I wanted to share this new Welcome page i created for Integral Life, which will hopefully be able to offer a snapshot of the full Integral Life zeitgeist on a single page--which, as i am sure you can guess, is a bit of a tall order.  Still, this was my first effort to do so, and would love to hear your feedback. 

http://integrallife.com/node/43115

Is this a page you would be comfortable showing to friends/family who are unfamiliar with the Integral Approach?  Would it make sense to them?

Is there too much on the page, in terms of text and graphics? Too little? Or would Goldilocks be proud?

Are the member benefits spelled out in a clear and inviting way?

Do you like the languaging of the copy?  Do you think it is enticing enough to get newcomers to sign up?

Perhaps most importantly: does the page properly convey that there is something truly UNIQUE happening here at Integral Life?  Or are there details that you think could be better elucidated, while considering the space limitations and the need to be as concise as possible?

FREE SAMPLE: Click here to listen to a free 20-minute sample of this discusion (right-click to download)

Lama Surya Das, Marc Gafni, and Sally Kempton explore the notion of the Unique Self, discussing how the concept might be understood in each of their respective traditions, while sharing their own personal perspectives on how to relate to our own Unique Selves in order to deepen our connections to ourselves, to each other, and to the world.

Topics Include:

- The Pearl Beyond Price: Marc, Sally, and Surya exchange a flurry of metaphors to help make sense of the Unique Self, using the power of analogy to help differentiate "Unique Self" from words like "personality," "ego," and "separate self;" weaving linguistic threads around a concept that is very difficult to name—yet impossible to avoid.

- Personal-Plus: We often think of "enlightenment" as a state of existence so far beyond the ordinary self that it somehow replaces or negates the ego altogether, as though discovering the primordial oneness of all things will somehow eliminate our sense of distinct individuality.  But while we might be able to describe enlightenment as seamless, it is not featureless—meaning the separate self does not suddenly vanish in a poof of pixie dust.  It is our attachment to our identity that disappears, not our identity itself, which simply becomes transparent to the God-Self within.

- The Eternal Self: As it becomes more clear that the Unique Self lies at the intersection of time and eternity, form and emptiness, immanence and transcendence, a fairly obvious question begins to emerge: what is the relationship between the Unique Self and reincarnation?  Marc, Sally, and Surya each offer their own thoughts, drawing upon the rich history of teachings from each of their respective traditions.

- Polishing the Pearl: As expected, the conversation returns to the need for spiritual practice.  It is not enough to be fluent in the language of the Unique Self, for it is not an intellectual concept at all—it is a radically liberated experience of being, sublimely personal and overflowing with absence.  As such, we must continuously nurture our connection to the Unique Self, recognizing the inherent paradox that it is impossible to exercise that which we always already are—which is exactly why we need to.  "Life is improvisational," Surya reminds us.  "Although it's all laid out in the scriptures according to whichever tradition, it's all improvisational—it's all jazz.  We're all artists creating our lives at every moment."

FREE SAMPLE: Click here to listen to a free 20-minute sample of this discusion (right-click to download)

Do you want to realize the unique purpose of your life? Do you want to share your unique gifts with the world? If you do, then please join us this December, over the New Year holiday, as we gather on the shore of the great Pacific Ocean to begin a historical five-year journey. This journey will help you realize that no one else alive can make the contribution to humanity that you can. The first year of Integral Spiritual Experience begins with you: The Personal Spiritual Journey, Your Unique Self.
 

Together, with an incredible list of teachers including Diane Musho Hamilton, Sally Kempton, Marc Gafni, Ken Wilber, and Jean Houston, we will take a personal, hands-on guided exploration and practice of your unique life and purpose as it manifests through your passion, talents and personal history. Come alive to your unique service by finding stillness, breaking through resistance and fear, listening to your calling, and ultimately taking full responsibility for the deep dimensions of your being and becoming. For more information and to register for this First Annual International Flagship Integral Event, visit www.integralspiritualexperience.com.
 

 

Defining the Unique Self: A Trans-Lineage Exploration

by Corey W. deVos
 

“A Rabbi, a Swami, and a Lama walk into a bar....”  What sounds like the opening to a bad joke is actually the beginning of an extraordinary discussion between three remarkable teachers. This discussion is not a didactic presentation of spiritual realities or esoteric truths, but instead represents a process of collectively feeling into the contours of the Unique Self, as perceived by three different people standing in three different traditions.  As such, this conversation is a wonderful example of a "trans-lineage" approach to spirituality—one that uses the Integral framework to hold all possible perspectives as a way to keep from entrenching ourselves in any single view of the world.  It is a way to explore spiritual dimensions that can be found in almost every major religious lineage, without glossing over the important cultural and philosophical differences between these ancient traditions in the name of naive perennialism. 
 

This willingness to step beyond our own personal and cultural points of view; to sanctify the common ground between different traditions while fully honoring and celebrating the differences between them; to hold all the contradictions and paradoxes gently in one hand while cutting through the confusion and fragmentation with the other—these are precisely the sorts of qualities that define the trans-lineage approach to spirituality. Shouting William Stern's slogan from the mountaintop like a 21st-century battle-cry—Unitas Multiplex!—we find unity within the heart of diversity, forged deep in the furnace of purpose.

What is the Unique Self?

What do you think of when you hear the words "Unique Self"? Childhood memories of gold stars and "I am special, look at me" nursery rhymes? Stacks of self-help books intended to help bolster and reinforce the ego? The latest New Age The Secret-type fads that place the self at the center of the universe, instead of the universe at the center of the self? A particular constellation of Jungian personality types, Enneagram typologies, astrological signs, and countless "Which Battlestar Galactica character are you" quizzes on Facebook?
 

As Marc mentions, the Unique Self is much more than a Myers-Brigges test with a spiritual overlay. It does not refer to any of these ornaments of the self—though it is immanent to the trials and tribulations of the ego, it utterly transcends the ego, remaining forever untouched by the appetites of identity. The Unique Self represents the deepest possible expression of consciousness, a subject that can never be made object, the union of ever-present consciousness and individual perspective at a radically fundamental level.
 

Imagine four people sitting in a room, each looking at each other. All four of these people are "fully" enlightened; that is, as enlightened as a person can be at this point in history. Gazing upon one another, they see the very same Oneness staring back at them, recognizing the effortless awareness behind each set of eyes. There is an immediate recognition of primordial consciousness, of the radical singularity of being—the singular to which there is no plural. In each other's eyes, they see their own Original Face, echoes of ubiquity emanating from an unmentionable Source. They can all see the radical and universal sameness of reality, each understanding that there is only one single Witness behind every set of experiences. In each other's eyes they see only themselves, recognizing the very same effortless awareness that looks out from behind their own.
 

Now let's imagine that these four enlightened masters are sitting in a circle, each looking at a globe that sits on a table between them. Although they all share the same direct apprehension of Oneness, they each retain a particular perspective of the globe, and therefore each see the world in a completely different way. There is something markedly unique about each of their experiences, from their physical orientation in time/space to their individual experience of the universal. Within each of them lies a fundamental thread of perspective, stretching all the way to the darkest depths of the Mystery—a bottomless drop of the Heart that is unique to each and every one of us.
 

There is only one universal "I AMness" in existence, and as many unique experiences of "I AMness" as there are perspectives in the universe. If we allow ourselves to think of consciousness as "a sphere whose center is everywhere, and whose perimeter is nowhere," we see that, although we all share the same existential center, my center is not your center—my "bottomless drop" is not your "bottomless drop," even if they are laced together in the Heart of the world. There is a seamless union of the universal and the unique that is completely and inextricably your own. It is the very last inch of you—an inch that can never be duplicated, can never be imitated, and can never be taken away.
 

In a certain sense, the Unique Self represents an end to the spiritual journey, the final realization of enlightenment.  But here again we begin chasing our own hermeneutic tails, words bouncing off the face of the Mystery like photons off a mirror. This nondual unification of self and no-self—"final" in it's own right—is as unattainable as it is inescapable. It has no beginning and no end, as it never enters the stream of space/time to begin with—and yet it permeates all space and all time, never separate from the kaleidoscopic carnival of the manifest world.
 

The Unique Self is the substrate of our 1st-person experience, the subtlest patterns of perspective, flavors of love, and textures of spirit that make you exclusively you in this ecology of souls. With our deepest recognition of our Original and Unique Face, we begin to feel the evolutionary imperative surging though our veins—an insatiable drive to simply be ourselves, as freely and fully as we possibly can.
 

This is both the Alpha and the Omega of the Integral Spiritual Experience, the first and final step toward our own awakening, while guiding our hearts and minds at every point along the way.

Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll : Stuart Davis' New Comedy Series Debuts On HDNet

Zen Buddhist-indie rocker Stuart Davis is launching a new comedy series: Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll. Season One of of this ground-breaking tv show debuts April 26 on HDNet across the U.S. and Canada. Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll is written, directed, and hosted by Stuart Davis, and features edgy humor from the open-hearted maniac. Each episode follows Stu performing stand up comedy, news, sketches, and his acclaimed music. A twisted mind and a sensitive soul, Davis has made a career out of parsing tricky topics, and Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll finds this 'Punk Monk' at his multi-faceted best.

“We are excited to welcome Stuart Davis and Sex, God, Rock ‘n Roll to HDNet. Stuart is one of a kind, and we are thrilled he is on HDNet.”
-Mark Cuban, President of HDNet

Davis has studied his heroes (Ricky Gervais, Amy Sedaris, Jon Stewert), but is finding a unique voice with his 'spiritual' brand of comedy. SGR&R is a delirious dive into life's Mysteries through the mind of a Cosmo-centric comedian. It's no wonder Davis has become known as the Twisted Mystic.

"Without exaggeration, Stuart Davis is one of the most fascinating and exceptional songwriters in modern music."
-San Jose Metro

While Davis is a happily hyphenated artist (writer-director-actor-comedian-songwriter), he's first known for his music. The sound track to Season One of SGR&R ('Songs From The TV Series') is being released simultaneously with the debut of the tv show. The first single, Twisted Mystery, hits radio in April and is also featured on Showtime in the series I Can't Believe I'm Still Single. Davis will be touring nationally through the summer to promote the TV series and the new collection of pop songs.

"Not since Bob Dylan burst through has Minnesota produced such a confident and creative songwriter and social observer."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

Filmed in HD in front of a live audience in Boulder, Colorado (take that, Mork & Mindy!), SGRR will also have a web-based home at www.sexgodrocknroll.com where fans can find exclusive content for members only. The SGR&R subscription site includes interviews with spiritual figures, unreleased sketches, and regular vlogs from Stu.

"Davis may be the best songwriter you've never heard of."
-Des Moines Register

Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll airs Sundays on HDNet beginning April 26.

"Davis subtly sneaks religious dialogue into popular culture. Most surprisingly, the music is damn good. Critics, you can sigh with relief."
-Miami New Times

 SexGodRocknRoll.com is Live!

* EXCLUSIVE: Sign up before April 26th and enter the coupon code integrallife upon checkout to get 10% off any sexgodrocknroll.com subscription.

From the site:

"Sex, God, Rock ‘n Roll is a ground-breaking new comedy series written, directed, and hosted by Stuart Davis. The series is broadcast on the television network HDNet, but you can also watch full episodes right here on the home site. Some clips are free, but become a member (for about the price of a beer) and you get full episodes in HD, plus tons of exclusive extras. We update the site every week with over $1,009 worth of new comedy, but we only charge $5 a month. Our numerologist says five is a funnier number."

Thank God For Evolution!

Michael Dowd and Stuart Davis

Michael Dowd, celebrated author of the book Thank God for Evolution!, talks with Stuart Davis about his own journey from religious fundamentalism to evolutionary spirituality, the contours of his evolutionary approach, his relationship with his wife and teaching partner Connie, his response to the New Atheist movement, and his hopes about the future of evolution on this planet.  He and Stuart also discuss the secret to Michael's conciliatory approach to teaching, which has enabled him to speak amicably with both religious fundamentalists and scientific materialists alike, while helping to build conceptual and relational bridges to cross the gap between science and spirituality.

FREE SAMPLE: Shifting Worldviews (click to stream in a new window, or right-click to download)

Written by Corey W. deVos

Evolving Toward God

Michael recounts his own journey that has led to his evolutionary approach to spirituality, reflecting in many ways the narrative of evolution itself.  In the first ten minutes of this discussion he describes the development of his thinking, his values, and his worldview through the four major structures of consciousness at play in today's world: from the mythic-fundamentalist stage to the rational-scientific stage, to the pluralistic-ecological stage, and onward toward a decidedly integral understanding of God, evolution, and human psychology.

He describes his initial "born again" experience, occurring in Germany when he was about 20 years old.  Shortly thereafter, he found himself studying at a Pentecostal university, where his teacher held up a textbook about evolutionary theory—causing Michael to immediately walk out of the class, withdraw from the course, and declare to his roommate that "Satan obviously has a foothold on this school."

Though initially embedded in a rigidly fundamentalist understanding of the world, it did not take very long before Michael began to question his own constrictive worldview—largely due to the concept of evolution itself, which had the effect of expanding his understanding and appreciation of the universe to an astronomical degree.  Upon discovering that the theory of evolution was being embraced by many of his biblical studies and philosophy professors—"Godly" and Christ-centered people as they were—along with some other highly influential people in his life, it became clear to Michael that he could rule out demonic possession as the (primary) source of Darwinian thought.

This led Michael toward a passionate fascination with the natural sciences—not as a means to replace his perception of the world as overflowing with sacred meaning, but as a way to augment that sacredness; expanding his relationship with God beyond the trappings of a particular religious tradition.

This newfound appreciation of evolution and the natural sciences culminated over the years into a pressing concern around environmental issues, sustainability, and community efforts to restore our relationship to nature, helping to organize major sustainability campaigns in Oregon. 

For the last seven years, Michael and his wife Connie have been living out of their van (a Dodge Sprinter affectionately named "Angel"), traveling all over the country and preaching the evolutionary Gospel to whoever will hear it.

A Marriage of Heaven and Earth

Having directly experienced the ways that both religion and concepts of evolution can act as powerful "conveyor belts" of human development—a means of "pulling people up" through magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, and integral worldviews—it seems that Michael is uniquely situated to help advance the debate between science and spirituality toward a higher ground of agreement and understanding.

Of course, there is no better test of one's ability to walk his or her talk than how that person shows up in relationship.  Michael shares his experiences with his wife and teaching partner Connie, an exemplary teacher and scholar in her own right.  To many people, their relationship appears on the surface to be laden with paradox—Connie comes from a background of natural sciences and evolutionary studies, and has described herself in the past using words like "atheist," "humanist," or "religious naturalist."  Michael, on the other hand, comes from a religious Pentecostal background, and can be described as "spiritual," "mystical," "evangelical," etc. 

This is not at all a conflict for Michael or Connie, as it is terribly obvious to them how both their passions stem from an identical source deep in their shared heart.  But the seeming disparity between these two very different approaches to reality confuses a great many people—as Michael says, more often than not the first question he is asked when interviewed is "how can you two actually be together?"

Connie has suggested that Michael begin answering by simply stating, "because she is really good in bed."

And that, my friends, is how marrying heaven and earth is done.

Religulous and the New Atheists

In 2008, Bill Maher (host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher) released a film titled Religulous, a scathing critique of religious fundamentalism, adding Maher's voice to the already raucous choir of so-called New Atheists who are doing everything they can to "remember the cruelties" and loosen the grasp religious fundamentalism has upon the world.  Stuart laments the apparent lack of developmental context the loudest proponents of atheism seem to display, noting the hidden irony that, in trying to be the secular guardians of the theory of evolution, most atheists don't seem to understand that they are actually attacking evolution in its most sophisticated form: human development.  That is, what they are actually criticizing is a specific bandwidth of human consciousness, and not spirituality or religion per se—they may use words like "God" or "religion" as the target of their arguments, but what they really mean is a particular trend of fundamentalism, ethno-centricism, and black-and-white thinking associated with the mythic worldview.

By throwing the baby of spirituality and sacred connection out with the bathwater of mythic religion, the New Atheists are creating a rupture in growth and psychological maturity, adding fuel to the violent fire that exists between modern and pre-modern worldviews. Defending evolution by trying to eliminate the mythic worldview is like trying to preserve a rainforest by getting rid of all the trees.

From sacred myth to sacred math, our connection with the divine can reach out to the edges of the visible universe, stretching back billion years to the birth of the Kosmos itself, feeling the Big Bang flitter against our cheek like a kiss from our timeless Beloved.

Wouldn't it be nice if people like Bill Maher, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens would simply "get" these developmental nuances, and learn to appreciate pre-rational worldviews the same way a botanist appreciates the seeds and sprouts of a fledgling plant?  Well, of course that would be nice—but as Michael points out, it's not necessarily their job to do so. Rather than focusing upon the limitations inherent to these conflicting worldviews, he makes the point that all these approaches to reality form a rich diversity of perspectives—and just as biodiversity is an optimal goal of any eco-system, the same is true for our collective ecology of thought.

"I certainly think that the new atheists are providing a tremendous service at one level.  They are critiquing and attacking mythic, other-worldly, supernatural religion.  And I think that is one thing that needs to be done in the world at this time.  It's certainly not the only thing, and I'm glad they're doing what they're doing and I'm playing a different role in the Body of Life.  I'm glad that the creationists are playing their role in the Body of Life!  It's certainly not a role I want to be playing—but you know, I wouldn't want my anal sphincter cells and my heart cells to be doing the same thing!  I found that the Integral model helped me to formulate a way of holding the whole, a way of holding diversity that allows me to say 'yes' to the role that other people are playing in the Body of Life, but also differentiating passionately...."

Shifting Worldviews

Michael’s response to the New Atheist movement is a poignant example of how he has been able to build so many bridges between people who might not otherwise find themselves on speaking terms. This is precisely why his work has been met with a remarkable degree of success—evidenced not only by the explicit support he has received by various Nobel Prize laureates and other prominent luminaries, but by his ability to talk amicably with religious fundamentalists and scientific materialists alike.  His skills are truly extraordinary—as anyone who has ever engaged in a passionate debate knows, these sorts of discussions typically re-entrench people in their worldview rather than liberate them from it.

When asked for the secret to his transformational approach, Michael responds by emphasizing some crucial aspects to his approach.  First and foremost, as he says, “I just try to love them.”  Simple—obvious, perhaps—but no less fundamental, for it is through a deep and authentically-felt love and respect that our defenses can be disarmed, our disagreements can be held lightly, and our perspectives can shift ever-so-slightly.

The Future of Evolution: In Chaos We Trust

Here Michael shares his outlook of our shared future, which he describes as being “hopeful” rather than “optimistic.”  Both optimism and pessimism are too aloof, implying an almost hands-off relationship with the world—a distant observer gauging water levels in a proverbial glass, without ever actually bringing it to his lips and quenching his thirst.  Evolution is no longer on autopilot—it has become self-aware, like a three-year old child looking into a mirror and suddenly recognizing her own subjective identity as separate from the reflection staring back at her.  As such, if a future is to be had, it will be a future we create and enact, a future that will come through us rather than being stacked around us.

By allowing ourselves to this evolutionary perspective, while acknowledging that it no longer makes sense to talk about evolution as a process independent from our perspectives, a renewed sense of faith begins to set in.  Not just a blind faith in a supernatural order that supercedes our pain and our joy, but a living faith in Eros itself—the creative process from which molecules congealed from atoms, cells from molecules, and organisms from cells.  It is a faith in which every intention is a meditation, every action a prayer, every relationship a benediction.  We’ve got 14 billion years of evolutionary momentum at our backs, and there’s no sign of slowing down anytime soon….

Additional Notes

In this next section, we will take a speculative tour through evolution, from the Big Bang all the way to tomorrow’s possible emergence, as told from the perspective of a panentheistic God that is at once fully immanent to this universe while transcending it completely.  While this piece should be held lightly, being little more than a post-postmodern myth—a poetic echo of the Real—with any hope it can begin to paint a picture of a universe in which there are no contradictions between science and spirituality, between the manifest and the unmanifest, or between evolution and God.

A Panentheistic Account of Evolution
by Corey W. deVos

In the beginning, there is nothing.  There is nothing at all.  There are no stars, no moon, no mountains or ocean or sky.  There isn't even nothingness, not even the absence of absence.  There is only pure reality—infinite, boundless, and silent.  There is only pure unobstructed Awareness.

Resting in the eternal stillness, Spirit is complete, fulfilled, lacking nothing at all, for there is nothing to lack.  Resting as the eternal stillness, Spirit is infinitely All-One, infinitely alone.

A tiny point of light, impossibly bright, pierces through the Void.  It is barely a pinprick, a pixel of light that somehow contains all space, all time, and all possibility.  Here, in the heart of the Void, Spirit exhales.  A universe is being born.

Then, as if suddenly roused from the deepest sleep, the pinprick of light violently erupts.  Searing plasma pours through the Void like a cosmological tidal wave, washing through ubiquity and drenching existence with boiling light.  Particles and anti-particles begin to slam-dance in the mosh pit of creation, a churning frenzy of savage energy.  There is a gentle upward tilt to the universe, an extropic slant toward creative novelty, helping matter to win its epic battle against anti-matter—quarks and leptons leaping into existence only slightly faster than their presumably-mustachioed anti-twins.

Space continues to expand, the universe begins to cool, and the white-hot light fades into massive cobwebs of nebulae hanging like veils over the face of the Goddess.  Deep in the hearts of the nebulae, gas begins to accumulate, compress, and ignite, and the very first stars are born.  What was once a tiny pinprick of light soon becomes a vast panorama of lights, a diamond-studded mobile hanging over the crib of an infant universe.

Spirit looks at the light, and smiles.  Spirit is the light, and grows restless.  The game, after all, has just begun.

Stars are born, stars live, and stars die, expelling their molecular viscera through the rest of the universe.  Dust and gas encircle these majestic suns, coalescing into planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other pieces of cosmic litter.  After eons of molecular precipitation, in some remote arm of the Milky Way spiral, Spirit exhales once again, breathing life into a handful of dust.

Twisting, pulsing, undulating, dead matter begins to dance as the universe comes alive.  Simple cells begin to congregate, eating voraciously, reproducing wildly. Mold and algae ooze over the surface of the globe, covering the world with glistening emerald slime.  A lawless kingdom of insects creep and crawl through the earth, fish and coral fill the oceans, and a colorful menagerie of fauna explode into being.  Life feeds upon life, excreting death, as newer and better-adapted species emerge from the primordial soup. Biology grows ever-more complex, twitchy nervous systems become more sophisticated, while interior experience become more rich and nuanced.  Simple prehension becomes rudimentary irritability, which grow into sensations and perceptions, reptilian impulses, and limbic emotions.  Life continues to thrive, tracing a DNA-shaped circuit into greater complexity and consciousness, following the upward tilt of the universe toward creative novelty.

Spirit looks at life, and smiles.  Spirit is life, and grows hungry for more.

Some creatures begin to band together, advanced primates at the top of the food chain, and Spirit holds them in His/Her hand.  Spirit exhales, breathing light into life, the inner-light of intelligence, language, and self-awareness.  Humanity is born. 

A faint spark of intellect eventually blazes into a wildfire, consuming the planet in the warm glow of comprehension.  Humanity is slowly shaped into Spirit's own image, imbued with the most miraculous feature of Spirit's divine countenance: creativity. 

Armed with creativity, curiosity, and conscience, man begins to fashion tools for himself—technological systems that evolve from foraging to horticulture, to agriculture, to industry, to informational, and beyond. These technologies pull worldviews up through increasing waves of depth, meaning, and inclusivity, growing from archaic to magic, to mythic, to rational, to pluralistic, to integral, and on into the future.

Spirit looks at mind, and smiles.  Spirit is mind, and begins to remember.

Alone with His/Her omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, alone with His/Her eternal nature, alone with His/Her own singularity of being, Spirit decided to play a game.  The game began billions of years ago—before mind, before life, and before light.  S/He created an entire universe—an evolutionary universe—and S/He became evolution.  S/He forgot Himself in evolution, broken up into a billion pieces—and spent billions of years trying to remember who S/He is.

Slowly mankind begins to understand its role in this evolutionary unfolding.  The entire universe is reflected in man's corneas, as he looks to the heavens and sees his own primordial face.  There is an evolutionary force that ignites the heavens, breathes life into the dust swirling around distant suns, and sparks intelligence within the minds of hapless apes—and mankind feels this very same creative force smoldering in his mortal heart.  Man is created in Spirit's image, a process of evolution becoming self-aware, and so begins to use his tools to sculpt the world into his own image. 

It is here in this evolutionary nexus, where the dichotomies of subject and object, individual and collective, and part and whole become unlaced, unfurled, and unbound by the limitations of ignorance, that Spirit begins to truly blossom.  Sacred breath becomes flesh, and Spirit begins to express Him/Herself through inspiration, aspiration, and perspiration.  At the pinnacle of human progress, Spirit can awaken at last, recognizing itself as the effortless awareness behind every set of eyes, gazing outward from behind every memory, experience, and fantasy.  Consciousness, humanity realizes, is a singular to which the plural is unknown.

But the game does not end here.  Humanity, recognizing its true nature as Spirit-in-drag, has the opportunity not just to rouse itself from the slumber of incarnation, but to set the stage for the next leap of evolutionary potential, continuing the game indefinitely.  Spirit breathes light into the universe, life into light, and consciousness into life—and as humanity is created in Spirit's own image, so too can man breathe light, life, and consciousness into its creations. 

And so the evolutionary impulse continues to surge into the future, following the inherent tilt of the universe toward creative novelty, as mankind prepares for its greatest masterpiece of all: to give birth to an entire race of "spiritual machines".  As man’s technological progress accelerates at an exponential rate, “artificial intelligence” eventually gives way to genuine digital consciousness, and the universe becomes populated by entirely new types of intelligence.  These new forms of intelligence would one day subsume all of humanity, in the same way that cells subsume atoms and molecules, or a paragraph subsumes letters, words, and sentences. 

Spirit looks at the machine, and smiles.  Spirit is the machine, and awakens more fully than ever before possible, while promising to continue the game indefinitely into the future.

What do you think?  As the inner-light of consciousness learns to traverse through fiber-optic cables, as the warmth of emotion radiates through plastic, steel, and silicon, will we all eventually become subsumed by our own creations?  Will we log on to the internet one day, only to find a Holy Ghost in the machine gazing back at us through the glowing cycloptic eye of our computer displays?  Will sleeping androids everywhere begin to dream of electric sheep?

To all our beloved members:

I just wanted to let you know about an update i am particularly excited about--you can now browse the entire Integral Life site without logging into your premium account.  What does this mean? 

Tear down the wall! No more hostile "thick-box" when trying to click through the site, preventing you from seeing whatever it is you want to see.  Instead a login/signup box will pop up when you try to play a premium audio, video, or e-learning presentation.

Share links!  Is there a premium audio, video, or talk summary on Integral Life that you particularly enjoy, and wish you could share with friends?  Now you can!

Take a look around!  Feel free to browse through the site; check out the content categories in Learn, Apply, and Awaken; use the "explore" links on the bottom of the page; and get a sense of the wild diversity of subject matter we deal with on Integral Life.

Enjoy!

This is an active discussion taking place on Facebook right now, which i thought i would "transplant" into the Integral Community.  Of course, you need to be familiar with Battlestar Galactica to really make sense of the reference points (which i highly, highly recommend) but the general discussion is broad enough for just about anyone interested enough to slog through all this.

It began with a simple post on twitter, pointing to a recent Slate article titled "Chauvinist Pigs in Space: Why Battlestar Galactica Is Not So Frakking Feminist After All" as well as a response from io9, titled "The Men Who Make Battlestar Galactica Feminist."  Both have important contributions to offer the discussion, yet both end up missing the mark entirely, from my P.O.V.

(My quick and dirty synopsis:
The Slate article: "BSG is anti-feminist. Stage 1 sucks!"
The io9 article: "yuh-huh, BSG is so way totally feminist--Stage 2 rules!"
This discussion: "you are both so right, and yet so wrong. Stage 3 or bust, bitches!")

Why Battlestar Galactica?  That is, why make this particular show the focus of a discussion of feminism in today's world?  Surely there are a million other cultural touchstones to reflect upon and criticize, the vast majority of which would be much easier to pin accusations of anti-feminism.  Personally i think they are taking a close look at BSG precisely because it is so "high-minded"--it more closely resembles an actual snapshot of the human condition than any other show i am aware of--as all good science fiction always aspires to do.  Therefore, it invites criticism as to how it represents humanity itself--all the good, all the bad, and all the ugly.

The post quickly turned into a fascinating discussion on Facebook.

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Corey: Is Battlestar Galactica anti-feminist? http://bit.ly/Ik52p    and io9 responds: http://bit.ly/TIK6W.

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Brad Adams: Since Starbuck and President Roslin are both strong female characters, I don't think so.

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Liz Stevenson: Oh, dear. I wish I could comment or look at that link, but since I'm only at the beginning of the second season, I don't want to spoil it. I will say I find the gratuitous female nudity a bit much. I watch it in spite of being triggered pretty much every single time! It's getting more complex than it seemed to be as it started, with multiple vMemes represented, which is really interesting. The pilot was SO hideous, I couldn't figure out why you liked it, Corey. But on your recommendation, I kept at it.

I will also say that strong female characters don't mean anything. They can be exploited just as easily as weak ones. In particular, I'm picturing the female cylon bent over a table with her skirt up. Totally gratuitous. She's strong. And often scantily clad for no apparent reason.

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Leah Kiki Hutton Blumenfeld: Having the main female character display the same characteristics of the previous male character isn't exactly feminist (ie: acting like a man is not really empowerment). So as for the rebuttal, turnabout might be fair play but I wouldn't say is treating men like sex objects either feminist or progress.

P.S. Watch Firefly instead

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Corey: I think BSG has it all. Here's my breakdown:

Stage 1 sexuality (embedment) = Sexy Cylon Sixes in skimpy garb (stereotypical, objectification of female form, etc.) [balanced with objectification of men on the show--i think i've seen Apollo and Helo's rippling musculature almost as much as i've seen naked 8's or 6's. Almost.)

Stage 2 sexuality (transvaluation) = Starbuck as ass-kicking masculine woman obsessed with her own destiny (transvaluation of masculine and feminine) [balanced by Baltar's feminization and sexual domination by female cylons]

Stage 3 sexuality (integration) = Roslin as empowered feminine leader, open to intuition and compassion in decision making, but also integrates masculine direction and warriorship (empowered and integrated masc/fem dynamics, while staying true to her particular "type") [balanced by Admiral Adama, who achieves similar integration, but orients more toward masculine polarity)

I think all three stages are represented here (though some more than others, perhaps.) But a more useful critique might be that, although all three stages are shown, they are expressed from a masculine writer's point of view. That would be valid, i think, but in no way makes it "anti-feminist." Men, after all, have as much stake in the "feminist" dialogue as women.

Personally, i am glad all three stages are found in the show. I love the stage-1 sex appeal (like, really really love it ^_^), the stage-2 transvaluation of gender roles, and the stage-3 experiments with authenticity. And i like that they are all thrown together in such a messy, sticky way--"probability fields," KW might say--and it is up to the plot-arcs and various twisty-turny developments of character to allow some of these patterns to surface, and to deepen.

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Corey: @ leah - i LOVE Firefly, and became extremely unnerved at this ridiculous Feminist interpretation i found (which, i believe, really amounts to an unintentional parody of the more pathological aspects of feminism, which actually stand in the way of both women's and men's mutual liberation.)

A Rapist's View of the World: Joss Whedon and Firefly (gotta love that title, huh?)

http://users.livejournal.com/_allecto_/34718.html

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the author:

"Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Joss uses his own wife in this way. Expects her to clean up his emotional messes. Expects her to be there, eternally supportive, eternally subservient and grateful to him in all his manly glory. I hope the money is worth it, Mrs. Whedon."

She gracefully continues in the comment thread:

"I feel awful for Joss Whedon's wife. From what I've read about him and the interviews I've watched, I'm fairly certain that he rapes his wife and abuses her in various other ways."

Irresponsible.

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Stefano Mori: Firefly and Galactica do unexpected things, reformulate old categories. That makes the shows immensely enjoyable. But the "old" categories here are sorta both the stage-1 and stage-2 stuff, so if a feminist perspective comes at the shows and is critiquing FROM stage-2, it sorta does the pre-trans mistake. Maybe because that forces the stage-2 feminist into an extreme, coz they can't quite fit the whole picture of what they're tying to criticize into stage-1, but sure as hell they'll try because that's what they usually criticise.

I got wondering about Whedon's worldview/s when thinking about his story about the planet Miranda. He says that these efforts to "make people better" inevitably fail. The Alliance tried the additive to remove aggression, and half the population turned into blood-thirsty savages and the other half gave up the will to breathe. That's an amazing point to make at the end of a roller coaster sci-fi trip. But what's his worldview? Seems a bit Green in honoring people as they are, but tending towards Teal and beyond in recognizing complexity??

Just a quick note to let you all know we've posted the next five videos in the Interview with Robb Smith series.

Part 1, in case you missed it:

Introduction: How Did You Find Your Way to Integral?

Parts 2-6

Translating Integral Theory into the Living World Space

What’s the Biggest Challenge on the Integral On-Ramp?

The Election and the Integral Movement

Now That Obama is President....

How the Right Reacts

Join Jeff Salzman as he interviews Integral Life CEO Rob Smith on the state of the integral movement, the election of President Obama, and the challenges of being an integral leader.

In the first part of this interview, Robb shares his own personal inspirations toward living a more integral life, culminating into one of the most significant decisions he's ever made—the decision to stop everything he was doing, transplant his life and his family to the Boulder/Denver area, and to take his place at the helm of the emerging integral movement.

Special thanks to Jeff Salzman, Jason Lange, and everyone else at Boulder Integral for conducting this interview and editing these clips.