Inquiry

  With the collapse of Wall Street, I think that capitalism is a system in dire need of the integral approach..  A report that came out yesterday that struck me as quite poignant was a statement by Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman.  He testified that he made a "mistake in believing that banks, operating in their own self-interest, would do what was necessary to protect their shareholders and institutions."  He also stated that he was still not understanding why that did not occur.  I was pretty surprised that such a experienced person had problems figuring this out, but then again, he obviously doesn't use the integral AQAL approach.

  By doing an integral analysis, it is obvious (to me) why this occurred and it centers around what he and other people mean by "self-interest."  If a person is operating in a narcissistic, pre-conventional mode, the "self" involved is only the person, and that self doesn't care if the bank fails, as long as they get their $10,000,000 bonus this year.  If the "self" involved is trans-conventional, world-centric, then the self automatically considers the "good" of the bank and the community along with their own personal good.

  Thus, looking at it from an integal approach, I see the melt down as a problem of lower development in the psychological and moral/ethical lines with high development in cognition (orange meme technical skills).  People with lower development in psychological/moral/ethical lines need more rules and boundaries, since otherwise they will transgress.  Thus, I don't see the Wall Street melt down as a failure of capitalism, but a failure to take into consideration the lack of the participants' psychological development.  This led to a removal of many of the restraints and rules in banking in the 1990's and helped to a large degree to create the present financial crisis.  So, now the politicians are reaping the errors of their ways and are rapidly trying to put many of the rules back into place.

  While I would agree that too many rules slow down and inhibit business progress, I think that until a large enough percentage of people reach a higher level of moral/ethical/psychological development, those rules are necessary. If lower psychological/ethical/moral development is the problem, that raises the question of what can be done to help people rise to a higher level of internal development and is it practical?  In other words, is this integral analysis a pie-in-the-sky analysis or is it really useful?

  My present feeling is it better be useful, since otherwise we're in for a long hard time.  This is one major reason I support the Integral Institute, since I believe that they are one of the few groups that can potentially address the question of how to best and most efficiently help people move to their next higher developmental level.  But to do so, much support and work from all of us will be needed in the near future, as this is a critical time.  Also, since this is a time of crisis, business people are actively looking for new systems to put into place, and thus this time also represents a great opportunity for the Integral Intitute to introduce "integral capitalism".

  Since I also believe that without money and power/influence, none of this could happen, I also strongly support the Integral Institute having one "arm" that is oriented not only toward developing integral capitalism methods, but also becoming financially viable and strong in their own right.  By using integral methods, I not only don't see this as a conflict with the spiritual arm of I.I., I see it as a natural way to "Enter the Market" and test our own selves and methods.  (The "Enter the Market" quote alludes to the ten Taoist woodcuts that discuss the path to enlightenment, with the last woodcut entitled "Entering the Market" and is related to non-dualism.).  Thus, I would like to see the Integral Institute "Enter the Market."  It's time.

  Please let me know what you other members think.

Yours,

mb

The struggle for a sizable number of people across cultures to experience emotional well-being (happiness, contentment) and healthy functioning in relationships and work is the issue I believe is most in need of an integral approach.  Both sides of the coin of suffering -- that is, issues of mental health and addictions -- need to be addressed.  Work has certainly begun in the development of integral psychology applications to psychotherapy, psychiatry, and social work.  But we must intensify and better coordinate our efforts across the nascent integral community to address these issues. 

An important sub-theme to explore in this regard is what is the nature of the relationship between the fast-growing field of integral coaching and the domains of psychotherapy, psychiatry and social work mentioned above?  We see that IntegralLife, for example, has made arrangement to integrate coaching services into its architecture from the beginning.  But what about services that would address issues related to difficult emotions such as anxiety, shame or insatiable desire and the negative consequences of such emotions for healthy self-regard, work and relationship activity?  How can services that address these areas be fruitfully developed and integrated into the integral community?

I truly believe that bringing an integral context to these areas is of great importance, because of the sheer amount of individual suffering endured by people with these kinds of problems, from schizophrenia to post-traumatic stress to chronic depression to all manner of substance abuse issues.

Thus I ask: how can we transcend the postmodern context of mental health and "psychotherapeutic culture", but include our care and committment to ameliorate the suffering that remains, even within an integral context.  This is the single issue that I think would most benefit from our focused efforts.

Yours,

--

Durwin Foster

durwinfoster@gmail.com

Politics - I know Ken and others in the integral world are putting much effort presently into this issue. A politicians promises need to be accounted for more than they are in our present system. ~ My 2 cents (if a politician falls short on a major promise maybe they ought to be penalized in some sufficient manner that is suitable to the degree the promise is important to the society/sentient beings).

I have been thinking lately about how useful integral theory could be if it were applied to the media.  In the world today, I think the major media stations (I'm talking about television) are dominated by first tier centers of gravity.  Thus, when an individual in the society turns on the television to watch the news, he will probably pick the one that best reinforces that center of gravity.  I think what often happens then is that the media acts as a polarizing force between the different first tier value structures as a whole and as a sort of stagnation within the development of the individual.  I really think an integrally managed media could help in solving some of these problems.

Trying to decide what an integral media would look like is no easy task I don't think.  I have had several ideas on how an integral news station could be structured and I am not yet sure which one (if any of my suggestions) is the best.  It could be set up in such a way that only the management need be truly integral and that the integral management then hires reporters whose center of gravity is at a healthy form of each of the first tier value structures.  Then, different programs for each value structure are created in order to attract audiences from all across the spectrum.  Then you have a situation in which any individual can tune in to the integral station and be pleased with what they are hearing and the hope would be that they would stay tuned for some of the other programs as well so as to not lock them too firmly in place at a specific altitude.  The other idea would be to have integral management and integral reporters as well and have the reporters address each issue carefully in a way that can be understood by individuals at the different centers of gravity.  I think each of these approaches has its advantages and disadvantages that should be taken into consideration.

I want to return to this topic later but I need to think about it more before I can properly address it.  I am really interested to hear everyone else's ideas on this topic as well!

-Brendan

Healthcare. Of course, the AQAL map is very applicable to the diagnostic process. By charting the resources, beliefs, physical state, and environment/community that trundle along with the patient, providing meaningful care becomes easier. The problem as a practitioner becomes how to be paid for providing care for other quadrants than the upper right, objective, one. Interestingly science is now beginning to say that "network medicine" will be the future. In my understanding, network medicine recognizes the enormously complex, yet orderly, relationship among the elements of life, internal and external, that Integral Theory would label as quadrants, lines, and stages (I'm struggling to see recognition of states in network medical theory, maybe you see it.). To meld network with Integral, homeostasis is maintained by translative change and healing by transformative change.

Also, it feels to me as though when there is a profound caregiver/patient relationship, a kind of energetic resonance occurs that subsidizes both the caregiver and the patient. I liken it to the subsidy that occurs to our life energy when we revel in beauty or taste the exquisite. I may be being loose with the use of the term energy here, but I don't think so. When this kind of resonant moment occurs it feels like a kind of aesthetic transfusion from Spirit into us. I find that only the Integral model accounts for the healing experiences I have been a part of.

A cryptic notion, yet underlying a vast perspective range of social structures, Technology ought be regarded as a-semblance of consciousness: quadriva.   Quadrivia may be employed as a perspective-leveraging tool, or through a consilience approach per the latin meaning "the place where four roads meet."

The seeming import of quadrivia has dawned through analyses of IMP (~Wilber-5), philosophy of pragmatics (Deleuze and Guattari) and the sophistication of social movements in Antonio Negri.   In reviewing these frameworks, it appears that technology should be emphasized as a potenza (potential in action) of the contemporary condition of disparate subjects in common relation (ie. Multitude, Negri and Hartd).  If one can admit of the reality that incorporeal (say, ideal) universes are embedded within multiverses of perspectives--worldview differentials--therein avails the current state of soft-technology that immediates global references of subjectivity, enunciating subjective truths in self-evidencing plane sites.  Quadrivia is the potential for perspective itself to become-communicable.

With the infiltration of soft-technologies comes social-networking, which tendentially envelops its own teleos (subjects bridging disparity) with ontologic terms (i.e social) while diffusing the medium (virtual) into a reginant nexus of subjectivity.  (At this point, it is not unrealistic to claim that a "social holon is the "becoming-conscious" being of technology.)  This is the ineluctable parallax of integralism-- not merely the proposition that the peripheral has become central and the center has become marginal; nor just that the epiphanous non-dual return (from:form::emptiness:emptiness) was always already true too: but rather, more, that there is no dialectical movement that can succeed without simultaneously enveloping the subject of its proposition.  Practically evoked, try persuading the inveterate Wii-generation that there is a virtuous role to play on the streets.  Life may appear as a game, but not so important that "true" meta-rules are defined or a purpose is conscensually ascribed.   One must only observe the insistency on living art, intellectual vagrants and beuracratic cells to realize that art-is-truth-is-beauty-is-good-is...transveral to all.

Thus, the upshot of such excedence (intangible, subjective productivity) between is that all requisite informa and structures of subjects-in-common are accessible. What is exigent about this, and not a 2012 resignation refrain, is that the function of these relationships become more explicable through mainstream activities.   What is expeditious in the technophile's value of, say, graphical interfaces may be transposed into common civics not merely in topological fusions (e.g. elegant facilitation, network synergy, fashionable causes, etc).  Rather, for technology to reach its dialectical end, its practical horizons must ensue as a cue to immanent spirituality that undertakes the distance between subjective value and social cohesion.  This qualia of liminal space is always already possible to redeem who is living behind the scenes (e.g. the network masks). But it is incumbent upon integralis to injunct those habituations that short-circuit its own meaning-in-the-world; so goes the bold I-L injunction that "Truth is not enough": from this perspectival address (quadrivia) how does its meaning resound (or not) with the powerful virtual medium waiting to ally?  Technology as Quadrivia in its realization of its own perspective is integral to value propositions.

This inquiry is for me a very pertinent one, as well as the other one "What do you think are the first steps to applying an Integral approach to any given issue, topic, or question?" which unfortunately has no answers yet. I personally also would like to know what are the practical steps to an AQAL approach to something.

From the previous answers it seems to me that people see the benefits of applying the Integral Approach to the topics they hold most dearly... I agree with all the above: integral capitalism, conflict resolution, relationships - of course! I am on the other hand particularly interested in IOS approaches to art and creativity, which I seem to find nowhere.

Does anyone know someone following this line of research?

So far, creativity has been one of those huge words scientist can adorn their theories with, or just dismiss. Because it's so vast and largely immeasurable. But finally with a map such as the AQAL we have the assessment tools to approach creative practices (individuals, theories) and perceive with greater insight which areas they could be neglecting in order to fail from being integral...

I would love to see some of this work being carried forth, and I ask any one of you that might know of such an endeavour, to let me know.

Thank you.

Joana
 

HANDS DOWN.....ID LUUUUUUUV TO GET WILBER AND ISLAMIC SCHOLARS TOGETHER.....I was particularly interested in, possibly, putting together an event at Park 51 (The New Cultural Center in Lower Manhattan)......THIS HAS TO HAPPEN!  If Integral Institute and Ken are interested, PPPPLLLLLEEEEEEZ Do let me know!

**Concept of Unity in Islam

***Concept of Unity in Life

***Concept of Unity in Integral Theory

***Concept of the Unity of ALL THINGS

***THE ONE DIVINE SELF

***REALIZING ONENESS

***Happiness and Contentment

***Truth and Justice

***Being and Becoming

***Love//Sex/Orgasminssm

***Sex, Ecology, Spirituality

***Realizing Allah/God THROUGH CULTURE

***BREATHING, LOVING, LAUGHING

***THE MANY FACES OF ALLAH

***Human FLIRTATION

***HUMAN LANGUAGE: Saying "fuck, whore, slut, bitch, ass....cunt, nigger..Im horny..i.e. being human/feeling human, breathing, living, loving, and fucking, of course

***Usage of Condoms/birth control...LETTING GO & LETTING GOD

***anal sex, jizzing, squirting, clitoris, penis

***masturbation

***watching pornography

***dating

***casual encounters

***using dating services/online sex-sites/chat sites

***Feminine Mystique....Embracing Nudity  - would lov to get Diane Musho Hamilton in on that ;

***Inter-racial, inter-cultural relationship and/or sexual encounters

*** sexual language, sexual innuendos, reading between the lines...emotional intelligence, reading feelings, being comfortable holding hands not only between girls and guys but between sexes as well....this is completely common and ordinary in the Middle East

***ATTENDING BARS, NIGHT CLUBS, OPEN MIC CAFES, BEACHES, CONCERTS, PARTAAAAAYS

***DRINKING ALCOHOL....GOOOD ONE

***BIKINIS, SEX TOYS

***CREATING AN INTEGRAL SEX SITE...THAT WOULD BE FREAKING AWESOME!

***INTEGRAL NIGHT-LIFE...INTEGRAL PARTYS, INTEGRAL HIP-HOP, INTEGRAL MUSIC

***INTEGRAL BUSINESS

***INTEGRAL POLITICS

***HUMAN GOVERNANCE

***LEADERSHIP OF HUMANITY

***MAHDI>>ADAM>>EVE>>V...sex, drugs, and Rock N ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

**MEyouUS

DIVINE LANGUAGE>>>SPEAKING THROUGH GOD, SEEING THROUGH GOD>>>>BEING AND BECOMING (Would love to get involved in the Retreats, we could get Me, Cohen, Wilber, TAVIS SMILEY, AND CORNEL WEST TOGETHER....and JAY Z, Lupe, Kanye, Diane Musho Hamilto, Corey Devos, friends of mine, Syed Abbas Ayelya, Nicole Dickson, Kenny Cooper, Fatima Negaran, Sarah Abdelrahman (actress from Egypt), Waleed Abdelrahman, my bros, Tina Kaiser, my annoying family as a whole, bunch of other people)

Nature & Culture as Divine Revelation, kosmic synchronicity, etc. numerology & the importance of key numbers in Foretelling the Future, Reading &/ Seeing/Absorbing Signs

REVOLUTION

Exploring Occult Religions/Practices

Incest, Transcending Familial Relationships