Integral Praxis - 2008 Year In Review

One year ago the three of us sat down together and agreed to put an idea into action. For years each of us had been working in fields where innovative thinking was only as useful as the practical applications it produced. Science, religion, cultural theory and philosophy were all important approaches to understanding the world we live in but what truly matters, what truly makes a positive difference, seems to be how each of these can contribute to the practical transformation of individuals and collectives.

After centuries of ignorance, conflict and struggle our increasingly interconnected civilization is now moving into an epoch where humans have access to a wide spectrum of human knowledge. We decided that together as a formal group we could explore deeper this vast ecology of human knowledge and continue our many discussions in a more intentional and meaningful way. These different knowledge systems (epistemologies) have much to teach us, and must be respected on their own terms – yet we wondered (and still do wonder) if it would be possible to bring these various ways of knowing and being into contact with each to produce a more comprehensive set of ‘tools’ and wisdom. Thus we created the Integral Research Group (IRG).

The Integral Research Group is a (post)formal research and development venture that attempts to draw together the most advanced and innovative research, theory and practices in existence for the explicit purpose of facilitating healthy individual and social evolution. The approach we are currently exploring is based on a pluralistic, pragmatic and open process of cross-fertilization. Our goal is to gather, reconsider, disseminate and put into practice the world’s leading scientific, cultural and ethical insights. We seek the actualization of a dynamic worldcentric approach of a mutual understanding and potential praxis.

"Innovation is fostered by information gathered from new connections; from insights gained by journeys into other disciplines or places; from active, collegial networks and fluid, open boundaries. Innovation arises from ongoing circles of exchange, where information is not just accumulated or stored, but created. Knowledge is generated anew from connections that weren't there before." (Margaret J. Wheatley)

The Integral Research Group also explores the potential of Integral Philosophy to act as a backdrop for a general framework for interpretation and discussion. While we pledge ‘solidarity’ with the ‘Integral Movement’ more generally, and embrace our role as ‘evolutionary allies’ in the struggle of more holistic and humane world, we are also deeply interested in the possibility of a more rigorous and critically informed, and post-Wilberian, integral approach. Such an approach, we believe, focuses more on bridging the gaps between research, theory and application in the areas of human potential, community development and social justice.

The Integral Praxis weblog is the online expression of our group’s intention to take such an approach into the public domain. Integral Praxis is for us an opportunity to experiment and share some of our explorations with a wider community of people interested in a more mosaic and kosmocentric sensibility. We seek to be “Integral” because we want our research and posts to be comprehensive and critical, and gravitate towards “Praxis” because our focus is on sustainability, practical application and the wider dynamics of social change and adaptation.

Early on we had hoped that the IRG would develop into an independently existing non-profit organization. This, however, has not come to fruition due to several unexpected and divergent opportunities to apply our version of ‘integral’ in our respective professional fields. Although we are grateful and excited by these new opportunities we regret having to abandon our desire for official incorporation, and instead refocus our attention elsewhere.

However, we are firmly committed to maturing Integral Praxis as site for exploration and dialogue, and are dedicated to making it a relevant content provider for ‘integrally-oriented’ individuals and professionals. Integral Praxis will continue to evolve and provide readers with posts and content which both challenge and elaborate the integral worldview, while highlighting a wide range of interesting and significant interdisciplinary activity.

Over the past year we have posted on topics ranging from neuroscience and ecology to spirituality and cultural evolution. We have featured leading edge research in a variety of fields, published original essays by several interesting authors, announced upcoming and relevant community events and highlighted various local and international change-oriented organizations and projects. All of our posts are meant to provoke reflection and deeper consideration of the interrelated character of human being, knowing and relating – and always in the interest of application. Integral Praxis will continue this tradition of providing holistic and analytical content, and always work to improve the quality and accessibility of the website.

Learning, for us, is part of a recursive process. Over the next year we will revisit some previously posted material in an effort to provide fresh perspectives on some persistent theoretical and practical issues, and allow our newer readers an opportunity to review some of the most significant debates and developments within the integral community. We hope that by revisiting key themes and debates we can help promote more healthy and robust forms of integral thinking and praxis, and ultimately move towards a better understanding of the nature, history and dynamic potential of our species.

Thank you all so much for reading and responding, and for all the helpful emails and positive communications. We appreciate it very much.

Sincerely,

The IRG team.

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To suggest a link, make a submission for publication,
or provide feedback please contact us at
integralpraxis@gmail.com

Levels of Consciousness, Spiral Dynamics & Bipolar Disorder

Below is a brief exploration of the relationship between ‘levels of consciousness’ and bipolar disorder using Spiral Dynamics theory. The video was produced by a person successfully dealing with bipolar disorder:

This video can also be used as a very short introduction to levels of vMemes in the work of Don Beck and Chris Cowan. However, the suggestions contained in the video would need to be rigorously tested and critiqued before they can become useful in practice.

Science and Wonder in a Post-Modern World

When we look at the wealth of opportunities hovering on the horizon of science - genomic sequencing, personalized medicine, nanoscience, quantum computing, space technology - we realize how crucial it is. But the reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering.

As every parent knows, children begin life as uninhibited, unabashed explorers of the unknown. Science is a great adventure story, one that's been unfolding for thousands of years as we have sought to understand ourselves and our surroundings - to look out on the world, and see that the wonder of the Kosmos transcends everything that divides us.

Columbia University physicist Brian Greene reflects further on science and wonder in this New York Times article:

Put a Little Science in Your Life
By Brian Greene

A COUPLE of years ago I received a letter from an American soldier in Iraq. The letter began by saying that, as we’ve all become painfully aware, serving on the front lines is physically exhausting and emotionally debilitating. But the reason for his writing was to tell me that in that hostile and lonely environment, a book I’d written had become a kind of lifeline. As the book is about science — one that traces physicists’ search for nature’s deepest laws — the soldier’s letter might strike you as, well, odd.

But it’s not. Rather, it speaks to the powerful role science can play in giving life context and meaning. At the same time, the soldier’s letter emphasized something I’ve increasingly come to believe: our educational system fails to teach science in a way that allows students to integrate it into their lives.

Allow me a moment to explain...

Read More: Here

Science has gifted our species with many kinds of knowledge, and therefore power, but we might do well to remember that the scientific view is only a part of a much richer story. Science can’t tell us how to feel, and science cannot guide us in how we treat each other as human beings. Values, emotions, creativity and personal meaning do inform scientific projects but they cannot be determined by scientific data. Life overflows all such categories and practices.

Yet without science we are blind to much of the deepest nature of our world. It is an ironic condition: with science we have become global tyrants, but without it we may not survive the millennia.

Thinking About Energy

In this article Yes Magazine offers its picks for the best contemporary energy ideas:

13 Best Energy Ideas
by Sarah van Gelder

"Investments in energy projects will total $16 trillion in the next two decades. That investment -- along with spending for long-lived buildings, transportation, manufacturing, and public works -- could lock us into climate chaos. Or it could set us on the path toward a sustainable future. How can we make sure that this new infrastructure is climate friendly? For starters, it will have to be both highly efficient and powered by renewable energy -- the sun, wind, earth, or ocean. A combination of the right policies and the right technologies can get us there."

Read More: Here

“There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance.” -- Buckminister Fuller

Attacking Reason

From The New Scientist:

Seven Reasons Why People Hate Reason

From religious fundamentalism to pseudoscience, it seems that forces are attacking the Enlightenment worldview – characterized by rational, scientific thinking – from all sides. The debate seems black and white: you’re either with reason, or you’re against it. But is it so simple?

In a series of special essays, our contributors look more carefully at some of the most provocative charges against reason. The results suggest that for all the Enlightenment has achieved, we still have a lot of work to do.

Read More: Here

It is important to remember that 'rational thinking' is criticized by people who are often coming from very different positions on the ideological spectrum. In certain ways, all 'non-rational' modes of thinking are antithetical to formal rationality and heuristic cognition. This is because pre-rational, libidinal and egocentric cognitive orientations reject the tempering discipline and functional sublimating effects of 'rational' schema - whereas post-rational aperspectival thinking struggles to continuously deconstruct and explicate consciousness from the arrogance and abuses of a variety of formalized certainties (except their own) in an effort to maintain a post-linguistic, transpersonal awareness.

Ideologically, many post-rational thinkers also hold strong commitments to curbing the negative effects of historically dominating rationalities, and therefore often aligning themeselves with various 'non-rational' systems and frameworks as such.

Certainly 'rational thinking' is not the only discourse or cognitive style we should be including and exploring, but should we abandon logical heuristic thinking in favor of more intuitive emotional modes of thought? We reject the notion that it is an either/or choice. "Emotion", "reason", "will", "intuition" are all aspects of an integrated, embodied whole.

Human consciousness and mental functioning is much too complex to compartmentalize into 'emotion' and 'reason', or logic and intuition. The imaginative powers of humans are generated through a confluence of structural, processual and chaotic properties, in nature, self and culture, which generate a range of capacities and functions that work together. Emotion and rationality are thus intra-active.

Surely the healthy choice, then, is to honor and incorporate the whole network of mental potentials in a more flexible, adaptive and mutually enhancing cognitive repertoire. An integral approach to health and human development would therefore seek to maximize the whole matrix of human potential through the holistic enactment of more appropriate, just and sustanable social contexts.

IntegralLife.Com Now Online

The long anticipated beta launch of IntegralLife.com has happened. The new website and community hub came online yesterday and is now open for people to join, donate and participate.

Several interesting features include member blogs, forums, multimedia access, member to member messaging, and a host of other interesting documents and content. As 'evolutionary allies' in the quest for a more humane and integral world, we at Integral Praxis welcome the arrival of IntegralLife.com, and urge interested readers to check out the new site, explore and share your comments and reflections about the latest addition to the rising integral culture.

* UPDATE - From Robert MacNaughton at IntegralLife Community: “ For those in the Integral Praxis community, we offer this coupon code for a discount to IntegralLife.com's membership: C62E4F ”

Life-Hacks and Personal Growth

From ImprovedLives.Com:

The Experts Speak: Favorite Personal Growth Techniques and Life-Hacks

By Stu

I think one of the biggest strengths about personal growth is that what you are given is not a prescribed way of living your life but rather a toolbox full of different tools like exercises, techniques, mantras, and beliefs that you can use to shape and build a life that is wholly unique to you.

And everyone’s toolbox is different. Some tools get used every day, and some tend to sit at the bottom of the toolbox, coming out rarely. Some tools are irreplaceable, and if we lost other tools it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

The thing is, I’ve only got my toolbox and being the curious guy that I am, I wanted to know what other people’s toolboxes look like. So I decided I would ask some of my fellow personal growth and life-hacking bloggers what their favorite tool was.

The question was, “What one technique/mantra/exercise/belief/life-hack/event has had the greatest positive impact on your life-hacking and/or personal growth?” Here are the responses I got…

Read More: Here

Radical Honesty

From ChartyFocus.Org:

Living With Radical Honesty
By Brad Blanton

I learned that the primary cause of most human stress, the primary cause of most conflict between couples and the primary cause of most both psychological and physical illness is being trapped in your mind and removed from your experience. What keeps you trapped in your mind and removed from your experience is lying and we all lie […] all the time. We're taught systematically to lie, to pretend, to maintain a pretense because we're taught that who we are is our performance. Our schools teach us to lie, our parents teach us to lie. We're all suffering from mistaken
identity.

We think that who we are is our reputation, what the teacher thinks of us, what kind of grades we make, what kind of job we have. We're constantly spinning our presentation of self, which is a constant process of lying and being trapped in the anticipation of imagining about what other people might think. Our actual identity is as a present tense noticing being. I'm someone sitting here talking on the telephone right now and you're sitting there talking on the telephone and writing or doing whatever you're doing. That's your current identity and this is my current identity and when you start identifying with your current present-tense identity you discover all kinds of things about life that you can't even see or notice when you're trapped in the spin doctoring machine of your mind. So radical honesty is about delivering yourself from that constant worrisome preoccupation of, "Oh my god. How am I doing? How am I doing? How am I doing? How am I doing?" Then you can pay attention to what's going on in your body and in the world and even pay attention to what's going on in your mind. […]

Just look at what you notice in front of you right now, your environment, wherever you are in an office or wherever it is. Noticing is an entirely different function than thinking and what we do all the time is that we confuse thinking with noticing. When we think something we act as though it has the same validity as something that we see. I've got a bumper sticker on my truck that says, "Don't believe everything you think." It's like your thinking just goes on and on and on and on.

Learn More About Brad’s Work: Here

Radical Honesty is the name of a program developed by Brad Blanton, PhD that challenges people to give up their ‘addiction to lying’. The method focuses the practitioner on being present with what is happening within themselves and separating their objective observation from their subjective judgment and having a higher level of consciousness as to which is which.

The Radical Honesty technique includes having practitioners state their feelings directly and in ways typically considered impolitic. For example, "I resent you for X" where X is a statement of objective observation about the person who the comment is being directed towards.

Blanton conducts 8 day workshops which train people in a collection of techniques which shift them out of typically socially acceptable patterns of "white lying" and into a more truthful relationship with themselves and others. The material in the Radical Honesty workshop is drawn from an eclectic collection of sources including Sufism, clinical psychology, Gestalt therapy and the comic spiritual belief (developed by Blanton) called Futilitarianism. Futilitarianism claims it is futile to have any belief whatsoever.

The significant majority of participants in the Radical Honesty workshops report dramatic changes in their lives after taking the course, though they are not always comfortable and positive. Blanton has written a series of books to help guide readers in the Radical Honesty technique. Brad Blanton ran for congress in Virgina as an independent in 2004 and got 25% of the vote (a record in that state).

Check out this astonishing video on Blanton and his 'radical honesty' approach:

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Criticism, Wilber and Integral Theory

An Interview with Frank Visser

The following is an interview Frank Visser, webmaster of http://www.integralworld.net/, and author of the book Ken Wilber: Thought As Passion. In this interview Visser speaks out on his views of Ken Wilber's work, the integral sub-culture and the value of criticism in moving forward with integral discourse.

Interview conducted by Randi Cecchine in Amsterdam April 2008

An Approach to Integral Consciousness and Politics

An Interview with Steve McIntosh

By Russ Volckmann

Excerpt: “Integral philosophy is primarily a philosophy of evolution. And as we come to better see and understand evolution, when we see it in cosmology, biology, consciousness and culture, we can begin to detect certain things about the overarching master system of evolution, or how evolution works overall, especially in the realm of consciousness and culture. This reveals the process that is being enacted by evolution. And it exists across scale; that is, it is a process of development that acts at the micro and macro levels of development. Of course, this process is the well-known dialectic of development.

The term “dialectic” can be found in Ancient Greek philosophy, where it was more about a dialogue between people. However, since Hegel, the dialectic has been understood as a process whereby conflicting systems overcome themselves through a kind of transcendent synthesis. Most people are familiar with the terms “thesis,” “antithesis” and “synthesis.” But those terms have been criticized as a kind of vulgarization of the dialectic. There is a danger when you break this process down into its parts that you could lose the essential truth of the dialectic—that it is more of an integrated process as a whole rather than a series of steps.”

Read Full Interview from the Integral Review (PDF): Here

The Elders in Sudan

From September 30th to October 4th of 2007, Elders' Desmond Tutu, Lakhdar Brahimi, Jimmy Carter, and Graça Machel traveled to Sudan to assess the situation in Darfur and affirm the group's support of the fragile peace negotiated between North and South Sudan in the two-year-old Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

They began their trip in Khartoum, meeting with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, representatives of opposition political parties, United Nations representatives, the African Union, the diplomatic community and a wide variety of international organizations and humanitarian agencies. Watch the following this important diplomatic venture:

The Elders also published a PDF report on their findings titled:

"Bringing Hope, Forging Peace: The Elders Sudan Report"

The overarching goal of The Elders is to solve global problems using a combined "almost 1,000 years of collective experience" to work on practical solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems ranging from global climate change, HIV/AIDS, and poverty.

Learn more about what some of the most respected leaders our world has ever known

have to say on this significant issue and other complex problems: Here