.

Wilber's new book "is a mighty challenge to religious leaders and sincere religionists everywhere, one that teems with original insights that could (or at least should) define the future of world religion." For an in-depth review, go here, and scroll down about a third of the way on the right hand side.

How To Start An Integral Salon, Part 2

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, October 4th, is our monthly SeattleIntegral/Ken Wilber Meetup. It will be the 44th official Seattle Ken Wilber Meetup, a group that officially formed on February 20, 2003. There's a lot of history, there, and a lot of experience, some difficult, mostly very, very good.

The first step in building a new integral salon, or in finding one, is knowing where to look for others who are thinking as you do. I suggest starting with Ken Wilber Meetups. Go to the "Find Ken Wilber Fans" page to find out if there's already a group in your area, and if there is one, join it and start growing it. If you don't already have a Meetup in your city, start one. This is where most of our members came from, and where they continue to come from.

I remember well the nights when only Jake Werre (we met through the Meetup network), one of the other SI co-founders, and I would show up in the basement coffee shop at the Elliott Bay Bookstore in Pioneer Square. I also remember committing to be there at every meeting, no matter how few people showed up. I knew this was important, because people had to know that someone would be there, and no one should show up for a Ken Wilber Meetup and find no one had shown up.

In December of 2003, Jake was out of town, or something, and I was the only one who showed up. As I sat there, wondering where the others were who where surely interested in Ken Wilber, I knew we'd have to start doing something different if we were going to attract other fans of Wilber (I'll address that "something different" in Part Three).

This was purely selfish on my part. Oh, I knew if we could get something going, it could benefit a lot of people, but what I was looking for wasn't out of altruism........I just wanted others to talk to about this stuff that was changing the way I looked at the world: People I could learn from, hear different takes, get different perspectives, understand more.

The lesson from Part Two is to commit to showing up: Whether you're the one who shows up or if you're one of many, your commitment can make all the difference in the world.

All the while I was searching for others on the internet, and there weren't that many places to look. I'm grateful to Leonard and Murphy's Integral Transformative Practice website where I found Larry Jacobson, Blaine Snow, and Tom Mull. The ITP site has a page on forming an ITP group, and from there, you can go to a forum where you can connect with other ITP practitioners, most of whom have an interest in Wilber. Find the people in your city and invite them to meet with you.

I'm also grateful to Frank Vissar's Integral World website. Although it hasn't been updated in a while, there's also a list of Meetup cities.

Of course, if you aren't looking on the Integral Institute site, you're not really looking. Go to the Regional Community Spaces pages and look for your region, groups, and people. Find a group. Start one.

Last, look at iSalons.net, a loose federation of integral salons from all over the world that is a bottom-up effort at organizing salons, and, in some ways, is way ahead (for now) of Integral Institutes' Integral Matrix, probably because it is a bottom-up effort, and not top-down. Most of these folks know what they are doing, because they've done it (tell them how much you like their logo!...heh, heh....)

Most of all, have fun, and know that you're not alone. You just gotta set your intention and attraction forces and find the others. Before you know it, you'll be looking directly back into your own face.

Next: When Meetup no longer has the tools to grow a group.

iSalons.net logo by Gary Stamper